Night Kingdom shelved?

[rodkenrich]

,,

 

[CarolA]

Some park employees at Animal Kingdom claim ground is being prepped for a new secret Disney project, rumors emerged that the Night Kingdom park/experience has been shelved.

And another one bites the dust. Jim Hill's outstanding batting averge continues... WHAT A WASTE OF BANDWIDTH

 

[CanadianGuy]

This JHM rumor is still evolving and spread.. TO THE RUMORS board..

Thanks,

Knox

 

[MJMcBride]

And another one bites the dust. Jim Hill's outstanding batting averge continues... WHAT A WASTE OF BANDWIDTH

I'm not sure if this source is anymore reliable though

 

[deej696]

And another one bites the dust. Jim Hill's outstanding batting averge continues... WHAT A WASTE OF BANDWIDTH

My thoughts exactly. How many pages did the "Night Kingdom" thread get up to? Too many it seems...

While I think there is a niche for a Discovery Cove type experience at Disney, I wasnt really enthused about this idea.

I guess we will see where it goes.....

 

[MJMcBride]

My thoughts exactly. How many pages did the "Night Kingdom" thread get up to? Too many it seems...

Hey. I started that thread

 

[deej696]

Hey. I started that thread

I wasnt dogging your thread or its topic. I just meant that a lot of people got their hopes up for something, and now it looks like it could all be for nothing. I guess till Disney says its happening or not, I'll contain my excitement, otherwise there would be too much letdown if I bought into every rumor. You make a good point that the "shelved" article may not be any more reliable than the info on the plan in the first place, so who knows . Anyway, sorry if you thought my comment was directed at you cause that was not my intention

 

[MJMcBride]

Anyway, sorry if you thought my comment was directed at you cause that was not my intention

I didn't really

 

[extreme8]

And another one bites the dust. Jim Hill's outstanding batting averge continues... WHAT A WASTE OF BANDWIDTH

I'm not defending JH on any of his other silliness, but in this particular case doesn't the fact that the project has been shelved indicate that at one point it was considered?
And if it was considered, that means Jim was right with his story.
The man can't help what happens to a project after he publishes the article.

I'm just sayin'...

 

[Horace Horsecollar]

I'm not defending JH on any of his other silliness, but in this particular case doesn't the fact that the project has been shelved indicate that at one point it was considered?

I haven't seen any evidence that Night Kingdom has really been considered or that it has really been shelved.

What the OP heard doesn't have any more credibility than what Jim Hill heard. And what the OP heard doesn't prove anything about Night Kingdom, one way or the other.

I'm skeptical about the whole Night Kingdom rumor. While I am quite willing to believe that there are executives with Disney who would love to have a park that follows the Discovery Cove business model -- especially the $300 per person admission fees -- Night Kingdom, as described Jim Hill, doesn't make much sense from a guest experience perspective. Thus it doesn't make much sense from a business perspective.

 

[Another Voice]

Night Kingdom, as described Jim Hill, doesn't make much sense from a guest experience perspective. Thus it doesn't make much sense from a business perspective.

Remeber this management team thinks that California Adventure, Disney Studios Paris and Hong Kong Disneyland had wonderful business plans. Never, ever, never underestimate the lure of easy PowerPoint slides on the minds of shallow and ineffective senior management.

There are whispers and hints that "Night Kingdom" started as a night-time "hard ticket" event - the Animal Kingdom version of 'Pirates and Princess' of 'Mickey's Halloween'. Plans grew and grew in the minds of some people and collided with Disney's lust to charge people $350+ a visit for a theme park. How serious these plans were, we'll never know.

 

[cmash95]

those parks were planned and executed by a different management team. with a different team leader. I can think of a couple of really cool " experiences" that Would entail discovery island and a pirate theme that would be well worth $250-$300 a person. there is a market for such things it just has to be the right type of experience.

 

[Another Voice]

those parks were planned and executed by a different management team.

