D23 Expo 2022 - News & Rumors

[UNIrd]

Disney will get you that Poppins carousel by 2037.

I get it. There's a lot of story to tell. See, Epcot is about people and-

 

[tielo]

I get it. There's a lot of story to tell. See, Epcot is about people and-

...popcorn buckets!

 

[Tobias]

My Wishlist for WDW D23 Announcements:

• Things that are announced
• Actually being built
• And in a reasonable amount of time

This is honestly a great wishlist, is it gonna' happen? Well with the way the company likes to be, why do I feel like this is the "Quick/Cheap/Quality" triangle where you can have two, but not all three?

 

[Cup_Of_Coffee]

I will say, from someone I know who worked before Bob took over and pre Covid, after Epic was announced, there were plans for more investment statewide. I don’t think it was a direct response, but that was the long term plan.

They know the issues in their parks, it’s up to them to find to fix things.

 

[AlexanderMBush]

Gonna give a DAK prediction.

Dinoland USA gets transformed not to Indiana Jones, or any live action property. It gets transformed with a Finding Dory based land, with a double-cloned set of Crush Coaster.

I honestly think if Disney is wanting to do Primeval's on the cheap, while also being something of a high capacity family coaster like it; replicating Crush Coaster to have a Toy Story Midway Mania style of two showbuildings for one ride, could do wonders. It'd also bring another indoor attraction for DAK, and would also allow them to play it safe with an IP that can harken to Disney Animal Kingdom's animal roots, while also being something marketable and merchandisable.

 

[PerceptiveCoot]

Quick/Cheap/Quality" triangle where you can have two, but not all three?

Universal seems to manage. Their rides certainly aren't cheap to build, but there's a difference between expensive and unecessarily expensive.

 

[HandsomePete]

I will say, from someone I know who worked before Bob took over and pre Covid, after Epic was announced, there were plans for more investment statewide. I don’t think it was a direct response, but that was the long term plan.

They know the issues in their parks, it’s up to them to find to fix things.

Honestly there was nothing concrete beyond Tron pre-Covid... it's strange that pre-Covid is now two and a half years ago, but unless construction timelines get super drawn out like over the last few years, 3-4 years out is about as far as they make any tangible approvals.

I know nobody like to hear this, but things like DCL and neighborhoods in California count toward the Parks capital budget.

I expected the pendulum to swing back international after Tron wrapped up the WDW cycle of Pandora/Studios/Epcot/MK 50th addition (which you began to see with DLP and Zootopia), but they may have been able to force majeure their way out of some obligations or just generally reprioritize. China's handling of Covid over the last 12 months may end up helping the domestic parks because I don't know how you justify massive expenditures there right now.

 

[PerceptiveCoot]

I expected the pendulum to swing back international after Tron wrapped up the WDW cycle of Pandora/Studios/Epcot/MK 50th addition (which you began to see with DLP and Zootopia), but they may have been able to force majeure their way out of some obligations or just generally reprioritize. China's handling of Covid over the last 12 months may end up helping the domestic parks because I don't know how you justify massive expenditures there right now.

HK Disney's probably done, but there's still value in Shanghai. I think they just started building something new in Toy Story Land as seen on themeparx.

Dinoland USA gets transformed not to Indiana Jones, or any live action property. It gets transformed with a Finding Dory based land, with a double-cloned set of Crush Coaster.

Give @tommyhawkins his credit

 

[Nick]

Honestly there was nothing concrete beyond Tron pre-Covid... it's strange that pre-Covid is now two and a half years ago, but unless construction timelines get super drawn out like over the last few years, 3-4 years out is about as far as they make any tangible approvals.

I know nobody like to hear this, but things like DCL and neighborhoods in California count toward the Parks capital budget.

I expected the pendulum to swing back international after Tron wrapped up the WDW cycle of Pandora/Studios/Epcot/MK 50th addition (which you began to see with DLP and Zootopia), but they may have been able to force majeure their way out of some obligations or just generally reprioritize. China's handling of Covid over the last 12 months may end up helping the domestic parks because I don't know how you justify massive expenditures there right now.

Hong Kong is still in the middle of receive it's multi-billion expansion and Shanghai is still in the middle of getting Zootopia. Both have been shut quite a bit over the past two years so i'm not exactly expecting too much for over there.

Universal seems to manage. Their rides certainly aren't cheap to build, but there's a difference between expensive and unecessarily expensive.

The budgets we hear for Disney aren't the true budgets of the ride. The ones we hear for Universal are much more closely in line.

The reason for this is because Disney stuffs so much crap in the budgets of rides that, for corporate/red tape purposes, would probably never get passed otherwise. So Disney's budgets sound huge because, for example, the original rumored $350M for TRON included not only new walkways, walkway re-routes, changes to the WDWRR, Random stuff in Tomorrowland, etc, but also changes to the Speedway that never happened.

