News Round Up

[rteetz]

SeaWorlds Mako construction update

http://www.orlandoparksnews.com/2015/10/seaworld-update-mako-coaster.html?m=1

 

[rteetz]

Listening to latest Jim Hill Podcast about the pass increases.

Disneyland wants to cut AP holders in half to around 600,00. In doing so they would raise prices enough to stay even and not drop in revenue.

Tiers are coming to regular day tickets

Star Wars land should allow about 5,000-7,000 more people in Disneyland. Disneyland currently allows around 65,000 Max per day. DCA only 35,000...

Two large parking garages coming soon in Disneyland. One holding 7,000 cars.

Third Gate within next 20 years... Disneyland would then be marketed as a destination rather than the locals venue.

Increase prices faster than attendance drop.

 

[luisov]

It makes sense for them to start marketing DL as a destination rather than a locals park, since they wouldn't have to depend so much on the locals, and they would attract more tourists that spend more money on merchandise, hotel rooms and restaurants, anyways. I'm not sure about the third gate rumor just yet, though. It does look like Disney is trying to take DL and DCA to their full potential as well as addressing the parking issues before considering a third park, so that's good, but still, plans change so quickly in these big corporations that you never know if what they are planning right now for the future of the company will appeal to the next generation of CEOs.

 

[wareagle57]

Any chance we see the tiered pricing tickets before the end of the year?

 

[rteetz]

It makes sense for them to start marketing DL as a destination rather than a locals park, since they wouldn't have to depend so much on the locals, and they would attract more tourists that spend more money on merchandise, hotel rooms and restaurants, anyways. I'm not sure about the third gate rumor just yet, though. It does look like Disney is trying to take DL and DCA to their full potential as well as addressing the parking issues before considering a third park, so that's good, but still, plans change so quickly in these big corporations that you never know if what they are planning right now for the future of the company will appeal to the next generation of CEOs.

They have to address the parking issues before a third gate there is no way around that. Especially because that third gate would take away parking. Third gate is still a bit always yet 20-25 years. DCA is still planned to get marvel additions.

 

[rteetz]

Any chance we see the tiered pricing tickets before the end of the year?

Quite possible. If it is this year I'd say just before Christmas so early December otherwise January February like normal price increases.

 

[Madteaparty001]

Quite possible. If it is this year I'd say just before Christmas so early December otherwise January February like normal price increases.

I think we were all expecting it to happen right away, but with all the negative publicity Disney may have decided to sit on their hands a bit and wait until next year when everyone expected an increase anyways. At least then they can deflect some of it with the breaking ground for Star Wars.

 

[DDLand]

Listening to latest Jim Hill Podcast about the pass increases.

Disneyland wants to cut AP holders in half to around 600,00. In doing so they would raise prices enough to stay even and not drop in revenue.

Tiers are coming to regular day tickets

Star Wars land should allow about 5,000-7,000 more people in Disneyland. Disneyland currently allows around 65,000 Max per day. DCA only 35,000...

Two large parking garages coming soon in Disneyland. One holding 7,000 cars.

Third Gate within next 20 years... Disneyland would then be marketed as a destination rather than the locals venue.

Increase prices faster than attendance drop.

Disney tasted freedom from locals after Cars Land, and that's the direction they're heading. Hotel rooms have been being built and upgraded at a rapid rate in the Resort District. Occupancy has been at highs unheard of. We saw the beginning of the separation from APs with free parking being taken away from the majority of passes, and now followed up with major price increases. The writing is on the wall, and turning Disneyland into a Resort Destination like WDW is the goal. APs are a pain in the butt, and they don't want their destiny controlled by them. That makes me a little nervous. They may be a pain (even sometimes I get annoyed with them when they jump on the MiceChat hate bandwagon. Criticizing the Diamond celebration decorations for being really bad on the Castle before they were fully installed. Then realizing that they actually looked pretty good once they finished...) but they are defenders of quality and promoters of new attraction building. They'll be missed quirks and all. Disneyland is going WDW.

Just some notes on Jim Hill...

1) They're not going to wait 15-20 years to start marketing Disneyland as a true Resort Destination. That's already beginning to happen. It doesn't need a third gate; they've already got two jam packed parks filled to the brim with attractions. Seeing as there are three new lands based off of some of the most in demand IPs around and that these additions will add tens of thousands in new capacity, waiting for park 3 is stupid. Disneyland to a large extent already is a Resort Destination, and it's only going to get so much better from here.

