Breaking Disney News 3 Major Expansions

[mssong85]

I have to say I'm really underwhelmed by the whole Avatar thing. If Disney Execs think Avatar can compete with Potter they are sadly mistaken. I watched 10 minutes of Avatar and left the room. Didn't even bother going to see it in the theater. Star Wars Land on the other hand could be exciting. I agree AK needs more big attractions but if I was in charge I'd probably bring the Indiana Jones ride from DL to AK and use the Indiana theater in DHS for Star Wars Land. Disney better wake up because we did the Transformer ride in Calif and its amazing. We are big Disney fans who never used to even consider going to US but now with Potter and Transformers US is getting a cut of what used to be Disney's. We cut down on our Disney stay and move to US for a few days. Hope Disney wakes up!

I like your thinking Indy just fits in AK.

 

[twebber55]

I have to say I'm really underwhelmed by the whole Avatar thing. If Disney Execs think Avatar can compete with Potter they are sadly mistaken. I watched 10 minutes of Avatar and left the room. Didn't even bother going to see it in the theater. Star Wars Land on the other hand could be exciting. I agree AK needs more big attractions but if I was in charge I'd probably bring the Indiana Jones ride from DL to AK and use the Indiana theater in DHS for Star Wars Land. Disney better wake up because we did the Transformer ride in Calif and its amazing. We are big Disney fans who never used to even consider going to US but now with Potter and Transformers US is getting a cut of what used to be Disney's. We cut down on our Disney stay and move to US for a few days. Hope Disney wakes up!

They do have the indy ride at dak its called dinosaur

 

[TwingleMum]

They do have the indy ride at dak its called dinosaur

Dinosaurr isn't anywhere near as good as Indy. I hav 4 boys ages 13 to 9. We went on Indy @ 30 times. We would get off and the boys would race to get back in line. My DH kept yelling at them "Why did you look at the eyes of Mora now we're doomed" The boys would crack up. Its a great ride.

 

[jamarmiller]

I have nothing against Avatar and I believe if done right it could be pretty cool and I admit I feel the theme of Avatar fits rather well with Animal kingdon. I also would prefer Avatar land any day than another new land of just generic mythical creatures.

However with all that said, Id prefer a Disney IP to come anyday before a non disney IP

They just have too much not really covered in the parks as it is, to start branching out to other studios franchises.

and I do love the Indy ride. been on the one in Tokyo several times ( never the cali one ) and its my favorite ride at disney seas.

Wish disney would jump on the Indy franchise and make two more movies back to back though

 

[twebber55]

I have nothing against Avatar and I believe if done right it could be pretty cool and I admit I feel the theme of Avatar fits rather well with Animal kingdon. I also would prefer Avatar land any day than another new land of just generic mythical creatures.

However with all that said, Id prefer a Disney IP to come anyday before a non disney IP

They just have too much not really covered in the parks as it is, to start branching out to other studios franchises.

and I do love the Indy ride. been on the one in Tokyo several times ( never the cali one ) and its my favorite ride at disney seas.

Wish disney would jump on the Indy franchise and make two more movies back to back though

Whats your opinion on disney sea in particular mysterious island?

 

[jamarmiller]

Whats your opinion on disney sea in particular mysterious island?

Love Disney Seas, and Mysterious Island is great !

There is a bunch of rides at the park with really no disney movie relation and that is a slight knock against it, but it is still a great park. Because Disney seas is exclusive to Japan and because I spend a great deal of my time in florida every year, I actually prefer going to Disney Seas in japan over disney land Japan.

The one thing at Disney land Japan that I do miss in the states is the Monster Inc dark ride though

But anyways rides at Disney Seas are great but things like Sinbad , and Journey do suffer a little by being not related to a Disney IP. 3000 leagues under the sea is really the only Disney IP there on Mysterious Island and it is a weak link. Sin bad, while a cute ride would have been so much better had it been IMVHO based on a Disney Movie instead like Aladdin. I dont get how Aladdin get a spinner but Sinbad gets a such a bigger ride. the result of it for my family is a once a ride every few years because of the NO disney movie thing attached to it. Unless I show them dreamworks Sinbad movie, my kids have no idea who/what sinbad is.

