Magic Kingdom to lose ROA, Riverboat, and TSI for Cars Land

[TrainsOfDisney]

Wouldn’t this capacity only matter if they were seeing people actually fill the capacity?

Did you not read the post?

“and plussing up the showmanship along the river that operating attractions would interact with, to get back to 2,500ish riders per hour”

 

[Steamboat71]

It's kinda suspicious that no insider has confirmed whether or not the riverboats being scrapped, docked, or reutilized. This would imply that maybe Disney has plans for the Liberty Belle.

 

[mlayton144]

Did you not read the post?

“and plussing up the showmanship along the river that operating attractions would interact with, to get back to 2,500ish riders per hour”

I read it Maybe plus it up to rocket boat Ala Rocket rods - that’ll pack em in

 

[BuzzedPotatoHead89]

If they built a 2nd used the same riverboat for MK they could theme it to Princess and the Frog and have a meet and greet on it for $$$. We could still shorten the river or dock the boat entirely and get rid of Tom Sawyers Island in the process. Of course Disneyland does this for free has too much respect for their consumers but MK could charge our dopes and give them a cupcake. Heck make one floor a bar and advertise the Disney themed booze cruise if they simply must make it a profit revenue optimization opportunity based on a relevant inclusive IP center.

I fixed it for you so it’s acceptable to the eyes of a TDO executive.

 

[Disney Irish]

Did you not read the post?

“and plussing up the showmanship along the river that operating attractions would interact with, to get back to 2,500ish riders per hour”

The idea that any plussed up river would bring back capacity to levels probably not seen in several decades is dubious at best. As that is making a lot of assumptions that A. a plussed up river would pack in the guests up to that theoretical capacity in the first place, and B. that capacity would be maintained for the next 5-10+ years.

Whereas they have over a decade of data that shows constant capacity can be had with the Cars attractions.

 

[BuzzedPotatoHead89]

The idea that any plussed up river would bring back capacity to levels probably not seen in several decades is dubious at best. As that is making a lot of assumptions that A. a plussed up river would pack in the guests up to that theoretical capacity in the first place, and B. that capacity would be maintained for the next 5-10+ years.

Whereas they have over a decade of data that shows constant capacity can be had with the Cars attractions.

I haven’t been to WDW in years (two decades to be exact) but is RoA that much more unpopular there?

I mean in general I feel like the rivers here at DL capture a good portion of that theoretical capacity with the canoes, rafts and the two vessels usually filled at a near full capacity at least.

Fantasmic and the New Orleans Square Train station are particularly crowd heavy locations that have attractions also optimizing the river.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

Whereas they have over a decade of data that shows constant capacity can be had with the Cars attractions.

They also have 7 years of data to see how a shortened and plussed ROA affects ridership numbers, and guest satisfaction.

Based on my limited observations - the river is quite popular there. Both boats also offer live music on select sailings. An extra treat!

 

[Disney Irish]

They also have 7 years of data to see how a shortened and plussed ROA affects ridership numbers, and guest satisfaction.

Based on my limited observations - the river is quite popular there. Both boats also offer live music on select sailings. An extra treat!

Would it be comparable though with the DL RoA, maybe maybe not. To Disney it obviously wasn't worth the expense to do whatever is needed to the river to fix it up to even plus it, and then plus it, just to get back that capacity if its even possible.

At the end of the day it may have cost just as much if not more to fix up and plus the river as it would be to create brand new attractions.

 

[Disney Irish]

I haven’t been to WDW in years (two decades to be exact) but is RoA that much more unpopular there?

Based on reports just from here, nostalgia aside, it appears so.

I mean in general I feel like the rivers here at DL capture a good portion of that theoretical capacity with the canoes, rafts and the two vessels usually filled at a near full capacity at least.

Fantasmic and the New Orleans Square Train station are particularly crowd heavy locations that have attractions also optimizing the river.

I think having all of NOS/Bayou Country (Critter Country) with its attractions and such facing RoA helps. I also think its a different crowd too. DLR is heavily locals so its a different guest makeup compared to WDW which is heavily tourist. So I think that factors into it as well.

 

[tanc]

I would not be surprised if this is going to be a Disneyland Forward idea too.

 

[Disney Irish]

I would not be surprised if this is going to be a Disneyland Forward idea too.

