Construction Impact at Disney World?
Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway – Taking down another ride in a park that’s already short on rides is a bold move. While many are criticizing it, I’m going the other direction and applauding it. Closing Great Movie Ride at the end of the slow summer just in time for the busy fall season takes some audacity.
I’ve been hard on Disney’s Hollywood Studios in the past. I took issue with Disney’s closing of numerous attractions well before any construction began, and then taking a lackadaisical approach even as construction began. This does not strike me as akin to closing the Backlot Tour or Animation Building and just letting them sit for a while. Nor do I think it moves the needle.
If you’re a first-timer who already decided a full day in Disney’s Hollywood Studios is right for you (not necessarily a bad decision, given all the shows), that’s still true. If you’re getting a Park Hopper to hit a few things, you can still do that. If you are skipping the park until construction is done, that still makes sense. Of all things, this is not the straw that breaks the camel’s back. Its back already either was broken…or it’s one strong back!
If anything, this just gets Disney’s Hollywood Studios into a position to relaunch and be a spiffy new park sooner rather than later. (Heck, as a lifelong Disney fan who is playing the long game, I’d just as soon they close a couple of shows and redo those while they’re at it!)
Instead of being upset by this move, I’m encouraged by it. This demonstrates to me that, unlike in the past, Walt Disney World is willing to get aggressive with construction, rather than spreading projects out over as many fiscal years as possible. Originally, I would’ve guessed that Great Movie Ride would close around when Toy Story Land opened to prevent a big drop in attendance.
Now, I’m guessing Great Movie Ride is closing earlier because there’s a sense of urgency to get this attraction and Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge (the entirety of which almost certainly will not be opening at Walt Disney World in 2019) done at around the same time, for a big relaunch of the park.
The obvious impact here is…obvious. It’s the loss of the second-highest capacity attraction in a park already short on rides. The overall impact this has on Disney’s Hollywood Studios is less apparent. Will more people take our advice and either skip Disney’s Hollywood Studios or only Park Hop there for a few hours? Or, will attendance remain flat?
My guess? Things more or less even out, and wait times across the park remain flat for the next 6 months or so…until Toy Story Land opens and causes a spike across the board, because the added capacity there is not enough to absorb the added demand. (Construction itself should present minimal issues with Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway–the project should be self-contained within Grauman’s Chinese Theater.)
TRON Lightcycle Power Run – Contrary to earlier rumors, the Tron Lightcycle Power Run roller coaster will be an expansion to Magic Kingdom, sitting on a plot of land next to Space Mountain. However, this does not mean that it won’t impact existing attractions.
For one, the Walt Disney World Railroad will have some amount of downtime during construction. Whether it’s down for an extended period, or just while landscaping, a walkway, etc. are built around it remains to be seen. I would anticipate a lengthy downtime.
The optimist in me wants to believe this would allow Disney a chance to freshen up the railroad, a la what occurred during Disneyland’s recent 18 month downtime for Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge re-routing. (Wouldn’t it be great to see the Universe of Energy dinosaurs relocated to a Primeval World scene in Magic Kingdom?!)
The pessimist in me wonders whether Orlando management will use the Tron construction as an excuse for an extended downtime on the railroad–a chance to realize some opex savings, particularly during less busy times of the year, when the railroad is not “needed.” I could also see Tomorrowland Speedway experience some downtime, too.
My guess here is that construction doesn’t begin for a while, with this debuting for Walt Disney World/Magic Kingdom’s 50th Anniversary in 2021.
By and large, I don’t see many of these projects impacting the guest experience all that much. Given some of the concerns that readers have expressed after hearing all of the recent news, I’m hoping this eases some minds. The Epcot Central Spine Project is the one significant exception, and even that is more about crowd flow than anything else. Two things that are not mentioned here are hotels (we’ll cover that in a later post) and refurbishments.
As things presently stand, the Walt Disney World 50th Anniversary celebration is slated to include a lot of refurbished and “plussed” existing attractions. For this, you can expect an inordinate number of refurbishments in the 18 months or so leading up to the celebration. What will be impacted is presently unknown, but you can expect many of the classics to experience downtime in 2019 and 2020. We’ll have more on that as information becomes available.
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Your Thoughts
What is your take on the slate of upcoming construction projects at Walt Disney World? Will you postpone an upcoming visit to avoid construction? What, if anything, that has been announced do you think is most likely to get canceled? Are you planning on being at Walt Disney World in 2021 for the 50th Anniversary when all of this is done? Hearing your feedback about your experiences is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts or questions below in the comments!
