Brian K. dropped me a line on September 3rd to say:
Hey Jim!
I can't get enough of your site and I literally feel like I
"grew up" reading your insight into the parks and attractions, so
thanks! I feel like I already know the answer to this, but do you think we
might ever see a major investment in Walt Disney World's four parks? I know
none are near as fundamentally flawed as DCA was, but what about an announced
"five year plan" for the resort, divvying another $1 billion between
the four parks over the course of a half-decade? Indiana Jones at the Magic
Kingdom; elements of Project: Gemini in Epcot; Cars Land at the Studios;
whatever big project (in my opinion, Beastly Kingdom) or an all-encompassing
World of Color fountain show in Discovery River at Animal Kingdom… With an
arguably "better" place to start than DCA had, even $250 million per
park could do wonders at WDW, and even just one major E-ticket per park could
really enliven things. If marketing plays it right, it could be an exciting
promotion.
Concept art for Disney's Animal Kingdom's never-built Beastlie Kingomme area.
Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved
Keep it up, and thanks!
Brian K.
Thanks for the kind words, but … When you talk about The
Walt Disney Company making a major investment in WDW, you do understand that —
were you take a step back and take a cold-blooded look at what's been going on in
Lake Buena Vista over the past 3-to-5
years — you'd see that the Mouse have already made / is making a DCA-sized
investment in The Walt Disney World Resort.
The original concept art of the Fantasyland expansion at WDW's Magic Kingdom theme
park (Please note the massive Cinderella / Sleeping meet-n-greet show building at the
very center of this image as well as the never-built Pixie Hollow area in the upper
right hand corner). Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved
I mean, seriously, Brian K. Think about it: The Fantasyland
expansion project? Depending on who you talk to, that's $380 – $400 million
right there (I'm told that the $250 – $300 million ceiling that had originally
been set on this project got blown through once Tom Staggs, the newly installed
Chairman of Walt Disney Parks & Resorts decided to swap those elaborately
themed Cinderella & Sleeping Beauty meet-and-greet areas out for a Seven
Dwarfs Mine Train ride). Now fold in all of the design & construction costs
associated with taking that never-finished wing of Disney's Pop Century hotel
and then turning that abandoned worksite
into the highly themed Disney's Art of Animation Resort PLUS those Villas at
Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa that DVC is building right now. Then factor in
the cost of all of the road widening that's
been going on lately along Buena Vista Drive between DHS's back entrance
and Victory Way, the Golden Oak at Walt Disney World Resort project, the reimagining of Test
Track, that new "Phineas and Ferb & You: A Brand New Reality" at
Downtown Disney, the revamp of the Magic Kingdom's "The Magic, the
Memories and You!" show, the costs involved with developing those
"Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom" & "Agent P's World Showcase
Adventure" games … and we're now
up to a billion dollars worth of additions
being added / improvements being made at The Walt Disney World Resort without even
breaking a sweat.
And then when you consider all of the time, money and
research that the Company has already poured into WDW's Fast Plus Pass project (which — FYI — begins
its second round of onsite field testing at the Magic Kingdom later this month)
… Well, that's another $100 million plus right there. And should these tests
go well and The Walt Disney Company then opt to go forward with full-blown implementation
of its NextGen program for the Walt
Disney World Resort … Between all of the
actual physical changes which the Imagineers will need to make in & around
this 43-square mile piece of property (EX:
Doing things like changing the Rose Gardens off the Hub at the Magic Kingdom
into a gated fireworks viewing area. Not to mention significantly upgrading the
WDW Resort's overall wireless capabilities so that it can then actually support
& serve all of those Guests who'll now be trying to make dinner
reservations & book Fast Passes through their iPhones and Droids) … Well,
spread over four theme parks and 20+ onsite hotels, that'll easily be another
billion right there.
Which brings us to the real issue here. A concept that some Disney fanbois seem to have real trouble
grasping: The Walt Disney World Resort isn't
the Disneyland Resort.
Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved
By that I mean: When you pour a billion dollars into the 510
acres that make up the Disneyland Resort, you can immediately see where most of
that money went. The changes that have been made to the Disneyland Hotel, not
to mention DCA's two new "lands" and all of the other rides, shows &
attractions that have been added to that theme park since its redo was
initially announced back in 2007 have been dramatic.
Conversely when you take a billion dollars and then try &
spread that across the 30,500 acres that make up the Walt Disney World Resort,
that seemingly huge amount of amount doesn't travel quite so far and/or have as
nearly huge an impact. At first glance, anyway
That doesn't negate the fact that Disney has in fact been
aggressively reinvesting in WDW over the past 3-to-5 years. But when you
compare road widening along Buena Vista Drive to — say — Disney California
Adventure getting Cars Land and/or Universal Orlando building the Wizarding
World of Harry Potter … Spending money on improving resort infrastructure (which
is absolutely essential. Given the tens of thousands of people who travel those
roads every day) isn't quite as sexy or exciting as building another Radiator
Springs Racers and/or coming up with an attraction that can possibly rival Harry
Potter and the Forbidden Journey.
HARRY POTTER characters, names and related indicia are trademarks of and copy-
written by Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. Harry Potter publishing rights copy-
wright JKR. Copyright 2010 Universal Orlando Resort. All rights reserved
But to certain Disney fanbois, none of this sort of
reinvestment ever really matters. They just laser focus in on the chipped paint and/or
continue to moan about how the Disneyland Resort gets all of the cool stuff,
even though there's still $300 – $400 million worth of new rides, shows and
attractions about to be unveiled at the Magic Kingdom. If you
listen to these folks, the Fantasyland expansion (which none of us have actually
experienced yet) is already in the rear view mirror. These people (if you sample
various discussion boards around the Web) are already bitching about the budget
cuts that have reportedly been made to WDW's version of Radiator Springs Racers
which is reportedly in the works for Disney's Hollywood Studios. Or they're chortling about how
James Cameron and the Imagineers now appear to be having creative
differences when it comes to the "World of Avatar" project.
My advice is just ignore people like this. If Walt Disney Parks
and Resorts only built E Tickets in Orlando from here on in, these very same
fanbois would still somehow find something else to complain about. That's just the way that they're wired. These people can't
help themselves. All they can ever see (and all they're ever going to see) are Disney's supposed shortcomings.
More to the point, when you're talking about a 30,500-acre
piece of property, you really have to take that 30,000-foot view. Take in the
property as a whole. And from that height / with that perspective, Brian K., you'll then clearly be able to see that Disney has been
pouring a ton of money into WDW over the past 3-to-5 years. But that amount has been
spread out over 43 square-miles. Not focused in on two relatively tiny little
areas like the Disneyland Hotel and the Disney California Adventure theme park.
The new monorail-themed water slide which was just added to the pool area at the
Disneyland Hotel. Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved
Don't get me wrong. Would I love to see some major new
attraction being added to Disney's Hollywood Studios in the not-so-distant
future? Absolutely. But having said that, I also have to acknowledge that —
just last year — DHS did, in essence, get a brand-new ride with the arrival of
"Star Tours: The Adventures Continues" and the new multi-branching
version of that simulator's ride film.
Does saying / writing something like this make me a Disney
apologist? Nah. I prefer to think of myself as a Disney realist. Someone who
realizes that The Walt Disney Company is now a publicly held, multi-national
corporation with a board of directors who then have to answer to the Company's
shareholders and the investment community. I mean, Disney just
isn't the same Company that it was back in the early 1960s when Walt was
calling the shots. When it was only one man's taste, interests & fascinations that determined which films Walt Disney Studios made and/or which rides,
shows and attraction were added / subtracted at his theme park.
That said, I still have to admit that I can't quite
understand why the folks running Downtown Disney felt it was so urgent to gut
Pleasure Island back in September of 2008 and have since done nothing with that
piece of property. I mean, I know. The Global Financial Meltdown scared away a lot of the would-be lessees who were supposed to come on board as part of the Hyperion Wharf redo … But that was four years ago
now. Even taking into account the somewhat tentative nature of the U.S. 's
financial recovery (More importantly, given how the spending patterns of Guests who visit Disney World these days have changed. These people just aren't buying plush and pins the way that they used to back in 2006 & 2007) it just seems
bizarre to me that so many of the shops & restaurants that used to do a
halfway decent business in & around Pleasure Island have since been boarded
up and/or torn down.
