Declining by Degrees

[rdeacon]

Kevin Yee has a great new article on http://miceage.com, about the declining quality at WDW.

Sounds like he is going to make this a regular article.


The first one is a good read and right on target.

http://miceage.com/kevinyee/ky120506a.htm

We might need to start yelling at the folks in WDW to make sure the "Disney" quality returns to a high standard.

Any thoughts.....

Rich

[Captain Schnemo]

I agree with the whole "declining by degrees" concept, but I think complaining about very specific and minor problems is largely counterproductive. Most of his complaints were easily dismissed as rabid Internet ranting.

He did make a couple of seriously good small points that were inarguably problems that needed to be addressed, and I think he should stick to those. Some of the most effective work done to persuade Disney to fix things were simple photos of chipping paint and burnt out light bulbs that shamed Disney into action. I don't know that complaining about missing cheese sauce is really going to light a fire under Disney's collective rump.

The main thing I disagree with is his acceptance of much larger and systematic issues (cheering about a Fantasyland-style dark ride in the middle of Future World, for example) while complaining about minor things. I'd much rather have a decent Figment attraction than an extra condiment here or a free photo there.

And the whole bit about Disney's "magic" vs. stockholders has really been done to death on the Internet. Most articles seem to lack the basic assessment that as we've noticed a decline in "magic", profits have gone up. It sucks, I know, but without addressing this directly, you don't give Disney any reason to listen to your ramblings.

[meticulus9]

i agree with most of what you pointed out. But the question really is: Do guests still "enjoy the magic" without all the little items we are talking about. And to be honest since I was a guest 2 months ago: I must say I still enjoyed my time there. Could it be better? Most definitely: YES! But I still had a wonderful time.

[Captain Schnemo]

And that's the problem. No one is claiming WDW is filthy or boring or generally low quality...just that it's not as good as it was before. But as long as you liked it enough to return and will continue to spend your money there, there is no friggin' reason on Earth for these people to change anything. Assuming they have no respect for Walt, tradition, or basic human decency (which they don't), from their point of view, WDW is a complete success.

Complaints from purists have been ignored for years and sometimes I wonder if defying us is not ultimately seen as a good thing. If they completely drive away that small percentage of obsessive Disney nerds, there will be fewer complaints without a significant drop in profits. Although, I dunno, even that is doubtful, since they just ignore complaints anyway.

Here's the thing that's tough to swallow: we don't matter to Disney.

[subsonic]

Here's the thing that's tough to swallow: we don't matter to Disney.

I have to disagree with you in a way. At least in relation to Disneyland. I don't know what percentage of guests at Disneyland are passholders but I know it's very high and that a lot of the parks revenue is due to APers. I think it's more like "we don't matter that much". But I've always asked myself, how much of the magic is lost on the one time visitor? It's mostly the regulars that notice the magic is gone.

[Captain Schnemo]

I think Disneyland is a different case. As you say, a lot of the revenue is from locals, and there is a lot more history there. It might also be that the execs live in California, and it's personally embarrassing to them if their home park sucks. It would make them look bad among their peers.

However, based on years of observation, I think WDW is pretty much impervious to complaints from us Disney fans. I've seen countless "the magic is disappearing"-type posts, web sites, blogs, letter writing campaigns, petitions, outright protests, etc. and none of them have made a dent.

I've been waiting for about 10 years to see the faintest glimmer of encouragement and every time they do something even slightly decent (which usually comes in the form of not completely ruining this or that), it's immediately followed up by a string of depressing changes.

And it's not accidental...they are actually overtly choosing to do things in what we'd consider to be the "wrong" way. It's policy. That sort of thing isn't going to change based on complaints from the nerd community.

They think they're doing the right thing and they have the profit to back up those beliefs. "Magic" is irrelevant to them, and frankly I can't think of of a way to change their minds.

[rdeacon]

There is no true watch dog for WDW. The AP's are not as diligent as they are in Disneyland.

