News Splash Mountain retheme to Princess and the Frog - Tiana's Bayou Adventure

WDW Pro

Well-Known Member
You make a lot of assumptions here:

1. Disney Corp is just fine financially. You only have to look at their quarterlies. The pandemic could've killed them. It didn't. Disney held near break even, and now, printing billions.

2. The "failure" to invest in Epcot wasn't financial in that they didn't have the money, it was financial in that they didn't want to spend it. If the park was making tons of money (it was), then why change anything? It was only the 50th Anniversary and recent changes (FP+ didn't solve crowding problems) that they finally did something.

3. It's not necessary that we're heading into a recession. Those who've been saying so since the lockdowns ended have been wrong. This past quarter had a relatively small dip in GDP. A recession is 2 quarters of GDP shrinkage. And the WSJ is predicting GDP growth to return next quarter.

View attachment 639665


If you think we're hitting $6.00+ per gallon of gas in the United States by August AND government officials are now using the term "stagflation" AND you can't see the recession is straight ahead of you...
 

MisterPenguin

President of Animal Kingdom
Premium Member
If you think we're hitting $6.00+ per gallon of gas in the United States by August AND government officials are now using the term "stagflation" AND you can't see the recession is straight ahead of you...

... well, there's a reason penguins end up with just some shiny pebbles.

Well, when you constantly keep saying there will or might be a recession over the course of two years, you may eventually be right!!

Aug 2019
Star Wars won't sink Disney and neither will the Fox acquisition. However, with ticket prices far too high, and the dependence on Parks to absorb the cost of Disney+, the chance of a recession could create a situation in which Disney has to cut expenditures significantly and offer multi-layered promotions to drive up attendance. Let's just hope the indicators aren't correct for an upcoming recession; we really don't need a significant downturn given the amount of national debt racked up in the past two decades.

Feb 2020
Unfortunately it's an issue of global mass media in which getting eyes to see you generates money. Thus, hysteria is big revenue. Is this disease a problem? Yes. Does it pose a significant threat to individuals with high risks to pulmonary disease? Yes. Is it the apocalypse? No. But if the media and the political hacks whip everyone into a frenzy, it could unnecessarily push all of us into a massive recession and a disruption of economies to the point we're struggling to keep supplies moving. Essentially, the globe is facing a new, highly contagious flu with potentially more serious symptoms that came out of China... but we're also facing a potential mass panic that exponentially increases hardship without any benefit.

Apr 2020
That said, you can expect that any project which can be delayed or cut, will be delayed or cut, unless there is some miraculous way that the American Government prevents a steep recession. Even if that plays out, though, it is unlikely that Disney will have international guest revenues anywhere near prior normal numbers for years.

May 2020
We'll just have to wait and see what happens with the hotel. It's very difficult to see it being successful in a recession, and we've already taken note of the waning popularity for Star Wars (sans Mandalorian). Maybe Chapek has changed course... but this is a high capital burn to complete with significant risk for lack of return.
 

EPCOT-O.G.

Well-Known Member
On this week's Daily Dish, @lentesta and Jim Hill offered speculation that DL's reskin was still on track, whereas WDW's is not. One of the reasons was the absolute paucity of information we've heard since the announcement. Just before that discussion, they mentioned the lack of new attractions and endemic capacity problems WDW finds itself in. With the capital outlays required for new attractions, and Epic Universe coming online soon, taking a perfectly functioning attraction offline for 2 years or so (and a few hundred million to change it) that doesn't increase capacity seems like a foolish step.
 

MisterPenguin

President of Animal Kingdom
Premium Member
On this week's Daily Dish, @lentesta and Jim Hill offered speculation that DL's reskin was still on track, whereas WDW's is not. One of the reasons was the absolute paucity of information we've heard since the announcement. Just before that discussion, they mentioned the lack of new attractions and endemic capacity problems WDW finds itself in. With the capital outlays required for new attractions, and Epic Universe coming online soon, taking a perfectly functioning attraction offline for 2 years or so (and a few hundred million to change it) that doesn't increase capacity seems like a foolish step.
So... they're making suppositions that others have made in this thread already.

Which aren't necessarily the case since they're not quoting any insiders they know who know for sure.

Cool.
 

