The Miscellaneous Thought Thread

[PiratesMansion]

I can kind of understand Disney looking at Dinosaur as expendable. Universal are the Dinosaur people and Disney will never compete with the Jurassic Park IP. Makes sense to leverage some of your iconic IP.

The biggest losses with these things are losing those classic voices

I do feel like an Animal theme park should have something with extinct animals/dinosaurs. Dinosaur wasn't great-I'll freely admit that-but I think if Disney was making an effort, they could try at something new and create something memorable.

"Just cave to fans and build Indy at DAK thirty minutes later" feels insultingly lazy to me at this point.

 

[mickEblu]

I do feel like an Animal theme park should have something with extinct animals/dinosaurs. Dinosaur wasn't great-I'll freely admit that-but I think if Disney was making an effort, they could try at something new and create something memorable.

"Just cave to fans and build Indy at DAK thirty minutes later" feels insultingly lazy to me at this point.

Lol yea I typed that up and never posted it because I wasn’t sure about how I felt about it yet… I just meant to post the second paragraph and it was in reference to the Countey Bears revamp

 

[TP2000]

I don't have words to fully articulate how I'm feeling, and how patronizing and shallow and stupid this all feels. Florida is working overtime to make me never want to give them a dime ever again.

The Country Bears were widely rumored to be on The List of rides/shows that Disney's new DEI committee drew up fast after that group was formed in 2020. The Bears days have been numbered for 3 years now.

That said, I agree with you. Like all the remakes made with an HR mindset instead of a Showmanship mindset, this doesn't look promising. It won't be good. It could be awful.

 

[TP2000]

So, Destination D23's Parks presentation ended hours ago. Nothing has changed. Josh may be a genuinely nice person, but he's got nothing of any substance planned for the American parks. He's not moving the needle at all. They're lost.

The Disneyland Resort segment was brief and vague. Yet another announcement that they'll build an E Ticket, eventually someday, in the expansion pad of Avengers Campus they've been publicly talking about an E Ticket for since May, 2017.

No new parades or night entertainment or Hyperion show was announced for Disneyland Resort.

Looking at the paltry list of "announcements" made for WDW today, they are truly lost. These are executive leaders who don't know how their parks work and don't know what it's like to be a paying customer trying to use them in the 2020's. It's all rethemes and reskins of existing WDW stuff. None of this adds capacity to WDW parks that have been woefully short on capacity for decades. The true acreage expansions were just another round of vague concept art for stuff that might get built sometime later this decade, or might not get built.

No bulldozers are arriving on Monday in either WDW or Disneyland Resort to start anything. It was all vague allusions to future ideas that may or may not happen.

Josh still wears tight pants. And they think we're idiots. Nothing has changed at today's Destination D23. They're lost.

 

[TP2000]

Saw CBJ at MK back in January. Theater was packed and the audience a blast. People were genuinely laughing at the jokes.

Thankfully 2023 WDI will soon be correcting this egregious error!

My grandmother on my mother's side LOVED the Country Bear Jamboree when it debuted in 1972.

But here's where that gets weird. She was a very gracious woman who had come from comfortable wealth, a native Southern Californian. She attended the Symphony regularly, donated to the various Fine Arts in her community and was on stylish ladies volunteer boards, and had a very tastefully decorated home with incredible artwork. Classical music always played softly at her dinner parties and holiday gatherings. They knew her by sight at Bullocks Wilshire, and she was always impeccably tailored.

But that woman LOVED the Country Bear Jamboree. She would clap along and stomp her feet and swoon over Big Al.

It was the funniest thing to see this elderly Lady Who Lunches to become a rootin' tootin' country girl for 15 minutes any time we went to Disneyland in the 70's. To this day, we have no idea where it came from, or why. But she loved that show.

 

[mlayton144]

So, Destination D23's Parks presentation ended hours ago. Nothing has changed. Josh may be a genuinely nice person, but he's got nothing of any substance planned for the American parks. He's not moving the needle at all. They're lost.

