Jim Hill says 3 Big Attractions comming to Disney World !!!!

[JacksBack!!]

This article is from Orlandoweekly.com and Hill lets the cat out of the bag for one of Disneys most anticapted attractions of all time. An E-ticket ride to end all E-ticket rides!


Up-and-down attractions




By Jim Hill
Published 9/6/01

It's official. The Mouse is scared.

Even as the tube is blanketed with commercials that trumpet the arrival of Disney World's "100 Years of Magic" celebration, Disney officials are conceding that this fall and winter may be particularly brutal times for their destination resort. With bookings down for all of WDW's on-property hotels, some even suggest the woes could carry into next summer.

Publicly, Mouse House officials blame the uncertain economy, which is causing many an Orlando trip to be put on hold. But privately, senior staffers place blame closer to home. They insist that management made a mistake in not adding any significant new attractions since 1999, when Epcot's "Test Track," Animal Kingdom's "Kali River Rapids," Disney/MGM's "Rock & Roller Coaster" and the Magic Kingdom's "Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh" all opened within six months of one another.

Still, determined to turn "100 Years" into a success, the Mouse is mounting the largest marketing blitz ever for its Central Florida resort. Counting the cross-promotional dollars that Disney's partners -- Hallmark, McDonald's, Coca-Cola et al -- are kicking in, $250 million will be spent in an effort to lure visitors back to Orlando.

Yet, the message that it's rides -- not marketing -- that move people appears to be sinking in. Which is why the Mouse's moratorium on building big new attractions in Orlando may be near an end. New rides and shows announced in the weeks and months ahead could include:


"Mickey's Philharmagic," a 3D extravaganza in the Magic Kingdom's Fantasyland Theater, home since July 1994 to the "Legend of the Lion King" puppet show. With cutting-edge computer animation and special effects technology, this new attraction was originally developed for Hong Kong Disneyland, and could be up and running by the fall of 2003 -- just in time to kick off Mickey's 75th birthday bash.


The "Reign of Fire" roller coaster. Here, finally, is that big thrill ride for Animal Kingdom that Disney Parks and Resorts chief Paul Pressler has been hinting about for months. Imagineers hope to use this proposed attraction to resurrect an idea that has long been in development -- a whole new land for the park, Beastly Kingdom, themed around creatures that never existed. The coaster's theme likely will be tied to the storyline of a forthcoming Touchstone Pictures/Spyglass Entertainment release, a film not-so-co-incidentally called "Reign of Fire." This action adventure film, which stars Matthew McConaughey and Christian Bale, isn't due in theaters until June 2002. But it's set in a post apocalyptic future, where a legion of dragons has suddenly awakened and systematically begun burning our world to the ground. The coaster is supposed to recreate the climax of that film, with riders zooming on a suspended track through the burned-out ruins of London in search of the dragon brood's queen. Provided that Mickey doesn't cut the budget, "Reign" the ride could feature the largest audio-animatronic figure the company has ever built: a 30-foot-tall robotic version of the queen that will snap its jaws, scratch its claws, flap its wings, and belch smoke and fire as guests fly by at 50 miles per hour.


Those who prefer their dragons non-smoking should know that Future World favorite -- Figment -- definitely will make a comeback. Tired of the endless complaints from Epcot guests about how Disney ruined the original "Journey into Imagination" ride during its 1999 redo, the Imagineers finally are doing something about it. Their first smart move was to assign veteran Imagineer Tony Baxter to undo the damage. Baxter helped create the original version of the Kodak Pavilion ride, and this month he will be honored with a lifetime achievement award from the Themed Entertainment Association in recognition of all the rides, shows and attractions he's dreamed up for Disney over the years. Though Baxter's crew hasn't officially finalized plans, the proposed name for the redo of the redo -- "Figment's Journey into Imagination" -- leaves no doubt about who will be front and center again once the revamped pavilion reopens in the fall of 2003. It's said that Epcot visitors now be will invited into WDW's Imagination Institute to view a most amazing discovery. It seems the Institute has managed to capture a really for-real figment of imagination. But just as guests enter, Figment breaks loose. Their mission is to help recapture the little purple dragon.

This revamped ride -- plus Future World's high tech "Mission: Space" and a new 360-degree Canada film that's supposedly in the works -- could make Epcot a destination again come 2003.

Whether that extends to the rest of the resort -- well, the uncertainty creates something of an up-and-down ride itself, now, doesn't it?

 

[KnightsQwn]

Thanks for the good info.

