Rumor Bye Bye (Tiki) Birdies?

[WDW1974]

Is this confirmed info? Are all of those attractions actually leaving? The Speedway seems popular still, as does TSI. TSI is one of my favorite spots in all of Disney World. Do you think the execs don't recognize that people need some low key attractions, if only to step away from the madness for a bit?

Confirmed by who? Disney?

I know there are various ideas for the Speedway parcel and others here I respect have said that it is definitely leaving for one of them. I believe that. So, yes, I'd say that is in the happening column.

TSI is simply being talked about. But TDO has wanted it gone for a decade. And WDI has come up with all sorts of ideas for the land. There is no respect for history or for having any quiet, change of pace attractions. Disney wants 2-6 minute attractions. TSI is viewed as archaic and meaningless in today's iPhone-fueled, screen-addicted, constant stimulation required world. As confused and unable to define as WDI appears to be with the concept of Tomorrowland, they appear equally unable to stay true to Frontierland's roots and still keep it fresh for new audiences.

 

[flynnibus]

Charming! But while I recognize that their info likely has a grain of truth to it, my experience with the poster is that they enjoy provoking as much as providing rumors. Your experience may be different.

If you mean far more informed... yes, you are correct.

You are ing into the wind here because you feel some need to try to debunk him because he can see things more than 18" away and isnt all rainbows and unicorns. When someone continually lets you down... thats what happens.

I'm sorry you dont agree with his interpretation of the company's creative direction- but that doesnt make him some troll. Try taking in the meat without focusing on the flaire... you might learn something.

@WDW1974 will tell you he and i have disagreed and sparred on many a topic... but if you think he's here just to troll... you need to work to pull that head of your out

 

[WDW1974]

Honestly in shock. If anything they should refurb the Tiki and ADD using the expansion pads they have. Stupid to consider turfing an attraction just before the 50th.
I don't think Disney realizes how angry the fans would be....

You think they care. Awe ... that's just precious ... truly.

 

[WDW1974]

They don't care. They know fans will hand over their credit cards for more retro merch the minute they finish typing up an angry tweet.

And for every one of them, they'll be 100 random tourists more than happy to line up for whatever the replacement is.

Yup. Look at all those Imagination and Horizons fans with special LE tees. Look at how angry the fans were when Spectromagic was destroyed and immediately bought pins with float pieces (or so Disney says) in them.

It's like all the angst I am reading about UAL, which deserves it and so much more but ... the reality is you'll say you won't fly them and then when they are $200 (or maybe even $20) less to fly to Orlando on, you will. Fans are ... special!

 

[aladdin2007]

The Tiki Birds should really be so far down on their list.

this. I can't believe they would do something this stupid with the 50th coming up, after...perhaps, although for me personally this will be the end of it, no more annual passes after twenty some years. Ive welcomed changes, put up with others, lamented others, but totally taking it away? and for what will probably end up being a air conditioned meetngreet or ten thousand dollar club 33.... the last straw. (f they went with the stitch version from tokyo I would be okay with that but sounds like its unlikely) but honestly they have no idea how to run parks anymore. Chapek and the rest view them as giant malls. They don't add capacity when the parks are bursting at the seams with scary crowd control problems, they gut rides for meetngreets, replace what doesn't need replacing, and don't expand when they so badly need to, no more light parade etc etc.... Is the tiki plan TDO's doings or coming from other higher up clueless management like Chapek?...happy 50th anniversary

 

[WDW1974]

Strongly disagree on that. As much as I like the electrical parade, I'm happy they have paused night parades. The flow of the park is easier with one less nighttime event.

I tend to agree. Nightly parades were not something MK had year-round until it was done as a PR stunt, and because they didn't have a major new attraction, for the 25th Anniversary. And it basically stuck. But while I complain about many things, I won't say MK has to have a parade nightly.

 

[The Duck]

Well...
They replaced a classic dark ride for a meet n greet
Got rid of Alien Encounter for Stitch.
Changed It's a Small Worlds queue to resemble Disneyland's
Tomorrowland Speedway still exists
Added Johnny Depp to Pirates
Demolished SpectroMagic
Added that ludicrous queue to Haunted Mansion
Added the most annoying safety spiel to the Star Tunnel that replays every 10 seconds instead of every two minutes or so killing some of the best music in the park

So, yeah. I wouldn't put it past them to be that moronic.