Hyperion Wharf concept art which gives some indication of how this Downtown Disney
redo was at least supposed to fit in with the West Side of this shopping / dining
complex. Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved
I mean, if you take into consideration the primo location
that the now-basically abandoned Pleasure Island complex occupies at Downtown
Disney (i.e. between the West Side and the original WDW Shopping Village), it's
like having a smile where the front teeth have been knocked out. The folks
running the Walt Disney World Resort really need to address this issue.
Which I suspect they already know. But when you're managing
a 30,500 acre parcel of land which — just last year — was reportedly visited
by over 25 million people … Well, you're always going to have one hell of a
"To Do" list. And — yes — I will admit that it is high
profile, big ticket attractions like "Expedition Everest" which drive
attendance at the theme parks & put heads-in-beds at the Resorts. But as
the balky Yeti AA figure in that DAK attraction has proven, you can't stint on
back-of-the-house stuff like maintenance. Especially during this social
media-driven age where bad news travels at light speed.
Sorry, Brian K. But what started out as a short answer to your
Why For question somehow morphed into this lengthy lecture about Walt Disney World. To be
specific, how a certain segment of the Disney fan community just can't seem to see that
the Company has continually been pouring huge amounts of money into
maintaining, upgrading and improving the Florida property. Given the blinders
that these guys wear, if the Mouse isn't spending money on mega-attractions for
the Parks like Radiator Springs Racers, it doesn't count for some reason. Which
(to my way of thinking, anyway) is silly.
Discovery River, Disney's Animal Kingdom's somewhat over-grown
central waterway. Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc.
All rights reserved
Anywho … To answer at least one of your questions, Brian
K: Don't look for a version of DCA's World of Color to be built in Disney's
Animal Kingdom's Discovery River area anytime soon. In order to keep the illuminated
thousand fountains that actually drive this nighttime show working properly, they
need to be placed inside of a closed water system that's regularly / heavily
filtered. And given that DAK's Discovery River is supposed to resemble a
natural body of water which is somehow winding its way in and around that
theme park … Well, those really-for-real lily pads that you
see floating in the image above are an essential part of pulling off this thematic
illusion. And since all this floating flora would obviously regularly clog up
the high pressure nozzles which are used for dramatic effect in World of Color
…
You get the idea, right? It's kind of an either / or proposition. If
DAK wants to bring in World of Color, it needs to change Discovery River into a
closed-off, highly filtered body of water like DCA's Paradise Bay. Which means
that you then lose all of the weeds & grass lining its shoreline. Which
help make Discovery River look like this living thing, when then helps to re-enforce
the overall theme of this theme park (i.e. that Disney's Animal Kingdom is a place that celebrates all animals. Living,
extinct and imaginary).
So — knowing that — I can't honestly see World of Color ever
being built in DAK's Discovery River area. But that said, that doesn't mean
that we won't then be seeing this DCA show (or — to be specific — some of the
technology & effects used to power this nighttime extravaganza) being
folded in to new & improved editions of DHS's Fantasmic! and/or Epcot's
Illuminations.
Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved
EDITOR'S NOTE: I'm sorry if yesterday's article about Sony
Pictures Animation's 10th anniversary threw off the momentum of JHM's week-long
experiment with doing a daily Why For column. But I wanted to make sure that
JHM's Southern Californian readers got a shot at those tickets for next week's
"Surf's Up" screening on SPA's Culver City campus. Which is why I
thought it was essential to first get an article out there that talked up this
event before I then began JHM's ticket giveaway.
I'm now going to push ahead with production of two more Why
For columns to round out the week. So if you have any Disney, animation or
theme park-related questions that you'd like to see answered in a story which
will be posted on this site, please send them along to whyfor@jimhillmedia.com.
Your thoughts?