Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 SaveDisney wasn't the problem. Not taking it further and just making it about Michael was. He wasn't the cancer killing Disney. He was part of the organism that had infected the company. Now, years after he's gone, people are waking up (some anyway, despite Disney's best kept secret: taking over the fan community through Social Media, thanks for the shout out today, Al! )and seeing that Eisner wasn't the problem, the business models and strategies on leading Disney were. And all those Michael execs, including the Weatherman, are still at Disney and they haven't suddenly sniffed the pixie dust and have been reborn in Walt's image.
Originally Posted By dshyates Seriously Hans, I agree that other stuff is creepy, but you really don't see a difference in choosing to watch a robot show and Disney spamming YOUR phone all day long with pictures of yourself? Or knowing that you haven't given them money for dinner yet and spamming your phone repeatedly with suggestions based on everything you have eaten on property or at home or even what products you bought at the grocery store or pharmacy.
Originally Posted By ChiMike Yes, like Tom Staggs, Meg Crofton, Erin Wallace, Leslie Ferraro, Karl Holz. All Eisner era executives, still running WDP&R 7 years later. Spirit, I thought it was nice reading Al's take on all of your thoughts. j/k!
Originally Posted By ChiMike >>Seriously Hans, I agree that other stuff is creepy, but you really don't see a difference in choosing to watch a robot show and Disney spamming YOUR phone all day long with pictures of yourself? Or knowing that you haven't given them money for dinner yet and spamming your phone repeatedly with suggestions based on everything you have eaten on property or at home or even what products you bought at the grocery store or pharmacy.<< Quite a leap from buying the old Cooking With Mickey cookbook from the Contemporary's gift shop in the early 80's, huh.
Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 <<Yes, like Tom Staggs, Meg Crofton, Erin Wallace, Leslie Ferraro, Karl Holz. All Eisner era executives, still running WDP&R 7 years later.>> Yes. Like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. No new blood. No outsiders. No old guard that was forced out coming home. The same (expletive deleted) in different places. <<Spirit, I thought it was nice reading Al's take on all of your thoughts. j/k!>> I love it when I can make the King of the Fanbois write columns that he pulled out of his behind. j/nk!
Originally Posted By WDWVacationer I don't like this at all. I wish NextGen would be used to make experiences in the parks more enjoyable and not suck all the spontaneity out of it. Part of the fun of the parks is going places on a whim. Sure, that's no longer the way in dining, but attractions? I hardly know what I want to eat 180 days out and to have to say "at 11:45 I want to ride______"does not sound fun. And what if an attraction goes 101 for 2 hours at 11:00? What will the folks between 11 and 1 do? What about APs?
Originally Posted By TP2000 >>"This IS the direction NEXT GEN was heading and we all (or most of us) knew it. I didn't read anything new in Lutz's column at all."<< I believe you didn't read anything new, but almost all of us had never heard of such a thing before this morning. I read it first on my iPhone and couldn't fathom it, so I had to wait to get home to read it again on a real screen and I found it fascinating. I had never heard of the NextGen thing taking over vacations like that. I spend way too much time on message boards and Disney fansites, and had only heard NextGen was about adding wacky games to the queues of popular rides. The XPass thing is all new info for nearly all of us. And I don't like the sound of it, especially at Disneyland.
Originally Posted By ChiMike >>I had never heard of the NextGen thing taking over vacations like that. I spend way too much time on message boards and Disney fansites, and had only heard NextGen was about adding wacky games to the queues of popular rides. The XPass thing is all new info for nearly all of us<< TP, this news has been floating out there for at least a good 7 years on the WDW side. It was started prior to that as Destination Disney and was very prominent in the direction they were taking WDW. Fastpass started it. Pal Mickey (Again WDW) was another step. Online Dining Reservations and resort pin codes another. The Verizon Apps and then Kim Possible another step. So, while sitting out West and coming into this side of lp.com, I understand where it wasn't spelled out in writing, but make no mistake for those paying attention and living through these gradual steps, it has been seen coming a mile away. It is what I tried to warn about in the Fastpass thread just last week.
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt "Seriously Hans, I agree that other stuff is creepy, but you really don't see a difference in choosing to watch a robot show and Disney spamming YOUR phone all day long with pictures of yourself?" I see the difference in the guest EXPERIENCE (caps added for emphasis - I'm not yelling at you) between the two examples, however I do not see the difference in the "creepy" factor.
