Frommer article full of WDW misinformation

[minnie61650]

Surely you don't mean that would apply to Floridians back then?

Yes, even the Floridians. If they wanted to stay at a WDW property would have to book far in advance. In the 70's and 80's I booked my WDW rooms at least a year before we went.

I still book several months in advance because I remember how hard it use to be to get a room.

Off site rooms and DTD rooms were more plentyful.

 

[minnie61650]

Sounds like they took a page from the Disney playbook and blamed it on something they thought people would buy. There are tons of indoor swimming pools, lazy rivers and even indoor water parks.

I agree.

Pools and lazy river rides have skimmers or mechanical ways to circulate the water properly.

Maybe they did not plan it out properly.

Most likely they were just tired of the upkeep and the added expense of all the chemicals.

 

[YoHo]

River rides don't generate revenue the way slot machines and fancy nightclubs do.

the Vegas branch of LAX is in much of that space now. When I was at the Luxor a few weekends ago they were hosting Nikki Hilton's birthday. THAT was some people watching.

 

[G8RFAN]

Yes, even the Floridians....

I was addressing YoHo's multiple trips a year bull comment. We go often because we love it and 2 1/2 hours in the car door to door is no biggie for a weekend trip. In fact we are leaving tomorrow for the weekend there and then DS and I will be going without DW the following weekend for the Martial Arts Tournament at World Wide Sports.

 

[YoHo]

Floridians have never made up a significant portion of WDW's guests. At least not compared to California and Disneyland which is rather surprising given how much more of WDW there is.

 

[Another Voice]

Just catching up so I have to reach back a bit…

When Golf Inn opened in 1973 the only theme it had was being able to see the golf course from some of the rooms…The Disney Village Resort Villas were built in 1985 [sic] and they really had no theme to speak of. I think there are more sparks of themes at the All Stars than there was in either the Golf/Disney Inn or the Disney Village Resorts.

It wasn’t that these hotel weren’t theme so much as they were built when the concept of the Walt Disney World Resort was very different than it was today.

In the first twenty years of WDW, the real emphasis was to create more of a general purpose resort that would appeal to a wide variety of guests. At the time a vacation focused more on recreation and activities, the “getting away from it all” kind of trip. The original Golf Resort was designed to be just that – a resort for people that wanted to play golf. It’s “theme” was as a fine golf country club, the kind of place that most normal people can’t afford or get into. It was a place for Dad to golf his heart out while The Little Woman and the 2.4 kids were off at the Magic Kingdom.

In the same vein, the Disney Village Resort (which opened in phases from 1972 through 1975) was actually built as a vacation home development and corporate conference center. The original plan was to sell the villas as condos, the old “Grand Villas” were model homes for a development to the north. Other units were meant for large corporate “getaways” and conferences. The men would hold meetings in the day while the family was off to the park. Back in the 1970s when you were trying to sell second homes to well off snowbirds or hundred guest conferences to major corporations, “all Disney all Disney time” would not have been a selling point.

It wasn’t until deep into the Eisner Era that the entire concept changed from the Walt Disney World Resort to the Walt Disney World The Brand Experience. Naturally, the emphasis of the resorts changed from being environments of their own into extensions of The Brand – no golfing, all Goofy. In the 1970s and 1980s the idea of being surrounded by only Disney would not have worked, now at WDW you can’t get away from the commercials.

That’s not to say one resort is better than another, just that the intent has changed over time.

 

[minnie61650]

I think the values are also meant to be another type of vacation experience.
If we can agree that the Golf resort was the "country club" experience for Dad can we not agree that just maybe the All Stars were designed to appeal to children's imaginations; to be a fantasy experience for children? It does not take many props to get a child's imagination going.
They love the bright colors and oversized icons at the All Stars. Although some adults think the values are gaudy , other adults see them as fun and whimsical . Most children see them as fun and love seeing their favorite characters at their resort.
When I vacation at WDW one my favorite resort activities is just watching the children's reactions to all of "decorations" (the giant Buzz Lightyear at Movies, The huge footballs and giant hoops at Sports, The Three Caballeros at the pool at All Star Music) that surround them at the All Star resorts.



I love watching the children's eyes light up, seeing their smiles, hearing their giggles and knowing they are having the times of lives. Where else can they find Mickey or Donald at the pool?

BTW:

Did you know if you count all of the Dalmatians (the icons plus the puppies on the buildings) you will come up with 101 Dalmatians?
Now how cool is that?

That is one of my favorite WDW trivia facts. I love the way Disney pays attention to details!

 

[YoHo]

I wouldn't have a problem with that conceptually. That the values were designed to be something different.

The problem is that as appealing as that sounds, it's a lie. It's a lie based on what they, the Disney company have said.

The values are for those who can't afford regular Disney (in this day and age) Disney has said that. There's no change in appeal. It's about what can we get away with and still bring in the great unwashed masses.

Disney has said that it's about price. Anything else is just us kidding ourselves trying to put a better face on in.

 

[minnie61650]

I wouldn't have a problem with that conceptually. That the values were designed to be something different.

The problem is that as appealing as that sounds, it's a lie. It's a lie based on what they, the Disney company have said.

The values are for those who can't afford regular Disney (in this day and age) Disney has said that. There's no change in appeal. It's about what can we get away with and still bring in the great unwashed masses.

Disney has said that it's about price. Anything else is just us kidding ourselves trying to put a better face on in.

I agree that the values were built so that Disney would be more affordable to more people and to more young families.
Which is not really bad unless it was really said in the same context that you imply.

But I also think that while they were designing a resort with a lower price point they could have decided to design resorts that would appeal young children. That may be a reason they desided to use fun decorations, bright colors and characters that young childen would enjoy.

JMHO

 

[YoHo]

Well, I've not talked to any imagineers directly about the values, but I've heard that they're none too proud of the "work" they did there. Or didn't do since they weren't actually all that involved.

 

[Another Voice]

But I also think that while they were designing a resort with a lower price point they could have decided to design resorts that would appeal young children.

Disney never intended the Values to appeal to children. That was never in any of the designs, never in any of the intentions and never in any of the marketing.

The Values were designed to be "just enough" to complete with the motels and hotels on International Drive, and to be the cheapest possible to construct. Disney literally took the slab-sided Motel 6, made it bigger to warehouse more people and slapped the "Disney" name on the buildings. Even adding the "Disney" figures was mostly an afterthought when early reviews commented on how soulless and dream-crushing these barns were.

And the "but childern like it" ploy is used to sell really bad movies and other inept works. No one here is giving the Nicholdeon Hotel up the street standing reviews because "my DD3 likes it!!!". Again, move the Pop Century towards Sea World and see what kind of reaction you'd get.

And point isn't the Disney made low-end hotels. The point is that Disney refused to do a good job. For the same investment, for the same operations Disney could have created a truely wonderful place that everyone - where they wear diapers or not - could have enjoyed.

Disney doesn't repect their own guests enough to even bother any more. They've learned that no matter how bad the product, there is a certain level of people that will buy it. It's a brand psychology at work and it will utilimately be destructive to the company.