The next Disney theme park

[DannyDisneyFreak]

Okay, I am so confused, what the heck is DisneySea anyway, I was under the impression just by the name that it was like Sea World, from some of the posts I have read it sounds like WS but then someone said it is not. Can some one give me a simple, human explaination, or is it something that only the Japanese will understand?

 

[ophie]

DisneySea is themed around port environments. There are 7 ports.

1. Mediterranean Harbor: southern European seaport with waterfront buildings and waterways. It has a steamer and gondolas. The steamer is park transportation.

2. Lost River Delta: Caribbean beaches and jungles (1930s). Big coaster, an Indy ride, and another steamer stop

3.Arabian Coast: world of Aladdin. Sinbad, a theatre , & a carousel.

4. Mermaid Lagoon: world of the Little Mermaid. Flounder attraction, Scuttle attraction, a theatre, Ariel's playground, a balloon "blowfish" attraction, and
under the sea teacups.

5. Mysterious Island: center of the earth theme. Includes a volcano. Has Journey to the Center of the Earth & 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (sniff)

6. Port Discovery: a marina of the future. Has an attraction where you fly into a typhoon, a little boat ride, and a railway to the American Waterfront area

7. American Waterfront: New York and Cape Cod. Has the railway, the steamer, and old cars you can ride in.

Hope that helps.

 

[Another Voice]

Okay, I am so confused, what the heck is DisneySea anyway?

Prepare to be amazed...

http://www.tdrfan.com/tds/index.htm

http://www.barrybedford.com/tokyodisney/index.html

 

[BRERALEX]

Thanks AV those links are hot

 

[DisneyGirl4188]

DisneySea looks amazing and I would love to see it in WDW.

I am one of the few (I suppose) who think that AK is an all day park. We actually spent two days there in April. Granted, we did some rides more than once, but we still didn't see all the shows (in fact, we only saw FOTLK) and we didn't go down all the trails. We also didn't get to see any of the vet procedures.

I haven't been to the Studios yet, but I feel that I will more than enough to do in one day there.

That being said, I would love to see more attractions and shows added, but I think that about each park. I would also like to see a few more thrill rides, but I love the tamer rides as well.

I may never get to France, Japan, or Hong Kong (or even CA for that matter) so I would love to see some of the rides from those parks added to WDW.

 

[DannyDisneyFreak]

Prepare to be amazed...

http://www.tdrfan.com/tds/index.htm

http://www.barrybedford.com/tokyodisney/index.html

AMAZED!... and I only looked at part of the one site.

WDW needs DisneySea! I would give up MGM as long as they move a few of the best attractions like ToT, RRC, M3D and GMR to the other parks for them to put in DisSea!

So how long does it take to do the park 2 days? Is it about the size of Epcot? How about that hotel in the Park, how much is that. How much would a Tokyo Disney vacation cost for a family?

 

[peter11435]

AMAZED!... and I only looked at part of the one site.

WDW needs DisneySea! I would give up MGM as long as they move a few of the best attractions like ToT, RRC, M3D and GMR to the other parks for them to put in DisSea!

So how long does it take to do the park 2 days? Is it about the size of Epcot? How about that hotel in the Park, how much is that. How much would a Tokyo Disney vacation cost for a family?

The hotel is not cheap, and neither is a trip to tokyo. The park is much smaller than Epcot but is a good size.

 

[2Xited4Disney]

Ok its final after viewing those websites they need to build a disneysea.... whether it is its own park or a "continent" of DAK

 

[Another Voice]

DisneySea is slightly smaller than Tokyo's 'Magic Kingdom' and is generally considered a true full day park. When the park opened, it was full of true E-ticket sized attractions and many D-tickets rides as well. They just opened up an ‘Indiana Jones’ roller coaster to compliment the Indiana Jeep Ride (a version of Disneyland’s attraction) and their ‘Tower of Terror’ is under construction.

One complaint is that it lacks a lot of the smaller attractions to completely round-out the experience. If that’s a problem, then I’ll gladly suffer through having to choose between too many big rides versus the choice I’m left with at California Adventure – the tortilla making machine or the bread making walk-though (both of which are still listed as attractions). Tokyo also opened up a brand new monorail system to connect the parks, the hotel complex and their version of Downtown Disney.

In essence, the Japanese showed how the lie of Disney’s “we have to build small, busses are the way to go” scam.

