The Spirited Sixth Sense ...

[jlsHouston]

Did you read any of this debate? That just isn't true.

Okay I am backing up and reading the pages I missed ....I just jumped in when I read what you wrote about Imagineeering. I'm not up to speed on this part of the thread. I have always perceived Imagineering to be kind of the "heart" of the parks. If it were not for Imagineering....would we even have elaborate queues and the substance in the attractions and rides that you are talking about.

 

[RSoxNo1]

Well, that is 30 minutes after navigating the 5 minute phone menu wanting to know how often you visit after having already looked you up by your phone number.

FYI, Issue still not resolved. As far as I can tell, the username I created back in 2002 on ESPN.com for my insider account is continuing to cause problem. That username is linked to my e-mail address across the board. This means that the ESPN username/email address is taking precedence on some sites while just my e-mail address is taking precedence on others. I was unable to find a support line the addresses account issues across the board, only issues at each entity. This means that even though the same account name/email combination can be used on ESPN, DisneyWorld, DisneyMoviesAnywhere, DisneyStore, etc however they don't consistently talk to one another.

This is my own doing, but it's something that no one has been able to fix. I was setting up my Disney Movies Anywhere account and at some point yesterday had the option to deactivate one of the two accounts. I opted to deactivate the one that had the additional username attached to it. Unfortunately that was set up as the default and it's how I had my DisneyWorld and ESPN accounts set up. Thankfully, my insider account expires on March 30th and I don't have a Disney World pass right now. The lady I spoke with regarding My Disney Experience is "submitting something to their web site support" to have all information moved under just my e-mail address. If that doesn't work, I will set everything up myself again in hopes of correcting the problem. The risk here is that I may lose movies I setup on the Disney Movies Anywhere App. Right now, other than time, that's the only thing that actually has a quantifiable value linked to any of my accounts.

I have no confidence in their ability to fix it and that's based solely on previous experiences with this nonsense. If they are able to fix it, I will be sure to come back on here and apologize.

 

[jlsHouston]

If you factor in free dining with the All Stars, Cabana Bay is actually slightly more expensive for that time of year. I'm sure TDO is happy to see that. The last thing they need is for Universal to undercut them. Although it kinda forces them to continue offering free dining. If Comcast wanted to put a hurt on WDW they could deep discount these rooms. It will be interesting to see who follows who on pricing now that Universal has a little more skin in the hotel game.

Has any discounts for Free Dining come out yet? I keep looking but I just see Stay more/Play more. I am also wondering what the Passholder discounts will be for this summer...and how they compare to the summer discounts.

 

[Crafty]

I just logged into My Disney Experience to make some dining reservations for 6 months from now. When I logged in it needed more information from me: address, and agreeing to their new terms of service. So I filled out all that info and my profile had more or less been deleted.

I'm on hold with them now and my expected wait time is, "Greater than 30 minutes".

Dear Disney,

If I'm waiting 30 minutes I expect to get on a ride, not speak to a person because your $2 billion website remodel is a giant cesspool of crap. The only thing My Disney Experience has succeeded in doing is embarrassing the company. If one more vacation has been booked because of the "convenience" of this B.S. I will be shocked.

Get your [stuff] together.

Love,
Tim

Yeah, the website is bad. Even when it is working, it is so slow that it is hard to retain the continuity to complete what you are doing. I don't call anymore because it doesn't seem to do any good and wastes a lot of my time.

I agree that dining reservations are the worst. One night it kept freezing and bouncing me out. After two hours I gave up.

Several times I have turned it off and come back later to find that things seemed fixed. It seems to need an incredible amount of time to update changes.

 

[jlsHouston]

Yes, but it took a lot more than 1 man.

All that I'm saying is that we can't judge our country or our society on the radical thoughts of one politician or one academic. People have radical ideas all the time. That right is still protected by the constitution. Implying that our country is heading towards becoming Nazi Germany because some person or group of people want to imprison anti-environmentalists for life is a stretch. If as a nation we elected senators and congressmen and a president that all felt that way maybe then there would be parallels.

One man with an entire military at his disposal and a political party behind him to control the masses. I am glad you qualified your statement with the IF.

 

[ford91exploder]

Okay I am backing up and reading the pages I missed ....I just jumped in when I read what you wrote about Imagineeering. I'm not up to speed on this part of the thread. I have always perceived Imagineering to be kind of the "heart" of the parks. If it were not for Imagineering....would we even have elaborate queues and the substance in the attractions and rides that you are talking about.

I think we as fans tend to use Walt's/Eisner's definition of 'Imagineering' where in reality Imagineering is a much different organization today as evidenced by the ouster of Tony Baxter, Eddie Sotto and many others and I feel bad for JR who has one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel with the Avatar project.

