What if you owned the Disney Parks?

[DfromATX]

Thats what they did in Florida, if you look back to how backwoods rural that part of florida was check out some of the backlash of disneyworld being built. Theres a really good 60 minutes about it, and the locals werent happy with the traffic about to come.
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oh and heres a park you prob didnt even know existed in dallas (for a few years) supposedly theres still a part remaining.

You've put a lot of thought into this! Hmmm... looking at your map, I would vote for the Bryan/College Station or Brenham area. A&M is in College Station. Blue Bell is in Brenham. In Houston, we used to have Astroworld and I know all the people who grew up going there miss it. Houstonians might be willing to travel to Brenham since it's only about 45 minutes away. But I still say we don't have good enough weather to justify it. Would you quit going to Disney World if they built one in Texas? I wouldn't.

 

[DfromATX]

One of our ranches is in your western circle around Weatherford in Parker county. Over the last 20 years urban sprawl has reached our area and why I don't really know other than proximity. Its pretty flat, but the weather is really nothing short of lethal. Its been well over a hundred for the past month, currently, we're in a severe drought, and there's not enough water to support any real growth but they keep on building. We get regular tornados, hail, and lots of wind.

According to my phone, it's currently 107 in Dallas!

We have a brief spring (my personal favorite), then summer, then Hell (now), then suddenly it's a blizzard outside (ok some exaggeration there lol). Fall is often more like summer. Sometimes it's hot and summer like until November.

I went to Disney World February 2021 where the weather was beautiful and we were wearing shorts, but came home shortly before "the big freeze" and it was so cold my chest hurt walking from the airport to our car. A week later we had that horrible freeze.

 

[GimpYancIent]

If I owned Disney, it would not be a publicly traded company. There would be quite a bit of the management shown the exit door. There would be a complete re-evaluation and remodeling of all pricing. Genie would be back in its bottle and shelved. The focus of the company would be ENTERTAINMENT for all (yes ALL!) not making statements nor advocacies that have nothing to do with entertainment.

 

[Mr Mindcrime]

Lots of great ideas in this thread and if 50%+ of them were accomplished, the WDW Fandom would be ecstatic.

The only way this could ever be accomplished, beyond "dreaming", would be:

I’d take it private.

and then treat it like a non-profit. As long as profit is the motive, you'll keep getting what you're getting. If you want a WDW Fan's Paradise..... remove the pressure of achieving profit.

 

[GimpYancIent]

Lots of great ideas in this thread and if 50%+ of them were accomplished, the WDW Fandom would be ecstatic.

The only way this could ever be accomplished, beyond "dreaming", would be:


and then treat it like a non-profit. As long as profit is the motive, you'll keep getting what you're getting. If you want a WDW Fan's Paradise..... remove the pressure of achieving profit.

By allowing all the extraneous management to leave, depart (as in resign / quit or be fired), like the board of directors for instance, just think of all the money that would be saved! Talk about cost cutting.

 

[wdwfan4ver]

Guests are not allowed to drink more than 7 alcoholic drinks at Epcot even if the drinks are shared if I owned the Disney Parks. My problem is if I'm running Disney Parks, I want to increase amount countries in World Showcase. I don't want to see what happens if somehow there would 14 countries in Epcot under my watch in terms of Drinking around the world.

I have if I have enough time left in my tenue, because I would also work on DHS, AK, MK if I owned the parks. I may not be to get everything done. I would like to stop running it in the 2048 to 2051 range for enjoying what ever life I have left after that.

I'm not doing as much as the old Future World as I like. The fact is Chapek created 3 themed areas and I think Moana is stuck in Epcot. Cosmic Rewind shouldn't built, but my concern would be how much extra cost there would be for retheming the coaster.

Future World aka World Discovery, World Nature and World Celebration
1.) Communicore Hall gets replaced by Walt Disney Presents. That attraction is moved from Disney Hollywood Studios. My reasoning is since Epcot has a Statue of Walt, why not a attraction dedicated to him too.
2.) Imagination Pavilion gets closer to 1982 in attraction quality.
3.) Spaceship earth refurbishment.
4.) I want to do some thing with Test Track to be better than Tron Track, but don't know.

