Let’s Tackle Some Touchy Disney Topics

Sometimes, some Disney topics arise that aren’t quite significant enough for entire articles.

However, these mini-stories will occasionally accumulate quickly enough that they deserve a mention.

Currently, Disney has reached several different crossroads, with a new tourist destination opening, a theme park updating, and an attraction debuting.

So, let’s tackle some current hot-button Disney topics.

As usual, I’ll be more rational than incendiary. So, these aren’t the takes you’re reading at other places.

The Fly Problem

Some members of MickeyBlog’s staff were recently among the first to visit Lookout Cay at Lighthouse Point.

I detailed many of our experiences in a recent MickeyBlog News, and I don’t think I’m speaking out of turn to say our staff loved it.

Alas, some other people who attended this sneak preview weren’t quite as positive about Lookout Cay.

Here’s one of my favorite influencers, Super Enthused, discussing their experience:

I should stress two things here. The first is that Super Enthused demonstrates positivity in most of her comments.

Many influencers are negative in nature because the clickbait added to their viewer and subscriber counts.

Super Enthused isn’t like that, and it has the incidental impact that when she is critical, people notice.

Despite the fact that this person and her partner were invited guests of Disney at a free event, they still weren’t, well, enthusiastic.

Some aspects of the visit struck them as “needs improvement” areas, which is fine.

This was a sneak peek. Some of Lookout Cay’s elements aren’t ready yet, and it’s understood that guests will acknowledge that.

Still, some of the early Lookout Cay videos paint a clear picture of something unexpected.

This island paradise has a fly problem. During the preview, the open-air restaurants were leaving food unprotected.

The guests from the event questioned the thought process there and stressed that the flies were a problem.

A Fixable Problem

How big an issue is that? Well, the answer depends on who you ask, but here’s why I’m not worried about it.

Again, this was the first time that Disney hosted guests. So, management didn’t anticipate the volume of flies.

That’s easily addressable, and it also circles back to an issue from last year.

Do you remember the first Disney Jollywood Nights event? People were openly hostile about the experience.

Disney officials listened to those opening night criticisms and addressed them.

By the final night, which some MickeyBlog members attended, Disney Jollywood Night was close to perfect.

Now, consider whether you remember seeing mosquitoes at Walt Disney World.

They’re there, but you rarely notice because Disney has taken steps to prevent bugs from biting you repeatedly.

The same thing will happen at Lookout Cay now that management is aware of the problem.

Nobody could fix something they didn’t know was problematic, right? Now they can. So, I view this as a non-story.

If we’re still hearing these complaints several months after Lookout Cay has officially opened, I’ll have concerns.

For now, Disney will just protect the food better and add some hidden but effective bug zappers.

A Good Walk Spoiled

The other prevailing criticism of Lookout Cay is one Disney should have anticipated.

When you exit the boat, you’ll find yourself on an elongated dock/walkway.

You’ll follow this path until you reach your island destination, which is a tranquil paradise.

Seriously, the water here is as beautiful as any I’ve ever seen, and that was the consensus opinion from guests.

Alas, reaching that water requires you to be in decent shape. You’ll walk for half a mile on an uncovered bridge.

Several sneak preview attendants commented that they didn’t mind the walk on their way to Lookout Cay.

After all, they were first-time guests and invited by Disney to experience something nobody else had ever seen.

However, the walk back to the boat afterward felt like a slog to some, and it was made worse by the fact that there were no benches.

People also commented that there was no place for anybody to call for help if they had a medical emergency along the way.

Is the Long Walk a Problem?

How big a concern is this? Honestly, the whole thing isn’t great in that my first thought involves anyone disabled.

Like, my back is in tatters, and I can think of several times when I would have felt demoralized if it had locked up in the middle of that hike.

Again, this was a sneak preview, though. I suspect that Disney has heard these criticisms and will install benches quickly.

Similarly, I wouldn’t be surprised if Disney added some sort of shade here or possibly a form of transportation.

