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

[AidenRodriguez731]

It’s one of 4 rides that has no height requirement. The train, the Dino spinner, and the safari are the others.

All I'm hearing is more reasons to build a new Bug's Land in AK. With proper ride planning, the new Tropical America's, Lion King Ride, and a Bug's Life Land would probably make AK officially a "full day park" in a lot more peoples eyes. Have a nice quick service location similar in scale to the Lunchbox over in TSL, could do a new show for Bug's Land but isn't really all that necessary. Have a nice indoor area to look at bugs and other "creepy crawlies" to show our relation with bugs and show they aren't so scary after all. Add in 3-4 flat rides and see those ride wait times drop. If you wanna get some major brownie points, get in a playplace/splash pad and make it a kids paradise basically.

 

[MagicEye99]

All I'm hearing is more reasons to build a new Bug's Land in AK. With proper ride planning, the new Tropical America's, Lion King Ride, and a Bug's Life Land would probably make AK officially a "full day park" in a lot more peoples eyes. Have a nice quick service location similar in scale to the Lunchbox over in TSL, could do a new show for Bug's Land but isn't really all that necessary. Have a nice indoor area to look at bugs and other "creepy crawlies" to show our relation with bugs and show they aren't so scary after all. Add in 3-4 flat rides and see those ride wait times drop. If you wanna get some major brownie points, get in a playplace/splash pad and make it a kids paradise basically.

That makes wayyyy too much sense.

 

[Quietmouse]

Animal kingdom is almost 30 years old and it’s taken them 3 decades to barely move their attraction count…

Disney should have done a cycle where each park gets one new themed attraction land every 4 years. Cycling off between the 4 parks.

 

[JD80]

Animal kingdom is almost 30 years old and it’s taken them 3 decades to barely move their attraction count…

Disney should have done a cycle where each park gets one new themed attraction land every 4 years. Cycling off between the 4 parks.

They were on track for that but then Chapek and COVID.

 

[mattpeto]

They were on track for that but then Chapek and COVID.

And it also doesn't matter what they do in other parks. People still want to burn their vacation days mostly at MK.

 

[ToTBellHop]

And it also doesn't matter what they do in other parks. People still want to burn their vacation days mostly at MK.

You’re probably correct that MK needs a physical expansion because it’s packed to bursting while the other parks can get by with changing out content just to promote people visiting again on subsequent vacations. Epcot certainly doesn’t suffer for lack of space. Changing out rides and shows, as they’ve done, hopefully encourages more people to use the existing space.

The biggest exception (to me) is DHS. Like MK, it’s too full. So, it’s no surprise that park is also set to receive a true expansion in the 2030s. No such plans for Epcot or DAK.

 

[Sneaky]

You’re probably correct that MK needs a physical expansion because it’s packed to bursting while the other parks can get by with changing out content just to promote people visiting again on subsequent vacations. Epcot certainly doesn’t suffer for lack of space. Changing out rides and shows, as they’ve done, hopefully encourages more people to use the existing space.

The biggest exception (to me) is DHS. Like MK, it’s too full. So, it’s no surprise that park is also set to receive a true expansion in the 2030s. No such plans for Epcot or DAK.

Is that in animation courtyard, or somewhere else new?

 

[danlb_2000]

Animal kingdom is almost 30 years old and it’s taken them 3 decades to barely move their attraction count…

Disney should have done a cycle where each park gets one new themed attraction land every 4 years. Cycling off between the 4 parks.

Based on the announcements for Disney World it looks like Disney is more interested in optimizing then expanding.

 

[ToTBellHop]

Is that in animation courtyard, or somewhere else new?

Animation Courtyard and beyond. Whether or not Monsters, Inc. goes there, more is planned extending west toward RnRC.

 

[Sneaky]

Animation Courtyard and beyond. Whether or not Monsters, Inc. goes there, more is planned extending west toward RnRC.

That’s an interesting prospect. Interesting to see how DHS evolves over the coming years, and what direction they go with ip’s and such. By “west towards”, you mean directly behind sunset connecting to RNRC plaza?

 

[UNCgolf]

And it also doesn't matter what they do in other parks. People still want to burn their vacation days mostly at MK.

Of course it does -- if DHS had 15 or 20 attractions people wanted to see like the MK, it would be a bigger draw. The MK will probably always be the biggest park because of the castle etc., but other parks can absolutely draw people away if they had more people wanted to do, especially if they were potentially a two day park the way MK is.

EPCOT used to draw equally with MK (and I think may have even outdrawn it a year or two) back in the late 80s/early 90s when it was full of great attractions and interesting content.

 

[Quietmouse]

Of course it does -- if DHS had 15 or 20 attractions people wanted to see like the MK, it would be a bigger draw. The MK will probably always be the biggest park, but other parks can absolutely draw people away if they had more people wanted to do, especially if they were potentially a two day park the way MK is.

EPCOT used to draw equally with MK (and I think may have even outdrawn it a year or two) back in the late 80s/early 90s when it was full of great attractions and interesting content.

To be fair Epcot didn’t have 2 other theme parks to compete with (animal kingdom and dhs) and 2 other new Disney water parks.


