Future WDW Additions/Expansion

[Mad Dog]

For marketing purposes, it's generally best to string out the major announcements over a period of time, for maximum effect. And, Disney Marketing is the 'Best' out there. Their great brand and marketing have helped keep the company above their poor management decisions/visceral many times.

 

[IzzyB]

I mean, sure, but is that what we’re really going to moan over? The whole hub still looks great the way they did it.

Attractions getting cut are a bigger issue, but I’m willing to blame that on COVID and a greedy Chapek who didn’t want to invest in the parks and give them a chance here.

I agree, I think with new leadership we need to give them a chance.

The last addition to Disney was the Epcot hub this year…the exact kind of smaller investment everyone agrees is necessary in rounding out the park. But let’s just say it was Tron in 2023; in the year between then and now, all everyone has said is “Disney doesn’t invest enough!” Now here we are, a mere one year later, with announcements/rumors out the wazoo, and everyone’s somehow unhappy anyway.

Thought experiment…since the last rumor dump in 2017, here’s how Disney has compared to Universal (only looking at Florida):
* 2017: Avatar vs Volcano Bay (I’d argue draw, but let’s say +1 Universal)
* 2018: Toy Story Land vs Fast & Furious (+1 Disney)
* 2019: Star Wars Land vs Hagrid’s (+1 Disney)
* 2020: nothing vs Velocicoaster (+1 Universal)
* 2021: new fireworks show(s?) vs Bourne (+1 Universal)
* 2022: Guardians vs nothing (+1 Disney)
* 2023: Tron vs Minions (+1 Disney)

So a pretty even “score” of 4-3. The quality comparison of each addition across years is debatable but the point is, it looks like both parks are adding at the same relative pace to me. Yes, Epic is going to be a huge outlier in that it’s a whole third park, but even half of these new rumored investments in Disney’s existing four parks looks at least respectable in comparison on paper.

I totally get if what’s coming isn’t your cup of tea (the current rumors I’ve seen dont really get me going, personally), but criticizing this next phase of additions as being not enough or too little too late just really jumps out as bad faith arguing to me.

I have said for awhile now when you look at the past 10 years both parks are almost equal in additions if not Disney having the slight edge. I get that Uni has an entire park coming, but that is something I don't think any of us wants Disney doing. They need to stick to 4 gates.

I hope I don't come off as arguing in bad faith.

I believe Epic is a massive outlier. Not only are we getting a brand new theme park with 5 new Diagon-tier lands, but it is roughly a year away and could've arrived even earlier than that had certain world-wide events not unfolded. We have also seen consistent year-over-year revitalization in the existing parks even while they've been building the five new lands. Disney has their year-after-year lineup by strategically keeping attractions unbuilt until the hype and profits for the last attraction died down enough.

I wanna make it clear: If the proposed list is correct, that would be wonderful. It does revitalize the most major deadzones in the current parks for the majority of guests. Figment, Test Track, Dinoland USA, Animation Courtyard; while also expanding in significant ways with Beyond Big Thunder and the Lion King boat ride. I may not be incredibly excited for the specifics just yet, but the list is bold and once complete would significantly change the energy and quality of the parks in a positive way.

In my opinion, we should've been seeing these all open yesterday. And no matter how bold of a proposition it is, it's what is actually open to guests in the end that matters. I've been burned many times when it comes to Disney World announcements that arrive with significant cuts, arrive years after they reasonably should have, or never end up arriving at all. The parks need these expansions right now, so if we have to wait until 2030 to see this list completed, I will be disappointed. In my opinion, Disney can do much better than that.

I feel this is moving the goal posts on Disney. You can't say they aren't doing anything and when they start doing stuff say, well it should have been years ago. It has been proven that Universal and Disney have pretty much been doing equal work over the last 10 years. So you can't say Universal is doing more and they are even cutting things more recently like entertainment, 3D, etc. Honestly Universal has capacity issues too, their wait times are nothing to sneeze at.

Eh. I love RSR, but we already have the same ride in Epcot... We don't need a clone of a clone. We need new stuff that isn't already in the States or just something completely new that isn't at any other park.

I don't even think they should bring Cars to DHS. I hate repeating myself but like... why can't they use more relevant/newer IPs? Why do we need Cars in Florida when we could get stuff like Zootopia or something else? I just don't buy the rumor that we're getting anything Cars related in Florida. If it was like 5-7 years ago I would've, but I think we're past it ever coming.

I think for Disney to do a ton of major projects in the next 6 years frankly some of them will be clones. So if RSR is coming to MK I think it blends well with the theme and can be that faster addition after the land is developed. Not everything they do needs to be brand new, some will need to be clones to help save on R&D. Cars is HUGELY popular. My child wasn't even born when the last movie was released, guess what he loves? Cars. He loves the Cars movies and asks for them in the car and he also loves the cars toys. I always have to talk him out of buying the over prices cars IP stuff over matchbox. Kids like Cars. It sells a ton and has had a huge presents in toys sections since the first movie and 7 years after the last still has a huge section in the toy sections of stores.

I don’t mind the blue sky phrasing if it’s just their new way of telling us things that they are fairly confident will be happening in one way or another, but just not as immediate or concrete as say, the tropical Americas land will be at DAK this year.

