Chapek out - Iger back

[Moliphino]

I think I am the opposite. Bless wfh because I can simply wake up 15 min before I need to log in and be ready. I cannot function on a daily basis if I need to wake up early every day. But for vacations? I will wake up at 4am if needed to make the most of it haha.

I will a day or two if it's necessary (we had to get up early for a tour to Pompeii, for example). But not EVERY day.

 

[BrightMorningStar]

Weird, I made a post but it isn't showing up - didn't have any numbers at the end like others had reported was causing issues earlier either.

This seems to be happening to others as well. It looks like every place where there is a large block of ads, it is kicking out posts. Look at the post number before and after the huge ad space. There are 3 posts missing. See screenshot below.

I cannot see many of my posts. Past and present.
@WebmasterPete @WebmasterAlex @WebmasterCorey - are you aware this is happening?

 

[tink2424]

So there I'm left feeling like maybe Disney just isn't FOR us. My kids are small, they're little, and they're CHILDREN so they can't do standby. But they don't qualify for DAS just for being little, you know? Genie+ doesn't work well for families with small kids, and I get that every service isn't going to work for everyone, but Disney Parks are heavily marketed as a place for families. Except Genie+ in its current form doesn't make it feel very conducive to MY family.

I don't mean to pick on you Annabelle as you are not the only poster who says this & I am only using your post as an example so this post isn't specifically addressed to you. This statement of "XX can't do standby" is a pet peeve of mine. We have got to teach kids that they can't have everything when they want it. It is something that we have stopped doing as a civilization. When I went the first time in the 80s there were no such things as fastpasses and I waited just like everyone else. My parents took their 3 children and 2 additional children from friend's of theirs. We were all under the age of 8 with two of us 5 and under. We made out just fine as that was what was required.

I very much enjoy being able to skip lines and not have to wait and I don't begrudge anyone that can afford the VIP tours but can we move away from this can't phrase. You can you just don't want to. It is hard to have kids that throw tantrums and maybe constantly ask "when are we going to ride" or say "I'm bored." IMHO it is okay for kids to be bored. It might teach them patience and appreciation for what they have.

Sorry for the rant and I very much understand how hard it is to have littles and how Disney is very stimulating. This is just my opinion. Thanks for letting me take the time to rant.

 

[fatmanatee]

This seems to be happening to others as well. It looks like every place where there is a large block of ads, it is kicking out posts. Look at the post number before and after the huge ad space. There are 3 posts missing. See screenshot below.

I cannot see many of my posts. Past and present.
@WebmasterPete @WebmasterAlex @WebmasterCorey - are you aware this is happening?

There’s a post in the technical support forum so they should be aware, guessing they’ve gotten alerts elsewhere too.

 

[BrightMorningStar]

We have got to teach kids that they can't have everything when they want it. It is something that we have stopped doing as a civilization. When I went the first time in the 80s there were no such things as fastpasses and I waited just like everyone else. My parents took their 3 children and 2 additional children from friend's of theirs. We were all under the age of 8 with two of us 5 and under. We made out just fine as that was what was required.

I very much enjoy being able to skip lines and not have to wait and I don't begrudge anyone that can afford the VIP tours but can we move away from this can't phrase. You can you just don't want to. It is hard to have kids that throw tantrums and maybe constantly ask "when are we going to ride" or say "I'm bored." IMHO it is okay for kids to be bored. It might teach them patience and appreciation for what they have.

100%
Teaching children patience and waiting and sometimes a flat out "no" seems to be a thing of the past. We live in such a me-centric world, everybody wants instant gratification and children are being taught to have the same unrealistic expectations. The world seems to be in a perpetual state of narcissism. If I was raising a small child today, most moms today would see me as "mean" or a "whip-cracker".

 

[NotUrsula]

Over time you've had parties at MK lengthen the amount of evenings unavailable to day guests which has put pressure on non-party days. That would have the biggest impact to fireworks attendance. If you only get 1 shot (maybe 2 depending on your length of trip) welp that's what it is.

When I read comments from a lot of parents over the years park hopping tends to not be high on the priority because of their kids. Because they can't get there at rope drop, or the kids tire out or get over stimulated so they go back to the resort for pool time or nap time, because the time spent park hopping eats out the time they realistically have.

