Upcoming/Rumored Projects

[TP2000]

I understand what you mean but i have seen books where Peter pan is D ticket and so is snow white and Mr. toad wild ride.....so just cause it is a dark ride....at least to me....dosent mean it is automatically an E ticket.....is its "ticket" just based on how much the ride costs to build.

Peter Pan's Flight and Snow White's Scary Adventures were actually C Tickets. And so was Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. The Disneyland exclusive dark ride, Alice In Wonderland, was actually just a B Ticket (it was expanded and lengthened in 1984 and beefed up to C Ticket scale at that time). Pinnochio's Daring Journey was added to Disneyland after they got rid of tickets in '83, but would have been a C ticket as well as the Pinnochio clone in Tokyo was a C Ticket in the 1980's and 90's.

Unless you consider Pirates of the Caribbean, The Haunted Mansion, Jungle Cruise and it's a small world to be D Tickets, then you would rank DCA's upcoming Little Mermaid ride a D Ticket as well. But if you consider all of those classic 1950's and 60's large scale attractions as E Tickets, then Little Mermaid will slot nicely into the E Ticket community.

This thread reminds me why Al Lutz on Miceage was so wise to explain last year why WDI doesn't want to publicly brand Little Mermaid as an E Ticket. People just don't get what E Ticket means anymore, and they think it's confined to height requirement thrill rides and barf bags.

I'm also reminded of the odd East Coast vs. West Coast word game of just what a "dark ride" is. At Disneyland there are eight traditional dark rides on property, where at Disney World they have just three traditional dark rides.

Disneyland Dark Rides:
Peter Pan's Flight
Snow White's Scary Adventures
The Many Adventures of Winnie The Pooh
Mr. Toad's Wild Ride
Alice In Wonderland
Pinnochio's Daring Journey
Monsters Inc. Mike & Sulley To The Rescue!
Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin

Walt Disney World Dark Rides:
Peter Pan's Flight
Snow White's Scary Adventures
The Many Adventures of Winnie The Pooh

Say "dark ride" at Disneyland and you mean a specific type of intimate scale attraction with a small car traveling slowly along a bus bar ride system.

Say "dark ride" at Disney World and you mean any attraction on property with dim lighting. :lol:

 

[WDW1974]

I guess what I am trying to say is that you underestimate WDW's management. I think they have something up their sleeves for the 40th and due to these rumors constantly being brought up, it seems likely that these are the projects that will come into action once the economy picks up. I'm looking forward to a promising future of WDW...

There really isn't a way to underestimate management at WDW.

As to the economy, if you think things are going to get better you're in for a long wait ... might start thinking about the 50th and not the 40th.

I don't believe WDW can wait for things to improve. They need to bite the bullet and invest and on a large scale.

They've been way too conservative with spending (and irresponsible at the same time as they've invested in the wrong projects spearheaded by the wrong people and it's bitten them in the arses over and over again).

 

[Thrill Seeker]

There really isn't a way to underestimate management at WDW.

As to the economy, if you think things are going to get better you're in for a long wait ... might start thinking about the 50th and not the 40th.

I don't believe WDW can wait for things to improve. They need to bite the bullet and invest and on a large scale.

They've been way too conservative with spending (and irresponsible at the same time as they've invested in the wrong projects spearheaded by the wrong people and it's bitten them in the arses over and over again).

I completely agree. I think people are underestimating the impact Harry Potter, Manta and Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit are going to have on Orlando tourism. Universal and Sea World spent a lot of money to build some of the most impressive attractions to come to Orlando in years. More impressive than most of WDW's additions of the last decade. They need to start really improving the parks and giving people something new and exciting to want to come there for, or else Universal will be bankrolling.

 

[TP2000]

I also hate the name Nightastic (only a marketing dweeb would like it). DL After Dark sounds so much better (and they've used it before) ... or even Magical Summer Nights.

But your point is well taken. WDW isn't doing anything exciting at all right now that's new (unless you plan a trip around a kareoke contest or another Toy Story themed shoot em up or more timeshares).

I agree that Disneyland Summer Nightastic is a marketing slogan that only a marketer could love. Something simple like Date Nite At Disneyland would sound better and mean more to locals in SoCal in my opinion.

But at least they are doing something fun and new and unique. The new additions coming to Fantasmic and the Electrical Parade, plus the new fireworks and the dance party and other stuff are actually more impressive than I thought they would be.

You have to wonder why WDW management never seems to do the same type things for their customers?!?

Hopefully this One Disney thing means that more ideas and concepts will be going west to east, instead of the other way around.

