Anyone care to discuss specifics? What is happening now which differs from the guest experience of, for instance, six months to a year ago? I've seen noticable and obvious cutbacks at Walt Disney World since the mid-1990's at least. Some periods, such as 2001 (but starting before the September 2001 terrorist attacks), have been particularly severe (and arguably an over-reaction to economic events - a phenomenon I expect to recur in 2009).
Unfortunately I don't doubt that for a second, but again, what cutbacks are more noticable and are most significantly impacting the guest experience?
Actually, they aren't. Some of us just want to hold Disney to the high standards which it established for itself decades ago. The company hasn't done that in a long time. Any cutbacks now just keep digging the hole they're in a little deeper.
A couple of observations regarding cutbacks.
Parking and Road Maintenance.
* The road leading up to the ticket booth into the Magic Kingdom - far right lane - was riddled with open potholes....big enough that you had to slow down or risk blowing a tire.
* Parking Lot at the Magic Kingdom. I have a photo of my DH in his Dalmation costume next to Dopy 107 3 years ago. Now the paint has faded and worn that you cannot always read which row you are in. Looks VERY shabby.
Lets not talk about bathrooms at the end of the night....THAT impacted, at least, the ladies....tough to listen to children crying a tugging to leave because of the smell.
Christmas Tree was not put up until AFTER the filiming of Regis and Kelly - cost savings.
Small and VERY shabby boat launch from the Wilderness Lodge to the MK. Remember the big boat that you could roll onto with your wheelchair? Now the have a funky boat with a striped canopy. It would probably be fun....except the paint is badly faded and the transome (back of the boat) was covered with black exhaust soot - very nasty. I'm a boater....you NEVER allow that to happen on your boat.
Shabby patch in the Rock Waterfall Wall at the Wildie <--broke my heart to see. It's vertical patch and obvious because they did nothing to blend the color with the other "Disney" rocks.....very sad.
Little stove that could at BWV........rusty and not all the burners worked...poor little thing! Dripping showerhead ..... no response from maintenance after 2 calls in 2 days.
Here are just a few that came to mind this AM. We were not going out of our way to look for them.....they were just WAY too obvious.
These would NEVER have happened in the past before the budget cuts.