News Round Up 2019

[SJMajor67]

News

Avengers: Endgame $350.1 million domestic open and $1.2 billion worldwide open

https://apnews.com/798efe76562549c687eceb78820838e9

 

[Moliphino]

Buy everything...short book...



Perhaps an unpopular opinion but I've said this before and I'll say it again...it's time for the theaters to die.

How much money a year does one spend at the theater? Tickets, snacks, soda, etc? One can buy a 65" TV for $600 and a Home Theater Sound Base for $250. Give me an option to pay $50 to stream the movie right to my house. Can have more people over to split the cost. Let me enjoy the movie in my home, in the dark, with no one talking, and no one crinkling things in my ear and coughing in my face.

EDIT: I originally had "Sound Bar" but I changed it to "Sound Base" since what I looked up is considered a Sound Base.

Sometimes the crowd reactions are part of the fun, like in Infinity War when the theater was completely silent at the end. We had some hilarious kids sitting around us when we saw Endgame the second time and I was cracking up listening to their reactions.

 

[rteetz]

News

New Toy Story Spirit Jerseys

http://blogmickey.com/2019/04/shop-new-buzz-lightyear-and-sheriff-woody-spirit-jerseys/

 

[TheMaxRebo]

NEWS

I know a poster here was talking about it as they got the offer but now BlogMickey is reporting about the offer that enables guests to book advance FPs across up to 3 different parks on the same day

http://blogmickey.com/2019/04/speci...e-fastpass-across-multiple-parks-in-same-day/

 

[SaintsManiac]

NEWS

I know a poster here was talking about it as they got the offer but now BlogMickey is reporting about the offer that enables guests to book advance FPs across up to 3 different parks on the same day

http://blogmickey.com/2019/04/speci...e-fastpass-across-multiple-parks-in-same-day/

Would be nice for them to offer it to APs who have trips booked in that date range. Very frustrating.

 

[wareagle57]

Maybe morewhat you are into than your age. I am 41 and loved the original EPCOT - Dreamfinder and Figment, Horizons, etc. - people mover and CoP are must dos for us, etc. But I also am super excited for all the new stuff coming including Star Wars and Marvel

Now, I don't want it to full take over the classics or anything but at least to date we really haven't lost anything major to any of these properties

I'm in this camp. I really don't mind getting new exciting things like GE or Marvel in DCA. (Guardians surprised me by being my favorite ride ever, after much protest of losing ToT which was always in the mix for my favorite as well.)

BUT I hate the fact that it means we are losing things like nighttime parades and potentially eventually fireworks. And I hate that the successful formula of IP based rides means we will likely never get truly original rides which could be amazing. I wish we could have at least one park or two partial parks that stuck with the classical Disney feel of emotional fireworks shows, Disney animation IP, Fireworks, and original concept rides. Obviously MK and Epcot fit these best. But that also shoehorns all IP based things into DHS as it's a bit more difficult to find a fit in AK. As a result we are just getting a jumbled mess. I'm glad IPs are giving Disney the cash to bring in new and exciting things, but I just wish they wouldn't lose site of what actually makes Disney great in the first place.

 

[Mzpalmtree]

Would be nice for them to offer it to APs who have trips booked in that date range. Very frustrating.

Yep...especially since everytime I have to call about anything for our spring/summer trips I am constantly reminded by CM about the AP 7 day FP limit...

 

[mikepizzo]

Sometimes the crowd reactions are part of the fun, like in Infinity War when the theater was completely silent at the end. We had some hilarious kids sitting around us when we saw Endgame the second time and I was cracking up listening to their reactions.

Depending on the movie, sure. If I'm going to a midnight showing of The Room I want people screaming at the screen and throwing plastic spoons. If I'm going to see a movie for a first time, I would prefer there were no distractions. But that's just me.

 

[SaintsManiac]

Yep...especially since everytime I have to call about anything for our spring/summer trips I am constantly reminded by CM about the AP 7 day FP limit...

It's bad and I doubt I will get an AP in the future.

 

[wareagle57]

Yep...especially since everytime I have to call about anything for our spring/summer trips I am constantly reminded by CM about the AP 7 day FP limit...

What is the rule? I'm an AP but never been more than 7 days I don't think. It is 7 days active in a 30 day window or 7 PERIOD? I don't mind the limit, but clearly it should be lifted if you have a resort stay.

What I find ridiculous is that local APs who obviously are not going to book a stay have no shot at the newest rides (without constant refreshing). I wish Disney would give APs a limited number of FPs that they can book 70 days in advance. Maybe 3-5 per year.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

I'm in this camp. I really don't mind getting new exciting things like GE or Marvel in DCA. (Guardians surprised me by being my favorite ride ever, after much protest of losing ToT which was always in the mix for my favorite as well.)