In watching countless videos, I noticed that several service vehicles were driving on the path.

Disney could easily add a fleet of vehicles to take willing guests to Lookout Cay sans the walk.

For that matter, Disney could run boats from Lookout Cay to the cruise ships upon arrival.

So, I’m not worried about this complaint, either. It’s easily fixable, but I understand how some early adopters would have felt annoyed.

The Reinvention of EPCOT

With the opening of CommuniCore Hall & Plaza, Disney has officially finished one of its most comprehensive projects ever.

In 1982, EPCOT Center opened as a lasting tribute to the wishes of the late Walt Disney.

Imagineers split the park into two parts, Future World and the World Showcase.

During its early days, Future World focused on infotainment, but it faced the same core problem as Tomorrowland.

Today’s future is tomorrow’s present. In other words, such lands quickly become outdated.

Not coincidentally, Disney reinvents Tomorrowland frequently. At Future World, park officials realized they needed a different approach.

Disney split the former Future World into three Neighborhoods and started a multi-year reimagining.

The pandemic dramatically delayed this process, but it’s officially over now.

More importantly, Disney has done this twice recently at Walt Disney World.

In 2020, the opening of Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway signaled the end of a multi-year reimagining of Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

Only four years earlier, critics derided this place as a quarter-day park, dismissing it as not even as good as half-day parks.

Nobody says that now, as Hollywood Studios has quickly ascended as the second-most popular park at Disney World.

Disney designed the modern EPCOT as more of a hangout spot, something we all appreciate on the Disney World campus.

So, we’re all happy to explore CommuniCore for the first time on the heels of World Celebration Gardens last year.

The exciting part is that we’ll experience something similar at Disney’s Animal Kingdom over the next few years.

Disney has confirmed the arrival of the Central Americas at the former DinoLand U.S.A., but I don’t expect Imagineers to stop there.

I believe that from 2017 to 2027, Disney will have rebuilt three different Disney World parks on the fly. How great is that?

Tiana’s Bayou Adventure Opens

I’m getting a colonoscopy in a few days, and I’d rather have five of those than talk politics.

Somehow, that’s unavoidable at Disney right now, as some outside parties have taken a strange interest in an attraction.

We saw this a few years ago with Pirates of the Caribbean’s auction scene, which caused a few publications to reach out to me.

Then, I didn’t hear from those people for years, but they appeared again and asked me to speak on the Splash Mountain closure.

That behavior is indicative of the motivations at hand here. I choose to ignore those because all I care about is Disney.

And let’s be clear that Disney does have a problem with Tiana’s Bayou Adventure. To me, the ride looks wonderful.

The Tiana Problem

That’s our video that captures the optimistic, jubilant nature of the attraction. This ride is a joy delivery system.

The problem is that it’s battling ghosts, as people adored Splash Mountain.

Unless Tiana’s Bayou Adventure blows Splash Mountain out of the water the way that Frozen Ever After did with Maelstrom, it’s in trouble.

When Disney released an early ride video, we quickly learned just how many people want this attraction to fail.

Scarily, that total appears larger than the ones who were irrationally against Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser.

Some people want to spend their free time badmouthing Disney, a sure sign that they desperately need a hobby.

However, I enumerated several reasons why I think Tiana’s Bayou Adventure could struggle during its first year.

Nothing that has happened over the past month has moved me off that position, even though I think the ride looks spectacular.

The Tiana problem isn’t the ride itself. It’s the weird people who want the ride to fail.

That’s a kind of behavior I will never understand. It’s especially egregious for such an upbeat dark ride experience.

You’re just hating on pure joy when you criticize Tiana’s Bayou Adventure. It’s such a kind, well-intended ride and story.

Thanks for visiting MickeyBlog.com! Want to go to Disney? For a FREE quote on your next Disney vacation, please fill out the form below, and one of the agents from MickeyTravels, a Diamond Level Authorized Disney Vacation Planner, will be in touch soon!