I just got back from a 7-day vacation to Disney World. I noticed many things while at Disney that ruined the experience. I hadn't been to World since 2015 before this trip, and I had only visited Disneyland recently before this trip. There's a bunch of issues that Disney World has that I want to discuss and rant about, and hopefully get others to write their opinion too. This is going to be a very long post, so if you read this fully and reply I appreciate it!
Stepping into the parks for the first time in almost 8 years was something special. However I immediately noticed and was blown away at how poorly maintained the parks are. I understand Magic Kingdom and their other parks are classic parks and home to classic and original rides such as the Carousel of Progress, Haunted Mansion, etc. Still, Disney should not be able to get away with how poorly they maintain Magic Kingdom and their other parks.
Fantasyland needs immediate attention. For starters, "its a small world," has seen better days. There are parts of the ride where the red carpet flooring that the set pieces sit on is ripped, where you can visibly see parts of the carpet just missing, threaded, and dirty. There's visible rust throughout the ride, and the boats look like they haven't been cleaned in decades. The Magic Carpets of Aladdin in Adventureland is so poorly maintained that it's not even funny. All you hear when near or walking by the ride is squeaking each time the carpets go up and down. The Haunted Mansion cannot even turn smoothly. In Disneyland, the ride seems somewhat more maintained. At Disney World, the Doom Buggies cannot even fully turn without jolting and stopping for a quick second before completing the turn. I've also noticed an increase in rides breaking down, temporarily closing, or stopping mid-ride due to technical issues.
While I was at Disney World, Space Mountain was temporarily closed 2.5/7 days I was there, and when It wasn't closed for a full day, It was up for only a few hours before closing yet again. I was finally able to ride Space Mountain during "Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party," and the promised "pitch black" lighting wasn't the case. They seemed to have left on the maintenance tower lights, ruining the effect. As far as the ride goes, It's embarrassing how clunky it is. While I understand It's an old ride, you would think they would update the track to create a smoother experience. I find the 1 seat per row setup uncomfortable, cramped, and not even comparable (in a bad way) to Disneyland's Space Mountain.
The People Mover in Tomorrowland broke down while I was on it to the point where we had to walk off the ride after sitting there for almost an hour. It seemed as though the Cast Members couldn't figure out what happened to the ride either. The Peoplemover remained closed for the entirety of the next day too, along with Space Mountain. I'm not going to go into this much detail about the other three parks, but let's just say EPCOT was a huge letdown, too. The amount of construction that was going on at EPCOT was actually insane.
The entire front of the park was covered in walls/fences blocking the view of Spaceship Earth. I understand construction is necessary, however, I feel as though Disney isn't working on anything people want to be added. Instead, they continue building shops, and (in my opinion) unnecessary and unfitting "attractions" such as Journey of Water. It's sad to see how Disney seemingly won't invest money into new expansions of parks. I think Cosmic Rewind, Pandora land, Star Wars land and Tron are amazing additions since I've been to Disney, but...they just don't hold that same magic original areas like Adventureland, Tomorrowland, and whatnot have. Everything seems to be built upon multi-billion dollar IP's no one asked for. For the final thing I'm going to comment, which I think is the worst yet, on my last day I had been talking to a Cast Member. He stated that he tested Tron before It opened and obviously, the whole purpose of testing a ride is finding flaws before the ride opens to the public. What he told me was that if you're in the front seat(s) of Tron, you cannot see details of the ride because the timing is off. Disney was told this by him, and other cast members and they never fixed it.
