DHS New Fireworks Launch Area

[Mikejakester]

Guys, I know this is a forum... but... geez.. Closing World Drive? lets move on...

The conversations about re-configuring the layout of DHS in order to line up with the new firework launch site was more interesting that having a conversation on how to close the equivalent of an interstate during rush hour. It just does not seem feasible...

Marni, Dave etc... ya'll need to spill out something to stop the madness.

 

[dstrawn9889]

hey, someone suggested that the fallout zone would make them shut it down... just making people realize how silly that notion is

 

[Crazydisneyfanluke]

A quick thought about this.

This does not line up with Hollywood boulevard in any reasonable way. This is for the Toy story addition or Star wars.

The front launch sites (closest to World Drive), could be for the smaller shells, while the further back you go, the larger the shells. (Think like Disneyland's launch sites).

Also, With in the art work of TSPL, it shows an open area between TSMM and the slinky roller coaster. which could be a viewing area for the firework show.

The goal of the show could be similar to TDL, where it can be viewed from any location with in the park.

 

[boufa]

Does anyone here realize that Disney has thought about all of these things. That they pay someone, or more likely a team of someones, to do all of this thinking. The assumptions on this thread are the stuff that makes these forums nearly unreadable at times.

NEWS FLASH!!! Disney management knows World Drive is there, I am certain that they took that into account.

At my local fireworks, where I am crowd control and enforce the safety zones, we have people pretty darn close to them. We also launch on a baseball field that is less than 50 yards from a major interstate. We keep the interstate open. We do put a police car up there to keep people from stopping to watch the show. We also have crowds that are about 150 yards away, and yep, they get fall out on them, but its mostly ash, and its harmless. Once in a while we get a random bigger piece, but still not that big, and once in a while we get hot embers into the neighborhood, and once in a while we get weather that pushes the fireworks where we don't want them and we shut down the show... but none of these things happens very much.

 

[Andrew C]

Does anyone here realize that Disney has thought about all of these things. That they pay someone, or more likely a team of someones, to do all of this thinking. The assumptions on this thread are the stuff that makes these forums nearly unreadable at times.

NEWS FLASH!!! Disney management knows World Drive is there, I am certain that they took that into account.

Yeah, but it doesn't mean people here can't have fun guessing and/or hypothesizing on what they could do.

 

[boufa]

Yeah, but it doesn't mean people here can't have fun guessing and/or hypothesizing on what they could do.

Agreed.... I don't mind the fun, its the constant undertone of "Look how stupid Disney is this time".

The best thread here is the liquid cheese thread... that was funny... though I think they were mostly being serious.

 

[toolsnspools]

Looking at the street view from google maps, there's a fairly substantial stand of trees at the edge of World Drive that will be between the launch pad and the road. The overlay shows those trees will still be there. That will block most of the view of the launching shells.

It won't be near as close to the road as I was originally thinking. That's not to say that there won't be a significant amount of people pulling over to watch the show, but it shouldn't be much different than the current launch site on the opposite side of World Drive.

 

[Mikejakester]

Does anyone know how many people actually stop on the side of the road to watch the fire works from Frozen and star wars weekends this year?

 

[TimeTrip]

Why would that be? I really don't mean to be flippant but the wind has just as much chance of blowing east over World Drive as any other direction.

I don't believe thats true. It seems like 4 out of 5 times when watching Illuminations, the wind is blowing to the west.

 

[Mikejakester]

Direction of the wind over an entire year... The wind is most often out of the east (16% of the time), north (15% of the time), north east (13% of the time), and south (12% of the time).
https://weatherspark.com/averages/30841/Orlando-Florida-United-States

 

[Brad Bishop]

Does anyone here realize that Disney has thought about all of these things. That they pay someone, or more likely a team of someones, to do all of this thinking. The assumptions on this thread are the stuff that makes these forums nearly unreadable at times.

NEWS FLASH!!! Disney management knows World Drive is there, I am certain that they took that into account.

