Great points below, all ... and well worth expounding upon.
Three weeks ago. And like I said, I can't imagine how you would walk away with the opinion that WDW is better maintained than DLR. Just a few ways that DLR blows WDW out of the water:
1.) Streets. The streets at DLR are pressure washed on a fairly regular basis and are spotless. Hell, generally they are clean they literally shine. Compare to WDW where every park has chewing gum stains and drink stains all over. WDW also has a bad habit of letting ODV vendors setting up shop anywhere they damn well please and letting their coolers drain all over the sidewalk making the problem worse. This is not only bad show, its a safety hazard!
To look at WDW walkways, especially at MK one would think they never get pressure cleaned anymore. ***To all young 'uns/newbies, but the MK used to be pressure cleaned EVERY SINGLE NIGHT and painting was done nightly and lighbulbs were changed before they could burn out*** I have had CMs tell me they have witnessed cleanings so I can't say they don't do them anymore, but clearly they aren't as often or as frequent.
Gum splotches on MK (and EPCOT) walkways are a huge problem. There's a reason why Walt didn't want gum sold in DL (and why it still isn't sold to this day at any parks). But they used to have people who would literally take putty knives and remove any. Now? well, you might as well be in Six Flags in some places.
Forget DL for a second. Go across town to Sea World. I didn't see any gum at all when I was there last month. Now either SW attracts a higher caliber guest who doesn't spit gum out anywhere (not likely, Orlando is Orlando) or Busch has people clean it up immediately. You know ... the Disney Way!
The proliferation of ODV is a major reason why WDW parks are so dirty. Go back to 1988 and you'd find very few carts ... a few ice cream carts, a few churro carts ... and you'd also find walkways and sidewalks that were incredibly clean and maintained.
2.) Ride ops. DLR rides get higher hourly counts than their WDW counterparts in every possible comparison. There is not a single attraction in Florida that operates more efficiently than its California counterpart (even Tower of Terror, which has a higher operational goal in Florida since it can dispatch more ride vehicles!) DLR also has their attendants spiel to every ride vehicle as its guests depart, a personal touch that you will never find in the swamp.
One might say in many cases, Dinosaur at DAK and Snow White at MK stand out in my mind, CMs have no clue how to even dispatch vehicles correctly to ensure a quality show. In both cases, vehicles piled up at the end totally ruining the ending on my most recent visit. It ed me off, but I have been on the rides many times and will be again. What about if it's someone's only visit? Having your time rover stop right before the climactic scene ... sit in the dark for 10-15 seconds and then rush thru the final scene which is now not timed correctly is just godawful show.
3.) Ride maintenance. It is a challenge to find broken ride effects on attractions at DLR. In Florida there are so many effects broken on Dinosaur and Expedition Everest that their own staff doesn't even know the effects ever existed!
It's not just the cast. Some effects haven't worked on some attractions in so long that when they finally are fixed, I'll likely be saying 'is that new?' It reminds me of the laser effect at the top of SSE (in the last incarnation they were right after the boy talking to the girl in Japan) when you entered the tunnel into the dome ... there were lasers there that hadn't worked in over a DECADE when Siemens came in and took over sponsorship. They got them working for the final 4-5 months before the ride went down and I am sure people thought they were new ... they weren't, they just hadn't ever been fixed.
4.) Park maintenance. Again, faded buildings and torn signage is a regular occurance in WDW. That stuff simply does not fly in DLR. Everytime I visit the park I see a building under scaffolding getting repainted. To be fair, I've seen a handful of buildings under scaffolds at WDW too, but that is because they were literally about to collapse from wood rot.
Yeah. Too bad buildings don't stand up to Florida's weather conditions as they do on the left coast. Do people not see how bad most of Main Street's frames and columns and anything else wooden look?
I just don't see how WDW could be considered a better maintained property than DLR under any circumstance. I'm sorry dude, I just can't. I also find it pretty interesting that you keep citing examples of Paradise Pier as examples of bad show at DCA when it is about to be bulldozed in a few weeks anyway. There is still no excuse for bad show though.
Now, now it isn't going to be bulldozed. It's just going to be made more magical.
And don't blame the Imagineers for how PP turned out. If you ever saw Tim Delaney's concepts for the land and realized how much got chopped out you'd understand why it turned out as it did. Tim is one of WDI's gems, and a very nice guy as well, and if you saw the work he did on DLP's Discoveryland (he was producer of the land) you'd realize that sometimes it isn't the fault of the artist but the people in charge.
Sorry, this is a bit of a tangent/rant but the sad fact is that the DCA that opened was vastly dumbed down from the original concept (much like everything Disney has done the past decade).
Anyone who defends Mission Space at Epcot ought to search out the three previous plans for a space pavilion and ask if this WalMart/LCD approach to theme parks really should be the Disney way of the 21st century?
As far as Aquatica vs. Typhoon Lagoon is concerned, it will hold its own in the years to come. Right now there is a very aggressive expansion project that has been greenlit to dramatically expand the size and scope of the park. I guarantee you it won't be sixteen years before it receives its first major addition!
Very good point. Aquatica opened. Was a huge success and Busch is goinf full throttle with an expansion plan.
TL opened ... and also was a huge success ... and ... and ... nothing happened until Crush and Gusher opened two years ago.
Oh ... and a little birdie told me that if the winter season is as bad as some think it will be that TL will NOT open in late March from its longest ever (due to shoddy construction) rehab, but will remain shuttered until possibly May or even June. That's right ... closed through Spring Break.
So when BB reaches capacity where are all those water park lovers going to go? River Country? Oh yeah, they're letting that place sit and rot until some kids from the campground sneak in (not that you have to) and drown. No. They'll go to Aquatica.
