Disney Parks #1, 2, 3, & 7 in consumer reports

[Sherm00]

Originally posted by DisneyWorld30th
The June 2003 edition of Comsumer Reports just arrived at my home and they rated the top Amusement Parks/Theme Parks.

There is a four page artitical about the different parks, how to save money and which are busier...etc...etc

There were a few websites meantioned in the article:

wdwinfo.com
mousesavers.com
themeparkinsider.com
themeparks.com

Here is how the parks were rated (by reader survey)
#1 Epcot
#2 Disney-MGM-Studios
#3 Magic Kingdom
#4 Sea World (Florida)
#5 Universal's Island of Adventure
#6 Sea World (California)
#7 Disney's Animal Kingdom
#8 Disneyland
#9 Cedar Point
#10 Busch Gardens (Florida)
#11 Universal Studios (Florida)
#12 Knott's Berry Farms
#13 Universal Studios (California)
#14 Disney's California Adventure

I think that this is just a generalization, I sure not everyperson is going to like each park the same. My list would read something like

#1 Epcot
#2 Magic Kingdom
#3 Animal kingdom
#4 MGM studios
#5 universal studios
#5 seaworld
#6 IOA

I have never been to the other parks so I don't know. but I agree with epcot, it's not a thrill park , but has a mix of everything and dare i say it RELAXING..

 

[WDW John]

Originally posted by FourFourSeven
Consumer Reports did a survey of readers, and they explained that upfront. By no means is the Consumer Reports method objective, but it did do a relatively good job of getting the opinion of members of the general public who have visited parks.

Yeah, certainly not objective. Did they have a Control Group? If so, what was it? Was an age range specified? (That alone could make a huge difference) There are too many variables when you basically just ask someone's opinion.

For instance, I have never been to Cedar Point, don't know anyone personally that has been, and don't ever plan on having a vacation that includes it. (Do people plan whole vacations around CP? I have no idea.) But, people who live near CP could give it really high marks just because of local pride, where you may not find that from someone who has just finished a trip to WDW and then had a long flight home.

The one big weakness I saw in the Consumer Reports method - they couldn't get large enough survey sizes for even large-sized regional parks.

Good point. Considering the daily attendence at any given Disney park, 2500 people isn't very many.

Does anyone know what the time period of the survey was? If it was one day for each park that could seriously skew results. If it was a hot day or a rainy day that could affect the scores but really not have anything to do with the actual park.

No Six Flags parks and no local independant parks makes for a far less interesting result. 13 of the 14 parks with large enough samples were in either California or Florida.

Funny that you mention SF. SF New England is about 15 minutes from my house, yet I haven't been there since before Premier Parks purchased the existing park. I'm guessing it's been about 8 years. In that same time period I've been to WDW 9 times. I don't even consider SF and WDW to be comparable so I'm kinda glad those "smaller" parks weren't included.

 

[Epcot is my fav]

Re: Re: Disney Parks #1, 2, 3, & 7 in consumer reports

Originally posted by Sherm00
I think that this is just a generalization, I sure not everyperson is going to like each park the same. My list would read something like

#1 Epcot
#2 Magic Kingdom
#3 Animal kingdom
#4 MGM studios
#5 universal studios
#5 seaworld
#6 IOA

I have never been to the other parks so I don't know. but I agree with epcot, it's not a thrill park , but has a mix of everything and dare i say it RELAXING..

ok putting Anminal Kingdom infront of MGM and IOA.....that would make less sense then making Epcot #1......i dunno i just think Epcot and Mk can be interchangable....according to this list

 

[Sherm00]

Re: Re: Re: Disney Parks #1, 2, 3, & 7 in consumer reports

Originally posted by Epcot is my fav
ok putting Anminal Kingdom infront of MGM and IOA.....that would make less sense then making Epcot #1......i dunno i just think Epcot and Mk can be interchangable....according to this list

thats my whole point, personally I loved Animal kingdom. Me and my wife love animals, we could spend all day walking around and seeing the animals. to us that park rated very high, IOA, we went through the whole park in 3 hours. The themeing was good, but there was onle 3 or 4 rides we could ride on. we are not coaster people. so for us IOA is dead last. Next time we would only get a 1 day hopper pass for universal. universal needs more dark rides and more family style rides.

