West Coast Rumors

[Sarangel]

Howdy Campers -

I'm just returned from a 4 day stay in the beautiful Disneyland hotel. Crowds were relatively light, but rumors were hot & heavy:

1) Rumor says that the 50th Anniversary Celebration will be centered on the Florida parks, and billed as "50 Years of Disney Theme Parks." This is not verifiable, merely rumor. There was a lot of discussion in various areas about the focus on the Florida parks, but I think I'm going to wait this one out. The re-hab of IASW is beautiful, and they're working on repainting the outside to the original white and gold scheme used in the 1964 world's fair. By next year, we should see if they've invested in building something special for DL's 50th.

2) DCA's TOT clone is supposed to get a spanish mission style exterior, and be slightly shorter than the Mailiboomer's 191 feet tall.

3) Signs of belt tightening are even more apparent in DL than in WDW. Every day that we were there, except Saturday, there were a number of DL shops and restaurants closed and shuttered. DCA was even worse, with shops and restaurants closed our entire stay. If it was me, I'd close DCA over the winter during the week & start recreating it - the numbers are way down (even Soarin' had only 30-45 minute waits) - and it is obvious to this fan that they need to do something more drastic than carny rides and clover. There was even a rumor that AP renewals are down to 40% - which means Disney has succeeded in alienating it's bread & butter fan base.

4) There is a rumor that Tom Sawyer's Island will close altogether. Certainly, there is something going on... We saw over 1/2 of the island fenced off (reportedly due to deferred maintenance) and numerous markings on structures like, "cut here" and "tree trunk railing here" which may indicate that they intend to rehab it instead of close it altogether.

As for the state of the parks, construction continues on what we suppose to be "Pooh" on the site of Country Bears, Sleeping Beauty's castle & the Carousel are still closed for rehab, and it looks like the carousel has been completely torn down. They were painting Gadget's Go Coaster while we were there, which is long overdue.

Sarangel

 

[Luv2Roam]

Interesting!
Thanks for the update!

 

[Bob O]

Sad to hear of the cutbacks at DL and DCA!!!! I hope it doesnt impact my upcoming visit too much!!

 

[mrtoadslastride]

Originally posted by Sarangel
construction continues on what we suppose to be "Pooh" on the site of Country Bears

There aren't any rumors suggesting that they may be putting in something different than Pooh? Are the legal battles going that badly?

Thanks for the update!

 

[Sarangel]

No rumors to support it, but I'm going to make the assumption that the legal battle will not go well, since Disney is already in trouble for shredding documents relating to it. It would be our luck if they built Pooh & then had an injunction against using it.

Sarangel

 

[AKemel]

2) DCA's TOT clone is supposed to get a spanish mission style exterior, and be slightly shorter than the Mailiboomer's 191 feet tall.

From Disney Insider Page 2
"Getting the Shaft
You can check into the spooky new hotel at Disney's California Adventure ... but will you ever leave?

When the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror opens its doors, and elevators, to guests at Disney's California Adventure in 2004, it'll be a somewhat different attraction than the one that's been thrilling daredevils at Disney-MGM Studios in Florida since 1994.



Tales of mysterious goings-on at a Hollywood hotel and the jolting 13-story drops will be familiar. But the new tower's location, next to the Hyperion Theater in Hollywood Pictures Backlot, prompted Imagineers to redesign the facility.



What they ended up with is a Hollywood Tower Hotel supposedly built in 1928 (legend has it that the Walt Disney World hotel was built in 1917) and designed in a Southwest, Pueblo Deco style of architecture (similar to Los Angeles's City Hall, seen in countless old police series like "Dragnet" and "Adam-12"). This version has three operational elevators (Disney-MGM Studios has two) as well as one completely new effect: All we can say about that at this early date is that it involves disappearing Guests!



"There are some changes," says Imagineer Cory Sewelson, who worked on the original Tower of Terror and is now heading up the design team on the new version. "But rest assured, the screaming will be the same."