J4546

Well-Known Member
I think patf should get its own land north of hm and iasw showbuilding. Reconfigure hm que and create a path to that new area. Water based ride, dining, shops, and a new rail station as well as a new Orleans/bayou waterfront area.
 

owlsandcoffee

Well-Known Member
I think patf should get its own land north of hm and iasw showbuilding. Reconfigure hm que and create a path to that new area. Water based ride, dining, shops, and a new rail station as well as a new Orleans/bayou waterfront area.
I have considered a dumb and likely unpopular Blue Sky idea...which would be to demolish SM and build PatF Splash in the NE corner of the park, with a small NOLA-themed area similar to the current Splash area. There are ways to blend Storybook Circus into that...would literally never happen because it would be both expensive and a waste of money. It would put Tiana in Fantasyland, get rid of the Br'ers, and balance out the park crowds a bit better. Again, it's very dumb logistically.
 

Ghost93

Well-Known Member
On this week's Daily Dish, @lentesta and Jim Hill offered speculation that DL's reskin was still on track, whereas WDW's is not. One of the reasons was the absolute paucity of information we've heard since the announcement. Just before that discussion, they mentioned the lack of new attractions and endemic capacity problems WDW finds itself in. With the capital outlays required for new attractions, and Epic Universe coming online soon, taking a perfectly functioning attraction offline for 2 years or so (and a few hundred million to change it) that doesn't increase capacity seems like a foolish step.
Jim Hill also started a rumor back in 2005 that Disney was going to re-release Song of the South on DVD in the fall of 2006 for its 60th anniversary. He continued to make several claims in the later 2000s about how Disney was planning to use Princess and the Frog as a way to soften criticisms of a Song of the South re-release.

So while I enjoy listening to his podcast, I don't think he has the best track record when it comes to SotS related news.
 

Animaniac93-98

Well-Known Member
Jim Hill also started a rumor back in 2005 that Disney was going to re-release Song of the South on DVD in the fall of 2006 for its 60th anniversary.

Credible rumor or not, that honestly seemed like a plausible concept at the time.

Maybe if Eisner has stayed on another year it might have happened. Not because he himself was big on the idea, but he may have trusted the home video division and archives to do a tasteful job. Once Iger came on board, the overall back catalog became much less important.
 

EPCOT-O.G.

Well-Known Member
Credible rumor or not, that honestly seemed like a plausible concept at the time.

Maybe if Eisner has stayed on another year it might have happened. Not because he himself was big on the idea, but he may have trusted the home video division and archives to do a tasteful job. Once Iger came on board, the overall back catalog became much less important.
One could argue that the "replace SM with PATF" was an Iger-pushed initiative
 

Ghost93

Well-Known Member
Credible rumor or not, that honestly seemed like a plausible concept at the time.

Maybe if Eisner has stayed on another year it might have happened. Not because he himself was big on the idea, but he may have trusted the home video division and archives to do a tasteful job. Once Iger came on board, the overall back catalog became much less important.
I don't think Eisner hated Song of the South the way Iger did. After all, Esiner approved the 1986 re-release in theaters, he greenlit a Song of the South-themed Splash Mountain and allowed the movie to be sold on VHS overseas. I think Eisner was afraid of the backlash a U.S. release would cause, whereas Iger disliked the movie itself.
 

RSoxNo1

Well-Known Member
Jim Hill also started a rumor back in 2005 that Disney was going to re-release Song of the South on DVD in the fall of 2006 for its 60th anniversary. He continued to make several claims in the later 2000s about how Disney was planning to use Princess and the Frog as a way to soften criticisms of a Song of the South re-release.

So while I enjoy listening to his podcast, I don't think he has the best track record when it comes to SotS related news.
Wasn't Bob Chapek in charge of the Disney Vault back then?
 

JustInTime

Well-Known Member
Am I the only one that thinks this project is incredibly financially irresponsible right now? The financial health of the company wasn't good enough to build some new things at EPCOT that would actually attract guests but it is good enough to re-theme an already immensely popular attraction. And then there are the massive macro economic factors that are going to ultimately affect Disney's attendance as we inch closer to a recession.
I could be wrong, but I believe the money was already set aside for all Epcot projects. Those funds were diverted to the sensitivity projects like Jungle Cruise and Splash.
 

Kirby86

Well-Known Member
Jungle Cruise would have been a relatively cheap and easy ride to change. They removed a few figures added a few more animal animatronics and had the cast members memorize a new script if they were skippers. Not saying it cost nothing but I'd take a guess it wasn't an extremely expensive change. Extremely expensive for Disney standards I mean.
 

Register on WDWMAGIC. This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.

Back
Top Bottom