Worst Move in Parks History

[Walt Disney1955]

Iger and his cronies really don't get the reason behind ANYTHING built before he took over the company, do they?

Doesn't seem so. It will look different and not in a good way. It loses its history, its charm, its slower pace. Is there anywhere we can go now to escape some crowds?

 

[Worldlover71]

Doesn't seem so. It will look different and not in a good way. It loses its history, its charm, its slower pace. Is there anywhere we can go now to escape some crowds?

I agree, but no crowds=no revenue, therefore it must go. If you want some peace and quiet, you can sit in your overpriced hotel room!

 

[Walt Disney1955]

I agree, but no crowds=no revenue, therefore it must go. If you want some peace and quiet, you can sit in your overpriced hotel room!

And that's the problem right there, quality and charm and immersiveness go out the window. Find me another place where you can do a Liberty Boat ride in a park. The sound of the boat's horn is all part of what made Frontierland unique.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

The absolute worst is the removal of the fountain of nations. The reason it was the worst is because it was 100% unnecessary. They gained nothing from removing it.

 

[NiarrNDisney]

Figment all the way!

 

[BasiltheBatLord]

It's 100% getting rid of Splash. Nothing is on the level of destroying one of your most beloved attractions ever due to a PR panic during a tense socio-political movement. That was a real turning point for me as far as how much I get invested in the parks looking forward.

 

[Mark Dunne]

These are not good options for this question. You are missing some of the absolute biggest mistakes in Disney history that had an objectively negative impact on the parks as a business -- like EuroDisney and DCA 1.0.

Instead, it's the usual list of purist gripes. It's hard to reasonably argue that replacing a dated and unpopular Universe of Energy ride with the nearly-universally-acclaimed Cosmic Rewind was somehow a mistake -- unless you think that the only valid Disney opinions are from the Epcot purist crowd.

Have you been to DLP, its actually the best looking park they have IMO , and with the new lands being built, will be among the best Disney has to offer, i hope people on here saying Euro Disney was a mistake, have actually been there, if not, please don't say its a mistake ,some of Tony Baxter's best work is in this park , it has the best Big thunder of the lot, better Pirates attraction, a nice Indy attraction , and a better up to date space mountain, and prob the best entrance of them all, and the castle you can actually go under and see the brilliant animatronic dragon from sleeping beauty, we visit WDW often, but visited DPL last year, it was a nice park, food not as good as WDW, but some attractions that are there are up with some of the best Disney has to offer. and the drone shows are amazing. Take a trip, you might enjoy it .

 

[Dead2009]

It's 100% getting rid of Splash. Nothing is on the level of destroying one of your most beloved attractions ever due to a PR panic during a tense socio-political movement. That was a real turning point for me as far as how much I get invested in the parks looking forward.

100% this.

 

[bwr827]

The absolute worst is the removal of the fountain of nations. The reason it was the worst is because it was 100% unnecessary. They gained nothing from removing it.

Fountain of Nations was such a powerful symbol at the heart of what Epcot could be about.

Did the water end up getting repurposed in some way? I’m not caught up on that development.

 

[John park hopper]

Brick pavers with your name on it--great scam Disney get you to pay and then they got rid of them. But of course you could not get the original one you bought ---but you could buy a replica.

 

[joanna71985]

Personally, the retirement and demolition of Spectromagic would be up there for me.

I miss Spectro so much! I am looking forward to the new night parade though

 

[JIMINYCR]

Brick pavers with your name on it--great scam Disney get you to pay and then they got rid of them. But of course you could not get the original one you bought ---but you could buy a replica.
View attachment 809780

Guests who originally purchased them did so to be a part of WDW. Maybe for you it was seen as a scam but for those who saw it as a memento or leaving a part of themselves at Disney it was a minor cost and these brick pavers would be visited on return trips. When we went we enjoyed scanning the ground and seeing where others had come from and actually found a couple from people from our home area we knew.
Over the years since putting them in place, many of them were chipped or broken, causing a walking hazard, the writing was worn off ( the writing was faded away and illegible ), and it would be impossible to get most un-cemented and removed without breakage. Guests who wanted a replacement as a memento had the option to purchase one which we did.
By the way, we also have 2 tiles on the wall (One of me and DW and DS on another) which we revisit on trips back. Also a scam you say?

