The Spirited Seventh Heaven ...

[unkadug]

Why couldn't this have been a Parks Blog video post???

Nature in action only at Animal Kingdom

I was imagining someone singing "Let It Go" while he was having his dinner.

 

[WDW1974]

"Disney... strikes while the iron is hot..."

Yeah, only a solid six months after the film has proven itself as a smash hit. Aside from the fireworks, it isn't far off from what movies in the 90's used to get before they were even released.

Every film from Aladdin to Beauty and the Beast to Lion King to Pocahontas to Toy Story to Hunchback to Hercules to Mulan to Tarzan ALL got shows or parades or attractions at WDW ... EVERY animated film from Disney and/or Pixar from 1991-1999 all got love. Hell, A Bug's Life got a signature attraction!

That was under Eisner when Disney was confident, if not cocky, about its animated product. Disney under Iger has no faith and doesn't want to invest any $$$ on theme park synergy for a film unless they are guaranteed a windfall.

Staggs actually wondered why this Frozen product wasn't already in the pipeline. How can you run WDP&R and NOT know you are doing NOTHING with the biggest hit the studio has had?

 

[wdisney9000]

Why couldn't this have been a Parks Blog video post???

Nature in action only at Animal Kingdom

10 points to Slytherin!

 

[WDW1974]

Just a question. Do you dislike the public relations industry/profession as a whole, or just the fact that Mongello acts as if he isn't an official member of the WDW PR team?

I mean, I guess you make fun of their official PR people too, though.

Maybe I just answered my own question.

I have worked on both sides of the PR business. I absolutely do not have a problem with it at large.

Disney is an entirely different animal. From running every word of every post on the DPB BY LEGAL before posting to paying off blogging and Lifestyler whores to treating real media like a word I can't type here, yeah, I have issues with Disney PR.

The fact that everyone acts like Mongello isn't a paid BRAND advocate is just the icing on an inedible cake. I hope they all choke on it and, one day, they will.

 

[WDW1974]

No surprise there, the best spots for watching/photographing the Studios' fireworks are outside the park. Thanks for the heads up, though.

Disney has long struggled with the style/design of its hotel rooms, especially at the Deluxe level. I think part of this is the inherent tension between theme and luxury. Part of it is just awful design choices, like the continued use of wallpaper border.

With that said, I think the refreshes at the Deluxe resorts in the last year or so have largely been improvements. Gone are the visually busy and cheap looking bedspreads and going for a cleaner look with the white bedding and runners. The new bedding is actually fairly nice (nicer than what they were using), and this style is becoming the industry standard for luxury hotels. I could go for a nice duvet, but it's an improvement.

In general, I think the re-designed rooms have better balanced theme with a design fitting of hotels at these price points (the Villas at Wilderness Lodge are especially well done). I feel like a lot of this might be trickling down from Aulani, which I think crushed it when it came to tackling the combination of theme and luxury, but maybe the timing is coincidental.

Disney still has a long way to go when it comes to its rooms being on par with real world hotels at comparable price points (realistically, they likely will never be at that caliber), but I think things have improved with the recent re-designs.

First, do you have any pics of the new look WLVs? And why do you like them (important as my SO is looking at buying points there)?

As to the removal of bedspreads and going with the white approach ... it's pretty much been the industry standard for the last 6-7 years now. Disney having bedspreads is akin to them having boxy TVs in their resort rooms (I recall them having them as recently as 2010 at the All Stars). They are so behind the time on lodging trends and options. I think that's one reason why folks thinking that RFID locks are something special. I had them in Europe and Asia as far back as a decade or so ago.

And with simple things, WDW just gets it so wrong.

Deluxe resorts shouldn't have the exact same throwaway tiny white towels at the pool. They should have bath sheets like high end resorts do. You're afraid people will steal them? Simple. Check them out at the gates that you are now installing at all the pools.

Don't homogenize a product to save pennies or fractions of pennies. People stay at Port Orleans or DAK Lodge or the BW etc ... have individualized cups, napkins, bags etc. It really does make a difference.

That's just a start. As to Aulani, where I haven't stayed, I'm sure the standards are higher because they have to be. Oahu doesn't attract the typical O-Town visitor. You can't get by on Pixie Dust there.

 

[bhg469]

I have worked on both sides of the PR business. I absolutely do not have a problem with it at large.

Disney is an entirely different animal. From running every word of every post on the DPB BY LEGAL before posting to paying off blogging and Lifestyler whores to treating real media like a word I can't type here, yeah, I have issues with Disney PR.

The fact that everyone acts like Mongello isn't a paid BRAND advocate is just the icing on an inedible cake. I hope they all choke on it and, one day, they will.

He makes my blood boil, acting like the most mediocre things at wdw are attractions.

Cupcakes for example... cupcakes are the most over done treat in existence and is a pathetic replacement for real pastries.

 

[wdisney9000]

I have worked on both sides of the PR business. I absolutely do not have a problem with it at large.

Disney is an entirely different animal. From running every word of every post on the DPB BY LEGAL before posting to paying off blogging and Lifestyler whores to treating real media like a word I can't type here, yeah, I have issues with Disney PR.

The fact that everyone acts like Mongello isn't a paid BRAND advocate is just the icing on an inedible cake. I hope they all choke on it and, one day, they will.

I dont know which is worse though, the social media folks or the Disney commercials that portray children running up to MIckey and Minnie in the middle of the park with nobody else around, or Belle sitting on a rock in FLE expansion just reading a book as people walk by. Neither are heavily based in reality.

 

[WDW1974]

?? Disney popularized the idea of the themed hotel to take you somewhere else and bringing their concepts of themed design to hotels.

