Walt Disney World General
Topic: Where has all the magic gone?

#	Author	Message
1	Spirit of 74 Wed 8/8/2007 7:47p	So what's my problem with the MK? That's what a Disney fanboy on another site asked me in a private message a while ago. I just ignored it, but I think I'd like to explain a bit. So let's go back in time to 1987 and compare the MK then and now, shall we? And please if you disagree, let's not point out obvious facts that are irrelevant to this discussion. Everyone knows WDW now has four parks, two water parks and 30,000 plus rooms and timeshares. But they aren't what this thread is about, it's why I feel the MK is a pale, stale shadow of its former self. Let's start with show and how important it used to be. Most people here probably don't see an issue with character-based entertainment in any/every land. But that's not what the MK was. In 1987 (and it's just a random year I picked because it's two decades ago) the only land with character-based entertainment/attractions was Fantasyland. The lands had meaning. Frontierland was about the wild west American frontier. Liberty Square went even further back to the Colonial/Revolutionary period. Tomorrowland was about the future. Adventureland was about visiting exotic lands where you could be attacked by hippos, climb a jungle treehouse, set sail with Pirates etc..., Main Street was about a nostalgic return to turn of the century small--town America. None of the lands had attractions with animated characters tossed in. Today? Every land but one now has Disney characters in attractions or as the basis of them. That's despite the fact that a year after my date, Mickey's Birthdayland opened as a 'home' for the characters. It has since gone through two changes, but is still -- at it's heart -- the same. How about show? As in carrying the theme through in everything from shopping to dining to trash cans. Today, every shop sells the same merchandise. Most of it is cheap WalMart quality. Things that are overpriced at cast sales, let alone full price. The shops have stopped telling a story. You can no longer buy Western wear or that type of product in Frontierland. There are no future-thinking toys in Tomorrowland. Indeed, the entire left side of Main Street has become a giant World of Disney store without any real differentiation, but with different facades facing the Street. The sense of time and place have been destroyed. Instead of being on a turn of the century street with a magic shop, Penny Arcade, Cinema, Market House ... even Smoke Shop ... has the feel of a giant Disney outlet. Don;'t forget that Hannah Montana CD, Jack Sparrow figurine or Tink sweatshirt on the way out. Entertainment has been WalMarted as well. The extremely popular Diamond Horseshoe Review ended because it was cheaper to hire college kids to dress as characters than have real, unionized entertainers putting on a western show. All entertainment is character-based. Disney execs and PR hacks will tell you it's because 'that's what our guests want.' To that I say, bull*&^%. That's the same as CNN and FOX doing non-stop Paris Hilton coverage and saying people want it. How do you know? Are you giving them a choice? Parades that were changed frequently now get announced as major additions for marketing celebrations and then stay 'due to popular demand' for years later. Do you really want a six-year-old daytime parade and a 15-year-old night-time one vs. something new and creative? Seasonal entertainment only exists now if you are willing to pay extra for it. Want Halloween? Pay an extra $50. Want Christmas? Not without giving the Mouse an extra $50. The Candlelight Procession went down Main Street and you didn't have to buy a dinner package to get a good view. Individual lands had live entertainers, bands, comedians etc ... In 1987, CMs were almost all folks who were handpicked to work at WDW. Many were full-time and there was a legit opportunity to start out working in the Emporium and wind up a VP. Now? Find a full-time CM who isn't in management. They're tougher to find than a piece of clean pavement. The Disney Look was important. CMs were clean-cut, spoke English well and went out of their way to exceed guest expectations. Management became known as 'suits' because that's how you'd recognize them. Even on a miserable, hot summer day, the suit and tie and professional look was always there. Today? A typical manager is wearing clothes you'd expect of a mall-worker with dangling lanyards, cell phones ... clothes may well be disheveled too. Cleanliness and upkeep were vital. The analogy of the person dropping a box of popcorn and having it disappear before it reached the pavement wasn't far off. There certainly wasn't gum all over the pavement. The queues weren't ghetto. Now ... well, you look around and make your own decision. Guest comfort was very crucial. So trees were provided for shade, not cut down to improve fireworks sightlines. FastPass didn't exist so Space Mountain hardly ever had a line of guests stretching out in the hot sun. Attractions weren't removed and not replaced. There was a Skyway and Explorer Canoes and Keel Boats and a crystal clear submarine lagoon with Captain Nemo's fleet circling. Main Street USA featured an homage to the man we have to thank for everything that now entertains us ... it had a bunch of period vehicles that traveled to the Hub. There were no dead zones, no shops with blacked out windows. No restaurants that sat empty. There were no playgrounds. No attractions that talked down to guests. No character meals. For the most part, every attraction in the park could be enjoyed by most members of the family. Everything wasn't perfect. But that was the standard. That was the goal. The MK was supposed to look brand new every day, and for the most part, it did. The cast wasn't perfect, but they all seemed on the same page: to exceed guest expectations. Today? Again ... I'll leave that up to you to decide. So when I say the MK feels stale to me, well, maybe this will explains why. It feels a whole lot smaller and simpler place, a less vibrant one, to me than it did 20 years ago ... and I know I'm not speaking from rose-colored glasses, just experience. OK, I'm not writing a novel here so I'll stop ... but I'm interested in feedback.
