I recently returned from another trip to Walt Disney World. My report follows:
Changes
Every time I go to WDW I find that something is different about it. This is largely by design, as keeping the parks as every changing ensures that people will want to come back and see what is new. In my experience, however, not every change is of this nature. Sometimes a change is a cost cutting measure, or a new policy brought about to handle bad behaviors by stupid people. Sometimes they are temporary, and sometimes permanent.
The biggest change since my last is that Toy Story Land is now open. I will talk about that in its own section. Beyond that, the rest of the changes I noticed were smaller and more subtle. For one, I noticed that some of the character meet-and-greets no longer use a human photographer; instead, your photo is taken by a camera installed into the wall. I don’t think this is a cost saving move, since there are still two cast members present - one to handle the character, and one to hit a button to trigger the camera and position guests so they fit in frame. Maybe it leads to more consistent photos?
Another change came in the form of the park’s security checks. They now do these at monorail stops. The idea, as far as I can tell, is to try and reduce the number of people who have to stop at the main security stop at Magic Kingdom. If you get checked on the monorail, you can walk right into MK once you get there.
The problem with this is that the monorail stations at the Big 3 hotels were not built to accommodate a security checkpoint, and if a lot of people are trying to get on, it becomes a bottleneck that can potentially cause one to be late to a dining appointment, fastpass, etc. To be fair, one can always plan on leaving a bit earlier to such things - but only if they know to do so ahead of time. For us, this new “feature” was a surprise.
Another security-related change - once a day, someone on staff inspects your room, regardless of whether you are in it or not. This is in reaction to the Las Vegas shooting, and while I wish it didn’t have to happen, I am perfectly fine with it so long as these nightmare scenarios continue to happen.
There is a new tweak to the dining plan, in which adult guests can get one alcoholic beverage with their Table Service meal, in restaurants that feature such drinks. I only took advantage of this offer once, at a place that had some nice cocktails. I like the idea in general, but the thought of potentially getting buzzed while at the park with my children prevents me from going all in on it.
I am sure there were more changes, but nothing else springs to mind as something significantly noticeable.
Security (in general)
WDW needs to do something to improve their security presence. The current process for getting into the parks is slow, inconsistent, and leaky. Slow because they check everyone’s bags by hand. Inconsistent because not all staff are as thorough as others. Leaky because I saw multiple instances of people blowing past the security checks and not being stopped, thus negating the point of it in the first place.
This is one area that Universal Studios gets right. Everyone goes through a metal detector, and all bags go through an X-Ray machine. Is the X-Ray more effective than hand searches? If it is good enough for courthouses, I have to imagine it is effective, yes. There is also the simple fact that Universal’s security checkpoint is a wall of metal detectors with no gaps in between. You cannot easily slip past the checks. WDW, on the other hand, uses makeshift tables and detectors that are loosely organized together. There are all sorts of ways to slip through, especially when it is cold and rainy, which is the situation in which I saw people cutting through.
It seriously makes me worry about park security, and I hope they have a plan in mind for a more permanent, more effective solution.
Toy Story Land
It is smaller than I anticipated. It only has three rides, two of which are new. Of those two, one is a carnival ride with slightly higher production values (though less than what Disney typically comes up with), and the other is a rollercoaster intended for children who have never ridden a roller coaster.
The visual design of the Land is nice enough, but it just feels like they took the interior design of the Toy Story Midway Mania ride and extrapolated it into the rest of the area.
If you told me I had to skip Toy Story Land next time I visit, I would not be upset.
Money Grubbing
WDW is doing the thing I was hoping they wouldn’t do, which is finding ways to make people feel like “haves” or “have nots” by instituting more and more optional experiences that a) you have to pay money for, and b) block off access to parts of the park to everyone else. Their favorite current tactic is dessert parties. They’ve had one at the old Tomorrowland Terrace for a while now, in which you make ice cream and watch the fireworks. But now they also have one in the Star Wars Launch Bay. It makes it more difficult to navigate the building, and it also takes place right in the area where my wife and I once got to interact with a Jawa. We were hoping to find one to introduce to our children, but there were no characters around, as the dessert party was being set up.
Between this and the “Disney After Hours” events, the resort is starting to lose some of that pseudo-egalitarian feel, in which anyone staying at a Disney hotel felt like they got roughly the same level of treatment and amenities. Now, anyone who can’t pony up for “Gold Package” does not merely miss out on an event, but is blocked off from sections of the park they’d otherwise be able to access. That’s crap.
