Why does it take 3 years to build a ride?

mergatroid

Well-Known Member
First off, you don’t have the first clue about what my background is. Secondly, there are literally zero people in this thread who are involved with this particular project, so anything they say is based at least somewhat on conjecture, no matter what professional experience they may have.

So out of interest, what was the point of the question if you're aware that ''literally zero people in this thread are involved in this particular project'?

Unless you were under the impression that somebody involved in the project posts on here, it really then makes the whole question moot if you're not going to accept an answer given unless you like it? Likewise if you like a particular answer given, how can you give it any credibility using your logic that the person giving the answer can only be right if they're involved in it personally?

I'm not wanting to argue with you, I'm just genuinely interested in where this thread was supposed to go as you seem to be attacking other posters for merely attempting to answer your question.

And yes 3 years seems a long time, but of course my opinion is meaningless too as I'm in no way involved in the construction of the attraction myself.
 

Goofyernmost

Well-Known Member
It all makes for interesting banter, but, it is all speculations and guessing. The argument that it took 3 years to build a entire theme park (EPCOT Ctr.) why does it take that long to build a single attraction. Well, because of an overlooked fact and that is that if it took three years to build EPCOT then it also took 3 years to build the attractions. And even then there were a lot of them not open on opening day and in some cases months after and it was all being built at the same time. It took 3 years to build Imagination and when it opened and a few months after the only thing operating was the movie.

I did work in construction (administration on the job site and off) for almost a decade, but, I was never involved in building a theme park or a theme park attraction, but, I am painfully aware of the objects of a build from weather, material delays, staffing to change orders and beyond. The steel construction and design to build specifically shaped structures or scenery can not be found on a shelf at home depot. It must be intricately designed and nothing will be manufactured until it is an absolute go. And then it has to be actually fabricated before it is shipped off to the job site. All any of us can truthfully express is that we, personally, think it shouldn't take that long. We, collectively, do not know the specific details of any build only that if we had the hammer in our hands we would have done it a lot quicker.
 
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WED Purist

Well-Known Member
I guess I didn't miss much by not coming in here that often... :confused:

The main reason Disney takes 3 years to build a new attraction relies heavily on:
1. Art direction and the evolution of design: The drawings at the end don't look much like the drawings at the beginning.
2. Ride Test and Adjust: a lot of recent and current projects contain new or unique ride systems, and the time given to T&A has increased accordingly.
3. Ride and Show integration: it takes months (inside buildings that no one ever gets to see) to marry the ride vehicles to the show sets, animatronics, projector mapping, etc.
 

lazyboy97o

Well-Known Member
I guess I didn't miss much by not coming in here that often... :confused:

The main reason Disney takes 3 years to build a new attraction relies heavily on:
1. Art direction and the evolution of design: The drawings at the end don't look much like the drawings at the beginning.
2. Ride Test and Adjust: a lot of recent and current projects contain new or unique ride systems, and the time given to T&A has increased accordingly.
3. Ride and Show integration: it takes months (inside buildings that no one ever gets to see) to marry the ride vehicles to the show sets, animatronics, projector mapping, etc.
These really aren’t major reasons. All three of your causes happen more towards the end of the construction and commissioning process. They’re also not unique to Disney.
 

Master Yoda

Pro Star Wars geek.
Premium Member
Look at Master Yoda following me around in this thread and “liking” every post that disagrees with me! Stalker much?! Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha! I love it!
I have liked almost every other response in the thread save for yours as the others are actually attempting to add value to the thread, but you can go right ahead and think I am following you around if that makes you feel important.
 

JusticeDisney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I really can't be bothered reading your childish nonsense anymore, I don't think anyone else cares either :D
Right. Which is why you just keep running back and reading what I write and then responding with more nonsense. LMAO at you!

By the way, as I said before, you know you’ve won the debate when the other side strays off topic and instead resorts to name calling. Thanks for playing, though.
 

JusticeDisney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Where is the fun in that?

It is like ignoring a drunk guy that is falling down the stairs that is so drunk that he does not know that he is falling down so he keeps trying to right himself only to make it worse. On the surface you wish the guy would just take the loss and tuck and roll to the bottom. Deep inside though you are secretly enjoying the carnage and can't stop watching and laughing hysterically.;)
The only guy taking the loss here is the stalker in this thread who simply cannot accept that his OPINION is not actually fact. But feel free to continue patting yourself on the back and telling everyone else here how great you are. In the meantime, the rest of us will continue laughing at you.
 

JusticeDisney

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Almost no one has disagreed regarding the timeline. You keep attacking anyone who offers up an answer to your question but nobody seems able to discern why, not to mention that you repeatedly scoff at people who ask why you disagree with the validity of the reasons given.
Show me one single attack that came from me that was not in direct response to someone else first coming after me. I dare you.
 

mergatroid

Well-Known Member
I guess I didn't miss much by not coming in here that often... :confused:

The main reason Disney takes 3 years to build a new attraction relies heavily on:
1. Art direction and the evolution of design: The drawings at the end don't look much like the drawings at the beginning.
2. Ride Test and Adjust: a lot of recent and current projects contain new or unique ride systems, and the time given to T&A has increased accordingly.
3. Ride and Show integration: it takes months (inside buildings that no one ever gets to see) to marry the ride vehicles to the show sets, animatronics, projector mapping, etc.

I think the answer is they could do it quicker but they really don't have to.
 

Sirwalterraleigh

Premium Member
So, what you said in this quoted post is just opinion from some fanboy?...

Nope...that is a professional assessment based on somebody with almost 2 decades dealing with projects of that nature...backed up by the example that Lar posted.

