Just returned. The new additions were neat, but tiny. The 60th decor was gaudy, but I loved the nighttime stuff. It felt great in general to be back, and the parks truly felt full of life, and it felt like coming back home. Having to leave gave me a pang in my stomach. When living in California from 2009 to 2013, Anaheim was my getaway from life's problems. When the night came, it was like being transported back then, especially when the crowds were lighter. I still remember a time before World of Color, when DCA was still the struggling neighbor. I'm so glad to see it flourishing, but I have vivid memories of a cold winter's night in Hollywood Pictures Backlot, sitting on the curb with little to nobody around, peoplewatching guests scream on Tower of Terror. The only thing that makes me step aback when it comes to the swell of crowds is how amazing Disney is when its intimate. I'm still obsessed with the Grizzly Peak area, the one original DCA area that the Imagineers nailed. There are numerous spots that you can just lean over and watching rafts float by... the paths are massive so the crowds disappear into the background. You just feel enveloped. This sounds cheesy, but that's part of the Disney difference. Something Universal I feel has yet to replicate.
Also another thing is CUSTOMER SERVICE. Every single interaction I had with a CM the other day was absolutely stellar, they are never grouchy or mean... the ride CMs are bossy, but they have to be. Safety is key, however they are never rude. Universal, even from the inside, feels like they don't properly know how to treat their employees right and examine the situation enough to unlock the key of wonderful customer service. It's not hard, really. Disney constantly deals with issues beyond its control alongside crowd capacity issues and guess what? They suck it up, and don't make the employees feel that brunt. They're making money, and they do it by ensuring guests that no matter what, they will ALWAYS have a good customer service experience. No matter what terrible decisions WDI makes, no matter what cutbacks they do food-wise, no matter WHAT there will forever be a truly happy, perky and nice person on the other side to make you feel welcome. This is something I fell in love with, and wanted desperately to bring to my job when I worked at Universal. I wanted to make the guests feel like there was someone on their side, but the bulk of the company and most of my coworkers didn't feel the same. One of my supervisors did, and he remains still my favorite, because he got it. Yet there was this mean stench that kept preventing me from maintaining that happy stamina. It was just constant pressure and cutthroat attitudes, no-nonsense political poop and egos that got constantly in the way of the necessary end result. I'm not going to lie, I have plenty of stories of us banding together as a team to create wonderful customer services memories... but those stories got increasingly rare as time went along.
What I witnessed at Universal I can't ever imagine happening at Disney, at least in Anaheim. Despite all my snarking and bitching on twitter and my exhausted physical stance afterwards... I was still reminded why I fell in love in the first place.