 

[jlsHouston]

I dont care, I'd much rather stay in doors because its too hot, then have to stay in doors because its too cold!

Me too. I been highly offended this winter at gulf coast weather...

 

[wdisney9000]

You don't need me to tell you this, but a large part of the cost issue being discussed is Overhead (WDI's is much, much greater than Uni's).

What I dont understand is how it got so expensive to build an attraction. I googled some numbers so dont flame me if Im off. Splash Mountain cost around $75 million. Little Mermaid cost over $100 million. If those numbers are somewhat accurate, I dont get it. I could see why Splash is a lot of money, it has water, its huge and several lifts and drops and a ton of AA's. But how does little mermaid cost so much? Is NASA building their attractions? lol. Inflation isnt that high and the ride itself has a lot of cut corners and its a CLONE. Im sure someone knows more about these costs. Would love to hear it.

 

[ford91exploder]

One man with an entire military at his disposal and a political party behind him to control the masses. I am glad you qualified your statement with the IF.

One man who started a movement which was inadequately examined by the PRESS who was then LEGALLY elected using the democratic process and once there declared himself leader for life.

What's frequently not discussed is how the PRESS in 1930's Germany was the lapdog of the government, Not it's adversary. If the PRESS had done it's job instead of being a cheerleader 1930's germany would never have happened.

 

[NoChesterHester]

Okay I am backing up and reading the pages I missed ....I just jumped in when I read what you wrote about Imagineeering. I'm not up to speed on this part of the thread. I have always perceived Imagineering to be kind of the "heart" of the parks. If it were not for Imagineering....would we even have elaborate queues and the substance in the attractions and rides that you are talking about.

Why not? Disney wouldn't ever completely eliminate Imagineering, they would still have the the need for highly themed attractions. WDI is really just a design shop. A premium design shop.

Does Universal not have the greatest queue on earth for Forbidden Journey? It wasn't done by WDI.

By the way - I hate to destroy everyone's illusions, but a ton of work in the parks is already being done by outside companies. Test Track 2.0 and Princess Fairytale Hall I know for certain were both done mostly by outside design contractors.

 

[jlsHouston]

I'm gonna complain about DTD parking for a minute...

Whatever senior level executive has allowed parking to devolve into the utter clusterF that it is has no business being an executive at any company, let alone having the responsibility of walking a dog.

Clearly, nobody thought this through by any stretch of the imagination. The amount of disrespect shown the guests and the cast is immeasurable.....

Carry on.

Yep. Made the mistake of driving there over in November so the kids could play at that quest place. HUGE MISTAKE

 

[Crafty]

Did you read any of this debate? That just isn't true.

Yeah, I read the whole thing. I just don't agree.

 

[NoChesterHester]

What I dont understand is how it got so expensive to build an attraction. I googled some numbers so dont flame me if Im off. Splash Mountain cost around $75 million. Little Mermaid cost over $100 million. If those numbers are somewhat accurate, I dont get it. I could see why Splash is a lot of money, it has water, its huge and several lifts and drops and a ton of AA's. But how does little mermaid cost so much? Is NASA building their attractions? lol. Inflation isnt that high and the ride itself has a lot of cut corners and its a CLONE. Im sure someone knows more about these costs. Would love to hear it.

Forbidden Journey cost less than Mermaid. It is world class in every way.

I'd also love an explanation.

 

[jlsHouston]

Even when not driving, it is still a cluster f of foot traffic inside the place. There is nowhere to walk, or stop without running into someone else. We had reservations that we were 40 minutes late to and we left the hotel an hour early. We took the bus there later in the week and tried to just do a little shopping. We lasted an hour before we quit the disaster. I really feel like they're doing too much all at once but i understand this is the last thing they want closed for an extended time.

Well we left immediately after breakfast about 1 pm on Thanksgiving day and rode the bus from the BC so we could see the 3 o'clock showing of Frozen....and we were on time.

 

[NoChesterHester]

Yeah, I read the whole thing. I just don't agree.

Ok, just disagree with well purposed reasoning based on emotional attachment. That is your prerogative.

 

[Crafty]

When people panic it allows leaders to rise who espouse dangerous ideologies. The Great Depression of the 30s combined with the post World War I economic problems in Germany allowed Hitler to gain power. He blamed the Jews for the economic problems facing Germany and used them as a scapegoat.

After 9/11 the American people panicked and as a result lost a lot of personal freedoms. We traded rights for safety because we feared the terrorists. Now we have surveillance of our phones, email, and computers. All in the name of safety. They even want to create a database showing where we go based on license plate identification. Privacy? Not so much.

