The Spirited Sixth Sense ...

[jlsHouston]

I think the pictures of 30 yard long lines extending past the FP+ entrance are good example of how this begins. This is happening during slow season. Whats it gonna be like for summer? We rode Star Tours a few weeks ago and the FP+ line was extremely backed up at the entrance. Wife and I went through regular entrance and boarded before several of the people we saw waiting in FP+ line outside. IMO those folks waiting in FP+ line probly believed that their pre booked FP+ time was going to expedite their wait in line. Is that not an artificial line/experience?

IMO, Yes, but what do I know...I'm basically responding to see if my countdown is in my signature, I'm rather challenged when it comes to these insert and copy and paste things....

 

[ford91exploder]

I didn't imply anything. I made a statement and you should know by now that I always stand behind my beliefs. And, guess what? I have connections to the NFL as well ... deep ones, including with some of the broadcasters who work Sundays.

Distraction is a word used to say 'We don't want an effen (deleted) on our team' ... it's the same 'distraction' of having gays and women in the military or having Muslim women wearing traditional clothing in the workplace or having kids who are 'different' in schools. It's all BS.

Distractions? In the NFL? Between arrests for everything from strip club fights to murders to bullying scandals to starts acting badly, the NFL is a walking, throwing, catching , and kicking distraction.

I saw former Vikings punter Chris Kluwe, who strongly believes he was cut for being an outspoken supporter of LBGT issues, compare the use of the word 'distraction' to calling Richard Sherman a 'thug' ...anyone who has followed the game well understands that thug is used instead of the N-word as it is almost never used to describe a white player and it has become acceptable to use it.

Anyone who doesn't draft the kid (who was one helluva force in the toughest conference in the nation) and uses the 'distraction' excuse just can't handle gays.

For the record when I use 'THUG' in the context of pro sports, I am referring to a player with a criminal record most often with felony level arrests, Really don't give a D--m about the player's race.

The mere fact that the NFL and other leagues allow players with felony records to even BE in the league sends the wrong message to kids i.e. if you are good at sports you can go out and commit crimes and no one will hold you accountable. Whether the players like it or not they ARE role models for kids.

 

[jlsHouston]

see what I mean?

 

[WDW1974]

Full disclosure, I am not speaking from personal experience. But based on what I have been hearing from people who have been recently, the lines are artificially inflated NOW. I'm not talking about a future state.

I'm not sure what's sadder. Super FP-users complaing about the new restrictions or pixie-dusters defending every thing Disney does.

That is what many folks are observing, including friends of mine who are in the industry and trained observers and have been visiting parks that are not very crowded at all and yet there are long lines for MM+ kiosks and long queues for attractions that only had them on the busiest days before.

I'll take one of my friends, who has spent a lifetime working in the business, and their opinion over 87 posts on a forum like this one because even a crazy Disney maniac guest that would be a member here still doesn't know ops like someone who has been living it for years.

So, yeah, I know the lines are artificially inflated. It really hasn't been a big deal because the last 3-4 weeks are basically a dead period, but things start getting busier this holiday weekend and they don't really slow down all that much until post Easter, which is very late this year.

 

[BrianLo]

Let's forge a hypothetical timeline here...
2005 - HKDL opens
2015 - SDL opens
2026 - Second SDR park opens
2033 - Third SDR park opens
2042 - Fourth SDR park opens
2051 - Second HKDR park opens

Err... I meant more on the lines of after SDL opens, not after the entire Shanghai resort is fully built out. But I guess that's essentially what happened with Disneyland -> WDW, so perhaps you have an argument.

 

[ParentsOf4]

Just curious but how does a person that frequents Disney often enough to become a "Super-FP" user able to deny the Pixie Dust influence that they possess themselves? Also unable to realize that WDW is "stale" because they personally have seen it so often that it has become old. Newer visitors are not encumbered with that emotion.

I snorted the pixie dust for over 25 years, all the way back to the 1970s when my brother and friends used to save so we could drive down to Orlando at the end of the school year, sleep in a tent, and spend a few "magical" days at WDW. (Who today could afford a WDW vacation making $3.70/hour?)

A quarter of a century is a long time to think WDW was a vibrant, exhilarating destination. Heck, I suspect many of you haven't been adults for that long.

I started noticing little things in the late 1990s but with DAK (1998), Test Track (1999), Mission Space (2003), and Expedition Everest (2006), at least I felt Disney was trying. Since then, it's been nothing. That's 8 years now where corporate Disney has been just mailing it in.

The entire "New" Fantasyland is geared towards children in diapers while MyMagic+ is just an expensive rehash of services we've always had, simply with updated technology. It's truly depressing that the suits in Burbank thought that's the best they could do with all that capital.