Originally Posted By Bolna <<I believe you didn't read anything new, but almost all of us had never heard of such a thing before this morning. >> I think it just is a bit more detailed than what Tom Staggs said already in an investor's conference in February. It was in the Orlando Sentinel even: <a href="http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2011-02-17/news/os-disney-next-generation-experience-20110217_1_disney-dream-cruise-ship-resorts-chairman-tom-staggs-theme-parks" target="_blank">http://articles.orlandosentine...me-parks</a> And this would be the thread here on LP: <a href="http://mb.laughingplace.com/MsgBoard-T-118517-P-1.asp" target="_blank">http://mb.laughingplace.com/Ms...-P-1.asp</a> I did not like it then, and I don't like it now. And I am someone who likes to plan their WDW vacation (much less now than I used to for my first trips though). I think this over-scheduling of the guests not only takes away from the park experience as others have already pointed out. But I think it also creates a huge danger of guest dissatisfaction. This sets an awful lot of expectations which all have to be met. Vacations don't work like clockwork. You might be tired one morning, the kids might be hungry at a different time than the one the meal is scheduled for. It is pouring outside when you have your scheduled time for BTMRR. You get stuck in the parade crowds - or even more likely on a monorail. And so on. If you don't have set appointments you can just adjust your plans. But what if that means that you miss your one X-pass for Soarin?
Originally Posted By hopemax While I had certainly heard about the Next Gen project before, it was always kind of in an abstract "whatever" kind of format. This is really the first time, I actually thought about what it would mean from a more mathematically point of view. But along those lines... Is it possible, that this would bring into sharp focus the drawbacks of delaying park improvements and the capacity issues. To use Dining as an example, the fallout of the difficulty of getting into breakfast at CRT led to the Princess Breakfast over at Norway. If the most popular rides constantly book up, and become difficult to ride for too many guests, than will Disney be forced into making immediate capital improvements (refurbs of under-performing venues, or new attractions, especially e-ticket attractions) or lose bookings. I know wishful thinking. But I'm starting to picture multiple rides requiring the TSMM dash for those without bookings, and not thinking that will go over very well. Especially, if you are a resort guest and still find yourself having to fight for one of the "non-booking" spots. So I guess I'm holding onto hope, that a review would reveal that there are too many resort guests and not enough ride capacity (among things that people want to ride most)to implement this without torpedoing the rest of your guests.
Originally Posted By Autopia Deb Hans, re: the creepy factor. While I get what you're saying about the current level of creepyness in the parks, Small World dolls, ubiquitous security cameras and the Disney CIA. I find Big Brother in mouse ears tracking my every move via my cell phone FAR more disconcerting. Like I said, I'm not panicking about this one yet, but if it is implemented I'll be getting my son and I a couple of those throw-away phones just for Disney World vacations.
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt "I find Big Brother in mouse ears tracking my every move via my cell phone FAR more disconcerting." Yeah, I can see that. Still, controlling your emotions while systematically urging you to empty pockets under the guise of "magic" is more troubling (and creepy) to me, but whatever.
Originally Posted By Autopia Deb I'm not much of a shopper and tend to do things on the cheap. I'm a skin flint by nature so the manipulation to buy, buy, buy while in the parks is largely lost on me. I think one year my big souvenir purchase was a box of mints with a character on it (the onions in my salad had been particularly lively at lunch).
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt "I'm not much of a shopper and tend to do things on the cheap. I'm a skin flint by nature so the manipulation to buy, buy, buy while in the parks is largely lost on me." But it isn't necessarily stores I'm talking about AutopiaDeb. I'm referring to the billions of dollars guests spend at Disney parks every year - park admissions, food, lodging, blah blah blah. Even those of us here who aren't shopaholics find it hard not to give in to our Disney addictions and very few of us are doing it for free. Disney is very cunning, and when it comes to seductively winning brand loyalty with visitors it always has been. That in itself is "creepy" to me. Thus, this whole XPass thing is just another product or service designed to lock people into the "magic" in a long list of things they've been doing for years to achieve the same objective. Maybe this time it's more blatant, but it's all the same to me. "I think one year my big souvenir purchase was a box of mints with a character on it (the onions in my salad had been particularly lively at lunch)." Lively? LOL!
Originally Posted By dshyates I too am not a shopper. I am an AP nightmare. There are many days that I am in the parks and don't spend a dime. They really don't even have anything I want anymore. I can't really see myself buying a Duffy the Disney Merchendising Bear.
Originally Posted By CuriousConstance dshyates, you asked when they were planning to roll this nextgen thing out? Here is the quote from Al's article: "The entire NextGen and XPass concept is near and dear to Bob Iger’s heart, and the WDW planners hope to be rolling this all out by the middle of this decade. " "Like I said, I'm not panicking about this one yet, but if it is implemented I'll be getting my son and I a couple of those throw-away phones just for Disney World vacations. " Al's article also mentioned that you can use loaner phones from Disney. That would be useful for all the cheapies like me who don't pay for smartphones.
Originally Posted By CuriousConstance "Did you stop by Subway this morning for that breakfast flatbread? Have that chilled Cranapple juice poured now? Well then let's get going shall we?" Now THIS is creepy.
