Sunday, July 16, 2017

Week 28: Why I'm starting to dislike Disney


I grew up loving Disney.  When I was a kid, my parents even took me to Disneyland quite a bit.  We had wonderful times there!  I’ve been there so far back that I can remember when we had to use tickets.  Tickets as in A, B, C, D, and E.  You only got 2 E tickets and so you would have to plan out what E rides you wanted to go on for that trip.  Oh those days were so fun!

Disney parks are still fun, but things are changing.  They’re changing and not for the better.  At least that’s my opinion.  There are good changes and bad changes, but I think the bad changes are becoming more prevalent than the good ones.

One good change is the Magic Band.  At Walt Disney World in Florida you can now get a Magic Band to wear around your wrist that will be your park entrance ticket as well as your room key if you’re staying at a Disney hotel.  You can attach a credit card to the band and even use it to charge things in the parks.  So basically you don’t even have to take a wallet or anything with you to any of the parks, you can just wear your Magic Band and you’re all set!  These things are even water proof so no more trying to keep track of your room key while you’re at the pool swimming.  You just wear the fantastic Magic Band, grab a towel, and head out!  This whole system sounds fantastic to me!

The bad changes, though…ugh.  They hit pretty hard.  Disney is deciding to take things away.  They’re deciding to make things more “PC” in the parks.  One of the first changes I was unhappy about was years and years ago.  Someone decided that in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride it was “sexist” for pirates to chase women.  The ride was changed around so that pirates no longer chased after women, but now the women chase the pirates around.  It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me.  There is a whole scene in the ride where the pirates are auctioning off women, but they’re now supposed to be afraid of women? 

This one isn’t so bad, the old pirate running away from the “large” woman.  It does seem to make fun of large women, though. Then we have the iconic women auction in the ride.  There is a line of women being sold and a very large woman on the selling block.  Nearby stands a redheaded woman as the pirates all around yell “We wants the redhead!”  They’re clearly waiting for her to hit the action block and it’s a funny, iconic scene in the ride.

I LOVE this scene!  And now they’re going to take it away.  I’ve heard it’s been decided to make the redhead a pirate.  Maybe she’ll be running the auction selling off the other women?  I don’t know, but I don’t like it! Why would you change that scene?  What will be next to go?  Will they take away the burning of the town part?  Maybe that promotes riots and someone doesn’t like it?  Eventually Pirates of the Caribbean is going to become just another Small World ride where everyone is happy and singing and dancing!  I won’t even go into the Johnny Depp changes!  Oh, why can’t they just leave good things alone?

They took away the iconic hat at the Disney MGM Studios…or Hollywood Studios…or whatever the hell it’s called now.  They can’t even decide on a name for the park!

I loved the hat and the pin shop that was underneath it.  Too bad, because it’s been torn down.  People didn’t like that it obstructed the view of the Chinese Theater.  Did people like the Chinese Theater?  TOO BAD, that’s going to be refurbished now and the Great Movie Ride inside of it is going away, too!  Did you really like that ride?  TOUGH!  Better hope you have some video of it like I do!

New parks are being built for Disneyland and Walt Disney World.  Walt Disney World already has Pandora in the Animal Kingdom park.  That is based on a movie about a company trying to destroy a native people and steal their resources.  And now it’s featured at Disney!  HOORAY!  Did I like the movie, yes.  Do I think it should be in a Disney park?  No, not really.  Who the hell thought this would be a good idea?  Apparently it’s a success because the park is now jammed with people waiting hours to get on the two new rides.  I’m personally just not thrilled about it.

Did you like the Tower of Terror at Disneyland?  Too bad, that’s gone.  It was turned into a Marvel Comics Guardians of the Galaxy ride.  You can still ride Tower of Terror in Florida, but for how long? 

The next big thing will be Star Wars Land and Toy Story Land.  A Star Wars Resort hotel is supposed to be built.  They’re getting away from Disney things and moving on to things like Star Wars and Marvel Comics.  I wonder what the parks will look like in another 50 years?  Will there be any Disney stuff left?  So much of it seems to be going away now.

People sometimes ask what time period you would go to if you had a time machine.  I think I would go back to maybe 1980 or so and visit Disneyland.  Maybe go back to 1987 and visit Walt Disney World.  Am I sounding really old not liking these changes? 

So why am I disliking these changes to a theme park I can’t afford to go to more than once every few years now?  I don’t know.  Until next week, keep asking why.

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