By 2017: 20 New Rides, Shops, Restaurants

[prudence64]

Having a nighttime experience at Animal Kingdom will be nice to help spread the crowds out for Wishes, Illuminations, and Fantasmic as well.

 

[OnSpaceshipEarth]

Wow! I think those additions will be AMAZING!!

My answer is having Animal Kingdom open at night! It's the prettiest park ever at night and I simply cannot wait!

Isn't it though?

I think AK is already the most beautiful theme park in the daytime. At night it becomes jaw-droppingly gorgeous. With the night-time enhancements that they are going to apply to the Tree Of Life...well...it will be breathtaking. 2017 can't get here soon enough!

 

[MrInfinity]

Very, VERY well said TwoMisfits!

I don't understand Disney's strategy. They own all of this property that includes FOUR THEME PARKS...and yet...they are content with having only ONE of them being *truly* popular. Three aging, half-empty parks that are still very expensive to maintain but are losing whatever limited appeal they originally had in the face of the Universal/IOA juggernaut.

It's like they are content with everyone just cramming into the MK(which makes for a nasty guest experience) instead of providing incentives for people to venture into their other three parks. If that's their long-range strategy that truly spells disaster.

Less and less people will make WDW a "destination" with no desire to visit anything other than the MK. Making it a pit stop in a larger vacation filled with competitors(Universal/Sea World) and Florida's many sandy beaches. The resorts will become even more vacant.

Just because Disney isn't publishing their future plans... doesn't mean they aren't in the works. I'm sure the plans for a SW improvement are all over upper managements' minds as they mull over how to produce a new trilogy of movies and tie that in with DHS.

It may not ease your minds for those who feel they deserve to know everything. But just relax and see what Disney has in store for these new franchises.

Take the new character meals for example. We never had them before cuz D would have had to pay a portion of each meal to Lucas.. Now that they own the characters, they are already utilizing them in ways they can quickly and profitably roll out.

We will see something big regarding Star Wars... and Disney has the responsibility to its shareholders to keep new developments secret until they're actively in the works.

 

[TwoMisfits]

The excuse that Disney has a lot of different parks/attraction sites doesn't hold water. As an example, Six Flags has a lot of different parks across the country and each and every one of them gets a new ride (plus usually a new experience/night show/restaurant/etc) EVERY year. Universal/Sea World/Busch Gardens/Cedar Fair parks/etc also all seem to manage this 1 ride per year schedule, not 1 ride for every 4 parks owned.

And, yes, SOME Disney rides tend to be a little more complex than the normal theme park, but 1. Not all of them are, and not all of them on this list are (maybe 1-2 could be classified as really complex) and 2. Disney charges VASTLY more money for daily (and annual) entry into their parks, especially since they run virtually no specials on ticket prices.

To justify the inflated prices, Disney needs a vastly better experience. EPCOT and DHS will NOT be vastly better than my Local Six Flags by 2017 - in fact, they'll be worse. AK may not be better either, since we are only guessing they will have the new Avatarland open then, and even if they do, it will likely still only be a piece (with the more difficult ride/experience getting delayed).

As someone mentioned on this board, Disney risks becoming what Universal used to be in the late 90's/00's - a 1 day extra stop you fit in around your real vacation. Once you fall into that category, it would take the kind of money Universal has been tossing around their parks to get out of it.

 

[Zippa D Doodah]

Some of the possible dining options coming to Disney Springs sound interesting.

When I consider exciting things happening at Disney World, I find it hard to get hyped up about a Starbucks. Don't get me wrong, I love Starbucks and am glad they are in the parks but as a featured point of expansion it seems rather piddly.

Also, the list of new attractions being added is rather disappointing.

 

[Shaden]

This should read "4 New attractions, and 16 more ways to try and soak guests for more money"

 

[sonofanarchy]

This should read "4 New attractions, and 16 more ways to try and soak guests for more money"

If you go to the Disney Board of Trustees message board, that's what the thread title is.

 

[OnSpaceshipEarth]

The excuse that Disney has a lot of different parks/attraction sites doesn't hold water. As an example, Six Flags has a lot of different parks across the country and each and every one of them gets a new ride (plus usually a new experience/night show/restaurant/etc) EVERY year. Universal/Sea World/Busch Gardens/Cedar Fair parks/etc also all seem to manage this 1 ride per year schedule, not 1 ride for every 4 parks owned.

And, yes, SOME Disney rides tend to be a little more complex than the normal theme park, but 1. Not all of them are, and not all of them on this list are (maybe 1-2 could be classified as really complex) and 2. Disney charges VASTLY more money for daily (and annual) entry into their parks, especially since they run virtually no specials on ticket prices.

To justify the inflated prices, Disney needs a vastly better experience. EPCOT and DHS will NOT be vastly better than my Local Six Flags by 2017 - in fact, they'll be worse. AK may not be better either, since we are only guessing they will have the new Avatarland open then, and even if they do, it will likely still only be a piece (with the more difficult ride/experience getting delayed).

