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MAGICal DLP News, Rumours & Thoughts
- Thread starter Animaniac93-98
- Start date
The Planet Hollywood globe is outta here!! (Still find it a bit odd, how much of the base structure they are keeping in Disney Village, feel like they could be a little more ambitious to think about it a bit but I suppose there isn't that much room around to drastically move things)
mrflo
Well-Known Member
Bob Iger also said in the Q&A section that $42 billion of the $60 billion in planned investment to the Disney parks over the next 10 years would be to increase park capacities. He mentioned that each destination would benefit from the planned investments including the cruise ship business. Iger did not specify on how exactly the investment would be distributed. It also sounded like this is still under consideration.
mrflo
Well-Known Member
Unfortunately I guess it might be closer to this than the 10+ billion that have been circulating.DLP gets €10m
If you consider that in Q1-24 the International Parks of TWDC contributed ≈19% to the total Park & Experiences revenues and only ≈12% to the operating income vs. ≈88% from the US Parks & Cruises, I would be very positively surprised if the International Parks combined would get more than a quarter (≈ $10.5 billion) of those $42 billion.
On the positive side, this would still mean that at least $3-5 billion could go to DLP for new attractions over the next 10 years - which is still massive if it happens. One of the main purposes of this turbocharge investment announcement was to impress the analysts, push the stock price and shut up the activist investor in this whole board battle after all.
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Henry Mystic
Author of "A Manor of Fact"
Yeah Wall Street is in favor of park expansions so they keep saying that’s the plan now. I don’t see any reason why they won’t go on that path even if they’re taking their time with it.
Part of the reasons resorts like Paris don’t bring in American parks level revenue is because they haven’t doubled down on them, and some of it is cultural too (Japan adores theme parks for instance, but exchange rates and cost of living change hard cash values making exact comparisons tricky). Hong Kong was underbuilt from day 1. California Adventure was underbuilt too. Walt Disney Studios was the most egregious case. What do they all have in common? They flopped.
HDKL saw massive attendance jumps after Toy Story Land, Grizzly Gulch, and Mystic Point opened (and it appears the same for Frozen), but they needed to continue adding onto that momentum to maintain the increase, so I sincerely hope we’ll see not only a new headliner in Tomorrowland but a complete redo of the land. Beyond the newness wearing off the park still wasn’t up to the standards it needed to be, and there are remnants of that still. To convince someone to fly for hours or a mainlander to visit Hong Kong to see only 1 okay theme park isn’t going to work. It’s not a destination. Shanghai isn’t a destination either but the park wasn’t underbuilt (it obviously helps that there’s a large domestic audience as well, but compare HKDL to Shanghai opening day and wow).
The only quality flop was DLP, but that was really due to poor decision making: choosing France over Spain, telling everyone to stay away to avoid crowds, the name, the French protesting literally everything, overbuilding the hotel capacity (sinking the park financially with it), and then as it’s on the upswing build WDS on the cheap sinking it back down. In the 2010s DLP peaked in attendance and Disney also bought them fixing up the show quality and it’s never been better from that POV getting closer to Tokyo/Shanghai/Disneyland levels of show quality. And to make the situation even better, the resort is loved by much of the French now and its found its place. They just need to invest a lot more than small Frozen lands or marvel overlays of attractions. It’s a great start, but if they want the resort to take off they need to go crazy. both parks needs a Cars Land showstopper to really move the needle, and now that Universal will be a significant competitor (with a good chance of both Potter, Lord of the Rings, and other terrific IPs and cutting edge quality), they have no choice.
I don’t think Animal Kingdom or Disney MGM Studios “flopped” if I’m not mistaken but they were severely underbuilt from day one and had revenue that left a lot more on the table, always making them add ons to the far more impressive EPCOT and MK, something they both sort of still struggle with even as their expansions have closed the gap.
DLP Park hasn’t had a major new addition since the mid-90s and WDS is still a pretty bad park, and will only be okay once the Frozen land opens. You add a land on the scale of Galaxy’s Edge to both WDS and DLP Park after Frozen and watch the money print.
Let’s say DLP gets $4B. A billion for a Galaxy’s Edge scaled land at WDS (maybe a larger Pandora). TSMM at WDS $120. Retheming the area around Crush’s Coaster and its exterior (including the Cars flat ride and moving the Magic Carpets to a corner off the beaten path in Adventureland at the other park) to the Marine Institute from Finding Dory, emphasizing Finding Nemo for $40M and toss in a new quick service. The Lion King land that keeps getting mentioned I imagine wouldn’t be massive so you could probably contain the budget to under $500M. Toss in miscellaneous stuff like a Stunt Show replacement, etc. That’s under $2B in all.
Say there’s $500M for gradual improvements across the parks so block that.
Then you have another $1.5B.
You could drop $180M for Soarin’ in Adventureland modeled after Shanghai and then you still have well over a billion to do anything else: small Star Wars Land with 1 ride + another ride elsewhere in the park, going all out with a new land, adding things like Club 33 to the parks, etc.