Merch
While I do believe that Disney’s overall corporate goal of pushing merchandise at all costs is slimy, they do sometimes come up with cool stuff that I would like to own. That was less the case on this visit. It feels like the gift shops once carried a lot more variety in general, both of popular goods, as well as the weird, obscure merch that might only be available in one or two places. To give you an example, I remember buying a Space Mountain T-Shirt in 2017 that was my favorite among five or so designs. This time there were only two designs on sale - and one of them was my shirt. I was hoping to replace it with a new design, but I didn’t like the other one, and so I was out of luck. I wonder if this is all in my head, or whether WDW is trying to save money by only carrying merch they know they can move. If the latter is true, then I would say two things to the company. First, people like retro stuff a lot more than you think they do. Second, this is the age of Data Science. Use some analytics to figure out who is buying what, where, and in what quantities, so you can just enough of the weird stuff that you don’t have to worry about unsold merch.
The App
The WDW phone app was a hot piece of garbage. I have no clue what happened. It was never perfect, but it was also never as slow and crash prone as it is right now. It failed to remember my login credentials, and it constantly froze at startup (solution - restart the app, and it would magically load up whatever it was you were previously trying to do. At least until it crashed again). I also find it more difficult to navigate than in previous versions.
According to one cast member at my hotel, their local computer systems use the “same thing” that the app does, which I have to assume means that they are hooked into the same backend. So the problem must be on the backend, and I wonder what exactly it could be. Is it unable to handle the load? Is their database tanking on queries? Is there some problem with their on-site network? I hope they figure out the cause and solve it, because at this moment in time the app is unusable.
Pins
Similar to the lack of good merch, I found a lack of good new trading pins. Maybe they don’t churn them out as quickly as I thought. When I went in 2017 I found a ton of good new ones, but the last time I had gone before that was in 2014. Maybe two years of waiting isn’t enough.
I did end up getting some great pins though. Actually, these are perhaps the greatest pins for a person like me. Apparently one the most recent series of blind bag pin collections contained pin versions of the logos for all the old school Epcot rides. I managed to pin trade my way to all of them except for Spaceship Earth. I really wish I had a full collection, but I am still thrilled to have the rest. These logos mean a lot to me, and I wish Disney would use them more in merchandise. But this might be all I really need.
Children
This was our first trip with children. In fact, they are the reason we went, to celebrate their first birthday and the miracle of their birth in general.
It definitely changed the way we went about things, but not as much as I thought. We had to stop more for diaper changes, feedings, etc, but not so much that it interrupted our flow. In fact, it was usually a good excuse for mom and dad to get a break. We aren’t quite as spry as we were when we came here for our honeymoon.
We made a few minor mistakes in regards to what to pack/not to pack, as well as what to bring/not to bring into the parks, but we learned quickly and no one suffered from our said mistakes. Next time we will be that much better prepared.
Kawaii
I had two young Japanese women ask me about my twin girls and scream “KAWAII” in unison. I thought that was something that only happened in anime, but I guess not!
Ride Closures
Lots of stuff was not running, though I didn’t have time to even see all the rides that were open, so it was no great loss. The train was closed at Magic Kingdom again, as was Tomorrowland Speedway. Both were shutdown due to the construction of the Tron ride in Tomorrowland, though I think only one of the two are going to open up again.
The Universe of Energy pavilion is dead and gone at Epcot, and its replacement ride is a lot farther along than I anticipated. So is Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, which you get some good views of from the new Slinky Dog coaster. I have no idea how far along they are with the new Mickey-themed attraction that replaces the Great Movie Ride, but I do know that I keenly miss the Great Movie Ride.
The Future
I am worried about the future of WDW. While I am by no means an expert, I have a rough prediction in my gut about what the next decade or so might look like. It goes something like this:
Most of the new rides being built - Star Wars especially - are huge hits, thus causing more people to visit, and creating even bigger crowds and wait times. In an effort to keep the crowds manageable, WDW raises prices some more. They also begin to add more and more premium add ons and packages. None of this works, so they start to take some of the perks and benefits that are either standard to everyone, or standard to all hotel guests, and turn them into premium add-ons and packages. Anyone who is a normal paying customer now has an even worse experience. Regardless of whether any of the above strategies work, the parks see an inevitable drop in attendance, as the general public starts losing interest in all the IPs that WDW built rides around (unless you honestly believe that Guardians of the Galaxy is going to be a hot property still in ten years’ time). The parks react to this drop in attendance by doing something stupid and nonsensical.
The basic problem is that no matter what the company does, be it smart or stupid or something in between, people keep coming to the parks in increasing numbers. They need to find a way to throttle this, despite the fact that it sounds absolutely soul crushing to say “Disney needs to find ways to get people to stop visiting Disney World so much”. But aside from the fact that it sounds awful, I don’t trust the powers that be to make the kinds of choices that are best for everyone involved.
Let me put it another way - I am okay with having to visit the parks less and less frequently, be it due to crowds or costs or whatever. But when I do get there, I want them to make me feel special. That’s how I felt the first few times I went as an adult, and it would be nice to get that magic back. If not for me, then at least for my kids.