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Theme Parks & Roller Coasters |OT| The Happiest Place on GAF

overcast

Member
Well, Disneyland does blow Universal Hollywood out of the water. Pretty sure there is a lot of room in Disneyland though right? I read that there is a lot of unused territory. Not to mention I can see them buying more.

Definitely not as much room to play as in Florida. Nor as much competition.
 

zeemumu

Member
Well, Disneyland does blow Universal Hollywood out of the water. Pretty sure there is a lot of room in Disneyland though right? I read that there is a lot of unused territory. Not to mention I can see them buying more.

Definitely not as much room to play as in Florida. Nor as much competition.

They would have to end up removing more parking lots to build something large-scale.
 
I'm sure hotel expansion is closer to the top of the list than building a 3rd gate at Disneyland. California is Disney's chance to use Marvel in the States, though.
 

overcast

Member
They would have to end up removing more parking lots to build something large-scale.
I was just talking rides, not another park. But I agree with you if they want something huge.
I'm sure hotel expansion is closer to the top of the list than building a 3rd gate at Disneyland. California is Disney's chance to use Marvel in the States, though.
I think there might be an expansion, but like I said, not another gate. I have no clue though, that's what Anticitizen One is for.

Universal Florida is looking like the best park in the world right now.
 
I was just talking rides, not another park. But I agree with you if they want something huge.

I think there might be an expansion, but like I said, not another gate. I have no clue though, that's what Anticitizen One is for.

I think it'll happen. There is no unused territory within the parks though. They're pretty much built as far out as they can get without sacrificing service areas. The remaining "off the shelf" attractions at California Adventure have a fairly small footprint but I agree that some things wouldn't be missed if replaced. There were supposed talks of a Tomorrowland expansion for Star Wars. Autopia is pretty freaking huge so they could work with that. I heard those supposed plans were shelved though so who knows.

Really? They already have three, covering all (relative to Disney standards) the price ranges.

I'm just speculating but those 3 resorts only cover the deluxe range. Compared to WDW's 20+, there aren't any value or even moderate options. The lodging options are aplenty at DLR but that's a lot of money left on the table for Disney. Ever since Carsland opened, the resort discounts have been infrequent and small. Annual passholders don't even get a bigger discount than the general public anymore. They just get a few minor perks like extra fastpasses on top of the public discount. I'm sure Disney would LOVE to build a new vacation club resort at DLR as well.

I kind of wish Universal Hollywood was a little closer to Disney. I would feel more compelled to visit more often. I'm even considering getting an annual pass when Potter opens.
 

zeemumu

Member
I think it'll happen. There is no unused territory within the parks though. They're pretty much built as far out as they can get without sacrificing service areas. The remaining "off the shelf" attractions at California Adventure have a fairly small footprint but I agree that some things wouldn't be missed if replaced. There were supposed talks of a Tomorrowland expansion for Star Wars. Autopia is pretty freaking huge so they could work with that. I heard those supposed plans were shelved though so who knows.

That big central satellite hub in the middle of Tomorrowland could be something besides a gift shop. I don't think they'd remove Autopia because it's been there for a long time and still draws a considerable crowd. Innoventions' second floor is mostly Marvel and Kinect now. They could probably get rid of Big Thunder Ranch behind Big Thunder Mountain and build something. Frontierland's rides are actually pretty far apart.
 

muteki

Member
I'm just speculating but those 3 resorts only cover the deluxe range. Compared to WDW's 20+, there aren't any value or even moderate options. The lodging options are aplenty at DLR but that's a lot of money left on the table for Disney. Ever since Carsland opened, the resort discounts have been infrequent and small. Annual passholders don't even get a bigger discount than the general public anymore. They just get a few minor perks like extra fastpasses on top of the public discount. I'm sure Disney would LOVE to build a new vacation club resort at DLR as well.

I kind of wish Universal Hollywood was a little closer to Disney. I would feel more compelled to visit more often. I'm even considering getting an annual pass when Potter opens.
I think the hotels on Harbor Blvd fill that role at DL nicely today. Granted, they aren't very "Disney", but they are below 100 a night (or were at the time) and right across the street. It blew my mind (coming from WDW) that I could wake up, eat breakfast at ihop, cross the street, then disneyland. For less than 100 a night.

If DL does decide to do moderate-value resorts, I have a hard time thinking how they will compete with the hotels already on Harbor Blvd. They don't have the location and they won't have the price, and the "Disney" part of it won't be enough to set them apart.
 

zeemumu

Member
I think the hotels on Harbor Blvd fill that role at DL nicely today. Granted, they aren't very "Disney", but they are below 100 a night (or were at the time) and right across the street. It blew my mind (coming from WDW) that I could wake up, eat breakfast at ihop, cross the street, then disneyland. For less than 100 a night.

