Curtains Missing and No One Seems to Care?

[wdisney9000]

Because they had to. Potter had lost his mojo and they needed a stop gap between Potter 1 and 2. Potter 2 should resolve the problem for good. Although they are bringing in Kong just in case.

IMO.

PS- 7DMT was slow due to being surrounded by a working theme park. No doubt about that. Also it is new ride tech. Just learned Shanghai is getting a clone so you can be sure Disney went carefully to make sure this went as smoothly as possible because you know there is a lot of incentive to have shanghai go as smoothly as possible.

JT, those are the worst excuses. How can you ignore that Transformers was IN a working theme park as well. The new tech for 7dmt is basically swinging cars and most have said they don't swing that much anyway so why would that slow construction down? I doubt getting it right for Shanghai had anything to do it as well. It's OK to admit Disney just took their sweet as time and wanted to make sure it was timed with HP opening because they have little else to combat that.

HP opening will no doubt have people booking trips to Orlando and those folks will even visit Disney during their trip. UNI and HP will be bringing more money for Disney than anything WDW has built recently, 7DMT included.

 

[MichWolv]

Never suggested it would fail. Obviously it will not. But traffic to IoA leveled off and I think sooner than they expected. There were times FJ was close to being a walk-on attraction. How often does that happen with Disney's top E-tickets? So, Transformers was rushed to get back the momentum and Potter 2 will do that and then some. Obviously they are going to invest until UO reaches the point where it becomes a popular place for guests to spend a weeks vacation without wandering south on I-4. Kong is an insurance policy to keep the momentum going. Everyone wins because Disney will eventually respond. Its all good.

Pretty sure 7MT is new to WDI. There may have also been an agreement with Shanghai that it not open too soon ahead of their version. We may never know all the reasons. Consider also that it was a last minute change.

I'm not one to agree with jt often, but I can report the walk-on-ability of FJ. I walked on in the evening on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, as well as on a Friday and Saturday in April (spring break). All three days were perfect weather. There is no question that it is not the draw it was when it opened. I doubt this has Uni scared, but they most certainly need to focus on IOA. With Simpsons-land, Transformers, Minions and Diagon Alley, the original park is all fresh and updated (except ET -- poor ET) with lots of compelling stuff, while IOA is home to the less spectacular and older Potter area, a wonderfully updated Spider-Man, and nothing else new or significantly updated in 13 years.

IOA needs Kong, something new in Marvel-land or Toon Lagoon, a new Suess experience, and to replace or update Poseidon's Fury and the Sinbad show, for starters. But Uni has been investing, so I suspect much of this will come along in due time.

 

[Tom Morrow]

JT, those are the worst excuses. How can you ignore that Transformers was IN a working theme park as well. The new tech for 7dmt is basically swinging cars and most have said they don't swing that much anyway so why would that slow construction down? I doubt getting it right for Shanghai had anything to do it as well. It's OK to admit Disney just took their sweet as time and wanted to make sure it was timed with HP opening because they have little else to combat that.

Precisely.
They very easily could have had the 7DMT open a year ago, and held off the grand opening of New Fantasyland, which would have had more of an impact overall by opening a complete land with two major attractions instead of one and a construction zone. They intentionally took their time building it for many reasons, and one of them was to open it slightly before Diagon Alley.

I'm not one to agree with jt often, but I can report the walk-on-ability of FJ. I walked on in the evening on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, as well as on a Friday and Saturday in April (spring break). All three days were perfect weather. There is no question that it is not the draw it was when it opened.

The thing is, if FJ is a walk-on, it means everything else in IOA is also a walk-on. You won't find Spiderman having a 45 minute wait and no wait for FJ.

I would look at it more as FJ and Hogsmeade's popularity has leveled out.

 

[MichWolv]

The thing is, if FJ is a walk-on, it means everything else in IOA is also a walk-on. You won't find Spiderman having a 45 minute wait and no wait for FJ.

I would look at it more as FJ and Hogsmeade's popularity has leveled out.

True. We walked onto everything except Minions. But that's even worse for Uni. Empty seats on virtually every attraction in both parks during mid-level busy times of the year is not what they want in terms of crowds. After all, who's gonna pay $50 a day for front of the line access then?

 

[Tom Morrow]

True. We walked onto everything except Minions. But that's even worse for Uni. Empty seats on virtually every attraction in both parks during mid-level busy times of the year is not what they want in terms of crowds. After all, who's gonna pay $50 a day for front of the line access then?

I remember it being like that at Universal even during the first year of Wizarding World, though. Often FJ would have a moderate wait but the rest of the park/s would be 10-15 minutes or less.

