Disney World’s Jeff Vahle Reflects on Growth, Change, and Reinvestment in Parks

[jah4955]

I don't know about perpetuity - I do think some of it is absence makes the heart grow fonder. Don't get me wrong, I loved the original and would welcome it back, but very few things last forever and stay popular. Horizons was a walk on for a while before it closed as another example

Definitely will be a hug improvement over what we have now but could also see some small updates needed 5+ years later just to keep it fresh

Acknowledge "perpetuity" is arguably word maybe thrown around a bit too much...but, to paraphrase, I still believe 1.0 could have been one of those rides on the same level of SW or HM. As much as I love Horizons, I completely agree it was already dated while it was in it's "walk on" phase, in large part, because it never had any updates whatsoever. By the time it closed it was more about nostalgia for me than anything else. A very lose comparison?:....I don't think TT would have as long a wait today if it never updated from TT1.0 nearly 27 years in. Regardless...from the last time I rode it, May 1998, in-spite of having no updates over its 15 years, I always acknowledged, while on the ride, a "timeless" element within this ride (separate from ...in addition to ....the undeniable "nostalgic" element). I know I can't quantify any of this...it's all extremely subjective. But I do have one anecdote: my dad "went along" with the fact that while my 3 brothers, mother and I were all huge WDW fans, he really wasn't. Because he loved us all, he went on everything with us over and over and over again. He was "bored to tears" with everything ....except....Soarin' 1.0 and Imagination 1.0.

But agree with @Animaniac93-98 that the Figment "haters" never rode 1.0 (and as great as it is we have online videos, they can't do justice).

*I don't think I'll ever get over Disney sabotaging 1.0 either!

​

 

[FigmentFan82]

I think the issue is that a new Figment dark ride is unlikely to boost LL sales significantly.

Any new attraction will boost LL sales. Because anything new always sees high demand and many will want to skip the line.

 

[dennis-in-ct]

Any new attraction will boost LL sales. Because anything new always sees high demand and many will want to skip the line.

We just finished a week long trip to WDW. Great trip, low crowds, fun Halloween party at MK, great weather and so on. Our last trip was Dec for the MK Christmas party which was also a great trip with one major difference this time. We did not purchase daily Lightening Lanes and we had a much better time as a result.

Not having to constantly think/worry/plan about our next move, freed us up to let the experiences reveal themselves rather than strategically consuming the park.

We have re-discovered the “queue” and the beautiful story telling/vibe/mood it offers. Waiting 40min was a delight. Savor the experience, do not consume the experience. A valuable lesson and a reminder for me. Not sure I will go back to purchasing LLs.

After our visit to Animal Kingdom, we received a survey about our experience at the park. AK is a beautiful and amazingly designed park but this visit felt a bit sad and abandoned. The park needs some life. An abandoned lagoon is such a missed opportunity. I remember Rivers of Light and miss Mickey’s Jungle Jamming Parade. It’s missing the streetmosphere, the abundance of live acts and just “life” in general. Tropical Americas and Indy are needed and I am sure will generate LL sales but I am wondering if that will be enough for this park.

It feels like Disney holds on or waits until they can squeeze the last bit of life out of an attraction/land before taking action - and by then, it’s too late. We really felt that way for our animal kingdom visit.

 

[flyerjab]

I’ve wondered that now having Vaughn back, if this increases the likelihood of a true, well done version 4 of Imagination. I mean, it can’t be for monetary reasons. They announce a Figment popcorn bucket and the line to buy one snakes through the park.

I believe that to the best of his ability, Vaughn can lead this Imagineering team to make excellent attractions and lands within the confines of Iger’s IP mandate. Maybe in the serving wave of park “turbo charging”, Epcot will get some more love, especially for its 50th. Perfect time for a new Figment attraction.

Maybe a new, successful Figment attraction would be just the little spark that is needed to prove that not every attraction has to be based on a movie or streaming IP. I would find that so wonderfully ironic that a ride based off of the power of imagination would prove that you can build a non-traditional (I.e., Iger defined) IP ride and still have it be successful: a park IP-based attraction.

One final point. I also am not a Jeff Vahle fan. They need an Ops person that does want to push creative boundaries more. Someone that isn’t afraid of spending more money to make more. In all honesty, I have no nostalgia for the riverboat or TSI. And from a business perspective, I can see that viewpoint. But, that being said, I also can’t argue with what many posters say on the board repeatedly - WDW has the blessing of size, and they should use it.

 

[Chi84]

Maybe the lines are better because - like you - many people are rediscovering that waiting in lines is not a burden to them but a plus.

If they can find a balance between those who don’t mind the queues and the ones who buy LLs the price of the LLs should stabilize.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

I believe that to the best of his ability, Vaughn can lead this Imagineering team to make excellent attractions and lands within the confines of Iger’s IP mandate.

That's hard to do when working backwards from an abstract mandate that sets hard boundaries

You either encourage creativity, or you don't.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

So everyone agrees Jeff is bad, but who does Jeff report to? Who has allowed him to hold his position and make decisions?

It doesn't really matter if Bob and Josh are "not as bad", they all work together, directly or not, to decide what WDW is.

Disney fans have held this belief for decades that if just one person goes away, everything will be better (Eisner, Chapek etc), but it's never as simple as that. It takes many people to establish and maintain a corporate culture.

 

[jah4955]

So everyone agrees Jeff is bad, but who does Jeff report to? Who has allowed him to hold his position and make decisions?