If DL does decide to do moderate-value resorts, I have a hard time thinking how they will compete with the hotels already on Harbor Blvd. They don't have the location and they won't have the price, and the "Disney" part of it won't be enough to set them apart.

The Grand Californian is even closer but I'm betting that it's crazy expensive. I live within about 20 minutes of Disneyland but I would still like to stay there at least once just to see what it's like in there. Everytime I take the tram they talk about how it's based off of the famous arts and crafts movement, and I can only assume that it was a time when there were pipe cleaners, uncooked macaroni, and popsicle sticks everywhere.
 
I heard there was plans to turn the whole carrousel of progress building into an Ironman ride. Sincerely, that would be awesome, innoventions is a bad as you can get and a ride based on stark industries would work amazingly well on a land were in the 50's and 60's was full of vision of the future rides of general motors and monsanto. You would have the educational part of the ride similar to carrousel of progress or adventure thru inner space based ob Stark Industries innovations (similar to what showed Iron Man 2), and then iron man appearing saving the day in an amazing finale scene to attract the crowd.

It's a so perfect fit I doubt it would finally be done :(
 

muteki

Member
The Grand Californian is even closer but I'm betting that it's crazy expensive. I live within about 20 minutes of Disneyland but I would still like to stay there at least once just to see what it's like in there. Everytime I take the tram they talk about how it's based off of the famous arts and crafts movement, and I can only assume that it was a time when there were pipe cleaners, uncooked macaroni, and popsicle sticks everywhere.

Grand Cali is 510 for a night this weekend, Grand Flo is about the same or marginally less. Difference in WDW however is it doesn't have hotels on the Seven Seas for 100 a night as competition, so it makes more sense there for it to command such a price.

It is much more reasonable for a local to stay a night there just to see what it is like, but for someone to do a 3~4 night vacay at the Grand Californian would be ridiculous given the options, but however people want to spend their money.
 
The Grand Californian is even closer but I'm betting that it's crazy expensive. I live within about 20 minutes of Disneyland but I would still like to stay there at least once just to see what it's like in there. Everytime I take the tram they talk about how it's based off of the famous arts and crafts movement, and I can only assume that it was a time when there were pipe cleaners, uncooked macaroni, and popsicle sticks everywhere.

Can I go and live with you? Jk ;)
Living at 20 min of Disneyland would be the dream of my life.
Too bad I live in another country :(

When I went there we stayed at a hotel 5 min walking from disneyland (not a disney hotel). It was amazingly cheap and pretty good and clean.
 

zeemumu

Member
Can I go and live with you? Jk ;)
Living at 20 min of Disneyland would be the dream of my life.
Too bad I live in another country :(

When I went there we stayed at a hotel 5 min walking from disneyland (not a disney hotel). It was amazingly cheap and pretty good and clean.

It's fine but it corrupts you. I basically go once every other week or so and refuse to wait in any line that is over 30 minutes. Sometimes I'll spend an entire day at the park with my friends and we'll only ride 1 ride. You don't feel the need to rush and do as much as you can in one day because you know that you have the rest of the year to do everything. The fact that I have parking included on my pass just corrupts me more. Now I'm Disneyland spoiled.

On the other side of the spectrum, Universal in Hollywood is desperate to get people to go to their park. I decided to plan 1 trip to Universal last year and realized that they were doing a "buy a day, get a year free" thing, so I got a pass since it was the same price as admission. The reason for that is that Universal is far more inconvenient to get to than Disneyland. Los Angeles traffic and parking not included and whatnot...
 
The Grand Californian is even closer but I'm betting that it's crazy expensive. I live within about 20 minutes of Disneyland but I would still like to stay there at least once just to see what it's like in there. Everytime I take the tram they talk about how it's based off of the famous arts and crafts movement, and I can only assume that it was a time when there were pipe cleaners, uncooked macaroni, and popsicle sticks everywhere.

It's an amazing hotel, but yeah, very expensive.
 
The Grand Californian is even closer but I'm betting that it's crazy expensive. I live within about 20 minutes of Disneyland but I would still like to stay there at least once just to see what it's like in there. Everytime I take the tram they talk about how it's based off of the famous arts and crafts movement, and I can only assume that it was a time when there were pipe cleaners, uncooked macaroni, and popsicle sticks everywhere.

