Originally Posted By Expo_Seeker40 After meeting up with a special spirit, I was kindly b*tch slapped across the face as to reality that is Walt Disney World in the year 2010. Yes, 40th Anniversary merchandise is already in the Emporium, and surprisingly geared toward infants....yes...now you can buy your little one a onesie or a tiny shirt with the big D 4 *o* logo. The retro logo shirts continue to fly off the shelfs...not like the one timers know any different, rather the 14.95 tag price isn't going to bankrupt them after spending 4 nights at the GF. The MK, is showing it's age...yes, it is the most visited theme park on earth, yet the funding into it is deplorable....the seasonal decorations are always less than the other disney parks..... the fireworks are getting less, yet the prices go up and the quantity goes down. Walt Disney World, as much as I love it, and as much as I mourn it, still has it's charm with friendly and dedicated CM's, the smile on a child's face, the wonder, the sheer joy.....but Walt Disney World is no longer a tribute to the philosophy and life of Walt Disney. What little wonder remains can be attributed to the infrastructure of the resort from the 70s....the "blessing of size"...themed hotels around a man-made lagoon....a towering castle, etc, etc. There is a water park rotting away that will become a new DVC resort, an island in bay lake overtaken by flies and animals, and central parking lot full of faded parking space lines, potholes, and cracks. Inside the Magic Kingdom, main street is looking beautiful thanks to a new paint job, yet throughout the other lands you'll find cracked, chipped walkways, faded sections, overgrown unkept planters, and closed restaurants and stores. The little things no longer matter to TDO, honestly the MK should be no more than a place with a castle, a shopping mall, and each mountain smacked right next to it.....the idea of discovering something, even learning something while at Disney is passe. If Walt could see the magic kingdom now.....with it's unkept state.....strollers and evc's everywhere....princess merchandise carts in tomorrowland...and his carousel stuck in a 1994 timewarp.....I'd think he'd not only shed a tear for what is dream property turned into....but also the average guest. I guess I'm old fashioned...but wearing the clothes you rolled out of bed to a park for a day is ridiculous. Wishes had missing charges on saturday, in of all places, the finale. The Main Street Electrical Parade was delayed for a half hour and the tinkerbell float was broken and had to be toed from main street through fronteirland...it also sped into high gear come the cinderella segment and many CM's weren't present in the parade. When I rode space mountain in the late afternoon...the sun had unfortunately come through the open doors of the peoplemover track....you could actually look down and see peoplemover cars traveling by as clear as...well..day! I was actually embarrassed and sad that a special spirit saw a spirited childhood parade become a shadow of it's former self right before his eyes. Disney still does some things right.....but there is another resort up the highway that has caught up with the mouse and for the first time in years, I'm more excited about getting tickets to Universal than I am with my AP for WDW.
Originally Posted By HokieSkipper Wow, terrific, heartfelt post here, Expo. Really gets to me because it's how I've been feeling as well. I honestly feel betrayed sometimes when I enter the Magic Kingdom.
Originally Posted By 999HAUNTS I wonder if us folks on the West Coast will feel the same when taking a closer look? I really didn't notice all of that last year. Sad, indeed.
Originally Posted By EPCOT Explorer >>>Walt Disney World, as much as I love it, and as much as I mourn it, still has it's charm with friendly and dedicated CM's, the smile on a child's face, the wonder, the sheer joy.....but Walt Disney World is no longer a tribute to the philosophy and life of Walt Disney. <<< Sigh. I wouldn't say it's totally dead (denying it through my teeth, shut up, you are right.) but it's certainly lost it's way. I think that there are some things that the parks do very, very, very right, but there's the terrible downsides, too. Seems you found them. \ Sigh.
Originally Posted By SSE I agree with everything in this post. Disney just doesn't seem to care anymore about keeping up with WDW. If the people continue to come even with the stagnant parks and lower food quality, what reason is there to even try anymore. Even the quality of the guests has gone down considerably. I went to California Grill on Saturday night and I won't say I was dressed as nicely as I feel I should have, but there I saw guests with t-shirts and gym shorts on. Which for a restaurant as nice as California Grill is, I thought was horrible. I am moving out of Florida on Friday back home to New England and also while I was at dinner I stared out over 7 Seas Lagoon just thinking about how much I love Disney and to me how depressing it is what it is turning into. I thought about all the great times I have had at Disney and all the amazing people I have befriended which makes me sad to leave. Then I start thinking about how the company seems to be treating Walt's legacy these days and that makes me feel that it is right to leave. As much as I have loved and will continue to love WDW I don't want to stand by and continue to watch how they are destroying it. I will still come down once in a while, mostly just so I can try to keep my seasonal status, but there isn't anything in the parks that I feel I will miss terribly now that I will no longer be here. I still have some hope, not much, but there has to be a chance that someday there will be a person that comes in and understands what Disney should be about and raise the quality to levels that it should be at. Until then I will continue to try and hold out hope.
Originally Posted By Expo_Seeker40 I agree SSE. I find myself only enjoying things from the 70s and 80s. For example....On Saturday, I spent my lunch at the Polynesian, and even though it has been cosmetically changed since 1971, it's infrastructure is very much from the 70s and yet it works! Lush, quiet, well maintained...and then for the first time I took the Polynesian launch across the seven seas lagoon to the MK....it was great...and then you spot the yachts heading to the wilderness lodge still sporting the WDW D logo on their smokestacks. You have something like the Transportation and Ticket Center, built in the 70s, but painted in garish orange and purple paint from the 1990s that hasn't changed in over 15 years....thats scary. WDW is so big now, that people tramp through the MK feeling they HAVE to get EVERYTHING done. Spirirt and I left the MK at midnight on saturday, and their were screaming babies and young children....I am very against bringing youngins to WDW...not only do they barely remember their first trip to WDW, they are stressed and tired beyond belief. WDW is becoming too expensive....I have to stay either at downtown disney or off property or rely on my FL discounts to stay on property.....it's absurd to pay over 300 dollars a night for a room you'll barely be in except for 6-8 hours a day. Main Street is still great for it's barber shop,bakery, glass blowing, etc...but the emporium is so huge no, it's crazy. There's no shade in the hub,and adventureland has no upscale dining and unused space. Then you have space mountain with it's unpainted exterior, 1975 lighting, mold along the peoplemover track, rusted peoplemover motors and rails, and a clanky outdated rollercoaster lift hill. Aye yay yay!
