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WDW Hollywood Studios: General Discussion
- Thread starter Sam
- Start date
Rumours are that a large scale expansion/refurb of Hollywood studios is about to take place, the backlot tour area will become a large pixar area expanding the current pixar place. I have heard different things about what the area will contain but likely to include a toy story playland and a major E ticket ride (possibly an adaptation of cars land)
Then over the other-side of the park the lake would be removed along with possibly Indianna jones stunt show and the american idol show has also already closed and this area would become the rumoured star wars land.
While i agree about adding more rides which if rumours are to be believed is happening i think its great they are increasing the capacity as its something they dont have to do as both parks attract 9m+ guests each year and they have managed with the current capacity of these two rides since they opened without too many complaints. Disney know the less time people spend in queues the more money they spend in the park which is why they are doing this .
Then over the other-side of the park the lake would be removed along with possibly Indianna jones stunt show and the american idol show has also already closed and this area would become the rumoured star wars land.
While i agree about adding more rides which if rumours are to be believed is happening i think its great they are increasing the capacity as its something they dont have to do as both parks attract 9m+ guests each year and they have managed with the current capacity of these two rides since they opened without too many complaints. Disney know the less time people spend in queues the more money they spend in the park which is why they are doing this .
jon81uk
TS Member
Some Lights Motors Aftion stunt show replaced most of the backlot, it wasn't really a tour anymore and it hasn't been a working studio for years. (I know WDS Paris is only a theme park but has a"backlot" tour). But it had got to the point at DHS where it is better to re-use the space than to keep doing a half-hearted attraction. But Disney are being typically slow at demolition and building.
There is a very good article on the original tour of a working studio here, it used to have a walking section as well as the tram and everything.
http://www.yesterland.com/backstage.html
The Tour was closed to bring in new attractions, which will occur sometime this decade, it wasn't particularly popular, and I know for sure the Catastrophe Canyon was coursing some problems, I tried to ride it three times in September and on all occasions it broke mid-disaster, just after the rain.
Now everything else is just rumors, but there is strong probability of a Pixar Playland coming, but it will be nothing like the current ones, and is likely to have a cars land.
I also think there is a slight problem with simply closing the stunt show, one it a huge people eater, and two, corporations hire that particular venue out (as well as the great movie ride), which courses a lot of problems, it is supposedly booked up for a good couple of years, and Disney who are much like Merlin with liking there cash probably too much are unlikely to cancel, so the Star Wars (which could be announced at D23) will rap around the stunt show initially.
Now everything else is just rumors, but there is strong probability of a Pixar Playland coming, but it will be nothing like the current ones, and is likely to have a cars land.
I also think there is a slight problem with simply closing the stunt show, one it a huge people eater, and two, corporations hire that particular venue out (as well as the great movie ride), which courses a lot of problems, it is supposedly booked up for a good couple of years, and Disney who are much like Merlin with liking there cash probably too much are unlikely to cancel, so the Star Wars (which could be announced at D23) will rap around the stunt show initially.
Will be interesting to see if they do the Pixar area or Star Wars first or I imagine they could announce a 5 year California adventure style reinvention of the park with the new attractions opening over the 5 year period.
Will be also interesting what they do with Star Wars in California if rye add something to the orginal Disney land park or it's been rumoured they are back working on a 3rd park (taking over the car parks south of the current property). The last rumour I heard about the third park is that it would have some kind of action/adventure theme with a stars wars land, avatar land & marvel themed land and then a land to appeal to girls (possibly frozen).
Will be also interesting what they do with Star Wars in California if rye add something to the orginal Disney land park or it's been rumoured they are back working on a 3rd park (taking over the car parks south of the current property). The last rumour I heard about the third park is that it would have some kind of action/adventure theme with a stars wars land, avatar land & marvel themed land and then a land to appeal to girls (possibly frozen).
Bob Iger (CEO of Disney) today let slip in a shareholder meating that DHS will be no more, the subsequent redo (still no confirmation) will result in a name change, more than likley removing any precence of 'studio' from both park and name.
Most likley the rumoured name will incorperate adventure, with the name banded around being Disneys' Hollywood Adventure.
Most likley the rumoured name will incorperate adventure, with the name banded around being Disneys' Hollywood Adventure.
Harv
TS Member
I honestly am a bit puzzled as to why they feel the need to be shaking up Hollywood Studios. It is far more coherent than EPCOT; yes, there are flaws in both, and both are chronically in need of more rides, but if any of the Floridian parks is going through an identity crisis, it's EPCOT. The park is about 'the magic of movies' and even if this isn't pinned down and there is some confusion with the studios aspect, it is hardly a massive issue that I feel warrants a big change. The park just needs more rides to give it extra character, not completely redoing (and especially not above its aforementioned sister park).
