Two points here... first, I don’t remember anybody talking about yoshi being potter level quality. Mushroom kingdom? Hell yeah, and from what I’ve seen, it exceeds Wizarding World Hogsmeade in its immersion. Look, even Harry Potter has hippogriff — A ride for kids who can’t go on forbidden journey. They even cloned hippogriff to every other hogsmeade, rather than come up with a new family attraction, because it works well. Yoshi honestly works better in its environment. An iron Rollercoaster next to hogs Meade where you pass one animatronic before going up an obvious tire drive lift hill is far less immersive than what we’ve seen of Yoshi.
My second point is this. Since when has having rides for the little ones been frowned upon or a cop out? When I was a kid at Universal Hollywood, the only “ride” I had was the ET adventure. If Yoshi were in the park, it would’ve been my second fave or even surpassed it with its liveliness. Hard to tell what I would’ve thought back then haha.
Disney has had rides for smaller children for years that really allow the grandparents and toddlers to ride things together while older kids and adults ride the bigger rides. The creative team honestly did a great job. Just having a slow moving Yoshi ride around the perimeter of the mushroom kingdom would’ve sufficed, but they added interactivity, figures and scenes that add to the experience.
I mean would we rather have this, or a Vekoma Rollerskate with Yoshi Cars, a static figure or two and a captain toad statue ala gadgets go coaster. I’m pleased with the decision they made
