DAK 'Encanto' and 'Indiana Jones'-themed experiences at Animal Kingdom

[danlb_2000]

Expansion of existing parks. No one is saying a fifth gate. These are two different kinds of expansion, an apples and oranges comparison

You are correct, my train of thought went off the tracks.

 

[SamusAranX]

Tropical Americas is still partly an expansion. It's expanding further back from where primeval whirl was. It's also expanding capacity with a large indoor dark ride (Encanto) replacing a rollercoaster that hasn't operated in 6 years and some pay to.play carnival games. Is it a shame that Dinosaur is closed? Absolutely. But it doesn't mean this whole land is just an overplayed replacement

My position is a bit different I did like dinosaur but I don’t think it’s a cardinal sin to close it; but I also think it wouldn’t have been a bad decision to keep Dinoland, and expand even further. AK is really hurting. I think Disney even tacitly acknowledges this with how often the AK single day tickets are lower than the other 3 parks. It simply isn’t even close to a full day park. Will tropical America make it one? If you stretch your day and really relax I think it’s possible (and also be prepared for long lines). Especially with the earlier closure. but if Disney can add one more significant E ticket and a couple more C/D AK would become a real gem

 

[Disstevefan1]

Already done 3 of them

Disney has been destroying so much it’s hard to keep up with Martin’s tributes

 

[SamusAranX]

You are correct, my train of thought went off the tracks.

You’re good.

I see your point in theory.

I think we can all agree expansion is a good thing. Unfortunately, the reality is that LL has become the golden goose. No way Disney is going to kill that any time soon. So massive capacity expansion is not in the books any time soon

 

[MisterPenguin]

It's clear that all the WDW parks should expand.

Until they touch one another.

Then make it just one gate.

 

[JD80]

It's clear that all the WDW parks should expand.

Until they touch one another.

Then make it just one gate.

Mega Gate

 

[Touchdown]

After this update, the MK is getting pretty close to being fully expanded, there is a limit people are willing to walk from an entrance and MSUSA can only handle so many people. I think WDW should focus on updating the other three parks. More long term if MK continues to have high demand, Disney needs to consider another Western Hemisphere resort. Either a Texas resort or a South American one to pull some vacationers away from Florida. In order to do that though they are either going to make the new castle park as complete and jawdropping as DLP or build two parks off the bat. Either way, they need to rely on non cloned rides from DL or WDW to get people to want to visit the new park.

It’s going to be expensive and risky, so I don’t see that happening for quite a few years.

 

[UNCgolf]

It's clear that all the WDW parks should expand.

Until they touch one another.

Then make it just one gate.

Disney's Hollywood Magic Animal Kingdom Community of Tomorrow

 

[SamusAranX]

I mean thematically speaking three of the four parks are basically one gate now. AK is the last man standing

 

[Agent H]

Disney's Hollywood Magic Animal Kingdom Community of Tomorrow

D.H.M.A.K.C.O.T for short.

 

[Disstevefan1]

It's clear that all the WDW parks should expand.

Until they touch one another.

Then make it just one gate.

Don't worry, since they never actually expand, there is no fear that will ever happen.

 

[HMF]

Y'know, it's probably for the best that Beastly Kingdom wasn't built. If it had been, Iger probably would've shoehorned a Frozen ride or something into it by now.

At this point why build anything since everything they put out is going to be IP based whether it fits where it is placed or not?

 

[Gusey]

Y'know, it's probably for the best that Beastly Kingdom wasn't built. If it had been, Iger probably would've shoehorned a Frozen ride or something into it by now.

Wasn't Beastly Kingdom going to have a Fantasia boat ride, and would have opened just before Fantasia 2000 released?

 

[Pizza Moon]

Agree!

I used to criticize WDW for its inefficient use of space compared to Disneyland, for example, but this week when I visited DLR for the second time ever, it made me appreciate how the Florida parks are designed.

At Disneyland Park, even the low crowd days feel incredibly crowded, because the pathways are so tight and there’s not as much acreage to spread people out. DCA faces this problem to a lesser extent, but it’s still worse than any of the FL parks.

Could rides be more efficiently laid out at WDW? Sure. And, I’ll admit, there’s certainly more replacement going on than is necessary.

But, having attractions spaced out, large pathways, and giant weenies helps to add to the sense of scale, awe, and wonder, and it’s actually something WDW does quite well.

I like how at Disneyland the waits are actually reasonable compared to Orlando because there’s just so many rides.

 

[dmc493]

I like how at Disneyland the waits are actually reasonable compared to Orlando because there’s just so many rides.

I had such conflicting opinions back when I had my Magic Key, because I hated being in the park with how chaotic and congested it always felt, yet had good success with wait times

 

[SplashJacket]

... and this is why I bring it up, since others are saying the exapnsion is the path to higher profits.

Theme parks fans aren’t trying to make rational business decisions…

Most recent earnings call said theme park investment was one of the lowest ROIs in the 2000s, but now the ROI is the highest across the company. Eventually that won’t be true, but even if it was the lowest, park fans would (rightfully as a fan) ask for more expansion.

 

[Brer Panther]

I just saw a post on Instagram claiming that Joe Rhode has been trying to get a Tropical America land greenlit for Animal Kingdom, with many of his pitches replacing Dinoland, for years.

