A Spirited Perfect Ten

[PhotoDave219]

This is a real problem. I hate to say it, but I think the time is coming where park hopping to Magic Kingdom cannot happen. Make park hopper tickets for the other three parks ONLY.

I think that, coupled with raising admission prices to MK would reduce the crowds.

Naaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh.

 

[DisneyOutsider]

I was there consistently since 1983 and frankly, I have no memory of the detail of the Hub from any of my trips. That is how impressive it is. The HUB is a utility creation designed to make exploring the park easier. It was, like a traffic circle, a central way to go to whatever land you wanted too without having to cross over other lands to do so. That was it's primary function. Other then leading up to the castle and allowing the branching out in every direction, it had no other use. As usual, now that it has been changed it has been romanticized to the point of ridiculousness.

As a DC native, I do know that Walt was a big fan of the Hub and Spoke system made popular by Pierre L'Enfant, who was the city planner/architect responsible for the first street layouts in DC. If you look at a map of DC, you can see there are hubs everywhere across the city with the corresponding spokes.

This makes sense as the concept behind DL's and MK's hub, but it still doesn't speak to the idea that large trees were allowed to develop to create a mysterious buffer between lands which gave you a nice transition so as not to clash with all of the different themed lands at once.

Apparently in the book Designing Disney by imagineer John Hench, one of the key purposes of the hub was to facilitate decision making. The hub was a place where people could VIEW all possible paths to quickly make a decision where they wanted to go. This doesn't seem to jibe with the 'provide a buffer' theory.

I guess what I'm saying is that I'm not quite convinced that the hub becoming a "thematic buffer" between lands wasn't simply an unintended side effect of letting the trees grow over time. The hub (generally speaking, not specific to DL or WDW) was about people distribution, traffic flow and decision making

Just some thoughts of mine as I think this through a little. Hoping that if I'm totally off base then somebody will correct me as to the intent and concept of Disney's hubs.

 

[HauntedMansionFLA]

Nope, no change as of now on the location of the Star Wars expansion in Anaheim.

Have I covered everything y'all have been chattering about?

Nope ... there's DAK dining.

No, Pandora isn't having a full serve restaurant. I don't believe it is getting a QSR either, but not certain. There is a weird rumour going on about the land, though, and nope I can't talk about it.

Right now, DAK certainly doesn't need additional dining locales. It might down the road, although I'm not sure of that. The park really has great food, almost on par with EPCOT, as is.

Any timeline to when you might be able to tell us what that rumor might be?

 

[LuvtheGoof]

So here are pictures from the 10th anniversary of MK - so 1981. I see a few trees in planters, and not a whole lot of others. It took a long time for them to grow in. They weren't planted to be 50 feet tall and bushy.

Here is a picture from 1985

Still not seeing the view that people are spouting off of the hub being a tree filled utopia. I see planting beds, flowers, bushes, and a few small trees. This is what it really looked like back then. Memory is a funny thing. We all think we remember, but mostly we are remembering the good things, and not the bad. With today's web and social media, we no longer forget, because we can google it now.

 

[Cesar R M]

Astroturf is really bad in the heat. But I haven't seen any conclusive scientific evidence linking it to cancer. It doesn't appear to be a cause-effect relationship based on the research today.

It will be interesting to see how many people mid-day August are going to sit on the turf to watch a show, forget a towel, and get quite a warm welcoming by the ground.

the cancer risk is probably due of to way too constant exposure (inhaling the particles, consuming it..etc..)
Id say the risk is more on the CM's than the visitors.

 

[Captain Neo]

Nope, no change as of now on the location of the Star Wars expansion in Anaheim.

Have I covered everything y'all have been chattering about?

Nope ... there's DAK dining.

No, Pandora isn't having a full serve restaurant. I don't believe it is getting a QSR either, but not certain. There is a weird rumour going on about the land, though, and nope I can't talk about it.

Right now, DAK certainly doesn't need additional dining locales. It might down the road, although I'm not sure of that. The park really has great food, almost on par with EPCOT, as is.

Lmao in my trip report I even said The Land is like the last bastion of old Epcot Center so of course Disney wants to screw it up.

 

[PhotoDave219]

So here are pictures from the 10th anniversary of MK - so 1981. I see a few trees in planters, and not a whole lot of others. It took a long time for them to grow in. They weren't planted to be 50 feet tall and bushy.

Here is a picture from 1985

Still not seeing the view that people are spouting off of the hub being a tree filled utopia. I see planting beds, flowers, bushes, and a few small trees. This is what it really looked like back then. Memory is a funny thing. We all think we remember, but mostly we are remembering the good things, and not the bad. With today's web and social media, we no longer forget, because we can google it now.

Because we want to see photos from farther back.

Look in the background from this Yesterland/Disney photo from 1991. Look at all those trees.