The Disneyland Resort segment was brief and vague. Yet another announcement that they'll build an E Ticket, eventually someday, in the expansion pad of Avengers Campus they've been publicly talking about an E Ticket for since May, 2017.

No new parades or night entertainment or Hyperion show was announced for Disneyland Resort.

Looking at the paltry list of "announcements" made for WDW today, they are truly lost. These are executive leaders who don't know how their parks work and don't know what it's like to be a paying customer trying to use them in the 2020's. It's all rethemes and reskins of existing WDW stuff. None of this adds capacity to WDW parks that have been woefully short on capacity for decades. The true acreage expansions were just another round of vague concept art for stuff that might get built sometime later this decade, or might not get built.

No bulldozers are arriving on Monday in either WDW or Disneyland Resort to start anything. It was all vague allusions to future ideas that may or may not happen.

Josh still wears tight pants. And they think we're idiots. Nothing has changed at today's Destination D23. They're lost.

The most egregious takeaway is that they have/are investing I will guess something approaching $1billion in a China theme park. Never mind the political look of this (which is terrible) , what sense does this make from a business standpoint ? Does investing in China make sense right now given their horrific economic outlook or would the billion be better spent here in the USA to feed the appetite of more affluent American population who consistently spend billions every year on that once a year Disney vacation ? No, we get reskinned attractions like Tiana and Country Bears, and blue sky announcements that may probably won’t ever see a shovel in the ground.

 

[mickEblu]

Not having the original CBJ anywhere in the US is sad

 

[mickEblu]

Top early memories of DL in no particular order:

Country Bear Playhouse (particularly Teddi Barra)
Talking Skull/ drop POTC
Stretching room Haunted Mansion
Captain EO (esp the evil queen)
America Sings
It’s a Small World

 

[TP2000]

I just checked the OC Register, always reliable to gush and shill for the latest Disneyland announcement.

The Register this afternoon has no coverage of Josh's presentation today, and didn't bother to do a story about Disney's latest non-announcement announcement of DCA's Marvel ride they've been making announcements about since 2017.

Destination D23 was a nothing burger for Disneyland fans, and seems to be a legitimate source of anger for WDW fans. Or at least anger for the WDW fans smart enough to realize almost everything Josh announced today was nothing more than a short list of overdue maintenance work. (credit to @Sirwalterraleigh for that brilliantly accurate line)

And Josh and his tight pants flew out to Orlando for that?

They're lost.

 

[MoonRakerSCM]

Saw CBJ at MK back in January. Theater was packed and the audience a blast. People were genuinely laughing at the jokes.

I too had a great time in CBJ with a pack and involved crowd during my last visit. We took my mother for her first visit and she was excited to go on CBJ being it was a favorite of her family back in the day. She had a great time with everyone hootin' and hollarin' and clapping along with the music.

She told us stories of relatives from Iowa visiting them in CA back in the day and taking them to Disneyland.. explaining how Uncle Joe sat there puzzled during CBJ... and when they got off that Uncle Joe commented "Alpha... there's men inside them there bears." "No Uncle Joe, those are robots.".... Uncle Joe frowned and shook his head "No Alpha, them's can't be robots, there are men inside those wearing bear suits and playing those instruments!"

My grandmother always chuckled how Uncle Joe never believed people could build such fantastic mechanisms to perform a show like that. CBJ reminds me of a simpler time and just having fun and enjoying simple jokes and music.

 

[PiratesMansion]

I just checked the OC Register, always reliable to gush and shill for the latest Disneyland announcement.

The Register this afternoon has no coverage of Josh's presentation today, and didn't bother to do a story about Disney's latest non-announcement announcement of DCA's Marvel ride they've been making announcements about since 2017.

