News

• Destination D23 Announcements

• Every show should begin with a round of self-congratulations.  On last Monday’s show we were throwing around potential names for the next Disney ship.  And on Saturday Disney confirmed that one of the names we suggested - the Disney Adventure - would be the name of the next ship in the fleet (the Golden Dream).
  
• We’re going to tackle these in a specific order.  And that order is ‘most likely to happen’ to ‘we should live so long as to see this open’
  

• Figment meet & greet has already opened in EPCOT, with only minor injuries so far
  
• Original Soarin’ over California to replace Soarin’ Around the World starts this week, September 22
  
• Journey of Water Inspired by Moana will open October 16, 2023

• There’ll be a Moana meet and greet with that
  

• Hatbox Ghost debuts in MK Haunted Mansion in late November, 2023
  
  
• EPCOT’s new fireworks show, Luminous - The Symphony of Us - opens December 5, 2023
  
  
• World Celebration will open in EPCOT in December, 2023
  
  
• Ahsoka will be added to Star Tours at DHS, Disneyland, and DLP Spring 2024
  
• Country Bear Jamboree to get new script and songs (Disney songs) in 2024:

• And ‘Liver Lips” gets a name change.
  
  
  

• New Zootopia Show for Tree of Life
  
• New Pirates of the Caribbean Lounge experience
  
  
  
• Test Track will be re-imagined with concepts from the original World of Motion

• Jim, a couple of things here.  The last Test Track update was in 2012, so assuming Chevrolet had a 10-year contract, this is the right timeline for the next update.  That makes sense.
  
  But we all believe, right, that Disney was trying to tie the last Test Track update to the release of the TRON sequel and the TRON: Uprising TV series.  TRON: Legacy came out in late 2010 and TRON: Uprising ran during this last Test Track update.  
  
  Given that we know it takes years for Disney to make these kinds of decisions and do the work, Disney had to be thinking about this in like 2008, when both TRON projects were already in development.  You can’t convince me otherwise.  
  
  But if that’s the case, then I think we can all agree that this last update did not move the needle in terms of Test Track’s popularity.  Part of the problem, I think, is that there are no memorable scenes in the current version of the ride: it’s very sleek, no doubt. But there’s no story, no narrative, and that’s what Disney does really well.  Right now the things that most people are going to remember are either the ride breakdowns, or the ride outside that goes really fast.
  
  And that’s what I like about this re-do. It gives Disney a chance to re-think the whole ride’s narrative, build an actual story, and maybe work on the ride’s reliability while they’re at it.

• Encanto and Indiana Jones for a Dinoland makeover to ‘Tropical Americas’ at the Animal Kingdom

Jim, we all know that the ride system for Dinosaur is really similar to the one used in the Disneyland Indiana Jones attraction.  And I think the concern that I have is one that’s shared by a lot of theme park fans: the temptation to take the cheapest, easiest route here and just copy the Disneyland Indiana Jones ride for Animal Kingdom.  

And that would be disappointing. For one thing, Disneyland’s ride is 30 years old.  A lot of theme park fans have already been on it, so there’d be little reason to make a special trip to Florida to ride it.  Like, I’m 100% sure I wouldn’t ride it more than once, because I’ve already experienced it both as Indiana Jones and as Dinosaur.  And that wouldn’t address the ride’s major faults, which is that it’s too jarring, too scary, and too loud for families.

But again, this is a huge opportunity for Disney.  They can tone the ride down a bit (which would make it more family-friendly and draw more guests to that part of the park), and come up with a completely new story with new effects (look at what they’re doing with projection mapping at Mystic Manor), and maybe some new ride paths, and give people a reason to visit this attraction.  

Not only that, but think of the pressure that a great new ride would take off of Pandora and Kilimanjaro Safaris.  It would be part of the park’s “four corners” traffic management strategy, which they only have 3 of right now (Pandora, Everest, and the Safaris).  Plus it would take pressure off of whatever they’re doing with Encanto.  And it would address some of the “teen” market that Universal is grabbing over at IOA.  Like, that’s a lot of stuff addressed in potentially one ride.

• Bruce Vaughan says the “Beyond Big Thunder Mountain” expansion is the largest ever for the MK:
  
  

• For reference, New Fantasyland added 26 acres to the MK, bringing it from 107 to 133 acres.
  
• So let’s say 30 acres for BBTM. That’s a size increase of 22%, which is huuuuuge.
  
