Disney Fast Pass+ Too Much Leash?

Disney World is  too big to attack without some kind of plan. We do but we leave ourselves open to adjustments based on weather or crowds. For example, much as we wanted to try Be Our Guest, standing in the hot sun for an hour was not at all appealing so we ate elsewhere. It was quite cool one evening so we went to Downtown Disney and saved Illuminations for another night. However, we did book some meal reservations and Fast Passes before we left home.  A Disney mobile app allowed us to keep track of our schedule so that we arrived at an attraction during our Fast Pass-assigned time window and it reminded us of show times for those we wanted to see. We saw a lot of people glued to their smart phones, trying to decide how to be in two places at one time.

A family standing next to us at Spaceship Earth could see they would not finish the Spaceship Earth ride before their chance evaporated to get Fast Passes for Soarin' . The solution was for Dad to go over to Soarin' and get Fast Passes for the family to use later in the day. However that meant that he would not be riding Spaceship Earth.  His comment was "Why do we have to do everything at a set time? This is the worst vacation ever."

Too many of those reactions and attendance at WDW will drop like a stone. In trying to manage the guests in order to control expenses, Disney has successfully taken all the fun out of the experience.  By forcing the guest to schedule every moment, the company implies that the schedule will guarantee a wonderful vacation. Consequently the guest is dissatisfied or angry when their schedule falls apart.  Disney failed to include fallibility in its calculations. Rides break down, humans make mistakes, weather changes.

There have been numerous blogs and postings on the Fast Pass+ program. We have no issue with Magic Band; ours worked just fine. However, being forced to plan for every ride, every parade, and every meal doesn't sound like a vacation. Our regular lives are controlled by the calendar. Is it a vacation if we have to book everything in advance in order to experience it?

There is no doubt that the corporate plan is to give Fast Pass+ to guests staying at Disney resorts and "outsiders" will have to stand in line. Disney guests will be able to book optimum seating for parades, fireworks and shows. We get that. But heavy-handed control only works for a while. Eventually people rebel.  As we did. By the last two days of our trip, we blew off our Fast Passes and didn't use the mobile app once. We returned to the WDW of our memories and just enjoyed the parks. If a ride was too busy, we went on a different one. If one restaurant couldn't take us, we tried something new. Obviously not everyone will react the same way. If Dad foots the bill and thinks WDW is the worst vacation ever, the family won't be back.

So, Mr. Iger, be careful about what your Fast Pass+ system is telling your customers. Some guests might rebel as we did and simply opt for alternatives. And some guests may pass on WDW altogether. 

Linda Mickey Meets Mickey Mouse

I just returned from a trip to Walt Disney World in Florida. A close association with The Mouse is often assumed because of my name however it's been eight years since my last excursion to Orlando. This was a complete vacation - no emails, no phone calls, no touching base with the office, and very few tweets.

The trip will be the subject of the next few blogs because I saw plenty of communication in a variety of forms and all of it was fascinating. Of course electronic and digital forms were plentiful and influenced much of what I encountered but that's not the whole story.

Probably no one pushes a brand better than the Walt Disney Company. Children are indoctrinated at an early age and the corporation works hard to make that carry through from generation to generation. Consider one grandmother's story about her daughter-in-law paying the one day park admission in order to get a photo of her newborn in Minnie's arms. The grandmother was beaming. If he were to hear about it, Bob Iger, CEO of the company, would be too.

In coming posts, I will consider how cast members responded to guests, how the corporation relates to its customers, and what was good or unfortunate in all the factors that combined for the show I observed. To top it all off, snow at O'Hare Airport provided an entirely new experience. Like I said, it was a very interesting eight days.  

I'll take some time to reflect and compose my thoughts. Please stop by next week when I will begin the series. 

Disney Destroys a Difference

The Walt Disney Corporation makes me sad sometimes. I realize that all its decisions are about making more money but please - sexy, slinky Merida?  Fans are disgruntled and I am one of them. (Read about it here.)

I never fit in comfortably at school. While I wasn't a tomboy, I did things the other girls didn't do. I read, I went to plays, I loved classical music. I didn't look like them either. In fact, when my hair wasn't short, it looked exactly like Merida's. It is naturally curly and when I was a child it was so tangled it was nearly impossible to brush. I shared more than appearance with Merida. I, too, was fiercely independent and anxious to be on my own. While, as a rule, girls do not suffer through arranged marriages in this country, there were certain expectations for females that I fought against. In so many ways, she is me.  Even as an adult, Merida is the Disney princess who speaks to me.

So what's the deal? Why the redo?

The marketing and merchandising people at Disney Corporate don't care about a girl's self-image or about girls at all. All marketing mavens know sex sells so they made Merida sexy. It's that simple.

Hey Bob Iger.  This may not be as bad as Classic Coke but do you really want to do this? What about you, John Lasseter? Pixar created the look.  It seems you should defend it.

Sometimes a company should do what's right and concern itself with more than the bottom line. Sadly, it doesn't appear that this is one of those times for The Walt Disney Company and that is why I'm sad.