Upcoming Announcements in Weeks and Months to come?

[menamechris]

From reading these boards it seems so many people are concerned with competing with Harry, what Universal has done and has always done is create a place that is much more geared to older teens and thrill seekers. Walt's vision for DL and WDW was to create places where families can go and have fun and spend time together. I think sometimes we forget that, so people should not expect that vision to change, as for announcements I think that we all can wish for a lot of things and God knows HS and AK could use some major love and Epcot also. These are difficult economic times and Disney has to protect the bottom line, they are not going to spend every extra cent on the parks and not stash anything away. They are not our Congress and are just going to spend, spend, spend to make everyone happy. We should be happy with what are getting and enjoy what surprises Tom may have been alluding to. Maybe they will be big and maybe they will be small, but when he says we will hear something in months I think we need to trust that. If I were Disney I would want to finish one project and do it right (Which someone body will still complain about) then take on more than they can chew. I better the que for PP will be addressed, maybe something by the tea cops, maybe something with Indy Racer..then move on. I would love to add BK, love to the Monsters Inc Coaster added, a few new attractions to HS...but we can't have everything we want.

While some of your points are true from a business standpoint - we can't pick and choose what "Waltisms" we want to use depending on the situation. Walt also said that he wanted the parks to keep growing, expanding and developing. See - we can use his soundbites interchangeably depending on how you look at any situation.

Regardless - I think we can all agree that this has nothing to do with any original vision of Disney, and I am sure the current executives are more annoyed by the legacy and Walt quotes more than anything (I am actually surprised they haven't torn out One Man's Dream so people will stop learning them..). This is a cold hard business. Walt's comments worked for the company in the 1950's and 1960's - not 2011. While we all don't expect new "E" ticket rides every year - I don't think it is unreasonable to expect one in a park - oh...maybe one a decade? MK hasn't received an "E" ticket since 1992 - and with this "largest expansion in Disney history" we still aren't getting one. So how excited are we really supposed to get about some very nicely themed areas - and 2 new kiddies rides (one at the expense of closing another, mind you..)

 

[PirateFrank]

From reading these boards it seems so many people are concerned with competing with Harry, what Universal has done and has always done is create a place that is much more geared to older teens and thrill seekers. Walt's vision for DL and WDW was to create places where families can go and have fun and spend time together. I think sometimes we forget that, so....

No one here needs to be educated on what Walt would have done. most of us could write a book about the man and menamechris's post is spot on.

If you don't think Potter is a serious threat, because of the demographics of the fan base, you are sorely mistaken. Families are driving off site for a day or two to go to uni now...thats a day or two of not spending money in wdw but at uni. Since the difference between a 5 day ticket at wdw and a 6 or 7 day ticket is so small, there's a good chance families are just keeping their tickets and buying uni tickets....THATS why there's no net decrease in wdw tickets, but a MASSIVE increase in uni tickets during the time potter has been there....

Several of the park amenities in wdw were designed to keep families on site....things like the magical express, transportation/monorail, Dining plan, downtown Disney, the water parks, etc....

All of the above things are currently being neglected by TDO in varying degrees.....and at the same time, a competing park is siphoning guests of wdw for a day or two......you don't find this to be correlated? You just think it's different demographics and the Harry potter fans were sitting home doing nothing all these years until uni built IOA???

Disney needs to take action to keep people on site.....not neglect the very things that were designed for that sole purpose. Reinvestment in transportation, turning both DHS and AK into full day parks with several E ticket attractions, putting and end to the nickel and diming of the dining plan.....all of these things are desperately needed to stop the potter wave....

The fact that Disney isn't taking necessary action is why people have a problem.....and the fact that staggs can barely address that, and instead show lame videos of him flicking the fireworks switch on one of the ships is very disheartening to those of us that care about the wellbeing of these parks....

 

[bjlc57]

actually my prediction of " .... doin' nothing".. isn't far off.. in fact its almost dead on..

like it or not..

 

[CoasterKing]

Personally, I think Staggs' comments were nothing more than juicy Red Herring to quell the anger of D23 attendees who feel ripped off.....that and the growing number of WDW fans who are getting more and more vocal about the state of the parks and the lack of competitiveness being exhibited by TDO, considering the boy Wizard down i-4.


If anything is announced other than another half-baked Downtown Disney idea, I'm eating my dirty shorts...

It's unfortunate, but yeah that.

 

[jt04]

Trying not to sound greedy but... Seeing how it takes Disney about 2-3 years to create new "Magic"; they should always have something under construction at, at least 2 parks.