Everything else since Expedition Everest is hardly worth mentioning to those of us who remember the excitement of the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s.

As it stands today, 3 of WDW's 4 theme parks desperately need complete overhauls just as badly as DCA needed one.

Unger Iger, the only thing corporate Disney has done is try to figure out how to suck more money out of my wallet.

Losing the pixie dust is easy. Once my DW and children decided that WDW had lost its magic, that the theme parks had grown stale, that a stupid refurb at Test Track was the most exciting change in years, it became easy to recognize that all the buzz in Orlando right now is happening up the road at Universal. That's where we've been spending our time. (And our money, Disney; our money.)

 

[tirian]

What is more bizarre?

Disney thinking the Poly has ''world class amenities'' or Lou Mongello being quoted doing PR for Celebration Place in the NY Daily News?

How about paying to stay in Grand Flo club level, only to find the "club" is filthy and rarely stocked, and the rooms get no special amenities whatsoever?

Never. Again. Not even at 60% off.

 

[WDW1974]

I think @WDW1974 meant this more as an example of a general trend: People get more upset about a small thing and don't look at the bigger picture. You mention how much your daughter enjoyed PUSH and had a blast at WDW. But what makes the experience so magical is a complete package made up of so many things. And isn't it more scary that the general trend in the completeness of this package is decreasing due to management culture and other things? It is more the bigger picture that really matters than one talking trash can in my opinion - and I lost my special friend Pipa, PUSH's colleague who used to work at AK, quite some time ago, so I understand the sadness about a trash can...

You thought right.

 

[WDW1974]

I use the "Block" button liberally.

I wish I had the luxury ...

 

[jdmdisney99]

Err... I meant more on the lines of after SDL opens, not after the entire Shanghai resort is fully built out. But I guess that's essentially what happened with Disneyland -> WDW, so perhaps you have an argument.

Yeah I just took the Disneyland:Walt Disney World ratio and applied it to the Chinese resorts. But Hong Kong is probably next in new parks. The land is ready enough.

 

[WDW1974]

Why do we bother having separate men and women locker rooms?

Oh, come on now. Seriously?

Like that has one bit of relevance in having gay players in the NFL (of course, they already do, they're just not out)?

If you want to talk about locker rooms, why don't we talk about all the women in the men's locker room and showers at DLP resort pools? Or how I can walk around nude in front of 11-year-old girls in Germany (not that I did), but in the USA I would immediately be arrested and labeled a sex criminal?

Those are much more interesting topics involving locker rooms and mixing of groups than the ridiculous notion that a gay player would want to have sex with all of his teammates.

 

[WDW1974]

But don't start calling teams are being homophobic if they choose not to have to deal with these issues.

That's exactly what they are.

You decide who to have on a team based on his ability and his character, not his sexual orientation. It is 2014 and it is time that the last bastion (well, other than athiests) of 'they're different, so they're lesser than me and it's OK for them to be treated lesser and I would never want one as a (fill in the blank ... team mate, child's teacher, neighbor, doctor etc) ' BS to end.

If a coach or players are not comfortable, then they are the ones with the problem and they need to leave the team. Really.

I still recall having an aunt (who I haven't had contact with in decades) being a raging racist and hearing the same type of comments about blacks and it made my heart hurt and my rage boil.

 

[jlsHouston]

I think @WDW1974 meant this more as an example of a general trend: People get more upset about a small thing and don't look at the bigger picture. You mention how much your daughter enjoyed PUSH and had a blast at WDW. But what makes the experience so magical is a complete package made up of so many things. And isn't it more scary that the general trend in the completeness of this package is decreasing due to management culture and other things? It is more the bigger picture that really matters than one talking trash can in my opinion - and I lost my special friend Pipa, PUSH's colleague who used to work at AK, quite some time ago, so I understand the sadness about a trash can...

Yes ...it is the small things that matter...because the big things, well sometimes you really can't do a thing about them, but the small stuff you can, so that is why it matters so much. What is truly tragic about PUSH (and shamefully 7 trips I never even knew he existed so I missed him completely) is here is an animatronic...that appears to have stayed in working order for 19 years and been a delight to young and old alike and many a significant memory was witnessed by PUSH and now he's gone and it appears WDW management doesn't care.

Just like management doesn't care if the guest who were working the legacy FP to be park ninjas are going to suffer a park experience crisis with only 3 FP+ available in the middle of summer or Christmas break.

Just like management doesn't care if guest who purchase the new RFID cups have difficulty making them work.

