Originally Posted By mousermerf Why, why?!?! Why did someone have to say "it's subjective"?!? AHHH!!!! *hides from it*
Originally Posted By Inspector 57 <<I think what is wrong with Disney fans is there are a select few (5%) or so who think that if someone doesn't agree with their viewpoints or doesn't know the history as well as them then they are not as strong of a Disney fan, therefore their opinions mean less than the "true" fans...>> Exactly. And by logical extension... One of my pet peeves is those "Fannier Than Thou" fans who can't seem to understand why in the world Disney would orient its offerings to what the public responds to. The middle-class couple from Ohio who save up each year to vacation at WDW with their kids -- and who don't know that the Park in California is older -- are REAL Disney fans. The little girl in Missouri who can't get enough Princess stuff from her local Disney store but knows NOTHING of the Disney "classics" is a TRUE Disney fan. My nephew Blane -- who loves every one of the Disney/Pixar features, and who would probably love for Stitch to appear in EVERY scene in Small World -- is an undisputable hardcore Disney fan. But there are those who declare themselves to be the only "true" fans, because they're old, or because they belong to Fan Clubs, and who feel free to declare all lowly members of the general public to be pseudo-fans whose opinions (and dollars) don't matter.
Originally Posted By mickeyboy43 "The middle-class couple from Ohio who save up each year to vacation at WDW with their kids -- and who don't know that the Park in California is older -- are REAL Disney fans. The little girl in Missouri who can't get enough Princess stuff from her local Disney store but knows NOTHING of the Disney "classics" is a TRUE Disney fan. My nephew Blane -- who loves every one of the Disney/Pixar features, and who would probably love for Stitch to appear in EVERY scene in Small World -- is an undisputable hardcore Disney fan. But there are those who declare themselves to be the only "true" fans, because they're old, or because they belong to Fan Clubs, and who feel free to declare all lowly members of the general public to be pseudo-fans whose opinions (and dollars) don't matter." I love this post! It pretty much sums everything up. Fans arent just hardcore people. Theyre anybody that has a love for some part of Disney, whether it be cartoons, videoscreens, edutainment, or other classic rides. Fans are anyone, and the people that are the "fannier than thou" types have a hard time understanding that someone else loves a different aspect of the company just as much as they love theirs. It comes down to invidualism or nonconformism in a modern day society, which is very hard to pull off.
Originally Posted By bobbelee9 <<<And, frankly, while I greatly appreciate the sentiments that caused you to start the thread, I'm not thrilled with being the center of attention. I don't feel I'm nearly as interesting as what I have to say ... but I guess others disagree ;-)>>> You can't separate the man from what he has to say. Not possible.
Originally Posted By DAR <<The middle-class couple from Ohio who save up each year to vacation at WDW with their kids -- and who don't know that the Park in California is older -- are REAL Disney fans. The little girl in Missouri who can't get enough Princess stuff from her local Disney store but knows NOTHING of the Disney "classics" is a TRUE Disney fan. My nephew Blane -- who loves every one of the Disney/Pixar features, and who would probably love for Stitch to appear in EVERY scene in Small World -- is an undisputable hardcore Disney fan.>> Count it plus the foul, chance for a three point play. Seriously people there's much bigger fish to fry in the Disney skillet than whether or not someone mistakes who the monorail announcer is.
Originally Posted By MPierce >> Why, why?!?! Why did someone have to say "it's subjective"?!? AHHH!!!! *hides from it* << My entire life is based on subjectivity. There's no escaping it for me!
Originally Posted By jaycub <<The middle-class couple from Ohio who save up each year to vacation at WDW with their kids -- and who don't know that the Park in California is older -- are REAL Disney fans. The little girl in Missouri who can't get enough Princess stuff from her local Disney store but knows NOTHING of the Disney "classics" is a TRUE Disney fan. My nephew Blane -- who loves every one of the Disney/Pixar features, and who would probably love for Stitch to appear in EVERY scene in Small World -- is an undisputable hardcore Disney fan.>> There really is nothing that needs to be added to that. What makes Disney magical for one person will invariably irritate someone from a prior genaration who objects to seeing their nostalgic vision of the company changed. This would've been my entry for my pet peeve
Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 ^^I would add something and that is there's nothing nostalgic about wanting Disney quality, cleanliness and value today and every day. I don't believe you even have to be a Disney 'fan' perse to want that. I would guess that any guest wants the best. My pet peeve is when people defend mediocrity because in the large scheme it carries over to real life as the last eight years proves and harms all of us.
