I apologize in advance for the length of this post.
I enjoy lengthy posts, myself.
So, no apologies needed ... I'll just try and keep my responses brief as its getting late, I took a 5-mile walk tonight (much less than a typical EPCOT day, but still) and am as tired as Duke looked in falling to Arizona!
In the interest of full disclosure, I had a friend of mine purchase Hooter and Fuzzball Plush for me out at Disneyland. I was never a huge fan of Captain EO, but I was a fan of Epcot Center growing up - for me that's why I got them. I've also purchased old plush from Kitchen Kabaret for my brother.
Having said that, Hooter and Fuzzball serve a greater purpose: Upsetting my fiance.
You generally should wait until after the 'I dos' to do that ...
So far we haven't been invited to any of these things. Jim Hill has been kind enough to help us with the growth of our show (as some of the more frequent posters on here will attest, I've defended him on several occasions). He pointed me in the right direction for requesting press credentials because I wouldn't know the first place to begin.
I can definitely see the issues with a changing "media", but a good experience in the hands of one of us "media" members is going to go a long way for viral marketing. There's a reason they do it, and you pretty much identified it.
There are actually a few reasons, but I am still not convinced that it is smart on Disney's part. I can certainly see why some presence might be a good thing. But when you start inviting bloggers, who started said blogs just to able to snag invites and who often get very little traffic -- much less than some THREADS get here, well ... I don't see the plusses for Disney (and I say that as a shareholder, not a fan). It is complicated and as one Disney higher-up told me when I was at da World last month, they are still figuring out what their strategy will be in the future because they realized ... well, let's just say there were a whole lot of issues they didn't expect.
I'd like to think of our analysis as a voice of reason, however conceited that might sound. Having said that, the Yeti is probably mentioned too frequently on our show.
The problem with being a fan of Disney in general is that while it's an Entertainment Company, few people recognize how large a net they actually cast.
It's starting to change at this point, but most people don't know the difference between Shrek and your average Pixar movie, or your average Pixar movie and a children's movie.
If you tell your average sports fan that you're a big Disney fan they may look at you funny. They look may change slightly when you make them aware that ESPN also falls under that umbrella.
Agreed on all counts, but that would lead me into a diatribe on why I believe people are dumber than ever and how that plays into Disney Walmarting its product and then people would start calling me names and where would the fun be in that?
Suffice to say, but there are many WDW fans who believe that it is either the whole company or the most important facet of it.
Having said all that, I look at Epcot and DAK the same way. Both parks are unique - they are experience driven less so than attraction driven. Epcot is far closer to being complete, but to me it's my least favorite park at the moment as my interests align more strongly with the Animal Kingdom. I don't drink and I think most of the restaurants in World Showcase are overpriced - there goes half the appeal of the park. To me, my dismissing World Showcase is on par with people dismissing the Animal Exhibits at DAK.
Well, I view EPCOT as more than a place to drink and dine (especially now), but I do agree on the pricing issue. Again, thank the DDP for that.
But again, I think people go to WDW for very different reasons (which is why killing something like PI was madness to bring that subject into this thread).
There are certain things at MK I love, for instance, like Mansion or BTMRR. But I doubt I could go on them more than three times in a day without saying 'enough already' ... many fanbois could likely live on them. That crowd isn't going to enjoy a leisurely stroll around the lagoon with a glass (or two) of wine, taking in some WS entertainers, walking into some shops in Morocco, seeing Impression de France, watching Illuminations and then sitting down for an almost two-hour dinner at Nine Dragons. That was an exact visit for me recently.
I don't hate Epcot by any means, it has some of my favorite things at Disney, and it does this by having a larger lineup of things to do compared to the Animal Kingdom. Most of the rides at Epcot aren't going to draw me to that park (part of the reason why I don't feel it's an attraction driven park). What drives me to that park is Illuminations, and not waiting in line. When I go with my family my brother will want to go on every attraction in the parks - in Epcot that's far easier to do than anywhere else, mainly because outside of Test Track and Soarin' there are rarely lines at that park.