The Cars off-road attraction? Why would they do that with Cars Land already there?

 

[PiratesMansion]

I haven’t been to WDW in years (two decades to be exact) but is RoA that much more unpopular there?

I mean in general I feel like the rivers here at DL capture a good portion of that theoretical capacity with the canoes, rafts and the two vessels usually filled at a near full capacity at least.

Fantasmic and the New Orleans Square Train station are particularly crowd heavy locations that have attractions also optimizing the river.

There's much less traffic on the river for a variety of reasons: the same sort of decline in options over the years that Disneyland suffered, plus the loss of the canoes (for everyone except the cast member canoe races, apparently) and the early accident that killed the Joe Fowler (their Mark Twain).

The attractions run limited hours (though I can't say offhand how similar or different their operating schedules are when compared with their DL counterparts), and the comparative lack of river traffic probably contributes to their lower ridership; you're less likely to want to ride something on the river if you don't see something on the river for long stretches of time.

There is no Fantasmic shown in that location to incentivize the keeping of the river or the riverboat, and the river in general feels slightly more removed from the midway than it does in California (though not removed to the extent of Tokyo, where I could easily picture someone visiting and not realizing there's a river there at all).

And a not insignificant factor is the uniquely intense pressure on WDW guests to maximize their vacation and do all the big cool stuff, exacerbated by FP+ and subsequent skip-the-queue systems, which doesn't leave people feeling like they have time to give to any of the river stuff, especially when combined with on-average longer queues, more punishing weather that leads more people to throw in the towel earlier than they might at DL, and shorter operating hours.

All of these factors undoubtedly play a role in the comparative lack of popularity of the river attractions over there.

 

[Consumer]

The Cars off-road attraction? Why would they do that with Cars Land already there?

Why would they have Star Tours outside of Star Wars land? Why do they have Pixar rides outside of Pixar Pier? Nothing makes sense, dude.

 

[DLR92]

Why would they have Star Tours outside of Star Wars land? Why do they have Pixar rides outside of Pixar Pier? Nothing makes sense, dude.

And that very true! LOL

 

[Disney Irish]

Why would they have Star Tours outside of Star Wars land? Why do they have Pixar rides outside of Pixar Pier? Nothing makes sense, dude.

Dude those are one-off attractions not entire lands.

 

[tanc]

The Cars off-road attraction? Why would they do that with Cars Land already there?

I mean the concept of removing TS, clearly they’re doing it with MK. It’s just something that I could foresee happening. Disney has been so unpredictable the last decade with what stays and what doesn’t . The removal of GMR in HS was just the beginning to me. Followed by removing streets of America in HS. They got rid of the ranch, they got rid of Splash etc. I hope it stays around but to see so much rampant removal to push IP everywhere has been very apparent lately.

 

[Disney Irish]

I mean the concept of removing TS, clearly they’re doing it with MK. It’s just something that I could foresee happening. Disney has been so unpredictable the last decade with what stays and what doesn’t . The removal of GMR in HS was just the beginning to me. Followed by removing streets of America in HS. They got rid of the ranch, they got rid of Splash etc. I hope it stays around but to see so much rampant removal to push IP everywhere has been very apparent lately.

I’m not sure what that has to do with DisneylandForward but ok.

 

[Miru]

To replace Tom Sawyer Island, the Rivers of America, and the Liberty Belle with Cars, of all things, is insult to injury. Frontierland was a work of art. Mark Twain's writings are timeless. The Cars franchise is incomprehensible disposable trash.

And just because ONE theme park attraction based on the IP was good doesn’t mean all of them will be; in fact at least 2 Cars attractions are completely horrible in every way (though thankfully one of them shut down).

 

[Consumer]

What's stopping Disney from building a new river separate of the SSL?

The fact that they’re evil.

 

[October82]

Would it be comparable though with the DL RoA, maybe maybe not. To Disney it obviously wasn't worth the expense to do whatever is needed to the river to fix it up to even plus it, and then plus it, just to get back that capacity if its even possible.

At the end of the day it may have cost just as much if not more to fix up and plus the river as it would be to create brand new attractions.

The cost of maintaining the river, and even assuming exorbitant plussing, won't come close to the cost of new large scale attractions at Disney's elevated costs. Removing the RoA will certainly save the operations side some money, but it isn't the primary motivation for this.