The Miscellaneous Thought Thread

[Rich T]

Finally made time to start on the Walt’s Camera Lego set… and the first thing I see among the pile of pieces spilling out onto my table (besides Lego Walt) are three transparent panels which will form the iconic Old Mill scene once mounted in the Lego version of the Multiplane Camera.

My respect for the creators at Lego was already sky high, and now I wish they were in charge of Disney Parks.

 

[Consumer]

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Finally made time to start on the Walt’s Camera Lego set… and the first thing I see among the pile of pieces spilling out onto my table (besides Lego Walt) are three transparent panels which will form the iconic Old Mill scene once mounted in the Lego version of the Multiplane Camera.

My respect for the creators at Lego was already sky high, and now I wish they were in charge of Disney Parks.

As cool as things like this are, it irks me LEGO spends so much of their resources producing kits for adults instead of playsets for children. I remember walking into a LEGO store sometime after the pandemic and seeing nearly every set was 18+. Honestly I feel bad for kids that there are so few LEGO series for them and that ones that do exist are Star Wars, Harry Potter, Jurassic World, Marvel, etc. The only original themes are Ninjago, Friends, Dreamzzz, and City. Back in my day we had Johnny Thunder, Mars Mission, Power Miners, Exo-Force, Castle, Knight's Kingdom. I genuinely feel bad for kids nowadays.

It's funny you say you want LEGO to be in charge of Disney Parks, because arguably both companies are suffering from the same problem of catering to wealthy, childless millennials rather than to families and children. Both LEGO and Disney will ultimately suffer for this as they aren't establishing new long lasting loyal customers.

 

[CHOX]

As cool as things like this are, it irks me LEGO spends so much of their resources producing kits for adults instead of playsets for children. I remember walking into a LEGO store sometime after the pandemic and seeing nearly every set was 18+. Honestly I feel bad for kids that there are so few LEGO series for them and that ones that do exist are Star Wars, Harry Potter, Jurassic World, Marvel, etc. The only original themes are Ninjago, Friends, Dreamzzz, and City. Back in my day we had Johnny Thunder, Mars Mission, Power Miners, Exo-Force, Castle, Knight's Kingdom. I genuinely feel bad for kids nowadays.

It's funny you say you want LEGO to be in charge of Disney Parks, because arguably both companies are suffering from the same problem of catering to wealthy, childless millennials rather than to families and children. Both LEGO and Disney will ultimately suffer for this as they aren't establishing new long lasting loyal customers.

You mean this guy right here? Yeah…the current sets for children aren’t what they once were. I went into a Lego store looking for Duplo for my toddler and they only had a handful.

Nothing against the normal Lego collectors though. I really like these AI Lego sets though. Lord of the Rings with RVs.

WE MUST DIVE DEEPER!

 

[Rich T]

As cool as things like this are, it irks me LEGO spends so much of their resources producing kits for adults instead of playsets for children. I remember walking into a LEGO store sometime after the pandemic and seeing nearly every set was 18+. Honestly I feel bad for kids that there are so few LEGO series for them and that ones that do exist are Star Wars, Harry Potter, Jurassic World, Marvel, etc. The only original themes are Ninjago, Friends, Dreamzzz, and City. Back in my day we had Johnny Thunder, Mars Mission, Power Miners, Exo-Force, Castle, Knight's Kingdom. I genuinely feel bad for kids nowadays.

It's funny you say you want LEGO to be in charge of Disney Parks, because arguably both companies are suffering from the same problem of catering to wealthy, childless millennials rather than to families and children. Both LEGO and Disney will ultimately suffer for this as they aren't establishing new long lasting loyal customers.

Don’t feel bad for the kids: There are still actually more sets for kids than adults. You just have to go to the right section. When you go into a Lego store, the 18+ sets are more prominently on display because… that’s where the money is now. These sets appeal to adults who grew up with Lego, teen genre fans and kids who don’t mind asking a parent for assistance from time to time.

And they’re brilliant.

Back to the kids… go to the Disney Store at Disney Springs or Downtown Disney and you’ll see there are plenty of areas for the little ones, and an outdoor free play zone for them to build race cars and send them down a ramp.

Also notice the kid sets are located out of the main foot traffic zone so adults with wallets will not be impeded by tots. The Disney Springs Lego Store resembles Black Friday on each “New Release Day.”

Kids have it far better with Lego selections than when I was a kid; and the stores still have excellent collections of non-themed “basic bricks”, as well as the huge wall of bins where fans of any age can fill a container with bricks of their choice.

