Originally Posted By HokieSkipper <<Also love Kali.>> Kali is a waste of time and a dry set of clothes, IMO. Just can't justify the ride and wetness for how short it is. <<Ee annoys me but is still great.>> I know it's all opinion, but EE is FAR from a great attraction, even with a working Yeti. It's not a good enough roller coaster to overcome it's lack of theming, and it doesn't have good enough theming to overcome it's fairly boring coaster design. <<Who would have ever thought I would sound like a fanboy when it comes to WDW. To me, epcot and DAK are the only reasons I would likely go to Orlando>> If I have a park hopper I'll go to DAK for a few hours to see the trails and do a ride or two on the Safari. Other than that the park just doesn't hold my interest enough. Epcot and DHS are my stops for WDW, with 3-4 hours at DAK and 1/2 a day at the MK.
Originally Posted By HokieSkipper <<I vastly prefer fantasy and stylized environments over the artifical reality that Dave is trumpeting.>> I like an intermingling, which DAK does not have enough of.
Originally Posted By Kennesaw Tom I like the "new" Living Seas Pavilion. That Pavilion needed some TLC. The Sea Base Alpha story was getting boring, dark and gloomy. Nemo and Turtle Talk with Crush have helped breath some new life into an otherwise long neglected sterile place. I always thought the old Pavilion just sucked time away. I've been in half a dozen Aquariums around this country and they all did a better show than the Living Seas has done recently. When the Living Seas Pavilion first opened the highlight of the entire Pavilion was the fish and aquatic life. It had the largest saltwater tank in the world and was considered at the time to be another top notch Aquarium and billed as such. Another casuality of budget cuts or just plain lack of management intrest, the fish have been and are now lacking. You need something to draw the crowds in instead of nearly empty tanks and lettuce munching manatees. Since Disney isn't going to spend the money necessary to keep the fish population up, I welcome "toon" fish. It sure beats looking at nearly empty tanks and in my opinion the "toon" fish accomplish their goal rather well. Teaching adults and children about various sea creatures and our world's "other" frontier. As for the "toon" characters. EPCOT Center always had "toon" characters, some unique to that park. We all know about the famous commercial of the helicopter shoot of Mickey standing atop the Spaceship Earth geodesic globe. I can understand someone stating they are tired of seeing a growing trend at toonifying ever ride/ attraction at EPCOT. But come on guys and gals, the characters have always been there. Remember the Captain EO characters? How about the vegetable characters in the Land Pavilion, "Veggie, veggie, fruit, fruit"? Imagination had Dream Finder and Figment. Speaking of which, would this be a good time to remind everyone that only a fraction of the Imagination Pavilion is still in use, the rest lies unused and locked away.
Originally Posted By HokieSkipper <<As for the "toon" characters. EPCOT Center always had "toon" characters, some unique to that park. We all know about the famous commercial of the helicopter shoot of Mickey standing atop the Spaceship Earth geodesic globe. I can understand someone stating they are tired of seeing a growing trend at toonifying ever ride/ attraction at EPCOT. But come on guys and gals, the characters have always been there. Remember the Captain EO characters? How about the vegetable characters in the Land Pavilion, "Veggie, veggie, fruit, fruit"? Imagination had Dream Finder and Figment.>> There is a very big difference between characters created for a park and shoehorning characters into a park to sell merchandise.
Originally Posted By Kennesaw Tom <<There is a very big difference between characters created for a park and shoehorning characters into a park to sell merchandise.>> Agreed! But if it works, it works. And Donald Duck in Mexico works. The Cars at TT, I don't think would work well unless TT was rein"car"nated.
Originally Posted By HokieSkipper ^^^It's debatable. I like Nemo in the Seas, mostly because I find it much more interesting than what it replaced. That being said, it is a problem to have Donald in Mexico, even though again, I like the ride better now. He has NOTHING to do with Mexican culture.
Originally Posted By DDMAN26 He had nothing to do with Mexico in the early 40's either. As for DAK, I like Dinosaur, Tough to be A Bug. Legend of the Lion King, Kilamanjaro and yes Expedition Everest.
Originally Posted By sjhym333 I think the Nemo overlay at the Seas was a great decision. I agree about the fish in the large tank. Last time we were there it didn't seem like there were a lot of fish and not many colorful fish at all. Disappointing. Of all the parks, I like the fact the EPCOT seems to corral the characters into one place in Future World. Since we aren't character people we can bypass that building, though it is nice to stumble across Aladdin in Morrocco and Belle and the Beast in France.
Originally Posted By vbdad55 <. But come on guys and gals, the characters have always been there. < remember the double decer bus that would drop off 10 or so characters a few times a day for autographs and pictures-- of course they were always there. and then there's Figment- that with some real care could become more of a marketing icon than he is today
Originally Posted By leobloom >> and then there's Figment- that with some real care could become more of a marketing icon than he is today << Not without a new ride, he couldn't.
Originally Posted By sjhym333 <<< harbors a secret hope that Disney will restore the turntable with Dreamfinder to Imagination.
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA When I first rode 'Imagination' in 1986, that turntable scene was one of the most interesting, innovative and 'how is this happening' moments of any theme park ride I had experienced up to this point. The moving theatre seats in 'Universe of Energy' was pretty cool. As was the moving theatre screen in the 'Universe of Energy' pre-show movie. A small, but effective piece of 'future world' -- Making dinner reservations at EPCOT and thinking, 'can that person really see me in the TV?' (the answer of course, was yes!} Later, at Disneyland, the final scene in 'Indiana Jones Adventure' where your vehicle reverses before the giant boulder rolls over you. Amazing.
Originally Posted By danyoung Jim, I couldn't agree with you more on your points above. I really liked the kinetic wall at the beginning of UofE, even though the show on the wall was a bit dry. >I know it's all opinion, but EE is FAR from a great attraction, even with a working Yeti. It's not a good enough roller coaster to overcome it's lack of theming, and it doesn't have good enough theming to overcome it's fairly boring coaster design.< I just couldn't disagree with you more on this. EE is my favorite roller coaster on the planet, and I always ride at least a 1/2 dozen times every trip. The theming in the queue and in the first park of the ride are terrific, and you're going so fast later that theming is irrelevant.
Originally Posted By HokieSkipper <<The theming in the queue and in the first park of the ride are terrific>> The temple is terrific. Everything else is vanilla. <<you're going so fast later that theming is irrelevant.>> Theming is never irrelevant. You go by most of Big Thunder's theming too quickly to fully appreciate it, but it's still there. It gives you the opportunity to pick up new things each time you ride. Everest does a poor job once the ride starts of telling a story.
Originally Posted By EPCOT Explorer >>He has NOTHING to do with Mexican culture.<< True, but 3 Cabs does... and the "tour" method used, isn't terrible. It's not a perfect fit, like El Rio, but it is a nice, atmospheric ride.
Originally Posted By HokieSkipper ^^^I don't consider 3 Cabs part of their culture. More like Disney trying to reach out to their culture all those years ago.
Originally Posted By leobloom I don't consider any of the World Showcase attractions to be anything more than Disney's version of those cultures, so I don't have a problem with them adding Donald and friends.
Originally Posted By HMButler79 ""Remember the Captain EO characters? How about the vegetable characters in the Land Pavilion, "Veggie, veggie, fruit, fruit"? Imagination had Dream Finder and Figment."" Wow, had no idea those characters were from pre exisiting Intellectual Properties instead of from WEDs own creative minds. Musta been a mix up.....
