I love most of your posts and your tendencies, but this is bullshit. Big cities have big parks. It's right in the name.
I think it's potentially really cool that Celestial Park is big. It's legitimately refreshing that an original concept gets this much real estate, and I think the concept itself is really solid. Elements are stellar, like the dual Chronos and Helios weenies, the general art direction with the Portals and similar tech, the gorgeous statues, little details like Astronomica being a compass to each landmark. It's beautiful at night, and the lagoon show is well done. There is a lot to like about it.
But that expanse paired with a lack of proper utilization of the space means that a significant portion of the park feels like a scorching deadzone. The trees and foliage haven't grown in yet. There is no entertainment to be found. Lack of shade is an obvious issue. The original stories they've developed aren't very readable at a glance and don't amount to much in terms of a theme park experience. Carousel and Stardust don't feel like they tell any kind of story, even subtextually, within Celestial Park. Without prepping with a UDX Creative podcast to explain what they are going for, both are just a star-themed Carousel and Rollercoaster. My problem isn't that Celestial Park is big, my problem is that it's empty.
I hope eventually we see some life and kinetics form in Celestial through means of a parade, walk-around characters, maybe an additional flat or show, and a fully realized rope-drop moment and night-time spectacular. Hopefully we see additional shade structures, and the trees grow in before too long. All of which would make the frequent walks between portals much more palatable, and would help keep guests in the hub longer rather than clogging up already packed portals like SNW and Paris. I'm certain that was the idea behind making a connective hub this large in the first place; to eat up and divert guests who would otherwise be taking up valuable space in those small Portal lands.
It seems like most of these are in the cards for the future, which is good to hear. Until then, I don't currently believe Celestial Park is properly using the amount of space it takes up. All that space, and nothing to do. I hope that it eventually grows beyond feeling like Disney Springs for me.
I appreciate the kind words. This is genuinely what I believe.
15-20 years is wild i'm sorry. Not trying to discredit your opinion, I do think there is some validity to your thinking. But honestly I think some of you are very harsh with Epic. Maybe because it’s the “new kid on the block” so to speak, so it’s easy to point out and criticize its flaws. It’s not perfect by any means in its current state, but it still is very good and it hasn’t even been a year. Give the park SOME credit at least, 15-20 years is much too long to consider it a destination park.
I think we're at the stage where the park has been around just long enough for the sore spots to become pretty apparent, at least for myself. I have plenty of praise for Epic, but it has really glaring flaws. I believe a number of them will be figured out in time, but plenty of people are in the park right now, and I'm unsure on how consistently Epic as-is can offer an exceedingly enjoyable experience.
15-20 years is an upper limit. Theme park expansions take a long time. I don't know what Epic looks like in 5 or 10 years. Biggest theme park on Earth Magic Kingdom didn't get a new ride from 2012's New Fantasyland to 2023's Tron. Maybe they fasttrack Oz and Luigi and Creature and Broom coaster and Middle Earth by 2035, but that seems unreasonable to me.
15-20 years is enough time for a whole new land, maybe two. Multiple expansions. Lots of operations improvements and time to work out those kinks. It's basically comparing IoA today to the pre-Potter days, it's night and day. It may seem pessimistic, but I don't really see it that way. Ask me when Epic will
guaranteed be one of the best parks in the country? Give it a decade and a half. That's just what feels right to me.