I literally discussed how the land's ride is a problem, I was implying that Frozen is going to be a draw like Mermaid, it is'nt going to be able to really pull hordes of new people in like. say Hagrid's or Cosmic Rewind does.
It's like MK's Little Mermaid all over again, obviously not to that level, but it's a lot closer than WDWMagic forum users realizer. HKDL is different becasue it's a better park, and it's more of a Fantasyland expansion, not walking across the length of half a park to get to for.
French guests at DLP, are typically more informed than Americans, not about politics, but they understand when companies are exploiting them. That's not to say we shouldn't be happy, as you've seen from my posts I am very happy it's a massive net positive for the park's overhaul as a whole, but it is heavily flawed, and I question the judgement in not having an E-ticket open with Marvel, Frozen, or plopping one down in Pixar or even Soarin'. Didn't even have to be a headliner like Lion King, just not, you know, kind of a Peter Pan's Flight rival in its own way.
I fully expect it'll get huge waits at times, but ROI wise, dollar per dollar spent, I'm sure internally they are either disapointed if they didn't bake into their expectations that it's really Lion King. Even if COVID didn't happen and say phase 2 opened.
I view the third land as irrelevant, park's "Cars Land moment" is Lion King. If it was a year fine, but multiple? It's like an F you to DLP fans and totally leaves years in potentialy revenue on the table. They absolutely could've taken the Universal Epic Universe approach and keep chugging on, and when it actually opened, it should delivere attractions that rival their best.
I don't think the land will flop long-term, it'll be great, and it's very pretty like New Fantasyland (even if small), but it just it doesn't give the park what it needed in terms of rides despite starting this transformation's first ride openings 4 years ago, we might have to wait another 3 for a single ride that funtions as an "anchor," which is poor business strategy, and it's silly to leave so muich money on the table and hurting the Disney brand by just not doing it right.
Once Lion King opens it'll be fine, should've and could've been better, but it's sort of a joke where they're at now lol, just made the park prettier, added like another Ratatouille-sized land (better but still it's not large), and literally just some mostly empty walking paths around a lake with some pavement changes.
Like, the budget was not spent well at all.
Disney took the cheaper than Potter approach that they wanted to do for Potter at MK, and it would've ed off JK Rowling with this project lol.
Frozen's creator, Jennifer Lee, doesn't get to "veto" like Rowling does or or James Cameron for Avatar. This is sort of like if Galaxy's Edge had a budget for just Frozen: Ever After, all our complaints would be ramped up beyond anything.
I have to ask, is Forbidden Journey opening 15 years ago more impressive than Frozen: Ever After in 2026? I believe FJ cost less than $100 at least at IOA, so they had no excuse to not try to make this new ride better. Again, it is being billed as literally the entire "draw" for half an entire park. It is the park's distant weenie like Tower of Terror at HWS now, but my friends, Tower of Terror is actually impressive.
Frozen: EA, just isn't a good ride either. It's like a shorter Tiana's Bayou Adventure in tone, just very childish even if it's fluff it can still be fun, but I'm calling fluff when I see it.
But anyway, this project has bugged me for years, ever since they announced it, even before COVID, it just looked like such a bad idea for the buildout given the steps they took. I guess it's best to view this land like Mermaid at DCA and just treat Lion King as Cars Land. LK won't be Cars Land atmospherically impressive, the park has even weaker bones than DCA, and they didn't totally redo facades and add shops like DCA got. The budgets aren't even that different. I question the logic in dropping any money on the Cars ride, arguably the worst "ride" Disney has on Earth right now that's not like a spinner, but an actual ride. "Capacity" someone says? Okay make it actually worthwhile. ATM, Phantasialand, Europa Park, etc. are all building more impressive areas than the thematic areas we have in the park now, lol.
I just can't wait for 3D printing and AI to bring costs down so they can get more bang for their buck, but Disney does do insane levels of Hollywood accounting for Imagineering, we know that already, not the #1 issue, but Disney's accountants are smart.
I probably would've put Toy Story Mania instead of Web Slingers and either a clone of SDMT rethemed to Frozen or just a better Frozen ride, and prioritize redoing the area around FInding Nemo. But even if they didn't spend a penny more, I find it hard to believe that this is the outcome that made the most sense for the park big picture and for higher ROi.
