Disneyland Resort

[Alexshow.]

I am just hoping They can do something special and from what it seems. I'm glad they are doing something for everyone.

 

[Ryan]

It's official: the Luigi's Flying Tires attraction, which was infamously low-capacity and odd/unfavorable to guests at the same time is closing on the 16th this month. http://www.dlandlive.com/news/luigis-flying-tires-to-close-in-february-new-attraction-coming-to-cars-land-in-2016

The ride, based on the old Flying Saucers attraction from the 60s, will have had a legacy even shorter than that infamous attraction rather ironically. The new ride is not officially announced, but seems to be a trackless spinning car ride in the same place using technology from Tokyo DisneySea's Aquatopia. It's the best of a bad situation (the plot of land is very small), but I would've honestly preferred them starting over from scratch and coming up with something entirely new. Yet, that's not reality and reality dictates a quick fix that will arrive about one year from now.

Sadly this little flat ride will most likely be the entirety of anything new to the park in 2016, unless the Soarin ride gets the proposed update.

 

[Allen The Actor]

Not surprised, and I could care less. I've been on it once. During opening day in 2012. That's it. Extremely underwhelming. The biggest issue, I think, was that they were so big and we're two seaters. If they were lighter and smaller and offered more "flight" than the lame hockey puck performance they have, it would've been successful.

It's sad, cuz a ridiculous amount of money went into developing and building it, and it was a massive flop.

I sincerely hope the replacement is trackless, and not a car version of Francis' Lady Bug Boogie, which is essentially what Mater's is.

But I agree with you, I would have rather they used this opportunity to close the attraction, gut out the ride "dance" space, and use a bit of the empty parking lot land directly behind Luigi's and make it a new dark ride or some sort of cooler ride with a larger capacity and not yet another kiddie ride. Would've been so cool to see TWO dark rides in Cars Land.

But reading the Parks Blog, they keep mentioning that they're "excited about the new technology" so hopefully it WILL be trackless.

 

[Ryan]

I rode it about four times, once with another person and that was even worse. The first two times were with the beach balls, which actually improved the ride. Otherwise it was a long line for a rather cheap novelty. The very short 90 seconds you got on the ride actually seemed longer... I didn't know that was possible.

There's a great Tony Baxter interview floating around from a year or so ago when he addresses the failure of the ride compared to the original Flying Saucers. He nails it by saying the saucers, despite their weak functionality, were popular because you got to ride in a tidy, unique and snazzy flying saucer. How could you miss the opportunity for that? But with LFT, you ride a big, bulky and ugly floating tire. Nobody wants to ride on a rubber tire. 

 

[William]

Not surprised either, a bit of a shame really. I hope whatever they have planned isn't too similar to Mater's Junkyard Jamboree.

 

[Allen The Actor]

I rode it about four times, once with another person and that was even worse. The first two times were with the beach balls, which actually improved the ride. Otherwise it was a long line for a rather cheap novelty. The very short 90 seconds you got on the ride actually seemed longer... I didn't know that was possible.

There's a great Tony Baxter interview floating around from a year or so ago when he addresses the failure of the ride compared to the original Flying Saucers. He nails it by saying the saucers, despite their weak functionality, were popular because you got to ride in a tidy, unique and snazzy flying saucer. How could you miss the opportunity for that? But with LFT, you ride a big, bulky and ugly floating tire. Nobody wants to ride on a rubber tire.

Exactly. Also, the old flying tires actually looked fun! They bounced around more and rode around on air a bit more, and like you said, since they were smaller and lighter and we're FLYING SAUCERS, they looked awesome! The absolutely massive tires always looked like fails to me.

Also...if you didn't tell me they were "flying", I'd never believe you. They raise like 2 centimeters lol...

Hopefully a randomized & trackless "dancing Fiat" ride similar to Aquatopia will be fun. Still seems like a massive waste of space IMO. I would've preferred to also maybe seen an outdoor "dark" ride. Mater's originally was supposed to go through different little scenes. Wish we could've gotten something similar to that.