I find it offensive that WDW wants to track my every movement in the parks. Why do they need to know? What are they going to do with the information? Does my personal privacy mean nothing? Apparently most people don't care to protect their privacy anymore. They have become complacent about the vast government tracking systems and just shrug MME off. In my opinion this is a slippery slope.

I recommend that you read '1984' if you want to know where this is going.

 

[jlsHouston]

They are long term idiots and short term geniuses.

It kind of appears that way. They are making decisions that keeps the stock climbing, and the parks of course are packed, demand for the brand and the experience is there.
The expansion of FL can be seen as a huge success for families with small children. It's not that I haven't enjoyed some of it too but no WOW factor except the BOG venue and the steak dinner. I finally rode Mermaid and it was ....not enchanting or thrilling and I didn't ooh or ahh. I think I am going to watch the movie today. Haven't watched it in years. It was favorite disney movie until the Lion King. I saw it the first time with DD29 when she was 5. I think she was five. She was little anyways. Glad they expanded the Dumbo ride and love the queue. Barnstormer is.... well perfect for the 5 and under crowd. I wanted to smack DGS7 this last trip because he jumped in the car and said "I'm riding by myself Nana" and that left Jim and I squeezed in the car behind him....My left hip bone was resting upon Jim's thigh and all I could think about was the severely overweight woman on the roller coast at Six Flags over Arlington last summer who's bar wouldn't latch properly because of her bigness and she flew out of the coaster......
I find it somewhat disheartening no new lands or attractions at WDW, other than FLE of course,...maybe the mine train will give me the WOW I want to feel, and with all the hoopla and money and expense for the NextGen stuff I can't help but think they are leaving the long term issues for the next group, which means I feel like the current bunch are long term idiots.
Bothers me because I love vacationing at WDW.

 

[jlsHouston]

It's absolutely horrendous. Took me a full 20 minutes of driving around and basically stalking exiting guests as they walked to their cars.

Wow you were lucky. I stalked for 40 minutes in November and finally gave up. Then it took 20 more minutes to find valet parking.

 

[ParkMan73]

Forbidden Journey cost less than Mermaid. It is world class in every way.

I'd also love an explanation.

If I were guessing, it's like most corporations:
1. the cost of a project is inflated to account for other overhead so as to keep the reported overhead numbers lower.
2. the corporation doesn't understand how to push back on the costs it is getting from WDI. I'm sure that at some level WDI says - this project will cost $100M. Then someone says - make it cost $60M. So, WDI says - we'll do that, but you'll lose X,Y, and Z. In an internal environment like this, it's got to be tough to push back.

I suspect that a strong leader could sort this out - however, there's little incentive for them to find that person. They can do what they do and pull in the revenue that they do. So they, don't rock the boat.

 

[Cesar R M]

Both WDI and TDO report to Burbank, So yes it is fair to blame some suit in TWDC because the WDI suit is responsible for the cost bloat and the TDO suit is responsible for not wanting to spend anything on new Attractions.

At this point it appears that WDI is the vehicle that TWDC uses to perform 'Hollywood Accounting' for anything related to P&R expenses because NOTHING justifies their costs relative to comparable creative organizations.

I would not be surprised.
Some suits will use anything in hand to pay less taxes, pay less to the employees.. and press as much as possible to get the bonuses to the guys on top.

You don't need me to tell you this, but a large part of the cost issue being discussed is Overhead (WDI's is much, much greater than Uni's). Another is the style of attraction delivered by WDI (concrete rockwork and AAs are expensive). WDI remains the only company in the world that delivers terrain-following "mountain" outdoor coasters made of concrete rockwork, and my hat's off to them for that. Seven Dwarfs is the latest, stunning example; it is an awesome sight in person. WDI is the premium design and delivery shop, with premium prices, but most of the time, they can be counted on to deliver. Some of that cost-adding overhead maintains certain aspects I'd hate to see get shed (Archives, R&D) like MAPO was. Other pieces of overhead might be worth examining.

I'm pretty bullish on their(WDI's) product as of late. Just got back from WDW - noted plenty of problems/issues but most were on the operations/upkeep&maintenance (tons of non-functioning effects)/legal/landscaping/development side (TDO), not the new stuff WDI was adding to the parks. Consider this: If WDI had added nothing to WDW (zero 'CapEx') in the last decade, but everything (attractions, entertainment, retail) that was standing 10 years ago was meticulously maintained to the platinum, opening-day standard, and prices were frozen, I think that hypothetical State of the Resort would be praised when compared to today. This tells me the complaint-worthy problems stem mostly from areas outside WDI.

