Would it have been better if Disney shut the park to refurbish.

[Pam Hates Penguins]

Yeah... until TGMR goes down to create the new rumored Mickey ride. And when SWL goes up, Launch Pad will go down to become something else, which could be a new ride.

Yeah I hope so, because from that point on, all Star Wars should be moved from places where it doesn't belong, to it's land.

 

[Jon81uk]

If HS doesn't have a lot of attractions now, it's because it never did. Not because of any current construction.

Exactly. Yes not everything has been replaced like for like yet, as Star Wars and Toy story are being built. But DHS has never had a huge attraction count.

Closing the park while they construct the new lands at the rear of park wouldn't help anything.

 

[danlb_2000]

blah blah blah

Loss of capacity is loss of capacity. You can not tell me that the loss of everything previously mentioned adds up to an equal number for the things replaced or added because the numbers simply do not work period. LMA held 5,000 people per show and BLT was a people eater that could take 200 people per tram and several thousand people per hour. This in addition to all of the other items I mentioned previously adds up to 10's of thousands of people in lost capacity.

How often did these two attractions operate at full capacity?

 

[21stamps]

blah blah blah

Loss of capacity is loss of capacity. You can not tell me that the loss of everything previously mentioned adds up to an equal number for the things replaced or added because the numbers simply do not work period. LMA held 5,000 people per show and BLT was a people eater that could take 200 people per tram and several thousand people per hour. This in addition to all of the other items I mentioned previously adds up to 10's of thousands of people in lost capacity.

I can tell you that my own kid, and his friends, and our rather large family, ALL wanted to go to HS this year for the new Star Wars stuff.

Don't underestimate the draw of a Jawa, and Stormtroopers, Kylo Ren, Chewy, Star Wars night time show etc..

Maybe you don't personally care about it, but there are a lot of little boys, and girls, and adults, who are extremely excited for it. In a World of Princesses and Disney Junior characters.. I for one am happy about this addition.

We have a rope drop to close day at HS planned, and we still won't be able to fit everything in. I think Fantasmic is the best show (besides celebrate the magic/wishes) at WDW, I am choosing to skip it this time so we can do the Jingle Bell, Jingle Bam Dessert Party..I've tried to figure out if we can make it back for 1 evening. We can't, and that's ok, but it means that we won't be able to "do it all", even with a full day.

 

[Herbie]

Don't forget that the rides that are there are almost always packed, and because of the footprint acres lost, things can seem a bit more crammed.

 

[Fox&Hound]

I think I am most saddened by the loss of identity for the park. By removing Backlot tour, the car stunt show, the animation classes, and the proposed GMR it just seems like DHS is losing its identity. I really hope a new name and rebranding can fix what is being lost.

 

[21stamps]

I think I am most saddened by the loss of identity for the park. By removing Backlot tour, the car stunt show, the animation classes, and the proposed GMR it just seems like DHS is losing its identity. I really hope a new name and rebranding can fix what is being lost.

I can appreciate that. I think what most people on this site forget is that they love all of these things bc they were part of their childhood.

There is a new generation now. Ask them which they would rather have- MGM Studios as it was..or HS the way it will be soon.

I think their answer would be different than yours.

 

[flynnibus]

Actually, in fact, I said that if you thought it didn't have enough attractions before, then you'd feel the same way now.

Actually no, you instead stated it factually as if the park were in balance minus one ride...

"If HS doesn't have a lot of attractions now, it's because it never did. Not because of any current construction. They're down one ride and that's it. All the other attractions that are gone were replacements or made up for in other ways with new shows."

Which is a a B&W statement which ignores the points I mentioned and was lacking in accuracy.

I wasn't arguing HS isn't light on attractions. I'm arguing that current construction is not the cause of it being light on attractions

And I pointed out the flaw in that thinking because you are looking at it as an attraction count game. By your logic, replacing Backlot with a spinner is a zero sum... which is plainly not how customers would see things nor how it would impact the park.

And besides.. the topic is about if a different approach to working on the park would be better, not if the park is greater or lesser than before.