Destination D23 was a nothing burger for Disneyland fans, and seems to be a legitimate source of anger for WDW fans. Or at least anger for the WDW fans smart enough to realize almost everything Josh announced today was nothing more than a short list of overdue maintenance work. (credit to @Sirwalterraleigh for that brilliantly accurate line)

And Josh and his tight pants flew out to Orlando for that?

They're lost.

Given that this D23 was in Florida, I'm not really sure why people would be expecting a ton of Disneyland announcements to happen this time around. It sure seems like most of the D23s have tailored most of their announcements around the host property (the US parks) or fancy things Disney hopes the Interntional Parks might be interested in buying and bringing over for themselves (Tokyo).

 

[TP2000]

Given that this D23 was in Florida, I'm not really sure why people would be expecting a ton of Disneyland announcements to happen this time around. It sure seems like most of the D23s have tailored most of their announcements around the host property (the US parks) or fancy things Disney hopes the Interntional Parks might be interested in buying and bringing over for themselves (Tokyo).

This was obviously going to be aimed mostly at WDW, as it should be since the WDW complex doesn't have the convention or hosting space to have a full D23 Expo on property. (They'd have to go 10 miles away to the Orlando convention center and thus lose a lot of vibe and energy being that far from Disney property)

But there's nothing new happening in either American property. The stuff Josh announced today for WDW was mostly a list of deferred maintenance items and overdue refreshes to aging rides.

There is not a single night parade in either American property, even though they comprise six theme parks. There is no show in the Hyperion Theater. They've slashed park entertainment by two thirds in the last five years, and Josh made no announcement about boosting it back up to at least 2019 levels (much less 2005 levels). There is not a single new ride under construction in any park on either coast, and Josh made no announcement date of any start to any construction.

But Josh announced a giant new cruise ship for Singapore. That's 10,000 miles away from Orlando.

Sidekick Tightpants has got nothing but that smile. And we're supposed to be happy with that and pretend this is fine?

 

[PiratesMansion]

This was obviously going to be aimed mostly at WDW, as it should be since the WDW complex doesn't have the convention or hosting space to have a full D23 Expo on property. (They'd have to go 10 miles away to the Orlando convention center and thus lose a lot of vibe and energy being that far from Disney property)

But there's nothing new happening in either American property. The stuff Josh announced today for WDW was mostly a list of deferred maintenance items and overdue refreshes to aging rides.

There is not a single night parade in either American property, even though they comprise six theme parks. There is no show in the Hyperion Theater. They've slashed park entertainment by two thirds in the last five years, and Josh made no announcement about boosting it back up to at least 2019 levels (much less 2005 levels). There is not a single new ride under construction in any park on either coast, and Josh made no announcement date of any start to any construction.

But Josh announced a giant new cruise ship for Singapore. That's 10,000 miles away from Orlando.

Sidekick Tightpants has got nothing but that smile. And we're supposed to be happy with that and pretend this is fine?

You don't say.

 

[Disney Irish]

So, Destination D23's Parks presentation ended hours ago. Nothing has changed. Josh may be a genuinely nice person, but he's got nothing of any substance planned for the American parks. He's not moving the needle at all. They're lost.

The Disneyland Resort segment was brief and vague. Yet another announcement that they'll build an E Ticket, eventually someday, in the expansion pad of Avengers Campus they've been publicly talking about an E Ticket for since May, 2017.

No new parades or night entertainment or Hyperion show was announced for Disneyland Resort.

Looking at the paltry list of "announcements" made for WDW today, they are truly lost. These are executive leaders who don't know how their parks work and don't know what it's like to be a paying customer trying to use them in the 2020's. It's all rethemes and reskins of existing WDW stuff. None of this adds capacity to WDW parks that have been woefully short on capacity for decades. The true acreage expansions were just another round of vague concept art for stuff that might get built sometime later this decade, or might not get built.

No bulldozers are arriving on Monday in either WDW or Disneyland Resort to start anything. It was all vague allusions to future ideas that may or may not happen.