I hope Disney does just as much to include the MAGIC at these rides.

 

[wdwguide]

Almost sounds too good to be true! Not only is this a great balance of thrill and traditional attractions with e-ticket potential, but this would also mean that there would FINALLY be a Mickey Mouse attraction again, Beastly Kingdom would FINALLY become reality, and JIYI would be un-ruined.

 

[noblemickey]

This is very good news if it is true! As a sidelight, I used the Disney addresses posted on the Rumors board and wrote a two page letter to Roy Disney last Monday and a letter each to Paul Pressler and the VP for the Magic Kingdom. I'm sure they probably haven't received them yet. I encourage all of us who love WDW to write and make our feelings known. Disney executives as are many executives elsewhere begin to feel everything is fine until they see a downturn. If enough of us speak up when Disney is concerned we may influence them and get some of our desires satisfied. Not coincidentally, everyone would benefit from a better WDW including The Disney Company too. The screaming cat gets the mouse!

 

[larworth]

These are all rumors that we have heard about for some months now, but seeing Jim put them in print does make me feel they are likely to happen.

Philarmagic - While it would be nice if this was an addition instead of a replacement it sounds like a big improvement. Seems that this was a rumor about 6-9 months ago.

BK - Lordk told us that something great for BK was in the works. Sounds like a great ride and consistent with one of the early BK ride descriptions. I ask again if one attraction is sufficient for opening a new land. Should we assume there will be some type of B/C ticket attraction (play area, etc.) for young kids to do as well?

JIYI - I forget which insider has been saying this was close to a go. I didn't realize Tony was involved in this effort. It does give you hope that they will do it right this time.

Now, the only thing missing for 2004 is the Soarin clone. I would be surprised if they continued to sit on this one given how successful it has been. We don't want the studios to feel slighted do we.

Boy lets hope that they really do see it is attractions and not marketing after all. Keep them coming.

 

[YoHo]

Darnit, I WANT my Soarin over Sauron Soarin Clone for Beastly. Well Okay, not LotR themed. Way too expensive, but I think it would be magnificent. Another Voice, Inform your sources that YoHo will be a very unhappy pirate If all Beastly Gets is a Coaster that will be popular for 1 Year. (like your sources care.)
incidently, I wonder if Roy will read that letter. I have a suspicion that Despite his opinions of the parks when his uncle opened them (to use a Star Wars quote, he's got too much of his father in him.) He might be the only one in a relative position of power to whom hearstrings are relevent.

On the other hand, telling him what a travesty his decisions have made of HIS Uncle and Father's Studio may not play well either.

 

[gary]

... is a good year to skip. I'll be back in 2003.

It's nice to see that the bosses have finally gotten the message (hopefully).

Gary

 

[Quentin Disney]

After reading this artcle, the thing that jumped in my mind was the "S" word. Synergy. The Imagination thing was obvious, but the other two rumored projects scream of it. Think about it, Mickey (and Minnie's!) 75th birthday = something big. The Reign of Fire coaster is obvious as well. But what if that movie does poorly and we don't get the coaster? I guess we will all have to find out soon, someday.

Anyway, AV will probably shoot down these rumors like a sinper somehow.

 

[Another Voice]

Sniper! That’s a new one. I will try not to be overly negative and cynical, but I do want to give grounds on which everyone can lay their expectations.

Disney knows it’s in trouble. California Adventure is a failure as a theme park. Attendance at WDW is off much more than it’s competition and off more than what the economy would indicate (or as someone said – “it’s the VALUE stupid”). Indications are not all that great for Disney’s second budget theme park, Disney Studios Paris. And to top everything off, executives in Anaheim and Orlando looked up from their budget slashing just long enough to see thousands and thousands and thousands of happy Japanese paying customers streaming into the park that Michael said was “crazy” to build. I can almost feel the resentment in the air.

Figment – in Hollywood we call this concept “product placement”. In Burbank they call it “finance the ride by increasing plush sales”. Accountanterring is controlling the size and scope of this rehab. Given the material this rehab could turn out very well, just don’t expect the old ride to be put back. Probability of something happening – 85%

PhiliMania (or whatever) - Imagine, if you will, you are Mr. Pressler. In this hand you have a film that’s being financed by the Communist Chinese government and that you can use free of charge. In the other hand you have a theater filled with very expensive puppeteers and a shop that does NOT sell Pooh plush. Before you is an accountant with a spreadsheet that shows the operating costs of all those people slamming the Pumba puppet around and the cost of a projectionist to flip a switch every 17 minutes. What do you do, what do you do….. Probability of this one happening – 40%.

