DVCakaCarlF
Well-Known Member
Be our guest is no where near worth the wait...for the food.
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Controversial/ Unpopular theme park opinions
- Thread starter The Grand Inquisitor
- Start date
Kate F
Well-Known Member
I don’t think this is all that unpopular
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UNCgolf
Well-Known Member
I don't think it's worth it for the theme either. I was actually disappointed with it.
It's certainly not bad, but it wasn't as impressive as I was expecting. I do think part of the issue is just the fact that it's full of people everywhere, which detracts from the setting -- nothing they can do about that, though.
PiratesMansion
Well-Known Member
Animal Kingdom is the best Disney theme park in Florida.
You can't form a full picture or opinion of a ride from a YouTube video. Only by actually experiencing a ride is your opinion of said ride 100% legitimate.
The Magic Kingdom is the worst castle park in the world.
You can't form a full picture or opinion of a ride from a YouTube video. Only by actually experiencing a ride is your opinion of said ride 100% legitimate.
The Magic Kingdom is the worst castle park in the world.
bryanfze55
Well-Known Member
I am curious, you’re pretty vocal about the issues you have with MK regarding capacity, FastPass+, and the overall difficulty of enjoying the park due to operational and logistical issues.
It seems those same issues would be relevant to DAK as well, a park you seem to enjoy? (as I do)...
What gives?
Giss Neric
Well-Known Member
I totally agree about DAK.
Well, basically every opinion now is formed through watching POVs of attractions on YouTube. Just by reading the comments, you will see the usual, "I have seen the whole ride now so I won't bother to spend money to ride it." "It looks so boring, where's the thrill." The sad part is I have stated exactly what you said that let you be the ultimate judge if you experience it yourself but it doesn't matter to them.
As someone who has been to all 6 Disney parks, I think Shanghai is the worst. It looks asymmetrical in person.
PiratesMansion
Well-Known Member
My (entirely unobjective) reasons:
1. There are 5 castle parks to compare MK to, but there's only 1 AK.
2. I really enjoy the atmosphere at AK and exploring and looking for new details. Ideally it would have more rides like DLP and TDS, but I'd be lying if I said I couldn't fill a day just wandering around and taking it in.
3. I've never had an issue getting a FP for anything outside of Pandora. It also helps that you don't need FP for the animal exhibits or shows, or ITTBAB. I don't care about anything in Dinoland. Really, as long as I get on the Safari and Everest (also helped by the Singles line) and walk the animal trails, I'm good.
4. AK is still relatively intact thematically, and there haven't been a lot of suspect replacements so far (I don't really have an issue with Pandora being there).
I should be harsher on AK (and Epcot) than I am, but I tend to be more lenient because they are relatively unique and it's always been easier to accomplish the things I actually want to do than it has at MK. No way those feelings hold up to real scrutiny, however; there was an essay on Parkscope about the problems of Animal Kingdom, and even though it's my favorite park, I couldn't really disagree with any of the points the author made about the park's faults.
Yeah, the YouTube issue really grinds my gears.
I really liked Shanghai when I was experiencing it in person but I find it's the resort I'm least eager to go back to. Maybe that's because going to Mainland China is inherently complicated, or that Pirates is the only real unique standout (an AMAZING standout, but still). I'm bummed they got rid of the fantastic Tarzan show and that Tron is coming to the US (and personally I found the ride overhyped; give me a Space Mountain anyday). The park's attraction capacity is woefully small for the crowds the park receives, and that creates a lot of problems. I will say that I thought the TS hotel, staff, and food were great, and that I didn't experience any of the issues people have reported in crowd behavior. I enjoyed the attractions. But there's just something off about it that's hard for me to fully articulate.
bryanfze55
Well-Known Member
All fair. It’s just fun to inquire about others’ thoughts.
1. Having only been to DL and MK, I don’t have the same scope of comparison as you. While DL is definitely a better park, I still think MK has something to offer - but then again, I’m not able to compare it negatively to four other parks either.
2. Fully agree, but I think this might be a local vs vacationer thing. Go once or twice a year? AK remains fresh. If I were a local, I guess it might get stale.