 

[Cesar R M]

I was there consistently since 1983 and frankly, I have no memory of the detail of the Hub from any of my trips. That is how impressive it is. The HUB is a utility creation designed to make exploring the park easier. It was, like a traffic circle, a central way to go to whatever land you wanted too without having to cross over other lands to do so. That was it's primary function. Other then leading up to the castle and allowing the branching out in every direction, it had no other use. As usual, now that it has been changed it has been romanticized to the point of ridiculousness.

"hub is a utility"
..it has the castle..
..the partners statue..
.."it has been romanticized"

are you even trying now @Goofyernmost ?

 

[LuvtheGoof]

Because we want to see photos from farther back.

Look in the background from this Yesterland/Disney photo from 1991. Look at all those trees.

Yes, because they had been given 20 years to grow. Give the current hub 20 years AFTER it is finished, and then we can complain that they mucked it up. People seem to think that they were planted that big and lush, and I was merely pointing out that it takes time, and not too many are giving the new hub a chance at all. They just say it sucks when the fact of the matter is, the hub looked very similar to today when it was first built.

The photos were from 1981 and 1985. Not as lush as 1991, was it?

 

[Cesar R M]

Yuck. What a concrete wasteland

but disney is a business!!!

 

[PhotoDave219]

So here are pictures from the 10th anniversary of MK - so 1981. I see a few trees in planters, and not a whole lot of others. It took a long time for them to grow in. They weren't planted to be 50 feet tall and bushy.

Here is a picture from 1985

Still not seeing the view that people are spouting off of the hub being a tree filled utopia. I see planting beds, flowers, bushes, and a few small trees. This is what it really looked like back then. Memory is a funny thing. We all think we remember, but mostly we are remembering the good things, and not the bad. With today's web and social media, we no longer forget, because we can google it now.

Also from 1991.....

More from the mid-90s

Edit: I think thats the 80s in the bottom photo, based on the balloons and dress.

 

[PhotoDave219]

Yes, because they had been given 20 years to grow. Give the current hub 20 years AFTER it is finished, and then we can complain that they mucked it up. People seem to think that they were planted that big and lush, and I was merely pointing out that it takes time, and not too many are giving the new hub a chance at all. They just say it sucks when the fact of the matter is, the hub looked very similar to today when it was first built.

The photos were from 1981 and 1985. Not as lush as 1991, was it?

What a coincidence.... I just posted 1991.

And we've given it 12 years since the trees came down in 2003.

 

[asianway]

So here are pictures from the 10th anniversary of MK - so 1981. I see a few trees in planters, and not a whole lot of others. It took a long time for them to grow in. They weren't planted to be 50 feet tall and bushy.

Here is a picture from 1985

Still not seeing the view that people are spouting off of the hub being a tree filled utopia. I see planting beds, flowers, bushes, and a few small trees. This is what it really looked like back then. Memory is a funny thing. We all think we remember, but mostly we are remembering the good things, and not the bad. With today's web and social media, we no longer forget, because we can google it now.

Try again Partners did not exist in 85

 

[PhotoDave219]

Yuck. What a concrete wasteland

Dear lord, I miss the trees.

 

[ctxak98]

Also here in this video I found, you can definitely see the Hub and all its glorious trees at the 43:55 mark! wish it could still be like this!

 

[LuvtheGoof]

What a coincidence.... I just posted 1991.

And we've given it 12 years since the trees came down in 2003.

I have never said that it wasn't stupid to take down the trees. It was. But it's over and done with, and there is nothing we can do about it. What we can do is wait and see how the new hub fills out over time, and maybe just give it a small chance. It may grow on us.

 

[PhotoDave219]

I have never said that it wasn't stupid to take down the trees. It was. But it's over and done with, and there is nothing we can do about it. What we can do is wait and see how the new hub fills out over time, and maybe just give it a small chance. It may grow on us.

Yeah but these people need to be held accountable.

Someone point the lifestylers and their righteous indignation to those photos.

 

[doctornick]

Lmao in my trip report I even said The Land is like the last bastion of old Epcot Center so of course Disney wants to screw it up.

I'm pretty sure @WDW1974 is taking about the "land" of Pandora, not The Land pavilion based on the context.

 

[Mr. Peabody]

Here is a picture from 1985

Still not seeing the view that people are spouting off of the hub being a tree filled utopia. I see planting beds, flowers, bushes, and a few small trees. This is what it really looked like back then. Memory is a funny thing. We all think we remember, but mostly we are remembering the good things, and not the bad. With today's web and social media, we no longer forget, because we can google it now.

This is not 1985. The Partners statue did not appear until 1995.

So here are pictures from the 10th anniversary of MK - so 1981. I see a few trees in planters, and not a whole lot of others. It took a long time for them to grow in. They weren't planted to be 50 feet tall and bushy.

These pictures only show the Castle Forecourt. If you have pictures from similar angles to what @PhotoDave219 posted, it would be a better comparison for the purposes of this discussion.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

Someone point the lifestylers and their righteous indignation to those photos.

They'll claim they're Photoshopped.