World Showcase
1.) Beauty and the Beast show is gone from France Pavilion.

2.) China Pavilion gone, new pavilion replaces it.

2.) Greece Pavilion - Bakery, table service, shop, 12 labors of Hercules Dark ride - based on the Greek mythology tale, and Greek mythology meet and greets.

3.) Replace Frozen Ever After with a new Norway mythology ride. Meet and Greet Stays in Norway.

4.) Egypt Pavilion - shops, table service, and ancient tomb rollercoaster aka escape from mummy curse. I did consider a Nile River cruise instead, but the park needs a 2nd coaster instead.

5.) Brazil Pavilion - Brazilian steakhouse, shops, Samba dance area,, Amazon rapids ride - only if enough time in my tenure.

6.) India Pavilion - bakery, table service, shops, circle vision film attraction -only if enough time left in my tenure.

7.) Mary Poppins Ferris wheel in UK Pavilion. - only if enough time left in my tenure

 

[wdwfan4ver]

Not sure what VL system is.

VL system stands for Virtual lines as in virtual queues. Virtual lines and virtual queues are the same thing. A lot of people are not fans of virtual queues. Virtual lines are used instead of standby lines.

Disney has used Virtual Queues for rides when they first open to the public starting with the Galaxy's Edge Rides back in 2019. The latest WDW ride that is using virtual lines is Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind.

Disney uses virtual queues when an attraction first opens because Disney does not want anything like 11 hour lines on a grand opening day of a ride. The catch is Disney is capable of keeping the ride on virtual queues for several months.

 

[GimpYancIent]

Guests are not allowed to drink more than 7 alcoholic drinks at Epcot even if the drinks are shared if I owned the Disney Parks. My problem is if I'm running Disney Parks, I want to increase amount countries in World Showcase. I don't want to see what happens if somehow there would 15 countries in Epcot under my watch in terms of Drinking around the world.

I have if I have enough time left in my tenue, because I would also work on DHS, AK, MK if I owned the parks. I may not be to get everything done. I would like to stop running it in the 2048 to 2051 range for enjoying what ever life I have left after that.

I'm not doing as much as the old Future World as I like. The fact is Chapek created 3 themed areas and I think Moana is stuck in Epcot. Cosmic Rewind shouldn't built, but my concern would be how much extra cost there would be for retheming the coaster.

Future World aka World Discovery, World Nature and World Celebration
1.) Communicore Hall gets replaced by Walt Disney Presents. That attraction is moved from Disney Hollywood Studios. My reasoning is since Epcot has a Statue of Walt, why not a attraction dedicated to him too.
2.) Imagination Pavilion gets closer to 1982 in attraction quality.
3.) Spaceship earth refurbishment.
4.) I want to do some thing with Test Track to be better than Tron Track, but don't know.

World Showcase
1.) Beauty and the Beast show is gone from France Pavilion.

2.) Greece Pavilion - Bakery, table service, shop, 12 labors of Hercules Dark ride - based on the Greek mythology tale, and Greek mythology meet and greets.

3.) Replace Frozen Ever After with a new Norway mythology ride. Meet and Greet Stays in Norway.

4.) Egypt Pavilion - shops, table service, and ancient tomb rollercoaster aka escape from mummy curse. I did consider a Nile River Rain instead, but the park needs a 2nd coaster.

5.) Brazil Pavilion - Brazilian steakhouse, shops, Amazon rapids ride - only if enough time in my tenure.

6.) India Pavilion - bakery, table service, shops, circle vision film attraction -only if enough time left in my tenure.

7.) Mary Poppins Ferris wheel in UK Pavilion. - only if enough time left in my tenure

I would suggest getting rid of the China pavilion so you would have more room for your pavilion projections. Hey! The Brazilians know how to paaarty! Some Samba would perk things up in that area.

 

[networkpro]

According to my phone, it's currently 107 in Dallas!

We have a brief spring (my personal favorite), then summer, then Hell (now), then suddenly it's a blizzard outside (ok some exaggeration there lol). Fall is often more like summer. Sometimes it's hot and summer like until November.

