Any new family hotels?

[shanomi4]

Cruises didn't exist in the 1970s?

.

Are we being condescending? Sarcastic? Great!! Of course they did. They just didn't have rock climbing walls...kids club....surfing.....ice-skating......bowling.....and so on. They also cost a lot less today then they did in the 70's. You may want to read up on cruises!!

You go and believe that they are not in competition. A little ironic that they even have boards for US on disboards! Go and read about how many people split their time between the 2. Bye bye and have a nice night!!

 

[shanomi4]

You have offended. It's not a feeling.

then sorry that I have offended. Just wanted to say, in case I get banned, That I have learned a lot, even feel a little different towards Disney and the executives. Disney could and should do more. That said it has been fun playing in the playpen. Mom is calling, and it looks like she has signed me up in another play group!! Chow everyone!!

 

[mrsR123]

Universal and Disney are both theme parks. They both promote there parks to families. They are both in Orlando. They both have themed rides. They both have roller coasters. Logically, no matter what the vision was in the past, they are competitors. I am sorry that you can not see that. They can both be vastly different, but they are going after the same dollar. The dollar that people set aside for a vacation. But you can't seem to understand that. Thanks for playing and sorry to say I do not have a consolation prize for you. Better luck next time!!

By this thinking, then the local AAA ball club is a competitor with Major League Baseball as well since they're both playing games and charging admission.

There's a reason for the expression "not in the same league" when referring to quality.

 

[G8RFAN]

In the Chicago land area in the mid 70's Marriott built a theme park near my hometown and for the most part, they copied Disney's design in a lot of it. My sister and I worked in that park for many summers when Marriott owned it and while it wasn't Disney world, it still was a fairly nice place to go. Marriott sold the park in the mid 80's to the Six Flags group and it's been down hill ever since.......

Marriott's Great America... too bad about the decline. I grew up in Libertyville and loved going to that park. My favorite ride was Willard's Wizzer (a name I'm sure must have changed by now if it is still there).

I must have written at least two long responses in this thread that I decided to just not post in the end. Trips to WDW in the late 70's for our family involved staying offsite. I can not draw my experiences from that time and compare them to now because in the eyes of kid, I never had to think in terms of value of the dollar like I do now. I was more into what was "wow" and what was "boring". My guess is that a 2000 Leagues under the sea ride today would probably not wow a lot of today's kids. I remember as a kid thinking how bogus it was that I could still see the surface of the water from my little porthole. Anyway, I do remember a thriving cottage industry surrounding WDW and now see that has evolved into major corporate entities thriving and the small entrepreneurs dying out. The expansion of onsite resorts had everything to do with this. Some of you business grads remember most of the companies in Tom Peters "In Search of Excellence" being eventual busts. A quick scan of the Fortune 100 tells me that there are no more storybook companies. GE, Disney, Citigroup, JP Morgan are all much better off split up for the shareholders in terms of value. There is nothing good to say about Walmart, except stuff is cheap for us consumers. Home Depot was a darling but its stock price has stagnated and employees are no longer happy to work there. Microsoft is like any other mega corporation to work for. Chrysler is now owned by a private equity group that owns a significant portion of other auto industry companies. Retirees with benefits watch out. Maybe the best thing is for Disney to split up and become small again because they will never escape the bean counters otherwise. I'm sure most critics here would love to see the Media Networks segment to go away as they seem to be the ones that don't grasp the original Disney mission statement. What else would you do? Tear down the Values and start over? Cancel any future DVC projects? Would you allow the spin off of park operations from the Studio Entertainment side? If not, how would you prevent that from happening? Anyway I am this close to hitting the backspace button.....

 

[YoHo]

Last time I was there, it was still the Wizzer, though not Willards.

 

[G8RFAN]

Last time I was there, it was still the Wizzer, though not Willards.

Makes sense!

 

[YoHo]

What else would you do? Tear down the Values and start over? Cancel any future DVC projects? Would you allow the spin off of park operations from the Studio Entertainment side? If not, how would you prevent that from happening? Anyway I am this close to hitting the backspace button.....

I don't know how you could have a Parks division without at least the Studio's catalogue. Though I'm sure you could set something up like OLC. The problem is I'm not sure there's an OLC equivelent around to buy the place.

 

[G8RFAN]

I don't know how you could have a Parks division without at least the Studio's catalogue. Though I'm sure you could set something up like OLC. The problem is I'm not sure there's an OLC equivelent around to buy the place.

I think the Parks division would be the easiest to spin off. There are so many capital groups out there looking for a nice investment and it would be an easy capital raise in the public sector. Hard assets, not a ton of goodwill, producing excellent income and a reasonable licensing agreement with the Studios assuming they would maintain control of the intellectual properties could really make it attractive.

 

[minnie61650]

I have nothing against those shows and I like them. Disney does need to add more attractions though to AK and they certainly have enough room to do so. AK is the largest of all the theme parks, yet has the least amount of E ticket rides. They shouldn't have to take out any current attractions they currently have to add a new one. According to the Modern Marvels program on the Discovery Channel, AK has enough land to house MK, Epcot, and MGM all inside the property AK sits on, with room left over. I have no problem with the park except for that Dinoland area which looks like a cheesy carnival area and that same spinning roller coaster that Six Flags has and calls the Ragin Cagin. Expedition Everest is a top notch attraction and more similar, is needed to make it an all day park. As it sits right now, my family and I can go through it and be done by 2 or 3 pm. I hope Disney has more on the drawing boards for it, because the park is a neat concept and deserves more.

I agree.

