Toy Story Land expansion announced for Disney's Hollywood Studios

[yensidtlaw1969]

Imagine if Runaway Railway was being built elsewhere and we still had GMR.

Don't tease

It should have been so obvious, put Mickey in Animation Courtyard for his big Premiere, take down The Great Movie Ride for a refurb if you must (I think it could have stood the way it was, but I wouldn't have begrudged it some love) and then pop them both open in time for Star Wars next year.

I'm ready to love the new Mickey Ride, but it's a total tragedy that GMR got the boot. And it's not like the park didn't - doesn't - need it.

 

[Goofyernmost]

The number of things DHS has to do at the moment is r e p r e h e n s i b l y low. It's not even worth the counterpoint. That we've arrived at this point in 2018 is beyond . . . well, it's just beyond. Whoever let the park wilt its way to this anemic state should be fired.

That taking down one attraction, even if only for a week, can bring the 29 year old park formally known as the Disney MGM Studios down to a level below that of early days DCA and Disney Studios Paris is totally unprecidented and completely despicable.

Galaxy's Edge and Runaway Railway can't come soon enough.

Well, I think we all are aware of that, but, instead of being righteously indignant perhaps remember that the reason that ride is being shut down for a single week is in preparation to open one of the lands that are going to help change all that. Since you didn't mention it by name, my guess is that you personally don't care about TSL, but, unfortunately they didn't consult any of us before they made their decision to build it. And, surprisingly, I think it is going to be a hit with families.

Do you still believe in the actual existence of pixie dust that can magically create all the things you want overnight? Probably not, but, to use the argument that they let it go... well, that fact has been the object of scorn for a long, long time. There is a good chance that the people that made those decisions to let it go are either no longer with the company or are there in a highly diminished roll. The point is that everyone seems to think that doing a lot all at once to try and gain ground is a bad thing when just a few short months ago they hadn't done a thing in about a decade. We will call that the "Disney Declining Decade". What was... was! What is happening now is to correct that problem. So I guess it's damned if you do and damned if you don't. No wonder TWDC ignores us... nothing makes anyone happy.

 

[yensidtlaw1969]

Well, I think we all are aware of that, but, instead of being righteously indignant perhaps remember that the reason that ride is being shut down for a single week is in preparation to open one of the lands that are going to help change all that. Since you didn't mention it by name, my guess is that you personally don't care about TSL, but, unfortunately they didn't consult any of us before they made their decision to build it. And, surprisingly, I think it is going to be a hit with families.

Do you still believe in the actual existence of pixie dust that can magically create all the things you want overnight? Probably not, but, to use the argument that they let it go... well, that fact has been the object of scorn for a long, long time. There is a good chance that the people that made those decisions to let it go are either no longer with the company or are there in a highly diminished roll. The point is that everyone seems to think that doing a lot all at once to try and gain ground is a bad thing when just a few short months ago they hadn't done a thing in about a decade. We will call that the "Disney Declining Decade". What was... was! What is happening now is to correct that problem. So I guess it's damned if you do and damned if you don't. No wonder TWDC ignores us... nothing makes anyone happy.

With the park in this state - no matter who's responsible, and whether they're still with the company or not - Disney should be doing backflips to get the park running at a high level. Certainly it should have been easier to not let it get to this point in the first place, but they did, and now they're behind schedule opening an over-marketed new land with 2 low capacity attractions . . . positioned as one of the big saves of the park.

I get that they need to close Toy Story Mania for a bit in the advent of the land's coming opening, that's not really my problem. That they let the park slide to such a point that it's closure will leave effectively 3 rides and a couple 20+ year old shows (some of which I love . . . shoutout to MuppetVision) open to the people who visit that week. Never in the history of Walt Disney World has a park been in as desperate shape as DHS will be that week . . . and prices have never been higher. God forbid anything else sees any unforeseen downtime!

I get that this is where we're at and things will be on the upswing soon, but it's unreal to think a company with as much money and experience as Disney let the park fall to ruin the way it has. It's about to hit the lowest of the low. I don't expect E-Tickets to pop up overnight but it shouldn't have been unreasonable for someone to look 4 years ago and say "you know, maybe we should fast track some C and D tickets around the park so there's something to do when we're in the thick of our makeover". Unless that's what they consider Toy Story Land, but even that is causing it's own closures and has had its opening pushed back. Too little, too late! Even some new entertainment would have been refreshing - throw SOMETHING together to keep things lively in the park. DCA went through a bigger transformation and somehow that was still handled better than what's happening here. There's no good reason for the state the park is in.

