Theme Parks Have Rides, Right? WDW vs. DLR 2022 Edition

[mlayton144]

Lol. We’re all undesirable for different reasons in the eyes of the great Christine “let them eat smaller-portioned cake” McCarthy.

Good point

 

[Phroobar]

Cedar Point has 71 rides. Granted most of them are flat rides or Camp Snoopy stuff.

What good is Disney Animal Kingdom with 8 rides when Bush Gardens Florida has 17.

 

[MarvelCharacterNerd]

City Hall (????)

OMG that ride must be amazing - it always has a super long line!!!

 

[FerretAfros]

If we’re going to fudge the metrics of what defines a “ride” to make WDW fans feel better might as well include restrooms, too. And parking spaces.

I’ll admit the Tangled restroom may be worth an A-B ticket.

You joke, but there was an extended period after The Great Movie Ride closed before Toy Story Land opened, where the Studios was down to only 4 rides. During that time, restrooms outnumbered rides by a factor of 3:1, with 12 or 13 (I forget the exact number) sets of restrooms listed on the park map.

And that number was only the ones shown on the map, which are easily accessible from the main walkways. It doesn’t include the ones in the sit-down restaurants, nor a couple tucked away inside counter-service restaurants, not the large ones attached to the Fantasmic! arena that are only open around showtimes.

Luckily, in the years since, the park has opened 5 new rides. However, it also added 4 brand new sets of restrooms (Toy Story Land, 2x Galaxy’s Edge, Racing Academy), and split the ones near Star Tours into two separate sets with entrances on opposite sides of the building. So, while restrooms still vastly outnumber rides, the discrepancy isn’t nearly as stark as it once was.

 

[No Name]

Okay, so what did we learn there gang from the official guidemap Attraction tally circa January, 2023?

What I learned is that whoever is in charge of Disney's guidemaps is probably phoning in their work via Zoom while "working" from home and drinking Merlot out of their coffee cup.

The format is messy and all over the place. There is no consistency between parks, in messaging or in categorizing. Entire rides are missing, like the Main Street Vehicles at Magic Kingdom Park. Sometimes a meet n' greet counts as an attraction, like Meet Mickey in Toontown, and sometimes it doesn't like the equally elaborate Princess Fantasy Faire in Fantasyland which is not mentioned in the guidemap at all. While sometimes meeting Olaf in front of a plywood backdrop in DHS counts as an "Attraction".

In some parks, night spectaculars count as a park "attraction" like Fantasmic! does in DHS, and in some parks they don't count at all, like the fireworks in Magic Kingdom or Harmonious in Epcot which aren't mentioned on the maps. But just to confuse the issue, at Disneyland, Fantasmic! isn't counted as an attraction like its weaker cousin is in DHS. So even the same show can be an attraction or it can't be.

What a mess! Sloppy and random and totally inconsistent for a national brand that once prided itself on minding the details.

So, based on Disney's own guidemaps they've been giving out in January, 2023, here's where we stand on the list of "Attractions" even though some things are missing entirely and some things are classified entirely differently in various parks:

Walt Disney World = 92 Attractions
Disneyland Resort = 75 Attractions

The reason for the inconsistency is mostly because “attractions” are an attempt to fill out the map with the right amount of things to make the place look good. In fact, the attraction count is different on the physical maps vs the apps because it’s all about appearance. For example, Animal Kingdom has an egregious 48 attractions on the app! So many bubbles! New ones pop up and leave all the time. And that’s kind of where the laziness comes from.

Rides are a much more factual thing and that park still only 8 rides, down from 9 because they just randomly and inexplicably closed a roller coaster.

 

[TP2000]

The reason for the inconsistency is mostly because “attractions” are an attempt to fill out the map with the right amount of things to make the place look good. In fact, the attraction count is different on the physical maps vs the apps because it’s all about appearance. For example, Animal Kingdom has an egregious 48 attractions on the app! So many bubbles! New ones pop up and leave all the time. And that’s kind of where the laziness comes from.

Rides are a much more factual thing and that park still only 8 rides, down from 9 because they just randomly and inexplicably closed a roller coaster.

That may be a big part of this!

It could be a graphic design issue for the guidemaps themselves, not so much a messy Merlot-fueled Zoom meeting issue.

But there's still some weird stuff going on with the guidemaps in '23. Unless they really did close them and send them to Yesterland, I assume the fleet of Main Street Vehicles is still operating at Magic Kingdom Park? And yet they're missing entirely from the '23 guidemap. In a park that already is short on rides and yet has plenty of acreage to use. Why is that?