All in all, I respect John Lasseter immensely for suggesting such a risky concept but it disappoints me as to how badly it was developed and planned out.

 

[RyanTTD]

Price increase!!

1-day 1-park

$99

1-day Parkhopper

$155

Premium AP- $779

Deluxe AP- $549

SoCal Select- $299

The parking add on for the lower tier of APs eliminated.

 

[Allen The Actor]

What the literal fudge......

 

[Miss Betty Juice]

Well. It's like...the same price for my deluxe. I'll keep it.

 

[sickle_claw]

So now Disney has done away with all pretense and just made it a direct 100 to get in. Wow.

 

[Allen The Actor]

With the initial shock over, I'm fine with the increase of the Premium Pass. There really ARE too many annual pass members at this point, and it's getting to the point where there's too many people and just uncomfortable at this point.

At least with the price increase this year, we'll also get a reimagined Condor Flats replacement, Soarin' upgraded, Fantasyland dark rides upgraded, Matterhorn upgraded, parks refreshed, and all the new entertainment, so I won't complain.

 

[RyanTTD]

With the initial shock over, I'm fine with the increase of the Premium Pass. There really ARE too many annual pass members at this point, and it's getting to the point where there's too many people and just uncomfortable at this point.

At least with the price increase this year, we'll also get a reimagined Condor Flats replacement, Soarin' upgraded, Fantasyland dark rides upgraded, Matterhorn upgraded, parks refreshed, and all the new entertainment, so I won't complain.

If you think this increase is going to thin out the crowds your going to be in for a shock.

Most AP holders these days are on a Monthly Payment plan, and with this increase their monthy rate will go up a whopping $6.00. That's less than a combo meal at most fast food restaurants!

I doubt most of the current APs holders will care enough to not renew over a measly $6.

Now if Disney took away the payment plans and required you to pay in full up front , then yeah, I think crowds would shrink substantially.

 

[sickle_claw]

More cost to get into disneyland=automatic crowd shrinkage.

 

[Red Carpet]

The jump from $96 to $99 will not do much to attendance. But once a ticket gets into the triple digits, then there will be an attendance drop. $100 is the psychological tipping point for many people.

 

[Allen The Actor]

If you think this increase is going to thin out the crowds your going to be in for a shock.

Most AP holders these days are on a Monthly Payment plan, and with this increase their monthy rate will go up a whopping $6.00. That's less than a combo meal at most fast food restaurants!

I doubt most of the current APs holders will care enough to not renew over a measly $6.

Now if Disney took away the payment plans and required you to pay in full up front , then yeah, I think crowds would shrink substantially.

Well aware of that, but I'm sure there will be a tipping point eventually/soon. Disney is doing it little by little. Not every Premium annual pass holder will want to keep renewing. I obviously will. You're right, the difference in my monthly payment will be extremely small, so I don't mind as well. But it's building up, and I know for a fact that for others, this is just too much now.

 

[RyanTTD]

More cost to get into disneyland=automatic crowd shrinkage.

Nope.

Disneyland has seen year after year of record attendance since 2005.  And every year has seen at least one price increase.

Crowds are not shrinking, they're getting bigger.  

This latest price increase will not have one effect on attendance.    Mark my words, Disney will have another record breaking attendance year.   In fact, I'm willing to bet money there will be another price increase before 2015 is over.

 

[Alexshow.]

...Blame Maleficent for Small World going on fire.

 

[Aaron]

https://instagram.com/p/zrHCAaIP8K/Video of the fire

 

[William]

Very scary. Hope everyone is okay and that the fire is put out soon.

 

[Allen The Actor]

That's beyond scary and I'm praying #1. Everyone is OK and #2 The ride is ok.... Crazy, they JUST repainted and refreshed the facade too, it was looking fantastic. Definitely a rogue firework (shot right behind the building) or ember, probably a spark landed on one of the wooden scaffolds still up........ :'(