Of the three hotels, the Grand has the smallest rooms but they do all have balconies. It's very comparable to the Wilderness Lodge at WDW, including the theme. It's pretty nice to walk out of Grizzly River and into your room to change into something dry. lol I would rank it at the top based entirely off of convenience. Even when I don't stay there I stop by for a snack or drink and sit in the AC-cooled lobby. I typically favor Paradise Pier over Disneyland Hotel though. The resort is a pretty big part of the park experience for me. I like going back to the room midday, especially in Florida. I think after Daigon Alley opens at Universal Orlando I'll try my first Universal resort.
 
Of the three hotels, the Grand has the smallest rooms but they do all have balconies. It's very comparable to the Wilderness Lodge at WDW, including the theme. It's pretty nice to walk out of Grizzly River and into your room to change into something dry. lol I would rank it at the top based entirely off of convenience. Even when I don't stay there I stop by for a snack or drink and sit in the AC-cooled lobby. I typically favor Paradise Pier over Disneyland Hotel though. The resort is a pretty big part of the park experience for me. I like going back to the room midday, especially in Florida. I think after Daigon Alley opens at Universal Orlando I'll try my first Universal resort.

The onsite experience at Universal Orlando is second to none. Express pass is NUTS. The boat taxis are also great. Highly recommended.
 

overcast

Member
I did the Buy a day get a year free at Universal Hollywood last year. It was fun, I went 5-6 times, but that was cause I was in the LA area and I just went for 2-3 hours usually. There isn't enough to do quite frankly. I would rather just go to Knott's if I wanted to go to another park. Disney does it much better than Universal.
 
What was that about other Disney parks putting out quality stuff?

For the first time ever, a Disney Park will be home to a Pirates-themed land—Treasure Cove—and an e-ticket attraction called Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle of the Sunken Treasure. The attraction will feature a combination of new technology and innovation to bring guests along a pirate adventure with Captain Jack Sparrow and Captain Davy Jones, providing our guests who visit the Shanghai Disneyland Park an experience unlike anything else in the world.

Tl3DkTN.jpg

I guess basing whole lands off a single property will be an ongoing trend now.

http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2014/03/shanghai-disneylands-treasure-cove-unveiled/
 
It's fine but it corrupts you. I basically go once every other week or so and refuse to wait in any line that is over 30 minutes. Sometimes I'll spend an entire day at the park with my friends and we'll only ride 1 ride. You don't feel the need to rush and do as much as you can in one day because you know that you have the rest of the year to do everything. The fact that I have parking included on my pass just corrupts me more. Now I'm Disneyland spoiled.

On the other side of the spectrum, Universal in Hollywood is desperate to get people to go to their park. I decided to plan 1 trip to Universal last year and realized that they were doing a "buy a day, get a year free" thing, so I got a pass since it was the same price as admission. The reason for that is that Universal is far more inconvenient to get to than Disneyland. Los Angeles traffic and parking not included and whatnot...

Im so jealous of you right now!
 

zeemumu

Member
Im so jealous of you right now!

Don't be. It's the corruption.

images


Do Disneyworld Annual passes get you access to all 4 parks?

Edit: Apparently it does. It also comes with free parking, and that's not even the premium one. The premium one comes with two water parks (they have water parks?) and a golf course. That's friggin nuts.
 
What was that about other Disney parks putting out quality stuff?





I guess basing whole lands off a single property will be an ongoing trend now.

http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2014/03/shanghai-disneylands-treasure-cove-unveiled/

Imagineering has been almost entirely focused on the international parks for years now and it shows. Shanghai looks like Magic Kingdom on steroids. That castle is amazing.

Could be blind but I don't see the big exit hill for the pirates water ride in that concept art.
 

Xun

Member
Imagineering has been almost entirely focused on the international parks for years now and it shows. Shanghai looks like Magic Kingdom on steroids. That castle is amazing.

Could be blind but I don't see the big exit hill for the pirates water ride in that concept art.
Whilst I like how Shanghai Disneyland is shaping up, am I alone in finding the castle a bit bland?

It lacks the charm of the 3 current styles of castles in my opinion.
 
Do Disneyworld Annual passes get you access to all 4 parks?

Edit: Apparently it does. It also comes with free parking, and that's not even the premium one. The premium one comes with two water parks (they have water parks?) and a golf course. That's friggin nuts.