So I’ll classify that as a “elevated educated guess”


...gonna have to stop bringing a knife to the gun fight.
 

phillip9698

Well-Known Member
I agree that people like us will always go in massive numbers and Disney is letting Universal play catch up. Let me expand on why I think Universal is not thinking long term.
  • They currently have all their equity tied up into Harry Potter. No doubt this has made them an unfathomable amount of money and it really is a engineering marvel but what happens in a year or so once the next fantastic beast movie is done and no new entries are being added. The only planned changes post the next movie are a retooling of the dueling dragons coaster and some Christmas / Light shows on the Hogwarts castle. As the next generation grows up without Harry Potter being as big as it is now, I can see problems. This is where I think building lands around concepts makes much more sense than franchises.
  • The current lineup for 2018 is a fast and the furious ride, a Jimmy Fallon attraction, and some new hotels and expansion of Volcano bay. None of these would drive me to say that I absolutely need to go to Universal on my next trip to Florida. The Super Nintendo World for 2020 looks really interesting and will be successful and that's because it relays on a theme as opposed to a specific franchise. This would allow them to create new rides whenever they want and keep it fresh which is what I feel that should be doing for long term success.
  • They purchased a huge portion of land (over 400 acres) back in 2015 but so far haven't announced any preliminary plans for it. If you are buying a huge amount of land like that, the natural assumption is another park. The fact that nothing has been done with it so far to me suggests that they might not have a fully fleshed out plan which means it just sitting there not making Universal money

Thoroughly confused on how you came to the conclusion that Universal isn't thinking long term but Disney is because Universal made the mistake of theming their premiere area to a franchise and not a theme like Disney does. Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't Disney currently creating a Toy Story and Star Wars land in Florida and planning a MCU land in California. Isn't their latest and greatest land based on a single movie (so far). Is Toy Story somehow a theme and not a franchise?

On a board where people were clamoring for a Mary Poppins ride even before a new movie was rumored and the loss of Mr. Toad is still complained about we are worried about Harry Potter not being able to reach new audiences?
 
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HonorableMention

Well-Known Member
So uh.....I’m just gonna stay away from whatever’s happening here and interject with my own semi-related question.

Why does Disney announce things so early? They did it with Pandora and they’re doing it again here. Guardians was announced before UoE closed, and as always they gave very little info about it.

Universal waited a while after Jaws closed to announce that Diagon Alley was coming, and that only took around two years. Imagine if they announced more Potter a month or two before its closing.

It takes a while for Disney to build their attractions, but the hype they build doesn’t help at all.
 

mergatroid

Well-Known Member
So uh.....I’m just gonna stay away from whatever’s happening here and interject with my own semi-related question.

Why does Disney announce things so early? They did it with Pandora and they’re doing it again here. Guardians was announced before UoE closed, and as always they gave very little info about it.

Universal waited a while after Jaws closed to announce that Diagon Alley was coming, and that only took around two years. Imagine if they announced more Potter a month or two before its closing.

It takes a while for Disney to build their attractions, but the hype they build doesn’t help at all.

I believe that because of the internet, it's very difficult to keep things secret. Disney realises this and knows that plans get out so probably thinks "Might as well admit Guardians is replacing UoE as when we shut it there'll be speculation anyway so may as well give people something to look forward too". They also know forums will be full of people sharing info they hear so may as well hype the truth of what their plans are.
 

Kristoff

Member
Thoroughly confused on how you came to the conclusion that Universal isn't thinking long term but Disney is because Universal made the mistake of theming their premiere area to a franchise and not a theme like Disney does. Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't Disney currently creating a Toy Story and Star Wars land in Florida and planning a MCU land in California. Isn't their latest and greatest land based on a single movie (so far). Is Toy Story somehow a theme and not a franchise?

On a board where people were clamoring for a Mary Poppins ride even before a new movie was rumored and the loss of Mr. Toad is still complained about we are worried about Harry Potter not being able to reach new audiences?

You're not wrong about Toy Story land being a franchise and personally I think it is a terrible decision by Disney to base a huge area of a theme park on a movie franchise that for all intents and purposes comes out with a new movie every 10 years. Had the new trilogy of Star Wars not started, I probably would have made the same comment about Star Wars land, but it looks like we'll be getting new Star Wars movies for at least the next 5 or 6 years. I don't follow the animated series but I hear that is going strong as well which gives them additional ways to continue to grow the fan base. Marvel is the cash cow king for movies and that won't slow down for probably another decade so there are plenty of ways to grow engagement. My point in my original post was that Universal chose a movie franchise which is already at the tail end of it's life where expansions are going to be difficult. Disney on the other hand has done similar but they are doing it for franchises that are near the peak of their popularity and will be relevant for the next decade. I hope after Star Wars land, Disney goes back to the concepts of themes (fantasyland) instead of movie franchises (avatar, TS, Star Wars) when designing areas.

At the end of the day, I really don't care if Universal is able to use HP to gather more people in the parks. I do however want Universal to continue to challenge Disney both in the short and long term because that's how we get the best experience as the end consumer. To that end, I don't think it's wrong or misguided to analyze how either company reacts and provide commentary on it.
 

danlb_2000

Premium Member
So uh.....I’m just gonna stay away from whatever’s happening here and interject with my own semi-related question.

Why does Disney announce things so early? They did it with Pandora and they’re doing it again here. Guardians was announced before UoE closed, and as always they gave very little info about it.

Universal waited a while after Jaws closed to announce that Diagon Alley was coming, and that only took around two years. Imagine if they announced more Potter a month or two before its closing.

It takes a while for Disney to build their attractions, but the hype they build doesn’t help at all.

It's interesting the Universal broke this pattern with the Nintendo partnership.
 

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