Wizarding World - Diagon Alley Discussion - Part 2

[JungleSkip]

True, but when HP was three years away people were talking.

Avatar isn't Harry Potter. People will get excited about Avatar when it gets closer.

Why the heck didn't Disney jump on the development of Star Wars themed lands and attractions instead of doing this Avatar stuff???

Disney didn't own Star Wars when they signed Cameron and Avatar. They think it will be a big Potter-sized splash. We'll see if they're right.

 

[twebber55]

so is the plan to open the London embankment in a few weeks, before they actually open Diagon Alley?

 

[mahnamahna]

Avatar isn't Harry Potter. People will get excited about Avatar when it gets closer.



Disney didn't own Star Wars when they signed Cameron and Avatar. They think it will be a big Potter-sized splash. We'll see if they're right.

It'll take more than Soarin' 2.0 (which is what the description of its big E-ticket sounds like) and a C-ticket boat ride for this to top Potter IMO. They should have kept the speeder bike coaster concept in... would have given the land some kinetic energy and slight substance.

 

[IzzyB]

Disney didn't own Star Wars when they signed Cameron and Avatar. They think it will be a big Potter-sized splash. We'll see if they're right.

Agreed. Also, Disney is a southern company. Yes, technically a large portion is in CA, but the people who make decisions and most of the workers for Disney World are here in Florida. They have adapted more of a southern culture mentality. I know this from talking with employees who work in the business side of the company. The culture of southern companies is different. Universal is owned by Comcast and most of the major decisions are done by people who work in a northern company culture. Like I work in the south, but work for a Northeast company. The pace at my current company and expectations are pretty crazy compared to when I worked for Darden. A good example is I worked in the IT department who supported the HR/Payroll/Benefits departments. When I was hired they had 8 employees in the department. The company I work for now has 2. And those 2 probably get more done than the 8 we had at Darden. I didn't even realize it when I was hired, I just did my work, well here I was cleaning up everyone's pipeline and pissed a lot of people off. Managers realized they didn't need 8 and as people left they didn't fill positions. I ended up leaving because I really didn't want to work in a company where people worked so slow and also hated the meetings, to discuss what meetings were needed for a project that should only take 2 weeks to complete, but took 3 months instead.

So what I am saying is that Disney takes much longer to move on things, so even when they bought Star Wars, they were already pretty far into the Avatar project. So to switch gears and do Star Wars first would be pretty hard for a company like Disney to do. Yes, Uni does it all the time, but the culture at Disney doesn't allow them to do that. It is also hard to change a culture like that. My director at Darden wanted to change things because he did not come from the south, but even as high as he was in the company, he just had no success. His counterparts wanted nothing to do with his ideas and his employees were not helping either. He begged me to stay to help change it more, but I just had no desire to deal with it any longer and I knew change would truly never come. So the employees who are like this probably leave Disney and go to Uni.

 

[Kevin38]

My last post on this thread concerning Disney but related to what Uni has done. Why the heck didn't Disney jump on the development of Star Wars themed lands and attractions instead of doing this Avatar stuff??? I would have taken a page from Uni and developed new Star Wars lands for Disney Studios and Animal Kingdom. They wouldn't have been connected (although Disney has the money to) but they could have been cross promoted and contained multiple E-tix.

The main reason is Disney is full of guests.Disney Execs get fired for taking chances (see DVC Hawaii)
So until Universal passes them in attendance.They just spent a Billion so that Disney execs can play Roller Coaster tycoon in real life (hold cursor over guest and see name ,how many days on ticket ,what spent in park,on site room ,ect.)

 

[JungleSkip]

It'll take more than Soarin' 2.0 (which is what the description of its big E-ticket sounds like) and a C-ticket boat ride for this to top Potter IMO. They should have kept the speeder bike coaster concept in... would have given the land some kinetic energy and slight substance.

I didn't say anything about topping Potter. But like the Fantasyland expansion, it won't matter for them. Potter will be years old at the time. They're not in direct competition

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The main reason is Disney is full of guests.Disney Execs get fired for taking chances (see DVC Hawaii)

People didn't get fired for building Aluani. They got fired for fraud.

 

[kingcooger]

Agreed. Also, Disney is a southern company. Yes, technically a large portion is in CA, but the people who make decisions and most of the workers for Disney World are here in Florida. They have adapted more of a southern culture mentality.

So what I am saying is that Disney takes much longer to move on things, so even when they bought Star Wars, they were already pretty far into the Avatar project. So to switch gears and do Star Wars first would be pretty hard for a company like Disney to do. Yes, Uni does it all the time, but the culture at Disney doesn't allow them to do that. It is also hard to change a culture like that.

