News Round Up

[rteetz]

More photos of the new signage

http://m.wdwmagic.com/attractions/d...tling-co-signage-now-up-at-disney-springs.htm

 

[clsteve]

George has no respect for his own brand, Disney on the other hand plans to treat it with a little more dignity is some respects if you get my meaning.

Disney's 'respect' for the Star Wars brand is in direct correlation with its rate of financial return.

Pretty much says it all......

 

[rteetz]

The hangar bar/restaurant is starting to go up vertically

http://www.wdwmagic.com/attractions...s-comes-to-life-as-structural-steel-rises.htm

 

[Figmentforever24]

So if I am understanding this correctly...Disney will not put anything worth seeing or major in Hollywood Studios because....well...the park just cant handle the crowds. Well ok Disney is not stupid and I imagine there are plans to help with crowds. They are doing the same thing over at Animal Kingdom as we speak, preparing a park that wasn't made for huge crowds. You can tell this at Animal Kingdom as all of the paths are quite narrow! There is no official article on anything happening since Disney hasn't officially announced anything and probably wont until D23, but expect construction before then. I just go off what the Spirit on WDWmagic and my own friends in Disney have said.

 

[skier_pete]

I personally haven't seen anything official on how much Disney plans to spend in Hollywood Studios. If the budget has been made public then please point me to the article because I'm truly interested - no scarcasm here. If it's around one and a half billion as you claim for attractions I would like to see what extra will go to re-arranging the park, because they'll need it or you won't be able to move in that place.

There is definitely nothing official. Just some rumors spoken by some of the more reliable sources on other websites. However, I don't believe these sources can know this is a done deal. Anyone high enough up to know for 100% isn't posting it on a rumor website.

But until it's announced, it's fun to speculate!

 

[wallrock]

So if I am understanding this correctly...Disney will not put anything worth seeing or major in Hollywood Studios because....well...the park just cant handle the crowds. Well ok Disney is not stupid and I imagine there are plans to help with crowds. They are doing the same thing over at Animal Kingdom as we speak, preparing a park that wasn't made for huge crowds. You can tell this at Animal Kingdom as all of the paths are quite narrow! There is no official article on anything happening since Disney hasn't officially announced anything and probably wont until D23, but expect construction before then. I just go off what the Spirit on WDWmagic and my own friends in Disney have said.

Animal Kingdom was built for crowds and proper crowd management - built just like Magic Kingdom and Epcot with the hub, spoke and wheel analogy I put forth earlier. Disney is merely widening what already exists in Animal Kingdom, which is quite similar with what they're doing in the Magic Kingdom now.

The big difference with Hollywood Studios was that it was NEVER designed as a theme park, and the majority of the crowd movement was going to be governed by the backlot trams. With that gone you have people wondering around inefficiently. Near the backlot area it's one way in and one way out. By the Tower of Terror and Fantasmic it's one way in and one way out. To go big there they are going to have to overhaul the entire layout, or at least a significant portion of it, to eliminate the clogging of guests.

Disney won't put things into Hollywood Studios that make crowd management impossible. That doesn't mean that they won't do anything on a massive scale there. What it does mean is that if they decide to go massive they will have to make park easier to move guests through. Work on that scale costs money, and I'll bet it's a lot more money pound for pound than whay they're spending in Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom because they have so much more they have to do to.

If it's 1.6 billion on attractions you can bet that there has to be another big slice to cover the foundation. Just for grins I'll go with half a billion. So for speculation's sake if they're looking at a 2-plus billion price tag on a Hollywood revamp I doubt they'll go down that road now until they know for sure the leak has been plugged in Paris. Wall Street wants you to make money, not spend it.

 

[slzer0]

Santa will be in DTD as of Friday. Is there usually a cost for this photo or does it go to your photopass account? Or can you take your own photo?