 

[SamatBCV]

Originally posted by DogsRule!
I dunno about this...I think Disneyland, the hotels aside, is a far greater value than the Disney World Parks--I think we got our six-day park hopper for about $140 from them, and when I went in march, between construction projects, there was a lot more at Disneyland than any of the Disney World parks...I would argue it is the greatest value of any of the parks. I don't really understang picking Epcot as number one...and as for California Adventure being so low on the list, someone really needs to remind these people that this park "with nothing to do" opened with more attractions than any other Disney-paid-for park did...these ratings seem messed to me.

I gotta disagree DogsRule. I just got back from CA last month and we were really disappointed with Cal Adv. DL was good in that it had differences in the attractions (Pirates, Innoventions, etc.), rides that aren't in WDW (matterhorn, Alice). However, the size is unimpressive and a bit disappointing for people who've only been to WDW. While I've been there before, my wife and sister in law haven't. Their reaction to the castle: "Oh No" and that was after I told them that it would be really tiny. Even my cousin who lives out there and goes to DL often calls it the "pocket sized Disney." As for Cal Adv. I still think that having a land themed after an amusement park is a cop out. Paradise Pier, while having decent rides, is not well themed. Many people I've talked to think more of Coney (sp?) Island when they think of an amusement park on the boardwalk than California. As you said, the Animation building is great, Cal Screamin is a good coaster (although not themed much), Soarin Over is great, and the Alladin show was great. For us though, there wasn't much else to do there. I give them credit for building what they did in the space from the old parking lot, but I would not rate it highly against other theme parks.

By the way, I agree with you and what some others have said about WDW really being one destination. They really should group the parks in the survey. Not just the WDW parks are like this though, DL and CA should really be grouped (especially since the entrances face each other) and so should Universal Florida and Islands of Adventure.

 

[Gucci65]

Re: Magic

Originally posted by kennyj29
There is only one park that has that special "magic" and that's the Magic Kingdom. The funny thing is I voted for MGM as my favorite park. It is really. But if I could only choose to go to one park, it would have to be the Magic Kingdom. I work all year and I have to get to Disney once a year to keep my sanity. I need that special feeling that I get from going there. And even though I love MGM, if I could only visit one park, it would have to be the park that gives me that "feeling" that gets me through the rest of the year and that's Magic Kingdom. Does that make sense to you? Is it just the Disney freaks that feel that way? I don't know, it just gets me through the work week!!!!:hammer:

I absolutely agree with you! I voted for MGM as well, but during the summer when staying at the beach it is Magic Kingdom that we go to for the day for our Disney fix. That fix keeps me satisfied until I can go for a week in December.

 

[AdLibSean]

Hopefully I'm not going to open a can of worms with this, but funny how Epcot is ranked #1 by Consumer reports, but in a couple of years, they're supposedly going to change around Future World... hmmmmm......:hammer:

 

[FourFourSeven]

I actually read my Consumer Reports (imagine that), and learned something quite interesting about their scores, and I quote:

"Differences of less than 4 points are not meaningful"

Discounting the fact that they should have used the word "fewer" instead of "less," and didn't reveal their confidence interval, here are the scores:

1) Epcot - 85
2) MGM - 84
3) Magic Kingdom - 84
4) Seaworld - 83
5) IOA - 83
6) Seaworld (San Diego) - 82
7) DAK - 82
8) Disneyland - 81
.
.
.
14) California Adventure - 75


Does this mean that Epcot is definitely the "best" by their methodology? Absolutely not. It means we don't really have any way to decide which of Epcot, MGM, MK, both SeaWorlds, IOA, and DAK is ranked the highest. Clearly DCA is likely to be considered "worse" by their methodology, but you can't really put the 1-7 parks in any meaningful order according to the survey.

 

[FourFourSeven]

Originally posted by WDW John

Does anyone know what the time period of the survey was? If it was one day for each park that could seriously skew results. If it was a hot day or a rainy day that could affect the scores but really not have anything to do with the actual park.

Actually, they sent a survey out to people nationwide.

Funny that you mention SF. SF New England is about 15 minutes from my house, yet I haven't been there since before Premier Parks purchased the existing park. I'm guessing it's been about 8 years. In that same time period I've been to WDW 9 times. I don't even consider SF and WDW to be comparable so I'm kinda glad those "smaller" parks weren't included.

