Why is Disney getting rid of the little things?

montyz81

montyz81

Well-Known Member
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We must push on and not worry about such things. Have faith that stuff like this will be back!
 
wendysue

wendysue

Well-Known Member
FigmentPigments said:
Yeah, I think you're right. A lot of people come for the big attractions and didn't necessarily see the little things even when they were there. I don't think a lot of people said, "Hey, we can't miss Luxo Jr!" (Which was really cool by the way, and I do miss it.) On the other hand, the last time I saw Push, (he was rare even then) I stopped and watched the whole time he was out. He drew a big crowd of people, and it was such a joy to see him. I get it, but I don't have to like it. It really does make Disney seem lazy.
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I agree. We ALWAYS looked for the little things and made a point to stop to see the lamp and Push. There are so many things disappearing in the parks. It's not the same anymore, for us anyway. Many people don't see the little things, because they cannot tear their eyes away from their smartphones/pads. Anyway, not that it will matter to anyone but us, we still get room only discounts, but now rent a car and go other places. Can't see paying that much money just to enter the parks, to spend more money (alot) on food and stuff. :greedy: I know things will always change, but those little things were what made it special. :bawling:
 
Phonedave

Phonedave

Well-Known Member
To me, the small things, the attention to detail, is what makes Disney, Dinsey. I have been to plenty of amusement parks, some better than others, but all lacked the total attention to detail and "hidden suprises" of WDW. One example I remember, was at Hershey Park. I was wating in line for their (then new) Resses Peanut Butter Cup Challenge (or whatever it is called) - essentially a Buzz Lightyear ride. You could see the bare concrete footings of the building, and the queue walls were off the shelf sheet plastic (the kind you see in bathrooms) with plastic cutouts of kids riding skateboards stuck to them. I remember thinking "this is a pretty nice park, and at least they did some themeing, but this would never fly at WDW". Now I don't think WDW is quite to that state (yet) but they have cut back on the details they used to have.

I enjoy the details. I liek looking around, noticing something, and being suprised by it. Talking water fountains, talking garbage cans, an animated rat at lunch, hidden mickeys. All that sort of stuff that I am not actively looking for, but I enjoy it when I notice it. As opposed to something like a major attraction, where I may enjoy it, but I am rarely suprised (in a good way) by it.
 
JohnD

JohnD

Well-Known Member
Goofyernmost said:
The walking Dino was hardly a little thing. R&D on that alone was probably mind boggling. I thought it was touring different parks, but, I guess I haven't seen any reports of him lately.

The lamp was the result of a lawsuit banning Disney/Pixar from using it.

The Rat, I don't know for sure, but, I would bet that it was causing heart attacks in people that weren't aware that it was part of the show, but, all of a sudden found this rat thing during their dining experience.
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I think the rat was moved to Disneyland Paris for the Ratatouille ride. Like moving Mickey Mouse Revue to Japan. Speaking of which, the return of the Three Callaberos AAs to Fiesta Tour is a welcome addition of "little things" back to WDW.
 
JohnD

JohnD

Well-Known Member
blueboxdoctor said:
I forgot about a current, little thing. I noticed throughout Magic Kingdom, there are a few cast members who make water paintings on the less populated walk ways, which is pretty cool (watched a couple of times).

Also, this past December, there were two things I never experienced. The first was in front of Pirates of the Caribbean, where they had a lot of pirates walking around, not for autographs, but as part of the scene. They would just sit in the bushes behind people and stuff like that. Some would be talking and then after a while, Captain Jack came out for a sword fight and some cool stuff. Here's a picture from then, this is after Captain Jack took care of some bad guys and he walked off the stage, past a bunch of people watching, and went through a door to back stage.

The second was the following day in front of Aladdin's ride. Aladdin and Jasmine were asking people what they wished for to try to get the Genie to come out. Eventually, the Genie appeared on top of one of the stores.

Both of these events were also being video recorded and I saw cast members taking notes, so this may have been a trial run for more interactive characters, but it was pretty cool.
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They add more "streetmosphere" for the higher capacity time periods like when you were in MK for the holidays. They need other ways to keep people entertained to compensate for the long wait times ad attractions. Not that these things are unwelcome...
 
K

KaliSplash

Well-Known Member
It's always about the $$. Don't get me started on this. Remember how Goofy and Mr. Smee used to waterski alongside the ferry boat in the morning? How face characters used to just show up? (I had a delightful conversation with Snow White one morning while waiting for my family to arrive after a late breakfast). The "shows" at Galaxy Place Theater? The longer park hours? the monorail ALWAYS running 1 hour before park opening THROUGH 2 hours after park closing, INCLUDING E-Ticket night? The Dapper Dans being out and about EVERY day? JP and the All-Stars (or was it Silver Stars) at Caribbean Plaza, The night parades running EVERY night, year-round, weather permitting. Ditto for Fantasmic! Separate cups, plates, etc. in each park? Separate resort merchandise at all resorts?
The Fife and Drum corps at BOTH Magic Kingdom AND Epcot? A larger troupe of singers with the Voices of Liberty, so you occasionally got a second group of performers upstairs? Longer hours for the fast food places at Wilderness Lodge? The much faster repair time on attraction features that break? The sharply different merchandise in the shops, as opposed to ALWAYS having a collection of Disney stuffed characters, etc.
Yes, I know some of the live entertainment may have outlived its usefulness. But often the replacements have been clearly smaller, inferior or more often, Non-existent.
Yes, people come for the big stuff. But one of the things that separates Disney from Universal and other theme parks around the country is the attention to details. Too often, now swept aside.
One of the things I sometimes do during my afternoon 5-mile walks is try to list every I would RESTORE if I ran he place and had a big chunk (multi-billion) of money to put into the place.
 
blueboxdoctor

blueboxdoctor

Well-Known Member
JohnD said:
They add more "streetmosphere" for the higher capacity time periods like when you were in MK for the holidays. They need other ways to keep people entertained to compensate for the long wait times ad attractions. Not that these things are unwelcome...
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Oh, I didn't realize it was for higher capacity times. Still, it was pretty neat. But yeah, if it's not there the rest of the time then they should add something else. Side note, I also found out during Christmas time, they take out the bench with Goofy on it in the front near Tony's, which was a little disappointing.
 
