Princess Tiana stakes her claim over Disney's Magic Kingdom

That is fantastic right there. I think most of us are scarred with the glacial pace that it took for Tron to open that seeing some tangible progress on Tiana so soon is a welcomed sight. Less than a year to go!

They should delete the stars on the crown. Otherwise looks nice.

Looks nice, but I wish it had LED's to light the whole thing up at night. Would be a nice beacon drawing people in from afar like the tree stump on top of Splash Mountain.

@ Court, I agree with the stars. Doesn't really match the aesthetic of a water tower, but other than that, it really works.

the tower looks great, the tiara ... I'm not sold on.

So, they ripped off the personality of the mountain and replaced it with a dilapidated water tower capped with a tiara? Say what?

Uh, yes, see, despite being a Princess, the only place she could find to house her grocery store is an abandoned salt mine. Disgusting, I know, but the labor costs she saves by using mice and opossums as her staff really keep prices low!

Also, call me crazy, but if there is a friggen RUSHING RIVER on top of and throughout the abandoned salt mine grocery store, why on earth would they need a water tower?? Maybe the river is filled with the feces of the critters that work there so this is the only potable water?

I’m starting to think thecolonel isn’t jazzed about this ride.

I think it would have been much better to omit the cheap-looking tiara, but I guess they've gotta have something front and center to confirm it's a princess ride as the drop will surely have the opposite effect.

If there is no water tower, where are the Warner brothers (and the Warner sister) going to stay when they visit?

and James Trexen for the win on comments! lol

Personally, I don't mind the tiara on top of the water tower. It provides a silhouette that is identifiably connected to the IP, much more so than the font used on the outside. I could probably do without those stylistic "stars/flashes", but do agree that some thematic lighting/projection will be critical to make this feature really pop at night - simple up-lighting won't cut it here.

I wonder, do the critters that run the underground grocery store also work the meat counter? Sadistic.

The stars aren't just there for style. In-universe, it's a tribute to Ray and Evangeline.

@the colonel..., so wrong, lol.

As Milhouse from the Simpson's stated: "I sleep under my bed every night 'cause I'm scared of the cars from Cars. If gasoline is their food, then why do they have teeth?!

"The stars aren't just there for style. In-universe, it's a tribute to Ray and Evangeline."

So they should add them as LED's at night. They look out of place on an otherwise solid design.

I love it, a water tower with a tiara, what else does Imagineering comes up with? You got Tiana, who is a princess who wears a crown, I mean a tiara, so the water tower would be the perfect place to show all the riffraff who is the bloody princess here. It is a masterpiece of Imagineering and story telling. It's subtle and magical all at the same time. I'm sure it gets the Tony Baxter seal of approval when he sees how they upgraded his attraction.
I hope the tiara will light up at night and color cycles and the stars should flash as if they sparkle. It'll be a beacon of magical delight.

Apologies if I am in error, but it seems like this thread consists of a bunch of males discussing a tiara.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

be careful @TH, you've basically illuminated the keith schneider signal.

"Apologies if I am in error, but it seems like this thread consists of a bunch of males discussing a tiara."

I think we're discussing lame revisions to a beloved ride.

I think OT broke the sarcasm metre! lol

Agree with thecolonel, TH’s comment is sexist, and Jacob can’t get me out of his mind.

Regardless, it seems like the attraction associated with the tiara might be the only new Orlando attraction at WDW or UO in 2024. Assuming, of course, 'Journey of Water Inspired by Moana' opens in 2023.

There doesn't seem to be an attraction of any significance that has an announced 2024 opening scheduled at DAK, DHS, USF or IOA.

Now now, Universal is a tiny bit busy building a huge new theme park and they are opening a Minion attraction and are working on Kidszone, but you are right, no tiara reskin job anywhere else. Kneel to the mouse and be thankful all he's giving us!

@OT - UEU park opens in 2025, not 2024. Minions opens in 2023. My post said there is nothing "announced" for 2024. There is nothing specifically announced for what will be going into KidsZone, nor is there an announcement indicating that KidsZone will be re-opening in 2024.

Am I wrong?

Consider Universal's history (tactics) from the past. Islands of Adventure opened in 1999. That opening was bookended by the USF openings of KidZone (Featuring 'Curious George Goes to Town' and 'Woody Woodpecker's Nuthouse Coaster') in 1998 and 'Men In Black: Alien Attack' in 2000.

