It seems different enough it should have it’s own name. You don’t hear the iconic Fantasmic strains until 2 minutes into the show. Overall, I’m impressed at the grandeur and beauty of the show. Seems like a worthy successor to the sad sack of a show we have out here in Orlando, if they could ever scrape together the budget to do improve it.
Instead of relying only on water projections the show has what appears to be a giant cone of LEDs (think like the globe in Illuminations, but easier to see) for animations. This being Tokyo DisneySea there has to be giant water floats. Which they put to really creative use in terms of lighting and choreography.
There are a lot of other great surprises… which you can see yourself in the video of the show. You have to see how they did the dragon on part two. Wow.
As I’ve mentioned before, Disney’s T-shirt designers have been doing a great job rolling out fun t-shirts that capture the sort of nostalgia I feel for the Disney brand of old. So if I can’t have the Disney of my youth back, I can at pretend that I can when I wear these.
Here are a few Disney recently added to Walt Disney World’s growing catalog:
As if there was any argument.
This t-shirt cleverly reads “Mousetaches – the key to any disguise”… get it.
While Tokyo Disneyland has opened and Tokyo DisneySea draws closer to regular operations, much of northeast Japan is still dealing with the after effects of the twin earthquake and tsunami devastation. It’s nice to read a report of Disney sending some of its cast of… Read More »Disney characters make special trip to Japan’s Tsunami Evacuees
The Walt Disney World Resort just released an interesting report that looks at the economic influence Team Mickey had on Florida in FY 2009 (which ended Oct 2009).
The $18.2 billion in annual economic activity generated locally by Walt Disney Parks and Resorts accounts for a staggering 2.5 percent of the gross domestic product for the entire state.
Of the 7.2 million Floridians in the workforce in 2009, more than one out of every 50 had a job that can be directly or indirectly tied to the operations of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts. Locally, 6 percent of all jobs in Central Florida can be attributed to Disney’s operations.
Those are some big numbers. But it has to be put in perspective. The end of 2007 saw a contraction of Florida’s economy that only grew worse through 2008 and 2009. While housing and auto sales plummeted dramatically, tourism was not as impacted as an industry. So Disney’s percentage of the GDP for the entire state is probably inflated. Similarly the percentage of the workforce.
Is it a little manipulative for Disney to release these numbers right now or justified crowing about legitimate economic impact? Let’s call it Mickeynomics – a little of both.
Sure without Disney, Florida’s economy would really be in a shithole. But to pick those particular numbers to crow about without sharing how that compares to similar numbers in a healthy economy is less than straightforward. Still, can you blame them?
Now let’s look into the near future a bit.
2011 is shaping up to be a lot like 2008. Gas prices are rising, which threatens to impact Disney’s family vacation based business. But 2011 is different than 2008 in that we’re coming out a recession, not heading in.
I have a theory about gas prices. When planning a vacation, families are actually more concerned with the overall cost of the vacation than the price at the pump. As gas prices go up so do airline tickets, making it significantly more expensive to fly a family of four to Orlando. So expensive that driving, the time it takes, and the wear and tear on the car begins to look like a better option. If you do the math, it actually is far less expensive.
This economic equation means families who live within a days drive of Disney World are now more likely to drive to Disney for a vacation instead of flying somewhere (Mexico or the West Coast, for instance). That’s new traffic for Disney, and it can actually come close to replacing the volume of visitors who live more than a days drive away and are instead choosing to vacation closer to home.
What Disney saw in 2008 was that those who drive, tended to stay in Orlando a day or two longer on average. But they didn’t travel as frequently throughout the year, rather they saved it up for one long vacation. This means that the number of visitors to the parks only declines slightly, and it also tends to spread the visits out over the whole year. That’s the pattern we saw in 2008 and 2009 and the pattern we’re seeing now.
My only question is with the economic recovery just barely underway, are families saving more and passing on travel this year in order to rebuild their savings? What Disney needs is for the Southeast US to recover quicker than the rest of the nation. Those are the customers Disney World needs to covet for the foreseeable future. DVC members are already locked in, but everyone else wants maximum entertainment value for their vacation dollar. Disney can provide that, but they must continue to offer the highest quality as well.
I’m sure Disney would prefer to continue to ween its market off the discounts it offered in 2008 and 2009 to bring in business, so the only other option is improved entertainment value. To me this means, more rides per capita, more shows and parades, tastier food options, longer park hours, and better festivals. I think we’re seeing some of this already. What else would you like to see Disney do, excluding discounts, to increase the value for your travel dollar?
Read the rest of the 2009 Mickeynomic numbers released by Disney below the cut:
Starting in the lobby, there is a great new ‘mosaic’ on the floor. The 1901 is a hidden reference to the year of Walt Disney’s birth. Thankfully Disney has resisted the urge to use every square foot of the lobby for selling things. The lobby, as it stands now, has a good balance between the waiting area for Tony’s restaurant, the photo shop, and the entrance to the meet and greet queues. The flow worked nicely.
If you look in the door of the queue to see how long the wait is, you’ll get a pretty good feel for the Mickey Mouse queue. As I mentioned, it never grew over 10 minutes the Saturday we were there. But if you look to the back and see no queue for the princesses, keep in mind that there is an extra hidden room that hides a wait of up to 35 minutes (depending on Fastpass volume). I know the princesses are only in this location temporarily, but this blue room is worse than soulless, it’s mind numbing. Can they at least bring in one or two monitors and some wall art like they had in the old location? Better yet, have a play area for the kids and a queue for the adults like at Pooh.
Once you get through this area, you may have an even longer wait in the single room for the Princesses. Which brings me to my other chief complaint about the Princess Meet and Greet. Because there is only one room for the Princesses (as far as I could tell), they only way to speed up the queue is to reduce the interaction time with each Princess. The day I went the queue was pretty small (never longer than 30 minutes) so the the Princesses were generous with their time. But I can see pressure turning this into a photo factory.
Alright follow me below the jump back to Mickey, where the magic is happening:
The new Mickey Mouse shaped soap dispenser from Method is fun looking and sure to be a perfect addition to any Disney fan’s home. We’re users of Method here and will definitely be ordering a couple of these for ourselves. Available online at Amazon.com. Couple… Read More »Mickey Mouse Shaped Soap Dispenser
As you may have heard Mickey and Minnie are moving to a new meet and greet location in Town Square at the recently renamed, but not yet open, Town Square Theater. We posted recently about how this will be the first character meet and greet to feature a Fastpass option. There is still quite a bit of construction going on around the area, but rumors of exactly how the Fastpass system will work are beginning to circulate.