I went to Disney World February 2021 where the weather was beautiful and we were wearing shorts, but came home shortly before "the big freeze" and it was so cold my chest hurt walking from the airport to our car. A week later we had that horrible freeze.

It's 110 in Weatherford, 111 for tomorrow. Great time to mow fields.

 

[DfromATX]

It's 110 in Weatherford, 111 for tomorrow. Great time to mow fields.

Yikes! Today we are going to have a high of 104 in Austin. Looks like a "cold front" is headed here for next week and temps will go down to 99...

It's crazy hot and it appears to be like that everywhere. I feel bad for those in Europe affected by the heat. My friend in the UK said it's 40C/104F and with no AC in her house.

 

[jloucks]

Yikes! Today we are going to have a high of 104 in Austin. Looks like a "cold front" is headed here for next week and temps will go down to 99...

It's crazy hot and it appears to be like that everywhere. I feel bad for those in Europe affected by the heat. My friend in the UK said it's 40C/104F and with no AC in her house.

111 Projected for today in DFW. It was 111 yesterday. We call it "Danger Hot".

 

[thomas998]

Frankly I'm going to raise prices and go back to the ticket system. As it is even if you got the number or people down to a manageable number in the parks you are still going to have people overwhelming E-ticket level rides while ignoring A-ticket rides which will still make for long miserable lines for the best rides. Not a good thing. Going to tickets would help stop that and create more of a even spread in rides.

Next is a revamping of all the crap that is sold in the parks. If you are going to charge higher prices and focus on more affluent customers you don't want to keep selling the cheap that anyone could buy in a walmart. I remember my first time going to DL as a kid and being amazed at the cool toys they had in the toy store, for little cars they didn't sell cheap HotWheels you could find anywhere, instead they sold Corgi metal cars that you would only find in higher end places like a F.A.O. Swartz. That's the way the merchandise has to be revamped.

Food, it all needs a redo where you get quality food that has taste not the bland cafeteria garbage they have gone to now.

Making those changes along with the better maintenance would go a long way to making the parks more profitable and enjoyable.

And yes, it would cut a lot of people out of going, but the reality is the parks are a finite amount of space and you can't serve everyone so you might as well just let money dictate the cutoff for people.

 

[AKL2003]

1. Imagination proper re-do including theater show
2. SSE proper refurb/update
3. Finish what should have been started with regards to Germanys boat ride
4. Add Colombia pavilion with attraction
5. Add a significant Mary Poppins attraction to UK
6. Get Harmonious’ hardware off the lake someway/somehow

7. Attraction in Stitch theater
8. Main Street theater added
9. Proper refurb to Space Mtn.
10. Add Alice in Wondeland dark ride to Fantasy land with Shanghai pirates tech
11.Night time parade

12.Get Fantasmic running
13. Create a proper Animation Courtyard around MMRR
14. Cars land
15. Indy water ride
16. Parade and street entertainment back

17.Proper Dino land including a major refurb of Dinosaur and adding the excavator coaster where PW was
18. Night show in amphitheater
19.Proper E ticket in Pandora to compliment FoP and NRJ
20.Kahli lengthened
21.Parade

So that was fun and depressing at the same time. I also just spent about 40 billion dollars of Disney money in my mind…

 

[ppete1975]

You've put a lot of thought into this! Hmmm... looking at your map, I would vote for the Bryan/College Station or Brenham area. A&M is in College Station. Blue Bell is in Brenham. In Houston, we used to have Astroworld and I know all the people who grew up going there miss it. Houstonians might be willing to travel to Brenham since it's only about 45 minutes away. But I still say we don't have good enough weather to justify it. Would you quit going to Disney World if they built one in Texas? I wouldn't.

yes, if it was on par. Because for people who florida and california are far away, it would be a much cheaper trip so I could justify doing it more often.

 

[DisAl]

Sell them before they completely self-destruct due to management decisions.

 

[The Empress Lilly]

Oh, the things I'd do. However, the following probably applies to myself as well.....eventually, and that is:
"Absolute power corrupts absolutely". None of us are impervious and that's a huge human flaw.

Personnally it didn't take a lot of power for me to get thoroughly corrupted....

