NYT - is Disney Magic Slipping?

[KimWDW]

Forgive me if someone already posted this. An article in today's travel section of the New York Times. I'm going to WDW this October for the first time in over five years. I hope the magic isn't slipping. It could be just that the author had a bad experience, that people expect too much. Or maybe the people quoted in the article are correct and things aren't the way they used to be five years ago. I don't know. What do you think?

Some Ask if the Disney Magic Is Slipping
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/31/t...rss&adxnnlx=1122822167-2piglV+8OlQ5EUFEJg+zJg

 

[bicker]

The other thread is here:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=875471

As I mention in that other thread, I think you hit the nail on the head when you said, "people expect too much." If the article was all hunky-dory, it probably wouldn't have made it into the NY Times. That's the kind of thing that you'd see in the AAA newsletter, not a newspaper.

 

[kaabost]

I haven't been to to WDW in 1.5 years but the magic was certainly still there at that time. I do think that people expect too much. I also think that alot of people are determined to have a bad experience.

 

[hoosll]

My husband and I have been going annually to WDW for the last few years and I do have some concerns .....

1. Growth of number of hotel rooms operated by Disney - the number of rooms on site is staggering as Disney tries to capture every nickel it can from travelers to Orlando .... It has also expanded its convention and sports competition commitments.

2. Employees to service those rooms - where do they ALL come from, how are they trained and monitored. Most of the complaints I read about are as to the cleanliness of rooms and bedding, timeliness of getting into rooms, uncleaned rooms in afternoons, etc. Even with computers, how do they manage to clean rooms so that people CAN check in, clean rooms so people CAN enjoy an afternoon nap, clean some rooms "green" re-use linens, etc.

3. The demise of unions and benefits - what are the incentives for the people who work at Disney's low wages and lack of benefits (medical insurance costs are insane for employers and now rare for employees). The majority of the resort staff is no longer English-speaking. Most are extremely pleasant but there just may not be enough to service ALL the rooms. I work in a store with about 25 different employees daily, at least 2 call in with a problem and miss their shift EVERY day - 8% - that may translate to 8% delay in rooms cleaned.

4. Guests are enjoying a variety of cost options for their vacations but honestly, each family IS spending a large amount of its disposable income (or credit card) on what is usually a MAJOR vacation trip. I am always amazed at the amount of stress this places on the individuals to "get their money's worth" - often dragging around overtired children to overcrowded restaurants and attractions. When I talk to people who are going for the first ever or in many years, I recommend that they do some homework - understand the size of WDW, the transportation systems, the restaurant reservation system and especially FASTPASS. I also tell people that they cannot see and do everything in one trip.

 

[babar41]

Have you ever heard someone say "I don't watch the news, it's too depressing!" I'm beginning to feel that way too. I am getting so tired of hearing on the news or reading the newspaper about another problem with Disney. Especially when they don't report the final outcome if it was not Disney's fault.

WDW can be a magical place, not just by what the CM's might do for you. People bring their own magic. Expectations are high and I think Disney does a great job of meeting or exceeding those expectations for the most part. Mistakes happen, problems happen, like it or not this is the real world. But as far as I am concerned the magic is not slipping.

 

[jarestel]

I think hoosll has posted some interesting thoughts on this - More people staying on site translates to more people who are hoping to get some of that old Disney "magic". It's still a wonderful place to vacation with your family, but there's no way they can produce "magic" on demand for the number of guestrooms they have to service today.

I think people probably do expect too much when they go to WDW today, but it was Disney themselves who built the "magic of Disney" myth in the first place. Disney is a victim of its own success in this regard.

 

[cindyfan]

I agree with hoosll on all 4 points!
With the amount of resort rooms they now have .... what kind of quality help can you possibly expect.
WDW employs around 50,000 people!!! Where do these people come from?
Obviously the population of Florida cannot support that alone.
I don't think the "Magic" is gone.... but the quality of help has diminished.
But as a retail manager .... I understand what they are up against.
I feel society itself has a lot to do with it. I have seen over the years how attitudes have changed from the employees being happy to have a job they like.... to "I showed up for work today, so what are you going to do for ME?"
attitudes.
The old cliche "good help is hard to find!" has really shown it's ugly face at WDW.
But when you are faced with NO help vs. "the not so great" at guest service help that we are running into now ...... well think about it.
When we were there in June...... YES we still felt the Magic! But there were a few CMs that annoyed me.... one that was down right rude.
But I look for the ones that make me feel good..... they are still there! And we had a fantastic time!

