Of course I would prefer a longer ride. As a fan I would prefer every new ride was an e-ticket. The reality is that's not going to happen. The simulator ride is the big ticket E and the boat is a companion ride. 2 E tickets would have been great but that's a lot to invest in a risky IP. We will have that with SW which is a much stronger IP.
I don't know how they spend their money or why things cost what they are rumored to cost. I don't really get as hung up on it as others here do either. As long as it wows me and is high quality it's money well spent.
I totally agree, but what if the money was spent well and that would have given you another ride (a coaster) or a kinetic transport that was originally to go in Star Wars land. The former was cut early, but the later seems to have been cut because of over-blown budgets for Pandora and Shanghai. Would the budget matter to you then?
It is remarkable to me that people don't care when Capex is at an all-time low in the Iger era. It is remarkable to me that people aren't concerned that Iger cares nothing for the Florida theme parks. Things are better this year, but that's because they needed more spending because they have been neglecting the parks for 15 years.
The queue is not a ride. I love the build up to the attraction, but the dependence on the queue is wrong-headed.
Fixed that for you.
It seems like Disney is trying to spread the crowds out in a tricky way. Use your FastPass to get on the ride a
I'm just more of a realist about all of this. It's not that I'm not passionate about the parks or I don't want them better, but do you really believe for a second that if Avatarland came in at $500M instead of $1B that TWDC would have allocated the additional $500M saved to SW Land or WDW or any theme park at all? If I was a betting man I'd put my money on a split between share buybacks and executive bonuses for where the money would go. I'm happy they spent $1B on Pandora. It looks amazing. It has 2 pretty solid looking rides (at least from the bare minimum we have seen). I'm just glad they didn't cut the budget and eliminate the boat ride altogether which seemed to be a real possibility not too long ago. First it was rumored to be cut, then it was phase 2 and wouldn't open with the rest of the land. If anything it seems like the boat ride was plussed since the original plans were leaked. Not plussed enough to add hundreds of millions to the budget but like I said before, I have no idea what the heck they spend the extra cash on. Your guess is as good as mine.
It's because the investments were basically nonexistent from from 2005-2012ish. However you wouldn't know because you are in the Disney can do no wrong crowd. All of these additions are coming because Disney waited so long to do anything. People are now complaining because of so much construction.
I didn't say I wasn't happy. People have a right to be disappointed about things whether it's a kiosk, cabana, or whatever. Disney can never make everyone happy and I would have to imagine Disney has done something you don't like. If you say everything Disney does makes you happy than you're probably lying.
Maybe because there's still plenty that needs fixing? Maybe because three of those things you listed aren't really all that compared to the other two? Maybe because even though one is a really nice outdoor mall, it's still just an outdoor mall? Maybe because one is just two carni level rides? Maybe because we haven't really seen that Disney is willing to put their all into something in WDW rather than taking the cheap/lazy route except for when certain people put their foot down (James Cameron and his infamous ego for Avatar, Bob and the BoD for SWE because even they know they can't screw that up)? Other than those two circumstances, it seems to always be "good enough." I really am thankful that these two expansions are happening. I just wish this sort of quality and attention to what can enhance a parks theme were the rule rather than the exception. Even DLR suffers with the hack job to ToT over there.