From what I hear the new up and comming watchdogs are the DVC members.

Captain is right in a way that there are complaints that just go ignored. WDW is a cash cow that seems to pour in money even as the place loses some magic. From what I have read WDW is bloated beuraucracy.

Team Disney Orlando finance manager was kind enough to send me the following note:

Al, I just wanted to comment on your latest update regarding WDW and the management running the company. I think you hit it dead on and it added a lot of credibility to the reports I read about Disneyland (I don't know much about California). You have some good sources.

WDW management is extremely bloated. I was in Finance for about five years as a Finance Manager from the late 90's into the early 00's. I had access to the financial results and was witness to the inner workings of the Team Disney Building.

The place is run like Washington. Politics rules. Each VP or Director makes sure to look out for their own area or kingdom. Spread responsibilities or blame out and no one can point a finger. The Executives at WDW continue to be the Kings and Queens of the castle and exploit the guest and shareholder. (I won't comment too much on Hourly CM's. I can't draw any conclusions about their state since I was removed from their problems.)

I know this could be a rant, so I wanted to share some stories.

1. Personal Pork - I personally analyzed the spending at Disney for two years (Expense reports, PO's, P-cards, Capital) and charted the results. The results were amazing, The spend spiked up 30-40% in the last month of the fiscal year, September. People were spending to their budgets, not what was needed. And the spend was wasteful, new furniture (expensive furniture for Team Disney or other offices, new cars, vans, etc... Very little for new rides or maintenance)... The reason, of course, is if they don't spend it, some Finance Executive might not give them the same budget for the next year.

2. Marketing and Sales rules WDW. You hit this one right on. I performed a review of their organizational set up, spending controls, and reporting controls. Marketing and Sales budgets run between $300 - $400 million dollars at WDW (at least a few years ago). I have been told that is what drives business.

They see Disney as "a leaky bucket, and if you don't pour $$ into marketing, then the bucket will empty and people won't come". Direct quote from several Executives. Another was "that WDW was like a pepperoni pizza, and if you keep pulling off pepperoni, it will be a cheese pizza" Translation, if you keep trying to cut the Marketing and Sales budget, WDW will turn into Six Flags or Universal - Marketing and Sales it what keeps Disney Disney.

I asked why we don't spend more on maintenance and new attractions. I said I loved the product and what kept bringing me back were new or improved offerings, not marketing. Capital investments have been scaled back in Orlando in favor of Marketing.

3. Inexperienced Executives. Disney runs at a 30-35% margin. On about $4-5 billion in revenues, that is over $1.2 - $1.5B in margins. WDW is a cash cow. You can hide A LOT of problems with those margins. Back in 1999/2000, WDW was at record attendance and record profits. Executives did not plan on any bad times. They were not prepared. Once the recession followed by 9/11 hit, the Executives were caught with their proverbial pants down.

One VP told me, he was in a planning meeting and they discussed occupancy. Disney was running over 90% (on 20,000 rooms, that is unbelievable). Orlando was running in the mid-70's. When asked what would happen during a recession and WDW went to the mid-70's, he was laughed out of the room. He was told this is WDW, that would not happen. the worst would be 85%. The hotels on I-drive or 192 would suffer first.

Well after 9/11, Disney hit occupancy in the 50's and 60's. WDW Executive arrogance runs deep.

I could go on, but you are so right. They have taken a great product and built their own "Kingdoms" full of large salaries, bonuses, and perks (like free golf and recreation for all WDW Directors and above). Many Executive's and their spouses have standing tee times, displacing Guests.

It's their private country club.

This type of managment can't help.

I'm not sure what type of approach guest should take to combat this problem, if there is any, but it should be addressed.

Rich

[Captain Schnemo]

That all sounds pretty accurate to me. The concept of "magic" is completely absent from that environment. I'm certain there are dedicated employees throughout the company that would love to do the right thing (probably many of them work there because they grew up loving WDW), but they are currently powerless.