I don't really care for water parks but I did check out Blizzard Beach once since it was included in my annual pass. I snowboard so I liked the ski resort theme, at the very least. There's also an indoor "interactive theme park" which is included in the premium pass which is basically just an arcade with some very outdated simulators. It's meh.
 

aparisi2274

Member
Once again, Tokyo Disney getting the cool attractions... This time, it's a new Jungle Cruise experience.

http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/bl...life-expeditions-to-open-in-tokyo-disneyland/

Our friends at Tokyo Disneyland just announced that a new version of Jungle Cruise – Jungle Cruise: Wildlife Expeditions – will debut at the park this fall.

The attraction has been popular with Tokyo Disneyland guests since the park opened in 1983. The new version will feature enhanced special effects and lighting, new original music, and a new “nighttime” version that will offer guests a thrilling new look at the jungle.

Jungle Cruise: Wildlife Expeditions will officially open at the park September 8, 2014.

So, we get Avatarland... and they get a new Jungle Cruise... Once again we get the short end of the stick.
 

zeemumu

Member
Once again, Tokyo Disney getting the cool attractions... This time, it's a new Jungle Cruise experience.

http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/bl...life-expeditions-to-open-in-tokyo-disneyland/



So, we get Avatarland... and they get a new Jungle Cruise... Once again we get the short end of the stick.

Maybe they'll refit the Disneyland one to have a nighttime version based off of the success of this one?

A little off topic, but they're doing another sneak preview for Maleficent like they did with the Marvel movies.

http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2014/03/maleficent-sneak-peek-coming-to-disney-parks-april-18/
 
Speaking of disney castles. The city were I live, Valencia in Spain, is just celebrating the festivity of Fallas (its similar to bonfires but MUCH bigger and artistic, you can find more info if you are interested in the wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falles, I would love to explain them in detail, but it would be really long to do lol) and today they burn them. So I went witgh the family to the Fllas Museum, where they have photos of every important Falla in the history of the festivities. So I was looking this photos when I saw that in 1985, the Falla from the City Hall square (there are 700 fallas arpox around the whole city each year) was giant reproduction of the disney castle in the magic Kingdom:
Falla-Artista+Manolo+Martin+-+Plaza+del+Ayuntamiento+1985.png


I was born in 1987 so sadly I didnt see it :( But thats absolutely nuts, and it looks really good.

A normal (the bigger ones, as there are smaller also) Falla looks like this (the two first photos are from this year's 1st and 2nd prize, the third one is the 1st prize of 2012):

Theres a big centerpiece and its surrounded by multiple scenes and smaller figures with jokes and parodies on them. So I suppose the Magic Kingdom Castle one had this figures inside of the Falla instead of the outside (something very strange to see). Sadly, is the only photo I can find of it, so i dont know how the inside was or even other outside parts.
And yes, we burn them lol (There are 5 days on the streets and then the 19th of March, are burnt, putting and end to the festivities until next year). It's something to see with your own eyes, so I invite anyone that comes to Valencia on March to watch them.
 
That might have been related to Valencia's "bid" for Euro Disneyland.

AHHHH That makes a lot of sense.
And yeah, "bid"... Motherfucking socialist politicians were the ones that fucked up the chance of Valencia (well, not Valencia, it was a town near of it) as they went with the ecologists and because they wanted the park in Seville or Catalonia (something that Disney discarded) because those communities were the ones ruled by socialists and not Valencia, them and fucking Michael Eisner and her wife (the rest of disney management wanted Valencia because the climate is exactly the same as Anaheim and its a tourist place). Theres lot of insider info out there.
Theres even some artworks with ideas of Jungle Cruise, etc... but they are pretty difficult to find.

I could have had a Disney park at 30 minutes of my city... I cry everytime I thik about it :(
And I always wonder how different would have been to Paris' Disneyland if it had build here. We only know that Jungle Cruise was a given, something that Paris doesn't have because of the low temperatures.

Maybe they'll refit the Disneyland one to have a nighttime version based off of the success of this one?

I went on nightime when I went to Disneyland. Not a really fun experience (you couldn't see anything), and the CM was not really funny.
 

zeemumu

Member
Nice! How does that final lift hill look in person? I'm sure its much nicer than watching it on a youtube video.

It's a lot louder and a bit more intense than in the video because there's so much going on at once (lanterns, lit fuses, explosions, etc.). That smoke fire effect was pretty cool.

It's going to have long lines for quite a while though because Temple of the Forbidden Eye is down for refurb and that ride soaked up a lot of the traffic at Disneyland.
 

aparisi2274

Member
It's a lot louder and a bit more intense than in the video because there's so much going on at once (lanterns, lit fuses, explosions, etc.). That smoke fire effect was pretty cool.