‘Reign of Fire’ Coaster – do you know how many attractions based on ‘Dick Tracy’ are filed away at the WDI art morgue? The concept described by Mr. Hill is the cheap plan – taking the old design for the dragon coaster and putting a new logo on the entrance sign. Other plans exist and the battle is over which ones will move forward. Something will happen here because of the disastrous attendance trends at Animal Kingdom, but which form it will take has not been decided (and on a rare positive note we could get two lands out of this and YoHo could still be Soarin' somewhere yet). Chance of the coaster (as described) happening – 15%. Chance of “something” at Animal Kingdom – 95%.

Things at Disney have rarely been this chaotic before. Even budgeted and announced plans have been cancelled at the last minute. Wait until you see the bulldozers on the horizon before buying that airline ticket.

 

[Planogirl]

I see something else missing that I've been hoping for. I don't see any mention of new pavilions for World Showcase. However, bring Figment back the right way and I'm perking up already. Maybe, just maybe there is hope for Epcot.

 

[Hiddenmick]

"Darnit, I WANT my Soarin over Sauron Soarin Clone for Beastly."

Hi YoHo!

Could you explain the "Soarin" technology to me? Is it anything like the "Flying" scene you could choose in the late, great "Horizons?"
Thank-you in advance!
Hiddenmick: confused:

 

[larworth]

OK, so we should remember not to get too wedded to any single attraction coming to pass. Plans will continue to change, and change, and change.

I guess the real question here is not what attractions, but have they really woken up and decided they need to reinvest after-all? I borrowed this AV quote from another post

After the opening of DisneySea, corporate plans for additional carny rides and more WDW clones are being greeted very coolly in Anaheim. There is a growing feeling that cheap rides and copies are reason for the park’s failure and adding more of both is not going to solve that problem. No one knows if Burbank understands that yet.

.

The first part of this statement is what many of us have been wailing about. The last sentence is the key, are they starting to get it? Hill implies they have; even if it is only from a pure $ standpoint. Do they now believe there is a correlation between new attractions and longterm attendance? Let’s hope so, and that they don’t forget that doing it right is just as important.


JIYI – if I was going to pinch pennies it would not be on this rehab. Seems like this effort will come under intense scrutiny. Can they risk the fall-out of trying to pull a figment fast-one (just tossing him into more scenes with no other major upgrades) and have it fail?

Philarmagic – If it has a major cost advantage and replaces a show I assume has marginal attendance the probability of this one seems higher than 40%? Add the fact that it has a clear Mickey connection to boot. What else do they have to pick from for the MK? I don’t see them springing for a major lagoon attraction (maybe someday if they do one in DL first), or another mountain, so seems very logical to me.

BK – Another interesting decision to watch. What scale attraction do they go for? Will it be more a thrill ride play or a true E ticket? Will the heart of the ride end up being just a coaster experience or will they opt for an fully immersive sensual experience built around a coaster? At some point Disney needs to pull the trigger on another Splash Mountain scale attraction to regain it’s image. Isn’t this their best shot? Or do we assume SPACE is supposed to fit this bill.

AK- If BK opens with a major attraction and another new land gets added with a Soarin clone this would really change park dynamics. It should turn this into a true full day experience for the average person. I assume Disney would still want people to stay through dinner to get this reveneue stream. With the Safari ride having daylight limitations I assume they never planned on having people stay much later than this and would not look to add any nighttime event down the line to hold people later?

 

[YoHo]

Confession, I have never been on Soarin over California. My Enthusiasm comes both from explinations and positive reviews of what amounts to the only truely great ride at Disney's California adventure. The other part of my enthusiasm comes from the ability to tell a Mythical or fantasy story such as The Lord of the Rings, or parts of Fantasia from the soaring through the skys perspective.

What I've gathered about the nature of the ride mech is as follows.
It uses an IMAX (or is it Omnimax (curved)) screen which is placed on the floor the seating area is above it. The effect is that you look down and around on the movie giving you the sensation of flight. it also utilizes sensual ques similar to Alien Encounter or Its tough to be a bug. Think of it as an inverted Star tours or Back to the future.

If my description is inaccurate, please anyone that's expireanced it let me know.

My heart says this is the next circlevision 360 idea. Highly adaptable to many different themes.

As to Animal Kingdom being open later. I doubt that this will ever be typical operating procedure. Perhaps during christmas and other special occasions much as regular zoos do. the animals need to sleep afterall.

