An item posted this past Friday on Screamscape about how the Cheesecake Factory will soon be pulling out of DisneyQuest got tongues wagging around the Web. As Disneyana fans began wondering if this intriguing new tidbit meant that WDW’s indoor interactive theme park — long rumored to be on the ropes — could in fact be closing its doors. Perhaps as early as this summer.
Well, DQ isn’t DOA. Not yet, anyway. No, the word coming out of Lake Buena Vista today is that DisneyQuest has been given a reprieve. With WDW Food & Beverage due to take over the day-to-day operations of that fifth floor food facility that the Cheesecake Factory will be vacating come June.
As to this indoor theme park’s long-term prospects … Things are suddenly looking far rosier than they were even a year ago. Thanks in large part to Jay Rasulo‘s new corporate agenda as well as more pressing matters on the West Side of WDW’s Downtown Disney retail, dining and entertainment complex.
Concept art for the new 800-room hotel that Disney Parks & Resorts will be building in Oahu.
Copyright 2007 Disney. All Rights Reserved
As for the corporate part of this equation … In his role as Chairman of Disney Parks & Resorts, Jay genuinely believes that the future of the company lies in location-based entertainments (like that oceanfront resort that the Mouse recently announced that it would be building in Oahu) as well as urban entertainment centers (like that thing that Mickey keeps trying to get built in Singapore).
But it might be hard for Disney’s board of directors to justify funding these new projects should the company’s only existing LBE (i.e. WDW’s DisneyQuest) suddenly close its doors. Which is why Rasulo has ordered that DQ stay open. At least for the foreseeable future.
Besides … Given the triage situation that Mickey now finds itself dealing with when it comes to La Nouba and the Virgin Megastore Orlando … DisneyQuest is really the least of the Mouse’s worries right at this moment.
Copyright 1998 Disney. All Right Reserved
To explain: Just like with the Cheesecake Factory, Virgin & Cirque du Soleil’s contracts with the Walt Disney Company — at least when it comes to these West Side facilities — are up for renewal this year. And given that Megastore Orlando has never really done as well as the parent company had hoped it would, the rumor is that Virgin is now leaning toward not renewing its lease on this Downtown Disney location. Which means that the Mouse may soon find a 49,000 square foot hole in its West Side line-up.
Which is why the Imagineers are now toying with tossing an ESPN Zone into this location. An idea that — you may recall — was once proposed for the building that WDW’s DisneyQuest currently occupies.
As for La Nouba … While this is still a terrific show, demand for tickets for this particular Cirque du Soleil production has fallen off over the past few years. Mostly because people who are visiting the World these days have undoubtedly seen La Nouba on earlier WDW vacations.
CG concept painting of the 2,170-seat Cirque du Soleiel theater now
being constructed at the Tokyo Disney Resort.
Copyright 2007 Oriental Land Co. Ltd.
Which is why Disney & Cirque officials have begun making noise about possibly putting something new into this 1671-seat showroom. And though nothing official has been announced yet, the general feeling is — once this Montreal-based corporation successfully launches the new show that it’s created for the Tokyo Disney Resort in October of this year — Cirque will then turn its attentions back to Orlando.
Mind you, Disney will still be looking for the same sort of terms that it got back in July of 1996 when it signed its first contract with Cirque du Soleil. And given that — over the past 12 years — Cirque has grown into this billion dollar operation … They may now be seeking a far bigger piece of the pie. Which is why this is far from a done deal. At least as far as Mickey’s accountants are concerned.
And as if things weren’t already complicated enough for Downtown Disney’s West Side … Late last week, Disney insiders have told me — with the hope that this gesture might help keep Steve Jobs happy — Bob Iger allegedly asked that space be found at WDW’s retail, dining and entertainment district for a new Apple Store.
Copyright 2006 Apple. All Rights Reserved
So when you take into account Jay Rasulo’s shifting corporate agenda, the ESPN Zone changing from being DisneyQuest’s possible replacement to now supposedly filling the hole that the Virgin Megastore Orlando will leave once it bails out on Downtown Disney, not to mention the one-step-forward, two-steps-back aspect of Disney’s on-going negotiations with Cirque du Soleil … It’s obviously time for the West Side Waltz. So let the dance begin !
In five years time, once the dust settles on this side of the WDW Resort … It’ll be genuinely interesting to see what got built where. In particular where that Apple Store went.
Your thoughts?