The Spirit Takes the Fifth ...

[wdwfan4ver]

Let's not forget most of the people have these "memory vision" type memory.
Where we remember the best and forget most of the nickpicking bad details that we see now.
And the younger we are the easier it is for us to get amazed. (because the older you get, you know more of how everything works)

That wasn't the case at all for me when I went to WDW for the Holidays for the first ever in 2010. The fact I didn't go to WDW when they had the decorations up before 2010. You are dealing a person is accustomed having stuff very decorated up for the holidays where they live and have high exceptions.

The 2nd thing is how there was any bad details for the decorations for the house I grew in without you even stepping in it or even drive past back it the 1980's and 1990's?

You have no clue how decorated up the house I grew up in was back in the 1980's and 1990's besides the size or the size of the home I grew up in. The amount of decorations when I grew up inside the house wasn't based in nostalgia either. My younger brother and I grew up helping dad taking the decorations inside out of a storage area in the house called a cubby hole because of the amount stuff had to be taken out.

It was a good sized cubby hole that had a lot of boxes for Christmas including 2 long boxes for the Artificial tree. My parents even have pictures of the house decorated up, but I don't believe showing pictures online like my parents don't like to show pictures online either.

I am mentioning this because of my own first hand knowledge of being involved with decorations around the house I grew up and this is not a sign of nostalgia. When you are involved in something like helping taking out boxes and stuff for decorations, it is easy for a person to recall the amount of stuff they take out.

 

[Cesar R M]

That wasn't the case at all for me when I went to WDW for the Holidays for the first ever in 2010. The fact I didn't go to WDW when they had the decorations up before 2010. You are dealing a person is accustomed having stuff very decorated up for the holidays where they live and have high exceptions.

The 2nd thing is how there was any bad details for the decorations for the house I grew in without you even stepping in it or even drive past back it the 1980's and 1990's?

You have no clue how decorated up the house I grew up in was back in the 1980's and 1990's besides the size or the size of the home I grew up in. The amount of decorations when I grew up inside the house wasn't based in nostalgia either. My younger brother and I grew up helping dad taking the decorations inside out of a storage area in the house called a cubby hole because of the amount stuff had to be taken out.

It was a good sized cubby hole that had a lot of boxes for Christmas including 2 long boxes for the Artificial tree. My parents even have pictures of the house decorated up, but I don't believe showing pictures online like my parents don't either.

Sorry to say but I suddenly imagined your parents being the "Chuck Norris" of the Christmas decorations.(its an internet meme thing)
accepting nothing lesss than sort of spectacular! XD

any chance to see the decorations? (because on my side, we always just use simple decorations inside)
and something as simple as this always get me in awe

 

[Hakunamatata]

I mean as in "give money back to Iger so he can buy his yatch"

Ah.

 

[71jason]

Was at DAK on Thursday till 1 PM and Epcot on Friday till 3 PM. Both felt like they had typical Thanksgiving crowds.

I needed to get to Dr. Phillips Saturday around noon, no easy way past WDW, so just bit the bullet and took I-4. Surprised the only minor back-up was past EPCOT at 535, which was probably more the Outlet Malls than WDW. Was not typical holiday traffic.

Then again, for whatever cultural reasons or maybe some schools still not closing all week, Thanksgiving always seems to run a distant fourth to Christmas/Easter/Independence Day. At this point, with the Latin American market, Three Kings Day may even give it a run for its money (crowds now heavy from the Friday before Christmas through Marathon Monday or Tuesday pretty much without a break). Even Jersey Week and Mardi Gras can feel more crowded, with their localized crowds.

 

[71jason]

Without a doubt, SeaWorld does the best job decorating for Christmas. Decorations are all over the park, not to mention their numerous Christmas-themed shows (included with park admission -- novel idea).

Live Christmas music all over the park--at least three or four different locations. Improv comedy with elves at two locations. The Sea of Trees, that holds its own against Osbourne (just wish it played more often--say every 15 minutes). Special menus in their fast food outlets. Overlays on most of the animal shows and Wild Arctic. Sea World stepped up their holiday game 5 years ago and nobody comes close to touching them anymore.

