Shouldn't Disney have close to the same amount of attractions...

[captain america 2003]

in all 4 WDW parks ? I don't see this happening but , I always have thought that the MK was a better more complete park than the other 3 . EP has been around now for almost 34 years but has not seen any significant number of additional attractions in a long time . HS has now been open about 27 years and despite the promise of Star Wars Land and Toy Story Land there will not be any addition to the number of attractions at HS from just a couple of years ago . AK at 18 years old has never seemed like a completed park to me . Am I alone in thinking that Disney should expand all of these parks , and add (not replace or change) about 5 "real" attractions to each park beyond what is currently under construction ? I love all the WDW parks , don't get me wrong , however I think it is in everyone's best interest , especially long term for Disney to seriously consider this . It would be cheaper than adding a 5th park and would help them fight off UNI/IOA's continued strong growth of market share .

 

[redsbe]

I guess I am little confused by your post as there are no plans that I am aware of to add a 5th park, and all of the four parks have current or recent expansions. I agree that AK, EPCOT, and DHS are currently lacking in terms of number of rides/attractions but major additions are underway in AK and DHS. Yes it does seem to take time but major additions can run in the hundreds of millions cost range and thus simply take planning and time to build. AK is about to get a new complete land and by 2021 so will DHS.

 

[mom2rtk]

My hunch continues to be that they want to keep people excited with the addition of new things but doesn't want to staff them for the long run.

 

[redsbe]

I am also not so sure Disney is worried about losing much market share to Universal Florida as in many ways they are different experiences and not the exact same market demographic, overlap perhaps with the 14-24 age interested in Harry Potter, but not families with young kids, adults making return visits, or the repeat visitor over 50 age crowd.

 

[IrishNYC]

I would rather have a quality experience in each park, than worrying about each park having an equal number of attractions. Quality, not quantity.

 

[redsbe]

from Orlando Sentinel story in May, "Universal's market share last year (2015) was 23.8 percent, a percentage point higher than the previous year. Disney's market share was 70 percent compared with 70.9 percent the year before".

 

[rg35]

I think people who think there is a lack of things to do at Animal Kingdom are looking at that park in completely the wrong way. There is really no lack of things to do at Animal Kingdom. It is basically a zoo with amazing design and theme work that happens to have some rides and shows. Doing the walking trails, the Wilderness explorer badges (great for kids), the shows, and rides can easily fill a day. In fact, the way the shows are scheduled it's very difficult to impossible to even see all of them in a single day if you want to do anything else. AK is not meant to have the same number of attractions as Magic Kingdom. That isn't the purpose of the park.

Same thing for Epcot. Yes, Future World has been neglected for some time, but you can easily spend half a day or more walking around the world showcase and enjoying things like the gardens in Canada, or the great craftsmanship that went into Morocco, and so forth.

 

[IrishNYC]

I think people who think there is a lack of things to do at Animal Kingdom are looking at that park in completely the wrong way. There is really no lack of things to do at Animal Kingdom. It is basically a zoo with amazing design and theme work that happens to have some rides and shows. Doing the walking trails, the Wilderness explorer badges (great for kids), the shows, and rides can easily fill a day. In fact, the way the shows are scheduled it's very difficult to impossible to even see all of them in a single day if you want to do anything else. AK is not meant to have the same number of attractions as Magic Kingdom. That isn't the purpose of the park.

Same thing for Epcot. Yes, Future World has been neglected for some time, but you can easily spend half a day or more walking around the world showcase and enjoying things like the gardens in Canada, or the great craftsmanship that went into Morocco, and so forth.

Totally agree! We don't find any of the parks to be "half day parks" as so many say. If all you want to do is ride headliners, then sure, it's a half day, but there are plenty of other things to do in all of the parks. Epcot is easily a 2 day park unless you're just riding rides.

 

[redsbe]

I think people who think there is a lack of things to do at Animal Kingdom are looking at that park in completely the wrong way. There is really no lack of things to do at Animal Kingdom. It is basically a zoo with amazing design and theme work that happens to have some rides and shows. Doing the walking trails, the Wilderness explorer badges (great for kids), the shows, and rides can easily fill a day. In fact, the way the shows are scheduled it's very difficult to impossible to even see all of them in a single day if you want to do anything else. AK is not meant to have the same number of attractions as Magic Kingdom. That isn't the purpose of the park.

Same thing for Epcot. Yes, Future World has been neglected for some time, but you can easily spend half a day or more walking around the world showcase and enjoying things like the gardens in Canada, or the great craftsmanship that went into Morocco, and so forth.

