I don't know if this is a joke or if you really believe they aren't matching Universal for investments.
Unless you don't think it costs anything to maintain/landscape/upgrade 25 resorts, 4 theme parks, 2 water parks, and other guest areas while expanding MK, adding/expanding resorts, completely overhauling DtD, and planning AvatarLand.
I'm not sure it's fair to compare general maintenance (which landscaping is a part) for the entire resort to the same for Universal. that would be like comparing the cost of maintaining (including power/gas/water) for your 4bdrm house to the guy down the street living in a studio apartment.
What this is is talking about the upgrades/additions within the space they already have. The Guy in the studio Apartment adding a 50in plasma TV w/ 7.1 Surround sound system, while the guy in the 4bdrm adds a 36in LCD he got at Walmart and saying "Look! I got something new too!"
And Disney isn't adding/expanding resorts. DVC doesn't count because it's a pure money printing machine for Disney. There is AoA which was added.... but an argument can be said about them just completing the second half of POP which they already started. More importantly, Disney was primarily addressing the 1 room segment which was WOEFULLY under represented onsite.... A room that can hold more than 4 people. Disney was starting to see a lot of 5+ person families/groups start to head offsite because the cost of 2 value rooms or a DVC Villa at rack rates was too much for people to justify on top of all the other Disney expenses.
That being said, Universal is also building a brand new hotel with family suites and accomdations/perks that appear to match Disney Moderates at a cheaper than Disney Value price.
Also.... Disney has noone but themselves to blame for their need to "overhaul" DTD. Most of DTD's problems, which the planned overhaul is primarily looking to address.... are self inflicted. Part by bad planning to begin with (West Side being seperated from the Marketplace by a gated section for adults), and then made worse by decisions made in response to trying to resolve issues caused by the bad planning. (Opening up Pleasure Island to pedestrian traffic to improve guest flow between West Side and Marketplace.....resulting in underage kids being in the area, or families complaining about the people clubbing/drinking/parting in the 21+ area at night, as well as a removal of the streetside type entertainment as a result of the cover charge to enter the island.... and the removal of the single-ticket cover resulting in each club suddenly having to justify it's individual existance and budget instead of being part of a larger district.... which led to the decision to just close all the clubs at pleasure island.... which has given us 4+ years of empty buildings in the middle of marketplace and westside that is very unattractive and makes it even more difficult to justify the walk between the two areas.)
Not to mention two mega cruise ships in the past two years which cost close to a billion each.
Again.... Comparing
Disney Cruise Line investments to Universal's Florida Park investments.... not really comparing apples to apples. "Hey look! I just built a house!" "That's cool.... I just built a small city!" Not really the same thing.
I think it's ridiculous it's taking over a year for a ride to be completed since New Fantasyland's Grand Opening. We are going to WDW in November and probably won't be returning for a while so it is disappointing that we won't get to see the Mine Train.
I think it's silly for the new fantasyland expansion to take so long- noticeably the time the Mine Train is taking to get built AFTER the New Fantasyland opening. I mean- there's really no reason it couldn't have opened at the same time as the rest of New Fantasyland. Obviously Disney wants to stretch things out though.
Meg~ Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards
I'll be fair.... There is one perfectly valid reason for the mine train not opening at the same time as the rest of new fantasyland.... with a little bit of extra leeway given for logistical reasons.
1. the Mine train was a late addition to the plan. Ground was broken on the project and work started on BOG and LM buildings under the original expansion plans. It was a couple months later once Staggs was moved into his position over the parks that the original plans for the location now occupied by the mine train were changed to put the mine train there and to 86 the original plans that called for a couple more stand alone princess meet and greet locations. With the late change of plans I'm willing to give them a bit more leeway because of the potential additional engineering work required from dusting off this idea and working it, getting the components into place, and the fact that if it was part of the orginal plan, the original construction timetable could've been put together to make better use of time and resources as it's obvious the coaster requires a more complicated and involved engineering and construction process than a couple simple meet and greet show buildings.
2. The location which the mountain is being built was used as a construction staging area during much of the early work on the rest of the new fantasyland construction. Again... as a late addition to the construction plans, I'll give them a bit more leeway since when they started construction and decided to use that central ground as the staging area, the plan was for that space to be used by a couple of simple meet and greet show buildings that could've been put up pretty quickly and easily. By the time the coaster was added, they were alreday committed to using the space for the construction of the other buildings, so there was a delay in when they could start the excavation and prep work on the site for the coaster construction.
Soooo..... There are reasons for the delay.... but I can't give them a complete pass. They could provide more resources to the construction if they wanted too. And this whole thing wouldn't have been such an issue if there wasn't such disfunction and a desire to do things on the cheap to begin with with the Expansion. (Meet&Greets? Sweet! We don't have to spend much to build those!.... Wait... people are complaining they want more than just more lines to meet the princesses? dammit.... now we actually have to spend some money on something!
