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2025: General Discussion

There are some new sleek looking signs as well, one telling you you're entering Gloomy Wood and directions to Katanga Canyon. Also a new one with directions to Toxicator and the rest of FV, and pointing out directions to GW and KC as well. Believe this one is in Haunted Hollow. They're on instagram stories though so I can't post here.

Coastertog on insta has posted some stories. The wood in front of the wave machines has definitely been replaced which looks as if the wave machines have been sorted. He also says the park feels very clean and fresh (as it should, but we're not exactly used to it in recent seasons)
 
Steve74 said:
If Towers went that way, I'd liken it to how Disney parks on the whole have gone in my opinion. Disney have stripped out a lot of unique, magical, Disney-esque rides and experiences only to replace them with [movie] IPs, granted some of the rides look incredible (Rise of the Resistance). My one and only visit to Disneyworld was in 2013 just as they'd bought Star Wars so there was next to nothing of the current IPs around the place. Looking at the park now (and their others around the world) I feel they are losing/lost the Disney magic to a degree and are just turning into Marvel-land or Star Wars World.
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I dis-agree. At Disneyland the "Star Wars" area is quite separate from the rest of the park but with a seamless transition. This is needed to create the immersiveness they have created, and the attention to detail blew me away. If you weren't interested in Swar Wars you'd never see it. Universal did the same thing with Harry Potter (better done in Florida than California IMHO), especially with the train. But as others have said, IP is expensive if you don't own it
 
Smiley said:
I dis-agree. At Disneyland the "Star Wars" area is quite separate from the rest of the park but with a seamless transition. This is needed to create the immersiveness they have created, and the attention to detail blew me away. If you weren't interested in Swar Wars you'd never see it. Universal did the same thing with Harry Potter (better done in Florida than California IMHO), especially with the train. But as others have said, IP is expensive if you don't own it
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My point wasn't about how they've implemented the IPs (the way they have separated the areas off should be praised) it was more about the fact that they have replaced rides and ride themes with big brand IPs - in other words, removed unique, magical Disney rides and themes and replaced them with [movie] IPs. And that is something I'd hate Merlin do with Towers.
 
I don’t have any hope that ops will be better this year but I am not making a conclusion on its first operating day. Even when ops and tech services were at their peak years ago the opening few weeks were always heavy on downtime and slow on ops. You have new staff and rides that have been closed for months so it’s expected.

Once we are a couple of weeks in we will know how those metrics are going (I’m not holding my breath).
 
They've been good according to people on twitter. Someone had a meltdown saying ride availability will be terrible just because Oblivion and TH13TEEN went down at the same time. They're not even there. From what I can see, a few instagram users are saying ride uptime has been good.
 
Steve74 said:
My point wasn't about how they've implemented the IPs (the way they have separated the areas off should be praised) it was more about the fact that they have replaced rides and ride themes with big brand IPs - in other words, removed unique, magical Disney rides and themes and replaced them with [movie] IPs. And that is something I'd hate Merlin do with Towers.
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To play devils advocate, Star Wars is a Disney IP now so it would be odd for them not to use it. It's not like anybody else could.

I appreciate your point is it's not "classic" Disney but then i'm sure plenty of people felt/feel that way about the CGI era and the arrival of attractions based on those films.

Certainly agree on the active re-theming of attractions. Hyperspace Mountain is understandably criticised and the aforementioned separated areas like ROTR are clearly the best way to incorporate them.

Slight tangent but i was always confused as to how the Indiana Jones franchise ended up at Disney in the 90s. I love the films, especially at that time but there was no obvious connection then so historically seems like a far bigger IP leap than Star Wars.
 
Bowser said:
To play devils advocate, Star Wars is a Disney IP now so it would be odd for them not to use it. It's not like anybody else could.

I appreciate your point is it's not "classic" Disney but then i'm sure plenty of people felt/feel that way about the CGI era and the arrival of attractions based on those films.

Certainly agree on the active re-theming of attractions. Hyperspace Mountain is understandably criticised and the aforementioned separated areas like ROTR are clearly the best way to incorporate them.

