News New Park Entrance coming to Epcot

Inspired Figment

Inspired Figment

Well-Known Member
it’s always confused me, why, when an attraction seemingly loses attendance for whatever reason.. why they wouldn’t try and boost marketing & merchandising on it first rather than immediately let them fall to the wayside. Seems like a really backwards mindset to me. That way you can actually see if the attraction simply is or isn’t positively received, that or if it’s just a lack of advertising and exposure that’d caused guests to unintentionally miss or skip it without realizing it.
 
Last edited:
Goofyernmost

Goofyernmost

Well-Known Member
mandstaft said:
I mean, unless you had an agenda, why would you want the true data of what's really popular and what isn't?
Click to expand...
Cost of maintenance! Imagination had continual problems with the turntable even though it was the jaw dropping part of attraction. And was one huge spark of inspiration to make it a less expensive ride that was needed due to less support from Kodak. Horizons had a lot of minor movement AA's and was a very long ride ending in a more technologically advanced ending choice. World of Motion was the most puzzling of all, but it was already sponsored by GM so my guess is that they had a lot of influence in the change because they were paying for upkeep as well and that show had a gazillion AA's that I'm sure needed constant attention. And it was history of transportation with only the ending having any clear connection to GM. And even that more closely resemble a automobile show room that anything else. I always expected someone to jump out of a dark spot and want to know what it was going to take to get me in that new car today.
 
Inspired Figment

Inspired Figment

Well-Known Member
trainplane3 said:
Cool. It's broken.
View attachment 555323

I can't Instagram now, Zach. If I can't do that then what's the point of your position?
Click to expand...
WOW.. that’s just sad..
But in all honesty, I wouldn’t but the blame all on Zach when it comes to these decisions (particuarly when it comes to maintenance), … it’s really upper management (Bob Chapek) and his lack of genuine support towards the imagineers & Epcot’s vision, along with the cuts in maintenance budget that’s giving him such a hard time/forcing him to post the way he does in order to keep his job in place. I truly believe he’s one of the fans that cares about the overall integrity of EPCOT (same goes for Josh D’maro on that note..)… but unfortunately, until management changes anytime soon.. I don’t see anything improving for him or any of his fellow coworkers anytime soon… though I have hope it will soon or at the very least, eventually (I’m calling latest, by next year or the next).

While you could easily make the argument that at this point, he should probably jump ship while he still can… the thing is, when you’re ‘that’ passionate and so determined you can make things go right under current management.. that or staying in there until the right management comes in and he’s able to get his true talent & passion out there. It isn’t exactly the easiest decision to make or determine. Just look at how long it took for Tony Baxter, Josh Shipley, Joe Rodhe and so many others to eventually jump the sinking WDI ship after waiting & trying for so long, seeing no progress after tirelessly trying to get folks like Iger & Chapek to change their narrow minded ways… such a shame.
PS: I happen to ‘love’ the way Tony’s Legends Awards photo was planned. Look at which characters are placed behind Tony & Bob and think about ‘why’ that is… 😏😉😉
 

Attachments

  • 4C4D946E-E7DA-4FF5-9CB1-53ADB671765D.jpeg
    4C4D946E-E7DA-4FF5-9CB1-53ADB671765D.jpeg
    123.5 KB · Views: 217
Last edited:
Inspired Figment

Inspired Figment

Well-Known Member
Goofyernmost said:
Cost of maintenance! Imagination had continual problems with the turntable even though it was the jaw dropping part of attraction. And was one huge spark of inspiration to make it a less expensive ride that was needed due to less support from Kodak.
Click to expand...
IMO, that still doesn’t excuse them changing it the way they did…
If maintenance was such an issue and it was clearly still a popular attraction that sold tons in merch. Then why didn’t they look into trying to make the problematic parts more serviceable or cheaper to fix? I can’t imagine it would’ve cost Disney or even the sponsor ‘that’ much to fix the issues with the opening scene turntable compared to all the crap it cost to disable the turntable and alter the ride the way they did.

But again, adding that with the stupid crap they did with Honey I Shrunk the Audience to artificially lower attendance levels and not make any effort to boost marketing on Journey Into Imagination, Dreamfinder, and Figment… it makes sense why what happened, happened.
 