I'm looking forward to what comes out of this mess but wow, it didn't need to get THIS messy. It seems like mismanagement of epic proportions - certainly the likes of which have never been seen in WDW before. That seems worth identifying.

 

[the.dreamfinder]

Why didn’t DHS get a new daytime parade during the construction period?

 

[GlacierGlacier]

Why didn’t DHS get a new daytime parade during the construction period?

Because Star Wars was apparently enough in the minds of leadership there. With the regularity of the marches, it'd be difficult to throw in a full parade there too.

 

[marni1971]

One more then they had when the park opened. How quickly we forget!

And amazingly it took a day to see it all in 1989/90.

 

[doctornick]

Why didn’t DHS get a new daytime parade during the construction period?

I really still don't understand this. A daytime parade to hype of would not only compliment the existing (and future) offerings but would really help to dampen the complaints of the park not having enough to do. And a new one could have been build quickly enough to be ready and running by now if it had been greenlit when the rest of the park plans were set in motion.

 

[HauntedMansionFLA]

I really still don't understand this. A daytime parade to hype of would not only compliment the existing (and future) offerings but would really help to dampen the complaints of the park not having enough to do. And a new one could have been build quickly enough to be ready and running by now if it had been greenlit when the rest of the park plans were set in motion.

They are using The March Of The First Order to fill in fir the parade. And people go nuts for it. A daytime parade would be nice. It’s hard to believe the MK is only park that has one.

 

[Goofyernmost]

And amazingly it took a day to see it all in 1989/90.

Still does if you go to everything, but, I suspect that most of us on these boards have been many times and are more selective and don't want to experience everything.

Let's face it... in it's reality state the only way that they can handle the perceived cost discrepancy is to close the park completely. When all that people have to do is take responsibility for themselves and not go if they know that there isn't going to be much there to see. Can you imagine the uproar then... my god... no ToT, no RcRC, no Indy, no Muppets, no shows, no Star Tours, no fun dining areas no fireworks or Fantasmic. All that there would be left to do is just spend that day at a different park until the DHS upgrade is complete. You cannot charge less for DHS with multi-day tickets when there is no requirement that they go there. So, if you or anyone has a solution to the problem, please present it. Don't just moan about the lessened availability during the upgrade. It's the eggs that they break to make an omelet. No matter how long it took them to get around to making that omelet.

 

[yensidtlaw1969]

Still does if you go to everything, but, I suspect that most of us on these boards have been many times and are more selective and don't want to experience everything.

Let's face it... in it's reality state the only way that they can handle the perceived cost discrepancy is to close the park completely. When all that people have to do is take responsibility for themselves and not go if they know that there isn't going to be much there to see. Can you imagine the uproar then... my god... no ToT, no RcRC, no Indy, no Muppets, no shows, no Star Tours, no fun dining areas no fireworks or Fantasmic. All that there would be left to do is just spend that day at a different park until the DHS upgrade is complete. You cannot charge less for DHS with multi-day tickets when there is no requirement that they go there. So, if you or anyone has a solution to the problem, please present it. Don't just moan about the lessened availability during the upgrade. It's the eggs that they break to make an omelet. No matter how long it took them to get around to making that omelet.

I love how it's our jobs to find the fix to their park! But many of us have suggested things, and many times over. It takes no time at all to come up with a better roadmap for this makeover.

Step one would have been to not close so many things while new attractions were nowhere near ready to come online. If The Great Movie Ride were closing June 30th instead of back in August the park would have felt like it was making a trade. Maybe that wouldn't have given enough time to get it open at the same time as Star Wars, but hey! They could have built the Mickey Ride ANYWHERE else and not run into the issue of killing any action at the center of the park. It's not like the DHS doesn't have dead spots to fill, or a Courtyard dedicated to Animation that could have used the Mickey Ride.

I get them not wanting to close the park - they didn't for DCA and that makeover was WAY more invasive to guest areas (if less so to attraction count).

I also get that Disney ins't the kind of company that's going to offer a discounted rate to one of their parks no matter what the reason. Kinda would have been useful here, but I know it was never realistic to expect that.

The simple solution would have been to just build more things in already quiet parts of the park that could have been coming online over the past 2 years so there's still something new to see when the older attractions closed shop to be replaced. I'm not even talking E-Tickets - if 2 family C's and a D had opened in the past year the park would be in much better shape to lose Toy Story Mania for a week, AND would yet be further ready to handle the massive crowds that are going to descend on the park next summer. Would have been great in the short and long run. But for some reason the foresight didn't seem to be there.

I think you forget too that lots of guests who aren't as educated as us in this makeover have planned upcoming trips. If you booked your trip last year for the week that Toy Story Mania just announced will be closed and don't find out until you get there? Congrats, you're in a park with 3 rides that all have height requirements. Hope the kids meet them! It's totally backward.

 

[Goofyernmost]

I love how it's out jobs to find the fix to their park! But many of us have suggested things, and many times over. It takes no time at all to come up with a better roadmap for this makeover.

Step one would have been to not close so many things while new attractions were nowhere near ready to come online. If The Great Movie Ride were closing June 30th instead of back in August the park would have felt like it was making a trade. Maybe that wouldn't have given enough time to get it open at the same time as Star Wars, but hey! They could have built the Mickey Ride ANYWHERE else and not run into the issue of killing any action at the center of the park. It's not like the DHS doesn't have dead spots to fill, or a Courtyard dedicated to Animation that could have used the Mickey Ride.

I get them not wanting to close the park - they didn't for DCA and that makeover was WAY more invasive to guest areas (if less so to attraction count).

I also get that Disney ins't the kind of company that's going to offer a discounted rate to one of their parks no matter what the reason. Kinda would have been useful here, but I know it was never realistic to expect that.

The simple solution would have been to just build more things in already quiet parts of the park that could have been coming online over the past 2 years so there's still something new to see when the older attractions closed shop to be replaced. I'm not even talking E-Tickets - if 2 family C's and a D had opened in the past year the park would be in much better shape to lose Toy Story Mania for a week, AND would yet be further ready to handle the massive crowds that are going to descend on the park next summer. Would have been great in the short and long run. But for some reason the foresight didn't seem to be there.

I think you forget too that lots of guests who aren't as educated as us in this makeover have planned upcoming trips. If you booked your trip last year for the week that Toy Story Mania just announced will be closed and don't find out until you get there? Congrats, you're in a park with 3 rides that all have height requirements. Hope the kids meet them! It's totally backward.

No, I didn't forget those that have never been, but, as I stated there is a lot to do anyway if it is your first trip, especially. The largest part of Disney/MGM was the backlot and studio tour. I didn't go to that every time and that alone was almost a 1/4 of a day. They offered no discount back then because I didn't want to see it that trip. The problem with all the suggestions is they are not how to fix the problems of today because, well, that is what they are doing. It is a given that what you are suggesting should have been done, but, it wasn't, so the problem now is the reality of the situation. It would be expected that the revenue attributed to attendance and DHS would and should decline. That is the only way to measure it would be by the number of turnstile clicks. If that hasn't lowered then all this talk is just personal upset and not anything that means anything to TWDC. Anger about what happened or didn't happen in the past is useless. The past cannot be changed. The only thing of quality that was stopped was GMR. Honestly, would that one attraction have made it a full day park?

It never was a full day park to me. There were a lot of things that I did once and never did again. I either used my park hopper and went to DAK or MK or Epcot or I used that extra time to go to what was Downtown Disney. But the ticket price remained the same even if I only went MK every single day and nothing was stopping me from doing that. I know it is frustrating, but, they are finally doing something about DHS and yet, the complaining still remains.

 

[mm52200]

Because Star Wars was apparently enough in the minds of leadership there. With the regularity of the marches, it'd be difficult to throw in a full parade there too.

If they wanted to have a parade they could have one. The park used to juggle having six High School Musical/Disney Channel Rocks shows a day that traveled down the parade route and they also had a parade. They can make the show schedules whatever they want.
It would be very easy to do a parade.

 

[TJJohn12]

...It’s hard to believe the MK is only park that has one.

Thanks for jinxing it! ;-)

 

[Jefferson5436]

If you booked your trip last year for the week that Toy Story Mania just announced will be closed and don't find out until you get there? Congrats, you're in a park with 3 rides that all have height requirements. Hope the kids meet them! It's totally backward.

This is us. We don't come enough to skip out entirely on the park so with 3 adults we'll be taking turns on all 3 rides the kids can't do and those watching the youngins will take them to the shows. This will also mean the kids will watch a show or two TWICE. Hope they can handle that.

 

[JenniferS]

This is us. We don't come enough to skip out entirely on the park so with 3 adults we'll be taking turns on all 3 rides the kids can't do and those watching the youngins will take them to the shows. This will also mean the kids will watch a show or two TWICE. Hope they can handle that.

I went to the Frozen Sing-along twice in the same day. I enjoyed it very much.

Coincidentally, Hubby went to the Tune-In Lounge twice that same day. He also enjoyed it very much.

