Disney's busy on the west coast, too. World of Color bows tomorrow night at California Adventure, the latest in a multi-billion-dollar string of improvements to that park, which continue next year with a Little Mermaid dark ride and wrap up with the premiere of Cars Land in 2012.
So it really shouldn't surprise anyone that Disney, at least, plans a breather after this current round of attraction construction. Last week, Disney CEO Bob Iger said:
"I think, once we get through this period, we're probably going to drop down to what I'll call a more steady state," Iger said. "We don't really project — save for Disneyland Shanghai, should be we successful in completing that agreement and building the park — we don't really project anything as significant as this collection of investments on the [capital expenditure] front over the next decade."
Knowing that, what would you do if you were Disney's competition?
Let's focus on the other "Big Two" in the industry, who compete with Disney in both the Central Florida and Southern California markets: Universal and SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment.
Universal's wrapping up its big construction projects in Orlando, with Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit last year and Harry Potter now opening this month. On the west coast, Universal Studios Hollywood has rebuilt much of its backlot and will unveil its new King King encounter next month. In 2012, USH gets its version of the Transformers ride, a next generation version on Islands of Adventure's beloved Spider-Man ride.
But what happens after that for Universal, especially in Orlando? Harry Potter will be four years old the year after Disney opens its new Fantasyland. With no major new attraction coming at Disney for the rest of the decade, should Universal also sit back and conserve cash, or plan for an expensive (and thus, financially risky) counterpunch?
And what about SeaWorld? The company's building a major new ride at Busch Gardens Tampa. But SeaWorld Orlando's been quiet since the premieres of Aquatica and Manta. With the company's ownership now secure, how should SeaWorld react to Disney and Universal's building binges?
I'll kick off the discussion with this: Walt Disney World's Fantasyland rehab skews heavily toward younger girls, with its emphasis on the Disney princesses. This leaves a large opportunity for an attraction targeted at boys, and older kids.
Transformers debuts at Universal Studios Singapore next year, and in Hollywood in 2012. To me, it's a no-brainer to bring Transformers to Universal's Islands of Adventure or Universal Studios Florida in 2013 or 2014.
Okay, your turn. What would you do, if you were running Universal or SeaWorld?
Tweet
Universal- Back-to-back-to-back years opening major attractions at the Orlando resort. Thats pretty good. Universal has sent surveys about some of their older attractions(Twister,T2:3-D,ET) suggesting a replacement may be on the horizon. IOA won't get worked on for a while but maybe another Potter attraction in the aging Sindbad show area would be nice.
Hollywood has Kong and Transformers currently being built. Heard a while back that they were considering bringing down the Gibson Amphitheater, that would give them plenty of space for attractions. I'm hoping with all the success of the Dreamworks films maybe a modern dark ride would be good for this park. Maybe a How to Train your dragon attraction or something. If they were able to move Animal Actors to the old wild west arena than they could use the area from the coke soak to the castle theater(nothing seems to stick in that cursed building) for attraction development.
Sea World- Nothing planned for Orlando and San Diego the most popular parks for that company. There was a rumored indoor coaster planned for the San Diego park. It was off after the sale of the company but then given some life a while back. It would be great if it actually happened. As for Orlando well they do have space for an attraction, maybe a dark ride?
IOA should probably retheme the Marvel area of the park, although I would hate to see Spider-Man change. Sadly, it is just such a conflict of interest for Universal I think the change is inevitable. Anyway, during the retheme, both Fearfall and Acceleraton should get the boot and that space used to add a new, innovative, enclosed attraction (there are a number of great ideas in the recent "Theme Park Apprentice" contest thread).
USF is quite the complete park, IMHO, although a "Great Monster Movie" attraction would be a perfect addition.
SWO does seem to be limited on space, as mentioned above, although I could see Wild Arctic (the simulator part) getting redone into something a little more "today", and Journey to Atlantis is in dire need of additional, state of the art special effects to coherently enhance the current narrative.
BGT and BGW are both adding new lands and rumors abound that new coasters will be added as well. Still an attraction or two around Montu at BGT would sure be nice, and a major refurbishment of BGW's venerable Loch Ness Monster is way overdue.
I am not as familiar with the California scene, having not visited for many years, but USH seems to have plenty of work on the way and Legoland is what it is: a niche park. Still I feel that USH is very much in need of another coaster to bookend RotM (maybe a BSG clone, or something akin to RRR), and Legoland should continue to add those interactive, imaginative, whole-family attractions that really seem to be their forte.
SW San Diego could obviously use some of the coaster love of its sister parks in Florida and Texas, however, they don't seem to want to go down that path. Maybe they figure there are enough coasters in California already? Shame on them... can there ever be enough?
As for Knotts, I would love to see Cedar Fair make an attempt at returning this park to its former themed glory by continuing to upgrade and refurb the old school attractions that made the park so charming in the first place. By all reports the Calico Mine Ride is in dire need of some love, and many of the "themed lands" could use some major plussing. Let's face it, there are a large number of true theme park fans in SoCal, why not at least try to cater to their desires for immersive, narrative experiences at a park not bearing the Disney moniker? Right now Knotts is somewhere between a theme park and a thrill park, trying to walk the middle road. And you know what Mr. Miyagi says about that situation: Walk left side, safe. Walk right side, safe. Walk middle, sooner or later [makes squishing gesture] get squish just like grape.
