Toy Story Land expansion announced for Disney's Hollywood Studios

[wdwmagic]

Okay, it looks pretty cool at night.

Agreed. The lighting package looks good. I think these attractions will be worth a visit by day and night for two different experiences.

 

[Dave Z]

Okay, it looks pretty cool at night.

Agree, will be cool to see,

 

[Lensman]

Then why are there glaring issues that we can all see?

Specifically, lack of indoor queues, or even covered queues. Lack of indoor restaurant space. Lack of indoor meet and greet. Lack of gift shop. Extremely low hourly capacity of the 2 new rides. No indoor space to go when the afternoon rain arrives.

These seem like such obvious features that a land like this needs, yet they are not present. I think most people here would know that those are a requirement, and yet the designers do not.

I remember the great Marty Sklar saying at a presentation "meet the needs of the people". This is frequently missing in recent WDI projects.

I'd say that most, if not all, of the listed concerns are the "fault" of management, not Imagineering. I doubt that the decision of whether to include an indoor restaurant is within the purview of engineering - it's more of a top-level management decision about what major elements are specified for the park. Meet and greet is the same. The insiders might be able to provide some insight into the specification process but I'd guess that management/finance/business heads decide:
1. Overall budget
2. Number and type/quality of the attractions. Range of acceptable hourly capacity.
3. Number and type of the restaurants.
4. Number of Meet & Greets.
5. Number and type of gift shops.

The only possible legitimate complaint at the level of the actual imagineers is possibly the lack of cover in the Slinky Dog queue. Even then I could see the competing constraint of whether to build cover and end up "hiding" more of the ride from the queue and thus reducing anticipation. That said, it's a legitimate complaint and possibly attributable as an engineering decision.

Also, has anyone talked here about the bike-shed effect? I've talked about it a lot at work because it's a common problem with engineering projects. BTW, I'm not saying that this post is guilty of it since it focuses on what seem to be major design decisions vs the color and materials chosen for the new trash compactor enclosure.

 

[britain]

But Future World covered that territory in a much better way, leaving the MK’s Tomorrowland in a place that needed to differentiate itself. The Buck Rogers/Flash Gordon style worked for TL and introduced some much needed adult/teenager appeal to Florida’s MK.

Before Epcot, TL was great. After Epcot, it needed to change.

Yes, I agree. I never got a chance to experience original original Space Mountain - it got refreshed a bit before my first visit in '83. But when I watch video from that original version, I think to myself, "Man, they're selling this roller coaster like it's an important Future World pavilion!"

Now that EPCOT is being diluted, what does the future hold for Tomorrowland? The 70's.

 

[Marc Davis Fan]

If you just want to see the TSL after dark footage, without all the footage/discussion of irrelevant stuff, Blog Mickey just tweeted a supercut of just the nighttime footage:

 

[MisterPenguin]

Should TSL have had more in the form of an oversized play area (maybe even a water pad), indoor restaurant, and shop? YES.

Does the lack of those things make what's there a "failure"? NO.

There's no need to condemn the land for not being fully featured. It'd be like condemning Art of Animation Resort for not having the amenities of a deluxe resort.

 

[ToTBellHop]

Should TSL have had more in the form of an oversized play area (maybe even a water pad), indoor restaurant, and shop? YES.

Does the lack of those things make what's there a "failure"? NO.

There's no need to condemn the land for not being fully featured. It'd be like condemning Art of Animation Resort for not having the amenities of a deluxe resort.

Is it marketed as a deluxe? This is marketed as a land. Find me a weaker one in WDW.

I would liken this to knocking on AKL for only having buses and Kidani for not having a viable QSR all day.

 

[MisterPenguin]

Is it marketed as a deluxe? This is marketed as a land. Find me a weaker one in WDW.

I would liken this to knocking on AKL for only having buses and Kidani for not having a viable QSR all day.

So... then... you're calling TSL a failure?

 

[Imagineer777]

Is it marketed as a deluxe? This is marketed as a land. Find me a weaker one in WDW.

Pixar Place, Chester & Hester's Dino-Rama in Dino Land USA, and Animation Courtyard are arguably much weaker lands than Toy Story Land, in my opinion, yet they're marketed as "lands" on the maps, I definitely think people will warm up to Toy Story Land when they experience it for themselves and just enjoy it.

 

[flyerjab]

Agreed. The lighting package looks good. I think these attractions will be worth a visit by day and night for two different experiences.

That sounds similar to how they tout Pandora. Visit during the day, and then again at night for a different visual experience. For what it is worth, I bet this will look incredible at night, and I can't wait to see it. I think that it is really going to be a fun addition to DHS.

