Where's the picture of this? That sounds amazing

Here ya go

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OMFG! I need one of those. The older I get, the more I am interested in the food and snacks instead of the rides

TRON--Damn, how long will this take to build?
Rumor is Nov now.

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Going in October and doubt it will be open for us. However... if I ride that machine and my ears are not bleeding afterwards I will be disappointed.

At WDW now for 1st ever visit and having a great time. Done MK and Epcot so far and visited most resorts. HS tomorrow and AK Friday. Then doing all 4 again next week. Staying at Pop.
Went to the arcade while waiting on laundry and pins are horrible. Guardians, Star Wars, Tron and X-men. Flippers weak. Balls get stuck behind missing rubbers. Tron had 12 credits but couldn’t find balls to start.
Readers all said free but couldn’t start a game except X-Men. I power cycled Star Wars then it gave a credit and play with a single flipper. Sad.

They’re running ride tests, there’s a video of the cars on the track outside. Might be this year I think.

The problem is, we have no idea what the inside looks like. Obviously the track is done, it what about everything else inside? We don’t know.

Disney really dropped the ball with shutting down construction when Covid first hit.

I wouldn’t say they “really dropped the ball” when it was a conscious business decision. As with all theme parks they were trying to find a way to operate and not lose money during the pandemic. That meant layoffs, reducing dining options, and pausing or delaying construction projects to cope with lower revenues from reducing crowd capacity and travel restrictions.

As for when, if we use GOTG as a guidepost, they began vehicle testing in November of 20 and ride testing in mid December 21 and opening at the end of May 22. Disney announced last month that they were approaching vehicle testing with Tron. I would expect a slightly faster time table here. Push pull tests will be performed to check clearances and ensure the track is assembled properly. Once those are complete, they need to commission the launch system, do testing with weighted dummies, and finally with the ride team, which they state will take “months”. From the video you can see the maintenance bay is fully built out, so there has been a fair amount of work done in the ride building. If I had to guess late q4 ride previews leading to a q1 opening. I think it would be a nightmare to open a new ride during the holiday rush.

Check out the update:

If completing GOTG, Tron, and Moana would put Disney out of business when covid first hit, then Elon Musk needs to buy the company.

Recent events make you wonder if Disney could be vulnerable to a hostile takeover if their stock price continues to fall...

Yes please.

I was thinking that Apple was going to buy them and spin off the parks division back when covid first hit and disney was $85/share. Apple had enough cash on hand to get as much media creation as they could ever need.

It would have been $150B for a hostile takeover.

That would have been a sweet pickup for Apple. Not sure the shareholders would have gone for a fire sale in the covid trough, but I wonder if Apple considered making a play.

Not sure I understand what you mean there. Those projects were too far along to cancel, so they were paused or scaled back.

Before COVID Disney was ramping up a construction in preparation for their 50th anniversary. In addition to what you listed:
- At EPCOT there was also a Spaceship Earth ride retrack that was cancelled, a Mary Poppins meet and greet area, and the Festival Pavilion that was removed from plans
- At Disney Springs construction of an eatery and ice cream parlor were cancelled (Beatrix and Ample Hills Creamery)
- The Reflections DVC hotel that was in the early stages of construction was cancelled and footings removed.
- At the Magic Kingdom it was announced that Splash Mountain would be reimaged with a new story and then never moved forward.

All these were scrapped to reduce risk at a time of escalating construction costs coinciding with a reduced ability to collect a return on park investments. They focused instead on Disney Plus, which ballooned the stock price from $85 to $197 at peak before it came back down. It wouldn't make financial sense to overextend themselves building attractions and adding costs at a time when your revenues are capped. To understand the scale of the liability, Tron's initial projected cost was $350-$450 million dollars to complete before COVID.

If there was a positive thing to come out of Covid, this is it.

Zippidy Doo Da.

Looks like they are doing something wrong. Can't say that I really follow Disney, but their CEO better figure something out I would think.

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Fantastic buying opportunity.

It's proof of what a bad CEO can do to a company.