 

[Arch Angel]

To comment on a few of your criticisms, Test Track and Mission Space are NOT bare bones thrill rides. Both of them were state of the art when they opened and a lot of time and effort went into developing the ride systems for each one. Stitch and Nemo were fairly cheep overlays of existing attractions but Buzz Lightyear was not. The omnimover ride system is the same for the most part but it was the first (at least to my knowledge) shooting gallery style ride to ever come out.

I don't know how old you are but when I was growing up in the 80s, Disney would come up with a ride concept first and incorporate a state of the art ride system into it. Not the other way around. Test Track and Journey to teh Center of the Earth both use the same ride system. Journey is a REAL attraction..it has a story, a theme, AA's, real show pieces etc. Test Track is just the ride system and some things thrown here and there to look at. Mission Space is the same thing.

Can you imagine the indiana jones ride or dinosaur but instead of a theme you just drive the jeep through an empty warehouse? That kind of stuff belongs in the imagineer test labs NOT in front of the guests. Do alittle research. Look at every ride Disney made prior to 1998 in this country and then compare it to the post 1998 stuff and you will see a serious disconnect.

I guess what I am trying to say is that you underestimate WDW's management. I think they have something up their sleeves for the 40th and due to these rumors constantly being brought up, it seems likely that these are the projects that will come into action once the economy picks up. I'm looking forward to a promising future of WDW...

Do you seriously believe Jay Rasolu, Meg Crofton, and Phil Holmes get together with the team and are like "ok gang we got the 40th. anniversary of Magic Kingdom coming up in a few years what are we gonna do to really surpass the guests expectatiosn?" and then proceed to think up all kinds of lavish ideas? I can assure you this is not the case and will honestly not be surprised if NONE of those ppl I just mentioned even realized the 40th. was coming up.

Jay Rasolu, the head of the parks & resorts division, rose to his position by cutting costs and openly lobbying AGAINST building rides like splash mountain and indiana jones adventure. He tried to cancel those projects numerous times. He does not care about the quality of the product. Don't even get me started on Phil "just go with the bare bone overlay for pirates" holmes.

 

[sittle]

Alot of ppl in this thread seem to be under the impression that Disney is planning to and actually cares to invest in new attractions at the park and that is simply not the case. Disney would rather use the money to pimpout the Jonas Bros and hannah montanna or concentrate on synergy between divisions. ....

Thread Drift...

To my way of thinking, it seems odd for one to join a BB service that discusses and observes the common enjoyment of Walt Disney World and be so pessimistic with the majority of one's posts...

I would think one would have better things to do with ones time than to masquerade as well informed and rain-on-the-parade around here..

I guess we can take solace in the fact that rain passes...

Drift off....

 

[CaptainMichael]

You have to wonder why WDW management never seems to do the same type things for their customers?!?

If Walt Disney World had something like Nightastic, it would be called Mickey's Nightastic Summer Party and a separate admission would be charged. Sad but true.

 

[Thrill Seeker]

I don't know how old you are but when I was growing up in the 80s, Disney would come up with a ride concept first and incorporate a state of the art ride system into it. Not the other way around. Test Track and Journey to teh Center of the Earth both use the same ride system. Journey is a REAL attraction..it has a story, a theme, AA's, real show pieces etc. Test Track is just the ride system and some things thrown here and there to look at. Mission Space is the same thing.

Can you imagine the indiana jones ride or dinosaur but instead of a theme you just drive the jeep through an empty warehouse? That kind of stuff belongs in the imagineer test labs NOT in front of the guests. Do alittle research. Look at every ride Disney made prior to 1998 in this country and then compare it to the post 1998 stuff and you will see a serious disconnect.



Do you seriously believe Jay Rasolu, Meg Crofton, and Phil Holmes get together with the team and are like "ok gang we got the 40th. anniversary of Magic Kingdom coming up in a few years what are we gonna do to really surpass the guests expectatiosn?" and then proceed to think up all kinds of lavish ideas? I can assure you this is not the case and will honestly not be surprised if NONE of those ppl I just mentioned even realized the 40th. was coming up.

Jay Rasolu, the head of the parks & resorts division, rose to his position by cutting costs and openly lobbying AGAINST building rides like splash mountain and indiana jones adventure. He tried to cancel those projects numerous times. He does not care about the quality of the product. Don't even get me started on Phil "just go with the bare bone overlay for pirates" holmes.

Test Track is suppose to simulate vehicle testing, which is what it accomplishes. It may not seem like much of a theme, but it is a theme and it does follow it very well.

I do agree that the older stuff was for the most part better. I miss the old Epcot Center and what made it what it was. The latest additions do seem to lack imagination (especially JIIwF), but that doesn't mean that they don't have something in their sleeves. I'm staying optimistic here.

