@legofan9898
Keep it up Andrew, found your channel a month ago when I had covid and have had a blast binging all your videos
@andromedashh
This is hands down the best theme parks channel right now. I feel like this is the only place to get a truly neutral, researched, and honest opinion so thanks heaps!!
@melissafulton5915
I visited Disney world a year ago as an adult with a family and I also visited Disney world and universal as a kid in the 90s. And of course I had a blast, but you are absolutely correct that the parks were not better back then than they are now. I highly suspect that the reason adults are saying that now, is that they didn't have the hassle of planning or paying for the trip in the 90s. Vacations are ALWAYS better as a kid because you have zero stress! Not because the attraction was any better.
@Productiv-ai
Andrew you mention Universal Orlando tearing out a lot of the old rides and how people miss them. As someone who grew up in Orlando and rode all the old Universal rides, I can say that a few of them would still hold up well today - nostalgia be damned. Two in particular, Jaws and King Kong. However, as a former Universal Creative employee, I can tell you why those rides no longer exist - and it wasn't due to lack of popularity. It was due to a combo of the high cost to maintain them and low operational capacity. It's not something typical theme park goers think about, but park ownership absolutely does. Jaws had an animatronic that was constantly submerged in water. So imagine what a maintenance nightmare that would be. You need literal divers to get in the water to do routine maintenance. But the ride was a great time, and very unique (how many semi thrill rides take place in a real lagoon?) King Kong was another great ride that would absolutely still hold up today - suspended RV, tons of high quality practical effects & theming, etc. But again, it was a maintenance nightmare. The weight of the RVs put enormous strain on the cable pulley system and the ride constantly needed expensive repairs. I was told that they had to constantly NDE the suspension system and do sophisticated welding to keep the ride operational. So obviously rides that are expensive to maintain wreck your bottom line. Universal took it a bit too far though and became notorious for replacing all their old rides with 3D screen based rides... because it's a lot easier to maintain a projector screen than a bunch of animatronics and practical effects (it was literally an inside joke at Creative where we'd say guests should get a pair of 3D glasses as they pass through the turnstile). But the other important metric theme park operators pay high attention to when building a new ride is the theoretical ride capacity per hour. That is, how many folks can you theoretically cycle through the ride in an hour? Obviously, higher the better. When a new ride is built, they calculate a base theoretical capacity. Then when the ride is operational ,the true operational capacity is compared against the theoretical capacity to give insight to how reliable the ride is, and how popular the ride is. Rides that are expensive and hard to maintain obviously kill operational capacity. Now take all these metrics (cost to maintain the ride/how many people its designed to cycle through/how many people ACTUALLY cycle through), and when a ride hits the end of it's service life (another thing guests probably don't think about - even well maintained rides have a service life), the park will decide if it's worth putting up the money to refurbish it, or just replace it completely for something with better metrics. These days, new rides REALLY emphasize theoretical capacity - because as you said, parks are more crowded than ever. So any new ride (especially e-ticket rides) will prioritize throughput. Guest satisfaction obviously plays a factor in all this too, but if a ride is unpopular, it will be be reflected in the operational capacity being low. Hope this helps add some context to some of what goes into the decision making process of tearing out new rides and replacing them with new ones.
@lkjadslkfjlaksj
4:00 reminds me of that quote "no one goes there anymore, its too crowded"
@hunterphilbrick7649
Prolly one of the best channels. Unbiased and balanced
@vickfreak
I think the land is such a big thing. There's a new theme park called Lost Island that opened up in 2022. It cost over $100 million to build but it's located in Waterloo, Iowa which is the middle of nowhere. It looks really cool but it having to be made where land is cheap makes it hard to get to and it seems like the park struggles because of that.
@andysorensen1737
Former local/College Program participant here, and you make some excellent points on Orlando/CFL even being able to support this infrastructure in the first place. Orlando’s population has basically doubled in the 35 years since Universal opened, and the increased population and demand puts stresses on infrastructure I don’t think designers back then anticipated which is why I-4’s seemingly been under construction forever, and your seeing CMs and TMs having longer commutes to lower COL areas given their pay. Heck, I went through my old neighborhood yesterday on my way out of town and it’s crazy to see how much that’s grown in 15 years! It’s like the line in Field of Dreams: “Build it and they will come.” They’re absolutely coming (and in some cases staying) but future expansion plans need to see the forest for the trees especially on a local level.