 

[CanadianGordon]

I think that honestly the way Disney is handling the park is terrible.
They should have brought smaller attractions online in order to help offset the state the park will be in when the new lands open.
It's amazing how badly managed it has been, and yes they should have just built Mickey's ride elsewhere.

 

[TJJohn12]

They should have brought smaller attractions online in order to help offset the state the park will be in when the new lands open...

I keep seeing this argument over and over, but I really can’t see where in the park this would have been possible without removing either an operable attraction or a large chunk of guest services. They’re *using* the expansion space that was available to them - the former backlot area - to augment the park’s offerings.

The *only* two areas I could see them adding a new C/D might be along Sunset atop the Sunset Ranch Market or in place of a demo’d Backlot Express. Either way, we’d then be losing another QS in a park already hamstrung for QS options.

There’s the Adventure Outpost and small area behind it that could have been used as well, but that’s tucked in a corner with terrible sight lines, so any addition there would likely not draw crowds to soak up guests the way a C/D would need to.

Toy Story *is* the addition of a C & a D for which everyone has been clambering. The “better” option would have actually been leaving LAM, HISTK and Streets of NY operational, building TSL while they soaked capacity, and *only then* breaking ground on SW:GE. But the park needs the shot in the arm that’s SW post haste, frankly, if only to help it find a new soul.

 

[Kman101]

Counterpoint: I like it a lot better.

But then again, I’m the guy who’s okay with Chester & Hester, so your mileage may vary.

It works a bit better for a horse and carriage than Alien's driving a saucer around the Claw. I like the idea of including the alien's and The Claw but couldn't this have been a spinner or regular teacups type thing? And then give us the Woody version in a Roundup area including the Critter Carousel.

I think they're both visually on the same page though.

 

[Kman101]

I keep seeing this argument over and over, but I really can’t see where in the park this would have been possible without removing either an operable attraction or a large chunk of guest services. They’re *using* the expansion space that was available to them - the former backlot area - to augment the park’s offerings.

The *only* two areas I could see them adding a new C/D might be along Sunset atop the Sunset Ranch Market or in place of a demo’d Backlot Express. Either way, we’d then be losing another QS in a park already hamstrung for QS options.

There’s the Adventure Outpost and small area behind it that could have been used as well, but that’s tucked in a corner with terrible sight lines, so any addition there would likely not draw crowds to soak up guests the way a C/D would need to.

Toy Story *is* the addition of a C & a D for which everyone has been clambering. The “better” option would have actually been leaving LAM, HISTK and Streets of NY operational, building TSL while they soaked capacity, and *only then* breaking ground on SW:GE. But the park needs the shot in the arm that’s SW post haste, frankly, if only to help it find a new soul.

Nah, they could have used a lot of this space better. They have a lot more room than they want you to think.

Star Wars could have gone behind Indy into the parking lot.

You put something else where SW is going now.

Replace Indy stunt show with an Indy attraction.

Build TSL behind Mania as they're doing.

Put Mickey in animation. Launch Bay could have gone elsewhere.

By putting SW where they did, IMHO, it limited a lot of space. We likely could have also had room for the Monster's Inc. Door Coaster too.

They *had* a lot of room but their decisions to put things where they are is limiting them.

 

[TP2000]

That taking down one attraction, even if only for a week, can bring the 29 year old park formally known as the Disney MGM Studios down to a level below that of early days DCA and Disney Studios Paris is totally unprecedented and completely despicable.

It's worse than that.

DCA upon opening in 2001 had 12 rides, 3 of which were E Tickets, plus 7 theater attractions, and a handful of walk-thrus or interactive exhibit/play areas.

17 years later in 2018 DCA currently has 21 rides, 5 of which are E Tickets, and now down to 5 theater attractions plus a handful of walk-thrus or interactive exhibit/play areas. And a night parade (Paint The Night) and water show (World of Color). The two closed theater shows = Golden Dreams became Little Mermaid D Ticket ride in 2011, and It's Tough To Be A Bug closed two months ago to become part of Marvel Land expansion opening in phases from 2020 to 2022.

When DHS finishes all its expansion/rework in 2020, it will have 9 rides, 5 of which will be E Tickets (ToT, RnRC, Star Tours, Millenium Falcon, Stormtrooper ride). The wild card is Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway; will it be an amazing E Ticket, or a fun D Ticket like Midway Mania?

But your point is extremely valid. It has always boggled my mind how WDW management allows these decades-old established parks to exist with a ride roster you can count on two hands or less. How? Why? Who thinks that's a good idea???