Originally Posted By sjhym333 Even not know much about the system I am not looking forward to it. Some of the questions I would have as a local is how does it affect my trips to the parks? We arent planning trip 180 days out. In fact we sometimes decide to head to a park on a whim. How will this new system affect our ability to see major attractions. We already feel disenfranchised from the resturants at WDW. We used to be able to come home from work and decide to head to the parks and grab a nice meal. We could always find a table somewhere, even some of the more popular places if we were willing to wait. Today we cant do that. Most of our favorites are booked months in advance and the idea that you should be able to walk up and wait for an empty table seems foreign to Disney. The whole Disney dining experience has changed with the reservations 180 days out. Imagine if that mentality moves to the attractions.
Originally Posted By EPCOT Explorer If no one will take the 101, I will! 101 NexGen Neurotic Dalmatians!
Originally Posted By CoolDisneyFan I've been to WDW like 4 or 5 times since my first child was born (9 years ago). At first, we loved the character meet and greets, but now, I REFUSE and hate it. To wait 30 or 40 minutes for a signature from a girl dressed like a princess. Come on. And in that hot horrible tent in Toontown, no thanks. I HATE that the restaurants all get jammed and even with reservation times it is still usually quite a wait. I agree with the majority of those here that this money should be spent on improving attractions, infrastructure, how about transportation??, and generally improving the experience. For over the past 9 years the experience continues to diminish and I feel more like cattle each time I visit. I have been a life long disney fan that has never been to Universal, but it sounds like that may be our next trip down there. This year instead of Disney I am planning a trip to Yellowstone, or perhaps another park a little closer, but I just can't handle another Disney trip right now, especially with the direction things are headed. I really like the open spaces and beauty of the outdoors and no crowds and no waiting in lines. Still I will be back in Orlando sooner or later, but it is just not the same as it used to be and I feel it is getting worse with each passing year.
Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 I put the following in an earlier response to Kevin Yee's column, but I'll put it here and then add some: <<But a lot of that needs to be put into context ... for instance, I really liked your column today, but it's such a complex issue ... and you nailed the key point (even if it was buried a bit) in that if NEXTGEN is really all about adding capacity to address guests' biggest complaint (lines, waits, not able to do it all) then wouldn't it have been better to spend the billion plus on adding new attractions that actually ADD capacity to the park ... instead of virtual queues that will send more people into the packed walkways? (BTW, am thinking of starting a thread here about the whole idiocy of it all) The reason the Board of TWDC approved such a large investment in NEXTGEN wasn't to add capacity to the parks like MK or to improve the guest experiences by having them book meet-and-greets and FPs in advance along with meals (and soon bathroom breaks and churro stops!) ... it was approved because it will generate revenue and profit from Day 1 as at its heart is datamining and using the info to get guests to spend more in all manner of ways. It's to move the revenue model almost to a virtual ticket book where everything is a la carte and your value at the table is based on where you are staying, what rate you are paying, what services you have taken advantage of (from DME to DDP etc). Disney isn't investing a billion plus (I've heard the actual number is closer to $1.5 in the real world) because it wants to improve people's MAGICal WDW vacations. That may well happen for some people, but that's not the purpose. It's totally opposite to say UNI adding WWoHP to IOA to attract guests, which also has amazingly enough done wonders for the bottom line. The Mouse still doesn't get it.>> This may be a wonderful thing for those who only stay on property, plan trips months and years in advance and don't care how much they pay. But that's about it. WDW isn't supposed to be something you treat like homework. But that's what it has become for many (and Disney is ultimately behind this). What some may view as planning fun, many others (like this Spirit) view as OCDing every aspect of a vacation. Not fun. It used to be planning was simply deciding whether to drive or fly ... buying those airline tix and reserving a hotel. Now, it's a whole lot more difficult. You HAVE to make meal arrangements six months in advance ... and you really do in most cases. ... (sure you can walk into The Wave or Turf Club or Olivia's almost any day of the year for lunch ... and except on holidays you're likely to be able to snag a meal at Marrakesh at 8:45 p.m., maybe Nine Dragons too. But you want any popular place, any signature locale, any of the truly best places and you better be calling six months out much of the time). Hell, I'll even bring DVCers in because I've started to hear complaints from some DVC owners/pals about not being able to book resorts other then their home ones without 'many calls'. Again, it's become like homework. That's not what a MAGICal WDW vacation is supposed to be. Now, you may well be adding arranging actual times for meet-greet-and-gropes and attractions. I don't know what I want for lunch tomorrow, yet I should know that on May 3rd I'll be at EPCOT and want to have lunch at Le Cellier at 1;15 and then ride Soarin at 2:35 before meeting Donald and his Cabelleros pals in front of Mexico at 4:10 followed by my TT FP at 4:30 and then a monorail ride to TTC to transfer to MK line to make dinner at LTT at 7:10 p.m. with hopes I'll be able to meet Mickey at 8:15, ride Space Mountain just 15 minutes later and .... geez ... I'm getting tired just typing this. Does this sound like fun to you? Seriously, if you need to plan this much to avoid being totally screwed, then when does it just not become worth visiting? All this money just so Disney can take more $$$ from you while making visiting more of a chore than ever before. I'll pass ...
Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 <<If no one will take the 101, I will! 101 NexGen Neurotic Dalmatians! >> Stop! At this point you're just embarrassing yourself! (and those who associate with you!)
Originally Posted By CuriouserConstance If they stopped taking dining reservations, and just served walk ins, do you think you could just walk up and eat anywhere any old time you felt like it? Of course not. You probably wouldn't be able to get close to the restaurants because of the hoards of people that would be crowding them.
Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 ^^I dunno anyone suggesting they do away with reservations. They've been doing them as far back as 1982 in the parks (likely longer at the hotels, although I can't recall). But they should leave tables open for some walk-ins. And they shouldn't staff based on reservations alone, which often results in empty tables and folks being turned away at 5 p.m when a park is open until 9, while being told 'we're all booked for the evening'.
Originally Posted By CuriouserConstance I can imagine it's much less chaotic doing it in advance. I can also imagine the anger of someone calling 6 months in advance to book a vacation package and after spending thousands of dollars on airfare, hotel, park tickets, and more being told their reservation availability for the restaurants is already full on the week they would be going because of the policy of leaving half the tables open for walk ins.
Originally Posted By Manfried So the next time I and my mate decide to drive over and visit WDW, its parks or its restaurants I need to decide six months out? Even though I live only an hour and a half away? Kind of takes the spontaneous nature out of it. Now where's my Sea World pass?
Originally Posted By CuriouserConstance Not everything can be done spontaneously. Going to restaurants that are incredibly popular in the most popular vacation destination in the world that require you to have reservations days, weeks, or months in advance is one of them.
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo Funnt how it worked for decades before LEAN 6 Sigma and demand management methodologies ruined everything. CC - it seems for you, ignorance is bliss. As someone who had the role of implementing similar transformations elsewhere, this will not be an improvement for all but the OCD fans.
Originally Posted By SeventyOne <And they shouldn't staff based on reservations alone, which often results in empty tables and folks being turned away at 5 p.m when a park is open until 9, while being told 'we're all booked for the evening'.> This seems to be the primary problem. <I can also imagine the anger of someone calling 6 months in advance to book a vacation package and after spending thousands of dollars on airfare, hotel, park tickets, and more being told their reservation availability for the restaurants is already full on the week they would be going because of the policy of leaving half the tables open for walk ins.> But the problem is that the majority--based on my own observations, I'd say the vast majority--of WDW guests, all of whom pay $1,000s, are not calling at 7:00 a.m. 180 days in advance. As Spirit said earlier, WDW is catering to a small minority of "commando"-style visitors, at the expense of the majority of more casual visitors. The closest analogy I can think of is the comic book industry. In the late 80s, it began trying to wring more money out of hard-core fans--printing 10 different variant covers, limiting distribution strictly to comic shops, meandering cross-over plots heavy on obscure continuity--but in the process, it completely cut out casual and younger fans. The result is an industry with a tiny, insular fanbase who will buy anything with the X-Men or Batman, but no one who occasionally picks up a comic book to read on a lark. I don't think WDW can rely on "commandos" to fill 20,000 rooms every night. They need to make a better experience for BOTH the super-fans who jockey for TSM fastpasses AND the first-timer who doesn't even know MAGIC and DIS and Tour Guide Mike exist...the most logical thing to me would be increased capacity from $1.5B worth of new rides/restaurants.
Originally Posted By EPCOT Explorer >>>Stop! At this point you're just embarrassing yourself! (and those who associate with you!)<<< Hey... What ever gets me through my day, gets me through my day.
Originally Posted By sjhym333 The original system was you could only make a reservation the day your planning to eat there. When EPCOT Center first opened people would line up at World Key Kiosks and make a reservation for that day. Even with that system we very rarely had a problem walking up and getting a table if we were willing to wait. There has to be a better compromise on seating people than filling every seat with people making reservations.
Originally Posted By vbdad55 >>I am one of those who has developed an EXCEL spreadsheet that covers all the key items we need as a group of 9 for our yearly WDW vacation.<< More power to you if you enjoy it, but this just feels like the opposite of a vacation to me. ---- not to the other 8 people in my party that get to enjoy all the things they like-- as for me- I don't mind as once I get there I shut down the corporate brain and enjoy.
Originally Posted By vbdad55 First, I want to make it clear that I believe VBDAD is mentally ill because of the way he prances around his 'hood in winter with his tiara, Ariel two-piece, DVC pin lanyard and Bears warpaint, not his spreadsheeting ... that's just likely another symptom! ;-) - moved on from Bears to Blackhakws -- ;-)
Originally Posted By EPCOT Explorer >>>not to the other 8 people in my party that get to enjoy all the things they like-- as for me- I don't mind as once I get there I shut down the corporate brain and enjoy.<<< May I ask how you do that if you are following a spreadsheet for the trip? LOL
Originally Posted By Bob Paris 1 Yeah that struck me as kind of contradictory as well - as if the touring spreadsheet is all worked out beforehand but then once ensconced in "THE MAGIC(c)", it all gets thrown out the window in favour of "winging it" and relaxing. Sorry beer dad but those days seem like they're LONG GONE! (Beer Dad refers to your name - VB is a famous Aussie beer!)
