I’m not talking about the big things, like maybe keeping the crowds lower or improving rides, I’m talking about the easier to fix things. Not everyone will think they need ‘fixing’ – but these are my bugbears when I’m in Walt Disney World, counting down from 5 to 1:
5. The Disney obsession with Macaroni and Cheese. I think this might actually be more of a cultural thing. Mac and cheese really isn’t all that common in the UK. I’m not saying people don’t occasionally have it as a meal – they do. But you don’t get it in restaurants. Maybe occasionally on a kids menu, but I can’t remember ever seeing it on an adults menu. But in Disney, you can’t get away from it! I find the idea of it being served as a side dish, in a really nice restaurant such as Le Cellier or Jiko exceptionally odd! Why on earth you would put a cheap kids pasta dish with a great steak, is beyond me. I actually quite like the stuff, I just find it strange to see it in good restaurants. Oh and you don’t fool me, Les Chef de France – giving it a fancy French name (Gratin de Macaroni) doesn’t change what it is!
4. No cider. Again this appears to be a cultural thing – apparently cider (the alcoholic variety) isn’t that common in America, so it is to be expected that it is equally hard to find around Walt Disney World – Raglan Road and Rose and Crown being the exceptions (and then its the cheap and nasty stuff). However, Walt Disney World receives a huge number of British visitors every year and I’m sure they’d appreciate a decent cider being sold in a few more places. It doesn’t have to be fancy – Magners would do fine. Thank you please.
3. Lack of good tea and coffee. I know I’m not alone in this one! As I’ve already gone on in length about, I resort to bringing my own teabags with me as I’m not able to get a decent cuppa anywhere. Once again, I get that – I’m British, I’m obsessed with tea, Americans aren’t, so it’s understandable. But coffee? That is a world wide obsession! Many people need that cup of caffeine to get them going in the morning. Would it be so hard to have a couple of concession stands in the parks, that actually sell a decent cup? The weak rubbish sold around the place just isn’t good enough. I know it’s possible to seek out a good cup, but I don’t want to have to trek round Disney World first thing so my hubby can get his fix. I want it there in the hotel or at the park entrance!
2. No direct transport between Downtown Disney and the parks.
At least once during every trip we try and get to Downtown Disney from one of the parks, or vice versa and it was annoys me that it is not possible to do so directly. Instead you have to go via one of the resorts. As a rule, I’m a big fan of Disney transportation – I think its reliable and efficient and they do a great job of moving huge numbers of us around. I’m guessing the reason that they don’t offer the service is because parking is free at Downtown Disney and not at the parks and so they don’t want every tom, dick and harry parking for free an then hopping on a bus and getting to the park entrance. Lets face it – it probably wouldn’t take much longer than parking at the transportation and ticket centre and then having to walk to the monorail and get that across, so it probably would get abused. But couldn’t they card it? So you have to show your key to the world before you board – as Disney Resort guests have free parking anyway it wouldn’t be to their advantage to park further away at Downtown Disney unless that was where they were planning to be. I don’t have a problem with going resort to resort in-directly, but I think they should make it easier to get to Downtown Disney – especially as we’re usually going to be spending money when we get there – its in their advantage not to put us off.
1. This is both my husbands and my absolute number one issue with Disney: Internet access. I should explain that we’re both pretty much always connected to the internet, one way or other – we both do online-related jobs, run our own websites in our own time and both own devices (phone and i-pad) that mean even without our computers, we have near constant access to the web. Coming to Walt Disney World we have to make a decision over whether we can cut ourselves off completely or pay a fortune to keep up some level of connection. Coming from the UK means that data roaming on a UK network is pretty expensive while in America. Disney have no wireless hotspots around the parks, so we can choose to pay that or lose contact. That in itself is annoying when the entire resort has wireless Internet access available – it has a network for its cast members. So the infrastructure is there – why don’t they share it with their guests? In the hotels, the vast majority (those that aren’t convention centres) still don’t have wireless access – you have to connect via cable and pay $10 per 24 hours for the privilege. Frankly, this is useless. I don’t want to bring my laptop or a wireless router all the way on holiday with me, taking up valuable weight and suitcase space. I need to connect wirelessly to the light-weight devices that are made for exactly this. I disagree with having to pay for access on principle – in this day and age I think it should be standard – but to not even be able to connect wirelessly in my room, when I can do it in Starbucks and McDonalds makes no sense at all. This year, I can live without it. But our reliance on web access will only increase and I can see it influencing our decision on where to stay next time around.
So there you go – Disney, if you’re reading (fat chance of that!), these are a few of the little things that could improve your guests’ experiences!
BRiTMiCK is a blog aimed at British visitors to Walt Disney World, helping you to make the most of your holiday. Follow @Britmickuk for the latest on whats going on at BRiTMiCK and other Disney sites.
I’d love to see some ciders!! I despise beer and am not a big fan of wine, but cider. Yum! (And being an American I’ve probably only had the “cheap and nasty stuff” so I’d love the opportunity to try something good.
It’s funny but in the UK, while I do love cider I don’t really drink that much. But I miss it in WDW mainly because I haven’t got the option to have it!
I totally agree with you on a few of these. Good coffee is very hard to come by in Disney. I am so surprised that Starbucks hasn’t gotten set up in Epcot’s American Pavillian. That would be a great representation of America since there is one on every other block in major cities.