I think because of the lack of Disney IP related rides being present in the park is part of the reason Disney Land has a higher attendance than Disney Seas

Its a great park though and again I prefer going to it ( if I have to make a choice, but I usually I dont have to ) over Tokyo Disney Land, but my wife and kids, they will take the more heavily influenced Disney IP park-- Disney land

 

[Fantasia79]

Figment! Nooooo!

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

 

[pilferk]

Guess we're not average either. We live in the midwest. Haven't been to Disney World in 5 years (we did do a Disney cruise 2 years ago).

We currently have a 6 day Disney trip planned and sure did pony up the extra to go to Universal for 2 days. Yes it cost more. But really - after you've spent $3000 on vacation - whats another couple hundred?

However, we've been to Universal before and the experience is much different than Disney. We won an all expenses paid trip to Universal for 4 days. Harry Potter is amazing. My son is currently obsessed with Transformers. Which is why we're making it part of our trip this year.

However, I don't think Universal is a place you could spend more than 2-3 days. It's not all inclusive experience like Disney. After a couple of days I'm over it.

If you hit Universal on, say, Tuesday and Wednesday (or Wednesday and Thursday) and do a night in one of their hotels (so you can get the Express pass for both days in the parks) you can easily do Studios and IOA in 2 days....soup to nuts...one in each park. And do it at a pretty leisurely pace, assuming you're willing to use early entry to HP at IOA and hit Studios at rope drop.

Now, maybe HP2 changes that for the Studios side, but it would surprise me if it did down the road. Short term, maybe, because of the crowds, but not long term.

 

[pilferk]

Dinosaurr isn't anywhere near as good as Indy. I hav 4 boys ages 13 to 9. We went on Indy @ 30 times. We would get off and the boys would race to get back in line. My DH kept yelling at them "Why did you look at the eyes of Mora now we're doomed" The boys would crack up. Its a great ride.

I think the point is/was that the two rides have identical track layouts, similar vehicles (though the Dino evolutions are more reliable and can do a bit more, programatically), etc.

The only difference is the props/theming and some of the in vehicle motion/"bouncing".

Indy layout:


Dino track layout (grey sections labeled 24 are Indy differences):

 

[twebber55]

I think the point is/was that the two rides have identical track layouts, similar vehicles (though the Dino evolutions are more reliable and can do a bit more, programatically), etc.

The only difference is the props/theming and some of the in vehicle motion/"bouncing".

Indy layout:


Dino track layout (grey sections labeled 24 are Indy differences):

yep that was the point...of course indy is a great ride

 

[lockedoutlogic]

Disagree 100% with this.

Right now Universal has stuff to talk about, Disney doesnt. Look at everything Universal has added in the last few years and the range of target visitors it covers. From despicable me, transformers, simpsons land, potterland phase 1 and very soon 2 with more to come in the short term from possible terminator and ET replacements.

Disney has added what? more capacity to dumbo, little mermade, and eventually Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, some seed and mulch at downtown disney and a whole load of empty promises/rumours about long term stuff. None of which adds real appeal to anyone other than < 10yr old girls who were already quite well catered for anyway.

You know i love ya...

But you also know that you're wrong...

The numbers still bare it out....wdw is still the steak...the others are still the shrimp cocktail appy and the cheesecake dessert...

It's good for all us disney followers/fans that sea world and universal are making great additions and getting a little more into the game...but they are the flies on the elephant...not vice versa

its not what disney has added in five years and you know that...its the huge insurmountable lead and land that they got out too 45 years ago...i mean...they have 20 hotels within their grounds and probably have space to build 20 more...there's just no comparison...

and yes...i agree with you...they have gotten greedy, stale, flat, and are showing an inability (or probably more likely an accountant, calculated lack of will) to build anything useful in under 5 years and 500 million bucks...
but that doesn't mean they are about to lose the iron throne.

 

[lockedoutlogic]

Just to get this thread back on track: TheBestMagic.net posted another Star Wars Land rumor a couple of days ago. As always, take these things with a HUGE grain of salt.

No offense...

But i believe Salivatore Tropicana about as far as i can throw him.

I don't even doubt that there would be the creative will to do something like this....

what i doubt is the financial will to do so.

