Fast Company: In the 55 years since Walt Disney World first opened its gates, the theme park has undergone plenty of changes—and in many ways, it’s stayed the same. Some attractions from the park’s opening day in 1971 and the decade that followed have cemented themselves as indisputable classics, such as the Jungle Cruise and the Haunted Mansion (both iconic enough to have warranted their own film adaptations).
2 comments:
I am curious what changed to allow them to reduce the height requirement from 40 to 38 inches. The article makes it sound like not much of the ride itself changed, just that parts have been redecorated. I have mixed feelings about renovations on so many of the classic Disney World rides. Those were the rides I grew up with and I don't think they need to be changed. But, you gotta give people a reason to come back and see the "new" ride. Even if it is just about the exact same. I haven't been on splash mountain since they've changed it. I am hopeful for the Muppet renovation of rock'n'roller coaster, and I hope they don't change the track of the actual ride. I'm also sad that they closed the Muppet Show, that was always a fun one to watch. But at least we aren't fully losing the muppets.
In general, I’m really pleased with the fact that Disney seems to be going back to old attractions and working on opening new ones. Over the past few years, it really seemed like Disney took their foot off the gas in the aftermath of the COVID-19 Pandemic, at least with development at Walt Disney World. Given the fairly recent announcements of Villains Land, Cars Land, Monsters Inc and Tropical Americas, it seems like Disney is kicking development into high gear once again. It will be interesting to see if Disney continues to announce large expansions at the same rate, or if they decide to wind down development again. While I think Disney in the short term has learned from their pandemic errors as attendance continues to wane, I hope the new CEO doesn’t think he can just coast off of the current development cycle until the late 2030s, because that would create another multi-year void with little to no new development.
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