Josh still wears tight pants. And they think we're idiots. Nothing has changed at today's Destination D23. They're lost.

While its always nice when they have a "One more thing" type announcement, but Destination D23 has been mostly about giving an update on existing projects and giving hints toward the future. Its D23 Expo, now called D23 The Ultimate Fan Event, where major new project announcements occur.

So there shouldn't have been any expectation for any new major project to be announced.

Also they did announce new nighttime entertainment earlier this week for Disneyland debuting at the end of the month, The Heartbeat of New Orleans, while its not a new nighttime parade its something.

https://disneyland.disney.go.com/entertainment/disneyland/queenie-and-the-jambalaya-jazz-band/

 

[TP2000]

So there shouldn't have been any expectation for any new major project to be announced.

Your willingness to accept ever-lowering levels of mediocrity is impressive.

You want to talk up the Princess Asha meet n' greet plywood cutout this November next? Josh said it will be immersive.

 

[mickEblu]

So my 7 year old son who picked my uncles pool over Disneyland a couple months ago randomly muttered to me last night… “I don’t like Knotts.” I started laughing and asked why. It came down to the fact that Disneyland has better rides and Knotts doesn’t have “any characters to love people.” Of course it doesn’t help that we often have DL Vlogs playing on TV or his dad has a Disneyland shrine in his office constantly serving up reminders of his favorite place. It also probably didn’t help that I framed Knotts as as a sort of DL replacement while we take a break.

My daughter also frequently points at the TV and says “Daddy you take me dere, peeease?” Of course my wife looks over at me with that look saying you “made a mistake” as she was the one who wanted me to renew. 3 weeks and already the whole family has FOMO. I feel the most regret for my daughter as she was just really starting to love the place. My son, wife and I have had our fill for a while.

 

[Californian Elitist]

While its always nice when they have a "One more thing" type announcement, but Destination D23 has been mostly about giving an update on existing projects and giving hints toward the future. Its D23 Expo, now called D23 The Ultimate Fan Event, where major new project announcements occur.

So there shouldn't have been any expectation for any new major project to be announced.

Also they did announce new nighttime entertainment earlier this week for Disneyland debuting at the end of the month, The Heartbeat of New Orleans, while its not a new nighttime parade its something.

https://disneyland.disney.go.com/entertainment/disneyland/queenie-and-the-jambalaya-jazz-band/

I expected to hear nothing.

I’m content.

 

[Disney Irish]

Your willingness to accept ever-lowering levels of mediocrity is impressive.

You want to talk up the Princess Asha meet n' greet plywood cutout this November next? Josh said it will be immersive.

Look I would have LOVED a new major project announcement to have occurred today, especially for DLR. But I knew going in that it wasn't likely going to happen so I didn't set myself up for disappointment. I'm just happy that they confirmed that the Avengers E-Ticket is still happening.

I learned a LONG time ago I have to temper my expectations when it comes to things surrounding Disney.

You call it accepting lower levels of mediocrity, I call it not having high expectations and then being broken-hearted and disappointed when those high expectations aren't met.

 

[Californian Elitist]

Look I would have LOVED a new major project announcement to have occurred today, especially for DLR. But I knew going in that it wasn't likely going to happen so I didn't set myself up for disappointment. I'm just happy that they confirmed that the Avengers E-Ticket is still happening.

I learned a LONG time ago I have to temper my expectations when it comes to things surrounding Disney.

You call it accepting lower levels of mediocrity, I call it not having high expectations and then being broken-hearted and disappointed when those high expectations aren't met.

I call it being realistic.

 

[TP2000]

You call it accepting lower levels of mediocrity, I call it not having high expectations and then being broken-hearted and disappointed when those high expectations aren't met.

Yes, because the way Disneyland became successful with the public was by keeping standards mediocre and expectations low.

A fascinating way to rewrite the 68 year old history of Disneyland, if I do say so.