Jon81uk

Jon81uk

Well-Known Member
mf1972 said:
I miss some of the world showcase entertainment from Epcot. newer shows didn't do it for me.
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I don't think the quantity of shows has changed that much, it's just a personal preference thing. I didn't care for Off Kilter or many of the other bands, but I always stop for the Circus act in China.
 
BrerJon

BrerJon

Well-Known Member
What happened was MyMagic+ and the Magic Bands.

Any time you enjoy waving your wrist and watching Mickey go green with the light from all the dollars he's ingesting, you're doing so at the expense of all the 'little things' that were cut for it to happen. The budget for MyMagic overran into billions, and that money needed to be clawed back somehow for Disney to save face. It's up to the individual guest to decide if the trade off was worth it.

To get the money back they cut every little thing they could, all the small details, the live perfomers, the streetmosphere, the excess animatronics. And then to try to pay back even more they started endless upcharge events, and realised that guests were willing to pay big bucks for much of what had previously been free. As soon as they realised they could charge for some of that stuff and people would happily pay, the chances of any of it coming back as free bonus entertainment were reduced to nothing.
 
mf1972

mf1972

Well-Known Member
BrerJon said:
What happened was MyMagic+ and the Magic Bands.

Any time you enjoy waving your wrist and watching Mickey go green with the light from all the dollars he's ingesting, you're doing so at the expense of all the 'little things' that were cut for it to happen. The budget for MyMagic overran into billions, and that money needed to be clawed back somehow for Disney to save face. It's up to the individual guest to decide if the trade off was worth it.

To get the money back they cut every little thing they could, all the small details, the live perfomers, the streetmosphere, the excess animatronics. And then to try to pay back even more they started endless upcharge events, and realised that guests were willing to pay big bucks for much of what had previously been free. As soon as they realised they could charge for some of that stuff and people would happily pay, the chances of any of it coming back as free bonus entertainment were reduced to nothing.
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speaking of paying for something that used to be free, I miss getting to sit by the tomorrow land terrace to watch fireworks before they turned it into a dessert party.
 
brb1006

brb1006

Well-Known Member
Phonedave said:
To me, the small things, the attention to detail, is what makes Disney, Dinsey. I have been to plenty of amusement parks, some better than others, but all lacked the total attention to detail and "hidden suprises" of WDW. One example I remember, was at Hershey Park. I was wating in line for their (then new) Resses Peanut Butter Cup Challenge (or whatever it is called) - essentially a Buzz Lightyear ride. You could see the bare concrete footings of the building, and the queue walls were off the shelf sheet plastic (the kind you see in bathrooms) with plastic cutouts of kids riding skateboards stuck to them. I remember thinking "this is a pretty nice park, and at least they did some themeing, but this would never fly at WDW". Now I don't think WDW is quite to that state (yet) but they have cut back on the details they used to have.

I enjoy the details. I liek looking around, noticing something, and being suprised by it. Talking water fountains, talking garbage cans, an animated rat at lunch, hidden mickeys. All that sort of stuff that I am not actively looking for, but I enjoy it when I notice it. As opposed to something like a major attraction, where I may enjoy it, but I am rarely suprised (in a good way) by it.
Click to expand...
I didn't know Epcot had a talking water fountain.
 
brb1006

brb1006

Well-Known Member
KaliSplash said:
It's always about the $$. Don't get me started on this. Remember how Goofy and Mr. Smee used to waterski alongside the ferry boat in the morning? How face characters used to just show up? (I had a delightful conversation with Snow White one morning while waiting for my family to arrive after a late breakfast). The "shows" at Galaxy Place Theater? The longer park hours? the monorail ALWAYS running 1 hour before park opening THROUGH 2 hours after park closing, INCLUDING E-Ticket night? The Dapper Dans being out and about EVERY day? JP and the All-Stars (or was it Silver Stars) at Caribbean Plaza, The night parades running EVERY night, year-round, weather permitting. Ditto for Fantasmic! Separate cups, plates, etc. in each park? Separate resort merchandise at all resorts?
The Fife and Drum corps at BOTH Magic Kingdom AND Epcot? A larger troupe of singers with the Voices of Liberty, so you occasionally got a second group of performers upstairs? Longer hours for the fast food places at Wilderness Lodge? The much faster repair time on attraction features that break? The sharply different merchandise in the shops, as opposed to ALWAYS having a collection of Disney stuffed characters, etc.
Yes, I know some of the live entertainment may have outlived its usefulness. But often the replacements have been clearly smaller, inferior or more often, Non-existent.
Yes, people come for the big stuff. But one of the things that separates Disney from Universal and other theme parks around the country is the attention to details. Too often, now swept aside.
One of the things I sometimes do during my afternoon 5-mile walks is try to list every I would RESTORE if I ran he place and had a big chunk (multi-billion) of money to put into the place.
Click to expand...
Pinocchio also used to go on water skiing at WDW in the early 90's.
 

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