Too many complaints about Disney?

[PURE]

Ever since I heard that higher ups from parks read these sites, I thought this was kind of a bad place for them to look for reviews.

 

Especially because its a website open to people who's hobby it is to strategically inspect the entire ride for errors in order to figure out how it works.

 

I think they're taking too much accountability into all of our complaints and opinions. I didn't sign on to this website with the intent for the parks to read and react to it, I come here to find out the latest news and to talk about it with people who are knowledgeable about those subjects.

[ginzo]

Why complain if you're not going to get anything out of it. What's done is done.

 

But they do sometimes listen to guest complaints. Magic Kingdom has that crappy version of Pirates because they got a lot of complaints about the lack of Pirates in Florida.

[Moose]

I can understand that they just finished this project and want to feel good about doing something. I could even understand the desire to ignore the criticism for a bit, but that is not what it sounds like this guys is saying. It sounds (to me anyway) that the guy thinks that disney fanboys/girls complain to much and therefore should be ignored. Yes they complain too much, but does that make everything they say invalid? NO.

 

Everyone should strive to get better at everything they do. Imagineers are no different. Saying or believing otherwise only leaves to mediocrity and stagnation; not good things.

[cfc]

Usually, it's all a matter of tone. How you phrase something can be the difference between a legitimate piece of criticism and an annoying bit whining or griping.

 

Constructive criticism: I think the acoustics could be better in this section of the ride. But perhaps this problem is already being addressed.

 

Annoying griping: Your sound sucks!

[ginzo]

I can understand that they just finished this project and want to feel good about doing something. I could even understand the desire to ignore the criticism for a bit, but that is not what it sounds like this guys is saying. It sounds (to me anyway) that the guy thinks that disney fanboys/girls complain to much and therefore should be ignored. Yes they complain too much, but does that make everything they say invalid? NO.

 

Everyone should strive to get better at everything they do. Imagineers are no different. Saying or believing otherwise only leaves to mediocrity and stagnation; not good things.

 

Much of the criticism doesn't come off as "here's a great idea for improving the ride", but rather as coming from rabid half-literate nut cases who believe Disney hasn't made anything good for the last 20 years and are looking to rip into everything they build now.

 

How you present yourself counts for a lot in how seriously you are taken. If I were at WDI (fat chance), I wouldn't waste my free time reading page after page of insane rants composed by people with writing skills to match my 11-year-old brother.

[DenDen]

I personally have no opinion of Disney, since it's really not my thing. (I know, I'm in the minority!) But do enthusiasts complain too much? Sure they do. ESPECIALLY the Disney fanatic groups! But sometimes, parks in general just ask for it by overhyping something stupid.

[Moose]

How you present yourself counts for a lot in how seriously you are taken. If I were at WDI (fat chance), I wouldn't waste my free time reading page after page of insane rants composed by people with writing skills to match my 11-year-old brother.

 

I completely agree with your point. I, however, would read all of it religously. When my bridge opened, there was a poll on the website of the local paper that let anyone write what they felt about it. It wasn't good. It wasn't well written. Much of it was stupid and pointless. But I read every little bit of this painful stuff about the thing that i spent 5 years of my life working on. Why? It was my baby and I wanted to know what everyone thought. And you know what, amongst a sea of drivel, there was an ounce or two of good points. Not necessarily stuff I could have changed, but it was VALID.

 

Completely ignoring everything is not good.

[Hilltopper39]

I wonder what Jim Hill would think of this site and this thread in particular? Maybe he'll write an article about our critisicism of his crisitsms of everyone elses critisisms of Imagineers.

[ginzo]

I, however, would read all of it religously.

 

Well, you'd at least never run out of stuff to read. 99% of the time I regret it when I read comments on news stories, YouTube videos, etc. They're just so bad most of the time. YouTube comments are especially frightening and make me wonder about the human race in general.

 

Completely ignoring everything is not good.

 

Very true, but I just don't know how much rambling and pointlessly tearing down of my work I'd be willing to put up with. Maybe just frequenting the sites that have the better posters would be a good way to go.

[MattyD]

^ So are you suggesting Disney should read TPR more often?!

 

And I honestly don't understand what people are complaining about with F'in Mania, I wasn't that impressed by the video but 1) A video can't do that sort of attraction justice 2) It's not supposed to be a major attraction anyway so it doesn't have to be the most amazing ride since sliced bread 3) No one who's complained about it has actually ridden it yet and 4) it is still a completely unique ride experience, if you can name one other park that has a 3d nintendo wii strapped to rotating cars with a giant (and rather impressive) potato animatronic out front then I'd be suprised! Disney do unique ride experiences, and they do them very well!