The various non-outside-IP themes come and go. Like in any entertainment field, their fate depends entirely on sales results. By the way, the Knights and Pirate themes are being revived in sets aimed at—you guessed it—nostalgic adults (and, I hope, new parents with good taste in choosing quality toys).

Lego is in no danger of a shrinking audience due to lack of variety yet; they have something for everyone. BUT, there’s another area where Lego unfortunately shares similarities with Disney, and this really could hurt them if they’re not careful: the pricing. If they’re going to hit a wall, I think that could be their greatest issue. I’d love to build that new Gringott’s Bank with the dragon and working Mine Car coaster… but I ain’t paying $500.

Update: Top-down view through the 3 tiny Old Mill animation cell levels in the tiny multiplane camera. . Where’s Lego Ub Iwerks?!?

 

[TP2000]

From the "Is It Just Me, Or...?" file comes this random thought:

Nomenclature. It's an important thing, and Disney used to be experts at it. In the 1950's and 60's they repurposed key phrasing and nomenclature from the hospitality and entertainment industries and applied it to an amusement park and it blew people's mind; things like calling customers "guests" and calling employees "hosts and hostesses" and that they were "Cast Members" playing a part in a "Show" that was "Onstage" before they went "Backstage" for a break.

Fast forward to 2023, and they've really let those old standards and language go by the wayside. This weekend at WDW the Genie+ system crashed, and so tons of people had to stand in line to get the $29 they paid for Genie+ refunded and/or applied to a different date or park for their future use. So where were they supposed to go? To one of the "Guest Experience Team" mega-umbrellas plopped around the park.

A few thoughts come immediately to mind here;

1. "Guest Experience Team"? Who thought that was a good idea for an Information & Assistance booth? What are they doing for a guest's experience? How does a guest experience their experience at this umbrella? What the hell does that even mean? Why isn't it just called what it actually is... "Guest Assistance & Information"???
2. If the App is such a modern thing, why on earth would you have to stand in line to talk to a kid in a blue polo shirt from the Guest Experience Team to refund your money and fix it for you? Why can't the App just say "We are experiencing technical difficulties. When the App returns to service, you will automatically have the option to receive a full refund or rebook Lightning Lane reservations for a new time or date during your visit. We apologize for the inconvenience."
3. Why, why, why have they made operating a theme park so difficult?
   
4. I will bet anyone 100 churros that no Disney executive over the level of Vice President has ever had to hassle with buying their own Genie+ and scrambling for preferred rides and times and then waiting in line for a blue polo shirt at the Guest Experience Team (?!?) umbrella to tell them they drove all the way from Columbus and can't take their kids on Space Mountain even though they shelled out an extra 29 bucks per person. Have a magical day, and don't forget to use Mobile Order if you expect to get lunch.

 

[TP2000]

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Thank you for this info!

Viva Navidad is one of my all-time favorite things that Disneyland Resort has ever done. It is pure joy and Christmas spirit embodied in a 15 minute street show. But it's also very unique; I just adore the genuine (not fake or cheesy) smiles on the faces of the Brazilian samba dancers and Mexican hat dance couples, and you can just feel the pride beaming from those Mariachi musicians as they do their thing. Incredible!

I'm one of those folks who doesn't put up my Christmas tree until the second weekend in December, but when the Christmas spirit does finally hit me around the 18th it can not be stopped! And Viva Navidad is one of my favorite things that time of year.

I've said this a hundred times in the last decade, but.... The only thing they could possibly do to make Viva Navidad an even better show is during the week between Christmas and New Year's book the fabulous Charo to arrive onto the street with Minnie and Mickey and grab a guitar and join in the fun. I would die a happy man.

 

[mickEblu]

That new Mickey and Friends Halloween special on Disney + has some pretty catchy tunes. It’s done in stop motion animation and features Witch Hazel from the old “Trick or Treat short. Haven’t watched the whole thing but I have heard it in the background about 37 times.

 

[JediMasterMatt]

From the "Is It Just Me, Or...?" file comes this random thought:

Nomenclature. It's an important thing, and Disney used to be experts at it. In the 1950's and 60's they repurposed key phrasing and nomenclature from the hospitality and entertainment industries and applied it to an amusement park and it blew people's mind; things like calling customers "guests" and calling employees "hosts and hostesses" and that they were "Cast Members" playing a part in a "Show" that was "Onstage" before they went "Backstage" for a break.