A Rise of the Rebels ride could go behind Discoveryland beyond the railroad track next to Star Tours and make a smaller, different Star Wars Land there which could probably be done for $650M. They could also clone Cosmic Rewind or make it Star Wars themed instead, and either way it would allow for Hyperspace Mountain to get a major overhaul to return to its original form with updated effects for $85M. Pandora could also go over here instead, I mean, there are just so many options. Plus, say some money is used for a new night parade at DLP, how cool would that be?
An indoor water park would be wonderful too like they originally planned. Would make the resort feel more like a “destination” resort. The rest of the money leftover could be poured into the water park, though I have no idea how much it would cost. Mhmm, imagine a Frozen themed ski slope like Dubai has, that would be interesting too.
I think people are really underestimating all of this. Even if I’m so far off with numbers it pretty much means every park in the world should see a billion at the minimum injected into it. Imagine how different these parks would feel.
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mrflo
Well-Known Member
I fully agree. Even IF the domestic parks get the majority of the turbocharge investment, Iger already confirmed that each destination will benefit from increased investments and DLP can expect more new attractions over the next 10 years. And I am the last one to complain if TWDC ends up bumping up that investment for DLP significantly.
Also a quick add-on to my post above: Of course, revenues are higher in the domestic parks with more parks & hotels, higher attendance, etc. Though I was pointing at this in combination with the operating income. According to those reported numbers the domestic parks have a higher operating margin than the international parks (33% vs. 20% in Q1-24) - meaning the domestic parks are currently more profitable. And while growth potential in terms of attendance and mainly revenues should play a major factor on where the budget will go, profitability and the return of investments are crucial, too. Fingers crossed that average guest spending for DLP will get a some hike by the guests staying at the DLH.
NotCalledBob
Well-Known Member
I just stood in front of Natacha Rafalski for the new Million Splashes of Color parade. (Made my day)! She seemed happier than she looks in the photo.
I think the parade is great. Love the song.
I think the parade is great. Love the song.
NotCalledBob
Well-Known Member
Arendelle construction update brought to you from the top of Toy Story Parachute drop.
They are working hard. They start construction early. They were working at 8:30am this morning, and the other evening we saw cranes still moving at gone 7pm.
However, this still looks a REALLY long way off.
They are working hard. They start construction early. They were working at 8:30am this morning, and the other evening we saw cranes still moving at gone 7pm.
However, this still looks a REALLY long way off.
NotCalledBob
Well-Known Member
BTMRR is closed for a lengthy refurbishment. Sadly for us, as it's our first time here, and we won't make it back for a long time.
The last few days there has been a lot of workmen standing on this section of the track. The part where it goes low to the river as you are looking from the front door of Phantom Manor.
The last few days there has been a lot of workmen standing on this section of the track. The part where it goes low to the river as you are looking from the front door of Phantom Manor.
Namastesii
New Member
There is a visible progress, especially in the last few weeks. So I assume it's going well right now. The lake restaurant is going FAST.
cjkeating
Well-Known Member
I'm not quite at panic stations yet. I'm actually quite surprised how the facades are becoming more apart from right to left along the frontage of the ride/restaurant/shops. The Tangled spinner is also coming together nicely.
The thing that does concern me is how the ride building still doesn't have it's roof done, we've seen the ride channel being built as the concrete has been poured so that will be complete and the ride mechanics and theming will all be built off site for installation so that could go quickly. But I admit it does look a bit far off.
Hopefully it is one of those projects where as every individual project works back to Day Zero it all starts to complete in unison, it's often surprising how quickly things like flooring and foliage can be complete with weeks to go when up against a deadline.
NotCalledBob
Well-Known Member
If I thought I could get a photo on RC Racer without losing my phone(!) You can see that in some places it looks like they are still digging down to foundations for some buildings. I imagine they are smaller bits and pieces? Construction is about as far away from my skill set as you can get!
There is an impressive amount of work going on all day every day though.
I'll be really interested to return and see it finished. I am hoping to get back this time in 2026.
There is a chance we will get to HKDL before then and see it there first.
cjkeating
Well-Known Member
Haha. I would have liked to have seen that. You do get a good split second view of Tangled from the backwards hold.
At a guess these are the smaller pavilions and kiosks that had permits filmed more recently.
I have some experience with construction and renovations and they have always been the most stressful experiences in my life. Maybe I've just got unlucky but they are always the most chaotic and infuriating processes. And nothing has been anywhere on the scale they are doing right now at WDSP so I do wish them all the best.
Ironically the same. WDSP will be my last Frozen Ever After. I do skip it now in Epcot just because I know I'll have one down the road in a couple of years.
NotCalledBob
Well-Known Member
Some pictures of the Disneyland Hotel. It smells incredible in here!
Seeing it myself soon. Looking forward to it!
NotCalledBob
Well-Known Member
I think you will be very happy. They've done a lovely job.
The WDW Hotel refurbishment team need to have a chat with the DLP one before they undertake any more projects.