Slight tangent but i was always confused as to how the Indiana Jones franchise ended up at Disney in the 90s. I love the films, especially at that time but there was no obvious connection then so historically seems like a far bigger IP leap than Star Wars.
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Yeah I know what you're saying about it being their IP and everything so why wouldn't they use it. I guess its just that whenever you hear of something big budget at Disney it just seems to be Marvel, Star Wars or another big blockbuster IP like Tron or Avatar. As you say quite within their rights to use them but in my opinion it's just lazy from the creativity point of view. I guess in a way they are only mirroring cinema - every other film in the last 10 years seems to have been either Marvel, DC or Star Wars!

I'm sure a more avid fan of Disney will prove be wrong about my point above but I just don't want to see Towers heading down the lazy IP route. They're better than that.
 
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Steve74 said:
I'm sure a more avid fan of Disney will prove be wrong about my point above but I just don't want to see Towers heading down the lazy IP route. They're better than that.
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Lazy IP - I like that! Legoland/PPW are awesome because the park (or areas of it) completely envelopes the brand. Whacking a ride here and there doesn't IMHO add much - theming and back-story (Nemmy/Swarm) makes a great themed-ride (probably Wardley to thank) but it's never quite joined up. The rest of Universal Studios (apart from HP) is the same - mix-match of themes but no coherence. Hopefully Universal UK will change that!
 
Steve74 said:
Yeah I know what you're saying about it being their IP and everything so why wouldn't they use it. I guess its just that whenever you hear of something big budget at Disney it just seems to be Marvel, Star Wars or another big blockbuster IP like Tron or Avatar. As you say quite within their rights to use them but in my opinion it's just lazy from the creativity point of view. I guess in a way they are only mirroring cinema - every other film in the last 10 years seems to have been either Marvel, DC or Star Wars!

I'm sure a more avid fan of Disney will prove be wrong about my point above but I just don't want to see Towers heading down the lazy IP route. They're better than that.
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Tron has always been a Disney franchise since the 80s. Some of their recent major global attractions have included rides based on Moana, Beauty and the Beast, Tangled, Princess and the Frog and Frozen which i'd argue all fall under the "magical" or "classic" umbrella so i'm not convinced it's a fair criticism to levy.

In terms of AT i do agree because Disney parks are based completely around their IP and historically AT is not. They have (or perhaps had) a reputation predominantly based on the input of John Wardley for unique and creatively themed attractions that tell their own stories rather than rely on external IP. The problem with the latter is they will very often be of a time whereas the likes of Nemesis and Vampire live on.

It's not a negative attitude towards IP as a concept but it's not what AT build their name on.
 
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Ash said:
I assume at this point Project Horizon may of been a test to see if they’d get the planning for the Mincraft ride. And for reasons only known to Merlin. They went with Chessington.
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This definitely would not be the case. They would not spend money on surveyors and plans for one park to try and work out what to do at the other end of the country.
 
Mick said:
Wicker-Man, The Smiler, Nemesis, Oblivion have become IPs known even by non enthusiasts - they’re not required unless it’s a full immersive world of Disney or Universal proportions.
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IP's I would argue aren't required for universal or disney

Smiley said:
I dis-agree. At Disneyland the "Star Wars" area is quite separate from the rest of the park but with a seamless transition. This is needed to create the immersiveness they have created, and the attention to detail blew me away. If you weren't interested in Swar Wars you'd never see it. Universal did the same thing with Harry Potter (better done in Florida than California IMHO), especially with the train. But as others have said, IP is expensive if you don't own it
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continuing on, I disagree, you could easily have a similar themed area to star wars, a different planet with their own life forms, etc and it could easily work as well, look at eftling, phantasia etc.

IMO IP is a very cheap way of getting people in the door for a few years, but once that IP dies it will loose interest and the company will have to reinvest in retheming it, for merlin that re theming probably isn't too much, but for Disney and universal it could be a huge amount.

the problem is with IP the ride, theming and story has to be good enough to stand without people knowing any background, universal did this very well for harry potter, the entire land feels magical, and you don't need to know much to be able to enjoy the rides. but Disney has, in recent years fumbled this par IMO, you used to have splash mountain, and more IP based rides that lived long past their (problematic) IP and were still great lands, but Disney (apart from some areas like avatar) are relying on you going "oh look something from the movie" not making a magical land that stands by its self. you also see this with that fast and furious ride, it was a bad ride and they hoped the fast and furious name would make it work
 
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