I have seen no evidence that there is any desire by the board/exec/dividend seekers to throw mad amounts of capital into orlando unless under specific circumstances....and those are timeshare and retail/food and Bev.

and that is what we have seen.

the fantasyland thing...lets face it...is not that spectacular...and ultimately is to satisfy crowds to feed retail...and beyond that they have not done too much in fifteen years.

they have really tailed off in addition at WDW since 97-98...where the hotel construction (other than dvc) died down substantially and west side and animal kingdom opened.

it has been "sparse" on the whole since.

 

[MichiganDVC]

Yeah they're called typo's.... Thanks for the insults though. Great way to put your argument across.

Wasn't trying to insult you. I was very clear on that, actually. I was trying to point out that your lack of knowing how the ride is spelled might reveal that you don't or haven't spent much time in NFL and therefore might not really know much about how the 7 dwarfs ride is going to look.

 

[MichiganDVC]

Whats is average ?, is average really the kind of guest that disney wants the most ?
I am one of those pesky folks from the UK, also DVC owner and come over for a 3 week stint every July/August. We sometimes come over for a shorter 1 week trip around the start of March too.

Even though we have DVC points we often go for a few days to Universal and always stay in their hotels, I wouldnt dream of not having their excellent fast pass. The extra cost is minimal given our airfare for just me and DW comes to about $6000 each time we come over as we always fly business. In recent years we have also started to go on a cruise for a week whilst over in florida.

This year we arrive on 12 Aug, leave on 18th Aug for a cruise, go to Universal on 25th Aug then back to Disney on 27th Aug until 1st Sept.

Years ago we would spend longer at Disney but TBH nothing much seems to be changed and little in the way of new attractions seem to appear so we found other things to do.

We buy 3 week disney hopper passes before we come over in they cost $860 for two, they are only available to the UK market as we tend to go on longer vacations.

We are thinking about another add on of DVC points whilst we are over this year at Grand Floridian as it is our favourite resort.

Universal are pushing in our market really hard these days, commercials are regularily on the TV

We wouldnt dream of cooking whilst on vacation so all meals are purchased either cash or DDP.

I try and avoid car hire as I don't particulairly like driving on the right/wrong side of the road, only two days of that misery to the ship and back this year.

So the question again, what is average ?, do disney want average ?

Yes, average is the guest Disney wants the most. It's probably the vast majority of their visitors. I didn't mean average as in "plain," I meant average as in "typical." And I specifically exempted people from UK because you usually spend more than a week on holiday in central Florida.

 

[MichiganDVC]

Exactly!!! MichiganDVC seems to only be considering the typical DVC/non-DVC owning AMERICANS who tend to do 5-7 day trips where Disney does currently have suitable ways to encourage you to stay on site.

However, what are the percentages of guests to ORLANDO who fit those parameters? I've no idea, but I suspect its declining.

All the time Universal is gaining the rewards from their investment with more and more people finding much more new exciting things to do there than at Disney.

Huh? You think the typical American family of four with 5-7 days of vacation has stopped going to WDW? Based on what? WDW doesn't even have an off season anymore.

 

[Son of Gadsden]

I hope US competes like crazy and draws quite a bit of the crowd out.

I'll never stay at a US resort, and I doubt I'll ever spend more than half a day at their parks if that. US is a Disney copycat, and wouldn't be where they are were it not for being that kid in the class that looks over at the smart kid next to them's test sheet.

Went to Harry Potter, that was the only place in US that had any sort of "magic" to it that WDW has...and WDW has it EVERYWHERE in their FOUR theme parks, and TWENTY FOUR resorts. And with Disney's purchase of Marvel, US is backed into a corner on that franchise.

WDW is a WORLD, US is a theme park. I am no more attracted to make a trip to US than I am to make a trip to Busch Gardens, Six Flags, or King's Dominion...all of which are MUCH closer to me. A 10 hour drive to see US is just out of the question for me and my wife.

People come from all over to see WDW, and US is a sideshow that benefits from it, if that.

NFL, as has been mentioned here, I believe did exactly what it was supposed to do (this is, of course, before 7D is finished). It was obviously never intended to be a thrill attraction...it was intended to create more of that overwhelming Disney magic that takes a animated movie and puts it in the real world. It certainly made the wife and I more antsy to get down the Florida, and though I'll admit we were slightly disappointed in the back of our minds that it wasn't bigger, disappointed just isn't the word. It was still awesome.

