Wdw also opened a lot of stuff recently. Guardians, Ratatouille, MMRR in the last 2 years. DL only had avengers campus. The Tron delay was partially Covid related and spreading costs slowing construction
And I'd say a lot of those things are at best qualified successes.
Ratatouille was overrated when it was just in France and has always been the worst of the trackless dark rides. They then bungled it tenfold by waiting until Rise and even MMRR opened, ensuring that it is seen as little more than a cute new ride. For the amount of money they spent on it, Rat should be more than that.
I'm sure MMRR is great fun, and I am looking forward to it opening at DLR. But there's no way they should have killed GMR for it when that park desperately needs capacity. They should have both.
I'm sure Guardians is fun, but it doesn't fit in Epcot. At least Disneyland built areas for Avengers and Star Wars even if most of what they wrought was questionable. Nothing of great value (sorry, goat and Heimlich stans) was taken out to make room for them.
Some of the Tron delay is covid, but most of it is laziness (and they got to close the railroad for like five years too, yay for more cost savings!). I think Disney should be embarrassed that Universal opened two excellent roller coasters in the time that it took to get Tron built, and SeaWorld and Busch Gardens several more. If they had opened it on a proper schedule, perhaps it would have wowed. But as someone who's done Tron and finds it to be a fine but shallow experience, I don't think most guests are going to find it worth the five year wait. Especially since Guardians has at least surface level similarities.
They also killed two well-regarded nighttime spectaculars for what are widely felt to be inferior replacements. I know HEA is coming back, and it was probably past time for Illuminations to go, but given how much $$$ they make with dining packages and so on, you would think they would try a little harder to make compelling nighttime shows. And in the case of Epcot, one that fits the park it's in.
Additionally, almost none of what they built recently was really designed for WDW but was instead copied and pasted from other resorts. That's not the sign of a resort that has strong convictions about what it is and what it stands for, it's a resort that's cutting coupons from the mailer.
The fact that many of those additions have some worth and redeeming qualities does not, to me, distract from the fact that many of them are lazy and not thought through to the level they should have been, IMO, for what is supposed to be the company's premier resort and proudly advertises itself as the world's best theme park experience. This is not something unique to WDW by any means, and more of Disney's parks are currently imperfect than not, but it particularly galls me in Florida where they absolutely have the best hand dealt to them but routinely choose instead, from my perspective, to proudly and smugly bungle it all the same.
So as to not end on a complete downer, I want to name one unqualified success in Florida from the past decade or so that I'd love to see DLR emulate: the investments in upgrading resort infrastructure over the past decade. It was much needed and long overdue, and desperately needs to be brought out west. WDW, especially right now, completely schools DLR in every way until you enter a theme park gate.
