Starship824
Well-Known Member
- In the Parks
- No
Exactly
-
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Rumor D23 2024 WDW Rumors, Predictions & Discussion
- Thread starter TTA94
- Start date
Tha Realest
Well-Known Member
this is silly. WDW was only closed for a few months. Florida famously had no “essential workers” restrictions and the facilities and construction continued on by mid 2020 on what they chose to move forward with.
Gusey
Well-Known Member
Florida still had pandemic related social distancing and supply issues like the rest of the world that caused construction delays. I also Didn't specify just WDW. The closure of all six resorts dried up Disney's revenue stream for a period (WDW and Tokyo being the only ones to not face lockdowns into 2021), plus the closures of theatres and the delay of movies caused the company to not receive the same amount of revenue as they had planned to have for these projects when they announced it in 2019.
JD80
Well-Known Member
Thats how you remember things?
easyrowrdw
Well-Known Member
That would be cool. Hollywood Studios is still short on rides without height restrictions. I think something like Mickey’s Toontown could be a fitting replacement for Animation Courtyard. It’s currently the little kid area of HS but it’s not nearly as good as Toontown.
JD80
Well-Known Member
True, but I was thinking more about supply chain, cost of steel going through the roof, labor issues etc.
Little Mermaid wouldn't fit in ToonTown
orky8
Well-Known Member
The pandemic as an excuse for not building attractions is a red herring. Universal paused Epic Universe and then restarted full bore. Meanwhile, Disney still has NOTHING new under construction.
Smart companies took advantage of the incredibly low interest rates to invest in themselves, borrowing at rock bottom rates probably never to be seen again. Disney was bleeding money because it acquired FOX at way too high a cost and put all its chips behind streaming. All company revenue was diverted to cover the losses from streaming rather than investing in the company. Simply put, they were tapped out thanks to Fox and D+, so they slayed the golden goose that was the goodwill and decades of investment in P&R to cover their mismanagement and poor decisions.
Smart companies took advantage of the incredibly low interest rates to invest in themselves, borrowing at rock bottom rates probably never to be seen again. Disney was bleeding money because it acquired FOX at way too high a cost and put all its chips behind streaming. All company revenue was diverted to cover the losses from streaming rather than investing in the company. Simply put, they were tapped out thanks to Fox and D+, so they slayed the golden goose that was the goodwill and decades of investment in P&R to cover their mismanagement and poor decisions.
easyrowrdw
Well-Known Member
Not Toontown, like Towntoon. I was just meaning animation/cartoon focus but with more stuff for kids to do than they have now. Kid rides, play areas, characters wandering around. Someone speculated about an Oswald ride, which sounds cool. I’m not as creative as other posters here to actually design stuff in my head lol
Tha Realest
Well-Known Member
Yes. I was there at the end of August 2020, the parks were open (are CMs “essential workers”?) and construction on Tron, Galactic Starcruiser, and Cosmic Rewind had resumed.
JD80
Well-Known Member
Cool.
Gusey
Well-Known Member
I have to wonder what other reason (not excuse) did Disney announce the projects in 2019 and then cancel those that construction hadn't begun on after the parks reopened in 2020 if it wasn't an effect of the pandemic?
As to why Disney hasn't got anything under construction now is that they haven't officially announced any major projects since the 2019 D23 panel except for Tiana's Bayou Adventure and Test Track 3.0 (both which have either just finished construction or are still under construction). That's why it's ok to allow some of us to think that this year's panel will see some major announcements for the parks.
The reason why construction continued on Tron, Guardians, Galactic Starcuiser and Ratatouille was because they were already in the middle of construction, not about to begin construction. Again, social distancing was still a thing at the US Disney Parks until April 18 2022 and there were resource issues within the construction industry that caused delays. They may have resumed construction on Tron in 2020, but it still didn't open until 2023 (6 years after it was announced).