 

[Trackmaster]

As 100% majority shareholder, I think that my first step would be hiring the best CEO that could help maximize return on equity and minimize debt leverage. Since I would not want my wealth tied up in one investment, over time I would sell off shares so that I could diversity into index funds, but would make sure to do it slow enough to not spook the share value. I would attempt to be hands off from the parks and leave them in expert hands, but I would monitor performance closely, and if the financials weren't where they were supposed to be, some tough decisions would be made.

I would hope that unless the posters on here weren't Ivy League MBAs that they wouldn't attempt to run a Fortune 500 by themselves just because they inherit a controlling interest in the company. That would be a disaster.

 

[esskay]

Sod it I'll take a stab.

I'm ignoring DL and outside of Florida projects. I'd probably sell those off under strict conditions that they are kept and maintained in an appropriate way.

At WDW I'd immediatly increase hiring of imagineering, and start construction on a new Imgineering HQ that would provide enough space for whatever they can dream of.

I'd likely raise ticket prices with a commitment that it would be temporary. To counter this I'd reduce merch and food costs, but increase quality.

All Parks
- A detailed cleaning and restoration program would begin, and to reduce disruption would be done overnight to avoid closing rides. Every night a team of workers will come in and work on swapping out dodgy animatronics, implementing improved ride effects, repainting, cleaning, etc.

Magic Kingdom
- I'd get Tron bloody finished even if it meant hiring several thousand workers to get the damn thing open, it's taken far too long.
- The Swiss Family Treehouse would be closed and demolished to make way for a new Up based ride, this would see you entering Carl's house and boarding a 'sofa' style chair in his living room. The ride vehicle would start to rise up on a platform before connecting to an initally slow moving track simulating the house fllying away. A 'gust of wind' would send the ride on a faster journey through adventure.
- Tom Sawyer Island would be closed and rethemed - it's tired and dated and provides practically no reason to go there right now.
- All projection equipment at places like Philharmagic to be replaced with the latest and greatest.
- Work would begin on expanding tomorowland, Tron's a terrible IP so that would within 5 years be retheamed. A couple of new rides would be added here and likely the closure of some crappy ones like Laugh Floor.

Epcot
- Mission Space would be closed and demolished (more on that in a bit)
- The Oddysey restaurant would be refurbished and reopened
- Spaceship Earth would get it's much needed overhaul
- New countreis would be greenlit in the World Showcase
- Harmonious would be ditched, along with its ugly barges and replaced with something more appropriate
- Journey would be given a total revamp, replacing the current itteration of Figment. The upstairs DVC lounge would be convered back to guest space with the rainbow corridor being rebuilt. There would be a strict 12 month policy on everything in here so as to avoid the crummy outdated tech issues it faced.
- Play Pavilion would be reinstated, however the WoL building would first be given a major overhaul to get rid of the nasty moldy look it currently has.
- Test track would be closed and rethemed
- The Mary Poppins plans for the UK pavilion would be reinstated.
- On the land that Mission: Space occupied, a new Space pavilion would be constructed. This would feature 2 new e-ticket rides: Ticket to Mars (a rollercoaster and motion simulator combination, featuring Tom Hanks as your pilot and Sir Patrick Stewart as your CapCom) and Asteroid Impact, a bodywars style simulator ride where you mine an asteroid for valuable resources, but everything goes wrong). The new pavilion would also feature smaller educational attractions, one of which would let you build your own colony on mars and overcome the issues of resources.
- A new live events stage would be themed into the currently being built part of futureworld. This would overlook the lake and act as a larger theater for things like the candlelight processional, as well as live music and entertainment every day.
- All showcase pavilions would recieve a major update, bringing in more culturally relevent content with the goal of educating.
- Improvements to walkways to help in summer heat.

Hollywood Studios
- The park would recieve two new lands: Animationland and Movieland (those names suck a bit so would have to come up with something better). Animationland would add a couple of new rides, and bring back some elements from the backlot tour to show how animation was done, and how it's now done. Movieland would bring back even more from the backlot tour, and would cover a large area with new movie sets (not just the typical new york streets everyone does).

