Originally Posted By RoadTrip My wife and I think the WDW transportation is one of the biggest advantages to staying on site. I only wish our public transit up here in the frozen wasteland (just saving TDLFAN from having to say it) known as Minneapolis was one tenth as good.
Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 >>The Mouse does employ a lot of rats at the corporate level.<< <<And in fan sites as well. Reason why I firmly believe it's important to stand behind your opinions of what needs to be fixed at the parks.>> Absolutely. As I've said many times before, if there were a site with a watchdog-type character, like an Al Lutz, for WDW, Disney wouldn't be able to get away with what they do. Maybe you should start a site there, TDLFAN? ;-)
Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 <<The parks will only be as good as the designers and builders who create them. So "fixing" WDI is the prerequisite to "fixing" the parks themselves.>> No doubt ... a fish rots from the head down. Remember the days when you couldn't wait for a new Disney attraction or show because you knew you were going to be wowed? That's how I always felt until the late 90s. Then came attractions that had little substance, while at the same time old fave were removed. Now, Disney strikes out as much as it hits, and that's not acceptable both creatively and financially. WDI is indeed broken ... and it needs to be fixed.
Originally Posted By TDLFAN >>Which is why I firmly stand behind my opinion that the foundation of the parks -- Imagineering -- has rotted away, and needs to be stripped down and rebuilt from the ground up. The parks will only be as good as the designers and builders who create them. So "fixing" WDI is the prerequisite to "fixing" the parks themselves.<< Well... I am not sure that I agree with that statement.. because I have seen what the Disney imagineers have done at Tokyo DisneySea, and trust me... Imagineering went well beyond the call of duty by providing OLC with their most lavish and overall spectacular theme park ever built, and will probably never do something as lavish and satisfying ever again. But I would change that statement to this: The Imagineers are as good as the budgets they are allowed to work with. Low budgets, bad parks. It's that simple. Likewise.. I feel what needs to be rebuilt from the ground up is Disney's MANAGEMENT across the board. Reason for that I beleive is because the current crop of management in that company has stripped themselves from the legacy that Walt left behind, which was what set Disneyland apart from the rest of the pack. THAT is where the problem lies more than anything. I can't place fault with the Imagineering Dept. since they are just victims, just like most guests at DCA and at WDSP.
Originally Posted By idleBrain <<Well... I am not sure that I agree with that statement.. because I have seen what the Disney imagineers have done at Tokyo DisneySea>> And most of those Imagineers are GONE. That's the problem. Steve Kirk and many who worked with him on TDS were fired shortly after it opened. The DCA Imagineers remained in Glendale, and many of them promoted up the food chain to even higher positions of authority. (One particular exec comes to mind, whose name rhymes with Fitzgerald.) The current crop of survivors at WDI are mainly executives whose success is more aligned with sycophant behavior towards strat planning, than it is with design integrity and ingenuity. Cheap budgets often result in cheap parks, but to fully blame the bean counters is shortsighted and irresponsible. And that also applies to those Imagineers living underground, like Tony Baxter. The Imagineers who've been "victimized" the most are no longer with the company.
Originally Posted By TDLFAN >>And most of those Imagineers are GONE. That's the problem.<< Yes, that would be a problem, but how do we know the current crop is not capable of doing such magnificent projects??? I say..Give them the dough and let them reach for the stars.
Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 <<Yes, that would be a problem, but how do we know the current crop is not capable of doing such magnificent projects??? I say..Give them the dough and let them reach for the stars.>> It isn't that simple. Even when provided adequete capital, WDI's bloated structure leads to the money going to things like rented Escalades, $750 Tony Roma's catered lunches and merchandise created for the Imagineers. And then comes the question of creativity. Take a look at some of the recent attractions and ask yourself "do they wow me?" There are many areas of TWDC (CMs and morale, resort upkeep, custodial, show quality) where throwing money at the problem would be a solution. But WDI isn't that simple ...
