Soaring Over the Horizon?

[PeterAlt]

Now that we know that SDL will have Soaring Over the Horizon as its Soaring attraction, logic only dictates that this Soaring film will open in parallel at EC. Anyone care to speculate on the details?

 

[marni1971]

Logic dictates plenty of things.

Depends how logical places want to be.

 

[PeterAlt]

Logic dictates plenty of things.

Depends how logical places want to be.

Seeing they're cloning 7DMT for SDL, I would assume they would take every opportunity possible to take advantage of Chinese footing the bill for new attractions that could be cloned and built State-side. Soaring is an obvious target.

 

[marni1971]

You'd hope.

But TDO weren't exactly receptive to Star Tours 2. Their track record preceded them.

 

[PeterAlt]

You'd hope.

But TDO weren't exactly receptive to Star Tours 2. Their track record preceded them.

That is consistent with what I keep hearing here and over at Micechat - that TDO routinely opts to keep an attraction open, rather than shut it down for a lengthy rehab that would improve an attraction (in addition to regular maintenance), while TDA is the total opposite (always making everything better).

I understand their reluctance to close popular attractions. These attractions continue being popular mostly, I think, because most people have no idea how much better their west coast counterparts have gotten. If they knew, people would either complain, or opt to vacation at DLR instead (I bet a lot have).

TDO needs to understand that their lack of interest in updating existing attractions will cost them in long term customer loyalty. I'm sure they see things like P.T. Barnum saw things: "A sucker is born every minute."

On top of that, they are also facing increased competition from USO, which they haven't really taken seriously. The attendance numbers for WDW continue to be high, while attendance numbers for USO get higher at an accelerated pace. As long as their figures aren't going down, TDO doesn't care. The fact that USO's attendance is increasing at an accelerated pace means that the Orlando theme parks and resorts market is growing. If the market is growing and WDW is just standing their ground, then TDO is actually doing horribly - and they need to reverse their reluctance to improve existing attractions, and invest more in new ones. If their attendance growth was equal or more than that of USO, that number would actually be big enough to justify a fifth gate. If their attendance growth numbers could justify a fifth gate, it's a whole park's worth of operating revenue lost!

 

[Bairstow]

Would it really make any sense to bring Soaring offline to replace the film when it's still drawing in over-capacity crowds every day?

Perhaps this second Soaring film could be used to replace the Imagination pavilion if the rumors of its closing after Christmas are true.