Last edited:
Goofyernmost

Goofyernmost

Well-Known Member
Inspired Figment said:
IMO, that still doesn’t excuse them changing it the way they did…
If maintenance was such an issue and it was clearly still a popular attraction that sold tons in merch. Then why didn’t they look into trying to make the problematic parts more serviceable or cheaper to fix? I can’t imagine it would’ve cost Disney or even the sponsor ‘that’ much to fix the issues with the opening scene turntable compared to all the crap it cost to disable the turntable and alter the ride the way they did.

But again, adding that with the stupid crap they did with Honey I Shrunk the Audience to artificially lower attendance levels and not make any effort to boost marketing on Journey Into Imagination, Dreamfinder, and Figment… it makes sense why what happened, happened.
Click to expand...
I suppose that it is possible that is how it all went down, but unless we were sitting in the board room when they made those decisions they are just random speculations, They made mistakes for sure, but at the time Disney had been a dream system of power.

Imagine this, you want a theme park and you get someone else to pay for your attractions. If they need repair you charge that same one to repair the problems. All the while you are selling admission to visitors and you keep the money.

Think about how long that lasted. That is Disney magic. When things changed they made decisions based on how it had worked for years and years. Should they have known that time was over and acted accordingly? Absolutely, but it is understandable that they would just assume that the old system would continue. Guess they couldn't see very far into the future. That's why they don't even try anymore. That is when the mission changed from giving the pubic the best show possible and making money that way to just downsize everything, cost wise, until you still have a show, but it's nothing like it once was, but they are still making billions of dollars. It will all catch up eventually but for now they will give us what they want and we will pay whatever they ask.

What that all means is that we have what we have, things that we once loved are gone and new things have jumped in to replace them. It isn't the same but being upset isn't going to change things. To me there is enough things still worth seeing again or for the first time to warrant going. The older I get the less enthusiastic I get about being there, but I still like it. If I didn't do my Disney touring the why I have for 38 years they would have priced me out completely by now.
 
IMDREW

IMDREW

Well-Known Member
E1MdTVsWUAA-I5M.jpeg

A good photo of the lights on SSE! A lot has been covered so far. I personally don't mind them and am excited for how it's gonna look. Wouldn't call it seamless though 😉. Just hope they can stay away from it looking like a giant disco ball or danceparty at night.

We've officially gone from golfball to pincushion people!
 
tparris

tparris

Well-Known Member
IMDREW said:
View attachment 556832
A good photo of the lights on SSE! A lot has been covered so far. I personally don't mind them and am excited for how it's gonna look. Wouldn't call it seamless though 😉. Just hope they can stay away from it looking like a giant disco ball or danceparty at night.

We've officially gone from golfball to pincushion people!
Click to expand...
It really is hard to see them in photos without zooming in, I’m impressed. However I’ll still have to see them in person to make a fair judgement.
 
TikibirdLand

TikibirdLand

Well-Known Member
wdwmagic said:

A look at the concrete work progress beneath Spaceship Earth at EPCOT​

www.wdwmagic.com

A look at the concrete work progress beneath Spaceship Earth at EPCOT

The new entrance concrete design is continuing further into World Celebration.
www.wdwmagic.com www.wdwmagic.com
Click to expand...
I remember, quite well, hiding out in the camera center (as it was known back then) during a torrential thunderstorm. Kids were babies at the time and I carried the two youngest while my wife carried the then 4-yr old. The rented stroller was parked outside and the wind flipped it over and sent it flying through that breezeway. At one point, we made a mad-dash for the mono-rail. Never saw so many kids crying at the same time as then. FUN TIMES :D
 
TimeTrip

TimeTrip

Well-Known Member
DreamfinderGuy said:
How are they managing Project Tomorrow's exit? Are the West facing doors blacked out? Walled off? Roped off?
Click to expand...
They are still there. From the POV of the picture taken it routes just around the right side of the wall after the planter.
They have CM's stationed at that part to prevent folks from going up that way. I had to explain that we were waiting for someone to get off of Spaceship Earth. After a little bit of an exchange, they let us back to we could wait in the Project Tomorrow exit area.
 

Register on WDWMAGIC. This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.

Back
Top Bottom