The Hotel Mira Costa at the park’s entrance one the most expensive resorts at any Disney park – comparable to the Disneyland Hotel at Euro Disney. By all accounts, it’s worth it. Many of the guest rooms look directly out into the park. The hotel itself was actually designed as the Mediterranean Resort for the U.S. It was initially to have been part of the Port Disney project in Long Beach, California – then it was to have been built on the Seven Seas Lagoon near the TTC at Walt Disney World. But, with a certain amount of irony, Disney fired a lot of designers and the hotel ended up being built as the Hotel Portifino at Universal Orlando.

If you get a chance, check out the video from their ‘Winnie the Pooh’ ride. The attraction uses a trackless ride vehicle. Each car knows where it is through a GPS-like system and can randomly change it’s route; every trip through the ride is unique. Another good website for the entire Tokyo Disneyland area is http://www.jtcent.com/main.php .

 

[MJMcBride]

Actually, both Eisner and Iger have made very clear what Disney’s spending is going to be like. Both consider the U.S. parks to be “mature markets” where large capital spending can’t be justified. While there will be limited spending to replace attractions and such (to entice people to make return visits), you won’t see any new theme parks at WDW. Disney sees the only place to expand theme parks is internationally with a minor chance for the ever-troubled “regional entertainment” projects (DisneyQuest, ESPNZone, DisneyZone) here in the U.S.

It all comes down to executive preference and experience. Eisner preferred to spend his money on movies in hopes of a quick return. Iger wants to spend the money buying expense programs for ABC and investing in new distribution technologies. At the same time, large sums of money were spent on the Animal Kingdom and California Adventure. Not only have those places not yet returned a profit, both have required massive further investments just keep them in the “big time failure” columns. And less not forget Euro Disney – which sailed right through “big time failure” and fell all the way to “so epic it gets laughs in business courses” category.

Until someone can convince the corporate headquarters in Burbank that a theme park will generate returns just as fast as a blockbuster movie can – the biggest changes we’ll see WDW are newly decorated prefab rides and a couple of new AA figures now and again.

This seems right. Although I still think they need to add a "land" to DAK and maybe some stuff to the Studios to increase single day sales.

 

[tinkwinks123]

Disney is in the works with another park. This is not a rumor. I personally know someone who is an architect who got invited to work on this park. It is supposed to be some big secret, so you didn't hear it from me!

 

[Horace Horsecollar]

Disney is in the works with another park. This is not a rumor. I personally know someone who is an architect who got invited to work on this park. It is supposed to be some big secret, so you didn't hear it from me!

I'm certain that Disney Imagineering has plans for all sorts of improvements to the current parks, as well as fairly detailed designs for a new parks (or, more likely, for multiple park concepts). This design process involves artists, architects, model builders, writers, and engineers.

But the real question is if the decision-makers at The Walt Disney Company are willing to take on the capital cost and the ongoing operating costs of a fifth major theme park at WDW. Until they're convinced that such a park will increase WDW revenue substantially, the answer will contnue to be no.

By the way, the statements, "This is not a rumor" and "It is supposed to be some big secret," contradict each other.

 

[Lord Fantasius]

But would they replace the American Waterfront and Lost River Delta "ports?" After going though all the links (thanks everyone), DisneySea would definitely be an "added attraction" for a day or two for me, but only if it had differing sites...the park itself reminded me of a blown up version of the Storybook ride at DL.

First of all, WDW already has the American Adventure, Dixieland Square, POR, POFQ, BC, YC, Boardwalk, etc., plus, NY is way too close and accessible to build a Disney-version so close by. Now if they would replace those two lands with something along the lines of a Colonial Village (though people have been clammering about a Colonial Resort for years and see how far they've come), or a few more "classic civilization" ports such as - a Sumerian/Babylonian/Egyptian/Alexandrian setting; Renaissance-era; or an ancient Oriental/Asian section - I think many people would view it as glimpses of mythological history (sterilized and archetyped) along with the other Disney "myths" already incorporated into DS.

Admittedly the problem is still the money Disney, Inc., is willing to shell out to build a quality park. If it really would cost $5-$6 billion to build a DS-type park, even if its attendance is second only to the MK, it would take in less than $1B a year and with its cost to operate it would take Disney, Inc., over 20 years to break even. Don't think any short-term president would approve that project.

Truthfully, I think Disney is going to keep building smaller and smaller parks - about half way between the size of the waterparks and AK/MGM - so people will have to spend more and more time being transported between places they want to visit, and thereby forcing them to spend more time overall at WDW if they want to visit everything.

-R

 

[mommyceratops]

Disney is in the works with another park. This is not a rumor. I personally know someone who is an architect who got invited to work on this park. It is supposed to be some big secret, so you didn't hear it from me!

Shhhh! We wont tell a soal come on more info....promise it wont leave here!