The above reality is what people have to understand when they start talking about trying to change WDW. Appealing to some sense of tradition or even just a call to respect the customers or "do the the right thing" is going to fail miserably in the face of an organization that wants to solve problems by pouring money into marketing until profits go up.

And we have to accept that what they are doing is working, from their point of view. If pouring money into marketing works (and is easy), why bother trying to do something difficult like making "magic"? It wouldn't make sense to work in defiance of a well-tested and guaranteed plan.

WDW is still a great tourist destination and it will have to get significantly worse before the marketing fix no longer works. It would have to hit the point that guests decide that, at the end of their vacation, it really wasn't worth it and next time they should do something else. There's a long way to go to get to that point (particularly since the WDW experience is unlike any other in the world), but we can expect things to keep moving in that direction until there's a financial reason to change course.

[bribren]

Read the article. While I agree with some points, it seems overly critical to me. The author complains about Epcot's recycling of Food and Wine booths for temporary Christmas booths. This seems logical and thrifty to me. You can't build a series multi-million dollar attractions without maximizing your budget.

As far as the EMH debate, 9-9pm seems long enough to me. I would pass out if I tried that day without a break.

[csquare77]

How about the parks cleanlieness, I think that has gone down alot too, WHne my mother and sister were down there a few months ago, things were not as clean as they used to be. Like tables were not wiped down, like at the Polynesian, there was a table gowing green moss on it...

[Captain Schnemo]

Even if people have become trashier, the janitorial army of the Disney of yore would have been able to handle it. They had guys wandering the parks who picked up every last cigarette butt and never let the trashcans overflow.

They don't even staff attractions properly now, so it's no wonder the parks are getting a little skankier. The whole world is the enemy of "clean"...entropy is a tough opponent.

[rdeacon]

Schnemo is right...

The park should be able to handle the mess.

Walt was a firm believer that if guests didn't see litter or a mess they would not create on on their own, and try in their own way to be cleaner.

I mess draws a bigger mess.

A key example of this was a sad sight on my last trip.

While on the Soarin queue, we passed a trash can that was completely overflowed with trash. So guests just strated putting trash on top, and all around the trash can, making a bad scene even worse.

Sounds like staffing cuts or the inability to hire workers is an issue.

Either way its completely unacceptable.


Rich

[Dr. Ravenscroft]

I noticed during my last few trips to DL that CM's would pick up trash, not the messy stuff but the paper, cups, bags, etc. These weren't just the custodial staff either these were the ride operaters, guest services, clerks, etc. that were picking it up. I wish more of the WDW CM's would do this too. I was walking around WDW on the past few trips and saw lots of maps, napkins, 20oz. plastic bottles, and various other items just sitting on the ground as CM's walked past. Just bend down and pick it up.

Heck I picked more than they did. That has to be a sign when a guest picks up more trash than your own employee's. JS3901 can vouch for me on this, I picked up trash as we were walking around the parks.

This should be one of the easiest things to fix, just hold meetings with the managers and tell them that during the morning meeting inform the CM's to pick up some of the stuff, and in the case of the overflowing trashcans have them call it in. Why couldn't have done this in the first place. It doesn't cost extra, which will make corperate happy.

[acp]

WDW Cast Members are told that they should help to keep the parks tidy by picking up any litter etc that's lying around in Traditions.. I think they also mentioned it in the on-location training too, and as I recall, it was also on the checklists that ODF vendors have to keep the area around the carts clean and tidy...

For the record, yes I did pick up any random litter that was around whilst I was a Cast Member although it isn't that easy when you're busy with a queue of guests and end up watching some pieces of litter float past whilst you're dealing with the guest...

Andy.

[Dr. Ravenscroft]

Well I stand corrected then, thanks Andrew. I didn't mean to offend if I did, its just that I have seen CM's just walk past the same stuff I picked up and they weren't doing anything other than walking.