Call me skeptical, but I doubt that Joe - the guy behind Animal Kingdom and who probably understands it better than anyone - ever said, "You know what we should do? We should remove dinosaurs from the park and shoehorn in two IPs that don't fit in the park!"

MAYBE he wanted to do a South America land that actually focused on animals, but I doubt the Indiana Jones retheme of Dinosaur and an Encanto ride were his idea.

It simply isn’t even close to a full day park. Will tropical America make it one?

Not really, no. It's gonna have the same number of attractions (they're replacing three attractions with... three attractions), and if you're like me and don't care about Indiana Jones and Encanto, you're likely not going to want to see the new rides, so that takes even less time off your visit to the park.

Wasn't Beastly Kingdom going to have a Fantasia boat ride, and would have opened just before Fantasia 2000 released?

Fair point. But wasn't the Fantasia boat ride going to focus primarily on the "Pastoral Symphony" and "Dance of the Hours" segments? Y'know, the ones about mythological creatures and animals respectively? I don't even know if there were going to be any scenes from Fantasia 2000 in it.

 

[Gremlin Gus]

I just saw a post on Instagram claiming that Joe Rhode has been trying to get a Tropical America land greenlit for Animal Kingdom, with many of his pitches replacing Dinoland, for years.

Call me skeptical, but I doubt that Joe - the guy behind Animal Kingdom and who probably understands it better than anyone - ever said, "You know what we should do? We should remove dinosaurs from the park and shoehorn in two IPs that don't fit in the park!"

MAYBE he wanted to do a South America land that actually focused on animals, but I doubt the Indiana Jones retheme of Dinosaur and an Encanto ride were his idea.

I'm pretty sure he said that he wanted to do a Tropical Americas land for DAK with some of his proposals including demolishing Dinoland USA for it. But as I said in an earlier post, I'm guessing Disney never greenlit it due to the IP mandate and not really having that many Central and/or South American IP's to put it in there until Encanto released and was a huge hit to put it in the parks.

And I'm sure Joe would've put animal enclosures in his proposals for TA, why it isn't in the final design for it beats me. But I don't think Disney hated the idea of putting animals into new lands seeing as the Bluey retheme of Conservation Station will have Australian animal enclosures in it. I'd disappointed they didn't put animal enclosures in TA don't get me wrong, but I doubt Disney has anything against animal enclosures

Not really, no. It's gonna have the same number of attractions (they're replacing three attractions with... three attractions), and if you're like me and don't care about Indiana Jones and Encanto, you're likely not going to want to see the new rides, so that takes even less time off your visit to the park.

No offense, but that's kinda on you if you don't make DAK a full day park by not doing certain attractions. Sure there's some you can skip like Better Zoogether unless you really need something to do, but DAK can be a full day park if you're okay riding attractions more than once and you just take your time with the land and not rush it.

For an example, I don't really care about Star Wars, but would I do Smugglers Run and Rise of the Resistance whenever I go to DHS? Yeah... I mean I paid $120ish+ to go to DHS, why wouldn't I?

 

[BrianLo]

My point was that whenever I point out that Indiana Jones and Encanto don't fit in Animal Kingdom, folks on here insist that they're going to make the attractions focus on animals, but when we point out that Moana doesn't fit suddenly it becomes "oh, Animal Kingdom isn't about animals, it's about nature and humans' connection to it." So by that logic, the Encanto and Indiana Jones rides won't fit even if they ARE about animals.

You quoted two short sentences and seem to have absorbed neither of them.

The Animal Kingdom is part of nature. So whether the attraction focuses on animals’ nature, or conservation efforts, they are two sides of the same coin that are Joe’s defined themes. Both have been or could be easily massaged to be about “nature”; whether animal or environmental nature.

The nice thing about Moana is that it’s a mostly unused property that could in theory find its way into all four gates without completely missing their themes if the attraction focuses correctly.

Call me skeptical, but I doubt that Joe

You cannot complain that people don’t understand, if your position is simply you won’t believe anything. Whether by obstinance or incomprehension, you ignore the things we have been told. Such as the story treatment for an Encanto attraction.

Joe’s proposals even included an Indy conversion of Dinosaur in various treatments. We have a several hundred page thread about it from 2017; it was the follow up project he was pitching after Pandora. His post then goes on to endorse what they are doing.

 

[HMF]

You quoted two short sentences and seem to have absorbed neither of them.

The Animal Kingdom is part of nature. So whether the attraction focuses on animals’ nature, or conservation efforts, they are two sides of the same coin that are Joe’s defined themes. Both have been or could be easily massaged to be about “nature”; whether animal or environmental nature.

The nice thing about Moana is that it’s a mostly unused property that could in theory find its way into all four gates without completely missing their themes if the attraction focuses correctly.



You cannot complain that people don’t understand, if your position is simply you won’t believe anything. Whether by obstinance or incomprehension, you ignore the things we have been told. Such as the story treatment for an Encanto attraction.

Joe’s proposals even included an Indy conversion of Dinosaur in various treatments. We have a several hundred page thread about it from 2017; it was the follow up project he was pitching after Pandora. His post then goes on to endorse what they are doing.

Joe was more willing to play ball with the Iger regime and put his name on questionable projects in the later days of his career, sadly.