News Disney plans to accelerate Parks investment to $60 billion over 10 years

[SplashJacket]

USF will become "Epcot" in that it'll still remain busy with seasonal events and locals treating it as "their park" filled with nostalgia. IOA might have the better slate of attractions, but USF is still good.

I’m not sure…

USF is already just barely hanging on and it’s solely because the events, but I don’t think it’s because it’s the “local park.”

If it wasn’t for the events, the park would be a ghost town.

Epic should be far more conducive to the Epcot style “hanging out” and be a more comfortable and enjoyable place to leisure in.

 

[Jrb1979]

… Except that they still make rides with ridiculous height requirements if they’re actually trying to target a younger demographic, even in lands like Super Mario World.

To be fair it's not like many of Disney's newer attractions have little to no height requirement. It's not all the parks fault for that. A lot of it is insurance reasons.

 

[Andrew25]

If you lower the bar to say Harry Potter was a game changer, then you absolutely must accept that Galaxy's Edge has changed the game as well. Disney has re-tooled their entire entrance admission media model, became less reliant on AP sales and revenue, overall revalued their entire product, and offered more line management and crowd management systems all because of Galaxy's Edge. It has worked so well for them, that they have found a path toward investing another $60 billion dollars in parks, because they know they can recoup that money in additional admissions at their re-valued rate.

This entire thread exists because of the success of Galaxy's Edge. How is that not a game changer? Denying one but not the other just seems inconsistent.

I'm not saying SWGE isn't popular or profitable for the company... the reason why SWGE happened was because Hogsmeade showed you can build a land on an IP that fully immerses you with entertainment, food, and merchandise that isn't just a t-shirt with a logo printed on it.

Disney retooled admission media because they wanted to take advantage of guests... and it fell on their face when nobody showed up during the summer at Disneyland. Disney implemented crowd management systems post-Covid and have slowly removed them ever since.

SWGE changed the game for Disney, sure, but the industry (including Disney) agrees that Hogsmeade changed the way they design/view theme parks.

I’m not sure…

USF is already just barely hanging on and it’s solely because the events, but I don’t think it’s because it’s the “local park.”

If it wasn’t for the events, the park would be a ghost town.

Epic should be far more conducive to the Epcot style “hanging out” and be a more comfortable and enjoyable place to leisure in.

A lot of APs like to hangout at USF because it has the better (of the two, which isn't saying much) dining/bar options along with all the seasonal stuff like the tribute stores and actual in-park entertainment (that IOA doesn't have).

I'm sure Epic will be the nicer of the 3 to hang out it, and will possibly be the best of the 3, but there will always be that "nostalgic-connection" to USF that will keep drawing folks there.

 

[Touchdown]

If you lower the bar to say Harry Potter was a game changer, then you absolutely must accept that Galaxy's Edge has changed the game as well. Disney has re-tooled their entire entrance admission media model, became less reliant on AP sales and revenue, overall revalued their entire product, and offered more line management and crowd management systems all because of Galaxy's Edge. It has worked so well for them, that they have found a path toward investing another $60 billion dollars in parks, because they know they can recoup that money in additional admissions at their re-valued rate.

This entire thread exists because of the success of Galaxy's Edge. How is that not a game changer? Denying one but not the other just seems inconsistent.

Lower the bar? Name one theme park event that’s had more of an impact in your lifetime. It seriously changed the field it was the first single IP land ever built and increased Universal’s admission rate by multiples. I would argue theme park wise, that it may be the biggest positive event in my lifetime in that industry. The only other contenders being the coaster wars of the 90s, MGM studios making WDW a week long vacation and maybe DCA 2.0 which convinced a whole lot of midwesterners (including me) to go to DL for the first time. I think they all pail in comparison to Harry Potter.

 

[James Alucobond]

To be fair it's not like many of Disney's newer attractions have little to no height requirement. It's not all the parks fault for that. A lot of it is insurance reasons.

Because many of the new things they’ve built are coasters or simulators. When something like Yoshi’s Adventure has a height requirement, it borders on being a fundamental design flaw.