They also knew World Drive was there when the butted DHS up against it and boxed it in with Buena Vista Dr and a parking lot which is why they're in this mess today. They could have built it anywhere else and not boxed it in, considering the property they have, and yet they still put it there. I wouldn't make the assumption that the powers that be are incredibly genius and forward-thinking just because they're higher up in the management chain.

When they boxed DHS in it wasn't like they hadn't ever done a theme park before... This was the same team that thought it was more important to open first (before Universal) and opened a park with 1 ride (GMR).. 25 years later and we have 4 rides. Yeah, you could count attractions like Muppets 3D and Little Mermaid but that's not bumping those numbers by much.

 

[Jon81uk]

They also knew World Drive was there when the butted DHS up against it and boxed it in with Buena Vista Dr and a parking lot which is why they're in this mess today. They could have built it anywhere else and not boxed it in, considering the property they have, and yet they still put it there. I wouldn't make the assumption that the powers that be are incredibly genius and forward-thinking just because they're higher up in the management chain.

When they boxed DHS in it wasn't like they hadn't ever done a theme park before... This was the same team that thought it was more important to open first (before Universal) and opened a park with 1 ride (GMR).. 25 years later and we have 4 rides. Yeah, you could count attractions like Muppets 3D and Little Mermaid but that's not bumping those numbers by much.

Don't forget at opening Disney-MGM studios wasn't meant to be a theme park, it was a working studio, with a 2+ hour long studio tour (both by tram and walking) and it also had the Great Movie Ride. There was also a working animation studio at which you could watch animators at work through viewing windows. They attempted to copy Universal Hollywood, but of course that was a working studio for 30+years before too!

Most of the current issues at DHS are because the film studio failed and the animation got closed down for cost-cutting. Then there has been a patch-work attempt over the last 15-20 years of converting it to a studio.

 

[danlb_2000]

They also knew World Drive was there when the butted DHS up against it and boxed it in with Buena Vista Dr and a parking lot which is why they're in this mess today. They could have built it anywhere else and not boxed it in, considering the property they have, and yet they still put it there. I wouldn't make the assumption that the powers that be are incredibly genius and forward-thinking just because they're higher up in the management chain.

When they boxed DHS in it wasn't like they hadn't ever done a theme park before... This was the same team that thought it was more important to open first (before Universal) and opened a park with 1 ride (GMR).. 25 years later and we have 4 rides. Yeah, you could count attractions like Muppets 3D and Little Mermaid but that's not bumping those numbers by much.

They have plenty of land, but there are a limited number of large, continuous and easily buildable section within it so the locations where they can put a large theme park were fairly limited.

 

[RayTheFirefly]

They have plenty of land, but there are a limited number of large, continuous and easily buildable section with it so they locations where they can put a large theme park were fairly limited.

This is true. But they could have positioned it differently on that plot of land to make for a more efficient use of space.

 

[boufa]

This is true. But they could have positioned it differently on that plot of land to make for a more efficient use of space.

Could they? We assume Disney incompetence, but in the end we don't know all of the variables. Was the great movie ride built because they saved money by not filling in a swam to build World Drive?!? Who knows, maybe. My point is that we don't know even 1/4 of the story behind the decisions. We look at results and assume the decision process, but we don't know. Utilities, wetlands issues, and millions of other tiny details, legal issues, laws, expense issues, etc make those decisions.

I have 3 Browns on my Fantasy football team. You could look at it and say "why in the heck would you put 3 terrible Browns players on your Fantasy team" Well, it was a judgement call based on what I perceived as the needs of the team at the time. I spent more on my QB than others might have, forcing me into spending less on receivers, I picked a player that I was certain to be in position for a big year. I made decisions that seem foolish now, but made total sense at the time. Pick me up and put me back in time, I would likely end up making many of the same decisions again, even though I know they won't work out, because the reality of the variables would force me to repeat history.

Was the film portion of MGM dumb and a failure, sure it was. Was trying to replicate the Universal Hollywood concept wrong..nope. At the time that was the best alternative to the typical theme park. The best way to avoid having a second magic kingdom on property. Now, things have changed a lot. Univ Hollywood is copying the Universal Orlando concept, and so is Disney. People with the best of intentions can make all the right decisions and still not have it work.

