Disney's Animal Kingdom (General Discussion)

[UniversalRBLX]

Incredibly curious to see how deep it goes into certain subjects, and how much he is able to speak openly about specific difficulties or corporate-level decisions. I believe the book is being published by Disney, under National Geographic. So, it won't be Disney War by any means, and I'm certain it never was going to be, but I'm interested to see if we get some more discussion on the development of these incredibly detailed and intricate theme park attractions and spaces.

The Disney Edition books tend to offer some insight into the design with previously never known information. But they generally are a rehash of most stories we've heard before and lean on the personal life side.

Bob Weiss' recent book leans heavy into his personal life and the impact Disney has had, but doesn't provide too much detail into the design of things.

 

[DOOMBOT]

The Disney Edition books tend to offer some insight into the design with previously never known information. But they generally are a rehash of most stories we've heard before and lean on the personal life side.

Bob Weiss' recent book leans heavy into his personal life and the impact Disney has had, but doesn't provide too much detail into the design of things.

Rohde's openness about a number of topics in interviews and on social media give me a bit of hope we could see some interesting tidbits here. His post-Dinoland posts were really wonderful and informative. This is being sent through the Disney machine as opposed to his personal socials, so maybe stories get trimmed here. I think that's entirely possible.

Alternatively though, The Book of Bill gives me a bit of hope. Released back in 2024, the publishing wing at Disney reached out to Alex Hirsch, creator of Gravity Falls, about making a book idea that a previous set of Disney publishers outright rejected a decade prior. They let Alex use his characters from a Disney Channel kids show and gave him essentially free reign on whatever insane or tonally dark things he wanted to write. It was legitimately really cool to see, and was wildly successful on almost every metric. I wonder if that same level of freedom would extend to other published works, especially non-fiction autobiographies like this.

 

[Mad Dog]

I'm wondering if this is an indicator of an upcoming weak summer attendance....The Bluey M&G was anticipated to have huge crowds all summer. After a few days of underwhelming crowds, Disney unexpectedly dropped the virtual line. Yesterday's stand by line was manned by a small army of CM's, but only a small crowd showed up. The M&G was mostly a 5 minute line.

 

[HandsomePete]

I don’t know who thought putting it at Conservation Station would pull crowds back there considering there’s an almost 30-year track record of literally nothing pulling crowds back there.

 

[Jake S]

I don’t know who thought putting it at Conservation Station would pull crowds back there considering there’s an almost 30-year track record of literally nothing pulling crowds back there.

Maybe this is the final test. If Bluey won't pull them back there, it's well and truly cooked.

 

[JonsMovies]

I say convert the entire area to Australia with a Bluey anchor attraction and no train needed for access. That'll bring the people.

 

[Mad Dog]

Maybe this is the final test. If Bluey won't pull them back there, it's well and truly cooked.

There's really never been anything back there, like significant rides, that would make it worth your effort. And the train, though somewhat authentic, is super hot, and not a fast way to travel back there. It's a bit too much of a backwater area. My guess is that the only way that would work is to make it a full fledged land with a couple rides, and an easy, quick, walking path to it besides the train.

 

[HandsomePete]

Maybe this is the final test. If Bluey won't pull them back there, it's well and truly cooked.

It’s perfectly fine for what it normally is and the animal care facilities aren’t going anywhere.

But putting your meet and greet targeted at 3-8ish year olds where you have to walk all the way to the back of the park, wait for a train, ride a train, walk another five minutes or so, wait for the meet and greet, walk back to the train, wait for the train again, and ride the train again… dumb. The adult(s) of the group are going to nope out of taking kids through that and Disney Adults have no connection to Bluey.

 

[TheCodeMan95]

I say convert the entire area to Australia with a Bluey anchor attraction and no train needed for access. That'll bring the people.

I do think Bluey is approaching the level of warranting an actual attraction.

 

[Mad Dog]

I do think Bluey is approaching the level of warranting an actual attraction.

Disney sure has a wealth of IP's that would make great attractions/rides/lands. Unfortunately, so many get underused, or not used at all. Poor Universal has to scratch by using other companies IP's. UC could do a lot if they had IP's like Disney.

 

[Freak]

Don’t see why they can’t just do a Fantasyland-style Bluey dark ride? Those kind of rides are in short supply in Orlando.

 

[Jake S]

Don’t see why they can’t just do a Fantasyland-style Bluey dark ride? Those kind of rides are in short supply in Orlando.

Why won't modern Disney look at a wide open net and just poke it home? Because what's the fun of that! I'm belting this sucker right over the cross bar and into row Z.

 

[Alicia]

I think they could add Australia in between Africa and Asia, no train needed (just a little walk like Pandora,) and then with some clever bridges or tunnels even keep the train, and connect things at the back a bit so it's no longer a dead end.

Maybe.

Wouldn't be until after Tropical Americas of course, since Imagineering has offices and work site stuff staged back there currently.

 

[TheUniC6]

I do think Bluey is approaching the level of warranting an actual attraction.

Who's to say Disney could outright acquire the IP?

 

[Parkscope Joe]

Disney sure has a wealth of IP's that would make great attractions/rides/lands. Unfortunately, so many get underused, or not used at all. Poor Universal has to scratch by using other companies IP's. UC could do a lot if they had IP's like Disney.

Well sure helps Disney bought most of them.

 

[UNIrd]

I'm wondering if this is an indicator of an upcoming weak summer attendance....The Bluey M&G was anticipated to have huge crowds all summer. After a few days of underwhelming crowds, Disney unexpectedly dropped the virtual line. Yesterday's stand by line was manned by a small army of CM's, but only a small crowd showed up. The M&G was mostly a 5 minute line.

The real surprise here is... are there really that many vloggers and Disney lifestylers that have to be first that they fill these things up like that? I really thought that was a reflection of the demand.

 

[OrlLover]

Well this their “slower season” so I wasn’t expecting that same level of enthusiasm versus Disneyland who put into their main park that was desperate for shows.

Plus it’s out of the way so some are not willing to make the trek.

 

[DOOMBOT]

Went to check out Conservation Station yesterday. It wasn't slammed like meeting Elsa in 2015 or anything, but attendance seemed to stay very consistent through my time there. The trains are actually pretty efficient, so large groups of guests would pool up at the station in about 5-8 minutes and then be shuffled off leaving the station totally empty, and repeat over the next 5-8 minutes. Silly analogy, but I think this is more of a Monsters Unchained situation than "No one cares", this thing just eats people.

On a random summer Thursday, the pathways were busy and the Bluey shows had good crowds, especially compared to the size of the venue itself. The theming is cheap and simple, but does exactly what it needs to do. Replaced a few flat Rafiki signs with flat Bluey signs, drew new custom Bluey art for prints around the interior of the Station and some posters by the train, a bunch of new voice over and music from the show used for the show offering and the train ride, and a little gift shop.

The families are having fun, and the ops people are doing really great keeping a seemingly very busy operation schedule going remarkably smooth. I saw lots of families doing the UP Wilderness Explorer badge game in this area, and honestly through the whole park. Seems like a really well-done "KIDCOT Fun Spot"-type offering there.

My theory is correct and the Wallabies were moved from Oasis to Conservation Station, and the whole petting zoo is now a walking tour inside of the enclosure which is really neat. Seemed to be a very quick throughput clip too, maybe 10-15 min max for that whole experience from jumping in line to walking out. The bugs, amphibians, and health center windows were all retained as well which is very cool to see.

The animal handlers and ops people I saw and heard from all said essentially the same thing - It's way busier than it used to be in there. It's well done for what it is.