Will a fifth gate ever be built at WDW?

[Phicinfan]

I guess I am the rare one that says perhaps in the 2020s it is built. The reason being is that Disney has got to be a little worried about Universal now. Epic Universe is going to be....................well, epic, when it opens in 2025. Disney always has an answer for things Universal does. Universal opened in 1990 in Orlando, and in 1989 Hollywood Studios opened. Was that a coincidence? Nope. They were trying to get ahead of it all. I think a 5th park could be built if they wanted to do it. They have the space. They have to bring in some new blood, like some old school blood, ones that had imagination and creativity. The old Disney way. This new modern way of cheapening current rides like Splash and such is going in the opposite direction. Honestly, when Disney says it wants to "re-imagine" a ride it just makes me cringe. Because you know it is only going to be inferior to an already great ride. So they need to change their mindset with this. Universal is literally even with Disney in park attendance when you take away Magic Kingdom. Seriously, at this point there are as many people going to Universal per park as Disney. Only Magic Kingdom separates it all as no one reaches their attendance. That's a slim lead.

My issue with this argument is the fact we are ignoring the Universal is playing catch up, not Disney. Disney has 4 theme parks in FL, Universal is working on its 3rd. To open a 5th gate by Disney is panic and cost. Disney's reaction should be fill out existing parks to maintain the draw they already lead, not expand to what consumers can't use. All you do is deflate one of the existing parks you already have.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

My issue with this argument is the fact we are ignoring the Universal is playing catch up, not Disney. Disney has 4 theme parks in FL, Universal is working on its 3rd. To open a 5th gate by Disney is panic and cost. Disney's reaction should be fill out existing parks to maintain the draw they already lead, not expand to what consumers can't use. All you do is deflate one of the existing parks you already have.

Even though we have talked about it for 20 years on boards…Disney has NEVER hinted they were seriously considering another gate in Florida

After discovery cove…we got some tinkering with something like that

And we got the galactic cosmic dumpster

 

[Walt Disney1955]

My issue with this argument is the fact we are ignoring the Universal is playing catch up, not Disney. Disney has 4 theme parks in FL, Universal is working on its 3rd. To open a 5th gate by Disney is panic and cost. Disney's reaction should be fill out existing parks to maintain the draw they already lead, not expand to what consumers can't use. All you do is deflate one of the existing parks you already have.

That's a fair assesment. Disney is still leading, even with Epic Universe. But man, the margins are getting thinner aren't they?

 

[Walt Disney1955]

If they build a new park…it will just shave days off the old ones

It makes no sense

Maybe, or maybe they can turn WDW into a 5-day vacation. It is a dream................for us I guess. I think they've done pretty good adding things in there. DHS is a better park than it was 5 years ago.

 

[yensidtlaw1969]

Maybe, or maybe they can turn WDW into a 5-day vacation. It is a dream................for us I guess. I think they've done pretty good adding things in there. DHS is a better park than it was 5 years ago.

One of the problems is that people aren't getting longer vacations. If you have 7 days off with 2 dedicated to travel and maybe one for recovery before you're back at work, your time is maxxed out if you hit one park a day.

Now, not everyone divvys up their time that way, but generally speaking there isn't so much room for another park in guest's schedules. There are plenty of people for whom WDW is already a 5-day vacation, and if anything that number of people looks more likely to decrease than increase.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Maybe, or maybe they can turn WDW into a 5-day vacation. It is a dream................for us I guess. I think they've done pretty good adding things in there. DHS is a better park than it was 5 years ago.

See below

One of the problems is that people aren't getting longer vacations. If you have 7 days off with 2 dedicated to travel and maybe one for recovery before you're back at work, your time is maxxed out if you hit one park a day.

Now, not everyone divvys up their time that way, but generally speaking there isn't so much room for another park in guest's schedules. There are plenty of people for whom WDW is already a 5-day vacation, and if anything that number of people looks more likely to decrease than increase.

Correct.

Before dak opened the average trip was about 6 days…two years later it only went up about just under a day.

And that was before uni was serious competition.

That basically ended the 5th gate. Domestic travelers still only go on around 7 day trips

Building another gate and taking on the huge costs would just be pilfering business from the older parks. There’s just no advantage to it.

 

[Walt Disney1955]

One of the problems is that people aren't getting longer vacations. If you have 7 days off with 2 dedicated to travel and maybe one for recovery before you're back at work, your time is maxxed out if you hit one park a day.

Now, not everyone divvys up their time that way, but generally speaking there isn't so much room for another park in guest's schedules. There are plenty of people for whom WDW is already a 5-day vacation, and if anything that number of people looks more likely to decrease than increase.

I know that 4 parks alone is tough to do. Our next trip to Florida I plan on doing the 4 Disney parks instead of adding Universal in there, because there are still two parks our kids haven't been to at Disney. I might even do a 5-day pass just to get another day at Magic Kingdom. But that would be the max. Probably no opportunity for Universal or even Sea World or something like that. I can see what you mean.

 

[JoeCamel]

I know that 4 parks alone is tough to do. Our next trip to Florida I plan on doing the 4 Disney parks instead of adding Universal in there, because there are still two parks our kids haven't been to at Disney. I might even do a 5-day pass just to get another day at Magic Kingdom. But that would be the max. Probably no opportunity for Universal or even Sea World or something like that. I can see what you mean.

If your kids are young Bob will be getting your business but when they grow a bit your tastes will change

 

[Andrew25]

I know the parks are busy, but I can guarantee a lot of that is due to the lack of incremental capacity added to the parks.

Epcot feels busier because Figment/Imagination/Mission Space are no longer popular.
DHS feels busy because they've removed high-capacity attractions, and replaced them with not-so reliable attractions. And the older attractions had to push through without proper refurbs to make up for the lost capacity.
DAK feels busy because the park has very little to do.

 

[Disstevefan1]

I know the parks are busy, but I can guarantee a lot of that is due to the lack of incremental capacity added to the parks.

Epcot feels busier because Figment/Imagination/Mission Space are no longer popular.
DHS feels busy because they've removed high-capacity attractions, and replaced them with not-so reliable attractions. And the older attractions had to push through without proper refurbs to make up for the lost capacity.
DAK feels busy because the park has very little to do.

You forgot to mention, the parks feels busy because the FAILED Genie+ system. Folks cant get on attractions, or the return times are 6 hours away so folks are just walking around.

 

[Laketravis]

You forgot to mention, the parks feels busy because the FAILED Genie+ system. Folks cant get on attractions, or the return times are 6 hours away so folks are just walking around.

Absolutely the truth.