 

[wdwfan4ver]

Sorry to say but I suddenly imagined your parents being the "Chuck Norris" of the Christmas decorations.(its an internet meme thing)
accepting nothing sort of spectacular! XD

any chance to see the decorations? (because on my side, we always just use simple decorations inside)
and something as simple as this always get me in awe

Sorry, there is no chance to.

 

[TalkingHead]

Live Christmas music all over the park--at least three or four different locations. Improv comedy with elves at two locations. The Sea of Trees, that holds its own against Osbourne (just wish it played more often--say every 15 minutes). Special menus in their fast food outlets. Overlays on most of the animal shows and Wild Arctic. Sea World stepped up their holiday game 5 years ago and nobody comes close to touching them anymore.

All of those things you mentioned are great. The ice-skating show is also a really nice, unique bit of entertainment.

And most importantly, they have holiday-themed napkins.

 

[Cosmic Commando]

Just saw a great piece on Amazon/interview with Jeff Bezos on 60 Minutes. I'm paraphrasing, but the gist is definitely the same. Bezos: "Every time we do the math, it tells us to raise prices. If we did that, it would erode customer trust and it would cost us more money in the long run." Later, he talked about his willingness to give projects more time to return a profit than the 1, 2, 3 years that most companies give. Something called a "long-term view".

 

[Darth Sidious]

Not sure if you read them @WDW1974 but I started a thread about unusually long FP+ lines here:

This is what a FastPass+ line looks like

Many FP/FP+ lines definitely were longer than during previous Thanksgiving trips. I think Disney needs to adjust their FP+ distribution algorithms. It should be a solvable problem with a bit of software.

I also started a thread concerning changing FP+ times here:

Changing FastPass+ Selections for Popular Attractions

We experimented with changing FP+ selections on short notice. As I expected, it was difficult to get FP+ for any attraction that actually needs FP+. On two occasions, we wanted to select later times but there was 0 availability for attractions worth FP'ing. So much for FP+'s flexibility. We were locked into return times just like the old FP.

FP+ changes how visitors tour WDW. It doesn't make it better or worse. Some will like it more, some will like it less. For those who like to sleep in, it's great not to have to be there for rope drop. Conversely, for FP experts, it stinks being limited to 3 FP+ per day and only at one park.

If they continue to add back FP+ tiers, then forget about it. Guests want to pick FP+ selections that they care about, not be forced into selecting FP+ for attractions that shouldn't need it in the first place.

MyMagic+ would be fine with a $100M budget but considering how much was sunk into it, it's never going to meet its profit objectives.

MyMagic+ does absolutely nothing to solve WDW's biggest problem: capacity.

Disney, do you really want to improve everyone's vacation? Stop building hotels and DVC (10,000 rooms added since Disney's Animal Kingdom opened in 1998) and start adding ride capacity.

What a lost opportunity. What a waste of a couple billion dollars.

I want to like this post more than once!

 

[WDW1974]

And those daggers will be back when the stock tanks. Does Iger have another big acquisition in the works/buyback to goose the stock price? God forbid they finally remove the debt from DLP, or fix WDW or build more rides at DL or...

There are rumors that Iger is looking at another acquisition, but I don't intend to stir that rumor's flames.

And the company is much more than P&R, although I certainly agree with your point that it isn't being run in the best interest of fans, guests, cast and long-term investors.

 

[WDW1974]

BTW, I believe @WDWFigment said he used ITA Matrix to get that deal for his flights to Tokyo and Hong Kong.
http://matrix.itasoftware.com/

I have not used that site. I always use a mix of kayak, orbitz and airlines own sites. @WDWFigment is that a TA site?

 

[WDW1974]

We'll miss you Sprirt, have a great trip!

Thanks, Alissa! And I hope to!

 

[Magenta Panther]

There are rumors that Iger is looking at another acquisition, but I don't intend to stir that rumor's flames.

Oh, god, what now? The Smurfs? Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? Alvin and the Chipmunks? I wouldn't put it past Iger to buy such junk. He's done it before.

One of the many good things about Frozen being a hit is that it proves once again that Disney doesn't need outside cast-off properties to thrive. It can create its own hits with its own creations. So there is no good reason for Iger to go shopping again. I hope those rumors stay rumors, and never materialize. Enough is freaking enough!