When FP+ came around and you pre-selected attractions there were different strategies involved there, in the morning gave more opportunity for rolling 4th, mid-afternoon to early evening gave opportunity to have a quicker way to get on rides when wait times were longer on average.

Collectively there's probably a lot that has contributed to MK being more crowded. Even the design of the parks interacts as funneling of crowds when there's more of them functions differently. You absolutely don't want to go through the hub if you can avoid it but New Fantasyland gets really clogged easily with people even during the day. Parades add to it as well. The attendance has def. gone up over the years. I disagree that removal of park hopping being included is why MK today is what it is. Epcot's World Showcase is a great and awful design at the same time. It's expansive but leaves only the boats to get from one side to the other without wading in the sea of people which are usually plentiful when the festivals are going on (which are a large part of the year these days between the two of them).

I didn't mean that the park-hopping issue was the total cause of MK's current density issues, just that that was when it really began. I happened to visit quite often that year, and the effect was just about instantaneous, it was a noticeable difference in crowd density as soon as the complementary park-hopping was discontinued. Lots of other factors have contributed since, but I stand by my contention that that was the trigger that began the cascade.

 

[DLgal]

Disneyland also has the benefit of having more attractions than WDW.

I do agree that a compromise would be once tapped in you can make a Genie+ selection. Extend the early entry for hotel guests to an hour that gives them a head start over off-site on their attraction selections.

When Disneyland has early entry, you still have to wait until official park opening time to make Genie+ selections.

There really should be no advantage for anyone. Although I suppose if Disney want to return some perks to hotel guests, this would be a good way to start.

 

[wkrainey]

Here's a long-shot idea. Why not Kevin Feigen

Idk, there's a chance. The reservation system was a pandemic response and Chapek/D'Amaro loved it so much they kept it. I get it makes it easier for Disney to manage staffing and other resources, but Disney has enough experience to effectively manage this without blunt force tools like the park reservation system. They did it for decades. True, there would always be a hiccup here and there, but for the most part Disney was able to handle this just fine. Its possible that Iger leaves something like this to D'Amaro to decide, and certainly he has experience with handling this through proper forecasting.

What we don't know is whether D'Amaro really wants to keep the system, or if he sees the substantial guest experience drawbacks as too big a cost to pay for the nickels and dimes (relatively speaking) it saves. Under Chapek, we know nickels and dimes ruled. Iger wasn't exactly loose with the purse strings, but he did at least have a basic understanding of how the guest experience would impact Disney's long term business model. At the very least, his method was to slowly chip away, and evaluate the impacts after each chip. Whereas Chapek was much more "damn the torpedos".

We'll have to see.

I don't see it as a pandemic response. I think the pandemic made it a viable option without the masses boycotting. We've all complained for years about the crowds and Disney and barring massive additions to existing parks and large people eating attractions, the only logical method to control crowds are price. It's basic supply and demand, but the trick Disney is doing is creating false supply shortages by adding the reservation system. This allows them to further increase price beyond what would be traditionally set on a supply/demand system.

Add to that the reservation system allows the parks to control traffic and staffing beyond what they had previously. From Disney's standpoint that reservation system is worth it's weight in gold if used properly.

 

[Disney Bobby]

I agree... they knew at that time that he probably wasn't going to make it -as did Chapek. I think it was a charade for the market, until they could get Iger locked back in. Which bought Iger some time to hit the ground running

Well, if that is the case, the SEC needs to be involved. Highly unethical.

 

[SCWildcat04]

I don't mean to pick on you Annabelle as you are not the only poster who says this & I am only using your post as an example so this post isn't specifically addressed to you. This statement of "XX can't do standby" is a pet peeve of mine. We have got to teach kids that they can't have everything when they want it. It is something that we have stopped doing as a civilization. When I went the first time in the 80s there were no such things as fastpasses and I waited just like everyone else. My parents took their 3 children and 2 additional children from friend's of theirs. We were all under the age of 8 with two of us 5 and under. We made out just fine as that was what was required.

I very much enjoy being able to skip lines and not have to wait and I don't begrudge anyone that can afford the VIP tours but can we move away from this can't phrase. You can you just don't want to. It is hard to have kids that throw tantrums and maybe constantly ask "when are we going to ride" or say "I'm bored." IMHO it is okay for kids to be bored. It might teach them patience and appreciation for what they have.