 

[Reddog1134]

I've also mentioned that unless Disney is willing to tear up the foundation of Hollywood Studios and make it easier for crowds to move through it's pratically impossible to put something in that will generate a flood of fans coming through the gate. Anyone recall Villians Unleashed? Crowd management was a failure there. If it can't handle an event like that who will honestly believe that it can handle a massive infusion of Star Wars or any other brand? And that's not a single event, but day in and day out.

I think you answer your own question there. Villains Unleashed is a one time event so if you wanted to experience it, you got one shot. So everyone and their mother showed up. If you put in a permanent experience, you may have a few crowd issues when it opens but people will know they can see it the following week, month or year so the crowds will be dispersed over time.

If Star Wars Weekends was "Star Wars Day" you'd have the same problems they had with Villains Unleashed. But, there are several opportunities each year to experience it so you have a crowded park instead of a "CF" like Villains.

 

[jtwibih]

Santa will be in DTD as of Friday. Is there usually a cost for this photo or does it go to your photopass account? Or can you take your own photo?

Photopass and your own photo.

 

[DPCummerbund]

The big difference with Hollywood Studios was that it was NEVER designed as a theme park, and the majority of the crowd movement was going to be governed by the backlot trams. With that gone you have people wondering around inefficiently. Near the backlot area it's one way in and one way out. By the Tower of Terror and Fantasmic it's one way in and one way out. To go big there they are going to have to overhaul the entire layout, or at least a significant portion of it, to eliminate the clogging of guests.

Disney won't put things into Hollywood Studios that make crowd management impossible. That doesn't mean that they won't do anything on a massive scale there. What it does mean is that if they decide to go massive they will have to make park easier to move guests through.

I hadn't thought of Hollywood Studios that way, but it does make a lot of sense.

Really, though, with the backlot tram being removed, what else could Disney do with this park?

It seems like they have two options - either restructure it like a theme park, or let it slowly wither away like River Country.

Yes, the infrastructure to rebuild it will probably be expensive, but in general, walking paths are a lot cheaper than rides and attractions. It's probably cheaper to rebuild HS than to let HS die and re-build a new fourth gate.

Secondly, if you're going to go through the effort of completely re-building a theme park, it has to bring people in to make it worthwhile. Something like Star Wars could do that.

Honestly, I could see Disney going in either direction - either a small re-build of HS that keeps the park going for a few more years, or a complete, major overhaul that involves a major "name brand" like Star Wars. It's almost hard to think that it could be something in the middle.

 

[rteetz]

Animal Kingdom was built for crowds and proper crowd management - built just like Magic Kingdom and Epcot with the hub, spoke and wheel analogy I put forth earlier. Disney is merely widening what already exists in Animal Kingdom, which is quite similar with what they're doing in the Magic Kingdom now.

The big difference with Hollywood Studios was that it was NEVER designed as a theme park, and the majority of the crowd movement was going to be governed by the backlot trams. With that gone you have people wondering around inefficiently. Near the backlot area it's one way in and one way out. By the Tower of Terror and Fantasmic it's one way in and one way out. To go big there they are going to have to overhaul the entire layout, or at least a significant portion of it, to eliminate the clogging of guests.

Disney won't put things into Hollywood Studios that make crowd management impossible. That doesn't mean that they won't do anything on a massive scale there. What it does mean is that if they decide to go massive they will have to make park easier to move guests through. Work on that scale costs money, and I'll bet it's a lot more money pound for pound than whay they're spending in Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom because they have so much more they have to do to.

If it's 1.6 billion on attractions you can bet that there has to be another big slice to cover the foundation. Just for grins I'll go with half a billion. So for speculation's sake if they're looking at a 2-plus billion price tag on a Hollywood revamp I doubt they'll go down that road now until they know for sure the leak has been plugged in Paris. Wall Street wants you to make money, not spend it.

I completely agree with you here. DHS was never built to be a full theme park. It was built because Eisner wanted to compete with Universal directly, and it needed to be a working studio. While it never really was a full working hollywood style studio it was something. The backlot tour used to be a 2 hour tour of a functioning studio before it closed it was what 15-20 minutes? so ever since they shortened the tour you could say is when people started wandering.