With Universal, short lines don't necessarily mean the park is empty. Rides tend to not have ridiculously long lines as the average when the park has enough high capacity, high demand attractions to spread out crowd demand. Magic Kingdom is a separate entity, but that is the main reason for the continuously long lines for Soarin', Test Track, Toy Story, Rock n Roller Coaster, etc - not enough high demand attractions to spread out crowd demand.

It's also why I enjoy going to UOR over WDW these days - even on a moderately busy day, you can still easily ride the major attractions without hour long waits or having to jump through hoops.

 

[MichWolv]

I remember it being like that at Universal even during the first year of Wizarding World, though. Often FJ would have a moderate wait but the rest of the park/s would be 10-15 minutes or less.

With Universal, short lines don't necessarily mean the park is empty. Rides tend to not have ridiculously long lines as the average when the park has enough high capacity, high demand attractions to spread out crowd demand. Magic Kingdom is a separate entity, but that is the main reason for the continuously long lines for Soarin', Test Track, Toy Story, Rock n Roller Coaster, etc - not enough high demand attractions to spread out crowd demand.

It's also why I enjoy going to UOR over WDW these days - even on a moderately busy day, you can still easily ride the major attractions without hour long waits or having to jump through hoops.

Good for visitors...bad for Uni. I love going to a park with no lines. But empty seats on your heavy-hitters ain't good. And let's face it - IOA really only has two rides that people consider headliners -- FJ and Spider. The two big coasters and the three water rides are popular, but rarely go off constantly full. Short lines don't mean the park is empty, empty seats on major rides means the park is nowhere close to capacity. Uni's attractions are, to me, every bit as good as Disney's, but Uni still isn't close to drawing like Disney.

 

[JT3000]

Good for visitors...bad for Uni. I love going to a park with no lines. But empty seats on your heavy-hitters ain't good. And let's face it - IOA really only has two rides that people consider headliners -- FJ and Spider. The two big coasters and the three water rides are popular, but rarely go off constantly full. Short lines don't mean the park is empty, empty seats on major rides means the park is nowhere close to capacity. Uni's attractions are, to me, every bit as good as Disney's, but Uni still isn't close to drawing like Disney.

None of the Central Florida parks are close to capacity outside of busy seasons and certain holidays. But even if IOA were the most popular park in the world, it still wouldn't draw like Disney's top parks, because the capacity is lower.

 

[Tom Morrow]

Good for visitors...bad for Uni. I love going to a park with no lines. But empty seats on your heavy-hitters ain't good. And let's face it - IOA really only has two rides that people consider headliners -- FJ and Spider. The two big coasters and the three water rides are popular, but rarely go off constantly full. Short lines don't mean the park is empty, empty seats on major rides means the park is nowhere close to capacity. Uni's attractions are, to me, every bit as good as Disney's, but Uni still isn't close to drawing like Disney.

Well, again... Universal is not suffering from low attendance in any way. A big reason you CAN often walk on to a lot of the rides there is that they have more attractions to spread the crowds more evenly.

Forbidden Journey, Spiderman, Hulk, Dragon Challenge, Jurassic Park, Popeye, Dudley, Dr. Doom, Poseidon, Cat in the Hat, Seuss Trolley is an impressive lineup and blows the attraction lineup of DAK, DHS, and Epcot away.

 

[Kman101]

That's subjective though. I love Universal but don't personally rate Dudley, Popeye or Dr. Doom that highly. And a trolley?

But I agree, they have more attractions to spread the crowds out and have a variety of things to do, for everyone, so in a sense, it is more impressive than the three WDW parks you listed, and can appeal to a wide range of guests, unlike, IMO, the Disney parks now. You have a BIG selection of the guests who could visit calling MK a "kiddie park" (which is the first mistake right there; it shouldn't be). The parks have great attractions, but they need a heck of a lot more. They need to wake up and get with it. Personally, Uni has nothing to do with me saying that and they need to invest in their parks. They seem to forget "if you build it, they will come".

It really just doesn't help WDW that they haven't invested anything in DHS and Epcot for the last 8 years, minus a couple of things they more or less had to do. DHS needs more flat rides for the family (and a water ride would help immensely), Epcot needs major refurbishing for a majority of their attractions (but at least they have a couple of boat rides for everyone), and AK needs a couple of dark rides plus, IMO, about two or three more e-tickets. The lack of investment has never been more glaring.

 

[MichWolv]

Well, again... Universal is not suffering from low attendance in any way. A big reason you CAN often walk on to a lot of the rides there is that they have more attractions to spread the crowds more evenly.

Forbidden Journey, Spiderman, Hulk, Dragon Challenge, Jurassic Park, Popeye, Dudley, Dr. Doom, Poseidon, Cat in the Hat, Seuss Trolley is an impressive lineup and blows the attraction lineup of DAK, DHS, and Epcot away.

If we stick only with rides, IOA wins, but overall, I don't think so.

