KatiebugFan
Active Member
I agree that MK is the "better" park but AK is my favorite park. I love the theming, the animals, the ambiance and the food.
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Animal Kingdom vs Magic Kingdom
- Thread starter DisneyAndUniversalFan
- Start date
Chef Mickey
Well-Known Member
I've asked myself the same question. WHY can't there be a good restaurant at MK? Is it because it's just "the" park and they don't have to be good? Insane. What is the best restaurant at MK? I can't even definitively say one....maybe Skipper Canteen? Which is mid at best. Crystal Palace was pretty decent when it opened after covid - they started actually cooking because I asked the manager and he confirmed "everything" is homemade now.
EPCOT has to be kind of "known" for the restaurants, so they are actually trying. I will say overall the restaurants are better at EPCOT (Le Cellier, Teppan Edo, etc) but even those are starting to lose a bit of appeal to me.
BalooChicago
Well-Known Member
MK any day. Then Epcot. Then probably Studios. We were at AK Sunday afternoon. Dinosaur was down (we’d waited in line for like an hour and got a Lightning lane that was practically useless for our troubles). Everest was down. It was raining. It was so bad that we ended up going on the Navi River ride, which we previously swore we’d never do again (once a decade is enough). Transportation needs to be addressed. Complete waste of half a day when travel is taken into account. They need a skyliner route. We would have gone back yesterday, but it wasn’t worth the travel time, so we went to MK again instead.
Mark Dunne
Well-Known Member
I do feel the only parks you can hop are MK-EPCOT-H.S, Animal kingdom is in need of better transportation to link to the other parks , A.K also needs more attractions soon over the next few years ,yes Pandora's great but they must of run out of money after FOP, cos N.R.J is poor , the shaman is amazing, but that ride needs a drop for sure . something to get it going.
WaltWiz1901
Well-Known Member
Theming-wise, Animal Kingdom is on top (both in the context of this poll and in the context of WDW as a whole), but Magic Kingdom has a broader and better selection of attractions. So hard to decide which one to go with definitively...
Disney-Universal Fanboy
Active Member
Man, this is tough, as for me, Magic DOES have more rides, but most of them are clones from other parks and are just too calm, while Animal Kingdom has less rides (Probably due to the animal upkeep), it has Everest, Kilimanjaro Safaris, Flight Of Passage and DINOSAUR, andyou could just go there, see the animals and not ride anything and still have a great time. Animal For Me.
Chef Mickey
Well-Known Member
I had a guest tell me the Skyliner went to AK. I said no and they doubled down.
Disney-Universal Fanboy
Active Member
Chef Mickey
Well-Known Member
Wish I could have pulled this map out. Guests think they are absolute "Disney Experts" because they watched a few TikToks. I've been going for since the 80s, lol.
Disney-Universal Fanboy
Active Member
The Guest would have gotten SO embarrassed if they saw this lol
Chef Mickey
Well-Known Member
People have such an aversion to being wrong, they would have gaslighted me into making me think they say Hollywood Studios!
WondersOfLife
Blink, blink. Breathe, breathe. Day in, day out.
I have been growing appreciation for Animal Kingdom over the last decade as the other 3 parks are slowly starting to lose their thematic values to me...
Tron, AKA the huge big box, ruins the aesthetic of Tomorrowland for me.
Tiana's new bayou is just completely out of place in Frontierland for me now.
Adventureland is too clustered.
Fantasyland and New Fantasyland are really all I can get behind...
Epcot is not Epcot.
Hollywood Studios is no longer showcasing the creation of movie making. (Not bad, but it's a step down for me.)
Soooooooo yes. I have to say Animal Kingdom grew from my least favorite of the 4 parks to my most favorite of the 4 parks...
...Until Zootopida, Encanto, and Indiana Jones move in... Then it'll start sliding back down the list.
Tron, AKA the huge big box, ruins the aesthetic of Tomorrowland for me.
Tiana's new bayou is just completely out of place in Frontierland for me now.
Adventureland is too clustered.
Fantasyland and New Fantasyland are really all I can get behind...
Epcot is not Epcot.
Hollywood Studios is no longer showcasing the creation of movie making. (Not bad, but it's a step down for me.)
Soooooooo yes. I have to say Animal Kingdom grew from my least favorite of the 4 parks to my most favorite of the 4 parks...
...Until Zootopida, Encanto, and Indiana Jones move in... Then it'll start sliding back down the list.
erasure fan1
Well-Known Member
Yes, it's the most coherent in theming. That's why if they can flesh out the park with a couple more headliners, and 4 or so mid to small level attractions. They have one of the best theme parks in the world. Of course that's all predicated on none of the attractions being shoehorned in. It has to all fit in. Unfortunately I don't see Disney having that capability at this point in time.
Mark Dunne
Well-Known Member
I actually think Tron works well for M,.K, its the rest of tomorrow land that needs updating, but I'm also in favour of adventure land being bulldozed and starting again, Swiss family tree is so yesterday , and J.C is overrated ( Crazy that a sub par J.C movie has people queueing for 80 plus mins, for an attraction that's long past its best ) Indiana Jones belongs in adventure land IMO, I think EPCOT was never going to stay the same, tech is so readily available these days to everyone , the communicore pavilion just would not work now, I'm ok with guardians , i think people see G.O.T.G as a great attraction, U.O.E was tired, so i don't miss that, i think if they can put some love into imagination pavilion that would help, i like the new entrance, and dreamers point, nice to sit down in a garden style area , over to Hollywood studios, yeah that's a funny one, i love Battu, and i think T.S.L is ok, the backlot tour was fun, ( did you know they moved it to Paris, under the Cars label ) at least they still have Indiana Jones Stunt show, they could change it, but it gets full all the time I've been visiting , I agree Animal Kingdom needs something more to rpl dinoland USA, lets see what the future holds.
