The Great Paper Napkin Watch

[puntagordabob]

Rumors about more cost cutting exploding from my "inside" sources.

The printed paper napkins have been discontinued and replaced by plain virgin white sheets of recycled paper napkin. One of the things Disneys Imagineers have been developing for the last 10 years, instead of new E-Tickets, was a machine that can recycle and clean used napkins every day. Apparently they pick through the trash and take the dirty, used napkins, put them in this machine, which cost well over 300 million to develop Iam told, and recycle those stains right out and back into service to be used again and again. From what my "insider" has told me, they can only have around 500 thousand paper napkins on property at any given time to cut down on costs, if one is used too much it is promptly burned and buried without ceremony in a small ravine in back of the Magic Kingdom. The reason they stopped using the printed napkins was due to the fact the printing would smear on the napkin causing the napkin to be washed twice, which would cost twice the money, which is twice the no no.


Hope this ends this discussion.


Jimmy Thick- Cold, hard dose of reality...

lol..... good sense of humor you have....

 

[puntagordabob]

The cute little details that make a Disney vacation are slowly disappearing. While many people might not think its a big deal to get rid of the printed napkins, it is a big deal. Small cost cutting measures mean big losses that you don't necessarily see, just look at some posts over the years and you will see many people saying that the magic is gone. While it might not be gone it certainly is going.

On a prior trip I saw a young girl who went to get napkins. See freaked out when she saw the characters on the napkins and i overheard the parents saying that this was her first trip and it was getting more and more magical each day.

awww thats a cool story!!I

 

[puntagordabob]

My final thoughts on this: We have been watching the slow removal of things for a very long time now... things like the Lights of Winter, cuts of the dining plan while raising the price, dumbing down of the various food choices, the "Disney Park"ification of the items for sale in the parks, and it continues marching on with the napkins now, and in 2013 the evening Magic Hours begin a whole new series of cutbacks in that department starting with a one hour loss!

I love Walt Disney World...and as a Florida Local we am Blessed with the ability to go there quite often... but the largest RUDE Awakening was when in 2010 we literally rode the Disney Magical Express leaving Old Key West at 3:30AM and being in Disneyland a few hours later! Seeing both resorts back to back makes you see the differences in the TDO and TDA management styles...and WOW it is quite amazing and as a WDW Fan it was also quite distressing.

At DLR its "what can we add without removing anything if possible... versus WDW and its "We will close this and that and then open this and that"..... at DLR its "How can we plus the Guests' visit? Add new Parade? Entertainment? etc?".....versus WDW and its "What can we do to maximize our profits? Do we remove this or that? Shorten this or that? If we must add entertainment, lets shorten it up or use it until the termites eat it alive!! The Guests are stupid and most are only here once anyways so Who cares what they think!"........

Of course if you compare Disney USA with Disney Japan, its even sadder..... cuz the Oriental Trading Company is awesome.... look at their parks...amazing!

 

[captainkidd]

My final thoughts on this: We have been watching the slow removal of things for a very long time now... things like the Lights of Winter, cuts of the dining plan while raising the price, dumbing down of the various food choices, the "Disney Park"ification of the items for sale in the parks, and it continues marching on with the napkins now, and in 2013 the evening Magic Hours begin a whole new series of cutbacks in that department starting with a one hour loss!

I love Walt Disney World...and as a Florida Local we am Blessed with the ability to go there quite often... but the largest RUDE Awakening was when in 2010 we literally rode the Disney Magical Express leaving Old Key West at 3:30AM and being in Disneyland a few hours later! Seeing both resorts back to back makes you see the differences in the TDO and TDA management styles...and WOW it is quite amazing and as a WDW Fan it was also quite distressing.

At DLR its "what can we add without removing anything if possible... versus WDW and its "We will close this and that and then open this and that"..... at DLR its "How can we plus the Guests' visit? Add new Parade? Entertainment? etc?".....versus WDW and its "What can we do to maximize our profits? Do we remove this or that? Shorten this or that? If we must add entertainment, lets shorten it up or use it until the termites eat it alive!! The Guests are stupid and most are only here once anyways so Who cares what they think!"........