Where I feel they went too cheap was cutting the Woody theming from the first concept art. If they had built that as a facade for a merchandise store and/or a meet-n-greet area for Woody, Jessie, etc., that would have really added the extra punch that was needed. I think the problem that Disney will face is that they just opened Pandora last year, with over-the-top theming, arguably one of the best attractions in WDW and arguably one of the best QS locations. Obviously, the people loved it, and are still loving it. The bar has been set a bit higher IMO. This land, although it looks really great for what is there, is going to fall short of that bar. I still agree with one of the posters above that said that it is forgotten at times that TSMM is also in this land, so in total, it will have more rides than SW:GE. If you really waited standby for 2 of the 3, ate lunch at Woody's lunch box, and then came back later at night to experience the overall lighting package, this land can take up a good amount of time. Let's face it...if SW:GE was opening first, this land wouldn't nearly do as well as it probably will now due to 1/3 of the park being under construction.

 

[flyerjab]

Should TSL have had more in the form of an oversized play area (maybe even a water pad), indoor restaurant, and shop? YES.

Does the lack of those things make what's there a "failure"? NO.

There's no need to condemn the land for not being fully featured. It'd be like condemning Art of Animation Resort for not having the amenities of a deluxe resort.

I have made this argument before for other discussions. If you look at every ride in any park, each one could have been made longer, held more people, had more theming, a more complex backstory, etc. To be fair, though, that doesn't mean that everything is always unicorns and rainbows in my world either. For what this land is, I think it looks really fun and will be visual eye-candy at night. In the end though, the removal of the Woody theming at the entrance I think would have been great, especially if there was a merchandise and meet-n-greet location behind it. And yes, I pity this land when it rains, as large sections of the queues for two of the rides are uncovered. That one puzzles me.

 

[ChristianG]

The track lighting is awesome!

 

[DinoInstitute]

I have made this argument before for other discussions. If you look at every ride in any park, each one could have been made longer, held more people, had more theming, a more complex backstory, etc. To be fair, though, that doesn't mean that everything is always unicorns and rainbows in my world either. For what this land is, I think it looks really fun and will be visual eye-candy at night. In the end though, the removal of the Woody theming at the entrance I think would have been great, especially if there was a merchandise and meet-n-greet location behind it. And yes, I pity this land when it rains, as large sections of the queues for two of the rides are uncovered. That one puzzles me.

For me personally, in hindsight I’m actually kind of glad that the Woody’s Roundup area specifically got cut, simply because I don’t think the similar area in Shanghai’s TSL ended up looking very good at all. But I agree with your point in that of course TSL would have definitely benefited from having a little something extra to flesh it out a bit, but at the same time I’m going to try to just appreciate what is there and see how it turned out. After all, it’s not like the park is lacking on gift shops or meet and greet space as it is.

 

[ToTBellHop]

Pixar Place, Chester & Hester's Dino-Rama in Dino Land USA, and Animation Courtyard are arguably much weaker lands than Toy Story Land, in my opinion, yet they're marketed as "lands" on the maps, I definitely think people will warm up to Toy Story Land when they experience it for themselves and just enjoy it.

Those are more districts than lands. Like how Fantasyland has the courtyard area, Fantasyland Forest, and Storybook Circus. DHS traditionally had two lands that got further broken up—the front, meant to be Hollywood in the ‘30s or ‘40s depending on where you were, and the backlot, where it was clear everything was manufactured set pieces.

I’m sure you are right and the people waiting in the sun for a coaster only to be turned away due to a thunderstorm won’t march to DHS’s cramped guest services building.

 

[djkidkaz]

I don’t mind not having a gift shop and think it’s good to just keep the merchandise to a cart or two. Otherwise you just end up with the same repeating merchandise. Oh it’s the same toy story toys I saw at the entrance and then again on Hollywood boulevard shops and yay I get to see them all over again In another shop that is taking up space showing me the same merch. With today’s day and age of strollers and ecv’s everywhere I think I would prefer to have more walking space than another shop with the same ol’ merch.

 

[The Mom]

Thank you for saying that. 20 seconds into that video all I could look at was how incredibly young these kids are. The average age here appears to be about 23, with the one exception being that Ryan office guy who looks to be in his 30's.

That video didn't instill a lot of confidence, it just made it look like this project was led by college interns working for pizzas and beer.

When you get to be my age, everyone looks 12. But, most of the people in the video appeared to be in their late 20s - mid 30s (to me; I have children in that age group) with a few younger people. Old enough to have a few years of working under their belts.

 

[The Mom]

Let's all stay on topic - TSL- not the creation of earlier attractions.

 

[flynnibus]

I find it funny that the topic is the lack of the gift shop/etc

Not all lands need to be 'the full roster' IMO - you can have different scales. Liberty Square anyone?

With three attractions, TSL should feel on par with others IMHO. Plus, we know Disney never has a hard time with finding ways to add M&G spots, Outdoor Vending, etc..

 

[tirian]

Yes, I agree. I never got a chance to experience original original Space Mountain - it got refreshed a bit before my first visit in '83. But when I watch video from that original version, I think to myself, "Man, they're selling this roller coaster like it's an important Future World pavilion!"

Now that EPCOT is being diluted, what does the future hold for Tomorrowland? The 70's.

Sadly, that’s true.

 

[tirian]

This lighting package looks great! It helps sell the toy aspect because of the blinking LEDs and saturated colors. The spinners on the launch are also a nice touch, because anyone who owned a Hot Wheels race track will recognize those orange gears.