 

[TalkingHead]

in this essay I will redefine “game-changer” to be anything I want it to be regardless of chronology, context, and objective reality

 

[Tha Realest]

I'm not saying SWGE isn't popular or profitable for the company... the reason why SWGE happened was because Hogsmeade showed you can build a land on an IP that fully immerses you with entertainment, food, and merchandise that isn't just a t-shirt with a logo printed on it.

Disney retooled admission media because they wanted to take advantage of guests... and it fell on their face when nobody showed up during the summer at Disneyland. Disney implemented crowd management systems post-Covid and have slowly removed them ever since.

SWGE changed the game for Disney, sure, but the industry (including Disney) agrees that Hogsmeade changed the way they design/view theme parks.


A lot of APs like to hangout at USF because it has the better (of the two, which isn't saying much) dining/bar options along with all the seasonal stuff like the tribute stores and actual in-park entertainment (that IOA doesn't have).

I'm sure Epic will be the nicer of the 3 to hang out it, and will possibly be the best of the 3, but there will always be that "nostalgic-connection" to USF that will keep drawing folks there.

The WWHP resulted in a 36% attendance boost for Universal.

Disneyland’s attendance flatlined after SWGE.

 

[Joel]

If you lower the bar to say Harry Potter was a game changer, then you absolutely must accept that Galaxy's Edge has changed the game as well. Disney has re-tooled their entire entrance admission media model, became less reliant on AP sales and revenue, overall revalued their entire product, and offered more line management and crowd management systems all because of Galaxy's Edge. It has worked so well for them, that they have found a path toward investing another $60 billion dollars in parks, because they know they can recoup that money in additional admissions at their re-valued rate.

This entire thread exists because of the success of Galaxy's Edge. How is that not a game changer? Denying one but not the other just seems inconsistent.

Best fanfic I've read this year.

 

[Jrb1979]

Because many of the new things they’ve built are coasters or simulators. When something like Yoshi’s Adventure has a height requirement, it borders on being a fundamental design flaw.

I get where you're coming from. IMO it's not a design flaw. The days of new attractions with no height requirement are done. The lowest you will see is 36".

 

[peter11435]

I get where you're coming from. IMO it's not a design flaw. The days of new attractions with no height requirement are done. The lowest you will see is 36".

This is false

 

[Touchdown]

I get where you're coming from. IMO it's not a design flaw. The days of new attractions with no height requirement are done. The lowest you will see is 36", or accompanied by an adult*

FTFY. Mack water battle rides have this height requirement, TSMM has this requirement, most slow moving flat rides have this requirement. It’s a significant difference.

 

[el_super]

Is this satire?

No.

SWGE changed the game for Disney, sure, but the industry (including Disney) agrees that Hogsmeade changed the way they design/view theme parks.

No I do agree that Potter was a "game changer" at that level. But at that level game changer just doesn't mean all that much. Before potter Uni was #2 behind Disney and after ... well.. here we are thinking the next one will be the game changer.

But the game doesn't really change. Ever.

 

[SplashJacket]

A lot of APs like to hangout at USF because it has the better (of the two, which isn't saying much) dining/bar options along with all the seasonal stuff like the tribute stores and actual in-park entertainment (that IOA doesn't have).

I'm sure Epic will be the nicer of the 3 to hang out it, and will possibly be the best of the 3, but there will always be that "nostalgic-connection" to USF that will keep drawing folks there.

Oh I definitely agree, but I feel there’s a distinction between seasonal offerings and festivals. It’s not large a large distinction, but an important one.

USF has a ton of stuff throughout the year to draw people back, but I don’t necessarily think it’s that similar to the Epcot festival offerings.

Realistically, for Epcot’s festivals, they’re not adding/changing much, and there aren’t really specific things that draw people in. They change the menus, they have special foods (both things USF does) but there’s not a whole lot of other change.

So I think USF creates a dynamic where people visit to experience the special thing, because the stuff is actually special, whereas people visit Epcot just to lounge around and hang out.