 

[mshoo1]

As a financial analyst, I have to agree with some of the earlier posts. Disney has aggresively pursued outside financing for DisneySea and Hong Kong Disneyland. These parks were essentially built with other people's money. That is all based on lessons learned from EuroDisney. I would be extraordinarily suprised to see Disney build another large theme park in Florida anytime in the near future. Wall Street would undeniably frown on such a decision. The capital outlay would be tremendous and the profit outlook would be blurry at best.

It's unlikely that a new park would lead to a substantial increase in the number of people visiting the Orlando parks and Disney continues to face agressive competition from Universal and Anheuser Busch. In fact, a new park could have the effect of siphoning attendance from an existing Disney park.

The thought behind Animal Kingdom was that the initial costs would be offset by high attendance and longer average stays at Disney resorts. Disney World profits are now dependent on ensuring that visitors stay as long possible (preferrably at Disney properties) while visiting all Disney attractions. None of these parks make financial sense based on park revenue alone anymore.

As for moving the Living Seas, while it may be a better fit thematically at Animal Kingdom, it will not be moved there. The costs of moving that attraction would be very large with no substantive impact on AK attendance.

 

[DancingBear]

AsNone of these parks make financial sense based on park revenue alone anymore.

I think that's too strong a statement; surely MK could be profitable on its own. Rather, I'd say that Disney now looks at the profitability of WDW as a whole (although I understand each resort has independent expectations, which is a bit problematic). Just look at how they report park segment financial results in their 10-Ks and 10-Qs, showing occupancy rates and per room guest spending.

 

[mshoo1]

I completely agree. I was speaking about new parks (probably should have been more clear). The real question is does a new park improve overall DW revenue enough to justify the cost.

 

[Lord Fantasius]

I think that's too strong a statement; surely MK could be profitable on its own. Rather, I'd say that Disney now looks at the profitability of WDW as a whole (although I understand each resort has independent expectations, which is a bit problematic). Just look at how they report park segment financial results in their 10-Ks and 10-Qs, showing occupancy rates and per room guest spending.

MK could probably stand on its own as much as DL does, and I would almost guess that EPCOT could too with a little tweeking of the fee structure and completing the World Showcase. If they fleshed out the countries more, I think they could bring in a lot of day trips to a World Culture park of sorts if done correctly. However, if they weren't included in my parkhopper, I doubt I would spend even half the cost of the current admission to visit either AK or MGM...to each his own, I guess.

If Disney, Inc., is looking at WDW as a whole financially that's a good thing...keeps the micromanagement down as well as too much interference with the less profitable, but critical-to-the-overall-experience parts. Now if they would only look at an expansion of the monorail the same way....

One other problem with building another major "gate" would be housing the guests on-site. Currently, except for a few select times of years, the moderates and deluxes are usually bustling...now add another 20,000 guests that either stay one or two days longer because of the additional park or come just for the park and Disney isn't going to build another major park until the infrastructure can handle it to keep the money inside WDW! It would take at a minimum the completion of PopCentury plus the addition of another deluxe and another moderate to comfortably handle the increase alloted for the new park, then transportation on top of that.

Ergo, not sure which would come first - the park or the resorts - but either way we're talking capital outlay across the board!

-R

 

[Horace Horsecollar]

now add another 20,000 guests that either stay one or two days longer because of the additional park or come just for the park and Disney isn't going to build another major park until the infrastructure can handle it to keep the money inside WDW!

Ahhh, but the real question is whether another park would really "add another 20,000 guests," or if another park would primarily spread the current guests across more parks with more overhead expense.

If Disney management really thought that another park would draw an average of 20,000 new guests per day (7.3 million new guests per year), a new park would now be under construction, along with new hotels rooms in various price tiers.

 

[hauntedmansion79]

I think MGM is VERY close, if not already there. My group has said that MGM is now "up to snuff" with EPCOT and Magic Kingdom. Tower of Terror, Rockin' Rollercoaster, Muppets 3D, Star Tours, Indiana Jones, Backlot Tour, Millionaire, Fantasmic, Little Mermaid, The Great Movie Ride....It's a great full day!!! One or two more things will certify it gold!

Animal Kingdom on the other hand.....I don't know...it needs the Disney Magic. You could do the Safari, Tough to be a Bug, Dinosaur and Everest, and then leave, and it would only be noon time. The carnival is a joke, a disgrace, a tragedy...well, you get the picture. Hopefully Everest will steer Animal Kingdom in the right direction. MGM took about 10 years to become a great park, Animal Kingdom will probably need the same amount of time.