Originally Posted By sjhym333 So for the first time in 33 years I no longer have daily access to WDW. First as a CM and then as a Premium AP Holder I have been able to hop in the car, drive 30 minutes and be at one of the Disney theme parks. But no more. There are lots of reasons for this, but mostly it was the loss of value for me and then the most recent price increase was enough to make me bow out. So in honor of this day I thought I would my top 5 best and worst things that I have seen at WDW for 33 years. I know lots of you will agree and disagree. This is obviously subjective. Worst: 5) Disney Dining Plan - From the homoginization of menus, to not being able to visit favorite restaurants because they were completlely booked 6 months out the dining plan has changed how we dined at Disney...and not for the best for me. 4) Yearly Promotions - There was a time when Disney did promotions that counted. Tencennial, Millinium Celebration, etc. But once Disney realized that promotions brought people in, someone decided to do them yearly. This watered down the impact and gave us great promotions like the current one. 3)Resort Prices - Honestly I love Disney Resorts. Always have. But when the value resorts are hitting $189 per night during certain parts of the year it seems silly to stay there anymore. We stayed at the Polynesian on our Honeymoon in the early 80's for $79.00 a night. Today the same room for the same weekend is $574 a night....enough said. 2) One Park, One World - When Disney decided to corporately look at WDW as one park it did several things: generic merchandise, generic food and worst of all a lack of need to build new attractions. Not to mention losing the quaintness of Main Street USA. Special mention: Disney Hollywood Studios - would someone PLEASE do something to help that park? 1) Fastpass- You saw this coming. Of everything I have seen in 33 years I think FP has completely changed the theme park experience (and not just at Disney). Don't like it or use it as a guest, hated it as a CM for all the obvious reasons. It's a shell game of wait times with a guest getting on an attraction quickly while extending wait times at the FP and non-FP attractions. I believe FP+ will only make things worse and will take any spontaneity out of a vacation The Best: 5)Disney's Monorail - Even if you hate the wait, standing and the huge stollers on board, there is just something magical about watching the monorail go thru the Contemporary Resort or the ride thru EPCOT before pulling into the station. 4)Disney's Animal Kingdom - A beautiful park. And even though the park needs to expand some, Kilimanjaro Safari is an amazing experience and you have to love the whole Asia section. 3) Hall of Presidents - Huh? You ask? When HOP opened it was an amazing AA filled attraction. Full of patriotism and great story telling. And how could you not love the Lincoln AA. Add to that a Presidential Seal in the lobby that had to be voted on by congress and the special permission to use the Presidenital march during the roll call..its a classic. Every election the fear is that Disney will give up and close it down, but when Obama was elected Disney took the familiar, shook it up a little and gave us a great re-thought HOP. Thank you Disney for keeping it! 2) Soarin- Love the attraction. Love that it has new music (since we are attraction music bereft of late). Love watching people ride it for the first time, they are always impressed. The only attraction I have seen where people applaud at the end every time it ends. 1) The Cast Members - Today I can walk into the park and I will be greeted by friendly and attentive CM's. Some people say they aren't as good as they used to be. I disagree. Every time I visited the parks I came across CM's who went above and beyond to be friendly and helpful. And not in a phony, I have to way, but in an I am honestly happy to see you today kind of way. There are CM's who believe in the dream that Walt started and they carry that dream forward everyday and THAT is what make Disney so special. So those are mine. Discuss.
Originally Posted By tashajilek "5) Disney Dining Plan - From the homoginization of menus, to not being able to visit favorite restaurants because they were completlely booked 6 months out the dining plan has changed how we dined at Disney...and not for the best for me." Agree, I am a DL regular and I cant stand this system. I don't like planning a meal six months in advance. "3)Resort Prices - Honestly I love Disney Resorts. Always have. But when the value resorts are hitting $189 per night during certain parts of the year it seems silly to stay there anymore. We stayed at the Polynesian on our Honeymoon in the early 80's for $79.00 a night. Today the same room for the same weekend is $574 a night....enough said." Yupp, I will be going over the Christmas holidays and the prices are almost $200 for a value resort and I just cant justify paying that much. sjhym333 when you were a WDW CM where did you work?
Originally Posted By mrkthompsn Time to tour the US National Parks. You will love them. Don't stop until you've seen them all
Originally Posted By sjhym333 The early 80's thru the 2000's. I worked operations at all 4 parks, including opening 3 of them, loaned to Imagineering for a couple of years, worked some tv production when that was happening on property. I opened many attractions on property. I had a great Disney career.
Originally Posted By tashajilek "The early 80's thru the 2000's. I worked operations at all 4 parks, including opening 3 of them, loaned to Imagineering for a couple of years, worked some tv production when that was happening on property. I opened many attractions on property. I had a great Disney career." Wow, what a wonderful time you must have had. I can see why it would be hard to not visit anymore when you have so many memories. For all your dedication to WDW I think you deserve a free lifetime AP!
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA sjhym333 and I worked at Walt Disney World at the same time -- although it seems we determined that we didn't know each other. Soarin' has new music?
Originally Posted By CuriousConstance I'm not disagreeing with the fact that the Dining Plan ruined dining experience or that it contributed to the homoginization of the menus, but just curious how it contributed?
