Post by c***@gmail.comPost by MarshallPost by AnsleySlightly off topic, but I've read 3 reviews of the new ride at Disney, one from a coaster enthusiast. Apparently the ride is really amazing, apparently better than any of the Harry Potter rides. Is the new standard for theme park rides. I love Forbidden Journey, currently IMHO the best theme park ride overall, I'm a bit skeptical but can't wait to ride RotR. I was disappointed with Smuggler's Run and the Pandora ride, which I rode in 2018. I hope Disney has really made something this amazing!
Ted
Yeah, No.
Yeah, No is correct. Disney and Universal are completely different from what coaster fans seek out. They do have some coasters to tease us, but it's mostly walk through, shows, and dark rides. The Park DB has a great article about this here.
http://www.theparkdb.com/blog/theme-park-signatures/
Once you read that article then it all makes sense. You realize all those people are brainwashed (20 million for the Magic Kingdom).
Disney is about making people waste their time so they stay on site for 4+ days visiting the parks. If you read the Dis Boards, you'll hear about people planning week trips, wanting to visit Universal or Sea World, but saying they don't want to give up any Disney days. So a good way to keep people on site at Disney, is to make attractions with long pre shows and fluff rides for the family.
It's mind boggling to coaster fans, to realize that the majority of people don't care about record breaking coasters. They're scared of them, and to me, the marketing of these rides has a lot to do with it. The parks market coasters as death machines, and the fans ride it once and say, "Never Again." Just had a co-worker tell me about some relatives that went on Lightning Rod at Dollywood, went once, said it was a crazy ride, and they wouldn't be doing it any more. These are the typical people who will visit Disney, spend 4+ days, and love it because the rides are tame. They run commercials down here for Universal showing a family visiting Volcano Bay, and the father walks away from the drop slide. See, the most thrilling rides are shown as scary with people walking away saying they won't do it. They need to market these rides as fun.
Stuff like the above is why I track the attendance of the parks over time. I was always wonder what effect the ride choice had on the park and what makes people visit.
http://www.nogodforme.com/USA_Park_Coaster_Attendance_Results.htm
Once again, it's really hard for coaster fans to accept that the Disney and Universal models work, because it goes against everything we think of. Parks like Six Flags try to copy it, but come of short. They have characters walking around at the entrance, they have a dark ride, but the lines are short. The suits at Six Flags have to be pulling out their hair. Why are people brainwashed at Disney, but not Six Flags when there is a dark ride? Yes, we know the answer, the parks are not the same when it comes to theming. Universal has done a good job in copying Disney, their attendance has gone up with Harry Potter. But they can't catch Disney because those people don't want to give up any of their Disney days to visit. So the people end up going through the turnstiles at Disney parks multiple times, and the attendance figures show it.
PLEASE stop claiming to speak for all coaster fans. You don't.
None of this is mind boggling to most coaster fans, because most of us DO
understand that all sorts of people like all sorts of different things.
It's not that they're all swayed by marketing that you don't like. People
just like different things. That's ok.
The world is never going to agree with you on everything, no matter how
well anything is marketed. That's ok.
You' be much happier in life once you understand that there are billions of
people in the world, and we all like different things. And that's ok.
Clearly Disney and Universal are appealing to a huge number of people, or
they wouldn't be raking in so much money. That's ok."
And if it's not your thing, then go to the places you like. And let them
enjoy the places and rides that they like.
"With the first link, a chain is forged. The first speech censured,
the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us
all irrevocably." -Capt. Jean-Luc Picard
"The Drumhead", _Star Trek: The Next Generation_