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Envisioning a new Disney’s Hollywood Studios

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There have been a number of different rumors about the changes coming to Disney’s Hollywood Studios should the company decide to spend a few bucks fixing it up. The photo above and descriptions below are a compilation of what a few sources have told me plus a dose of what seems most likely just based on my experience with Disney World’s expansion history.

First, why would Disney be willing to spend a princely sum on Disney’s Hollywood Studios. They’ve just spent a half-billion dollars on expanding Fantasyland, somewhere north of two billion on the next-gen technology that’s bringing us Fastpass+ and MyMagic+, and have committed to building Avatarland, which might approach a billion dollars before all is said and done there as well (I’m including relocating Festival of the Lion King in that total).

There are a number of things lining up that point to DHS getting some TLC soon.

  • First Avatar-land has been delayed, so that bucket of money is potentially available to be shifted to DHS.
  • There is a growing awareness amongst Disney World managers that next-gen won’t be an attendance driver for the parks and resorts.
  • DHS has had problems keeping guests in the park after mid-afternoon. With Universal Orlando adding even more attractions, Disney is worried about losing one day of the Disney vacation to Universal.
  • Lastly, since the Lucasfilm addition, Disney has made clear that they’ll be looking to the parks to help capitalize on the new Star Wars properties. The Star Wars Weekends have been huge successes, particularly when it comes to selling merchandise, and Disney wants to attract that crowd all year long.

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My Kid’s in American Idol Experience as part of Limited Time Magic Junior Performers

My son Indigo made it onto American Idol Experience as part of the Limited Time Magic Junior Performers. He’ll be in the 6pm show tonight. We hope to get a large group to come to Hollywood Studios and cheer him on. Please come on down… Read More »My Kid’s in American Idol Experience as part of Limited Time Magic Junior Performers

DisneyNature Presents Bears

BEARS

This Earth Day DisneyNature invites you to visit the incredible world of Bears. It’s the newest film in the tradition of Walt Disney’s True Life Adventure films and possibly their best yet.

Promising an epic story of breathtaking scale, Disneynature’s Bears showcases a year in the life of a bear family as two impressionable young cubs are taught life’s most important lessons. Set against a majestic Alaskan backdrop teeming with life, their journey begins as winter comes to an end and the bears emerge from hibernation to face the bitter cold. The world outside is exciting—but risky—as the cubs’ playful descent down the mountain carries with it a looming threat of avalanches. As the season changes from spring to summer, the brown bears must work hard to find food—ultimately feasting at a plentiful salmon run—while staying safe from rival male bears and predators, including an ever-present wolf pack. “Bears” captures the fast-moving action and suspense of life in one of the planet’s last great wildernesses—Alaska!

Disneynature’s Bears opens in theaters in time for Earth Day on April 18, 2014.Read More »DisneyNature Presents Bears

Disney Cruise Line Becomes A True Fleet

If you have a fleet of ships, you really need a Commodore to unite them. For years Tom Forberg has been the defacto maritime head of Disney Cruise Lines. He’s played a key role in the creation of each of the four ships and was… Read More »Disney Cruise Line Becomes A True Fleet

Disney-wear: New Shirts at Downtown Disney

Please make it stop!

Dropped in on Downtown Disney the other day to check in on construction progress. Turns out not so much. But I did spot some fun new t-shirts with a pocket, a great set of winter sweaters (I know it’s only August, but it will get cooler soon), and more.

I promise to have more from Downtown Disney soon, but in the meantime, here’s the latest Disney-Wear for you to enjoy.

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Bring to Walt Disney World: The Hyperloop

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This week crazy-like-a-fox billionaire businessman Elon Musk introduced his latest revolutionary concept, the Hyperloop, and then gave it away to the masses as an open source project. Musk’s previous successes include Paypal (without which much online transactions wouldn’t happen), Tesla (an electric car company that’s profitable for a change), SpaceX (a private company that is helping NASA get payloads into space with an eventual goal of Mars(!)), and SolarCity (affordable solar panels for home and business; It remains to be seen if this will fall into the success category, but it seems likely with a net positive in the profit column last quarter).

Hollywood director Jon Favreau has said he modeled his version of Tony Stark, aka Marvel’s Iron Man, at least in part after Musk. But I think Tony Stark is the wrong model. Musk reminds me more of late period Walt Disney, when Walt had his eye on the future, not just of entertainment and the Disney Company, but of the planet as a whole and improving the lives of those who live on it. His gained steam with Monorails (mass transit), moved onto PeopleMovers (person rapid transit (PRT)), and dabbled in energy efficiency and recycling. Then Walt united all his theories and took on the mother of all urban planning projects – EPCOT, the experimental prototype community of tomorrow. With EPCOT, Walt wanted to build a working community where he could partner with industrial explorers with a similar vision for the future.

That is essentially the same vision as Elon Musk; which is why I think there is a natural partnership between Musk, his companies, and The Walt Disney Company. To get started, create the partnership for the purposes of building a working prototype of the Hyperloop at Walt Disney World. Musk, or his team, would be involved enough to oversee things, but most of the R&D would be left to Walt Disney Imagineering. The resulting prototype would be a great first step to making a full scale Hyperloop a feasible project to get past local and state governments.

Disney’s Imagineers already have much of the expertise needed to build such a system. They have experience with air-bearings (from the Flying Saucers ride in 60s to the revisited version at DCA), mass transit systems (Monorail, PeopleMover, etc.) and for years they used a garbage disposal system at the Magic Kingdom that magically whisked away trash right from the curb side down an air pressure driven pipe. They also have good contacts in the coaster and mass transit construction industries, so finding suppliers would not be difficult. Read More »Bring to Walt Disney World: The Hyperloop

Magic Kingdom – Photo Update, The Slow Pace of Change

Work on the sidewalk infront of the Emporium has expanded

Yesterday we took a walk around the construction site for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train roller coaster. Lots of work being done, even if it’s slow. Slow is the theme for the rest of the Magic Kingdom as well. Lots of stuff going on, but nothing much is happening fast.

So let’s head out on our photo update and see what’s new since our last trip around the park:

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Intervention Convention in Rockville, MD

Friend of the blog Onezumi is an organizor of Intervention, a visionary combination of educational conference, art exhibition, and gaming convention that returns to Rockville, MD this Aug. 23-25, 2013 for its fourth year. Its goal? To Intervene and Inspire the whole family to take advantage of what they can do with creativity and technology. Many guest speakers will attend – and, in keeping with the convention’s focus all of the guests are creators who have made a name for themselves by using the Internet to build their fan base. Sounds like something I would love.

This year new guest speakers include Mark Frauenfelder, the founder of the incredibly popular online site BoingBoing and Editor-in-Chief of MAKE magazine; Ex-Disney / Nickelodeon animator Raul Aguirre, Jr. also joins the event from the Man vs. Art podcast; Paul Sabourin of the music group “Paul and Storm” will be on panels and workshops; and Pete Abrams of the popular webcomic Sluggy Freelance returns along with numerous other art and comics professionals.
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