Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Blue Sky Buzz: Past Imperfect/Future Unfinished...


I thought I'd respond to a few e-mails I've received recently about the Extreme Makeover...

I apologize for the lack of updates, but I've been caught up in matters involving the real world. Just a few notes here, not a major update, but I thought you'd like to know/have a little bit of clarity about what's going on at the Second Gate.

First off many are wondering about the stores near where the Maliboomer once sat. In all the artwork and models we've seen, the pier area has the Games of the Boardwalk (done) and the stores remade with new Victorian facades (not done). Not to mention that lovely front queue that the Fun Wheel was supposed to get (still crossing my fingers on that one). Well, as I'm sure some of you have heard, it's not being done for the present. Not that it won't get done, but it's not on the current schedule. The main reason is funding or budgeting of the park. There have been no cuts or skimping on attractions just so you know. Please don't roll your eyes and start to think that this is another case of bean counters cutting the budget (like they did when the took DCA's almost billion dollar original price tag and reduce it by a third to $650 million).

That's not the problem. The problem is doing all this construction in a working environment and doing it at all times of the day and hours to avoid disrupting the guest as the walk around the walls. That gets expensive. Really expensive and it eats away at budgets. Much more than anyone at Disney would like. So funding has to be shifted. That's the reason you didn't see that structure in front of Mickey's Fun Wheel. That's why you didn't see the new cover for King Triton's Carousel. And it's why the stores are still in the style of stucco and exposed beams.

See, the Imagineers have had to try and keep the budgets for certain high profile projects as high as they can and decisions were made to drop or postpone some theming so that the funding could be used for other, more important construction items. Ariel's Undersea Adventure, Cars Land and the Buena Vista Street projects were all considered the most import things to get done. All other projects would/could be done, but later.

So when 2012 rolls around, some of what was planned won't be there. The side of the Paradise Pier with Screamin' and the Carousel will look relatively the same. The shops along the pier near Ariel's Grotto may still look the same as it appears that funding for this particular spot is on hold as well. The Grizzly River Run area will have received a modest retheming, but the animatronics will likely not be there till after Cars Land opens and the Extreme Makeover is officially over. The Hollywoodland section will not likely see any transformation back to a 40's era other than the Red Car Trolley line that cuts down the street until the second phase of the expansion too.

But this isn't the end. This is the beginning of the end of the beginning of the makeover. Hopefully you followed that. But sometime after summer of 2012 the park will be basking in its rebranding. Backstage, park planners and Imagineers will be busy planning big and small projects that will enhance what has already been done. Sometime in 2013 we will likely see projects start to sprout up in various areas of the park. They won't be as big as most of the projects that we've seen over the past few years because most of the hard work and major construction will be done.

Over the next four for five years we're likely to see the completed transformation of the Paradise Pier into a Victorian representation, but it'll come in phases. The areas near the coaster, the carousel and then perhaps the boardwalk area. No definite time period has yet been set, but things are being planned. The area where the stores reside is being put aside until the budget and ideas are ready for another attraction. There is room for another ride back behind the Maliboomer area now that the park only has one parade. There are two parade buildings and one is behind this spot with enough land for a major attraction. The offices of the pier would have to be moved and some other structural altering would be needed as well, but that won't be a problem that DCA hasn't already gotten used to.

There's also going to be construction walls going up in January that will block off the access to the pier where the Maliboomer was. There's a lot of concrete that has to be cut out to make room for that garden and the meet and greet area of this little makeover.

Eventually the Hollywood section will change and be rethemed to the Golden Age of Hollywood. Most of this shouldn't cause harm, with the possible exception of the enclosing of the Hyperion Theater which could be intrusive to guests and shows, but once all this is done, the trolley line will certainly blend in far better.

The Grizzly section will hopefully get animatronics in late 2012/early 2013 to match the new uniforms and rethemed areas of the 50's Yosemite style national park that it is slowly becoming. One thing that you will notice soon is the retheming of the Redwood Creek area. Gone will be Brother Bear and in its place will be Russell and the crew from "Up" to delight kids all around.

Should Cars Land be the success that everyone thinks it will be (it will), then you will see the start of planning for an expansion of this land, but don't expect it before the latter part of the decade. There is room there for one or two new attractions depending on how well the land is utilized. When you examine the totality of it, there's a whole lot of construction still to be done. Just not the gargantuan plots of land that have been reworked/rebuilt over the past four years.

Don't let this detract you from the fact that come summer 2012 the Disneyland Resort will finally have a Second Gate worthy of the resort that won't be perfect.

But it won't be finished either...

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

They're changing trail to go with Up!???!???!

I hope they have Dug too. This could be awesome.

Anonymous said...

So Honor finally pulled over in his BMW to post an update...

Connie Moreno said...

I'm bouncing off the walls! I've always been excited about the changes at DCA but after reading this...YEOWZA!!! Oh man, how exciting!!!

Cory Gross said...

They're changing the trail to go with Up?! Ugh... Give me Ranger Woodlore and the Jr. Woodchucks any day.

I remember back in 2006 when I thought "y'know, I'll just hold off on my next trip to Disneyland until the California Adventure rennovations are finished." Problem is, I do want to go before 2016!

Darrell said...

"So Honor finally pulled over in his BMW to post an update..."

...so that he could get that pesky stalker off his back. LOL

robert metzler said...

that means when disney is full ready of third theme parks and beyound . i am hope for.

Pelter Unbleat said...