3. But what about all the extra stuff MK has to enjoy that neither requires FP nor a long wait? PhilharMagic, Country Bear Jamboree, Carousel of Progress, Hall of Presidents, Tiki Room, Liberty Square Riverboat, Shootin’ Arcade, Tom Sawyer Island, Treehouse, Laugh Floor, Railroad... I’m not saying everyone will enjoy all these things (I hate Laugh Floor)... but you can’t really say MK doesn’t have a lot of extra stuff to fill your day. Again, these things probably get stale for locals but they don’t for me. A lot of them are historical and charming albeit outdated (isn’t that part of the charm though?)
4. I agree it’s thematically intact, but I think all of the castle parks are too (Except maybe Shanghai, which was intentional). The theme is Americana. I might argue MK is more thematically intact now than DL is due to the SW:GE expansion at the latter, although DL is still obviously a better overall park.
I only need three things out of my castle park:
1. To be lectured by Abraham Lincoln.
2. To be serenaded by tropical birds and tiki idols.
3. To be serenaded by stoned chickens in Chickapin Hill.
So I still love MK lol. I’m a simple man, but it works for me.
I see your point, though, about AK and Epcot getting a pass due to being unique experiences.
PiratesMansion
Well-Known Member
3. I guess my main criteria is that it's easy to do everything I want to do in AK in one day. It's not at MK. In fairness, I do enjoy the vast majority of those (relatively) waitless attractions at MK, but they are all, at this point, supporting attractions (with shortened hours), and it is noticeably harder to get in all the headliners at MK in a single day vs AK, DL, DLP, TDL, TDS, SDL, or really any other park. Whereas if you take out Pandora (nice but not super important to me), it's not hard to knock out EE, the Safari, and Dinosaur.
bryanfze55
Well-Known Member
I agree, if hitting the headliners is your goal, the MK is not suitable for that. The frustrating part is it’s almost all due to FastPass+ on rides that don’t require it. Seriously, Pooh is always a 45+ minute wait. Ridiculous. But...
If I’m going to WDW, it’ll most likely be for 7 days, so at a minimum I would do MK for 2 of those days, if not 3. I pretty much got my MK touring down to a system of doing Frontierland/Adventureland/Liberty Square one day and Fantasyland/Tomorrowland the next day. You can easily get all the headliners done in two days, so to me it’s not that big of a deal. I’ve spent four straight days at Disneyland Park once and still didn’t tire of it. Getting it all done in one day has never been my goal. In my opinion, most of the parks (excluding DHS and WDSP and maybe DCA) are meant to be sipped like a fine wine rather than chugged.
I’ve never been lucky enough to get a day-of FastPass for Safaris, Kali, or Everest. I got Dinosaur once after using up my first three. But I’ve always had a party of 3. Still, with rope drop, FastPasses and hopping in line just before close, you can easily get all 6 rides done at AK in one day (I won’t acknowledge Dino-Rama’s garbage as “rides”).
PiratesMansion
Well-Known Member
Getting everything done in one day isn't necessarily the goal, but I definitely am better at relaxing a bit and enjoying the ambiance if I feel like I've at least made a good stab at getting everything done that I set out to do.
I do set out to enjoy the ambiance and take it slow, and I've gotten better about that over time (to take it back to previous conversations we've had, DLP is FANTASTIC for that style of touring and they haven't mucked that part of it up in the slightest; it and DAK and TDS make MK like child's play in that respect).I've gotten lucky more often at AK with FPs than anywhere else, although I want to say my luck was both earlier in the FP+ era, and in subsequent visits I've been traveling with smaller parties. I'm sure if I tried now my luck wouldn't work out the same way.
I've never cared for dividing parts of the parks up by days. I understand that works for some people, especially if you're traveling in a larger group, but I'd much rather have the entire park at my disposal to pick and choose as I see fit. Maybe an impossible dream in the current era, but one I would still prefer.
I just can't get past the fact that most of the time I can easily hit all the headliners in a day (haven't experienced post-GE DL yet) at Disneyland or any of the other parks, really (probably not DHS in its current state either, I imagine), but it takes a lot more planning and effort for (generally) worse versions of the same rides at MK that I could just hop on with relatively little effort at Disneyland. That's my particular brand of tunnel vision.
MikeyK72
Well-Known Member
I'd like to offer another unpopular theme park opinion...
