Walt Disney World followers are a passionate, protecting, and nostalgic bunch. When the corporate makes doubtful selections, we allow them to know. Unsurprisingly, there have been a loads of controversial adjustments during the last 50+ years. This record rounds up a number of the most polarizing latest ones from the final decade-plus.
It needs to be identified that simply because a choice is divisive doesn’t imply that it’s incorrect. Sentimentality can cloud judgment, and goes hand-in-hand with a resistance to alter. Some followers skew in the direction of skepticism and cynicism in relation to present administration, working with a baseline assumption that all the things accomplished up to now was higher.
The converse can also be true. Different followers are pro-change and reflexively defensive of each choice Disney makes. They’ll use quotes like “maintain shifting ahead” or sentiment concerning the parks not being museums to justify even the largest blunders. After all, neither perspective is right–however that isn’t actually the purpose of this publish. Fairly, it’s that it takes two to tango, and selections usually turn out to be controversial by advantage of the following fan fallout and debate.
We’ve really taken a distinct method to creating this record, which got here to life by glad accident. To not get too into the weeds, however I made an unintentional click on on the web site backend, and sorted each publish ever by the variety of feedback. I began shopping the DTB Archives from the final almost 15 years and through that stroll down reminiscence lane, discovered that a number of the preferred posts had been really probably the most unpopular selections.
A lot so, the truth is, that that is really half 1 of two. It seems that that is like Depraved or Avengers Infinity Conflict (or maybe a bizarre mashup of the 2), and easily an excessive amount of for one publish. Positive, I might’ve made robust selections, however I’ve already consolidated a number of entries and there have been some actual gems–together with controversies I had lengthy forgotten. (This method additionally means this record isn’t Walt Disney World’s most controversial adjustments from the previous 50 years, however extra just like the final 12-13, which is when this weblog began protecting information.)
Anyway, let’s get on with the record of Walt Disney World’s most controversial adjustments…
Journey Reimaginings – After I first began reviewing the DTB Archives to make this record, it was principally stuffed with journey reimaginings. I shortly realized that: 1) that was its personal separate publish, and; 2) it’s a publish that’s virtually solely completely different from my private record of Worst Attraction Replacements at Walt Disney World.
We really simply skilled the newest occasion of this final month, with the announcement that the Monstropolis mini-land and Monsters, Inc. Door Coaster was confirmed as changing Muppet Courtyard and MuppetVision 3D and the Muppets taking on Rock ‘n’ Curler Coaster and changing Aerosmith. Each of those reimaginings or replacements would make certain an inventory.
The final decade are stuffed with such controversies. Together with that, just about any adjustments at EPCOT make the minimize, to not point out the bombshell that Splash Mountain was being changed by a Princess and the Frog attraction. Years later, there are nonetheless followers who haven’t come to phrases with all/any of these adjustments. However that’s one other subject for an additional publish!
Outsized Stroller, Smoking & Unfastened Ice Ban – To today, the unfastened ice ban at Walt Disney World and Disneyland stays my favourite coverage change. Not as a result of I’m anti-loose (or dry–can’t depart it out) ice…however as a result of I didn’t know this was a widespread difficulty. This did happen not too lengthy after Frozen Ever After opened, so maybe the brand new journey attracted Kristoff’s fellow ice harvesters and so they had been soliciting in-park?
Critically although, I can solely envision the Fb teams of unfastened ice lovers doing who is aware of what to necessitate this ban, after which the fallout in these fan circles. I want I might’ve seen it. Everybody else needed to speak concerning the outsized stroller and smoking bans, however I used to be all about that unfastened ice. Disney doesn’t simply ban issues on a whim or for no motive, so what occurred to trigger this?! I nonetheless marvel what the entire story there was.
Anyway, ice clearly wasn’t what made this controversial (at the very least not in mainstream fan circles). It was the smoking and strollers. Folks had been upset that they may not use wagons or novelty strollers (there was a cottage trade of Cinderella Coaches and Star Wars X-Wings that had popped up), and others had been indignant that they may not gentle up within the parks.