Nope, Jay Rasulo: the guy responsible for Disney Studios Paris is now running all of Walt Disney Attractions where he also saw the design and opening of Hong Kong Disneyland after doing nothing with DCA for several years.

 

[MJMcBride]

those parks were planned and executed by a different management team. with a different team leader. I can think of a couple of really cool " experiences" that Would entail discovery island and a pirate theme that would be well worth $250-$300 a person. there is a market for such things it just has to be the right type of experience.

There may be a market for that. But the experience has to rival that of Discovery Cove. swimming with dolphins is a once in a lifetime experience. I'm not sure playing with pirate, a nighttime safari, or spelunking fits the bill

 

[ChrisFL]

And another one bites the dust. Jim Hill's outstanding batting averge continues... WHAT A WASTE OF BANDWIDTH

I still don't see why there is such problems when a rumor that probably has been planned turns out not to be happening?

What's the use of posting anything here if anytime it's posted it gets bashed endlessly if it doesn't happen?

 

[Horace Horsecollar]

I still don't see why there is such problems when a rumor that probably has been planned turns out not to be happening?

What's the use of posting anything here if anytime it's posted it gets bashed endlessly if it doesn't happen?

There are clearly cases when designers behind closed doors at Walt Disney Imagineering dream up enhancements to existing parks or even entirely new park concepts -- and where there's funding for the design work, but no "green light" to proceed further.

Just because something doesn't happen doesn't mean it wasn't considered. However, but because someone writes that a rumored project has been cancelled doesn't mean that it was legitimate in the first place.

Some rumors are legitimate leaks (such as AL Lutz breaking the stories about Pirates' Lair on Tom Sawyer Island at Disneyland). Other times, rumors are wishful thinking (such as reports over the years that the Indiana Jones show at MGM/DHS would be replaced by an Indiana Jones ride) that were probably never seriously planned. Still other times, such as the long-rumored Fire Mountain or Villains Mountain, there was probably some concept design work at some time, but ultimately no "green light."

When someone who writes about rumors, like Jim Hill or Al Lutz, has been around for many years, it's possible to form opinions about their credibility. Although I haven't kept a scorecard, Mr. Lutz appears to have a much better track record than Mr. Hill.

I certainly don't think that the first post in this thread proves that Night Kingdom was once planned but has recently been cancelled. But, I also am not convinced that Jim Hill based his Night Kingdom scoop on legitimate inside information. Perhaps he did; perhaps he didn't.

I'm not sure it's correct to say that rumors get "bashed endlessly" on this board. But one of the fun and legitimate activities on this board is to apply a sanity check to rumors. What's the source? How is the credibility of the source? Does the rumor make sense from a business perspective? Is there external evidence of some sort? Could it be a case of someone drawing an incorrect conclusion from actual facts? Could it be a misunderstanding? Or could it be the real thing?

 

[ChrisFL]

There are clearly cases when designers behind closed doors at Walt Disney Imagineering dream up enhancements to existing parks or even entirely new park concepts -- and where there's funding for the design work, but no "green light" to proceed further.

Just because something doesn't happen doesn't mean it wasn't considered. However, but because someone writes that a rumored project has been cancelled doesn't mean that it was legitimate in the first place.

Some rumors are legitimate leaks (such as AL Lutz breaking the stories about Pirates' Lair on Tom Sawyer Island at Disneyland). Other times, rumors are wishful thinking (such as reports over the years that the Indiana Jones show at MGM/DHS would be replaced by an Indiana Jones ride) that were probably never seriously planned. Still other times, such as the long-rumored Fire Mountain or Villains Mountain, there was probably some concept design work at some time, but ultimately no "green light."

When someone who writes about rumors, like Jim Hill or Al Lutz, has been around for many years, it's possible to form opinions about their credibility. Although I haven't kept a scorecard, Mr. Lutz appears to have a much better track record than Mr. Hill.

