A Spirited Dirty Dozen ...

[Gabe1]

Who else miss seeing the trees in front of Cinderella Castle to have twinkling lights back in the 90's?

I wonder how many members actually remember the twinkling lights back then. My DD was born in 1991 and had trips every year since 1992, she doesn't remember them. Then again she doesn't remember there not being a HAT at the Studios.

 

[PhotoDave219]

I hope Gary Buchanan is happy not having to do these kind of things ...
45 years and you just saw everything WDW Co will do to acknowledge the milestone.

I believe he is.... He's doing quite well the last I chatted with him.

 

[WDW1974]

45 isn't anything. So new merch (minimal importance) is more important than the anniversary itself (zero importance).

Five is a big deal. Ten is a big deal. 25 is a big deal. After that, who cares until 50 and 100?

I dunno. DL acknowledged it with a new parade (while a second gate was being built) ... I met a friend in O-Town who brought back lovely 33rd TDL and 15th TDS anniversary merchandise (all new designs ... no clip art or borrowed retro stuff).

WDW used to make anniversaries a big deal through the 25th ... or even the 30th as 100 Years of Walt was a substitute for it.
But TDO has no stomach to spend money on anything. (Waiting for someone to point out the shopping mall redevelopment that came one step closer to completion yesterday!)

 

[MerlinTheGoat]

I wonder how many members actually remember the twinkling lights back then. My DD was born in 1991 and had trips every year since 1992, she doesn't remember them. Then again she doesn't remember there not being a HAT at the Studios.

I remember them, miss them sorely. It's nothing compared to the original hub, but i'm at least a little happy to see some of the newer trees in the hub having twinkling lights again. Though they don't frame the castle in the same gorgeous manner they used to. Anyone have any idea how large the newer twinkling trees can get eventually? Just trying to imagine how the new hub might look in the future. If they're even using trees that can grow substantially and if they actually allow them to grow and don't mutilate to keep them small.

 

[Cesar R M]

Well I know I didn't see the Na'vi Halloween masks that were at my local Menards several years straight last October, so at least those got clearance'd out or something.

dear god, I googled na'vi masks and some are outright terrifying.
something out of friday the 13th or Freddy Kruger's imagination.

 

[Donaldfan1934]

It isn't. It really isn't. ... A few individual parts, maybe. But not the whole. Not anymore.

To each their own. I both agree and disagree with you at the same time. I'd say that MK as a whole and the higher end resorts are definitely still worth it, DAK and World Showcase have extremely high quality theming, but lack the attractions to justify the trip by themselves, and Future World and DHS (in its current state) have fallen so far down that they're just flat out not world class experiences anymore. Overall, I think WDW still has enough to do to make a great trip, but it just depends on where and how you spend your time and frankly, that shouldn't be the case.

 

[TP2000]

Among "special" offerings on the Disneyland Diamond Celebration website are Star Wars meet and greets, Soarin' Around the World, and Frozen-Live at the Hyperion. Those aren't special. Walt Disney World already has two of them and the third one is on the way. Put it this way, if the Star Wars Launch Bay had opened in 2014, you can bet Disney would have sold it as some kind of special thing for the 25th anniversary of the park. But it opened at the end of 2015 so it became part of "Star Wars Awakens at WDW."

So what did we learn today? We learned that when California opens a Frozen show and a Chewbacca meet-and-greet, they're heroes who do great justice to honor 60 years of the Disneyland Resort. When the (almost) exact same things are opened at WDW we hear "TDO is so cheap and lazy and OMG DHS sucks so hard and how could they do this and blah blah blah!"

Valid points there on how the Disney Parks Blog Kubicle Kids in Celebration (Hi there, Jen Fickley-Baker!) think they are fooling anyone by claiming those types of shared attractions are special for one coast or another. It's obvious they are shared-expense upgrades to the various theme parks.

And yet there's a rather impressive list of stuff that got added or plussed in the two Anaheim parks in time for the May, 2015 kickoff of the 60th Anniversary. Some would have happened anyway, and some were financed above and beyond normal CapEx budgets specifically because of the 60th.

Stuff that premiered in May, 2015 in Anaheim not shared with WDW...

