I am glad you brought this up. This battle between Walt Disney Loyalty and the General Public is becoming a greater threat each year.
This is the ONLY place at Walt Disney World that I didn't feel at home. I am in love with the Animal Kingdom, and visiting it a few weeks ago, I had mixed emotions. When I got home, I evalutated the area. I didn't like it.
I'm going to throw Universal in here, folks. I am not attacking anyone, just making a comparison. I have had this feel when I have visited the Universal theme parks that do not give off this pleasure and at-home-ness that I feel at the Disney parks. This is hard to put in words. A feeling I get after visiting...that just doesn't bring me back. Memories...I frankly could care less about. There's something lacking at these parks that I just don't like them. No offense to Universal fans, I just don't enjoy the parks.
The feeling I get from Universal rubbed off on me after visiting Dino-Rama.
The quality, first of all, reminded me of a Sea World carnival-style area I visited a few years ago. It is totally lacking something. It is nothing compared to the magic I find in the other Disney theme parks. One one end of the bliss I experience of the Magic Kingdom. On the other, is something like Dino-Rama. On one, I feel as if I am at heaven. It's not only fun, it is family - there is magic working so hard, that this is the only place I can call "home". Yes, I have a house. But Disney is my home. One the other side is a place I could only care less for.
While the Primeval Whirl may be fun, this attraction, I find, is dust compared to attractions such as the Haunted Mansion, or the Timekeeper, or the Carousel of Progress, or Spaceship Earth. I don't like attractions because they are fun. I like attractions because they are a part of me. It is lacking something major. It does remind me of Universal a little. Just entering and seeing some generic characters (not saying Universal has generic characters, but it rubs off a similar feeling to me) with a story that we just assume, and hop on to have fun. The feeling I have after visiting Dino-rama - and seeing the prizes just regular Dinosaur toys one can win at any ole carnival - is on level with other attractions in Orlando. And this is not the Disney way to do things.
And then there's another thing. You know, Walt Disney built theme parks to have a place where the parents and the children could have fun together. And he also built it because he spent his weekends taking his daughters to places, such as carnivals. But he didn't like the carnivals. And so he invented a theme park - Disneyland - which revolutionized these types of vacations. This, to me, is really counter what Walt would have wanted.
In general, aside from everything else, the area seems very crowded. And, was I mistaken, or could one see the parking lot? And wasn't there a road going down it?
Disney could spend there money somewhere else - there are lots of places that could benefit from the cost it took to built this Un-Disneyeque area. Such as Beastly/Beastlie? Kingdom.
Watching an Imagineer special, I heard an Imagineer say that only the best of the best of the best ideas are carried out...this is kinda making me nervous!!! Yeah, it's OK, and the general public would want attractions to ride. But this isn't why Disney was built. And if it continues this way, why would it even exist.
I don't want to remember this area. It's not like an attraction I hate, because it didn't really replace one that was more beloved, but it leaves this feeling...that doesn't want to make me go back.