Cars Land, Star Wars Land, Monstropolis...

[Big Bad Wolf]

Beauty and the Beast Live Show...been there done that..try to update the show with Rapunzel and you have a packed audience. Move over to the Voyage of the Little Mermaid...transform this theatre into a live Frozen show and you have utter madness. Meet and greet for the frozen sisters in the animation building and you'll need to have increased security. Turn the backlot hot sets by Toy Story Mania into a version of Ratatouille from Paris and you have an instant hit. Bring a watered down Carsland to the area covered by Lights, Motors, Action! And you will have incredible lines. Keep the backlot but turn Honey I Shrunk The kids playground into Bugs Life..... there's room to bring additional kiddie rides to make it kid friendly (like DCA) ...instant hit. Take out the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular and use the ground to add a huge addition onto StarWars. Mega Hit on your hands....Last, but not least, update the tired Great Movie Ride..it deserves a major facelift. You instantly have a two day park on your hands for the full family to enjoy. P.S. Move the hat over to Fantasmic. What an entrance! It would be a great addition to the show.

 

[Mike S]

agree, and now its sounding more likely that a value engineered frozen overlay is going to happen to Maelstrom,(check out the frozen maelstrom thread), sad, it should be bigger and better than this.

After hearing that news I can't imagine what they would try to do for Star Wars. Probably not even close to what people would want.

 

[David Matte]

The only reasons I see Star Wars Land Stalled is (these are just guesses)...

3. As much as we think Star Wars will be a huge hit. Disney might want to see just how big the new trilogy is before throwing huge money at a theme park land. The first movie will need to do north of 1 billion world wide.
A bad movie and we might be looking at no land at all.

Yet Disney did not bother with that logic with Avatar. SW Episodes I-III did over 2 billion combined at the box office and arguably they were terrible. Lucas made many billions from them over the years. I think JJ Abrams will do a great job purely from his decision to use film and miniatures, but even if he phoned it in it would make half a billion easy. In my opinion Disney would be better off leaving Avatar on the table and build a new mythical creatures franchise like AK was supposed to have in the first place and pour that money into HS and Epcot. Turning AK into a night park is still a great idea, but they can save a lot of money by not paying James Cameron huge fees to do it. Avatar could still turn out to be a great thing, but its a far bigger gamble than the other options Disney might leave on the table in the mean time. I realize I'm a bit harsh on Avatar, but I'm hesitant to see Disney commit so much money on a non-Disney product when there are so many great ideas to pick from.

Getting rid of Camp Minnie Mickey and moving FOTLK was still good idea in spite of Avatar.

 

[Goofnut1980]

Can someone answer this. I understand you buy stock in the Walt Disney Company. But what really determines if the parks get money. Just because the movies side of the biz brings in money, that doesn't mean that parks will benefit, does it??

I would think they are each on their own. Or am I wrong?

 

[disney4life2008]

Avatarland has been on the books for years and if I recall - the most that has happened was a ground breaking ceramony.

 

[champdisney]

If SWW is a ridiculous success this year, I predict that Glendale will greenlight the project.

They need the numbers to back up the ideas..... sadly

The Mark Hamill appearances should boast up the attendance figures tremendously for that weekend. Fingers crossed.

 

[disney4life2008]

Yet Disney did not bother with that logic with Avatar. SW Episodes I-III did over 2 billion combined at the box office and arguably they were terrible. Lucas made many billions from them over the years. I think JJ Abrams will do a great job purely from his decision to use film and miniatures, but even if he phoned it in it would make half a billion easy. In my opinion Disney would be better off leaving Avatar on the table and build a new mythical creatures franchise like AK was supposed to have in the first place and pour that money into HS and Epcot. Turning AK into a night park is still a great idea, but they can save a lot of money by not paying James Cameron huge fees to do it. Avatar could still turn out to be a great thing, but its a far bigger gamble than the other options Disney might leave on the table in the mean time. I realize I'm a bit harsh on Avatar, but I'm hesitant to see Disney commit so much money on a non-Disney product when there are so many great ideas to pick from.