Originally Posted By Labuda "Speaking of busses, I was told by Disney personnel that very soon all Disney buses will be equipped with GPS and if the bus goes more than 100 feet off the prescribed route that the bus driver will be questioned as to why. They are doing this to try and maintain consistency in the wait times for the bus. I get the feeling that some bus drivers have the NY taxi cab syndrome and intentionally take the long way or simply get lost." I dunno if I believe that. Call me Little Miss Sunshine, but I *really* don't think thgat WDW bus drivers are taking the long way and causing intentional delays in getting the guests from point A to point B. All that would do for them is make the chances higher that folks are going to be cranky when the bus gets back to point A to pick up the next load, headed to point B or C. Totally self-defesting. What ever reason could one of those CMs have to intentionally piss people off? It's not like they're going to get paid any more because the route is longer the way a taxi driver would.
Originally Posted By demderedoseguys ^^ This was told to me by a transportation supervisor who was riding along on a bus with another driver. He made a point of bringing it up and it was heard by several other people who were on that bus. I don't know what would motivate him to annouce this unsolicited if it wasn't true.
Originally Posted By demderedoseguys Totally self-defesting. What ever reason could one of those CMs have to intentionally piss people off? It's not like they're going to get paid any more because the route is longer the way a taxi driver would. < I've been on buses that have taken a much longer than normal time to get from point A to point B and you can hear the grumbling of fellow passengers. I think it's definitely possible that there are certain bus drivers who do this so they can make there job easier by making less trips.
Originally Posted By Labuda I can see them maybe wanting to make fewer trips for some reason, BUT I honestly think that fewer trips would NOT outweigh having a busload of angry patrons each time they were making a trip.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip <<I think it's definitely possible that there are certain bus drivers who do this so they can make there job easier by making less trips.>> I guess I would kind of doubt this. If you are spending X hours behind the wheel of a bus, what's the difference is you do 15 or 18 trips during that time? Actually, the more trips you make the more time you are just sitting at a park waiting for your bus to fill, so it would seem easier. The only time I've experienced a bus leaving its route was when a passenger realized they had boarded the wrong bus and the driver agreed to take them to their intended destination.
Originally Posted By demderedoseguys Obviously,Disney thinks there is a problem with drivers going off route for whatever reason. The reasons that we were given is that: 1) The drivers take it upon themselves to go a differenr route. 2) The driver gets lost. The reasons given for the GPS were: 1)To track when a driver goes more than 100 feet off route and make them explain why when they do so. 2)If they get lost it would be easier to locate them in the vent of a breakdown. 3) Maintain consistent time waits between buses by monitoring 1 and 2. You can draw your own conclusions as to why a driver goes off route, but I maintain that in a given time frame it is a lot easier job to make 12 trips rather than 15. >The only time I've experienced a bus leaving its route was when a passenger realized they had boarded the wrong bus and the driver agreed to take them to their intended destination.< Also obvious is that Disney disagrees with this statement in general, notwithstanding the fact that you've never experienced a problem.
Originally Posted By demderedoseguys ^ Actually, I would think another reason to go off route would be in the event of an accident which is delaying or stopping traffic, in which case a driver may do so in order to stay on or close to schedule.
Originally Posted By vbdad55 or the ability to divert one bus to anotherroute to cover an unexpected heavy load --
Originally Posted By Kennesaw Tom Sounds to me like some GPS company convinced Disney they needed this. GPS doesn't police people managers do.
Originally Posted By TDLFAN Just two days ago... G-Fan and I went to Home Depot on Orange Blossom Trail in Orlando, and saw a Disney's Magical Express bus parked *behind* the Home depot store, NOT the front parking lot but BEHIND the store. We found that to be strange concidering the bus wasn't even on a road where they are supposed to operate. Driver was on it in uniform, but the bus was empty. Now I realize these drivers are Mears' and not Disney employed, but still...
Originally Posted By ChiMike >>Sounds to me like some GPS company convinced Disney they needed this. GPS doesn't police people managers do. << A great statement Tom! Unfortunatly, Disney thinks the exact opposite when it comes to technology outmanaging their own managers.
