Hey folks, we are planning a trip for 2013. THe last time our family of 5 went was in 2006. I created a thread back then (it can be searched, for it and all its nonsense off topic discusion). Below i have added the letter i sent to disney back in 2006 which resulted in a call from some Top Brass at the parks.
Can someone read below and tell me if i should expect the same in 2013?
I am hoping they have made BIG STRIDES since then....
Here is what i wrote in 2006....
Greetings,
My family and I are Disney junkies. We go from Memphis to Orlando about every 2 to 3 years. I guess you could say we are a typical Disney vacationing family. We have many many other choices but we always choose Disney.
We JUST got back from our trip this year (October 6th thru 14th) and was our 1st time staying off property. There are many pluses and minuses for both sides, but if we were to do it all over, we'd stay on property. The hassle of driving is too much.
Let me get to the point of my letter.
What has happened to the Disney Parks? The quality seems to be rapidly slipping away from you guys. I am SO VERY PRO DISNEY and would never say an ill word about the parks, but as we were there, we mentioned many times how things seem to be changing for the worse. Last time we went, back in 2001 we had a couple of rude cast member experiences. But this time trouble seems to have manifested its self all over every aspect of the park. I could not believe what we were experiencing.
Let me go down a quick list of things we all noticed.
1. The monorail system smells like a petting zoo. It smells like the abandon side streets here in Memphis on beale street that the bums use as bathrooms. Walt would not be happy about this at all. We noticed this last time too.
2. A bus driver driving a Disney Resort bus mounted a curb and almost ran over my kids. No kidding! This happened at Downtown Disney. Its not like we snuck up on this bus, we were in plain sight and the driver just kept coming. I sat there stunned at what I saw.
3. The audio tracks on Haunted mansion kept coming in and out, like bad cell reception. This is NOT acceptable. The same thing happened on Test track. It would start, and stop in the middle of a word.....a minute would go by and it would resume. It would make no sense to a 1st time visitor. We know these rides well and my kids even asked what was wrong. Why would Disney allow this to be a normal thing?
4. The safari drivers at Animal kingdom sounded like they dreaded the next word they had in their script. This was my sisters families 1st time at Disney. It took some convincing to get her to come down, and she mentioned that it sounded dull, monotone and tired. One of the drivers passed us in the queue and she looked madder than hell! Happiest place on earth?
5. The ride Haunted mansion and Spaceship Earth stopped at least 5 times in the middle of the ride. And on Spaceship earth we had a Cast Member who was seating us get verbally forceful with my wife. Not nice at all.
6. We LOVE dining at Si-Fi, its a must do for each of our Disney trips. We do it EVERY time we come. This time the food was horrible, the waiter helping us looked 'put out' that we were there, service was really bad, the cast members always have interacted with the funny 'b' movies on the screen, which adds to the si-fi experience...not a sound. AND we did not get Frisbee's with our 2 kids meals. Now I could swear the prices did not go down on my meals, but what I got was sub par service, and a far less of a Disney experience. I sat astounded.
7. This one is a minor one, but we went to the SLUSHY store over by Pirates of the Caribbean, and they have 4 things on the menu...2 of which are slushi's....guess what was broken? Its like going to a seafood restaurant and them telling you they have no seafood. If this were a 7-11...its no big deal, but this is DISNEY, who ONCE prided themselves in "legendary customer service"...I know cuz I took the course!
What I witnessed this time was heartbreaking. The prices are sky high, but the level of service has truly fallen. I always wondered how Universal Studios could compete with Disney. I felt they could never RAISE the bar high enough...what is sad is they don't have to...Disney is lowering the bar so low that its easy for them to catch up.
I feel all patriotic in side when I see Mickey mouse. Its like a marine seeing an American flag. This time we were soooo disillusioned that we are probably going to just do a Skanky Six-Flags vacation next time. It appears that who ever is overseeing the parks has lost Walt's vision. It kills me to say that, but what we experienced this past week is proof.
We did have some good experiences, it was not all bad, but the bad far far overshadowed the good.
I'd love to talk to anyone who cares about this. I've got all my receipts if you guys need help tracking down the facts.