 

[whylightbulb]

To comment on a few of your criticisms, Test Track and Mission Space are NOT bare bones thrill rides. Both of them were state of the art when they opened and a lot of time and effort went into developing the ride systems for each one.

Sorry for posting like a broken record but at least I always try to say the same things in new ways. Test Track and MS are as "bare bones" as you can get. Test track takes place in what amounts to an empty warehouse with so few show elements you can almost count them on your fingers. The show elements that are there are mostly cutouts and the same old environmental effects we've seen elsewhere. There is so little effort to immerse you in an action, fantasy or any other "themed" environment" that would normally make the difference between a Disney ride and most others. How many ways can you say that there is so little in this ride to enjoy other than the occasional speed sequence? Yea I get it, that is the theme. What a great way to save money because you already blew your budget on the ride system. The conversations went something like this; "Let's just sell them on the idea that this is supposed to be really industrial and you are supposed to be in a warehouse because this is a testing facility." The real proving grounds are much more interesting than this insipid excuse for a ride.

Having a cutting-edge ride system is nice but what good is that without the show to complement it? Case in point - compare Indiana Jones with its new (at the time) EMV technology to Countdown to Extinction. That is a good example of how much the show means to the overall experience.

Stitch and Nemo were fairly cheep overlays of existing attractions but Buzz Lightyear was not. The omnimover ride system is the same for the most part but it was the first (at least to my knowledge) shooting gallery style ride to ever come out.

Buzz was a cheap overlay in relative terms and it was not even close to the first interactive targeting ride. Sally Corporation opened the first years before and it could be argued that "Pistalaro Roundup" was a better, more entertaining experience. Buzz is a great example of "Disney on the cheap".With the exception of the Buzz animatronics using the VP face (first developed by PeopleVision, not WDI) there is nothing to get excited about in this ride. I would go so far as to say that much of their Sintra cutouts and paint quality is below what you would find in a cheaper Sally dark ride.

I guess what I am trying to say is that you underestimate WDW's management. I think they have something up their sleeves for the 40th and due to these rumors constantly being brought up, it seems likely that these are the projects that will come into action once the economy picks up. I'm looking forward to a promising future of WDW...

All that being said above, I am right there with you on the hope part. I see glimmers of hope but I have been disappointed before...many times by WDW. Regarding the underestimating part, I've found that you can never underestimate WDW management too much.

 

[plutoismyhero]

Peter Pan's Flight and Snow White's Scary Adventures were actually C Tickets. And so was Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. The Disneyland exclusive dark ride, Alice In Wonderland, was actually just a B Ticket (it was expanded and lengthened in 1984 and beefed up to C Ticket scale at that time). Pinnochio's Daring Journey was added to Disneyland after they got rid of tickets in '83, but would have been a C ticket as well as the Pinnochio clone in Tokyo was a C Ticket in the 1980's and 90's.

Unless you consider Pirates of the Caribbean, The Haunted Mansion, Jungle Cruise and it's a small world to be D Tickets, then you would rank DCA's upcoming Little Mermaid ride a D Ticket as well. But if you consider all of those classic 1950's and 60's large scale attractions as E Tickets, then Little Mermaid will slot nicely into the E Ticket community.

This thread reminds me why Al Lutz on Miceage was so wise to explain last year why WDI doesn't want to publicly brand Little Mermaid as an E Ticket. People just don't get what E Ticket means anymore, and they think it's confined to height requirement thrill rides and barf bags.

I'm also reminded of the odd East Coast vs. West Coast word game of just what a "dark ride" is. At Disneyland there are eight traditional dark rides on property, where at Disney World they have just three traditional dark rides.

Disneyland Dark Rides:
Peter Pan's Flight
Snow White's Scary Adventures
The Many Adventures of Winnie The Pooh
Mr. Toad's Wild Ride
Alice In Wonderland
Pinnochio's Daring Journey
Monsters Inc. Mike & Sulley To The Rescue!
Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin

Walt Disney World Dark Rides:
Peter Pan's Flight
Snow White's Scary Adventures
The Many Adventures of Winnie The Pooh

Say "dark ride" at Disneyland and you mean a specific type of intimate scale attraction with a small car traveling slowly along a bus bar ride system.

Say "dark ride" at Disney World and you mean any attraction on property with dim lighting. :lol:

So E-ticket more or less just means a very popular ride regardless of what kind of ride it is.............makes sense to me. My only concern is weather or not this little mermaid ride will really be that popular or not

 

[Mstr Gra-c]

Don't forget the teleprompter :dazzle:

Awesome!