I think you confuse stale product with bad design.



This is about a shift in contemporary tastes. The recent updates have modernized the styles used... And of course in turn will generally more liked than the dated concepts that had fallen out of favor. Simple example... Wallpaper vs paint.

However in many of these updates they have also marginalized the identity and theme of the properties.

I think you confuse your appreciation of the recent hotel amenities refreshes with Disney design improvements.

Disney is finally catching up with hotel basics... But in many ways is far behind where it used to be in offering unique experiences.

IMO it's about the rest of the world catching up to Disney... And Disney failing to keep advancing.

Some of the suite designs of recent years have been interesting... But besides the dl hotel... Nothing in the deluxes have been attention grabbers in a long time.

That's true enough.

We stayed at the Grand Cali Villas for the first time in May. The unit (a studio) was largely beautiful and well-kept, but the king bed had a giant bedspread on it that was the same design the hotel opened with in 2001. It's just a tired look.

Disney has gotten so far behind in the resort game. And theming is definitely suffering.

Great example: the toilets in Dixie Landings lobby and public areas were all recently redone (could be a few years now as I hadn't been there for quite a while). Instead of the old-style and thematically appropriate pull chains with the tanks up high, they went with the typical every day. And instead of deep wall treatments that made it feel Southern, they went with bright purples and golds in wall paper that make the place look like someone vaguely decorated their bathroom for Mardi Gras. Sure, it looks new ... but it fits only slightly more than turning 500 rooms into Disney Princess rooms that have absolutely nothing to do with the theme of the resort.

 

[Smiddimizer]

The 1960s original was a true classic and a great film ... but everything that has come since (from the 70s sequels to the Burton reboot to the Franco film of three years ago) has been largely mediocre to unwatchable. ... I think a close friend may want to go see it with me, though.

It just beat Transformers. That alone makes it a feather in Fox's cap.

 

[ScoutN]

I dont know which is worse though, the social media folks or the Disney commercials that portray children running up to MIckey and Minnie in the middle of the park with nobody else around, or Belle sitting on a rock in FLE expansion just reading a book as people walk by. Neither are heavily based in reality.

Ah but on DCL I have encountered Snow White prancing around the upper level of Dream's atrium humming a tune, and Peter Pan crowing from around the corner of a random hall.

DCL is where it is at!

 

[WDW1974]

Spontaneous applause...in a hotel lobby...for a recorded song....from an animated movie...

Guys, seriously, is this and the stories of tears being shed upon the first sight of DA not VERY troubling to more people? I understand fascination with the latest thing, but geez. I can feel nostalgic going to WDW, US and heck even the place where I "parked" with my first girlfriend for the first time (just me or were cars MUCH roomier in the 80's?? SO glad I'm outta the dating scene, and Lebeau isn't the only one with a smoking hot wife!) This is why humans can spend their last dime on things that in a few years time will be meaningless to them. The rush to be part of the "in crowd" and follow the latest "popular trends" is why we fall for anything put in a pretty package and sold as making you one of the cool kids, even when those cool kids are adult soccer moms and dads taking the SUV to Target for the latest widget, or not stopping to think how applause in a hotel lobby for anything less than a major suite upgrade is a little nuts.

I find it all weird. I just don't cry at theme parks, no matter how amazing or disappointing.

And I don't get the Frozen phenomenon at all. The film was only very good when comparing it to much of what Disney has put out in the last 15 years. I don't begrudge the fans. It still IS a good film. And it will make a kewl theme park ride or area (just not at EPCOT!) ... But literally you go to WDW, you can't turn around from a rack of viynlmation without hearing folks belting out a song that gets more obnoxious the more I hear it.

 

[ScoutN]

Well I don't know if the CDC removed it (wouldn't surprise me), but I was there a few weeks ago and the jacuzzi in question was removed and filled with cement. Take that for what it's worth

Just made an inquiry. It sounds like it has been filled for a few months and will not be coming back. The constant activities occurring in said tub were a major health liability.

 

[PhotoDave219]

Apparently the Epcot monorail is being EVAC'd by RCES by Wildy Lodge for reasons unknown.

No details other than photos seen on twitter.

 

[WDW1974]

@WDW1974 the new show at Cinderella castle will be similar to "Once upon a Time" from Tokyo???

Some elements will be, yes.

 

[Smiddimizer]

Why couldn't this have been a Parks Blog video post???

Nature in action only at Animal Kingdom

Well that is..something you don't see every day.

 

[twebber55]

Apparently the Epcot monorail is being EVAC'd by RCES by Wildy Lodge for reasons unknown.

No details other than photos seen on twitter.

looks like lightening

 

[PhotoDave219]

looks like lightening

Agreed. Thats the current speculation and plausable.

Nothing to see, move along.....

 

[WDW1974]

I like your thinking. I'm boarding the Fantasy again in four weeks. I have been fortunate through extensive business and pleasure travel to visit every Disney park in the world multiple times and every ship multiple times. DCL is, in my opinion, the best thing Disney does.

I don't know that I'd fully agree with that. I certainly place DCL up very close to the top, though, no doubt.

 

[aladdin2007]

Some elements will be, yes.

Is it true MK has a new head of entertainment? Where did I read that though I wish I could recall. It was about a month ago.

 

[WDW1974]

was hoping wdw74 would have dropped that big news here by now

I'm here, but need to run.

Also, going to place it in another thread (I'll still be back here for whatever topics we are discussing) because I don't want to bury it and I want to focus on one subject in that thread.

I promise, though, that I'll either start it tonight or sometime tomorrow ... I do warn you, though, this isn't news that is going to excite many of you. It may well anger many instead.