I thought the nearly-finished New Fantasyland & completed Storybook Circus were beautiful (especially when they emptied of strollers) and greatly improve the MK in perpetuity. Don't agree with the style-versus-substance argument: in theme parks, transporting environments are substance. NFL looks much better in person than in photos, too. Thought the Treasures of the Seven Seas game in Adventureland was outstanding and a great throwback to the unadvertised little inbetweens that are signatures of great parks. The new Test Track was a solid improvement. The Big Thunder Queue was a bonus. Haunted Mansion head-switching finale was a cool upgrade.

And that's just at the languishing (upkeep- and addition- wise) WDW. WDI has maintained a pretty excellent batting average elsewhere over the past few years, exemplified recently by the new Big Thunder effects in Anaheim, Mystic Manor, Grizzly Gulch, etc. Watching closely to see how this year's Mine Train and Ratatouille work out (new ride systems) and especially keen on what Shanghai shows us about WDI (what will a brand new, $3.7billion WDI castle park be like?) in 2015.

Fully agree with you!

I love reading the first few pages of big threads like this. After that I fast forward to the more recent pages when the entire conversation has devolved into arguments and I try to find out where it all went wrong

Well, I think theissue is, there isn't much information that confirms. and There will never be(unless someone from disney spills the beans)

One nutcase gets enough followers, A press fixated on 'access' does nothing followers elect those who believe same. All of a sudden you have evil incarnate as a government.

I grew up KNOWING people who lived in 1930's Germany they did not believe it could happen there either IT DID, And the democratic process brought it into being with all the legalities being observed with the press cheering on the 'Savior of the German People'.

Our parish priest was one of the kids 'hidden' from the Nazi's as he was one of the 'undesirables' destined for the camps.

Sticking your head in the sand and saying it can't happen here is the best way to ensure that it does happen here, The nutcases need to be called out and the dark corners of their ideology explored and reported to all, Not allowing the happy smiling face with a demons heart to continue on their merry way.

A very apt scene from Star Wars

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=cp069Y_P-9M#t=0

The irony is, this keeps happening worldwide.

So no surprise the art of manipulating huge groups of people are at our current levels..

I'm not some TDO apologist, but I'm not positive this is actually how it happens and the blame may be partially in the wrong place. Everyone here assumes there is a group of suits at TDO that orders, or doesn't order up attractions.

Part of Imagineering is a division called pre-development. It is my understanding this arm of WDI functions very similar to a real world developer and the actually decide what is needed based on data and decide on what to build to meet that demand. This division of WDI actually comes to TDO and states, "you need one attraction for this park and here are your three expensive options." Many times they instead say, "your current levels don't necessitate a new attraction."

Yes that is WDI, not some suit in an office building in Burbank. I hope people understand this and start to let this sink in.
Truth.

hang on, since when WDI is the one who says "you need attractions" or "You do not need attractions"?
Isn't that based on demand and $$$ ?
I dont think the "imagineer" group (whose function primary is to invent, design..etc..) as anything to do with that..
That kind of movements and decisions seems to fit more into management and money counters(aka the Executives).

FYI, Issue still not resolved. As far as I can tell, the username I created back in 2002 on ESPN.com for my insider account is continuing to cause problem. That username is linked to my e-mail address across the board. This means that the ESPN username/email address is taking precedence on some sites while just my e-mail address is taking precedence on others. I was unable to find a support line the addresses account issues across the board, only issues at each entity. This means that even though the same account name/email combination can be used on ESPN, DisneyWorld, DisneyMoviesAnywhere, DisneyStore, etc however they don't consistently talk to one another.

This is my own doing, but it's something that no one has been able to fix. I was setting up my Disney Movies Anywhere account and at some point yesterday had the option to deactivate one of the two accounts. I opted to deactivate the one that had the additional username attached to it. Unfortunately that was set up as the default and it's how I had my DisneyWorld and ESPN accounts set up. Thankfully, my insider account expires on March 30th and I don't have a Disney World pass right now. The lady I spoke with regarding My Disney Experience is "submitting something to their web site support" to have all information moved under just my e-mail address. If that doesn't work, I will set everything up myself again in hopes of correcting the problem. The risk here is that I may lose movies I setup on the Disney Movies Anywhere App. Right now, other than time, that's the only thing that actually has a quantifiable value linked to any of my accounts.

I have no confidence in their ability to fix it and that's based solely on previous experiences with this nonsense. If they are able to fix it, I will be sure to come back on here and apologize.

so...they unceremoniously merged networks and databases without a single primary key that could unite all these logins, emails..etc..?