I will as well. Born exactly 30 days after opening.I'll come clean and say that I celebrate my age right along with the Magic KingdomSo, I'm hopeful that the 50th for both of us is a great entry into 'middle age'!
I won't add anything further, as I think your articulation above is spot on.
Universal is better than it was a decade ago.
And the several Six Flags that I visited are way better today than they were in 1970s and 1980s.
This is sometimes referred to as "The Disney Effect". Disney's historically superior quality has caused the competition to step up their games.
Funny thing about being the front runner; you start to assume you will remain in the lead no matter what you do.
Ask the Atlanta Falcons how that worked out.
Nice to see Disney once again behave like they have to work to earn my business.
No, no adding Pandora is nothing like what happened to EPCOT.
Well-played. And 100% accurate. In fact, at DAK, with everything that they have added recently and with Pandora, it's clear they have painstakingly tried to maintain the purpose, aesthetic, and feel of the park. There is no reason they couldn't do the same at Epcot. They could have injected us into war-ravaged Pandora but have specifically placed us there many years after the AVATAR films to better work with the rest of the park.
According to the orc that may well happen if Pandora doesn't pull them in
Careful, there could be some winners here.
If I could like this post a hundred times I would. EPCOT Center was magic. Brilliantly hyped. Not over-hyped. I poured over the pamphlet from the preview center (Walt Disney Story) so much the Only reason I still have it is because I added staples. Then I poured over the concept art booklet shipped to Magic Kingdom Club members. I was so upset I didn't get to go on opening day. But it was a school day. Parents took me about a month later for my birthday and I was hooked. It was my park. Til the changes started. And Til Animal Kingdom achieved something brilliantly different (and my brother helped build the Busch Gardens Tampa monorail. So I know that park was somewhat an inspiration.). Paraphrasing something Martin said recently: if only all of the changes over the years added up to an improvement few people would mourn World Of Motion or Horizons or maelstrom or El Rio, et. al. Much as I loved Kitchen Kabaret, I was excited at the idea of a new show, and I loved the concept art. Until Food Rocks debuted and it looked like they painted that concept art on cardboard and called it "animatronics." For me, that was the beginning of the end. Yes. That long ago. And I love the soundtrack to FR. If the figures had been rendered with the same care as the KK ones, I would have not minded the change. And this from someone who has a piece of the WOM pavilion "borrowed" during the transformation to TT.
I wish they also brought back the diorama at the Penny Arcade. Back in the 70's and 80's when ever Disney used to re-release their films in theaters they would change the diorama with a film that just got re-released such as the characters from Bambi and a moving Thumper that "hopped" from a log to a big rock. I remember seeing footage of this from a Retro WDW video (skip to 4:09 mark)
So, looks like we are the same age. I agree that the years that we first went (1970's) probably had a lot to do with its magical experience. We grew up in a time without cable, DVD players, video games, and Chuck E Cheeses. We created our own entertainment. We went to the movie theater to see movies. We couldn't just pop in a DVD. I remember going to Saturday matinees to see Disney movies such as Herbie the Love Bug, The Apple Dumpling Gang, and my favorite, Escape to Witch Mountain. And, of course, Saturday morning cartoons were the best.I'm somewhere between you and @WDW1974. Don't know if you'd consider me a young whipper-snapper too!
Part of what made WDW so special, especially in the 1970s, was the time. Between urban decay, Watergate, CIA revelations, the gas crisis, the Cold War, the Vietnam War, Stagflation, and an endless stream of depressing news, it felt like the world was falling apart.
Unlike today, other amusement parks were skeevy places to visit. For someone from the Northeast, Disneyland was practically on the other side of the World.
When Walt Disney World opened, we finally had our own haven from the woes that so troubled us.
The old Disney was deeply committed to quality. When Epcot was in the works, executives were genuinely concerned about the quality of Cast Members, thinking they had already hired the best Florida had to offer.
In keeping with Walt's vision, shops were intended to be part of the entertainment, not sell the same generic merchandise found at local stores.
The commitment to quality was uncompromising. I've told the story of the chipped park bench my brother and friends found during one of our early trips. When we came back the next day, that chip had been repaired and the bench looked brand new.
I remember food being pretty bad though. I don't think that picked up until the 1990s.
Prices truly were much more affordable. After the opening of Epcot, a three-day theme park ticket cost today's equivalent of about $85. A tower room at the Contemporary could be booked for today's equivalent of around $200-250 per night depending on the season.
These were not cheap prices in the 1970s and 1980s; WDW was still the most expensive theme park in the United States. But these prices pale in comparison to today's WDW.
Although I am pleased to see WDW once again trending upward, it's got a long way to go before it will come close to its former glory.
Well... parts of it are... parts of it are not. If you never went to the Magic Kingdom when they had the skyway and the submarines, then you really missed something that can't be explained.. 20,000 leagues was more than the sum of it's parts. Visually spectacular from every angle, it was as much a beautiful backdrop piece as it was completely unique ride experience. NOTHING new in the Magic Kingdom can compare with that alone. EPCOT was a world of the same. Crazy long experience headliner rides...all of which are pretty much gone now... No, EPCOT today is not at all better than it was then... DHS is more than half shuttered currently after having a good percentage of it's attractions closed... No, it is not at all better than it was...Hopefully it will be when it is finished...
My entire week revolved around Saturday morning cartoons!
The ones at the train station? Nah there's more important BIGGER projects that need to be taken care of before that.
