News 'Encanto' and 'Indiana Jones'-themed experiences at Animal Kingdom

[ToTBellHop]

If Rohde is involved, you wouldn't have confidence that the IP integration would be treated better? Remember how cynical we all were about the Pandora addition?

I would have full faith in the project if he were brought in.

 

[MrPromey]

Dinosaur is definitely not what I would consider "unpopular". It is typically not a rope dropped attraction and often has a short wait for a couple hours in the morning. But midday it is often at 30-45+ minutes and longer during peak times. It's not like it does not attract any guests, by far.

I think we have a lot of people here who like to confuse their personal opinions and preferences with things like reality and the opinions of the masses.

Personally, I agree the pre-show is incredibly dated. They had no problem booting Lieutenant Dan from Mission Space with someone else using an almost word-for-word identical script and that was a younger ride. I don't really understand how Clair Huxtable, in her late 90's form, at least, has never been replaced or updated.

That's an overnight swap-out that would require zero attraction downtime.

People have commented how they feel the loading platform looks dated. That too isn't something that would take a major amount of time to update and they wouldn't even have to close the ride to do it since there are two loading sides so they could wall off an update them one at a time while keeping the ride going.

But it's just like the maintenance of the dinosaurs, they'd have had to have been bothered to care over the years to make relatively small updates like these to keep the attraction up to date.

They just never bothered to.

 

[RSoxNo1]

To me, this is where things get tricky. Adding more rides increases operating costs and it if doesn't drive more spending to offset that what is the point of doing it from business perspective? If the new rides do drive more attendance it won't solve the capacity problem. Almost a catch 22.

Ultimately they will hit diminishing returns on capacity. The problem is in a park like DHS where it might take 6 rides to reach that level. DAK could get there with three rides.

 

[MrPromey]

I would have full faith in the project if he were brought in.

I'd have faith that we'd get the best version we could hope for but fitting a square peg into a round hole is still going to require either some serious shaving of the peg or cutting of the hole.

I like Pandora but I'm not going to pretend a few mental gymnastics need to be made to consider it a real fit for AK and obviously, Joe did the best he could to focus on making the place a post-human-conflict environment so he could make it about the alien "nature" in order to make that fit.

I imagine in other hands, that whole project could have turned out very differently and very much for the worse in terms of fit for the park as it was originally conceived but it doesn't take a lot of effort to see where the hole was cut more and the peg was shaved to make that happen.

 

[cjkeating]

For all this talk about Dinosaur's maintenance issues... let's not forget Indiana Jones is consistently one of the least reliable and poorly maintained attractions at Disneyland.

 

[RSoxNo1]

Wonder what happens to the American crocodile, Abdim's storks and Asian brown tortoises?

Maybe move to another location in the park?

Reach out to Steve Irwin's family, pay him some royalties and then let the croc loose in the park. BAM, new attraction, "Crocodile Hunter experience."

As for animals in Tropical Americas, I'd be shocked to see something like Jaguars because of the logistics / access to the animal care facilities. What is far more likely is that their inventory of macaws finds there way to this area. I could also see smallish mammals like capybaras as an option. I'd be surprised to see a true walk through of the scale of Maharajah or Gorilla Falls.

 

[KDM31091]

I think we have a lot of people here who like to confuse their personal opinions and preferences with things like reality and the opinions of the masses.

Personally, I agree the pre-show is incredibly dated. They had no problem booting Lieutenant Dan from Mission Space with someone else using an almost word-for-word identical script and that was a younger ride. I don't really understand how Clair Huxtable, in her late 90's form, at least, has never been replaced or updated.

That's an. overnight swap-out that would require zero attraction downtime.

People have commented how they feel the loading platform looks dated. That too isn't something that would take a major amount of time to update and they wouldn't even have to close the ride to do it since there are two loading sides so they could wall off an update them one at a time while keeping the ride going.

But it's just like the maintenance of the dinosaurs, they'd have had to have been bothered to care over the years to make relatively small updates like these to keep the attraction up to date.

They just never bothered to.

I mean, I don’t feel like updating the actress for the preshow is probably worth the money, in disneys eyes. It works and gets the point across, and it’s very likely many younger riders have no idea who it is anyway, just a generic character in the preshow. Again, not everything has to be tied to a recognizable movie, IP, actress whatever.

But I will say I do wish the attraction received more regular TLC and general updates over the years instead of being neglected.

 

[cjkeating]

Ultimately they will hit diminishing returns on capacity. The problem is in a park like DHS where it might take 6 rides to reach that level. DAK could get there with three rides.

I agree. I think Disney need to accept the parks are overworked and are returning more money per person than they should be. DHS is the biggest victim here. Yes adding in 6 more attractions would increase costs but it would allow people to have a better day at the park by closer matching demand to capacity.

 

[Luigi]

Anyone hear anything about a possible addition of another attraction being built elsewhere in AK? Not just the dinoland redo but something else as well

Yes...Mickey Views hinted in his latest video that a possible stand-alone E-Ticket could be announced as well for AK.

