6. Original stories were king

If there’s anything we miss the most about Disney parks in the 90s, it has to be the creativity of Disney’s original stories for rides.

It’s a subject that comes up a lot—what happened to Disney’s original storytelling ideas? The last two major attractions based on original stories conceived by Disney Imagineers were Mission: SPACE in 2003 and Expedition Everest in 2006. Pretty much every attraction and land designed by Disney after that has tied in somehow to an intellectual property owned by Disney such as those found in their films and cartoons.

The beauty of Disney in the 90s was that the balance of attractions based on original stories compared to those tied into intellectual properties was excellent. You had opportunities to ride rides and see shows based on your favorite films, but you also got to dive into unexpected tales only found in Disney parks. Epcot, in particular, absolutely shined in this area with a whole line-up of completely original attractions like Horizons, Maelstrom, Body Wars, the World of Motion, and more.

This is one area where Disney has shifted so far the other direction, it has become a common point of contention amongst fans. Speaking for myself, while I love many of Disney’s new attractions tied into intellectual properties, I would love to see Imagineers able to try their hand at some original concepts for attraction stories again.

7. Edutainment was a common theme

Closely related to the subject of original attraction stories is the concept of educational entertainment—one of the biggest themes of Disney parks up until the last two decades.

One of the reasons Disney had so many excellent original stories was that they tied adventure into finding ways to make learning fun—it’s what made the parks truly magical. Epcot is an obvious case, where pretty much all of the attractions served some purpose to let guests learn more about the world we live in. Disney’s Animal Kingdom highlighted education about nature, while Disney’s MGM Studios (which became Disney's Hollywood Studios) pulled back the curtain on the magic of movie-making.

This is something I really miss about Disney parks in decades past—you could have an amazingly fun vacation, but you felt like you came out of it enriched and having learned something new in the midst of the fun. Disney hasn’t completely dropped the concept of edu-tainment, but it has definitely diminished in the face of the push for intellectual property tie-ins.

And finally...