Sad but true. I've been visiting fairly regularly since 1975 and I've seen all too many bone-headed changes in the parks. We all know that Disney is going to keep on changing long after we're all gone but some of it has been ridiculous. Of course, I still miss The Mickey Mouse Revue.

 

[WDW1974]

Speedway is VERY VERY likely. On the other hand TIKI won't go "Extinct" Cause DL will still have it. The only REAL "Extinct" Attractions are things that are Actually EXTINCT like Journey Into Imagination, Horizons, Body Wars, Cranium Command and Other EXTINCT attractions that you can't find anywhere else on the planet sooooo... @WDW1974.......

I am talking about WDW. The fact it exists at DL means nothing here. I'm lucky. I can go to any of the Disney parks globally and have (except for SDL ... yet!) Many people, even fans who love Disney are never going to Anaheim. If something ends here, then it is done.

(Same reason why I hate the ridiculous argument that the monstrosity that is Guardians Tower at DCA is OK because the 'better' version still exists untouched -- for how long won't be answered honestly by Disney -- here at WDW. That's my rationale for destroying Pirates here because it absolutely is the weakest version in the world. No WDW fan likes it when you flip the argument like that.)

 

[V_L_Raptor]

It's honestly just a snazzy version of the old ET ride where he said your name at the end. I didn't think that was creepy either.

I would buy the notion that such a magical display is "honestly just" what you say it is, except that the infrastructure in place to provide this effect would take up a whole lot less of a footprint -- data-wise, especially -- if that were "honestly just" what the system was doing. Getting an attraction to say hello or goodbye to you is peanuts.

Paying attention to what else could be done with all the IT firepower that just so happens to serve up your name in IASW is not paranoia, but awareness.

 

[WDW1974]

I am not shocked about TSI. What I wonder about is how does this affect Liberty Belle and the Rivers of America?

I am asking since Liberty Belle is one of my favorite attractions at MK.

Not sure yet.

But I wouldn't feel comfortable. At. All.

 

[yeti]

Fundamentally, though, Disney has to make it so Guests want to be at the other parks more than MK and actually add capacity to the original at the same time.

Here's an idea - add rides for rides' sake: original, cheap(er) attractions that don't open with tv spots, fireworks, and fanfare. Attractions that give people something to do when they're already in the park, when their fastpass for Buzz Lightyear is two hours away and they don't feel like spending half of that time lining up for something else.

Disney's reliance on tentpole films is almost as bad as their need for tentpole rides.

 

[DDLand]

Now, there are all sorts of plans to ... how was it described to me? ... "open it up." What does that mean? Take a look at the Hub. Or the area behind the Castle now. I won't go into much detail right now, but -- very much like Disney's response to its transport issues -- they are on a destroy as much greenery and pave things over mentality. There are vast areas that management feels are underutilized real estate and ...well, there are ... as @marni1971 will attest to as well ... many plans floating around to fill in some of that space. There are also competing ideas for some of those parcels.

This is some of the biggest news you've dropped. Perhaps even more than just one attraction leaving, which I'm upset about, this has the potential to create massive change.

There aren't any glaringly obvious pathways to widen, so whatever they do will be destructive. This could be the most horrible period in Magic Kingdom's history.

The entirety of Adventureland is at risk. Swiss Family Treehouse is a nice contender. They could widen the Frontierland to Adventureland connectors. Would they remove Flying Carpets, or is that too obvious? Widen the path over by Golden Oak Outpost. Frontierland/Liberty Square paths could be widened by eating into the riverfront.

The best part of the park is going to come under unprecedented attack...

 

[WDW1974]

Reminds me of when @WDW1974 dropped the ToT to Guardians news. He certainly was trying to send a message and stir up negativity about it. I think he even encouraged people to contact executives just to show the little secret was out. And in that case, I was 100% on board. The outrage so far isn't on the same level, which I think says something about how people truly feel about the attraction.

I'll be sad to see the Tiki Birds go, but for some reason I'm not in shock like when initially, WDW's tower was on the chopping block.

And please recall that Disney (in both Anaheim and Orlando) blatantly lied to concerned consumers who called and wrote to express displeasure. They were very unhappy that news got out. And Chappie can say whatever he likes about there not being plans for a possible WDW version at anytime, but that in no way makes it true.