I think Epic will better target and serve that Epcot audience, where it’s a good place to be year-round with seasonal offerings that might not really change much, but still satiate locals.

It’s mainly semantics, but I think it’s an important distinction. Epcot’s local appeal and festivals are so much cheaper and lower effort (and therefore profitable).

If you remove the seasonal offerings from USF, the park dies, if you remove Epcot’s festivals, I don’t think the change is as big (it’ll hurt the park since it’s a good way to advertise, but the actual offerings wouldn’t change much).

USF is kept alive solely through those seasonal offerings, so they need to put a lot of work into it, likely far more than it’s going to get, even if they go all out.

 

[SplashJacket]

No.



No I do agree that Potter was a "game changer" at that level. But at that level game changer just doesn't mean all that much. Before potter Uni was #2 behind Disney and after ... well.. here we are thinking the next one will be the game changer.

But the game doesn't really change. Ever.

Before potter, Universal and Sea World were substitutes.

Now, Universal and Disney are substitutes.

If we’re going by positional ranking, I don’t see how anything Disney could ever build could be a “game changer” if they’re already in 1st. Very silly way to look at this.

 

[TalkingHead]

Disney imitating what was a massive success for Universal seems like the definition of game-changer but uh yeah sure they’re all game-changers, man

 

[Jrb1979]

This is false

Since you always have the answers, why don't they build rides with no height requirements anymore?

 

[peter11435]

Since you always have the answers, why don't they build rides with no height requirements anymore?

They do… and they are.

 

[LSLS]

Maybe? Kind of? It seems like some are overusing the term game changer here. They just seem like regular moves to me.

Not really fair to say something like Potter was a game changer but Galaxy's Edge was not. Disney's business model changed drastically after the opening of Galaxy's Edge. Doesn't seem like "game changer" is being used consistently.

It opened June of 2010. The attendance from 2008 to 2011 saw a jump of 2.5 million people, or an increase of 44%. It opened it's second phase in USF in July 2014. 2013 to 2015 saw an increase of 2.5 million again, or 26%. That's a game changer. The other part of this, comparing from 2009 to 2011, only DAK saw an attendance increase. The rest all saw drops. In 10 years, Universal DOUBLED attendance after Potter. That's game changer in my eyes.

With Galaxy Edge, it's tough to get a read because of the pandemic. But, 2022 numbers at DHS are actually under where they were in 2018. DL saw the same attendance in 2018 and 2019. So tough to read the data, but little we see is it did not really move the needle a ton at DHS, and nowhere NEAR what Potter did.

 

[erasure fan1]

If you lower the bar to say Harry Potter was a game changer, then you absolutely must accept that Galaxy's Edge has changed the game as well.

I don't really agree. Star wars could have easily been a game changer. Disney thought it would be as well. Just look at Igers comments saying, all I have to do is email it's open and there will be lines for miles trying to get in. How'd that work out? Rise of the resistance was a dark ride game changer. When it works the whole way through, it's the standard of what a dark ride experience should/can be. But the land? No, at least not in it's current form. Harry Potter gave fans everything they wanted in the land, galaxys edge? Not so much. Potter hit every aspect, food, merch, rides, theming, interactivity. Just FYI I have zero love for potter. I'm a star wars guy all the way, I wanted nothing more than the land to be a game changer. So it pains me to say outside of rise, and seeing the falcon, I was very underwhelmed.

 

[Andrew25]

Before Potter, SeaWorld had higher attendance than Islands of Adventure.

Since 2009, attendance increases in Orlando from 2009 to 2019:
MK +22% | +3.7M
EP +13% | +1.5M
DHS +18% | +1.8M
DAK + 45% | +4.3M
USF + 98% | +5.4M
IOA +124% | +5.7M
SWO -20% | -1.2M

I just don't know how you can say Potter isn't a game-changer when it saw 124% growth in 10 years.
Disneyland from 2009-2019 saw a 17% change... Universal Hollywood saw 95% change.