Six Flags Magic Mountain just needs to keep adding coasters. With the banishment of Shapiro, I think the hopes of Six Flags ever being anything other than a thrill park for teenagers is gone. Shame.
As for Disney, I agree with several others who have posted that there is zero chance they will not be adding new experiences for their visitors to enjoy. Sadly we probably won't see additions like the big Beastly Kingdom expansion that DAK needs so much, but I expect yearly $80 - $100 million attractions to hit the various parks as we have seen in the past. With the exception of 2009 and 2010, Disney seldom rests on its laurels (or Hardys) for very long...
While you hear "nothing significant for a decade," I hear "something huge a decade from now."
That being said, Disney will not be sitting on its laurels or hardies....they are currently aggressively looking for ways to exploit the Marvel characters WEST of the Mississippi River. And although contractual obligations will keep them from developing Marvel attractions in Florida FOR THE TIME BEING, I agree that Universal might soon tire of having to ask Disney's permission before it builds or revises it's IOA Super Hero Island....they should just license the Warners/DC Comics characters and be done with it.
The Disney Hollywood Studios Monster Coaster will be built...expect it after the DCA expansion is done. Like a previous poster said, Disney will continue to build, but they can't sustain the level they're at right now. ($2 billion! and counting).
Tech is great, and I'm fascinated by it, and I'm curious to see how all this NextGen hoopla pans out and gets integrated into the Disney Experience within the next decade. I do think however, that the general public responds far more when a megaton bombshell is dropped, as opposed to the precision of multiple laser guided missiles over time. In the long run, the NextGen initiative will allow for attractions that will surely astound us in the future on a less gregarious scale, yet in turn it will still help make those future bombshells all the more amazing. The next decade very well may be laying the groundwork down for the most ambitious years of expansion, innovation and technological advancement Disney parks have, and may ever see for some time to come once all the dust settles. I hate to think of myself being ten years older, but at least I know I have something to look forward to once I get there.
I Respond: What I find so promising about the interactive nature of NextGen is that it uses technology to make the theme park experience more personal. That the park reacts to the person.
There is a lot of mechanics to this ride that I haven't worked out in my head; however, Disney has my PerNer and if they're interested they should reach out.
The basis for this concept is that is a combination of thrill ride with a lot of tech that would draw a crowd of all ages, and all genders. At the same time is has the possibility of being dialed down much like Mission Space at EPCOT, so that minimum height, weight, and age are not a factor.
As for CEO Iger's comment on cutting back on construction, It seems prudent to step back and take stock of what has been built, and paying some extra attention to things that need the maintenance that met budget constraints due to the new construction. I agree with other poster's comments that a theme park is only as good as its next new attraction, but at some point you need to check the equity of your property, and equalibrium of the industry.
On a side note, is Universal able to expand the Marvel Island? I wasn't sure what the Disney ownership of the Marvel brand means for future expanison. Because to me having an Iron Man ride is sort of a no brainer at this point and preferable to seeing 18-Wheeler trucks shoot lasers at each other. Could that be possible? Any lawyers hanging out on this site that have happened to thumb through the Disney Marvel contracts for some fun reading???
If Marvel Super Hero Island is evicted eventually, a TF ride to replace Spiderman could be suitable, and the rest of the island could be changed over to a Sci-Fi concept like the Singapore Studios have. Universal Creative is just that, creative, and I have no doubt that the Singapore Park will serve as a starting point for them to create yet another amazing area in one of the top parks in the world, IOA.
Isl of Adv Super Hero island could become Hasbro island with Transformers in place of Spiderman, Hulk becomes GI Joe (no need to repaint) and the others redone the same. Great cross promotional for Hasbro as they launch their new cable channel The Hub on 10/10/10 which will take over Discovery Kids in a half ownership deal with Discovery Communications. Which will leave Marvel clear to move on over to WDW
.
Scott B: I recall reading when the Disney/Marvel deal was done that UO could keep using Marvel with the attractions and characters they currently have, but need to seek approval for anything new. Figure those odds of it getting approved or UO wanting to put any more money into it other than keeping it up and maybe a fresh coat of paint.
SWO has the stables/hamlet and the ole beer place as a footprint for something new in the future. Haven't been over there in a while, but the last I read they had removed the bud merch from the Hospitality Deli and of course the Beer Masters room has been vacant since the free beer was removed hasn't it. Although they really should keep some sort of food on that side of the park, since I don't think Mango Joes is enough, but how far of a walk is to the waterfront.
With the homogenization of the SW parks in general, Believe and Blue Horizons, what's next same sea lion show in all the parks too. Will there be any reason to visit more than one park except for Manta, Kraken and other rides?
With the new Lil Merm ride going into the FL expansion at MK, what will become of the Lil Merm Show at DHS?
Also since WWoHP is almost open, I was thinking the other day - when Disney was bidding for HP which park were they proposing putting it in?
This article has been archived and is no longer accepting comments.
