A Spirited Perfect Ten

[WDW1974]

Yes but at 8 PM, all those kids must GET OUT.

That's great. We'll see how long it lasts. And I wanted to spend a rainy Monday afternoon drinking ... only at WDW could you show up at a hotel bar that opened 15 minutes earlier (again, on a rainy Monday afternoon) and be handed a pager and told ''wait is about two hours'' ... ONLY at WDW.

BTW, I still hear chatter that Disney Springs will feature a larger version, but I just have trouble buying it.

 

[Quinnmac000]

This is whats gonna happen more and more...just wait. And this was put out on the official disney pixar page.

 

[PhotoDave219]

Thanks. I'm not ignoring it. I only have about 15 PMs waiting ...

But I do worry that you could be right, even though my info conflicts with yours at present. I can't imagine how Disney Social Media/PR will be able to explain away why Bob Iger keeps teasing fans about Star Wars announcements for years now (insert your own fanboi teasing an Imagineer old enough to be his daddy joke here).

At some point it becomes more than laughable and just winds up in the pathetic column.

I am convinced that WDW's Star Wars expansion at whatever they decide to call The Disney-MGM Studios this go around is going to not be completed until 2021 (yes, six plus years from now), so that Disney can market that without adding anything more than a few parades and a night spectacular at MK. This IS how Disney thinks today ... how little can we do? How long can we put it off? How much can we increase prices?

I guarantee you, as sure as I am breathing right now, that TDO and my good pal Georgie K have spreadsheets with target prices increases going out five years now ... and plans for DVC expansion going out at least that far.

But attractions? HAHHAHAHHAHHAH!!!

I'm not overly worried. They have to announce it sometime. They have to make up their mind.

I mean..... they cannot screw up the most successful film franchise of all time, can they?

 

[Captain Chaos]

I mean..... they cannot screw up the most successful film franchise of all time, can they?

Is this a trick question?

 

[PhotoDave219]

That's great. We'll see how long it lasts. And I wanted to spend a rainy Monday afternoon drinking ... only at WDW could you show up at a hotel bar that opened 15 minutes earlier (again, on a rainy Monday afternoon) and be handed a pager and told ''wait is about two hours'' ... ONLY at WDW.

BTW, I still hear chatter that Disney Springs will feature a larger version, but I just have trouble buying it.

I think they give a longer estimated wait time because its that unpredictable. I waited 20 minutes but YMMV.

I heard that more adult offerings were being looked at. One hopes.

 

[PhotoDave219]

Is this a trick question?

Depends whether or not they give me Star Wars in an Orlando-Based theme park before 2020.

 

[PhotoDave219]

If there is zero Star Wars parks announcements at D23... then wow.. I would be shocked and disappointed.

That Sir, is exactly why I'm putting this out here.

Not to get TWDC to do anything - I dont have that kind of juice - but to try and temper our expectations.

 

[WDW1974]

Didja see DL did another one of their AP events with tons of live music & a Golden Horseshoe show? Guess it is coming back for the 60th.

I'll remind everyone that WDW hasn't done one for 4 years. And that was to ride Everest after hours, meet a couple foam heads, and crash the website requiring a registration "do over"

George.Kalogridis@Disney.com

Write him. He's the big cheese, top Queen of the Kingdom, all Botoxed up from his years living in Newport Beach (@WDWFigment will be doing the same thing in a few years). He knows how DLR treats its APers and how WDW tries to ignore they exist (I'm sorry, I know I should appreciate those $107 a night rooms this summer at the All Star Music, but I just don't ... my standards are a bit higher as a Faux Top One Percenter). You want APers to get more, tell Georgie that.

 

[WDW1974]

@WDWFigment has some color commentary on the Tokyo news on his blog.
http://www.disneytouristblog.com/frozen-tokyo-disneysea-expansion-tokyo-disneyland-new-fantasyland/

He just has to offer his opinion on everything. I just hate people like that. Where do they get off?

 

[PhotoDave219]

George.Kalogridis@Disney.com

Write him. He's the big cheese, top Queen of the Kingdom, all Botoxed up from his years living in Newport Beach (@WDWFigment will be doing the same thing in a few years). He knows how DLR treats its APers and how WDW tries to ignore they exist (I'm sorry, I know I should appreciate those $107 a night rooms this summer at the All Star Music, but I just don't ... my standards are a bit higher as a Faux Top One Percenter). You want APers to get more, tell Georgie that.

$107!?!?!? I miss my $39.99 Cast Member rate at Pop Century in Jan 04!

 

[Skippy]

That Sir, is exactly why I'm putting this out here.

Not to get TWDC to do anything - I dont have that kind of juice - but to try and temper our expectations.

I mean.. I don't expect a full plan on a DHS redo this year. But if Star Wars is off the table the only things they can show parks-wise is concept art for attractions they announced years ago. Talk about new and exciting...

(Plus everyone is betting on Toontown getting the ax out west for Star Wars, it would be a shame to leave that in the air even longer than it has been already.)

 

[WDW1974]

i mentioned this in the Frozen thread.... isnt it funny that OLC can get concept art out for an attraction planned for 2017, but nobody has seen any concept work for Norway at EPCOT. Odd also that Dr Blondie or the crew at Celebration Place havent reported this yet... like it was a surprise, or maybe they are trying to spin it to play it down that WDW gets short changed on New Fantasyland and its Arrendelle offering.

Please, WDW Social Media exists to buy BRAND advocates. Dr. Blondie will be putting on all the fake charm she and her minions of evil and Pixie Dust addiction can handle the next three days as they talk up all sorts of insignificant things (I'll bet Trader Sam's will be closed for a special event!)