 

[mommykds]

I have to disagree with the author of the NYT article. I do not think the "magic" is slipping.

There are more character meet & greet opportunities now more than ever.

The daily maintenance on the parks is well above standard. There are no garbage cans overflowing or toilets that are unusuable to being filthy. There are standards in place that do not allow teenagers (or adults for that matter) to run around half naked through the parks. There are better controls on non smoking areas. The entire "atmosphere" at all the parks is clean & family friendly. (Just go to Six flags & you will see the difference)

The friendliness & helpfulness of the staff cannot be compared to any other theme park. Not every CM sprinkles pixie dust all the time but the majority of them are very pleasant.

When my family vacations at Disney we do not leave the property for the entire stay. I find coming back to the real world quite challenging when our vacation is over.

Just my 2 cents...

 

[chabs]

I definitely think that the magic is slipping. We started going to WDW "regularly" about 10 years ago-back then each hotel had it's own bus so we never had to wait more than 5 or 10 minutes for a bus and we never had to get into an overcrowded bus and stand like a bunch of cattle. Everything was much nicer and cleaner and the customer service was excellent. An example of this was when my grandfather ripped his pants on the door hook in the bathroom at the Carribean-it was his own fault-just an accident and really no fault of Disney's. But when he asked the lady behind the counter for a safety pin-she took his name and room number and they had a big fruit basket delivered to his room when we got back from the park that day. It was a really nice surprise-one that I don't think would happen these days.

Now the prices of things there in general have become ridiculous. I think Disney has become all about money and gotten away from Roy Disney's intentional fun family "magical" destination. I agree that they have overbuilt and gotten too big too fast. Now they just need people to fill the positions-they can't choose the "best" employees because there aren't enough to go around-now they just need employees period-whether they are good or bad-and that takes away from their customer service. It's really too bad too-we go at least once a year because the kids love it. We will always go-but I have to agree "it ain't like it used to be!"

 

[Skroops]

We went a couple of weeks ago for an impromtu trip. I generally like smaller, more frequent trips. We stayed 5 nights. The CM's and our accomodations were wonderful. We had problems with the other guests, strangely enough. One of the biggest issues were the people who didn't care about WDW rules. I can't tell you how many people were smoking at eye level to my toddler in crowded areas. I finally spoke up and almost got into a fight with some woman appauled that I would ask her to smoke in the smoking area. This is a family place, and common courtesy has went out the window. This makes WDW magic harder to see!
Most people are really nice, but it is the few obnoxious travelers who make themselves known to all of us. This was our frustrating challenge, because we were actually trying not to notice the rudeness of other guests.
Given todays general public, I think WDW does remarkably well! There IS still magic...you just have to look.

 

[WDW1st-timers]

I think alot of it has to do with people expecting too much "magic". For us going on our first trip there...I'm not telling the hubby or the kids what to expect as in special magic. If magic happens...it happens....if not oh well we will still have a wonderful time since we are there as a family and we can make our own magic.

 

[Acklander]

How can Disney create magic when it's an expectation instead of a surprise? I think it's the guests themselves who have lost the magic, not Disney. I look at the number of people here who are disapointed because they didn't receive a towel animal, or didn't get a birthday balloon from Mickey even though they were wearing their pin and let every cm know it was a birthday celebration (not necessarily the birthday itself, but the birthday celebration) or didn't think some of the cm's smiled enough or weren't talkative enough or whatever.
I've been going to Disney World for 30 years now. My first trip was in 74, and we started going regular in 89. There have been changes and growth, that's what it takes for a business to survive. Sometimes we've been surprised with some extra pixie dust from a cm; and it was always a thrill because in every case it was totally unexpected. I've never asked for, nor expected anything beyond what I've paid for - and Disney has never disappointed me. Sometimes things have happened - good and bad, and things didn't go according to plan; but that's ok, that's what makes life interesting.
I'm sure that Disney receives many letters with legitimate complaints; you can't run a company that large without problems coming up here and there; but I'm amazed at the pettiness of things people are willing to write or complain about.

 

[joliesmom]

To me the magic hasn't slipped but the cleanliness has slipped some. On my last trip in Jan I noticed that the bathrooms weren't always clean and the streets had some gum on them. That is normal in the "real world" but for me it was out of place at Disney. I think the staff handles things as well as they can. Look at how people speak to you if you ask them not to smoke in line. I don't think the magic is lost, some visitors are stealing it from others (ie the infamous "tour" groups). I'll be there no matter what because bottom line is Disney makes me feel good.

 

[2Xited4Disney]

NO..... and if it has I will pretend like it hasn't...