WondersOfLife
Blink, blink. Breathe, breathe. Day in, day out.
NahI actually think Tron works well for M,.K, its the rest of tomorrow land that needs updating, but I'm also in favour of adventure land being bulldozed and starting again, Swiss family tree is so yesterday , and J.C is overrated ( Crazy that a sub par J.C movie has people queueing for 80 plus mins, for an attraction that's long past its best ) Indiana Jones belongs in adventure land IMO, I think EPCOT was never going to stay the same, tech is so readily available these days to everyone , the communicore pavilion just would not work now, I'm ok with guardians , i think people see G.O.T.G as a great attraction, U.O.E was tired, so i don't miss that, i think if they can put some love into imagination pavilion that would help, i like the new entrance, and dreamers point, nice to sit down in a garden style area , over to Hollywood studios, yeah that's a funny one, i love Battu, and i think T.S.L is ok, the backlot tour was fun, ( did you know they moved it to Paris, under the Cars label ) at least they still have Indiana Jones Stunt show, they could change it, but it gets full all the time I've been visiting , I agree Animal Kingdom needs something more to rpl dinoland USA, lets see what the future holds.
Walt Disney1955
Well-Known Member
This is MK in a walk, I think. I am actually surprised AK got this many votes. Hard to argue with the overall attractions and experience that MK offers. Still has the best rides and shows, so many that had Walt's personal touch as well prior to his death. Or at least they were in Disneyland and were implemented in Florida I mean.
Goofyernmost
Well-Known Member
I didn't vote because there is so little to compare that they might as well be in a different galaxy. MK is a better general land of make-believe whereas AK is a superb real life park. So it's appeal is completely different and equal in what it was designed to cover as far as interests are concerned. It is a Zoo that is Notazoo! One day I might be in the mood for fantasy and another my craving is for real living realities in our planet. Making MK my favorite one day and AK the next.
DisneyHead123
Well-Known Member
It's interesting to me because looking at a very small sample of 4 people in my family - two who are mostly hyper sensory / sensory sensitive and two who are very hypo sensory / sensory seeking - the sensory sensitive seem to do really well in AK while the sensory seekers generally want to skip AK and love MK. I remember for both of the sensory sensitive kiddos, when they were toddlers, MK would be almost an instant meltdown, while they seemed pretty content and happy in AK.
I think it's interesting as I've recently learned more about the design philosophy in AK, and in many ways it jives with what I've learned about friendly environments for "super sensors". Temple Grandin, for example, is an autistic woman who designed more humane pens for cattle processing. Due to her autism, one thing she noted that other people never realized is how much one discordant element could really upset cows, who are prey animals and so constantly vigilant of their surroundings. So simple exposure to something that looked out of place or didn't belong - a light reflecting off a piece of metal, a coat left hanging in the wrong place - could cause panic. Or, I read that Bill Gates, who is also rumored to be neurodivergent, designed his house to have no visible electrical outlets anywhere, because visual "clutter" makes him uncomfortable. Again, it's an extremely small sample, but I can see how AK, being the most cohesive and thematically unified park, could have far fewer discordant elements for people who tend to notice that type of thing. Our super sensors seem much calmer at AK.
On the other hand, for people who crave a lot of input and even discordant elements as a sort of puzzle to solve, I can see how AK might be too calm. Of all the parks, it probably has the least movement when you look around (in MK there's few places you can go that you don't see rides go swooshing by, in AK there are very few rides that operate where you can see them.) More of it is trails that go in a specific direction so you don't have the frenzied feeling of open areas where people are pushing in all directions. While the lands are different the greenery is somewhat cohesive throughout the park so you don't get that dizzying feeling you do at MK, where you're dropped from one universe into a completely different one just by walking a few yards from Fantasyland to Tomorrowland. I think for people who almost "just can't get enough!" when it comes to stimulation, MK and maybe Epcot is a more natural fit.
I think it's interesting as I've recently learned more about the design philosophy in AK, and in many ways it jives with what I've learned about friendly environments for "super sensors". Temple Grandin, for example, is an autistic woman who designed more humane pens for cattle processing. Due to her autism, one thing she noted that other people never realized is how much one discordant element could really upset cows, who are prey animals and so constantly vigilant of their surroundings. So simple exposure to something that looked out of place or didn't belong - a light reflecting off a piece of metal, a coat left hanging in the wrong place - could cause panic. Or, I read that Bill Gates, who is also rumored to be neurodivergent, designed his house to have no visible electrical outlets anywhere, because visual "clutter" makes him uncomfortable. Again, it's an extremely small sample, but I can see how AK, being the most cohesive and thematically unified park, could have far fewer discordant elements for people who tend to notice that type of thing. Our super sensors seem much calmer at AK.
On the other hand, for people who crave a lot of input and even discordant elements as a sort of puzzle to solve, I can see how AK might be too calm. Of all the parks, it probably has the least movement when you look around (in MK there's few places you can go that you don't see rides go swooshing by, in AK there are very few rides that operate where you can see them.) More of it is trails that go in a specific direction so you don't have the frenzied feeling of open areas where people are pushing in all directions. While the lands are different the greenery is somewhat cohesive throughout the park so you don't get that dizzying feeling you do at MK, where you're dropped from one universe into a completely different one just by walking a few yards from Fantasyland to Tomorrowland. I think for people who almost "just can't get enough!" when it comes to stimulation, MK and maybe Epcot is a more natural fit.