These projects were built to prevent the new park (located right next door) from cannibalizing the old park. With UEU located miles away, I suspect we may hear about new, "gate-crasher" attractions for USF and IOA in the very near future.

As of now, however, there's nothing new (not a reskin) to look forward to in 2024 ... At either UO or WDW.

So ... "Yay tiara" ... I suppose.

@TH - It certainly looks like that aside from Epic Universe (which for the record is no small potatoes), both major Orlando resorts are reducing the magnitude and number of new attractions planned over the next 3-5 years. This "pull-back" is almost certainly a direct impact of the pandemic and increases in labor costs, which in turn has significantly increased the investment required to develop and build attractions.

This change in philosophy is no better exemplified than by Disney's recent anniversary celebrations. If you've been following this site for a while, you would no doubt have picked up on comments by TH over the past 5 years touting the magnitude of the WDW50 and Disney100 celebrations. Now, the COVID-19 pandemic had a major impact on WDW50, which not only forced the delay and/or cancellation of planned attractions, but forced the resort to make major changes to their operations (Park Pass and Genie+) that obviously impacted what the resort could do in terms of providing new offerings and incentives for guests to visit for the occasions. WDW50 brought a number of new attractions (Ratatoulle, Guardians, HarmonioUS, and Starcruiser), but was an otherwise subdued celebration compared to recent resort-wide (or world-wide) celebrations, and the timing was spread out over the 18-month period that limited the impact of those additions being tied to the anniversary.

However, Disney100 is a very different story. Yes, Disney is making additions to a few of its international parks as part of the company-wide celebration (along with Tron at MK and MMRR at DL), and they have created their museum experience at the Franklin Institute in Philly, along with the snazzy new intro-credits on their movies released this year, but there's very little else being done in the parks to truly mark this momentous occasion, certainly not to the level of past anniversaries or to the level suggested the company would do in comments by TH. The pandemic has definitely had an impact on the scope and scale of what Disney has been able to do for this celebration, which is furthered by the lack of clear plans beyond 2024.

Disney typically has a clear 3-5 year plan announced (usually because it takes the company that long to build stuff), but aside from the Splash Mountain makeover and the re-opening of EPCOT's spine (and new nighttime show), there's NOTHING on the horizon for the 4 WDW parks (or even the other attractions at the resort - water parks, Disney Springs, etc...). Given how long it takes Disney to develop and build a new attraction, 2024 through 2027 could be one of the longest stretches in WDW history where nothing of note is added to the parks. Obviously, things could change quickly, and developments currently on pause or still in Blue Sky (Play Pavilion, Mary Poppins, Dinoland USA renovation, PtWoA expansion, etc...) could be fast-tracked into development to open during this void, but it certainly sounds like WDW will be pretty quiet until 2026-27 at the earliest.

With EU aside, Universal might be following the same pattern (contingent on the KidZone replacement of course), and you have to believe that Universal is OK with that. As TH noted, Universal added to USF before and after the opening of IOA, but with WDW more or less sitting idle until at least 2026, does it even make sense for Universal to make major additions to IOA and USF when they can put all their marketing power into EU (and selling multi-day tickets to maintain interest in their existing parks), because WDW is more or less getting out of the way of EU, and potentially gearing up to make more substantial additions over the later half of the decade. By similarly holding off on further additions, Universal is able to go toe to toe with WDW during the back half of the '20s in an attempt to capitalize on the push EU should provide to their resort and minimize the impact any major additions Disney makes during the later half of the decade on their resort.

Right, Disney’s “pull-back” is almost certainly a direct impact of the pandemic. Nothing else of substance is effecting Disney’s business or its future spending on its theme parks. Inflation too, it’s almost certainly a direct impact of the pandemic. Thanks Wuhan Institute of Virology, thanks for nothing!
And who says Universal is pulling back? Universal isn’t pulling out of anything, they’re going to fully impregnate Orlando with its seed.

"Universal isn’t pulling out of anything, they’re going to fully impregnate Orlando with its seed."

I don't think that's fully accurate. As TH noted (and I referenced), Universal clearly bracketed the opening of IOA with additions to USF. Universal doesn't appear to be taking the same approach this time around when adding a new park to their Orlando portfolio. There's a possibility that a remade KidZone will debut in 2024, but there don't appear to be any other firm plans beyond that. I theorize that Universal sees that WDW isn't anything of substance in the years before and after the debut of Epic Universe, and feels that making additions to the existing parks would otherwise undermine the impact of the new park on the resort as a whole. It's also possible (and probably likely) that the pandemic has impacted what Universal can do and probably increased costs to develop and build Epic Universe that budgeting for additions to IOA and USF have been rerouted to complete the new park.

