I'm going to go ahead and say it ..... Its time for Josh D'Amaro to go. I know he is a likable figure at WDW, but I don't get it.
Honestly I think you are giving him way too much credit. He only moved to WDW in November 2019.
Epcot is has been in disarray and decline and for DECADES. Wonders of Life has been closed since 2007. 2007!!!! Prime real estate in the amusement park world, and collecting dust sixteen years.
This was closed shortly after Iger became king, and Josh was low on a totem pole bouncing around in California.
East and West pavilions in decay for decades. The Spine has been walled off and under construction for YEARS (yes i know, Covid years) ... but yippee, when the construction walls finally come down, we get a Moana water fountain. How entirely under-whelming. Shortened, and re-themed Imagination -- ruined.
I agree that the past and future of Futureland is about as cohesive and creative as the walls that has been blocking it. That has been since the day it opened. I have to think a whole posse of Imagineers and park President and Josh and number crunchers and Chapek made this new plan. They must do better going forward to make this make sense. ALTHOUGH Guardians is a step in the right direction! Guardians is likely the best attraction on property and who thought EPCOT would ever get that blessing. Fingers crossed there is more ideas coming.
Don't even get me started on barges in the lagoon. That decision alone should have gotten multiple people fired.
Announced 2018. Josh was still in California. He had no part of that. He now has part of dismantling it.
Dino Land at AK is an empty shell. More prime real estate, empty and under utilized, no imagination, no spark of interest.
Again pre-Josh brought us that stupid area. Now in difficult situation of not just replacing a ride but making that entire DINO area something new! and that cost money.
AK hasn't seen anything new since Pandorah, May 2017.
Again that is tied to DINO being the first area to be fixed. AK is the lowest attended so I think all focus has been on other parks, especially EPCOT that needed it.
Both Remy and Tron are under-whelming rides, one-and-done, and mere transplants, copied and pasted from other parks. No imagination.
We love Remy and while it is a transplant, so are many other rides, I don't know if or will I ever get to DL Paris. I am glad it is there, and it is a perfect fit for EPCOT. TRON ... well it was in a warehouse so might as well build it. I hated it going to MK but now done, it fits and hopefully will kickstart an upgrade to Tomorrowland. Underwhelming, yes, but we still rode it at least once each trip.
Galaxy Edge and outpost Ba'atu isn't even from one of the Star Wars movies, for some very odd reason.
DS says same thing .... but we still enjoy the design and atmosphere. The rides are good. Oga's is a pop in place for us but disappointed we didn't get the dinner theater. Maybe with Starcruiser gone they add it. Disappointed in the lack of cover and A/C in the market but I get that the focus was in the driod factory. Disappointed in the quality of the food. Pandora proved it can be done well. Room for improvement but still an impressive land.
Friendship boats and the monorails are old and showing their age. Walking around, WDW barely gets maintenance.
Boats are fine, they do their job well. Monorails, at least remove EPCOT (replace with SkyLiner) so you can afford to upgrade MK line. I haven't been on in years due to their condition but rode in July on red all renovated. But was a monorail crawl so I wasn't worried if it stopped. Disagree with overall maintenance. While it might not be constantly painted like it was 20 years ago it far exceeds the quality of any of the area parks.
Starcruiser resort was a crash-and-burn since launch.
Not a Josh project, he was in California and NO ONE was going to fill that thing long term. It was a bad idea from the moment someone brought it up.
Who has been over WDW during all this ... Mr. Josh D'Amaro. As WDW president and now Parks and Experiences president, shouldn't he have more accolades on his resume than a successful skyliner and Guardians of the Galaxy?
Josh came to WDW right before COVID. Literally months in - the world turned upside down. He likely had no control over any decisions that were made over the next 9 months. Chapek was known as a micro-manager who got rid of people that didn't bow to him. Josh was smart in laying low until Chapek was removed so his career at Disney wasn't shortened. While I would love to see more real commitments to future projects, we have had some big ones. I would love to see him pressure his people to do things like ... fix Kylo Ren, fix Hondo, make sure all ride PhotoPass work, audit all QS to make sure food quality is there ... small things add up to one's experience when they are bad.
Why is Disney Tokyo Sea the coolest park ever, not owed by Disney, and still miles ahead on Disney imagineering and story-telling immersive experiences?
You can't compare one company to another. DH and DD went. They said DL is nothing to brag about and laughed about their huge importance on fast food and popcorn buckets. They loved Tokyo Sea. When you only have two parks to draw folks, no cool resorts, you can put more money in to a single park.
For Pete's sake, grow a pair and stand up and say that the money the parks make ... stays in the parks for reinvestment.
One reason companies diversify is to make the mother ship profitable. Josh isn't putting his job on the line to complain that his division is more profitable and he wants another division to fail.
Not some ill-fated Disney residential community in Arizona, and no more using park money for poorly done live-action movies of Disney classics, and no Toy Story 5 through 9.
Again, Disney is huge, it is diversified and one thing you do is take profits to invest in new divisions to make new profits (hopefully). Josh had no voice under Chapek and honestly depending on what Iger's end goal is he is walking a line.
Somewhere along the way, WDW lost its focus, and that falls to one position, the top guy. Grade: C+
The only time something falls on one position it is the CEO and the Board. Chapek was a failure before he fell into the job and the Board allowed it. Everyone else is now trying to pick up the pieces of not just Chapek but the damages that came with COVID. Add the loss of Florida tourism there is lots in the equation to focus on.
I hate there is nothing of substance coming but perhaps it's just time to do all the small fixes, improve what you have now, get those walls down for awhile, get your staff all hired (I hate only one waterpark open when it's hot).
