Right now, the current focus of the Orlando theme parks is capacity. The parks have seen record attendance in the parks that are struggling to handle the throughput, and sustain these levels for the future. Most attention has been placed on how to handle and distribute the crowds. This includes everything from the way the parks were expanded, to what new technology has been implemented to assist with this.
Disney has to address this area first. Creating more E-ticket attractions will only add to the problem of crowds and waits. One area that Disney has shown to do poorly on with guest surveys is the crowds and waits being the biggest reason guests may not return as often as Disney would like.
Soarin' in Epcot is a different attraction. An NYC taxi driver told me that it was never designed to be a clone of Disneyland. This could explain why it was not built with a clean room for the projection. What is concerning is why has taken so long to be the attraction it was designed to be. My guess is that Futureworld is only running on 3 cylinders right now, and taking Soarin' out of service for updates without something new would hurt too much. Unfortunately, most people that ride Soarin' just don't know any better.
Theme park attendance at WDW has increased steadily each year, almost without exception. I've been critical of Iger in this respect as well. It's not like theme park attendance doubled year over year so he's kind of stuck. This has been coming for a while and part of his job is to expand the parks to offset increased crowds.
He's cramming more and more people in the parks to squeeze more margin from the turnip. However, he's not increasing capacity and content in a meaningful way to match increased attendance. I've been beating the expansion drum for years and the only thing he's done to meaningfully expand the parks is New Fantasyland, for which I've given him credit.
I've been quoted here multuiple times saying attendance and space have to be addressed, perhaps both. If we can't have the space, increase ticket prices or guest limits to bring the attendance down that way. The experience is suffering because Iger has allowed a "Wild West" WDW.
Cram as many people in as possible, close attractions, lower maintenance budget, lower quality, and increase prices on everything. That's our current WDW under Iger.
It doesn't have to be all space increases as in developing new land for each park. It could just be NOT closing entire areas of EPCOT, DHS, and add a few "crowd eater" attractions. Omnimover anyone?
Overall, Iger has done a great job sucking margin out of people. He's done a terrible job developing the parks and maintaining an incredible experience you expect from Disney.
It's a long way of saying he should have been addressing capacity the last 7-8 years, not now with things that won't be ready for several years.
