I'm sure you don't mean to, but this is a very binary view of the kinds of people who enjoy rides. Obviously, many people and I'd venture to guess MOST people like some combination of dark rides and thrill rides. I'm a thrill ride junky who loves dark rides. I love Everest, Space Mountain, Test Track 1.0, RnRC, and ToT as much as I love Haunted Mansion, PotC, and earlier versions of Spaceship Earth.
Dark rides generally aren't cerebral at all. Some are, some aren't. Haunted Mansion, Peter Pan, Dinosaur, and a ton of other dark rides don't really qualify as cerebral. Spaceship Earth, Horizons, and WoM all would I guess. I too never rode Horizons and WoM and have watched video ride-throughs. The videos don't do much for me, but
@yensidtlaw1969 is 100% right that an old video of a ride won't do it justice. When I watch videos of Spaceship Earth, it does nothing for me, but being on the ride in that cool geodesic sphere on a hot day is such a different experience than a video of it.
Back on topic tho, I'm torn between wanting Disney to keep the parks vs selling them. There is SOOO much corporate greed right now that I don'tI think another company will be any better. It's all about the bottom line for companies these days, quality be darned. Most companies that acquire a business with a big name do it only for the big name, and run it into the ground. Their crap product in the packaging of a big name. I think this would almost certainly be the case for Disney Parks because they're cash cows. Look at TWDC itself. They're milking people based on memories and history, but putting as minimal investment and effort in as possible. They don't make any decision because it's the right thing to do. It has to make fiscal sense. I'm not saying they should be happy losing money, but greed has made it so that they are not only making profits, but maximizing them to the detriment of quality. And why not? Even on these forums we have people literally say that nothing would keep them away from the parks. I pass no judgement at all on those Disney fans, but that's why any company that owns the parks (TWDC or otherwise) will milk it with maximum price for minimum investment. That's why we are where we are at this point.
I've given this example a while ago, but going to do it again. The Chicago Cubs didn't care about 108 years of mostly losing... 108 years without a World Series win. Chicagoans understand the reasoning for this more than most. They didn't actually start trying to improve the product on the field until Wrigley Field became a ghost town of mostly drunks and college students (I know these are the same thing
) not even paying attention to the game. It's the same reason that TWDC doesn't care to invest much in the parks at the moment. When people happily purchase a broken product, and are doing it en masse, there is ZERO reason or motivation to fix the product. If Apple made iPhones that didn't work for real cheap and everyone still bought it, why would they invest the money to make them work properly? They wouldn't. Why invest more in the product production than necessary if it doesn't increase total revenue? When nothing you do reduces revenue, you keep cutting costs until it affects your total revenue. When that happens, you spend more to fix whatever is reducing total revenue. I'm not saying this is a good business practice. It's just where the business world is right now. This isn't your grandfather's or even your father's economy anymore.
Btw, this is also why Disney increased prices significantly while still letting quality slide. People keep buying their product regardless of the quality or price. They just keep stuffing their pockets. It's understandable honestly. Why not charge more.
