A Spirited Perfect Ten

[Tigger1988]

When family does visit I offer breakfast and dinner at my place. The family packs a lunch, snacks, and beverage to take to the parks. They find a table in a QS location indoors and have their "free" meal. They can all afford to eat any place they choose. A few years ago they ate in the parks. They choose not to pay ridiculous prices for the poor quality food in the World currently. Like many the family trips have seen WDW have reduced numbers of days and Uni days have increased. They also do not mind eating at Uni rather than packing a lunch.

If I saw someone taking up valuable table space in a crowded QS location so they could eat bagged lunches I'd be ed.

It's hard enough for paying customers to find seating.

 

[MerlinTheGoat]

Please take your posts to the Imagineering section. Thank you.

The intricately detailed blue sky things do belong at Imagineering yes, but I empathize with the difficulty at explain the land's problems without including at least SOME detail about what it needs. There are valid points in there to take away, though it could be done in a more vague manner.

Meet and greets are indeed incredibly low capacity and inefficient, so their lines aren't good indications of their popularity, a good point there. And at least 2-3 additional rides (along with improvements in capacity for other rides such as Peter Pan) would definitely bring the ride lines down overall. Especially if at least one of those rides was another efficient and high capacity one. New Fantasyland was largely just rearranging the deck chairs and replacing existing capacity (or capacity lost a long time ago), that has caused serious problems when the land desperately needed at least twice as many rides as they "added".

And not to get into blue sky details, but yes there is still plenty of space to accomplish this task. A surprisingly large amount in fact to fit multiple rides (smaller, medium AND large in size).

 

[ford91exploder]

sometimes they dont learn. Because someone ALWAYS wants to cheapen out on something.. or lazy out on others. (example.. cheapening out in maintenance.. lazying out following the security step by step)

Anyone remembers how United and American tried to "lazy out" their engine maintenance/replacement on their DC10's ? removing the full pylon with a forklift rather than the engine and pylon in separated processes?
They ended cracking and damaging the pylon structures.. which ended in the awful on video crash of American flight 191.

Note they STILL do stuff like that - Its why I do not fly either of those carriers, Worked for one of them back in the day via an acquisition who used to win awards for their maintenance practices to a carrier who lets just say took 'shortcuts' on maintenance when I was working for them. I was happy to leave for academia at the time.

 

[Mike S]

Interesting to see that many male adults lining up.

Just remember, some people would say similar things about us being on a Disney focused forum

 

[PhotoDave219]

The Frozen M&G is low capacity, so I wouldn't necessarily call it popular. If it could squeeze 2,000-2,500/hr, I doubt the wait-time would be more than 20 min.

It's probably not even in the top 10 in terms of guest output. POTC, HM, IASW, Mermaid, all of the mountains, Buzz, Jungle Cruise, Philharmagic, Laugh Floor and the PeopleMover all have more visitors than the Anna/Elsa M&G on a daily basis. More people probably see the fireworks or MSEP than the M&G. I might even say Pooh. I can't imagine a M&G having more than 500-600/hr in terms of capacity. Hence the 3 hr lines.

Dumbo still isn't exactly high-capacity. Probably less than 1,500/hr. They'd need 4-5 Dumbos in order for it to be a true people-eater.

Well with CoP, Stitch, Laugh Floor, HoP, Philharmagic, Tiki Room and Country Bears, they really function as people-eaters. Which is why there's almost never a wait for any of them. 15-20 min is 'peak' for any of these.

The only thing that will ease the wait-times for the big 8 (JC, POTC, Big Thunder, Splash, HM, SDMT, Peter Pan, Space Mt.) is new, immersive adventures.

If New Fantasyland had a phase 2 (slated to open in 2016) that included:

1. B&TB trackless dark ride
2. Mickey and Friends circus show (Barnstormer replacement)
3. Philharmagic and Barnstormer relocation to Animation Courtyard at DHS
4. Peter Pan expansion/revamp using the old Philharmagic building
5. IASW refurb/upgrade
6. Wonderland mini-land (includes M&G and the Curious Labyrinth)
7. Bald Mountain (E-ticket thrill ride, located in the very back corner of Fantasyland)

SDMT would go down to 45-50 min waits during peak times. Peter Pan would have room for more elaborate show scenes, bigger RVs, more RVs at a time, and therefore shorter wait-times during peak times (25-35 min as opposed to 60-90 min). IASW would go back to 10-15 min waits during peak times, while Mermaid and Pooh would be near walk-ons all day.

The same logic applies to other sections. If Tomorrowland were to add 3-4 compelling attractions using some of the old Speedway plot and some space behind it and Space, the lines for Space Mountain will decrease a little. Especially if the TRON speedbike coaster and an original E-ticket of sorts were added back there. Stitch could get a show between Space and CoP.

