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Captain EO final show on 12/6 - Disney and Pixar Short Film Festival to be the replacement
- Thread starter Jwhee
- Start date
GhostHost1000
Premium Member
I guess we can only hope this is a placeholder for something better one day soon. I'm not holding my breath though sigh
Meanwhile universe of energy needs a major redo as well and we have expansion pads in world showcase or need something new (maybe a ride in one) that isn't frozen
It seems all of the other parks are getting attention, but not Epcot...hopefully that'll change down the road
Sadly it should have been nipped in the bud five years ago. Now Futureworld is in dire need. Energy, Wonders, Odyssey, Innoventions, Imagination, Harvest Theatre are all in need of desperate help. Not to mention major issues elsewhere that may or not be as urgent depending on opinion.
The overall park is possibly in as bad a condition as it ever has been. You see pockets of brilliance in half of Spaceship Earth, RoE enhancements, France projector upgrades and the like and then you see the rest.
And that's leaving Norway out of the equation.
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Sadly the focus of Epcot is as a ticketed food and drink venue. Until that revenue is impacted by attendance I don't think we will see anything significant change.
It's a downward spiral of needing to prop the park up. So add food and booze to easily and lazily boost the numbers. And numbers go up due to the food and booze. So add food and booze to keep the numbers up. And the numbers stay up. And so forth.
The entire park business plan is relying on "festivals" to use the available space to bring people in. Theming and attractions just happen to still be there in a piecemeal, contradicting and incohesive jumble. Without the special events park attendance would collapse. Management have failed the park.
Even more annoying is that the buildings are there. The infrastructure is there. The park could be amazing again - and up to date across the site - with relatively small investment.
rucifee
Well-Known Member
I call it Pleasure Islandcot.
Chris82
Well-Known Member
What's odd to me is that we all seem surprised by this. This kind of behavior has been going on for so long now you'd think we'd be resigned to it by now... but it's like winter in New England, I guess. You never really get used to it
My question is, after the tremendous success of the new, original 90's attractions like Tower of Terror, Indiana Jones, and Splash Mountain, how did Disney "learn" to be afraid of awesomeness? Why so conservative that we've mostly gotten only C-tickets, dance parties, and film previews (and now this)? Although hopefully Star Wars marks a turn around, their behavior for the last decade or so has almost suggested a phobia - like, "We lost a million jillion dollars on attraction X and the Imagineers thought that was supposed to be awesome, so clearly we need to avoid awesome from now on. Awesome is the problem." What was attraction X? Mission: Space? That's the only "disappointing" E-ticket I can come up with. It doesn't make sense to me.
ford91exploder
Resident Curmudgeon
Sadly I agree, Once in the 80-90's EPCOT was my favorite park.
ford91exploder
Resident Curmudgeon
What's odd to me is that we all seem surprised by this. This kind of behavior has been going on for so long now you'd think we'd be resigned to it by now... but it's like winter in New England, I guess. You never really get used to it
My question is, after the tremendous success of the new, original 90's attractions like Tower of Terror, Indiana Jones, and Splash Mountain, how did Disney "learn" to be afraid of awesomeness? Why so conservative that we've mostly gotten only C-tickets, dance parties, and film previews (and now this)? Although hopefully Star Wars marks a turn around, their behavior for the last decade or so has almost suggested a phobia - like, "We lost a million jillion dollars on attraction X and the Imagineers thought that was supposed to be awesome, so clearly we need to avoid awesome from now on. Awesome is the problem." What was attraction X? Mission: Space? That's the only "disappointing" E-ticket I can come up with. It doesn't make sense to me.
The problem is the management team, At heart Eisner was a creative while Wells kept the money machine humming (and Eisner's giant ego in check) so Eisner was always looking for the most amazing creative projects for the parks. Fast forward to Wells death and the founding of the 'Strategic Planning' group these guys were the 'Sharp Pencil Boys' Walt was worried about. All these guys cared about was money, Unfortunately post 9/11 they gained a disproportionate amount of power in TWDC and basically forced out nearly all the old line Imagineers.
If you read Disney Wars you will also find that Eisner was beginning to think that Iger needed to go as he was too powerful AND had no respect for creatives and the creative process and if he was to become chair he would damage the companies long term viability.
Short answer is Disney is now a company run by bankers who don't care about awesome.
ford91exploder
Resident Curmudgeon
Trouble with the current strategy is that when it fails it fails catastrophically. Disney just cannot control the urge to cost cut. DW and I used to visit F&G because of all the cool demos and products on display - in the past couple of years those are almost non existent, Now it's topiaries and Boozefest Spring Edition. The events just keep getting hollowed out to the point of 'why bother' there's nothing I can't see at the local show.
lazyboy97o
Well-Known Member
That isn't even close to an accurate timeline. Strategic Planning was well in place before Wells' death and Pressler's meteoric rise was also before 2001. Eisner wasn't the romantic creative you're trying to reprint him as being.
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wdwfan4ver
Well-Known Member
I am hoping this short term before getting a replacement and the shape Epcot is in now is one of direct results of a series of things through the years. I honestly think the 350 million dollars budget for Epcot that was improved in July wasn't enough for improvements.
Andrew C
You know what's funny?
I feel giving the imagination pavilion a complete refurb/renovation and reinvigorating innoventions would go a long way. Seems 350 million would be enough to take care of that.
Of course, more should eventually be done. But they gotta start somewhere.
wdwfan4ver
Well-Known Member
Expedition Everest has to be considered a disappoint to a point.
The problem is simple. The 1990's had a different CEO than now in charge of the Walt Disney Company and the is following the CEO's lead. Bob Iger is known more of a hands off person when it comes theme parks.
Cmdr_Crimson
Well-Known Member
Maybe they should make Imagination into another Midway Mania based system. It seems to be doing well for it at the studios..
MarkTwain
Well-Known Member
What I'm curious about is what prompted this change in the first place. Clearly, Disney was content with running EO for years after the craze around Michael Jackson's death ended. And it's also clear that the shorts are just a temporary change until they can come up with something more permanent. So they're replacing one sad attempt to utilize the building with another one.
So why spend the money to make a change in the first place? Were there guest complaints about EO or something?
So why spend the money to make a change in the first place? Were there guest complaints about EO or something?
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Cmdr_Crimson
Well-Known Member
wdwfan4ver
Well-Known Member
Ellen's Energy Adventure needs to be very high on the list. As much as I want innoventions fixed, Ellen really need a replacement first. My reasoning is besides the attraction being outdated in terms in formation, I noticed that there is less guests attending the attraction compare to the part. What I mean by less guests is way less guests.
There hasn't be rumors on the ride part of the Imagination Pavilion over a year. The rumors of the Pavilion is where Captain EO is.
The other thing is who says Disney isn't going to use some of the 350 Million dollars on a replacement for Illuminations: reflections on Earth.The Entertainment part wouldn't cost a lot though.
Andrew C
You know what's funny?
Trying to think what is more likely rather than everything I would like to see done. But your guess is as good as mine. I have no information either way. 350 million can do a decent amount but not everything.