December 14, 2001 - Disney Considered

We spend a few more days at Fort Wilderness, doing some shopping and getting some rest.  We worry about getting out of the site we had had such difficulty getting into, but on Tuesday morning we hook up and slip out of our site with no difficulty.  Three hours later, we're back at the Encore Park in Port Charlotte and back into our comfortable rut.

What should I make of the Disney experience?  Walt Disney World provides acomprehensive resort experience - theme parks, hotels, golf courses, cruise line, beach resort, water parks, restaurants of all kinds, shopping, and more I haven't mentioned or discovered.  Despite the fact it feels expensive to us, and to many other visitors, I think the World provides high value for dollars received.  The parks are spotlessly clean.  The hotels are lovely and functional.  The golf courses look challenging and wonderfully manicured.  The sales pitch for the Disney Vacation Club is present, but it is not overly intrusive.  If I admire much of what has been done here, what makes me look for the flaws?  Maybe Disney World is just too perfect.  Maybe it's just my cynical attitude.  Maybe.but here goes.

Disney world is too perfect and too completely controlled.  A visitor can hardly find a place to have a spontaneous experience.  Thrill rides feel like danger, but are extremely well built and would require extreme stupidity to permit a person to be injured on them.  So why is safety bad?  It isn't, but where is some semblance of reality?  In our travels during the past two years we have searched for rocks in the desert, climbed cliffs to visit ancient cliff dwellings, prowled through old Spanish missions, walked through deserted mining towns, and driven thousands of miles through and past our country's magnificent scenery.   We have camped in the woods, on the desert, and in the prairie.  We've made new friends and met people we'd rather not see again.  We've begun to gain a new understanding and greater appreciation of this country we live in.  During the past several months we' ve grieved with our fellow citizens and watched a war being waged to avenge the atrocity and assure it doesn't happen again.  Nowhere in Walt Disney World is there any sign that anything is amiss in America.

The sales pitch is inescapable and totally focused on Disney.  Nowhere within the park can a guest find information about any other attractions available in the Orlando/Kissimmee area.  Every attraction has a gift shop. As we step off a ride, we walk into the gift shop offering toys, clothing, pins, and other mementos of that attraction's delights. These nick-knacks can serve as collectibles (in the box) or as toys (out of it).  Many are made of die-cast metal and can cost upwards of $15.00.  Disney sells pins everywhere, and then provides kiosks where collectors can trade them.  Many people wear webbing key chains around their necks on which they display their pins.  The pins cost between $6.50 and $15.00, and new ones are issuedevery year.  This makes old pins a valuable commodity.  Thank goodness we don't get the kids interested in this little diversion.

Food in the park is expensive any way you slice it.  Our grandkids don't eat anything but macaroni and cheese, chicken nuggets, and hamburgers with orange juice or milk.  We are able to get these staples at most fast food places we eat.  Dinner for six at Planet Hollywood, including macaroni and cheese but not drinks or appetizers, twice exceeds $100.00 with tip.  A typical lunch of chicken nuggets or mac and cheese, a salad, hamburger, or rollup with drinks tends to run between $35.00 and $50.00 in the theme parks.  Serving sizes are generous and the food was freshly prepared.

If I Could Talk to Walt

What follows is a more or less randomly selected set of recommendations I
would make to the folks at Disney if I thought they were interested or would
listen to me.

1.When kids know they're going to a theme park, they think they're going to get rides.  All four Disney World theme parks contain big, thrill oriented rides, some of which are among the best there is.  On the other hand, none except the Magic Kingdom have Disneyized carnival-style rides.  Small children want these kinds of comfortable rides and resist the other experiences offered at Epcot and MGM-Disney because they can't get the kind of ride that meets their expectations.

 2. In theory the Disney Park Hopper Plus ticket saves long-term visitors money by providing access to the water parks and Pleasure Island (a concentration of night clubs).  The Park Hopper Plus ticket should also include admission to Disney Quest, a sort of indoor, interactive theme park. Assuming a full day of theme parking hasn't worn everyone out or a rainy day, Disney Quest appears to be a useful alternative.  The need for this addition is even greater in winter when two of the three water parks are closed for refurbishing.

3. Similarly, miniature golf should be added to the Park Hopper Plus passes. Disney World has two miniature golf courses.  Although we didn't see them, I assume they are every bit as elaborate and well designed as other aspects of the world.  Adding these to the Park Hopper Plus passes would assure real alternatives in the Plus part of the Park Hopper pass.

4. Many RVers use computers as a daily part of their traveling.  Access to a data port to allow us to download e-mail is essential.  At Fort Wilderness, several data ports are provided and virtually unlimited use is permitted, but they are located at the front desk, which may be a mile or more from a given campsite.  More data ports should be made available, perhaps in the laundry rooms of the comfort stations or at the two trading posts in the campground.

5. Cell phone access has become essential for people who travel.  Apparently, Disney has a relationship with Sprint.  This is fine for people who subscribe to Sprint, but not so great for AT&T people.  We had constant difficulty getting a strong signal in Fort Wilderness.

6. The smell of French fries cooking pervades the theme parks.  There must be a way to kill this odor, which, after a while, becomes almost sickening. Rather than stimulating my appetite, the smell of cooking oil made me ill after shake-em-up rides.

7. Downtown Disney is a major shopping and entertainment area within the Disney complex.  It contains, restaurants, shows, and shops.  In the late afternoon and evening it becomes quite crowded.  Access to Downtown Disney is from the Ticket and Transportation Center by bus, making it attractive to drive there.  The parking lots are crowded, traffic is bad, and no provision for large trucks is made.  Disney could increase sales and improve access by making buses available from more locations to Downtown Disney during prime hours.  One evening it took us over an hour to return to our campsite after evening shopping and a dinner at the Rainforest Café.

8.Fort Wilderness is an old style campground with tight sites and extensive forestation, which has grown closer and tighter through the years.  While we were able to get our fifth wheel into its site after several tries, and there were lots of Prevost's and other large buses parked there, the provision of pull-through sites or wider access, even at a premium price, would be greatly appreciated by RVers.

9. Fort Wilderness has an intricate and much appreciated set of walking and bike paths running through it and to Wilderness Lodge from it.  Disney could make bicyclists happy throughout the park by enlarging its bike path system to connect all the theme parks and hotels.  They would generate more bike rentals and people who bring their bikes could have miles of biking trails to enjoy.  The expansion of the bike path system would also reduce some of the pressure on other elements of the transportation system.

In sum, Walt Disney World provided us and our family members with a terrific
vacation that largely lived up to its billing.  We'll go back there again.