Buzz could have eased up wait times (20-25 min as opposed to 50-60 min) if Laugh Floor and Stitch were rethemed/revamped into more compelling additions.

Splash and Big Thunder might have reasonable wait-times if backstage areas were reworked to allow Frontierland expansion beyond the berm and a new pathway that leads back to Liberty Square or even the Tangled area. Western River Expedition and the old Geyser Mountain concept would do wonders for this section.

A major Adventureland expansion (with Arabia and Mysterious Island sub-lands) would especially ease wait-times for Jungle Cruise. An Aladdin show, and clones of Sinbad and JttCotE from DisneySea would cut Jungle Cruise/POTC wait-times in half since this section of the park would have more than just 2 attractions.

MK has plenty of opportunities to make up lost capacity if TDO were willing to invest in seriously reworking backstage infrastructure. Rather than spending $2-2.5 billion on MM+, they should have spent $1 billion reworking MK's backstage areas and another $1.5 billion fixing up either Epcot or DHS. Then, all 4 parks are set up for future expansion/success. MK needs 4-5 more E-tickets (DL has 11... soon to be 12, while MK only has 7). Bald Mountain, JttCotE, Western River Expedition, an original Tomorrowland E-ticket, and a B&TB trackless dark ride along with a massively upgraded Peter Pan would do wonders for wait-times and capacity. Add in some smaller experiences and better utilization of current 'dead zones' (Stitch/Laugh Floor, CoP, northern part of Storybook Circus, parts of Liberty Square, etc) - MK is in good shape.

MK needs to grow capacity to allow their older E-tickets to have leg room for refurbs/upgrades. But in order to expand MK, Epcot needs compelling attractions and some more pavillions/countries to utilize its insane capacity. At full build-out, Epcot might be able to get 200,000-220,000 guests at a single time (every expansion pad used, all of the dead spaces reopened). DHS needs some major TLC. AK needs to keep growing and giving guests enough to do for a whole day.

Couple thing.
First, what you propose will cost somewhere between $2-3B

Second, we have an imagineering forum for a reason.

Lastly, MK has grown plenty in the past 20 years. The other parks? Not so much. Thats whats needed.

 

[PhotoDave219]

What? It's tied to the topic of capacity. The only way MK will fix its capacity problem and spread crowds isn't through artificial MM+, but organic expansion. And also, Epcot and DHS need to be reworked. AK needs to continue to grow.

If Philly cheese-steaks, hotel occupancy, Shanghai Disneyland, non-WDW attraction talk, revenue/attendance, the ethics of modern journalism and other topics are allowed, why not some blue-sky? I'm adding something constructive rather than just being 'WDW sucks. It has a lot of stuff that needs to be fixed.' I'm providing a solution to that problem.

This thread has no real focus, so as long as it's tied to WDW or the Orlando tourism market, I don't see what's wrong. Honestly, blue-sky Imagineering for WDW is more on-topic than rants about Iger or Shanghai Disneyland. Or anything Disney-related that isn't actually about WDW (the new Star Wars movies, DLP, Tokyo Disney, Disneyland's 60th, Disney Cruise Line, any Disney movie not featured in WDW currently, etc) . Those are explicitly tied to WDW or TDO.

I just don't see why you and PhotoDave and others really care if someone does some armchair Imagineering in a thread with no topic or real sense of purpose.

Because we're tired of it. We've also commented on the GIFs, Memes and other people doing things that are grating on the nerves. And frankly i think you add value here and I dont want to put you on ignore just so to avoid it.

SO can we compromise? Can you at least put the huge proposal within a spoiler tag so it doesnt take up the whole screen?

 

[MerlinTheGoat]

Couple thing.
First, what you propose will cost somewhere between $2-3B

Second, we have an imagineering forum for a reason.

Lastly, MK has grown plenty in the past 20 years. The other parks? Not so much. Thats whats needed.

I agree with this as well however, DHS in particular. We'll see how Avatar pans out. Though I also feel that large parts of Future World are a mess as well...

MK can wait a few years (hopefully not nearly as long as it did prior to FLE), even though I do think they really mishandled New Fantasyland, making things worse in some ways.

 

[NormC]

Not all of them.
because unlike the silly "BUT DISNEY IS A BUSINESS!"... the memes and gifts can be used to add comedy or pull sarcasm when blatant stupidity/insanity is obvious.

Sorry, I come from the school of thought that says if you can't or wouldn't do it in a face to face conversation you shouldn't do it on a forum.