I'm not sure if the budget got slashed and that's why it didn't happen, but the original budget called for the Speedway to be updated to EV's and be rethemed to TRON to fit in with it called "Light Racers". The ride was supposed to update the Speedway to new TRON themed vehicle designs (that were all electric), to fit in with Power Run right next door.

So when you realize everything that goes into a Disney budget, it becomes really hard to judge the what the actual cost of a Disney ride is because of all the extra crap. Not trying to make any excuses because as I have no horse in this race. I'm just that those eye-catching figures that go around (normally) aren't purely the ride figure when it comes to Disney.

 

[Disneyhead]

I would love to see them revisit The Excavator concept using RMC's Family Coaster.

 

[Cup_Of_Coffee]

Honestly there was nothing concrete beyond Tron pre-Covid... it's strange that pre-Covid is now two and a half years ago, but unless construction timelines get super drawn out like over the last few years, 3-4 years out is about as far as they make any tangible approvals.

I know nobody like to hear this, but things like DCL and neighborhoods in California count toward the Parks capital budget.

I expected the pendulum to swing back international after Tron wrapped up the WDW cycle of Pandora/Studios/Epcot/MK 50th addition (which you began to see with DLP and Zootopia), but they may have been able to force majeure their way out of some obligations or just generally reprioritize. China's handling of Covid over the last 12 months may end up helping the domestic parks because I don't know how you justify massive expenditures there right now.

Yeah to my knowledge nothing was approved, but they had ideas seeking approval more so. Basically, they were willing to invest a tad more pre Covid and Chapek, was my understanding. I hope some ideas stick!

 

[UniversalRBLX]

Hong Kong is still in the middle of receive it's multi-billion expansion and Shanghai is still in the middle of getting Zootopia. Both have been shut quite a bit over the paste two years so i'm not exactly expecting too much for over there.


The budgets we hear for Disney aren't the true budgets of the ride. The ones we hear for Universal are much more closely in line.

The reason for this is because Disney stuffs so much crap in the budgets of rides that, for corporate/red tape purposes, would probably never get passed otherwise. So Disney's budgets sound huge because, for example, the original rumored $350M for TRON included not only new walkways, walkway re-routes, changes to the WDWRR, Random stuff in Tomorrowland, etc, but also changes to the Speedway that never happened.

I'm not sure if the budget got slashed and that's why it didn't happen, but the original budget called for the Speedway to be updated to EV's and be rethemed to TRON to fit in with called "Light Racers". The ride was supposed to update the Speedway to new TRON themed vehicle designs (that were all electric), to fit in with Power Run right next door.

So when you realize everything that goes into a Disney budget, it becomes really hard to judge the what the actual cost of a Disney ride is because of all the extra crap. Not trying to make any excuses because as I have no horse in this race. I'm just that those eye-catching figures that go around (normally) aren't purely the ride figure when it comes to Disney.

Yep

Though, it seems like Universal pulled a Disney with Hagrid by allowing it to be called a $300 mil coaster.

 

[AlexanderMBush]

Give tommyhawkins his credit

To @tommyhawkins

 

[belloq87]

Has there been any announcement about whether or not Bob Chapek will be taking the stage at any time during the Expo?

Iger always did, but I have to believe that Chapek knows he'd probably be booed.

 

[Nick]

Has there been any announcement about whether or not Bob Chapek will be taking the stage at any time during the Expo?

Iger always did, but I have to believe that Chapek knows he'd probably be booed.

Again, people generally don't pay the kind of money and wait in the insane lines it takes to get into the big panels at D23 just to boo someone (very few people aside from people without Sorcerer Passes and media actually get in). He would be in safe territory.

 

[belloq87]

Nobody would pay the price to go "just" to boo him, no.

Chapek getting heckled does not require anyone to fit the description of "I'm spending all this time and money to get into this panel I otherwise have no interest in solely so that I can boo Bob Chapek."

I would be very surprised if he got anything approaching a warm reception if appears. But we'll see.

 

[Nick]

Nobody would pay the price to go "just" to boo him, no.

Chapek getting heckled does not require anyone to fit the description of "I'm spending all this time and money to get into this panel I otherwise have no interest in solely so that I can boo Bob Chapek."

I would be very surprised if he got anything approaching a warm reception if appears. But we'll see.

If i'm Chapek, I don't care about a warm reception. I don't even care if i'm booed. I'm the f'n CEO until at least early 2026 and what are you gonna do about it?

 

[belloq87]

Depends on how thin-skinned one is.

 

[Evan]

If i'm Chapek, I don't care about a warm reception. I don't even care if i'm booed. I'm the f'n CEO until at least early 2026 and what are you gonna do about it?

Making millions. He’s laughing off any naysayers all the way to the bank.

 

[SkiBum]

If i'm Chapek, I don't care about a warm reception. I don't even care if i'm booed. I'm the f'n CEO until at least early 2026 and what are you gonna do about it?

Especially since, (if WDWNT is right), he is getting a $20 million bonus each year for the next three years as part of his compensation.