If you are going to blame Jay R. for the down cycle WDW is in, then you have to credit him for what he is doing right at DCA.
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Little Mermaid Clone a Go! (Maybe)
- Thread starter jt04
- Start date
If you are going to blame Jay R. for the down cycle WDW is in, then you have to credit him for what he is doing right at DCA.
EPCOT Explorer
New Member
Right...He just needs to look East for a bit...
That is something Eddie Sotto kind of explained. All in good time. All in good time.
Meanwhile we are getting some nice refurbs. And the train station in Frontierland really needed it! That place was falling apart.
EPCOT Explorer
New Member
Yes, Captain Nemo.:lookaroun:lol:
:xmas:
Horizonsfan
Well-Known Member
You can't give Jay credit for DCA's make-over. Credit for that goes to WDI, Lasseter, and Iger. You also can't entirely blame him for WDW's downturn. He's more the salt in WDW's wound.
Jay doesn't see any reason why a currently profitable experience should be drastically improved, small improvements are more than adequate. He also feels that homogenization is important and should be used as much as possible. While some homogenization makes sense, he wishes for too much. He is a numbers man not an idea or entertainment man. He could be useful somewhere else in the company possibly but, in his current posistion he isn't doing much good.
Jay is more of a hindrance than a help.
The Conundrum
New Member
No I will not considering he was not involved with that.
Bob Iger, Matt Ouimet, and the Imagineers deserve the credit since they had been working on a DCA revitilzation project for some time. Was Rasolu at some of the meetings? sure. Did he provide some input? possibly but considering this is the guy that tried to block Splash Mountain and Indiana Jones from being built it was probably about "how can we scale this project back"
I am blown away that people here think that Rasolu should get the credit for DCA upgrades. Good luck finding more people that will agree with you. Frankly, If I were an imagineer I would be downright offended by your post.
TP2000
Well-Known Member
I don't think it will matter. I was just at a reception this afternoon in Newport Beach, California with extended family and many people I didn't know. There was a group of affluent OC Housewives talking on the lanai and the topic of conversation was their Disneyland Annual Passes they use with the kids and all the construction walls now up in DCA and the new Nightastic! stuff. Someone said something about Disney World, and two of the ladies basically asked "Oh, do they still have a theme park out in Florida too?".
:lol: The point is, most Southern Californians that will be visiting DCA and going on the Little Mermaid ride don't really know or care about Walt Disney World.
In fact, some Disneyland Annual Passholders (who aren't online fanbois obviously) are still a bit unclear on whether or not Mr. Disney ever got his East Coast Disneyland off the ground out in Florida. :ROFLOL:
In short, the Little Mermaid ride will open first in DCA in 2011. And if a clone is built in Disney World in 2013 or 2014, it's not going to have much impact on DCA attendance or reputation. At least not with the 20 million people that live between Santa Barbara and San Diego.
TP2000
Well-Known Member
I'm afraid you've got some bad information, or are confusing Jay Rasulo with someone else entirely.
Jay Rasulo moved over to the Parks & Resorts team in October, 2002 when Paul Pressler left. In the early and mid 1990's Jay Rasulo was working in the Corporate Alliances group, and then headed up the Club Disney project for a few years in the 1990's as part of Disney Regional Entertainment, and then was sent to Disneyland Paris in the late 1990's.
Splash Mountain opened in 1989 and Indiana Jones Adventure opened in 1995.
Jay Rasulo was not involved on any leadership team that had anything to do with Disneyland attraction development in the late 1980's to mid 1990's. He had no ability to impact the decision making process regarding Splash Mountain or Indiana Jones, and likely wouldn't have even known about those rides until they opened.
RSoxNo1
Well-Known Member
To reinforce that, you also have to realize that the novelty of seeing the new attraction will have worn off at that point. The success of The Little Mermaid at DCA will give Disney the opportunity to see how it may effect attendance at Disney World and possibly other parks overseas as well.
The Conundrum
New Member
Jay Rasolu was part of Strategic Planning when Splash Mountain and Indiana Jones were going through the approval process. Better verify with your sources.
