News Destination D23 2023

[celluloid]

Indiana Jones is good and Zootopia isn’t. Frankly, DAK should just be completely retheme to Indiana Jones.

The entire park to Indy. The property that is only fading. That sounds reasonable.
I am not for Zootopia either. But we get it shoehorned the same way Indy will be. Without making much sense to the central identity.
Indy has ruins and they thought...sure. There are already cultural ruins in the animal park.

Zootopia in the giant tree. Not sure how that even makes sense to anyone.

Operationally Speaking:
Dino closed for Indy, Bug closed for Zootopia and something in Avatar closed for its first big Maintenace necessary while Kali is down and some other ride experiences technical difficulties will be a fantastic set of months to a year at Animal Kingdom.

Geesh, not only did Disney just solidify Universal looking great, but enhanced Sea World and Busch Gardens Tampa as well.

 

[Consumer]

It’s old…

As we all are becoming while Bob makes speeches

It’s old and still better than anything Disney has built since. Pirates of the Caribbean is twice as old and still better than any other dark ride in the world.

 

[NotCalledBob]

OK so the straws are being clutched at now.

But, maybe they are listening?

DAK stuff announced last year: Fans: uhhhh. No thanks. Disney: OK, how bout Encanto and Indiana Jones instead? Talk about it amongst yourselves (and we will listen in).

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Magic Kingdom

• Beyond Big Mountain expansion still in blue sky phase, with previous ideas not even re-mentioned. But it will be as big as Avatar or Batuu in scope.
• Country Bears sing Disney tunes
• Hatbox Ghost -- late November
• New POTC tavern

EPCOT

• World Celebration finished in December.
• Journey of Water opening Oct 16.
• Moana M&G starts Oct 16 (across from JoW entrance)
• Figment M&G starts tomorrow, Sep 10
• New Fireworks show called Luminous, Dec 5 debut
• Test Track rethemed with Chevrolet, callback to World of Motion.

Animal Kingdom

• It's Tough to Be a Bug rethemed to Zootopia (with Hunthauser AA somewhere)
  • Dinoland rethemed to Tropical Americas, includes
  • Encanto
• DINOSAUR rethemed to Indy (story unknown)

DHS

• Ashoka coming to Star Tours next year.

Other

• New Asial-located cruise ship named Adventure, no date
• New Disney Island, Disney Lookout Cay at Lighthouse Point still underway, no date
• Fantasy Springs, Tokyo to open in 2024
• Frozen land, Paris, no date
• Frozen land, Hong Kong, this Nov, 2023
• Zootopia land, Shanghai in development, no date
• California Adventure: The King Thanos E-Ticket in Avenger Campus is still on
• Asha from Wish M&G in several parks on the way

Now that it’s laid out…

…still seems like Jack in the USA

 

[brb1006]

See you guys at the Epcot Panel which starts at 4 pm.

 

[marni1971]

No commitment to add capacity or address the cross town competition In any way.

Took the words out of my mouth.

How underwhelming.

 

[HoustonHorn]

I was not referring to increasing current capacity utilization, have they announced any incremental new attractions that would increase today’s current capacity?

The only thing that could potentially increase capacity at WDW is the BeyondThunder *Blue Sky* "announcement."

Everything else is a reskin/retheme/redo.

And while I will take any extra capacity they are offering (kind offering something that might happen at some point in maybe the next decade or so?), it is malpractice not to increase capacity at MGM or AK!

 

[monothingie]

Now that it’s laid out…

…still seems like Jack in the USA

Why waste the effort when their just going to package the parks up to sell off.

 

[celluloid]

The only thing that could potentially increase capacity at WDW is the BeyondThunder *Blue Sky* "announcement."

Everything else is a reskin/retheme/redo.

And while I will take any extra capacity they are offering (kind offering something that might happen at some point in maybe the next decade or so?), it is malpractice not to increase capacity at MGM or AK!

Not really if we lose Tom Sawyer for it.

 

[SplashJacket]

No commitment to add capacity or address the cross town competition In any way.

I’m just a fan…and I somehow find that “problematic”

No commitment to add capacity, except for the “larger scale than New Fantasyland, and as big as Pandora and Galaxy’s Edge expansion to Magic Kingdom Beyond Big Thunder.”

 

[GhostHost1000]

Redoing Dinoland actually does expand offerings and spread crowds. Same with ITTBAB. They’re unpopular. Making them worth going to immediately spreads people out and expands the park without actual expansion.