Getting rid of Camp Minnie Mickey and moving FOTLK was still good idea in spite of Avatar.

I think there is a new Avatar movie coming out so maybe they are streamlining the opening with the new movie. but still - i see no connection to disney. Avatar just does not hit. Even the renderings posted a few weeks ago - a boat ride and simulator - they could have been did this years ago at AK. I am fine with AK the way it is for now. HS needs the love asap

 

[CinematicFusion]

Yet Disney did not bother with that logic with Avatar. SW Episodes I-III did over 2 billion combined at the box office and arguably they were terrible. Lucas made many billions from them over the years. I think JJ Abrams will do a great job purely from his decision to use film and miniatures, but even if he phoned it in it would make half a billion easy. In my opinion Disney would be better off leaving Avatar on the table and build a new mythical creatures franchise like AK was supposed to have in the first place and pour that money into HS and Epcot. Turning AK into a night park is still a great idea, but they can save a lot of money by not paying James Cameron huge fees to do it. Avatar could still turn out to be a great thing, but its a far bigger gamble than the other options Disney might leave on the table in the mean time. I realize I'm a bit harsh on Avatar, but I'm hesitant to see Disney commit so much money on a non-Disney product when there are so many great ideas to pick from.

Getting rid of Camp Minnie Mickey and moving FOTLK was still good idea in spite of Avatar.

The wait and see approach Disney is taking with Star Wars was just a guess. I have no idea why they aren't jumping to build a Star Wars land at DHS.
I was just throwing out guesses. I'm looking forward to the Avatar land. While I didn't enjoy the story, I did enjoy the visual world of Pandora. Bringing the creatures and that world to life will be fun to explore. It's a perfect fit for Animal Kingdom. I never liked the concept art of beastly kingdom. I do like the visual concepts they are showing for the new pandora part of animal kingdom.

 

[danv3]

If I were Disney, I would do everything I could to add a robust Star Wars expansion to HS with an opening day in Spring 2016 with full tie-in with the new trilogy.

If they started construction tomorrow, it might be completed by the end of this decade.

Personally I hope it's open for the 50th.

 

[Ignohippo]

TDO has proven that it only wants to have one major resort expenditure at a time. DTD and MM+ not withstanding, they view additions with a "one resort" philosophy - an addition at one park increases attendance at the other parks and throughout the resort.

They feel (or felt) that the FLE would pay dividends through 2017 (obviously, that will not be the case). By the time the FLE was projected to lose steam, Avatar would be ready.

With this mode of operation in mind, they more than likely won't begin construction on any new addition until 2015 or 2016 with a projected opening around 2020 (around the time Avatar will lose whatever luster it has).

Star Wars is such a major draw that, unfortunately, there will be no need for anything else at DHS. It's a terrible shame, but you have to understand that from a business standpoint there won't be a need for anything else. And, look for them to do the "Potter" thing and open it in 2 waves.

I sincerely hope it isn't the case, but you can kiss any kind of Pixar Place expansion bye-bye. The only way I could see it happening is if they want more time to design SW and do a DHS makeover as the 2020 project (with either a minimal SW expansion (wave 1), or no new SW at all).

 

[RSoxNo1]

Cars Land was cancelled because I told them not to build it.

As for Star Wars Land, beyond this being such an obvious play the biggest reason behind it is that the consumers of the merchandise have disposable income. This is huge relative to Cars Land and Princess merchandise (which of course they also have no problem selling). The consumers of Harry Potter merchandise is also largely adults and as such, that land paid for itself on Butterbeer alone in well under a year. I don't know that Blue Milk has the same selling power, but a well done Star Wars Land will pay for itself quicker than anything else I've heard mentioned.

 

[Sped2424]

we don't need another 70 page thread about any of this.