This controversy died down fairly shortly. Friends with outsized strollers downsized, people who smoke tailored to the brand new areas outdoors the parks, and unfastened ice lovers…properly, I’m probably not positive what they did. Maybe there are ice-ficionados on some nook of the Disney web nonetheless yelling: “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not gonna take this anymore!”
Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance Digital Queue – Ah, the halcyon days of late 2019 and early 2020. It’s simple to overlook due to properly, , however the interval from December 2019 by March 2020 was wild at Walt Disney World. Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance opened and, fairly frankly, Disney had no clue methods to deal with its combination of recognition and unreliability.
Rise of the Resistance additionally modified one of many core competencies of this weblog, as we lived a stone’s throw from Disney’s Hollywood Studios then, and had been in that park at the very least 3-4 days per week doing subject testing. (I additionally joke that the explanation I’ve by no means had COVID is as a result of I obtained caught in that queue so many instances and developed tremendous immunity to the entire world’s viruses.)
The choice to have a digital queue for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance was, itself, controversial. However past that, the insurance policies and protocol being a shifting goal simply exacerbated all the things. Walt Disney World followers crave consistency and predictability–even in situations the place they’d in any other case be the “winners” over different company. The primary few months of the Star Wars E-Ticket had been something however constant. Modifications had been fixed and complicated.
Disney’s Hollywood Studios was a large number. But when I’m being sincere, it was a lovely mess from a researcher’s perspective. The park saved shifting ahead its opening time, and the remainder of the park was delightfully uncrowded at 7 am. I misplaced depend of what number of instances I rode Slinky Canine Sprint throughout that stretch. To today, I’ve in all probability nonetheless ridden at dawn greater than any time of day. There have been numerous mornings after I was accomplished with Disney’s Hollywood Studios and hopped to EPCOT for that park’s rope drop. What a time to be alive.
Resort Parking Charges – Most followers level to the post-closure and phased reopening adjustments as a paradigm shift at Walt Disney World. For me, this was the announcement that did it. That wasn’t some distinctive perception, however slightly as a result of, for a lot of company on the time, this irrevocably modified their relationship with Walt Disney World.
The information got here in mid-March 2018, and instantly garnered a whole bunch upon a whole bunch of feedback on this website–and much past. The fan response to the resort parking charge felt completely different. It was extra emotional than regular. Walt Disney World followers bemoan costs will increase, however are usually comfy paying extra for a premium expertise–even then, they had been clearly fed up with being nickel and dimed.
The lodge parking charge struck me as a tipping level for a lot of long-time followers. The grassroots ‘campaigns’ on social media and crowd-sourced assessment websites mirrored this. Walt Disney World was inundated with a barrage of 1-star evaluations on Fb, TripAdvisor, and elsewhere, with most pointing to this charge.
It was a bridge too far for lots of followers, and I questioned whether or not the income was really value the entire outrage and harm to the model’s popularity. Inside a number of days, I penned Is Walt Disney World Eroding Fan Goodwill? It’s an article from 2018, however feels prefer it might’ve been written anytime between July 2020 and at this time.
Followers usually discuss an enormous sport about being “accomplished with Disney,” however I do know a number of who really adopted by and both give up visiting or give up staying on-site because of the parking charge. It did a number of model and goodwill harm. Walt Disney World lastly undid this choice firstly of final 12 months, reintroducing free resort parking. That information was concurrently shocking (due to the income Disney was giving up) and unsurprising (due to the backlash).
Skyliner – This was a enjoyable one. The Skyliner gondolas had been an ongoing controversy from the time they had been first rumored till they opened and even the months after. To make certain, there have been a number of followers who had been extremely excited for this new transportation community at Walt Disney World.
There have been seemingly as many, or at the very least a vocal minority that offered as such, who hated the thought and boldly predicted the numerous methods the gondolas would fail. Having been on gondolas in different elements of the world, we provided assurances that they had been, the truth is, a recognized amount and never so new-fangled contraption that may catapult company to their deaths or fail so spectacularly that they’d shut inside the 12 months.
