If Disney wants more immersive lands, they should probably do a better job at training their Cast Members (or maybe even a better job at hiring people who care) in not talking about their personal life, what shifts they want to pick up, and having general theme breaking conversations with their fellow Cast Members on stage.
The amount of times I felt ignored by a Cast Member on my last trip was quite high...and I'm not a hard guy to please.
100% agree with this. In my college days back when the years started with 19 instead of 20, I worked as a frontline cast member at Disney for several years. Back then there was much more training as new CMs were onboarded, and there was a much greater emphasis on the rules of what it meant to be "on stage". Managers were constantly reinforcing things such as "no leaning", no personal conversations with other CMs at the expense of guests, getting out and talking to guests when your job allowed it, trying to have your persona and actions be part of the theme of the area where you worked, etc. Part of my time at Disney was spent in retail, and if you weren't actively ringing up a guest's purchase you were fully expected to be out from behind the register and engaging with guests.
Nowadays the training has been cut from what it once was, as has the emphasis on proper behavior. It is now very common to see two cast members talking to each other about after work party plans, dating gossip, etc, while ignoring the guests who are right in front of them. It is no longer shocking to see a couple (or more) cast members leaning up against walls deep in conversation, or leaning on counters with their head in one hand.
Just in the past months I've seen/heard things like:
2 CMs at the queue entrance of an attraction completely in a 'bro' conversation like they were at their frat house, which included some f-bombs and the use of the b word to describe a woman
Had a FP+ return line blocked by a group of 5 managers who were all talking about where they wanted to go out to eat after work, and they looked annoyed when I said "excuse me" to get past them
Taken about 30 seconds to get the attention of 2 cast members behind a register in a shop I was trying to buy something in because they were so busy talking to each other about personal stuff they were in their own world.
Seen 2 cast members working at one of the coffee kiosks that was obviously so non-busy they were bored. They both had their head laying on the counter. I watched them for a good 2 minutes and they stayed in that position the whole time.
You used to see this kind of stuff sometimes at SeaWorld or Busch Gardens, sometimes even Universal, but never at Disney. Times have certainly changed.