Hi All,
Regular visitors to Mouseinfo.com may be familiar with one of their featured columnists, Marcie, a true "Disney Insider" who has provided a lot of insight into the goings-on at the Disneyland Resort. Because of a new position with Disney, she will not be able to post any longer, but in her departing messsage, she gives some very interesting info:
"Now the good news. The Disneyland Resort is doing better than ever before. Under the new leadership there are many positive refurbishments and planned activities for the Resort that are either in progress or are coming down the road. I’ve never been more excited and hopeful for the future of the Resort. I’m still a little cautious about my opinion of Jay Rasulo, but I’m hopeful that Matt Ouimet will be successful in building a strong 5 and 10 year plan that he will be able to sale to Jay and Mr. Eisner in the near future. I’m sure it will be a plan that will no doubt include new attractions beyond the 50th Annivesary for both parks. And there is work in progress for expansion of Downtown Disney over the next two to three years.
First up, of course, is our 50th Anniversary. A complete reveal of the major components for the celebration will be announced on May 5 of this year. Contrary to poorly conveyed rumors stated on another website, the decision to move the date of the announcement had nothing to do with the plans for the 50th Anniversary. The decision had everything to do with the fact that senior management felt that February 23rd held no significance in relationship to media presence with the Snow White event, as well as the fact that the date was a particularly odd time to make the announcement. So for a short time, the date was moved to the park’s birthday in July. Finally it was decided to piggy-back off of the press event and leverage the major media presence that would be in attendance.
In reality most all of the elements for the 50th have been locked in place even as far back as when Cynthia was at the Resort. The only major changes that Matt has made are cutting the poorly planned DCA parade, switching the anniversary icon back from the Matterhorn to the castle and changing the opening float in the new parade. Otherwise, under Matt, the fireworks show has been scaled back from when Cynthia approved the initial concept in principle and a major chunk of money for the historic exhibit in Innoventions has been moved to fund the DCA entertainment offerings for 2005 and 2006. What’s left of the historic exhibit has been moved out of Innoventions and is now up in the air as to what it will be and where it will land.
Regardless, what has been approved, as everyone for the most part already knows, is a major new parade and fireworks show for Disneyland, all-new entertainment elements spread throughout Disney’s California Adventure (DCA) complete with a plethora of Disney Characters – including some of our newest family members recently acquired from Jim Henson Productions, and of course the grand opening of Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin and the grand reopening of Space Mountain. There are many other elements currently being finalized and are in various stages of the approval process now. Many of these smaller and newer elements will not be revealed on May 5th, but perhaps later in the year during other press events or in press releases.
On the Resort business front, attendance so far this fiscal year has far exceeded expectations and plan for both theme parks. In fact DCA is so far above plan for the fiscal year that there are some concerns now that the park may not be as prepared for the summer as originally planned once Tower of Terror opens. Gone are the days of disappointing attendance cycles. The park is officially doing very well and with the reopening of Superstar Limo on May 19th and an overhaul in atmosphere entertainment, plus the hopeful reopening of some of the currently closed restaurant locations, I’m confident that DCA is on the right track in establishing itself as a solid Disney theme park.
"The hotels are either sold out for much of the next six months or are already in the 90 percentile of occupancy in bookings. And with the new major refurbishment still in progress over at the Paradise Pier Hotel, that hotel will now finally have a stronger identity in the Disneyland Resort family of hotels. Long overdue in theming and “branding,” the hotel will now have a clear identity and connection to Disney. "
AND
"Oh, and one last thing, I’m sure most of you have read online elsewhere how DCA’s Tower of Terror is the poor stepchild to the original in Florida. That somehow in Disney’s current day way of thinking the budget has been cut to mere tens of millions. Even some comments clearly place the blame on the previous leadership under Paul Pressler for approving this “Tower light” version of the popular Florida attraction. Interestingly enough a vast majority of those who have ridden the yet-to-be opened new attraction to date agree that it is equal too if not better than the one in Florida. This is not about a comparison of which Tower is better, but rather a commentary about the poor reporting by some who just cannot pull themselves up out of the slimy muck of cynicism and bitterness.
It is a good lesson in not prejudging an attraction prior to its opening. Doesn’t this sound vaguely familiar to a similar review of Grizzly River Run? Sure I remember now, a scathing review came out about Grizzly River Run a couple of months prior to when the first actual rider went on the attraction from WDI. If the DCA [TOT]version was so “cheap” then why would the Oriental Land Company choose our layout version over the Florida model? Contrary to the reports in Amusement Business, the DCA version cost exceeds the $100 million mark. Sorry, the exact figure isn’t for public release.