Of course if you compare Disney USA with Disney Japan, its even sadder..... cuz the Oriental Trading Company is awesome.... look at their parks...amazing!

I haven't been to Disneyland, but this is the best post of this thread.

 

[asianway]

I haven't been to Disneyland, but this is the best post of this thread.

I have, and truer words have never been spoken

 

[durhay]

I'll just bring my Refillable Napkin I got while staying at one the resorts long ago.

 

[RSoxNo1]

You mean the $1 billion dollar do-over of a park at a resort that still has printed napkins as far as I know? Or do you mean a recovery of space and capacity that the park has been missing for almost the better part of 2 decades after it all finally opens up that was originally provided by a magnificent E-Ticket, while seeing constant corner cutting at said resort?

One is an update and improvement (although needed because of how much they screwed up with the park in the first place), the other is merely a replacement of capacity and space that was cut years ago. One of these is not like the other, and I'm sure you can figure it out.

I was in Disneyland and DCA from 6/26-6/28. I definitely noticed some napkins were blank but it wasn't property wide. If it's a supply issue, I wouldnt' be surprised to see a bulk order being utilized on both coasts and either residual from the previous inventory, or a new order coming in replacing the blank napkins.

But they are increasing admission pricing while simultaniously imparting cost cutting measures in park operations


I have a hard time believing that napkin pilfering is a new problem at WDW, seems like a great excuse to justify the change though.

They could always put RFID chips into the napkins and set off an alarm if people take them out of the park...

 

[The Empress Lilly]

I think that themed napkins aren't dissapearing just to cut the costs of printed napkins. The other costs management is eyeing is the opportunity cost of unsold souvenirs. The thought is that they want to cut back on free souvenirs guests can take with them, to increase sales of proper merchandise.

Everybody wants to take a bit of the magic home with them. Better to sell it than to hand it out for free.

It is a mean and sorry style of management. Which is, sadly, not the same as financially unsuccesful management. It could very well be correct to assume that the increase in merchandise spending offsets the losses of guest satisfaction (which in turn decreases merchandise spending, together with other effects such as decreased brand loyalty, etc).

 

[The Empress Lilly]

I just told my daughter that there is a thread about Disney napkins and she said "those people are crazy". Then I told her that they are using plain napkins now instead of the cute little Disney ones and she said "that's awful, why would Disney do that". See, even our children love the cute little Disney napkins. It really is the little things such as napkins and extra detail that makes Disney so special. I really hope that this is a temporary thing.

Themed napkins make every child light up. Children love Disney for little things like this. They are like that. They derive childish delight from the small things that adults overlook.

That is why it is so much fun to do Disney with kids. It is not for the kids, it is for the parents, who get to see the world through the inquisitive, playful eyes of youth.

But hey, how do you market that? We all know WDW is about the little magic, and not about the latest blockbuster tie-in. But you can't express that. Neither the guetss nor management understand how to communicate that. So we end up with all the fun little magic removed, and the $500 million dollar blockbuster tie-in installed. Meanwhile, both the parents and the kids would've actually preferred the simple, small delight of discovering Mickeys on their napkins.

 

[DisneyWall-E]

So has anyone talked too or E-mailed a Disney employee about this yet? Are they gone for good or not?

 

[unkadug]

Rumors about more cost cutting exploding from my "inside" sources.

The printed paper napkins have been discontinued and replaced by plain virgin white sheets of recycled paper napkin. One of the things Disneys Imagineers have been developing for the last 10 years, instead of new E-Tickets, was a machine that can recycle and clean used napkins every day. Apparently they pick through the trash and take the dirty, used napkins, put them in this machine, which cost well over 300 million to develop Iam told, and recycle those stains right out and back into service to be used again and again. From what my "insider" has told me, they can only have around 500 thousand paper napkins on property at any given time to cut down on costs, if one is used too much it is promptly burned and buried without ceremony in a small ravine in back of the Magic Kingdom. The reason they stopped using the printed napkins was due to the fact the printing would smear on the napkin causing the napkin to be washed twice, which would cost twice the money, which is twice the no no.