Paint The Night - new electrical parade
Disneyland Forever! - new fireworks spectacular
World of Color Celebrate The Wonderful World of Walt Disney - new water show (with a ridiculously long name)
Alice In Wonderland - dark ride upgrades
Peter Pan's Flight - dark ride upgrades
Matterhorn Bobsleds - show upgrades
Mad T Party Diamond Celebration - show upgrades
Resortwide decor package - temporary overlay

Then there's a bunch of stuff that's begun in Anaheim between November '15 and June '16;

Star Wars Launch Bay - Innoventions replacement & shared with WDW
Star Wars Season of the Force in Tomorrowland - temporary land overlay
Hyperspace Mountain - temporary attraction overlay
Star Tours Episode VII update - attraction upgrade & shared with WDW
Luigi's Rollickin' Roadsters - replacement attraction
Autopia, Presented by Honda - attraction upgrade thanks to a new sponsor
Sunset Showcase Theatre - replacement attraction & shared with WDW
Frozen Musical in Hyperion Theatre - replacement stage show
Soarin' The World - attraction upgrade & shared with WDW

So the trick is to figure out how much of the other stuff that Disneyland got in the last 12 months that WDW didn't would have happened anyway regardless of the 60th.

 

[choco choco]

My point is that Disney already has 4 huge lots of available land, including one that is already approved for a full theme park. They didn't need to put anything (SWL or parking) inside Disneyland.
View attachment 142370

It continues to be a completely baffling decision. They had huge tracks of completely flat, empty land to the direct west of both parks and chose to squeeze Star Wars Land in the narrowest strip available. And for a company looking to save on costs, they chose the very expensive option of demolishing, leveling and regrading 14 acres that was being heavily used as attractions and backstage instead of building on land that was nothing but asphalt.

And even of the location they chose, they had room to reroute or narrow the overly broad road (it's six lanes wide!) directly behind the backstage gates, which would have provided enough of the square footage they needed for Star Wars Land without having to consume Rivers of America. Cheaper too, rerouting a road as opposed to demolishing/relocating/regrading/rerouting that river. It's like some student who flunked the site layout course at architecture school got to head this whole thing.

On a separate note, Harry Potter land has been open here in Hollywood for a little over a month now, and the reaction has been very muted. People I know who work there say it has been a walk on most days, and word-of-mouth has been almost nothing. I've only gotten a single non-employee anecdote about it (I haven't sensed any rush by Angelenos to go, it's almost creepy the lack of hype), and it amounted to little more than, "It's smaller than I imagined and the ride is like everything else in Universal Studios, you just move between simulation screens. It's kinda redundant."

 

[marni1971]

Simply put, there's too much *stuff* at MK and not enough at DHS and DAK. It's the same problem they had with DCA and they fixed it. Avatar and Star Wars will hopefully fix it in Florida.

They're a start but not the full solution.

 

[asianway]

I dunno. DL acknowledged it with a new parade (while a second gate was being built) ... I met a friend in O-Town who brought back lovely 33rd TDL and 15th TDS anniversary merchandise (all new designs ... no clip art or borrowed retro stuff).

WDW used to make anniversaries a big deal through the 25th ... or even the 30th as 100 Years of Walt was a substitute for it.
But TDO has no stomach to spend money on anything. (Waiting for someone to point out the shopping mall redevelopment that came one step closer to completion yesterday!)

I'm still bitter we never got a 5th celebration...

 

[dupac]

Speaking of this I forget which ride it was but it had the usual long wait time listed but when I got to the front I looked over at the little computer screen the CMs use and saw, clear as day, "actual wait time: 20 minutes." Maybe I was seeing things, maybe not.

I have been lead to believe that they have always padded wait times to an extent. Before FP+, it was to make people feel better about waiting in line because "hey, the wait said X and we only stood in line for Y." I can't speak for their motivations today or if the amount of time added has increased. That would be interesting to see.

 

[Bocabear]

Disneyland's 60th also got those absolutely amazing new animated windows on Main Street... The WDW windows have not changed in like decades... Back in the 70s and 80s, they used to change with every new movie release...but now they are stuck n the "best Of" theme...totally lazy.

 

[MKCP 1985]

I wonder how many members actually remember the twinkling lights back then. My DD was born in 1991 and had trips every year since 1992, she doesn't remember them. Then again she doesn't remember there not being a HAT at the Studios.

The good news is there are still twinkling lights in the trees in front of the castle - at Disneyland. With fuel costs down compared to recent years and the 60th anniversary continuing through the summer, it is a great time to book a trip if you've never been. Full disclosure: I took a trip in February - my first in decades - and had a great time.

 

[flynnibus]

I know we've all been enjoying the Vegas boi's aggregated pics/PR for SDL, but much of his stuff is coming from an @DisneylandDrive on the Tweeter ... and that dude looks so familiar to me. I know I have met him ...Anyone here know who he is?

vegas boy was only in Shanghi for a short period.. so now he's sharing other people's content.

