YesterDark
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 4, 2017
I'd rather them spend the money and bring up customer service than build another park.
I think there's something to this, but I don't think it will be the big thing you make it out to be. The SW Hotel is supposedly small, and will be VERY expensive, like the cruises. WDW is so much about the first-timer/big vacation, that I don't see those premium add-on hotels making much of a difference to crowd levels.You're all missing one key aspect in all of this: the Star Wars Hotel.
Once this is successful and they learn all the lessons about setting up a themed hotel like this, then they'll start making new ones. The foot print isn't very large and it's going to require somewhere around 50-100% deluxe hotel rack rates. Just imagine a Frozen hotel, BatB hotel, Indiana Jones hotel whatever.
They don't need to build a 5th gate, if you're going to do an all-in Disney Vacation, you're going to stay at a themed hotel for 3? 4? days, experience that whole thing, then hit the parks for another 3-4 days. The hotels themselves will take crowds out of the parks and offer new experiences.
Star Wars hotel this year? Can't wait to go back and go to Beast's castle next year. Oh yeah and hit up Tron too.
My take on those:I think it serves 2 purposes
1) Perhaps it will prevent visitors from heading over to Uni for a day or two
and
2) Perhaps the crowds will lessing at each park, making visits to each more pleasant. Even September has become awful at times.
To be perfectly honest if it weren’t for Potter I don’t think I’d have much desire to go back and revisit, as good as what other offerings I love there. So I guess I do fall in that bracketMy take on those:
1. I feel like people go to uni for either the thrill rides or a specific IP (Potter). And more Disney parks wouldn’t entice them to stay anymore than they already do. There’s already a good weeks worth of park stuff to do as is.
I’ve honestly only been once and it was 6 years ago on a band trip in high school. I had a really good time in islands and thought the studios park was meh (pre diagon alley though). I’d go back but my family only does Disney, which to be honest is hard enough to do for the time we’re thereTo be perfectly honest if it weren’t for Potter I don’t think I’d have much desire to go back and revisit, as good as what other offerings I love there. So I guess I do fall in that bracket
Long story that correlates to one of the points you made: One of the last two times I was at universal it was right after they started the holidays last year and for some reason islands was empty but the studios was packed. I believe the shortest wait in the studios was around 35 minutes for shrek. Waited sixty minutes with express for rip ride rockit, got in line for Fallon and noticed the line was 5 people away from filing the entrance hallway and going outside, moped and went to transformers which broke down right as I got near the front and never reopened for the night, gringotts had its express queue start out the door and the guy at the front of the hogwarts express was telling people just to walk as it was more worth the time. Ended up going back to islands where the non potter rides had only five minute waits! Not sure what to do I sat on a rock outside mythos eating popcorn and staring at the lake and the hulk going around. For some reason I was enjoying sitting on this rock just soaking it all more than I was when I was going on the rides in the studios! Maybe it was I got away from the hustle and bustle from the studios that I was enjoying this, maybe it was just being in islands taking it all but I don’t think I’ll ever forget how happy I was just doing that. Just you saying that about having a good time in the one but not the other made me want to share. Also IMHO I don’t think if you were to go now that opinion you had will changeI’ve honestly only been once and it was 6 years ago on a band trip in high school. I had a really good time in islands and thought the studios park was meh (pre diagon alley though). I’d go back but my family only does Disney, which to be honest is hard enough to do for the time we’re there
You're all missing one key aspect in all of this: the Star Wars Hotel.
Once this is successful and they learn all the lessons about setting up a themed hotel like this, then they'll start making new ones. The foot print isn't very large and it's going to require somewhere around 50-100% deluxe hotel rack rates. Just imagine a Frozen hotel, BatB hotel, Indiana Jones hotel whatever.
They don't need to build a 5th gate, if you're going to do an all-in Disney Vacation, you're going to stay at a themed hotel for 3? 4? days, experience that whole thing, then hit the parks for another 3-4 days. The hotels themselves will take crowds out of the parks and offer new experiences.
Star Wars hotel this year? Can't wait to go back and go to Beast's castle next year. Oh yeah and hit up Tron too.
I think it serves 2 purposes
1) Perhaps it will prevent visitors from heading over to Uni for a day or two
and
2) Perhaps the crowds will lessing at each park, making visits to each more pleasant. Even September has become awful at times.
I really wanna see diagon alley. I’m a big potter head so I think that’d totally blow me away. That being said most of the rest of the studios park doesn’t interest me, nor do the additions of Fallon, fast and furious, or transformersLong story that correlates to one of the points you made: One of the last two times I was at universal it was right after they started the holidays last year and for some reason islands was empty but the studios was packed. I believe the shortest wait in the studios was around 35 minutes for shrek. Waited sixty minutes with express for rip ride rockit, got in line for Fallon and noticed the line was 5 people away from filing the entrance hallway and going outside, moped and went to transformers which broke down right as I got near the front and never reopened for the night, gringotts had its express queue start out the door and the guy at the front of the hogwarts express was telling people just to walk as it was more worth the time. Ended up going back to islands where the non potter rides had only five minute waits! Not sure what to do I sat on a rock outside mythos eating popcorn and staring at the lake and the hulk going around. For some reason I was enjoying sitting on this rock just soaking it all more than I was when I was going on the rides in the studios! Maybe it was I got away from the hustle and bustle from the studios that I was enjoying this, maybe it was just being in islands taking it all but I don’t think I’ll ever forget how happy I was just doing that. Just you saying that about having a good time in the one but not the other made me want to share. Also IMHO I don’t think if you were to go now that opinion you had will change
I'm with a lot of the posters here; I doubt we'll see a fifth gate in the foreseeable future. One speculation I could throw out: I wonder how year-round profitable the water parks are? I could see them converting one of them into either an experience hotel (like Star Wars will be) or something like Discovery Cove (as someone previously mentioned.)
