-Star Tours 2 is a great update to the original Star Tours attraction. Not only was the screen now crips 3D, the ride is variable, and has added many awesome characters and locales from the movies. If you don't count this as a new attractions you can take Despicable Me and The Simpsons off of Universal's new attraction list as well.
-Disney Junior is a great attraction for the little ones, and Agent P is great for all ages!
-Test Track's update was great and made the attraction fit the original theme of Epcot so much better.
-Fantasyland is so much improved with its theme and quality attraction count, its insane. They took the ugliest, most congested part of the Magic Kingdom, and made it the most beautiful. I can't wait for the coaster to open to finish the expansion.
Disney is updating as much as they always did. The only difference is that Comcast is overspending at Universal, and adding a lot of new attractions. Outside of Potter, Universal's new attractions haven't increased their attendance in a noticeable way. Universal is making its money on merchandising with exclusive food, drink, and merchandise themed to their IP's, which Disney is now copying(and will continue to do so with Star Wars).
Disney will stay the course, but I expect Star Wars Land to be imminent.
I am not comparing Universal's attractions in my previous response or in the one that follows. I will make specific reference to their comparative attendance gains. I will also say, to me, there is no one as great as Disney in P&R.
Let me preface for you my feelings about P&R,
I love them. I love them so much that I can look at it with a
critical but loving eye. Please understand this when reading anything I post. I visit all domestic parks far more often than most. My next upcoming trip, I'll be spending one or two of my DVC days at UO. (Bad news for TWDC.)
I can point out that the massive improvements and "real additions" at DLR is what drove the domestic attendance up. As @
ParentsOf4 mentioned in their post, "up a hair" is corporate speak for "largely flat". In light of the information in the CNBC article, your thoughts on Universal's attendance gains are inaccurate.
Plus-ing attractions is not anything new to P&R. They used to plus their attractions all the time. Many times features and show tweaks were not even announced. Plus-ing is not a "new" attraction. Neither is maintenance, but that is covered on other threads eloquently.
Star Tours is an update. I outlined the improvements and changes in my post. I will add that this attraction was so lacking in the plus-ing category, the update does what should have been done over the last
20 years. (Again, no comparison to anything at UNI.)
Disney Junior may be great for little ones. It is a show. It replaces others shows. Shows run for a period of time and then are replaced with other shows. The total number of shows in all of the parks have been reduced over the last 20 years.
Agent P - Again, I hope you are kidding. I went out of my way to say nicely that this was Kim Possible all over again. It is a distraction for kids who used to benefit from the edutainment in the Wonder's of Life pavilion and the original Imagination pavilion.
Test Track - It is the same attraction with an overlay. It hasn't change in 15 years. The overlay re-purposed the old tech from the original ride. There are lighting effects and a pseudo interactive feature that frequently doesn't work. The equivalent of this is at DLR during the holidays at The Haunted Mansion.
If you want to know what a redo of this attraction could have been, look at the other coast. While you would have to use appropriate themeing, RSR's use of the slot car system is shoulders above TT2. As a question, what is the current theme of FutureWorld?
Fantasyland Expansion - Again, this is a fancy way of saying, "We need to add floor space to get more guests crammed in here." Mermaid is a replacement for a Playground that replaced 20,000 leagues after leaving the space dead from 1994 to 2005. So it took 19 years to replace the attraction back there.
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train is a replacement for Snow White's Scary Adventures. They had to make a "dark ride" themed replacement so they could add another M&G area. Could you imagine if they didn't follow through on this? Whenever 7DMT opens, it will make a net zero gain of attractions in FLE.
I am really looking forward to this rocking car system. It should be fun. I wish the static motion elements would have been
actual Animatronics.
Let's just say that Disney isn't adding at WDW as fast as they are taking away. They aren't plus-ing attractions like they had in decades past. They are investing in infrastructure. Much of the new infrastructure is designed to aid them in removing more money from each "guest". They are not pursuing methods to increase attendance. 4 to 5 years from now there may be new attractions to drive attendance.
*1023*
P.S. I am hoping for a great deal of "new" when Star Wars "land" is created. Based on FLE, I fear re-purposing a restaurant or perhaps two by minor re-themeing. I fear a net zero in attraction count. I fear a slew of M&Gs instead of real attractions. I want my fears to not be realized. I want massive development of major attractions and additions. I want a wholly immersive environment. Isn't this what all fans want?
Some people on these boards may get a little silly, but I like to believe it comes from a passionate place. As far as the people who hate on everything Wdw does and praises everything Universal, well....
