If anyone remembers the cars...

[Jason71]

The little important things are starting to slip...As for cleaniless, it is still leaps and bounds above any other "park" I have visited. Although this year I felt it slipped. 50% of the bathrooms we used were dirty (I had to open quite a few stall doors before I found a "clean" one {a first for me at WDW}). I can't tell you how many cockroaches (at least 4 in. long if not longer) (the kids couldn't even sit to watch the parades) we encountered (I stopped counting at 35). And then last but not least, the 2 foot rat (not Mickey) at The Brown Derby.

I'm sorry, "starting to slip"? Are you saying if you saw roaches or a 2-foot rat at any random restaurant in your hometown, you'd just shrug your shoulders and go back the next week?

A stray piece of litter on the ground should be unacceptable at Disney. What you're describing should be unacceptable anywhere. But as long as people continue to overlook things like this "because it's just so darn magical," the parks will continue to slide toward what Walt was trying to avoid in the first-place.

 

[raidermatt]

One day, I would love to see a story teller at the helm of the Disney company again, but I doubt it will ever happen. I will say that just because a good thing happens because a suit somewhere decided it would be a good financial investment and not becuase a storyteller wanted to introduce a new story or medium, doesn't mean that the new story or medium is flawed. It can and should be enjoyed on its own merits.

There doesn't need to be a storyteller at the helm. There just needs to be somebody who understands the value of storytelling. Not as a commodity, but as an art form. At best, current management (Pixar excluded) knows there's some value to it, but they still see it as something that can be created via formulas as a means to a franchise.

The point is the philosophies are all wrong. There's no understanding that great entertainment isn't like widgets.

Will they sometimes create something people like? Sure. Sometimes, they'll get on hot streaks, sometimes they will tank. By applauding the good things and ignoring the fact that the process is broken, you aren't encouraging good behavior. You are just encouraging more of the same.

That's not to mean we can't say something is fun, or even a good attraction. It's just that as long as the process is the same, things in the long run will not improve. Somebody will use a spreadsheet or a powerpoint to convince somebody else that those increased hours are wasting money, or that Early Entry isn't really needed, or that marketing is more important than E-tickets, and we will get more of the same.

I don't know if you have kids, but it's like having a kid who won't study, so you get on him/her about it. They still don't study but get better grades the next year. Does that grade make everything ok? Or is it more important for their future that they understand the value of effort?

That's what we've got here. Fix the process and there will be better success in the future. Keep it the same and you'll get what we've been getting, cycles of good and bad, periods where some things are addressed while others slip, etc.

 

[raidermatt]

Oh, I wanted to address this point as well:

But since 1969, and really even before then, the company has been about making money; the theme park division does it through parks, resorts, dining, shopping and attractions.

The company has been about making money since it became a company. The two key differences now are HOW the company's goes about trying to make money and WHAT they do with it when they make it.

Walt's philosophy wasn't just to create and give things away. He believed in value, innovation, setting ever-rising goals, all that good stuff. And he believed that if you did those things and invested in them, the money would come. Apparently he was right.

He then wanted to pour every bit of that money back into creating more stuff. Sounds like the ultimate growth company to me... just what Wall Street loves.