Welcome back to Cynical Disney!

The United States Government continues to be shut down…

Starting off with the light content of the day, the government shut down continues to affect at least 12 people on my Facebook feed. While I’m sad for people who have jobs that aren’t getting paid, I’m actually loving that it proves me right that we don’t NEED a government this size. Honestly, if I had a microphone and a live spot on CNN right now, I’d be spouting that if there are so many “non-essential” employees, they probably shouldn’t be employees and here’s a plan to give all these billions of dollars back into the hands of people who earned them.

Enough about my libertarian philosophy though. What does this have to do with Disney? Well, this might impact your trips to the parks, your cruise, your Adventures By Disney trips and maybe even some of your dining experiences. The TSA, for instance, is warning people that lines are longer at major airports around the country because unpaid workers are calling in “sick”. Ok, so add an extra hour to your planned arrival time. Also, the TSA continues to molest people at random while allowing guns on planes. So, not much has changed, because unless your travel plans are exclusively by car, you’ll still have to deal with this shit. The FDA also has a backlog of food being approved, so some of the agricultural supplies may be in short. You might not get an abundance of onions on a salad you don’t want but are forced to get because of the Disney Dining Plan. Just be aware that it’s not status quo for a couple of weeks. Also, I wouldn’t expect to see any “Pardon Our Progress” walls around the Mexican pavilion any time soon…

Star Wars Land to Open This Year

Yay? I’ve already challenged my to a Spitting Match on this very subject, so I’m not going to go too deep here. But, suffice it to say, I’m not bullish on this section of the park for long term prospects. If anything, I think it will cause mass hysteria for a few months and make everyone wonder “what’s next?” while making attractions like Lester’s Possum Park obsolete.

Disney Offers Free Dining During Summer Months

This actually was a bit of news, since it’s unprecedented for Disney World to give “free” shit away during what has been its busiest season until recently. It also happens to be linked to the Star Wars Land stuff, as people who are booking vacations are doing so for a time when they think it will be open. Disney does this to themselves. As a business person, I completely understand wanting to maximize your customer base’s spending while you have them. As a customer, they’ve maxed out my credit limit too many times for me to feel bad that they’re “hurting” for more in the summer.

Disney shifted from a repeat-customer friendly model to a “once in a lifetime trip” model years ago. The blackout dates for annual passes and skyrocketing prices on resorts and tickets are proof enough of that. It should come as no surprise that customers are coming less frequently, and therefore they’re hurting for people to come. My suggestion to Disney would be to listen to the WDW fan community, as there’s no shortage of bitching, and maybe they can garner some of that business back. Also, if you need assistance booking a trip, email us at CynicalDisneyVideo@gmail.com, and Amanda will be glad to help book your trip with Free Dining.

Trash continues to pile up and services continue to go down…

So I was listening to the latest Dis Unplugged Podcast, an excellent source to keep up on the happenings of Disney World if you don’t already listen. The host/owner of wdwinfo.com, Pete Werner, bemoaned the level of trash and uncleanliness of the bathrooms while on a recent park trip. He’s not the only person I know who’s said such a thing, just the one with the biggest platform to have done so. Lou Mongello is too busy kissing the ass of Disney to be critical. Anyway, my Dad has been complaining about the “little things” going away at Disney for years, and while I was too young to care when this first started, now I’m totally on this bandwagon.

Service has slipped, trash has piled up, and there’s always a “thing” whenever I do go down. I can’t tell you how many “Larry David moments” I’ve had while on vacation because I lost count. I may be right about them, but my complaints get me nowhere. On the podcast, the team went on a 10 minute side conversation about how customer service wars are waged on Twitter now, and I happen to agree that the fight needs to be in the open, not in an email or on the phone. So, I encourage all of you to wage this war with me by tweeting @WDWToday whenever you see shit you know isn’t up to the Disney standard. Leave public Google and Yelp reviews if you don’t like jumping into the social media cesspool. Just don’t roll your eyes and move on.

There’s plenty of other things going on in the Disney multiverse, but I need to get back to working. I have a project planned that actually costs more than the $12 a year for this site, so I got to make dat money honey. This is now officially the 200th post, and while I’d love to have a video prepared, I don’t. So deal with it. I’ll post a video in the near future about the “most average” of Disney World. Everyone always talks about the “best” and “worst” for this, that or the other, and I’d like to carve out a new lane of “it doesn’t suck but it’s not going to be like OMG”. Look forward to that soon, but until next time…

-The Disney Cynic

“I’m all beers!”