Originally Posted By X-san Yeah, the thing is part of what made Disney stand out in the past was their high standards of cleanliness and show, and that's something even so-so Disney fans (like my Dad for example) would rave about. That's not nostalgia, that's just a company setting standards that it should, going forward, maintain.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip <<Yeah, the thing is part of what made Disney stand out in the past was their high standards of cleanliness>> Yes!! That is a part of the Disney park experience that has certainly degraded. I really wish the 'fans' would concentrate on issues like that where there has been an obvious decrease in quality and not nit-pick over details that the average park visitor will never notice. To me the attractions are pretty much the same quality as they always were. There are some new ones that are great (Everest, Soarin') and some that are pretty lousy (Stitch). But that is always the way it has been. A few E tickets, and a bunch of B and C tickets. What even a casual visitor like me notices is that I used to be so impressed about how clean Disney restrooms were. Now I have to try to remember where the ones are that are usually pretty clean. That is the type of thing, in my opinion, that people should really do something about. Of course complaining about dirty restrooms is nowhere near as much fun as complaining about toons in Small World, so something that would benefit us all gets ignored in favor of something that maybe 5% of the park visitors care about.
Originally Posted By dshyates But combine dirty restrooms and characters everywhere and its not much different that six Flags.
Originally Posted By Tink34 My personal pet peeve is when people see the statue of Mickey shaking Leopold Stokowski's hand (which used to be in the lobby on the Contemporary and is now at the Magic of Disney Animation) and they say "oh look it's Walt and Mickey!" No! That is NOT Walt! Go home and watch the classic Disney films...educate yourself!
Originally Posted By Bob Paris I wouldn't be too harsh there. A lot of kids today raised with the repulsive likes of Spongehoob Splogpits and Bratz would barely know who Mickey is.......let alone Leopold Stokowski.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip <<No! That is NOT Walt! Go home and watch the classic Disney films...educate yourself!>> It is that kind of holier than thou attitude by the uberfans possessing arcane bits of Disney knowledge that makes us real people dismiss about 90% of what you have to say. That attitude is MY pet peeve.
Originally Posted By dshyates Back to the OP about people not knowing who Jack Wagner was (by the way, wasn't he Blackie Parish on General Hospital". I am not sure I would blame the fans for that. Exactly how would they know who the nebulous voice is. Thats sort of like knowing who does to VO for the airport tram at DFW or LAX. What I do find shocking is that Disney does a really bad job of acknowledging their high profile artists. If they don't know who Mary Blair is, then the vioce on the monorail is even more obscure. They don't know who Marc Davis is. Thurl Ravenscroft. Most don't even know who Ub Iwerks is. So I blame Disny for doing a piss poor job of acknowleding its history. I don't know how many of you have been to Kennywood, but it is a wonderful turn of the century traditional amusement park in Pittsburgh. The park itself in listed as a National Historic Landmark. Many of the attracions are some of the last of their kind on the planet and have their own historical designations. Everyboby keeps saying Disneyland shouldn't be a museum. Well, I used to agree, but I'm not so sure anymore. Since they have a second and soon third gate for new attractions. And Disneyland Parks place in, not only theme park history, but American history. And cosidering they have duplicate attractions to play with in WDW, why not add in queue preshows that explains the history of each attraction and the changes that it has gone through over the years. They did this at Kennywood for the "Old Mill". It was originally built in 1901. It had been rethemed several times. The queue video was very interesting. Until I saw the video I was pretty upset over "The Haunted Hideaway" had been rethemed to "Garfield". The video explained tha it started out as "The old Mill", was rethemed in the 50s to "Around the World', the 60s to "Haunted Hideaway" and the recently Garfield. They mentioned how they used some of the onimentation from the "Around the World" boats to decorate a food stand elsewhere in the park. And by the end of the video i felt a lot better about "Garfield" taking over. So I'm not saying don't change the attractions over time, but add a ton of brass signs in front of significant smaller attractions. Video preshows to the "biggies". Like why can't the train station have 6 flat screens play a video talking about Walt and his love for trains. And the "Trains of Disneyland". Put a gazeebo that matches the store on the right side of IASW. Have a short preshow that has Walt and Mary and the Worlds Fair, and talk about the Holiday overlay and the addition of Disney characters. If they acknowledge the change while honoring the original then I think everyone will feel a lot better about the changes. Do something similar at HM, maybe in the small courtyard next to the main "House" that the queue goes through. Educate your captive audience as to why it is important. While throwing in a shameless plug for the Holiday overlay. "In 2001, Jack Skellington and his friends started spending the Holidays in the mansion. Every year they decorate for the Holidays. It was the brain child of Steve Davidson, (cut to Steve's talking head "Blah, Blah, Yadda, Yadda")". I don't know you guys would probably hate this kind of stuff. But I really enjoyed it at Kennywood and having an actual American Treasure, well, I just think they could do more to capitalize on it.
Originally Posted By hopemax > Back to the OP about people not knowing who Jack Wagner was (by the way, wasn't he Blackie Parish on General Hospital". No that was John Stamos. Jack Wagner's character was Frisco Jones. Carry on...
