Our last trip to WDW, in conjunction with the Museum of Pin-tiquities pin event, was a lot of fun. Of course, as avid Disney fans, and frequent guests at WDW, we tend to notice things more carefully than most average Disney guests. So many of my "complaints" here are really nit-picking in some sense, but for others, I think there is a temporary loss of memory of some of the basic Disney mantra. And before it gets misinterpreted, none of what I will list will reduce or diminish our love for Disney and WDW. Will still be passholders, DVC members, and will continue our multiple pilgrimage, to the most magical place on earth. But I sincerely wish something is done with what I see as shortcomings in presenting the Disney magic.
The most immediate and most noticeable shortcoming was the pin event itself. There wre just way too many obvious recycling from the previous year. While we are all for recycling and reducing waste, it doesn't work in this case. The decorations were just not up to par with previous years, and in my opinion, this is the least decorated and the weakest themeing done in years. The pin-back mascot that was used last year still adorned the entrance to World Showcase for this event - it is completely off-theme. They could have done a lot more to impress the attendees - build a pyramid in the middle of World Showcase and have pin games in there or something. That would have been a jaw-dropper for many of us.
Still, I think this is only a temporary setback due to cost-cutting measures instituted by Disney during the challenging economic times. While I'm disappointed by the weak themeing, I fully understand why it was done and why it wasn't more elaborate. I just hope they pick it up when the times get better and not settle in this rut.
The next couple of complaints involve pins AND cast members, although I'm not so sure the blame falls on the cast members themselves, or if it is rather the lack of training and the type of cast members Disney management put in place in a particular situation.
Many locations, especially at the resorts, have pin trading boards that the cast members will bring out when you ask for them. While it used to be that they will bring the board out whenever you ask for it when the cast members are not busy, it seems that now, they have a set time when they can be brought out. This is certainly true at the Carriage House at Saratoga Springs where we stayed. When we first asked for it when we just arrived, we were told that the board is available only between 11:00 am till 8:00 pm each day. Fine. But when we came back a couple of days later and asked for it (it was around 11:15 am), we were told that it can be brought out only between Noon and 8:00 pm. Again, this isn't a big deal with that 1 hour difference, but still, I wish they get their story straight for something this simple. We made a special trip to the Carriage House at that time because we thought we could take a look at the pin trading board before we left to go to the parks. If we knew it would be later before we could look at it, we wouldn't have made the stop and would have gone straight to the parks. As I've said earlier, as an institution or a business, there is no more efficient way to infuriate your customers then to give them conflicting information.
The other annoying incident happened at Fantasia, a gift store at the Contemporary. You see, there is this Pin Trading Nights pin, a limited edition of only 500, that seems to be available (or left) only at this store (at least, no one else could find it anywhere else). After we discovered it, bought it, and told our friends about it, it appears to be gone by Tuesday morning when we arrived to do our parasailing. We thought it was sold out because the rack space where the pins were hanging from was empty. Still, we thought we should ask the cast member working at the store and see if the pins were truly sold out, or if they were simply not stocked yet. When we asked, the cast member at the cash register not only thought they were gone, but also had no idea what pin we were talking about. She kept thinking that we wanted lanyards, or some other pins. This gets annoying rather fast. I suppose it is a bit too much to request that the person working the store actually have some interest and some knowledge of the merchandise being sold in that store. I think a cast member who has some interest in pins should be working at stores that carry an extensive number of pins for sale, and especially when that location (The Contemporary) happens to regularly hold pin trading nights events.
So after getting the idea that the pins were sold out, we went away to do what we wanted to do that day. I think you can see what's coming next. When we went back to the store later that day, guess what? The pin trading nights pins were now in exactly the same rack space that was empty this morning! As I had expected, the pins weren't sold out, they were just not restocked, and the cast member we asked earlier simply had no clue where, or too lazy, to actually look for them. In addition to that, the cast member who was working later that day in Fantasia was the same one who I think knew a bit more about pins, and helped us earlier in our trip to find a few pins that we were looking. It is my guess that when he came on his shift and saw the empty rack space, that he restocked them. I know we can't have every cast member working at the store having a good knowledge of pins, but they should at least know WHERE to look and figure out what to restock when the racks are empty. Empty racks means that there could be missed sales! If we didn't come back to the store later in the day, we wouldn't have spent money to buy those pins. In fact, I can think of many pins that ended up in either discount bins at the Cast Connection, or during the cast pin event, that many of us regular guests were looking for but simply could not find when they were first released. Did someone forgot to restock them, or could not find them to restock the racks? How many of these pins did not get sold because they were never put on the racks? For those of us avid pin collectors, we certainly will be disappointed when a pin sells out, but it would be infuriating if something is unavailable simply because it is in some box somewhere and not being restocked.
The last complaint here is more serious and something that is uncharacteristic for a Disney theme park. The lack of themeing of the parking area at Kidani Village is ASTOUNDING! One can easily get the impression that one is parking in some parking garage at an airport! It is THAT BAD! I had such utter disbelief in such blatant lack of any effort to blend the parking area with the resort - concrete pillars, exposed pipes, and not a single shred of any attempt at theming. It was a huge disappointment, and the biggest one of the whole trip. In fact, if we ever plan on having dinner at Sanna again, I would rather park at Jumbo House, and then make that long walk to Kidani Village just to avoid the disastrous parking area. What were they thinking?
And what's with the exposed backstage area and also exposed fencing for the animals in the viewing area? At Jumbo House, none of these are ever apparent. Why is it OK to show them at Kidani Village?
I don't understand why Disney doesn't think that there's anything wrong with shortchanging the theme for a DVC resort. One would think that a DVC member is someone who is VERY familiar with Disney, and also tends to get into the whole spirit of Disney when he/she is at a Disney resort. Yet, they're letting the standard drop for a DVC resort! This is mind-boggling! If ANYONE would notice such lack of attention, I would guess that it would be a DVC member, rather than a casual guest. So Disney is really exposing themselves to the very people who would notice such shortcomings! I don't get it!
Zz.
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