From what I have heard TSMM, Star Tours, ToT, and RnRc are the only things that are for sure not being touched, everything else has the possibility of changing or going away.

As for congestion come fantasmic time that sunset blvd side is quite crowded. DHS has a lot of dead ends like you said one way in one way out. LMA is the next thing rumored to close come January so you could have a whole back of the park closed.

As for Paris they placed new management there they are giving them 3+ billion and some of the investors in that park are said to be giving some more money as well, so those two parks could be looking incredibly different come 2021.

2021 brings up another point, thats WDW's 50th anniversary, so based on disney's time line of constructing things i think DHS will be changed and fully open around that time 2020-21.

 

[wallrock]

I think you answer your own question there. Villains Unleashed is a one time event so if you wanted to experience it, you got one shot. So everyone and their mother showed up. If you put in a permanent experience, you may have a few crowd issues when it opens but people will know they can see it the following week, month or year so the crowds will be dispersed over time.

If Star Wars Weekends was "Star Wars Day" you'd have the same problems they had with Villains Unleashed. But, there are several opportunities each year to experience it so you have a crowded park instead of a "CF" like Villains.

That's a valid point. The permanence of the new attractions will eventually cause the novelity to wear off and the crowds to die down, or for visitation to be spread out over the months/years. Villians Unleashed however had a fixed number of attendees, oversold yes, but still a fixed number. I wonder if that oversold number equated to what attendance would be during normal park hours?

 

[rteetz]

The inaugural Star Wars Half marathon weekend medals have been revealed

http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/bl...-nevada-corporation-finisher-medals-revealed/

 

[wallrock]

I completely agree with you here. DHS was never built to be a full theme park. It was built because Eisner wanted to compete with Universal directly, and it needed to be a working studio. While it never really was a full working hollywood style studio it was something. The backlot tour used to be a 2 hour tour of a functioning studio before it closed it was what 15-20 minutes? so ever since they shortened the tour you could say is when people started wandering.

From what I have heard TSMM, Star Tours, ToT, and RnRc are the only things that are for sure not being touched, everything else has the possibility of changing or going away.

As for congestion come fantasmic time that sunset blvd side is quite crowded. DHS has a lot of dead ends like you said one way in one way out. LMA is the next thing rumored to close come January so you could have a whole back of the park closed.

As for Paris they placed new management there they are giving them 3+ billion and some of the investors in that park are said to be giving some more money as well, so those two parks could be looking incredibly different come 2021.

2021 brings up another point, thats WDW's 50th anniversary, so based on disney's time line of constructing things i think DHS will be changed and fully open around that time 2020-21.

Agreed on all points except maybe the timeframe.

The unfortunate part is that Toy Story, Star Tours, Rock n Rollercoaster and Tower of Terror are not convienently located in one area. If they were it would help considerably because you could focus the crowds into one area of the park and put a large portion of the rest into construction mode. With them spread out it's going to make it more of a challenge - and drag the timeframe out even more than the latest construction projects. Again providing they go big.

As for the timeframe, I hope the changes in Paris will be enough to encourage more visitors and take the itch off of the financial troubles. I fear that unless that happens Team Burbank will be nursemaiding that place to the point of yet more neglect in Orlando, or at best waiting until Paris is back on its feet before diving into Hollywood Studios full throttle (if that's their intent). While the general feeling is that there will be a big difference in Hollywood Studios by 2020, I fear it may not be until 2020 that the real work starts, hence the reasoning for a subpar update in the immediate future.

I'm sure to many folks updates are updates, and that they will take them with as much enthusiasm as something large scale. I personally am tempering my hopes so I don't get disappointed.

 

[wallrock]

I hadn't thought of Hollywood Studios that way, but it does make a lot of sense.

Really, though, with the backlot tram being removed, what else could Disney do with this park?