As someone mentioned on this board, Disney risks becoming what Universal used to be in the late 90's/00's - a 1 day extra stop you fit in around your real vacation. Once you fall into that category, it would take the kind of money Universal has been tossing around their parks to get out of it.

Yup.

It's becoming very clear that WDW is being reduced to a "1 day extra stop you fit in around your real vacation". What is that "1 day stop"? The Magic Kingdom.

Increasingly, people are zipping onto the 45 square miles of WDW property...making a beeline for the MK and zipping back off property.

No Resort stays.

No visiting the other three parks.

It's like it's 1977 again.

 

[kidd_freeper]

Hmmm. 20 new items. Five of them are part of the parks. One or two of them designed to "beat" Universal. And intentions to really beef up the underused Animal Kingdom. Not bad.

However, what caught my eye was Trader Sam's Enchanted Tiki Bar.
Adventurers Club 2?

 

[amg35]

I think the Animal Kingdom plans are fantastic!!

We are going later this year, then a RC cruise/Universal trip next year.

But now for sure we will be back to WDW in 2017! The Polynesian remodeled, night time at AK...can't wait!

 

[sonofanarchy]

Hmmm. 20 new items. Five of them are part of the parks. One or two of them designed to "beat" Universal.

What attractions would those be?

 

[Reddog1134]

Did anyone see the comment where the person asked where Disney Springs was going to be? Then said they worked for Disney.

 

[Eastern]

It's actually pretty disappointing - we can count on EPCOT and DHS having zero upgrades for the next 4 years...and a total of 4, yes only 4, new rides (and not all will be E-ticket) for 4 years and 1 of these rides is a delayed one from New Fantasyland, so really it's 3 new rides for 4 years. That's not even 1 per year for 4 parks. With regular amusement parks having 1 per year, Disney is falling way behind the curve and resting on its previous dominance...EPCOT and DHS will be ghost towns by 2017...

I agree. We don't go to DHS or AK anymore as it is.

I will be in the old folks' home before they're done.

 

[luisov]

Plans for Animal Kingdom are exciting. I'm not a big fan of the movie, but Avatar land does have potential to be beautiful and exciting. They MUST do some work at DHS and EPCOT though. Otherwise they will become irrelevant by 2020.

Hopefully they'll announce something new in this year's D23 expo.

 

[kerri0616]

My boys missed the Mickey Sports store on our March trip to Orlando. They take it away and replace it with another store geared toward girls/ladies. Not everyone who goes to Disney is a princess, oh lords of Disney.

Too many restaurants and shops. Not enough attractions for me.

Our March trip was 4 days Universal, 1 day Downtown Disney. Universal gets an A. DD gets a D.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[sonofanarchy]

I see a lot of Disney vs. Universal talk on this thread. Nobody can deny, Universal has whipped Disney's butts hands down on the attraction scene for the past decade. But the big problem I see for Disney right now is something they're just continuing to add on to - It no longer feels like a vacation. Universal feels like a vacation. It's stress and hassle free. Disney, even for planners like myself, is simply too much work, not enough reward, especially with the restraints put in place by Fastpass+. Disney could build 10 fantastic attractions, but until they find a way to take the stress off and make visiting their an enjoyable, somewhat relaxing vacation, they're going to continue to lag behind Universal for an overall experience. I think it was said on another thread - First step is to reduce the attendance allowed inside the Magic Kingdom. I know Disney wants as much money as possible, but when the park gets so crowded that it becomes dangerous, they need to take a look at things.

 

[mom2rtk]

This should read "4 New attractions, and 16 more ways to try and soak guests for more money"

I love that the word "rides" comes first in the title, because they know that will catch everyone's attention. Like they can't count.

 

[prudence64]

I see a lot of Disney vs. Universal talk on this thread. Nobody can deny, Universal has whipped Disney's butts hands down on the attraction scene for the past decade. But the big problem I see for Disney right now is something they're just continuing to add on to - It no longer feels like a vacation. Universal feels like a vacation. It's stress and hassle free. Disney, even for planners like myself, is simply too much work, not enough reward, especially with the restraints put in place by Fastpass+. Disney could build 10 fantastic attractions, but until they find a way to take the stress off and make visiting their an enjoyable, somewhat relaxing vacation, they're going to continue to lag behind Universal for an overall experience. I think it was said on another thread - First step is to reduce the attendance allowed inside the Magic Kingdom. I know Disney wants as much money as possible, but when the park gets so crowded that it becomes dangerous, they need to take a look at things.

Don't think they'd look at being more crowded than universal as a bad thing.

 

[sonofanarchy]

Don't think they'd look at being more crowded than universal as a bad thing.

They should if people will start feeling uncomfortable being there because of the overcrowding.

 

[hallie]

Not very exciting news to me. Our next trip we decided to stay at Universal. We get front of the line access for the whole week included with the room price. No fast pass times to make or plan which is awesome.

We're still going to MNSSHP twice and we have 1 day park hoppers to use, but the rest if the time we'll be at Universal and we have AP's there.

The resort we reserved is on the same scale as a Disney deluxe and it's literally 1/2 the price.

I love Disney and all but we've been priced out so we adjusted our plans. I'm still really excited cause I love Universal too.