The Great Paper Napkin Watch

[DisneyWall-E]

Is the sight of plaine paper napkins going to ruin my trip? No. But what it looks like to me is a cut back. As far as I know what I am about to say is a fact: I am paying as much if not more to vacation at WDW this year( as compared to last SEPT) and now they dont have unique napkins any more. Did the ticket or resort price drop? No.

And once again this is not going to ruin my trip in any way. But, IMHO it looks like a classic case of declining by degrees.

 

[GoofGoof]

Disney can spend a gazillion dollars on Avatarland, but they can't afford decent napkins or even crumby napkins with a cute Mickey head.

I'd rather have the cute cups, plates and napkins (and colorful plastic silverware) than Avatarland.

Printed napkins over new rides and attractions? You must really like the napkins.

 

[Bob Saget]

I must admit I was a little misled by the title of this discussion. When you said: "The Great Paper Napkin Watch", I was under the impression we'd be talking about, well, this:

 

[Jimmy Thick]

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...

 

[murphysmom]

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

While building a whole new section of the Magic Kingdom. And I think there are very few resorts they have left untouched too. They are spending money like crazy and no one seems to notice that.

 

[captainkidd]

While building a whole new section of the Magic Kingdom. And I think there are very few resorts they have left untouched too. They are spending money like crazy and no one seems to notice that.

I agree, but they are also making money like crazy too. As I've said already, where does it end:

1.No more Mickey ice cream bars?
2.No more Mickey waffles?
3.Just regular buses with no Disney logos on them?

None of these things are going to change the food or how you get to the parks, but they are the little touches that people have come to expect at Disney.

 

[ParentsOf4]

A lot of interest posts so far. Many see the apparent loss of printed napkins as representative of WDW's slowly declining standards (i.e. death by a 1000 cuts) while others don't see it as a big deal (i.e. don't sweat the small stuff).

I am disappointed by the name-calling. I thought this forum was to allow people to discuss anything WDW, not to tell other people to keep quiet about their opinions or insult them when they have a different view.

When you post, explain why you think napkins do or don't matter but please try to refrain from insulting someone else.

 

[Jimmy Thick]

Got got some more "inside" information.

Apparently there are plans to do away with cups for all soft drinks, with the exception of the mugs you have to pay for. The new plan is for the guest to "cup" their hands as the prefered way to enjoy a beverage and the beverage will be dispensed in a predetermined amount, so if it spills from your hands I guess you are out of luck, no free refills.

They are planning to allow people to put Disney related stickers, sold elsewhere on property, on people's hands to let people have that "Disney feeling" they seem to miss from the paper napkins.


More on this as it develops.


Jimmy Thick- At least we won the stickers!!!

 

[xdan0920]

We appreciate the effort at levity Jimbo, it's just not working here. Time to regroup, work on a new set.

 

[flynnibus]

See what Disney Management can do... when they have you clammering for the Disney Parks napkins... remember when everyone hated the first step down to Disney Parks napkins?

By making the changes in steps.. people would be happy to get the the CRAP back.. and forget the better stuff before the last strip down.

 

[asianway]

See what Disney Management can do... when they have you clammering for the Disney Parks napkins... remember when everyone hated the first step down to Disney Parks napkins?

By making the changes in steps.. people would be happy to get the the CRAP back.. and forget the better stuff before the last strip down.

Like EMH?

 

[rsoxguy]

Grandness is often the product of small details. My life will not be impacted in any great way with the absence of imprinted napkins, but their absence is a sure sign of a negative trend within Disney management.

 

[The Empress Lilly]

See what Disney Management can do... when they have you clammering for the Disney Parks napkins... remember when everyone hated the first step down to Disney Parks napkins?

By making the changes in steps.. people would be happy to get the the CRAP back.. and forget the better stuff before the last strip down.

You should read this back to yourself and notice how great it sounds. I mean just when I thought this place was taken over by hostile trolls we have you talking wisdom about declining by degrees like Yoda from the..erm...the Matrix I think he was from. If anyone thinks Disney actually takes this forum seriously, they are right. Disney pays top dollar to know the minds of its guests. This place is non-stop gathering of fun, kind people sharing their passion for Disney.

 

[Brewmaster]

While building a whole new section of the Magic Kingdom. And I think there are very few resorts they have left untouched too. They are spending money like crazy and no one seems to notice that.

Yes, and in '82 they had spent almost $2 billion on an entirely new theme park (which would be closer to $4bil today) and somehow still had the budget to have full color printed napkins.

 

[wdwmomof3]

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.

 

[ParentsOf4]

I think the small things such as printed napkins are a very nice touch. However, if it comes down to Disney raising ticket prices again, or losing printed napkins, then the napkins can go. I'm glad they are looking at things to cut without immediately resorting to raising prices even more.

I also think part of the reason for getting rid of the printing is most likely to discourage people from taking gobs of them home with them. Even if every family at WDW only takes 1 extra napkin home, that is thousands of extra napkins a day.