Fast forward to 2023, and they've really let those old standards and language go by the wayside. This weekend at WDW the Genie+ system crashed, and so tons of people had to stand in line to get the $29 they paid for Genie+ refunded and/or applied to a different date or park for their future use. So where were they supposed to go? To one of the "Guest Experience Team" mega-umbrellas plopped around the park.

View attachment 747724

A few thoughts come immediately to mind here;

1. "Guest Experience Team"? Who thought that was a good idea for an Information & Assistance booth? What are they doing for a guest's experience? How does a guest experience their experience at this umbrella? What the hell does that even mean? Why isn't it just called what it actually is... "Guest Assistance & Information"???
2. If the App is such a modern thing, why on earth would you have to stand in line to talk to a kid in a blue polo shirt from the Guest Experience Team to refund your money and fix it for you? Why can't the App just say "We are experiencing technical difficulties. When the App returns to service, you will automatically have the option to receive a full refund or rebook Lightning Lane reservations for a new time or date during your visit. We apologize for the inconvenience."
3. Why, why, why have they made operating a theme park so difficult?
   
4. I will bet anyone 100 churros that no Disney executive over the level of Vice President has ever had to hassle with buying their own Genie+ and scrambling for preferred rides and times and then waiting in line for a blue polo shirt at the Guest Experience Team (?!?) umbrella to tell them they drove all the way from Columbus and can't take their kids on Space Mountain even though they shelled out an extra 29 bucks per person. Have a magical day, and don't forget to use Mobile Order if you expect to get lunch.

While the name is incredibly lame, the little umbrella at DLR was a great innovation to solve a problem that TDO didn't ever solve until both coasts finally put the solution into the digital realm.

The umbrella team was originally put into place to steer DAS guest's away from the somewhat time intensive process of having the person with the disability (or someone from their party) go up to the ride entrance and wade through the crowds that are always around it with normal standby guests, FastPass guests, and the usual loitering FastPass guests waiting for their return window to open up. Disneyland eventually realized, sending more people to up to the already busy entrance to stand there while the CM updated their paper card and figured out the return time only caused more congestion, so they came up with scattered kiosks throughout the park that could accomplish this.

It was a great solution and one that I quickly began recommending to TDO at every opportunity; however, it never gained any traction until MDE made the Guest Experience Team a necessity due to the technical headaches that will always be a source of frustration. The reality was that TDO didn't want to staff these kiosks just for DAS.

Eventually, both coasts eventually got a better solution for DAS via MDE eliminating the need to have a CM involved at all.

I did ask one time why the name Guest Experience Team was selected instead of something like Guest Services and was told it was because the primary function of the team was to assist with MDE issues and those that don't/won't deal with the app. Lame answer; but, it's probably accurate in that it does deal with mostly MDE related issues now. Guest Services Team would be so much better.

As to your underlying questions as to "why"... I suspect you really know the answers.

Re: why guests have to go to the umbrella to get your LL$ refunded - because if you don't complain, they don't have to do anything and can keep the money. Having an automated system in place to GIVE YOUR MONEY BACK wouldn't let the poor rubes who think they just wasted their money or saw the long lines at Guest Services or the Blue Umbrella Club and decided to forget it generously donate their money to golden parachute club.

Re: why, why, why they made things difficult - it's because everything that MDE has done is to provide the appearance of value added to guests; but, what it really is designed to do is slow guests down and keep them captive for longer. Advance reservations for parks, dining, rides, and shows means they know you are committed and for how long based on how many of those reservations a guest may have. This idea of keeping a captive audience longer is why the original TDO online FP reservation system didn't let you really get 3 reservations over the course of 3 contiguous hours. The popular attractions always made sure your return times for attraction A were available every 15 minutes at windows beginning at 5 past the hour and attraction B was 15 minutes beginning at 10 past the hour. Just to make sure you were in the park roughly an extra 30 minutes - 1 hour for your set of "free" time saving "Fast"pass.

Of course all this is a charade designed to slow guests down and mask the real reasons guest satisfaction can't be left in the hands of the actual guests in the parks by simply deciding how to spend their time/money by using their feet to go from ride to ride or show or dinner. Because the supply side of Disney parks is now way, way behind the demands of the operational challenges of attendance, the best they could do without investing heavily into having more capacity is this crowd steering smoke and mirrors that we have now. This has morphed into the most extreme forms of crowd steering which is the game of chicken played with prices in trying to price out those that don't have the means to spend as much as those that can.

