3 out of the 4 recent Disney parks have had poor results.

[james4023464]

Have you noticed 3 out of the 4 recent Disney parks made have had very poor results.These parks are Animal Kingdom, California Adventure, and Disney Studios Paris. The park I left out was Disney Sea which has had awsome reviews. I think the reason these parks are not doing well they opened them up uncompleted. Look at AK it has like 2 e-tickets. All AK needs is more rides. They have been staring at Beastly Kingdom for to long they need to do somthing or AK is just going to be suffering. DCA is not doing to well either. There is talks in closing it and re theming it to Disney America I found this on Mouse Planet.com. Disney Studios lacks theming, I saw some picks of it and it looks terible. It just has a bunch of warehouse buildings with signs on them. The Rock'n Rollercoaster there looked horrible. Atleast there getting TOT in a couple of years. And finally Disney Sea it is just perfect. It has the right amount of e-tickets, and awsome theming. To some this up do we blame Eisner, us, or Imagineering. This is my perspective, I am not trying to trash Disney I love Disney. Does anybody want to add on this.

 

[The_CEO]

Ive only been to DCA *( ones your talking about )* and its perfect!! Not PER FECT But pretty close.. Wonderul themeing and great rides.. I dont think its a " have to see very D.L. visit. But.. Its still worth going for.

Yeah hope that made since lol

~ Justin..

 

[james4023464]

I do think these 3 parks have good futures. DCA is getting Flicks Fun Fair and Tower of Terror. FFF will be good for the kids.

AK I hope is getting BK or Austrailia. (fingers crossed)

DSP is also getting TOT so I guess these parks will be getting there popularity soon. Look at Dinsneyland Paris they started slow and now they are doing great. So I guess I take back all of that negative stuff I just said. These parks are just starting off slow I guess.

 

[pheneix]

>>>Have you noticed 3 out of the 4 recent Disney parks made have had very poor results.These parks are Animal Kingdom, California Adventure, and Disney Studios Paris.<<<

That is because DCA and AK were built by Disney, and Disney does not feel compelled to build a major "WOW!" type park like DisneySea and Islands of Adventure. Though I would hesitate to say that AK has had "very poor" results though. Finanically it is a decent success, solely because it is leeching off of the park hopper crowd. If AK (and to a lesser extent MGM, but that is a different story altogether) were to be forced to stand on it's own, it would fall on it's face and fail miserably. Creatively, AK has the chance to be a great success, but it's half-baked self is a bomb at this point.

DCA? Yeah, that is a considerable failure. Let's just drop it and move on to better things, okay?

>>>There is talks in closing it and re theming it to Disney America I found this on Mouse Planet.com.<<<

That ain't gonna happen, not ever. Don't believe everything you read on MP.

>>>Disney Studios lacks theming, I saw some picks of it and it looks terible. It just has a bunch of warehouse buildings with signs on them.<<<

WDS is a creative disaster. Whether or not it is a financial one is up for debate. In fact, I don't think I have heard any reports on how well (or poor) the park is performing.

>>>I do think these 3 parks have good futures. DCA is getting Flicks Fun Fair and Tower of Terror. FFF will be good for the kids.<<<

Animal Kingdom has a great future, and I think that WDS may be salvagable. But DCA? Maybe if thet shelve the California theme the park will be a success, but until then, I doubt it. The CA theme is just too limiting.

>>>Look at Dinsneyland Paris they started slow and now they are doing great.<<<

No, Disneyland itself has always been a major success. It was the actual resort that was the problem. They overbuilt it by such a large margin that it nearly went bankrupt, and they ended up be bailed out by a wealthy Saudi investor.

>>>So I guess I take back all of that negative stuff I just said. These parks are just starting off slow I guess.<<<

No, all three of them have some serious problems. Some of these can be worked out by just simply adding stuff that was hacked from the opening day budget (Animal Kingdom), and some of them are so serious that it will take hundreds of million to correct. You raised some good points.

 

[james4023464]

Thanks for clearing up some points Pheniex.

