I will join you in celebrating the positive. I love Hollywood Studios and the Animal Kingdom. Neither of those parks existed in 1984, and today, both of them thrill me.
But more than just small things are gone.
As a child, I went to Walt Disney World just about every other year from 1976-1992. Then, I did not go to Disney again until 2002. In those 10 years, between 1992 and 2002, important things were lost from my Walt Disney World experience.
The one that was the MOST shocking to me was that in 2002, all of a sudden, it seemed that at the end of every attraction, guests were spit out into a gift shop. Disney never did that in the 1980s. It turned the park experience into something crass and commercial to me. Maybe it was done gradually over those 10 years, and most guests did not even notice the difference, but I sure did.
With a gift shop at the end of every attraction, it became blatantly obvious that Disney World was putting profit ahead of guest experience. I like a subtle approach better. That kind of in-your-face materialism is offensive to me. I am able to put blinders on to it today, but I do miss the old feel of the Magic Kingdom.
Another loss, for me, is the increase in crowd levels. In the 1980s, all of my family vacations were from June 26th to July 5th. Even on the Fourth of July, Disney never felt too crowded. Of course, there were crowds, especially for the parades and fireworks, but nothing like the crowds that exist now.
In December 2008, I was nearly trampled, in a bottle neck in front of the Crystal Palace, while trying to navigate a stroller out of the park before the fireworks began.
That sounds extreme, but it's actually pretty accurate. People were stuck and no one wanted to back up. One side of the crowd was yelling at the other side to move, and neither side was willing to budge. I didn't care which way we went, as long as I eventually got my four year old safely out of the park.
I was standing on the bridge near the Crystal Palace, and I could hear a child crying that she had to go potty. Several young adult males started shouting obscenities at the crowd to move. I was backed up against the guard rail on the bridge so tight that I was afraid I was going to go over it. A middle aged woman stepped into my daughter's stroller without asking permission and started climbing on top of people to get out. It was insanity. And I really believe it was negligence on Disney's part to allow that situation to occur.
My third example combines the commercialism with the crowds,
MNSSHP and
MVMCP. You would think those two events would be welcome additions to the Disney experience.
Well, I was about two hours into my first MVMCP when I realized what Disney had done. Although I had paid for park admission that day, they had closed the park several hours early and coaxed me into paying for park admission a SECOND time that day. Then, they said there would be free hot chocolate and cookies (watered down and hard-as-a-rock) and SNOW (some kind of strange soap flakes, that I was scared to inhale, falling on one small section of Main Street).
But of course, none of that mattered, because there was limited admission, and we had special tickets--NOT! The Magic Kingdom was more crowded that evening than it had been all day. It was standing room only at the special shows, and tall people with hats on stood in front of me. My four year old couldn't see a thing. The character meets had lines a mile long. The rides had lines a mile long. The whole experience was one big bust, and I was fool hardy enough to pay double the cost of admission for all of us.
And then, along with the over-the-top commercialism and crowd levels, it also seems that the customer service has slipped at Disney. Some cast members are as wonderful as ever, but a noticeable number do not make eye contact or greet guests. It's not their fault. The customer service training is not the same as it was in the 1980s. I do not believe the cast members are treated as well by Disney as they once were either.
I do hope that cast members are treated well, because they deserve the very best Disney has to offer.
Finally, I feel that Disney continues to make cutbacks that detract from the guest experience (closing Pleasure Island, cuts to the monorail schedule, even Fantasmic was cut to two nights per weeks for a while, although park attendance was strong). Another area with significant cutbacks has been the dining plan. First, they took away the gratuity and appetizer, and now, they are taking away the second snack on the quick service plan. Did they really need to do that? Not to mention that dining plan in general has caused many of the restaurants to no longer offer some of the more unique and special dishes, and food quality has suffered.
Other details that I miss have been discussed here ad infinitum (i.e. resort specific merchandise, Mickey shaped pats of butter, and logo napkins), but suffice it to say that there have been noticeable losses that negatively impact my experience as a guest, and no, bigger and better theme parks do not, necessarily, make up for those losses.
I didn't read between, no telling what is in the 11 pages 
Have no idea how this one happened 
Just kidding!
I've read several of your posts this evening, and you say things in a friendly way. Thanks for giving me a smile 
~This is such a wonderful, thoughtful, and well written post, it's one of the best I've ever read. I just had to find your post, luckily I only had to go back one page, lol. 
