News Walt Disney Company plans to spend $17 billion at Walt Disney World over the next ten years

[Chi84]

Now there’s a blast in the past. He may be lurking in here somewhere though, would be a good time for a long post of nuggets

Seriously. This site could do with a touch of negativity

 

[doctornick]

Well I can't really blame him for being sceptical. Are you really that confident in what Disney will do? I'm at a point where the benefit of the doubt is gone. It's now show me. Put the money where the mouth is. Will they actually add capacity in the form of rides?

I’m actually pretty confident based on recent years - plus competition from Uni - that they will add a bunch of rides in upcoming years. The recent wave of construction was planned and started when Iger was previously in charge and I think he realized at that time that investing in rides is really key in keeping the parks enticing to guests.

 

[doctornick]

Please understand, I enjoy hearing his take, (as well as the dissenting views). I have come to realize, he’s got a bit of an insiders view. He “knows where the bodies are buried”, so to speak- And that’s exactly why I frequent these boards.

He really doesn’t. He just cites what others who are insiders have said, while putting on the most negative and cynical take on the information.

 

[Santa Raccoon 77]

Seriously. This site could do with a touch of negativity

No it doesn't

 

[BlakeW39]

My concern isn't so much IF they'll use the $17b on expanding the parks, but WHAT they'll use it for. Cosmic Rewind, Rat, and so on are just dumb fun to me. They aren't really particularly good from a theme park design perspective, just typical IP trash. They have about as much artistic merit as the "content" they mass produce for Disney+. If that $17b is just gonna be used to bring more tacky corporate vomit into the parks then nah, I'm not really excited lol.

 

[neo999955]

My concern isn't so much IF they'll use the $17b on expanding the parks, but WHAT they'll use it for. Cosmic Rewind, Rat, and so on are just dumb fun to me. They aren't really particularly good from a theme park design perspective, just typical IP trash. They have about as much artistic merit as the "content" they mass produce for Disney+. If that $17b is just gonna be used to bring more tacky corporate vomit into the parks then nah, I'm not really excited lol.

I feel the "and so on" is really broad here. Personally, I find Cosmic Rewind to be a terrific ride and one of my favorites. I can understand not wanting all new rides to be IP based (although, personally, I love having a connection to a ride, which I often feel because of the associated IP), but does that make all rides "dumb fun" and "corporate vomit?"

I'm excited for future expansions, which is what he parks need. Cosmic, MMRR, RoTR and Avatar are all some of my favorite rides - so I am content with the ability of modern Disney to create compelling rides, even if I don't love everything they do.

 

[JusticeDisney]

My concern isn't so much IF they'll use the $17b on expanding the parks, but WHAT they'll use it for. Cosmic Rewind, Rat, and so on are just dumb fun to me. They aren't really particularly good from a theme park design perspective, just typical IP trash. They have about as much artistic merit as the "content" they mass produce for Disney+. If that $17b is just gonna be used to bring more tacky corporate vomit into the parks then nah, I'm not really excited lol.

It’s a theme park, not a museum, lol

 

[BlakeW39]

I feel the "and so on" is really broad here. Personally, I find Cosmic Rewind to be a terrific ride and one of my favorites. I can understand not wanting all new rides to be IP based (although, personally, I love having a connection to a ride, which I often feel because of the associated IP), but does that make all rides "dumb fun" and "corporate vomit?"

I'm excited for future expansions, which is what he parks need. Cosmic, MMRR, RoTR and Avatar are all some of my favorite rides - so I am content with the ability of modern Disney to create compelling rides, even if I don't love everything they do.

Frozen Ever After, Journey of Moana, Tiana's Salt Mines, 7DMT. That's what I meant by 'and so on.' Hell, SW:GE even. It's not that they're terrible. They just weren't created from the perspective of an artist. They were created from the perspective of merchandising/marketing execs. And you can feel that. Cosmic Rewind for instance isn't a bad ride, but it is just a thrill ride and is very little more than that. Expedition Everest is a lot more than that. And I don't like going to the parks only to be surrounded by ads for Disney's brand. It's cheap and diminishes my experience in the parks.

 

[BlakeW39]

It’s a theme park, not a museum, lol

Which is irrelevant.

 

[JusticeDisney]

Which is irrelevant.

Except it’s not.