Just like the resort and park management don't care if they have CM's trained and knowledgeable about all the changes and able to articulate and assist guests on property.

Gosh I hope this countdown thing shows up when I hit reply now

 

[WDW1974]

Interesting. A forum on WDW by the infamous Spirit has morphed into a discussion on sexual preference. My preference is that we talk about stuff that matters, as in, who is the strongest Power Ranger? Or, who did frame Roger Rabbit? I'm thinking that the Judge was actually OSWALD in disguise. Oswald was an assassin, of course.

Seriously though, has there been any movement of any type on the pending DHS projects or are those truly on hold while MM+ gets fixed?

Hold.

 

[WDW1974]

I would like to know also, I think that BAH is here to stay for a long time yet. Please someone deflate it already and the stage with it.

It will come down. Yes, it should already be long gone just based on what I was told ... but at WDW things move at a snail's pace after the snail has been stepped on.

It is just a matter of time. It won't be there in five years. But I don't have any timeline for when it will come down.

 

[jlsHouston]

Why do we bother having separate men and women locker rooms?

Because men aren't as clean women in the locker room...I know this from the spa I go to...the male therapists are suppose to clean up after the men who are guests and when they don't and the women spa attendants go over there to clean up...there are always the remarks later about the mens side being kind of nasty compared to our side...

 

[WDW1974]

Good to hear! The HK government recently remarked that they wanted to fill in the remaining expansion pads pronto. I also assume sooner rather than later doesn't actually mean before Iron Man experience opens, but that's the way the sentence reads.

I imagine the HKDL resort is next in line for a new gate once SDL is dealt with.


Edit: Found the quote I was referring to...


http://www.wantchinatimes.com/news-subclass-cnt.aspx?id=20140118000134&cid=1102

Thanks. I hadn't seen that story.

Disney isn't in the business of resorts with one theme park any longer. So with HKDL, it is a matter of when and not if.

I do think that beyond the hotel that is in design right now, they'll add a DD type area before a second gate. But the first thing is beefing up HKDL, so that it not only can fend off Ocean Park locally and the new developments nearby in the mainland, but also so folks don't opt to visit SDL instead of it.

 

[John]

[

That's exactly what they are.

You decide who to have on a team based on his ability and his character, not his sexual orientation. It is 2014 and it is time that the last bastion (well, other than athiests) of 'they're different, so they're lesser than me and it's OK for them to be treated lesser and I would never want one as a (fill in the blank ... team mate, child's teacher, neighbor, doctor etc) ' BS to end.

If a coach or players are not comfortable, then they are the ones with the problem and they need to leave the team. Really.

I still recall having an aunt (who I haven't had contact with in decades) being a raging racist and hearing the same type of comments about blacks and it made my heart hurt and my rage boil.

Ok, again your debating weather it is right or wrong, or what should be. I am not arguing that point. I happen to agree with you. I am looking at it from a head coaches view point and from a general managers view point. As I said, if the kid cant make it in the NFL and gets cut.....what do you think happens? Will the kid acuse the team as Kluwe did? I AM NOT SAYING ITS RIGHT OR WRONG! I am saying it isn't entirely because he is gay, its because of what comes with drafting a gay player. There will be teams who just will not want to deal with these issues. It isn't because they don't like gays. Its because they don't want have to answer questions, accusations on any decisions made on the player.

Ok, say a team drafts him in the sixth round.....reporter: Why didn't you draft him in the fifth round?
reporter: Do you think your team will accept him? reporter: Do you think drafting a gay player will be a distraction......on and on. You know it will happen.

 

[WDW1974]

For the record when I use 'THUG' in the context of pro sports, I am referring to a player with a criminal record most often with felony level arrests, Really don't give a D--m about the player's race.

The mere fact that the NFL and other leagues allow players with felony records to even BE in the league sends the wrong message to kids i.e. if you are good at sports you can go out and commit crimes and no one will hold you accountable. Whether the players like it or not they ARE role models for kids.

Not talking about you or any individual here. But the word thug absolutely is used as a replacement for the N-word and reporters and writers have been cautioned against using it ... because again it has become code.

And I agree with you wholeheartedly ... the NFL and every other pro sports league in the USA (and abroad as well, largely) doesn't give a damn about character except when it brings them bad PR. But, even then, they have 20-something talking themselves into six figure jobs as social media experts that tell them there is no such thing as bad PR in sports. Guess what? They are wrong.

 

[WDW1974]

How about paying to stay in Grand Flo club level, only to find the "club" is filthy and rarely stocked, and the rooms get no special amenities whatsoever?

Never. Again. Not even at 60% off.

Are we speaking from recent experience?