TP2000
Well-Known Member
Yes, Rasulo was with Corporate Strategic Planning in Burbank in the real-estate development department, that's where he started his Disney career in 1986. And you have info that Jay Rasulo as a young buck in the late 1980's tried to kill Splash Mountain and later Indiana Jones? That's the first I've ever heard of that.
Your assertion that a young Jay Rasulo (he was 28 years old when he began with Disney in 1986) tried to cancel Splash Mountain and Indiana Jones sounds more like the old urban legend that Paul Pressler questioned the need and high cost for the already built Indiana Jones Adventure shortly after he arrived in Anaheim as Disneyland's new president in 1995.
I have no idea how Jay Rasulo, a lower level planner in Burbank, fairly new to the company no less, who was tasked with financial plans for real-estate opportunities off property and barely 30 years old, could try to derail a high profile E Ticket in a theme park. Maybe that's why the Little Mermaid got canned for Magic Kingdom? A 30 year old real-estate analyst bored with the Flamingo Crossing project while sitting in his one-window office in Celebration decided to kill an E Ticket just for kicks? :lol:
And when Indiana Jones was in development in the early 1990's, Jay Rasulo had left the real-estate division and moved up the ladder and over to Corporate Alliances, the group that tries to attract sponsors and align corporate relationships throughout the vast Disney company. Again, why would that type of role have any impact or any decision making power over a theme park ride? Unless Jay Rasulo was somehow having a hard time getting AT&T, Indiana Jones original sponsor in 1995, to chip in more money? But AT&T logos were all over the place on Indy's opening day in '95, with themed AT&T pay phones even in the queue, so obviously Rasulo's group did okay in lining up the sponsor, if he was even involved in that one instead of buttering up McDonald's for more Happy Meals.
HMF
Well-Known Member
Jay rasulo only cares about what's happening with DCA because of the revenue it will bring he doesn't care about the creative end . You can tell how dis-passionate he is in the Blue Sky Cellar video. Rasulo has done almost nothing right since he became Parks and resorts chairman. They need Matt Ouimet.:animwink:
HMF
Well-Known Member
Not neccasarily' there is a phase two planned.:animwink:But soon DCA will be off of WDI's hands. And they are going to need something to do. Perhaps at WDW's MK even.
CaptainMichael
Well-Known Member
This would explain his obsession with DVC expansion...:lookaroun
lazyboy97o
Well-Known Member
Disneyson 1
New Member
I don't think it will matter. I was just at a reception this afternoon in Newport Beach, California with extended family and many people I didn't know. There was a group of affluent OC Housewives talking on the lanai and the topic of conversation was their Disneyland Annual Passes they use with the kids and all the construction walls now up in DCA and the new Nightastic! stuff. Someone said something about Disney World, and two of the ladies basically asked "Oh, do they still have a theme park out in Florida too?".
Umm... that's pretty sad. But that point is very true.
EPCOT Explorer
New Member
EpcotServo
Well-Known Member
He's all gone. Vanished to whence he came. His job done. As he left, the crying people below ask "Why? You just got here?"
He says with a knowing smile, "Because the rest I leave to you. This was always for you to complete...You just needed someone to show you the way to start."
"But...but we need you!"
"I'll always be with you...right here."
*points to heart*
With that, he left. As soon he arrived, he was gone. In the sky, with a flash of light, a SUPERNOVA began to collapse. In the Explorer spaceship inside Disneyland's Space Mountain, the HAL 9000 computer hears his voice...
"HAL...I need you to do something."
"Matt, it is a pleasure working with you. Was the Mission a success?"
"Yes, HAL. You performed your duties perfectly. Know I need you to send a transmission. The most important thing you will ever communicate."
"Yes Matt."
As a new sun rises above Disneyland, a message is spelled across every screen at Disneyland Resort and Walt Disney World...
ALL THESE DISNEY WORLDS ARE YOURS - EXCEPT TOKYO DISNEY RESORT. ATTEMPT NO LANDINGS THERE.
GO IN QUALITY...
GO IN PEACE...
AND CLEAN EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE