Biggest Disney Park Blunder

[jobie61]

Drew Carey sound show at MGM
Dinorama

I agree. The Drew Carey show was a big disappointment. I actually like the hat in MGM.

 

[ecpool]

Mission space since a couple of people have died on it. It should have been toned down at the beginning.

 

[MagneticxBoy]

Changing Journey Into the Imagination

 

[Simba's Mom]

I'm in the minority here, because I LOVE Chester and Hesters Dino-Rama(mmm, Primeval Whirl! And the theming is darn cute!) and I LOVE California Adventure (spacious, neat retro rides, great exhibits, great shows - what's not to love?) .

KC

I'm another one who loves Chester and Hester's. I feel like singing "Holiday Road" and looking around every corner for the Griswold family. when I'm there. This is definitely Sparky's kind of place to stop at-and since I love the movie "Vacation", it's great!
I'd have to vote for the live entertainment, especially the live bands-Future Corps, Main Street Marching Band, WS Solid Brass. Closely behind them would be Drew Carey, changing the original Imagination, and Stitch.

 

[BamaFan121s]

Stitch's Great Escape and the Castle as a cake. I never even saw the castle in person, but the pictures are bad enough...

 

[golden1]

That Castle Cake was the worst.

I think the Alien Encounter/Stitch ride was a huge lapse in judgement. Let's make a ride that is too scary for kids and boring for adults.

 

[reeeoga]

I REALLY DON'T LIKE THE NEW TIKI ROOM, IT'S TOO LOUD.!!!!

Turning Main Street into WalMart

Too Much Nemo
Too Much Nemo

20,000 into a pond for many years. Now it is a neat playarea, but not enough to it.

 

[edcrbnsoul]

I am quoting this from one of the Imagineers

In classic Disney fashion there was a nice architectural draw at the end of the street, a faithful full scale re-creation of Grauman's Chinese Theater. Somehow, someway, the management at the parks saw fit to sign off on a huge blue Mickey's Sorcerer Hat at the end of the Blvd., completely blocking the Chinese Theater. Where once stood an intricate and magical architectural icon now sits a giant blue zit of a thing with weird gold swirlies spraying out of it and what appear to be enormous gold cardboard stars superglued on its side. All that's missing is four hundred children bouncing around on plastic pellots inside.

Making it worse is that views from the far end of the street include the turrets of the Chinese Theater right behind the Big Blue Bouncehouse. Imagine placing this 'hat' right in front of the castle at Disneyland or Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom and you'll get an idea of why it is so, so, wrong.

Incidentally you can buy Disney pins and merchandise under this giant mess, which makes it all the more carny and evil.

 

[Sleeping Becca]

I'm gonna have to go with:

closing Cranium Command
and not replacing 20,000 leagues with another headliner attraction

 

[wdw_adict]

Biggest Blunders:
1. Removing the water park from Fort Wilderness.
2. New version of The Hall of Presidents.
3. Removing 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

What has changed at the Hall of the Presidents?

 

[BlindTyldak]

Mine's a tie between Chester and Hesters (I know that's what they were going for, but WHY?????) and the MGM hat.

 

[MEW]

The castle cake was awful, but the new tiki room is a disgrace

 

[mmluvr]

Killing Toad

That's what I'm talking about!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I wish they could do something with River Country (like maybe reopen it...) and bring back The Mickey Mouse Revue (loved that ride when I was a kid.) but I don't think closing it was a blunder just some wishful thinking

BTW, someone mentioned the Main Street Arcade-I loved that place especially the silly machine that would spit out snotty fortunes. (I still have a bunch of them from a trip in 1978.) I loved the flip cartoons too. I found a couple machine at the Boardwalk but its not the same. (sigh) Even as a kid I was fascinated by the old machines and felt like they were a piece of history. Closing the Arcade to add more stores was truly a blunder!!!!

 

[mattsdragon]

I like Chester and Hester too. I understand the theming. I don't understand the person chastising Disney for not having an Hispanic theme/princess (of the 50 million, how many are really here. . .legally?. . .but this isn't a place for stupid PC crap)

I don't like removing the classic rides to make way for "movie themed" garbage. I loved Pooh as a child, but that ride doesn't touch Mr Toad's Wild Ride, and the Ariel Grotto thing is a waste of space. 20,000 Leagues was one of the things I still remember vividly from when I was 3 years old (early 70's). I hope they don't touch the Swiss Family Treehouse, it's old, but it's still a nod to the "Golden Years" of Disney film production and should remain.

 

[CindyAnn]

It's probably been mentioned, but I think one of Disney's biggest blunders was post 9/11, when they took away the extra magic hours (early entry). Instead of just saying something like "with the decrease in tourism, it just isn't feasible for us to open the parks an hour earlier for on-site guests" they went with "we know everyone wants to go early to the parks to see the characters, so we'll bring them to you". They then proceeded to bring certain characters to various hotels on specific days. Talk about lame! I would have appreciated a bit of honesty!

I also agree with those who think that taking away Tapestry of Dreams was a big mistake - it was just beautiful!

Cheers,

 

[ChrisFL]

I am quoting this from one of the Imagineers

In classic Disney fashion there was a nice architectural draw at the end of the street, a faithful full scale re-creation of Grauman's Chinese Theater. Somehow, someway, the management at the parks saw fit to sign off on a huge blue Mickey's Sorcerer Hat at the end of the Blvd., completely blocking the Chinese Theater. Where once stood an intricate and magical architectural icon now sits a giant blue zit of a thing with weird gold swirlies spraying out of it and what appear to be enormous gold cardboard stars superglued on its side. All that's missing is four hundred children bouncing around on plastic pellots inside.

Making it worse is that views from the far end of the street include the turrets of the Chinese Theater right behind the Big Blue Bouncehouse. Imagine placing this 'hat' right in front of the castle at Disneyland or Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom and you'll get an idea of why it is so, so, wrong.

Incidentally you can buy Disney pins and merchandise under this giant mess, which makes it all the more carny and evil.

I have a THEORY about the sorcerer's hat at MGM, this is only my theory based on rumors from several years ago.

Some of you may recall that there were major rumors going around that they were going to remove the Great Movie Ride and put in its place a super high-tech ride to compete with Spiderman at Universal. This ride was going to use military derived "C.A.V.E." technology and would be a very cool and unique attraction.

As we see now the ride never happened, but I think the plan was to put the hat there to block out the construction work needed to put in the attraction. Since they have never changed the ride, it doesnt seem to make sense now about the hat.

BTW, I have NO explanation for the wand over Spaceship Earth and it needs to be gone.

Also, a huge blunder....Replacing the classic attraction, Horizons, with the world's largest and most expensive Spin & Puke.

 

[k5thbeatle]

Hands down...DDP!

 

[akraeger]

Country Bear Jamboree. Both of my children age 5 and 2 hated it!

 

[k5thbeatle]

rushing to build and open MGM first against Universal. it's a cramped and blandly themed result.

Ditto!

 

[DisneyHokie]

I really can't even think about Stitch's Great Escape without feeling a little sad. I miss you Alien Encounter. Come back to me!


Personally, I wish that Horizons was still around. I like Mission:Space, don't get me wrong, but I love Horizons.

Also, Imagination. I MISS THE DREAMFINDER! That was my favorite ride out of all the parks when I was a child.