For those who say Disney has gone downhill

[sunshine1]

Sorry but I got to disagree. I have just returned from my 6th trip after last visiting 2011 and for me, it is still great as ever.

I found the parks to be spotless and the cast members to be as helpful and as cheerful as ever.

If something is not good I will be the first person to call it.

I couldn't find fault with Disney on this trip.

 

[hedberg1661]

That is great to hear. I too have had great experiences with all my Disney Trips. This does not mean some things didn't go as planned nor does it mean something wasn't great but when you look at everything overall I think Disney is really hard to beat as far as consistency.

 

[Lyncha]

I think people tend to nitpick WDW to death. I have never went to Disney and came home not satisfied.

 

[MC0810]

Glad you had such a great time!!! We are looking forward to our trip next month.

Of the many times we have gone to disney over the last few years there was only 1 time we left questioning whether we would return anytime soon (rides breaking down left and right, rude cast members). So Glad we decided to return...Disney isnt PERFECT, Castmembers arent robots, they are people too who have off days. The rest of our trips have been fantastic.

 

[PrincessJo]

Agree 100%.

 

[sunb75]

So happy to hear all this!

 

[hawgwilld]

This is great to hear
Ive been reading some of these posts for awhile and found it hard to beleive disney had fallen so far so fast according to some posters.
Heading down for my fourth visit the end of april and have never left feeling dissapointed in any way.
Fort Wilderness Rocks

 

[wiigirl]

I think people tend to nitpick WDW to death. I have never went to Disney and came home not satisfied.

ditto.

 

[JeremyGNJ]

I think people tend to nitpick WDW to death. I have never went to Disney and came home not satisfied.

I think it happens most with people who go very often. They end up romanticizing their first trip or two...and then because they are there so often they notice ANY little thing. Whereas the first couple times you go, there might be a couple things out of place, but you aren't looking for any details, you're just overwhelmed by WDW.

 

[Tonka's Skipper]

I think people tend to nitpick WDW to death. I have never went to Disney and came home not satisfied.

 

[redsbe]

I have been to WDW every few years since 1990 and most recently on this past Monday, and I have not noticed any issues with CMs or unclean parks. Certainly plenty of more visitors and the days and parks seem full of events and activities so yes the experience has changed in ways but I would not describe the parks as "going downhill". Although I have no doubt that with millions of visitors and how busy the parks can get, some people may experience a rude CM, or messy bathroom, or rides breaking down.

 

[eliza61]

Sorry but I got to disagree. I have just returned from my 6th trip after last visiting 2011 and for me, it is still great as ever.

I found the parks to be spotless and the cast members to be as helpful and as cheerful as ever.

If something is not good I will be the first person to call it.

I couldn't find fault with Disney on this trip.

LOl. Not sure if I would call 3 years a long time Disney visitor or a lot of time to do a comparison.

But here are my thoughts.

first, I find that any complaint on the dis board garners the claws to come out. I don't think we are very objective. I always tell first timers, this is a great site for information, it's not the best site for objective reviews as any negative review will get flamed. Why would some one give their honest opinion? just like the posters above, one of the first things we're told is we're "nitpicking". Huh??

Now sorry I've been going the last 20 years and the world has definitely changed. some good, some not so much.

1) IMO the food has most definitely declined. call it due to the ddp or just way more mouths to feed or the fact most people aren't that demanding but I think most long time visitors feel the food quality has gone down hill.

2) Everybody has different ideas about what is important to them. It's not nitpicking, it's called people value different things.

For example. when they outsourced valet parking it went downhill. Now for you guys valet parking is probably not important but for my family it is extremely important because we use to travel with a mobility impaired grandparent. I can't tell you how many times people will tell me, I complain about nothing because of the lousy valet service. for you it's not nothing, for my family it is an issue.

3) down hill doesn't mean we hate it.

Generally we do have a great time and I do agree that part of it is because I use to be an annual visit. what happens we you go there so often, you tend to notice the dirty rugs in the hallways. (yuckie) and the paint peeling.

4) Complete trip reports.

Now another phenomenon I noticed on the dis is when you mention a "negative" people swear you are complaining I know when I write trip reports I tend to give the good, the bad and the ugly. Does not equate to complaining. For example, I once wrote about how I found cigarette butts on my balcony and every day I spoke with the front desk about it but the message never got to mouse keeping. No my trip was not ruined, yes I had a good time but if I'm writing a trip report I will say that mousekeeping was laxed. Which I've come to realize breaks some sort of commandment. "thou shall never disparage the mouse world" So yes, even if some thing goes wrong, like you I handle it immediately but if I'm writing a trip report should I never mention it? no, like I said I give the good, the bad and the ugly.

I still enjoy my vacations but they have changed. We no longer go every year and rarely do we eat on site. Meals are super important to us so we'd rather go offsite. Once we use to go yearly for 8-9 days. Now 5 days is enough

But back to the original topic.

Op, glad you had a great time. Even if I don't think it's as magical as when I first started to go, I do think it's a special place and I'm always happy when folks have a good time.

 

[dvcmember2]

Glad to hear you had a good trip! We are going in November and it has been two years since our previous trip and I was a little nervous about all the negative reviews lately.

 

[bumbershoot]

LOl. Not sure if I would call 3 years a long time Disney visitor or a lot of time to do a comparison.
...

