Eh I still go back to its manly a management problem. For example Frozen Ever After is good, what's there is nice. The problem is it's there. The makeover of Imagination was awful because of the horrendous budget they were allowed. It all stems from the top, the Imagineers are just doing what's mandated.
Not sure if they still teach this but Disney taught me the only wrong way to answer the guest is to say “3:00”
I don’t give modern Imagineers nearly as much credit as you both. I wish I shared your optimism. They were given $1 billion for Galaxy’s Edge and made mind-boggling errors. Is it their fault the table service was cut? Of course not. Is it their fault many guests don’t think Smuggler’s Run is fun? Yeah. Even Rise of the Resistance is phenomenal but cannot meet the demands of a Disney theme park. That is a huge blunder.
Scott’s masterpiece is still Spider-Man imho. I’m going to guess it was management and not Scott’s talent.
Management did not force Trowbridge to build a super E-ticket that doesn’t work. WDI picked the ride systems. I think an issue is there is not enough talent to create adequate checks-and-balances. The Disney classics weren‘t designed in a vacuum by one Imagineer. All Imagineers asked each other hard questions about their designs (Walt, as well, in the ‘50s and ‘60s). Now, someone brown-noses enough to get a project and that person then manages a team. The ants just do as they are told.
It is absolutely their fault. They lost control of costs elsewhere and had to make cuts. More often the "budget cuts" people complain about are cuts made to keep the project in budget because other aspects are exceeding the budget.
But when a 3rd party cable car costs over 200 million you (they) have to start thinking why.
It’s not hard to imagine when you have customization that is “themed” and likely an entire team dedicated to second guessing the hired experts.
Can you share the themed station concept art one day? I've been curious how they looked since you mentioned them back when the Skyliner was originally announced.
True.
It is my understanding that the "choice" of new trilogy for the Galaxy's Edge timeline was Scott's.
I don’t know any insider information but I highly doubt that. I don’t think anyone at WDI had any say on that.
When will they learn? Yes, WDI has a budgetary problem that must be examined (why hasn’t it been?). But if the company is willing to, say, drop $400 million on a new coaster, it shouldn’t be that hard to say, “each train needs 30 seats, not 18 or 20.” Somehow they understood this for Big Thunder and Everest but not now. That points to a loss of experienced Imagineers and the few who are still around being overly confident in themselves.
Why? Most of the Magic Kingdom uses shared facilities. People marvel at things like the way Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, Alice in Wonderland and even a bit of Peter Pan‘s Flight are layered at Disneyland. Poor use of space is one of the biggest problems with current Disney. It is how you get tens of acres that only hold a few things with little room for easy expansion.
Power-related issues. The type of park management issue that WDI seems to ignore now. Build something pretty and don’t worry about actually running it.
In fairness - and I'm generally inclined to agree with this post - Rohde's defense of DinoRama is basically that it's thematically sound, not that guests are wrong if they don't enjoy it.