General Epcot Renovations

[Teebin]

Started a new catch all thread for updates.

That said, why is the large temple in China undergoing renovations so soon? Wasn't it completely redone in the past 5-10 years?

Too, when it was last refurbed, the tarps were printed to show the temple. This time they are plain light brown. What's with that?

 

[Nick]

Started a new catch all thread for updates.

That said, why is the large temple in China undergoing renovations so soon? Wasn't it completely redone in the past 5-10 years?

Too, when it was last refurbed, the tarps were printed to show the temple. This time they are plain light brown. What's with that?

If it's a recently started refurb, it normally takes a week or two for them to get the printed tarps up. They take actual real life pictures and they have to go through a blow up/scanning process to create the tarp.

 

[ChrisFL]

Started a new catch all thread for updates.

That said, why is the large temple in China undergoing renovations so soon? Wasn't it completely redone in the past 5-10 years?

Too, when it was last refurbed, the tarps were printed to show the temple. This time they are plain light brown. What's with that?

I believe it was completely re-done around 2007.

 

[WAJAS]

Innoventions is loosing even more stuff.
Epcot's Habit Heroes now permanently closed at Innoventions

But... We may be getting some more meet and greets in the new half of Epcot Character Spot.
Joy and Sadness from Inside Out to begin meet and greets next month?

 

[Nick]

Innoventions is loosing even more stuff.
Epcot's Habit Heroes now permanently closed at Innoventions

But... We may be getting some more meet and greets in the new half of Epcot Character Spot.
Joy and Sadness from Inside Out to begin meet and greets next month?

Well... just like Future World itself, the Innoventions concept is falling apart. Habit Heroes was interesting and something to do, but nothing too special. At least the new Colortopia exhibit recently opened there.

And it'd be cool if the Inside Out characters started meeting... of course I think they fit better at DHS. It seems like Future World is turning into a giant character M&G.

 

[IzzyB]

Epcot is so sad. The DHS dates being pushed back really make me sad because I thought by 2020 they would start construction in Epcot. Oh well, same old Disney. I had some hope with new leadership and Ops fighting hard that Disney was actually getting off their butt and doing something. But guess not.

 

[Nick]

Epcot is so sad. The DHS dates being pushed back really make me sad because I thought by 2020 they would start construction in Epcot. Oh well, same old Disney. I had some hope with new leadership and Ops fighting hard that Disney was actually getting off their butt and doing something. But guess not.

I'm hoping we'll get some Epcot stuff going around that time anyway.

Look at all they are doing now simultaneously - Pandora, Rivers of Light, Toy Story, Star Wars, Disney Springs, etc.

Disney Springs will be wrapping up this year and DAK projects wrapping up next year. That will free up a lot of construction crews and capital expenditure to possibly greenlight projects at Epcot during this DHS overhaul if they feel it is absolutely dire (which they should).

 

[Brian G.]

Look at all they are doing now simultaneously - Pandora, Rivers of Light, Toy Story, Star Wars, Disney Springs, etc.

Disney Springs will be wrapping up this year and DAK projects wrapping up next year. That will free up a lot of construction crews and capital expenditure to possibly greenlight projects at Epcot during this DHS overhaul if they feel it is absolutely dire (which they should).

It is a lot, but when you look at the scope of the resort compared to the drastically smaller Universal and they practically have the same amount of big projects... it puts that checklist in a different light.

 

[Nick]

It is a lot, but when you look at the scope of the resort compared to the drastically smaller Universal and they practically have the same amount of big projects... it puts that checklist in a different light.

I could add to the list to by saying Frozen and Soarin' too, but I get your point

Although Universal is much better with their money and time than WDI is, which is how they manage to get things done so fast. Also, let's not kid ourselves, while Disney has it's issues, they still are far ahead of Universal in attendance. Universal is still playing from behind, so they need to catch up by building faster. Not taking anything away from Uni, it's just the truth.

 

[Brian G.]

I could add to the list to by saying Frozen and Soarin' too, but I get your point

Although Universal is much better with their money and time than WDI is, which is how they manage to get things done so fast. Also, let's not kid ourselves, while Disney has it's issues, they still are far ahead of Universal in attendance. Universal is still playing from behind, so they need to catch up by building faster. Not taking anything away from Uni, it's just the truth.

Absolutely, but DHS has been trending down in attendance, AK is getting love but how much attendance will be spiked is up in the air, and we all know Epcot is being saved by festivals. We've all agreed in the past that they should have gotten the ball rolling a lot sooner, but if any Disney park is behind any UO park in attendance - that's a sign Disney is doing it wrong.

 

[Nick]

Absolutely, but DHS has been trending down in attendance, AK is getting love but how much attendance will be spiked is up in the air, and we all know Epcot is being saved by festivals. We've all agreed in the past that they should have gotten the ball rolling a lot sooner, but if any Disney park is behind any UO park in attendance - that's a sign Disney is doing it wrong.

Well with only 2 UOR parks and attendance spread across 4 WDW parks, I can easily see UOR overtaking some WDW parks soon. Now that shouldn't happen as you said, but Disney was doing it wrong for a long time, so they are starting to see the consequences.

It's a bit late to be reacting unfortunately.

