Magic Kingdom Looks Its Age

[Animaniac93-98]

The Magic Kingdom, the second oldest Disney theme park in the world, is looking very tired and old right about now.

I visited the park last Friday for the first time in just over a year, and after seeing Tokyo and Hong Kong Disneylands for the first time, and it has seen better days.

Totally independent of criticisms over high food prices, overcrowding, minimal staffing or how humid the place can get, the actual show the park puts on needs a lot of help.

Several E-tickets had effects that were either broken or not working very well. Pirates had characters that barely moved and one had a dislocated neck that was like something out of a Simpsons parody. Haunted Mansion was so dark you could hardly see certain effects and the scrims in the graveyard were so dirty everything looked out of focus, neither of which was an issue in the near-identical Tokyo version. The teacups on the Mad Tea Party looked very scratched and beat up on the inside and Space Mountain...well, its been 10 years since it was supposed to get a top-to-bottom upgrade and its only gotten worse since then. Big Thunder Mountain might as well have no effects since so few are working outside of the Tumbleweed set.

There are rumors of major refurbs happening soon in preparation for the 50th Anniversary, but what the park really needs to get back to is REGULAR maintenance. Not just fixing rides every 5-10 years and then only having them in good shape for a couple of months. Pirates looked great back in Feb 2018, what they heck happened? Did they just let the rest of it go when they changed the Auction scene?

For what they're charging to get in EVERYTHING should be in great shape, or at least very good on a consistent basis. It's Disney parks basics, or at least was.

If we can't get a new night time parade, or a show at the Diamond Horseshoe, or a replacement for Stitch, or the Country Bear Christmas, or the Main Street Theater, can we at least get the rides we have now working properly for the 50th and beyond?

 

[Mickeyboof]

Magic Kingdom, IMO, can be summed up in one detail: There are still payphones in Pecos Bill.

There’s a reason the commercials for Disney World often feature a lot of ride footage from other Disney Parks.

Here’s to hoping the place gets a Disneyland Paris-level refreshing in the next few years. Of course that would require ride downtime. I hope people are okay with that as an investment for the future.

 

[Victor Kelly]

They are pinching pennies right now. Record profits because they are not maintaining things very well. Heck, the Skyliner is less that a month old and it goes down. Then the monorails. They cut maintenance and regular staff and expect things to be all ok.

For what the are charging, and what they are bringing in, no park in Florida should be the way it is.

 

[ppete1975]

They need to go back to at least touching up paint every night after closure (bare minimum). You wouldn’t have to do much nightly because it would never get out of hand and makes the park crisp. At least handrails and things like the teacups

 

[bUU]

Totally independent of criticisms over high food prices, overcrowding, minimal staffing or how humid the place can get, ...

I think this actually indicates the real impetus for the concerns: People hate paying a lot of money for things; our society has cultivated in people an over-inflated sense of self-importance; and people feel entitled to pastoral comfort walking and standing outside despite visiting in the middle of summer. They prefer not to complain about their lack of affluence, prefer not to say that they think they deserve reserved lanes on the highways and concierges at every corner to attend to their every whim, and prefer not to accuse the climate goddess of conspiring against them, so they aim to turn these concerns into more generalized condemnations of the company who operates the most attended theme park in the world, with attendance that consistently climbs year-over-year when the economy is in any state other than recession.

 

[Goofyernmost]

Magic Kingdom, IMO, can be summed up in one detail: There are still payphones in Pecos Bill.

What that actually sums up is that there are many people that still do not have cell phones. The world doesn't revolve around those that Apple has sucked into the grid. It is hard to imagine people actually ignoring technology in a Disney park, but not impossible.

 

[John park hopper]

I'm one of those who reluctantly have a cell phone (flip phone) and hate to use it, basically I hate talking on the phone. My sons all grown can't live without them

 

[Clamman73]

A couple things put me off from being there last week...
-plastic bottles floating on JC
-Coke bottle on Splash (this was a first ride in the morning)
-paper receipts or some papers bottom of Small World
-not able to go back to TTC on Express in the morning time, multiple times...have to take Resort so it fills up like a sardine can, you have to wait for the stop at contemporary and people waiting at contemporary can‘t all fit on because it got filled up at MK with people wanting to get back to TTC...

...one time I’m getting up to the resort monorail waiting area and there‘s popcorn all on the ground and the CMs are just standing there bs‘ing..then when they see people go to that side one of them starts to clean it up...I then ask one of them why aren’t they using the Express side to bring people back and he just says they’re using the resort line and the Express should be within an hour...OK whatever...this is around 11:00-11:30am.

-Space track really is horrible omg
-waterfall still not working on Thunder first lift
-Skyliner Epcot line down a evening a couple times (maybe give pass since its new, but still if you want to sell the Riviera, you know)

 

[drizgirl]

I'm one of those who reluctantly have a cell phone (flip phone) and hate to use it, basically I hate talking on the phone. My sons all grown can't live without them

A lot of people with smart phones hardly ever use them to talk to people.

