Rumor Spaceship Earth Redo Shelved Indefinitely

RSoxNo1

Well-Known Member
Disney amortizes the cost of major ride overhauls over a minimum of 20 years. So when they actually do the work has minimal impact on quarterly earnings.

View attachment 551171
This is a very important document for people to understand. It's one of the many reasons why replacing "failures" takes time. If it's a significant capital expenditure they'll get the value out of it over 20 years before they're willing to redo it.
 

KIGhostGuy

Active Member
So why does it seem to take them so much longer than has in then past to build a ride? Universal seems to move much faster. I always thought it was for cash flow reasons , but that was just a guess of coarse.
Ditto with this question. It only took Kings Island 25 months to plan, design, build, and open a 300-foot tall, 5,321 feet long coaster. It makes no sense that Disney takes five years to build and open a coaster in GOTG, and who knows how long the planning/design phase was?
 

CastAStone

5th gate? Just build a new resort Bob.
Premium Member
This is a very important document for people to understand. It's one of the many reasons why replacing "failures" takes time. If it's a significant capital expenditure they'll get the value out of it over 20 years before they're willing to redo it.
Yes or they have to accelerate the amortization. It’s almost certainly why Stitch was officially “temporarily closed” until they had a fiscal year so bad that it didn’t matter if they made it worse.
 

WondersOfLife

Blink, blink. Breathe, breathe. Day in, day out.
So why does it seem to take them so much longer than has in then past to build a ride? Universal seems to move much faster. I always thought it was for cash flow reasons , but that was just a guess of coarse.
I’d argue that Disney created too many projects to take on all at once, while Universal really only constructs one new attraction at a given time... unless it’s a totally new park or land.

On top of that, Disney seems to announce projects waaaaaay before they really should... Universal didn’t even ANNOUNCE velocicoaster until it was already a good chunk vertical.
 

Mickeynerd17

Well-Known Member
On top of that, Disney seems to announce projects waaaaaay before they really should... Universal didn’t even ANNOUNCE velocicoaster until it was already a good chunk vertical.
You have a good point. It's better to announce something that will actually happen (even if its one thing) then announce 5 things and cancel 2. The Main Street Theater comes to mind...
 

WondersOfLife

Blink, blink. Breathe, breathe. Day in, day out.
You have a good point. It's better to announce something that will actually happen (even if its one thing) then announce 5 things and cancel 2. The Main Street Theater comes to mind...
To give an example... Galaxy’s Edge was constructed in 4 years since original announcement. Pandora: The World of Avatar was announced in 2011, construction didn’t start until 2014, with an opening in 2017. 3 years of construction. New Fantasyland took about 4 years of construction as well, but was announced a year before those 4

Harry Potter was constructed in 3 years since the original announcement. Velocicoaster was (officially)announced in 2020 nearly a year after construction began, with a 2021 opening. Even though they had permits as early as 2018, it wasn’t announced until 2020.

So yea, I’d say basically... Disney needs to hold off on announcing new attractions until they are for sure going vertical, or even halfway through construction. The only reason it seems like universal does things faster is because they announce it to the public so late into the planning phases.

3-4 years seems to be the average time frame between vertical construction and opening dates for both companies (for lands and attractions) regardless of when the announcement takes place.
 

flynnibus

Premium Member
Pass.

SSE is unique in its design - and that creates problems. Being an island site means either all material for the following day needs to be brought in overnight and stored within its footprint or they have to block half of the parks entrance walkway (as has been done before)

Then you have the issue of a complicated omnimover chain at tension that’s only designed for having one, maybe two vehicles removed at once. Off track vehicle storage becomes an issue unless you store them in show scenes to clear the track. Then you’d have the problem of lifting vehicles off the track away from the 52 foot level maintenance area. Or you remove them from the building - and the only way out is either at unload (beyond the original design scope and requiring a lot of work) or as designed via the service elevator one at a time. But then, as I said, the ride wasn’t designed to have more than a few RVs removed. The omnimover tension would be lost. Vehicles waiting to be removed would have to be securely and safely parked on track lest a chain of RVs suddenly shoots downhill. Can you work from the top down? Can you send the top set of vehicles in 180top down the service elevator and store those lower down on the show area? Can you remove ride cars - and their chassis - on an incline? Possibly. It’s never been done before.

And then you have the issue of space and access due to that unique design. Anything not needed or old, and anything new, has to get into the geosphere either via the ascent and descent show tunnels, two sets of service stairs, or the (not large) service elevator. There’s no “loading dock door” to back a truck up to to unload new track.

It’s a far more complicated job than it seems. Retracking Space Mountain would be an easier task. Not least because they’re both rollercoaster designs.

Time to cut in some temporary windows/bays :)
 

WondersOfLife

Blink, blink. Breathe, breathe. Day in, day out.
Diagon Alley with Gringotts and the Hogwarts Express, along with Transformers.

I’ve a wonderful photo somewhere showing them all under simultaneous construction.
You consider Transformers a E? I feel like it’s easy for Universal to make a copycat ride of one that already exists in the park on the other side.

Still, that’s a fair point. Question. When were they announced and how long did it take to construct once it went vertical?
 

marni1971

Park History nut
Premium Member
You consider Transformers a E?
I do.

Found that photo (finally)

66FEBE6D-BABD-4471-94A8-D570AA8A0080.jpeg
 

marni1971

Park History nut
Premium Member
Still, that’s a fair point. Question. When were they announced and how long did it take to construct once it went vertical?
I’ve been trying to find the Transformers dates since it’s such a funny / great / silly story.

Building work began July 2012. Official announcement November 2012. Opened May 2013.
 
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WondersOfLife

Blink, blink. Breathe, breathe. Day in, day out.
I’ve been trying to find the Transformers dates since it’s such a funny / great / silly story.

Building work began July 2012. Official announcement November 2012. Opened May 2013.
So a couple of years for a copycat ride, that sounds understandable to me.

And Diagon Alley took about like what, 3 or 4 years?
 

WondersOfLife

Blink, blink. Breathe, breathe. Day in, day out.
Err... ten months.

Diagon was just over 3 years from the last operational day of Jaws.
I just don't give Transformers much credit since it's so similar to another attraction they had already built. Plus Transformers was already built twice in Singapore and Hollywood, so there's another leg up. Plus it's mostly screen based (and quite frankly the detail work doesn't look that impressive to me, but that's just an opinion I reckon).

In the end, it seems like both theme parks create lands & attractions, on average, between 2 to 4 years each... With Universal announcing much later in the design phase, and Disney announcing before plans even actually get officially greenlit on the dirt.
 

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