The Miscellaneous Thought Thread

Animaniac93-98

Well-Known Member
I could see others arguing for Flight of Passage or Sindbad. Sentimentalists might throw in Spaceship Earth even (I wouldn't). Everest also is just MASSIVE even if everything inside it isn't always the way it should be.

I count TDS 20,000 Leagues as an E, though I think most would label it a D ticket.

Mysterious Island is my favorite single-IP land and I feel like it's kind of forgotten in the broader discussion because Jules Verne is not as big a thing in current pop culture as Harry Potter, Star Wars, etc
 

Animaniac93-98

Well-Known Member
Separate topic, my biggest gripe with all these IP lands is that there's usually only one or two things worth doing and the rest is just filler.

I like RSR and the diner, but don't care about the rest of Cars Land. RotR is the best Disney attraction built in the USA in the last 10 years, but the rest of Galaxy's Edge? meh. Diagon Alley's headliner is a dud IMO, which brings down the rest of the land.

The lands of Disneyland, Islands of Adventure and Tokyo Disney Sea were clearly better designed to stand on their own and offer a more rounded experience, often taking up less space than these newer IP lands.
 

Disney Irish

Premium Member
"Helloooo and welcome to Moviefone!"

Better yet, do you remember having to call 767-2676 (pop-corn) to get the accurate time according to the atomic clock? (Actually, 767 and any four numbers worked).

"At the tone, Pacific Daylight time will be 1:32pm.............BEEP!"
You and I are around the same age, ironically growing up around the same area. I remember popcorn as well. We used to dial it all the time as kids.
 

mickEblu

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Yeah I think this will be our Go To from here on out. They better step their game up at the on-site hotels. This is a very short walk up Disneyland Drive to the Grand Californian.


243B20BA-D809-4ACB-A8B1-D9448569614E.jpeg
 
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mickEblu

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Which hotel is that?

The Westin. Very pleasant experience so far. Great service and beautiful hotel. It’s my second time staying here but didn’t have the great view last time. We ate the Mexican restaurant attached to the hotel called Puesto. Really cool place and nice bar. Kind of reminiscent of Javier’s if you ever been there. Anyway the filet mignon taco was one of the best tacos I’ve ever had.
 

Disney Irish

Premium Member
The Westin. Very pleasant experience so far. Great service and beautiful hotel. It’s my second time staying here but didn’t have the great view last time. We ate the Mexican restaurant attached to the hotel called Puesto. Really cool place and nice bar. Kind of reminiscent of Javier’s if you ever been there. Anyway the filet mignon taco was one of the best tacos I’ve ever had.
Nice, I’m thinking about coming down in June as reservations are still available and need a hotel. I usually stay at the Majestic, but may give this a try.
 

smooch

Well-Known Member
The Westin. Very pleasant experience so far. Great service and beautiful hotel. It’s my second time staying here but didn’t have the great view last time. We ate the Mexican restaurant attached to the hotel called Puesto. Really cool place and nice bar. Kind of reminiscent of Javier’s if you ever been there. Anyway the filet mignon taco was one of the best tacos I’ve ever had.
How expensive is it per night, and what size room? I would just need a 1 queen bed room and am curious if you have an estimate in your head but I could look it up if not. Glad you had an awesome experience, last time I stayed at the Park Vue Inn which was cheap and nothing crazy, not amazing but not gross / bad service.
Separate topic, my biggest gripe with all these IP lands is that there's usually only one or two things worth doing and the rest is just filler.

I like RSR and the diner, but don't care about the rest of Cars Land. RotR is the best Disney attraction built in the USA in the last 10 years, but the rest of Galaxy's Edge? meh. Diagon Alley's headliner is a dud IMO, which brings down the rest of the land.

The lands of Disneyland, Islands of Adventure and Tokyo Disney Sea were clearly better designed to stand on their own and offer a more rounded experience, often taking up less space than these newer IP lands.
I think this gripe doesn't specifically relate to the fact lands are single IP, though I hate that as well. If Disney tried to make a land today that was based on a theme / concept and not an IP I still believe we would have the same experience, 1 or 2 thing worth doing then everything else is a dud or is a huge upsell. I haven't been to GE at Disneyland but my gf went and said they rode MF:SR and didn't get a boarding group for RotR so they rode MF:SR which was meh to her and then they got food at Docking Bay 7 and got Blue Milk and that was it. I think she might have browsed Dok Ondar's a little but didn't buy anything, and by the time they were done she and her family all left except her cousin and aunt who went to build a lightsaber because her cousin is a big SW fan. When she and I go later this year hopefully even with riding RotR I will still try MF:SR even though I heard it's subpar and I will browse the stores because I'm a huge SW fan but I don't think I will buy much, if I want a lightsaber I will buy one from Saberforge or somewhere online with better quality for the price.

