DL Subs looking more promising...

[Sarangel]

From MiceAge.com:

The long-rumored, and highly controversial plan to resurrect the Submarine Voyage finally made its grand public debut last week as the testing we told you would begin in September began on one of the submarine vehicles in full view of Disneyland's paying customers.

In a previous update we'd already described the large plastic boxes that Imagineering (WDI) has dreamed up to contain the new Finding Nemo sets and animatronics, and one of those boxes also appeared alongside the test sub in the lagoon. WDI's rather artless attempt at hiding the Nemo themed scene inside the box with plastic sheeting is necessary lest Monorail passengers gliding up the adjacent speedramp spy into that box and find a "Some Assembly Required" version of one of Pixar's most famous characters. In the final Finding Nemo project, almost all of those boxes would be found inside the caverns and the exterior lagoon itself would appear much as it always has.

The long awaited public debut of this submarine and its accompanying test equipment sent the Disneyland fan community into a tailspin of excited online frenzy, which is actually what Team Disney Anaheim (TDA) and the Imagineers had been hoping for. It seems the WDI creative types, as well as some of TDA's most senior ranking executives, want this process to gather a bit of a groundswell of public support in the next few weeks. This grass roots and slightly subversive approach to creating public awareness of the project is thought to be important as the preliminary planning process heads into its final weeks.

The private hope of both TDA's executives and WDI's power players is that this submarine project advances to the point where it can no longer be written off as simply a bad Internet rumor. And if that's the case, then the pressure really increases on Michael Eisner and Bob Iger, who have been constantly beaten up in the press by the Save Disney folks for their tightfisted ways, to give the green light to this new Tomorrowland project and prove they still care about good 'ol Disneyland. And now that it's late September and the submarine is almost literally out of the bag, that's really what it boils down to folks.

Although the overall cost estimates for this total project have crept up a bit in the last six weeks as the enormity of the task at hand is itemized into future fiscal quarters, Matt Ouimet and his TDA gang have stood solidly behind the concept and its merit for Disneyland's greater good. It was when the cost estimates came in that previous park head Cynthia Harriss and her team got cold feet during the first attempt at a submarine revival back in '03. But Matt has stood firm behind the concept, as he continues to be very committed to getting new rides in to both Disneyland and California Adventure (DCA). (Yes, we've even heard some new rumblings in the last two weeks about the Superstar Limo building!)

And while the nifty show effects and massive refurbishment that the submarine ride's 45-year-old infrastructure would require began to send the final price tag north of the 70 million dollar figure, WDI has clearly picked up on TDA's newfound willingness to play along and WDI has stuck to their guns when it comes to the quality and "Wow!" factor for this new ride. All that is really left now is for the Imagineers to put the finishing touches on all of the show effects they've been working on the past few months, and then hope that Eisner's ride through scheduled for October goes well. If he is suitably impressed with what WDI has come up with, and perhaps because he's been backed into a corner just a bit by the recent press both online and in the mainstream media, then the green light will be finally given and the race will be on for the Finding Nemo version of Disneyland's venerable old Submarine Voyage attraction.

But don't start out staking your place in line for the Subs just quite yet. Assuming Eisner does give the financial thumbs up to this project a few weeks from now, it would not be until the third quarter of fiscal year 2007 (Spring of '07 to you and me) that this new ride would open to the public. While that's a long two and a half years away, it's important to realize that this project doesn't just encompass the old submarine ride and its queue. This project would also include in its construction scope the Disneyland Monorail and its Tomorrowland station hovering above.

And then of course there's the fact that the new Submarine queue and loading area won't be able to simply be rebuilt in its old 1959 image. Rather, it would need to accommodate the demands of 21st century customers; namely, a Fastpass line, a Standby line, and a Single Rider line. The thought at this early date is that the Submarines would reopen with Fastpass and Autopia would subsequently lose its Fastpass to avoid the over-abundance of Fastpass rides that was one of the biggest mistakes of the Cynthia Harriss era. While all this change comes to the old Subs queue, up above the old Monorail platform would be basically rebuilt from scratch in order to better accommodate the spatial needs of the submarine queue below.

The first thing that would be removed from the monorail setup is the recently added elevator for the monorail platform. When that elevator was added a few years after former parks honcho Paul Pressler closed the Subs in September, 1998, the new elevator shaft intruded on the old loading area of the submarine dock. With that elevator shaft in its current location, there is no way they would be able to have three submarines at a time parked at the dock for loading and unloading. And without the ability to load and unload three Subs at a time, the relatively paltry hourly capacity of 1,200 riders per hour falls even lower. And so that monorail platform elevator would have to be replaced by a series of newly built ramps that meet the new ADA compliant building codes.

When it's all said and done, if the subs get the green light the Tomorrowland monorail station would have to be basically ripped out and rebuilt from scratch. Luckily, fiscal year 2007 is about the timeframe currently being used for the arrival of the new Disneyland Monorail fleet, and the old station will need some upgrades anyway.

There's not much else to report on the Subs that hasn't already been covered until Eisner is driven down to Anaheim in a company Escalade for the big WDI "Finding Nemo show" in October. We'll keep you informed on what the final verdict is as soon as we get word.

 

[raidermatt]

Hmmm. Assuming all this is true, or at least close to it, it's another example of how park management has been upgraded on the West Coast.

Of course, that wasn't going to be a tough job, given how far away from "getting it" the old crew was.

Its also an indication of how Eisner's grip is finally loosening. True, he won't be gone for 2 more years, but the fact that there is an apparent end means some may actually be comfortable engaging him in some gamesmenship.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out. The lagoon is a real sore spot for Disneyland fans, and bringing in a replacement that was promised years ago is a huge symbolic move. And if the new attraction really is all that and a bag of chips, it could be a pretty big tangible move as well, especially for the much maligned Tomorrowland.

I do find it interesting that many of management's defenders have said reopening the subs in any form would have been a stupid idea and simply not practical. Apparently not everybody even within Disney agrees with that assessment. (I honestly don't remember who exactly said that around here, so if you didn't say it, don't take offense.)

I guess there's three possible outcomes:

1- The idea is shot down, and nothing happens.
2- The idea gets implemented as described in the article.
3- Some watered-down, cheaper version gets implemented.