Originally Posted By vbdad55 I still have some hope, not much, but there has to be a chance that someday there will be a person that comes in and understands what Disney should be about and raise the quality to levels that it should be at. Until then I will continue to try and hold out hope. ---- I hope you're right...my hope was Lassiter might be that person, or one of many it will take to create that type of vision.. but I also hope that those who want this udnerstand it takes serious serious cash to do that..and if it means building more DVC units...or selling even more commercials on ESPN, that that part is a necessary component.. it doesn't happen with Pixie dust.
Originally Posted By vbdad55 WDW is becoming too expensive....I have to stay either at downtown disney or off property or rely on my FL discounts to stay on property.....it's absurd to pay over 300 dollars a night for a room you'll barely be in except for 6-8 hours a day. ------------ not picking on you - trust me-- but here is the major disconnect. some want all kinds of improvements that would total in the billions to make a dent in what they want..but then the flip side is things will be more expensive to do this - period. Where will the capital come from otherwise ? And then when Disney looks for a way to make the cash... they again are criticized because even though they've spent over $5B in the last 10-12 years on theme parks...they have abandoned the theme park business for real estate.
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt You'd think with such a milestone celebration right around the corner they'd be giving the MK a face lift from top to bottom. I haven't been to WDW in years, but when I read reports like this it makes me sad because WDW was once simply unmatched in showmanship.
Originally Posted By A Happy Haunt <<I wonder if us folks on the West Coast will feel the same when taking a closer look? I really didn't notice all of that last year. Sad, indeed.>> 999, it's just one more doom & gloom thread! I didn't notice on my last trip either.
Originally Posted By EPCOT Explorer >>>I agree SSE. I find myself only enjoying things from the 70s and 80s. For example....On Saturday, I spent my lunch at the Polynesian, and even though it has been cosmetically changed since 1971, it's infrastructure is very much from the 70s and yet it works! Lush, quiet, well maintained...and then for the first time I took the Polynesian launch across the seven seas lagoon to the MK....it was great...and then you spot the yachts heading to the wilderness lodge still sporting the WDW D logo on their smokestacks.<<< That's the stuff I go for. Yeah, Disney Historian in full, I suppose. It's just a shame that it's only the old stuff that's evocative of quality. >>You'd think with such a milestone celebration right around the corner they'd be giving the MK a face lift from top to bottom. I haven't been to WDW in years, but when I read reports like this it makes me sad because WDW was once simply unmatched in showmanship.<<< They are having a lot of aesthetic work done....
Originally Posted By EPCOT Explorer >>>999, it's just one more doom & gloom thread! I didn't notice on my last trip either. <<< Not that there's anything wrong with that.... ;-)
Originally Posted By EPCOT Explorer I agree, Disney should try to put forth a better product. The parks looking old and stale is tiring.
Originally Posted By Christi22222 ^^ I am not trying to offend anyone or start anything from the sidelines, but that made me laugh out loud!
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo Sadly this totally tallies with my experience, thankfully when I went to DLP and DL afterwards, those parks do not suffer in quite the same way (though DLP is not doing great when it comes to maintenance in some areas). If it were not for the old legacy stuff, Epcot and DAK, there would be no point in us going. The MK was indeed a sad place.
Originally Posted By standor In the 70s 80s and early 90s the magic kingdom stayed open till 11:00 PM most nights and the late parades ran every night. Now except for the busy seasons, the MK closes about 7PM and no parade. The price still stays high but the value is disappearing. Now you can't get into a restaurant unless you make a reservation many months in advance. In January, how do you know where you will be in June at a certain date and time?
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt >>You'd think with such a milestone celebration right around the corner they'd be giving the MK a face lift from top to bottom. I haven't been to WDW in years, but when I read reports like this it makes me sad because WDW was once simply unmatched in showmanship.<<< "They are having a lot of aesthetic work done...." Well that's good to hear, no?
Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 <<999, it's just one more doom & gloom thread! I didn't notice on my last trip either. >> No offense, Happy ... but not noticing something doesn't mean it doesn't exist ... a friend didn't notice a growth in her breast and was recently diagnosed with cancer ... so I can well understand how some folks are just so happy to be on vacation (and away from whatever troubles they left, hopefully, at home) that they just are on pixie dust highs. I didn't choose, for example, to notice the rotting railings (all the way thru) on Peoplemover ... but when it stopped overlooking Phil Holmes' new parking space, I looked to my left and there was a railing that didn't exist anymore due to rust/neglect. When Seeker and I watched MSEP Saturday night I wasn't looking for problems (it was one thing I was looking forward to as I hadn't seen the 'new and improved' version at DCA in 2009)but when the parade is 45 minutes late and the 'new' lead float is being towed by tractor and has no lights working and other floats are missing lights and there are loads of missing performers ... well, baby, there ain't enough pixie dust in the world to keep me from noticing. And the fact is I could drive up this weekend to see it, I feel bad for people who only had that night ... because that show 'quality' simply is not acceptable/