Sorry for the rant and I very much understand how hard it is to have littles and how Disney is very stimulating. This is just my opinion. Thanks for letting me take the time to rant.

Not in the same boat, but my oldest has severe ADHD but I also love the DAS system because it's a God send and I would literally never be able to take him to the parks if it weren't an option. Took him to a local amusement park and while waiting in lines he was prone to running away so doing that in a park where there was maybe a couple of hundred people compare to thousands at Disney he'd never be able to visit there.

 

[Jrb1979]

I don't mean to pick on you Annabelle as you are not the only poster who says this & I am only using your post as an example so this post isn't specifically addressed to you. This statement of "XX can't do standby" is a pet peeve of mine. We have got to teach kids that they can't have everything when they want it. It is something that we have stopped doing as a civilization. When I went the first time in the 80s there were no such things as fastpasses and I waited just like everyone else. My parents took their 3 children and 2 additional children from friend's of theirs. We were all under the age of 8 with two of us 5 and under. We made out just fine as that was what was required.

I very much enjoy being able to skip lines and not have to wait and I don't begrudge anyone that can afford the VIP tours but can we move away from this can't phrase. You can you just don't want to. It is hard to have kids that throw tantrums and maybe constantly ask "when are we going to ride" or say "I'm bored." IMHO it is okay for kids to be bored. It might teach them patience and appreciation for what they have.

Sorry for the rant and I very much understand how hard it is to have littles and how Disney is very stimulating. This is just my opinion. Thanks for letting me take the time to rant.

I always wonder how people manage at other parks with little kids. Those parks don't have fastpasses for kid rides.

 

[Aluminum Falcon]

I always wonder how people manage at other parks with little kids. Those parks don't have fastpasses for kid rides.

Smaller crowds

 

[HopperFan]

I understand what you are saying, but children 100% can do stand by. Little kids have been waiting for things since the beginning of time. We waited for stand by before fast track lines were even a thing. Children wait for snacks after school, to watch a movie, to open xmas presents, for the parade, for nighttime shows. I don't honestly get why you say your kids cannot wait because they are little. It is on parents to keep kids entertained while they wait, it's a skill that kids need to learn. You can't possible believe 40+ min wait times are a new thing only current kids have had to endure.

There are soo many things that you can do so you don't have to "kill" 90 min, and I'm not even sure what you mean here, do you sit in a bench and wait? How is that different than stand by? . Do a short ride, fish for MEPs, watch a show, enjoy the atmosphere, check for LLs around nap time, etc etc.

The mad dash for LLs, well, it is exactly the same as fastpass was but in the commodity of your phone. I'm not against on-site guests getting perks for paying those ridiculous amounts of money. But getting frustrated because "kids can't wait because they are little" is kinda not it imo. Kids can wait, but it's on parents to show them how. Not wanting to wait for whatever reason is fine, I have so many reasons why I don't wanna wait 40+ for a ride. Not wanting to wait is very dif than cannot wait imo.

Agreed.

I think very often we (parents) seem to have a hard time of ... not sure how to word it properly ... accepting that when we have children sometimes we have to stop and take breaks from things until our children are ready for certain things. When my boys were small we had a few years where we just stopped going out to eat. Not that they didn't behave but it wasn't enjoyable for them and therefore us, so we stopped. Disney is a stressful place to go and not all children can handle the lines, the hustle, the missed naps etc. It can be hard to let go and decide to take a break for a few years so the timing is better for the kids. We can't look to others to change to adapt to us. Sometimes you have to shift to something that works better for the place our kids are at behaviorally. That is okay. Then when they are ready, shift again.

REALITY for all of us is ~ the park experience is not going to change in ways many on here want.

- Genie+ is not going away but my hope is now Iger will initiate a study to see how it can be improved for the guest experience.
- I don't think park reservations are going away and likely not hopper 2 pm (they go hand in hand) but perhaps AP can get a few more reservations, perhaps they can allow "hopping" without the first scan in after say 3 pm.
- Perhaps the Dining Plan return will be sped up, which often impacts menus for good (or bad).
- Perhaps there will be pressure to hire more CMs especially in attractions & custodial.
- Perhaps Mousekeeping will return in full.
- Perhaps there will be stress on figuring out how to fix these long wait times.

