Fantasyland Expansion: Beauty and the Beast or Frozen or Something Else?

[JD2000]

Any Fantasyland expansion would likely target one or both of these two areas: the Fantasyland Theater, and the motorboat lagoon/Autopia/sub lagoon. I'm not aware of any serious discussion to remove any of the classic Fantasyland attractions.

Is Casey Jr. Circus Train and Storybook Land Canel Boats not on the table?

 

[mickEblu]

I agree about the wide open spaces in the Winnie the Poo ride, but what about the mermaid ride where you're very awkwardly close to the poorly lit creepy vaguely anime uncanny valley robots right at the start? Two very bad extremes.

Yeah I agree. The old FL dark rides have the benefit of pace so you never really have time to start at something too long. That and they re not trying too hard so you don’t have an underwhelming AA to critique.

 

[GiveMeTheMusic]

Is Casey Jr. Circus Train and Storybook Land Canel Boats not on the table?

Not that I’m aware of. Nobody wants to be the one to propose ditching Storybookland; it’s beloved. And it’s not necessary. The FLT is giant and easily accessible from small world mall.

 

[lazyboy97o]

A t-bar ride couldn't have an easier emergency/evacuation protocol, so I don't really understand the code complications (unless it was something like Alice, which itself wasn't that hard to solve). If I was an accountaneer, I would precisely argue that the dark ride cost benefit analysis should be rather high, simply because their cost is so low. The ride system is easy. The building is one level (I think Fantasyland is still the balloon framed wood constructs they originally were, none of the expensive steel behemoth's they build nowadays) The ground is flat. The facade work is moderately involved, simply because the building is so small. The ride is predominantly painted flats and hand-crafted figures, you throw in maybe a handful of cutting edge special effects. Maintenance is simple. Reliability is stellar. No height restrictions. ADA compliant. If one of the main metrics of guest satisfaction is "How many rides did you go on today?" the Fantasyland rides, by virtue of their being quick on/quick off, comfortably pads that number on only a fraction of the footprint. The variety makes Disneyland seem bigger, more vast, more lived-in, more full and it's an advertisement for a movie. What am I missing? What are the downsides?

Code wise, you are missing a clear means of egress, accessibility and reach envelopes. Think of how tight the queues are, they do not provide the clearance for wheelchairs. Inside the attraction, you need a clear means of egress along the entire attraction path on one side and reach clearances, that’s about 3’ on each side of the ride vehicle, so you’re looking at a minimum 10’ wide ride path that cannot overlap anything or itself.

Disney has found that guests are satisfied at 8 experiences for a whole day. A definition that is broader than attraction, including meet and greets, parades and nighttime spectaculars. It is a metric that has allowed Disney to aggressively drive down attractions per guest per hour, especially at Disney’s parks outside California.

Even with low build out and operating costs, you’re not tying any revenue to the attraction. That’s the big hurdle. There is very little that can be used to show a return on investment.

 

[EPCOTCenterLover]

I'm sure not satisfied at 8 experiences a day! Not at the current prices.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

Disney has found that guests are satisfied at 8 experiences for a whole day.

Is that still true? I thought that number was determined before the Feb 2002 opening of WDSP?

 

[VJ]

can it's a small world get an expansion? just.. supersize the ride to the size of a whole land. i want a 40-minute ride time. i want that song to be SEARED into the consciousness of every unsuspecting guest who boards the ride. i want it to overtake everything else in its path. it's a small world will be big someday. big world.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Is that still true? I thought that number was determined before the Feb 2002 opening of WDSP?

It came out of the post-Euro Disney panic and became the guiding principle for cutting down Disney’s Animal Kingdom’s opening day line up, Disney’s California Adventure, Walt Disney Studios Park and Hong Kong Disneyland. While a bit more built out, it’s influence can also be seen in Shanghai Disneyland. In an amazing coincidence the concept was totally invalid in Tokyo. It was also at the root of NextGen and the promises that Walt Disney World could continue to not build attractions for many more years.

I think years of work have made a Pressler era desire to only do what is marginally acceptable into a semi-truth. Theme park capacity is determined by attractions per guest per hour. Industry standard for decades is 1.5 to 2 attractions per guest per hour. At 8 experiences per guest per day, that is 0.8 attractions per guest per day for a standard 10 hour day, nearly half the industry minimum. Disney has only recently started to see push back against their efforts to drive down attractions per guest per hours at Walt Disney World, thus the sudden building spree.

 

[Ismael Flores]

Traditional Disney dark rides are quaint. Today's social media dead heads need thrills in their dark rides and walls to instagram afterwards.

How about an Instragram darkride, Use the trackless system and have the small vehicles move around a room and stop in front of ever changing Instagram walls. They can have sets that come in and out to create frames that would hide the vehicle. Would be even better if they can create a vehicle that has guests standing with a back support and themed waist harness

 

[EPCOTCenterLover]

Regarding the poll, I expected B&tB to take the lead, but I expected Frozen to do better than it has!

 

[Phroobar]

How about an Instragram darkride, Use the trackless system and have the small vehicles move around a room and stop in front of ever changing Instagram walls. They can have sets that come in and out to create frames that would hide the vehicle. Would be even better if they can create a vehicle that has guests standing with a back support and themed waist harness

You have what it takes to be an Disney Imagineer!!!