Your #1 thing that needs changed is dead on. Internet connections in hotels should not cost $10 per day. Disney should be providing free internet in hotels, restaraunts, and in the parks. Think of all the FREE advertising they are missing out on from people emailing and blogging about thier experiences. The cell service is horrific and a great free WiFi service would increase the number of guests using Gowalla to checkin at all the attractions. They just don’t realize all that free social advertising they are missing out on.
Great post!
Thanks Rich. Yeah my hubby and I have the same conversation about how much they’re missing out on free social advertising every time we go! Maybe it’s something they’ll address in the future but part of me thinks they like us to lose our connections to the real world – in the same way as you can’t buy a newspaper in Magic Kingdom etc.
Excellent points, all! I especially agree with 3 and 4. I hate that I have to come in with my own coffee because I hate Nescafe with a white hot passion. As an aside, what tea do you drink, and what ciders do you recommend we Americans seek out in addition to Magners?
Hi Brooke. I only drink classic English breakfast style tea. Usually PG Tips, but Tetley and Yorkshire are always good too. Nothing like a good cuppa
Ciders, I’m really not an expert on but he most common relatively decent ones you find in pubs are either Magners or Bulmers – they’re similar to each other and can come in different varieties, such as pear cider. You’ll also get the cheaper versions like Strongbow but in my opinion, its more chemical than cider. Another good brand is Aspall – they come in different flavours and dryness. I like Brothers Strawberry cider too (tastes like sweets!), but I spilt it on my kitchen surface and it stained it bright pink so I’m slightly worried what it can do to my insides! There are loads of really great ciders but I guess those are the bigger brands that you might find outside of the UK.
OH – and by the way – I LOVE that teacup in your pic!
I don’t drink coffee, beer or cider so those have no real appeal to me. I’d love to see wi-fi access for free though. I’m also sure you’ll never have a bus from DTD to the parks since it’s free to park there. What I’d like to see is a bus for those that are in scooters or wheelchairs for themselves. Wanna make a bet we’d see a lot less people using scooters? Yes, there are people who need them. But for every 10 people you see in one you can bet 1 is using it for access to the bus and rides.
Hi Kim. I don’t drink coffee either, but my hubby does – I’d like to see better coffee to help stop his caffeine withdrawal!
I’m sure you’re right that we’ll never get a direct bus to DTD, but a girl can dream! I agree there seems to be lots of people in scooters who perhaps don’t need them – although I know there are some less obvious reasons why someone might need a scooter. Not sure I’d want to segregate people onto a whole different bus – it doesn’t seem to fair on those that really do need one! But it would be nice if there was away to prevent those people that abuse the system to jump the queues, from having them.
I understand the complaint about being charged for wi fi, for the prices we pay or the resorts, it should be included. As far as the access in the park, it’s bad enough that everywhere you look people are on cell phones, it’s such a (bad) sign of the times that people can’t just relax and not always be “connected”. What are you afraid of, not being able to be connected every minute? If you are on vacation, doesn’t it defeat the purpose of enjoying Disney w/o any business distractions? In my opinion, society is way too reliant on being connected and available every minute. When you are on the phone or computer all the time, so much gets missed, the simple things. We all need to stop being “connected” all the time and smell the roses. Society is so fast paced and information reliant, the small things are passing us by because we are so distracted with being connected. I just wonder where we are headed if Disney turns into a giant cyber cafe. Will we lose all human interactions?
No offense, I am sounding old but will comment anyway, something to think about.
I understand your view point but I do disagree with it. For one thing I’m not doing anything to do with business, so it’s not a business distraction, its for my own pleasure. For another, I don’t think there is anything wrong with being connected – I just get to share those simple things in real time, with my friends and family. I don’t nessecarily want to be connected all the time – nor do I want to have my mobile out all the time, I want to enjoy the parks. But I would like to be able to take the down time – some of the waiting in queues and waiting for ADRs to tell my family and friends what a great time I’m having. I’m not afraid of down time, I would just prefer to have the option to be able to communicate in the methods that I’m used to. I don’t think it is about losing human interaction, I believe it enhances it and enables sharing of experiences. To be honest though, I’d even settle for wifi access in all the hotels – being able to contact my Mum in the UK, without it costing me a fortune, would be a big plus! Thanks for your comment – if we all thought the same thing, the world would be a very boring place:)
Very good comments, all. We always rent a car just because you can’t get to DD. We tend to skip buses by driving ourselves when we can’t get there on foot. Because of the rental car, we stop to get filters and coffee for the week for my hubby before we get to the hotel. Our daughter spent six months at school in Canterbury. She always complains about the lack of hard cider too. She can get Woodchuck or Strongbow, but bottled versus the keg is apparently very different. For teas, you might check out the Grand Floridian. Maybe they could sell you some tea in bags there? I tried high tea there for the first time, this past October. Really enjoyed it. As for the wireless, completely agree. It felt like highway robbery to have to pay for wi-fi in our hotel, so we didn’t buy it. I’m with you, being able to access it in the queues would be nice, but not necessary.
Great points, all around. Well done!
Thanks for the Grand Floridian suggestion. I usually just bring my tea bags with me these days but I would quite like to try the high tea there one trip. Thanks for your comment!
While we were there, it was Disney’s Food & Wine Festival. While at High Tea at the GF, celebrity chef, Robert Irvine was there with his family and entourage. Looked rather comical, such a big man holding such a dainty cup! He was one of only four men having a cuppa while our group was there. Food was scrumptious, onion tarts are to die for!