You won’t believe how much the EPCOT experience has changed in the last 25 years. Photo: Offbeat Training LLC

Mom loved sliver tinsel on her Christmas tree. At the end of the season, she would meticulously repack the tinsel for the next year. And each year, for many years, she added more. Then one year, she was visited by friends with an inquisitive four-year-old. The child looked around the family room and loudly asked his father, “Daddy, where the Cismas tree?”

Something similar happens in businesses. As we discovered in Snap V3 I5, “Christmas Treeing” is the tendency of every new leader to “add” their own “ornaments” to the company “tree.” And in two previous Snaps—Cutting costs, Hiding cutbacks and Does Being Efficient Lead to Less Efficiency—we discussed the constant need for businesses to cut costs and increase efficiency. The combination of these dynamics has led to huge changes in the customer experience, even at the Mouse House. But because these changes are incremental, their overall effect is rarely noticed. One way to demonstrate the immensity of the changes is presented below: two visits to Epcot, one in 1985 and the other in 2021.

As you drive toward Epcot in 1985 or 2021, you enter the parking toll booth plaza. In 1985 you pay $5.00 ($12.75 in 2021 dollars) to park. In 2021 you pay $25.00.

Next you park your car in the parking lot. You hop on the waiting tram in 1985. You walk to the entrance in 2021.

If you haven’t already purchased your tickets, you approach the ticket booth. Your 1985 ticket costs $21.50 ($52 in 2021 dollars). Your 2021 ticket is variable priced, depending on how busy Epcot will be that day. It will cost you between and $116.09 and $169.34.

With your ticket in hand, you go through the turnstile and enter the park … unless it is 2021 and you did not make an advance park entrance reservation. Then you are refused entry.

Because you arrived at the park at opening time, all the 1985 attractions, merchandise shops, and food service locations are open. In 2021, segments of the park open at staggered time, and close at different times. Not only that but, although you had to wait until the official opening time to enter, other guests—those staying at Disney resorts—are already in the park and have filled the queues for all those high-profile rides.

Your 1985 self goes to the ride of your choosing and stands in line. Your 2021 self either had pre-purchased line skipping perks on the Genie+ app for $15 per person or waits in the extended stand-by queue while Genie+ paying guests skip ahead of you. And, with the genie+app, you look constantly at your phone to select an attraction to visit next and hope it’s not already booked up. In 1985, you walk around, look at your guide map, and find things to do.

And finally, at the end of the day, your 1985 and 2021 selves both stop at a grocery store for some midnight snacks, but that 2021 version of you spots a Disney cast member wearing an Epcot costume and name tag in the checkout line behind you.

A Disney Park experience used to be a magical exploration. Current Disney has gone full techie geek. Disney says its intent is to make a Disney vacation easier. But from having been inside the Mouse House for years, I know that a serious intent is to industrial engineer the experience for maximum crowd control, cost containment, and operating efficiency.

Am I suggesting that things are much worse now? It’s hard to say, and I’m not as much criticizing Disney as I am cautioning that the modern world seems to be slipping from the real to the virtual; in the process becoming an exercise in cell phone staring. Things are certainly different, and economic and COVID related necessities have made a mess out of what used to be easy-to-enjoy experiences. And it’s not just at the Mouse House. This “tinsel creep” is happening everywhere.

It is important to slowdown, look around, and savor the times you’ve been given … especially in this wonderful season. If you can force yourself to look up from your cell phone occasionally, you may still get a glimpse of that Christmas tree.