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Although I realize this conversation centered on the New York-Florida routes, I was mostly referring to Amtrak's western US routes - the Empire Builder, Southwest Chief, etc. since these are the ones that people are usually talking about when they argue that Amtrak isn't economically viable...

Completely agree and predictably very disappointing. Also very much in line with the newer WDW resorts. It's completely unclear to me why you'd pay Disney premium prices for any of the rooms. Character art on the walls isn't "Disney Magic".

The math you're showing doesn't really reflect the routes trains are meant to serve. Amtrak sleeper trains are marketed towards people who want the experience of a cross-country sleeper train, which makes them much more expensive than they would be if they were intended mainly as transportation...

To be clear, scientists never thought that was true. And yes, falsehoods throughout UOE are both a well documented consequence of its sponsorship and likely one of the causes of the incomplete/poor narrative structure of the attraction. Actually, what I was responding to here was the specific...

Epcot isn't a science museum. An element of the fantastic is certainly appropriate to the park, which is what the dinosaurs were. The real issue with Universe of Energy is the confused narrative of (at least) its second incarnation. Many of the future world pavilions share a common structure...

I try to be a practical person, so I don't think I'd put it quite like that. Governments sometimes do good things and sometimes bad. Building codes are great for creating uniform standards that can lower construction costs, and environmental regulations that require clean up of industrial sites...

Not trying to pick on you @Consumer, but I wanted to go back to this post after reading the rest of the thread pointing out that this development is moving very slowly. These things are not unrelated. While it's nice to say that the "government has no right to tell people to do with their...

I think your last comment is basically the right answer and that it might actually be the other way around - requiring CMs to be scheduled far in advance means making staffing decisions ahead of time. That means having more predictable guest patterns, which can be controlled through both pricing...

High(er) speed and intercity rail infrastructure that is publicly owned is typically open to private as well as public/state sponsored operators in most places. This will also be the case with a portion of Brightline West which will ultimately share tracks with CAHSR. Since the US doesn't...

My guess is that much of the reason is operational. Restricting the number of magic keys likely helps to better plan (i.e. reduce) staffing.

In some places rails to trails makes a lot of sense but a lot of the lost right of way would be much better used for intercity or interurban lines.

This is both right and wrong. It's correct that many railroads failed because of overbuilt networks, but it's wrong to say that rail service is 'economically ruinous'. Historically, it has actually been freight and not passenger rail that was problematic, and even then, only in certain parts of...

I pretty much agree with this. Neither Transformers nor Mission Breakout are thematic masterpieces, but they mean very different things to their parks. Mission Breakout substantially takes away from DCA as a theme park even if it elements of it remain fun outside that context. The problem with...

I'm struggling to imagine who might pick IoA over Disneyland. That's not a slight against IoA, it's easily the third or fourth best theme park in the US, but Disneyland - even with all its present day flaws - beats it by a considerable margin. The more interesting comparisons are IoA to Animal...

:) Avengers campus has elements of decoration and theming, but on balance more the former than the latter, and in a rather meta-way. Building fake warehouses to slap logos on is very expensive approach to decoration but still decoration. If the thing that makes you identify something as...

Ah, apologies for missing the context there!

The Disneyland Forward concept art (including this map) that have been released are not serious plans, but are meant to message what mixed use development looks like to the the public. Disney's goal here isn't expansion for either park or even getting a third gate done, it's to get what amounts...

A distinction that seems to describe both DCA and USH is between theming and decoration. Decorated attractions are things like Batman coasters at Six Flags where you throw up a batman logo and it's now a batman ride. Themed attractions are more like Pirates of the Caribbean, telling a story by...

There's a big difference between Hollywood Studios prior to the (non)expansion - and especially MGM studios - and the random assortments of brand promotion that Disney and Universal parks are becoming. All Disney parks are fantastical - they weren't always overflow for brand synergies, which...

Disney theme parks work because they have (really had) cohesive identities - they weren't random areas grouped together. It's strange to suggest they should follow the Universal model that has always been less successful, both artistically and in the marketplace.