 

[HauntedPirate]

He really doesn’t. He just cites what others who are insiders have said, while putting on the most negative and cynical take on the information.

Negative, Ghost Rider. He's a former employee, if I'm not mistaken. Not parks, but back-end business stuff.

 

[JusticeDisney]

Negative, Ghost Rider. He's a former employee, if I'm not mistaken. Not parks, but back-end business stuff.

Sorry to break it to you, but he has zero inside information, he is as clear as mud with whatever he is trying to say, and he talks down to anyone and everyone who disagrees with him. If that kind of person is your cup of tea, that’s fine, but don’t be surprised that so many others here have no use for people who act like that.

 

[BlakeW39]

Except it’s not.

No, whether or not Disney is a museum is entirely irrelevant to this discussion, being that neither museums nor anything related to them was brought up, and Disney's being a museum was not even remotely in question. So yeah, completely useless piece of information which serves only to tell me you think valuable art only belongs in a museum, which it does not.

 

[JusticeDisney]

No, whether or not Disney is a museum is entirely irrelevant to this discussion, being that neither museums nor anything related to them was brought up, and Disney's being a museum was not even remotely in question. So yeah, completely useless piece of information which serves only to tell me you think valuable art only belongs in a museum, which it does not.

Aaaaaaaand you totally missed the point! Anyway, you keep going to theme parks for beautiful art, and I will keep going to ride fun rides.

 

[Willmark]

17 billion? Who knew it was that much to fix the Yeti?

 

[KeithVH]

17 billion? Who knew it was that much to fix the Yeti?

Then again, not fixing it costs nothing. Except maybe for some grumbling from a few fanbois/grls.

 

[James Alucobond]

The yeti is just a weird symbolic rallying cry for the disgruntled. Realistically, it’s way down the list of things that need immediate attention.

 

[RSoxNo1]

My criticism for Joe wasn’t his ideas or what he produced…it was that it was so cost inefficient that they literally changed how they viewed all park projects.
The sad reality is parks have less actual things in them than they would have IF WDI could have found more “balance”

That didn’t matter when DAK opened…but the fallout is clear today

Except the money he spent resulted in substantial increases to park attendance. Yes, the research trips he went on may have been somewhat unnecessary, but you can't argue with the results.

• Expedition Everest cost a reported $100 mil and increased the park attendance by at least 1 millon
• Pandora cost somewhere between $400-$600 million reportedly and increased the park attendance more than 1.6 million in year one alone and another 1.25 million in the first full year after that.
• His much criticized Guardians redo of Tower of Terror was done on the cheap and by all accounts / guest surveys has the attraction better than the DCA original.

Joe's spending has arguably been the MOST efficient of any Imagineering lead over the last 20 years. Just because he took small teams to rural areas of Asia does not mean he has been inefficient.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Except the money he spent resulted in substantial increases to park attendance. Yes, the research trips he went on may have been somewhat unnecessary, but you can't argue with the results.

• Expedition Everest cost a reported $100 mil and increased the park attendance by at least 1 millon
• Pandora cost somewhere between $400-$600 million reportedly and increased the park attendance more than 1.6 million in year one alone and another 1.25 million in the first full year after that.
• His much criticized Guardians redo of Tower of Terror was done on the cheap and by all accounts / guest surveys has the attraction better than the DCA original.

Joe's spending has arguably been the MOST efficient of any Imagineering lead over the last 20 years. Just because he took small teams to rural areas of Asia does not mean he has been inefficient.

I hate to throw a wrench in all that research…but the aggregate travel has risen almost across the board on a fairly stable/predictable trajectory.

The point isn’t to give or deny Rohde a bonus…

It’s to just express my opinion that his largesse contributed to where they can’t build anything in under 5 years or $500,000,000

That’s is well and fine if the attendance was where it was 20 years ago. But obvious it’s not and the only way to combat it is to get something done more quickly and cost efficiently. And they can’t do it…so it’s nonsense fees and algorithms trying to make sure the masses don’t realize why they are paying and why it isn’t working these days.

 

[BlakeW39]

Aaaaaaaand you totally missed the point! Anyway, you keep going to theme parks for beautiful art, and I will keep going to ride fun rides.

Originally my comment was going to be a somewhat rude retort, but instead I'm just going to say I would appreciate it if you kept your distance from me. I have no interest in talking to someone who basically is just rude to everyone in the the thread he disagrees with.