But, yes, I debated placing this out as I do most anything. And since I don't know the exact plans for what will take its place, I was more deliberate. But ultimately anything I can do to either bring attention to the change or make Disney think twice (they won't, but let me live in Delusion Land, most fans do! ) is to my thinking doing a solid for the fan community.

 

[WDW1974]

Charming! But while I recognize that their info likely has a grain of truth to it, my experience with the poster is that they enjoy provoking as much as providing rumors. Your experience may be different.

Yes. I do like to provoke thought, discussion and debate. Guilty as charged.

But, no, just like when others take a shot, my info always -- ALWAYS -- has more than a grain of truth to it. I do have better things to do than stir things up that aren't true. And while I take shots at fans frequently (most deserved), people would have long ago tossed me to the trash pile if I simply pulled stuff out of my behind. The folks here are, largely, not stupid. Sorry!

 

[WDW1974]

I think WDW1974 can take some credit in saving the Tower in WDW. If he hadn't alerted us, we wouldn't have gone yelling to TDO about it, and maybe, just maybe, that had some part in its salvation. I like to think so, anyway...

I'd like to think so too. But I don't believe so. They had issues here with shutting the attraction down. Florida also didn't want to pay for it. ... I also think there may have been a rethinking about how to use the few Marvel characters they are legally able to.

I'd much rather have stopped the DCA attraction dead. But I also knew that was a lost cause as soon as I released the info. Disney doesn't care what we think. TDO does care about bad publicity, but you have to have a wild animal that had been fed by humans drown a child in the Seven Seas Lagoon before they react ... and then, they overreact, naturally.

And as I type this I am watching a TV spot for the 3 days for $139 FLA Resident ticket offer. I won't point out that a few years ago it was $99.

 

[WDW1974]

Eh. That area of California Adventure is in dire need of theming and help. And let's be honest, their Tower has always been a lesser sibling to the original. I love the Tower of Terror, but I can also understand the desire to give that area of CA something truly unique rather than a simplified version of the original ride. The art I've seen has been really impressive. I'm curious to see what they do. And if it's bad, then I'll call them on it, but it intrigues me much more than demoralizes me.

No. Wrong.

That area of DCA looked great and fit the theme perfectly when they added the Red Cars. Now, it looks so unbelievably bad that it looks like it would fit into a local park.

 

[WDW1974]

You do know why they can't do that anymore at WDW, right? Because a character would show up, and would be mobbed by entitled people who wanted to be sure that their children got to meet them, even to the point of shoving their kids in front of others. Not safe for the characters at all.

Weirdly, that doesn't seem to happen as much at DL.

Again, whose fault is that? Why do characters roam at every other Disney resort on the planet, even with set meet and greets, but not O-Town?

Could Disney just maybe be the cause? Maybe by turning character greets into attractions for sinister reasons? After all, if you wait two hours to get your princess a photo with Anna and Elsa you take a chunk of your day and don't notice how few REAL attractions there are.

Goofy and Alice and Pluto and etc can run around Anaheim or Tokyo (Duffy would be another matter there) because no one in their right mind would wait hours to meet characters.

 

[WDW1974]

That's actually pretty ironic!

If they turn SEA into a franchise then it's no better than a movie franchise. It may be a Disney Parks original, but so is PotC. The constraints of a convoluted world, entrenched characters, and certain story expectations.

SEA jumped the shark with the otherwise excellent Mystic Manor, and it's only getting more disastrous.

The animated/personified Albert the Monkey exists in the same universe/society as the hyper realistic Harrison Hightower.

That's what SEA will get you!

Kind of like one step forward two steps back...

I am just so glad someone else said this. I've been thinking this for years. More Disney self-reverential stuff that fans just eat up.

 

[IanDLBZF]

Why do characters roam at every other Disney resort on the planet, even with set meet and greets, but not O-Town?

I don't think Shanghai has roaming characters either (someone correct me if I am wrong).

 

[FigmentJedi]

Maybe by turning character greets into attractions for sinister reasons? After all, if you wait two hours to get your princess a photo with Anna and Elsa you take a chunk of your day and don't notice how few REAL attractions there are.

It's fun you use Frozen as an example because the ride itself is just a meet and greet that happens to take place while riding a boat.