Regardless of how persuasive I used to be (or so I assumed), it made no distinction by any means. Again and again, the identical critiques and criticism cropped up. And truthfully, I ought to’ve simply saved my mouth shut. (A lesson I didn’t study, and haven’t discovered.) As a result of not solely did it appear to alter zero minds, however then the silly sky buckets collided a number of days after opening, and the critics took their victory lap. Oof.
For the file, I like the Skyliner now greater than ever. If a gondola cabin is to come back crashing down and act as my “tin coffin” sometime, then so be it, I suppose. Worse methods to exit…like consuming an excessive amount of “meals” from the Italy sales space.
Icon Obstructions – Sarah and I made our first journey to Walt Disney World collectively as adults in 2006. By the next 12 months, I used to be already in deep. One of many first rumors that obtained me hooked was the removing of the EPCOT Wand. Like many curmudgeonly Disney Adults of the period, I hated the EPCOT Wand. When information broke of its demise, I spent days buried in discussion board threads–a few of which exploded to a whole bunch of pages in size.
This weblog didn’t exist then, so clearly the EPCOT Wand removing was not one of the controversial subjects right here. However just a few brief years later, Walt Disney World introduced the removing of the Large Sorcerers Hat (recognized not so lovingly because the BAH–I’ll allow you to mull over that acronym and determine what the A stands for…) at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
Nonetheless a curmudgeonly purist, I used to be overjoyed. Many readers of this weblog agreed, however nearly as many didn’t. Because it turned out, the BAH had been round lengthy sufficient for followers to kind sentimentality round it, and as we frequently say, nostalgia is a helluva drug! It in all probability wasn’t simply the information folks took to coronary heart, but additionally my acerbic commentary dancing on the grave of Mickey Mouse’s outsized headwear.
Not one to study from my errors and extra curmudgeonly that ever, I expressed related sentiment when the EPCOT Depart a Legacy slab-things had been eliminated. It seems some folks don’t take kindly to jokes concerning the “Battle of Future World” or the moniker “EPCOT Tombstones.” The Depart a Legacy tiles have since been relocated outdoors the park, however we’ll always remember.
Finish of Disney’s Magical Categorical – I nonetheless keep in mind the place I used to be when the press launch got here by that Walt Disney World was sunsetting Disney’s Magical Categorical. Truthfully, I wasn’t completely satisfied at first. A part of me consider–or needed to consider–that it was a negotiating tactic with Mears, or that it was a choice that may be undone or one thing, something.
We nonetheless hear from readers holding out hope that Disney’s Magical Categorical will return. Perhaps in 2025 or past ocne Epic Universe opens and poses a critical menace to Walt Disney World’s lodge occupancy. Though its non secular successor remains to be operated by Mears, it’s simply not the identical. DME made Walt Disney World really feel all-inclusive, like they “took care of you” from the second you stepped off the aircraft till you left to return residence.
Even a few years later, that is nonetheless an ongoing controversy as a result of it’s troublesome to make sense of this choice. It’s gotta be a type of issues that one way or the other is sensible on a spreadsheet, however is doing incalculable harm in the actual ‘World. I firmly consider the beancounters obtained this one incorrect, and its long-term penalties to the corporate will far exceed no matter cash they saved within the brief time period.
One in every of Walt Disney World’s biggest strengths was its bubble, and the corporate voluntarily punctured that. The captive viewers that was considered as advantageous for years is gone–and at a time when Walt Disney World’s #1 competitor retains rising and getting stronger. Retiring DME is the equal of Sabermetrics in baseball. Analytics gone awry, justifying selections that diminish the general high quality of the expertise. It’s the enjoyable being sucked away by individuals who don’t really love the sport, armed with computer systems which have deemed these selections to be “right” and “good.”
Free FastPass -> Paid Lightning Lanes – Walt Disney World retiring free FastPass and changing it with a paid various continues to be one of many greatest fan complaints we hear. That is destined to be an argument for many years to come back, until the choice is sometime undone, as a result of followers are reminded of this each time they shell out cash for Lightning Lane Multi-Go, which is strikingly just like FastPass+, however paid and arguably worse.
