Originally Posted By TDLFAN Happy birthday to the old albatross resort. I can't wait to go shopping for all that great collectible 43rd anniversary merchandise like the one at TDS and HKDL last month!!! Oh wait... :-( It's WDW.
Originally Posted By mrkthompsn Yeah, we know. "TDL this, TDL that"... You know what? I'm going to say this, and it will stand: Walt Disney World is great. OK. That's the last word on that.
Originally Posted By TDLFAN Yes they are!!! At short changing you in the quality of the experience. But as I mentioned in another thread… what you don't know won't hurt you. Me? No. I know they can do better so I call them out in their short comings. And those are many at wdw of today. I think it's sad that on a day like this, the CMs are not even wearing a button reminding guests of today's importance as they used to do in the past. Then again why bother? There's little to show for. And thy will stand as well. So there.
Originally Posted By TDLFAN You must the be only one celebrating since no one at WDW cared to. Not even a pin!! Geez. Where are the memories? Or the magic? In Tokyo obviously.
Originally Posted By mrkthompsn They don't need to. That's our job... Guests have the freedom to celebrate, even at home.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip WDW generally only makes any kind of a "big deal" out of anniversaries at 5-year intervals. Thirty-two years just isn't going to excite anyone much. I'm glad they do it that way. They already have way too many of the "Year of ----" events. I'm not about to write off WDW. It wasn't that long ago that DL was by far the most poorly maintained Disney park in the U.S. (if not the world). Things can change. WDW has some great components. Both Epcot and the Animal Kingdom are outstanding parks. Some of the Disney Resorts are very well done. I think both the Wilderness Lodge and the Animal Kingdom Lodge are beautiful (though the poor location of the AKL is a drawback). Some of the WDW table service restaurants rival the quality of any Disney Resort restaurant in the world. There is much there to work with... I think in time it will get the same attention to detail that DL has in recent years.
Originally Posted By TP2000 The CM's don't wear buttons for the WDW birthdays? They do at Disneyland every year on July 17th, at both parks and all three hotels. But they cut the birthday buttons for CM's out of the budget at WDW??? If that's true, that's really dumb. And sad.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros >>They do at Disneyland every year on July 17th, at both parks and all three hotels.<< Have they done anything for DCA's birthday in the last decade? I know they occasionally got buttons in the early years, but it seems like they stopped doing that around 2005/06
Originally Posted By RoadTrip I don't see the "birthdays" of subsequent parks as significant as the birthday of Disneyland. Disneyland was completely Walt's baby and was unlike anything that had existed before. The other parks just lack that historical significance. I'm fine with celebrating the birthday only every five years. The buttons are something that just makes me no difference. Having them does not improve the quality of my experience one little bit. i'd be fine with Disney cutting out fluff like that and using the savings to do things like repainting, replacing light bulbs and cleaning restrooms more frequently. That stuff does impact the quality of my experience.
Originally Posted By TDLFAN >>>They don't need to. That's our job... Guests have the freedom to celebrate, even at home.<<< LAME, but nice try in being Disney apologist. >>>WDW generally only makes any kind of a "big deal" out of anniversaries at 5-year intervals. Thirty-two years just isn't going to excite anyone much.<<< Get it straight old timer, that's 43rd anniversary. And that's exactly the problem at WDW, they don't even celebrate every 5 years anymore. The last big shingdig was for the 25th; that's 18 years ago!!!! Replaced by those lame fake marketing celebrations like 100 years of magic..etc >>>WDW has some great components. Both Epcot and the Animal Kingdom are outstanding parks.<<< Of course TDS is a far better park that AK and EC combined... just saying >>>Some of the Disney Resorts are very well done.<<< Yet none of them come close to the outstanding quality in theme and service found at the TDS MIracosta or TDL Hotel. Just saying >>>The CM's don't wear buttons for the WDW birthdays? They do at Disneyland every year on July 17th, at both parks and all three hotels. But they cut the birthday buttons for CM's out of the budget at WDW??? If that's true, that's really dumb. And sad.<<< Make that VERY SAD. Yes they cut the budget I guess, because this year NO CM in sight wore a "WDW 43rd" add on button to their costumes. And while I am not asking for a huge celebration on every anniversary, I wish they would at least put out some visible limited edition merchandise as they do in TDR and HKDL, but this year WDW didn't even sell a pin!!!! That's how bad it's gotten!!!