Animal Kingdom
- This is the one park I wouldn't mess with too much.
- I would close and destroy the whole of dinoland. It would be replaced with a new land caled Beastly Kingdom. This would bring back the original concepts for this area. I'd likely throw millions at Joe Rhodes to come out of retirement, and take full ownership over the park with an unlimited budget to do whatever he wants with this section of the park, as well as others.

Waterparks
- Typhoon lagoon would be demolished. The land from the park would be used to create an ultimate water park around 2x the size of Volcano bay.
- Once this new water park was open, BB would be demolished.

Transport
- All monorail train would be replaced with walkthrough next gen versions, and work would start on extending the line to Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom, Disney Springs and as many resorts as feasibly possible.
- The Magical Express would be immediately be reinstated, however wouldn't be needed for too long as the monorail will be extended to MCO, with the next gen trains being able to achive much higher speeds, and with a larger fleet.
- The Transportation and Ticket Center would be demolished entirely, to be replaced with a new welcome center, acting as a hub providing direct transport to all parks and resorts.
- All car parks would have solar 'roofs' installed above each space, with every space getting a charger which would be free of charge for guests to use. The same would be done at the resorts.
- Trams would be reinstated at all car parks, with new electric trams being ordered to replace them as a short term solution.
- Longer term an overhead people mover system would be added to all car parks.

Infrastructure
- Utilidoors would be temporarily closed and given a major refurbishment, with new tunneling being added going to all four parks and a new centralized resources hub outside of the parks. All delivieries, staff parking, etc would be relocated there with a peoplemover line being added to the new tunnels for improved transport of goods and cast members.
- New solar farms and battery banks would be added, with the aim of making the whole place entirely carbon neutral.
- Car parking would be made free for electric vehicles
- Busses would be slowly phased out and be replaced with the new and improved monorail line. For places that it's impractical to get the monorail to, either a peoplemover or gondala system would be added.

That's all I've got for now!

 

[IanDLBZF]

Improve G+/LL, removing ILL, and including G+ with APs.
I'd also build better relationships with CM unions to improve working conditions, and build CM Morale.
I'd nix the Splash Mountain retheme all together.
I'd improve quality of food and state-of-good repair across the entire property.
I'd reintroduce the AP program and eliminate all park pass reservation requirements for all guests.
I'd also lower food & beverage prices, water bottles especially.
I'd ensue a rainy-day fund to build at least 2 more gates using bonds and private loans, as well as some company profits.
I'd also replace the entire fleet of monorails with new equipment, using Federal RIFF Funding. And also introduce bus rapid transit from DAK to the All Star Resorts and to AKL.
I'd eliminate on-site parking fees for all value, moderate, and select deluxe resorts, introduce free parking for APs, DVC, and TIW members, as well as introducing multi-use "chaser" tickets, and monthly passes for more frequent non-AP/DVC folks.
I'd also improve theming at ALL resorts.
I'd also like to hold monthly town-hall meetings with fans to hear out any issues parks and resorts are experiencing and allow management to work with FANS to devise solutions.
I'd also build a Brightline/SunRail/Amtrak station at the TTC, thus making it an intermodal hub.

As for the parks, I'd add....
MK

• At least 2 more themed lands
• Perhaps an expansion of Frontierland
• Refurb Peter Pan's Flight

Epcot

• New Mary Poppins attraction in the UK Pavilion
• 3 New Countries in World Showcase
  • South Korea
  • Australia
  • India

Hollywood Studios

• New Disney Animation themed area

Animal Kingdom

• Replace DinoRama with a new area, based of a dig site
• Add Beastly Kingdom

I'll add one more thing for transportation, and that would be that proposed Light Rail system between WWOS and Epcot.

 

[MAGICFLOP]

I would:
1: Make no changes to parks for 1 year
2: Eliminate AP (no local territorial people hanging out. aka bar flies)
3: Fix the sewer smell in EPCOT near the butterfly flower display
4: Air fresheners for the Monorails
5: Raise ticket prices to $190/day or $1200 for 7 contiguous days (thin crowds, make them save up and come every 5 years for something special. People can go to six flags weekly hangouts)
6: I would work the entrance gate to monitor people's satisfaction personally