• Not for nothing, but this is the kind of project Bruce Vaughn was brought back for.  The overlays, the updates to existing attractions, that’s not why Disney wanted Bruce and it’s definitely not why Bruce came back to Imagineering. He came back for projects like this.
  
• The imagineers we’ve talked to who worked with Bruce say it was the most creative, productive, and rewarding part of their careers. So I think he’s got buy-in from his team.  

Surveys

Listener Questions

From Holly Kesterson:

Just wanted to send a quick note of thanks for mentioning the new Play, Stay and Enjoy/Disney Dining Promo Card deal at WDW during this week's podcast. I had not heard about it. By moving our February trip 2 days earlier, we were able to save a few dollars on the same vacation package AND get a $720 gift card for food. I am absolutely giddy. You and Jim are the best!

From Rich Howard:

Love the show and really appreciate any time you have to answer our trip planning question.

My family and I are headed on our first trip to Disneyland in late January (22nd-25th) 2024 and putting together our touring plan. With the announcement of the expanded queue at Haunted Mansion and discussion with Jim on the September 4th Disney Dish, what are your thoughts on if the Mansion will be up and running during our trip (either Holiday or classic version)?

Len: Normally you’d think that all the holiday stuff would come down around the first week of January.  But this year, Disneyland extended the holiday overlay at Mansion by 3 weeks, through January 30, 2023.  

And in 2020, Mansion closed for refurbishment on January 21. So your trip, Rich, is right in the middle of that period where Disney normally closes the attraction.  My guess is that they’ll use the same time of year to add these new queues and other enhancements.  Which is a good news/bad news situation, right?  The bad news is that you might not see the Haunted Mansion … on this trip.  The good news is that this is the perfect excuse to plan another trip to Disneyland.  

Our friend Adrian Vanzulli writes in with a follow-up to our question last week about Bippity Boppity Boutique on the Disney Cruise Line ships:

A couple hundred dollars in stateroom charges tells me the answer is YES. Our 10-year old saved money, researched all of the available options, and had her makeover on the Dream during our transatlantic sailing this past May. The Fairy Godmothers actually shared that had capacity to do up to 96 reservations per day.

And that’s not the only email we got from the Vanzulli family.  Emily writes in with this:

Of course it’s outdated and cheesy and whatever else you want to say. But there’s also nothing that brings out my Disney childhood nostalgia like the Electrical Parade. This music was my favorite record as a small child and I’d run around our family room in circles listening to it. As a preteen, I went to a special passholder event at Disneyland, and the only thing I remember from that night was the headline feature of getting to see and touch an Electrical Parade float and even look inside at the controls.

Disney makes its money off of adult nostalgia. We aren’t huge parade people, but at WDW we’d always stop for the Electrical Parade. Only our older two kids remember it, and if they bring it back to WDW (with or without some updates) we would absolutely consider another trip next year instead of letting our passes lapse.  

Look, if we’re talking about nostalgia, the Tiki Room is objectively terrible and a wee bit culturally offensive, but I still have a deep soothing of my soul whenever I sit down and hear that music start, and it’s more than just the air conditioning.

Long live the Electrical Parade!

Len: Jim, as I was reading that letter, the image in my mind is of Disney’s marketing team listening to the show just as they’re sitting down for lunch, then jumping up and running for their laptops, small, crustless sandwiches, paper,  and interns flying everywhere.  

From Paul Matheson, which, to make it sound authoritative, I’m calling A Reading from Paul’s Letter to the Phoenicians:

Before I tell you my crazy idea, whenever I start a sentence with 'I have a crazy idea...' my wife cringes because 99.44% of the time they are idiotic, but 0.56% of the time they are really goode.

Here goes... a Rocketeer themed flying coaster built over Autopia. Disney could use a few more thrill rides, Rocketeer esthetic works perfectly in Tomorrowland, a prone flying style coaster could work with Rocketeer (the restraint looks like his arms holding you in front of him), and if built over Autopia would provide much needed

shade. The huge amount of real estate for Autopia does double duty and it could get a 1920's era Los Angeles freeway retheme.

Len: Before we talk about Paul’s idea, Jim, let’s pause a second for all of the Disney Imagineers who jumped up out of their chairs to find a pencil and paper.  Folks, if you hit the “rewind 15 seconds” button a couple of times on your phone, you’ll get back to where Paul’s letter started.

Research/Patents (use query "disney enterprises".as AND "theme park".ab)