WDW Hot Takes

[SplashJacket]

What’s your WDWMagic hot takes?

“They should’ve never replaced Horizons” isn’t a hot take on these forums.

But my two:

1) New Fantasmic is a severe downgrade because they replaced the Pocahontas scene (large in scale) with unimpressive small-scale scenes

2) Mission Space is actually really good. No comment on Horizons here, just that Mission Space should get way more love.

 

[DisneyHead123]

So many. Please excuse the long post.

- I think Journey Into The Imagination is a cute ride (looks left, looks right, ducks for cover.)

- None of the classic snacks at Disney World do anything for me. Not even the cheeseburger spring rolls, Gaston’s cinnamon rolls, and certainly not Dole Whip. I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but they are literally all a 5/10 in my book, with the exception of straight up cheese in a cup, which is technically a dip and not a snack. (Specialty holiday and festival snacks are different.)

- I’m glad the characters don’t just roam the parks anymore, because I don’t think that would be a safe situation for them. 9 times out of 10 it would probably be fine, but you’d get the occasional overexcited crowd.

- The People Mover is too scary and this ticks me off (ok, technically for my son, not me, but why the need for an endless pitch black segment on this ride?!)

- I thought the Cake Castle was kinda cool, as a limited time novelty

- I applaud Disney for the Galactic Starcruiser. If you never make mistakes, it means you’re not trying enough new things. Good for them for experimenting.

- I don’t think Tony’s is a bad restaurant. It contains mostly foods that you almost can’t screw up - pasta, pizza, and bread. As the saying goes, even when they’re “bad” they’re good.

- Peter Pan slowly faded from The Most Magical ride on Earth to a “meh” experience for me (between the ages of around 2 and 40 something,) so while I’m not wowed by many of the newer dark rides like Frozen, Mermaid and Nemo, I feel I can’t judge them fairly as someone who has only been on them as an adult.

- Disney hotels and all hotels should put removable waterproof protectors on all of their pillows (removable so you can take them off if you want) that are washed between guests. It’s 2024. I don’t want just a thin cotton sheet of fabric between me and the collected drool of the past 50 guests who used that pillow.

- Journey of Water was a really nice addition to Epcot.

- I grew up in the 80s / 90s and I have no particular love of classic Epcot (looks around again, runs, hides, this time also changes address.)

- It’s ok for some parts of the parks to exist as a “museum”, or historical landmarks, because at this point they really are that significant to US history.

 

[Mr. Sullivan]

1. Magic Kingdom is the second worst castle park in the world. To go further, it has always been an inferior park to its sisters. On opening, it was not as good as Disneyland. Tokyo on opening was better (and still is, which is really a gut punch since it’s so modeled off of MK yet does it so much better). Paris opened better. Shanghai is better. Only Hong Kong is lesser.

To that end, I think what they’re doing for it is a net good for the park. It will finally take on an identity of its own, finally get some true uniqueness, and can finally escape the tall shadows its spent its whole existence under (hopefully).

2. Journey of Water is great and it belongs at EPCOT, not Animal Kingdom.

3. Animal Kingdom has always been a full day park but very few take the time to actually explore and experience it.

4. EPCOT is my personal favorite of the four, but Animal Kingdom is objectively the best park of the 4.

5. Hollywood Studios is in stiff competition with DCA as the worst Disney park in the US, and is easily bottom 3 worldwide. WDS is infinitely worse but HS and DCA are very related in their issues. I look forward to seeing what shuffles when all three parks are finished with their new additions.

 

[WorldExplorer]

Jungle Cruise is, at best, a one and done. Even that one time has the issue of being a gamble; getting in a long line isn't worth the potential to get a terrible skipper.

1) New Fantasmic is a severe downgrade because they replaced the Pocahontas scene (large in scale) with unimpressive small-scale scenes

I like watching Fantasmic overall, I think it's the best nighttime show, but I don't like its weird combination of random movie clip show and story driven show.

I don't have a preference for either version because both of them seem like they're just going on a tangent. I would have preferred something that felt like we were still following Mickey.

Elsa's section just flat out sucks, though. Especially when you have the much better element manipulation going on with Mickey. At no point does it feel like she's controlling anything.

 

[SplashJacket]

3. Animal Kingdom has always been a full day park but very few take the time to actually explore and experience it.

Definitely a full day park, just isn’t a full day everyone. If you’re a rides person, can’t do rides all day. If you have little kids, can’t just do a lot of the few rides at the park.

Generally, I think parks should be a full day for most types of people, and AK definitely isn’t, and I think that’s where the discrepancy comes from.

 

[Jayspency]

What’s your WDWMagic hot takes?

“They should’ve never replaced Horizons” isn’t a hot take on these forums.

But my two:

1) New Fantasmic is a severe downgrade because they replaced the Pocahontas scene (large in scale) with unimpressive small-scale scenes

2) Mission Space is actually really good. No comment on Horizons here, just that Mission Space should get way more love.

I've got a few

-JIIWF is actually a good ride when you remove the lense of the original JII

-Mission space, Little mermaid, Grand Fiesta Tour, Test Track 2.0, smugglers run, Muppet Vision 3D, and Star Tours are all underrated and deserve more love

-Jungle cruise is overrated

- Soarin Around the World > Soarin Over California

-The innoventions hub wasn't outdated

-Peter Pan is only good because of nostalgia, overall ride is cute and has a lot of charm but kind of meh

-The skyliner should've been an extension of the monorail line (idk if this is a hot take or not)

- Journey of water is the best IP related addition to Epcot.

