Hol . . . ly . . . crap. I did
not see this coming. I am just. I am just . . .
what!? First of all, the placement for this: AMAZING! You have mythical creatures (the reason AK was built), environment conservation (AK's motto), and a park that doesn't have anything. Winner, winner! Okay, I exagerated a little with the whole "AK doesn't have anything" thing, but really, it kinda doesn't. Secondly, I thought Avatar was a pretty good movie, and a spectacular experience. It was beautiful and captivating. Whether the story line had a similar affect on the public is neither here nor there. Thirdly, $400 million? This is going to be impressive.
Okay, now to get past all my excited babbling. I have recently stated that I dispise the idea of Disney making a land solely themed to one movie (or franchise). I still stand by that point of view, but I am very, very excited about this expansion anyway. Call me a hypocrite, but that's just the way I'm thinking at the moment. Also, Potter was a kick in the rear for Disney. I don't know if everything is a "response to potter" (oh, how I hate that phrase) and there's no way we'll ever find out how WWoHP truly affected WDI.
Beastly kingdom. Mythical creatures. According to J Hill, the reason AK was even built in the first place. Unfortunately, higher ups said "no go on the epicosity" and it was scrapped. IOA was announced and Disney began to pull out all the stocks, bringing up plans from the past and thinking up new and exciting ones (beastly kingdom, a fire mountain roller coaster that went from a sit down to a suspended ride, etc). Long story short, IOA didn't have good attendence, wasn't considered a threat, WDI backed down and didn't add anything, and it was discovered that Uni had used Beastly Kingdom's selling point: a dragon coaster. BK is dead. It won't be revived. I think Pandora is the next best thing.
I probably forgot to say some stuff, but I'll be checking this thread every couple of hours until I'm at AK for the opening day of Pandora, so it's not like I won't get another chance to ramble.
