News Disney Not Renewing Great Movie Ride Sponsorship Deal with TCM ; Attraction to Close

[SirLink]

I think if we are triaging, it needs updates more than removal. We can't bulldoze everything. It's still popular and appropriate for the park.

Actually the theme has changed from 'how the movies are made' to 'live the movie adventure' for that purpose the stunt show serves no purpose. I would rather have them take the land footprint that was originally envisioned for Star Wars Land going into the car park and make that Indy land take the DLP original Indy mine cart attraction, stick Indy EMV, stick the Adventureland wall in Shanghai and create a water ride add a canteen. Done.

 

[MisterPenguin]

So... There is now this push to get Mickey in by the time SWL opens.

Is this really a push by Ops to get everything done by 2019, OR... is this a push for the re-marketing of DHS? (or both)

Consider that as they're adding Disney movie IPs in the form of TSL and SWL, and now, they're nixing a ride that is not Disney for one that is iconic Disney; it seems that the decision to replace GMR with Mickey is as much about rebranding DHS as the "Disney Movie Adventure" park.

And if that is any part of their decision, then, once the hubbub over GotG overly of ToT in Anaheim had died down, then, I wouldn't be surprised to see DHS ToT and RnRC overlaid. Since we were promised that GotG won't go to DHS ToT, then that promise would technically still be true if Doctor Strange went to ToT and GotG went to RnRC. With the conversion of GMR, I don't see how ToT or RnRR can remain un-Disneyfied... except if they run out of conversion money.

/end speculation

 

[seascape]

DHS is 154 acres. MK is smaller. In fact the two new lands are 25% of the size of MK. Universal Studios is 108 acres and Islands of Adventure is 101 acres.

When Star Wars is open do you really think attendance will not jump? Because no matter what some think here the reality is Star Wars is the number 1 IP in the industry.

 

[SirLink]

DHS is 154 acres. MK is smaller. In fact the two new lands are 25% of the size of MK. Universal Studios is 108 acres and Islands of Adventure is 101 acres.

When Star Wars is open do you really think attendance will not jump? Because no matter what some think here the reality is Star Wars is the number 1 IP in the industry.

Well considering your including the car park in DHS size comparisons with MK and other Orlando parks. Is Star Wars going to have queues like that of Harry Potter Hogsmede have I doubt it. For one Disneyland SWL will have opened and the hardcore Star Wars fans will visit that first.

 

[HauntedPirate]

DHS is 154 acres. MK is smaller. In fact the two new lands are 25% of the size of MK. Universal Studios is 108 acres and Islands of Adventure is 101 acres.

When Star Wars is open do you really think attendance will not jump? Because no matter what some think here the reality is Star Wars is the number 1 IP in the industry.

I've done the online map research - The guest area of DHS is NOT 154 acres, more like 70 acres, give or take a couple. No amount of fanboi wishing or "official facts book" quoting will change that.

Attendance will jump. No one is saying otherwise. But, you are saying that two SW attractions and a Slinky coaster is going to translate to 10 MILLION MORE guests annually at DHS. Just wanted to clarify that, thanks.

 

[danlb_2000]

DHS is 154 acres. MK is smaller. In fact the two new lands are 25% of the size of MK. Universal Studios is 108 acres and Islands of Adventure is 101 acres.

When Star Wars is open do you really think attendance will not jump? Because no matter what some think here the reality is Star Wars is the number 1 IP in the industry.

Don't go by acreage numbers you find on the internet. We had a discussion about this in another thread recently and I found the numbers on popular sites are often inconsistent on what is included in that number.

This is 102 Acres:

This is 103 acres:

Yes, my choices about what is and isn't in the measurement are a little arbitrary, but it shows you how hard it is to really measure the size of a park in any meaningful way.

 

[marni1971]

DHS is 154 acres. MK is smaller. .

Wrong.

Edit. Already proven.

 

[UpAllNight]

It does raise a lot of questions. I really hope I'm wrong and I really hope I'll be riding the GMR in the fall. But I'm told I aren't and I won't.

Could they be pushing for a 2019/early 2020 opening with this, and some Epcot announcements because they know MK will be a hot mess in 2020 when half of it's down for refurb?

What a mess Disney...and all their own making. Charging premium prices and offering a half baked product. (I welcome long overdue investment, for what it's worth, but this situation could so easily have been avoided)

 

[marni1971]

Could they be pushing for a 2019/early 2020 opening with this, and some Epcot announcements because they know MK will be a hot mess in 2020 when half of it's down for refurb?

What a mess Disney...and all their own making. Charging premium prices and offering a half baked product. (I welcome long overdue investment, for what it's worth, but this situation could so easily have been avoided)

The GMR is about 2 1/2 years away. The MK though won't be nearly that bad. They primarily want GMR open for SWL.

Though of course they could just build it somewhere else and have two high capacity attractions ready for SWL. But that would be daft.

 

[rioriz]

Well I am sad that this Summer will be my last ride on this magnificent attraction. However I am excited at the prospect of the new Mickey ride. The park is re-branding and I am not unsure that this move may be more in line with the final product of the new DHS.

