30 Years of Practice

Do you mean Disney or the tour guides? I think Disney's experience in understanding and researching the typical theme park tourist is unmatchable. They know what we want even better than we do (obviously, as we put up such a fight every time they change something).

I think they've honed in on the park goer's desire to feel that their theme park experience is deeper than just an entry ticket and some carnival rides--we want history, detail, "story."

Story is the Golden Ticket. If you remove all the Story From WDW all you have are Six Flags rides and Holiday Inns, and a bunch of McDonalds.

The whole Disney franchise is built on story's.

That's a great quote. And possibly describes why people are so loathe to try Disney World the first time. Why would they expect any different?

That and some people just aren't into story's. They just want to see things explode and bad guys (or good guys) shot.

Also, Disney is working with fantasy stories--cartoons essentially. It was built on a more family-oriented platform. Universal is working with live-action films geared more toward teens and adults. It's just a different target market completely.

Families take vacations together every year--they're looking for a holistic and extended experience that their kid can enjoy all of. Universal just lends itself to one-day trips taken by young couples and/or teenagers.

Also, isn't Target pretty much just a slightly more expensive wal-mart?

I think that's an interesting suggestion. Simply no one will ever catch up with Disney because no one else will ever have as much practice. It makes a lot of sense that over 30 years they've come up with lots of little touches that don't cost much but make a big difference in guest experience. I don't know if there's any substitute for 30 years of experience. It's even longer than that really too, what year did DL open?

1955?

I agree experience is a big part of it, but something has to be said for the man that started it all. WD put the groundwork in place that the Disney of today is built upon. Now I know that sounds like a 'duh' statement, but what I mean is he actually foresaw many of the changes and trends that were to come. He really was a visionary and I don't think there is a chance Disney would be what it is to day if someone else (without the aforementioned vision) had started the very same empire way back when.

Just think of how many crazy decisions he made that seems nonviable back then that are now the basis for what set Disney parks so far apart.

I would tend to agree that it's all about story. The thing that makes most forms of entertainment: movies, tv, books, even songs work is story. Same is true of the the parks. Some people enjoy just the explosions and that's why movies like Transformers do well, but true "art" comes when story is blended with style, character, and a full immersive experience. Theme parks have the potential to take all of that from the screen and ACTUALLY immerse the audience, rather than doing it vicariously. As was said above, no one does this better than Disney.

I know I've told this before, but Michael Broggie tells the story that one of the principal reasons for building Disneyland was because the city fathers wouldn't let him put a merry-go-round in an eleven acre park that he wanted to build.

Walt got po'ed and told his crew to go looking for land because he was going to build a REAL park!

A "crazy decision"....

I must have missed that the last time you told it. I find it so interesting that most "big" companies grow out of "little" ideas that just keep getting bigger and bigger.