All Aboard
Por favor mantengan se alejado de las puertas
- Joined
- Oct 21, 1999
I'm not sure where this discussion is right now. Are we debating the quality of AK again? Are we debating the necessity of AK? Are we talking future parks v. future attractions? Are we discussing attraction loading speeds and their impact on crowds? I guess it's a little of all of this.
Landbaron knows that I am a proponent of continued park development. But, (as I insert a caveat here) at a very slow and protracted pace. I speak more from a selfish standpoint. Most of you know that I spend about 30-40 days a year in the WDW parks. Clearly, more parks would offer us the opportunity to spread out time around more.
Wait, is it "clearly"?
Not if the offerings don't "do" it for us. And, unfortuneately AK doesn't "do" it for us. We have spent such little time in AK this year that it's a bit scary. On our most recent trip earlier this month, we shot over to AK at the end of our last day (Sunday) rode Dinosaur once, tried out the soft opening of Tricertaop Spin, got in the car and headed back to Miami. In fact, on our next three day weekend, I don't have AK in the plans at all. What's the problem? Well, we are also annual passholders at Miami Metrozoo & Parrot Jungle. Walking through the treks, trails & taking the safari offer us little that we can't get in our own back yard. Kali has lost it's novelty, ITTBAB (like Muppetvision) is close to "been-there-done-that" status, and then there's... well there really isn't much left. It'll take a BK to get us to spend any significant time there in the future.
It seems that Disney put lots of dollars into places at AK where there is not much payoff. Take the Tree of Life for example the animal carvings are magnificent - but how many folks do you hear raving about that? I think guests want outstanding attractions. They want to be wowed at every level. There is very little at AK that does that.
Now, if WDW dropped an IOA on property, they'd get many repeat visits from us. And Disney is clearly capable of that kind of park.
From a business perspective, I'd be very concerned that Central Florida is coming very close to capacity. Just how many more theme parks can be justified? The bottom line for me is that the best course of action for the foreseeable (10 year) future is to beef up the four existing offerings and backburner any plans of a 5th gate.
Confused? Me too.
As to loading times for Test Track. Peter Captain, I don't think that loading time is the chief cause of TT's long lines. Instead I think it is purely popularity. Earlier in the month, I timed the interval of cars whizzing by on the Track. Seems to be a fairly consistent 12 seconds. That's 5 cars a minute, each with a load of 6 guests. So, 30 guests a minute translates to 1800 guests per hour (barring breakdowns) and while I'm no expert, I think that's pretty good.
Landbaron knows that I am a proponent of continued park development. But, (as I insert a caveat here) at a very slow and protracted pace. I speak more from a selfish standpoint. Most of you know that I spend about 30-40 days a year in the WDW parks. Clearly, more parks would offer us the opportunity to spread out time around more.
Wait, is it "clearly"?
Not if the offerings don't "do" it for us. And, unfortuneately AK doesn't "do" it for us. We have spent such little time in AK this year that it's a bit scary. On our most recent trip earlier this month, we shot over to AK at the end of our last day (Sunday) rode Dinosaur once, tried out the soft opening of Tricertaop Spin, got in the car and headed back to Miami. In fact, on our next three day weekend, I don't have AK in the plans at all. What's the problem? Well, we are also annual passholders at Miami Metrozoo & Parrot Jungle. Walking through the treks, trails & taking the safari offer us little that we can't get in our own back yard. Kali has lost it's novelty, ITTBAB (like Muppetvision) is close to "been-there-done-that" status, and then there's... well there really isn't much left. It'll take a BK to get us to spend any significant time there in the future.
It seems that Disney put lots of dollars into places at AK where there is not much payoff. Take the Tree of Life for example the animal carvings are magnificent - but how many folks do you hear raving about that? I think guests want outstanding attractions. They want to be wowed at every level. There is very little at AK that does that.
Now, if WDW dropped an IOA on property, they'd get many repeat visits from us. And Disney is clearly capable of that kind of park.
From a business perspective, I'd be very concerned that Central Florida is coming very close to capacity. Just how many more theme parks can be justified? The bottom line for me is that the best course of action for the foreseeable (10 year) future is to beef up the four existing offerings and backburner any plans of a 5th gate.
Confused? Me too.
As to loading times for Test Track. Peter Captain, I don't think that loading time is the chief cause of TT's long lines. Instead I think it is purely popularity. Earlier in the month, I timed the interval of cars whizzing by on the Track. Seems to be a fairly consistent 12 seconds. That's 5 cars a minute, each with a load of 6 guests. So, 30 guests a minute translates to 1800 guests per hour (barring breakdowns) and while I'm no expert, I think that's pretty good.