The Biggest Disney Rumors from January 2019
2019 promises to be one of the most exciting and significant years in Disney theme park history. I don’t feel like I’m exaggerating to say that it’s THE most significant year of the 2000s. We’re all anxiously awaiting the debut of Star Wars Land at two different parks plus the return of a skyway transportation system at Walt Disney World. There’s so much going on that the very first Mickey Mouse-based theme park ride is struggling to garner headlines.
Disney executives have to look past the opening of new resorts and resort towers and theme park attractions. They have to plan for 2020 and especially 2021, the 50th anniversary of Walt Disney World. This required bit of forethought explains why the rumor mills will be so active for the next few months. Let’s take a look at some of the hottest Disney rumors at the start of 2019.
What’s Up with Disney Transportation?
Every aspect of Disney’s Parks & Resorts division comes with a budget. It’s no different than your company, where someone must sign off on the expenses for any single project. At Walt Disney World, one of the most complex budgets right now is the one for transportation.
The cost of the Disney Skyliner isn’t something that park officials want to be published. In my research, I found an urban planning report that hints at pricing, though. According to an expert, aerial ropeways (aka gondola systems) have an estimated cost of $3-$12 million per mile of construction.
The distance from Disney’s Art of Animation Resort to Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort is 1.3 miles, while Disney’s Hollywood Studios is 3.7 miles from that hotel. And Caribbean Beach is another 2.4 miles away from Epcot. This number must be doubled, however, due to the odd track layout of the gondolas. Plus, we need to add another mile for the extension from Caribbean Beach to Disney’s Riviera Resort.
After a lot of guesswork and estimates, I count roughly 11 miles of gondola tracks at an average estimate of $7.5 million per mile. That’s an $82.5 million project. I must admit that number seems high to me. Given Disney’s ownership of the land, I tend to skew toward the $3 million per mile instead, which would bring the cost way down to $33 million. Let’s call those the high and low-end estimates for the Disney Skyliner project.
Imagine having to sign off on the cost of the Disney Skyliner. Some Imagineer had to do just this, and, given their position in the transportation division, that’s likely most of their discretionary budget for quite some time.
Now imagine committing to that expenditure just in time for the monorail to have a door open during a monorail ride. You’ve blown your transportation budget, but you know you need a new fleet. The current monorail system at Walt Disney World dates back to 1989, a time when Debbie Gibson and Paula Abdul were emerging pop sensations. You don’t want to spend that money since you don’t have it, though.
Then, a DOOR FALLS OFF of a monorail during a stop at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa. You have to order a new fleet, right? There’s some question whether or not Disney has done this. Rumors from last summer suggested that they had. The reality is that we don’t really know whether they have or they haven’t. Time will tell.
Where does this information leave us? The answer is “confused” more than anything else. Toward the end of 2017, Siemens reportedly pitched Disney on a daring idea to extend their partnership. The sponsor of Spaceship Earth would purchase an entire fleet of Walt Disney World monorails in exchange for keeping their name on several elements of the Spaceship Earth building. Disney rejected this idea and ended the sponsorship agreement with Siemens.
Disney LOVES sponsorships. They always have going all the way back to the earliest days of Disneyland. The company had little reason to reject a reasonable Siemens offer unless they had different plans already in place. Sure, part of the explanation could involve a rumored multi-year closure of Spaceship Earth.
A more likely factor is that Disney has already ordered a fleet of monorails. Presumably, they could come to some sort of agreement with a manufacturer similar to what Siemens offered. A sponsorship agreement wouldn’t appear on a revenue projection as a nine-figure contract.
Alternately, Disney might have something else in mind. It’s well-established by now that current management deems the cost of a monorail expansion as price-prohibitive. As such, the transportation service is limited to its existing stations.
Has the company decided that gondola stations are a more viable, cost-efficient way to address logistics issues at Walt Disney World? The benefit of such a change in transportation emphasis is that every resort could eventually get connected to every theme park via Disney Skyliner. Monorails aren’t feasible across the entire campus, but gondola stations could be.
Where would this leave Disney with its current, outdated fleet of monorails? Look, Disney HAS to update the line at some point. The negative headlines have raised too many safety concerns. The future of Disney transportation may very well be in the sky, though.
What’s Project Gamma?
Last month, we discussed potential changes at Epcot’s Future World. We’ve learned a bit more in the interim. You may remember that Disney is rumored to budget $2 billion to modernize Future World. For comparison, Pandora – The World of Avatar cost only a quarter of that amount, $500 million. Park officials are investing mightily in restoring Epcot to its former greatness.
The situation is akin to the one mentioned earlier. With so much money in play, project managers want to secure funding for their ideas. One of the most surprising rumored changes could take place at The Seas with Nemo & Friends. Disney could possibly take away its theming or add something new that’s not themed to a specific intellectual property (IP).
Late last year, cast members handed out surveys about The Seas with Nemo & Friends. The emphasis of the questionnaires was whether guests were satisfied with the current pavilion. As a reminder, the themed version ties into the Finding Nemo franchise. The main ride is technically a sequel to the first movie, as Nemo once again gets lost.
A quarter-century earlier, plans for The Living Seas made no mention of IPs or character themes. Disney wanted to create an infotainment center about aquatic life. The Nemo change came when guests stopped visiting the original version of the pavilion. You’ve probably noticed that The Seas with Nemo & Friends claims one of the shortest lines at Future World these days. History has repeated itself a bit.
The rumored change to The Seas with Nemo & Friends would expand the non-IP portion of the area. It’s unclear whether the Nemo attraction would survive this change. I’m of the opinion that Disney could alter the pavilion organically.
In the movie sequel, Finding Dory, the characters visit the Marine Life Institute, a facility with unmistakable similarities to The Living Seas. Disney could easily introduce this theme, although that’s apparently not the plan. Actually, at this point, there’s no official plan. Park planners are merely weighing options.
While Future World project managers fight for their piece of the pie, some employees at the back of the park want a slice, too. Last September, we discussed a rumored Mary Poppins attraction possibly coming to the World Showcase.
At the time, Disney movie executives had high hopes for the box office of Mary Poppins Returns. In truth, its performance has been mediocre, with the movie barely able to turn a profit before it leaves theaters. This turn of events has left park officials in an awkward position. On the one hand, the movie studio is moving forward with plans for a sequel. On the other hand, the idea of a Mary Poppins-based attraction is no longer a slam dunk.
The plan had been to add a modest Mary Poppins ride to the United Kingdom pavilion at Epcot’s World Showcase. That’s no longer a sure thing. Instead, rumblings of a different IP-based ride have grown in recent weeks.
The film in question is Brave, a Pixar film starring a Disney Princess named Merida. She recently made a hysterical appearance in Ralph Breaks the Internet and has maintained her popularity for the seven years since Brave’s release. The question becomes whether Disney wants to celebrate the history of Mary Poppins or highlight the more modern heroine, Merida.
I should point out that this choice may have no bearing on the Future World project. Sources are divided on whether the World Showcase has its own discretionary funding right now or the $2 billion fee applies to the entire park. If it’s the former, the United Kingdom is all but certain to get an attraction. The only questions are when and which IP it will be based on. Which would you prefer? I must admit I’m torn, as I love both. Hey, Disney! Couldn’t you build both?