DHS Disney Animation-Inspired Experience Coming to Disney’s Hollywood Studios

[BrianLo]

Having a resort in which three out of four parks are covered in walls is terrible show, especially when the company is charging absurd prices for tickets.

This is a US-centric complaint and a large part of the problem with Florida parks over the last decades. I’m not sure if Tokyo parks are ever free of walls for refurbs.

My complaint would be Epcot also should have something on the go - to go 4/4. No excuse to not take advantage of the need to have constant project turnover.

 

[Timothy_Q]

It's funny that nobody that complains about how long the Epcot project took and how many of its pieces were cancelled ever mention that there was a global pandemic that caused both of those issues. But anyway

 

[Casper Gutman]

This is a US-centric complaint and a large part of the problem with Florida parks over the last decades. I’m not sure if Tokyo parks are ever free of walls for refurbs.

My complaint would be Epcot also should have something on the go - to go 4/4. No excuse to not take advantage of the need to have constant project turnover.

Having a ride behind walls for refurb is just fine. Big Thunder being shut down for a couple years for a retrack and upgrade is great - until you cover the rest of the surrounding area in walls and the whole thing stops looking like an operating theme park.

It is, largely, a Florida-centric problem. The other resorts don’t replace attractions with anything like the frequency of WDW. Now, there are plans for big changes to Tokyos Adventureland and Future Island (can’t remember the precise name), but that’s a significant change.

When DCA went through its redo, how much of DL was being replaced at the same time?

These are full price parks. Posters here tend to take the long view because we visit regularly so we can look at walls and see what they’ll be in six years. That doesn’t change the fact that less frequent guests - and, frankly, us as well - should not have to accept a partial experience when paying $120 and up to get through the gates. Some walls here or there for refurbs or additions is perfectly fine - the current state of the WDW parks is not.

 

[Casper Gutman]

It's funny that nobody that complains about how long the Epcot project took and how many of its pieces were cancelled ever mention that there was a global pandemic that caused both of those issues. But anyway

Lots of posters mention it. It was discussed at length.

How much were EPCOT ticket prices reduced to account for the pandemic delays?

 

[BrianLo]

Having a ride behind walls for refurb is just fine. Big Thunder being shut down for a couple years for a retrack and upgrade is great - until you cover the rest of the surrounding area in walls and the whole thing stops looking like an operating theme park.

It is, largely, a Florida-centric problem. The other resorts don’t replace attractions with anything like the frequency of WDW. Now, there are plans for big changes to Tokyos Adventureland and Future Island (can’t remember the precise name), but that’s a significant change.

When DCA went through its redo, how much of DL was being replaced at the same time?

These are full price parks. Posters here tend to take the long view because we visit regularly so we can look at walls and see what they’ll be in six years. That doesn’t change the fact that less frequent guests - and, frankly, us as well - should not have to accept a partial experience when paying $120 and up to get through the gates. Some walls here or there for refurbs or additions is perfectly fine - the current state of the WDW parks is not.

Perhaps I’m over normalizing things to prior decades, but the DHS walls are frankly inconsequential. Both areas benefit from being annexes already. I’m just not sure why this is the thread warranting the specific notation. MK is a major project, but far less onerous than Disneyland that has major guest flow issues in the corridor. DAK is the one that’s honestly the worst because it forces you through walled corridors of nothing to navigate the park.

SW:GE/Avenger Campus, the sequence of MK hub, Disney Springs, Pandora, DHS 2.0 and Epcot, then elsewhere HKDL, WDSP, DCA 2.0 all feel more consequential walled projects to me with far more impact to the guest experience. Hubs, entryways, much more important attractions and much more capacity strained gates at those times.

Plus again, the one time guest mentality is how we got where we are. In its current state WDW is a much better one time guest experience than it has been for maybe over two decades. Other than price, naturally.

 

[Disstevefan1]

FYI, Epcot's transformation was bluesky announced in 2016 (AKA something is going to happen at Epcot but we don't know what), with construction only beginning on a few projects in 2017 (Guardians, Ratatouille & Space 220) and construction on the center area beginning in 2019 and being completed by 2024. Whilst the walls at Epcot were annoying at the time and did feel to last a while, I'm sure it's mentioned to you already before that was a pandemic in the middle of the construction.