Folks, you all are in for a wonderful experience and surprise on the newest version of the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror and I just had to get all that off my chest. Phew! "
Definitely read the remainder of the thread...on page two she posts additional information on Space Mtn and other future plans
http://www.miboards.com/showthread.php?p=258738#post258738
Regular visitors to Mouseinfo.com may be familiar with one of their featured columnists, Marcie, a true "Disney Insider" who has provided a lot of insight into the goings-on at the Disneyland Resort. Because of a new position with Disney, she will not be able to post any longer, but in her departing messsage, she gives some very interesting info:
"Now the good news. The Disneyland Resort is doing better than ever before. Under the new leadership there are many positive refurbishments and planned activities for the Resort that are either in progress or are coming down the road. I’ve never been more excited and hopeful for the future of the Resort. I’m still a little cautious about my opinion of Jay Rasulo, but I’m hopeful that Matt Ouimet will be successful in building a strong 5 and 10 year plan that he will be able to sale to Jay and Mr. Eisner in the near future. I’m sure it will be a plan that will no doubt include new attractions beyond the 50th Annivesary for both parks. And there is work in progress for expansion of Downtown Disney over the next two to three years.
First up, of course, is our 50th Anniversary. A complete reveal of the major components for the celebration will be announced on May 5 of this year. Contrary to poorly conveyed rumors stated on another website, the decision to move the date of the announcement had nothing to do with the plans for the 50th Anniversary. The decision had everything to do with the fact that senior management felt that February 23rd held no significance in relationship to media presence with the Snow White event, as well as the fact that the date was a particularly odd time to make the announcement. So for a short time, the date was moved to the park’s birthday in July. Finally it was decided to piggy-back off of the press event and leverage the major media presence that would be in attendance.
In reality most all of the elements for the 50th have been locked in place even as far back as when Cynthia was at the Resort. The only major changes that Matt has made are cutting the poorly planned DCA parade, switching the anniversary icon back from the Matterhorn to the castle and changing the opening float in the new parade. Otherwise, under Matt, the fireworks show has been scaled back from when Cynthia approved the initial concept in principle and a major chunk of money for the historic exhibit in Innoventions has been moved to fund the DCA entertainment offerings for 2005 and 2006. What’s left of the historic exhibit has been moved out of Innoventions and is now up in the air as to what it will be and where it will land.
Regardless, what has been approved, as everyone for the most part already knows, is a major new parade and fireworks show for Disneyland, all-new entertainment elements spread throughout Disney’s California Adventure (DCA) complete with a plethora of Disney Characters – including some of our newest family members recently acquired from Jim Henson Productions, and of course the grand opening of Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin and the grand reopening of Space Mountain. There are many other elements currently being finalized and are in various stages of the approval process now. Many of these smaller and newer elements will not be revealed on May 5th, but perhaps later in the year during other press events or in press releases.
On the Resort business front, attendance so far this fiscal year has far exceeded expectations and plan for both theme parks. In fact DCA is so far above plan for the fiscal year that there are some concerns now that the park may not be as prepared for the summer as originally planned once Tower of Terror opens. Gone are the days of disappointing attendance cycles. The park is officially doing very well and with the reopening of Superstar Limo on May 19th and an overhaul in atmosphere entertainment, plus the hopeful reopening of some of the currently closed restaurant locations, I’m confident that DCA is on the right track in establishing itself as a solid Disney theme park.
"The hotels are either sold out for much of the next six months or are already in the 90 percentile of occupancy in bookings. And with the new major refurbishment still in progress over at the Paradise Pier Hotel, that hotel will now finally have a stronger identity in the Disneyland Resort family of hotels. Long overdue in theming and “branding,” the hotel will now have a clear identity and connection to Disney. "
AND
"Oh, and one last thing, I’m sure most of you have read online elsewhere how DCA’s Tower of Terror is the poor stepchild to the original in Florida. That somehow in Disney’s current day way of thinking the budget has been cut to mere tens of millions. Even some comments clearly place the blame on the previous leadership under Paul Pressler for approving this “Tower light” version of the popular Florida attraction. Interestingly enough a vast majority of those who have ridden the yet-to-be opened new attraction to date agree that it is equal too if not better than the one in Florida. This is not about a comparison of which Tower is better, but rather a commentary about the poor reporting by some who just cannot pull themselves up out of the slimy muck of cynicism and bitterness.
It is a good lesson in not prejudging an attraction prior to its opening. Doesn’t this sound vaguely familiar to a similar review of Grizzly River Run? Sure I remember now, a scathing review came out about Grizzly River Run a couple of months prior to when the first actual rider went on the attraction from WDI. If the DCA [TOT]version was so “cheap” then why would the Oriental Land Company choose our layout version over the Florida model? Contrary to the reports in Amusement Business, the DCA version cost exceeds the $100 million mark. Sorry, the exact figure isn’t for public release.
Folks, you all are in for a wonderful experience and surprise on the newest version of the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror and I just had to get all that off my chest. Phew! "
Definitely read the remainder of the thread...on page two she posts additional information on Space Mtn and other future plans
http://www.miboards.com/showthread.php?p=258738#post258738