 

[TP2000]

While the name is incredibly lame, the little umbrella at DLR was a great innovation to solve a problem that TDO didn't ever solve until both coasts finally put the solution into the digital realm.

The name, as you say, is incredibly lame. That name is simply Example #482 that decisions about the parks are being made by people who actually know very little about spending a day in their own parks, how their own customers use the parks, and even who their customers are.

Guest Experience Team is nomenclature that makes a bit of sense when you consider the bureaucracy and conference room discussions over a period of 12 months that led to its creation, but none of the customers who need the assistance of the Guest Experience Team know that backstory or bureaucratic bickering. Nor do they care.

The team should be called Guest Assistance & Information, and much of their Genie+ refund/recovery processes should be automated and offered proactively on the App during downtimes and technical problems.

Re: why guests have to go to the umbrella to get your LL$ refunded - because if you don't complain, they don't have to do anything and can keep the money. Having an automated system in place to GIVE YOUR MONEY BACK wouldn't let the poor rubes who think they just wasted their money or saw the long lines at Guest Services or the Blue Umbrella Club and decided to forget it generously donate their money to golden parachute club.

A brilliant assessment. It borders on unethical activity on the part of Disney, and it's certainly not kind or gracious behavior on Disney's part, but sadly that is how Disney approaches their own customers now.

Re: why, why, why they made things difficult - it's because everything that MDE has done is to provide the appearance of value added to guests; but, what it really is designed to do is slow guests down and keep them captive for longer.

That doesn't approach the level of unethical activity the above scenario does, it's just tacky as hell. And Disney knows it.

 

[TP2000]

Well, gang... I'm going to wrap this Summer of '23 up a few weeks earlier than planned and head home to Utah. I never made it to Disneyland this summer. And no one in my family (when they were here in July for two weeks) wanted to go. It's just fallen off the radar for them, or at the very least whatever's new at Disneyland is not worth the hassles of getting to and into the park.

But with the current global geo-political situation, it seems wise to pack up the beach house early and head home where I have a better handle on my immediate surroundings and community.

On the bright side, I snagged a dinner reservation at the fabulous Bacchanal Buffet at Ceasars Palace. It's a 5 hour shot from here to Ceasars Palace, which is a perfect place to stretch my legs and my waistline before the final leg of driving and time zone change. It's also not only the best buffet in Las Vegas, it's the best name for a buffet anyone has ever thought of.

 

[Consumer]

Los Angeles solidarity.

 

[truecoat]

Anyone see any UFOs lately? I mean UAPs.

 

[Consumer]

Anyone see any UFOs lately? I mean UAPs.

New Tomorrowland promotion is sick

 

[Phroobar]

Is that a real UAP?

 

[Disney Analyst]

Magic Happens confirmed to return.

 

[truecoat]

Is that a real UAP?

There’s a lot of photos/video of triangle shaped objects with lights in the corners going way back.

 

[TP2000]

Anyone see any UFOs lately? I mean UAPs.

Whoever thought changing their name from UFO to UAP is an idiot. Talk about messy branding and muddled marketing!

 

[chadwpalm]

Anyone see any UFOs lately? I mean UAPs.

Reminds me of the "found footage" craze in the early 2010's. I wanted to create a "found footage" video around that time and started teaching myself how to blend 3D animation from software like 3D Studio with cell phone footage using Adobe After Effects and this was all I ended up creating. I moved from that house, so I never got to finish it.

 

[Consumer]

I absolutely adore these Architectural Digest videos and I get the feeling many on this forum will find this particular video of interest. The story of the Beauregard-Keyes House told at 10:21 sounds like it may have inspired the Imagineers behind the Haunted Mansion.

 

[brb1006]

Well guys, tomorrow will be the Eve of The Walt Disney Company turning 100 years old. To commemorate this, ABC will be airing a special episode of "The Wonderful World of Disney" called "Disney's 100th Anniversary Celebration" at 8:00 PM EST which not only includes an airing of Enctano. But will feature the first public airing of the "Once Upon A Studio" short film (outside of D23 members) and a special sneak peek of "Wish" and other upcoming projects.

Watch "Disney's 100th Anniversary Celebration" TONIGHT 8/7c | ABC Updates

"The Wonderful World of Disney: Disney's 100th Anniversary Celebration!" is coming your way TONIGHT!

abc.com

Who else will be tuning in tomorrow evening?