 

So I guess my point is people are too quick to judge Disney and pick holes in everything they do - I personally think Ellen's Energy Adventure is Cr*p but I don't hear loads of rants about it and the general public seem to enjoy it; it's a unique attraction, I don't know any other like it!

 

Disney are good at creating unique attractions and there recent ones have pretty much all been unique whether we enthusiasts like them or not! I do agree that ignoring all criticism is bad but I can understand why an imagineer wouldn't want to spend years working on an attraction and then spend the next few years trawling through all the cr*p people are writing about it!

 

Maybe if people cut Disney a bit of slack and, rather than saying nasty things about everything, they came up with more 'I liked this about the ride but it was let down by this' kind of comments then the reaction from Disney would be that they want to hear everyone's comments rather than no one's!

 

Sorry about that, I think I might have ranted a bit there!

 

Matt

[Chrissie]

I guess Im kind of in a midway position.

 

I am a huge huge huge Disney enthusiast. I love it, always have and probably always will. I always keep up to date with the Disney updates,rumours and gossip. But, I'm also one of those people who gets to visit Disney once every 4/5 years. So when I'm there I don't really get the chance to critisise or pay attention to every single detail. Of course if I recieve crappy service or someone skips me in the Queue, I will complain but I've never ever really noticed the quality go drastically down hill or change. Even when I was working there in 06' and was living and breathing Disney for 3 months, I never really started to 'nit-pick'. I think this is because Disney isn't something I experience often

 

The more you do/see/experience something the novelty wears off, its easy to see more of the negative aspects. Which I guess what happens when you are an enthusiast who visits Disney reguarly and begins to become more involved in the company with regards to its operations etc.

 

The average family at Walt Disney World is there for the "out of this world experience" and I think all of the Disney attractions do proivide that.

 

I do agree that the sound complaint on mania is a big deal, but perhaps the quote was taken out of context. The ride has just opened, maybe they are testing the best ways to operate it?

[CoasterEricHP]

I answered Yes... but I think the question should be.. "Should Imagineers really give a crap about what the 1% of enthusiasts and hardcore Disney people think?"

 

If I was an Imagineer I would look at what is working in the theme parks and build a ride that fits within the budget limitation and what kind of people we are trying to appeal to. Obviously Disney is all about families and Toy Story, 3D effects, and Interactivity are some of the big things in the industry right now.

 

So yes.. I would ignore the over the top nitpickers. If their constant complaining got to me, I'd go sit at the end of Toy Story Mania and watch all the happy families coming off the ride.

 

I used to work on Expedition Everest, Dueling Dragons, and Flying Unicorn and I dont think I ever heard any normal guest complain about the bird on the stick or the view from Dragons lift hill not fitting with the theming! The normal guests dont really care! They are just happy they are there like many of you have pointed out.

 

But at the same time, it's fun to complain about some things! But if any enthusiast is going to bed at night stressing out about Toy Story Mania accoustics.. then.. uh.. get a life!

[thrillgeek]

I sure have no complaints about Disney. The imaginieers are great!

[alpengeist04]

I used to work on Expedition Everest, Dueling Dragons, and Flying Unicorn and I dont think I ever heard any normal guest complain about the bird on the stick or the view from Dragons lift hill not fitting with the theming! The normal guests dont really care! They are just happy they are there like many of you have pointed out.

 

I'm an enthusiast, and I don't complain about that kind of stuff either. But there are many that do, so I answered yes to the question.

[DBru]

I've never complained about Disney!

 

What do I win?

[packfanlv]

I think there are really two sorts of enthusiasts we need to talk about. There is a theme park enthusiast and then a Disney fanatic. I think I sort of belong in both groups. While I follow Disney very closely and find that Disneyland is perhaps my favorite place on Earth, I find that I love it because I am an amusement park enthusiast.

 

Right now I am travelling around the world to expand my knowledge of other people and cultures, but also find the time to sneak out to a park and ride some roller coasters. Most of the Disney hardcore fanatics that I come across only like Disney and really obsess about it.

 

I too follow all of the rumors and even find myself listening to Disney fan podcasts, but just don't find the need to nitpick everything. Of course, after reading some of the Disney forums, it is clear that Disney is everything to some of these people. When they are now at Disneyland or WDW it is always on their mind.