I disagree - how can readers decide whether or not it's worth it to go to WDW instead of the local park, unless they get comparable ratings (which is what Consumer Reports is all about)?

I'm glad Cedar Point was included - it's basically a local theme park on steroids - the best "large coasters" park in the world, and I was curious to see what people's opinions are compared to Disney parks. I do know people who have driven 5+ hours to go there...

By the way, you really should go to SF New England - Superman: Ride of Steel alone is worth it. It's not Disney by any means, but it's a ton of fun.

 

[SamatBCV]

Originally posted by FourFourSeven
I actually read my Consumer Reports (imagine that), and learned something quite interesting about their scores, and I quote:

"Differences of less than 4 points are not meaningful"

Discounting the fact that they should have used the word "fewer" instead of "less," and didn't reveal their confidence interval, here are the scores:

1) Epcot - 85
2) MGM - 84
3) Magic Kingdom - 84
4) Seaworld - 83
5) IOA - 83
6) Seaworld (San Diego) - 82
7) DAK - 82
8) Disneyland - 81
.
.
.
14) California Adventure - 75


Does this mean that Epcot is definitely the "best" by their methodology? Absolutely not. It means we don't really have any way to decide which of Epcot, MGM, MK, both SeaWorlds, IOA, and DAK is ranked the highest. Clearly DCA is likely to be considered "worse" by their methodology, but you can't really put the 1-7 parks in any meaningful order according to the survey.

While it may mean that the difference is not statistically significant, that doesn't mean that the ratings are a tie. As example, take political polls. If you have candidate A with 45% in a poll and candidate B with 43% in the same poll which has a margin of error of +-3% the difference is not statistically significant, but candidate A is still ahead and if you ask a campaigner, they will tell you it means something.

 

[kennyj29]

Whatever the poll results are to me that Epcot came out first is a huge joke. This is the park that needs the most renovating and as far as all the people I know, it;s their least favorite and beleive me when I tell you I know quite a number of people who are Disney Freaks. They must have asked everyone going into Epcot that day or all the old people. It's should not be the best park by any means.

 

[WDW John]

Originally posted by FourFourSeven
I disagree - how can readers decide whether or not it's worth it to go to WDW instead of the local park, unless they get comparable ratings (which is what Consumer Reports is all about)?

I understand what you mean but I think that the experience of going to WDW (or Universal) is completely different than going to a local park, like Six Flags.

That's why I wondered if people actually vacation to Cedar Point, et al. Most of the parks listed are vacation destinations, where as, SF and other local parks probably aren't (or if they are, not to the same extent).

By the way, you really should go to SF New England - Superman: Ride of Steel alone is worth it. It's not Disney by any means, but it's a ton of fun.

Yeah, I've heard it's awesome. But I've also heard that the line is always long (2+ hours ) and I don't hear about any other rides, except for Mind Eraser and Scream. I will go someday, I just have to be in the right mood.

 

[FourFourSeven]

Originally posted by WDW John
I understand what you mean but I think that the experience of going to WDW (or Universal) is completely different than going to a local park, like Six Flags.

I agree - and I think the ratings would show that, and be a useful metric for people considering a vacation. If I had never been to Disney, and saw my local Six Flags that I knew had a rating of, say, 68, and Disney had FOUR parks in the 80s, I might plan a trip there (especially with other highly rated parks nearby).

As a side note, today I went to Six Flags Great America for an hour (on the way back to Chicago from a Cubs-Brewers game in Milwaukee - go Cubbies!) Today was the first weekday they were open and...

over half the rides were closed!

Along with their big new ride (Superman), about 80% of their other rides were closed, along with the kids sections. Thankfully, we have season passes, and still got to ride the Merry-Go-Round and the Whizzer (smaller coaster) with our kids, but we went to customer service to complain. They did apologize profusely and appease us (four free passes to use at any time), but without a doubt, this would not happen at Disney.

The problem was obvious - they haven't hired their summer staff yet - but they simply shouldn't have opened if they couldn't have 50% of their rides operational...

 

[Dayma]

I think what people find "special" about Epcot is it is SOOO much more than just your average amusment park. There is a good balance of thrill rides,dark rides and the countries. I am sure that Consumer Reports looks for parks being unique and not just coasters etc...

I am happy that it is #1..