I certainly don't think that the first post in this thread proves that Night Kingdom was once planned but has recently been cancelled. But, I also am not convinced that Jim Hill based his Night Kingdom scoop on legitimate inside information. Perhaps he did; perhaps he didn't.

I'm not sure it's correct to say that rumors get "bashed endlessly" on this board. But one of the fun and legitimate activities on this board is to apply a sanity check to rumors. What's the source? How is the credibility of the source? Does the rumor make sense from a business perspective? Is there external evidence of some sort? Could it be a case of someone drawing an incorrect conclusion from actual facts? Could it be a misunderstanding? Or could it be the real thing?

I understand entirely, however if Jim Hill had no inside sources, his website would have as much actual credibility as theonion.com.

I'm sure he does have at least some reliable sources, but as I posted before, even GREEN LIT projects can get canned and we've seen it happen.

I guess I have a problem with this one because people were all over Jim Hill about it, when he was about the 4th person to pick up on the rumor, but it's all his fault if the rumor doesn't come true. I'm no fan of JHM, in fact, I've only ever seen a few of his pages before, but I know that it must be difficult to post rumors and get criticized when they don't come true.....I mean, just about a week ago we had someone post here that no rumors should be posted unless they were based on facts that the rumor would come true...

Apparently something got lost in the translation somewhere.

 

[Another Voice]

It's in the nature of fandom to see only the positive. People wanted to believe that 'Night Kingdom' was true so no one cared about looking too closely at the rumor.

Mr. Hill has, in the past, dropped some comments that many people thought were "negative" towards Disney. Fans don't want to hear bad news, so they will find any excuse to not believe what they don't want to know. Yelping at sources is a good way of belittling rumors, so a lot of people have gotten used to calling Mr. Hill and Mr. Lutz names.

Disney is a huge company with very poor internal communications. People in the same department often don't have a clue about what's going on. Decisions are often made more of personal and political reasons than based on solid business goals. And it's been seen that people inside the company are not above trying to whip up Internet support - and it's been shown that Disney itself activity interfers with discussions.

Certainly anyone with even the slighest bit of knowledge about the company knows that even announced, "look at all the pretty illustrations" projects are often cancelled without any explaination. Just ask anyone with reservations for Buffalo Juntion or owners of Eagle Pines DVC points just how much fun they had in Beastly Kingdom and how long it takes to get ADRs for the Russian pavilion at Epcot.

It makes perfect sense that a company who relies on marketing the words "dreams" and "wishes" so often kinda screws up on reality.

 

[CanadianGuy]

I still don't see why there is such problems when a rumor that probably has been planned turns out not to be happening?

What's the use of posting anything here if anytime it's posted it gets bashed endlessly if it doesn't happen?

The only thing I judge Mr. Hill on -- is his extremely low accuracy rate in the last 12 to 24 months.. it almost seems as tho someone at Disney is INTENTIONALLY feeding him wild misinformation to make him seem foolish.

I don't doubt that he's given given information from time to time and perhaps even on this project mentioned in this thread..

What I have doubted is the underlying business plan and veracity when I first heard the rumor, I doubted it again when he posted it publicly about it on his 'blog' and.. frankly .. While I've no doubt Disney would like to figure out a 300$ a night guest experience... I just don't think what JHM described is a very viable one in the long term..

That may or may not mean that Disney actually considered it - I have no idea.

Personally, it'd be a very, very, cold day in Equatorial Guinea before they got ANY money from me for an experience as described in that posting. I recognize full well I may not be the target market for that proposed idea.

Knox

 

[fey_spirit]

I don't know I'd pay 300 to spend a night partying with Captain Jack, before I'd spend it to spend the day partying with flipper.

There may be a market for that. But the experience has to rival that of Discovery Cove. swimming with dolphins is a once in a lifetime experience. I'm not sure playing with pirate, a nighttime safari, or spelunking fits the bill