Disney Finally Asks the Right Questions

Since I’ve been covering Disney theme parks for six years now, I’ve thought about something more than most.

However, my thought is far from unique in that every Disney park official idly debates it.

I presume they repeatedly have internal conflicts on the topic because there’s no easy answer.

Thankfully, park strategists have finally reached the conclusion I hoped for, although I’m not crazy about the outcome.

Yes, Disney is asking the right questions, which has led to the first of what I suspect are many upcoming park changes.

“Why Are We Wasting This Space?”

Do you have a room in your house where your junk goes to die?

When we moved into our house, I stuck a bunch of boxes in two closets and our garage. Now, I’m afraid to enter any of those places.

Once upon a time, Walt Disney World officials did something similar.

In the build-up to the opening of Magic Kingdom, park planners had no idea how they would populate an entire theme park.

Magic Kingdom possesses much more space than Disneyland Park, and it’s so open-ended that it could easily expand further.

That’s why we’ll get Villains Land around 2029. Disney’s just throwing it on the backside of Big Thunder Mountain.

So, the best ideas that Disney had in the early 1970s were for places like Country Bear Jamboree and Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room.

Alas, those attractions have lost some of their popularity over time.

A few years ago, a site infamously suffered a very public smackdown from Disney itself over a claim about the Tiki Room closing.

Disney has no interest in doing that to an opening day attraction. Modifications are perfectly acceptable, though.

Thus, Tiki Room briefly had a re-theme that didn’t work. So, Disney threw it out and returned to the old thing.

Meanwhile, the changes at Country Bear Musical Jamboree have proven successful enough.

That attraction’s wait times have nearly quadrupled since the change. Ergo, it’s exponentially more popular now.

That’s the question I’m guessing park officials debate a lot. “Why are we wasting this space?”

The old version of Country Bear Jamboree had stopped being a draw. So, Disney changed it.

You can imagine how park officials evaluate newer experiences that aren’t a draw.

Cars and Villains

Earlier this week, park officials made a decision that may strike you as perplexing. I can assure you it’s easily defensible, though.

Nearly six years ago, I discussed the opening of an exciting new attraction called Lightning McQueen’s Racing Academy.

At the time, I described it as a “unique interactive show that your kids will adore.” That’s still how I’d describe it today.

Over the years, Disney’s Hollywood Studios has tried to hype the show as much as possible.

This attraction was even one of the first returning experiences in 2020.

You could do exactly 13 things at the park that summer, and Lightning McQueen’s Racing Academy was one of them.

The past tense applies here, as Disney casually put a dagger in that show on Monday.

As MickeyBlog’s Madison Owens reported, Lightning McQueen’s Racing Academy will host its final performance on October 7^th.

Hollywood Studios will replace this space on Sunset Boulevard with a show themed to Disney Villains.

You can evaluate this move from two perspectives. The first is that the D23 announcement of a Villains themed land went over well.

In fact, audiences relished it so much that Disney didn’t want to keep fans waiting for another five years.

Instead, the show will entertain guests as a short-term substitute.

As such, I’d expect it to last about the same length of time as Lightning McQueen’s Racing Academy.

The second is that Disney may not want to confuse the narrative by hosting Cars experiences at Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios.

Then again, if that’s an issue, why will Disney Villains go in the same space?

That IP will have a place at the same two parks, presuming the show remains until 2029-2030.

The rationale circles back to that same question.

Seriously. “Why are we wasting this space?”

In case you haven’t heard, Disney is currently re-theming DinoLand USA to the Tropical Americas.

The new section will include attractions based on the iconic Indiana Jones brand and the thriving Encanto franchise.

At Magic Kingdom, Disney will pave paradise and put up a parking lot where Tom Sawyer Island and the Rivers of America are right now.

Then, we have the fear factor of Hollywood Studios possibly closing Muppets Courtyard forever.

I hold out hope that Disney cares more about the late Jim Henson’s legacy than that, but we’ll see.

All these changes, even the ones that aren’t determined yet, underscore the same thought process.

Park officials have reversed course on generations of established theme park design philosophies.

Nowadays, underperformance in a space is unacceptable. Disney doesn’t care what the attraction is.

If we’re not discussing an opening day attraction at Magic Kingdom, an underachiever will go on the chopping block.

We should have already known this when The Great Movie Ride closed in 2017. Recent actions have made it clear, though.

Hollywood Studios added a new, better attraction, Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway, to great success.

So, Disney will run the same play with the soon-to-be-extinct Lightning McQueen’s Racing Academy.

If something doesn’t draw, Disney executives want to know if something better might.

Along those lines, any wasted space is up for grabs for a new attraction.

Not coincidentally, recent rumors have arisen involving the return of an attraction at the former Stitch’s Great Escape.

Why? Everyone visits Tomorrowland and walks by that building every day.

Therefore, Disney officials wonder, “Why are we wasting that space?”

Where the Answer Leads

Folks, I am warning you right now that I know where this leads.

The Disney that you’ve known all your life is about to change. That’s because executives have accepted a fact.

As a business, Disney cannot chase its storied theme park history. That’s a losing play.

Some attractions will always remain sacred because their lineage traces back to Walt Disney.

Everything else falls into the same bucket as Lightning McQueen’s Racing Academy.

When a professional athlete fails to produce, the team cuts them. If a business division underperforms, layoffs occur.

Disney theme parks haven’t faced that fate to anywhere near the same extent due to the sacrosanct nature of the attractions.

Well, that’s changing. Now, even newer attractions, ones that opened as recently as 2019, aren’t safe.

I mean, Lightning McQueen’s Racing Academy is younger than Pandora – The World of Avatar and almost exactly the same age as Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.

We’re talking about something that Disney designed to last for a while. Instead, it’s suffered the same fate as Harmonious and KiteTails.

Park officials don’t like wasting time, resources, and, most importantly, theme park real estate on unpopular experiences.

We’ve entered the produce-or-perish phase of Disney expansion.

That’s why I’m keeping a close eye on stuff like Tomorrowland Speedway.

You never know when something might receive the kiss of death on a random Tuesday.

This time, it was a Lightning McQueen show. Who knows what’ll be next?

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