Toy Story Land expansion announced for Disney's Hollywood Studios

[seabreezept813]

Spinners are only 32 inches I believe[/QUOTE
Thank you! I am all for not making Disney kiddie land, but I find myself starting to plan a trip with a 15 month old next summer so now I have to think about these things. We want to get another good trip in with my stepdaughter who is 14 so we decided why not.. my baby was 25 inches at 6 weeks so maybe she’ll be cleared to ride everything by next summer

 

[ᗩLᘿᑕ ✨ ᗩζᗩᗰ]

...will make wonderful rethemes of Tower of Terror and Haunted Mansion.

Where's the dislike button!?! Gahh. lol

 

[Castle Cake Apologist]

Considering they said they have no plans to change the name of that park, that isn't surprising. I'm not sure what you would be expecting anyway. Those soundstages are already built. You can argue about the number of rides, attractions needed, etc. But it would be a waste of money just to make those buildings look different.

Why? If the park is no longer themed to be a working studio, why on earth would they not retheme the soundstages? They're literally tan boxes, it wouldn't be difficult. I believe they just said that the name wasn't changing yet, and that was mostly to get ahead of all the wild rumors that started circulating from the survey email that they sent out.

What exactly is the park's identity at this point? It's not a studio, but it's called a studio and populated with soundstages? DHS needed a makeover on the same scale as DCA, but TDO would never allow the budget needed for that.

 

[Andrew C]

why on earth would they not retheme the soundstages?

Priorities?

 

[JohnyKaz2078]

The goal of DHS' makeover was not to put more "good and fun" into the park. The park desperately needs added capacity. Taking out 2 relatively high capacity attractions and adding 2 relatively low capacity attractions does not do anything to solve this issue.

I was not making any kind of point about the merits of TSL from an entertainment perspective, though I have plenty of opinions on that.

DHS needs much more than Star Wars, a family coaster, and a flat ride. This also does nothing to solve the identity crisis that the park has had since shutting down the studios arm. It's even been rumored that Disney has no plans to change the appearance of the sound stages.

I agree about the capacity of TSL's rides but when SW:GE the capacity will significantly increase.

About the identity crisis: the opening of Toy Story Land and Star Wars Land shows that HS is heading towards a direction of IP-based attractions and lands, therefore dropping the "studios" theme compeletely. And because not everything can be completed in 3-4 years that's why a second phase is rumored with a name change and more rides.

 

[Castle Cake Apologist]

I agree about the capacity of TSL's rides but when SW:GE the capacity will significantly increase.

About the identity crisis: the opening of Toy Story Land and Star Wars Land shows that HS is heading towards a direction of IP-based attractions and lands, therefore dropping the "studios" theme compeletely. And because not everything can be completed in 3-4 years that's why a second phase is rumored with a name change and more attractions.

I would invite you to research "second phases" of Disney Parks projects. They very rarely happen.

Therein lies much of our concern.

 

[JohnyKaz2078]

I would invite you to research "second phases" of Disney Parks projects. They very rarely happen.

Therein lies much of our concern.

First time maybe? Hollywood Studios desperately needs big changes, not just two IP-based lands and Disney knows that. Maybe it's not the right time yet. Disney usually updates the WDW parks in a circular bases (e.g. MK-2009/14 with New Fantasyland, Epcot- 2016 with Frozen Ever After, DAK - 2017 with Pandora, DHS - 2018/19 with TSL and SW:GE, Epcot - 2020/21 with Ratatouille and the Guardians and MK - 2021 with Tron). So new announcements for DHS won't probably come before 2020. But if WDI left the park in its 2019 state that would be stupid.

 

[ToTBellHop]

Where's the dislike button!?! Gahh. lol

I’m saying, “be careful what you wish for.” If Bob spends a fortune on this, he will want it in the parks quick and cheap when they are cash-strapped. And they won’t hesitate to retheme a classic.

 

[Castle Cake Apologist]

First time maybe? Hollywood Studios desperately needs big changes, not just two IP-based lands and Disney knows that. Maybe it's not the right time yet. Disney usually updates the WDW parks in a circular bases (e.g. MK-2009/14 with New Fantasyland, Epcot- 2016 with Frozen Ever After, DAK - 2017 with Pandora, DHS - 2018/19 with TSL and SW:GE, Epcot - 2020/21 with Ratatouille and the Guardians and MK - 2021 with Tron). So new announcements for DHS won't probably come before 2020. But if WDI left the park in its 2019 state that would be stupid.

The problem is that WDI has no say in when or if these things happen. That's up to TDO, and sometimes Burbank if they have to force them into it.

People continue to pack the parks and pay inflated prices, so TDO may not see a reason to go beyond this.

 

[brb1006]

The Alien Swirling Saucers attraction also looks fun to ride at night because of the lights.

 

[ᗩLᘿᑕ ✨ ᗩζᗩᗰ]

The Alien Swirling Saucers attraction also looks fun to ride at night because of the lights.

