The Spirited Seventh Heaven ...

[BrerJon]

Seriously… hashtag culture can go the way of Billy batts. Shinebox!

I love how Twitter seems to be full of people snarkily mourning the hat and weeping crocodile tears.. man that thing was hated!

Found this quote from Pirates of the Caribbean (couldn't find the clip) which is quite prescient given today's two news items:

Barbossa: I want 50 per cent of ye plunder.
Jack Sparrow: 15.
Barbossa: 40.
Jack Sparrow: 25.
Barbossa: [considering]
Jack Sparrow: And I'll buy you the hat. A really BIG one... Commodore.

 

[BrerJon]

Is SDL's Enchanted Storybook Castle too big?

That's one Big Castle.

 

[Gabe1]

Ah, time for a graph.

View attachment 71358

When folks are not grasping the impact of dollars, your breakdowns and graphs force feeds the data, if they like it or not! Kudos.

 

[Mike S]

Is SDL's Enchanted Storybook Castle too big?

 

[Gabe1]

I love how Twitter seems to be full of people snarkily mourning the hat and weeping crocodile tears.. man that thing was hated!

Found this quote from Pirates of the Caribbean (couldn't find the clip) which is quite prescient given today's two news items:

Barbossa: I want 50 per cent of ye plunder.
Jack Sparrow: 15.
Barbossa: 40.
Jack Sparrow: 25.
Barbossa: [considering]
Jack Sparrow: And I'll buy you the hat. A really BIG one... Commodore.

When the good news was breaking, before it hit multiple threads here, the petition to save the hat had already been launched. I wonder how many of these tweeters even remember or have seen the original imagineered perspective of the theater? My 22 year old can't remember the hat not being there and she started visiting the parks at 2 months of age, 9 when the hat debuted.

 

[the.dreamfinder]

Hey now!

 

[BrerJon]

When the good news was breaking, before it hit multiple threads here, the petition to save the hat had already been launched. I wonder how many of these tweeters even remember or have seen the original imagineered perspective of the theater? My 22 year old can't remember the hat not being there and she started visiting the parks at 2 months of age, 9 when the hat debuted.

From what I can see the petition is ironic.

 

[bhg469]

From what I can see the petition is ironic.

I cant tell.. These stupid wdw tweeters are so difficult to read. I really feel like a lot of them actually like the hat.

 

[Gabe1]

Is SDL's Enchanted Storybook Castle too big?

It is not too Big if they are using Cinderella's as a yardstick in the MK.

Not too Big given, Bibbidi Bobbidi, character meals, projection and firework shows in addition to having added a stage. They are building a venue within capacity that Cinderella's can't achieve. A grand castle large enough not to create gridlock with limited access to the Bibbidi and dining areas. Plus the ability to have passage through the castle during the various shows. Bonus, it will create a courtyard large enough to have a high volume of guests viewing the castle for fireworks and stage type shows without guests having to plop their butts down 2 hours in advance to safeguard a spot to see a parade.

No matter how many times Disney re-imagineers the MK's Hub, they will never achieve what this large castle will do. In the end there is not adequate acreage in the MK to stuff all the guests for the entertainment Disney attempts to cram into the Hub and Courtyard. SDL should correct all these missteps.

 

[dhall]

so to kill the Disney/UNiversal/Marvel talk once and for all. SEC Annual report.

Would that it were so.

Someone is going to read the last sentence and jump to the conclusion that it applies to the entire agreement and not just the subsidiary agreement. They'll probably even use phrases like "clearly spelled out in USC's SEC paperwork" and "right there in black and white".

 

[ford91exploder]

Agreed. Both to the January-March timeframe when we might see the first bulldozer and glimmer of site prep, and that the timeframe on the whole DHS project takes us out to the end of the decade, if not 2020 or later.

As a reminder to those who may not have been around, or have forgotten, here's how the DCA Extreme Makeover went down timing-wise:

Fall, 2005 - Backstage clearing and prep work begins for Toy Story Midway Mania
October, 2006 - Construction walls go up Onstage for Toy Story Midway Mania
Winter/Spring, 2007 - Al Lutz breaks series of articles on his blog about a massive park-wide project to redo DCA, including a name change
October 17th, 2007 - Bob Iger announces a 1.2 Billion Dollar project to rebuild and rebrand DCA, capped by Cars Land in 2012.
June, 2008 - Toy Story Midway Mania opens, but was not part of 1.2 Billion Dollar budget approved 9 months earlier
Winter, 2009 - Major reconstruction and demolition begins throughout Paradise Pier
June, 2010 - World of Color premieres
September, 2010 - Buena Vista Street construction begins
Spring, 2011 - Paradise Gardens and Goofy's Sky School open
May, 2011 - The Little Mermaid ride opens
June 15, 2012 - Cars Land, Buena Vista Street and the new Disney California Adventure opens

So that's about five years from the Bob Iger press announcement on 10/17/07 to the grand reopening ribbon cutting on 6/15/12. It cost well over a Billion dollars, perhaps 1.5 Billion, especially when you add Midway Mania and World of Color.