 

[WDW1974]

MyMagic+ does absolutely nothing to solve WDW's biggest problem: capacity.

Disney, do you really want to improve everyone's vacation? Stop building hotels and DVC (10,000 rooms added since Disney's Animal Kingdom opened in 1998) and start adding ride capacity.

What a lost opportunity. What a waste of a couple billion dollars.

I cut your post down to the bones because they are quite strong.

This is the problem that WDW has had for 15 years now. And they keep trying smoke and mirrors to make it disappear.

And, shockingly, it doesn't.

Now, they're going to try anything to spread crowds out: price MK higher, punish park-hoppers with no FP+ at the second or third parks you hit in one day, placing FP+ on things as absurd as fireworks viewing, meet-greet-and-gropes and constant people-eating attractions.

None of which actually addresses the core problem: there aren't enough things to do at WDW's tired, stale parks.

 

[WDW1974]

I'm pretty much the only person who's waiting to see Frozen until Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.

You know you don't have to!

 

[John]

Just saw a great piece on Amazon/interview with Jeff Bezos on 60 Minutes. I'm paraphrasing, but the gist is definitely the same. Bezos: "Every time we do the math, it tells us to raise prices. If we did that, it would erode customer trust and it would cost us more money in the long run." Later, he talked about his willingness to give projects more time to return a profit than the 1, 2, 3 years that most companies give. Something called a "long-term view".

I seen it too, he also talked about at the end of the interview how a company might be #1 today but inevitably will cease to exist. That he knew Amazon would be knocked off its perch one day ( paraphrase). He said he hoped he would be dead by then. But said "that day will come".

 

[WDW1974]

I needed to get to Dr. Phillips Saturday around noon, no easy way past WDW, so just bit the bullet and took I-4. Surprised the only minor back-up was past EPCOT at 535, which was probably more the Outlet Malls than WDW. Was not typical holiday traffic.

Then again, for whatever cultural reasons or maybe some schools still not closing all week, Thanksgiving always seems to run a distant fourth to Christmas/Easter/Independence Day. At this point, with the Latin American market, Three Kings Day may even give it a run for its money (crowds now heavy from the Friday before Christmas through Marathon Monday or Tuesday pretty much without a break). Even Jersey Week and Mardi Gras can feel more crowded, with their localized crowds.

I would think that Thanksgiving just moved from what was (say from 1971-1996) a generally uncrowded (almost empty in the early days) period to a typical (moderately) crowd pattern. I would guess (and recalling my recent early/mid December visits) that the next few weeks won't be busy at all beyond the weekends.

 

[the.dreamfinder]

There are rumors that Iger is looking at another acquisition, but I don't intend to stir that rumor's flames.

And the company is much more than P&R, although I certainly agree with your point that it isn't being run in the best interest of fans, guests, cast and long-term investors.

I could only imagine which companies are being looked at. Of course the company is bigger than P&R, but other divisions need just as much TLC or in the case of the Studios letting Mr. Horn or Ms. Kennedy do their jobs well.

 

[WDW1974]

This has nothing to do with Disney but ... (and let's leave spoilers out for a few days) but I was VERY disappointed with tonight's midseason finale of The Walking Dead. I am sure it will pull huge numbers, but that doesn't equal quality as the MK, Walmart or McDonald's prove.

 

[Cesar R M]

Oh, god, what now? The Smurfs? Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? Alvin and the Chipmunks? I wouldn't put it past Iger to buy such junk. He's done it before.

One of the many good things about Frozen being a hit is that it proves once again that Disney doesn't need outside cast-off properties to thrive. It can create its own hits with its own creations. So there is no good reason for Iger to go shopping again. I hope those rumors stay rumors, and never materialize. Enough is freaking enough!

I dont think they will get TMNT, Nickelodeon just got them and they're doing really well.
that and Legend of Korra are leading the animation of Nick studios.

Alvin and the chipmunks also is set for a revival of the series, I wonder if it will be under the helm of Nickelodeon or Cartoon Network (I really hope its nick, CN always cancels any remotely good quality show after 1-2 seasons).