 

[RayTheFirefly]

Could they? We assume Disney incompetence, but in the end we don't know all of the variables. Was the great movie ride built because they saved money by not filling in a swam to build World Drive?!? Who knows, maybe. My point is that we don't know even 1/4 of the story behind the decisions. We look at results and assume the decision process, but we don't know. Utilities, wetlands issues, and millions of other tiny details, legal issues, laws, expense issues, etc make those decisions.

I have 3 Browns on my Fantasy football team. You could look at it and say "why in the heck would you put 3 terrible Browns players on your Fantasy team" Well, it was a judgement call based on what I perceived as the needs of the team at the time. I spent more on my QB than others might have, forcing me into spending less on receivers, I picked a player that I was certain to be in position for a big year. I made decisions that seem foolish now, but made total sense at the time. Pick me up and put me back in time, I would likely end up making many of the same decisions again, even though I know they won't work out, because the reality of the variables would force me to repeat history.

Was the film portion of MGM dumb and a failure, sure it was. Was trying to replicate the Universal Hollywood concept wrong..nope. At the time that was the best alternative to the typical theme park. The best way to avoid having a second magic kingdom on property. Now, things have changed a lot. Univ Hollywood is copying the Universal Orlando concept, and so is Disney. People with the best of intentions can make all the right decisions and still not have it work.

I never said they were incompetent. Nor that they necessarily should have done it differently knowing what they knew at the time or with what goal they were trying to accomplish. I'm just saying that yes, it could have been arranged slightly differently in a way that could have allowed for better usage of space. Anyway, this is off topic.

 

[boufa]

I never said they were incompetent. Nor that they necessarily should have done it differently knowing what they knew at the time or with what goal they were trying to accomplish. I'm just saying that yes, it could have been arranged slightly differently in a way that could have allowed for better usage of space. Anyway, this is off topic.

Ok to bring it back... if they had arranged it the way you described the launch area would be perfectly located...

 

[Brad Bishop]

I never said they were incompetent. Nor that they necessarily should have done it differently knowing what they knew at the time or with what goal they were trying to accomplish. I'm just saying that yes, it could have been arranged slightly differently in a way that could have allowed for better usage of space. Anyway, this is off topic.

Incompetent is too strong a word. "Short-sighted" probably better fits. From everything I've read they basically wanted to open MGM Studios fast and cheap. That was accomplished.

If you look to other Walt and early-imagineer inspired projects it was more about doing your best to get it right than it was about beating the guy down the street or doing it as cheap as possible. The Haunted Mansion sat on the shelf for 11 years before they finally went ahead with it and it's a classic attraction. That wouldn't hold up with the current management as they're more bean counters than dreamers.

Of course, the other side of all of this is that being a dreamer put them in precarious financial positions a few times so it's really not about dreaming bigger and going with that all of the time.

WDW is a great example of that. All of that land. All of the thought that went into building a theme park in the middle of a swamp. That was pretty gutsy. It, and I'm including Epcot, here, put them on bad financial footing during the 1980s but, at the same time, it paid off really big.

MGM Studios was: Get it done cheap/fast and, 25 years later, it shows. It's not a park that would stand on it's own. It's not a destination and never was. You can definitely make an argument that the MK was and is a destination. You can make the argument that Epcot was (maybe "is" if you want to include festivals) a destination. I think even AK is a destination. DHS? It's an afterthought. It's the "While we're here and we already paid for park-hoppers..."-type park. I know it has it's followers and all that but those numbers pale in comparison to the rest of the guests.

 

[RayTheFirefly]

Ok to bring it back... if they had arranged it the way you described the launch area would be perfectly located...

Don't remember describing any particular way... But yes, I am interested to see how the launch area will work.

 

[WDW Monorail]

That's akin to closing I-4.

Right. It's simply not feasible to close World Drive for fireworks. It's essentially a highway, and is absolutely the main thoroughfare for most of the guest traffic. It's simply not going to be closed.

It's been done several times before - for DHS fireworks. And involved some interestingly placed temporary tubes.