TripAdvisor ranks IOA as #1 theme park in the USA

[CyborgDinosaur]

That article is so ridiculous. The Island at Pigeon Forge is ranked 6 in top amusement parks in the US? That's not even an amusement park! Its a mini version of Disney Springs/City Walk with one big ferris wheel and a few other small attractions. That's it! Maybe they paid to be on this list.

While I agree that the Island at Pigeon Forge shouldn't be ranked as a top amusement park, I think you are misunderstanding the nature of this list. This isn't an editorialized list by employees of Tripadvisor. As it says on the page: "Award winners were determined using an algorithm that took into account the quantity and quality of reviews and ratings for amusement parks and water parks worldwide, gathered over a 12-month period." If you don't like the rankings on the list, then you'll have to take it up with the thousands of random people who left reviews on Tripadvisor.

 

[JunoSynth]

While I agree that the Island at Pigeon Forge shouldn't be ranked as a top amusement park, I think you are misunderstanding the nature of this list. This isn't an editorialized list by employees of Tripadvisor. As it says on the page: "Award winners were determined using an algorithm that took into account the quantity and quality of reviews and ratings for amusement parks and water parks worldwide, gathered over a 12-month period." If you don't like the rankings on the list, then you'll have to take it up with the thousands of random people who left reviews on Tripadvisor.

Actually Tripadvisor should be blamed because they shouldn't have included The Island in an Top worldwide Amusement park list. It shouldn't qualify due to its small size. School Fairs are bigger. Some unknowing family might see that and base their whole trip on going to The Island only to be hugely disappointed. I wouldn't want that on my conscience so I would've removed it.

 

[Skipper Justin]

I like the planning but I think that’s just me. My wife has an itinerary made for our trip in September. The first week at Disney is heavily detailed. The 8 days at Universal is blank pages with a general list of things we want to do.

I love planning too. Disney World always gets me stressed for a reason. Might be the constant refreshing to get the reservations I want.

 

[Scott W.]

I love planning too. Disney World always gets me stressed for a reason. Might be the constant refreshing to get the reservations I want.

I can’t recommend the Touring Plans reservation finder enough. It checks every 20-30mins and you’ll get an email the second it finds a table. You’ll get a text as well if it’s a US number. Mouse Dining is another alternative but it only checks every 7 hours or so.

I’ve managed to find a table for every where I’ve wanted so far and Im now looking at switching Be Our Guest from lunch to dinner and I’m fairly confident I’ll find it for the day and time I want.

 

[Skipper Justin]

I can’t recommend the Touring Plans reservation finder enough. It checks every 20-30mins and you’ll get an email the second it finds a table. You’ll get a text as well if it’s a US number. Mouse Dining is another alternative but it only checks every 7 hours or so.

I’ve managed to find a table for every where I’ve wanted so far and Im now looking at switching Be Our Guest from lunch to dinner and I’m fairly confident I’ll find it for the day and time I want.

I’ve used it the past. The thing that sucks is being a Floridian, I often don’t have advance notice of when I feel like going to Disney. It’s like picking up the scraps of what’s left haha

 

[hishedale]

I love planning too. Disney World always gets me stressed for a reason. Might be the constant refreshing to get the reservations I want.

I only like to plan out fast passes, but from there I like to just do whatever. I think going off of a plan at the parks is just setting up for failure, as rides go down, lines get longer, and Florida weather is beyond unpredictable.

 

[Scott W.]

I’ve used it the past. The thing that sucks is being a Floridian, I often don’t have advance notice of when I feel like going to Disney. It’s like picking up the scraps of what’s left haha

That's a great point.

I only like to plan out fast passes, but from there I like to just do whatever. I think going off of a plan at the parks is just setting up for failure, as rides go down, lines get longer, and Florida weather is beyond unpredictable.

The upside of a ride going down is that you can get a FP that's free to use for any ride.

 

[Mad Dog]

That's a great point.


The upside of a ride going down is that you can get a FP that's free to use for any ride.

except the 'exceptions' they list, which are the most desired.

 

[Scott W.]

except the 'exceptions' they list, which are the most desired.

I thought it was good for any ride. Having said that, last time I got one it was before there was any real deserable new ride at WDW.

 

[hishedale]

That's a great point.


The upside of a ride going down is that you can get a FP that's free to use for any ride.

And sometimes they evac you! I've been evacuated off of Toy Story Mania,which was pretty fun. The ride attendant almost forgot me.

 

[Nick]

And sometimes they evac you! I've been evacuated off of Toy Story Mania,which was pretty fun. The ride attendant almost forgot me.

In 20 years of going to theme parks, I’ve only been evacuated off of a ride (this is counting both Universal and Disney) once. It was Journey into Imagination about 3 years ago.

 

[hishedale]

In 20 years of going to theme parks, I’ve only been evacuated off of a ride (this is counting both Universal and Disney) once. It was Journey into Imagination about 3 years ago.

