Very honestly, all my enthusiasm coming out of the weekend has evaporated. And not because of "what" is coming to WDW, but in "how" it is all being implemented.
And despite my rants about certain aspects, it's not even about the specific locations per se but actually the philosophy. specifically: why do they continue to replace at WDW instead of add?
DAK and DHS are two parks that suffer from the same fundamental issue. There is not enough to do at them. And it's a bit of a feedback loop because since there isn't enough stuff to do relatively to attendance, the things they do have get very long waits which means you end up spending enough time in the park but not doing enough. Having a bunch more things that would spread out crowds and reduce wait times would allow guests to both experience more in general but also make the waits they do have more pleasant.
And on top of that, we already see complaints with tiering at WDW for LLMP which is a direct result of (again) not having enough to do so they have to ration the attractions that they have. DLR which has a lot more attractions doesn't have the same issue and they don't have tiers (and wouldn't even if they had advanced booking). The volume of ride capacity relative to attendance is much better distributed there which means that people can have better days and do more.
So, with this in mind, they announced a bunch of "additions" that are just completely backwards for WDW:
1. Attractions at DAK that are only replacements, no additions. Even if you consider PW long gone (you shouldn't) and so Encanto is "new" capacity you are also losing the Boneyard with no replacement
2. An attraction at DHS that seems poised to be a replacement - MuppetVision going away most likely - and being built in the park boundaries that are too small
2a. And then we get rumors of a potentially shorter term "addition" which seems like it will be Incredibles replacing RNR. So again, plenty of money invested, no actual capacity increase.
3. Rather than put something in the vacant Stitch building or build Moana on the AL expansion pad, we see a massive construction project in a guest facing area in MK that involves removal of (yes underutilized) attractions. We also have rumors of replacing HoP with Muppets which again would more money spent not even changing capacity or netting anything new.
I don't get it. Honestly, I really don't. Are the people making the decisions this stupid? Do they not understand what "addition" means? Do they not see the lines for rides and the complaints about not being able to do enough? Or not booking enough on LLMP to make it worthwhile? Does anyone in charge actual realize that they have multiple parks that have fewer than 10 rides after being open for decades?
How tough is it to look at a map and say "this area is currently not developed, let's put something there that gives guests more stuff to do"? It's a very simple concept. And there are tons of such spaces in each of the parks.
Pretty much the only thing really that good to come out of this for WDW is the Villains expansion and the light parade. Which I'm very happy about both, but ironically they "help" the park has the least needs.
I was actually pretty excited going into this past weekend as I thought that finally they realized that the way they have been treating WDW is wrong and they needed a different approach to make the parks better. Okay, Dinoland was going to be what it was but I expected everything else to be largely gains - TLK on new land in DAK, Moana on new land in MK, BBTM (whatever was chosen) on new land in MK, anything in DHS to be using backstage (e.g. animation building footprint). I didn't expect anything for Epcot except maybe an Inside Out show in Magic Eye (yes, that would be a replacement, but what is there is a placeholder IMHO not a real attraction). Anyway, maybe not all of that stuff but I figured whichever came out would be a new gain for the parks.
And yet somehow they managed to not to that. At all. It's really unfathomable.