Think of how long from 2017 it took for GotG and Tron to open and people criticized them for that. Perhaps they are looking at calling things like this blue sky so we arent yelling about how long it took.

They also probably don’t want to firmly announce something that’s far out and then end up canceling it again.

I think people love to move the goal posts on this board. I hear all the time how long after announcement stuff takes and then they are mad when Disney doesn't announce everything. Universal waits to announce, if they did, their timelines on waiting would be pretty long too. It is just different styles, but I do think we won't hear it all as "this is coming" as to allow for multiple year announcements (good for marketing) but also they will start stuff that is "blue sky" because I don't think it will all be Blue Sky. I think they have concrete plans but don't want to announce before final stamp and work begins. They may be changing courses after all the criticism of the past 15 years.

 

[wutisgood]

I agree, I think with new leadership we need to give them a chance.


I have said for awhile now when you look at the past 10 years both parks are almost equal in additions if not Disney having the slight edge. I get that Uni has an entire park coming, but that is something I don't think any of us wants Disney doing. They need to stick to 4 gates.


I feel this is moving the goal posts on Disney. You can't say they aren't doing anything and when they start doing stuff say, well it should have been years ago. It has been proven that Universal and Disney have pretty much been doing equal work over the last 10 years. So you can't say Universal is doing more and they are even cutting things more recently like entertainment, 3D, etc. Honestly Universal has capacity issues too, their wait times are nothing to sneeze at.




I think for Disney to do a ton of major projects in the next 6 years frankly some of them will be clones. So if RSR is coming to MK I think it blends well with the theme and can be that faster addition after the land is developed. Not everything they do needs to be brand new, some will need to be clones to help save on R&D. Cars is HUGELY popular. My child wasn't even born when the last movie was released, guess what he loves? Cars. He loves the Cars movies and asks for them in the car and he also loves the cars toys. I always have to talk him out of buying the over prices cars IP stuff over matchbox. Kids like Cars. It sells a ton and has had a huge presents in toys sections since the first movie and 7 years after the last still has a huge section in the toy sections of stores.


I think people love to move the goal posts on this board. I hear all the time how long after announcement stuff takes and then they are mad when Disney doesn't announce everything. Universal waits to announce, if they did, their timelines on waiting would be pretty long too. It is just different styles, but I do think we won't hear it all as "this is coming" as to allow for multiple year announcements (good for marketing) but also they will start stuff that is "blue sky" because I don't think it will all be Blue Sky. I think they have concrete plans but don't want to announce before final stamp and work begins. They may be changing courses after all the criticism of the past 15 years.

I think the problem most people have is how deliberately slow Disney seems to be on building attractions from the start of construction and how they milk announcements for publicity including projects that get cancelled.

Disney should be consistently building attractions all the time. They shouldn't be so far behind to need massive expansion all at once. They should never ever build a new ride like slinky or mine train with limited capacity unless it is a flat ride. The goalposts with Disney should be high in the first place.

 

[UniversalRBLX]

Universal isn't a stranger to delaying/pushing things back deliberately either...

Nintendo partnership was announced in 2015, Orlando would have gotten it much earlier than 2023/24 (original Epic timeline) had Universal not deliberately pushed it back to be included with Epic instead of in USF.

It would have taken 8 years from announcement to the pre-Covid plans of Epic for 2023-24. It will be a full decade from the partnership announcement to opening in Orlando in 2025.

Avatar Land, as highly criticized as it was at how slow they went... took 7 years from the 2011 announcement to 2017 opening date at DAK. So, as wild as it sounds, Orlando folks waited longer for Super Nintendo World than Pandora lol (yes the pandemic played into things, just pointing things out lol)

 

[Nico]

Universal isn't a stranger to delaying/pushing things back deliberately either...

Nintendo partnership was announced in 2015, Orlando would have gotten it much earlier than 2023/24 (original Epic timeline) had Universal not deliberately pushed it back to be included with Epic instead of in USF.

It would have taken 8 years from announcement to the pre-Covid plans of Epic for 2023-24. It will be a full decade from the partnership announcement to opening in Orlando in 2025.

Avatar Land, as highly criticized as it was at how slow they went... took 7 years from the 2011 announcement to 2017 opening date at DAK. So, as wild as it sounds, Orlando folks waited longer for Super Nintendo World than Pandora lol (yes the pandemic played into things, just pointing things out lol)

I remember being surprised at how early Universal had to announce it because of Nintendo’s partnership. Definitely didn’t fit Universal’s normal schedule. Still doesn’t.

 

[IzzyB]

I think the problem most people have is how deliberately slow Disney seems to be on building attractions from the start of construction and how they milk announcements for publicity including projects that get cancelled.

Disney should be consistently building attractions all the time. They shouldn't be so far behind to need massive expansion all at once. They should never ever build a new ride like slinky or mine train with limited capacity unless it is a flat ride. The goalposts with Disney should be high in the first place.

I get they can be slow. Tron was ridiculous. But I am hoping they are turning a corner. But even with the slowness, they still have matched Universal. There are times with no construction at Universal too. limited capacity is always going to be a thing, I mean look at Donkey Kong.