A short post this one. Disney Parks released this video about from the imagineers a few weeks ago. It gives a good insight into upcoming items. Pay attention to some of the footage in the video – there are some good insights in there you don’t want to miss!

The video/song tells the story of Dan who doesn’t quite make it into show business as he thought he would, but instead ends up working on the Jungle Cruise at Disneyland (something that has probably happened fairly often).

Apart from being a pretty good song, if you’re a disney fan it’s worth a listen, even if it’s just to pick up on those well known lines such as ‘The back side of water’.

Skipper Dan

In the last week seaworld has started opening Manta for some of it’s theme park guests.

Feedback on the internet seems to be very positive on the ride on the whole, as well as the theming of the lagoon in the queue area (although not all the sealife is present in the pool yet).

The Manta Wing Dip

Feedback on the ride itself has suggested that (from Orlando Sentinel):

Row 8 — the back row — is a very intense ride, according to folks who have been front and back of the coaster. In fact, we’d say the back is best reserved for coaster buffs, not the lily-livered. It’s all about the G’s. One rider told me Row 7 was “bad” but that 8 was significantly more jarring. You’ve been warned.

Hopefully, when I’m over in July I’ll get a chance to try a few different rider positions and see if there is much difference.

One of the things I was worried about was the ride capacity, having seen these flying coasters take a lot longer to load than your standard coaster. Seaworld are saying that they could get up to 1500 people through, but as humans are involved, so will want to remove shoes etc. They’re hoping to get a throughput of 1000 people an hour which is similar to Kraken. I think this is largely being assisted by the fact they have 2 loading stations – but no complaints there!

Many videos of the ride are starting to appear over the internet. Before the date this post is for, I found the following interesting video on the construction of the ride from Orlando Attractions Magazine.

I can’t wait to ride this when I head over to Florida in July of this year. Now I just need to keep my fingers crossed that the Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit rollercoaster at universal is open!

Has anyone had an opportunity to ride Manta yet? Let me know what you thought of it and any row recommendations in the comments!

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Photos From Orlando Sentinel:

• http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/features_orlando/2009/05/-photos-more-on-manta-mania.html
  

I’ve ridden Air at Alton Towers and thought it was a fantastic experience, and knowing how the parks in Florida usually do things even better, it has got me highly looking forward to it.

In the last couple of weeks, Manta has been seen making ‘test flights’. Some of these test flights can be seen in the video below from Orlando Attractions Magazine

As you can see, Manta itself is a flying coaster, with riders being put into a horizontal position for the duration of the ride. The coaster will reach up to 56mph, with it’s highest point being at 140ft and largest drop beeing 113ft.

Due to the nature of the car loading, load times are going to be 30 seconds to a minute longer than your standard rollercoaster loading, so to keep loading numbers up, two loading stations are going to be present.

Manta Concept Art

More information about Manta can be found at the ride’s official website: www.RideTheFlyingRay.com

About 12 months ago, news went round that It’s a Small World, would be going down for renovation. Part of this would be to upgrade the channel which the boats travelled a longer (rumoured to be to allow for slightly larger guests to ride in the boats without them ‘bottoming out’). It would also be to to clean up and fix any problems with existing dolls to ensure the experience remains at the highest quality.

What got some people up in arms though was the possibility of Disney characters being introduced into the attraction. Although some people were in favour of these changes, others felt it would be taking away from what the attraction was meant to be like.

There have been 29 Disney and Pixar characters added to the attraction in total, with some being dolls and others ‘toys’ (accompanying the dolls). Characters added include Aladdin, The Three Caballeros, Alice and Stitch amongst many others. Each of the characters has been included in a suitable section to represent it. For example, Peter Pan and Tinker Bell are flying over one tower of the London Bridge and The Three Caballeros represent Latin America.

During the renovation, a new ‘Spirt of America’ section was also added, which is home to Woody and Jessie from Toy Story. This scene is based on original concept art by Disney Legend Mary Blair.

Disney has also recently published a new video podcast which features It’s a Small World and looks at its history and the changes made for this renovation.

[See post to watch Flash video]

As people get an opportunity to ride on the new It’s a Small World after the reopening, I’m sure we’ll start seeing more blog posts on whether or not they think adding Disney characters was a good idea.

From what I’ve seen from photos on the internet, Disney has done a good job at trying to fit the character dolls (or toys accompanying the dolls) into the same style as the other dolls within the attraction. This I think, helps them fit in and make them a bit more acceptable. There are, however, very few general shots about yet, so it is hard to get an impression of how well they fit into the respective areas. I hold out hope though that they haven’t been made too obvious to the point of detracting from the general experience and message behing this attraction.

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]]> http://leestone.co.uk/daily/2009/02/theme-parks-its-a-small-world-reopens/feed/ 0 http://leestone.co.uk/daily/2009/01/theme-parks-disney-offers-buy-outs-to-600-managers/ http://leestone.co.uk/daily/2009/01/theme-parks-disney-offers-buy-outs-to-600-managers/#comments Sun, 25 Jan 2009 19:02:47 +0000 Lee http://leestone.co.uk/daily/?p=97 Although not your standard Theme Park discussion this week, this story did grab my attention in the RSS Feeds.

From the Orlando Sentinel:

The Walt Disney Co. offered buyouts Wednesday to more than 600 executives at its U.S. resorts — including 313 in Orlando — as the company struggles to cut costs amid a worsening recession.

The company planned to hand-deliver buyout packages to 619 executives, each of whom will have until Feb. 6 to decide whether to accept the offer.

Disney warned it will resort to lay offs if too few employees voluntarily walk away.

Disney seems to be trying its hardest to take as minimal impact as possible by targeting its cost saving measures (at least they haven’t gone directly into letting people go), along with trying to keep attendance up such as by cutting hotel rates.

Whilst the cuts are at the higher level, I don’t think it will impact the guest experience we have all come to love at Disney. However, if they have to start laying off staff lower down the chain, it is at that stage I think we risk seeing it influencing the experience we have at the Disney parks.

Disney isn’t the only one look at lay offs though as Universal Orlando laid off about 70 people earlier this week as well. It’s interesting to see a reasonable number difference between the two groups here, although i’d imagine percentage wise they’re a bit more similar. I have a feeling though that this may just be the first round of lay offs, especially if attendance continues to take a downwards turn.

I think it will also continue to have a knock on effect once the economy starts recovering. I can see theme park management deciding against new developments, or keeping them smaller which will probably remain stalled until the economy is well into it’s recovery transition, giving us a phase of slow developments at the end of it all.