Theme Parks Were Better in the 90s (Part 2)

Thank you to everyone who chimed in and made factual corrections to the video! The one good thing about doing it in separate parts is that I can fix mistakes before the full final video releases sometime in the future (maybe a few years in 2025?). Here's a list of corrections though: - I incorrectly stated the name of "King Henry's Feast" as "Sir Henry's Feast". - A fair few people have pointed out that Medusa at Six Flags Great Adventure, which opened in 1999, was in fact the first floorless B&M coaster (and Kraken wasn't even close). - CowboyEntertainment also pointed out that Arrow continued using tubular steel supports past Drachen Fire, which is an embarrassing oversight especially since I showed footage of Tennessee Tornado with exactly those supports in the video.

Say what you want about Michael Eisner he was a visionary. Sure Euro Disneyland got off to a rocky start but he set the standard for the Disney Difference. IP was kept to a minimum and the parks and resorts had there own feel and personality.

I will always miss the Michael Eisner era. He was the last Disney CEO who knew how to dream.

The irony is that subtlety seems has been both lost and gained for entertainment these days. There was very little subtlety in the corporate sponsored performances, architecture, and exhibits of years past, but I feel that the overall goal of brand loyalty and recognition was much more subtle. They knew if they gave audiences a lasting impression from the quality, detail, and interactivity of their experience that the rest would follow suit. Now today Disney has lost all subtlety with its ultimate goal of getting people blindly happy with their brand while simultaneously losing the detail and creativity that they once let foster in their resorts. That spoonful of fun 80s-90s sugar really does help the medicine go down.

The aesthetic of the Value Resorts might be dated, but it's also super nostalgic for me

Honestly this series and your other videos about stuff like Club Cool broke me. The last time I've been to Disney World was around 2009 ish, when they still had the original fastpass. For my family it was one of those once in a lifetime trips. Nothing is as soul crushing as knowing the Disney World I knew and loved back then simply doesn't exist anymore.

IDK why, but the campy aesthetics of the 90s, combined with the in-your-face theming of the time gives me immense feelings of happiness and comfort. Parks like Phantasialand and modern-day Universal are rightfully deserving of praise for having developed such insane presentation and scale in terms of theming, especially the former, but there’s something about what I’ll refer to as the “Millennium Celebration Aesthetic (MCA for short)” that just means much more to me, even though I wasn’t around for it

Your videos are the future of entertainment. They are like the quintessential idealized version of television I’ve wanted my whole life but never got until now. I can just turn off my mind and visit a bunch of the most fun places on earth all in one hour. This rocks. You rock.

The Eisner Era of Disney was a golden era of excitement and new experiences.

6:57 This is something that a lot of people have forgotten about the 80s and 90s. There was a lot of nostalgia for the 1950s, but they updated the visual style. So you would see a lot of 50s style diners with pastel colors. It didn’t start with Mel’s Diner in Universal Studios. You can even find some 50s diners today that were opened in the 80s and 90s that have this style. There were other examples like in animation, graphic design, movies, video games, etc. Off the top of my head, the Richard Simmons workout video Sweatin’ to the Oldies II was like this.

I remember staying in the All Star Sports Hotel with my dad when we went to visit back in the mid 90's. It was honestly pretty cool and the staff there were nice too, they even sent us the Calvin and Hobbes book I left in the hotel room by accident.

Medieval times was better than it sounds, but also rather expensive. I went to Disneyland like 8 times growing up, every year for my birthday. Only went to Medieval times once. From what i remember the cost was about the same, but instead of an all day trip to an amusement park you got a 2 hour show with fairly average food.

The themepark industry in the US are dominated by big themepark chains. I think if multiple of these chains were better in the nineties, then the whole industry has a problem. Disney was far more ambitious in the nineties and was still in the renaissance. But today it seems that Disney is trying to squeeze every last penny of their guests, while offering less. Six flags was much more respected in the nineties. But before the merger with cedar point they seem to set wrong priorities. Seaworld is another big player that seem to fallen of compared to the nineties. Also the animal cruelty controversy didn't help. The only exception seems to be Universal. But if multiple big players seem to have fallen of compared to the nineties, then the industry has a problem.

As a midwesterner, I didn't grow up as a disney or universal kid, but my family was SUPER into Cedar Point. This series is simultaneously so nostalgic while also letting me live vicariously through each installment

Never been happier to see a video uploaded 40 seconds ago

So glad you mention GVC and the CARI site so often, it’s become one of my favourite websites on the internet in this past year. The effort made to preserve and discuss these more niche design aesthetics post-90s is actually very valuable. I don’t know how much of it is nostalgia talking, but remembering all these lavish themed environments from my childhood holidays, I can’t help but miss those days. In the 90s there was a sense of optimism about the future in the west, and as a kid this was reflected in the dominant aesthetic of games and other media of my youth - Utopian Scholastic design. It felt like kids were encouraged to learn, and the theming in places like Epcot made it so exciting to learn about science and technology with a sense of adventure and fun. Idk how kids nowadays are supposed to be excited about learning when all they’re given is boring minimalist spaces and the occasional IP tie-in…

LOVED the original Ice Station Cool 15:00 but won't miss getting pelted by full-sized ice cubes in the tunnel. haha

Man this guy does not miss, I could listen to him making me nostalgic for stuff that existed before I was even born forever

20:04 See that metal control room window divider on the left with a dot on the middle of it between the hot and cold room? That’s a pressed penny that I put there in 2011! 😂

As always, a great video. Just a note, Kraken was not the first B&M Floorless coaster, it was actually the fourth to open. The first was Medusa at Six Flags Great Adventure in 1999. Kraken opened in June of 2000 after Superman: Krypton Coaster and Six Flags Discovery Kingdom's version of Medusa opened a few months earlier in 2000.