I'd argue that EPCOT has and is very attraction-driven, just not in the sense of rides. But I do get what you are saying. I don't really have any 'must dos' there, although I usually seem to always take a ride on SSE (but not on my last visit -- or visits on parts of three days).
I'll respond to another post of yours later in this post, but it may be in the best interest of this thread to take this discussion to Private Messages or e-mail.
Feel free to PM me. I'll respond to anyone except Frank in New Mexico. Or if you prefer email, which I actually prefer, just ask Lee or Martin and they'll forward a way for you to do so.
This re-iterates my point, but from the opposite perspective. I definitely understand the hatred for the Animal Kingdom. It needs more attractions to help lengthen the day or at the very least bridge the gap between the staggered show times for Festival of the Lion King or Nemo. For me, the toughest thing to schedule in that park is Flights of Wonder - in my opinion it's one of the more underrated shows on property, but the last show is at either 3 or 3:30, and typically FotLK or Nemo have priority in guest touring.
In my opinion it already has the rides that bring you into the park (Everest and Safaris technically fit that bill). What it lacks is the roster of C/D tickets that help to lengthen the day at Epcot for those people that don't spend all day in World Showcase.
I don't get the hatred for any theme park. I love all Disney parks (yeah, even the stalest MK of them all). Children or adults who have never grown up might hate a theme park. But I may be taking you too literally and maybe shouldn't be posting so late after a long day, but I'm starting the weekend now!
I agree on the show schedule, but part of that is simply a result of DAK being a 9-5 or 9-6 park a good 85% of the year. They can't stagger too much. I also have dropped FotLK from my favorites because after working/living in HK and seeing their version regularly, DAK's just looks like the discount version. And FoW absolutely is the best show on property that no one knows about because they are busy seeing some lame foamhead show in front of Cindy's Castle.
I think the problem is when you mention lacking C-D ticket type experiences at DAK you are referring more to a ride type of attraction because I think the nature trails and animal exhibits certainly are of that caliber ... and KS is one of the top attractions at WDW, period. Even with that lame- poacher storyline that they have now butchered.
A Sunset Boulevard type expansion (or Fantasyland type as I've often described it) is absolutely necessary in the Camp Minnie Mickey area. That would allow them to address issues in other areas of the park with the increased capacity. In theory that's what's being done in DHS now, they added the capacity to Sunset Boulevard, now they can enhance other areas of the park in a slow piecemeal fashion.
I have a strong feeling Camp MM will be there a decade from now. And I actually saw (and reported it on LP a loooong time ago) a model of a proposed LARGE structure that was being planned to go where the character meet-greet-and-gropes now reside. I didn't think it would happen then ... and now I don't ever think we'll see that particular addition.
Ironically, not in the shows themselves. I think the three main shows in the park are very well done, but I assume you meant presentation/maintenance at Dinosaur, Expedition Everest and to a lesser extent It's Tough to be a Bug
To be fair, I haven't seen any of DAK's shows since 2008. But, yes, I was talking of the abysmal SQS in the non-show attractions, including the ones above.
The problem is they messed up the opening of this park, it didn't really lengthen vacations as much as they wanted to because the money budgeted for the park went elsewhere on property once the cannibalism of other park's attendance set in. This is part of the problem with adding a new park now, to do so and lengthen a guest's stay, a substantial investment needs to be made in the other parks in addition to the new park. They tried to do this in 97-98 but it failed. Test Track had delays and David Copperfield's Magic Underground ran out of money.
Yep ... and The overriding issue (and why Disney's Shangri-la died quickly) is that Disney simply can't keep adding parks and get people to MAGICally stay longer. The average American, if they're lucky, gets 1-2 weeks vacation a year. If Disney builds another park (and assuming people are dumb and choose to not visit UNI/IOA/SW/Aquatica/Cape Canaveral at all), people may well visit the new park. But it won't help the bottom line because they will also cut out a day or two at either EPCOT or (more likely) Studios or DAK. People (except possibly those monied UKers:wave
can't 'holiday' for weeks on end.