Magic Kingdom should sell alcohol in even more locations throughout the park than Epcot and DHS. When I walk into MK with a nice buzz (yeah, I've done it), it's funny how I just laugh off a stroller attack to back of my heels. But boy does that irritate me first thing in the morning. Moral of the story, alcohol = mood enhancer
Magic Kingdom should sell alcohol in even more locations throughout the park than Epcot and DHS. When I walk into MK with a nice buzz (yeah, I've done it), it's funny how I just laugh off a stroller attack to back of my heels. But boy does that irritate me first thing in the morning. Moral of the story, alcohol = mood enhancer
bryanfze55
Well-Known Member
Getting everything done in one day isn't necessarily the goal, but I definitely am better at relaxing a bit and enjoying the ambiance if I feel like I've at least made a good stab at getting everything done that I set out to do.
I've gotten lucky more often at AK with FPs than anywhere else, although I want to say my luck was both earlier in the FP+ era, and in subsequent visits I've been traveling with smaller parties. I'm sure if I tried now my luck wouldn't work out the same way.
I've never cared for dividing parts of the parks up by days. I understand that works for some people, especially if you're traveling in a larger group, but I'd much rather have the entire park at my disposal to pick and choose as I see fit. Maybe an impossible dream in the current era, but one I would still prefer.
I just can't get past the fact that most of the time I can easily hit all the headliners in a day (haven't experienced post-GE DL yet) at Disneyland or any of the other parks, really (probably not DHS in its current state either, I imagine), but it takes a lot more planning and effort for (generally) worse versions of the same rides at MK that I could just hop on with relatively little effort at Disneyland. That's my particular brand of tunnel vision.
I think that really is impossible at MK nowadays. Even if a day at MK is enjoyable, one thing it’s not is spontaneous. You can’t just take a ride on one of the Main Street Vehicles in the morning. By the time you get to a ride, the wait time will be 45+ minutes for most of the good ones (not just the mountains, but even Jungle Cruise, Pirates, Pooh, Mansion, Small World). Some people will insist they can pull a FastPass day-of for anything except maybe 7DMT, and I’m highly skeptical.
Disneyland is of course the epitome of spontaneity, due to the lack of FastPass+ and having 35 moving rides to choose from plus the other shows, entertainment, and walkthroughs.
One thing I love about Disneyland is spending the dark hours of the evening eating dinner at Cafe Orleans, taking a ride on the Riverboat, then hitting the headliners in Frontierland and Adventureland, watching Fantasmic! and ending the night with a short wait to get on Pirates and Mansion... maybe a Dole Whip on the way out... man, it can all just be done with relative ease... Ugh, you’re making me hate MK now!!
PiratesMansion
Well-Known Member
^Or the way it REALLY used to be, where it was first come, first serve, not everything had FP, there were no tiers, the ratios of FP to standby wasn't so out of whack, and all was good in the world.
Blackie Pueblo
Active Member
I think the ride Dinosaur is god awful and should be tore down. Its just riding around in the dark, flash a dino... shaking in the dark.. flash a dino... ride over.
MickeyLuv'r
Well-Known Member
Just FYI, Alien Encounter isn't the original attraction in that location.
I'd be happy to have AE back. Whenever I went through Stitch... I couldn't help but to remember both AE and Mission to Mars. While Mission itself wasn't super exciting, it evoked the shared excitement people used to have for space travel. A kind of romantic notion that if we all worked together, we could actually reach for the stars.
Sigh.
I also still remember If You Had Wings when riding Buzz. (in the red laser room and the room just after the red laser). Sure, the ride was mostly a big ad, but it also celebrated hope and adventure.
NelleBelle
Well-Known Member
Add some whiplash to that description and you're there!
MickeyLuv'r
Well-Known Member
I miss the days when you could:
1. Get TWO FP for the same attraction on the same day.
2. I also partly miss the days when everybody didn't research everything about WDW before they went to WDW. Back when WDW still had little secrets and offered in the moment discoveries. When CM's were able to bestow little treats without EVERY WDW visitor whining if they didn't get the same treat.
I still find the idea of watching ride videos, before going on a ride a bit troubling. When did we become so fearful of trying anything new? When did we forget the fun of anticipation?