This was controversial on the time not simply because it was a paradigm shift, however for what it represented. It was an encapsulation of so many different frustrations and typified selections of the Chapek period. It didn’t assist that the preliminary substitute, Genie+, was unnecessarily convoluted and half-baked at launch.
With each Disney theme park on the earth now utilizing some form of paid line-skipping choice and the upcharge primarily providing free cash with minimal prices to the corporate, it’s going to be exhausting to place the genie again within the bottle. Followers however maintain out hope. If ever there was a time to take the win, it’s when the competitor down the street is opening a shiny new theme park and Walt Disney World has nothing main to marketplace for a number of years. However extra probably, they’ll view that as much more of a motive not to surrender a income stream.
DAS Overhaul – The largest controversy of 2024 is that Disney has as soon as once more overhauled Incapacity Entry Service (DAS) at each Walt Disney World and Disneyland as a consequence of abuse, misuse, and proliferation of this system’s use. The adjustments to this system have had cascading results on standby traces and Lightning Lanes that we’re nonetheless monitoring some 6 months later.
In accordance with Walt Disney World, “DAS is meant to accommodate a small share of company who, as a consequence of a developmental incapacity like autism or related, are unable to attend in a traditional queue for an prolonged time frame.” This line (or a variation thereof) may be discovered repeatedly all through Walt Disney World’s new DAS assets.
Walt Disney World has publicly said that DAS utilization has tripled since 2019. Unbiased of that, we acquired credible experiences that the majority of Lightning Lane utilization is definitely not paid, however slightly, Incapacity Entry Companies. This comes because the prevalence of recognized disabilities, particularly amongst kids, has elevated dramatically within the final a number of years.
The different factor that occurred throughout that point, as mentioned above, is the elimination of free FastPass. This new system and every subsequent value improve thereof created a perverse incentive for dishonest the system. On the similar time, it additionally expanded the viewers for social media “hacks” about methods to skip the traces without spending a dime, which completely exploded on TikTok and Fb. This, in flip, created its personal vicious cycle. As this DAS abuse content material proliferated, it grew to become normalized by advantage of its ubiquity.
Park Reservations – Walt Disney World’s announcement that the parks can be reopening in Summer time 2020 was a joyous event that was virtually instantly overshadowed by information concerning the Disney Park Go system for accessing the parks. And actually, our publish saying the latter acquired extra feedback than the previous. (That’s to say nothing of subsequent posts about logistics, the launch day crash, lack of availability, adjustments, and so forth–all of which dwarf the reopening information exponentially.)
Whereas many of the COVID period information is lumped collectively within the half two (sorry for the spoiler), the Disney Park Go system is the one piece of stories from that we’re pulling out as a result of it was an inflection level–similar to the lodge parking charge or finish of free FastPass (or DAS overhaul for disabled company).
As excited as followers had been for Walt Disney World to reopen, they had been additionally hit like a ton of bricks by the fact that issues had been by no means going to be the identical. It was already a troublesome time in the actual world, and this information undercut one of many uncommon items of excellent information. There was no going again to 2019 at Walt Disney World, and this was the primary announcement that actually drove that residence.
From my perspective, that greater than the rest is why Disney Park Go struck such a chord with followers and was so controversial. It wasn’t simply the reservations system itself, which was annoying. It was what it symbolized–a seismic shift to the Walt Disney World visitor expertise. And although Disney Park Go is lastly useless for many company, we nonetheless aren’t solely out of its shadow.
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Your Ideas
What are probably the most controversial adjustments Walt Disney World has constituted of your perspective? Any doubtful selections which were a bridge too far for you? Predictions as to what’ll be included partially 2–retaining in thoughts it’s all from the final ~13 years? (There’s one which I’m assured nobody goes to guess, however then will say “oh yeah, that was one thing.”) Agree or disagree with something that made this record–or our assessments? Listening to your suggestions–even while you disagree with us–is each fascinating to us and useful to different readers, so please share your ideas beneath within the feedback!
