Bob Chapek Confirms Disney Will Overhaul Epcot

[Tony the Tigger]

Lazyboy97o: You are a liar!

Tony The Tigger; No I'm not

To clear things up: nobody was calling me a liar. Someone called someone else a liar, and I objected to the harshness of that in the context of this discussion.

 

[Tony the Tigger]

It just kills me how they seem to admit internally that the parks need help (DHS & Epcot) yet they hem and haw about greenlighting anything and then they still take years and years to do anything.

Money is a very real and practical restriction.

 

[S 2]

It just kills me how they seem to admit internally that the parks need help (DHS & Epcot) yet they hem and haw about greenlighting anything and then they still take years and years to do anything.

They must have seen a real threat to Disney Studios by Universal to invest there first, or maybe they just were eager to do something with $tar War$. If they do as much with EPCOT as they are doing with DS and they start by bulldozing half the park and they do it while silmutaneoulsy working on AK and DS, it could backfire. Not only would it require around $5 billion at one time, it would leave them with only one full day open park. Also These decisions would have had to been made BEFORE they knew what a great year this one would be for them at the box office... We've waited this long, I can wait a little longer for DHS and AK to get back on their feet.

I just really hope they bring back EPCOT in a way that they did when it originally opened, with Disney meets the museum attractions that leaves guests in awe of the science and technology of the world. I'm personally also ok with them Disneyfying some of our World's Cultures. Kids who see a Disneyfied version of something become interested in it and later go back and learn it the right way as adults. There's always been a bit of fiction in the Disney parks and films, I remember reading how the first nature documentaries Disney did were heavily edited for entertainment 'value'. So yeah, Ratatouille in France, Snow White in Germany, Brother Bear in Canada, Mulan in China. Put more attractions around WS and then give us a few more countries like an Egypt or a Brazil (Soarin' meets Up!!) Tell me you wouldn't ride these?

 

[wdisney9000]

Money is a very real and practical restriction.

Yet Disney assumes their customers have limitless financial resources. Hey Iger, let me spread out my vacation payment over 14 fiscal quarters. I have a BOD to answer to as well, its called my wife.

 

[Tony the Tigger]

Yet Disney assumes their customers have limitless financial resources. Hey Iger, let me spread out my vacation payment over 14 fiscal quarters. I have a BOD to answer to as well, its called my wife.

True, but two different conversations.

 

[wdisney9000]

So yeah, Ratatouille in France, Snow White in Germany, Brother Bear in Canada, Mulan in China. Put more attractions around WS and then give us a few more countries like an Egypt or a Brazil (Soarin' meets Up!!) Tell me you wouldn't ride these?

It is not a matter of wanting more attractions or "would you ride a Snow White ride in Germany"? Of course people would. But is it the best they can do? Is it even 50% of what the company is capable of? Slamming completely obvious characters into WS pavilions is just plain lazy. It is also redundant.

 

[Bandini]

Slamming completely obvious characters into WS pavilions is just plain lazy. It is also redundant.

But they may have the "Snow White's Scary Adventure" stored in mothballs. So with a few tweaks, they could easily put it in the Germany pavilion. Heck, it would only take 3-5 years.

 

[S 2]

It is not a matter of wanting more attractions or "would you ride a Snow White ride in Germany"? Of course people would. But is it the best they can do? Is it even 50% of what the company is capable of? Slamming completely obvious characters into WS pavilions is just plain lazy. It is also redundant.

A Snow White ride is just a concept I made no mention of what kind of ride or how it should be implemented I'll leave that to the imagineers. There would be no Disney Parks without Snow White and its actually pretty impressive there's so little in the parks when this could be easily milked by the company. You seem to have a very specific ride in your head when I only mentioned a potential theme so if we go by whatever you are envisioning (and it sounds awful based on your own response to whatever you are imagining) I would have to agree with you.

 

[Tony the Tigger]

It is not a matter of wanting more attractions or "would you ride a Snow White ride in Germany"? Of course people would. But is it the best they can do? Is it even 50% of what the company is capable of? Slamming completely obvious characters into WS pavilions is just plain lazy. It is also redundant.

No offense, but I find that argument to be lazy.

"The best they can do" can be done whether IP or not. Being IP does not make it less than the best they can do.

And regardless of history, IP is what people – meaning the general parkgoing public – expect to a large degree.

There is nothing that makes "something original" inherently better than a new ride with a familiar face.

My bigger concern is repeating the same rides at different parks. That sounds lazy to me.

How come so often when we talk about new attractions they are really just copied from Hong Kong or someplace? If you want creativity, make new rides using the same IP's, different ones in each park.

Side note, is Disney's Snow White set in Germany? ( I don't think so. ) Or are people just suggesting Germany because of the history of the story?

IMO, if it wasn't set in Germany, it doesn't make sense.

However if it was, then just the fact of it being set in Germany at Disney makes people learn something.

 

[sshindel]

For those of a similar mindset, who found EPCOT Center an inspiring place that helped set us nerdy kids onto successful and impactful careers in the sciences and engineering:

This is a good interview:
http://disneyview.blogspot.com/2017/01/episodes-272-273-and-274-changes-coming.html

With this guy:
http://www.epcotmanifesto.com

awww, stop it, I'm blushing...

