Originally posted by Bob O
Of course disney should have thrill coasters and its to their detriment that they dont!!! Disney should provide experiences that their guests want and a sizeable majority IMHO would enjoy a thrill coaster
What is a NORMAL disney guest???? And im not surprised first timers would be overjoyed. They are possibly comparing it too parks they have been too closer to their home which more than likely is six flags. So in comparsion of course disney will seem very magical, which it still is but not as much as it could be or has been.
Originally posted by HB2K
suggesting Disney shouldn't build anything but family rides does a dis-service to people who look for those on their vacations.
Thrill coasters really have no proper place in Walt Disney World, and recent attempts to incorporate such attractions into the parks only served to "cheapen" the overall experience (Dinorama, DCA). For reasons I'll no doubt do a remarkably poor job explaining, Disney and thrill rides make a poor combination.
All the usual arguments are quite accurate - that WDW is a place for families to experience together, and that the magical (dark) ride is what Disney is all about - but it is the perception and expectations of first-time and occasional guests that I'm curious about. That "normal" guest (whomever that may be) comes to WDW with at least some vague ideas of what they think a "theme park" is supposed to be, generally something along the lines of a Six Flags. So, they arrive expecting lots of fast, wild, and often wet "rides" which, while literally thrilling to some, are not what you traditionally find in WDW. If you were to evaluate the Magic Kingdom based solely on thrill rides, it would place a (rather distant) second to any Six Flags.
Of course, that's an unfair standard. Whatever our "average" guest may have been expecting, at Disney they find immersive, well-themed
attractions (not "rides") that tell a story, and which "wow" visitors not by flipping them upside down but rather by Disney magic and "pixie-dust". Even if WDW were to add a half dozen thrill rides and hyper-coasters to
each park, it still could not compete on this level with IOA or Six Flags - but more importantly, it shouldn't try. Anyone can build a thrill coaster (and most parks do); it isn't difficult, requires little innovation, and even less talent or imagination. Disney is above this. You would not expect your server at Victoria & Albert's to ask
if you want fries with that, nor should we expect WDW to lower itself to the "cheap thrills" arena.
That is not to say a coaster cannot ever be utilized as a "ride vehicle" in a Disney
attraction (Big Thunder Mountain, Space Mountain), but you still have the problem of creating an attraction that everyone can enjoy. You can tell the same story by using a non-coaster ride vehicle, or at least providing a more sedate ride (the "dual path" concept) option in the attraction suitable for basically all persons who tour WDW. Disney cannot fully satisfy the thrill-ride crowd (this in no way precludes offering something for everyone; for example, RnR and SM) without largely abandoning the family-friendly omni-mover fans (consider recent complaints against Future World), and again, a mere "handful" of thrill rides and coasters invites unfavorable comparisons with more "thrill
ride" oriented parks such as IOA.
Now, I hope that explanation made just a bit of sense!
and once opened it would have long lines and would keep the long lines due to its popularity, unlike rides that some people wish were here(motion/horizons) which had little lines beacuse they werent popular.
That's not really accurate. Horizons and World of Motion did not have short lines because they were unpopular; rather, they had short waits because they had such
huge hourly ride capacities. For instance, if SM and Horizons were (theoritically) both running with most every seat occupied, with a 2-hour wait at SM and Horizons a walk-on, Horizons would actually be the more "popular" ride - in this example, it was carrying more "guests" per hour. Of course, every seat was not often occupied during Horizons final years, but that was due to a combination of factors, and you cannot judge an attraction's popularity based solely upon the queue length. I suspect enough money has been largely wasted in WDW alone over the past few years (the Spaceship Earth "wand", the JIYI fiasco) to have paid for something of a rehab for Horizons. For the price of ABCFamily and Go.com WDW could have built a park to put even DisneySeas to shame...
