Originally Posted By irishfan >>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. << Very true, but the original poster wanted a quicker way to get to thrills, a train trip around AK probably wouldn't get you to Dinoland any quicker than walking.
Originally Posted By Kennesaw Tom Agreed. Disney initially designed the MK perfectly. With easy ways to bring park quests from not only around the perimiter of the entire park but also from the front of the park to the back or the park. Including from the left side of the park ( well from Liberty Square actually ) to the right side of the park via the skyway.
Originally Posted By Kennesaw Tom With the exception of the MK since it has the train and EPCOT since it has the boats. All the other parks at WDW have to good access other than pedistrian travel to get from any point in their respective parks. I would even be game for a skyride around the perimiter of DAK. DAK is a huge park and not all park guests are as fleet footed as we are. Not to mention the fact that at DAK you are mostly outside the entire time you are at that park. Most of the rides are outdoor rides. The summertime Florida heat, humidity and sun makes for a potentionally dangerous situation. The stroller birgade, visitors traveling in groups and the tight walkways of DAK combine to make DAK the absolute worst pedestrian friendly park of all the WDW Parks. So lets sum that up: 1: Its a huge park, Disney biggest. 2: It has the most outdoor attractions and least indoor attractions ( so less opportunity to be in an AC setting ) of all the WDW parks. 3: No internal transportation within the park other than foot traffic. 4: Nighmarishly narrow walkways. For the amount of traffic passing through them on a daily basis. 5: Pray you don't get stuck behind a parade. Now in DAK defense. When the park initially opened there was transportation available from the left side of the park to the right side of the park via the boats. Oh course the boats are not being used now.
Originally Posted By ssWEDguy >> Its a huge park, Disney biggest << Yes, it's a large park. But if you exclude Kilimanjaro Safari the rest of the park becomes somewhat more manageable in size. The rest of your points are well put. I wish there was some sort of perimeter transportation. Boats would have been neat in some sort of huge surround-the-park river.
Originally Posted By ssWEDguy Alas, I think it was mostly original creation budget size that kept this sort of thing from coming about. They put the money into the flora, fauna, and attractions. Less so in general guest movement.
Originally Posted By Kennesaw Tom I agree, but how do you explain no transportation at MGM either? In terms of DAK. I would say, bring back the boats. And have comical skippers like the jungle cruise. At least that would make for a "fun" way to get from the left side of the park to the right side of the park. Consider a skyride. Lots of other ( and here some the dreaded Z word ) zoos have them. A skyride would not interfer with the animals or the flow of pedistrian traffic. I have been stuck too many times in Africa behind a parade when I'm trying to get elsewhere in the park.
Originally Posted By TDLFAN >>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.<< It'sa one of those things that make TDL so unique and efficient in crowd movement patterns, and does not hurt the aesthetics one bit. One of my complaints about the MK is the chaotic conditions in the hub and Main Street when it's crowded, forcing them to open the backstage area for traffic movement. Besides.. in the MK, you too can get to Tomorrowland and Adventureland without ever stepping in the hub area, by cutting thru the Plaza Pavillion or the Crystal Plaza walkway.
Originally Posted By kpwdwfan In my opinion the train in DAK is a waste of time and probably is an attraction that guests only do once. I may be mistaken here but after riding it once my family had no interest to do it again. On the other hand the train at MK is one our favotire attractions to do and I think a perimeter train around DAK would have been great addition to the park. It would have been an ideal fit as far as themeing goes and would have given guests another alternative to walking around the parks. In my opinion, there's nothing nicer than taking the train from Frontierland at the end of a long day to the front of MK. I wouldn't be against bringing back the boats either. I thought it was nice alternative to walking and it was a great way to see DAK.
Originally Posted By fundog58 What exactly happened with the DAK boats? When the park first opened, every promotional spot on TV included shots of the boats, and if a show like Regis & Kathy Lee was doing a spot with the water as a backdrop, you just knew one of the boats was going to drift into the frame like clockwork. For something that was so hyped as one of DAK's features I was amazed at how quickly they were abandoned.