It also takes away money for new additional rides that could be built

 

[Clopin Trouillefou]

I'm absolutely thrilled about the animal kingdom plan if they stick to that, zootopia as a traverse-the-planet movie is infinitely better than whatever was going into dinosaur, and getting a south America (ish) land is as exciting as anything they've announced since Star wars. I'm... Happy? Happy!

 

[GhostHost1000]

But why can't they just fix Dinosaur and build the excavator coaster? Boneyard is always great for kids. I miss original ideas/themed areas/attractions, not forced IP. They could make an epic dinoland area if they wanted to. Sad thing is they don't want to

Bingo. It’s sad. A dinosaur area could be amazing if they did it right and they already have the skeleton for it but choose to I guess go a diverse route

 

[HoustonHorn]

Not really if we lose Tom Sawyer for it.

Hence the "potentially"....if anything is actually done, we won't know if it's an actual expansion at least until details are provided.

 

[James Alucobond]

It also takes away money for new additional rides that could be built

At least most of the things they’re proposing for updates this time actually need to be updated. This is money they need to be spending IN ADDITION to expansion.

 

[DCBaker]

Here is the link to the new site for D23: The ULTIMATE Disney Fan Event.

D23 2024: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event

The Ultimate Disney Fan Event will celebrate over 100 years of magic from brands including Disney, Pixar, Star Wars, and Marvel across Anaheim to create a reimagined experience for fans.

ultimatefanevent.d23.com

 

[wdwfan22]

I'm also good with the Animal Kingdom direction. It's Tough to Be a Bug needs replacing. I'm also glad Zootopia isn't getting a land at Animal Kingdom. Indy has always been the major contender for replacing Dinosaur. It looks like they know using the Indy theme will bring much needed life into that area. I'm also okay with Encanto being purposed for Animal Kingdom. I didn't think behind Thunder would have been a good fit.

 

[nickys]

Magic Kingdom

• Beyond Big Mountain expansion still in blue sky phase, with previous ideas not even re-mentioned. But it will be as big as Avatar or Batuu in scope.
• Country Bears sing Disney tunes
• Hatbox Ghost -- late November
• New POTC tavern
• Brief mentioned that TBA is still underway here and at DL.

EPCOT

• World Celebration finished in December.
• Journey of Water opening Oct 16.
• Moana M&G starts Oct 16 (across from JoW entrance)
• Figment M&G starts tomorrow, Sep 10
• New Fireworks show called Luminous, Dec 5 debut
• Test Track rethemed with Chevrolet, callback to World of Motion.

Animal Kingdom

• It's Tough to Be a Bug rethemed to Zootopia (with Hunthauser AA somewhere)
  • Dinoland rethemed to Tropical Americas
  • Encanto
• DINOSAUR rethemed to Indy (story unknown)

DHS

• Ashoka coming to Star Tours -- 2024

Other

• New Asial-located cruise ship named Adventure, no date
• New Disney Island, Disney Lookout Cay at Lighthouse Point still underway, no date
• Fantasy Springs, Tokyo to open in 2024
• Frozen land, Paris, no date
• Frozen land, Hong Kong, this Nov, 2023
• Zootopia land, Shanghai in development, no date
• California Adventure: The King Thanos E-Ticket in Avenger Campus is still on
• Asha from Wish M&G in several parks on the way

I think they also said Tangled land at DLP. Not sure if they will open both this and Arendelle together or separately.

 

[SplashJacket]

No commitment to add capacity or address the cross town competition In any way.

I’m just a fan…and I somehow find that “problematic”

Took the words out of my mouth.

How underwhelming.

You can’t compete with Epic Universe at open.

Having expansions open alongside Epic Universe is silly. If you add a land to Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom, what’s stopping someone from going to each of those parks and then also Epic?

I think the best economic strategy is to let Epic do It’s thing for the first year-or-so until hype dies down, and then to expand yourself. While the hype train is rolling for Epic, I don’t think it’s necessarily the best idea to bring all the die-hard Disney fans that chase expansion to Orlando, because the shiny new toy down the street might actually entice them to go to a fantastic new park, and experience all that Universal has to offer (which may change their long-term consumer habits).

Let Universal have their win, and once they get it (and hopefully expands the overall theme park consumer base), Disney should swipe in with expansions in 2026, 2027, 2028, etc.

Personally, I’m not holding my breath for what Disney is going to do, because I have Universal’s shiny new toy(s) on the way, but what Disney is trending towards, makes me optimistic despite all the cynicism.

 

[nickys]

I just wish they’d use Up as part of the Tropical Americas land.

Happy that Zootopia will be hidden away so I don’t have to see it.