 

[cjkeating]

I'd have faith that we'd get the best version we could hope for but fitting a square peg into a round hole is still going to require either some serious shaving of the peg or cutting of the hole.

I like Pandora but I'm not going to pretend a few mental gymnastics need to be made to consider it a real fit for AK and obviously, Joe did the best he could to focus on making the place a post-human-conflict environment so he could make it about the alien "nature" in order to make that fit.

I imagine in other hands, that whole project could have turned out very differently and very much for the worse in terms of fit for the park as it was originally conceived but it doesn't take a lot of effort to see where the hole was cut more and the peg was shaved to make that happen.

I think the big issue with Encanto is we've never had a ride at DAK that features human animated characters.

Pandora has the Navi who co-exist with humans, every other ride... features humans, real animals or extinct animals.

Lion King/Nemo are the closest we get and they very clearly shows not immersive rides. Or meet and greets which again all meet in "real world" environments.

Getting the animated/fantasy world of Encanto to "fit" in DAK will I believe be far more challenging than live action Avatar. Also all DAK attractions are first person, you are taking part in something - a safari, a mountain expedition, a river raft ride, flying on a banshee - an omnimover ride has never been anything but a third person experience.

 

[Phicinfan]

When was the last time AK got any significant animal additions?

Other than recent births... yeah just joking

 

[SamusAranX]

Disney Fans: We want new attractions at WDW we’ve been waiting for too long
Disney: *starts plans for Tropical Americas land*
Disney Fans: NO YOU’RE DOING IT ALL WRONG NOBODY WANTS THIS
Disney: View attachment 773964

Problem with your scenario here is that these are not “new” attractions, they’re replacements in disguise. Management continues to stubbornly bury their head in the sand. That and they’ve become addicted to the revenue that Genie+ provides and adding new capacity will potentially lower that

 

[Disstevefan1]

Disney Fans: We want new attractions at WDW we’ve been waiting for too long
Disney: *starts plans for Tropical Americas land* creates Journey of Water featuring Moana in EPCOT
Disney Fans: NO YOU’RE DOING IT ALL WRONG NOBODY WANTS THIS
Disney: View attachment 773964

FIFY

 

[osian]

Problem with your scenario here is that these are not “new” attractions, they’re replacements in disguise. Management continues to stubbornly bury their head in the sand. That and they’ve become addicted to the revenue that Genie+ provides and adding new capacity will potentially lower that

Indeed.

Disney fans say: We need more attractions.

Disney hears: The fans want existing custom attractions ripped out and replaced with ill-fitting movie IP.

 

[Jeff456]

I just hope this is all still a good 6 months to a year off... love Dinosaur and really don't feel this stuff is a good fit. I agree the Chester and Hester area looks terrible so anything will be an improvement I just wish they'd leave Dinosaur alone.

 

[Phicinfan]

Indeed.

Disney fans say: We need more attractions.

Disney hears: The fans want existing custom attractions ripped out and replaced with ill-fitting movie IP.

Disney fans would be happy with some replacements, just not all "new" attractions being replacements.

Tron was a new. IF they add to Pandora that will be an add. Yes Dinosaur to Indy is a replacement, but its needed pretty bad.

Just have to balance the load. I personally would love some of this money to fix what they have - SM in MK, SSE and Imagination in Epcot. That would be a huge boon for most

 

[britain]

If it helps any, this version of Indiana Jones will be different and is shaping up to be very good. I don't want to lose Dinosaur! but it does seem like this will be a worthy successor.

Crossing my fingers for the old dream of mine-cart-coaster integration with Jeep ride to come to pass.

 

[osian]

Yes Dinosaur to Indy is a replacement, but its needed pretty bad.

It's probably a fait accompli, but again a "replacement" isn't needed at all. What's needed is refurbishment and maintenance. A change of theme isn't necessary especially when it doesn't, on the face of it, fit as well as the original theme did. You make the same point when talking about money to fix SM, SSE and Imagination.

 

[Phicinfan]

It's probably a fait accompli, but again a "replacement" isn't needed at all. What's needed is refurbishment and maintenance. A change of theme isn't necessary especially when it doesn't, on the face of it, fit as well as the original theme did.

I disagree, IF you are reverting the area away from Dino area, then you have to remarket Dinosaur to fit that new persona. Could they keep Dinoland and just do what is necessary for Dinosaur, yes. But that ship seems to have sailed.

 

[osian]

I disagree, IF you are reverting the area away from Dino area, then you have to remarket Dinosaur to fit that new persona. Could they keep Dinoland and just do what is necessary for Dinosaur, yes. But that ship seems to have sailed.

Ah yes, IF it has already been decided to change the theme of the area known as Dinoland USA from dinosaurs. What I'm saying is that the theme didn't have to change. You've got some circular reasoning going on here - that the theme of attractions in that area has to change if it's been decided that the theme is changing. We're probably saying the same thing - I've described it as a fait accompli, you've described it as the ship has sailed.