 

[Cesar R M]

The only reasons I see Star Wars Land Stalled is (these are just guesses)...
1. Give Avatar Land its due. Don't want to steal the spotlight from this new land coming.
2. Save money. With Avatar Land being built. Disney doesn't have to answer the question why they aren't building more at the parks. They can say, "We have finished the New Fantasyland and are currently working on Avatar Land. How dare you say we aren't trying to make the greatest theme parks in the world better." Thus..they are saving money not building at multiple parks at the same time.
3. As much as we think Star Wars will be a huge hit. Disney might want to see just how big the new trilogy is before throwing huge money at a theme park land. The first movie will need to do north of 1 billion world wide.
A bad movie and we might be looking at no land at all.

Those are my guesses.

exactly my opinion!
Disney seems to be waiting until they see if the movies are a hit or not. Then they might start lifting a single finger.

(edit for clarity)

we don't need another 70 page thread about any of this.

 

[jt04]

What about that huge plot of empty land above Asia?

I consider that the northeast quadrant for lack of a better desription. Hopefully it will be something great someday. The park is still far from being fully realized. And even then we know the parks will never be 100% complete.

 

[Sped2424]

exactly my opinion.. Disney lately seems to be waiting until they see if the movies are a hit before lifting a single finger..

If your version of fun is another thread that leads to nothing but clogging the main page with debates that go nowhere then I am indeed the grumpy man in the photo lol ^

 

[jt04]

Not to mention there will be space on the east side of the park (along the connector path between Africa and Pandora).

Pretty sure that area is being developed currently. We will know soon enough.

 

[Next Big Thing]

I agree completely about Frozen or SW takeovers. The thing is, Frozen is a Disney creation. That's why I'd rather Disney focused on it as far as the parks are concerned. And I think, because of its timeless fairy-tale motif, it will stand the test of time. People won't go nutso over it forever, but I think it'll last. Just about anything with a Disney princess in it tends to do that.

Wait a minute, let me get this straight. You'd rather Disney go with Frozen, a movie that's been out 5 months, because you think it's timeless and will stand the test of time? Yet at the same time, Star Wars, a franchise that has been around for 37 years, isn't good enough for you simply because it isn't a Disney creation?

Talk about ridiculous.

 

[Figment2005]

Doubt it's high priority as cast have RFID cards.

It would still be nice to be able to link our main gate to a band, and have some sort of advance scheduling available.

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

I'm starting to think everything they've been doing is to get infrastructure in place for future growth. Other than NFL it seems like everything WDW has been doing the last few years is to increase capacity rather than increasing attendance. In the last few years they've added a 2nd ferry dock at TTC and MK, doubled the number of bus stations at MK, are building the overflow exit at MK, are increasing the capacity of the hub, and are increasing the capacity at DTD. They've also finished AoA and added 3 new DVC's. None of this attracts new customers but all of it adds capacity for future crowds.

It does seem like they only do one massive project at a time so now that DCA and NFL are done, DTD is well underway and Pandora has broken ground I'm hoping they are moving from preparing for growth to actually encouraging growth.

 

[Captain Neo]

TDO has proven that it only wants to have one major resort expenditure at a time. DTD and MM+ not withstanding, they view additions with a "one resort" philosophy - an addition at one park increases attendance at the other parks and throughout the resort.

They feel (or felt) that the FLE would pay dividends through 2017 (obviously, that will not be the case). By the time the FLE was projected to lose steam, Avatar would be ready.

With this mode of operation in mind, they more than likely won't begin construction on any new addition until 2015 or 2016 with a projected opening around 2020 (around the time Avatar will lose whatever luster it has).

Star Wars is such a major draw that, unfortunately, there will be no need for anything else at DHS. It's a terrible shame, but you have to understand that from a business standpoint there won't be a need for anything else. And, look for them to do the "Potter" thing and open it in 2 waves.

I sincerely hope it isn't the case, but you can kiss any kind of Pixar Place expansion bye-bye. The only way I could see it happening is if they want more time to design SW and do a DHS makeover as the 2020 project (with either a minimal SW expansion (wave 1), or no new SW at all).

Makes sense considering they still hype up Expedition Everest as a "recent addition" in ads in Southwest FL