News Tron coaster coming to the Magic Kingdom

[marni1971]

I’m a bit concerned about what the “something else” might be. They’re going to a paid FastPass system, aren’t they?

I don’t know what option - or choice of - will end up being implemented. But there’s quite a few of them.

 

[_caleb]

They will monetize the service every way they can

Yeah, I get it. I’m sure they have teams of executives that itemize every part of the guest experience (“what else are we just ‘giving away’ with the ticket price?”) just to find another upcharge.

 

[_caleb]

Any progress on the TRON canopy?

 

[JEANYLASER]

Any Progress on the Tron Canopy let?

 

[SilentWindODoom]

Just had a realization. I thought about how my family would personally deal with a paid fastpass system and whether we'd shell out for it. Then I realized, I've been hearing people saying the Dining Plan may be dead after all of this. One thing that made it easy for us to chain trips together for a few years until we bought a house in South Carolina (or at least gave us impetus to do it and afford a luxury hotel) was the free dining plan. That's been a thing they've been banking on to bring people to the parks, and some have asked what they'll offer in its absence. Free FP+ is totally going to be the new free Dining Plan, isn't it?

 

[HauntedPirate]

Tron canopy: I don't believe so.

 

[HauntedPirate]

They will monetize the service every way they can

You must be mistaken. Don't you remember all those posters who said in the past few years that Disney would never monetize the FastPass system? They couldn't be wrong... could they?

I'm one of those who always felt monetizing FP was just a matter of when they would, not if.

 

[MisterPenguin]

You must be mistaken. Don't you remember all those posters who said in the past few years that Disney would never monetize the FastPass system? They couldn't be wrong... could they?

I'm one of those who always felt monetizing FP was just a matter of when they would, not if.

FP+ has already been monetized.

In order to get FP+ at 60 days, you need to have a reservation at a Disney or Disney-partnered hotel, which has a baked in price increase for that perk.

Furthermore, you can get FP+ at 90 days by paying an even greater baked-in price increase for a club level room plus a fee for each FP+.

 

[Lirael]

FP+ has already been monetized.

In order to get FP+ at 60 days, you need to have a reservation at a Disney or Disney-partnered hotel, which has a baked in price increase for that perk.

Furthermore, you can get FP+ at 90 days by paying an even greater baked-in price increase for a club level room plus a fee for each FP+.

True, you could get a more enhanced experience at a price, but at least you had a free option. The issue -which is likely occurring- would be if they removed that basic free option and left people with only paid options.

 

[_caleb]

True, you could get a more enhanced experience at a price, but at least you had a free option. The issue -which is likely occurring- would be if they removed that basic free option and left people with only paid options.

This. At some point, basic park tickets make no sense because they don’t really get you anything.

 

[Buried20KLeague]

Oh ok that makes sense thanks! Yeah I actually love the whole experience. For someone who took the time to understand it and get used to it, over many years, it becomes a major advantage and I rarely ever wait on lines with the Fastpass+ power lol.

FP+ is a major ADVANTAGE?

lol

 

[lazyboy97o]

FP+ is a major ADVANTAGE?

lol

Thats the big con. People "figure it out" so they accept sub-standard capacity.

 

[Buried20KLeague]

Thats the big con. People "figure it out" so they accept sub-standard capacity.

Drives me nuts. People don't know what they don't know.

We're currently scheduled to go in late October. We're really not liking the "being in Florida during COVID" thing... But one more trip with absolutely zero Fastpass is just so tempting that as of now we're planning to go. The idea of wandering the park aimlessly riding whatever we want, whenever we want, and all the lines moving at a steady clip is just so blissfully nice.

 

[RSoxNo1]

The whole My Disney Experience web and apps cloudification of electronic info and reservations including FastPass+. Supposedly a $2B price tag for it (think of the infrastructure needed to have almost every ride in every park have FP tapstiles and a separate FP queue).

On Disney's end, they believed FP+ would move people around enough to give guests a chance to ride the big E-Ticket rides without waiting in several 2 hour queues, and thus solve their overcrowding problem.

The real problem, however, was the unending increase in guests year after year which surpassed MK's ability to give everyone a good experience. And so, FP+ didn't accomplish what Disney hoped for, and so Disney tried to find other ways to deal with overcrowding, like raising prices and discounting off-season, and making the other parks more attractive with more attractions.

Meanwhile, FP+ is being blamed for over crowding rather than crowds being over capacity. Which, in a way, it is in that it stalled Disney's opportunity to deal with the real reason of overcrowding, however, once you have too many people in the park, FP+ isn't the cause of long lines... too many people are.