DHS --TSM, Star Tours, Tower, RnRC, GMR, LMA, Backlot, Indiana Jones all measure up pretty well. Cat/Hat and Suess Trolley are interesting to me only because I love the narration, but I prefer Journey of the Little Mermaid and BatB as attractions. IOA is more visually appealing (cuz DHS is terrible in that respect), but for attractions, about even. Several of DHS's are more dated than IOA, but several are much newer. Oh, and I didn't even mention F!.

Epcot -- Soarin, Test Track, Mission Space, Spaceship Earth, Energy, and American Adventure are all top notch for me. Land, Seas, and a couple of CircleVisions are great as well. Plus, Epcot has street entertainment that IOA does not (outside of Potter-land), far better dining, and Illuminations.

DAK -- This park comes up short in attractions compared to IOA and can only match it if you really like the animal exhibits.

If I have one day, and I must spend it at either IOA, Epcot, DHS, or DAK, and I've been to each of them recently, I'll go with Epcot. If you throw Universal Studios in there as choice, and Diagon Alley has opened, I may well pick that park, though.

 

[MichWolv]

None of the Central Florida parks are close to capacity outside of busy seasons and certain holidays. But even if IOA were the most popular park in the world, it still wouldn't draw like Disney's top parks, because the capacity is lower.

I'm not talking about close to capacity. I don't think anyone would think that a day with a 15 minute wait for the top attractions was close to capacity -- heck, that's a light day for most amusement parks. But Uni was walk-on -- zero wait -- for almost everything. Not complaining -- I loved it, and I love their attractions. But those attractions aren't bringing in the types of crowds that the same quality of attractions bring in at Disney.

 

[NormC]

They intentionally took their time building it for many reasons, and one of them was to open it slightly before Diagon Alley.

In your opinion maybe.
The land the Mine ride is on was used as construction staging for Belle and Ariel. They could not even begin SDMT until those attractions were nearly finished and all the construction trailers etc. were removed. This was shown in the multiple aerial photos shown here during all of the construction. Obviously Disney could have staged the construction differently and not used SDMT lot for parking equipment and supplies but they didn't. I doubt it had anything to do with Diagon Alley.

 

[marni1971]

See HoP, HM, BTMRR, Tiki, Pirates, Splash, FotLK, ToT, RnRC, TT, Soarin, Star Wars, LWTL ....

You need to omit some of them from your fantasy list.

 

[marni1971]

PS- 7DMT was slow due to being surrounded by a working theme park. No doubt about that. .

You forgot for most of its construction, the Dwarf Coaster was not surrounded by park. It had permenant backstage access until it wasn't needed. And a large buffer zone around the construction berm for works between the building site and the walls.

Love to stop and chat more but I'm off to ride The Smiler and Nemesis for a few days

 

[GLaDOS]

Good for visitors...bad for Uni. I love going to a park with no lines. But empty seats on your heavy-hitters ain't good. And let's face it - IOA really only has two rides that people consider headliners -- FJ and Spider. The two big coasters and the three water rides are popular, but rarely go off constantly full. Short lines don't mean the park is empty, empty seats on major rides means the park is nowhere close to capacity. Uni's attractions are, to me, every bit as good as Disney's, but Uni still isn't close to drawing like Disney.

Not really. It means it has other rides pulling people in. DAK and DHS don't have that luxury.

 

[MichWolv]

Not really. It means it has other rides pulling people in. DAK and DHS don't have that luxury.

So all the attractions have empty seats because everybody is at other attractions? I'm unconvinced.

 

[eddy21]

I'm usually asleep at the point in the ride and have not noticed curtains.

 

[GLaDOS]

So all the attractions have empty seats because everybody is at other attractions? I'm unconvinced.

And that's your right. But to say the parks have an attendance problem/Uni should be worried isn't the case.

 

[jt04]

You forgot for most of its construction, the Dwarf Coaster was not surrounded by park. It had permenant backstage access until it wasn't needed. And a large buffer zone around the construction berm for works between the building site and the walls.

Love to stop and chat more but I'm off to ride The Smiler and Nemesis for a few days

Perhaps something like that would work in Space Mountain. Someday.

On second thought, I'd rather they keep SM "classic" and add a modern looping coaster to DAK or Epcot.

 

[Tom Morrow]

So all the attractions have empty seats because everybody is at other attractions? I'm unconvinced.

I'm willing to bet I visit Universal more often than you do, and while often most of the lines are minimal, I only see empty seats near the end of the night. Universal does not in any way have an attendance problem. Yes, they don't see as many guests as Disney - no park does - but it helps significantly that both parks have a solid line up of high capacity attractions that everyone actually wants to ride. This spreads out the crowd distribution more evenly. You also have an upcharge "skip the line" system rather than Disney's Fastpass which designates at least 75% of of the ride's capacity to Fastpass users.