News Disneyland Forward: New Hotels? A New Park?!

[wombat96]

Looks like the Walt Disney Company is proposing a massive expansion to the Anaheim resort. Details are vague and it appears to be an expansion to DL and DCA, not a new park. Smart move considering the two existing parks have been hitting capacity fairly frequently.

New plan at Disneyland calls for squeezing in more rides, restaurants and shops

Disney announced a plan to add new attractions, shops and restaurants inside Disneyland by redeveloping existing areas of the Anaheim resort.

www.latimes.com

 

[warfelg]

I honestly think a whole new gate would have been better. Actually better yet: they shouldn’t have changed A Bugs Life to Avengers Campus and made a 3rd gate purely of Marvel IP’s. Oh well.

 

[Zachary]

Blog Mickey has a great breakdown here:

FULL BREAKDOWN: Disneyland's Plans to Expand Theme Parks; Create West Coast Disney Springs

Disneyland has just announced ambitious expansion plans. For more on the Disneyland expansion plans, check out our full breakdown!

blogmickey.com

This really looks like a California DisneySea to my untrained eye which, to put it simply... Oh god yes.

 

[wombat96]

Actually better yet: they shouldn’t have changed A Bugs Life to Avengers Campus and made a 3rd gate purely of Marvel IP’s.

I think a third gate will eventually happen, maybe in the next twenty years or so but it makes sense to keep it at only two parks for the time being. Disneyland has a huge AP base that makes up a large chunk of the attendance, if they open a new park it's only going to cannibalize the attendance of the two other parks.

Investing in the current parks increases the capacity, the value of the ticket, and promotes buying an AP pass once again now that the system has ceased to exist. It seems like a huge win to me to just invest in the pre-existing product rather than trying to increase the expense and open a new third gate.

 

[warfelg]

I think a third gate will eventually happen, maybe in the next twenty years or so but it makes sense to keep it at only two parks for the time being. Disneyland has a huge AP base that makes up a large chunk of the attendance, if they open a new park it's only going to cannibalize the attendance of the two other parks.

Investing in the current parks increases the capacity, the value of the ticket, and promotes buying an AP pass once again now that the system has ceased to exist. It seems like a huge win to me to just invest in the pre-existing product rather than trying to increase the expense and open a new third gate.

To be honest here, I'm being 100% selfish in wanting to see a pure Marvel park. It would make me visit Disneyland easily (I already want to go) because I think an entire park like that would be really special. Instead it looks like an expansion (which theoretically expanding capacity or adding a new gate would increase capacity of the resort the same). Maybe Disney World will get it's long rumored 5th gate that's more a thrill park someday.

 

[Zachary]

Any single IP park is a very bad move if you ask me. The amount of risk involved in betting everything on one single IP is enormous. If super hero content falls from popularity (see: Westerns), you're up a creek. If Marvel Studios' work loses steam and is surpassed by, say, DC in popular culture, you're up a creek. If Marvel as a brand experiences a dramatic PR fall from grace due to some cultural or political reason, you're up a creek.

I honestly already have these types of concerns with Universal's use of Potter—they are HEAVILY invested in the future viability and public success of Potter now—but even in that case Uni has diversified that risk across many different parks. Each of those parks could survive a huge downturn in Potter IP value or a public relations firestorm resulting from their use of that IP. The same is unlikely to be true for a whole Potter park.

 

[warfelg]

I get the risk and like I said it's a selfish desire.

Maybe a park to take their more mature IP's and put them all in there. With the purchase of Fox they got a bunch of IP's that are set for a more mature audience. And yes the counter is always Disney is more meant for kids, but with the rise of bended families and the like having another park that could entertain older guests would be really valuable.