OptimusPrime
Well-Known Member
- In the Parks
- No
“We are combatting Super Mario and How to Train Your Dragon with…. a mediocre Toy Story Land we opened six years ago”
Tha Realest
Well-Known Member
But you said, “and no, they couldn't carry on building during a national lockdown when only essential workers had to work.” That’s patently untrue. Shift and reconstrue all you want, but you greatly overstated the Covid freeze.
There was no “national lockdown” and CMs and construction workers were not “essential workers” by mid-2020, when Disney had already resumed construction on multiple projects.
Gusey
Well-Known Member
Apart from the fact that during the lockdown (March to June 2020) construction stopped? You also seem to keep ignoring my other points about social distancing and supply issues.
Since you seem to know exactly what Disney was doing in 2020, do you have an answer as to why Disney announced projects at D23 in 2019 then cancelled them after the parks reopened in June 2020 that was not pandemic related budget cuts??
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AidenRodriguez731
New Member
I mean looking at the last few years Disney has 100% been opening up more stuff than Universal and other than the huge outliers, Disney's stuff has been better overall. Look at Jimmy Fallon, Kong, Fast and Furious, Minion-Con, the underwhelming new Dreamworks land (specifically Kung-fu Panda),
If we put everything into perspective we can make anything look bad. Epic Universe has 11 main rides for a brand new park. If we want to be negative about them too we can say 3 of them are ride clones and another 3 are somewhat generic flat rides :/
OptimusPrime
Well-Known Member
- In the Parks
- No
And on the opposite side, Disney has a lot of mediocrity opened, between Toy Story Land, Tron (I said what I said), and Millennium Falcon. On the other hand, both parks got a Chris Pratt rollercoaster, but Universal is getting an entirely new park.
It doesn’t matter that we’re getting clones. Those clones are Super freaking Mario in the vacation capital of the world, which is going to be a big draw for families to go, between the new Shrek stuff (it’s great for kids whether you personally like it as an adult), Spider-Man is still kicking in IOA, Minions opened (again, big with families), and 3/4 lands in Epic Universe are big draws for families.
Toy Story is a draw for families, sure. But it’s also run its course of being a “wow!” factor draw. When families are looking at vacation, they’ll look and say “we have an entire new park featuring Mario (I can’t stress enough how big a draw Mario is), the old park for a new Dreamworks land with Shrek and Trolls.”
AidenRodriguez731
New Member
I quite liked Tron and Toy Story Land. It is 100% better than any of the rides that I mentioned that were Universal flops. I never said clones are necessarily a bad thing. Mostly Disney parks fans anyway have a problem with the cloning. I'm just saying that it's interesting that we are having this pessimistic view on Disney while Universal gets infinite passes on a park that has not opened yet. The Super Mario Land has definitely got some mixed reviews as well. The new Shrek stuff is very passable as a Kid area but its the best out of an overall weak land that has a lot of potential. 3/4 of the lands being for families is a bit of stretch as I don't think anyone is feening over a 3rd Harry Potter Land that adapts the weakest movies of the franchise. It's so disjointed that the ride is not even based on the time or location that the entire land is based on because the original concept flopped so hard. Minions has had pretty negative reviews even if its big with families, saying something is big for families doesnt make up for it being a bad overall attraction.
Don't get me wrong, I'm beyond excited for Epic Universe and it's ripples among the theme park space. I just wanted to point out the divide between people saying this is a "Disney-killer" level park. I'm sorry to disappoint people, its not. USF has been a weak and disjointed park for years now, IOA is great but has one land quite literally closed and just left sitting there. Seuss Landing with Cat and the Hat has been neglected for years now. Dining options around the entire park have been sporadic with Toon Lagoon. It's missing shows SORELY to eat up the attendance numbers.
Also I think we can all remember when Galaxies Edge opened without Rise that people said "one ride is not enough for a land" and now Ministry of Magic gets the pass? It's just kinda weird in the divide.