The whole market has been that way for months and months. Buying opportunities everywhere. Back to more WDW experiences/talk!
Particularly interested in Genie+ need. Related family going down to wdw in summertime and don’t want to plan their day, use genie+, etc. How much fun they gonna have in MK w a couple children?

I'm heading there in august with two other families. I'm dreading the whole Genie + BS

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I dunno. I'm not really partial the the Song of the South. It didn't play much when I was a kid in the 80s so I don't have any attachment to it or Brer Rabbit, but understand others attachment to it since it has been in the park since 1989.

If they rethemed part of the area around it to bring a New Orleans Square to WDW like exists in DL, that would be amazing. I do think the music was good in the Princess and the Frog, and Ray the lightning bug is a great character that would be fun to incorporate into an attraction.

Really, I just want beignets in the park and not just at Port Orleans.

Doctor John!!

I like the splash mountain theming, agree they should expand on it in that area, (towards pecos bills?). Perfect location with the parade gates there already for a Mardi Gras day parade.

And I adore Port Orleans but their beignets have never been right.

Always hard to please the locals

The Splash Mountain/Princess and the Frog thing wasn't announced until mid-2020 when the parks were already shut down. For the record, they still say they're working on it, though a lot of people think it was a knee-jerk reaction to current events at the time and they didn't have any actual development work done on it when they announced it.

We might see you there. We will be there as well! Pop century and Old Key West resorts

Speaking of Splash Mountain, my kids loved the ride last fall but had no idea who the characters were. Culture wars aside, it would seem like an obvious move to retheme with IP that Disney has promoted sometime in the last 40 years to "freshen things up" on the cheap.

It's true. However it would still be better than no beignets

Last time the stock was in the 20’s, Comcast tried buying them.

I don’t think it’s going to those levels.

It's been going that way for some time. Love or hate him, Eisner at least knew how to run a creative company like Disney. Iger was a typical ABC Exec dimwit who only was made CEO when Roy/Gold's campaign worked and there was nobody else. I read his book - made me want to vomit. All bull shit and lies.

Chapek is even worse. The company needs to finally be acquired and sold off like what was tried in 84. Maybe make Josh D'Amaro the CEO of the parks and spin it off. He's the only Exec that has a dime's worth of common sense, and the other Execs hate him for it.

Disney is a cesspool now with no leadership as recent events have shown - and there is no light at the end of the tunnel.

Meaning those projects should’ve never stopped.

Once you break ground in the parks, you don’t stop.

Splash mountain was a reaction to summer 2020 with all the riots. That’s why nothing has happened. They are now designing it. Which begs the question, which overlay actually improved a ride?

Test track ‘99 is far superior to current one.

Original journey is far superior.

Original tiki room was better….thank god it’s back.

Alien encounter was better than stitch.

Norway ride was better before frozen took it over.

Living with the land was better with a tour guide.

Original Epcot fire work show is better than the current one.

Buzz light year is better than dream flight.

I thought the same thing, construction wise. I was thinking that they'd be able to get so far ahead on the maintenance schedules with no one in the parks. They had the absolute perfect opportunity to polish everything up and they blew it. They could have even maintained all of the social distancing rules and still completed a ton of work.

Yet again, piss poor management.

I remember telling my wife at the time, wow this is a once in a lifetime opportunity for them to do literally anything, change anything. Empty parks. They could have dug up Main Street if they needed to.

I was thinking that they would bang out Tron, GOTG and all of the epcot changes for reopening. I couldn't believe that they just did absolutely nothing. They sure didn't act like a company with $17B in cash on hand.

Did they have that much money? I thought I had heard they had a lot of debt at the time.

Disney stock still falling today. How long before shareholders demand new management?

Why Chapek allowed the company to get political just boggles the mind. It’s just a guarantee to piss off half your customers.

The company I own, I have republicans, democrats and independents that I employ. And they all have the same thing in common…they do politics on their own time, not company time. They know if they decide to walk out to protest, that they just lost their job. Why Chapek ever bowed down to his employees….who knows. They don’t need a soft bean counter running the company. They need someone with vision. Love or hate Iger, he had a vision. What is Chapek’s vision? I can’t answer it….I doubt Chapek can answer it too.

