News Disney Not Renewing Great Movie Ride Sponsorship Deal with TCM ; Attraction to Close

[Sped2424]

Apparently so.

I rode GMR last fall thinking it would be my last. Sadly it seems I was right.

It's currently a slightly over two year project. The new ride should be lots of fun. It's the justification and execution that IMHO is wrong.

So the greenlight finally happened. Looks like I need to say goodbye to the GMR next time I visit.

 

[Haymarket2008]

So what is the next step for DHS to counter the lack of rides? When will we see true, permanent replacements/updates for things like Mermaid, Beast, Indy, Launch Bay? I feel like they should get going on that stuff before the heavy hitters are down.

 

[Bocabear]

So what is the next step for DHS to counter the lack of rides? When will we see true, permanent replacements/updates for things like Mermaid, Beast, Indy, Launch Bay? I feel like they should get going on that stuff before the heavy hitters are down.

Honestly as long as people keep paying $100 to get into a half a park, they are in o rush to bring things back online... if attendance suddenly dropped they would be more amenable to fixing things faster... I think the current TDO philosophy is "As long as people are paying, why bother?"

 

[rushtest4echo]

I think the current TDO philosophy is "As long as people are paying, why bother?"

Agreed. Unfortunate, but can you really blame a corporation for such a practice? I know people want that to change, but the customers ultimately drive those decisions in the long run and it looks like customers are not punishing Disney for these practices.

I guess we'll have to see what the attendance/occupancy numbers look like for 2016/2017 to see the true extent of customer reaction has been to DHS's issues. Animal Kingdom will obviously widen its lead over DHS, and maintain that lead until Star Wars Land is complete. It'll be interesting to see where the numbers fall by 2020 if EPCOT goes under the knife significantly, it's possible that AK will be the #2 attended gate by then. When all is said and done expansion wise, I think it's anyone's guess what the numbers will look like. Maybe by then Universal will have something to challenge Disney's least attended Orlando gate which may very well be DHS. And if that comes anywhere near close to happening, I'd expect even more money to be invested in DHS after this round! Yay competition!

 

[Jones14]

Something else to keep in mind: it seems unlikely that we will see any major improvements to current attractions until at least next summer unless they begin before The Great Movie Ride closes. That means no enclosed Theater of the Stars, no significant Famtasmic! upgrades, no Little Mermaid replacement, etc.

Disney is really shooting themselves in the foot here.

 

[Kman101]

Sounds like you're talking about Frozen. Have you ever actually seen it? The performers are hilarious.

It is a decent little show, and they are hilarious, but that doesn't mean they can't do better and that specific venue doesn't deserve a higher quality show.

 

[MisterPenguin]

Honestly as long as people keep paying $100 to get into a half a park, they are in o rush to bring things back online... if attendance suddenly dropped they would be more amenable to fixing things faster... I think the current TDO philosophy is "As long as people are paying, why bother?"

I doubt there's a lot of people paying a one day ticket just for DHS. With a 4 to 10 day stay, the cost of extra park days diminishes to an extra $50 - $20.

Since I still see most of the shows when I go to DHS, it's still very much a full day park for me. I can see how locals who may have tired of the shows or people who just want rides would be disappointed.

So the 'suckers' who fill up the park each day have discounted multiple day tickets, or hoppers (including APs), and/or are huge Star Wars fans and find the park satisfying in that regard.

 

[matt9112]

Sounds like you're talking about Frozen. Have you ever actually seen it? The performers are hilarious.

Talking about all the previews and such they bill as attractions (the path to a Jedi comes to mind) frozen is more of a built product even if reusing exsisting space.

 

[Kman101]

Well, who knew when I hit the parks this week that I'd probably take my last spin on The Great Movie Ride

I'll miss the entire attraction but I'll especially miss the Wizard of Oz section. Sucks to lose that representation.

 

[KrzyKtty]

A lot of the shows are still new since my last trip in 2012. I am excited to see them all with my daughter for the first time. That being said, we are still expecting it to be the more relaxing of the parks.

 

[twebber55]

Crap.

Magic Kingdom can barely handle 20 million a year and you're expecting DHS to be able to when all of this is done?


I hope you mean "better Frozen show" as in better than the Star Wars stuff. Not really hard to top those though. If you want a truly great Frozen show you have to go to California.

DHS will not have 20 million people
zero chance
more like 14 million tops

 

[huwar18]

DHS will not have 20 million people
zero chance
more like 14 million tops

I agree. I still think 14 million is shooting high. In my opinion, they are still going to have capacity issues when everything opens.