2	dshyates Wed 8/8/2007 8:08p	I agree completely. Disney is not holding itself to the Disney Standard and charging more than ever. It is not the vacation value I expect anymore.
3	dsnykid Wed 8/8/2007 8:17p	Spirit, I appreciate the time you took to write this piece as it gave me insight into your position that your "WDW is being Walmarted" generalizations usually do not. I now have a better picture of your view and do agree with it, and feel it was excellently presented here. Thank you.
4	davewasbaloo Wed 8/8/2007 9:04p	Nothing more to add here, it will just depress me even more. Yep, the MK sucks now. It sucked 7 years ago too for the same reasons, they are just even more apparent now. And this Cancer is not just at WDW. In DLP the shops and restaurants used to be unique (they too are dumbing down). All the attractions built since 1994 have been kiddy, toony or thrill orientated. The characters have kicked out the Lucky Nugget Review. Thankfully live entertainment is returning to the lands for the 15th, but before there was a dearth other than character meet and greets. The sad thing is, the people on the European boards are lapping it up and asking for more. They are saying they find Pm and PotC, as well as Soarin' are Boirin' and want more characters or thrills. There is a poll on one board where they are speculating about the next Disney themed hotel at DLP - and while some of us would like a New Orleans or Boardwalk style hotel, there is an equal to greater number calling for characters. Disney used to be about creating exotic, historical or fantastical environments for us to explore and pretend we are in. DAK and TDS show they can still do this, but sadly, they seem to be the minority these days. And the modern Disney fan doesn't seem to care about the Walmarting/6 Flagging. And the bottom line continues to improve. Well, sadly I do not think I shall be as frequent a visitor as we once were. I still monitor boards in the hopes that there will be a return to glory, and business plans will be drawn up based on quality rather than blandness. But for me, DL and Japan offer the incentives to still travel. WDW does not and DLP, wavers back and forth.
5	DVC_dad Wed 8/8/2007 9:16p	Part of the problem Spirit, when you are talking about the "Magic" is your age and your station in life. The older I get, the weaker "the Magic" becomes. I live it all over again through my own children I suppose. Now all this and add in how many times you have been to WDW. I quit counting somewhere in the neighborhood of 25 visits since 2000. Oh the magic is still there, its just below our radar most of the time. Let me give you a sad example of what will happen more than once this summer. Compare what we see to what the "Make A Wish" 12 year old boy that is going to goto WDW for the first time in his life this summer, will see. Oh to HIM, to HIM there will be MAGIC galore, and he won't see things the way you and I are able to see them. He'll go, he'll see, he'll be aboslutely awe struck, he will have the best time of his life quite literally. He will come back home, then over the course of the next year he will die. His family will morn, and he will be missed. Then one day, a few years from now, his mother will stumble on the photographs from THAT ONCE IN A LIFETIME trip to WDW she made with her son. Laughter and tears will come to her, but just below the surface of the sadness she will feel it again, the magic. And she will be very happy that they got to go to WDW when there was still time. WDW is so many different things to so many different people. I very much agree with everything, and I do mean everything you post concerning the parks. We NEED people to speak out and be vocal and encouraging so that maybe those that have the power to do something about it, will. But the Magic is there. It's just a lot more selective these days.