BUT I hate the fact that it means we are losing things like nighttime parades and potentially eventually fireworks. And I hate that the successful formula of IP based rides means we will likely never get truly original rides which could be amazing. I wish we could have at least one park or two partial parks that stuck with the classical Disney feel of emotional fireworks shows, Disney animation IP, Fireworks, and original concept rides. Obviously MK and Epcot fit these best. But that also shoehorns all IP based things into DHS as it's a bit more difficult to find a fit in AK. As a result we are just getting a jumbled mess. I'm glad IPs are giving Disney the cash to bring in new and exciting things, but I just wish they wouldn't lose site of what actually makes Disney great in the first place.

I probably have a different take on fireworks - though I do hope they don't get too reliant on projections. I think there is a lot of emotional impact of HAE for example (and Wishes had Jiminy Cricket and other Disney songs so obviously still had IP in that) ... I do worry about plans for IP to be added to the new EPCOT nighttime show - I think it can be done well, but don't want it to go too far

At the end of the day I think great attractions are great attractions with or without IPs - but the absolute best attractions have a good storyline and characters to it, so IP can help. Splash Mountain would likely be a great attraction either way, but having some fun characters from an IP only adds to it. But something like Expedition Everest I think doesn't suffer from lack of known IP - but they created their own storyline with the Yeti and traveling to base camp and all the details, etc. in the queue. If it was simply a "nondescript roller coaster themed to Asia" then I think it would be a lesser attraction.

 

[skier_pete]

I don't know why anyone is bothering to compare anything else to Endgame. It's a freak of nature that has two things going for it. 1) The culmination of both a 10-year movie series AND specifically the conclusion of a very big and popular movie last year.
and
2) The apex of response to our "spoiler culture". The fact that social media has reached so far, and that a vast majority does not want to live without it, but also does not want it to ruin their moviegoing experience. The response is the "need" to see the movie as soon as it comes out to prevent strangers from "ruining" it for them on-line or even in real life. I ran into some friends with their kids at the theater yesterday and they were talking about they felt like they had to go this weekend or else other kids would have spoiled it at school.

As another comment - around someone's mention of "Marvel doesn't give me what Disney used to". Sitting in that theater with my 15 year old daughter - I realized that THIS is her "Return of the Jedi" or "Jurassic Park" or whatever movie you want to compare it to from your youth. A movie that just simply left her agape from the sheer entertainment.

This is no spoilers here - but the way that Marvel set up these characters that you care about across multiple movies and was able to put it all together into a story where there were half a dozen characters that really got completed arcs was really wonderful.

I don't mind at all for Marvel to come into the parks. I am also approaching 50 and I was not a big comic geek as a kid (was a movie geek) but I can appreciate how "right" Marvel is getting it, and if this leads to the future of my entertainment in the theme parks, then so be it. I am not sure how long Marvel can keep up this wonderful story-telling (I give all the credit in the world to Kevin Feige for this) but I really am looking forward to where they go from here.

Edit: And to the argument for IP free attractions - I am afraid that we will not see that very often anymore - but it doesn't mean it can't work. And I also often argued that many of those original attractions that we don't associate with IP were in fact part of the "Disney brand" IP. Adventureland was based on several Disney Movies and "True Life Adventures", Frontierland on the Disneyland stories of Davy Crockett and many others. Just because we've forgotten the IP doesn't mean that it wasn't originally there.

 

[PolyRob]

What is the rule? I'm an AP but never been more than 7 days I don't think. It is 7 days active in a 30 day window or 7 PERIOD? I don't mind the limit, but clearly it should be lifted if you have a resort stay.

What I find ridiculous is that local APs who obviously are not going to book a stay have no shot at the newest rides (without constant refreshing). I wish Disney would give APs a limited number of FPs that they can book 70 days in advance. Maybe 3-5 per year.

Its 7 days if you do not have an on-site reservation. If you have 20 days on-site, you can book 20 days of FP+ on your AP.

 

[Mzpalmtree]

What is the rule? I'm an AP but never been more than 7 days I don't think. It is 7 days active in a 30 day window or 7 PERIOD? I don't mind the limit, but clearly it should be lifted if you have a resort stay.

What I find ridiculous is that local APs who obviously are not going to book a stay have no shot at the newest rides (without constant refreshing). I wish Disney would give APs a limited number of FPs that they can book 70 days in advance. Maybe 3-5 per year.