 

[flynnibus]

They won't because then they'd have to admit they read here and borrow news and info and rumors from the site ... and we can't have that, right @wdwmagic ?

No, instead it will show up in someone's column as an insightful retrospective on Disney's recent pricing trends...

 

[MKCP 1985]

(Waiting for someone to point out the shopping mall redevelopment that came one step closer to completion yesterday!)

Swear to goodness, @wdwmagic posted the opening of the lime parking garage on its Facebook page this morning and someone commented with unrestrained glee how wonderful the orange garage is and how everything is magical at WDW. LOL

Yes, loyal fans, Disney parking is the greatest and spending your money on Disney property as opposed to outside the perimeter will magically transform your anxieties of credit card debt and financial uncertainty into thoughts of rainbows and lollypops, err. Mickey ice creams and Goofy gumdrops . . . until your Magic Bus returns you to MCO!

All joking and sarcasm aside for a moment, there are some cool new experiences at the Disney Springs shopping area. Watching the old cars drive into the lake is fun if you've never seen it, and all the better to be a passenger for that motor cruise if someone else is picking up the tab (it's not inexpensive). That is the one that comes to mind.

Still, and I'm sure most will agree, for north of $100 per person per day, it would be better to see the never ending construction at the Animal Kingdom park get done and the World of Avatar attractions come to life already, plus Studios, Epcot, etc., instead of new shopping options but now I'm just parroting what everyone else has already been saying for months. Reminder: The entire Disneyland park was built in a year and that was at a time when Disney was a much, much smaller operation. It isn't like Disney couldn't afford to pay the extra expenses to expedite construction if wanted those attractions to be open for the Summer of 2016 but it didn't happen. If fate allows, there's always 2020 for the exciting new Star Wars attractions, right?

 

[DVC91]

Reminder: The entire Disneyland park was built in a year and that was at a time when Disney was a much, much smaller operation. It isn't like Disney couldn't afford to pay the extra expenses to expedite construction if wanted those attractions to be open for the Summer of 2016 but it didn't happen. If fate allows, there's always 2020 for the exciting new Star Wars attractions, right?

Very true. Disney could absolutely afford to hire a better, more expensive company to get the job done in the short term, but I think we're all in agreement here that it would take a few expensive mounds worth of pixie dust intake in order to make us believe that they ever would, at least with this current regime. It's beyond unfortunate. It's bordering on watching the Titanic (the actual ship, not the film).

 

[EPCOTCenterLover]

We considered both DL and WDW for vacation this year- and opted to tour Northern California instead. Not going until things get much better. Or at least until something new and great opens in Florida.

 

[ProfSavage]

Swear to goodness, @wdwmagic posted the opening of the lime parking garage on its Facebook page this morning and someone commented with unrestrained glee how wonderful the orange garage is and how everything is magical at WDW. LOL

Yes, loyal fans, Disney parking is the greatest and spending your money on Disney property as opposed to outside the perimeter will magically transform your anxieties of credit card debt and financial uncertainty into thoughts of rainbows and lollypops, err. Mickey ice creams and Goofy gumdrops . . . until your Magic Bus returns you to MCO!

All joking and sarcasm aside for a moment, there are some cool new experiences at the Disney Springs shopping area. Watching the old cars drive into the lake is fun if you've never seen it, and all the better to be a passenger for that motor cruise if someone else is picking up the tab (it's not inexpensive). That is the one that comes to mind.

Still, and I'm sure most will agree, for north of $100 per person per day, it would be better to see the never ending construction at the Animal Kingdom park get done and the World of Avatar attractions come to life already, plus Studios, Epcot, etc., instead of new shopping options but now I'm just parroting what everyone else has already been saying for months. Reminder: The entire Disneyland park was built in a year and that was at a time when Disney was a much, much smaller operation. It isn't like Disney couldn't afford to pay the extra expenses to expedite construction if wanted those attractions to be open for the Summer of 2016 but it didn't happen. If fate allows, there's always 2020 for the exciting new Star Wars attractions, right?

THIS

 

[pax_65]

I just returned from a trip to WDW. All in all a good trip and the Disney magic lives on in many of the cast members we encountered. But we noticed a significant uptick in pricing for just about everything, and the only things we saw that were new from our last trip 18 months ago was Star Wars Launch Bay and Disney Springs Town Center.

Given the rising costs and lack of new attractions, I don't plan to return to WDW for at least 2 years - and I used to visit 2-3 times a year.