WDW also benefits from the fact that they can let Disneyland build the Star Wars Land on the West Coast and just adopt what they like after the fact (like they did with Toy Story Midway Mania and The Little Mermaid)

 

[Teebin]

And I wonder what the new lamps will look like. What I mean is I wonder if they actually made full size replicas of the lamps because those suckers are big!

Gambit, I was wondering the same thing too. My wild guess is that they will scale it down to two thirds or maybe even half the original height.

As it turns out, you guys are most likely correct! After a wee bit of research, I have found out that the iron base of each lamp is 123cm (48 inches/4 feet) wide and 69cm (27 inches) deep. After finding this info, I needed a picture of someone standing next to them to convince me it was possible... so I hopped back in time and found this.

So yes, they must have been scaled down to at most, a 3 foot wide base. But as I am not currently in Florida, I cannot hop over with a small tape measure.

 

[Kevin38]

I didn't say anything about topping Potter. But like the Fantasyland expansion, it won't matter for them. Potter will be years old at the time. They're not in direct competition

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People didn't get fired for building Aluani. They got fired for fraud.

Actually they got fired for a misplaced decimal that means Disney will lose money in 15 years on the ones sold.So the Exec that green lighted this got fired. (my point)

 

[JungleSkip]

Actually they got fired for a misplaced decimal that means Disney will lose money in 15 years on the ones sold.So the Exec that green lighted this got fired. (my point)

Either way, they weren't fired for building it, they were fired for financial mistakes. The property was an 850 million dollar project with board of directors approval. The head of DVC doesn't have the power to just build that

 

[mbrou24]

I wouldn't be surprised if the day of the mine train dedication uni drops the opening date.

 

[TheLastAshen]

For the love of god, back on topic please. Disney has nothing to do with Diagon. Where are the embankment pics?! And great find, Teebin.

 

[as4panthers]

^^ you're right haha! I honestly enjoy, love and continue to visit both Disney parks and Universal for what they are. This is not a thread for avatar land vs Harry potter or Disney vs universal haha lets get back on topic and ease on the hate of Disney! And anyway I believe three of their four parks are doing way better in attendance still vs universals two parks, they have nothing to worry about.

 

[JungleSkip]

I believe three of their four parks are doing way better in attendance still vs universals two parks, they have nothing to worry about.

I agree the thread needs to get back on topic, though a good discussion to have at some point is the basically worthless statistic of attendance.

 

[Teebin]

Update: Relative to this project, things are becoming seriously stressed backstage in "the building". Apparently, a certain company is demanding new details as if there were still 6 months to go. Not a few project managers and assistant art directors are... ummm... I can only hope there are no homicides at UOR in the next few weeks.

 

[ReelJustice]

Update: Relative to this project, things are becoming seriously stressed backstage in "the building". Apparently, a certain company is demanding new details as if there were still 6 months to go. Not a few project managers and assistant art directors are... ummm... I can only hope there are no homicides at UOR in the next few weeks.

God bless that "certain company" :hail:

 

[illumination]

I wouldn't be surprised if the day of the mine train dedication uni drops the opening date.

That would be amazing!

 

[badlactose]

Update: Relative to this project, things are becoming seriously stressed backstage in "the building". Apparently, a certain company is demanding new details as if there were still 6 months to go. Not a few project managers and assistant art directors are... ummm... I can only hope there are no homicides at UOR in the next few weeks.

Oh dear. I really do feel sorry for the project managers and workers. They must feel so stressed.

But...yay for us!

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As it turns out, you guys are most likely correct! After a wee bit of research, I have found out that the iron base of each lamp is 123cm (48 inches/4 feet) wide and 69cm (27 inches) deep. After finding this info, I needed a picture of someone standing next to them to convince me it was possible... so I hopped back in time and found this.

So yes, they must have been scaled down to at most, a 3 foot wide base. But as I am not currently in Florida, I cannot hop over with a small tape measure.

Amazing detective skills
Also, I love that photo. Cheeriest homeless man I've ever seen.

Makes sense the lamps would be smaller. Anything to make the London facades look even bigger and grander. I'm chomping at the bit to see them installed.

 

[UNIrd]

The Mine Train was announced a year before Diagon Alley and took longer to build. Technically, it could be seen as more highly anticipated by many parkgoers.

 

[GGGhost]

Looks like the rest of the lamp scaffolding is up, but no lamps yet.

Also, in regards to the lamp-size discussion, those pedestals along the wall are pretty freaking big. Compare with the man leaning on the wall. I wouldn't be surprised if the lamps end up being closer to full-size than we would expect.

Posted by Twitter user @OrlandoVIPs: