"Uncivilized" Guests at Shanghai Disneyland?

[SoarinSC]

Uuuuh....

http://nextshark.com/guests-trash-new-shanghai-disneyland-first-weekend/

 

[HM]

Sure doesn't make one want to visit.

 

[MeghanG855]

That's disgusting!

 

[Jonas_Swe]

We're seeing a major culture clash here, that also surprises me a bit that Disney didn't seemed to have planned properly for.

I'm not saying that Chinese people are more littering, dirtier or lesser cultivated than us in the West. But the general public are spoiled by having absolutely everything being taken care of for them by the government, both locally and on a national level. All public areas are either heavily and almost crazy well maintained and looked after, or the fines for the slightest overstep is horrendously high (prison is not uncommon at all).

It's not unusual at all to see people spitting, or leaving food items behind in a general city in China. And the vast majority of the people have never seen anything like Disney (IRL at least). And they are at the same time as being their "local rural" selves also unprepared and perhaps overwhelmed by the Theme Park experience.

That's absolutely not an excuse for the littering and other ways of trashing the property, of course.

But what I mean is that Disney could have done much more to prepare for this.

Chinese, like other heavily socialist countries populations respond very well to Public Educational Information! Like public service advertising and citizens education campaigns. Disney should have used that tool to pump out the values and behavior they'd want visitors to abide when coming to the resort.

Now they are literally left cleaning up the aftermath!

 

[frisbeego]

Chinese, like other heavily socialist countries populations respond very well to Public Educational Information! Like public service advertising and citizens education campaigns. Disney should have used that tool to pump out the values and behavior they'd want visitors to abide when coming to the resort.

Shanghai's municipal government did publish an etiquette guide for visiting Disneyland. I have no doubt it was done in conjunction with Disney (since they are business partners in this venture). Like all forms of education, it takes time.

Any new business will have growing pains, despite how much is planned for. While some of the pictures are unsettling, I'll give Disney a couple months to work things out.

 

[Happyinwonerland]

Is it awful that I have a "serves them right" attitiude about this? Passing the cost of this train wreck onto the US consumers has really bothered me. I'm kind of glad to see it such a mess. Feels like Karma. Maybe now they will stop pumping money into other countries and bring it back to their home soil. Maybe update some paint jobs, bring the TTC to MK busses back, add some rides to Epcot. They neglected America in hopes of bigger brighter tomorrow over seas and it doesn't seem to be panning out.

 

[Stitch808]

Not really making me want to go visit, but I do agree they need to bring it back to the original parks here in the US.

 

[Karin1984]

Is it awful that I have a "serves them right" attitiude about this? Passing the cost of this train wreck onto the US consumers has really bothered me. I'm kind of glad to see it such a mess. Feels like Karma. Maybe now they will stop pumping money into other countries and bring it back to their home soil. Maybe update some paint jobs, bring the TTC to MK busses back, add some rides to Epcot. They neglected America in hopes of bigger brighter tomorrow over seas and it doesn't seem to be panning out.

Well... realize that they now need money to keep up the park in clean condition, train their cms and invest in other ways to educate their guests. And the money has to come from some where till shanghai is self supporting.

 

[Jonas_Swe]

Is it awful that I have a "serves them right" attitiude about this? Passing the cost of this train wreck onto the US consumers has really bothered me. I'm kind of glad to see it such a mess. Feels like Karma. Maybe now they will stop pumping money into other countries and bring it back to their home soil. Maybe update some paint jobs, bring the TTC to MK busses back, add some rides to Epcot. They neglected America in hopes of bigger brighter tomorrow over seas and it doesn't seem to be panning out.

I understand your point completely. But remember that Disney Parks and Resorts became a worldwide business for Disney as soon as they put that shovel down in the dirt just outside of Tokyo (first park outside of USA).

Not only the US parks "suffer" when there are insufficient funds. Tokyo Disneyland and Disneyland Resort Paris have also seen their share of cut backs, especially when Disneyland Hong Kong was built and started up its operations.

So the argument that bringing it back to the US becomes a little strange in this context. Although I would also love to see more Disney developments for the future in the parks in both CL and FL.

But it's like saying that Sweden should revoke the support of every business of every IKEA worldwide, just because a new store has major start up issues. (as a rhetorical example).

And the US parks is one division on its own under the worldwide umbrella, Europe is one and Asia is one (Tokyo is the resort most on its own and Shanghai close second).

I believe that Disney will figure out a way to deal with this. And I am for a fact very interested in visiting one day in the future!

Edit: When they literally have their s**t together!

 

[wilkeliza]

It'll take some time but I'm sure it will get better. I still really want to go. You can't expect to change an entire group of people over night. It will take time for people to learn that they need to put things in the trash and that the old way of toilet training is not okay at the park and their children should be diapered or go to the bathroom.

I'll admit having friends who were at the opening they had nothing but positive things to say. They did say CMs were trying to clean up as fast as possible. They also said the people of Shanghai were nothing but wonderful and helpful.

 

[LinderInWonderland]

I very much want to visit Shanghai Disneyland. From the preview videos I have watched on YouTube, it looks stunning! I think the Voyage to the Crystal Grotto is one of the most beautiful attractions I have ever seen - beautiful gardens, the boats are attractive and the statuary is lovely. I love the idea of the castle filled with all the Princesses. Like Paris, they have a walk-through Alice attraction (though it's Tim Burton-esque as opposed to the original Disney Alice). They have the Golden Afternoon flowers on one of the parade floats!

 

[BoatDriver]

ROFL....I simply can't stop after seeing that last picture. Coffee hurts when it comes out of your nose.

 

[Happyinwonerland]

The difference between disney and the iKea example is that I haven't heard much complaining that ikea has neglected their flagship store, that they charge more for a lesser quality product. They aren't overcharging the original customers while under delivering on product.

 

[zanzibar138]

I was there for Opening Day (and the 2 days immediately afterwards). While I did see some of this behaviour, it was certainly in isolated instances, and didn't ruin my enjoyment of the park at all. It's an absolutely stunning park, with some fantastic new rides and new concepts. The CMs were brilliant, and I saw lots of people getting told off for line cutting and using selfie sticks. Littering was probably the biggest issue, but the CMs did a great job of keeping on top of it. I only ever saw litter in attraction queues which would be too difficult to clean throughout the day while they were in constant use. They started off in pristine condition every morning though. As with most parks, the majority of visitors were very well behaved, friendly and helpful. I think the media is really honing in on some of these reports and photos as an 'I told you so', when it's really not that big a deal. Personally (as someone who needs to take a 14 hour flight just to get to the US) I'm thrilled to see Disney expanding their market and providing more options for their international guests. After all, Walt Disney did want Disneyland to be 'a source of joy and inspiration for all the world'.

 

[Agent 86]

It's just cultural issues. If you visit any other part of China, then you need to accept the cultural differences, so I'm not sure why it would or should be any different if you visit Shanghai Disney. Yes, to many visitors (myself included), some of the behaviours seem "rude" or "dirty", but I'm sure that I've done culturally inappropriate things when visiting other countries (e.g. pointing my finger in China and blowing my nose in Japan).

And I imagine that Disney will do everything they can to try to control that behaviour, but when they vast majority of guests will be locals, it's only to be expected that the locals will behave in their normal manner.

 

[ChrisNY2]

Is it awful that I have a "serves them right" attitiude about this? Passing the cost of this train wreck onto the US consumers has really bothered me. I'm kind of glad to see it such a mess. Feels like Karma. Maybe now they will stop pumping money into other countries and bring it back to their home soil. Maybe update some paint jobs, bring the TTC to MK busses back, add some rides to Epcot. They neglected America in hopes of bigger brighter tomorrow over seas and it doesn't seem to be panning out.

You realize that the Walt Disney Company is highly profitable, right? If there's anyone to blame for cuts at U.S. parks, it's Wall Street and shareholders. (Look at other industries that have gone from great service to chasing the quarterly profit - airlines, for example.)

Anyway, I'm looking forward to a visit to Shanghai Disney Resort that I have booked for next April

 

[Happyinwonerland]

You realize that the Walt Disney Company is highly profitable, right? If there's anyone to blame for cuts at U.S. parks, it's Wall Street and shareholders. (Look at other industries that have gone from great service to chasing the quarterly profit - airlines, for example.)

Anyway, I'm looking forward to a visit to Shanghai Disney Resort that I have booked for next April

I fail to see what them being highly profitable has to do with their neglect of the US parks. They are fueling money overseas because that's where they think the next gold mine is. Right now it seems to be a money pit.

 

[mom2rtk]

You realize that the Walt Disney Company is highly profitable, right? If there's anyone to blame for cuts at U.S. parks, it's Wall Street and shareholders. (Look at other industries that have gone from great service to chasing the quarterly profit - airlines, for example.)

Anyway, I'm looking forward to a visit to Shanghai Disney Resort that I have booked for next April

Wall Street and shareholders are an issue for LOTS of other companies. They don't all suck the blood out of their US locations to feed overseas projects.

 

[zanzibar138]

I thought Disney were making quite large investments in their domestic properties? I haven't been following that closely lately, but WDW seems to have a whole new shopping and dining precinct in Disney Springs, basically a gutting and redoing of Hollywood Studios, and Avatar Land in Animal Kingdom, including a couple of new night time spectaculars and the new Frozen ride in Epcot. At DLR I know there's a Star Wars land coming, not sure what else, but they've just had all the special 60th anniversary stuff. And I know it's not US parks, but there's also a lot going on in Paris, Tokyo is getting some new stuff too, and there's been the 'Star Wars takeover' and a new hotel going up in Hong Kong. It's not just Shanghai that they're spending money on.

 

[mom2rtk]

I thought Disney were making quite large investments in their domestic properties? I haven't been following that closely lately, but WDW seems to have a whole new shopping and dining precinct in Disney Springs, basically a gutting and redoing of Hollywood Studios, and Avatar Land in Animal Kingdom, including a couple of new night time spectaculars. At DLR I know there's a Star Wars land coming, not sure what else. And I know it's not US parks, but there's also a lot going on in Paris, Tokyo is getting some new stuff too, and there's been the 'Star Wars takeover' in Hong Kong. It's not just Shanghai that they're spending money on.

They have moved at a snail's pace adding things to the parks. How many net new attractions have they added in recent years? Much of what gets added is at the cost of losing other attractions.

Perhaps you missed some of the threads this spring about the cuts at WDW and DLR. Hours, staff and entertainment were all cut in the name of helping to offset cost overruns in Shanghai. This was all while attendance and profit were both up in the parks.