Thanks for the update Honor. Any news about the changes to Fantasyland Forest? Seems WDI has kept pretty mum about what they've changed, though I know we've heard rumors. Is anything decided yet?

Anonymous said...

Carsland may be successful, but I'm doubtful that it can save this failure of a park. DCA is in serious need of a complete redo... period!

Tunabee said...

With all the new rides and that front entrance I don't believe that it'll be a failure. World of Color alone has practically doubled the attendance at the park. And this is all before most of the retheming has been completed. Will it be as good as DisneySEA? Of course not! But it wlll be a park that I won't be ashamed to see the
Disney name on.

YK2 said...

Hunter, I'm wondering what you have heard on the recent Animal Kingdom expansion rumors that have been going around the Disney net.

A_New_Hope said...

Very interesting report. I didn't know the cosmetic portions of the makeover would not be done by 2012. This is disappointing, but time moves one. It will be done eventually. What needs to happen is the Mermaid and Cars rides need to be winners!!! There's no room for misses here or there will be heck to pay.

Anonymous said...

I need to know about the Tomorrowland and Frontierland expansions before I go completely mental. I must say.

Anonymous said...

I'm confident that the Test-Track based Cars attraction will be good. In fact it will probably better much better then Test Track. However, considering the extremely limited real-estate available at DCA, I question the wisdom of such a choice when two or three E-ticket attractions could be implemented in the same amount of acreage. This park is already plagued will horrible usage of the limited available space (Grizzly River Rapids & The Cannery Row/ Wharf... thing). Then this addition will consume virtually all of the expansion area, leaving little to no room for further needed expansions to this poorly-conceived park. I think that Lasseter is being indulgent here at the expense of his sensibilities and the park-goers overall experience.


World of Color is just an average presentation when compared to Fantasmic. In fact, with the addition of the Tron sequence, it appears that Disney is kind-of duping the DCA guests with high-end marketing rather than an actual new first-class attraction. Besides, after an initial viewing, it does not have the return draw like Fantasmic. Additionally, the model and artwork for the Little Mermaid attraction looks to be just a step above the storybook attractions in Fantasyland rather than an E-ticket attraction.

These coming updates will provide initial spikes in attendence, but will not have the lasting draw to leverage the inadequacies if the rest of the park in regard to the guests pereception of a gratifying day at a theme park. After initially experiencing the new attractions, very few guests will be willing to fork-over 80+ hard-earned dollars per person for just a visit to this park; so once again the bulk of attendence will be from park-hoppers. By 2017, they'll have to go back to the drawing board to figure out how to boost the gate figures again... guaranteed!

Anonymous said...

Honor Hunter, I agree with Pelter that you should give us some updates on the expansion of WDW's Fantasyland.

Not only that. I'm still waiting for you to say something about WDW's Xmas season offerings and to confirm and reassure us all that the cutbacks in WDW's Xmas season offerings will eventually end and that we'll start seeing the return of cut-back offerings like the Country Bear Xmas Show and the Lights of Winter and that WDW will get its own versions of the Haunted Mansion and Small World holiday overlays.

Please say something about these things, Honor. Plllllleeeeeeaaaaaasssssseeeeeee....

Anonymous said...

Yeah so, um, Honor, where's that big Indiana Jones 3-D announcement you said was coming from Lucasfilm like a month ago?

Honor Hunter said...

"Yeah so, um, Honor, where's that big Indiana Jones 3-D announcement you said was coming from Lucasfilm like a month ago?"

You would do best to ask the Lucasfilm Suit that was going around Hollywood telling people about that.

Anonymous said...

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight...

First of all, LFL reps are bound by NDA's and would not put their jobs on the line or put themselves in the crosshairs of a lawsuit.

Second of all, IF supposedly they are working on Indiana Jones in 3D why have they not announced it, especially when they already announced plans for Star Wars?

I call B.S. (that's B.S. as in Blue Sky)

Assumptioneer said...

"First of all, LFL reps are bound by NDA's and would not put their jobs on the line or put themselves in the crosshairs of a lawsuit."

They wouldn't be putting their jobs on the line if they were talking to 3D houses about converting it, Moron.

And he answered your second question earlier. Ask the rep. Yeah, I know he was being metaphoric, but I actually understand what he was talking about. Especially since I work in one of the FX houses that Lucasfilm visited around the time Honor was talking about.

It also makes sense that they're not going to announce them both at the same time. Duh.

Commander Cody said...

You must not be a visitor to Blue Sky very much, Anonymous.

Honor has a very good record of reporting things and we tend to believe him since most of it has come to pass.

Just because Lucas hasn't announced it yet, doesn't mean it's not going to happen. Everything they say public isn't exactly gospel. Anyone that believes what comes out of Stansweet's mouth was the truth all the time is really drinking the cool-aid.

Anonymous said...

Are they really going to retheme the trail to Up?

That would be interesting. Imagine the possibilities for Kevin and Russell and all.

Honor Hunter said...

"Are they really going to retheme the trail to Up?"

Those are the blue sky plans as of now. If the budgeting process is approved then you should/could see it in the near future. It's not written in stone, but it's the leading contender for Redwood right now.

Doopey said...

Adding 'Up' to that area makes a lot of sense and would be a natural fit. But wow, consider this: add that to CarsLand, A Bug's Land, PixarPlayParade, Toy Story Midway Mania, Turtle Talk, and Monster's Inc. dark ride. Remember when people were speculating that they would just turn DCA into a Pixar park? (and I'm not griping about it, it's just an observation)