I’m trying to find a picture from the marathon I took. The sign someone held said “you run better than Chapek runs Disney.” Had me cracking up and naturally, I gave that person a high five as I ran by.

Disney has only gotten more political ever since they crossed streams with ABC. I don't think you can be a company that generates content/experiences/products for families and also have a polarizing activist social agenda. They need to just clean house at the C-level and put in strong leaders that love the Disney brand. They have an obvious corporate culture problem.

There's a real problem on one side where staying neutral is no longer acceptable. You're either an ally or an enemy. They should have just fired the people making threats. They are a very small percentage of Disney's workforce... And now Disney is in a huge mess because a small percentage of people demanded action.

I knew people that worked for Disney in Burbank and they talked about the roadmap for content and how they knew there was an expiration date on their jobs because they'd be required to create content that violated their conscience in the near future. Those people just started looking for new jobs. Disney is not a tolerant company. They told people they would need to fall in line or lose their jobs regardless of their personal convictions.

If you ask me, they should get back to doing things the Disney way.

I miss the old times in the parks, where men weren’t allowed any facial hair, no earrings on guys, girls were allowed 1 (maybe 2), no tattoos, boys outfits and girls outfits, and last but not least “ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls..”. No idea why they ever went off their standards. The whole point of disney, was to be a step above the competition, not on the same playing field as them.

If I were CEO and someone asked me about politics, my answer would be that I’m too busy running a family entertainment company to be worried about politics.

Because there were not enough available people to be employees who would follow the old standards.

Just back from WDW in Florida and had an amazing time!!! AK was probably my favourite park for the vibe and Pandora ride (Dinosoaur was also great!). Epcot was also really cool and beautiful with the flowers and topiaries. MK probably least favourite due to the manic crowds, some very cool rides though.

We did Disneyworld in California a few years ago and honestly I prefer it. Smaller and more compact yes, but felt more original with smaller wait times. Also the Indiana Jones ride is #1 for me. Better Pirates as well. I just wish they hadn't re-themed the Tower of Terror

Went in search of pins in Florida and ended up at Pinball Palace in Deezerland near Universal. My advice - don't bother. The pins are badly maintained and to buy an hour's play is a waste of money. Such a shame when some simple upkeep would make them playable, maybe the guy should get off his phone and replace a few rubbers. There are a few pins down the hall outside the arcade which are in much better shape

I just miss the Disney Dining Plan. Perhaps one day soon we will hear “ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls… it is with great pleasure that the Disney Dining Plan is BACK”

Yeah. They said it was about inclusivity but the real reason is that they couldn't find enough people who fit the "Disney look" to work there for what they were paying, so instead of paying more to maintain their standards, they lowered their standards.

I agree. I wish Disney would stay out of politics. Part of the problem is that they've been using politics as a smokescreen to cut costs, raise prices, and lower standards. They also straddle the line between worshipping Walt Disney as their visionary founder and condemning just about everything he ever did and revising any remnants of his projects to adhere to contemporary PC standards. There's hypocrisy in pretty much everything they do anymore.

And you know this how?

That’s right….you don’t.

Now you're striking at the heart of the "Disney Way" -- which would have been more upsetting to Walt, visible tattoos or salary increases for the staff?

Sure, but what are you going to do when the face of your company was a guy born more than 100 years ago who lived accordingly? He's like Colonel Sanders, you'd be crazy to toss him on the scrap heap since he's such a recognized figure, but you have to continue to reshape his image for whatever's going to make the company money in the 21st century.

Sure, but what are you going to do when the face of your company was a guy born more than 100 years ago who lived accordingly? He's like Colonel Sanders, you'd be crazy to toss him on the scrap heap since he's such a recognized figure, but you have to continue to reshape his image for whatever's going to make the company money in the 21st century.

No, it isn't money that they choose to reshape his image as you call it. It is ideology of those in charge.