I admit I give Dumbo and Rocket jets a pass because they are original WDW; I expect better in the newest park. Plus, the carnival games section really puts it over the edge for me.
And I prefer the carpets because of the tie-in to a Disney property and the fact that a lot of kids, upon seeing the movie, wanted to ride a carpet, and now they have the chance to do so, just like everybody wanted to ride Dumbo, and ride gives them the chance to do so.
But they are still carnival rides, just well-executed ones. Heck, RnRC is an off-the-rack roller coaster, but it's well-themed and well-executed.
Yes, it takes tremendous skill to make tarmac and cheap carnival attractions appear as if they are tarmac and cheap carnival rides.
Imagineering can come up with the most elaborate backstory and add as much eyewash as possible, but it still doesn't detract that it was a poorly executed land built on the cheap. The average Guest walking through the land can easily pick up on the fact that not a lot of money was put into it...perhaps a lot of thought went into it with all of the details and such, but with the exception of Dinosaur and the Cretaceous Trail, the midway games and carnival rides are simply not Disney.
The phrase "a cheap coat of paint on an old car" comes to my mind. :shrug:
Except, if you look down you can see the remnants of the parking lot that everything has been built upon. Like was said, it is all set up to make it look like a tourist trap set up in this parking lot. There are even light bulbs that are intentionally left loose as to make them appear burnt out. It is all a bit cynical, but the attention to detail is there. The comments about the average family not noticing is the same reasoning used to justify not spending on elaborate details in other places.
And the points of debate are well-articulated above. I'll add. Go into the restaurant and look up so see the living spaces of our proprietors. And note how the building looks slapdash and like different parts were added on as quickly as possible (plus, enjoy the only place in DAK that you can sit in air conditioning for a while).
No question it that Dino-rama was a cheap expansion. Just as the Canada and China movie updates were cheap (in comparison to new movies), and tweaking the drop sequence of ToT is a cheap upgrade. Just as the Wishes dessert party is a revenue raiser with negative cost. If the parks are to survive, they need to make money, and not all of the expansion and changes can be high-cost ones. I give Disney credit for usually doing even the cheap ones well -- putting thought into them, even if they don't put a lot money into them.
As for the carnival rides issue...my son would probably put a number of the carnival rides on the top of his list. They don't do much for me, except when I ride with him and see the smiles. And he does enjoy Disney's carnival rides more than he enjoys others.