It seems like they have two options - either restructure it like a theme park, or let it slowly wither away like River Country.

Yes, the infrastructure to rebuild it will probably be expensive, but in general, walking paths are a lot cheaper than rides and attractions. It's probably cheaper to rebuild HS than to let HS die and re-build a new fourth gate.

Secondly, if you're going to go through the effort of completely re-building a theme park, it has to bring people in to make it worthwhile. Something like Star Wars could do that.

Honestly, I could see Disney going in either direction - either a small re-build of HS that keeps the park going for a few more years, or a complete, major overhaul that involves a major "name brand" like Star Wars. It's almost hard to think that it could be something in the middle.

And I think that's what the executives have been discussing for the past several months. Which direction do we go with this place?

I've never pictured the Disney of late spending a lot of money because there was no need to. I never expected them to close down attraction after attraction in Hollywood Studios either, so it's hard to fathom what is going on in the brains of the executives at this point.

 

[rteetz]

Agreed on all points except maybe the timeframe. The unfortunate part is that Toy Story, Star Tours, Rock n Rollercoaster and Tower of Terror are not convienently located in one area. If they were it would help considerably because you could focus the crowds into one area of the park and put a large portion of the rest into construction mode. With them spread out it's going to make it more of a challenge - and drag the timeframe out even more than the latest construction projects. Again providing they go big. As for the timeframe, I hope the changes in Paris will be enough to encourage more visitors and take the itch off of the financial troubles. I fear that unless that happens Team Burbank will be nursemaiding that place to the point of yet more neglect in Orlando, or at best waiting until Paris is back on its feet before diving into Hollywood Studios full throttle (if that's their intent). While the general feeling is that there will be a big difference in Hollywood Studios by 2020, I fear it may not be until 2020 that the real work starts, hence the reasoning for a subpar update in the immediate future. I'm sure to many folks updates are updates, and that they will take them with as much enthusiasm as something large scale. I personally am tempering my hopes so I don't get disappointed.

I think if they don't do something with this park until 2020 it could get paris bad and need even more money to be fixed. I think disney knows they can't wait that long. Now a Star Wars expansion could start around 2020 but the pixar expansion will be first and between now and 2020. That won't cost them as much because most of it is clones and kiddie rides.

 

[wallrock]

I think if they don't do something with this park until 2020 it could get paris bad and need even more money to be fixed. I think disney knows they can't wait that long. Now a Star Wars expansion could start around 2020 but the pixar expansion will be first and between now and 2020. That won't cost them as much because most of it is clones and kiddie rides.

Makes sense. I could see established items in the Pixar library coming in first and waiting on Star Wars until later. By coincidence that would be around the end of the new trilogy and a few of the spin offs - plenty of time to determine if the new generation of Star Wars should be the primary focus of the parks or the legacy stuff, or a mix of both. You don't want to plug in Phantom Menance or even New Hope references now if it turns out that Force Awakens-plus-two-other-films references could pull in more guests.

 

[rteetz]

DHS photo update, backlot tour, starbucks, new signs, jack sparrow and more

http://www.orlandoparksnews.com/2014/11/hollywood-studios-update-meet-baymax.html

 

[Redarrow5150]

I think it really behooves Disney to go all out on expansion plans for a variety of reasons. The biggest is for the financial reasons given where interest rates are right now as it will never be a better time to invest the money. I could be wrong but I get a sense that DHS is in for some major changes with the shutting down of several areas.

And I think that's what the executives have been discussing for the past several months. Which direction do we go with this place?

I've never pictured the Disney of late spending a lot of money because there was no need to. I never expected them to close down attraction after attraction in Hollywood Studios either, so it's hard to fathom what is going on in the brains of the executives at this point.

 

[rteetz]

Here is some info on new things coming to the 2015 flower and garden festival at Epcot. Including some new frozen topiaries of course.

http://wdwnt.com/blog/2014/11/anna-...cot-international-flower-and-garden-festival/