According to TWDC's third quarter earnings call, DLP's numbers weren't that bad, although the main reasons were higher ticket prices. https://ditm-twdc-us.storage.googleapis.com/q3-fy17-earnings.pdf
This is hardly news, but in honor of the eclipse in the US today, here's a look back at the August 11, 1999 solar eclipse at DLP. I especially like how fast the MSEP was flying down the street to try and squeeze into the limited darkness, since that's usually one of the slowest parades I've ever seen
I always forget that MSEP was also part of the DLP parades. I wonder if a nighttime parade will ever return to DLP.
I don't think DL's backstage infrastructure could support that. Unlike the other parks, DL's parade route dumps into a dead end behind Main Street, so the parades have to run in "reverse" for the second performance of the day (also a major reason that DL tends to have 2 performances daily). The other parks have a full backstage loop, so parade floats can go directly from storage to either end of the parade route As long as they're running the projection/fireworks show, it seems unlikely that they would bring back a night parade. They had both during the summer of the 20th, and there just wasn't enough time of darkness to make it work within the RER train schedule. Obviously it's less of a problem during other times of year, but crowds are also lower then, so two major nighttime shows aren't really needed. I would bet they would want some major nighttime show in the Studios first; I suppose they could move MSEP (or Fantillusion) over there, similar to it's run in DCA
I miss the MSEP. I also think a night time show at WDSP will come first. It would be easy to expand the one that use for the Season of the Force events and add other films such as Marvel, POTC and Indy. I'd like to see them stay away from the classic animated films as they have those in a show next door.
A couple months ago they debuted a similar show at the Studios in WDW, essentially showcasing Disney's live action films (and acquisitions). It opened to little fanfare (it wasn't even announced or posted on the time guide opening night), and they still run the Star Wars fireworks show along with nightly, but it seems like a nice addition to help fill out some more time in a park that's so sorely lacking at the moment
Here's a new update about DLP. La Gazette: La Rentrée des Nouveautés It looks like the other entrance to the RER is finally a go. The bus station next to the parking garage is also coming along nicely.
I'm interested to see how the bus station and RER south entrance construction will impact the half marathon events in a couple weeks. It looks like there is a lot of construction going on in the area that was used for the start corrals last year, which might mean they will be relocated somewhere else (though I'm not sure where else there's that much space available)
Very cool and unexpected! It looks like my visit will be the final weekend for this, so I'm excited to check it out!
According to the ED92 Twitter Account, Bob Iger, Bob Weiss and Tom Fitzgerald are at DLP today and are touring the parks.
I wonder what they were there for. The optimistic side of me wants it to be for a major overhaul of the Studios, but the realist in me thinks it was probably just to check out the Villages Nature
If they were there to check out Villages Natures, they would have brought Joe Rohde along instead of Fitzgerald, since he was the responsible Imagineer. I am also not that optimistic about a huge Expansion. I guess it was just a routine visit about TWDC's newest wholly owned subsidiary.
While it sounds like fun, it's a shame that it will take them a full year (or more?) to replace a theater show. Given that rehearsals can take place off-site, it seems like they should be able to turn a theater over much faster than that. WDSP is much healthier than it's been in the past, but the park is still light on things to do, so there's really no excuse for keeping this closed so long I'm also curious what makes this "360". I would expect a character or two to fly out over the audience (like Mary Poppins at the end of her Broadway show), but I doubt it will be much more than that. Putting performers (especially characters) in aisles is always tricky and leads to problems with the unpredictability of guests
