Originally posted by thedscoop
You see, to me, what makes Disney Different is that it is different than the typical amusement park formula.
...but I sure hope WDW never becomes "Gut Thrills First". Things like the Land, GMR, Pirates, Haunted Mansion are unique types of thrills--maybe the don't grab your stomach--but, to me at least, they grab all my senses much more than any Vekoma.
So far as I'm concerned, there are more than enough "thrill rides" at WDW right now. The drop in Pirates is about as much as I can take, so you can imagine how I feel about RnR. Many people seem to crave such thrills, though, so I wouldn't mind 2-3 at each park either. Problem is, many of the major additions to the existing parks in recent years have already been thrill rides: notably ToT, RnR, Dinosaur, and Test Track. I'd like a nice, slow, JII or Horizons type dark ride, please! Ideally, Dinosaur and ToT would have some form of "mild" ride option which tones down the movement and brakes the elevator on the way down - so anyone can ride.
I may be way off track with this, but I'm not convinced Disney should even try to address the thrill ride market in it's parks. Many people - having never visited WDW, but familiar through movies, tv, word-of-mouth, etc. - equate the modern theme park with "faster, wetter, wilder" (don't know where I found that quote) thrill rides. And, anyone can build thrill rides and decorate them with "a little theming". Disney is supposed to be a cut above this standard - Imagineering can do so much better. Should WDW ever build a basic (minimal theming) thrill ride (like DCA perhaps; maybe Triceratops) people will start to equate Disney with those other parks.
So, if you go into Epcot or MK looking solely for big thrills, you might even be disappointed (in a Disney park!). There are three big "thrill rides" in the MK. As excellent as those ride experiences are, I am imagining someone coming out of the park at the end of the day exclaiming how SM and BTMRR were nice enough, but Six Flags had so much more to do. To keep up with the thrill parks, you'd have to build a lot more than 2-3 thrill rides per park (and then why would you need to come to WDW for rides you have back home). Disney doesn't have to keep up - and it shouldn't try - it's supposed to be leading the way.
Besides, the demographic which likes these thrill rides the most is - I'm guessing - probably not the same group that spends the most money in the parks or visits the most often.