Gabe1
Ivory Tower Squabble EST 2011. WINDMILL SURVIVOR
What some seem to forget is that WDW used to be a resort for adults and teenagers!
Let's recall Walt Disney's words:
"The idea for Disneyland came about when my daughters were very young and Saturday was always Daddy's day with the two daughters. ... I felt there should be something built where the parents and the children could have fun together."
"Adults are interested if you don't play down to little two- or three-year-olds or talk down. I don't believe in talking down to children."
"You can't live on things made for children or for critics. I never made films for either of them. Disneyland is not just for children. I don't play down."
"In the wintertime you can go [to Disneyland] during the week and you won't see any children. You'll see the oldsters out there riding all those rides and having fun and everything. Summertime, of course, the average would drop down. But the overall, year-round average, it's four adults to one child."
"Part of the Disney success is our ability to create a believable world of dreams that appeals to all age groups. The kind of entertainment we create is meant to appeal to every member of the family."
"You're dead if you only aim for kids."
For decades, that was the master plan followed at WDW.
I spent much of the late 1970's and 1980's as a teenager and twenty-something at WDW enjoying the theme parks with my teenager and twenty-something friends.
For nearly 30 years, WDW's target audience was a mature crowd. It was adults with older children and adults without children. It was a crowd with more disposable income, more able to afford WDW's Deluxe Resorts.
All those stories about strollers being unusual at WDW were true. WDW was not a "kiddie" theme park.
A bit over a decade ago, corporate Disney intentionally started targeting families with younger children. Some call this "dumbing down" but, in a sense, it was more like child-proofing. Remove anything remotely frightening to little ones. Simplify the message, in direct contradiction to Walt Disney's vision.
This is a crowd without as much disposable income, less able to afford Disney's high-end experiences. It's one of the reasons WDW no long can fill their Deluxe Resorts even though theme park attendance is up since those earlier days.
WDW used to own the families with teens and tweens crowd but they sold their souls in the early 2000s for the easy buck. Why invest in expensive new and sophisticated attractions in order to appeal to a more mature and sophisticated audience when it's easier (and less expensive!) spending some advertising bucks marketing to little kids on the Disney Channel?
DW and I happen to be raising 4 teenagers right now. Among their friends, WDW is leagues ahead of Six Flags, even with all its thrill rides. However, among them, Universal is the new "it" place. In 2009, it wasn't. With the opening of WWOHP and the continued improvements since then, Universal is now the exciting park, the park that's evolving, the park that is actually trying to earn their business.
WDW has become the stodgy old park that's pretty much the same way it was 10 years ago, except now it's overrun by strollers and screaming children who are being kept awake way past their bedtimes because their parents are desperate to squeeze every second out of what has become very expensive vacations.
It wasn't always like that.
Not that long ago, WDW actually was (gasp) for adults!
I can only agree somewhat with your perspective of the WDW parks. I never felt the parks were aimed at an mature crowd, I have always felt they aimed at anything with money to spend. While I have two kids, 20 something now, they were raised on WDW as I was. I was there from the year it opened and when my kids were born they were too. I never felt out of place at WDW in its opening years, there was plenty to do as a little kid and enough I'd have to wait until I was older to experience. My kids DS 14 months, DD 2 months then 12 months for her first trips. We would spend 2 weeks with the kids down there each year minimum. They rode the Pirates and the HM, small world, Toon Town. We went years before we rode Thunder and Space as there were areas obviously for the older kids and adults that were not appropriate for my young family. FW held so much for my kids, we would spend 2 or 3 days in FW back then exploring all there was for them, there were things that adults, teens and children could all experience. Now aimed at mature for the most part.`
There were always strollers at Disney. Unfortunately now because of their own greed they went from guests renting compact strollers at a fair and reasonable price. Now you have strollers that take up 2-3 times the space that the old metal once did. The Studios rented sturdy umbrella ones. Now for reasons of price gouging Disney created their own Stroller nightmare. I rented strollers, there were great masses of metal strollers always at both Epcot and MK, it is now the perception of more because they are freak'n tanks.
I always pulled my kids from school and went in the fall or January/February. There were always kids, less of them but there were less adults too in the wintertime. The way I look at it is there is less inclusive rides for families with children then there ever was, even Dwarf doesn't take in the young children. Epcot took out two family pavilions and replaced with Test Track and Mission Space aiming for the mature crowd and not families. Then Disney added Soarin' and that isn't friendly to young families either. They butchered the heck out of Imagination taking that away as a thoughtful pavilion. At the studios they have now taken away the backlot that my kids did from babies and the first expansion of the studios, Sunset Blvd build Rock'n and Terror, not exactly aimed at families for young. Around Echo their were small shows that kids use to enjoy. Idol was aimed at a mature audience as was Drews dark attraction. Little by little taking away family attractions. Toy at least is all inclusive if you have a young child that can stand in queue that long or you're fortunate enough to get a FP+ for. Fantasmic can be for the young too but unfortunately with all the greed packages you have to sit there with young kids too long for a short show to just garner a seat, the mature can do this, young kids don't have the attention span to wait that long to guard a seat and watching many, neither do the adults.
My DD was 5 and my DS 10 when AK opened. It was certainly not designed for young kids, the park completely played to adults and some teens. When they added Everest it played to older kids and adults not kids. You look at what opened in AK as highlighted attractions and it was not inclusive for the young. The Safari was a rough ride for small kids, they really got tossed about on the bench seats and mine 5 year old girl didn't understand the elephant message aimed at mature guests. Dinasour was not designed for young kids either as it is also a rough ride, even the Bug show scared and still does little kids. I'm doubting Avatar will be any more suitable for young families.
But with all that we still found plenty to do at WDW when I was small and when my kids were small. Toon was a cheap little area that my kids loved, they loved all the boat rides at the MK and track rides including the Mansion and JC. They got a kick out of climbing the tree and nobody liked waiting for Dumbo but we would all climb on that Carousel or ride the Train around the Kingdom.
Actually I believe Disney is trying to right the ship and is attempting to bring some of the parks back to being family friendly, they lost that for a while adding mainly thrill type E attractions in their 4 parks. I concede they are doing it poorly, FLE put in a pretty Mermaid but pretty boring and another simplistic coaster, greatest attribute is the fine mountain they built to look at, much like all of the FLE. Norway, well the whole concept is just off its rocker for that entire WS. Disney tried to offer something for kids again in FW with the Seas but unfortunately it is also a miss as small children did like real fish, watching them swim about and all that use to be in that pavilion, they didn't need to dumb it down to appeal to kids just upgrade it to the 21 century over cartoonland. The ride is boring to all ages, cheap makeover, I fear that for Frozen in Norway.
Now I wait to see what they will do with the Studios. If they take out more family attractions like the Stunt show and replace with more mature attractions that are not kid friendly like Sunset was. Disney is great at sticking little shows like Crush, the Disney Shows at the Studios, Lion King at AK and thinking that is good enough for young families. Disney has already lost so many families with younger boys to Uni with their focus on The World of Princesses.
The way I look at your post and mine with very different perspectives from guests that have visited since the opening of WDW, they are making mistakes, one right after the other for all age demographics. Disney's solution is to extend Igers contract again.