I hope this does not fall on deaf ears.
Dennis Cupp
Memphis, TN
Can someone read below and tell me if i should expect the same in 2013?
I am hoping they have made BIG STRIDES since then....
Here is what i wrote in 2006....
Greetings,
My family and I are Disney junkies. We go from Memphis to Orlando about every 2 to 3 years. I guess you could say we are a typical Disney vacationing family. We have many many other choices but we always choose Disney.
We JUST got back from our trip this year (October 6th thru 14th) and was our 1st time staying off property. There are many pluses and minuses for both sides, but if we were to do it all over, we'd stay on property. The hassle of driving is too much.
Let me get to the point of my letter.
What has happened to the Disney Parks? The quality seems to be rapidly slipping away from you guys. I am SO VERY PRO DISNEY and would never say an ill word about the parks, but as we were there, we mentioned many times how things seem to be changing for the worse. Last time we went, back in 2001 we had a couple of rude cast member experiences. But this time trouble seems to have manifested its self all over every aspect of the park. I could not believe what we were experiencing.
Let me go down a quick list of things we all noticed.
1. The monorail system smells like a petting zoo. It smells like the abandon side streets here in Memphis on beale street that the bums use as bathrooms. Walt would not be happy about this at all. We noticed this last time too.
2. A bus driver driving a Disney Resort bus mounted a curb and almost ran over my kids. No kidding! This happened at Downtown Disney. Its not like we snuck up on this bus, we were in plain sight and the driver just kept coming. I sat there stunned at what I saw.
3. The audio tracks on Haunted mansion kept coming in and out, like bad cell reception. This is NOT acceptable. The same thing happened on Test track. It would start, and stop in the middle of a word.....a minute would go by and it would resume. It would make no sense to a 1st time visitor. We know these rides well and my kids even asked what was wrong. Why would Disney allow this to be a normal thing?
4. The safari drivers at Animal kingdom sounded like they dreaded the next word they had in their script. This was my sisters families 1st time at Disney. It took some convincing to get her to come down, and she mentioned that it sounded dull, monotone and tired. One of the drivers passed us in the queue and she looked madder than hell! Happiest place on earth?
5. The ride Haunted mansion and Spaceship Earth stopped at least 5 times in the middle of the ride. And on Spaceship earth we had a Cast Member who was seating us get verbally forceful with my wife. Not nice at all.
6. We LOVE dining at Si-Fi, its a must do for each of our Disney trips. We do it EVERY time we come. This time the food was horrible, the waiter helping us looked 'put out' that we were there, service was really bad, the cast members always have interacted with the funny 'b' movies on the screen, which adds to the si-fi experience...not a sound. AND we did not get Frisbee's with our 2 kids meals. Now I could swear the prices did not go down on my meals, but what I got was sub par service, and a far less of a Disney experience. I sat astounded.
7. This one is a minor one, but we went to the SLUSHY store over by Pirates of the Caribbean, and they have 4 things on the menu...2 of which are slushi's....guess what was broken? Its like going to a seafood restaurant and them telling you they have no seafood. If this were a 7-11...its no big deal, but this is DISNEY, who ONCE prided themselves in "legendary customer service"...I know cuz I took the course!
What I witnessed this time was heartbreaking. The prices are sky high, but the level of service has truly fallen. I always wondered how Universal Studios could compete with Disney. I felt they could never RAISE the bar high enough...what is sad is they don't have to...Disney is lowering the bar so low that its easy for them to catch up.
I feel all patriotic in side when I see Mickey mouse. Its like a marine seeing an American flag. This time we were soooo disillusioned that we are probably going to just do a Skanky Six-Flags vacation next time. It appears that who ever is overseeing the parks has lost Walt's vision. It kills me to say that, but what we experienced this past week is proof.
We did have some good experiences, it was not all bad, but the bad far far overshadowed the good.
I'd love to talk to anyone who cares about this. I've got all my receipts if you guys need help tracking down the facts.
I hope this does not fall on deaf ears.
Dennis Cupp
Memphis, TN
That can't totally be helped. 
