Well it's no coincidence that MGM opened 1 year before Universal and AK opened one year before IOA
this is the real stupidity of it....what kinda "threat" did either of those pose?
i can see the unknown being a driving force behind the hurried MGM park...but i can't figure out why evil mikey did the same screw up again with animal kingdom.
but here are my unconfirmed, somewhat educated, firsthand guesses:
The main reason for the construction of animal kingdom was simply to put a new "resort" area and allow for hotel room construction that could pass as near a gate. And as we know that has succeeded...as there are about 9000 rooms and 500 villas now sitting there...even though none have what can be considered easy access to the parks by their own standards established in the 70's and 80's. Mission Accomplished
Zoos are distasteful to a large segment of the general population...they thought if they did a "half-zoo" then they could avoid that vibe. Failure. Anyone remember "Nahtazu"? The problem is that the park was handcuffed on the drawing boards because it couldn't be "too animally". They set the bar too low and still managed to slither under it.
I really think this was the end of disney park building and the imagineering standard operation procedures as we knew them. I don't think its a coincidence that the next three parks disney built were absolutely horrible...and still are today. Quality sure didn't win out, Walter.
I can see alot of blood being spilled on the floor (not literally) of WDI and Team Disney in Anaheim when DAK was moving into construction. Budget was too big an issue...and while they all might have had the right focus and intentions...in the end the cutting and slashing really killed the park. the park was downright awful when it opened....really sad. and then asia made it a little better...and then they went with a really cheapo fasttracked expansion and then a really expensive poorly engineered kiddie coaster.
And here we are.
The morale of the story...you gotta fix your screwups before you get a new house...as they learned at california adventure, paris, hong kong...and eventually DAK when it slides into the background even more than it already has.
