Thanks to Internet myths that won't die ("EPCOT was a failure"), fanbois tend to forget that Epcot Center was extremely successful and helped spread crowds throughout the resort.
Failure might be a bit strong of a word but before Test Track and the slew of redo's that followed, the park was mocked and avoided by many. I don't have specific attendance numbers but just the reputation the park had as being "Educational" gave it a horrible stigma. Certainly no one I knew, even locals and especially kids, had much interest in going except maybe to "drink around the world" (Obviously not applicable to kids). I'm not saying all the changes that have been made are for the better, nor should the park be solely marketed towards children (which it isn't, but it occasionally can get close) but they've certainly done heaps of good to the reputation and presumably the attendance of the park. Epcot is no longer looked at as the boring, educational, park that your kids will hate and you'll be mostly bored with. It has Soarin' and Test Track, and Nemo, and tons of delicious food. I always look at Epcot as the documentary park. I happen to love documentaries, but most of the public isn't thrilled with them. If it weren't for the current reimagining of documentaries via shows like the newer Modern Marvels, Through the Wormhole, heck even Mythbusters, etc. there'd be a even greater number of people who disliked them. I mean really have you watched some documentaries from the 70's. Talk about dry. Similarly, the steps taken to make Epcot more approachable by the public at large have largely been successful in their goal. Obviously there are many things to work on to make the park as great as it could be but I hate to think of what the crowds at MK might be like if no changes had been made. I guess the line for World of Motion would at least be short, in the hall of presidents kind of way.
Then there are the wait times for Pirates and Mansion that are apparently the new norm. Line all day for Spaceship Earth? Yes. Ok, I'll stop whining.
Spaceship Earth at least for the past 10 years nearly always has a line all day, though it moves really quickly.
Anecdotally, yes. But, all that really means is EVERYTHING has a wait now. No more walking on to HM. Which I miss. Big Thunder going from having a 90 minute wait to a 70 minute wait is still a too-long wait, so for me, anyway, this is a net minus. For now anyway.
If you don't want to wait more than 15 minutes for the mansion either go before 11-12, or get a fp+. That's what the system is there for. It is isn't difficult, and they don't usually run out. I've gotten one a mere 20-30 minutes before deciding to ride. Then take advantage of the shorter lines elsewhere. I continue to fail to see why there is so much venom for MM+. It's free, enables you to get fast passes quicker, easier, and doesn't seem to have any downsides. In fact I use FP more now than then I did before MM+ and quite like the flexibility it gives me. Before, I'd wait five minutes for Pirates. If it was the busy season maybe 30. Now I never have to wait ever if I chose so. Frankly I generally don't mind a 5-30 minute wait for anything. The ability to make the reservations whenever you want and their complete flexibility does indeed make the fp experience better. I find myself hardly waiting for than 15 minutes for any attraction. Yes there are a lot of ways the system could potentially become less attractive (if/when they decide to start charging for it). My only concern when it was being talked about was running out of attraction reservations ala ADR's and having to plan everything 60 days out. But like I said this has not become the case, 9/10 times the attraction i want is available when I want it the same day, and the other 1/10 of the time there's another time available that's within an hour or two. And this was during the Xmas/New Years Season and since. What's not to like?
I definitely agree its crazy how they keep boxing themselves in, similar to what happened in frontetir land with the positioning of splash mountain.
I've never quite understood this. The MK and WDW as a whole has had terrible use of space right from the beginning. Who was the mastermind that deciding surrounding the park with water on three sides and water and an access road on the fourth? Who deciding that the road to the tunnel entrance should back up against the entirety of fantasyland rather than just going straight back? What utility was gained in the design of tomorrow land that completely ensures both vast expanses of concrete and virtually no room to build any building of size on the east end? Out of all the possible configurations of adventureland and frontier land, they decide to joint the buildings of both in a thin strip that makes frontierland have an uncomfortably long stretch with no rides or attractions and no ability to build ones in the future. 20k was built in the one spot it would have been easy to expand fantasyland into and rather than putting its show building to good use (like I don't know, building the speedway on top ala DL) it just sat there taking up a huge hulking amount of space. The list goes on and on and on. i get the impression that the designers were so excited about the vast quantities of space they had that they focused more on making things grand than utilizing that space well. As time has gone forward they have only continued to utilize the remaining space poorly. It is marvelous how much better the space at DL is used. The only place at WDW that seems to have really been given this consideration was EPCOT, and even that has some issues. (Particularly with FutureWorld and the large quantities of land that lie behind the pavilions that can not be reached easily).
This is not to say that things can't be overcome. Disney is particularly good at creating bridges that you don't realize are bridges (See the one from Boardwalk to Epcot, Disney Sea, Pedestrian entrance to Disneyland from Harbor Blvd)...and there are likely other creative solutions, but it would have been a heck of a lot easier if it had been done from the beginning. I realize that in some cases much later development further exacerbated the problem (Splash and Thunder instead of WRE) but the original design still seems to have a lot of holes as well.
pushing the border back would have enabled them to leave toontown intact, by placing dumbo and the big tops in a different location
The only problem with toontown fair is that part of it is still standing.
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