Both of which are dead and gone and instead of relying on another parks hand me downs THE MOST POPULAR AND PROFITABLE theme park in the world should get its own brand new parade. Getting this back is yet again another sign that Disney does not care for their Florida property as much as their international parks or their California park. Every castle park in the world (other then DL Shanghai) has received a brand new electric parade since MK got one.
I wouldn’t say that Disney doesn’t care about WDW, though I would say they don’t really necessarily care about the fanbase on either coast. I honestly believe Disney caters to the respective audience of each resort on the west and east. Disneyland fans eat up nostalgia whenever it’s presented to them. They tend to be repeaters and have a very interesting relationship with Disneyland, one that I find difficult to explain and one that I’ve yet to see for any other theme park that I’ve been to. It almost feels like DL is a grandparent, or that favorite uncle. That’s the best way I can describe it right now. It’s personal. If anyone has been to DL multiple times, they’d know what I’m talking about.
I’ve only been to WDW once, particularly MK, and while the resort obviously has its diehard fans, they seemed to be outnumbered. Or maybe they weren’t necessarily outnumbered, but there were a lot of folks from out of town, which I think is important to consider. I heard various accents and saw many guests in typical “out of town” gear (matching family vacation t-shirts).
I don’t think Disney is purposefully giving WDW fans the shaft. It almost feels like they believe fans wouldn’t necessarily care about the things that DL fans gush over, so they don’t bother putting in the same effort, if that makes sense. This was painfully obvious during my visit. If there weren’t banners outside the park, and if I wasn’t already a fan, I wouldn’t have known that WDW was celebrating its 50th anniversary. I’m based in California and was there during DL’s 50th and 60th anniversaries; both were WAY more extensive than WDW’s current 50th, which made TDO’s lack of effort stick out even more to me. It seemed like business as usual, and, for the most part, the guests were eating up the crumbs that were given. WDW also has a problem with leaching on to DL’s history, which is a shame. They don’t seem to care about their own. This doesn’t help in the least. DL is privileged in that way, being the original. That has a lot to do with the differences, too.
These are just theories of mine. WDW fans need their own parade. Not DL’s.