Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 <<^ Are most people like you? I don't know.>> No one else is like me. I'm a very special Spirit. Ask anyone who knows me ... or my friends at Disney. <<I'm not. Disney still gets my money. I own DVC, still buy my AP and DDE (Oops Tables in Wonderland). I do spend less there than I used to but only since my son and daughter moved down to Fl and I have other places to stay and eat if I choose.>> I don't own DVC. I still buy my AP because I still love WDW and as a charter get the lowest price (although I'm a bit peeved that I can't get the three free months). I had DDE until last year when my 'life partner/book thief'*** opted to steal it for herself. I still could have gotten one again, but decided it wasn't worth it. If I really want to dine at Disney, I try and go with a CM pal or to a place I get an AP discount. But Disney used to make thousands of dollars on me annually (sometimes tens). Now? Excluding my recent forays to Paris and Anaheim, I doubt I've spent two grand on WDW this year. Hell, I don't think I've come close. ***I was kidding about half of that!
Originally Posted By EPCOT Explorer >>>No one else is like me. I'm a very special Spirit. Ask anyone who knows me ... or my friends at Disney<<< Nah, I would say you are fairly normal...But consulting the Magic Mirror and asking "Who is the most Evil Spirit of them all?!" is a little out there.
Originally Posted By kennect Ah come Spirit, you just convinced me that you are a bigger Diney geek than I would have ever guessed...Spending that much money on WDW in the past?
Originally Posted By sjhym33 I am in the same boat as Spirit. I spend so little at Disney these days that it is scary. I cant remember the last time I purchased something at a gift shop.
Originally Posted By dshyates I have been in Orlando since March, and have only been in the parks 2 times. I bought the $99 for 2 1-Day tixs. I went to DHS and Epcot. I believe that was back in May. But I do go to Universal a lot. My guess is I average 3 visits a month to Universal.
Originally Posted By vbdad55 <I am in the same boat as Spirit. I spend so little at Disney these days that it is scary. I cant remember the last time I purchased something at a gift shop.< it's becauase the unique items are so rare- as most of us would still spend ( although the economy has taken some of the bite out of my purchasing) -- for instance - huge fan of SHAG Disney merchandise and did purchase the LE 100 9" Vinylmation of the Haunted Mansion Host- last time I spent serious money was during DL's 50th when I got the 4 HM tapestry's - and some other trinkets... don't mind spending when it's unique and price point is not insane.
Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 <<Ah come Spirit, you just convinced me that you are a bigger Diney geek than I would have ever guessed...Spending that much money on WDW in the past?>> Yep. Scary, ain't it? I have so much that I am not even sure what I actually have. But on my last trip I wouldn't have bought anything if not for a visit to Property Control where I still didn't spend $100. I did use my free B-Day gift card, however, at WoD. On my trips last month to DLP and DL, I bought very, very little. DL certainly has the best merchandise these days, but until I signed a recent new contract I was watching my pennies. The most shopping came at Disney outlet stores (lesson: you have no idea how much product Disney makes and can't rid itself of). DLP was very weak merchandise wise. Very much starting to look like stateside, albeit with different lines of character crap.
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo Agreed, DLP has the worst merchandise of the lot. Disneyland has the best. The sad news is, all of the resorts have no where near the variety and quality of merchandise as they used to. It's not fair, as a youth with very little personal means, there used to be a ton of stuff I wanted. Now that I have the means, Disney don't want to sell it anymore. An example, in the first 7 years of DLP, they used to sell the fine china used in the table service restaurants. Sarah and I were newly weds and could not afford it at the time. By the time we saved up to buy a full table service from the Auberge de Cindrillon, they no longer sold it. Instead you could buy cheap Mickey, Minnie or Tink rubbish. They lost the $500 we set aside. The only resort where I have spent serious money on merchandise in the last 10 years is California (Hand painted gold watch, SHAG clothing, Hawaiian shirts etc.). None of these are at WDW or DLP.
Originally Posted By EPCOT Explorer I have to say, though that WDW Merch is getting better. Lots of nice new retro lines, esp. for EPCOT and MK out now. If I had more funding, I would be buying. Heh.
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo Shame it has to be retro to be interesting. Remember the days when the present and future for Disney were the more interesting? I miss those days.
Originally Posted By EPCOT Explorer ^^^ It's interesting for the rest of Disney. Look at DL. Look at Tokyo. WDW seems to be the only one with a (major!) problem. I do think that we are turning the corner, though. Not everything was made public at D23.
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo Agreed, but Hong Kong is about the only resort that has me excited for the future, and let's face it, they need it. And WDW has more interesting stuff in front of them than DLP - Toy Story Playland will be the worst thing since Chester and Hester.
Originally Posted By mousermerf I also found myself confused as to what to do with my birthday giftcard. I eventually spent it at Epcot's Art of Disney on things like the Epcot vinylmation. I don't think Epcot lack of discretionary income spending, particularly in World Showcase, but I think Future World needs to go back to having its own merch for attractions. It's partially because The Land lost a lot of retail space, Wonders lost a lot of retail space, and then MouseGear became too generic. Also, i'm betting the lack of popularity of Imagination doesn't bode too well either. MouseGear used to be packed to the brim with Figment stuff that people wanted to buy.
Originally Posted By mousermerf I didn't mean stuff people didn't want to buy and thus hung around forever to clear the stock.
Originally Posted By EPCOT Explorer Ah, true. But you could easily blame that on over production...Those LE Figgies were quite popular until they saturated the market.
Originally Posted By mousermerf Or the fact that Journey into Imagination w/ Figment has terrible ridership..