 

[SirGoofy]

My only concern is weather or not this little mermaid ride will really be that popular or not

There's no way this ride wouldn't be popular. It looks to be top notch quality, and people will always line up for quality.

 

[girlface]

I'll try my hand at keeping track of all the rumors in this thread.

Magic Kingdom
Space Mountain Refurbishment
Tomorrowland Transit Authority Refurbishment
Hall of Presidents Refurbishment
Little Mermaid Attraction
Fantasyland Makeover w/RFID tags, and changes to every attraction except "it's a small world"
Increased capacity to Peter Pan's Flight
Big Thunder Mountain refurbishment

Epcot
Completion of Spaceship Earth Descent
The Sum of All Thrills by Raytheon Coming to Innoventions East
Disney Nature to take over Circle of Life Video in The Land
Imagination Refurbishment
New World Showcase Pavilion/E-Ticket

Disney's Hollywood Studios
Star Tours 2.0
Monster's Inc Roller Coaster
Backlot Tour Removal
Great Movie Ride Refurbishment

Disney's Animal Kingdom
Expedition Everest Yeti Refurbishment
Mysterious Island/Journey to the Center of the Earth/20K Leagues Under the Sea
Australia


General Walt Disney World
Four Seasons
Cat Cora's restaurant to replace Spoodles: Kouzzina
Paradiso 37 Restaurant in old Pleasure Island Area
Western Beltway Expansion
New Restaurants at Downtown Disney
Kidani Village DVC at Animal Kingdom Lodge
Bay Lake Tower at the Contemporary Resort

Recently Completed/Opened
Characters in Flight at Downtown Disney
Stitch's Supersonic Celebration


The Color Code
Confirmed/Under Construction/Greenlit Projects in Green
Legitimate Rumor, but no timetable in Red
Far fetched/Blue Sky Rumor in Blue

Ive heard that the little mermaid ride was going to be built awhile ago so i think it may just be a rumour. Hopefully its not! Woudnt they think about making more updated movies into rides (As much as i love the classics) ???

 

[girlface]

There's no way this ride wouldn't be popular. It looks to be top notch quality, and people will always line up for quality.

Yeah i agree,plus they have made (No were near as popular) updated movies prequal and sequal to the little mermaid. Think of how many years peter pan has been there and that still gets an hour even 2 sometimes wait time!:drevil:

 

[plutoismyhero]

There's no way this ride wouldn't be popular. It looks to be top notch quality, and people will always line up for quality.

What all is there suppose to be in this ride...what is so great about it

 

[SirGoofy]

What all is there suppose to be in this ride...what is so great about it

Imagine a ride exactly like Haunted Mansion but with Little Mermaid show scenes and almost 100 AAs. Nothing like it has been built in the US in a long time.

This thing is going to be special.

 

[JWG]

Imagine a ride exactly like Haunted Mansion but with Little Mermaid show scenes and almost 100 AAs. Nothing like it has been built in the US in a long time.

This thing is going to be special.

Until it hits the bean counter desk and we end up with great 3D video screens with "new high quality digital film."

I'm a little skeptical, but it's not Epcot so I shouldn't be.

 

[SirGoofy]

Until it hits the bean counter desk and we end up with great 3D video screens with "new high quality digital film."

I'm a little skeptical, but it's not Epcot so I shouldn't be.

I don't see it happening with this one. I don't see Lasseter being okay with dumbing it down.

 

[EPCOT Explorer]

Fantasyland makeover - more likely now than it has been

Monsters coaster - coming soon.

Big Thunder - been on the list for over a year. Should be good.

Peter Pan - likely new vehicles, if DL's work out well.

Cmon, Disney...Do this, and be great again...

 

[WDW1974]

If Walt Disney World had something like Nightastic, it would be called Mickey's Nightastic Summer Party and a separate admission would be charged. Sad but true.

Pretty much.

The sad thing is it wasn't always that way. I recall a few summers in the 80s when they ran an EPCOT After Dark promo (of course that was when they didn't close chunks of the park at 7 and the rest at 9 just about when darkness arrives in summer).

They also did similar at TPFKaTD-MGMS.

And DAK After Dark was a major project (led by Rivers of Light) that was killed (after a lot of money was spent) when Jay Rasulo began pushing his boutique animal park idea.

From a marketing standpoint, it's a no-brainer. Weather in Orlando during summer is brutal. That's why they always touted (even in PR and ad materials) people leaving and heading away for a swim or dinner at a resort and then coming back in the cooler night hours. Unfortunately, when you close parks at 7 ... 8 ... 9 ... 10 ... you really don't give a chance to come back at night (time for the inevitable apologist to toss out EMHs as being equal to what's been taken away).