One little spark-of evacuation!

 

[Disneyhead]

Let's face it. You REALLY have to like Disney to consider the "Disney Parks Experiece" to be anything other than a colossal PITA.

 

[jtsalien]

Let's face it. You REALLY have to like Disney to consider the "Disney Parks Experiece" to be anything other than a colossal PITA.

I mostly agree. I think you can enjoy Epcot or Animal Kingdom, for the few months out of the year Florida is really enjoyable outside. But the Studios has always either been boring or a working construction zone. And MK would be great if it was just Disneyland

 

[bob albert]

I know people who actually don't like disneyland so much as magic kingdom for reasons outside of the ride line up such as lack of space and hotel options.

Dollywood might be my favorite park overall with a few more rides and a nighttime show. I like Islands but there is more to do in studios so I actually spend more time there. Cedar point can't be bear for the coaster experience. I feel like if I went to europa park I would prob rank it up there as well.

 

[yankees13]

I love both places. But where Universal has Disney beat is that it’s a more relaxing vacation destination. Hotels are walking distance, no waiting for a bus. I understand the newer hotels have shuttles but it’s no more than a 5 minute ride.

Crowds are a problem too. When I was in MK 2 years ago, it was the first time I had been there in quite a few years. I forgot how unbearably crowded it gets there. You can’t even move in Main Street. Stressed out parents pushing their kids in strollers, people in their motor scooters stopping smack dab in the middle of the street. It’s almost like an obstacle course. I don’t really get that in IOA. Obviously it gets crowded there too. I don’t even think about entering Hogsmeade in the middle of the day.

IOA catches flack for having some dated and irrelevant properties. But in Marvel, Harry Potter, and Jurassic Park, they have arguably 3 of the biggest IPs in the world.

 

[sparky]

[
Crowds are a problem too. When I was in MK 2 years ago, it was the first time I had been there in quite a few years. I forgot how unbearably crowded it gets there. You can’t even move in Main Street. Stressed out parents pushing their kids in strollers, people in their motor scooters stopping smack dab in the middle of the street. It’s almost like an obstacle course. I don’t really get that in IOA. Obviously it gets crowded there too. I don’t even think about entering Hogsmeade in the middle of the day.

Last time I was at Universal a woman was going crazy fast on one of those little scooters. Older woman, and boy did she get mad because people were literally yelling at her to SLOW DOWN. It was insane how fast she was going, no way would she be able to stop in time to avoid hitting a child.
I have never been to MK, only the original Disneyland/California Adventure. Last time was in 2006. It was crowded, but manageable. My kids were terrified of fireworks, and I remember racing out of the park with my husband carrying one kid and the other in the stroller, both SCREAMING.

 

[OLSinFLA]

I swear the amount of people in the MK that are allowed before it was closed for capacity has crept up over the years (while the actual RPH has gone down). Attendance is tricky too when trying to do a count. Many people do UOR for 1-2 days. But many people do MK a minimum of two days which can throw off counts (Somewhere I read more than 50% of guests spend 3 days at just the Magic Kingdom). So lets say thats true. We know the Universal parks generally draw a guests one day each. So they are averaging 9 million. But the MK is double counting many. So lets says out of that 19 million, 50% are 3-day'ers, 30 are 2- day snd the rest are 1-day. So 9.5 million come 3 times thats So thats actually 3.1 persons. , 2,7 persons come two das and 5.7 million one day.

So there are 3.1 million people coming theres days. 2.7 million that come two days and 5.7 million that come one day (obviously I'm just using numbers based on theory since no one knows actual breakdown)
If we hold that tru, that means the Magic Kingdom draws 11.5 million people or about 3 million more than Universals parks.

Obviously the data is made uo but the theory behind it is right.

 

[hishedale]

I just get so mad so quickly when people stop in the middle of a walkway. I understand why they do it, it's their vacation, they're at such a highly talked about place, and they probably haven't been before. But I have almost tripped over children before because they're just sitting down in the middle of a walkway.

 

[Sithina]

I just get so mad so quickly when people stop in the middle of a walkway. I understand why they do it, it's their vacation, they're at such a highly talked about place, and they probably haven't been before. But I have almost tripped over children before because they're just sitting down in the middle of a walkway.

This type of thing happens everywhere. It's always a problem at GenCon, especially in the dealer hall, which is always thick with crowds and just not the place to stop yourself, your stroller, your scooter, whatever in the middle of people traffic. And yet...all. the. time. Ugh. Far too much of the GP lacks situational awareness--or they just don't care. I have no interest in MK, but I've seen the crowd pictures, and my sister's family braves it every couple years, so I've heard stories. I would absolutely lose my mind.

I'm expecting parts of UOR to be this way in early December, but as we have a number of days to enjoy the parks at our leisure, I'm hoping if a ride or area is too over-crowded one day, we can just come back at a different time on another day. I don't think it's that easy at Disney? Which would add to my frustration level by a magnitude, lol.