 

[Magenta Panther]

The Magic Kingdom, the second oldest Disney theme park in the world, is looking very tired and old right about now.

I visited the park last Friday for the first time in just over a year, and after seeing Tokyo and Hong Kong Disneylands for the first time, and it has seen better days.

Totally independent of criticisms over high food prices, overcrowding, minimal staffing or how humid the place can get, the actual show the park puts on needs a lot of help.

Several E-tickets had effects that were either broken or not working very well. Pirates had characters that barely moved and one had a dislocated neck that was like something out of a Simpsons parody. Haunted Mansion was so dark you could hardly see certain effects and the scrims in the graveyard were so dirty everything looked out of focus, neither of which was an issue in the near-identical Tokyo version. The teacups on the Mad Tea Party looked very scratched and beat up on the inside and Space Mountain...well, its been 10 years since it was supposed to get a top-to-bottom upgrade and its only gotten worse since then. Big Thunder Mountain might as well have no effects since so few are working outside of the Tumbleweed set.

There are rumors of major refurbs happening soon in preparation for the 50th Anniversary, but what the park really needs to get back to is REGULAR maintenance. Not just fixing rides every 5-10 years and then only having them in good shape for a couple of months. Pirates looked great back in Feb 2018, what they heck happened? Did they just let the rest of it go when they changed the Auction scene?

For what they're charging to get in EVERYTHING should be in great shape, or at least very good on a consistent basis. It's Disney parks basics, or at least was.

If we can't get a new night time parade, or a show at the Diamond Horseshoe, or a replacement for Stitch, or the Country Bear Christmas, or the Main Street Theater, can we at least get the rides we have now working properly for the 50th and beyond?

Bravo, bravo! But dream on, silly dreamer. You must understand that Iger and his toadies think U.S. citizens are all idiots and will happily pay premium prices for broken attractions, dirty hotel rooms, and "special events" that revolve around cupcakes. For my part, after I read about what "upgrades" did to the hotel corridor scene in Tower of Terror, I made a vow that until Iger and the rest of the greedy pigs in Walt's company are gone, I'm not staying in WDW ever again. The most I might do is visit there for a couple of hours to sample any new attractions during my stay in UNIVERSAL. So bravo, Iger, you've finally turned off someone who used to visit WDW every damn year, stayed in the park, and occasionally bought merchandise. Congratulations, you epic tool.

 

[John park hopper]

Iger-- fool me once shame on you --fool me twice shame on me

 

[Mickeyboof]

What that actually sums up is that there are many people that still do not have cell phones. The world doesn't revolve around those that Apple has sucked into the grid. It is hard to imagine people actually ignoring technology in a Disney park, but not impossible.

Ha! Ha okay. I mean, sure, throw some payphones in City Hall.

But Pecos Bill? It’s sloppy. It proves Walt Disney World doesn’t have a single person committed to an overall artistic merit of the parks.

Also, I’m just going to throw this in- more often than not when I visit the parks I toss my phone into a locker. I escape my own technology, only to be reminded of 1970s infrastructure in a themed land. So the idea that you’re coming after me for complaining about pay phones is hilarious.

The pay phones are just about as sloppy as the giant unthemed TV screens popping up around what used to be wonderfully themed lands

Just look at the way Disneyland approaches the same design challenge, a place that still has people who care about artistic merit and knew the payphones should be removed from the park

 

[Rodj]

For my part, after I read about what "upgrades" did to the hotel corridor scene in Tower of Terror, I made a vow that until Iger and the rest of the greedy pigs in Walt's company are gone, I'm not staying in WDW ever again.

Nothing is different with the hallway scene?

 

[Animaniac93-98]

Really don't have much to add to this thread

Then don't post in it.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Then don't post in it.

But who else will tell us that themed design is irrelevant in a theme park?

 

[eliza61nyc]

Then don't post in it.

ok. LMAO

 

[jloucks]

Then don't post in it.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

View attachment 423071

For her? Yes.

 

[jloucks]

What that actually sums up is that there are many people that still do not have cell phones. The world doesn't revolve around those that Apple has sucked into the grid. It is hard to imagine people actually ignoring technology in a Disney park, but not impossible.

We would get rid of the pay phones where I work. ...except they are still regularly used. Go figure.

...and then there are fax machines....

 

[Magenta Panther]

Nothing is different with the hallway scene?

Not that I've seen it myself, but people here have stated that the original film used in the hallway scene - where, at one point, it changed to a star field with a deep, velvet black (that gave me chills when I first saw it) has been replaced from film with newer projectors where there is no more deep velvet black, but a watery black where you can still see the corridor, destroying the illusion that you have entered another dimension. Very bad show, but typical for the lazy, cheap, contemptuous Iger era.