I'm not sure how the Epcot exception is causing you to believe that everything Disney ever does will cause delays, escpecially when this project was announced with a defined deadline

Hey, let’s see what happens. Very glad to be wrong! WDW is my park!

The EPCOT “exception” has shaken my faith. There are plenty of folks with high confidence in all the projects happening at WDW.

I want Disney to prove me wrong! Time will tell.

 

[Disstevefan1]

Yes, it is ridiculous. Everything is bad. Change is bad. No matter what it is. Bad. Only nostalgia good. That covers 99% of the complaint posts.

You haven't seen anything come out of any of these projects, but they're all bad.

You say things like 'after what happened to Epcot'. What exactly happened?
They closed Innoventions. It was lost space for a long time with no redeeming value or anything of note.
They closed an outdated attraction in UoE that hadn't been updated in decades for a coaster which is, without a doubt, currently the most popular attraction at the entire resort. I hate to break it to you, but UoE was bad, outdated, and saying it was lightly attended is generous.
The Moana walkthrough is a cute little distraction that took nothing else away.
Is it the FoN? Is that the hill you're going to die on? Because, okay, it was a cool fountain. But it was a freakin' fountain.

Incorrect. Not all was bad.
I linked the points of light on SSE.
I like the updates of the entrance plaza lighting.
I like the return of the spires in front of SSE.
I am glad we did not lose Club Cool even though it looks like a low rent spot in a strip mall. Could they make that place any smaller? I shouldn't complain as its still there as I say.

Connections and Creations, what kind of names are they anyway? Did they try to minimize the tooling charges for the letters on the signs? Although I dislike the "Apple store minimalism" of these, at least I can get out of the heat. Terrible selection of hats in Creations BTW, but I digress.

The planter and forever broken in ground lighting will be an ongoing embarrassment.
I dislike the rust finish all over the place.
I am happy they got rid of the trip hazard, cement mounds holding up the light poles. The moment I saw them when World Celebration opened it was an obvious hazard. This is a little thing, but it is am indicator that after 5 years of walls the were rushing to open something, anything.

You are right about the fountain. If I want to see fountains I can go to EPIC

 

[AidenRodriguez731]

Lots of posters mention it. It was discussed at length.

How much were EPCOT ticket prices reduced to account for the pandemic delays?

Why would they be reduced to account for pandemic delays when the demand was pretty major coming back??

People wanted to go to the parks and showed it with their wallets. The only people who were that sour about a few walls was a small vocal minority online.

The Disney parks don’t base their pricing on small vocal minorities

 

[Disgruntled Walt]

WDW should create a Labyrinth attraction made up of walls. Then people will be happy to see walls!!!

Featuring a digital David Bowie with AI-generated dialogue?

 

[Kamikaze]

Nope. Change can be good or bad. I think the Animal Kingdom changes are good. I think the Studios and Magic Kingdom changes are bad.

And I think forming an opinion on anything before you experience it yourself is, frankly, stupid.

Having a resort in which three out of four parks are covered in walls is terrible show, especially when the company is charging absurd prices for tickets.

Most people don't care.

Animal Kingdom has 1 of its 5 lands behind walls. The Magic Kingdom has walls dominating 2 of its 6 lands, replacing the second most important aesthetic element of the entire park. The Studios has 2 of its 6 lands largely behind walls. This is unprecedented and yes, it’s fair to say that ”covered.”

Yes, its never happened before, but they've also never worked as many projects at once if you want to look at it that way.

The walls are good because they mean new things are coming, you shout. What the walls actually mean are that Disney has made a conscious decision to replace rather then add. There are many, many expansion pads in all three parks that could be used without this years long disruption. AK is profoundly underbuilt. The plan for MK until shortly before D23 was to expand the parks footprint into largely unused space. Additionally, the spate of walls is the result of well over a decade of chronic underinvestment. All of this adds up to the most important fact - the walls are the result of the fact that, overall, Disney management simply does not care about good show.

This is the part where we agree.