 

[DisneyFanatic12]

Guests who originally purchased them did so to be a part of WDW. Maybe for you it was seen as a scam but for those who saw it as a memento or leaving a part of themselves at Disney it was a minor cost and these brick pavers would be visited on return trips. When we went we enjoyed scanning the ground and seeing where others had come from and actually found a couple from people from our home area we knew.
Over the years since putting them in place, many of them were chipped or broken, causing a walking hazard, the writing was worn off ( the writing was faded away and illegible ), and it would be impossible to get most un-cemented and removed without breakage. Guests who wanted a replacement as a memento had the option to purchase one which we did.
By the way, we also have 2 tiles on the wall (One of me and DW and DS on another) which we revisit on trips back. Also a scam you say?

I do wonder if they’ll keep the couple near the new Polynesian Tower. To my knowledge, they’re still there, though they’ll definitely remove them if they reroute that sidewalk near the wedding pavilion.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

Fountain of Nations was such a powerful symbol at the heart of what Epcot could be about.

Did the water end up getting repurposed in some way? I’m not caught up on that development.

Agreed. Do you mean ceremoniously? I’m not sure.

We did get the Moana water feature to replace it I guess… maybe they dumped it in there? Haha

 

[John park hopper]

The signature bricks were removed due to walkway reconfiguration no mention of them being chipped and a safety hazard

 

[networkpro]

I'd say its a toss up between DCA and DLP in my book.

 

[bwr827]

Agreed. Do you mean ceremoniously? I’m not sure.

We did get the Moana water feature to replace it I guess… maybe they dumped it in there? Haha

Ceremoniously, yeah.

 

[OrlandoRising]

I think people just didn't "get" DCA 1.0, but at least it was devoid of any IP. Was it wonderful, no. But it was at least original ideas

I categorically reject the idea that "no IP" = good and "more IP" = bad. A park built on the cheap with off-the-shelf carnival-esque attractions at Disney-level prices doesn't suddenly become better just because it's not based on Disney movies and TV shows. Kind of crazy to argue otherwise.

Have you been to DLP, its actually the best looking park they have IMO , and with the new lands being built, will be among the best Disney has to offer, i hope people on here saying Euro Disney was a mistake, have actually been there, if not, please don't say its a mistake ,some of Tony Baxter's best work is in this park ,

It doesn't matter what you think of the actual quality of DLP. The objective fact is the execution of its opening and first few years was such a financial catastrophe that dozens of other planned projects were scrapped, and the company seemed to become afraid of ambitious projects for years afterwards. So yeah, I'd call that the biggest mistake in company history, no matter what subjective opinion anyone has of the park now.

 

[DreamfinderGuy]

The answer has to be between Figment and CommuniCore. All of these other options, while unpopular with fans, were moves that made sense financially. Both the JII fiasco and CommuniCore were very expensive mistakes that they ended up paying even more to "fix", only for the fix to be a worse result than if they would've just left things alone.

I give Harmonious a close third place, at least that thing made sense on paper even if the execution was horrific. Another expensive mistake that required even more money to implement a subpar fix.

 

[DreamfinderGuy]

The absolute worst is the removal of the fountain of nations. The reason it was the worst is because it was 100% unnecessary. They gained nothing from removing it.

They gained plenty from removing it. One, they didn't have to pay to fix it, two, they no longer have to pay for operational costs, and three, there's now more monetizable space in Future World. If they truly gained nothing from removing it, they never would have spent the money to remove it.