 

[ToTBellHop]

I agree. I still think 14 million is shooting high. In my opinion, they are still going to have capacity issues when everything opens.

Of course they are. Mostly because, even if there are only 12,000,000 guests the first year, each of them will want to ride BOTH Star Wars attractions.

 

[twebber55]

I agree. I still think 14 million is shooting high. In my opinion, they are still going to have capacity issues when everything opens.

Totally agree
If I came across as a jerk I apologize

 

[rushtest4echo]

frozen is more of a built product even if reusing exsisting space.

True, but it was moved for more than one reason. American Idol needed to go. Premiere Theater is obviously no longer available. The new location is much better suited for the crowds, the show quality is better there too. It's not perfect by any means, but it's a solid contribution to the park and it's never had an empty seat in the dozens of times I've attended a showing (which is more than I can say about Indy or BatB despite them being superior offerings).

Frankly, I only attend to see the storytellers. One of my favorite guilty pleasures!

 

[rushtest4echo]

Totally agree
If I came across as a jerk I apologize

14 Million is very doable, especially after the park as a whole is redone. If they can manage 10 million with their current offerings and limited space, I don't see why they couldn't shove 4 million more people in there especially if they go back to opening at 8 AM and closing at 11 PM for new offerings like Animal Kingdom is doing. Adding 3 or 4 extra hours of park time each day really does help the overall daily carrying capacity as people clear out in the afternoon and others come in for evening visits. Just ask Magic Kingdom!

 

[ToTBellHop]

14 Million is very doable, especially after the park as a whole is redone. If they can manage 10 million with their current offerings and limited space, I don't see why they couldn't shove 4 million more people in there especially if they go back to opening at 8 AM and closing at 11 PM for new offerings like Animal Kingdom is doing. Adding 3 or 4 extra hours of park time each day really does help the overall daily carrying capacity as people clear out in the afternoon and others come in for evening visits. Just ask Magic Kingdom!

Would you say they are managing 10,000,000?

 

[YodaMan]

Would you say they are managing 10,000,000?

Even if Disney decides to say that attendance held even and was still 10,000,000 for this past year for DHS, don't think for a second that the park came anywhere close to truly averaging 27k every day.

 

[UpAllNight]

Tim Tracker, who is normally very positive in regards to Disney, highlighted the issues with DHS in a video this past month. He couldn't make Fastpass selections so went to DHS without them, and by like 10am everything was 60-90 mins. His views echoed my own from 2015. At one point we genuinely looked at each other and discussed if these kind of holidays were for us. We were queuing 70 minutes for Rock n Rollercoaster at 9am...there's endless possibilities for a holiday and there we were in the sweltering heat queuing pretty much all day. We're British if there's one thing we're used too it's a queue! We didn't get this feeling at any other park despite obviously having to wait at times....you expect it in Florida, we're not deluded. But DHS was worse than any other park for It. There was a 50 minute queue to meet Mickey, and that was one of the smallest in the park.

I think all the other parks offered relief...yeah a ride might have a 120 min queue at some points (7 dwarves etc) but there were other options and crowds would shift so there'd be times where that'd drop to 60/70...at DHS the queues were relentless all day....and there just wasn't enough to see to keep us occupied in the meantime...the nature trails in AK provided that...MK and Epcot are huge...Islands and Uni have tons of E-tickets, Seaworld is big and was quieter, and also had the animal exhibits....same as Busch.

DHS was a complete mess and I can't see how Star Wars Land and Toy Story will solve this alone. They'll help no doubt in giving guests more options, but these are 2 HUGE IPs...which will bring even bigger crowds, making this parks problems even worse.

 

[Thanks phoenicians]

Yes, but honestly the money is now spreading property wide. The level of spending over the next five years is unprecedented. I don't come to WDW for one park. I come for four. And they will be in stellar shape by 2021.

My concern now turns to the 2020s. It would be unreasonable to expect growth to continue at this clip and it is reasonable to expect no major construction during what is shaping up to be a TRULY dazzling (no really, Disneyland) celebration. Let's hope they can end up at the arguably-appropriate pace of one new E-ticket every 12-18 months property-wide, smaller additions inbetween, and maintenance of a reasonable refurb schedule.

Disneyland has maintained that since 2005.

In the 2020s, depending on when Nintendo land opens and if uni decides to build a new park on their new land I could easily see money being spent at WDW again. Anyway about the GMR replacement it almost seemed stalled but I guess it seems to have new life/green lit?