 

[flynnibus]

Exactly. Yes not everything has been replaced like for like yet, as Star Wars and Toy story are being built. But DHS has never had a huge attraction count.

Closing the park while they construct the new lands at the rear of park wouldn't help anything.

Ponder this... today they are only working in the rear of the park. What if they wanted to do other work, but couldn't because they need to keep that part of the park operating smoothly because it's so constrained? If the park were closed, all parts of the park could be accessible for work. One could have a reborn park at once.. instead of a multi-year rolling change-over like DCA had to go through.

 

[21stamps]

Ponder this... today they are only working in the rear of the park. What if they wanted to do other work, but couldn't because they need to keep that part of the park operating smoothly because it's so constrained? If the park were closed, all parts of the park could be accessible for work. One could have a reborn park at once.. instead of a multi-year rolling change-over like DCA had to go through.

Have you ever heard of a theme park or amusement park closing for a few refurbishments or new attractions?
I haven't.

Why take away a park that A LOT of people still love? It's nonsensical. There is plenty still to do at HS, regardless if it's the things that interest you or not. If one wanted to do every single show and attraction in that park they would still need more than one day.

 

[flynnibus]

Have you ever heard of a theme park or amusement park closing for a few refurbishments or new attractions?
I haven't.

Actually most do... including Disneyland in the past. It's Disney's insistence on making every week a peak week that has conditioned this 365day mindset you have now. Disneyland wasn't 'even open 7 days a week for a long time. When Disney did major projects, they would close entire lands.. completely so they could get the job done. Now we have the rolling changes, like what was done with DCA, and we'll probably see with DHS for years to come even after TSL and SW open.

Why take away a park that A LOT of people still love?

For the same justification that you use to CLOSE an attraction temporarily to work on it, even tho doing so means some people won't get to experience. To do work you can't otherwise do, to do work in a means that gets things done QUICKER, and to do work you need to advance the collective forward.

How many times have you heard statements like "they can't close BOTH at the same time..." or "they are waiting for X to be done...". Sometimes just ripping the bandaid off can be best. DHS was so far behind across the board... it really deserves the full reboot it desperately needs... not just plugging a few holes.

 

[21stamps]

Actually most do... including Disneyland in the past. It's Disney's insistence on making every week a peak week that has conditioned this 365day mindset you have now. Disneyland wasn't 'even open 7 days a week for a long time. When Disney did major projects, they would close entire lands.. completely so they could get the job done. Now we have the rolling changes, like what was done with DCA, and we'll probably see with DHS for years to come even after TSL and SW open.



For the same justification that you use to CLOSE an attraction temporarily to work on it, even tho doing so means some people won't get to experience. To do work you can't otherwise do, to do work in a means that gets things done QUICKER, and to do work you need to advance the collective forward.

How many times have you heard statements like "they can't close BOTH at the same time..." or "they are waiting for X to be done...". Sometimes just ripping the bandaid off can be best. DHS was so far behind across the board... it really deserves the full reboot it desperately needs... not just plugging a few holes.

It doesn't seem worth the loss of revenue, which would definitely be severe.
I will still go to WDW if a ride is closed, I probably would not go to WDW if an entire park is closed.

 

[flynnibus]

It doesn't seem worth the loss of revenue, which would definitely be severe.

A loss of revenue offset by lower capex costs.. and probably workable as tax advantages. The biggest issue is not looking like an evil corporation to employees/public sentiment and dealing with advance bookers. Point being, its more a emotional/psychological barrier than practical. There are means, but can you stomach the consequences.

The same kind of discussions went on for DCA. There are reasons Disney could and should do it... but its highly unlikely to ever happen because of the lack of motivation to spend the money and the moral credit to make such an impact when they can get at least a majority of the same result by stretching it out and just getting by.

Does anyone think the suits back in Burbank think 'Wow, people really do what to see that same BaTB show for another 5 years!' - no, they know it will work for what they need and there are people that haven't seen it that it will still draw enough people. Its a 'good enough' mentality.

 

[roj2323]

I can tell you that my own kid, and his friends, and our rather large family, ALL wanted to go to HS this year for the new Star Wars stuff.

