What is most likely to be built between 7DMT and Avatar?

[kap91]

HA!
Ignore anything to do with who has what characters. Instead: who has the best ride systems?
If Disney would have done anything impressive with HP, why hasn't it utilized that tech on something else? There is NOTHING at WDW that can come close to Uni's revolutionary FJ ride system. Disney has been losing that battle since the day Spider-Man opened.

I agree that Universal has Disney beat in building technically advanced ride systems and has for a while, but I also think Disney has universal beat when it comes set design, animatronics, and story. At the end of the day what's more important-being flung around in 7 different directions or being immersed/wowed by what you see on the ride?

Personally I'd take the latter...plus butterbeer.

 

[Disneyhead'71]

Me too. I think it was far exceed the expectations of this board, whether or not people on here will admit it when that time comes. I'm shocked how low expectations are for it.

Actually, I am stunned at how high the expectations are for this attraction.

 

[DVCOwner]

Hong Kong and Shanghai are outsourced Disney companies funded by local agencies, Disney probably dont pay for a lot, they simply have their name over the door

Not completely true, Disney owns just under 50% of each of these parks and pays for funding its portionon of each.

 

[marni1971]

The ride through Hogwarts should have been based on the magic of book 1(seeing the magic of Hogwarts through Potter's eyes), sadly Universal failed to capture that.

Get it right. Universal did what Rowling wanted.

 

[marni1971]

Me too. I think it was far exceed the expectations of this board, whether or not people on here will admit it when that time comes. I'm shocked how low expectations are for it.

When you know what to expect its not hard to think of it as a nice little D.

 

[marni1971]

I would 100% be on board with Dragon Challenge being leveled in favor of 2-3 family friendly attractions..

 

[Voxel]

Get it right. Universal did what Rowling wanted.

Very true. The ride did exactly as Rowling wanted and that is why Rowling went with Universal over Disney, Disney wanted to much control for Rowling. Whether that would have been a good thing or not we would never know.

 

[Voxel]

No thanks. I'll take the cutting-edge E-ticket experience over a glorified Wii game.

And apparently so will most other guests.

No offence, while we may view a Kuka arm as amazing technology its been around much long then the targeting, and awareness system used in what you like to call a "glorified Wii". Its was cutting edge only in the fact this ride was the first ride to use it in a roller coaster, though I believe its not the first attraction to use a Kuka arm as the ride.

 

[G00fyDad]

What standards exactly are you using for new rides? New Buildings? The seas with Nemo while in the same building and technically uses part of the old track of the original seas is most definitely a new ride.

And while star tours 2, and test track 2 used existing infrastructure/track they bare little resemblance to the attractions that proceeded them outside of the same ride system. They're certainly not just refurbs or updates.

Or are you just counting net new rides? Because if that's then case WDW has a very long history of closing one ride when it decides to open another. :-(

Anything that constitutes a new ride. Not a new coat of paint. ST2 and TT2 are basically new coats of paint. Expedition Everest... new ride. Simple.

 

[ford91exploder]

I agree that Universal has Disney beat in building technically advanced ride systems and has for a while, but I also think Disney has universal beat when it comes set design, animatronics, and story. At the end of the day what's more important-being flung around in 7 different directions or being immersed/wowed by what you see on the ride?

Personally I'd take the latter...plus butterbeer.

If the new 'Ariel' is any indication ie omnimover passing plastic fish on sticks and overhead lighting so bright you can count the holes in the acoustic tile. If this is a 'advanced' ride technology with 'immersive' theming. It must exist in some parallel universe.

 

[Voxel]

Anything that constitutes a new ride. Not a new coat of paint. ST2 and TT2 are basically new coats of paint. Expedition Everest... new ride. Simple.

I would agree with you, they are upgrades. I wish the investors in America cared for the parks like foreign investors care about the foreign parks. Hong Kong got 3 expansions in 3 years, and 2 of them are actually amazing, I would love to have Mystic Point in WDW.

 

[Voxel]

If the new 'Ariel' is any indication ie omnimover passing plastic fish on sticks and overhead lighting so bright you can count the holes in the acoustic tile. If this is a 'advanced' ride technology with 'immersive' theming. It must exist in some parallel universe.

Sadly WDW is no long a show case of what Imagineers can do. If you want to see what happens when you give Imagineer more freedom(and Money), check out Hong Kong and Disney Sea Tokyo..

 

[ford91exploder]

Sadly WDW is no long a show case of what Imagineers can do. If you want to see what happens when you give Imagineer more freedom(and Money), check out Hong Kong and Disney Sea Tokyo..

I have - Mysterious Island is mind blowing in Theming/Dining and Merchandising all of those are completely unique to that ATTRACTION not simply the park. It is very sad that WDW just continues to devolve into a place I'm not really interested in visiting any longer and as a long time DVC owner I'm really not happy with the quality of the recent DVC offerings either each project has become successively cheaper.

As to the point about DVC resorts being 95% occupied - it's true for small values of true, The actual occupancy is on the order of 55-65% because of the vast number of rooms 'out-of-service' so they don't count against the occupancy total. Last time I was in the Grandstand 2 of the 3 buildings were 'out-of-service' in fairness to TDO they were being renovated (new carpets appliances etc) but I take @WDW1974 's occupancy stats much more seriously than I do the 'official' versions.