Having said that, anything likely to hasten a change in the Paris studios park is to be welcomed with open arms...
Having said that, anything likely to hasten a change in the Paris studios park is to be welcomed with open arms...
jon81uk
TS Member
Off topic but related to last post...
Epcot World Showcase needs more rides/attrsctions but is still on theme perfectly. Futureworld needs to fix the pavilions that haven't been touched in years (Imagination & Energy), but others are okay.
Hollywood Studios however needs heaps of attractions and to work out what the park wants to be. Some areas look okay, but overall there just isn't enough cohesion between the themes.
Epcot World Showcase needs more rides/attrsctions but is still on theme perfectly. Futureworld needs to fix the pavilions that haven't been touched in years (Imagination & Energy), but others are okay.
Hollywood Studios however needs heaps of attractions and to work out what the park wants to be. Some areas look okay, but overall there just isn't enough cohesion between the themes.
While future world at Epcot could do with some updates and new attractions from my past few visits I have felt that as an overall park Hollywood studios needs an overall. I visited California Adventure in 2013 following it's make over and thought the park was fantastic, hopefully with the makeover they can do something similar and add plenty of new rides/attractions while updating/modernising the theme of the park and tying all areas together
At the minute I would say the studio is definitely in need of a overhaul. There is literally only 5 things there, they for 20 years have been pretending they are a working studio.
Epcot is loosing its identity with the introduction of Nemo and Frozen, but the park as as a whole is still on topic pretty well. And the world showcase is still hugely popular.
I think the main motivation of this is to fix the leased coherent park. In my view it doesn't really work at the moment, the main reason is the fact it was never meant to be a theme park. There are streets that lead to nothing, dead ends everywhere, large areas of nothingness, and the sound-stages aren't the most attractive things. But they also have there eye on Universal, whom could soon have the 3rd and 4th most attended park in Orlando behind The Magic Kingdom and Epcot. Which is why both the Studios and Animal Kingdom are getting some attention.
Epcot is loosing its identity with the introduction of Nemo and Frozen, but the park as as a whole is still on topic pretty well. And the world showcase is still hugely popular.
I think the main motivation of this is to fix the leased coherent park. In my view it doesn't really work at the moment, the main reason is the fact it was never meant to be a theme park. There are streets that lead to nothing, dead ends everywhere, large areas of nothingness, and the sound-stages aren't the most attractive things. But they also have there eye on Universal, whom could soon have the 3rd and 4th most attended park in Orlando behind The Magic Kingdom and Epcot. Which is why both the Studios and Animal Kingdom are getting some attention.
Harv
TS Member
I understand and agree with the rest of your post but there is no shortage of "things" in my opinion. I managed to spend four hours just watching the shows - they are all fantastic at DHS. I agree some more bread and butter attractions would be nice but Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, Indiana Jones, Lights, Motors, Action! and Fantasmic! (not to mention the Disney Junior shows and seasonal Frozen shows) are all well worth including in a day, so to me there is enough substance to the park.
jon81uk
TS Member
The only other issue is that the shows are 20 years old and feeling it. In my opinion shows need to be changed out more often than rides.
The development at the Studios continues, with a new road entrance under development.
Here you can see the area a month or two ago, you can see a outline of the new road.
And here is the latest ariel update of this area, with a new slip road and foundations of the new road in place.
The studios main entrance is currently hardly used, with the entrance of Beuna Vista dr (seen above) is used by most people. And is now where near big enough, on some busy days people are actually let in for free to stop the traffic reaching the main road. It is though this entrance will be used by buses only (as originally intentioned) and the main entrance will be removed to allow for development. The old entrance is directly behind The park and stopped development in that direction.
Here you can see the area a month or two ago, you can see a outline of the new road.
And here is the latest ariel update of this area, with a new slip road and foundations of the new road in place.
The studios main entrance is currently hardly used, with the entrance of Beuna Vista dr (seen above) is used by most people. And is now where near big enough, on some busy days people are actually let in for free to stop the traffic reaching the main road. It is though this entrance will be used by buses only (as originally intentioned) and the main entrance will be removed to allow for development. The old entrance is directly behind The park and stopped development in that direction.
It looks like Disney may finally be ready to announce the huge changes coming to Hollywood Studios at this years D3 event in August. Just this week they announced another attraction closure, the art of animation is due to close this month. The latest rumours suggest Disney have now approved a massive $3b overall of the park over the next 10 years, (this is Nearly 3 times the amount spent on the California Adventure makeover and 6 times the $500 its costing to build Avatar at AK).
