Rant from a Disney Optimist

[*disgal*]

Not really. And they haven't really been hiring more CPs... They haven't built more housing in nearly a decade.

Meanwhile the program has become even more selective. Whereas years ago practically anyone that applied was accepted, now that rate is closer to 20%. The CPs tend to be the least jaded CMs since they're not there long enough.

This is of course based on the flawed assumption that service has gone down, all evidence to the contrary.

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

Well, I don't think that is necessarily so but....

Can't remember if I posted this on this thread (I think I did) but one of the latest Disunplugged poscasts Pete goes over this. Now, we all have our "experiences" at Disney and some are great, even awesome. And I get the impression that Pete LOVES Disney, of course, and has reported on some wonderful trips. But even he and his team have noticed the service that Disney used to have is almost gone. Not to say it's bad, but compared to what it used to be. He says they used to market their service but don't any longer.

But I tend to listen to someone who is in the parks on a weekly basis, staying onsite I don't know how many nights a year, works a "Disney" business......if THAT person says Disney's service isn't what it used to be, it doesn't negate MY experience but it is credible.

 

[JimmyV]

This is of course based on the flawed assumption that service has gone down, all evidence to the contrary.

What is this evidence of which you speak? This thread is pages long of people discussing how service has in fact gone down, as observed from personal experience. And I don't see too many people jumping in disagreeing with that premise. I suppose that the decline in service could be sporadic, and the only 40 people on the planet who observed a decline are coincidentally Dis Board members who post here. But I kind of doubt that. To the contrary, I suspect that the Board members here are simply a representative sample of guests worldwide who visit WDW frequently such that they could be in a position to observe changes over time. But apparently there is empirical evidence that service has not gone down and we have all missed it. So please don't keep us in suspense. Share.

 

[mikeyg1479]

Its amazing to hear how near universal it seems over the outrage people have over FP+ and the overall state of the parks in general.

I visited last March literally during the week they installed the "mickey mouse head" magic band redeemers at the entrance to the parks- literally one day it was the old card system with fingerprint, the next day you held your card up to the mickey mouse which "read" the card and lit up (the bands came a little bit later). From what I'm hearing, I'm glad I got my trip in while the old system still applied.

Its obvious the execs & management cared less about what negatives people are saying- management wanted FP+ and they were going to put them in no matter what. As long as the parks are insanely overcrowded as everyone is reporting, the high ups are busy congratulating themselves for their awesome new system that everybody "loves".

All I can say, for everyone unhappy about this, is to stop booking those WDW trips. Just complaining on message boards or to CM's in the parks sin't going to cut it. ONLY once upper management sees a nice percentage decrease in visitors over time combined with everyone naming FP+ and other poor park conditions as the reason for staying away will something be done.

I for one plan on doing some of the non-Disney stuff on my vacation wants list for the next few years until this mess is straightened out. I do have a DCL cruise scheduled which will give my my Disney fix, but I'm steering way clear of those theme parks until they fix the problems.

 

[heartse]

Ok, my question is... if everyone loves Disney, and things are hunky dorey (at least according to the higher ups) - why the 35% discount on rooms during the summer? We haven't seen that kind of number in a few years.

 

[Kate and Family]

Ok, my question is... if everyone loves Disney, and things are hunky dorey (at least according to the higher ups) - why the 35% discount on rooms during the summer? We haven't seen that kind of number in a few years.

If you look at historical discounts (found on mousesavers), you will see that it has been offered in the summer

 

[JimmyV]

Ok, my question is... if everyone loves Disney, and things are hunky dorey (at least according to the higher ups) - why the 35% discount on rooms during the summer? We haven't seen that kind of number in a few years.

WDW could have unicorns shooting gold coins out of their you-know-whats and they still wouldn't be able to fill the Deluxe Resorts at $575-$750 a night. People love Disney. But they love their bank accounts more. The 35% discount reflects nothing more than the fact that Deluxe rooms are 100% over priced. They could fill them at $275-$400. But at current rack rates? Not a chance. No promotion in the world is going to fill rooms at that rate, except a high percentage discount. The last time I stayed at a Deluxe was in August of 2011. I got a good percentage discount and my MK view room at the Contemporary cost me $285 per night. That was enough to get me to bite. At current rates, no way, no how. So the discount is not evidence of the fact that there is any problem at WDW in general. It is evidence of the fact that the committee in charge of room rates is delusional most of the time.

 

[Kate and Family]

WDW could have unicorns shooting gold coins out of their you-know-whats and they still wouldn't be able to fill the Deluxe Resorts at $575-$750 a night. People love Disney. But they love their bank accounts more. The 35% discount reflects nothing more than the fact that Deluxe rooms are 100% over priced. They could fill them at $275-$400. But at current rack rates? Not a chance. No promotion in the world is going to fill rooms at that rate, except a high percentage discount. The last time I stayed at a Deluxe was in August of 2011. I got a good percentage discount and my MK view room at the MK cost me $285 per night. That was enough to get me to bite. At current rates, no way, no how. So the discount is not evidence of the fact that there is any problem at WDW in general. It is evidence of the fact that the committee in charge of room rates is delusional most of the time.

It has seemed that way to me. Some people will buy at the inflated rates, then offer what is not filled at a more (discounted) reasonable rate.

 

[agavegirl1]

So, now that we are a little closer to our trip dates (still not til Oct), I decided to bring DBF into the planning. Since ADRs will need to be made, I ran all my preliminary choices by him. He then said, "I really loved the location of Beach Club, if it's not too much more, why don't we stay there?" I then showed him the price on my iphone. It was $100 more than we paid the last time we were there. He just about fell off his chair.

I then explained we will get our dose of luxury at the Hilton Garden Inn (Sea World part of trip) and Portofino (US/IOA part of trip). We'll deal with the buses for the price difference.

 

[jaberwock]

I think most people can't afford an onsite stay in a deluxe without some sort of a massive discount. I know at this point just with ticket and meal prices we might be priced out of going in a few years. We are planning a huge family trip in November (we do it once every 5 years or so) and the price difference from 5 years ago is staggering to my parents. We go every year so it wasn't as big of a shock to us but still.

 

[Kate and Family]

I think most people can afford an onsite stay in a deluxe without some sort of a massive discount. I know at this point just with ticket and meal prices we might be priced out of going in a few years. We are planning a huge family trip in November (we do it once every 5 years or so) and the price difference from 5 years ago is staggering to my parents. We go every year so it wasn't as big of a shock to us but still.

Did you mean to say can't?

 

[xie]

Ok, my question is... if everyone loves Disney, and things are hunky dorey (at least according to the higher ups) - why the 35% discount on rooms during the summer? We haven't seen that kind of number in a few years.

Wow, really? 35%? in summer?

We cancelled our upcoming resort stays there, and I haven't been paying any bit of attention to their upcoming rates. That's quite a discount.

 

[TLSnell1981]

Now for the Not So Great:

1) Cast members. A friendly cast member was more the exception than the rule. We had spent two days at Universal before WDW and their cast members blew WDW's out of the water.

2) The crowds. We have never seen the parks so crowded.

3) FP+ and MDE. On a good day, we were able to do many attractions, but no re-rides of our favorites. On a bad day, we hardly got to ride anything. Twice, we only used 2 FP+ because our kids decided they didn't want to go on two rides that we had passes for. We tried to use MDE to switch to another pass and it just didn't work. We went to a kiosk to ask for help and they couldn't help us, either. We had to spend WAY too much time glued to the app. One morning, my husband spend our first two hours at Epcot trying to work out a dining reservation and FP+ problem we had. It was not fun. It's very difficult to be locked in with dining reservations and FP+ when you have children. And making changes is frustrating.

4) Park Hopper Tickets. They are virtually useless now with the FP+ system. By the time you make it to another park, standby lines are long and FP+s are gone.

5) Condition of the parks. Disney used to take so much pride in cleanliness and never having a burnt out lightbulb. Now, so many things are in disrepair. I can't understand why there are so many unused buildings in Epcot. So many things need updating. Even the long, dark stretch of the PeopleMover seems ridiculous. Can't they add some lighting effects, or paint? Something? The decline is really starting to show.

6) EMH. Only one monorail train was running, which meant we didn't get into the park until 8:15am. I think many people in the line behind us didn't get to the park before 9:00am. By the time we got to the park, Peter Pan was already up to a 30 minute wait and once Frontierland opened BTMRR was immediately 45 minutes. Getting our kids up early was not worth it.

7) Can I just say how ridiculous the Beast's castle looks? It looks like someone left a toy castle on top of a rock. The scale just doesn't work. It really looks chintzy.

8) BOG FP+ was lost. I don't know what happened, but we weren't in the system. And they weren't too sympathetic about it.

I have to say that DH and I have decided not to return to WDW until the FP+ problems are sorted out. This was the most stressful trip to WDW we've ever had.
We spent way too much time trying to get the buggy app to work. We rode many fewer rides than usual. And I'd love to say that just soaking up the atmosphere was enough, but it was really too crowded to do that. I hate to pull the "I paid $$$ for this vacation and deserve better" but it's true. We pay a premium to go to Disney because we've had great experiences in the past and now the value isn't there for us. Still, I'm confident Disney will work this out. We just won't be visiting until that happens.

Disney has been sliding down the hill for a few years. Actually, pretty much, since Iger has been in control. It's really sad, and I don't see an improvement in the near future...

 

[HydroGuy]

Disney has been sliding down the hill for a few years. Actually, pretty much, since Iger has been in control. It's really sad, and I don't see an improvement in the near future...

