We’ve all been there.
We ask a friend or coworker a simple question: “How was your Disney vacation?” Instead of the expected, “it was great,” we get a litany of complaints. “Once we had to wait forever for a bus.” “The crowds were terrible.” “We had this awful waitress one night at dinner.” “Three light bulbs were out on Main Street U.S.A.” “The clerk at the front desk was not very pleasant.”
I certainly believe that the Walt Disney Company should be held to the highest possible standards. After all, these very high standards were created by Walt Disney himself and have ensured a public trust enjoyed by very few companies. When a company promotes its products with an endless barrage of “magical” commercials, promises of “legendary Disney service,” and “a place where dreams come true,” it’s understandable that the general public expects nothing less than perfection. The premium prices guests are expected to pay for park admission, hotel accommodations, and food add fuel to the fire of impossibly high expectations.
It seems that all too often, guests (and travel writers) focus only on the negatives about Walt Disney World. I often find myself thinking about what used to be, what should have been, or what’s missing from my “laughing place.” Realistically, there are bound to be a few rough spots during any trip. For some reason, these brushes with reality seem all the more jarring when they occur at Walt Disney World. How we react to these disappointments often determines the impact these missteps have on our vacation.
Looking for the Bad
According to Shawn Achor, author of the book The Happiness Advantage, “Constantly scanning the world for the negative comes with a great cost.” In the case of a vacation, looking for the bad can rob our precious time with family and friends of its joys and laughter. The better our brains get at “scanning for the negative, the more we miss out on the positive.”
I find this applies to me in several ways that may resonate with other frequent Disney World visitors. For me, it’s typically about “bad show,” a rather old-fashioned Disney term for anything that takes away from the show of the themed experience. For example, it would be bad show if a cast member dressed in the western garb of Frontierland were to appear in Tomorrowland; the illusion of the theme would be momentarily shattered.
Sometimes, bad show is bad behavior by cast members. With newer cast deployment practices, merchandise hosts are often shuffled from location to location, either by choice or by computerized scheduling. This movement may result in cast members who are new or temporarily at a location and therefore unfamiliar with the merchandise or even the theme park in which they are working that particular day. For guests, an apathetic response from a merchandise clerk, a shrug, an indifferent “I don’t usually work here,” can be discouraging and disappointing. I once asked a cast member in Fantasyland if she knew where we could buy a Peter Pan hat for my son. She replied, “Disney lost the rights to Peter Pan so we don’t have them anymore.” Clearly, she was uninformed. We found the Peter Pan hat at the United Kingdom pavilion at Epcot later that day.
When splurging on an expensive sit-down restaurant, an inattentive waiter can make or break the experience. In a similar vein, being rushed in and out of a restaurant can also take away much of the fun, particularly at character dining venues. The one and only time we experienced a breakfast at Cinderella’s Royal Table, it felt like an assembly line at times. There was no time for lingering over coffee as each course was swiftly brought to the table in rapid succession.
Another example of bad show that can distract me is inconsistency of sight lines and theming. For example, the looming twin specters of the Walt Disney World Swan and the Walt Disney World Dolphin lurking behind World Showcase always bother me. The sight of Tomorrowland’s box-like buildings across the treeless Hub from Liberty Square unsettles me every time. The oversized hat at the Hollywood Studios actually makes me stressed. There’s comfort in knowing that this nightmare is currently being removed even as I write this.
Then there’s merchandise. At one time not so very long ago, merchandise locations were—with some acceptable exceptions like the Emporium—themed to the areas in which they were located. Believe it or not, Disney once sold fine silver and pewter in Liberty Square along with actual American antiques. The glorious Disney Galleries of old—once found on Main Street next to City Hall and inside Cinderella Castle before the boutique invaded—were places filled with treasures worth lingering over. Those days seem gone now, and at times, the blandness and the sameness of the ubiquitous Walt Disney World merchandise fails to enchant.
Looking for the Good
Why the four long paragraphs about negative experiences? Once we start looking for the bad, we’re sure to find it everywhere. Conversely, if we actively seek out the positive, we can “train our brains to push out those small annoyances and frustrations… into the background, even out of our field of vision.”
For me, taking my own children to Walt Disney World has had this exact effect. I’ve become so caught up in their excitement, in their experiences at the Vacation Kingdom of the World that those minor annoyances have, in fact, been pushed aside while I focus my attention on all the good things around me. Achor states, “Psychologists call this ‘predictive encoding’: Priming yourself to expect a favorable outcome actually encodes your brain to recognize the outcome when it does arise.” It seems that when we focus on the good we not only see it, but we also see the positive possibly dormant in every moment of our lives.
Not so Fast
The cynic in me can’t help but challenge this “selective perception” idea. Isn’t there danger in this approach? What if focusing exclusively on the positive prevents me from seeing very real issues that require addressing? Sometimes, a healthy does of critical thinking is needed to enact change and point out flaws, even at Walt Disney World, a place many of us treasure as a place to get away from it all.
As a travel writer, many of my pieces criticizing current Disney decisions or practices get the most passionate responses from readers who share my concerns. This is a good thing. Most of society’s historical problems were righted only because someone bothered to identify them and call for reform. According to Shawn Achor, “the key, then, is not to completely shut out all the bad, all the time, but to have a reasonable, realistic, and healthy sense of optimism.” Those of us who love Walt Disney World need to remain vigilant and continue to take Disney to task when thoughtless decisions and ineffective policies dampen our enjoyment of the parts.
Looking Ahead
In many ways, a healthy sense of optimism is the most unique quality to permeate the kingdoms created by Walt Disney and his Imagineers. In fact, I would go so far as to say that it’s this optimism, this sense of assurance, this uniquely Disney worldview that gives Walt Disney World its lasting emotional hold on so many of its guests.
As we begin a new year and look ahead to special times with special people at Walt Disney World, I hope to “train [my brain] to scan for the positive-for the possibilities dormant in every situation,” especially while on vacation. My enjoyment of my precious time away from work and responsibility will be much more fulfilling if I do; more importantly, my family’s enjoyment of our vacation will be infinitely more enjoyable when my attitude is set on “positive.”