I like the Peru/ Emperor’s New Groove idea! That is a highly under-rated movie. I also like the idea of bringing Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride to the UK pavilion. I’m glad that Epcot is finally getting some love and has major developments already underway. We have lived through “New Fantasyland construction, the Magic Kingdom hub construction, taking down the Sorcerer’s Hat, and are now enduring the loss of HS backlot and construction of two new areas in the park. Although change can often be painful and inconvenient. We will get though this as well and have some new bright shiny spaces to explore! Looking forward to 2021!
I think “One maximum of Disney rumors…” should read, “One maxim of Disney rumors…”Bob
‘Wouldn’t it be great to see the Universe of Energy dinosaurs relocated to a Primeval World scene in Magic Kingdom?!’
YES TOM!
I really hope this happens!
I’m a little more concerned about all the infrastructure construction….new roadways, exchanges, the DVC at Caribbean Beach, etc.
We all know it rains a LOT in Florida. But, I’ve never seen flooding issues like we just saw.
We were just there 2 weeks ago, and the drainage at both Epcot and the Studios parking lot was horrible. The West side of FutureWorld had over a 1.5 feet of water standing after a large rain! And, their drainage systems were slow to resolve it. My son in a power wheelchair was stranded in a thunderstorm. People were taking their socks and shoes off to wade through the 1-2 feet of water…literally. And, it was at the main wayfare to the central part of FW, and the one over through the butterfly-garden/Imagination area. Both were flooded.
The next day, another big rain came…and this time, the parking lot at the Studios flooded. There was water standing up to the level of doors in the back part of the lot, and they were diverting traffic through bus routes, rather than the main roadway.
I’ve been going to WDW for 40 years, and I’ve never seen their infrastructure struggle handling rain and flooding like this
I know SW: GE is slated to open at DL first, but what makes you certain it won’t open at DW in 2019? Targeting a Thanksgiving visit that year…
Thank you for posting this! My husband and I will be celebrating our 10 year wedding anniversary in May 2018. He has never been to Disney World and still isn’t really sold on the idea. I have been planning this trip for well over a year and I am now very nervous about our trip being marred by a plethora of construction and giant plywood walls. Do you think May should still be an okay time to go?
I think it’s all in what you make of it. The Magic Kingdom will be fine and the World Showcase will still be rocking and rolling. Animal Kingdom is a great time. Plenty of things that won’t hurt your vacation.
What’re they gonna do with all those complex audio-animatronics from the Great Movie Ride, throw’ em in the Hollywood Studios’ dumpster? They should be preserved or repurposed somehow, maybe in a walk-through attraction.
They could use them in a Guardians queue for The Collector!!
Epcot’s new central spine sounds like the worst thing possible. A lot of trees does nothing to shield the public from the extreme humidity and rain. I don’t see how the food festivals will have improved facilities. They need an semi-enclosed multipurpose warehouse style urban food facilities.
DHS is not even worth going until well after 2020. I wonder if the rumors of Monsters Inc Land coming is true.
Warehouses do tend to be magical.
“Vacation ruined!” Lol. Nice insights as always- really looking forward to heading there next week!
I stand by desire to see the space restaurant called Mission: Plate.. I think thats perfect.. as for the rest, I am excited to see what it all ends up looking like.
I hope with Tron, once that opens up, they take out the speedway and use that land for something else, that could be awesome.
Could also go with Mission: Spoon…
Much better!!
I’ve been worried about the pace of all the new construction, owing to a short-term issue.
While I’ve been a regular WDW visitor since the 80s, and expect to keep going for long times to come (so a big refresh of the whole place in time for the 50th anniversary is great news long term), I’m taking some friends along on a trip in January 2018 for what may be their once-in-a-lifetime visit. I’d be terribly disappointed on their behalf if all they got to see were construction walls.
I’ll miss the Great Movie Ride but knew the change was coming–but I was upset when it suddenly closed before my friends will be there. As you said in the post, I was expecting them to wait construction on that until Toy Story land opened. I was also sorry to hear the writers room coffee shop was closing, but that’s just us: it’s my writers group making this trip.
What really scared me, though, was the thought that with all the haste, Epcot Center might be buried beneath construction by the time we’ll be there. Even with Innoventions empty, it’s still better to see than a lot of plywood walls, and I expect Epcot’s “face” will be pretty disastrous while the construction goes on. So I’m heartened by your estimate that won’t start until later in 2018 or 2019– but I’ll be in suspense over the next few months waiting to find out.
All of this is about me wanting to show my friends WDW at its best during what might be their only visit; for myself, expecting to keep coming back for many years to come, I’m excited to see a long-overdue updating of the old and a lot of exciting new. I just want them to wait a teeny bit longer…
The crazy optimist in me hopes the unannounced Brazil pavilion morphs into a Peru pavilion themed to “The Emperor’s New Groove”.
Agreed!! What would I give for an attraction that takes off when we all shout “Pull the lever Kronk!”
That would be amazing!
Wrong leeeeeever!