Originally Posted By Kennesaw Tom <a href="http://www.allearsnet.com/tp/ak/akdrb.htm" target="_blank">http://www.allearsnet.com/tp/a k/akdrb.htm</a> <<<Radio Disney River Cruise aka Discovery River Taxi aka Discovery RiverBoat Ride aka Discovery River Boats were short-lived at Animal Kingdom. In fact, they were the first attraction, if you could call it that, to be closed. When the park intially opened, the River Boats provided a short cruise through the waterways of Animal Kingdom. I had heard that once Asia opened, the boats would be a means of transportation from one part of the park to the other (similar to the boats in Epcot's World Showcase). I thought this was a super idea and wonder why it never happened. Unfortunately, the boats seemed doomed from the beginning. At the Early Cast Member openings in March of 1998, the lines were over an hour long waiting to board the boats. When the park opened, the lines grew even longer. Tired guests did not appreciate waiting in line over an hour for a 10 minute boat ride that went in a circle and had nothing to look at. Small animal handlers were on the boats for a show and tell, but this did little. The folks at Disney closed the ride down for rehab and it eventually reopened as Radio Disney. The Radio Disney DJs voices were now part of the ride. Still, things were not working well and the ride closed permanently in 1999.>>>
Originally Posted By kpwdwfan Don't know if this is true or not but I heard that guests complained about the long lines and the fact that they waited all that time for a boat ride that wasn't an attraction with any themeing or things to see. I happened to disagree with that and enjoyed the unique views of DAK from the boat. I also recall a problem that the boats had several stops and guests could just stay on the boat stop after stop, which created a shortage of seats and kept the guest turn over rate low. (no pun intended) It's been a while but I kinda remember waiting a long time in the line for the boat and recall that to be the problem. I could mistaken though it's been a while and my memory isn't wasn't it used to be. I wish they'd bring back the boats, I enjoyed the trip.
Originally Posted By hightp I visited DAK in December of 1998, and the boats were not running at the time. There was a castmember at the entrance to the docks saying they were closed for maintenance. I never did see them open. I'd love a Skyway around DAK, but I doubt it would happen. Skycars, if they traveled over the Safari, would have to be enclosed in order to keep guests from dropping objects into the animal enclosures. That would mean the need for some kind of cooled or vented vehicles, especially in the hot Florida sun. I'm not saying the problem couldn't be solved, but I doubt the effort would be put into it.
Originally Posted By Chelledun I got to go on the boats once, and it was kind of odd. I just remember hearing a dragon roaring, and being told that was the future site of the land of imaginary animals. At that time, the boat ride seemed like sort of a preview of things to come. There was not a long line at all though, we walked right on. This was very early, when Asia was still being built and you could only really go in there to look at construction of the Kali River Rapids.
Originally Posted By Kennesaw Tom How about a monorail going around the perimiter of DAK? A few other zoos have smaller monorails doing this. <a href="http://www.zoodegranby.com/en/visite_attractions.htm" target="_blank">http://www.zoodegranby.com/en/ visite_attractions.htm</a> It looks almost like the blue line in Tomorrowland.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros As far as parks that need short cuts to get places from the entrance, I think that the Studios could really use a direct path from the main entrance to Susnet Blvd. Now that the hat is blocking the theater, there is really no need to walk to the end of the street, as there is nothing that adds to the overall feeling of the park there. I guess TOT looks more imposing from the long distance, but it still looks big from next to the entrance. Given that TOT and RNRC (along with the Fantasmic! theater) are a pretty good distance behind the park entrance and big draws, it would make sense to have better traffic flow. All that is blocking it right now is a pair of gates (one on each end) and a small backstage road. Looking at it from Google Earth, it is approximately the same distance as from the turn at the end of Sunset Blvd to the RNRC sign with the car. I guess they would probably want to avoid this though, because it cuts off two of the park's biggest attractions from the vast majority of the shopping. All that is along the way are the shops in the exits of the rides and the picnic-type eating area.
Originally Posted By Kennesaw Tom I have always thought that MGM baddly needs some means of getting guests from the back of the park to the front of the park. I think an elevated trolly would be ideal.
Originally Posted By pitapan16 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. Well....I like the idea od a Dinosaur themed land ALOT. But I think the current land falls well short of what could have been. Dinosaur is great. DinoRama on the other hand, unexceptable.
Originally Posted By pitapan16 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 Expedition Everest in my opinion without having ridden it yet is worthy in every way. If a "dragon Mt." was to be built, let it be built alongside an Everest in Asia. Why Dragon and not Everest?
Originally Posted By pitapan16 >> The problem with a "Dinosaur Land" is that there is only so much you can do with it. << Lol. Well, if you've run out of imagination yes. If not, it's near endless. The theme is great. Who doesnt love dinosaurs?