When TSM opened another ride should have been started for 2-3 years later.

When EE opened AK should have started work on the next big thing for 2-3 years later.

Same with Epcot and MK.

I just think it’s kinda crazy that they announce the FLE and we then get nothing for 3 years (rides) at all the parks. And even if they did announce something in a month or so, odds are it won’t open for 2-3 years. And we will get nothing till that one thing opens.

With 4 parks there should be at least 1 new RIDE at at least 1 of the parks each year.

Yes, I think the goal should be a C, D or E ticket every year rotating through the three. So that a new E-ticket becomes a reality about 3 times a decade. And even in the worst years you would get a new C ticket. This would motivate me to keep and renew an AP every year. And it is not an unreasonable or unachievable standard of an operation on the scale of WDW.

 

[BrerFrog]

I don't think upcoming announcements will feature information about locations other than DTD.

 

[djkidkaz]

There's only so much room! WDW has to go on forever, long after we're all dead and gone. I know it would be great for them to maximize every inch of all the parks in our lifetime but it's not gonna happen. 50 years from now the company will be talking about the largest expansion in AK history and people will be excited, chatting about it and clamoring for details as we do today. I think a new attraction every year is crazy. The parks would be completely filled up in no time. Attractions need to be spread out.

The problem I have is I look at something like the FLE and while it's great and I'm gonna love walking around there and will enjoy two new rides, my concern is for a park like AK. I WANT to stay there longer than I do. I always go to WDW for a week and have no problem going to MK 3 times or Epcot 3 times. But as much as I love AK it's hard to get the motivation to go a second time during my week vaca. I do it, but that's just to break up the monotony. Same goes for the Studios. It's great they added TSMM but I'm not waiting an hour to ride it. So it's as if it isn't even there. The two most important projects they could announce in my opinion would be the Monsters Inc coaster at the studios and an expansion of AK with more animal exhibits and two new attractions at a minimum with a nighttime parade.

 

[Mudugrumpz]

I would like to see the following over a 10 year period for each WDW Park

One E Ticket Ride/Attraction
Two D Ticket Rides/Attractions
Three C Ticket Rides/Attractions

That would be something new in each park roughly every 20 months with the E Ticket for each park roughly every 2 and a half years. For example

Nothing much seems to be going on for WDW 40th but a celebration of 4 E Tickets, one for each park for 2021 50th celebration would be kinda cool.

 

[NewfieFan]

There's only so much room! WDW has to go on forever, long after we're all dead and gone. I know it would be great for them to maximize every inch of all the parks in our lifetime but it's not gonna happen. 50 years from now the company will be talking about the largest expansion in AK history and people will be excited, chatting about it and clamoring for details as we do today. I think a new attraction every year is crazy. The parks would be completely filled up in no time. Attractions need to be spread out.

The problem I have is I look at something like the FLE and while it's great and I'm gonna love walking around there and will enjoy two new rides, my concern is for a park like AK. I WANT to stay there longer than I do. I always go to WDW for a week and have no problem going to MK 3 times or Epcot 3 times. But as much as I love AK it's hard to get the motivation to go a second time during my week vaca. I do it, but that's just to break up the monotony. Same goes for the Studios. It's great they added TSMM but I'm not waiting an hour to ride it. So it's as if it isn't even there. The two most important projects they could announce in my opinion would be the Monsters Inc coaster at the studios and an expansion of AK with more animal exhibits and two new attractions at a minimum with a nighttime parade.

I agree with you to certain extent! We can't have everything we want right now. The parks will continue to grow and expend long after we're gone, I'm sure. But right now, in this stage in WDW it's not meeting the needs of its visitors. I think after FLE is complete, MK will be doing ok! There's a couple of attractions I'd love to see replaced (I'm looking at you, SGE) but other than that I'm ok with the current (or soon to be current) line-up at the MK. What really needs help as you mentioned is DHS and AK! And it needs to be done now and in our life time. There is no need for a WDW park to be closing at 5pm most days of the year! And even though Epcot is my favorite park it still needs some work especially in the area of Future World. They could work on all this stuff right now and there would still be lots of potential for the future. And let's face it, attractions can't stay around for ever. Some hold their charm for awhile but most do not. Attractions will always need replacing and upgrading.

 

[wm49rs]

actually my prediction of " .... doin' nothing".. isn't far off.. in fact its almost dead on..

like it or not..

Doing nothing where?

