Disney's Hollywood Studios (General Discussion)

[Brian G.]

Are you freaking kidding me? You have got to take your head out of the swamps or somewhere else...

Tokyo Disney Sea. Enough said.

Need recent examples? Radiator Springs, the rest of the DCA redo, Mystic Point, Grizzly Gulch, Ratatouille.

Even the swamps received a gorgeous park nearly ten years after your cut off. It's not perfect, but it's sure a fine display of talent throughout the properly budgeted areas.

Universal Creative is chalk-a-block full of those "talentless imagineering hacks" who worked for Disney all throughout the 90's and 2000's.



There is a line between lobbing fare criticism at WDW and being a jaded fanboi. Everyone is free to set up camp in the other side as a Universal specific forum, but at least try to stay within a few miles of the line.

/end rant

I think he's referring specifically to WDW. All the points you listed are outside of WDW property.

Furthermore, I can honestly say @SeventyOne is hardly a fanboy. If anything, he probably skews closer to Disney.

 

[rhino4evr]

not to go too off topic, but Animal Kingdom is a pretty big accomplishment.
Sure the Yeti was a huge mistake, but EE is also incredibly well themed

 

[brianlo]

I think he's referring specifically to WDW. All the points you listed are outside of WDW property.

Furthermore, I can honestly say @SeventyOne is hardly a fanboy. If anything, he probably skews closer to Disney.

The same argument applies. Imagineering is not WDW. To also say WDW hasn't received anything of merit since 1992 would be absolute hyperbole.

A fare criticism would be "I've been fairly unimpressed with the budget allocation at WDW since 1992." Imagineering faces large problems when it comes to managing budgets, over designing/charging for their projects or the Disney corp approving capex in the swamps in the first place... but talent has nothing to do with it.

Edit: It also wasn't meant to be targeted just towards @SeventyOne - they just got caught up in my crosshairs. I get the vibe from this thread that some people here don't think the DHS redo will fail... they hope it will fail.

 

[JungleSkip]

not to go too off topic, but Animal Kingdom is a pretty big accomplishment.
Sure the Yeti was a huge mistake, but EE is also incredibly well themed

EE is basically the thesis of current WDI. Looks pretty, has a great queue, but the ride is meh.

Edit: It also wasn't meant to be targeted just towards @SeventyOne - they just got caught up in my crosshairs. I get the vibe from this thread that some people here don't think the DHS redo will fail... they hope it will fail.

I don't want or hope it fails. But it's better to aim your expectations low rather than be disappointed.

 

[rhino4evr]

I don't think anyone wants to see it "fail", I just think people have pletny of reason to be skeptical and cynical on wether Disney will actually exceed their expectations and release something really amazing, or continue to follow the same pattern of budgeted to death attractions.

I think that NFL left a really bad taste in peoples mouths. As it took them forever to build, and added very little to the park in terms of AAA attractions. The mine train and it's endless construction schedule that still resulted in an underwhelming and short (due to budget cuts) ride experience is the icing on that cake.

Frozen going to Norway..is another one.

I guess there is always Avatar to fall back on...right?

 

[rhino4evr]

Also...I think EE is still a fun ride, it may not live up to the other "mountains" but it's still a worthy addition to the park.

 

[Teebin]

:blank:

 

[ReelJustice]

Also...I think EE is still a fun ride, it may not live up to the other "mountains" but it's still a worthy addition to the park.

Certainly a worthy addition, but not enough to hold the park over for 11 years, especially not in a perpetual B-Mode.

 

[JungleSkip]

My biggest problem with current WDI, at least stateside, is that they craft beautiful environments from a macro view that feel empty when any amount of time is spent in them.

Cars Land and the Cadillac Range vista is gorgeous. But I was hard pressed to spend more than 20-30 minutes in the area not spent on attractions. There's just no reason to hang around. Same thing with New Fantasyland. I love those movies...but there's no depth. Compare that to something like Mysterious Island or Diagon Alley which are basically ALL depth, and I just cannot get excited about Star Wars Land just yet. I want the best, but at this point I'll believe it when I see it.

 

[SeventyOne]

Are you freaking kidding me? You have got to take your head out of the swamps or somewhere else...

Tokyo Disney Sea. Enough said.

Need recent examples? Radiator Springs, the rest of the DCA redo, Mystic Point, Grizzly Gulch, Ratatouille.

None of these are in Orlando. Try telling someone who dropped $10k on a vacation to central Florida they should be happy because parks halfway around the world have jaw-droppingly awesome stuff.