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA 1) Fastpass- I think FP has completely changed the theme park experience (and not just at Disney). Don't like it or use it as a guest, hated it as a CM for all the obvious reasons. It's a shell game of wait times with a guest getting on an attraction quickly while extending wait times at the FP and non-FP attractions. I believe FP+ will only make things worse and will take any spontaneity out of a vacation> Totally agree. Fast Pass plus ever increasing prices = insane guests who all want to 'get their money's worth' Bleach
Originally Posted By sjhym333 Jim and I were there at the same time and we don't think we met, though the MK was a smaller place back then so who knows. Soarin- my meaning about the music is that before and since Soarin opened, what attraction has had music that is memorable. We can all hum Small World, Grim Grinning Ghosts. But Disney seems to have forgotten it's theme park music heritage. I love the music from Soarin and I can't think of an attraction before that who has memorable music in a long time Constance - At one time my wife and I could head out to Disney and grab a meal in a fairly nice restaurant at the last minute. I don't expect that to be true all the time, however, today we are turned away from restaurants because there is no options for walk ups. And I am not just talking about places like Le Cellier (which we used to visit frequently on the fly) but one day we wanted to have a late breakfast at Kona Cafe at the Poly and they were booked fully and if we wanted to wait it would have been over an hour we were told...we used to eat there regularly and mostly walk up. I don't begrudge Disney full restaurants, but for a local it is not a fun system. The Disney Dining plan funnels people into all the restaurants. People feel they need to get the most out of the option so even places that were normally slower have gotten busier. There are exceptions like China and Morocco but there are places we used to visit often that we havent been to in years. On the flip side...I tried to take my wife to O'hana's for our anniversary and tried to make a reservation some time out and they were still full.
Originally Posted By CuriousConstance So if the dining plan went away, you don't think it would be as hard to get a walk up table because not as many people would be eating there as opposed to know, because now they feel like they have to eat totally Disney the whole trip because they have to use all of their meal vouchers to get there money's worth, is that what I'm understanding? So how does that contribute to the menu homoginization?
Originally Posted By sjhym333 Yes and a good question. I think Disney has went to a more homogenous menu so that they can a) make money off the plan b) turn tables faster c) appeal to a more generic guest who might not normally eat say French food, but will go there because they can get a reservation and it is part of the plan
Originally Posted By CuriousConstance Got it, thank you. That makes sense, and I wouldn't doubt that that was the case. I have to say, I think I'm exactly that generic guest you're describing too. lol
Originally Posted By Witches of Morva ORDDU: My sisters and I certainly agree with you about the disadvantages of Fast Pass. It creates more problems than it solves. We so wish it would go away!!!
Originally Posted By sjhym333 Lol. There are a lot of you! The reality is that Disney is modeling its business for guests like yourself. You come, stay on property, take advantage of the Dining plan, buy some stuff along the way, go home have had fun and do it again a couple of years down the road. I think Disney has mostly given up on us locals.
Originally Posted By CuriousConstance Before Fastpass, what was the average wait for big rides like Space Mountain?
Originally Posted By tashajilek "Yes and a good question. I think Disney has went to a more homogenous menu so that they can a) make money off the plan b) turn tables faster c) appeal to a more generic guest who might not normally eat say French food, but will go there because they can get a reservation and it is part of the plan" Cant stand that! I really like to try new and flavourful food i cant get everywhere. I don't want burgers and chicken fingers or bland food. We really liked Saana at the AKL and it was worth it leaving the park to eat dinner and got reservations easily. It really sucks that WDW doesn't cater to locals much while DL caters almost too much to locals.
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt "The Disney Dining plan funnels people into all the restaurants. People feel they need to get the most out of the option so even places that were normally slower have gotten busier." I'm on an anti-Disney rant this week, so take this with a grain of salt, but if Disney weren't so hell bent on capturing every penny in your pocket they'd set aside a decent number of tables each day during busy times for walk-ups. Maybe they are doing this, but it doesn't sound like it.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros >>Before Fastpass, what was the average wait for big rides like Space Mountain?<< I don't think that the actual wait time at any particular attraction has increased significantly, but it's the way that the wait feels. Instead of constantly moving in a line that rarely stops, you spend the time standing in place for 5+ minutes at a time, before moving forward a few feet. While the overall time is roughly the same, it feels unbearable because you're not making any progress. Just think about how horrible the Space Mountain queue is before the merge, and how relatively painless it is after everybody gets mixed together and it's flowing right into the ride Also, with FP, there are more people in the walkways. Since you need to go to the attraction to pick up your FP, and go back to redeem it, you spend more time getting in the way of other people. And since FP reserves a place in line for you, you can essentially be in two places at once. You can physically be in line for Buzz Lightyear, while the FP version of you is in line for Space Mountain, causing additional delays. Also, assigning FP to select attractions makes many guests think that attraction is 'worth more', creating false hope and longer lines than would otherwise exist. While Space Mountain has always been popular, smaller attractions like Norway's Maelstrom in Epcot get higher billing simply by having FP; and while Maelstrom is a cute enough little ride, it's sure to disappoint someone who is expecting something the scale of Pirates of the Caribbean