It doesn't really matter if Bob and Josh are "not as bad", they all work together, directly or not, to decide what WDW is.

Disney fans have held this belief for decades that if just one person goes away, everything will be better (Eisner, Chapek etc), but it's never as simple as that. It takes many people to establish and maintain a corporate culture.

imo the closest thing we've seen to Walt since Walt was Lasseter...and they threw him out headlong

 

[Animaniac93-98]

imo the closest thing we've seen to Walt since Walt was Lasseter...and they threw him out headlong

Given Lasseter's output since leaving Pixar, I don't think Disney's missing anything without him.

 

[jah4955]

Given Lasseter's output since leaving Pixar, I don't think Disney's missing anything without him.

I can't prove a hypothetical (for example idk if the firing demoralized him, etc). All I can say is that he did great things while at Disney. Many Ex-Disney "major players" did amazing things after leaving Disney (Gurr, Shermans, Keane)...many sputtered over the rest of their careers.

 

[FigmentFan82]

We just finished a week long trip to WDW. Great trip, low crowds, fun Halloween party at MK, great weather and so on. Our last trip was Dec for the MK Christmas party which was also a great trip with one major difference this time. We did not purchase daily Lightening Lanes and we had a much better time at the parks.

Not having to constantly think/worry/plan about our next move, freed us up to let the experiences reveal themselves rather than strategically consuming the park.

We have re-discovered the “queue” and the beautiful story telling/vibe/mood it offers. Waiting 40min was a delight. Savor the experience, do not consume the experience. A valuable lesson and a reminder for me. Not sure I will go back to purchasing LLs.

After our visit to Animal Kingdom, we received a survey about our experience at the park. AK is a beautiful and amazingly designed park but this visit felt a bit sad and abandoned. The park needs some life. An abandoned lagoon is such a missed opportunity. I remember Rivers of Light and miss Mickey’s Jungle Jamming Parade. It’s missing the streetmosphere, the abundance of live acts and just “life” in general. Tropical Americas and Indy are needed and I am sure will generate LL sales but I am wondering if that will be enough for this park.

It feels like Disney holds on or waits until they can squeeze the last bit of life out of an attraction/land before taking action - and by then, it’s too late. We really felt that way for our animal kingdom visit.

It's definitely great when people can experience the parks without needing the upcharge - though did you use FastPass service when it was free? I think most people that visit do a decent amount of planning ahead of time and beaing aware of their plans during the visit, so it's something most still need to deal with.
The service obv has it's benefits, but the added cost does sting. But for me it makes the experience with small kids who don't have the capacity for 40-60 min waits, it's a crucial tool that I'll probably use for quite some time.

 

[WondersOfLife]

Hmmm... I can think of vastly more "underutilized" spaces.

EPCOT:

• Wonders of Life
• Millennium Village
• Imagination Pavilion
• Mission: Space
• Germany Pavilion (The space supposed to be utilized for a ride)
• The empty plots of land reserved for future countries

HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS

• Villains Unleashed theatre area
• Star Tours
• Beauty and the Beast - Live on Stage
• Mickey Shorts Theatre
• Animation Courtyard (A revival of an extinct attraction and a refurb of an old show is not saving it)

ANIMAL KINGDOM

• Rafiki's Planet Watch
• This park needs MORE. In GENERAL. NOT replacements.
• Zootopia should have been a NEW attraction.
• Tropical Americas should have been a NEW land.
• This park just has severely underused plots of land. It is massive. With LONG paths to walk with nothing to do.

MAGIC KINGDOM

• Hall of Presidents
• Stitch's Great Escape
• Tomorrowland Speedway (Cars should have just gone here)
• Dare I say... Little Mermaid and BATB sections of New Fantasyland
• That space we were supposed to get the Main Street Theatre on years ago was a good idea

ALSO... My two cents... These areas were "underutilized" because nothing was ever updated or added to the areas. There was nothing wrong with Muppets, it just needed a couple of more Muppets attractions in the area. There was nothing wrong with Dinosaurs in Animal Kingdom, they just needed to go back to the original plans for the land. There was nothing wrong with Rivers of America, they just should have done something to spruce up the existing attractions (scavenger hunts/interactive stuff on the island, a live mardi gras Tiana style band party thing of some sorts on the riverboat, ect.)

 

[WondersOfLife]

His comments reinforce my belief that there is some kind of "money-generation heat map" of the parks within TDO. Something isn't producing revenue? Replace it. An area of land isn't generating money? What can they build there.

This would make a LOT of sense for things such as...

1). Adding a restaurant to Mission: Space... MS surely isn't a money maker, but at least there's a high dollar restaurant attached to the theme now.

2). Replacing Universe of Energy with a Marvel attraction. Pure money. No gift shop for previous attraction.

3). Entirety of Muppets Courtyard shutting now. Especially since they never utilized a good Muppets gift shop of any sort. Plus Mama Melrose was the only restaurant on property that always had reservation availability.

Amongst numerous other decisions........ That still doesn't make it right though.

It would also explain why Imagination is just sitting there rotting. The Figment merch is probably going hard enough so Disney is like "Well, whatever that thing is in that building is doing just fine! More Figment merch please! Who's that guy again? Make him the mascot or something."

 

[DisneyHead123]

Any new attraction will boost LL sales. Because anything new always sees high demand and many will want to skip the line.

Some significantly more so than others though. The Figment ride is usually one of the lowest wait times in the park… a redo might help but I think the current waits speak to baseline demand for Figment.