The pandemic, the pandemic, the pandemic…it’s not the pandemic, but inflation, and not because of the pandemic, but because of policy. All of your points are assumptions.

The pandemic ABSOLUTELY impacted construction projects. Many were paused for months (including Epic Universe), so yes, the pandemic did directly impact things. Did you forget that the Orlando parks were closed for months and operated under limited capacity for the better part of 2020 and some of 2021? That absolutely had a direct impact on costs and revenue to support the spending needed to develop new attractions. The fact that people that work in very hands-on tasks (like attractions development and construction) couldn't do their jobs for 3 months or more absolutely had a direct impact.

Policy certainly had a secondary impact, but that policy emerged from the pandemic.

I'm guessing along with all of the other ridiculous political posturing Mr. Schneider wants to inject into theme park discussion, he wants us to believe that the pandemic didn't happen and the world didn't essentially come to a stand still for nearly 3 months and took almost 2 years to come close to where we were prior to March 2020. there is absolutely no assumption that theme parks were no generating any revenue for 3 months or longer, and were being significantly limited in their capacity for another 12-18 months beyond.

Russell: "This "pull-back" is almost certainly a direct impact of the pandemic and increases in labor costs, which in turn has significantly increased the investment required to develop and build attractions."

Me: Correct.

Russell: "It's also possible (and probably likely) that the pandemic has impacted what Universal can do and probably increased costs to develop and build Epic Universe that budgeting for additions to IOA and USF have been rerouted to complete the new park."

Me: Correct.

Some of these comments give me "Don't look Up" movie vibes. Pretty soon people are gonna be saying the pandemic was a myth and never happened...lol

Incidentally, before UO pulls the trigger on building more stuff, they are gonna need to find enough people to run their current stuff. As I have mentioned before, the labor shortage across Central Florida is debilitating for local businesses. UEU is going to need hundreds of new workers -- which is a tall order. Additionally, they will be competing with Disney for workers at a time when wages at WDW are slated to top out in 2026.

You can build it, but why would they come if there is no one to push the "green means go" button?

That’s not what you said Russell. “…both major Orlando resorts are reducing the magnitude and number of new attractions planned over the next 3-5 years. This "pull-back" is almost certainly a direct impact of the pandemic and increases in labor costs, which in turn has significantly increased the investment required to develop and build attractions.”
Let’s play a game of follow the leader, since most of the TPI echo chamber are followers (of misinformation). The pandemic, released by WIV (whether intention or unintentional) and funded in part by the US government and covered up by the CCP, Fauci and the US government, did not cause labor increases, inflation did. Also, the pandemic did not cause inflation, liberal policies did. Liberal policies, after and not effected by the pandemic, caused inflation. In fact, liberal policies are the cause of most of our failures throughout the world today. Isn’t it obvious?
Why do you continue to make up excuses and cover up for the corrupt?

@Russell: I hope all is well with you and yours. I owe you an email. It's always great to see your name on a thread.

@TH - Things are great, though it's a shame we don't have any plans to visit your neck of the woods this year. Hope all is well with you and your family, and that you're finding some fulfilling projects to work on.

I see the tin hats have arrived, haha. Derp Derp!

By the way, let's not lose sight of the reality that investing billions of dollars (and it has to be over $10 billion) in a major new theme park under today's conditions is actually a very risky venture. A new park will attract attention. In the early years guests will flock to the front gates and associated resort hotels.

But five, seven ten years from now ... Who knows?

I think TH makes an interesting point (they've insinuated this before as well), and one that the entire industry should consider - theme parks may have already reached their apex in terms of popularity as a vehicle for entertainment.

While both Disney and Universal continue to innovate the theme park experience, they're still working in a mature industry/market with only so much room to grow as a whole. New and expanding parks can deliver immediate returns on investment, but in turn require more and more capital to maintain and evolve. At some point (and perhaps WDW feels that they have reached this point having not indicated a desire for a 5th gate), your spending money just for the sake of increasing revenue as the resort reaches critical mass (additional dollars spent are equivalent to additional revenue). While additional gates could pay for themselves, they may not necessarily increase a company's market share or increase the overall Orlando theme park market.