Its expected a new name and theme for the park will be announced, the project is currently going under the name Disney Hollywood Adventure which i think is actually likely to be the name or something similar and the theme will move away from the working studio theme currently to more of being part of movies more like how Universal studios/Islands of Adventure Orlando have moved to over the past decade or so.
The only attractions that are safe from the chop are Tower of Terror, Rock N Roller Coaster, The great movie ride, Toy story Mania & Star Tours . Due to the size of the makeover it will all be done in stages as they cant close many more attractions than they already have now until some of thew new ones have started to open. They have already applied for a permit to build a new theatre between TOT and Rock n roller to replace one of the closed ones at the front of the park. The plans are expected to include the following-
Star Wars Land- as expected star wars will play a central part with the the popular Jedi academy expanded and moved indoors, to one of the existing theatres by eco lake, Eco lake will become a Dagobah themed centre piece, two additional star wars rides/attractions will be built, to go along with star tours and all the star wars themed retail and food locations.
Indiana Jones stunt show will finally close, i would imagine this area will become the location for some of the stars wars new stuff, however Indiana Jones will soon be back as they planning to add an updated version of Anaheim's Indiana Jones Adventure Ride
The other big area for expansion will be Pixar Place where Toystory Mania is currentlyloacted, 3 pixar rides/additional attractions are are planned to be added, i would imagine these will be the first to open as alot of the already closed attractions are in this area (old backlot tour, animation academy & Jack sparrow attraction) Not sure if they will be totally new concepts or they will add attractions already at other parks or once planned and never built pixar rides such as the monster inc themed coaster
Hopefully this all turns out to be true as the park defiantly needs big improvements, hopefully we will find out 100% whats happening o the 15th august.
Its expected a new name and theme for the park will be announced, the project is currently going under the name Disney Hollywood Adventure which i think is actually likely to be the name or something similar and the theme will move away from the working studio theme currently to more of being part of movies more like how Universal studios/Islands of Adventure Orlando have moved to over the past decade or so.
The only attractions that are safe from the chop are Tower of Terror, Rock N Roller Coaster, The great movie ride, Toy story Mania & Star Tours . Due to the size of the makeover it will all be done in stages as they cant close many more attractions than they already have now until some of thew new ones have started to open. They have already applied for a permit to build a new theatre between TOT and Rock n roller to replace one of the closed ones at the front of the park. The plans are expected to include the following-
Star Wars Land- as expected star wars will play a central part with the the popular Jedi academy expanded and moved indoors, to one of the existing theatres by eco lake, Eco lake will become a Dagobah themed centre piece, two additional star wars rides/attractions will be built, to go along with star tours and all the star wars themed retail and food locations.
Indiana Jones stunt show will finally close, i would imagine this area will become the location for some of the stars wars new stuff, however Indiana Jones will soon be back as they planning to add an updated version of Anaheim's Indiana Jones Adventure Ride
The other big area for expansion will be Pixar Place where Toystory Mania is currentlyloacted, 3 pixar rides/additional attractions are are planned to be added, i would imagine these will be the first to open as alot of the already closed attractions are in this area (old backlot tour, animation academy & Jack sparrow attraction) Not sure if they will be totally new concepts or they will add attractions already at other parks or once planned and never built pixar rides such as the monster inc themed coaster
Hopefully this all turns out to be true as the park defiantly needs big improvements, hopefully we will find out 100% whats happening o the 15th august.
Matt Creek
TS Member
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Whilst a lot of attractions have sadly disappeared, this overall sounds very exciting and if DCA is anything to go by, the end result should be stunning.
I reckon Star Wars Land will arrive sometime around 2019/2020 as it seems to be about every three years Disney install something major, however with Universal that could be a little sooner.
Toy Story play land isn't a bad idea although it would've been nice to see something more unique, however I've heard two of the three rides won't be clones which is good.
I've also heard the roadway to the park is being changed and that the park could be expanded in the future too, with some of the parking lot taken up and parking garages appearing too.
I reckon Star Wars Land will arrive sometime around 2019/2020 as it seems to be about every three years Disney install something major, however with Universal that could be a little sooner.
Toy Story play land isn't a bad idea although it would've been nice to see something more unique, however I've heard two of the three rides won't be clones which is good.
I've also heard the roadway to the park is being changed and that the park could be expanded in the future too, with some of the parking lot taken up and parking garages appearing too.
The rumours i have read suggest a toy story playland will just 1 part of the expanded pixar area and it will feature a couple of other attractions themed to non toystory pixar properties, at one time it would have had a version of Radiator Spring racers and an indoor Monsters Inc Coaster (using Vekomas Family suspended coaster system) however i imagine plans have changed a fair bit since then. Also with Toy Story i am sure we would see some different attractions as the park would need higher capacity attractions than what they have at the existing two toystory playland's in Paris and Hong Kong.