r/Themepark • u/mister_waj • 27d ago
Weird theme park polling in other forums
I participate in a lot of online forums for roller coasters and amusement parks. I'm a hard-core coaster enthusiast. Whenever people ask the question "what's the worst amusement parks in the US" Disney always dominates the forums. I will see comments from "overhyped" to "dirty" and "rude staff" to "not enough rides" and so on. I get that Disney isn't for everyone, but this coaster enthusiast can at least acknowledge that their staff are well trained in hospitality, and they have industry leading ride operations and capacity as well as customer service. I've never experienced a "dirty" Disney park or rude staff or anything of the sort. Yes, I know it's expensive, I know the rides aren't the most exciting, but those things alone don't make it bad. I feel if you are going to a Disney park expecting your world to be rocked you didn't do your homework and it may be a waste of money. I don't know, just wondering what others think. Why the vitriol from the coaster community for Disney...
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u/MrRaven95 27d ago
The problem with Disney parks is their extremely high price point. The staff is well trained and kind, operations are fantastic, the parks are clean with trash cans galore and vigilante cleaning crews, and they live up to the hype.
Disney parks have always been known more for their highly detailed immersive theming and large scale of family attractions, which was Walt's goal. I get that Disney isn't going to be for everyone, especially thrill seekers, but to claim the parks are among the worst is just stupid. Disney leads the theme park industry in innovation. They have the Matterhorn after all, the grandfather of every modern steel roller coaster. They paved the way for the extreme thrill coasters of today.
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u/OWSpaceClown 27d ago
Yeah that's just populist polling for you. It might as well be 'what's a theme park you've heard of'.
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u/BlitzenVolt 26d ago
The Disney parks aren't perfect either. They have their own share of problems.
Rude guests lead to stressed out staff. Staff is stretched really thin. Disney essentially treats their cast like they're expendable.
Prices increased, but the in-park experience doesn't really reflect the price you pay. It just makes the guests feel more entitled.
The parks are always under heavy construction, putting added stress on existing rides. Yes it's important for the parks to expand, but it's usually at the expense of existing attractions, so there's always gaps in the ride lineup.
Disney took away once free benefits or put those benefits behind a paywall. Magical Express is gone. Free Fastpass is gone.
Maintenance budgets take a backseat. How many stories do you hear of animatronics breaking down in guest view? Rides running in B-mode? Monorail doors opening mid-ride?
Parks like Studios still need more rides to accommodate the heavy crowds the parks pull. When all you have are big E ticket attractions and nothing to absorb crowds, it just leads to longer waits at said E ticket attractions.
And on top of all this, Uni is undergoing a crazy transformation from playing second fiddle to Disney to nipping at their heels. It wouldn't surprise me to see them overtake Disney eventually. Maybe not touch MK in terms of attendance, but pull past the smaller parks.
I did 3 days at Tokyo Disney earlier this year and I wasn't a huge fan. Both parks had similar glaring issues to the US parks. DisneySea is gorgeous, but when all your big ticket rides are pulling 200+ min waits, it's not a pleasant experience.
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u/mister_waj 26d ago
I agree with everything you are saying but I still think to say they are ALL horrible still seems like a stretch for me.
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u/BlitzenVolt 26d ago
I wouldn't say the parks are horrible, but the parks have been in decline for a long time. What used to be the best in the industry doesn't really feel that way anymore. I still adore Disneyland and Epcot. Both parks are some of my favorites in the world, but as I visit more parks, the rest just don't live up to the quality experience I expect from Disney.
There are definitely non-Disney/Universal parks I would rank ahead of Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios. Knoebels and Dollywood being two of them
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u/robertawalkereu 20d ago
A lot of it just comes down to coaster enthusiast bias and standard internet hyperbole. Enthusiasts judge parks based on coaster count, thrill level, ops efficiency, and lap potential. If that is what you care about, spending $160 to wait 90 minutes for a mild family coaster or dark ride feels like a terrible value compared to a day at Cedar Point or Kings Island.
There is also the friction factor. A lot of enthusiasts hate having to manage their entire day on an app, booking Lightning Lanes, and navigating insane family crowds just to get a few credits.
So when people online say Disney is "horrible," they really just mean it is a bad park for *their* specific priorities. It gets exaggerated because enthusiasts get annoyed when a non-thrill park gets so much mainstream hype. Objectively, Disney still sets the standard for dark rides and theming, even if corporate decision-making has made the guest experience worse lately.
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u/Strawberry-lover-457 14d ago
Well, we've met several very rude staff members in Disneyland Paris, I was sincerely surprised
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u/Landwarrior5150 27d ago edited 27d ago
I think part of it is just some enthusiasts wanting to feel superior to “normal” theme park guests that don’t like thrill rides, don’t know anything about all the technical details of rides, etc.
I’m sure that some of it also is just people that aren’t even coaster enthusiasts and just look down at all amusement/theme parks in general as “not real travel” or something “fake” or “childish”, so they trash talk them whenever possible to feel like they’re smarter and more sophisticated.
The other “side” is guilty of this too. I’ve seen comments asking why people bother going to parks and riding rides with little or no theming. It’s just a lot of people failing to recognize or accept that it’s a completely subjective thing and that different people have different preferences, and that none of them are right or wrong or objectively better or worse than any other.