Things are not as much broken as they are poorly implemented. If many of the implementation problems can be fixed then perhaps things like the longer wait times will improve and that be a plus for those finding that to be the hardest to manage. (Wait times are a top priority to fix on my list).

 

[middlechild]

Any changes to the parks will be surface dressing, in my opinion, until major changes happen on the streaming side. TWDC needs every bit of revenue to win the streaming battle raging right now. VHS won over Betamax because it was everywhere. Disney+ is growing internationally, with Chapek's hope that a competitor would fail proving his investment "visionary" resulting in Disney+ being everywhere (owning ALL subscribers). Unfortunately, competitors in that space are better funded then expected, so are still competing and therefore bleeding TWDC dry. So what does Iger do? Settle for second? Spend his way to first? Exit the market, and make licensing deals for content, taking credit for smaller revenue slice? Would love to know in advance, if anyone knows a bus driver...

 

[zumfelde]

Your comment really made me think this through a little more. I don't have any issue with selecting attractions day-of. In fact, I think being able to wait it out is preferable in the sense that you don't always know exactly what you're going to want to do on any given day and it can be hard to know so far in advance.

My issue, as it turns out, is with two things. One being that with Genie+ and the ILL system, it feels like a mad dash and a competition with other guests, which isn't really in the spirit of what Disney usually invokes. It's a stressful way to start a day of vacation, particularly when you've spent thousands and thousands of dollars on the trip, on the flights, on the on-site hotel stay, and your family is counting on you to secure X attraction because you have little kids and doing it standby is just NOT an option, and because you have to go home in a week or less and if you miss it, you're SOL. This right here is why I think on-site guests should get some kind of priority here.

The other issue is I want control over my times. I want three slots released to me at the beginning of the day that I can schedule in any way I wish. I want to schedule them around my kids' naptimes, I want to schedule them all together in a block of time where I know the kids are likely to be fed, and happy, and ready for the park.

I want to make Disney fit into MY schedule, instead of having to squeeze my family into Disney's schedule.

On our last trip, we used Genie+ every day, and while it worked in some aspects, we found we absolutely could NOT just walk into the park, book a LL, and then WAIT for said LL to come around. Often our next LL would be 90 minutes later, and we'd be left figuring out how to kill those 90 minutes with little kids who can't tolerate long lines in a park where every standby is a 40+ min wait. Our only solution was to leave the parks for an afternoon break, and stack up the attractions for the evening. But even that wasn't great because my kids are LITTLE and get tired and cranky at a certain point.

So there I'm left feeling like maybe Disney just isn't FOR us. My kids are small, they're little, and they're CHILDREN so they can't do standby. But they don't qualify for DAS just for being little, you know? Genie+ doesn't work well for families with small kids, and I get that every service isn't going to work for everyone, but Disney Parks are heavily marketed as a place for families. Except Genie+ in its current form doesn't make it feel very conducive to MY family.

Surely there could be a happy medium somehow so that we don't have to plan every detail down to the bathroom breaks, two months out from our vacations, but that doesn't alienate families with little ones either.

Why is kids nowadays can't do standby but all the years before fastpass was available all kids did standby. We went this summer with 5 kids and did not buy genie+ did standby for everything longest wait was 60 minutes. We went at rope drop left park at noon to go to resort to rest and swim went back after dinner to parks.

 

[AnnabelleTheTalkingTree]

Why is kids nowadays can't do standby but all the years before fastpass was available all kids did standby. We went this summer with 5 kids and did not buy genie+ did standby for everything longest wait was 60 minutes. We went at rope drop left park at noon to go to resort to rest and swim went back after dinner to parks.

I don't think it's ALL kids. My 5 year old does just fine, just to clarify. But the toddler set, it's just really hard. I imagine it's probably always been tough for the 1-2 year olds, which is the age my we took my son last. And it was so hard. Granted, it wasn't Disney's fault - he was just a in a rough phase we couldn't have anticipated when we booked. He refused the stroller, refused to be held, refused to go literally anywhere we wanted him to. And he's a super sweet and generally patient kid.

I'm aware that not every system is going to work for everyone, but having done fastpass+ in the past, also with kids, it just worked so much better. Genie+ worked to a degree but we could have had a lot more fun if it was Fastpass+ style, ie being able to just choose a few attractions and most importantly, choose the TIMES instead of having to wait the interim between each one. I'd throw my money at them for a system that allowed me to choose times ahead of time (even if it was just right night before or on the morning of). I would just like to see Genie+ offer something that could *help* families in my position.