Link:http://disney.go.com/insider/today/page2.html

 

[Another Voice]

According to “rumors” – Epcot will be the centerpiece for “50 Years of Disney Vacation Magic”. The celebration around Disneyland itself will be a rather small affair – most likely a new parade. At the moment, forget about all those rumors about redoing Disneyland’s E-ticket rides. It was never a serious plan to begin with (just some PR move to paper over getting rid of Marty) but it seems that the current management is dropping even that pretext. At best, the park will be “freshened” up along the lines of the recent ‘Pirates’ and ‘Small World’ rehabs. Kind of sad when “freshen” means to simply clean, dust and repaint to a standard that was the norm fifteen years ago. The internal justification for the “global” celebration is that Disney makes more money off an attendance boost at WDW than it would off increasing Disneyland’s attendance.

These plans are coming from the current management. In all likelihood that group will be long gone by 2005 and others with more of interest in doing things right will reverse the situation by then. Expect things to change.

On other notes, Disneyland’s carousel was so decayed and filled with wood rot (the phrase “it broke apart when we touched it” has been heard) from a decade of neglect that the entire thing has been destroyed and is being rebuilt (over the rumored objections from Burbank). Some of the horses will remain; some will be replaced by accessible seating on the new carousel. Work is proceeding very slowly (due to budgets) and the current plan is get something in place around Thanksgiving.

Work on ‘Pooh’ continues. At this point the attraction should be ready just about the same time the lawsuit finally goes to trial which is why there has been no publicity about the attraction. Prospects for Disney retaining the license for Pooh without an out-of-court settlement look very bleak and there is no indication that any kind of arrangement can be reached. There’s even been some whispering that a certain computer animation company in Northern California is interested in picking up the rights for a feature film; just a tweak back at the studio that ripped them off for years. As for the ride someone said the attraction itself is so generic and so cut-out based that rethemeing it would be very easy to do (it’s been rumored to have been described “it’s as cheap as we can make without having it become a fire hazard”).

Work continues of the ‘Tower of Mild Unease' over at DCA. There are rumors of another round of budget cuts to the pre-show lobby. It was kind of funny to watch the Travel Show show and everyone gloating about how impressive the ‘Tower of Terror’ ride vehicle is. None of those features will be included in the California or Paris versions of the attraction. There are other rumors that Disneyland is simply stopping all work at DCA pending the management change up in Burbank. The feeling is that all they’ve been doing for the last year and half is throwing good money after bad. Rather than gutting Disneyland any further to tinker with Eisner’s park, they are going to wait for a management with the interest and the ability to make the changes required to turn the place around.

One last tidbit is that Disney has exercised an early cancellation clause in the contract with ‘Blast!’ and is kicking them out of California Adventure. They are putting in a half sized prototype of the proposed ‘Aladdin’ Broadway musical for a trial run.

On the good news front – most of the plans and rumors will be changed when the new management takes over. A lot of people already have the champagne chilling for that day…

 

[Captain Crook]

A lot of people already have the champagne chilling for that day.

That wouldn't include you would it Mr. Voice???

 

[Bstanley]

It certainly sounds like the there will be new management sooner rather than later. Is this wishful thinking or more?

 

[raidermatt]

The wood rot in the carousel is pretty well known now, but my question is, in retrospect, how big of a safety hazard was this attraction? From the reports, it almost sounds as if the roof could have collapsed if Tinkerbell had flown too close... I know they ignored maintenance for a long time, but didn't they do periodic structural safety inspections?

Would a new managment team have a chance to save the Pixar relationship in some form? I know your only as good as your next movie, but Pixar is the undisputed king of the computer animation genre right now...

‘Tower of Mild Unease'

The feeling is that all they’ve been doing for the last year and half is throwing good money after bad. Rather than gutting Disneyland any further to tinker with Eisner’s park, they are going to wait for a management with the interest and the ability to make the changes required to turn the place around.

Hopefully, they are able to stall and the positive changes come tp pass.

On the good news front – most of the plans and rumors will be changed when the new management takes over.