 

[Cesar R M]

Sorry, I come from the school of thought that says if you can't or wouldn't do it in a face to face conversation you shouldn't do it on a forum.

aaah what wishful way of thinking you have!.
We also look forward for world peace.. guess what? id doesn't happen!

 

[Nubs70]

Yep but on #1 who stamped the design that SHOULD have been caught as that's a basic safety feature for a coaster.

Yes, that is exactly my inferred point. If it comes down to #1, the PE who stamped it better have really good Errors and Omissions coverage along with a lawyer and alternative profession lined up.

 

[fosse76]

Except they moved it to the front of the park, right in front of the train station. Seriously.

My first trip EVER to Disneyland was when this monstrosity was there! It was September, and I was a bit upset because the train was closed (though I'm sure that had to more do with Splash Mountain construction), as were Pirates, Small World, Jungle Cruise and Space Mountain. But I still had a great time.

 

[fosse76]

The problem with American business these days is the whole 'Nobles and Serfs' mentality which has arisen in the past 30 years or so, This has happened in large part because managers are go directly from college to a management position. Rather than in the old days one was promoted from within so the newly minted manager had some experience with the company and it's customers.

Which is directly related to many of the SPIRIT's complaints about current Disney leadership: none have any theme park experience and don't care about the actual product, only about how much money they can get from it.

Many companies just want the money without the work. Disney would prefer that guests just send them money and not actually show up (you know, like the local gyms, lol). This way they don't have to spend any money.

 

[AEfx]

The Walt statue in Tokyo is at the end of World Bazaar, on a little terrace overlooking the Central Plaza. And it's very easy to miss.

It wasn't a Country Fair, it was the Disneyland State Fair '87, to be exact. And yeah, they put a Ferris Wheel in the middle of the Hub right in front of the Castle. And it was super tacky, and the Imagineers threw a fit.

Even the paying visitors complained. So they moved it after a month.

Except they moved it to the front of the park, right in front of the train station. Seriously.

That's...insane.

I guess it goes to show you that it's not only modern Disney that can take a massive mis-step.

What better way to celebrate something at Disneyland than by putting a symbol of exactly the type of thing Disneyland was created to not be smack dab in the two most obnoxious places possible.

 

[brb1006]

Just remember, some people would say similar things about us being on a Disney focused forum

That's...insane.

I guess it goes to show you that it's not only modern Disney that can take a massive mis-step.

What better way to celebrate something at Disneyland than by putting a symbol of exactly the type of thing Disneyland was created to not be smack dab in the two most obnoxious places possible.

Especially in front of the Sleeping Beauty Castle!

 

[Funmeister]

More Disney IT outsourcing backlash.

Where will this go? Probably nowhere.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/os-disney-visas-nelson-20150605-story.html

 

[chiefs11]

My first trip EVER to Disneyland was when this monstrosity was there! It was September, and I was a bit upset because the train was closed (though I'm sure that had to more do with Splash Mountain construction), as were Pirates, Small World, Jungle Cruise and Space Mountain. But I still had a great time.

Could you imagine if those were all closed at the same time in MK? Would they have to bring in the portable carnival rides and ferris wheels, too?

 

[BernardandBianca]

Panda's unlike fanboi's tend to be cute to extremes I think that fact alone explains their appeal.

We spend a half day at the Panda Sanctuary in Chengdu a couple of years ago, and must have taken over 100 photos (gotta love digital cameras). They had pandas from newly born (couple of days old) to injured and recovering ones. Did have a chance to see them playing on the swings and climbing things, but spent a lot of time looking at sleeping or resting pandas.

 

[NormC]

aaah what wishful way of thinking you have!.
We also look forward for world peace.. guess what? id doesn't happen!

There is no wishful thinking here. Your response says more about you than it does me.
I chose to be respectful and act as if I were standing in front of you speaking face to face. I expect to be treated the same way.
Common courtesy is a valuable skill that some just never seem to learn. I understand your need for humor and as long as it is not at the expense of others I have no problem with it. We all need to laugh. It is good for our health.

 

[flynnibus]

Sorry, I come from the school of thought that says if you can't or wouldn't do it in a face to face conversation you shouldn't do it on a forum.

You should see my O RLY? face...

 

[wogwog]

If I saw someone taking up valuable table space in a crowded QS location so they could eat bagged lunches I'd be ****ed.

It's hard enough for paying customers to find seating.

First they would never visit WDW at a time or day when QS is crowded. Second they have manners and at least when I have been with them they ask permission of a manager or supervisor before sitting down. Always met with a smile by cast. Real or faked who knows. They do not interfere with those willing to pay ridiculous prices for poor quality food. Third one of them has food allergies that Disney is not prepared to accommodate. So I doubt they will interfere with your happiness.