 

[RichKermitFan]

The thing about WDW being geared towards families is just an invalid point for two reasons. A) Magic Kingdom is Walt's image and the other 3 parks should be used for more diversity. B) what families want to enjoy together today is different then 40 years ago. Even children have high expectations and to say that attractions are ok for everyone is just an excuse to have dumb downed rides. Believe it or not, kids want thrills too.

 

[boufa]

I would like to see the following over a 10 year period for each WDW Park

One E Ticket Ride/Attraction
Two D Ticket Rides/Attractions
Three C Ticket Rides/Attractions

That would be something new in each park roughly every 20 months with the E Ticket for each park roughly every 2 and a half years. For example

Nothing much seems to be going on for WDW 40th but a celebration of 4 E Tickets, one for each park for 2021 50th celebration would be kinda cool.

Not gonna happen. I don't know the exact research and demographics data, but I guarantee that Disney does. IF, and I bet this is reasonably true, the average gap between visits is 4 years, then there is no reason to be on such an aggressive building spree.

We live in our own little world on the internet fan community. We are loud, we visit often but in the end we are an extremely small fraction of the total annual visitors. If the internet community accounts for 250,000 visits to the parks each year then it is a total of 0.5% of the total park visitation.

Realistically there are a couple of thousand "hard core" fans on this site and lets assume that there are 15 - 20 hard core fan sites like this one. That does not even come close to the 250,000 estimate.

If we all protested and refused to go, all they have to do to make up the lost revenue is extend free dinning a couple of extra weeks.

We forget that we are NOT the target market for Disney. We are not the reason that they spend money. We have nothing to do with the FLE. We love a place that considers that love secondary. They consider our love a victory to their past marketing. They always are working on making the parks something that our children will fall in love with and bring their children back.

They work hard for our earn our children's love, and then just slide by to maintain our passions enough to bring our children to them. That is the business model, and has been.

Everest was a good example. Parents were not taking their kids to AK. So they had to toss us a bone. Now the parents have a reason to go to AK, and they bring their children. This is the same reason that they are not in a hurry to redevelop Pleasure Island. I seriously doubt that they will re-build DTD into an area that is exclusively adult oriented.

They have a model that has gotten them this far, they will not deviate from it.

 

[monorail_silver]

Just wait until the next expansion is announced at UO... :ROFLOL:

 

[TP2000]

If his "exciting" announcements are about a new DVC and a new parade that was overdue 5 years ago, yes people are going to be disappointed. And rightfully so. They're not "exciting" in the least.

I'm not a doom and gloomer, nor am I one of the pixie dust fairies, by the way. I'm just calling it like I see it.

I'm at about the same place as you are on the Pixie Dust Continuum. :lol:

The DVC at the Grand Floridian is no secret; you can already see it from the monorail. The parade at the Magic Kingdom was overdue 5 years ago, and what they've got now is just humiliating for the performers, at least compared to what their counterparts in Anaheim are doing each day on the Disneyland parade route at 4:00 and 6:30PM. And renaming Hyperion Wharf a second time and opening an Applebees and a Piercing Pagoda in DTD isn't going to send me to Expedia to look at flights.

I like this Tom Staggs guy, I can take him at face value. But he better deliver on this "announcement" thing by Christmas.

 

[MichWolv]

The thing about WDW being geared towards families is just an invalid point for two reasons. A) Magic Kingdom is Walt's image and the other 3 parks should be used for more diversity. B) what families want to enjoy together today is different then 40 years ago. Even children have high expectations and to say that attractions are ok for everyone is just an excuse to have dumb downed rides. Believe it or not, kids want thrills too.

Some do, some don't. My 8 year old has been to WDW every year since he was born. When he was 3 or so, we had a terrible time until we figured out that he was just old enough to pay attention to all of the immersion in most attractions, but too young to process it. He was irritable and crying every time we entered an attraction. Eventually, we figure it out -- and for the rest of the trip we took him mostly on "dumbed down" rides (Dumbo, Carpets, Carousel, Triceratops Spin, Living Seas with Nemo) -- and simple shows (Flights of Wonder, Turtle Talk, Epcot street performers). He was overwhelmed with all the detail and immersion in the stuff we all think of as Disney's strength and hallmarks. Once we figured it out, there was still plenty to do, because there are a mix of different kinds of attractions.