@JoeBrasso
So I first visited Florida in 2005 and have been quite a few times since then so I’ve seen first hand how the parks have changed - I’d say it’s a mixed bag of things that are better and worse. I will always prefer old Epcot and Hollywood (MGM) Studios, but I think MK and AK offer more these days. However the one thing I really missed about those first few visits as a kid was not needing to have everything planned out for your trip. One of the core memories I have from those early years would be me, my sister and parents sat in the hotel room at night saying “so which park shall we go to tomorrow?” and it was always so exciting. Now it’s all planned in advance, I think it steals a little bit of magic. You make a great point about why they had to change it and you’re totally right - I do miss that though! Oh and also magic hours used to be awesome back in the day!
@nathan3252
I sadly see this all the time. Epcot of the 80s being erased. The redesign of MGM. The slow erasure of attractions at Magic Kingdom. The disappearance of "studio" attractions at universal. The complete redesign of Busch Gardens. The impact of Blackfish on SeaWorld. I have seen so many changes over the last 4 decades it scares me how little of those early rides still remains and what it all will look like in another 10 years.
@BigfootCounty12
This is the best theme park channel going right now. Please start a patreon dude would love to be able to support the channel more directly!
@acowwithlegs
a full day at disneyland park is worth it imo. jampacked with world class attractions and the best stretch of theme park of all time (the west side) it feels like a premiere experience to me. can not say the same about any other disney park except maybe epcot.
@MaxRebo731
I think the changes are good for the most part, but I prefer gradual improvements over large reactionary ones, especially on Disney’s part. They dragged their heels while Universal was making huge strides and now they’re making huge changes but not improving basics like walkways and shade. All the parks need to start planning for climate change impact and make improvements to make visiting in the summer more enjoyable. Also, arcades to get around Main St traffic at MK.
@Cheezbat
There are more than enough people living in central Florida to staff the parks. This area is one of the fastest growing in the entire country. The problem is, exactly like you stated, PAY. The parks don’t pay enough for people to afford to live here. I live about 15 minutes from Disney and EVERYONE lives off my exit. It’s a nightmare of traffic all day long.
@cweed724
I just want the great movie ride back
@SamHartwell420
I've lived in Florida all my life and visited all the theme parks many times over my life. I had universal passes as a teenager and now my wife and I have Disney passes. There is kind of a saying of the three phases of going to Disney. First is when you go as a kid, second is when you go as an adult, and third is when you bring a kid. I'm now in the third phase and it's changed how I view things a lot. I used to only go to theme parks for the big rides and thrilling experiences and now I'm seeing them through the lens of being a parent. Some of these changes do worry me because I see a lot of the more chill family friendly spaces turning into big rides and roller coasters. Disney had by far the most amount of rides with no height requirement meaning I can bring my son on rides like haunted Mansion, pirates, Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh, small world, the people mover, jungle Cruise, but all of those rides are ancient. I don't know if Disney has the ability to build new dark rides like those that attract people and can include children. Ratatouille is the closest thing, but it's always packed. I am sad to see Muppet vision going away and that'll be one more thing my toddler son could do that he can't until he's older. My son really likes the movie cars right now and I'm sure he's going to love the new area, but we also had a lot of fun exploring the caves on Tom Sawyer Island and he's not old enough to have memories of it. Is he going to be able to ride the new rides there? Maybe, but maybe not. Maybe he'll be old enough by the time it's open and I don't have to think about it anymore. I was surprised to see the Yoshi ride in epic universe has a height requirement of 34 inches. It's not that tall, but why does it need one at all. Other than that the only rides without a height requirement at epic universe are the carousel and fyre drill which gets you wet. Disney has been a leader in creating rides for families with small children and I feel like that's slipping.
@SashaaRoblox
Your vids are great man keep it up❤️
@George_L-w7o
Great video Andrew. As i get older I find myself longing for nostalgia and the good old days. I have to tell you the greatest thing I ever saw was the 1964 New York world’s fair. Look at some of the videos of that on YouTube, if you want a blast from the past. That was really futuristic and incredibly beautiful. Yet if you saw it today it wouldn’t hold a candle to universal or Disney World. Yet everybody marveled at it at the time. And, everybody was walking around in a suit. Those were the good old days.
@baha96
We'll see universal announcing a 4th gate and disney announcing a fifth gate in 10-15 years. It's inevitable
@BoardroomBooks