Originally Posted By t1lersm0m <<Has anyone every seen Barney's Playground at Universal? I had no problems with Pooh's Playground until I saw Barney's, boy did that put me to shame. If you ever have a chance, stop by and check it out. It's a very large indoor play area, themed to be an outdoor park. There's sand boxes, slides, climbing structures, interactive play areas that make noises and change colors; it was really quite incredible! While Pooh's Playground is certainly a great start, Barney's Playground is what I wish they'd have done>> Yeah, my son enjoyed the Barney play area when we were at Uni in 2001. He was 2 and turned 3 a month later. I've been on record as being one of the people for the playground. They didn't take an E ticket like Space Mountain, tear it down and put in a playground. They took unused land and put in a playground. If the land was planned for an E ticket, and got the playground instead, I could understand all of the hostility. But from what I understand, there have been no rumors of an E ticket going in that spot.
Originally Posted By leeharrell Something to keep in mind... The Pooh playground doesn't really tke up any of the old 20K space at all. It's mostly just the old queue area and some of the former walkway. PLENTY of room for a major e-ticket on the remaining space...someday.
Originally Posted By Mickey4President The 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ride was one of the rides that I had really wanted to do with my children. When we went to WDW and saw nothing there, it broke my heart. My children are too old for Pooh's playground, they are 7 & 8. I am glad they put something there where small children can play, and have so much fun that they do the kind of belly laugh only someone at there age can do.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip <<The 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ride was one of the rides that I had really wanted to do with my children. When we went to WDW and saw nothing there, it broke my heart.>> I also would have been really disappointed if I had never had an opportunity to ride 20K Leagues. But having ridden it once, I would never want to ride it again. Things I didn't like about it include: 1) Very slow loading ride produced probably the longest queue in WDW. 2) The sub's diesel engines stunk up that whole section of the park. 3) Air inside the subs was stale at best, stinky at worst. 4) If you have any claustrophobia at all, once the doors shut you are in bad shape. 5) Cheesy effects. Very unrealistic underwater items that were held in place by wires that you could see. Wow... now that sure made you think you were really underwater. Having gone on 20K Leagues once, I think the Pooh Playground is actually a step UP!!
Originally Posted By vbdad55 <I've been on record as being one of the people for the playground. They didn't take an E ticket like Space Mountain, tear it down and put in a playground. They took unused land and put in a playground. If the land was planned for an E ticket, and got the playground instead, I could understand all of the hostility. But from what I understand, there have been no rumors of an E ticket going in that spot. < I respectfully disagree that you cannot draw the direct line from 20K to the Poo pLayground -- when 20K closed it was an E ticket -- also it was said to be going down for extensie rehab - we were told upgrade of vehicles as well as effects -- that never happened. So yes, they did replace an e ticket with a playground. You cannot just wash away 20K and call it a lagoon-- they made 20K a lagoon. Roadtrip - there was a CM here who dispelled the how many people per hour issue long ago, I can;t remember which one it was, but maybe they will repost. And of Pooh is a step in the right direction -- then lets bulldoze the rest of MK and make it a jellystone park ..... Sorry, I just cannot agree that this is a step in the right direction in any way , shape or form.
Originally Posted By Kennesaw Tom I have a question. Didn't Disney put some kind of 20K image somewhere in the tree as a tribute to 20K. I was looking for an image in the tree and outside the tree back in January and wasn't sure where to find it.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip <<Roadtrip - there was a CM here who dispelled the how many people per hour issue long ago, I can;t remember which one it was, but maybe they will repost.>> That CM didn't know what he/she was talking about. <<Pressler's not completely to blame. Long before he arrived, the attraction had been earmarked for drastic changes. In fact, in 1994, while Pressler was still heading the Disney Stores division, Florida's Magic Kingdom closed its 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea attraction because of the same maintenance, capacity and labor problems that torpedoed its California counterpart. "The subs offered low capacity, but required high labor," said a former Walt Disney World ride operator. "Operating the maximum of nine subs, you needed nine drivers plus breakers, six loaders, two greeters, and one person in the queue." He said there also were problems with the water filtration system and, not a leaky lagoon as was the case at Disneyland, but leaky subs. "The subs leaked so much that eventually they had to turn the falls way down," the cast member recalled. "They tried a lot of quick fixes, like replacing the hatch areas, but that never worked.">> Source: http://www.mouseplanet.com/articles.php?art=mt010123dk
Originally Posted By Fe Maiden I thought it was in the tree above the door next to the pentagram and inverted cross.
