A Spirited Perfect Ten

[BernardandBianca]

But on those super busy days, you also have significantly more park hours, and therefore more hours for people to park hop, or just come into the park later in the day. So you aren't getting 50k people at once in the park, you are getting 50k people throughout the day.

Many Locals/AP/CM come just for a few hours, not all day long like the vacation/leisure Guests. This may increase attendance for the day, but they don't stay long and don't contribute as much to crowding.

I do not understand how you can say that. A person in the park is a person in the park, regardless of how long they stay. If you are going to force them to enter and leave at defined, preselected times, then maybe, but you have no control over when people enter and leave the park, so they may or may not contribute significantly or less significantly to crowding, but they will contribute to some extent. And I do not believe they are necessarily spread out evenly throughout the day - I'm going to speculate that there are more there during parade and fireworks times than other times, but I have no data to back this up.

 

[Katie G]

I do not understand how you can say that. A person in the park is a person in the park, regardless of how long they stay. If you are going to force them to enter and leave at defined, preselected times, then maybe, but you have no control over when people enter and leave the park, so they may or may not contribute significantly or less significantly to crowding, but they will contribute to some extent. And I do not believe they are necessarily spread out evenly throughout the day - I'm going to speculate that there are more there during parade and fireworks times than other times, but I have no data to back this up.

I agree with you. My point is that total attendance numbers for the day do not always equal crowded poor experience. Because people can come an go throughout the day and you have a variety of different park behaviors from different guests, the number that really indicates crowded poor experience would be peak in park. It is unfair to say that all 50k days are terrible experiences.

 

[VJ]

A little off-topic from whatever conversations are currently going on (there's like 3) but I finally saw Tomorrowland. Loved it. Very good piece of cinema.

 

[cdd89]

I'm more optimistic about Epcot surviving Frozen than others in this thread. I don't think it's that obviously the case that a superstar attraction causes adjacent attractions (in this case countries) to be overrun. The type of guest who makes a beeline for the attraction with the longest wait time in the park couldn't be more different from the type of guest who likes to drift idly between the countries snacking and letting time tick by whilst taking in the odd circle vision or two. I think Norway will become an unpleasant place to be in the short-medium term, but in truth it's my least favourite World Showcase country (and the one I'm least disappointed to see destroyed, and make no mistake, I don't see any silver lining here).

But I wonder if we're missing a potential move here. Given the lower capacity, limited interior queue space and anticipated extreme popularity, is there a chance WDW would look to make Frozen the first FP+-only attraction? That would be an improvement over the thought of queue line extensions being set up trailing out of the Norway pavilion.

 

[ChrisFL]

Why would an omnimover be affected by going downhill? Don't most of the current omnimovers go up and down hills? Pretty sure spaceship earth has a rather long downhill section in it..... With the omnimovers basically being one long continuous train of vehicles, the ones on the downhill side are counter-balanced by the ones on the uphill side, no?

That's correct. If they're all on a continuous train, unless there's some significant weight difference (like REALLY significant) there shouldn't be any reason for issues on the hills.

 

[ChrisFL]

But I wonder if we're missing a potential move here. Given the lower capacity, limited interior queue space and anticipated extreme popularity, is there a chance WDW would look to make Frozen the first FP+-only attraction? That would be an improvement over the thought of queue line extensions being set up trailing out of the Norway pavilion.

What about the first upcharge FP+ attraction?

 

[Cody5294]

Yep. they have no plans for the character and he (very sadly as I am a huge fan) has no relevance today ... like Oswald, only he moves merchandise to crazy fanbois. He'll be around in Tokyo, though!

What's going to be the fate of 50's Prime Time and Hollywood Vine?

 

[Cody5294]

Again, across four theme parks and two water parks, what new things are being offered to WDW Guests for Summer 2015?

New food options at Harambe Market! And your favorite snowman will be appearing at Frozen Summer Fun

 

[Disneyhead'71]

Well, I mean all of these announcements are for the next year or two. Disney has already announced everything they have in production currently for the next few years (Frozen, RoL, Avatar).

Which is what? Pandora: The World of Who Gives A ****.

 

[Next Big Thing]

Which is what? Pandora: The World of Who Gives A ****.

Well, I listed everything. Frozen, RoL and Avatar. Not excited for Frozen at all, but i'm sure it'll boost Epcot's numbers.