Even the swamps received a gorgeous park nearly ten years after your cut off. It's not perfect, but it's sure a fine display of talent throughout the properly budgeted areas.

It has a parking lot with carnival rides themed to ... a parking lot with carnival rides. A train with a view of a CM parking lot. A couple lame animal exhibits (the E-ticket animals are only on the safari). And two hyper-realistic lands that lack any sense of the whimsical which the vast majority of guests expect and want out of a theme park. Given its struggles over the past decade and a half, a DHS expansion equivalent to AK may well bankrupt the resort once and for all. They better be aiming much, much higher.

I could start back at 1992, but the list would be too long. We could start with Fantasmic!, Tower of Terror or Indiana Jones Adventure and go on and on and on.

I thought I rode ToT in high school, before Splash, but I could easily be mixing up dates. In that case, replace "1992" with whatever year ToT opened. It still has to be close to decades.

Universal Creative is chalk-a-block full of those "talentless imagineering hacks" who worked for Disney all throughout the 90's and 2000's.

No argument. And yet they managed to create Hogsmeade then top themselves with Diagon--the fact they were not able to do that in all the time they had at Disney is exactly my point. The blame clearly falls squarely on corporate culture, there is no other rational explanation.

There is a line between lobbing fare criticism at WDW and being a jaded fanboi. Everyone is free to set up camp in the other side as a Universal specific forum, but at least try to stay within a few miles of the line.

/end rant

I've had APs to both parks over a decade now, spend a fair amount of time in each (Sea World too!). And I've never been afraid to criticize failures in either. So I don't consider myself a "fanboi" so much as a guest with high expectations. I think a "fanboi" is more likely one so in love with a company he has to defend it at any cost, even when one of its outlets has clearly been left to rot at the expense of others.

 

[ReelJustice]

SeventyOne can be found on twitter ragging on Universal parking almost weekly.

 

[SeventyOne]

Edit: It also wasn't meant to be targeted just towards @SeventyOne - they just got caught up in my crosshairs. I get the vibe from this thread that some people here don't think the DHS redo will fail... they hope it will fail.

No worries, and to be honest, I certainly hope it doesn't fail. Being the rare person on these boards who saw the film in 1977, I'd still love to see a Star Wars land done right. I plan on spending a ton of time there. Plus I have a lot of friends who's ability to eat is in direct correlation to DHS business. I have a personal stake in hoping the place turns around and does well.

 

[SeventyOne]

I
Furthermore, I can honestly say @SeventyOne is hardly a fanboy. If anything, he probably skews closer to Disney.

See, and I was a Uni fanboi long before it was cool. All the Adventures Club fanbois who live in Diagon now used to look at me askance for spending so many nights at HHN. How quickly they forget!

 

[Parkscope Joe]

I thought I rode ToT in high school, before Splash, but I could easily be mixing up dates. In that case, replace "1992" with whatever year ToT opened. It still has to be close to decades.

1994

 

[SeventyOne]

SeventyOne can be found on twitter ragging on Universal parking almost weekly.

Only because I go almost weekly. Also the ticket gates, tho at this point it's more resigned private rage. And closing up restaurants early. And the time share people in the park. And what they did to the Beetlejuice show. And how they killed happy hour.

 

[ReelJustice]

And how they killed happy hour.

Ah, and there it is ;-)

 

[JungleSkip]

And the time share people in the park.

God I hope that contract is up soon like I had heard it was.

 

[Ultranel]

Too many fingers pointing toward WDI when they all should be pointing to the top 5 leaders of the corporation. That's where the greed starts, that's where that self destructing pride of "How much can we MAKE" instead of "How much can we CREATE" was born. It started with Eisner and then the teacher's pet took over and continued it, but even worse IMO. and BTW don't reply this msg with $$$ numbers... thousand of companies out there make plenty of money, reply with ground breaking/high tech infrastructure numbers... just the way Walt wanted.

 

[*Q*]

Access to DHS is a poorly planned, counterintuitive mess. They will be rectifying that once and for all as well as removing the alternate entrance behind Star Wars freeing up expansion land.

It was just poorly planned overall, from the layout of the park, to the very location within WDW they placed it.

God I hope that contract is up soon like I had heard it was.

Aren't there like three different timeshare companies at each of those kiosks?

 

[Parkscope Joe]

What are these time share kiosks? The ones that also sell BMG tickets and CityWalk passes?