If by "Disney" you mean WDW, then maybe. But as a whole? No way. Since Iger took over, Disneyland Resort has soared in quality and offerings. Lots of money is going into DLR because they have seen a return on investment there. The acquisition of Pixar and LucasFilm also has been huge and contributed to quality - and the ability to build things like CarsLand at DLR. I am not a fan of Marvel but Disney gets good marks for that too.

I am not a cruise ship person, but from what I hear Disney is doing a great job there.

From where I sit I would give Iger an A+. Issues at WDW are on his watch but I think may have more to do with the resort management group at WDW. The folks managing DLR have had no such issues.

 

[jaberwock]

Did you mean to say can't?

Yes.

 

[xie]

If by "Disney" you mean WDW, then maybe. But as a whole? No way. Since Iger took over, Disneyland Resort has soared in quality and offerings. Lots of money is going into DLR because they have seen a return on investment there. The acquisition of Pixar and LucasFilm also has been huge and contributed to quality - and the ability to build things like CarsLand at DLR. I am not a fan of Marvel but Disney gets good marks for that too.

I am not a cruise ship person, but from what I hear Disney is doing a great job there.

From where I sit I would give Iger an A+. Issues at WDW are on his watch but I think may have more to do with the resort management group at WDW. The folks managing DLR have had no such issues.

I have not been to DL since 1995, so I can't speak for what it is like now, but everything I hear indicates that you're correct - under Iger's watch, California's Disney property has been spitshined and polished. Not without a false start or two but by all accounts it is much improved over what it was 10 years ago.

Unfortunately, WDW has gone in the opposite direction. Maybe it's just distance? Iger is across the country. There were those stories floating around in November about his trip to WDW to see MyMagic in action, and that he was unhappy with the state of affairs he found there. Even if that is all true, it takes time to fix and/or replace a leadership team. You can't (usually) just say, fire everyone in WDW Resort management and expect the place to keep functioning. So if he did go there, and if he was unhappy with what he saw, maybe behind the scenes, plans are being made to change it. Or, maybe not. Who the heck knows.

All I know is, we're not staying there again for a few years - room for more Brazilians!

 

[akadada]

Not really. And they haven't really been hiring more CPs... They haven't built more housing in nearly a decade.

They're in the process of building more housing right now...FYI

 

[JimmyV]

Disney has been sliding down the hill for a few years. Actually, pretty much, since Iger has been in control. It's really sad, and I don't see an improvement in the near future...

When you look at the 5 year, 3 year and 1 year performances of DIS compared to the DJIA, that is a very tough argument to make. While there have been some befuddling decisions and visible slippge at WDW, Disney as a whole is doing just fine under current leadership. For example, I live not too far from "The Worldwide Leader", and no one I know who works for that division of Disney is complaining.

 

[Luckybee]

I think most people can't afford an onsite stay in a deluxe without some sort of a massive discount. I know at this point just with ticket and meal prices we might be priced out of going in a few years. We are planning a huge family trip in November (we do it once every 5 years or so) and the price difference from 5 years ago is staggering to my parents. We go every year so it wasn't as big of a shock to us but still.

Sometimes it isn't a matter of "can't" but won't instead.

Dh and I are going in Sept/Oct for 2 weeks. We had planned to do a throwaway room to get advance fp but instead decided to extend and go down a couple of days earlier . Normally we do 4 seasons type properties and other deluxe type hotels. We decided that we'd try any of the 3 monorail properties since those days we'd concentrate on MK.

I have to be honest when I looked at the room photos, and the overall hotel photos there was no way on earth I would pay the prices that Disney was asking. We recently paid over $ 1000 a night in Anguilla for the Viceroy and had no qualms about doing so but imho we got value for that price ie : private pool, ocean front villa with butler service etc.

I'll be damned if Im paying nearly the same thing ie : $ 800 a night for a basic room with a view.

We're going to stay at a moderate instead unless the prices are discounted.

When I tell my dh that we can get into the Ritz for the same price as a moderate, then I KNOW he'll think Im nuts....lol

 

[JimmyV]

When I tell my dh that we can get into the Ritz for the same price as a moderate, then I KNOW he'll think Im nuts....lol

And check out the square footage of the suites at the Waldorf that you can get for less than a Moderate. And the Swan and Dolphin give you Deluxe location for Moderate (or less) prices.

 

[Luckybee]

And check out the square footage of the suites at the Waldorf that you can get for less than a Moderate. And the Swan and Dolphin give you Deluxe location for Moderate (or less) prices.

I hear you....but we're doing this for advance fp otherwise we'd just have to do with 2 weeks at Marriott timeshares including the first at Sabal Palms and the last at Marriott Lakeshore Reserve.....by anyone's standards there isn't a resort at D that could touch Lakeshore reserve. The only reason to add the extra nights is for advance fp (although it never hurts to have a longer holiday ...lol)