Originally Posted By Goofyernmost Was there on Marathon weekend. Friday night when I rode Mermaid the sign said 20 minute wait. Considering it takes 15 minutes just to walk the queue, it's about right, but was still a walk on. I had only seen it on You-Tube, but from my memory everything was working as far as I could tell. No glitches, smooth ride.
Originally Posted By leobloom CM Maingate passes blacked out until February because management thought the demand for FLE would be so much. Joke's on them.
Originally Posted By xrayvision "Was there on Marathon weekend. Friday night when I rode Mermaid the sign said 20 minute wait. Considering it takes 15 minutes just to walk the queue, it's about right, but was still a walk on." That was exactly my experience. The sign for "Stand-by" posted Mermaid as a 20 minute wait. But, I entered the queue and walked straight onto the ride with no wait at all. And, all the AA's and effects were working just fine. Overall, I liked the new Fantasyland and thought that it was an improvement over the former FL. However, I didn't feel that the new FL had as much appeal as DCA's Carsland or EPCOT's TestTrack 2.0. WDI did a great job on the TestTrack update. When comparing my park experiences at the opening of DCA's Carsland and opening of IOA's Harry Potter area, the crowds at MK's new Fantasyland were not that heavy, even though the park was crowded...with wait times at BTMRR running between 45 to 95 minutes (noting that Splash next door was closed). People at MK were not exactly rushing over to the new area like people do at DCA and IOA. And, Fastpasses for Mermaid were available all day long (unlike Fastpasses for Radiator Spring Racers at DCA). If WDW wants similar crowd response to their new attractions that DCA and IOA has recently enjoyed, then they need to up the ante and create an experience that's on the same caliber as Carsland and the Harry Potter area. The new FL doesn't quite reach that level; but, it is nice though.
Originally Posted By sjhym333 I think that the issues at Mermaid have nothing to do with the show elements but the omnimover system.
Originally Posted By TP2000 Disney Parks Blog and Disney Executives via their traditional media and social media outlets repeatedly called the New Fantasyland as the "Biggest Expansion In Magic Kingdom History!" when it was opening or in pre-opening in 2012. If they are going to use that kind of language, I bet they were expecting big things from it. And of course it fell flat and failed to live up to that "Biggest In History!" hype. New Fantasyland is a restaurant, a snack bar, a mediocre clone of an Omnimover dark ride from DCA, and a rethemed version of Mickey's Toontown Fair with the same ride from 1992. It won't bring in new attendance, and it won't generate big word of mouth like Cars Land. It fell flat, as most Disney fans figured it would. If TDO execs are believing their own gaggy and overly perky hype on the Disney Parks Blog about New Fantasyland, and now they can't figure out why the customers aren't gushing over it like the Californians gush over Cars Land, then they are more stupid than we even expected they were.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros >>Staggs is leaving P&R to become President of TWDC?<< That makes sense. When he and Rasulo swapped positions (head of P&R/CFO), word on the street was that it would give them both the experience to eventually move up in the company. Given how strong P&R has done in the last few years (and the financial side was about equal for both of their runs), it makes sense that it would go to Staggs. Since Iger has already announced that he will be stepping down in 2015 (not a moment too soon, IMO, get him out of there!), it apprears that they're trying to groom a replacement.
Originally Posted By dagobert I'm sure both, Staggs and Rasulo, are good with numbers, but someone creative would be better for Disney. Maybe they should bring someone from outside the company, like Roy E. Disney did with Frank Wells and Michael Eisner. Do Alan Horn, Kathleen Kennedy or the guy that runs Marvel also have chances to become CEO? Especially Alan Horn has proven to run a big entertainment company, Warner Bros.
Originally Posted By mrkthompsn I'm not surprised. But they shouldn't expect a magnificent survey result anyway. Give it time. It's not even summer vacation yet. It's not even next year yet. Big Thunder Mountain was built in 1980, but I'm still inspired to drive 8 hours to WDW to visit it in 2013. Parks are a long-term thing. Measure them according to the long term. Sheesh
Originally Posted By wahooskipper I'm a Floridian but I can tell you the local advertising is working because my 6 year old daughter won't stop bothering me about when we are going to visit the New Fantasyland. Looks like next month for us.
Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< Also FLE was never solely about increasing attendance - it was actually about increasing park capacity and improving guest satisfaction scores. WDW Co. is focusing on improving financial KPIs - guest spend, revPAR etc. Any increase in attendance is a happy by-product >>> I can see that being the case. Even though I believe that the New Fantasyland *is* a response to WWOHP, it's not an attempt to do the same thing. There's no way any new addition to the MK is going to drive the increase in expensive, single-day tickets like WWOHP did for Uni. Uni has the advantage of being the far distant second in terms of attendance and revenue. That makes it far easier for them to post large gains in terms of attendance, and since a lot of that attendance increase is in terms of 1- or 2-day park tickets, their incremental gate revenue increase is going to be huge as compared to anything that MK could accomplish with a new addition, no matter how grand it was. Also, as far as guest spend, consider the sale of alcohol. Now, all of those people that will eat in the new dining room that otherwise would have eaten elsewhere in the MK have an additional option to increase their tab by buying a drink or two for each adult. Contrary to what some naysayers are predicting, nobody is going to get drunk in the MK with the way they have alcohol sales set up at the new restaurant. But consider all of the people that will be eating there during periods of the free dining plan: now, a good number of them will still be having a family meal in the MK on the "free dining plan", but now Mom & Dad will add a bottle of wine with it, starting at $39. That's $39 more than any other location in the MK, and the average is likely to be more like $50, and of that, it's probably at least $35 in profit. And that's done without increasing attendance, gate prices, or hotel prices. That's just the kind of thing that needs to be done at WDW in order to increase overall earnings. <<< however WDW Co. believes that they are close to saturation in terms of attendance and that the most important thing is to drive up margins and profitability >>> This also makes sense. As I think they found out when they added DAK, they can't just keep adding stuff to WDW and expect average stay durations to increase. It certainly worked for EPCOT, and with DtD and D/MGM to add days to the average stay, but there is a limit. Consider that whatever the average guest stay is now: if you were to have 8 parks instead of 4, the average stay would not double. And even if it did, under the current pricing model, at least for gate revenue, those additional days add very little. And it would be hard for me to imagine that that model would change much, as it's almost certainly based on the current reality of how much people have to spend, and how much time they have available, rather than a perceived "cost per park" in the guest's mind. And, separate from increasing average stay duration, WDW isn't going to suddenly get a lot of new visitors that say "Oh, they have 6 parks instead of four. NOW we'll finally visit for the first time!" Replace additional parks with New Fantasyland and you get the same answer.