It's going to have long lines for quite a while though because Temple of the Forbidden Eye is down for refurb and that ride soaked up a lot of the traffic at Disneyland.

How long is the Indiana Jones ride going to be down for??
 

zeemumu

Member
Cool. Do you know what they are doing to it? Is it just a general refurb? Clean up the ride, fix effects and what not? Or are they doing something major to it?

I would assume that it's just a normal repair refurb because the ride could use some work. Something is usually broken on it at least 75% of the time. I don't know if a few months is long enough to add anything substantial to the ride, but then again they got that new Mara face projection up fairly quickly. I didn't even know they were adding it until a few weeks before it was up because they didn't really close it at all, so if wanted to they could update the projections, but I think that most of the ride's effects are fine, they just need repairs.

Come to think of it, they've been doing a lot of projection replacements recently. Mara's face used to just be a stone face with flashing eyes, and the ceiling in Haunted Mansion holiday used to be a giant Jack Skellington face, and both are fully animated now. Even Big Thunder with the fuses and explosions in the dynamite tunnel.

I wouldn't mind some modifications to Hollywood Tower of Terror. Maybe randomize the drop sequence like the one in Florida so it isn't the same each time.
 

aparisi2274

Member
I would assume that it's just a normal repair refurb because the ride could use some work. Something is usually broken on it at least 75% of the time. I don't know if a few months is long enough to add anything substantial to the ride, but then again they got that new Mara face projection up fairly quickly. I didn't even know they were adding it until a few weeks before it was up because they didn't really close it at all, so if wanted to they could update the projections, but I think that most of the ride's effects are fine, they just need repairs.

Come to think of it, they've been doing a lot of projection replacements recently. Mara's face used to just be a stone face with flashing eyes, and the ceiling in Haunted Mansion holiday used to be a giant Jack Skellington face, and both are fully animated now. Even Big Thunder with the fuses and explosions in the dynamite tunnel.

I wouldn't mind some modifications to Hollywood Tower of Terror. Maybe randomize the drop sequence like the one in Florida so it isn't the same each time.

With the way 4k projection prices are dropping, I wouldn't be surprised if Disney starts to replace their older projection effects with new 4k projections...

ToT is Florida is awesome... You know its the only version of the ride that actually moves through the building... All the other ones just go up and down the drop tower...
 
It's a lot louder and a bit more intense than in the video because there's so much going on at once (lanterns, lit fuses, explosions, etc.). That smoke fire effect was pretty cool.

It's going to have long lines for quite a while though because Temple of the Forbidden Eye is down for refurb and that ride soaked up a lot of the traffic at Disneyland.

That really sounds good. I loved the time I went to it, and I would like to see the new effects when I go again to california (let's hope sooner than later).

With the way 4k projection prices are dropping, I wouldn't be surprised if Disney starts to replace their older projection effects with new 4k projections...

ToT is Florida is awesome... You know its the only version of the ride that actually moves through the building... All the other ones just go up and down the drop tower...

Too bad it was too expensive to recreate the exact same thing in Anaheim, Paris and Tokyo.
 

zeemumu

Member
With the way 4k projection prices are dropping, I wouldn't be surprised if Disney starts to replace their older projection effects with new 4k projections...

ToT is Florida is awesome... You know its the only version of the ride that actually moves through the building... All the other ones just go up and down the drop tower...

Yeah I was able to go on it the last time I visited Florida. I really like that forward moving scene with the ghosts on both sides. It would be a really long renovation process if they were to alter the one in California because the one here only move backwards away from the loading doors to go into the drop shaft. They'd have to add to the buildings and move the drop shafts.
 

Xun

Member
It's been 6 years since I've been to Disney (WDW), and I'm starting to go insane.

I need my fix.

I'd love to visit Anaheim next, but it's a bit too far and expensive. Paris is possible, but I've heard it's a bit of a mess nowadays.

WDW would be great to visit again, but considering I've been 8/9 times (I forget how many) and that Avatar is a way off, I don't see the point just yet.
 
It's been 6 years since I've been to Disney (WDW), and I'm starting to go insane.

I need my fix.

I'd love to visit Anaheim next, but it's a bit too far and expensive. Paris is possible, but I've heard it's a bit of a mess nowadays.

WDW would be great to visit again, but considering I've been 8/9 times (I forget how many) and that Avatar is a way off, I don't see the point just yet.

Paris is kinda interesting in how different it is but I definitely wouldn't recommend it over Anhiem or Florida
 
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