4) Complete trip reports.

Now another phenomenon I noticed on the dis is when you mention a "negative" people swear you are complaining I know when I write trip reports I tend to give the good, the bad and the ugly. Does not equate to complaining. For example, I once wrote about how I found cigarette butts on my balcony and every day I spoke with the front desk about it but the message never got to mouse keeping. No my trip was not ruined, yes I had a good time but if I'm writing a trip report I will say that mousekeeping was laxed. Which I've come to realize breaks some sort of commandment. "thou shall never disparage the mouse world"

I agree with you. We've only been going since December 2010, and I barely consider that enough time to see many changes. Of course, our 2010 WDW portion was pretty hard, especially compared to our spectacular Universal portion (first time for both places for us, first time in Orlando or Florida for DH and DS), so our bar for WDW isn't set all that high to begin with.

And yes, it's amazing how people appreciate an honest and open and "tell the WHOLE story" trip report, but tell a portion of the trip report here or in Resorts or Restaurants or even Transportation (not so much transportation as it's a pixie dust free zone) and you're made out to be a whiner who can't see the positive in anything.




ANd everything is dependent on your experience, anyway. I can walk through MK and see beauty and cleanliness and joy. What I don't know is that 2 minutes before I got anywhere along my walk there was a CM right in front of me, cleaning it. And 5 minutes before they got there, it was all a mess with wrappers everywhere and someone having been sick next to a garbage can. And there was someone between the people messing it up and the CM cleaning it up, who had a totally different experience than I'm about to.

Hope that makes sense. We never know what happened before or after us, and we can have a totally different experience than someone just minutes before or after us in any given place and time.

 

[DisneyFive]

What's that old saying? ..."Familiarity breeds contempt"?

After going to Disney four years in a row, I noticed that I was spotting little negative things that I didn't the first year. The more familiar you are with something, the more you notice all the nuances, and I think that's part of why people think it goes downhill. Not all of it, but partly.

I also think people tend to remember the best memories of previous trips, so when they go back, they are comparing their current experience to many of their "best of Disney" memories. Makes it tough for their current trip to live up to those in the past.

I don't know, but I think these two things explain some of the reason for the "downhill" mindset.

Dan

 

[Planogirl]

What's that old saying? ..."Familiarity breeds contempt"?

After going to Disney four years in a row, I noticed that I was spotting little negative things that I didn't the first year. The more familiar you are with something, the more you notice all the nuances, and I think that's part of why people think it goes downhill. Not all of it, but partly.

I also think people tend to remember the best memories of previous trips, so when they go back, they are comparing their current experience to many of their "best of Disney" memories. Makes it tough for their current trip to live up to those in the past.

I don't know, but I think these two things explain some of the reason for the "downhill" mindset.

Dan

I agree with most of what you said except that I would say that I also remember the "worst of Disney" things too. I have (rarely) experienced terrible service and food and I remember that too but those things have popped up ever since we first started going. I agree with Eliza that the food has in general gone downhill but I do remember a few pretty awful dishes way back so it could happen.

Disney isn't perfect and never has been. The parks are still fun and mostly nice though so I won't complain.

 

[ciera321]

Great to hear!

 

[pepe of ohio]

50 trips for us... Completely satisfied....everything is beautiful... It all depends on what you want and expect...

Graded for trip 51 May... Want nothing and expect nothing..!!

 

[CFioren317]

I think some of it depends on where you are in your life. The first time I went, I was 21, with a girlfriend, and it was a great time. We didn't have much money and we stayed at the Grosvenor hotel and rode the bus everywhere and I just hated the bus.

The next time I went a few years later I drove down with my wife and baby and had a blast. Stayed at a cheap offsite resort, got some tickets from a friend who had 3 days leftover...this was long before fingerprints and expiration dates and hoppers (maybe hopping was there I don't remember).

The next 5 or 6 times we did the same thing. Drove down, spent a week offsite(hotel or house rental), got our tickets either new or from friends or other ways. Whatever...it didn't matter because there was no expiration dates. I think one time we had 4 different tickets with like 1 or 2 days on each. It was always a great time and it always was as cheap as possible.

Things started to change...get more expensive...fingerprinting meant no more sharing of tickets...advantages for staying onsite...and so the last few times I have gone, it's pretty much been onsite. I am more well off financially than the first 8 or 10 times I went, as my life has improved and added another kid as well (another wife too, but that's another story ).

So now last 3 or 4 times I have gone it's been staying at the parks, hooking in the tickets with the room, and either flying and renting a car or driving down in a rental...yeah, I still hate buses.

And the last few times the experience for me has been different. But it's nothing to do with Disney necessarily...I'm older, a tinge heavier, and I don't like to walk around the parks as much as I used to. However, I love to be able to relax by the pool and have a drink or two and also eat the food at Disney and to me at least, it's enjoyable albeit expensive. As I said...when I was younger, I didn't eat as much onsite because of the expense. We would go to outside places. Now, I can eat wherever and I enjoy that part more.

And in 20 years, God willing, I will be an old fart going with my Grandchildren and probably enjoying it like I did when I was 21 for a whole different reason.

 

[linskypens]

And in 20 years, God willing, I will be an old fart going with my Grandchildren and probably enjoying it like I did when I was 21 for a whole different reason.

Amen Brother!!