2) Hotels are something still not being mentioned. Adding additional room capacity seems like more and more the logical progression. Maybe they don't want to enter the already crowded market with new offerings, but it seems like they should be contemplating it about now. Of course with lots of money tied up in CapEx heavy new attractions who knows what will happen there. They do need to deal with parking before they can move.

3) Miceage and JHM disagree on the number of parking spots in the garage. I believe Miceage...

 

[7series]

With regard to the issue with monorail yellow, someone who was at the park on their balcony at the time said there were two large lightning strikes immediately before the monorail stoppage, one right where it stopped. Why do so many people jump right to the "the monorails are ancient junk" narrative before the facts are even known? When you look for info on the frequency of problems with the monorails you really can't find many problems at all. This looks like a self-perpetuating myth on these boards.

 

[rteetz]

With regard to the issue with monorail yellow, someone who was at the park on their balcony at the time said there were two large lightning strikes immediately before the monorail stoppage, one right where it stopped. Why do so many people jump right to the "the monorails are ancient junk" narrative before the facts are even known? When you look for info on the frequency of problems with the monorails you really can't find many problems at all. This looks like a self-perpetuating myth on these boards.

But it's not. From what I've heard the monorail stalled and the breaks locked so it couldn't be towed to a station.

The monorails are not new or even close to being new. Disneyland has younger monorails than WDW. WDW's monorails do routinely have problems causing reduced schedules. They are also trying to get all of the monorails fully automated. This is costing millions and was supposed to be done already. They barely have it tested on one of 13 monorails. The monorails wouldn't be a problem if they were maintained well enough. They have however also started replacing some of the interior to freshen that up but if they could fix the mechanical problems there wouldn't be major issues like this.

 

[rteetz]

The Sunset Showcase(flex theater) is going to be used for Club Disney a dance party...

http://www.wdwmagic.com/attractions...set-showcase-at-disneys-hollywood-studios.htm

 

[rteetz]

Reminder MK railroad started its refurb today

http://www.orlandoparksnews.com/2015/10/walt-disney-world-railroad-closing-for.html

 

[rteetz]

Latest Disney Springs update

http://savepleasureisland.blogspot.com/2015/10/ds-update-bridge-garage-report.html?m=1

 

[DisneyQueen1320]

The Sunset Showcase(flex theater) is going to be used for Club Disney a dance party...

http://www.wdwmagic.com/attractions...set-showcase-at-disneys-hollywood-studios.htm

My kids would love this. I'm leaving on Dec. 2. Do you think they will have a soft opening?

 

[skier_pete]

Listening to latest Jim Hill Podcast about the pass increases.

Disneyland wants to cut AP holders in half to around 600,00. In doing so they would raise prices enough to stay even and not drop in revenue.

Tiers are coming to regular day tickets

Star Wars land should allow about 5,000-7,000 more people in Disneyland. Disneyland currently allows around 65,000 Max per day. DCA only 35,000...

Two large parking garages coming soon in Disneyland. One holding 7,000 cars.

Third Gate within next 20 years... Disneyland would then be marketed as a destination rather than the locals venue.

Increase prices faster than attendance drop.

Please, please, please everyone - remember that Jim Hill is one of the WORST rumor sources around. He is wrong well more than half the time. (I hesitate to put a number on it, but basically he's wrong A LOT.) What he usually does is (a) state the obvious and (b) project stuff forward with guesses and conjecture.

So to respond to this one - sure Disney would love to double AP prices and cut AP holders in half, but I doubt that is realistically in any sort of short term plan. I don't know that it is THAT specific, at this stage I think they are just hoping to raise prices enough to reduce AP holders to a degree and spread out the AP holders as well.

Tiers coming to regular tickets is stating the obvious.

Star Wars land increasing capacity by 5,000 - 7,000 is also stating the obvious. A new high capacity ride increases rider hours by 2,000- 2,500 per ride. So two rides announced likely raise things by 4,000 - 5,000. With other attractions in the land adding 1,000 - 2,000 more - that would be 5,000 - 7,000. In fact, I would expect it to be on the high end of that range.

The parking garages have been "in the works" forever. Repeating that rumor is no news.

Third Gate within the next 20 years is such a worthless level of BS it's typical Jim Hill. Throw stuff out that will never happen.