Heck even Avenger's Campus is one TSMM type ride and then food / merch, unless you love meeting characters which she and I don't care for even though I really enjoy Marvel stuff for the most part. Maybe if Spider-Man walks around I'd try to get a picture if it isn't a huge line but aside from that I don't care, if the stunamatronic Spidey show is going I will watch just to enjoy the impressive engineering but the other character shows on the building I've seen videos of don't look that compelling and are awkward to view from below blocked by the wall of the walkways. Pandora I went in 2018 and rode FoP then NRJ and that was it, walked around a tiny bit to marvel at the beautiful scenery / audio that was very immersive but I didn't buy any merch as I am not an Avatar fan as most people aside from Jenny Nicholson are not. I left and went to ride the safari ride and Everest.

But also I don't know how I personally feel about Disney trying to add another land. I feel like Tomorrow, Fantasy, Adventure, and Frontier are all good themes to fit a wide range of rides in. The problem is any new ride is tied to IP so it has to be shoved into one of those broad themes or Disney wants to build entire lands around it. I don't know what concept land Disney would add on top of the originals, does anyone have any armchair Imagineering ideas? I wish we got original non-IP rides and experiences but it is incredibly clear Disney wants to use all the IPs they spent billions on that are tried and true to be popular and not risk an original idea that they fear would flop since people don't know what it is.
 

Animaniac93-98

Well-Known Member
Favorite IP land: Mysterious Island - built by theme park nerds for theme park nerds. Does not care if you don't know the source material

Best IP land: Hogsmeade - not the largest, or has the single most impressive ride, but it's the overall best one. The one that started this whole recent trend. Having Hagrid's and Forbidden Journey in the same land is huge, plus there's the Hogwart's Express. Great collection of shops and eateries. Decent live entertainment and solid seasonal décor (I like what they do for Halloween a lot...simple, but effective). The only IP land with any fireworks? Unless you count seeing them from Disneyland's Galaxy's Edge

Best Undeserved IP land: Cars Land - One of Pixar's worst movies gets one of Disney's best rides and themed environments

Most underrated IP land: Seuss Landing - does it count? It could use another ride or two, but it has a better collection of rides, sweet shops and stores than most people give it credit and the theming is just as committed as Toon Town when it was new. It certainly has more thought put into it and cross generational appeal than most kiddie theme park areas.

IP land with most potential: Jurassic Park - If they tastefully updated the Discovery Center and boat ride, I think it would rank high on people's lists. The new coaster is excellent. The Blue meet 'n greet works well for what it is. The midway games are tacky, but Camp Jurassic and the DC give it more to explore and do than just rides and spend money. At over 20 acres, this may be the biggest of the IP lands, and I think there's still room for expansion? Honorable mention: Galaxy's Edge - just add another ride, more entertainment and a proper restaurant...some music would be nice too.

Worst IP land: Avengers Campus in DCA - huge W.E.B. sling and a miss for the biggest movie franchise ever. At least the Paris version looks like it's not going to be as bad. Honorable Mention: Toy Story Land in Florida.
 

Dear Prudence

Well-Known Member
Separate topic, my biggest gripe with all these IP lands is that there's usually only one or two things worth doing and the rest is just filler.

I like RSR and the diner, but don't care about the rest of Cars Land. RotR is the best Disney attraction built in the USA in the last 10 years, but the rest of Galaxy's Edge? meh. Diagon Alley's headliner is a dud IMO, which brings down the rest of the land.

The lands of Disneyland, Islands of Adventure and Tokyo Disney Sea were clearly better designed to stand on their own and offer a more rounded experience, often taking up less space than these newer IP lands.
This
 

smooch

Well-Known Member
Favorite IP land: Mysterious Island - built by theme park nerds for theme park nerds. Does not care if you don't know the source material

Best IP land: Hogsmeade - not the largest, or has the single most impressive ride, but it's the overall best one. The one that started this whole recent trend. Having Hagrid's and Forbidden Journey in the same land is huge, plus there's the Hogwart's Express. Great collection of shops and eateries. Decent live entertainment and solid seasonal décor (I like what they do for Halloween a lot...simple, but effective). The only IP land with any fireworks? Unless you count seeing them from Disneyland's Galaxy's Edge

Best Undeserved IP land: Cars Land - One of Pixar's worst movies gets one of Disney's best rides and themed environments

Most underrated IP land: Seuss Landing - does it count? It could use another ride or two, but it has a better collection of rides, sweet shops and stores than most people give it credit and the theming is just as committed as Toon Town when it was new. It certainly has more thought put into it and cross generational appeal than most kiddie theme park areas.

IP land with most potential: Jurassic Park - If they tastefully updated the Discovery Center and boat ride, I think it would rank high on people's lists. The new coaster is excellent. The Blue meet 'n greet works well for what it is. The midway games are tacky, but Camp Jurassic and the DC give it more to explore and do than just rides and spend money. At over 20 acres, this may be the biggest of the IP lands, and I think there's still room for expansion? Honorable mention: Galaxy's Edge - just add another ride, more entertainment and a proper restaurant...some music would be nice too.