 

[middlechild]

It was easier waiting when both lines waited, everyone waited. Lines moved forward together. Now one line speeds by. We all see quite visibly another option

 

[BrianL]

It was easier waiting when both lines waited, everyone waited. Lines moved forward together. Now one line speeds by. We all see quite visibly another option

This is why I liked it during Covid when there was no FP option at all - the lines moved FAST!

That said, the point of a Fastpass/Lightning Lane isn't to skip all the lines all the time, it's to have a pass for one thing and wait for another. The wait at the second might be a little longer, but then you make it up with the FP. It's supposed to balance out, but when people just want FP for everything it doesn't work. If EVERYBODY has a fastpsss, then NOBODY has a fastpass!

 

[AnnabelleTheTalkingTree]

I don't mean to pick on you Annabelle as you are not the only poster who says this & I am only using your post as an example so this post isn't specifically addressed to you. This statement of "XX can't do standby" is a pet peeve of mine. We have got to teach kids that they can't have everything when they want it. It is something that we have stopped doing as a civilization. When I went the first time in the 80s there were no such things as fastpasses and I waited just like everyone else. My parents took their 3 children and 2 additional children from friend's of theirs. We were all under the age of 8 with two of us 5 and under. We made out just fine as that was what was required.

I very much enjoy being able to skip lines and not have to wait and I don't begrudge anyone that can afford the VIP tours but can we move away from this can't phrase. You can you just don't want to. It is hard to have kids that throw tantrums and maybe constantly ask "when are we going to ride" or say "I'm bored." IMHO it is okay for kids to be bored. It might teach them patience and appreciation for what they have.

Sorry for the rant and I very much understand how hard it is to have littles and how Disney is very stimulating. This is just my opinion. Thanks for letting me take the time to rant.

I don't disagree with you, children do need to learn to wait but it's a different thing when they're under 2 and can't be reasoned with. My 5 year old does just fine, doesn't complain about being bored (who complains they're bored in Disney?). And until I was actually IN this position myself, I would've said exactly the same thing you just did.

I'm not asking to skip ALL the lines whatsoever. What I would like is the option - that we used to have with fastpass+ - to schedule our attractions together in one lump. And I'm happy to pay for that option, too. That would make it a lot easier, I think, for lots of families with little ones. I'm happy to just come in, do a few attractions and have something to eat, and go back to the resort if that's what my family can manage at that point.

I really didn't mean to come across as entitled here. I think I just feel really passionately about it because our last trip was honestly SO hard. My little one was still under two at the time, as was another child we traveled with, and they both were very hard to manage. My son wouldn't sleep, wouldn't be contained, screamed in the stroller, would go literally nowhere we wanted him to when we had him walk. It was a nightmare, and for something we had set such high hopes on for a post-pandemic trip, it just really stunk. I spent hours in the middle of the night walking him around these resorts in the stroller while he screamed and I cried in exhaustion. None of that is Disney's fault, or Genie+'s fault, it was just a phase that my generally sweet and patient under-two-year old was going through that we couldn't have anticipated. BUT, our days WOULD have been a lot more enjoyable if we'd been able to book attractions for times that worked for us instead of having to do it one at a time throughout the day.

I don't want any more than anyone else paying for the same service and I'm happy to pay for a service that makes my trip more enjoyable. I just have a wish upon a star that the service could be tweaked a bit to work better for families with young kids. I mean, obviously, we could just not go, but we had no way of knowing it would go so wrong when we booked.

 

[0FF TO NEVERLAND]

This is why I liked it during Covid when there was no FP option at all - the lines moved FAST!

That said, the point of a Fastpass/Lightning Lane isn't to skip all the lines all the time, it's to have a pass for one thing and wait for another. The wait at the second might be a little longer, but then you make it up with the FP. It's supposed to balance out, but when people just want FP for everything it doesn't work. If EVERYBODY has a fastpsss, then NOBODY has a fastpass!

Yeah I went when there was nothing and was surprised how I took it. I went in expecting to wait so I think that’s why it didn’t bother me. And yes the lines moved quick even if a long time