 

[mcgrawfan]

How can Disney create magic when it's an expectation instead of a surprise? I think it's the guests themselves who have lost the magic, not Disney. I look at the number of people here who are disapointed because they didn't receive a towel animal, or didn't get a birthday balloon from Mickey even though they were wearing their pin and let every cm know it was a birthday celebration (not necessarily the birthday itself, but the birthday celebration) or didn't think some of the cm's smiled enough or weren't talkative enough or whatever.
I've been going to Disney World for 30 years now. My first trip was in 74, and we started going regular in 89. There have been changes and growth, that's what it takes for a business to survive. Sometimes we've been surprised with some extra pixie dust from a cm; and it was always a thrill because in every case it was totally unexpected. I've never asked for, nor expected anything beyond what I've paid for - and Disney has never disappointed me. Sometimes things have happened - good and bad, and things didn't go according to plan; but that's ok, that's what makes life interesting.
I'm sure that Disney receives many letters with legitimate complaints; you can't run a company that large without problems coming up here and there; but I'm amazed at the pettiness of things people are willing to write or complain about.

I agree.

 

[patrickpiteo]

I think the writer of the NYT story complained so much that he even got his money refunded for his stay.

 

[pooh2001]

Bad things can happen everywhere. People have different standards.

I think WDW does a wonderful job at the resorts.

There is always normal wear and tear - and if WDW shows up with that extra light bulb or missing soap - just smile and say thank you. It can go along way.

If you really do not like your room - just talk politely with the resort staff.
I am sure something can be done at that resort - or another.
No reason to get all huffy.

The NY Times article may sway some people away from WDW resorts.
So be it.... then more rooms for us to use.

 

[Troy08]

I think it's a glass/half emoty-glass half full sort of thing. They definately are a victim of thier own success. I still think the theme parks are extremely well kept for the hours of operation and the sheer number of guests. I took a good hard look around this past trip and was Pleasantly surprised at how good everything looked in the parks.

Now the hotels......while I adore staying on site, the sheer number of rooms available almost guarantee that a decrease in quality will occur. Sometimes I felt like I was in a foreign country listening to mousekeeping talk as we went about the resort. Nobody spoke English. Not making any kind of social commentary here-just stating a fact.

It's an age old problem, low wages= typically low performance.

And the biggest problem of all-people expect A LOT for their money. 275.00-300.00 a night and NO towel animals. How could they?

 

[rgf207]

Here is my opinions. Not that they matter

Your vacation is what you make of it. I do not feel like the Disney Magic is slipping. At any given time at WDW there are Tens, if not hundreds of thousands of people at the parks and in the resorts. There is no possible way to make everyone completely happy. A lot of people go in to a WDW vacation expecting complete perfection. That is impossible. Everything is what you make of it. Of course mistakes happen that need to be fixed by the staff and sometimes people need compensation for such errors. And these errors happen. They happen everywhere, not just at WDW. A lot of people today expect something for nothing and they will take any chance they get to lodge a complaint in the hopes of getting something for free. A lot of times this isn't the case, but 90% of the times it's the ones you hear about. Not the great times. That's all I have to say. But i guess i'll fininsh with a little Magic we experienced on our last trip in March


We came out of the Poly after a later dinner at Kona. We went to get on a bus to try to get to MK to get back to our resort. I guess we had a "lost" look on our faces because a bus driver drove up to us and asked us what we were looking for. We told him we were trying to get back to AKL. He said that the park was closed so we would have to get to DTD and take another bus. We said thank you and were about to walk to the DTD bust stop when he told us to hop on board and he drove us back to AKL. I believe this nice gentleman was going on his lunch or dinner break but he took time out of that to drive us back to AKL which he did not have to do. That seemed like magic to me.

 

[disneytraveler]

Some good observations have come out of the Nyt article by us Disers. For me , i dont think the magic has slipped any. My first time there must have been back in the 1980's and as an adult i was overwhelmed and awed at the beauty and magic of Wdw. Seeing the castle and all for the first time. I have
repeatedly gone back since then, sometimes skipping a year a two but each
time i go i still feel alike a kid. I go back trying different packages and still go on my favorite rides and take time to enjoy things. Rooms are always clean and even saw
the animal shaped linen although did not know if it was for me or not. Last year the Cm at guest service at the Pop was very helpful and friendly.
I told him i was looking for something to do on my last night and thought of
the La NOUBA show . I was not even sure if tickets were still available. Well
he checked the system and there was and i bought a great seat which he recommended. Now thats Magic

Cant wait for September to come!