The World's Most Magical Celebration - Walt Disney World's 50th anniversary

DisneyDean97

Well-Known Member
Which, unfortunately, is what they're still doing. While it may be an improvement over that time period, they're currently spending a lot of money on EPCOT to make the park worse in some ways, and even the things that are "better" (at least in terms of adding capacity) are generally not good fits for the park. Harmonious is a disaster.

Toy Story Land is one of the worst things they've ever built at WDW -- it did at least add capacity, but that's about the only positive thing to say about it. Pandora was a good addition. Galaxy's Edge is fine but ultimately disappointing outside of Rise (especially for what they spent on it). Even MMRR, which is a fine ride, was essentially treading water by replacing a ride instead of adding any new capacity to a park that needs it.

They're absolutely spending money, they just continue to spend it relatively poorly.
I agree, I think the last good addition Disney built for WDW was Pandora. Granted they cheapened out on the boat ride, but FoP is impressive, the overall land is impressive, helped Animal Kingdom stay open later and really gave the park a shot in the arm to feel worth going to again. Can't say the same for any of the other most recent additions. For what they spent and the amount of land it takes up, Galaxy Edge seems like a bust, obviously Rise is impressive but I don't know if that still justifies the whole land. And yeah.. TSL is just... tacky. Would have loved to see a new spin on a Toontown.
 

TTA94

Well-Known Member
For the newer members that are wondering what was/is still on the table for the 50th, there is the rumor tracker thread.

 

CastAStone

5th gate? Just build a new resort Bob.
Premium Member
Toy Story Land is one of the worst things they've ever built at WDW -- it did at least add capacity,
If I understand the capacities correctly, adding a 3rd track to TSM added about 450/hr, AS2 is around 600/ hour if both sides are working, and SDD is around 900 an hour.

So between the two new rides and the TSM expansion they added the equivalent of 1 Sunset Blvd ride.
 

UNCgolf

Well-Known Member
If I understand the capacities correctly, adding a 3rd track to TSM added about 450/hr, AS2 is around 600/ hour if both sides are working, and SDD is around 900 an hour.

So between the two new rides and the TSM expansion they added the equivalent of 1 Sunset Blvd ride.

Yeah, I think Martin was comparing it to the capacity of the Studio Backlot Tour and saying it didn't really add capacity compared to that.
 

Magic Feather

Well-Known Member
If I understand the capacities correctly, adding a 3rd track to TSM added about 450/hr, AS2 is around 600/ hour if both sides are working, and SDD is around 900 an hour.

So between the two new rides and the TSM expansion they added the equivalent of 1 Sunset Blvd ride.
I believe all of those numbers are lower than the actual ones.
 

UNCgolf

Well-Known Member
I agree, I think the last good addition Disney built for WDW was Pandora. Granted they cheapened out on the boat ride, but FoP is impressive, the overall land is impressive, helped Animal Kingdom stay open later and really gave the park a shot in the arm to feel worth going to again. Can't say the same for any of the other most recent additions. For what they spent and the amount of land it takes up, Galaxy Edge seems like a bust, obviously Rise is impressive but I don't know if that still justifies the whole land. And yeah.. TSL is just... tacky. Would have loved to see a new spin on a Toontown.

I have a soft spot for the boat ride -- enjoy Flight of Passage and think it's a very good ride, but if I could walk on either ride as much as I wanted for an hour I'd probably ride NRJ 2-3x more than FoP. I think it's because NRJ's physical sets just feel more real than FoP; more like I've actually been transported somewhere.

It absolutely has issues. It's too short and lacks AAs. But I still like it more than most other rides they've built in the last decade.
 

CastAStone

5th gate? Just build a new resort Bob.
Premium Member
I believe all of those numbers are lower than the actual ones.
Could be! The source for the TSM number is an old Touring Plans blog post, but that could well be OHRC. The other two are widely around the Internet but I certainly wouldn’t personally vouch for the accuracy of any of them. I’ve also seen SDD listed as 1440 but that would require 45 second dispatches which seems exceedingly optimistic.
 

UNCgolf

Well-Known Member
Could be! The source for the TSM number is an old Touring Plans blog post, but that could well be OHRC. The other two are widely around the Internet but I certainly wouldn’t personally vouch for the accuracy of any of them. I’ve also seen SDD listed as 1440 but that would require 45 second dispatches which seems exceedingly optimistic.

I've seen that 1440 SDD number too -- I assume that's the theoretical hourly capacity if everything was operating at peak efficiency, which is basically never the case.
 

Magic Feather

Well-Known Member
Could be! The source for the TSM number is an old Touring Plans blog post, but that could well be OHRC. The other two are widely around the Internet but I certainly wouldn’t personally vouch for the accuracy of any of them. I’ve also seen SDD listed as 1440 but that would require 45 second dispatches which seems exceedingly optimistic.
Slinky OHRC hits over 1000, minimum. I remember that being a bit of a struggle at first, but it (actually a number a little higher) now acts as the baseline for acceptable ops.
 