I agree, some people view the WDW parks (especially AK and EPCOT) as amusement parks when in fact they are theme parks. It was never the intent of WDW to have all the parks only comprised of amusement rides such as rollercoasters, none of the WDW parks including MK were ever designed or operated with focus on amusement rides. Truth is that there are many better amusement parks in the US where the focus on on high end modern and constantly evolving sizes, numbers and types of thrill rides. If you are going to WDW to experience only thrill rides, I get it but the reality is that they only represent a portion of the park experiences at all the WDW parks and always have since they each opened. If you are looking for thrill rides and expecting them alone to fill your day you are going to be disappointed.

 

[Delirium]

Part of it is a perception problem. Many people equate 'attractions' to rides. Yes, the other 3 parks still have fewer things to do than MK, but the number and length of the shows at AK and HS, and the sheer number of shopping and dining experiences available at Epcot, help make up for some of the 'attraction' gap.

 

[jade1]

If WDW had stayed with 2 parks like DL and US, and then added as much as AK and DHS to those 2 parks, and were now also adding TS Land, S Wars Land and Avatar Land-it would be 2 parks with a lot to choose from, but I prefer spread into 4.

 

[AngiTN]

I don't follow your line of thinking. What do you mean by "have to"? "Have to" indicates a requirement by someone or something. No?
Disney's model is working and working well. I don't think they should have to change a thing.
Do I look forward to updates at the parks? Sure. But they aren't something they have to do.

 

[captain america 2003]

I understand and agree that each park is a unique experience and each has unique amazing attractions not found anywhere else . I was not trying to put any of them down . As I said in my post I love all 4 parks and visit for a week or more whenever I can . That being said Disney has a growing problem at EP , HS and AK primarily because they lack in the sheer number of attractions which has led to FP+ tiering at EP and HS and could ,after the opening of Avatar land be coming to AK . No one wants inferior attractions just to get the number of attractions higher (we don't need anymore Sing alongside or Dance party's ) . However , as prices continue to rise and frustration continues to grow about the difficulty too often at getting FP+ for attractions you want to experience it only makes sense to add more attractions to these parks .

 

[JimmyV]

Am I alone in thinking that Disney should expand all of these parks , and add (not replace or change) about 5 "real" attractions to each park beyond what is currently under construction ?

Yes, you are alone.
When I ride the Tea Cups in the MK, my investment in time is, oh, about 4 minutes. When I go to the Living Seas pavilion at Epcot, my time investment is, on average, around 75 minutes. When I do the Maharajah Jungle Trek, it occupies close to an hour of my time. When I go to see Beauty and the Beast at DHS, my time investment is again, about an hour. So the MK needs far more rides to occupy my day than any other park. Besides, I can go from RD to midnight at the MK. I don't want to do that at Epcot. Or at AK. I want some of the parks to be accessible at a more relaxed pace. Otherwise I would need a weeklong vacation from my Disney vacation. Not everyday should be a RD to midnight scramble. I love that my AK days usually end around 4:30 or 5:00. That gives me time to shower, change, and head out to a really nice dinner outside of the parks.

That being said Disney has a growing problem at EP , HS and AK primarily because they lack in the sheer number of attractions...

But they don't lack in the sheer number of things to do. "Things to do" and "attractions" are two different things, and Epcot, DHS and AK have plenty of "things to do". Heck. We can burn almost an hour and a half in the Japanese department store. I don't spend 20 minutes in the stores at MK.

 

[Nancyg56]

I think that each park has it's own personality and it's own identity. I am never at a loss for things to do in Epcot or DHS, and often wonder how people can overlook or undervalue the very things I find so much fun.

I love the fact that the parks are not all "rides" because I don't enjoy them as much as I used to.

 

[maltdizzy]

I have always been disappointed with DHS, it never felt whole or immersively-themed...a lot of negative space between a handful of attractions. I am excited for the redevelopment of the park, I could still want more.

AK is a similar but different, most of the park is a return to highly detailed immersive experience, the theming is great (well, weak in the Dinosaur section), I will definitely enjoy more attractions there, esecaiilly since I know the park was truncated and parts not built due to budget cuts (much like DCA).

And, yes, Epcot is getting long in the tooth (some of those WS pavilions are identical, with the same identical merchandise and food, as the day they opened).

Will WDW ever get the same sort of investment that Disney put into making DCA a whole park? Probably not. WDW does well enough, Orlando doesn't have the clout to twist Disney's arm like Anaheim does, and Disney would rather invest to expend their international customer base in China.

But when you view WDW as a "resort"...4 parks...2 water parks...lots of non-park report hotel pluses (I could spend vacation at a WDW Deluxe and not go to a single park), etc. it's still offers a ton to do.