 

[DanStat]

Originally posted by james4023464
Have you noticed 3 out of the 4 recent Disney parks made have had very poor results.These parks are Animal Kingdom, California Adventure, and Disney Studios Paris. The park I left out was Disney Sea which has had awsome reviews. I think the reason these parks are not doing well they opened them up uncompleted. Look at AK it has like 2 e-tickets. All AK needs is more rides. They have been staring at Beastly Kingdom for to long they need to do somthing or AK is just going to be suffering. DCA is not doing to well either. There is talks in closing it and re theming it to Disney America I found this on Mouse Planet.com. Disney Studios lacks theming, I saw some picks of it and it looks terible. It just has a bunch of warehouse buildings with signs on them. The Rock'n Rollercoaster there looked horrible. Atleast there getting TOT in a couple of years. And finally Disney Sea it is just perfect. It has the right amount of e-tickets, and awsome theming. To some this up do we blame Eisner, us, or Imagineering. This is my perspective, I am not trying to trash Disney I love Disney. Does anybody want to add on this.

Animal Kingdom isn't doing as bad as many people think. Just because it doesn't have it's walls jam-packed with rides doesn't mean it's doing poorly.

DCA is alright, it's very limited on space, and theme, but it has some good rides. I don't think Disney would waste money on the America theme. I really wish that park would have been built in VA.

The Studios...very plain. I don't like DLP anyway.

 

[WDWManic]

I agree with james.... but we can only hope that Disney will pull together good additions to the AK.

 

[james4023464]

Look at the entrance to Rock'n Rollercoaster at DSP it looks horrible, what was disney thinking.

 

[pheneix]

Believe it or not, the ride itself is actually supposed to be better. They canned the cardboard cutouts in favor of crazy lighting effects that do a pretty good job of completely disorienting you. I wish they would implement this at RnRC in MGM, it would be so much better than a cheap looking "Hollywood" sign.

 

[james4023464]

Originally posted by pheneix
Believe it or not, the ride itself is actually supposed to be better. They canned the cardboard cutouts in favor of crazy lighting effects that do a pretty good job of completely disorienting you. I wish they would implement this at RnRC in MGM, it would be so much better than a cheap looking "Hollywood" sign.

The ride may be better but the entrance is horrible, I do like good rides but you got to have good theming, expecaly on the enterance it sets the mood for the ride.

 

[ToTBellHop]

they are not made out of CARDBOARD. Our attraction has a much better story and the entire attraction has much better theming. Granted the lighting effects are kewl, no one knows what is going on--how exactly does concert lighting and a roller coaster tell a story? I don't see it. As for your complaints about Animal Kingdom--I CERTAINLY do not buy your statements that disney does not want to build amazing parks. These parks are incredibly expensive for that. Imagineers do the best they can with the money they are given, and I think they did an AMAZING job with Animal Kingdom. The landscape is beautiful and the facilities for the animals are extremely high-tech and expensive. Please realize that NONE of the florida parks did well in their first few years. NONE of them. The Magic Kingdom didn't do so hot at first because disney had originally targetted the elderly and once they realized that families were coming they had to make some quick changes. Epcot didn't do so hot because guests simply did not know what the park was--they wanted rides, not to be taught. MGM didn't do well because it opened with very few attractions. Animal Kingdom is actually doing much better that the others. It already has attendance levels near that of MGM. Realize that this park is as big as all the other parks combined, so people displace better. Now, I have not seen much of Disney Studios Paris, but of Animal Kingdom and Cali Adventure, I have seen quite a bit of work on detail--I don't see any drop in quality.

 

[pheneix]

>>>they are not made out of CARDBOARD<<<

Alright, *wooden* cutouts.

>>>Imagineers do the best they can with the money they are given, and I think they did an AMAZING job with Animal Kingdom.<<<

That is why I pin the blame on cooperate Disney and not the Imagineers. What there is of Animal Kingdom is merticulously themed (save Dino-Rama), but there really isn't that much there. You have CTX, It's Touch to be a Bug, and the Safari, but that is about it. The rest of the (short) attraction roster is rounded out by shows, walkthroughs, and one really bad raft ride. If Disney would spend the money and give the park it's needed expansions, it would be an excellent park with a full days worth of entertainment, instead of the "3 hours and you're done" park that is there now.