 

[Frenchi]

Falttery-> I spend a lot of time reading this board and I enjoy seeing the members voice their opinion and try to figure out what “Disney is up to”. It has given me great insight to what might lie ahead.:kiss:

Apologies -> Sorry for posting my opinion on this VERY touchy subject. I know I don’t post much but this is really starting to get my goat. Please don’t flame me for my opinion.

Facts ->

• Disney has invested a significant amount of cash in it’s 2 US parks over the last couple years.
• Disney is a worldwide company that have several parks to invest in.
• Disney has several channels (DVC,Park,Movie..) to manage and invest in.
• D23 2011 did not have any Major NEW announcements for WDW / DL.

:shrug:Opinion -> I’m really not surprised that there were no Major announcements in WDW, however, I was really hoping for some. Disney, like the rest of us, only has so much money to go around. Not only do they have to invest in the 2 US parks but also their other parks and venture (Movie, properties...). At some point in time some areas get more focus than others. WDW and LD got new lands within their parks.

Most people in North America only visit Disney every few years (2 - 4 year), if they are even luck to go. Most people I know have never been to any Disney parks. So expanding the US parks every few years is a very logic investment. This way you keep the people who spend the most (Travel/logging/food/souvenirs) happy and wanting to come back a few years.
Unfortunately, the luck few that goes every year (if not more often) fell left out because of the lack of expansion and voice their concerns of lack of investment. They want rapid continuous expansion to keep them going every time, like an amusement park.

As for WDW itself, in my opinion, the vision is more of a Magical place with characters, themes, and some rides where guest are there for the environment and not just the thrill ride. I cannot speak on the behalf of Mr. Disney Vision, but I tend to believe that was his purpose.

WDW is not an “amusement park” like six flags, if that was the case they would build one in each state and would not spend as much time on ride environment as the ride.

Thanks for your time

 

[JEANYLASER]

I would like to see the update of Universe of Energy and Imagination with a new sponsor! that is my 2 cents!

 

[Frenchi]

My Wife is a teacher so I can only go when it’s the busiest.

Although extra rides would be nice, I would really like them to find a way to lower wait time. Something better than FastPass, maybe a multiple ride fast pass. My kids really hate waiting in line.

 

[DisneyFan 2000]

I’m really not surprised that there were no Major announcements in WDW, however, I was really hoping for some. Disney, like the rest of us, only has so much money to go around. Not only do they have to invest in the 2 US parks but also their other parks and venture (Movie, properties...). At some point in time some areas get more focus than others. WDW and LD got new lands within their parks.

The notion that Disney isn't investing much in WDW because it's preoccupied with other parks is ridiculous. Each resort should have its own cash flow made up of the resort's specific income + needs. If we're talking a shared cash flow, most surely DLP would be receiving some much needed love by now? That's just NOT the case. Anyone claiming differently is just trying to make Disney look better than they actually do. The fact that TDR and DLA are doing it the right way is no excuse for WDW being neglected.

monorail_silver, I'm right there with ya. I'll be sitting patiently for Universal's next expansion announcement, lets see how Disney handles attendance hits year after year, and not just after a Harry Potter craze. I wonder what excuse will be served up then?

 

[capsshield]

If Disney wants to keep selling time shares they do need a schedule of projects to entice further sales and keep others from selling theirs.

Disney has had very aggressive periods of growth in the past and will again in the future.

The problem is they have spread the growth over 4 theme parks, 2 swimming parks and a downtown area to take pressure off the magic kingdom, and yet everyone goes to the magic kingdom for multiple days when they visit.

Because of this the magic kingdom needs to expand to take pressure off the crowding and the other parks need to add attractions to draw in the public to do the same.

Personally I think Epcot needs rides added to the countries if not new countries.

the studio's need an expansion of at least 3-4 d rides and 2-3 e rides plus a few c-rides. The whole back lot should be turned into a new land or two.

and then there is the animal kingdom. Way to big for the rides it has and some of the areas are so cheaply done that nothing less than a full makeover can save them. This park is so big that one day it could be a two day park like EPCOT if they worked at it.

I would add two area's to the magic kingdom that would wrap around the rivers of america extending liberty square and frontierland This would do a house of the wierd, an Adventurers club resturant, Grizzly clone from hong kong

Epcot would get a dark ride in England maybe two featuring Alice or Christmas Carol
France would get Ratatouie clone
Germany would get Pinocio dark ride

The movie studios would see a big expansion of pixar into the animation court and the backlot
Monsters inc coaster
Honey I shrunk kids makeover to Bugs life
Incredibles E ticket
clone of toy story land