Originally Posted By TDLFAN >>>I don't see the "birthdays" of subsequent parks as significant as the birthday of Disneyland. Disneyland was completely Walt's baby and was unlike anything that had existed before. The other parks just lack that historical significance.<<< And you consider yourself a Disney park fanatic?!?! Sheesh. That's like having children and only remembering your first born's birthday and not the other little brats'. I just wish WDW at least went back to doing those anniversary celebrations every 5 years like they used to but they don't anymore. And those celebrations have always driven up attendance numbers as opposed to those fake marketing ones like "Celebrate me passing Gas at Disney" day celebration. Please. I guess we were EXTREMELY lucky we got EPCOT 30th teeshirts back in 2012. But the Disney lover in me? I will always cherish my HKDL and TDR annual cavalcade of odd anniversary date merchandise. Maybe if WDW did that, I would spend more money in their gift shops.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip So WDW is not as good as TDL or TDS. No one is disputing that. Why do you need to trot them out whenever there is a discussion about WDW? It is not a fair comparison. TDL and TDS are not owned by Disney. They are owned and operated (as you know) by the Oriental Land Company under license from Disney. OLC had the option to sell the park back to Disney at one point and rejected the option. They obviously plan to operate the park well into the future. Unlike the Disney Company, the theme parks are it's largest business. It's primary shareholders are a real estate development firm and a private railroad. I have no way of knowing, but I would assume those shareholders are considerably less greedy and easier to satisfy than Disney shareholders. Comparing WDW to DLR is fair... they both are owned by the same company. And until the last 10 years, WDW generally came out on the good end of that comparison. It has fallen behind, but I really believe it's day will come again. Disney seems to want to fix it's parks one at a time. First park was Disneyland, to get it ready for the 50th birthday. Next came the opening of DCA followed by a significant upgrade to the park that was just completed. The WDW's MK recently received a significant and well done Fantasy Land expansion. Next up will be a new land at Animal Kingdom and significant development of some sort at the Studios. I am hopeful they will soon do something significant for Epcot... that park has grown very stale. If Disney takes those steps, I think it will then be at least on equal footing with DLR again.
Originally Posted By TDLFAN >>>So WDW is not as good as TDL or TDS. No one is disputing that. Why do you need to trot them out whenever there is a discussion about WDW?<<< Because if I didn't, you guys wouldn't have a reason to come here and post about anything because there wouldn't be much to talk about. When was the last time you initiated a thread here? I feel bad for Doobie having to depend on Autoposts to actually say anything about WDW for that matter. >>>It is not a fair comparison. TDL and TDS are not owned by Disney. They are owned and operated (as you know) by the Oriental Land Company under license from Disney.<<< Careful. You are beginning to sound like FerretAfros, rehashing what everyone else has already known for decades just to say something without adding significance. OLC owes and operates TDR, yet TDR is the most Disney like park of them all, where the traditions set forth by Walt himself are followed religiously and where excellence in quality and showmanship is 2nd to none, so yes I WILL HOLD WDC to those standards since they bull**** everyone into believing that all Disney parks in the world offer a seamless equal experience. They don't. Don't kid yourself to that just to contradict me. I have more mileage than you walking down 5 Main Streets in this Earth of ours. When you do match that, then feel free to criticize OLC for not being the American company you wish they were. Lucky for us they are not.
Originally Posted By TDLFAN So yes, IT IS VERY FAIR to compare OLC to Walt Disney Co, just like EuroDisney SCA and Shengi Group should be. But if you want me to compare WDW versus DLR then, YES, I will take DLR anytime over WDW. And since they're both run by the same parent company, then there's no excuse as to why WDW's MK offers a substandard experience when compared to Disneyland park in Anaheim.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip Well, I don't think it is a fair comparison. Yes, Disney originally built the Japan parks and currently leases Imagineers to OLC. Does that mean Disney still CAN do it? Yes it does. But it shows that the priorities of the Disney Company do not presently support the level of support for the parks that the OLC gives. Now can you fault Disney Company for that? You certainly can. But it really isn't fair to fault the individual parks. And if you read my post you will note that I SAY that DLR is currently the better Disney Resort. I am just hopeful that plans for the future will once again put WDW on an equal footing. I think that is fair. P.S. I've created 410 threads here... only 32 less than you.
Originally Posted By Yookeroo "Because if I didn't, you guys wouldn't have a reason to come here and post about anything because there wouldn't be much to talk about." So you're trolling. "without adding significance." Significance like "not as good as Tokyo" repeated over and over? Is that the kind of significance you're talking about? "lame fake marketing celebrations like 100 years of magic" It's a horrible mistake to not celebrate a 43rd anniversary, but Walt's centennial is fake and lame. Now if WDW had ignored Walt's centennial, I wonder what the reaction would've been to that. "LAME" "VERY SAD" "NO" "EXTREMELY" "IT IS VERY FAIR" You seem to have caught the ocdean caps disease.