 

[uncle jimmy]

The GMR is about 2 1/2 years away. The MK though won't be nearly that bad. They primarily want GMR open for SWL.

Though of course they could just build it somewhere else and have two high capacity attractions ready for SWL. But that would be daft.

Is this ride going to be similar to anything or is this going to be something brand new?

 

[JSchnitz]

What I don't get is why wouldn't they want to keep the GMR in place to tie up all these random movie lands? If they are going to be this sporadic, at least have one attraction that can connect them all. And if I'm not mistaken, aren't they ALL already represented in the ride finale?

 

[marni1971]

Is this ride going to be similar to anything or is this going to be something brand new?

The ride system will be very similar to Antarctica / Honey Hunt / Rat (and SWL Alcatraz)

The ride experience will be familiar to several attractions already in existence. And should have a few nods to the current GMR layout.

 

[PrincessJulia1207]

i love this ride and even though it definitely needs alot alot alot of TLC i would be saddened if it closed because i love classic films

the only thing that would make this okay for me was if it focused on mickey (and friends) making their way into classic films (for example mickey and minnie reenacting the ending of Casablanca; Goofy or Donald doing "Make 'Em Laugh" from Singin' in the rain; Mickey as Indiana jones, etc.)

This way, it would make sense for the ride to be in the Chinese theater with the classic film actor handprints outside and the preshow setup with the prop display cases and the big movie screen

 

[UpAllNight]

The ride system will be very similar to Antarctica / Honey Hunt / Rat (and SWL Alcatraz)

The ride experience will be familiar to several attractions already in existence. And should have a few nods to the current GMR layout.

The tech isn't exactly new so why will WDW be going from famine to feast with their use of it all of a sudden. Not complaining, but after taking 20 years to make something that, technologically, can even put up a fight against Spider-Man, and we get 3 within a year?

 

[PrincessJulia1207]

I hope some of the sets and animatronics get salvaged and repurposed in some form. A walk through exhibit would be cool though unlikely (Unless TCM wanted to pay for it ).

Even just a restaurant though where you can eat in different rooms like Wizard of Oz, the Alien ship, Mary Poppins scene, and the Gangster room would be awesome.

i would love this!!!! please though

Since Disney loves making money, once GMR closes, they should open it up for a few weeks and allow people to pay and play paintball inside. I always think to myself how fun it would be to do this.

if there really is no hope of GMR being saved, i would pay big money to do this

 

[PrincessJulia1207]

I am so bummed. Really bummed. I thought maybe, just maybe, it would get some TLC after Toy Story and Star Wars came out. I'm a classic film buff (working on the AFI's lists right now), and this attraction was special to me.

Might as well say it, calling dibs on the Singin' in the Rain and Casablanca scenes... If I can't get Rick and Ilsa, I definitely want Gene Kelly.

same girl same

 

[britain]

Save the Poppins animatronics for world showcase!

 

[Kman101]

Tim Tracker, who is normally very positive in regards to Disney, highlighted the issues with DHS in a video this past month. He couldn't make Fastpass selections so went to DHS without them, and by like 10am everything was 60-90 mins. His views echoed my own from 2015. At one point we genuinely looked at each other and discussed if these kind of holidays were for us. We were queuing 70 minutes for Rock n Rollercoaster at 9am...there's endless possibilities for a holiday and there we were in the sweltering heat queuing pretty much all day. We're British if there's one thing we're used too it's a queue! We didn't get this feeling at any other park despite obviously having to wait at times....you expect it in Florida, we're not deluded. But DHS was worse than any other park for It. There was a 50 minute queue to meet Mickey, and that was one of the smallest in the park.

I think all the other parks offered relief...yeah a ride might have a 120 min queue at some points (7 dwarves etc) but there were other options and crowds would shift so there'd be times where that'd drop to 60/70...at DHS the queues were relentless all day....and there just wasn't enough to see to keep us occupied in the meantime...the nature trails in AK provided that...MK and Epcot are huge...Islands and Uni have tons of E-tickets, Seaworld is big and was quieter, and also had the animal exhibits....same as Busch.

DHS was a complete mess and I can't see how Star Wars Land and Toy Story will solve this alone. They'll help no doubt in giving guests more options, but these are 2 HUGE IPs...which will bring even bigger crowds, making this parks problems even worse.

This. So much. I'm almost considering skipping my planned day there this week. I actually love this little park, have a bit of personal nostalgic attachement to it, I just enjoy it there, but was seriously wondering why I was bothering. But now with the GMR news, I'm going. Thankfully though I was able to snag fastpasses for my day there so that helps. If I didn't have FP's? Probably wouldn't (although again, the GMR news would of changed that).

 

[Kman101]

What I don't get is why wouldn't they want to keep the GMR in place to tie up all these random movie lands? If they are going to be this sporadic, at least have one attraction that can connect them all. And if I'm not mistaken, aren't they ALL already represented in the ride finale?

That's the million dollar question, isn't it? The parks are run by people who just don't "get it" and this decision proves that a million times over.