Disney Officially Retires The Lights of Winter Holiday Archway At EPCOT! - Page 3 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
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To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
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Oh no! DH and I love the Lights of Winter. It always reminded us of our Honey/Disneymoon from 1996. Well at least we got to see it one last time last December. Very bummed out!
I am truly sad It has been since 2002 that we had been there during the Christmas holiday season. It's like when you don't get to see a relative you love in several years and all of sudden they pass; you appreciate the memory but you wish you could see them one more time. My parents and DSis have never seen them I was looking so forward to sharing it with them in a few weeks. I am glad this thread prepared me to know ahead of time instead of the shock of finding out when I'm actually there. I will have to look for my pictures and enjoy the memories
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I can't imagine anything that would be as beautiful as those arches as far as a replacement but maybe they will come up with something. They were so beautiful and I felt like a kid staring up at them in amazement as we would walk through.
I was very much looking forward to seeing this for the first time. At least I can look at past photos that are posted. I'm going to try to "think positively" that they are working on something new, maybe with LED lights or something....
I can't say I really buy the statement that "the tech to operate them has become obsolete."
Why is that so hard to believe? I bought a new computer last month and my old printer which still worked perfectly well didn't plug into the new computer in any way at all so I had to replace it.
So why is it so hard to believe that the technology for the Lights of Winter is outdated? Actually when I saw the Lights of Winter last year, they didn't seem quite as nice as they had in years past. Plus we've never once gotten a decent shot, photopass or otherwise, of them.
I am very disappointed they are canceling this! I had never seen them, so I can only hope that there will be a worthy replacement. Given how upset some people are, I wonder if this is really a prudent decision on Disney's part...perhaps they're being penny wise and pound foolish??
Darn. I was going to see them last year but DD was in a bad mood and didn't want to go to Epcot that short trip. I figured I'd have another chance to see them later.
Why is that so hard to believe? I bought a new computer last month and my old printer which still worked perfectly well didn't plug into the new computer in any way at all so I had to replace it.
So why is it so hard to believe that the technology for the Lights of Winter is outdated? Actually when I saw the Lights of Winter last year, they didn't seem quite as nice as they had in years past. Plus we've never once gotten a decent shot, photopass or otherwise, of them.
It's hard to believe because Disney constantly makes statements like these to justify their cost cuttings. Like when Disney said that the reason they closed Adventurer's Club and the rest of Pleasure Island because "Disney guests wanted more retail choices." Well, the question asked in the survey, and I took it, never said those choices would come only if Pleasure Island was closed.
And besides...this is the company that can makes Animatronics realistic, make a ride as advanced as TSMM, and can make a gorgeous fireworks show. Are you telling me they can't run some new lights over an archway? BS.
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It's hard to believe because Disney constantly makes statements like these to justify their cost cuttings. Like when Disney said that the reason they closed Adventurer's Club and the rest of Pleasure Island because "Disney guests wanted more retail choices." Well, the question asked in the survey, and I took it, never said those choices would come only if Pleasure Island was closed.
And besides...this is the company that can makes Animatronics realistic, make a ride as advanced as TSMM, and can make a gorgeous fireworks show. Are you telling me they can't run some new lights over an archway? BS.
It's hard to believe because Disney constantly makes statements like these to justify their cost cuttings. Like when Disney said that the reason they closed Adventurer's Club and the rest of Pleasure Island because "Disney guests wanted more retail choices." Well, the question asked in the survey, and I took it, never said those choices would come only if Pleasure Island was closed.
And besides...this is the company that can makes Animatronics realistic, make a ride as advanced as TSMM, and can make a gorgeous fireworks show. Are you telling me they can't run some new lights over an archway? BS.
AMEN!!!! Thank you for saying that. I am also sad that I never got to see them.
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Originally Posted by Mystic
Why is that so hard to believe? ...So why is it so hard to believe that the technology for the Lights of Winter is outdated?
I'm not trying to start an argument, and perhaps I'm cynical, but I find it hard to believe for a lot of the reasons Matt outlined above, but mostly, because I'm not alone in noticing that since the economic downturn, Disney's done a LOT of cost-cutting, not only with their workforce, but especially in their decor. For 2 straight weeks, all a certain DISney Podcast could talk about was the huge lack of decorations for Food and Wine this year, as compared to years in the past. On our trip 2 weeks ago, I saw for myself just how little budget they had for decorations (even though they were pretty much recycled from last year), and other areas within Food and Wine. Further, almost all free events were eliminated from F&W (with the exception of the Sam Adams seminar), but a ton of "pay to play" events were added.
Or the fact that, while Disney has added a lot of D23 "cost" events, they've practically eliminated any Annual Passholder events such as the ones they had last year, where you could tour the Cinderella's Castle Suite, or check out American Idol before it opened to the public.
Also, one only had to take the Yuletide Fantasy Tour last Christmas, during the height of WDW decorating, to see that they were making MASSIVE cutbacks on the decorations you saw in the parks (or you could've read the boards, where people were also upset about some of the more obvious decor cutbacks). During the tour, we got to actually visit the warehouse where all the holiday decorations are stored display-ready. I'm not even exaggerating when I say that in the middle of December, that warehouse was at least still 40% full of wreaths, swags, bows, topiaries, trees, etc. - all fully decorated and covered in plastic. Hanging on each shelf, underneath the sign designating what area on property these particular displays belonged to, were hot pink print-outs for each area that stated, "Do not put out due to cut-backs."
So again, not trying to start a fight, but those are my particular beliefs as to why I'm rolling my eyes at Disney's "techno-fail" excuse.
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I am just really sad for whatever reason that its not going to be there...and as far as the F&WF goes I have visited it every year for the last 5 years and this year the decorations were lack luster...and it seems like this less is more approach is rolling into Christmas.
I agree with the others. We're talking about Disney here. If that technology is old and hard to fix then just replace it with fiber optics or something more "High tech" The sky is the limit for Disney with finances, technology, and ideas.
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DH and I love the Lights of Winter. It always reminded us of our Honey/Disneymoon from 1996. Well at least we got to see it one last time last December. Very bummed out!
It has been since 2002 that we had been there during the Christmas holiday season. It's like when you don't get to see a relative you love in several years and all of sudden they pass; you appreciate the memory but you wish you could see them one more time. My parents and DSis have never seen them I was looking so forward to sharing it with them in a few weeks. I am glad this thread prepared me to know ahead of time instead of the shock of finding out when I'm actually there. I will have to look for my pictures and enjoy the memories
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