 

[Another Voice]

Corporate has always understood that new attractions drive attendance. But the key to figuring out their behavior is the definition of “attraction”. When we use the word “attraction” we use it refer to a ride or an elaborate theater presentation. When the outsiders that are running the Attractions and Resort group at the moment use “attraction”, they use it to mean “something that can be marketed”. And that difference is causing the frustration. Disney has been putting parades and shops and off-the-shelf rides into the park and believed they were giving the guests new “attractions”. The guests themselves, however, are waiting for the next big fifteen-minute long show ride and see the recent offerings as filler. People want another ‘Test Track’ and the company thinks that the ‘Stars and Cars’ parade fulfills that desire.

Not only does Corporate need to change its attitude to match the guest’s expectations, but there also has to be a willingness on Burbank’s part to act on their new understanding. They are extremely reluctant to spend the money to do that these days. To twist the cliché around – it’s cheaper to sell the sizzle rather than to sell the steak. There is an attitude (which developed throughout the late ‘90s) that people will pay for The Brand. It’s an old concept and very familiar to a lot of people at the top of the Disney food chain. It boils down to the line about jeans – what’s the difference between blue jeans and designer blue jeans? The label and about $40. That attitude has now been carried over the to parks – what is the real difference between Disney’s California Adventure and Knott’s Berry Farm? Nothing except the name at the front of the title.

The next couple of weeks will be interesting.

 

[larworth]

People did continue to pay for the brand even if the product seems to have declined somewhat. The problem is this only goes on for so long before the glow of the brand wears off (ahhh the mystery of predicting customer perceptions). One of the advantages of having a strong brand is the insurrance it provides when a company has an unintended dry spell. Even well managed companies have failures from time to time, and a strong brand can pull them through until they get things righted. It is a dangerous practice to intentionally milk a brand and hope you're clever enough to know where to draw the line.

Enough of my dribble, let's get back to discussing whether these rumors seem credible and whether they are sufficient to get things back on track.

 

[YoHo]

I think the branding problem Disney has is that they've forgottenWhat made the Disney brand Great. Putting Spitting Camels on a standard Spinner could have been great, but they had been eroding the brand for too long. Both in the themeparks and far more importantly in the movie theaters.

 

[GrammieMame]

We did this twice, and would you believe that fastpasses were gone by 11:00 am? Actually, you sit in a row of about 10 seats across, with about 4 or 5 (I think) rows. You are seat-belted in, with smaller children having a belt that comes through their legs also. The I-Max screen is actually in front of you and above you, with the sides kind of wrapping around you on the sides (it's not 360). When the lights go out, the rows of seats are moved in an upward direction so that there might be a row below you and a row above. If you're not in the top row, you can see the legs of people in the row above you, which is the only disadvantage of this attraction.

The theme is a "flight" across California, and it opens going through the clouds, and then descends over a river with some rafters. You have the sensation of going so close to the water that people lift up their legs so they won't get wet. It's like you're hang-gliding (at one point another glider comes out from your peripheral vision and goes in front of you. It ends up over Disneyland with in-your-face fireworks. It was absolutely the most unique ride experience I have ever had. Rode with my 6 year old grandson and we were both going "wow" throughout the whole thing.

I can't wait until they do one at WDW (surely they will). A trip through Africa or Asia would be great in AK, and would do wonders for attendance.

 

[Channel1tv]

JIYI has been appoved for months now....
E ticket for AK is still in debate when and what, No Talk of BK....
Still debating fate of 20K, revamp must fit budget or scrap and recover.....
New gate in the works, 2005 , can you say c.....?

 

[Douglas Dubh]

I'm not convinced a Soaring clone fits in with Animal Kingdom. It would have to be done in a way that emphasizes animals and not landscapes. I think it would fit better into Epcot, in something like "Soaring over Australia"

I suppose it could work as part of a Beastly Kingdom expansion in AK. You couldn't do Soaring over Mordor as has been suggested because they don't have the rights, but maybe a "Reign of Fire" tie-in could work - you could fly over a war torn England and engage in an aerial war with dragons - but that's a bit more intense than "Soaring over California" is.

 

[larworth]

OK channel1tv care to enlighten us a little more.

What is the scope of the JIYI rehab. It is a decent effort?

What are some of the AK E ticket options you hear being debated. I guess we have all become so sure it is BK your comment of "no talk" is curious. The honchos say 2004 in which direction might this change?

20K still seems low probability to me.

5th gate 2005??? Common are you funnin with us.