 

[HauntedPirate]

Money is a very real and practical restriction.

Yes, money was a very real and practical restriction was with FP+, wasn't it? We won't even mention how much profit P&R has generated over the past decade and how much of it wasn't funneled back into the parks and the rides and attractions that made it possible to generate those profits.

Sorry, but the "Diznee is a bizness" mantra is BS. It's all about priorities, and for nearly a decade TWDC, and TDO in particular, has had the corporate bottom line as their one and only priority. Short term profits, a cut-or-replace-not-expand mindset, do as little as possible, just keep things running and afloat, keep the worthless stock ANALysts happy, and keep squeezing the guests for every penny they possibly can. Why haven't they invested more than minimally in attractions for Epcot? Because they are raking in cash with their multitude of festivals. And like it or not, Rizzo summed it up best 20 years ago - "They're tourists - Whadda they know?".

 

[Tony the Tigger]

Yes, money was a very real and practical restriction was with FP+, wasn't it? We won't even mention how much profit P&R has generated over the past decade and how much of it wasn't funneled back into the parks and the rides and attractions that made it possible to generate those profits.

Sorry, but the "Diznee is a bizness" mantra is BS. It's all about priorities, and for nearly a decade TWDC, and TDO in particular, has had the corporate bottom line as their one and only priority. Short term profits, a cut-or-replace-not-expand mindset, do as little as possible, just keep things running and afloat, keep the worthless stock ANALysts happy, and keep squeezing the guests for every penny they possibly can. Why haven't they invested more than minimally in attractions for Epcot? Because they are raking in cash with their multitude of festivals. And like it or not, Rizzo summed it up best 20 years ago - "They're tourists - Whadda they know?".

Get used to it. That's Corporate America now. It's not unique to Disney.

If you can't see that spending capital is a limiting factor, I don't know what to tell you. Magic isn't real.

There are obvious limits to how much they can spend at one time on different projects. You have Shanghai, Star Wars, and Pandora (plus more) all going on simultaneously - while they are scrimping and scraping by cutting hours of different things here and there. That's not a sign of robust health.

If they overspend to the point their profits tank, then they fall short of expectations, and there is potentially a downward spiral. That is reality. (And I presume that's why ticket prices went up already.)

Maybe there is some childlike quality to people who are fans enough of Disney to be on a message board, but you still have to be realistic.

But it is their prerogative to do things how they do things without superfan approval. They will decide what to prioritize and they will decide what they can afford. If they thought FP+ was a worthy investment, who are you to tell them what to do?

Customer feedback about a ride or a price or a cast member is one thing. Customer feedback about a business plan is something else.

 

[Cesar R M]

So does this mean Epcot is going to be overhauled?

 

[Cesar R M]

To clear things up: nobody was calling me a liar. Someone called someone else a liar, and I objected to the harshness of that in the context of this discussion.

I dont think theres a problem with that.. after all...

 

[Cesar R M]

Yet Disney assumes their customers have limitless financial resources. Hey Iger, let me spread out my vacation payment over 14 fiscal quarters. I have a BOD to answer to as well, its called my wife.

I actually found interesting the difference in debt culture in the US vs my country.
Almost everything can be paid in my country via "months with no interest" plans. Where you spread the payments in multiple months with no interests.
But then, our cards (the lowest one) has a minimum rate of 25% tax annual rate plus charges.
Very high compared to US cards (which I've seen with 0 to 3% rate in the minimum)

Do people usually just pay in CC or they save up first and then pay?

 

[RobidaFlats]

I actually found interesting the difference in debt culture in the US vs my country.
Almost everything can be paid in my country via "months with no interest" plans. Where you spread the payments in multiple months with no interests.
But then, our cards (the lowest one) has a minimum rate of 25% tax annual rate plus charges.
Very high compared to US cards (which I've seen with 0 to 3% rate in the minimum)

Do people usually just pay in CC or they save up first and then pay?

It varies wildly from family to family as to how people pay for their vacations. However, I would like to point out that a credit card interest rate of 0-3% is in no way typical for the US. The average interest on consumer cards starts at 10%, and that is fairly low.

 

[BrerJon]

So yeah, Ratatouille in France, Snow White in Germany, Brother Bear in Canada, Mulan in China. Put more attractions around WS and then give us a few more countries like an Egypt or a Brazil (Soarin' meets Up!!) Tell me you wouldn't ride these?

Not Ratatouille, that ride's garbage, I've no idea why so many people want to see it in Epcot.

But new countries with new attractions. All would be forgiven if that happened!

 

[Kman101]

Because it fits better than Frozen if this park wants to shove IPs in, and it's been rumored (not sure if it was actually on the table though) before.

And most probably haven't actually gotten a chance to ride it and judge it for themselves.

 

[Kman101]

And, sorry, but we as their customer have every right to question their business model.

 

[Daveeeeed]

Not Ratatouille, that ride's garbage, I've no idea why so many people want to see it in Epcot.

But new countries with new attractions. All would be forgiven if that happened!

Realistically though... Ratatouille is far better than Frozen. Not only is it a better ride, but it is a better fit.

Also have you even ridden it? I've been on it like 5 times and it's at least on par with Kong at Universal. It's not as good as Spider-Man, or The Haunted Mansion, but it is very good.