Unfortunately, WDW seems to be both raising prices while simultaneously cutting back on what's provided in return, cutting corners in the details that distinguished WDW from its competition. It used to be that Universal and SeaWorld tried to follow WDW's lead. More recently, it appears that WDW is trying to follow Universal and SeaWorld.

I suspect you are right, one of the considerations for introducing plain napkins was to reduce the number that people took home as souvenirs. If this is behind TDO's reasoning for eliminating printed napkins, then they've completely missed the boat. If people were taking extra home, that means they actually appreciated the extra touch and derived some sort of happiness from it. To me, this is the sort of "attention to detail" customer satisfaction issue that Disney used to excel at. Sadly, I suspect there was a business decision along the lines of, "If we eliminate printed napkins it will cost us X dollars less to print and will reduce the number of napkins that people take home with them by Y. Meanwhile, it will have no effect on revenue. Sure, let's do it." If this is how the business decision was made, then it trivializes the human element of customer satisfaction.

What if WDW eliminated those round stickers CMs hand out? Unlike napkins, they serve no utilitarian purpose other than to make people happy. Would people have the same reaction?

 

[dreamfinder]

i always thought this was a cool touch, but im sure you can ask and multiple people would go and take handfuls and use them at home for everyday use, which would be my guess why they would stop this.

The bigger cost isn't people taking the napkins to use at home, but rather just taking them and throwing them out. Ever take a minute to watch how many napkins most people grab? Routinely would see people grabbing a whole handful of napkins to go with their burger. Then using the entire napkin to wipe just the corner of their mouth, and crumpling it up immediately. Repeat a few times, and then throw the other 20 napkins they grabbed in the trash. Short of eating wet sauced BBQ, most people should be able to eat a meal with one, maybe two napkins. The same exact thing applies to utensils, and condiment packets. People grab handfuls, and then throw most of them out.

I'm sure the old printed napkins were lovely and made wiping your face or a child's nose that much more fun. I like little details like this too. But napkins are napkins and get thrown away. From a "green" perspective, I actually like the idea that less ink is being wasted and sent to landfills and that the napkins being thrown away are less toxic to the environment because of this.

There are completely eco friendly ink processes that can be used, some are even made from vegetables. You know, the ones that most kids just hide on their plate and then throw out. Or is veggie waste now toxic? Or heck emboss the napkins. No ink, nothing needed but Dumbo to push down the embosser on a stack of napkins.

Times are tough. Businesses make cuts to survive. They try their best to do it as unobtrusively as possible. Clearly, they thought losing the printed napkins would be a better cut to make than reducing the portion size of food or raising menu prices. Every penny saved means one less penny that has to be taken out of another department's budget.

Reducing portion sizes would be right in line with their efforts to encourage healthy dining.

And smaller portion sizes means smaller plates, yet another cost savings the F&B department can take advantage of. Eventually everyone just lines up to grab their meal off the serving platter with their bare hands before washing them off in Splash Mountain (can't waste water washing hands and soap is toxic to the environment) and then drying them on their pants (since paper towels or hand driers cost money to run as well).

 

[disneyflush]

We all know Walt had the vision to continuously 'plus' his theme parks, to keep improving them. The details, and in this case, napkins, obviously aren't getting plussed anymore. The overall direction is completely opposite of plussed. I know most businesses look at reducing expenses but it feels wrong in WDW. Almost like most fans have told them, "Look, I will agree to pay too much for food, buy a bunch of overpriced souveniers, pay too much for lodging, let you raise ticket prices annually without stopping my regular trips, and keep you rolling in profits but I just need you to agree to keep this place awesome, keep plussing it. Do we have a deal?"

My own family and I decided back in 2010 that we really wanted to check out the new Hyperion Wharf when they announced it so we delayed going back until it was completed. The drawings and art of it had us really excited. The cancellation of it left a terrible taste in my mouth. They take away the big stuff and the little stuff more and more frequently. I feel like I'm on a treadmill with Disney management dangling that carrot in front of me with these announcements and then pulling it away once the excitement of getting it wears off. And while I'm focusing on that carrot I don't even notice the Christmas decorations being reduced or immersion details like printed napkins being eliminated. I love what Disney was and sometimes still is but I'm not going to support their decisions of the last few years anymore by giving them more money. The antiquated rides were quaint and nostalgic when the little details of WDW were able to prop them up and make it more than a theme park with aging rides.

 

[bgraham34]

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.

 

[flynnibus]

This blog is fitting... it should remind people that Disney not only used to use printed napkins.. but unique napkins per location.. and even napkins for different promotions.. like the birthday promotions.

But then they went to the sucky DisneyParks... and now to blank.

http://disneyatdisleelandiablog.blogspot.com/2011/02/napkins-of-world.html

Its amazing how quickly people forget...