Originally Posted By DVC_dad <<The 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ride was one of the rides that I had really wanted to do with my children.>> All is NOT lost!!! Go to DL and ride the Submarine ride there when it opens. I mean I know it isn't going to be the same old school, cheesie, underwater plastic stuff that (seriously no kidding) that I LOVED the only time I rode 20k, but still.
Originally Posted By Mickey4President I rode 20K in 1980 when I was 4. Once I got over the fact that I was scared and thought I was going to die, I loved it. The only thing I remember is getting on the submarine. We are planning a trip to DL in 2008 with the kids. Thanks about the ride info DVC_dad.
Originally Posted By Kennesaw Tom Found it! <a href="http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10367236" target="_blank">http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sect ion/story.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10367236</a> <<Parks push up Disney profits 08.02.06 By Alex Armitage NEW YORK - Profits at Walt Disney have jumped thanks to an unexpected rise in theme-park revenue. Disney has also agreed to sell a stake in its ABC radio business. First-quarter profits at America's second-biggest media company rose to US$734 million ($1 billion), or 37 cents a share, from US$686 million, or 33 cents, a year earlier. Sales rose 2.2 per cent to US$8.85 billion. Profit at the parks unit surged 51 per cent to US$375 million as people visited the US theme parks for 50th anniversary celebrations and ticket prices rose. More advertising bolstered results at the ABC television network. But profit fell at the company's film unit, which Disney chief executive Robert Iger is trying to revive with the US$7.4 billion purchase of the Pixar computer animated movie studio. "They've really hit their sweet spot at the parks," said Vic Hawley, a money manager at Los Angeles-based Reed Conner & Birdwell, which owns more than 3 million Disney shares. "Getting the anniversary going has been driving this. A little uptick in attendance gives them a lot more earnings." Disney agreed to merge its ABC radio network and 22 stations with Citadel Broadcasting in a transaction valued at about US$2.7 billion. The deal reduces Disney's stake in a slower-growing unit as advertisers and listeners flock to satellite-radio services. Disney chief financial officer Thomas Staggs reiterated the company's forecast for double-digit percentage earnings increases through 2008. Promotions for the 50th anniversary of Disneyland in Anaheim, California, helped boost parks revenue 13 per cent to US$2.4 billion, the company said. Profit at the resorts business exceeded the US$288.4 million average estimate of five analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News. "Attendance was up, restaurant and hotel lodgings were up. Theme park attendance was up," Michael Cuggino, president at Pacific Heights Asset Management in San Francisco, said. The company set a holiday-season attendance record at its US theme parks, Iger said. Higher sales of consumer goods at the parks and more expensive room rates helped bolster profit at the unit. Profit at Disney's film unit plummeted 60 per cent to US$128 million as theatre releases and home-videos failed to match last year's offerings. Revenue fell 13 per cent to US$2.05 billion. "The number of units sold was clearly down," Staggs said. "Our quarter suffered a bit because of the slate we had," he said on the conference call. Disney's The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, which opened December 9 and took in US$209 million in the quarter, was the company's top film last quarter. That gross and the US$131.7 million from Chicken Little didn't measure up to last quarter's hits including The Incredibles, National Treasure and Ladder 49. Pixar Emeryville, California-based Pixar's The Incredibles went on to become the top-selling DVD last year with US$285 million in sales after its March 2005 release, according to DVD Exclusive magazine. Disney's home video sales in the quarter fell 25 per cent to about 65 million units, Lehman Brothers analyst Vijay Jayant said. Iger said Disney would release about two Pixar films each year, an increase over Pixar's earlier goal of about one per year. Pixar will take over production of Toy Story 3, a sequel that Disney's in-house animators had been working on, Iger said. Profit at Disney's broadcasting business rose 87 per cent to US$234 million as ABC shows such as Lost and Desperate Housewives drew more viewers, letting the company raise ad prices. Profit at Disney's cable networks fell as the company deferred ESPN revenue. - BLOOMBERG >>
Originally Posted By Kennesaw Tom I'm still looking for the article that talked about Hong Kong DL and their profits.
