A Disney bus driver told us that

[tjkraz]

Just to keep this "Villains Park" in perspective, here's a link to the New Disney Parks page at wdwmagic.com:

http://www.wdwmagic.com/newpark.htm

Not much information there. But what is of interest is the piece that begins "With Disney's Animal Kingdom having just opened..." There is no date on the page, but the comment about DAK would have to put the timeframe of its posting somewhere in mid-1998. The Disney Villains concept is mentioned as one of four possibilities. So, rumors of the concept date back more than five years.

Physical construction on DAK took just about 3 years. So, unless there is an announcement forthcoming in the next few days, a new park will not be a reality before 2007.

Personally, I fail to see much incentive for them to build a new park. Yes, I've seen the rumors about a "thrill ride" park to compete with IOA. But when you factor in all of the infrastructure necessary to construct a park, the better approach would be to reinforce their current properties. The current contstruction plan to add an "E Ticket" to each of the 4 existing parks is an excellent move.

I've seen many people report that they either skip AK or MGM altogether, or only spend a portion of their day at each because they aren't "full day parks." IMO, that is an issue that WDW needs to address before they break ground on a new park. A new park only means that the existing properties get short-changed. Wrong move. Rather than building a new park with 8-10 attractions of its own, I'd rather see 2-3 new additions to the existing parks.

 

[JenKatt]

My hubby works in transportation, they don't tell the bus drivers anything more, they just are very adept at listening to what others say.

As I was walking around MGM the other day I was wondering what they are going to do with this park. The Auto Stunt show makes Indy obsolete. The Auto Stunt show makes the Indy Stunt show look like a couple kindergarteners running around. So what will they do with Indy? Build the Indy dark ride? One could only hope, but is there room? MGM was planned so badly, there really isn't room to expand it like other parks, it is boxed in by parking lots, roads and the multiple entrances.

There was talk for a bit that they were going to build a bridge over one of the access roads to expand the park out more. Wisely enough the Imagineers realized that WDW guests would not want to hoof it that far out.

WDW is a funny place. According to guest surveys, people like the buses more than the monorails, they are happeir with the service. Why? Who knows. Maybe expectations are less, people expect to wait 20 mintues for a bus, but can't wait 5 for a monorail.

Point being, things are subject to change and point of view.

 

[Lewski709]

People like the busses more than the monorail? How can that be? There are more resorts that have bussing compared to those that have monorail access. Could that be the big reason?

 

[castlegazer]

Originally posted by tjkraz

Personally, I fail to see much incentive for them to build a new park. Yes, I've seen the rumors about a "thrill ride" park to compete with IOA. But when you factor in all of the infrastructure necessary to construct a park, the better approach would be to reinforce their current properties. The current contstruction plan to add an "E Ticket" to each of the 4 existing parks is an excellent move. ........ I'd rather see 2-3 new additions to the existing parks.

I was just about to pipe up and say that I do not like to have to travel all over the place to park hop and waste significant amounts of time doing so and you hear multiple similar complaints leaving aside the issue of the reality that the ancilary parks are just that, half day ancilary parks. I really feel that they should, given that the cost factor to add onto the monorail is a bit prohibitive, add additional space to MK and build on from there - even have an additional monorail stop to access a new area on the way to GF or something like that rather than trying to build the infrastructure to accomodate another park. This being said, I do think this is quite a big rumor as it was all doom and gloom not so many months ago and I don't think it is exactly rosy financially yet.

 

[JenKatt]

Originally posted by Lewski709
People like the busses more than the monorail? How can that be? There are more resorts that have bussing compared to those that have monorail access. Could that be the big reason?

When my husband told me this, if you haven't figured it out, he drives a 14 mile long electric train set , I wondered how that could be. I HATE the buses. They were never meant to be a permanent solution, but that's what they have become.
I believe it's all perception. People expect more from a WDW Monorail. They expect the CMs to be better and the service to be better. When I visit DH at work it amazes me the things people complain about on the platforms. Last week I saw someone complain that she had to cross the platform and change trains. She was crossing the shortest portion of any platform, but to her she was parting the Red Sea. And then she complained that 3 ECVs couldn't fit in one Monorail Car. I just don't see that same level of expectation from buses or watercraft. There's an expectation. but people think the monorails should do more. Afterall, they are Monorails...

Like I said before, WDW is full of perceptions and different ones at that