I'm anxious to hear the ride's soundtrack. Also.. I see that bubbles might play a part in this attraction as well; maybe during the day?

 

[Sky]

I'm anxious to hear the ride's soundtrack. Also.. I see that bubbles might play a part in this attraction as well; maybe during the day?

With the images and scenes from the video of the attraction operating, were the rumors/predictions of it coming online not at full capacity still correct, or have things changed?

 

[lazyboy97o]

But, again, they took away attractions to add the new ones, instead of actually expanding and adding capacity to the park, so that doesn't really solve anything. Somebody could correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm not even convinced DHS will have the same attraction capacity that it had before they closed everything, let alone more.

Disney’s greatest achievement of the past 20 years has been the successful conditioning of their audience to not just tolerate but gleefully praise the notion that huge chunks of their theme park experience is idle waiting and moving from point-to-point, not actual experiences.

And nobody is blaming WDI for the mess that DHS is in. To my knowledge, at least.

Cost has most definitely played its role in the desire to minimize and even reduce capacity.

 

[splashtest]

I'm anxious to hear the ride's soundtrack. Also.. I see that bubbles might play a part in this attraction as well; maybe during the day?

Starting to see tweets from cast members who got a chance to ride tonight.

 

[yensidtlaw1969]

It’s certainly not the arbiter of salvation for the park, but this is the same park that has been open for almost 30 years without ever getting to 10 rides. That doesn’t change the land’s flaws, but the park is in a situation where every single addition is like an emergency surgery to keep it alive.

I can’t blame the TSL Imagineers for the fact that the company only approved and opened 2 new rides in the last 2 decades.

I agree the Imagineers are probably not to blame for much or any of this.

That somewhere in the company anyone looked and said "we have a situation on our hands with DHS of a severity unprecedented in the history of the resort" and approved the response of "let's begin to address that by building a land whose lack of ambition and scope is also unprecedented in the history of the resort" is unreal.

I'm sure Toy Story Land will be fun. I'm sure I'LL have fun in Toy Story Land. But come on . . . by Toy Story, by Hollywood Studios, by their paying guests, was this the best they could do? It will be so jarringly clear when Star Wars Land opens that it's not even close.

 

[ᗩLᘿᑕ ✨ ᗩζᗩᗰ]

Starting to see tweets from cast members who got a chance to ride tonight.

Hmm. I've heard a spacey rendition of Strange Things before. I wonder if they're using that version? It didn't sound terrible but not the upbeat dance tune I would assume for this type of ride. Kinda fun but hope it's not this:

And "Ride Like the Wind" lacks a melody. It's mostly percussion with a few iconic Toy Story orchestra swells so again I don't really see how that'll work. But I hope to be surprised.

 

[Lensman]

Darn, as I've said earlier in the thread, I was hoping for The Claw.

 

[MJ6987]

I agree the Imagineers are probably not to blame for much or any of this.

That somewhere in the company anyone looked and said "we have a situation on our hands with DHS of a severity unprecedented in the history of the resort" and approved the response of "let's begin to address that by building a land whose lack of ambition and scope is also unprecedented in the history of the resort" is unreal.

I'm sure Toy Story Land will be fun. I'm sure I'LL have fun in Toy Story Land. But come on . . . by Toy Story, by Hollywood Studios, by their paying guests, was this the best they could do? It will be so jarringly clear when Star Wars Land opens that it's not even close.

I think they just needed something they could knock out quickly whilst the far more ambitious Star Wars land is being worked on. I see this land more on the lines of Storybook Circus in Magic Kingdom in terms of scale and purpose, which itself was a bit of a “placeholder” whilst the rest of New Fantasyland was being built, as I recall.

 

[yensidtlaw1969]

I think they just needed something they could knock out quickly whilst the far more ambitious Star Wars land is being worked on. I see this land more on the lines of Storybook Circus in Magic Kingdom in terms of scale and purpose, which itself was a bit of a “placeholder” whilst the rest of New Fantasyland was being built, as I recall.

Except they didn't knock it out quickly - nor did they even knock it out inexpensively.

That's part of the issue - the LAST thing Hollywood Studios needs right now is a placeholder or something of small scale and purpose. The park has been short on attractions of scale and purpose for yeeears. Spaces like Storybook Circus offer a nice respite from the sometimes dizzying energy populating the rest of the park. DHS has been being drained of that energy. Now they're marketing Toy Story Land like it's a shot in the arm to the park, despite it dedicating acreage in near double digits to two seemingly off-the-shelf rides with height requirements and low capacity. The design of TSL and the marketing of it are separately and differently both at odds with what the park and this new land need.

At this point I'd bet that one people-eating E-ticket for the amount they spent on Toy Story Land would have gone way further towards solving the parks issues in both the short and long term. But then, the last time one of those popped up in WDW was . . . well, not this century.

 

[wdwmagic]

PHOTO - The completed Toy Story Land now included on My Disney Experience maps