Apparently the rule is that you are entitled to 14 days of fastpasses during a 60 day period if staying onsite with a continuous stay. Otherwise it’s capped at 7 days regardless if the stay is onsite or off. We have 3 onsite stays between June and August and I’d like to hold 12 days of FP between them but I’m told by CM (even when I haven’t asked but when they are helping me with something and just see the trips on MDE) that I can’t. Others on this board say I will be able to but after having 7 plus CM from the reg line, DSS, and the PH line telling me I can’t I’m totally stressed over it...Sorry!! I know off topic

 

[Mzpalmtree]

Its 7 days if you do not have an on-site reservation. If you have 20 days on-site, you can book 20 days of FP+ on your AP.

I was just told as recently as last week by a CM from the AP line as well as a CM from George Kalogridis' office that the limit applies to non continuous onsite stays. Yes, I know in practice they could be wrong but it’s still stressful

 

[TheMaxRebo]

NEWS/PHOTOS

Art of Animation lobby floor refurbishment has started (will be done in sections)

http://blogmickey.com/2019/04/photos-art-of-animation-lobby-refurbishment-now-underway/

 

[OSUZorba]

Edit: And to the argument for IP free attractions - I am afraid that we will not see that very often anymore - but it doesn't mean it can't work. And I also often argued that many of those original attractions that we don't associate with IP were in fact part of the "Disney brand" IP. Adventureland was based on several Disney Movies and "True Life Adventures", Frontierland on the Disneyland stories of Davy Crockett and many others. Just because we've forgotten the IP doesn't mean that it wasn't originally there.

Wasn't a lot of that IP created to support the parks, not the other way around? I.e. they released those stories to increase hype for Disneyland before it opened.

 

[ksromack]

What is the rule? I'm an AP but never been more than 7 days I don't think. It is 7 days active in a 30 day window or 7 PERIOD? I don't mind the limit, but clearly it should be lifted if you have a resort stay.

What I find ridiculous is that local APs who obviously are not going to book a stay have no shot at the newest rides (without constant refreshing). I wish Disney would give APs a limited number of FPs that they can book 70 days in advance. Maybe 3-5 per year.

I guess I had no idea about this. We just became AP holders last fall and had a week long trip last December using them. We have a week this May, a split stay in Aug/Sept consisting of 9 days, and a week in December. Now I'm guessing when our FP time comes up in August I'm going to have trouble. So even if you have resort stay you can only book 7 days worth of FPs?

 

[Mzpalmtree]

I guess I had no idea about this. We just became AP holders last fall and had a week long trip last December using them. We have a week this May, a split stay in Aug/Sept consisting of 9 days, and a week in December. Now I'm guessing when our FP time comes up in August I'm going to have trouble. So even if you have resort stay you can only book 7 days worth of FPs?

Your trips are probably far enough apart so that it doesn’t hurt you. My trips are less than 60 days apart each. Again, I have no idea if I will be limited in practice because people on the boards say the CM are frequently wrong about things and as long as my stays are onsite (which they are) I should be fine but I find it a bit of a concern that every time I call for absolutely anything when the CM see my trips on MDE they remind me about the 7 day FP limit and I became so angry about it because I saw NOTHING about it before I upgraded that I wrote an email about that to George K’s office which is why I spoke with a CM from there that just supported the elleged rule while admitting that it isn’t fair and that they get lots of complaints about it. I told them then and I mean it that this is one and done for us. We love Disney and enjoy our trips immensely but we will not be passholders again.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Wasn't a lot of that IP created to support the parks, not the other way around? I.e. they released those stories to increase hype for Disneyland before it opened.

Well, they had a lot of the fairy tale based movies for Fantasyland but not as much for other lands - though they did leverage what they had like Man on the Moon for Tomorrowland and the True Life Adventures for Adventureland, Davey Crocket for Frontierland, etc.

The most explicit case though is that they changed the name of the castle to be Sleeping Beauty Castle to promote the upcoming movie (believe it was originally going to be Cinderella Castle)

But anyone who things IP in the park is new is mistaken ... just now it seems that everything new is IP based

From what I have read/heard from various imagineers and insiders is that theoretically you can still get something non-IP in the parks if you propose it but it is just that much harder to get management to approve it as they need to see how cross-marketing and merchandising, etc. will work. Much easier if you have an existing IP as part of it to support that.

I think something like Expedition Everest could still be done as you have the storyline and the character to market with shirts and stuffed animals, etc. - just there would probably be plans to also create a movie or Disney+ series or something that went along with development of the ride