WDW still hasn't given an actual rundown on what will be in Pandora when it opens in late 2017. Sure, we all pretty much know it's Soarin Over Pandora and a boat ride of some type and ... some nicely themed toilets ... maybe even with blue water!

Disney doesn't share (expletive deleted) with the little real media left and feels there's no need to do so with the public.

 

[WDW1974]

No, this is as bad as people saying Disney spent 2 billion on FP+

The 500 Billion Yen is their TEN YEAR DEVELOPMENT PLAN - not just these components... of which they are PART of the larger plan.

Absolutely true, but VERY impressive nonetheless.

 

[WDW1974]

Disney really does thrive on the ignorance of American guests, doesn't it? I wonder how many would rave about what great value WDW is if they knew how much cheaper, for better maintained quality (except DLP, currently), the overseas parks were?

Yes, Disney does thrive on the ignorance of many of its Guests mixed with BRAND addiction and people who feel it's a rite of passage to take the brats to the swamps and blow eight grand in a week.

And, as I've stated many times, many WDW fans are so afraid they won't even go to DLR. So, leave the country? That just isn't happening. ... Then you have the 'elitist' fans (believe it or not, I absolutely am not one) who will keep spending thousands annually in the swamps on a crappy product, but if they visited Paris, Hong Kong or Tokyo wouldn't spend a day of a trip visiting those parks ... which I feel is pretty screwy as well!

 

[WDW1974]

@WDW1974 said the budget for the Frozen E-ticket/dark ride will be over $400 million because of the show building (similar to the $300 million Radiator Springs Racers), which would make it the most expensive attraction ever built by Disney. I'm guessing (but hoping to be proven wrong) that the rest of the attractions in the port will be much smaller because of this. I don't think there will be another E-ticket but a smaller D-ticket boat ride like Maelstrom seems quite plausible in addition to the flat ride.

That was the preliminary number (and everything costs more over there due to having to earthquake proof everything ... and it's needed. There was a 6.0 quake under Tokyo Bay the very first day I ever visited TDS ... and I missed the whole thing thinking it was just the effects in the JTTCoTE queue! Really!) ... but I doubt it has changed much in either direction.

OLC also tends to not go in and cut vast sums of money after projects have begun (see everything from HKDL pre-opening to Tomorrowland 98 at DL ... to Mission Space ... to Forbidden Mountain etc)

 

[PhotoDave219]

I mean.. I don't expect a full plan on a DHS redo this year. But if Star Wars is off the table the only things they can show parks-wise is concept art for attractions they announced years ago. Talk about new and exciting...

(Plus everyone is betting on Toontown getting the ax out west for Star Wars, it would be a shame to leave that in the air even longer than it has been already.)

I would *HOPE* (.... thats right, High Hopes....) that SW at DL is announced. As SW at DL will happen long before it happens here in DHS. I dont expect anything SW related for Orlando to be announced.

(For that matter, I dont expect anything new for Orlando to be announced at all)



So I'm gonna rant for a few minutes here. Disney bought Lucasfilm in 2012, three years ago. I dont understand why they havent started on a multi-phase expansion. I really don't. You can start with a SW expansion focusing on the original trilogy and keep it small, and lay the groundwork for a phase two. Its the most commercially successful film franchise and film merchandise in the history of history! How can you F this up?!!?

Plus Imagineering. Holy crap. You cant tell me that with the talent this company has, that they cant come up with in six weeks a multi-phased project for Star Wars?! Hell, if they cant come up with that in two, they theyre not the right people for the company. I've met imagineers that can design this stuff drunk as hell on a bar napkin, its not that hard! These people are imagineers, this is their chance to take all their wildest dreams of playing with Star Wars action figures and bring them to life. And if you can't come up with concepts that will make the collective fanbase of 38 years wet themselves (myself included), they they have no business being an imagineer.

(*This is not an open invitation for you to play Armchair imagineer here. Put your ideas in those forums, not this one)

I'm amazed that the bureaucratic culture that permeates TWDC has managed to screw this up this badly sofar. You want it spread out over many years? Then do it in a bunch of phases. You're worried about the reception of the new films? Then start with the old films and if the new ones flop (HA!) then don't go that direction. The last thing you do is just sit on your hands and wait idly by.

Too many businessmen. Too many MBAs. Too many people that never played with toys as a kid in this damn company. The absolute wrong people in control.

 

[WDW1974]

Not Risky Business but Big Business that starred Bette Midler and Lily Tomlin. Two totally different movies My sisters and I had loved that movie so it was kind of cool for us to see part of the set back then. That's the only reason I remember that's what it was.

Yep. Thanks. That was it.

Good film. Part of the many hugely profitable films Touchstone made that didn't have $250-plus million budgets and a ridiculous amount of CGI.

And that food court was so da mn good. Great sandwiches and salads. It didn't last that long and then they had Aladdin character breakfasts in the facility before turning it into an attraction facility. I also lament not spending more time at the Catwalk Bar ... but I was VERY early in my drinking days when it existed.

 

[Skippy]

If WDW really wanted to make a good HP counter (and not this Avatar opening in 20xx nonsense) Star Wars is a golden ticket in exactly the way you described, @PhotoDave219

I always felt that had they owned the property a few years prior that is what we would have gotten instead of Avatar.

 

[PhotoDave219]

"Sorry Kids, we can't afford Star Wars for you this year because we spent $800 Million bribing the Chinese government for a park nobody wanted in the first place!

 

[Skippy]

Any news on Marvel out west then? I suppose that would be a worthy alternative at D23. There have been some hopeful rumblings, but nothing with any merit, just blind optimism. I feel like a Star Wars land out there will come before Marvel does.