When I first read about the plans for Animal Kingdom I was so excited.
AK was going to have the real animals, ancient animals and mythological animals all in the same park! What a great concept and something my sons especially would really enjoy. My boys were so into dinosaurs and dragons. I though this definitely would be a park that young boys would enjoy and would want to return to time and again! It had so much potential .
If only it had been created with the wow factor I knew Disney was capable of.

When we went in 1999 all I can say is how disappointed my whole family was with this park. Yes, some of the areas of the AK are well presented but we just felt like AK was major letdown.

I do understand Dinoland is supposed to look a "cheesy carnival"--But I also was very surprised and disappointed this was added. It just seemed to cheapen the whole park. My son who was looking forward to AK but was so dissapointed in Dinoland also. He felt this area would not appeal to young boys. ( Of course this is the son who grew up loving Epcot and from the ripe old age of 5 proclaimed it to be his favorite park in all of the world --not just WDW.)

By the way he is 25 now and he still says Epcot (the Epcot before Test Track and MS) is his favorite theme park and that River Country was his favorite water park.

 

[minnie61650]

Well I guess the imagineers did their job great!! That was the objective..to make it look like a "cheesy carnival" ! Did you notice that it was built on asphalt ..even with the white paint...kind of like a parking lot? You do know that it wasn't built on an old parking lot, right? You may not like the theme, but obviously they did a good job as you stated just what it was suppose to be like!!! I for one liked it. I like the feeling of a Carnival, but certainly wouldn’t let my kids ride at a real Carnival. It was kind of nostalgic. I even pointed it out to the kids. To each their own!!

Yes, it is a cute carnival idea and I think it would have been a hit if it were a mini park located near the BoardWalk Inn. The Atlantic coast had lots of little carnival areas by the board walk in the 50's and 60's.

I just fail to see why Disney located it in a section of AK that was supposed to be donated to animals who roamed the Earth in the ancient past?


Just my 2 cents

 

[disneyfan67]

Marriott's Great America... too bad about the decline. I grew up in Libertyville and loved going to that park. My favorite ride was Willard's Wizzer (a name I'm sure must have changed by now if it is still there).

I must have written at least two long responses in this thread that I decided to just not post in the end. Trips to WDW in the late 70's for our family involved staying offsite. I can not draw my experiences from that time and compare them to now because in the eyes of kid, I never had to think in terms of value of the dollar like I do now. I was more into what was "wow" and what was "boring". My guess is that a 2000 Leagues under the sea ride today would probably not wow a lot of today's kids. I remember as a kid thinking how bogus it was that I could still see the surface of the water from my little porthole.

I'm glad to be addressing a former Lake County resident and yes, the Wizzer is still there, but they dropped the Willards name years ago. The current owners of Six Flags were going to get rid of it and put in another high tech, super fast roller coaster that wouldn't be popular with families and cater only to teens and young adults. There actually was a outcry of support for the Wizzer and it's still there today and just as good. It's one of the few things my family can do together when we used to go there. I let my season passes expire last spring and have no desire to go back. It's become better in the last year or so, but you can see the neglect in areas and at times it's just a haven for thugs and un supervised teenagers, especially during the Fright Fest weekends around Halloween.

My dislike for what has become of the former Marriott's Great America park, is one of the reasons why I'm so outspoken about the direction Disney is headed in some areas. I really do love going to WDW and have for a long time. It's one of the few things my family and I can do together and everybody have a genuine good time. I normally would get so wound up about things, but I really care about the parks and the company and don't want my children to not have the Disney World experience I did, growing up. I know Disney can do better and most die hard fans like me agree. Disney fans/fanatics/follower's, etc, are just like Harley and Corvette owners. They love their product, consider it their hobby and means of relaxing, and are passionate about where the company is going and what that company is doing to the theme parks they love. Disney is part of American culture and a icon. You don't mess with something that special, IMO. Everyone of a certain age knows who Uncle Walt is and what other company can say that about their founder and creator?


As for your experience on the 20,000 Leagues ride, sure it was kind of hoky, but I would rather have it there instead of what's currently in place now. That ride has it's legion of fans and the Internet buzz surrounding the new version opening in Disneyland in June. I haven't seen such excitement for a new Disney ride, ever. The Nemo sub ride really looks good and I would love to try it out, but the lines for it are going to be enormous. I wish WDW would get the same version of it. You should check out sites like Miceage and see what all the buzz is about. They been covering the construction of it, for almost two years. To me that speaks volumes about how passionate Disney fans really are and I'm glad to be part of it.

 

[JoeEpcotRocks]

I agree.

When I first read about the plans for Animal Kingdom I was so excited.
AK was going to have the real animals, ancient animals and mythological animals all in the same park! What a great concept and something my sons especially would really enjoy. My boys were so into dinosaurs and dragons. I though this definitely would be a park that young boys would enjoy and would want to return to time and again! It had so much potential .
If only it had been created with the wow factor I knew Disney was capable of.

When we went in 1999 all I can say is how disappointed my whole family was with this park. Yes, some of the areas of the AK are well presented but we just felt like AK was major letdown.

I do understand Dinoland is supposed to look a "cheesy carnival"--But I also was very surprised and disappointed this was added. It just seemed to cheapen the whole park. My son who was looking forward to AK but was so dissapointed in Dinoland also. He felt this area would not appeal to young boys. ( Of course this is the son who grew up loving Epcot and from the ripe old age of 5 proclaimed it to be his favorite park in all of the world --not just WDW.)

By the way he is 25 now and he still says Epcot (the Epcot before Test Track and MS) is his favorite theme park and that River Country was his favorite water park.

I can't help but wonder if Disney didn't outsmart themeselves on Dinoland. Yeah, they did a good job making it "cheesy," but it's so non-Disneyesque as if they were playing a joke on themselves. I would have preferred a "wow" to "cheeze-wiz."