6	davewasbaloo Wed 8/8/2007 9:39p	You bugger DVC Dad - thanks for making me cry this morning! Yes the magic is there, but the power of that magic is dwindling. How long before it is gone?
7	Sport Goofy Wed 8/8/2007 9:52p	As long as there are children seeing Cinderella's Castle for the first time, taking their first flight with Peter Pan or Dumbo, or taking the wildest ride in the wilderness, the magic will never be gone. For the rest of us, familiarity breeds contempt, you know?
8	-em Wed 8/8/2007 10:06p	I agree with whats been said even though I never saw "that" WDW... I was reading in an 'older (99-00)' Disney book talking about the Disney service and what made it "special". I got to thinking about several things mentioned and it became quickly obvious how what made us "special" has disappeared in only a few years... Walking on the bridge from Liberty to Adventureland with all the chipped and faded paint to hearing the Adventureland entrance music skip tracks to passing a dirty fountain to passing several walls needing paint (which has been called in for repair for weeks!)makes me sad. The sad thing is how many people don't notice or care. Disney has become so Walmarted because the "fastpass generation" people feel inconvienanced and will complain if you try to send them to Fantasyland to get a Snow White dress or to Toontown to get a sweatshirt because its "too far" and "why don't you have it here" and complain via City Hall... Heck trying to send them from one side of the Emp to the other is like pulling teeth some days (you would think we were sending them to Alaska when they ask for postcards in Hall of Champions and they are in the main area) I miss the individuality that things used to have but for now they are going after the $$$ (HOW many Cinderella meals are there now???) and pleasing the dumbed down guest who wants everything when and where they want and not where it should be. -em
9	Spirit of 74 Wed 8/8/2007 10:33p	There's no doubt, DVC_Dad makes an excellent point. And there really is nothing to add on that count. And I know magic is made daily for children and adults visiting for the first time. I recently stood on Main Street with a couple of older women who were visiting for the first time and watching their reactions to Wishes put some joy in this Spirit's heart. But that in no way changes or diminishes my perceptions ... and the facts. And I also don't agree with the familiarity breeds contempt line of thinking. I am also an APer at DL and DLP. I don't feel the same about them. I certainly don't feel that way about DAK or even Epcot, which is the park that hooked me on Disney for life, and has suffered in its own way(s). I was once a wide-eyed little Spirit visiting the MK for the first time. It was just amazing, even though I was there at a very busy time and with some very difficult relatives. I still recall that trip and the next 2-3 in vivid details. I've probably spent hundreds of days of my life in that park (a waste? who knows? who's to judge?)I don't spend all that much time there anymore on my WDW visits ... and when I do I'm usually left with a profound sense of loss because I've had so many happy times there. The park has been in a freefall for close to a decade now and I see nothing to indicate that's going to change. Sure, they rehabbed Small World ... and then let it get trashed. Now, they're making the Mansion kewl again. But they won't maintain it. That's simply not in the business model ... the flawed in my opinion ... one that they rely on. I feel bad for all that's been lost due to the quest to milk every last penny out of every guest. And incredibly bad management that milks that cash cow, even as the udders bleed. I feel truly bad for the young people who only know a WalMarted MK. To those kids ... and the recent Disney guests who have fallen in love, I can only say that I often feel like I've fallen into a parallel universe or Bizarro WDW (to use a Superman/Seinfeld reference) when I'm at the MK. It looks the same. Most of the things are in the same place. Main Street. Check. Train Station. Check. Castle at the end. Check. Bridges to the various lands spreading out in a hub and spoke way. Check. Carousel in the courtyard. Check. etc ... etc ... But the feel... the feel ... is so off. And it's not me ... I'm just reacting to what I'm seeing and experiencing. I often wonder when I think about the way Disney runs its parks if the execs in charge even think for a mili-second that they're actively destroying (or maybe just dumbing down) an amazing legacy. Then I think about people in general and realize, probably not. They're just hoping the new Escalade comes in their color.
10	ssWEDguy Thu 8/9/2007 6:04a	>> Yes the magic is there, but the power of that magic is dwindling. << Peter was right. Never grow up.

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