Think the end is near for LMA and Backlot Tour

Roger

Roger

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Staff member
The current word on the street is that Burbank has put the screws to Orlando management on the Cars Land thing. ; Basically in a nutshell:

Orlando was planning on Cars Land Lite
New Fantasyland is a failure (okay, that's really strong, how about isn't meeting projected expectations)

So early in January they met and confirmed the new plan, which is for an almost exact clone of Cars Land from DCA. ; The only ride that will not be copied is Luigi's Tires because the ride building underground would be insanely expensive to do in a swamp. ; Also since they have learned their lesson from New Fantasyland of not opening a land in stages, they will open it at one time, not as certain parts get ready.

Current plan is to open the land for late Fall 2015, early 2016 at the latest.
 
Nice to see that they are deeming New Fantasyland a failure. (Sarcasm) ; Maybe they should have considered opening it at a busier time of year? ; Or give it more than two months before saying it failed. Anyway, glad to hear the rumors are stronger about CarsLand Lite. ; Now just to get Star Wars Land into the works...


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whats happening with the new fantasyland to make it a failure. We went once, and personally called it a fail, but then again, we couldn't get into anything and got "yelled" at by a cast member for walking on the wrong side of the masking tape "street"
 
Hard to imagine New Fantasyland being a 'failure' given that I've been to it twice - Pixelmania and last week, and it's so crowded both times that I could barely turn around. ; The Be Our Guest restaurant was sold out and packed for the night by 4pm, and the line for the Little Mermaid, being the only real new ride open yet, was 90 minutes last week on a supposedly 'slow' time at the parks.


Of course, it is a logistical nightmare with it being open in two distinct halves that do not connect - you either go into the circus area and get stuck and backtrack, or you go into the Little Mermaid area and get stuck and backtrack...with the Seven Dwarves train area still walled up there's no pass-through so flow is terrible. ; It wasn't the brightest idea to open up only partially complete.


As to Cars Land, I welcome the rumor and hope indeed they go for a full 99.9% copy of the California version. ; Land is not an excuse, as they've got a ton of it between the sections of DHS they're tearing down, that big chunk of forest next to them, and the parking lot area which could easily enough be borrowed by the addition of a parking garage or multi-layer parking structure (even just one story, using half the existing space, would yield the same parking area).
 
The failure thing is coming from that it is not drawing the casual guests like they predicted although the outsider comments when it was announced should have been warning enough.

But it can look popular and still not be worth it. At Disneyland they returned the Golden Horseshoe revue for limited time magic the snack bar only made 20% of what they used to make and the complaints from the casual guest about the non-PC show were really bad. REALLY bad.

Which is why my gut is getting to feel that the Disney Parks are about to head into another Dark Age. ; Limited time magic has been focused on the returning visitors not new ones and that isn't helping.
 
To be honest, once I got past the theming of Carsland, I wasn't that impressed. ; Other than the one e-ticket attraction, there wasn't really anything to keep me coming back for more.


I think what the management is forgetting is that it's the attractions that bring the guests back, not the lands. ; At least not for the casual guest.
 
That's where I'm fairly torn - while I understand the 'concept' of having to bring in new guests, get money turning over, etc...the other side of me thinks rather sarcastically that they did pretty well for the past 35+ years without cramming all the special magic down people's throats, so why can't they go back to those days again? ; If you don't find Disney parks special enough on their own, and need constant prizes, shows, music, announcements, new rides, meet and greets, special ticket events, etc., then maybe you just needn't come to Disney anymore...if you try too hard to bring in jaded people with high expectations and no special connection or history with Disney by constantly drawing them in with promises of newer-better-faster, those are going to be the first people to be disappointed and badmouth the effort, and march off to another theme park. ; Maybe playing up to the Disney fans would have been the better way to go? ; Maybe use your huge corporate empire to generate money in other areas - music, television, movies, retail...and leave the theme parks as Walt originally intended them to be, and for those who truly appreciate the subtle magic inherent within. ; Personally, I found Disney parks much more 'special' when I could roam around without having loudspeaker announcements blaring every 5 minutes for the next show or event, or having every section of every park pounding out to some 10-times-a-day stage show or musical act. ; When the ratio of staff to visitor was a little higher because they weren't trying to cram as many heads into the park as possible - seeing us as guests and visitors to their parks rather than revenue-generating automatrons. ; When the small details could be discovered and appreciated by those willing to seek them out - rather than all the small details being stripped out and filled with some marketing tie-in game or sales rack.


Aah! ; I'm going off on a tangent. ; Oh well - I still enjoy going there - I just do it my way, ignore the changes that I don't like, and make the best of it...who knows - I might not mind the dark ages, if it means crowds will fade and shows will be pared back due to staff and budget cuts, and a little of the forced 'magic' was stopped to cut the fat from the bottom line!
 
Agreed. ; So much of what seasoned fans have loved seems to be fading. ; Personally, I would like to see the whole movie theming go into hyper-tech-y/nerdy gear at DHS. ; The park was supposed to be an East coast Hollywood. ; Take One Man's Dream and The Magic of Disney Imagination and turn the Pixar gear heads loose on the place! ; Doing so would keep the old lifeblood flowing through the Florida project--and maybe trigger a Magic Kingdom renewal.

I wish...


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Well said, Zack. When I was there this past Christmas, it really felt like people were just going to the New Fantasyland for the sake of saying they were there. The traffic and crowds were just awful (albeit the holiday didn't help). This is the first time I've heard it being deemed a failure and I never thought of it that way but can totally see why that is. It feels like these two sharp spikes plunged into Fantasyland that do nothing more than funnel people in two different directions.

I hope they don't go crazy with these additions. I understand that society as a whole seems to have a shorter attention span, but I don't get why Disney has to cater to that. There are plenty of well-enjoyed attractions that are without the flashy effects that we all remember because of the memories made there. Why not stick to something tried and true?

I'm really torn about this because I LOVE Cars and it'd be easier for me to make it to WDW than DLR to experience something like Carsland, but LMA is such an awesome show. I still get chills from seeing those cars get so close to wrecking and that little bit with Lightning McQueen in the beginning is almost exactly what the New Fantasyland feels like. The Backlot Tour could use an update, but where else would we be able to peer into the magic of costuming and set design? I hope they don't change WDW into something none of us can relate to.
 
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