 

If you were obsessing about Disney 24/7 then you might be able to find hundreds of things to complain about. For me, I go there and am taken into a world that doesn't exist anywhere else. The only thing I wonder is why they haven't brought more of that TDS magic to the states. Is it budgetary or do they have an agreement not to duplicate some of those rides in the states?

 

Either way I want to thank Disney and the Imagineers for keeping the magic alive. Like I said I will take Disneyland over just about anywhere else in the world. (I still haven't been to the Tokyo Disneyland Resort!)

[ChrisFL]

First, I don't like the tone of that imagineer on Jim Hill's site.

 

As an artist you have to take the good with the bad and some criticism is valid that they've received the past several years, however we as fans must also realize there's usually several forces at work.

 

There's the budgets that get set, the marketing goals these days that are added to attractions, sponsors that have to be happy with the end result (in cases like SSE), guest surveys, and probably things like guests per hour that have to be taken into account.

 

That said, I think the hype and publicity by Disney has been really high because after this, there isn't much they've announced. Therefore people who don't see this as a good D-ticket are not going to be satisfied.

[the ghost]

A terrible disney attraction ( cant really think of many except for maybe Stitch) is the same as the best themed attraction in any other park.

 

 

LONG LIVE DISNEY!!!!

[omnio55]

Ok, first I will start by agreeing with most of you. In my opinion, A ride is a piece of art, and a theme park is a gallery. In a normal art gallery not everything is a priceless work of amazingness, but all the paintings work together to become the great gallery with good variety. F'n Mania does this for both CA and MGM because both parks needed some middle ground attractions.

That being said I have a story, both times I have complained about a ride at WDW I was yelled at by management for not telling somebody sooner(it was pretty funny cause most the time they were still the first people I saw.)

One time was at star tours when the sound cut out half way through the ride. (which everyone noticed but I was the only person to tell them cause I was the only one who cared enough.)

the other time was at Expedition Everest( and no, it wasn't about the bird...)

But the yeti projection screen wasn't working, which is a major part of the ride. This time I was the only one on the train who noticed as I was the only one who had ridden it before. It was a major deal, and the moral that I took away from this was that, If i hadn't of complained hundreds of people could of not have had the best time possible.

 

Edit: I mean Disney studios, not Mgm, I haven't been since the name change sorry.

[Disney Dood]

I don't have a problem with TSM. It looks really fun to me, and I'm really looking forward to riding it this August.

 

I'm a huge Disney fan. I can certainly find things wrong with any Disney ride, but only if I wanted to! I can't really see why there are so many people who eat, breathe, and sleep Disney but can't ride a new Disney ride without complaining about it.

 

My only problem with Disney right now is that they need to get working on more major attractions. I hear something big is coming to EPCOT in 2010....

[BlibBlab]

It has been 14 years since the last time i stepped foot in a Disney park and i can say the next time i go, i don't care that Stiches Great Escape maybe crap and at Toy Story i might hear a tram from another room. The only thing i care about is that i will be at Disney

 

This is how i feel about it all really. I have only seen videos of F'n Mania and although it might not appeal to me as much as Expedition Everest or some of their other rides I know I will be having fun and loving the Disney experience.

 

At the same time I think complaining is a way of life. Its human nature and is always going to happen. People just need to think about what they are about to say more. Things have to be done for the parks sake. Constructive criticism is something people struggle to do. Problem is people seem to be a lot quicker and more comfortable to complain before they compliment and congratulate an Imagineer on their work.

[the ghost]

Dont forget Cars Root Sixty Six Racer as well as a whole cars land coming to DCA in 2012 and Little Mermaid in 2010. Should be a great next few years for DCA.

[MisterP]

The #1 reason I love this site is because most people here "get" the Disney experience as I do (and unlike most of my friends). I really think the level of criticism of their shortcomings on TPR is very reasonable. When expectations are high, that's bound to happen.

 

I just fear that Disney isn't as concerned with things like "bird-on-a-stick", the wallpaper in the stretching rooms in HM, the burning cabin, etc. as we are...but the issue is that those very details are what makes the parks so great. So I truly believe the Disney company SHOULD be concerned...that's the way Walt was. IMO, its far worse to let current attractions deteriorate (to some degree) than it is to not come up with a new mind-blowing experience....

 

If Disneyland/World never added another new attraction, I would still want to go back to see my old favorites if they were as good as they were the last time I was there (but I live in Missouri, so I understand the locals' complaints)...