Rol and Pandora should both be great additions to DAK. Say what you want about Avatar (I agree, it's a terrible franchise from a marketing/merchandising perspective), but the land will very likely be a stunning addition to the park, visually at least. The rides are to be determined, but I think it's pretty hard to go wrong with the fairly safe choices that they've chosen for the land (Flying ride, Boat ride, Walking trail).

 

[Disneyhead'71]

Well, I listed everything. Frozen, RoL and Avatar. Not excited for Frozen at all, but i'm sure it'll boost Epcot's numbers.

Rol and Pandora should both be great additions to DAK. Say what you want about Avatar (I agree, it's a terrible franchise from a marketing/merchandising perspective), but the land will very likely be a stunning addition to the park, visually at least. The rides are to be determined, but I think it's pretty hard to go wrong with the fairly safe choices that they've chosen for the land (Flying ride, Boat ride, Walking trail).

It is a proven concept. The Land has done well.

 

[BernardandBianca]

The rides are to be determined, but I think it's pretty hard to go wrong with the fairly safe choices that they've chosen for the land (Flying ride, Boat ride, Walking trail).

Let's see, $115 (by the time it opens) to walk through a trail? I mean, yes I like two existing wildlife trails in DAK, but another one, showing what? Down to two. A boat ride around what? I don't know. So the remaining "Flying ride" had better be pretty spectacular. (I realize the $115 gets you the rest of DAK too, but we're talking about the additions, and not the existing attractions. I had to insert that since DAK is much more of a favorite than DHS, and if you take away the food, would be ahead of Epcot.)

 

[Next Big Thing]

It is a proven concept. The Land has done well.

Yup, this is really just The Land taken and done on a much more intensively themed scale.

 

[wickedsoccer22]

Frozen is going to give Epcot and Disney a huge bump in 2016. I don't see Kong giving IOA the same bump.

Except Universal is not looking at Kong as something that will entice visitors all on its own. They see Kong as simply another marquee attraction that adds to their exiting resort offerings and will market it as such.

 

[flynnibus]

Yes however the most appealing feature of Avatar is the one least likely to make an appearance because biolumenescence will be an enormously expensive effect to create and maintain, On a dark ride it can be done easily with UV paints, But outdoors think artificial leaves with fiberoptics which would need to be custom produced.

The WDI of the 1980's could have done it, I'm not sure WDI 2015 still can.

I imagine there are lots of effects that could look good at a distance. Even just underside illumination.. light channels.. projections.

The latest Peter Pan updates should give people some thinking about how they could use projection to get effects like these. I think the biggest problem is doing it all in massive scale. To make the wow moments like the film.. you need to be imersed and surrounded. The scope of the view is a big part of Avatar's grandeur. Remember everything there was HUGE...

 

[ChrisFL]

I posted my thoughts about the Tomorrowland movie on my new blog:


http://thenewbullypulpit.blogspot.com/2015/05/tomorrowland-mirage-or-oasis.html

 

[flynnibus]

The change in off times and slow times though is really an effect of school schedules changing. Now you have a lot of systems going all year and the majority of schools offer some sort of fall break. This has changed the guess pattern more then anything.

http://www.statisticbrain.com/year-round-school-statistics/ - only 10% of students are in year round schedules. Up from 2%... but its still just 10%

The change in pattern is because Disney has successfully created draw in those low periods with the extended programs of Run Disney, F&G, F&W, and the Wide World of Sports "convention" business.

 

[George]

What's going to be the fate of 50's Prime Time and Hollywood Vine?

They will one day be naught but piles of dust as this epoch becomes a distant memory.

 

[michmousefan]

Okay, add 1800 so thats 10,800. Still cant have more than 1/4 of your daily attendance ride the attraction.

Plus considering that a big chunk of the daily allotment will be taken up by 60-day FP+... ugh. Just... ugh.

 

[Funmeister]

Except Universal is not looking at Kong as something that will entice visitors all on its own. They see Kong as simply another marquee attraction that adds to their exiting resort offerings and will market it as such.

It also gives them a reason to talk about Nintendo, Volcano Bay, new resorts, etc. whenever they bring it up. That was also the point of Transformers. They are both used as "bait" or a reason to talk about themselves even more.