 

[*Q*]

I propose to rename this thread, "General Epcot Renoventions"

 

[MrRoamer]

I propose to rename this thread, "General Epcot Renoventions"

If that were the case this thread would be closed half the time and the other half every other post would say "Post coming soon"

 

[UNIrd]

Also, let's not kid ourselves, while Disney has it's issues, they still are far ahead of Universal in attendance. Universal is still playing from behind, so they need to catch up by building faster. Not taking anything away from Uni, it's just the truth.

That argument I don't get. Disney has so many visitors, yet they want to not build and have their parks bursting at the seams. Yet Universal is adding the capacity and new attractions?

 

[Nick]

That argument I don't get. Disney has so many visitors, yet they want to not build and have their parks bursting at the seams. Yet Universal is adding the capacity and new attractions?

The point being Disney used to see the Orlando market as "Mature" before Universal showed them how silly that notion was. Disney is still the top dog is the point, so they feel, money wise that they don't need to add as much. Guests come anyway.

If Universal stopped adding yearly attractions, attendance would sit stagnant or possibly decline. That's why Universal has to add and Disney, while not good from a consumer prospective, can just skate by. As I said, guests come to Disney no matter what, so they don't feel pressured to build attractions.

 

[Mad Dog]

The point being Disney used to see the Orlando market as "Mature" before Universal showed them how silly that notion was. Disney is still the top dog is the point, so they feel, money wise that they don't need to add as much. Guests come anyway.

If Universal stopped adding yearly attractions, attendance would sit stagnant or possibly decline. That's why Universal has to add and Disney, while not good from a consumer prospective, can just skate by. As I said, guests come to Disney no matter what, so they don't feel pressured to build attractions.

Yeah, I think that's a pretty good analysis of the market place. And additionally, if HP1 wasn't such a great success, and Comcast didn't take advantage of it's success to keep building, my guess is that Disney would still be thinking that it was a mature market, and instead of these huge planned expansions, they'd be still sitting on their laurels. HP brings lots of extra tourists into Orlando that end up going to Disney also, so Disney's attendance has profited from it.....As an aside. It may have been a stroke of theme park luck that Comcast bought NBC/Universal. I'm guessing that Blackstone, being as thrifty as they are, would have not capitalized on the HP1 success and been content to make the money off it but not keep expanding. And after a while Universal Orlando attendance would have dropped back into it's old patterns. Just conjecture of course. The Theme Park gods need to give Comcast a big hug.

 

[Parkscope Joe]

The point being Disney used to see the Orlando market as "Mature" before Universal showed them how silly that notion was. Disney is still the top dog is the point, so they feel, money wise that they don't need to add as much. Guests come anyway.

If Universal stopped adding yearly attractions, attendance would sit stagnant or possibly decline. That's why Universal has to add and Disney, while not good from a consumer prospective, can just skate by. As I said, guests come to Disney no matter what, so they don't feel pressured to build attractions.

Disney's view of a mature market thought they could "blue ocean" the market with MM+. Problems arose when the recession ended quickly, MM+ went over budget and took too long to deploy, MM+ didn't deliver what was promised, and UOR added Potter and started building quickly.

 

[tankart150]

Disney's view of a mature market thought they could "blue ocean" the market with MM+. Problems arose when the recession ended quickly, MM+ went over budget and took too long to deploy, MM+ didn't deliver what was promised, and UOR added Potter and started building quickly.

It seems Disney should have spent 5 billion dollars on new rides/expansions instead of pointless wristbands and com/rfid based entry turnstiles. Heck, when I was staying at a dvc resort using mymagic+ , there was a problem with the magic band not working and it took so llooooong to offer a resolution. And as much as I admire Disney, their customer service isn't as great as it used to be. Every time I go to Disney, there are some guareented problems with terrible solutions.
And also, a little unrelated, but people are just getting stupider these days. 5-10 years ago, customer support wasn't like this.

 

[Parkscope Joe]

It seems Disney should have spent 5 billion dollars on new rides/expansions instead of pointless wristbands and com/rfid based entry turnstiles. Heck, when I was staying at a dvc resort using mymagic+ , there was a problem with the magic band not working and it took so llooooong to offer a resolution. And as much as I admire Disney, their customer service isn't as great as it used to be. Every time I go to Disney, there are some guareented problems with terrible solutions.
And also, a little unrelated, but people are just getting stupider these days. 5-10 years ago, customer support wasn't like this.

I hesitate to say MM+ is worthless, I think the issue is Disney went in house developed, proprietary when there are other, cheaper, solutions available. This still causes issues to this day plus all the cost over runs.

 

[Nick]

I hesitate to say MM+ is worthless, I think the issue is Disney went in house developed, proprietary when there are other, cheaper, solutions available. This still causes issues to this day plus all the cost over runs.

Much of MM+ was necessary anyway as infrastructure needed to be replaced/updated anyway. Now $2B worth? Definitely not. But a good amount of work needed to be done to update infrastructure around such a giant resort anyway, so I feel like they thought initially this was much lower of a risk than it turned out to be.

However, it was also a tech project that they've been able to market/merchandise, which is virtually unheard of when it comes to infrastructure upgrades.