I am also not so sure Disney is worried about losing much market share to Universal Florida as in many ways they are different experiences and not the exact same market demographic, overlap perhaps with the 14-24 age interested in Harry Potter, but not families with young kids, adults making return visits, or the repeat visitor over 50 age crowd.

from Orlando Sentinel story in May, "Universal's market share last year (2015) was 23.8 percent, a percentage point higher than the previous year. Disney's market share was 70 percent compared with 70.9 percent the year before".

I think your skewing old for HP, I believe the 5-6 yo crowd is where it begins, my son and his friends started reading the books in kindergarten, and plenty more skipped the books and went straight to watching the movies. Plus, what you really need to compare is Universal market-share pre-WWHP and post-Diagon Alley, they've taken more than 5% from Disney in 7 years. But you are right that Disney probably doesn't have to worry about US, if anything it just increases the appeal of Orlando as a vacation destination.Plus, Universal has fewer rides that families can enjoy together, that's Disney's specialty.

If WDW had stayed with 2 parks like DL ..., and then added as much as AK and DHS to those 2 parks,...[.

DL and DCA combine to pretty much the same number of rides as all 4 WDW parks now, all in a space roughly the size of Epcot.

 

[zaccaglin]

Prime reason why you pay more for MK.

 

[fluffykalie]

I agree with the op. my logic is that since attendance is going up each year that there needs to be more area's to absorb the crowds. I think they need to add a variety of things to do at ep, ak, hs not just replacing attractions. I am not just talking about rides though. I think Epcot is in desperate need of an outdoor playground.

 

[maltdizzy]

I agree with the op. my logic is that since attendance is going up each year that there needs to be more area's to absorb the crowds. I think they need to add a variety of things to do at ep, ak, hs not just replacing attractions. I am not just talking about rides though. I think Epcot is in desperate need of an outdoor playground.

Disney fixed that. According to their 1st quarter earnings, attendance at WDW was down Jan-Mar 2016 but revenue was up thanks to higher pricing, Iger made it out to be a perfect balance (attendance at DLR was up, IIRC).

 

[whiporee]

in all 4 WDW parks ? I don't see this happening but , I always have thought that the MK was a better more complete park than the other 3 . EP has been around now for almost 34 years but has not seen any significant number of additional attractions in a long time . HS has now been open about 27 years and despite the promise of Star Wars Land and Toy Story Land there will not be any addition to the number of attractions at HS from just a couple of years ago . AK at 18 years old has never seemed like a completed park to me . Am I alone in thinking that Disney should expand all of these parks , and add (not replace or change) about 5 "real" attractions to each park beyond what is currently under construction ? I love all the WDW parks , don't get me wrong , however I think it is in everyone's best interest , especially long term for Disney to seriously consider this . It would be cheaper than adding a 5th park and would help them fight off UNI/IOA's continued strong growth of market share .

AK is a zoo. It's really nothing more than a zoo, just like Busch Gardens and Sea World, just bigger and Disnified. I happen to think it's a great zoo, with great underlying principals and such, but it is, at its heart, a zoo.

Epcot was designed and strategized to be a permanent World's Fair. It wasn't designed as an amusement par -- it was designed to educational. Fun and interesting, but educational.

MGM Studios was designed to mimic Universal Studios and be about movies. It was designed to be an active movie studio, and designed to focus on shows and informational tours.

Unlike California Adventure, none of the WDW parks was conceived as an amusement park, and therein lays the problem. What Disney didn't know -- and, to be fair, they were betting on history -- is that in the end what people want is rides. They don't want to learn; they want to be amused for 90 seconds at a time. But there had always been zoos and there had been successful World's Fairs and Universal had done quite well with their studio tours. WDW had no way of knowing at the conception stage that people would flock to any of those venues, or when they did, that people wouldn't be satisfied with them.

They were wrong. And ever since, WDW has been trying to create hybrids of original intent and customer expectation. They've added rides to all three parks even though none of them had them in the beginning (except Kali. But Kali was designed mostly as a river tour. it became what it is now when the boats were decided to be a threat to the animals they'd be floating past. Everest came later). The thrill rides were all late additions to HS and AK -- even Soarin, Test Track and Mission; Space came well after the park had opened. So Disney has tried to keep the theming of their parks intact while adding what people wanted. But the infrastructure for that isn't necessarily in place, and WDW doesn't just throw up steel coasters because those are vulnerable to the elements. Historically, they've tried to avoid adapting the parks to any current trend of fad (like Universal dedicating two large sections of their parks to a single author's creation, or creating mammoth rides based on films that have shorter shelf lives). That seems to be changing, and changing rapidly, and we can all decide whether a more flexible Disney is a good thing.

But, anyway, the answer why there aren't more rides in the other three parks is that while Mk was designed to be a ride-filled amusement park, the other three weren't, and transforming them into ride-filled amusement parks is a bigger task than it seems.