The Rocketeer

Well-Known Member
From what I've seen online, Orlando's Toy Story Land is somewhat better than the TSL/TSPLs in Paris, Hong Kong, and Shanghai, though it could use a lot of improvement. The main problem, aside from the lack of any shade, is that it is overhyped. It's a decent supporting land, but it's being stretched as one of the main draws of the park and clearly wasn't designed to get the wait times that it does. It should've been the last addition of the overhaul of the park, not the first but... it would've been cancelled just like the mini Cars Land/Radiator Springs Racers or the Monster's Inc door coaster or whatever they were going to add after Galaxy's Edge before they apparently just gave up.
 

Bocabear

Well-Known Member
From what I've seen online, Orlando's Toy Story Land is somewhat better than the TSL/TSPLs in Paris, Hong Kong, and Shanghai, though it could use a lot of improvement. The main problem, aside from the lack of any shade, is that it is overhyped. It's a decent supporting land, but it's being stretched as one of the main draws of the park and clearly wasn't designed to get the wait times that it does. It should've been the last addition of the overhaul of the park, not the first but... it would've been cancelled just like the mini Cars Land/Radiator Springs Racers or the Monster's Inc door coaster or whatever they were going to add after Galaxy's Edge before they apparently just gave up.
It would have been nice if they had packed TSL with a lot of smaller attractions like the parachute drop, The Half pipe coaster thing and a real honest to goodness Pizza Planet restaurant...in addition to what they currently have... They just don't go far enough...
Even Pandora...Needs one more attraction... Everything feels like the bare minimum...
 

UNCgolf

Well-Known Member
It would have been nice if they had packed TSL with a lot of smaller attractions like the parachute drop, The Half pipe coaster thing and a real honest to goodness Pizza Planet restaurant...in addition to what they currently have... They just don't go far enough...
Even Pandora...Needs one more attraction... Everything feels like the bare minimum...

The design of Slinky Dog Dash may be the biggest problem with TSL. It sprawls out over a huge area that could have been used for multiple things. Its footprint is almost as large as all the exterior areas of Galaxy's Edge.

It'd be one thing if it was a major E-ticket headlining attraction and took up that much space, but it's just a fun family coaster. Solid ride, but not something that should eat up such a gigantic portion of a land.
 
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Magic Feather

Well-Known Member
The design of Slinky Dog Dash may be the biggest problem with TSL. It sprawls out over a huge area that could have been used for multiple things. Its footprint is almost as large as all the exterior areas of Galaxy's Edge.

It'd be one thing if it was a major E-ticket headlining attraction and took up that much space, but it's just a fun family coaster. Solid ride, but not something that should eat up such a gigantic portion of a land.
The issue with Slinky's footprint isn't its size; it's the fact that it is the only thing occupying its footprint. IMO, the answer to DHS's lack of B/C tickets is to give TSL a huge flat ride package. A Critter Carousel, reskinned TriceraTop Spin, and a Flik's Flyers/Emotional Whirlwind reskin all throughout the rides course. Put one inside the first turn after the launch, one in the u-turn after the helix, and one in the turn after the second launch. Increases DHS ride count by ~33% and fills a big hole in the current line up.
 

UNCgolf

Well-Known Member
The issue with Slinky's footprint isn't its size; it's the fact that it is the only thing occupying its footprint. IMO, the answer to DHS's lack of B/C tickets is to give TSL a huge flat ride package. A Critter Carousel, reskinned TriceraTop Spin, and a Flik's Flyers/Emotional Whirlwind reskin all throughout the rides course. Put one inside the first turn after the launch, one in the u-turn after the helix, and one in the turn after the second launch. Increases DHS ride count by ~33% and fills a big hole in the current line up.

That's what I meant when I said the space could be used for multiple things -- that it was underutilized by only hosting the one attraction. I wasn't implying that SDD couldn't be part of that utilization.

I don't think it's possible to do that now as a retrofit without redoing SDD itself, but I could be wrong. You'd know more than me.
 
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Magic Feather

Well-Known Member
I don't think it's possible to do that now as a retrofit without redoing SDD itself.
Au contraire:
TSL Overlay.png

Red Boxes are locations where a path could cross under the track with enough clearance to access the pads (provided that some kind of cover is placed above guests for safety purposes. With the exception of brief closures of Slinky to accommodate the parts of construction that would get pretty close to the track, it could be done without modifying Slinky or closing it. Now: will this happen? Probably no chance. But it's cool to think about the kinetic potential.
 

UNCgolf

Well-Known Member
Au contraire:View attachment 548744
Red Boxes are locations where a path could cross under the track with enough clearance to access the pads (provided that some kind of cover is placed above guests for safety purposes. With the exception of brief closures of Slinky to accommodate the parts of construction that would get pretty close to the track, it could be done without modifying Slinky or closing it. Now: will this happen? Probably no chance. But it's cool to think about the kinetic potential.

If they ever actually did this it would be a huge improvement (as you suggested, I'd be absolutely shocked if they did). I still think the land would be mediocre at best, but it would be a nice boost to DHS capacity which is desperately needed.

However, if they'd actually designed the land this way originally (as they should have) it would have cascading benefits. Alien Swirling Saucers would no longer be necessary because of the other flat rides, which means they could have used that land for something better. Ideally some sort of dark ride or other higher level attraction, but even a table service restaurant and a Toy Story toy store or something like that would be nice and give the land somewhere else for people to go.
 

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