>>>Epcot didn't do so hot because guests simply did not know what the park was--they wanted rides, not to be taught.<<<

Epcot has always been a questionable success. But it has fared much better than any other non-Magic Kingdom park ever created, at least until they completely trashed everything that made it famous.

>>>MGM didn't do well because it opened with very few attractions.<<<

MGM is the ONLY park that was home-run financially from Day 1. It was so successful that they IMMEDIATELY paved a second parking lot and planned major expansions that probably would have never saw the light of day if MGM opened with an "eh" response.

But critically and creatively, you're right. The SCATHING reviews that the park recieved still give me a shudder.

>>>Animal Kingdom is actually doing much better that the others. It already has attendance levels near that of MGM.<<<

Not really. Last year it was pretty close, but lower attendance has hurt AK more than MGM or the Magic Kingdom. It is pretty much a given at AK will be hard pressed to beat Universal Studios this year (unless losing HHN hurts them badly in October), and it is not because Universal has had some miracle increase of over 600,000 this year. For those keeping score, the year-end attendance for 2001 at these three parks are:

MGM Studios: 8.3 million
Animal Kingdom: 7.7 million
Universal Studios: 7.2 million

I've got a feeling that this year they will probably look something like this:

MGM Studios: 7.9 million
Animal Kingdom: 7.2 million
Universal Studios: 7.4 million

That is really being kind to Disney with these numbers. If foreign travel does not pick up (and I figured that it probably will recover some when making those projections), they could be hurt much worse.

>>>Realize that this park is as big as all the other parks combined, so people displace better.<<<

The actual portion of the park that is guest accessible is only around 100-125 acres (not counting the Safari).

 

[The_CEO]

>>>Realize that this park is as big as all the other parks combined, so people displace better.<<<

Doesnt matter if its as big as the state of FL.. Its what in it that counts. A.K. is pretty dammn empty... Spread out yes.. But there is like nothing.. Just trees.. They put alot of " Filling" into the park to make it look bigger and more " busy " then it really is. I like to see attraction after attraction. Not cross over 4 bridges to get to the attraction.

~ Justin...

 

[WDWFREAK53]

I would have to agree...

I myself think that Animal Kingdom is themed EXTREMELY well...but...it seriously needs SOMETHING ELSE...I would like to see another land (preferably Beastly Kingdom) and a really really cool (fantasmic level) nighttime spectacular...(do it away from the animals so it doesn't bother them) and leave the park open later and throw some lights on it...(like at night just have Beastly and DinoLand, The tree of life, and the oasis open.)

 

[The_CEO]

>>>>>>>>And a really really cool (fantasmic level) nighttime spectacular...(do it away from the animals so it doesn't bother them)<<<<<<


A.K. closes at 6- 7 every day

~ Justin...

 

[Pumbas Nakasak]

I think its unfair to compare DSP or DLP to the American parks. First of all they have the problem that they are run by the French and have French staff who have French attitudes. Also one of the largest groups to visit Florida are us Brits, and its actually cheaper to visit WDW than hop across the channel such is the rip off being perpatrated by our Gaelic brethren. As for the dance theme French do like rock but it has probably more to do with their law that states taht all music publicly featured (radio TV etc) should be predominantly French and their music is like their movies complete and utter PANTS!!
As for the animal Kingdom yes it could do with at least one more major attraction, but I cant understand youre hostility to shows there high quality production is unsurpassed by any other park

I like to see attraction after attraction. Not cross over 4 bridges to get to the attraction

If this is the case I suggest you avoid Alton Towers where you will need a team of sherpas to lug your baggage around.
The trouble with ride after ride in close proximity is that its congested and clostraphobic, a problem that they have managred to achieve at AK by jut badly designing the central hub.