"Market Disneyland as a resort destination"? I mean, c'mon, they've been doing that for the last 5 years. Does anyone notice that ANY national advertising doesn't say "Walt Disney World??" It says "Disney Parks" and at least every other shot is for Disneyland. They market Disneyland all throughout the western states NOT Disney World. If you live in Denver or Phoenix or Seattle you are marketed to go to Disneyland - NOT Disney World.

 

[rteetz]

My kids would love this. I'm leaving on Dec. 2. Do you think they will have a soft opening?

Unknown as of right now

 

[skier_pete]

The Sunset Showcase(flex theater) is going to be used for Club Disney a dance party...

http://www.wdwmagic.com/attractions...set-showcase-at-disneys-hollywood-studios.htm

This is actually a really great idea. Have a multipurpose theater that they can use for special events, but also have a use for it when there isn't something going on. It also puts something else to do in a park that will desperately need it for the next several years.

 

[rteetz]

Please, please, please everyone - remember that Jim Hill is one of the WORST rumor sources around. He is wrong well more than half the time. (I hesitate to put a number on it, but basically he's wrong A LOT.) What he usually does is (a) state the obvious and (b) project stuff forward with guesses and conjecture.

So to respond to this one - sure Disney would love to double AP prices and cut AP holders in half, but I doubt that is realistically in any sort of short term plan. I don't know that it is THAT specific, at this stage I think they are just hoping to raise prices enough to reduce AP holders to a degree and spread out the AP holders as well.

Tiers coming to regular tickets is stating the obvious.

Star Wars land increasing capacity by 5,000 - 7,000 is also stating the obvious. A new high capacity ride increases rider hours by 2,000- 2,500 per ride. So two rides announced likely raise things by 4,000 - 5,000. With other attractions in the land adding 1,000 - 2,000 more - that would be 5,000 - 7,000. In fact, I would expect it to be on the high end of that range.

The parking garages have been "in the works" forever. Repeating that rumor is no news.

Third Gate within the next 20 years is such a worthless level of BS it's typical Jim Hill. Throw stuff out that will never happen.

"Market Disneyland as a resort destination"? I mean, c'mon, they've been doing that for the last 5 years. Does anyone notice that ANY national advertising doesn't say "Walt Disney World??" It says "Disney Parks" and at least every other shot is for Disneyland. They market Disneyland all throughout the western states NOT Disney World. If you live in Denver or Phoenix or Seattle you are marketed to go to Disneyland - NOT Disney World.

Jim is not necessarily wrong a lot he just puts rumors out there that just have no backing. He hears something and automatically spins a story and puts it out there. I'm sure there is some truth behind most things he hears or says but he just reports anything and everything.

AP holders are a whole different ball game in Anaheim and I actually think Jim may be onto something here. I don't think his numbers are right but I definitely think they want to reduce the number of APs.

I also think a third gate will eventually happen probably decades from now but it will eventually happen if they really want a world destination in anaheim.

Do they market Disneyland outside of the US? I'm fairly positive they do WDW but I'm not so sure Disneyland is marketed.

 

[adam.adbe]

Do they market Disneyland outside of the US? I'm fairly positive they do WDW but I'm not so sure Disneyland is marketed.

Certainly not to Europe. WDW has two major advantages over DL for European tourists.

1) It's a shorter and less expensive flight, natch.
2) The resorts have the capacity to handle large numbers of long-stay vacationers. This matters because Disney likes to create small local companies to handle international travel[1]. My understanding us that these companies receive blocks of hotel spaces to sell, and price deals in a manner completely independent of Disney US. This model would not work well with the comparatively small number of Disney operated beds in Anaheim.

From Disney's perspective, it's also much easier to keep foreigners (especially high spending first-timers) on resort in Florida[2]. Being so close to LA, Hollywood, San Diego etc, most international travelers would be thinking to explore the local are area more anyway.

I have no idea about Asia, which would be more logically Anaheim's turf. I think the challenges described above would still hold though.

[1] For example the UK version: http://holidays.disney.co.uk handles WDW, DLP, and DCL, but not DL, or any other Disney vacations. The company operates as a theoretically legally independent entity called The Walt Disney Company Limited.

[2] i know they can visit Universal, or NASA, but I've met a shockingly high number of Brits who either don't know that, or don't care (at least until their second Disney trip).

 

[Reddog1134]

ShellieMay is coming to WDW and DLR.

http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/bl...-shelliemay-coming-to-disney-parks-this-fall/