Why not both?
I posted the followin in one of the other 100 threads about a Disney Thrill park.
Would I visit a Disney Adventure Park? The short answer is, yes. Disney has already proven that it can create exciting thrill rides that are also well themed such as Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, Space Mountain, Alien Encounter, Dinosaur, Tower of Terror, Rock ‘N Roller Coaster, Indy and the Temple of the Forbidden Eye, Matahorn Mountain and Grizzle River. Disney has also already proven that it is the master when creating themed non thrill attractions, such as Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion, Carousel of Progress, Buzz, Aladdin’s Magic Carpets, It’s Tough to be a Bug, Muppet 3D and Soaring over California. Most of these attractions, as you know already exist but are located in four different parks, each with its own park theme and unique mix of mostly non thrill attractions and a thrill ride here and there. One of the myths seems to be that some people here on the board seem to think that Disney is either competing, or if they were to build an Adventure Park, they would be competing with Universal. I submit that in either case it’s the other way around; Universal is trying to compete with Disney! And here’s way. There are many reasons why Disney is special to us here on the boards, but the thing that’s special about Disney attractions is, you can’t find anything remotely close to them anywhere else. No secret there right! Well, let’s take Splash Mountain as an example, strip away the Song of the South theming and what do you have, a basic big boat waterfall ride. Now I ask, can anyone think of a park that has done a better job of theming a big boat waterfall ride anywhere? I’ll even give you some examples, Atlantis at Sea World Orlando, Jurassic Park at IOA, Snake River Falls at Cedar Point or the dozen or so that reside at Six Flags parks across the country? The answer of course is no, Splash Mountain is still the best themed big boat waterfall ride in existence. But what does that mean? I would suggest that Disney attractions are the most entertaining, hold our attention the longest and as a result provide the best memories! How many people out there can go into great detail, right now, about what is inside Atlantis at Sea World Orlando? Now do the same with Splash Mountain! So in terms of entertainment value Disney wins hands down, and you could do this with just about every attraction between Disney and Universal, Spiderman being the one exception!
With that said, why would Disney want to build an “Adventure” park? First let’s clear up some misconceptions. There has been a lot of discussion trying to make a distraction between a Theme Park and an Amusement Park. I prefer to think of IOA, Six Flags, Paramount, Busch and the Cedar Points of the world as “Thrill” parks. They all provide amusement, have varying degrees of theming but focus mainly on thrills. Disney on the other hand focuses more on theming and amusement than it does thrills. Let’s take Splash Mountain once again, true it’s very entertaining but is it the most thrilling, do you get soaked? Many of the other big boat waterfall rides listed above do a much better job of getting you wet, but that’s what their designed to do, entertain the thrill seeker! Misconception number two, only teenagers like thrills. My wife and I are in our 30’s and we consider ourselves thrill seekers. Every summer we do a tour of between 6 and 12 thrill parks to ride roller coasters. Our home park is Cedar Point which now has a collection of 16 screamers (12 more than IOA!). We are very fortunate in that we are able to appreciate both thrill parks and Disney parks. Simply put, we have come to understand that they are two different types of entertainment! Now, because Disney isn’t a thrill park, but IOA is, IOA is actually competing with Six Flags, Paramount, Busch and Cedar Point, which are usually local to you and me. And when you compare IOA to its real competition, say Cedar Point, well let’s just say IOA just doesn’t fair very well here either! In fact, there are only two attractions in IOA that we would classify as must do attractions, Spiderman and Hulk! Everything else can be found elsewhere and usually done better in terms of thrill factor. So the question really is, why would Disney want to build a “Thrill” park and go into competition with IOA and the rest?
The answer of course is to make more money! And to do that, Disney would have to do thrills better than anyone else. The question then becomes can Disney bring the right mix of thrill and non thrill rides together in a “Thrill” park that will attract families and entertain every member of the family including the thrill seeker? I’m sure that they could, but it would take a lot of money. Being a Disney park it would have to meet Disney standards in terms of theming. Disney would also need to have enough attractions to keep the said family entertained for an entire day, which means quantity and well as quality. And speaking of quality, us thrill seekers are very, very, very picky! And we can be, because there are so many choices available (subject to geographic location!). I’ll give you an example. We normally visit Cedar Point a few times each summer to take in all the rides. However, this year we are planning to visit only once. Why? Well in the past we would ride many of the roller coasters as many times as we could every trip to the park. But now, many of the rides are beginning to age because they haven’t been kept in tip top shape and simply aren’t as enjoyable as they use to be. Add the fact that the latest offerings (Wicked Twister and Dragster) are WAY over rated and don’t appeal to us, we have no reason to ride them more than once a season. So, Disney would be looking at spending big dollars on quality, quantity and ongoing maintenance. But like I said, Disney could do it if they wanted to, but at the moment do they really need to? Nope!
As has been discussed on various threads here, Disney already has needs within its existing four parks for rehab, replacement and additions to spend money on their already superior product. Something as a Disney fan I hope they do first, soon and often. But as a thrill seeker, I do hope for the day, perhaps in better economic times and after the current parks are full with entertaining attractions, when Disney will enter the “Thrill” park market. I think it would be very interesting to see what the Imaginers might be able to come up with given the right amount of time, money and direction! And that’s my 2 cents!