I think TH is spot on in this analysis that Universal are taking a risk with Epic Universe given recent trends. While EU projects to be immensely popular, and will likely bring UO closer to level terms with WDW, but 5-8 years beyond its debut, will it actually serve to increase the overall number of guests visiting Orlando, or will it simply shift the preferences of a relatively steady number of Central Florida visitors (and locals)? It will be interesting to see if we're approaching a "critical mass" (many have suggested that WDW has already reached that, which is demonstrated by their hesitancy to building a 5th gate). Epic Universe could be a BIG test of that theory.

Try selling that theory to the cruise industry. Building a world class cruise ship is about as expensive as building a quality theme park, and there are quite a few new ships that will be launched over the next couple of years, with many of them to port in FLA. This is just more excuses for WDW’s “pull-back”.

I can't believe a construction update on an attraction's beacon has generated 40+ comments...

@MyHandsDontScan -- On this site? I would be surprised if it didn't :o)

Have to admit that the commentary in this thread (excluding my own) is extremely knowledgeable and insightful, though, I'm truly impressed with the deep thinking on display here.

I think theme parks are running up against the same thing that's killing movie theaters: phones have turned everyone into psychologically fat lazy introverts who would rather doom scroll on the couch for five hours than go do something.

Keith, does it get hot wearing a tin foil hat so much in the summer?

MikeW, your vag!na must weigh about 100lbs, it’s the only thing that keeps you from floating away with all that air in your head.

...What does that even mean?

You can use that one on your friends, it’s sure to get a laugh.

Will there come a day when theme parks just aren't cool anymore?

On another thread I considered that the success of the live-action version of 'The Little Mermaid' may not be limited to box office performance. The development of TLM also serves to raise the visibility of a previously successful product in order to sustain it in pop culture.

Similarly, it strikes me that the theme park business model will likely evolve into an objective based in sustaining an audience rather than expanding an audience. Clearly Universal Orlando has demonstrated that inclination by offering deep discounts (TPI [06/29/23] "Universal Orlando offers three free months on annual passes").

One way the parks can sustain their audiences is through more theatrical, live-action productions like DLR's new 'Rogers: The Musical' -- an effort this site has dubbed "a winner". Universal Orlando should consider theatrical options for their parks as well. First, because such productions cost millions (maybe hundreds of millions) less than the cost of building attractions. Second, because they have theaters in IOA and USF that are currently under utilized.

That's an interesting perspective TH. However, the "throughput" of a theatrical-based attraction is half (or maybe even a third) of what a park can cycle through an average D ticket level attraction in a day. Theatrical attractions can also be more expensive to operate because of the cost of talent (typically under union contracts), so while they might be cheaper to develop and launch (and re-imagine), they are expensive to run.

I do agree though that IOA and USF have far too much unutilized space devoted to shows that are no longer running (Comic Strip Theater, Sinbad Theater, and Fear Factor Theater) that would not require much capital to turn into viable attractions.

I agree that Orlando has become oversaturated as a theme park destination. I agree with the insightful comments that Disney may not be interested in building the 5th gate due to this. I honestly don't see the theme parks in being more than a 1 week destination for most people (not saying Orlando can't be more than 1 week). After 7 days at theme parks, even I start to feel overdosed. If it then becomes a battle over market share, then I think Disney and Universal needs to start looking outside the box to offer other experiences that can extend people's stays at their respective resorts.

I personally think a 3rd destination in the US is the best option. Universal seems to be testing the water with their plans in Austin, I think Disney could look at options in this too. The next few years are likely to be a little slow as economies scale back, but planning for after this period should be happening now.

I agree that Orlando has become oversaturated as a theme park destination. I agree with the insightful comments that Disney may not be interested in building the 5th gate due to this. I honestly don't see the theme parks in being more than a 1 week destination for most people (not saying Orlando can't be more than 1 week). After 7 days at theme parks, even I start to feel overdosed. If it then becomes a battle over market share, then I think Disney and Universal needs to start looking outside the box to offer other experiences that can extend people's stays at their respective resorts.

I personally think a 3rd destination in the US is the best option. Universal seems to be testing the water with their plans in Austin, I think Disney could look at options in this too. The next few years are likely to be a little slow as economies scale back, but planning for after this period should be happening now.

If a park model is evolving to an objective of sustaining attendance -- and not increasing it -- throughput is not as much of a priority.