Originally Posted By t1lersm0m <<I respectfully disagree that you cannot draw the direct line from 20K to the Poo pLayground -- >> So you're telling me they tore down 20K and put in the playground a year later? No, I don't think so. I think it was something like 10 years later. So that's a bit of a stretch. As I said, if they tore down an E ticket with the plans of putting in a playground, that's a different story. But they closed an E ticket that had way too many problems, let it rot, then filled it in, and put a playground that may be temporary, may not be temporary.
Originally Posted By t1lersm0m <<I thought it was in the tree above the door next to the pentagram and inverted cross.>> LOL! BTW, Fe Maide, report to the meets section. (sorry to interrupt this regularly scheduled program!)
Originally Posted By vbdad55 <So you're telling me they tore down 20K and put in the playground a year later? No, I don't think so. I think it was something like 10 years later. So that's a bit of a stretch. As I said, if they tore down an E ticket with the plans of putting in a playground, that's a different story. But they closed an E ticket that had way too many problems, let it rot, then filled it in, and put a playground that may be temporary, may not be temporary< Did I say a year later ? Don't try and put words in my mouth to fit your purpose. And how long was the land there sans fences and old ride structure, 18 months - not 10 years. 12 years passed between but the trees and flowers were there but a very very short period of that time. They tore down and e-ticket and we have what ? Do you hear ANYTHING regarding a replacement for the playground now - no ? Were there rumors before - yes !
Originally Posted By Kennesaw Tom I think what vbdad55 is trying to say is that when 20K was initially closed, the official word from Disney what that it was going to undergo a major retrofit and upgrade. Of course that didn't happen.
Originally Posted By DVC_dad Oh thanks for putting it into plain English for me Tom. If memory serves there was a meet and greet there actually INSIDE of the OLD 20,000 lagoon que area. I can't understand why they didn't just leave the old 20K lagoon there. It was actually beautiful to look at. Oh wait, maybe too many "squeekie wheels" to just leave it. I did enjoy the playground on our recent visit, however, reading these posts, I have decided that I am in favor of getting rid of the Pooh Spot, and putting in an E-ticket, or atleast a dark ride. Logic dictates, (correct me if I am wrong vbdad55) that the Pooh playground plans came along far after Toad's Wild Ride was taken out to put in Pooh. Otherwise does it not seem more logical to have left Toad and put a much nicer Pooh dark ride where the Playground is now? It seems like too many cooks are spoiling the soup in Fantasyland.
Originally Posted By LuvDatDisney You know ... maybe I'm missing something and all you Pooh apologists have it right. So I propose that Disney close Space Mountain at the MK as its old, rough, has cheesy sepcial effects ... and let it sit closed for ... maybe 10-11 years. THEN fill it up with those rubber balls shaped/colored as planets and asteroids and call it Buzz's Ball Crawl. Yep ... that's an E-Ticket right there.
Originally Posted By vbdad55 <I did enjoy the playground on our recent visit, however, reading these posts, I have decided that I am in favor of getting rid of the Pooh Spot, and putting in an E-ticket, or atleast a dark ride< That's the spirit.....that is what many of us are saying. That that space in Fantasyland / Magic Kingdom - WDW USA deserves more than a playground...placeholder or not.
Originally Posted By vbdad55 <I think what vbdad55 is trying to say is that when 20K was initially closed, the official word from Disney what that it was going to undergo a major retrofit and upgrade. Of course that didn't happen.< Exactly right KT -- thanks. I guess I have covered it so much in the past year or so since it happened that It is hard for me to net it out without longer diatribes on the real issue. Disney knew of all the 'issues' with the ride before they 'temporarily' closed it for rehab....if they were being honest they would have come out then. I believe there were those inside Disney who also really believed there was a chance to open an upgraded verson..and they were deceived to. The Pooh Playground did not replace a grassy knoll, it replaced an e-ticket that was temporarily shut down for 12 years.