Hope this ends this discussion.


Jimmy Thick- Cold, hard dose of reality...

Wow...Jimmy Thick finally took off the rose colored glasses.

 

[Hakunamatata]

Themed napkins make every child light up. Children love Disney for little things like this. They are like that. They derive childish delight from the small things that adults overlook.

Not once in the ten or so trips that my two kids have been to Disney on have they ever even given even a passing comment that would give me any indication that they noticed there was anything ever printed on a napkin at WDW.

 

[RSoxNo1]

Any updates on this? Have people seen printed napkins in the parks recently?

 

[The Empress Lilly]

Disneyland Paris has blank napkins too!

Everywhere I went today at least. I don't actually remember if DLP had printed napkins before, or when.

As an aside, they do have a lovely set of printed cups that you get for free with drinks. A different fab five figure depending on the size of your consumption.

 

[GoofGoof]

Disneyland Paris has blank napkins too!

Evywhere I went today at least. I don't actually remember if DLP had printed napkins before, or when.
As an aside, they do have lovely set of printed cups that you get for free with drinks. A different fab five figure depending on the size of your consumption.

Somehow TDO will be blamed for that too!!!!

 

[maxairmike]

Somehow TDO will be blamed for that too!!!!

Well, I do believe Meg has some kind of oversight/managerial control over DLP after that previous management shuffle...

 

[MissM]

Any updates on this? Have people seen printed napkins in the parks recently?

For what it's worth: I was at MK last Saturday and the napkins at Cosmic Rays and Aloha Isle were definitely both the plain brown ones. We had lunch at Cosmic Rays and a Dole Whip at Aloha Isle so I got napkins at both places. I can't comment elsewhere but as those are two random eateries, I would say that they're blank in MK at the very least.

 

[ParentsOf4]

For what it's worth: I was at MK last Saturday and the napkins at Cosmic Rays and Aloha Isle were definitely both the plain brown ones. We had lunch at Cosmic Rays and a Dole Whip at Aloha Isle so I got napkins at both places. I can't comment elsewhere but as those are two random eateries, I would say that they're blank in MK at the very least.

Thanks for the update. Others have mentioned they will check during their next visit. It will be interesting to see if these plain brown napkins are at all locations. Given the amount of time elapsed since this was first reported, it's possible that this change is permanent.

 

[jlevis]

We're at WDW now. We've eaten at Via Napoli, Mama Melrose, Crystal Palace, Flame Tree BBQ and I've had a Dole Whip. The only time I noticed a napkin was at Flame Tree and it was printed with the Disney Parks logo. None of the other 13 people in our party, including Children, made any comment although my wife cried out in horror, threw her meal into the trash and stormed off saying she would never return to Disney.

 

[John]

Themed napkins make every child light up. Children love Disney for little things like this. They are like that. They derive childish delight from the small things that adults overlook.

That is why it is so much fun to do Disney with kids. It is not for the kids, it is for the parents, who get to see the world through the inquisitive, playful eyes of youth.

But hey, how do you market that? We all know WDW is about the little magic, and not about the latest blockbuster tie-in. But you can't express that. Neither the guetss nor management understand how to communicate that. So we end up with all the fun little magic removed, and the $500 million dollar blockbuster tie-in installed. Meanwhile, both the parents and the kids would've actually preferred the simple, small delight of discovering Mickeys on their napkins.

This....This.....This....This!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is what I have been trying to express since joining these blue pages. The same sentiment we should enjoy in life in general....the small things. The inconsequential things that are so small that most people over look. But all add up to the total experience. Disney used to be nothing but these small things. This was the difference between Disney parks and all other parks. Now its all about 180 seconds of big thrills, then on to the next 180 second thrill. The total immersion is being lost. If you add up all the thrill rides in all four parks and total the time actually riding them you would end up with about 20-30 minutes of thrill. Does a parent shed a tear when their child rides dumbo or Peter Pan? or do they blubber like a baby when they see their child see the castle for the first time or when the child squeals with delight at the sight of their their favorite charecter? Is it really just a napkin?