Don't underestimate the draw of a Jawa, and Stormtroopers, Kylo Ren, Chewy, Star Wars night time show etc..

Maybe you don't personally care about it, but there are a lot of little boys, and girls, and adults, who are extremely excited for it. In a World of Princesses and Disney Junior characters.. I for one am happy about this addition.

We have a rope drop to close day at HS planned, and we still won't be able to fit everything in. I think Fantasmic is the best show (besides celebrate the magic/wishes) at WDW, I am choosing to skip it this time so we can do the Jingle Bell, Jingle Bam Dessert Party..I've tried to figure out if we can make it back for 1 evening. We can't, and that's ok, but it means that we won't be able to "do it all", even with a full day.

Hey now, I never said I didn't appreciate the stuff they have added, I simply said the capacity of what they closed does not compare to what was added

 

[Goingdown13]

How often did these two attractions operate at full capacity?

^^^^^ THIS
Before it closed Backlot Tour had trams that sometimes only had a few people on it. I even saw empty ones. This was for hours at a time, not isolated trams. LMA would usually get a good turnout but never capacity.

 

[Goofyernmost]

I think I am most saddened by the loss of identity for the park. By removing Backlot tour, the car stunt show, the animation classes, and the proposed GMR it just seems like DHS is losing its identity. I really hope a new name and rebranding can fix what is being lost.

Unfortunately, that identity died with they shut down the actual studios part and that was many moons ago. It is obvious that they have no intention of keeping the old identity and are going to attempt a new one. Since there are so many people that are still so stuck in the past that they still refer to the park as Disney/MGM Studio it is going to be a severe uphill chore. Getting people to understand that it is no longer a place of movies, but seems to be moving toward a more movie driven themed adventure park. The next half generation will still be referring to it as Disney/MGM because people cannot stand change. They are the same ones that still refer to MK as Walt Disney World and Epcot as an experimental prototype community of tomorrow.

 

[R W B]

It really won't speed up construction much since the majority of the construction is around the edges of the park and they seem to be ok with doing construction during park hours. Even with things closed, it is still one of the most attended theme parks in the world, so they don't really have an incentive to close it. As someone else mentioned there is the issue of the employees. I don't think they would be able to absorb all the employees into other areas so they would have to deal with the issues of re-hiring and re-training them when the park re-opens, not to mention the PR problems that a large number of layoffs would cause.

I know Disney would never close a park but just to touch on your point about PR problems involving massive layoffs I would think (not 100%) that since so many employees are from the college program that after a certain semester ends and the kids go back to their colleges WDW could not accept as many as they normally do for the next few semesters and move full time employees to positions in other parks that would normally be staffed by the CP program. Would some layoffs still occur, probably but I would think it would reduce them by a large amount. Now in theory this sounds good, real life, idk.

 

[flynnibus]

I know Disney would never close a park but just to touch on your point about PR problems involving massive layoffs I would think (not 100%) that since so many employees are from the college program that after a certain semester ends and the kids go back to their colleges WDW could not accept as many as they normally do for the next few semesters and move full time employees to positions in other parks that would normally be staffed by the CP program. Would some layoffs still occur, probably but I would think it would reduce them by a large amount. Now in theory this sounds good, real life, idk.

Know what they could do with all that talented staff? FIX THE OTHER PARKS TOO! Have a ton of service techs idled because DHS was closed? Put them in the other parks to fill out the ranks and increase the output of those teams.

 

[Ryan H. Serowinski]

Nope, closing the park is not an option for many factors.

Agreed! I love this park

 

[Goingdown13]

I know Disney would never close a park but just to touch on your point about PR problems involving massive layoffs I would think (not 100%) that since so many employees are from the college program that after a certain semester ends and the kids go back to their colleges WDW could not accept as many as they normally do for the next few semesters and move full time employees to positions in other parks that would normally be staffed by the CP program. Would some layoffs still occur, probably but I would think it would reduce them by a large amount. Now in theory this sounds good, real life, idk.

In theory a lot of people still lose their job. The CP population is not near as high as you think. It used to be much higher. You'd also lose a lot of info that gets posted on here