Currently there is roughly a 5 million difference compared to magic kingdom and epcot which I think is fantastic.

 

[JMcMahonEsq]

Of course it does -- if DHS had 15 or 20 attractions people wanted to see like the MK, it would be a bigger draw. The MK will probably always be the biggest park, but other parks can absolutely draw people away if they had more people wanted to do, especially if they were potentially a two day park the way MK is.

EPCOT used to draw equally with MK (and I think may have even outdrawn it a year or two) back in the late 80s/early 90s when it was full of great attractions and interesting content.

Draw people away from what?

If its drawing people away from MK, its not all that big a deal, and in fact i would lean towards Mattpeto's statement it doesn't matter. If people are spending money for tickets at MK, and instead are "drawn away" to AK, there no net gain for WDW. Its the same money spent, just at a different park. If the argument is that you can get current WDW guests to spend MORE days in Orlando but expanding DHS or AK and making them a bigger draw, then you have something. Or if you think that by expanding them you are drawing people away from other non WDW parks, then again you have something. But theres no value to just spreading out the internal WDW guests and better/more equally distributing them across the 4 parks.

 

[UNCgolf]

Draw people away from what?

If its drawing people away from MK, its not all that big a deal, and in fact i would lean towards Mattpeto's statement it doesn't matter. If people are spending money for tickets at MK, and instead are "drawn away" to AK, there no net gain for WDW. Its the same money spent, just at a different park. If the argument is that you can get current WDW guests to spend MORE days in Orlando but expanding DHS or AK and making them a bigger draw, then you have something. Or if you think that by expanding them you are drawing people away from other non WDW parks, then again you have something. But theres no value to just spreading out the internal WDW guests and better/more equally distributing them across the 4 parks.

I was talking from a guest perspective, not a Disney corporate perspective.

That said, yes, it would be better for Disney too if it meant people were going to stay longer and/or choose more days at Disney over other parks. It would also be a draw to get more people to stay on site, which is becoming a problem for Disney.

 

[JD80]

I think the point is if DHS or AK had an attraction lineup half of what MK's is could you see more people going to those parks? Yes.

The increased population comes from a few different sources:

• People choosing not to go to MK a second/third time.
• People choosing to buy an extra park ticket instead of skipping a park entirely.
• People staying on property and not going to another Orlando theme park.
• People choosing to buy hoppers instead of single park tickets and visiting as part of their day.

 

[Haymarket]

Any word on whether there'll be any animals in the new Tropical Americas land?

 

[Quietmouse]

I think the point is if DHS or AK had an attraction lineup half of what MK's is could you see more people going to those parks? Yes.

The increased population comes from a few different sources:

• People choosing not to go to MK a second/third time.
• People choosing to buy an extra park ticket instead of skipping a park entirely.
• People staying on property and not going to another Orlando theme park.
• People choosing to buy hoppers instead of single park tickets and visiting as part of their day.

I know animal kingdom ranks last in Disney overall lineup of parks…but to me and my family we love animal kingdom because it’s essentially a zoo with Disney rides.

We love zoos and my kids love the safari and the trek. I think animal kingdom strikes a delicate balance because it’s the one place where we can more leisure and don’t feel like we need to run to the next big attraction.

A lot of it is due to its theming and animal based attractions and I personally would prefer for animal kingdom to continue to lean on that aspect more than becoming a magic kingdom with animals in it.

Because right now it’s definitely a place with animals that has rides and I think it’s unique and an under rated favorite by a lot of people because of that.

 

[DisneyHead123]

I know animal kingdom ranks last in Disney overall lineup of parks…but to me and my family we love animal kingdom because it’s essentially a zoo with Disney rides.

We love zoos and my kids love the safari and the trek. I think animal kingdom strikes a delicate balance because it’s the one place where we can more leisure and don’t feel like we need to run to the next big attraction.

A lot of it is due to its theming and animal based attractions and I personally would prefer for animal kingdom to continue to lean on that aspect more than becoming a magic kingdom with animals in it.

Because right now it’s definitely a place with animals that has rides and I think it’s unique and an under rated favorite by a lot of people because of that.

I don’t know that AK is underrated so much as it’s harder to get to. It’s the least accessible park by a long shot, in terms of onsite transportation.

 

[WorldExplorer]

So... we're expecting a "closing on this day in the future" announcement, right? Not a "yesterday was it" announcement? They haven't just shut down half a land before without saying an end date, right?

I'm a little surprised it hasn't happened yet and I'm glad it hasn't but also worried I'm waiting for something that isn't coming and it's just going to sneak up on me.

 

[ToTBellHop]

So... we're expecting a "closing on this day in the future" announcement, right? Not a "yesterday was it" announcement? They haven't just shut down half a land before without saying an end date, right?

I'm a little surprised it hasn't happened yet and I'm glad it hasn't but also worried I'm waiting for something that isn't coming and it's just going to sneak up on me.

If Dino indeed stays open longer, I’m not sure they need to give us much of a heads-up yet. Not many want one more ride on TriceraTop Spin. They could announce in November that much of the land closes 1/1/25 with Dinosaur closing after Summer 2025, for example.