 

[Voxel]

I have - Mysterious Island is mind blowing in Theming/Dining and Merchandising all of those are completely unique to that ATTRACTION not simply the park. It is very sad that WDW just continues to devolve into a place I'm not really interested in visiting any longer and as a long time DVC owner I'm really not happy with the quality of the recent DVC offerings either each project has become successively cheaper.

As to the point about DVC resorts being 95% occupied - it's true for small values of true, The actual occupancy is on the order of 55-65% because of the vast number of rooms 'out-of-service' so they don't count against the occupancy total. Last time I was in the Grandstand 2 of the 3 buildings were 'out-of-service' in fairness to TDO they were being renovated (new carpets appliances etc) but I take @WDW1974 's occupancy stats much more seriously than I do the 'official' versions.

I have hope that WDW will come up to the standard of Disney Sea, but its gonna take the right CEO who is willing to fight the investors. (In an odd way its like Xbox and Microsoft, Investors hate the xbox, but the CEO fights it and pumps money into anyway and it makes money).

 

[Disneyhead'71]

I can understand the underlying logic though, UNI has always been a thrill ride theme park so for the initial cut they used the 'thrill' elements rather than the DisneyQuest interactive approach.

I don't think that Universal Parks have ever been considered "Thrill Ride Parks". That really is something that only Disney fans consider them. They are actually very well rounded theme parks with a little of something for EVERYONE in a family. Between both Universal parks there are only 4 large coasters. Compare that to real "Thrill Ride" parks like Cedar Point that has 15 coasters. Universal has stuff like Party in the Park with Barney, "Oh The Stories You'll Hear" in Seuss Landing, and multiple playgrounds for the toddlers. Big Boy coasters for the teens. And fine dining and a nice Spa for the adults. Because they do have a few thrill rides doesn't make them "Thrill Ride Parks".

Disney parks are very lopsided towards slow moving toddler friendly rides. And considering all the talk about Disney being "family friendly", I think they do a horrible job of actually catering to the entire family. People between the ages of 8 and young adulthood, when they start having their own toddlers, are almost entirely ignored by Disney. Sure, there is stuff they CAN do, but how much of that stuff are they actually excited to do? I believe there is a reason that most kid's favorite thing to do at WDW is the hotel pool. And teens would rather have a root canal than go to WDW. But Disney does have the "Little girls and Grandma" demo all wrapped up.

 

[ford91exploder]

I have hope that WDW will come up to the standard of Disney Sea, but its gonna take the right CEO who is willing to fight the investors. (In an odd way its like Xbox and Microsoft, Investors hate the xbox, but the CEO fights it and pumps money into anyway and it makes money).

And therein lies the key - Any company which has done well recently has BUCKED what the chattering class on the street wants. Wall St has become a Casino and stocks are mere gambling chips what's scary is that companies manage their stock price - even though they derive no benefit from it more than they manage their businesses.

Right now at least in the US the only people I can call investors are bondholders since they directly fund the businesses in question.

 

[ford91exploder]

I don't think that Universal Parks have ever been considered "Thrill Ride Parks". That really is something that only Disney fans consider them. They are actually very well rounded parks with a little of something for EVERYONE in a family. Between both Universal parks there are only 4 large coasters. Compare that to real "Thrill Ride" parks like Cedar Point that has 15 coasters. They have stuff like Party in the Park with Barney, "Oh The Stories You'll Hear" in Seuss Landing, and multiple playgrounds for the toddlers. Big Boy coasters for the teens. And fine dining and a nice Spa for the adults. Because they do have a few thrill rides doesn't make them "Thrill Ride Parks".

Disney parks are very lopsided towards slow moving toddler friendly rides. And considering all the talk about Disney being "family friendly", I think they do a horrible job of actually catering to the entire family. People between the ages of 8 and young adulthood, when they start having their own toddlers, are almost entirely ignored by Disney. Sure, there is stuff they CAN do, but how much of that stuff are they actually excited to do? I believe there is a reason that most kid's favorite thing to do at WDW is the hotel pool. And teens would rather have a root canal than go to WDW. But Disney does have the "Little girls and Grandma" demo all wrapped up.

Agree on the main point - I was comparing UNI to its direct competition in the greater Orlando area, in that area it is definitely a thrill ride park, Globally no it's not a thrill ride part like Cedar Point.

Disney was supposed to be a place where EVERYONE could enjoy the rides, but you are absolutely correct it has become a little girl and grandma park and teens will not even admit they WENT to WDW because of the little kid vibe that the place radiates. Just look at the vast stroller parking lot that FLE has become.

 

[RSoxNo1]

Is Dragon Challenge on the chopping block or was that an "I agree."

 

[Disneyhead'71]

No offence, while we may view a Kuka arm as amazing technology its been around much long then the targeting, and awareness system used in what you like to call a "glorified Wii". Its was cutting edge only in the fact this ride was the first ride to use it in a roller coaster, though I believe its not the first attraction to use a Kuka arm as the ride.

Have you actually ridden Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey? The technology used is truly state of the art and MUCH more complex than TSMM. And it is not a roller coaster.

 

[Disneyhead'71]

Is Dragon Challenge on the chopping block or was that an "I agree."

I can't comment on the Dragon Challenge question, but as to the point of building "more family friendly" Potter attractions. Both of the E-Tickets coming to "Potterland: The Sequel" are going to be more "family friendly" than Forbidden Journey.