-Spaceship earth 2007 is the best version of spaceship earth (excluding the descent)

 

[StarWarsGirl]

Magic Kingdom is the second worst castle park in the world. To go further, it has always been an inferior park to its sisters. On opening, it was not as good as Disneyland. Tokyo on opening was better (and still is, which is really a gut punch since it’s so modeled off of MK yet does it so much better). Paris opened better. Shanghai is better. Only Hong Kong is lesser.

Truly unpopular. Also wrong. Good job.

 

[StarWarsGirl]

Peter Pan is only good because of nostalgia, overall ride is cute and has a lot of charm but kind of meh

Not sure this is really unpopular here.

 

[StarWarsGirl]

I'm not really upset about TSI going away. Yeah, it was original to the park, and yeah, it was well designed and I'll miss the caves and Fort Langhorne, but honestly, given the Florida climate, it's not a good use for the space. It has to close if there's a thunderstorm, and during a good chunk of the year, it's just too hot to be over there. The rest of the park will be crowded and TSI won't. I just think Villains/Cars is a better use for the space.

 

[Lilofan]

1. Magic Kingdom is the second worst castle park in the world. To go further, it has always been an inferior park to its sisters. On opening, it was not as good as Disneyland. Tokyo on opening was better (and still is, which is really a gut punch since it’s so modeled off of MK yet does it so much better). Paris opened better. Shanghai is better. Only Hong Kong is lesser.

To that end, I think what they’re doing for it is a net good for the park. It will finally take on an identity of its own, finally get some true uniqueness, and can finally escape the tall shadows its spent its whole existence under (hopefully).

2. Journey of Water is great and it belongs at EPCOT, not Animal Kingdom.

3. Animal Kingdom has always been a full day park but very few take the time to actually explore and experience it.

4. EPCOT is my personal favorite of the four, but Animal Kingdom is objectively the best park of the 4.

5. Hollywood Studios is in stiff competition with DCA as the worst Disney park in the US, and is easily bottom 3 worldwide. WDS is infinitely worse but HS and DCA are very related in their issues. I look forward to seeing what shuffles when all three parks are finished with their new additions.

Good points on the other castles. Guests such as our family enjoy the castle at MK but if one never has been to the other domestic international parks and checked out those castles up close some may get blinders eyes on MK castle being tops. 100% Epcot is our fav! One friend of ours who never has left the US traveled to Italy on vacation. She remarked when she saw the Leaning Tower of Pisa " wow, it looks like the one in Epcot!".

 

[mkt]

Food & Wine Fest has gone downhill, to the point that some of the food offered down the street at Universal for Halloween Horror Nights is actually more interesting to us.

 

[Mr. Sullivan]

Good points on the other castles. Guests such as our family enjoy the castle at MK but if one never has been to the other domestic international parks and checked out those castles up close some may get blinders eyes on MK castle being tops. 100% Epcot is our fav! One friend of ours who never has left the US traveled to Italy on vacation. She remarked when she saw the Leaning Tower of Pisa " wow, it looks like the one in Epcot!".

I don’t mean the castles, I mean the parks themselves. The other castles are also cool, and I do love Cinderella castle, but I mean the castle parks as in the theme parks themselves. Magic Kingdom is the second worst of the 6.

 

[celluloid]

Anything beyond annual pass with the word Pass in the name has lead to making the guest experience worse.

 

[IanDLBZF]

I think Tiana's Bayou Adventure is fine. The critter AA's are cute and the music is catchy. The storyline however needs a little more depth to make it more understandable, and perhaps the addition of Dr Fallicer could help. Splash Mountain will always hold a place in my heart, as well as Uncle Remus and the tales of Br’er Rabbit and the gang. Also, the signage in the queue, specifically this....

Is going to cause a lot of people to scratch heads or get people really confused that this really took place during a period where the salt mines in Avery Island Louisiana was subject to slavery, when in reality the Princess and the Frog took place long after the Civil War. Perhaps I think the "seasoned veterans" were really the friends we made along the way.

 

[vikescaper]

The newish north entrance to WDW has removed some of the “magic” from the property. Although the related road work around the TTC is much appreciated.

 

[Jayspency]

I think Tiana's Bayou Adventure is fine. The critter AA's are cute and the music is catchy. The storyline however needs a little more depth to make it more understandable, and perhaps the addition of Dr Fallicer could help. Splash Mountain will always hold a place in my heart, as well as Uncle Remus and the tales of Br’er Rabbit and the gang. Also, the signage in the queue, specifically this....
View attachment 822774
Is going to cause a lot of people to scratch heads or get people really confused that this really took place during a period where the salt mines in Avery Island Louisiana was subject to slavery, when in reality for Princess and the Frog took place long after the Civil War. Perhaps I think the "seasoned veterans" were really the friends we made along the way.

Leave it to Disney to somehow make a splash replacement have a closer connection to slavery than splash itself did.

 

[graphite1326]

Alien Encounter was a great attraction. My favorite in fact.

 

[FN2BFRE]

- Test Track 2.0 is far and away better than 1.0. It's not even close.
- Smuggler's Run is decent fun, and is far from being the worst ride in DHS.
- Journey of Water is as good of an EPCOT addition as we're going to get under the Iger administration, and could be a genuinely great thing if it were in a different park/under different circumstances.
- I think the Tomorrowland Speedway has a place in the park, and shouldn't be demolished.
- Genie+ is the best of any of the Fastpass systems, and should still be in use today.

 

[McMickeyWorld]

-Great Movie Ride was only good because of nostalgia.
-Zach Riddley is a good Imagineer.
-The Dream Lights were ugly.
-The animals in Tiana's have great designs, on par with Marc Davis.
-Regardless of its current state, FoF didn’t age well in terms of design.