The Star Wars hotel has my wheels turning about what other IP they could turn into a resort experience!
Disney is not interested in making the parks more enjoyable for guests. As far as they are concerned, filled parks equal happy guests. If they are inclined to make changes to enhance guest experiences and reduce crowding, they would do as they are finally beginning to do: update the current parks attractins that have been shuttered, and expand their current parks. A fifth gate is not going to change a sad Future World, or move people around in DHS. More attractions might.
Solid analysis IMO. The only quips I would argue is EPCOT already having 2 Es. TT is a marginal E ticket to me, but the standout. Soarin used to be, and maybe still is if you sit in the middle. Soon Guardians will be, then a bunch of lower level stuff. Lots of room to expand, especially in Future World and a few spots in WS to add. Ive heard amazing things about the Rat ride so that might scrape into E ticket.No 5th park until the 4 are all finished. I feel like you need 4 e tickets to be “finished”.
Shouldn’t Disney take the hint that some of their parks don’t have enough good stuff when they’re forced to tier your FP+ selections?
Magic Kingdom is fine. It doesn’t need the Tron coaster and I wish that was going to Epcot. MK is e ticket heaven, SM, SM, TM, 7DMT, PP are all e tickets. potc, hm, jungle cruise, princess meets, Buzz are all D tickets. MK doesn’t need help.
Maybe Hollywood Studios will be fine after Star Wars Land and the Mickey train. You’ll have the falcon, Mickey train, slinky, tot, and rnr. Maybe slinky and Mickey won’t be true e tickets 10 years from now when they’re no longer new. It’s close but you could argue it doesn’t need more. You could also argue it may need 1 more E ticket to really be a great park.
Animal Kingdom needs 1 more E ticket. Safari is great, Pandora is great, Everest and Kali are good. DINOSAUR was a miss for most people. With one more E ticket they could safely close Everest for 2 years to dismantle the track, fix the Yeti, and do whatever else is needed. Then you got 4 solid e tickets (safari, Pandora, Everest, new e ticket) and 2 marginal e tickets (Kali, DINOSAUR). Plus there’s enough other stuff (tough to be a bug, petting zoo, Dino land rides, walking trails) that the park would feel finished.
EPCOT is a disaster. Is Frozen considered an e ticket? I would put it as a D. Which leaves Soarin and Test Track as the only e tickets. The other rides are more like C or B quality. EPCOT needs like 3 more E tickets and at least 2 more D tickets before its close to competitive. Unless you like drinking around the world. Then EPCOT is your park!
Yeah It's doubtful any time soon... When we did the undiscovered future world tour in EPCOT in 2014- our guide was a Legacy Award winner and awesome. The topic of a 5th park came up and the response was that while some things can be moved around- a a vast amount of land is already spoken for. (Now in that time we've gotten updates of several new resorts). He also said that with all the stuff to do in WDW now, that you can't see everything on a 4 or 5 day vacation. So adding more to that would be daunting to try to fit everything in and be satisfied. (I actually know a couple of people who haven't been to Disney World and instead travel across the country to exclusively do Disneyland because they said they'd feel overwhelmed trying to fit a WDW vacation in a long weekend). I go yearly (from NY) and when my kids get a bit older (youngest is 14 months) I'll be making 2-3 trips- so people like me wouldn't mind a 5th... but I can understand why one wouldn't be happening (...yet)I've been thinking about this for a while and considered many possible reasons for all the new resort construction . A 5th Park to me seems like the only likely reason for all this new construction . I know Star Wars Galaxies Edge is going to be hugely popular and the reason many will suggest as the primary reason for all this resort expansion ...but I don't believe that it will be popular to the extent that Disney feels they can fill all these new rooms year round because of it . I believe that because of the coming 3rd Park that Universal has planned (though not yet announced) Disney has been planning a multilevel multi-year expansion to combat Universal's aggressive attempts to capture more of Disney's market share . Updating , upgrading , renovating , and expanding all the existing parks at an unprecedented pace shows that Disney is taking Universal's growth as a real threat to their kingdom and will fight back any and all ways to maintain their supremacy in the theme park industry . Building new resorts and a 5th theme park as well seem like another way Disney can and probably will secure their number 1 status in Orlando for the foreseeable future .
From what I remember from all the pre Star Wars speculation, HS is kinda boxed in. I think some of that land is unbuildable or protected, and then it rubs up against the roads. But it’s been so long since it was discussed that I could be way off.