Originally Posted By CMM1 With a majority of the rides in the AK park in the Dinoland and Asia sections of the park and given the proximity of Dinoland to the park entrance, would AK park benefit from having a direct path from the entrance area to Dinoland? If you could take a quick right upon entering AK, a direct path to Dinoland would put you right at the Restaurantousauraus restaurant. That would provide a clear and direct path to Dinosaur, the Dinoland Midway and the bridge leading to EE and Kali River - those rides that would be most in demand during either Early Morning or Evening Magic Hours. Additionally, at the end of the day, it would provide a fast and easy exit for guests who end up in Dinoland and would prefer not to loop back around to Discovery Island and through the Oasis.
Originally Posted By danyoung I wouldn't like it, for the same reason that I don't like direct bus dropoff to the front of the MK. There's a majesty to going through the jungle and coming out with the incredible Tree of Life filling your view. Short circuiting that just takes away from the show that entering the park was designed to be.
Originally Posted By BlazesOfFire I agree. ^^ It would kill people to just take the path to the Tree of Life before branching off into different directions to go to different lands. A direct path would cut out some of the "magic."
Originally Posted By DlandDug The whole point of the Oasis was to slooooow down the frantic pace of multi-day touring, and prepare guests for a leisurely day communing with nature. As much as I like Expedition Everest, it has undone so much of the carefully created ambience of DAK. Creating "Fastpath" trails would be even more destructive, in my opinion.
Originally Posted By CMM1 In the original design of Disneyland, one couldn't get from Frontierland to Fantasyland without going back pretty much to the Main Street hub. First they put in a bit of a shortcut that went through the old Carnation Gardens and then, when BTMRR came, they put in the Big Thunder Trail to link those area together. In WDW's MK, from the getgo there were pathways to allow full flow between the lands. Sure, in AK the Oasis is meant to put one into the mood of understanding that this park will be different - that it is more zoo than necessarily theme/thrill park. And the Oasis leads you to the Tree of Life as the icon for the park. But at the same time, there is something to making it a little easier to get from point A to point B if that is what a guest might like to do. On one's second or third parkhopping trip to AK during a week's stay, stopping to view the Tree of Life might take second place to getting in another couple of rides on Dinosaur, EE or Kali River. Those who wish could always go the longer route through the Oasis - but I'm hard pressed to believe that tired guests in Dinoland wouldn't appreciate a fast and easy way to get to the park exit at the end of a long summer's day or that parkhoppers arriving at the park to take advantage of evening Magic Hours wouldn't appreciate a faster and easier route to the thrill ride attractions.
Originally Posted By irishfan >>Sure, in AK the Oasis is meant to put one into the mood of understanding that this park will be different - that it is more zoo than necessarily theme/thrill park. And the Oasis leads you to the Tree of Life as the icon for the park.<< Just like Main Street at the Magic Kingdom brings you to the Hub and Castle, or would you prefer a path from Town Square straight to Space Mountain? At Animal Kingdom, the "Journey" is just as important as the "Destination" in my opinion.
Originally Posted By ssWEDguy >> At Animal Kingdom, the "Journey" is just as important as the "Destination" << Agreed.
Originally Posted By TDLFAN I personally would close the entire Dinoland and remake it to be more like a true Disney park, as opposed to a glorified county fair.
Originally Posted By CMM1 >>I personally would close the entire Dinoland and remake it to be more like a true Disney park, as opposed to a glorified county fair<< The problem with a "Dinosaur Land" is that there is only so much you can do with it. Look at IOA - they have a whole land there as well and it has one big Dino ride and a couple of others that are not particularly compelling. Same holds true for AK - one very good Dino ride and bunch of midway rides with a faint Dino-motif. The concept that really has some potential and which has never been brought to life is the old "Beastly Kingdom" one - dragons, unicorns and other beasts of fantasy would surely make for a number of decent attractions given the technical competence of the Disney folks. Quite frankly, if they had chosen to make a dragon instead of another Disney version of a Yeti, they probably could have made a "Dragon Mt." attraction instead of a Mt. Everest ride and used it as the headliner for the Beastly Kingdom area.
Originally Posted By CMM1 >>Just like Main Street at the Magic Kingdom brings you to the Hub and Castle, or would you prefer a path from Town Square straight to Space Mountain?<< At WDW probably not practical since Space Mt is so far out on the rim of the park - at DLR the distances are small enough that it probably doesn't matter. Don't disagree that the Oasis is there to put you in a particular frame of mind - but again, where parkhopping and magic hours are such a big part of the program, it is much more likely that some guests will just choose to skip the Oasis area their 2nd or 3rd time through and just want to get to the thrill rides which have brought them back.
Originally Posted By irishfan >>but again, where parkhopping and magic hours are such a big part of the program, it is much more likely that some guests will just choose to skip the Oasis area their 2nd or 3rd time through and just want to get to the thrill rides which have brought them back.<< Again, if that is your arguement, why not get rid of Main Street?
Originally Posted By CMM1 >>but again, where parkhopping and magic hours are such a big part of the program, it is much more likely that some guests will just choose to skip the Oasis area their 2nd or 3rd time through and just want to get to the thrill rides which have brought them back. Again, if that is your arguement, why not get rid of Main Street?<< Because in those parks with a Main Street, it is a bit impractical to expect a direct route to outlying areas of the park. There is a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff behind those buildings. But at AK, the proximity of Dinoland to the main gate area makes it look possible to have such a "cut-through" path. As always, on these posts, it's just one persons opinion.
Originally Posted By ssWEDguy Did you know that in Tokyo Disneyland that you can reach Adventureland and Tomorrowland directly from Main Street, instead of just from the hub? Don't know that I agree with the aesthetics, but it works for Tokyo Disneyland.
Originally Posted By ssWEDguy >> The problem with a "Dinosaur Land" is that there is only so much you can do with it. << Oh come now. I suspect there's probably more that can be imaginatively done with dinosaurs. It's not just that they've exhausted ideas. That said, I do wish Beastly Kingdom would come about.
Originally Posted By Kennesaw Tom The difference between DAK and MK, is that at the MK you don't have to walk down Main Street to get to Tomorrowland. You can always get on the train and take it around to the Mickey's Toon Town Faire station and walk to Tomorrowland. With a train wrapping around the MK, the lands in the MK are far more accessable than any of the areas and crowded walkways of DAK ( which are often filled with preformers, parades, etc ).
Originally Posted By danyoung >The problem with a "Dinosaur Land" is that there is only so much you can do with it.< That may or may not be true. But my problem is with the intentional theming of a roadside carny stop. I really do enjoy the Primeval Whirl, but seeing it setting there on iron stilts on an asphalt slab is just so uncool. And the rest of that section does need to be bulldozed. As great as I think they did with DAK, this area is something of a black eye.
Originally Posted By ssWEDguy >> But my problem is with the intentional theming of a roadside carny stop << It wouldn't have been my first pick, but the roadside carny stop does have it's kitchy charm. At least it's done well. I too would have preferred something much more dinosaur realistic.
Originally Posted By ssWEDguy >> The difference between DAK and MK, is that at the MK you can always get on the train and take it around to the Mickey's Toon Town Faire station and walk to Tomorrowland. << This is true, and I wish there was something in AK that was similar. The train system they have there could almost serve if it had been laid out in the larger scheme.