And that got DCA five (5) all new rides, three other rides re-themed/re-skinned, one new night spectacular, a fabulously swanky restaurant, and a whole lot of pretty buildings, theme changes, and aesthetic upgrades throughout the park.

What does DHS need to get up to at least DCA's current level of offerings? 1.5 Billion like DCA got? More than 1.5 Billion?

Around 4 Billion at current WDI rates (1.5 billion at UNI)

 

[the.dreamfinder]

It is not too Big if they are using Cinderella's as a yardstick in the MK.

Not too Big given, Bibbidi Bobbidi, character meals, projection and firework shows in addition to having added a stage. They are building a venue within capacity that Cinderella's can't achieve. A grand castle large enough not to create gridlock with limited access to the Bibbidi and dining areas. Plus the ability to have passage through the castle during the various shows. Bonus, it will create a courtyard large enough to have a high volume of guests viewing the castle for fireworks and stage type shows without guests having to plop their butts down 2 hours in advance to safeguard a spot to see a parade.

No matter how many times Disney re-imagineers the MK's Hub, they will never achieve what this large castle will do. In the end there is not adequate acreage in the MK to stuff all the guests for the entertainment Disney attempts to cram into the Hub and Courtyard. SDL should correct all these missteps.

It's a question of human scale. This castle is being made so large to fulfill one man's ego. The BBB, Dining and M,G&G functions could have been executed with foresight in a manner that would allow for a castle with a human scale taking in account their past experiences.

 

[Mike S]

It's a question of human scale. This castle is being made so large to fulfill one man's ego. The BBB, Dining and M,G&G functions could have been executed with foresight in a manner that would allow for a castle with a human scale taking in account their past experiences.

It will look great though. Can't deny that.

 

[PhotoDave219]

When the good news was breaking, before it hit multiple threads here, the petition to save the hat had already been launched. I wonder how many of these tweeters even remember or have seen the original imagineered perspective of the theater? My 22 year old can't remember the hat not being there and she started visiting the parks at 2 months of age, 9 when the hat debuted.

It is slacktivism at its finest. It is hashtag culture. It is their way of "doing something" and looking important. It's more about attention for the person typing it into the computer rather than the cause itself.

Of course these are people still don't realize that the lighting design on the front side of spaceship Earth is still all screwed up… But then they would actually have to go to the parks and deal with people.

 

[the.dreamfinder]

It will look great though. Can't deny that.

Meh

 

[PhotoDave219]

... not to mention a significant increase in park-to-park ticket sales. I believe you predicted that the need to a park-to-park ticket to ride the Hogwart's Express would be a major problem for Uni.

Which it is not.

 

[stevehousse]

I still say MK needs a full-fledged Pirates restaurant, with a Black Pearl theme and perhaps a floor show. Could be killer.

In one of the BOG FP rant threads we discussed this. During the holiday last year they had a buffet dinner with pirates characters. This would be awesome if it was year round!

Is SDL's Enchanted Storybook Castle too big?

Yes it is huge but with princess meet n greets, biddi boutique, a restaurant, and a ride, it seems like it will be pretty cool...

 

[Cesar R M]

Guess you missed the part where Uni's theme park earnings where up 18.7% year over year. Anyone who doesn't regularly read message boards would have had no idea about the hype surrounding Gringotts.

At this point I think 99% of the entire forum knows to never take SJ's comments serious.

Has he gone to WDW yet?

 

[lazyboy97o]

I think those "many park patrons" he was talking about were some of us who followed every detail of construction, listened to the insiders gush about the tech and concept, and created a ride in our heads that could not possibly live up to expectations... sort of like the numbers UNI expected which by all accounts were incredibly unrealistic... The many let down were not as many as he thinks... or wants to, it seems.

God himself could come down from the Heavens and declare it the greatest ride on earth and he'd still claim Seven Dwarfs Mine Train is clearly better.

 

[Goofyernmost]

At this point, I don't think it's possible for Disney to do enough. They're so unbelievably behind and stale at WDW that it would take billions and billions of dollars to get their parks up to the standards enjoyed at other resorts, let alone to the cutting edge they once were.

WDW is far from behind just because Uni added Harry Potter. Give that a few years and see how stale it gets. WDW is still way ahead with four parks, two water parks, two miniature golf courses, boating, golf, monorails, trains, boats, hotels, restaurants and Cirque, plus other things in DtD.

I've said it before and I will say it again, it is only stale to those of us that are obsessed with the place and have been there more times then we can even count. Of course, it's stale to us. We are to familiar with the place. Disney, in reality, has already done way more then Uni will probably be able to do considering the confines and the cost to expand their property. It will take years for Uni to come even with what is available in WDW. Two sections of one IP do not a player make. It does put them a step closer, but, it is not a final blow by any means. If what Spirit said about pending cuts to more expansion of major influence at Uni is true, and I have no reason to doubt it, then it will stay that way for the foreseeable future. And this is coming from a fan of Universal. I think what they have done they have done as well as, if not better in some cases, then Disney ever did. It just that the fact that Disney had such a huge start over Universal that catching up is going to be much more difficult for them then Disney upgrading and adding over time to maintain.