 

[osprey84]

I think it's funny that the original post was about "Breaking News on 3 Major Expansions" and it turned into a US vs WDW post. I will post that I did break away from my trek to WDW every other year the last time and did go and stay onsite at US. I enjoyed the nice perk of having the VIP lines for a majority of the rides minus HP ride. The negative that I have with US/IOA are the seats that they place out in front of the major rides so you can "test" to see if you can ride. I am on the large size and was not able to ride on the major rides because they do not accomodate for portly people and they really don't care that you can't ride. Now with WDW four parks I have never had to leave a ride because of my size. That gives the 4 stars to WDW and why I go every other year. I hope that the 3 major expansions are real and not rumored so we all want to keep going back. It is the Happiest Place on Earth.

 

[DCTooTall]

Huh? You think the typical American family of four with 5-7 days of vacation has stopped going to WDW? Based on what? WDW doesn't even have an off season anymore.

The reason WDW doesn't have an "off season" anymore is because Disney has started filling out the traditional slow times with increased marketting and promo's to international guests, and special events (such as runDisney events, themed events like Star Wars, ESPN, and Soap opera Weekends, and Food and Wine/Flower and Garden Festivals).

I'd be willing to say that both strategies are targetted specifically towards groups that fall outside your "traditional American Family with 5-7 vacation days" bucket. In part, that's because that same 'Traditional Family" is going to be tied to school holidays because the traditional family is going to have kids in school. They are not going to be able to go down in mid may for a special weekend event because the kids are going to need to be in class for their last couple weeks of tests. They are not going down in January for a marathon. They are going to go in mid-spring for Easter breaks, Or the Summer, or the Christmas/New Years breaks.... Those times that are just crazy busy and always have been.

So if you figure a 3 month Summer, plus maybe another 2 months spread across the year for spring Breaks and Winter Breaks, and the occasional "cheated" expanded long weekend around certain holidays [Presidents Day/ Columbus Day/ etc], That still leaves 7 months a year when Disney is actively targetting your "non-typical American Family" to fill the park.


This could be Childless Americans.... Your young couples. Empty Nesters. 'alternative families'. Adult only trips. etc.

It could be your international Guests. Europeans. South Americans. Asians. etc. people Not tied to the traditional US School Calendar...

It could even be Families who may be "typical American Families" who fall outside the 5-7 days of vacation window. People who can afford and justify a regular or long weekend trip to Disney instead of a full dedicated week.

either way.... to say that Disney is still primarily targetting that "Typical American Family with 5-7 days vacation" I think is in some ways focusing on just a small part of the overall picture. Look at the increasing costs of Deluxe hotels, or DVC ownership, or the increasing number of higher cost special events [Table in Wonderland Events. Special Merchandise events. Wine Tastings. Dessert Parties. Seminars. etc]. That 'traditional, typical, american family with 5-7 vacation days' is not going to have the time, budget, or ability to take advantage of all the things outside of the 4 parks that Disney is starting to offer to bring more guests to their resort. IMHO, The simple fact that Disney is continuing to expand their offerings of these higher cost extras is all you need to prove that Disney is not basing their growth or future on the idea that the 'typical american family with 5-7 vacation days' are their primary target audience.

 

[anthony2k7]

Huh? You think the typical American family of four with 5-7 days of vacation has stopped going to WDW? Based on what? WDW doesn't even have an off season anymore.

Err no, I dont think the typical American family have just stopped. I do think its likely there has been a drop caused by the economy, the lack of anything new at WDW, and people waking up to the fact there are other places to go - including in Orlando.

WDW are maintaining visitor levels with appeal to visitors from growing nations (hence the growing complaints of the Brazil tour groups) and other new markets as well as heavy promotions/discounting internationally. If international visitors are growing (and it certainly seems they are) and yet visitor numbers are flat, then surely that can only mean American visitor numbers are lower?

 

[anthony2k7]

Interesting to note that using the disneyworld UK website, it wont even allow me to select hotel dates of less than 8 days (7 nights)!

Not sure how long this has been a minimum length of stay or maybe I'm just doing something wrong.