Epcot: New and Old, Emphasis on the Old (continued)

We then headed to the opposite side of Future World to see the newest redo of an old attraction, The Seas with Nemo and Friends. Despite all the efforts made on the state-of-the-art underwater projection effects, we found the most entertaining element outside at the entrance. I was delighted with the rather simple MINE MINE MINE seagulls - one of the most clever little details from the movie.

MINE, MINE, MINE!

After TestTrack, Mission:Space and Nemo we found that the rest of the attractions at Epcot were really not kept or refurbished up to their potential anymore. A shaky Ben Franklin trembled up a staircase in the tinny sounding American Adventure AA show, while the Impressions de France film was noticeably mis-aligned, worn and the projector gates were dirty, shown in a very beat-up theater that was at the French pavilion.

At least their hair was kept up.

Ellen's Energy Adventure also suffered from dirty film elements and antique sound, as well as being badly dated due to its now stale pop culture references after all these years. The shoehorning of a bunch of tenuously related attractions into the Future World Land pavilion (Soarin', two other movies and a boat ride) only has created a more congested building, we won't even comment on the disastrous Journey into Imagination ride makeover, or the worn out Honey I Shrunk the Audience attraction.

I was fascinated by Ellen's pantsuit. Truly.

Add to this mix a complex opening and closing schedule (different operating hours not only for World Showcase and Future World, but also many individual attractions), and you have a park that operates as a shadow of its former self. Even the nighttime lagoon fireworks extravaganza, Illuminations, suffers with a blown out and distortion filled sound system as well as a much too short show.

We didn't partake of the Food & Wine Festival due to costs, plus I felt that all the little sampling booths and tents around the World Showcase lagoon sort of turned that half of the park into a giant food court. A final disappointment was the rather depressing Leave a Legacy monument addition to the Epcot entry plaza - it sort of turned that area into a funereal experience.

Universal Studios / Islands of Adventure

The SpiderMan ride is at Marvel Super Hero Island in Islands of Adventure

The day after we visited Epcot, we hit Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure (IoA). Since this is a report on what I observed happening at WDW, I won't go into detail on those parks other than to say that SpiderMan over at IoA is probably still the best of any of the new rides, and Men in Black at its sister Studios park just about equals it as a shoot 'em up that wallows in its wonderful retro/'60's design.

Men in Black Alien Attack at Universal Studios

CityWalk's huge expansion (as well as the many new parking structures) have really changed the feel of this competing resort. I recommend a visit just to see how the other side runs things, should your schedule permit it. You may be pleasantly surprised.

Magic Kingdom

From here on rather than detail each day's activities at the parks, I'll just focus on the individual problems they are all having that take away from the visitor experience.

At least WDW's Space Mountain never went brown.

Of all the WDW parks, the Magic Kingdom suffers the most from the current policy of benign neglect of its iconic attractions. Space Mountain not only has a tired ride compared to its newly rebuilt California cousin, but also is held back with what seem to be abandoned exit displays - exciting back in 1977, but way too dated now in 2006.

Soooooooooooo dated.

The Haunted Mansion sounds awful and looks terrible inside - with torn scrims and distorted speakers in the doombuggies. The neglect here, not to mention the failure to even try the Nightmare Before Christmas makeover borders on the almost criminal.

They have a hearse too.

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