Anyhoo... personally, with the ability to manage hotels, restaurants, FP, mobile ordering, maps, info, etc... I think Next Gen is great despite it not accomplishing what Disney wanted.

Disney still has an over capacity problem in MK still, tho (outside of a pandemic)...

There was also the added component of scheduling that was sold as a back of the house perk for Next Gen. There was also the potential for mining the data gathered on guests in the park but that was largely thwarted by Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey.

There were countless people on this site and other fan forums/blogs/podcasts that were vehemently against Next Gen from the outset (when we knew the price tag was $1 billion). The perception (which proved to be accurate) was that Disney was willing to do absolutely anything to raise revenue except build new attractions. It was absolutely a $2 billion mistake and any of the "non-business" fans that complained from the outset were 100% correct. Any of those fans that weren't in positions of power at Parks and Resorts would have made better decisions for the long term health of Walt Disney World.

For a little self promotion, we did a thought exercise on this last year on my podcast. We each had an imaginary $1.575 billion to spend this was based on the $2 billion # as the actual cost of Next Gen and us allowing for a $500 million infrastructure improvement. We could start the spending at the same time the Next Gen project started which also meant we could take the $75 million for Frozen Ever After as well.

 

[lazyboy97o]

There was also the potential for mining the data gathered on guests in the park but that was largely thwarted by Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey.

Not really, and it was rather embarrassing to see theme park fans pretend the guy who thinks roller coasters cause brain damage and should be banned as some sort of hero.

 

[RSoxNo1]

Not really, and it was rather embarrassing to see theme park fans pretend the guy who thinks roller coasters cause brain damage and should be banned as some sort of hero.

I'll plead ignorance on the "brain damage" comment but would be interested in seeing a quote like that. A little googling pulled up his fighting about theme park and roller coaster safety on the heels of several incidents.

But taking politics out of it (sorry for bringing up that aspect of Next Gen) it absolutely appeared that Disney's objectives with Next Gen were not satisfied and it cost substantially more than the original budget.

 

[TYOTimer]

FP+ is a major ADVANTAGE?

lol

It can be a major advantage, especially to a local AP. Many locals won’t even go unless they have fastpasses for good rides

 

[EricsBiscuit]

If I knew nothing about Disney history and someone showed me the Tron box side by side with Space Mountain and said "Okay, one of these was built in 1975 and the other has just been done, in 2020, which is which?" I'd assume the basic ugly box was what they could manage to put out with 1975 technology and the cool looking design of Space Mountain was clearly the newest engineering

Not a fair comparison because one is not finished.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Not a fair comparison because one is not finished.

What is unknown?

 

[Marc Davis Fan]

There was also the added component of scheduling that was sold as a back of the house perk for Next Gen. There was also the potential for mining the data gathered on guests in the park but that was largely thwarted by Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey.

There were countless people on this site and other fan forums/blogs/podcasts that were vehemently against Next Gen from the outset (when we knew the price tag was $1 billion). The perception (which proved to be accurate) was that Disney was willing to do absolutely anything to raise revenue except build new attractions. It was absolutely a $2 billion mistake and any of the "non-business" fans that complained from the outset were 100% correct. Any of those fans that weren't in positions of power at Parks and Resorts would have made better decisions for the long term health of Walt Disney World.

For a little self promotion, we did a thought exercise on this last year on my podcast. We each had an imaginary $1.575 billion to spend this was based on the $2 billion # as the actual cost of Next Gen and us allowing for a $500 million infrastructure improvement. We could start the spending at the same time the Next Gen project started which also meant we could take the $75 million for Frozen Ever After as well.

What's amazing is that $2 billion in new lands/attractions actually would have brought in more direct revenue and improved guest experience (through increased capacity). Imagine, for instance, that NFL were budgeted at $1 billion rather than $500 million, and then each of the other three parks received a $500 million "E+ ticket" at the level of RotR and Shanghai PotC? But that's water under the bridge...

Anyway, back to TLCR:

The show building isn't quite as obtrusive as I thought it would be, including from across the lagoon (in part because Space Mountain blocks the view). If they create an adequate "berm" from Storybook Circus, most of the really bad views will have been mitigated.

Unfortunately, having been on the Shanghai version... the ride experience itself is fairly lacking. It's a Vekoma bike coaster with music, lights, and mirrors. Fine for what it is (though short and not especially thrilling), but not an "immersive experience" per the hallmark of Disney - indeed, I would argue that Space Mountain is more of that. So, I think The Magic Kingdom will still be in need of a truly great, modern-day E ticket when this is complete.