Worst IP land: Avengers Campus in DCA - huge W.E.B. sling and a miss for the biggest movie franchise ever. At least the Paris version looks like it's not going to be as bad. Honorable Mention: Toy Story Land in Florida.
I agree with everything on here that I have seen. Hogsmeade blew me away when I visited in 2018 for a work trip, along with Diagon Alley afterwards. The difference going from the rest of Universal into Hogsmeade was genuinely insane and felt miles above anything Disney has done recently. I didn't buy a wand or anything because I am not even a Harry Potter fan but the small details just wandering around exploring and seeing people use wands to activate effects was so much fun. The candy store in Diagon Alley selling unique candies themed to the show and not just generic merch from anywhere else in the park was very nice to see.

I also think Cars Land was incredibly good out of nowhere, considering how old Cars was at the time it opened. I loved the movies when they came out because I was like 6 years old at the time but then visiting in person, and especially at night, I was surprised how well the land was pulled off. Great E Ticket ride, great theming and atmosphere, truly an immersive experience for an animated movie which was a surreal experience to see something so lifelike based off an animated children's movie. I think out of all the single IP lands Disney has made it is my favorite. I have yet to see AC or GE in person but Pandora was very very pretty to look at and I enjoyed FoP but didn't have much to do other than the two rides. The queue for FoP is so cool going through the outdoor portion with the floating mountains above and the waterfalls into the mountain with the natural parts into the military base / lab environment keeps the scenery changing and interesting which makes you feel like you're making progress in line and getting closer to the front of the line.
 

Dear Prudence

Well-Known Member
I finally rewatched The Jungle Book for the first time in at least 20 years. It was not one of my faves as a kid, and I think I actually *disliked* it (or thought I did). There's a new exhibit at the Walt Disney Family Museum all about The Jungle Book, so I watched the blu-ray exclusive from the Disney Movie Club (this is not an advert, I want all the bonus features lol), and I have to say it's way better than I remembered it being. It's a much better film that I remembered! I was pleasantly surprised at how good it was and how much I enjoyed it! I also remember not liking the book at all as a kid (and couldn't even start rereading it as an adult because I was so bored 2 paragraphs in), and I think this is one of the times where the Disneyfication of something was a vast improvement over the source material. Phil Harris is really, really great in this.
 

mickEblu

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I've never had a bad experience on Kilimanjaro, honestly. People have always said it's better in the early morning and I don't doubt that, but I've never ridden it and been disappointed or felt like I was shorted out on what I wanted. The sheer scale of that attraction-bigger than DL park by itself, in fact-is difficult to put into words. RSR is great but can't compete on scope.

Mystic Manor is smaller from a scale perspective, certainly, but I feel like as an overall package it's a stronger attraction. There isn't any of the weirdness that is sometimes neglected when discussing RSR (ex. why are we going through the town we walked through outside, but now we're inside? Why does the background scenery inside sort of just taper off and end?).

Journey, as an entire package, I would say surpasses RSR. Its presence in the park and the area makes a statement, and the queue and process of getting to the attraction is much more elaborate. There isn't a nice outdoor atmospheric section, but the indoor scenery is much grander and more impressive. The fatal flaw of Journey is that the actual attraction is short, and I will grant you that 100%. However, otherwise I can't really find fault with the experience, and while the fast part of RSR has its own benefits (competition, duration), the fast part of Journey is the most POWERFUL moment on any of these rides. That drop out of the mountain provides a catharsis that is certainly unmatched in TT or RSR and is more satisfying than some entire roller coasters. The whole package, and the effect on the entire park, its sheer presence, is more impactful than RSR. I'd argue that while RSR has a significant presence in Cars Land, its main impact on the park itself is that it's the only ride in the place that stands up to what's next door.

In terms of Shanghai Pirates, if we are to make those arguments, could we not also ding RSR for following the same basic template of its predecessors (ex. slow start through interior scenes, various elevation changes, fast part at the end), and bringing little to the table that was truly original or expanded upon what the ride system could do? The increased depth and detail of Journey's sets could stand apart positively from Test Track; did RSR really push any further envelopes with the ride system or the scope of the whole enterprise? I would argue that Shanghai Pirates is enough of a template change from what came before, with the changes in ride system and so on, to justify itself as its own thing despite the nods to the classic attractions. Whereas RSR is a solid attraction but wasn't really a groundbreaker in any meaningful way.

So yeah. It's in the conversation, definitely has lots of merits to it, but I'm not sure there's any scenario where I would personally say that it was the best Disney exclusive attraction in the world.

Well I really can’t take his “debate” any further as I have not Been on Journey but I will say that it’s interesting that you’ve more or less chosen it as the exclusive attraction that is better than RSR as it is the only one I had in my mind that really competed for the title. I believe if we went with a popular vote of people who have ridden all the exclusives RSR would win but then again if one has been on all the exclusive Disney attractions around the world they re most likely a Disney park super fan that would most likely go with something more obscure over a Pixar themed attraction of a franchise that’s been milked to death.
 

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