Now, I'll counter. Mind you, this is admittedly SUBJECTIVE.
Nothing to be said here, AK (I really hate adding "Disney" to the beginning of everything, but that's a personal gripe), certainly is an experience. But, for the average park goer who isn't intimately familiar with the park, like park nuts are, it's confusing and poorly laid out.
I've always prefered the organic, winding layout (which still remains generally hub-spoke) and think it suits the park's themes (exploration, nature). Getting lost is a good thing if you're not running from marquee ride to marquee ride, and the park rewards the slower-paced discoverers. If the master plan has one major flaw I think it is the placement of Conservation Station and the layout of Wildlife Express. AK was planned with the very large (50+acre) Tiger River Run asian safari, so one can sort of see why this happened as it did. When the much smaller Kali was selected instead, it looks like it was too late to change the master plan and that left a huge chunk of dead-end land to eventually develop that will be a significant walk away (I always guessed this is where the "Night Kingdom" Rasulo boutique park was going to go). Even so, I wish the budgets for Conservation Station/Wildlife Express/Camp Mickey had been re-allocated to at least give the Mythical animal land (with family friendly rides) a beach-head.
Yeah, well, I never knew either of those stories, and I've done both more than once and am a bit of a detail nerd. So, if I missed it, I'm sure many more did. So, again, relating to my critique post about AK, they did a pretty poor job of telling the "story".
Even on the surface, not examining the myriad of little details, I don't see how it can be missed, simply by the fact that the cultural and architectural (in-your-face) aspects of the villages (human inhabited parts) are so well rendered (it is pretty clearly an East African Port Town, a Himalayan foothills Indian village), that an attached animal viewing area or ride has its believability exponentially improved (as opposed to Kali being picked up and dropped in, say, Fantasyland). Kali+Anandapur+Maharajah Jungle Trek+Serka Zong+Everest, despite weaknesses in individual components, harmonize as a whole. Those kinds on harmonics in theme parks are a beautiful thing, IMO. If your a detail nerd, this site has 100 nicely-done photo-articles on the nerdier details:
http://disneyshawn.blogspot.com/search/label/Maharajah Jungle Trek
Animals aside, the artwork alone that went into some of these places is mind-boggling.
That's a huge leap of logic.
That's been my own experience. I think that's because of what I described above; the symphonic nature of most of the park's lands (coherently themed to a geography).
Really? What did I miss? I got lost a few times, and ran into the "Bugs Life" attraction, but otherwise don't really have any lasting memories of that section. Oh, we did run into the dog and kid from UP there, and they had a glorious meet and greet. Whomever was in the costumes that day were on the top of their game.
Aside from that...nope, no major memories.
There were two seldom-visited paths (now mucked up to my deep disgust), that took you past small animal exhibits, under waterfalls and under the roots and boughs of the magnificently-sculpted Tree. These kind of unadvertised, uncrowded, exploration areas are one of the best things you can find in a theme park (like DLP's Dragon's Lair). On the most crowded days of the year, your party could always find respite here. The paths were one of my favorite memories from our last trip (sadly a month later, the nets and barricades went up).
Here's a sample of one of them:
Oh, you mean the area people walk through to get to the rides? (if that comes off snarky, it wasn't intended, but it was intentional...and this was the area I was referring to when I spoke of "CM Guides" being out and about to make you slow down and appreciate it)
Not everyone's thing, but I love this approach to entering a nature park (as opposed to, say, a Discovery Island-style commercial boulevard). Was a very bold decision and I'm in awe it made it through.
I don't hate the park (speaking for myself). However, I don't love it either. It doesn't draw me. It doesn't entice me. But, I have noted (and I said this before), it's gotten better over the years since I started going back regularly in 2010. Is that the fact I'm more familiar with it and know that the point is to slow down and absorb it, or is that the fact it is operationally getting better? I can't tell you. This past trip is the first trip I can say I honestly enjoyed my time there...because we didn't do the major rides. We spent our time on Discovery Island (thanks to those great CMs providing edutainment), we ventured out to Planet Watch (something we'd skipped every other trip), etc.
See, you're coming around and you even missed the "good years"!
It's a great park, I don't wish to rob Joe of any of the kudos involved in that with any of my comments. Take that intent as an undercurrent for the more elaborate criticisms I make.
All that being said, the fact the whole project fell apart in an era where blank checks were being cut if the right people were convinced (this isn't like Disneyland where Walt mortgaged his house)...Rohde dropped a very huge ball...repeatedly.
And, I feel that is very fair criticism of him as a project manager. Lead designer, sure, I have no issues with that. Lead Imagineer...we will, I have a very good feeling that well end up with a budget, watered down version of what was an amazing idea.
Because, that's all (as far as I can tell) that he's good at. Ideas.
Don't know the inside story but I've heard Beastly Kingdomme and Tiger River were cut late in the game. They would have gone a long way to making the park more full-day and well-rounded. There's always a "honeymoon's over" type of thing as a project moves from concept to reality.
I am more of a popcorn movie guy (Indiana Jones queue with its moving spiked ceiling) than an arthouse film guy (Everest queue with its authentic Nepalese totems) when it comes to theme parks, but I still think Joe's project really delivered.
