Pandora: The World of Avatar Announcement, Construction, & Preview Discussion

[Nick]

Scheduling projects across multiple years is pretty standard for keeping financial numbers looking better than they would be taking the hit in one year

Disney is far too worried about how their numbers look to Wall Street these days is what it all boils down to imo.

 

[Jon84]

Disney is far too worried about how their numbers look to Wall Street these days is what it all boils down to imo.

I agree. It affects the customers perception of the company. It makes them come across as unresponsive and less agile in the market than their competitors.

I guess the difference between Disney and Comcast is that Disney's Parks and Resorts business is a much bigger percentage revenue stream of their overall business than Comcast's Parks and Resorts Business. And as such the Analysts pay closer attention to what Disney does.

Spending big on (park) projects (VB, new land, Hotels etc etc) in one year is no big deal for Comcast due to the smaller percentage of their overall revenue being in Parks and Resorts.

 

[Mad Dog]

My theory on this was the concept art was to get people interested in Saturday's events, knowing that there would be no reveal of anything on the 20th as we thought. Anyone willing to pay the price to go to this event would be just happy to be in the company of Joe Rhode, James Cameron and any schlep they threw out there. Still, you would've thought if you're gonna fly Cameron out for an event like this, you'd bring a little more substance to the table.

But i'll give it to Disney's marketing in this sense where I think @Mad Dog over-looks it when you said "where is the great marking machine?" or whatever. They created basically a weekend full of hype around a land that they still have yet to reveal much about at all. Meaning that with this weekend out of the way, i'm expecting a FLE type reveal where every 2 weeks or so starting in about January or February they'll reveal more and more. By not revealing much now, it left them a crap ton to release leading up to the opening of the land next year.

Maybe I didn't communicate it well, but my main point is that this info doesn't really create enthusiastic interest with the general public to drive attendance and get them to schedule vacations "now" for next summer & fall. The weekend was more hype for fanboy types than the general public. What was thrown out there wasn't all that impressive, short of the AA (the clip was a bit weird though & not real effective). A lost marketing opportunity at a time when people are scheduling their vacations for next year.

 

[rhino4evr]

so this weekend appeared to be a total wash for Avatar info. Which is really surprising considering Cameron took time out of his busy schedule of working on 4 avatar sequels to fly into Orlando with all the theme park nerds. I honestly expected a lot more.

And what was shown was totally lackluster...a "tentative" release date - Summer is a bit vague. A cool but extremely short teaser of an AA, and really underwhelming Concept art, that actually made the land look cheaper in my eyes.

Yuck.

Ps - the Cabana thing is also terrible, but I'm sure those crazy Disney folks with wads of cash, and a general distaste for being apart of the general public will eat that up.

 

[twebber55]

so this weekend appeared to be a total wash for Avatar info. Which is really surprising considering Cameron took time out of his busy schedule of working on 4 avatar sequels to fly into Orlando with all the theme park nerds. I honestly expected a lot more.

And what was shown was totally lackluster...a "tentative" release date - Summer is a bit vague. A cool but extremely short teaser of an AA, and really underwhelming Concept art, that actually made the land look cheaper in my eyes.

Yuck.

Ps - the Cabana thing is also terrible, but I'm sure those crazy Disney folks with wads of cash, and a general distaste for being apart of the general public will eat that up.

as a pro avatar guy i couldnt agree more

 

[Nick]

so this weekend appeared to be a total wash for Avatar info. Which is really surprising considering Cameron took time out of his busy schedule of working on 4 avatar sequels to fly into Orlando with all the theme park nerds. I honestly expected a lot more.

And what was shown was totally lackluster...a "tentative" release date - Summer is a bit vague. A cool but extremely short teaser of an AA, and really underwhelming Concept art, that actually made the land look cheaper in my eyes.

Yuck.

Ps - the Cabana thing is also terrible, but I'm sure those crazy Disney folks with wads of cash, and a general distaste for being apart of the general public will eat that up.

like @twebber55, i've been interested in this project and I agree with you. The Tiki Bar seems really off to me. Tiki and Pandora do not seem like they're really a fit at all. And goodness, if you're gonna get Rhode and Cameron together, do something useful with their time.

I do agree with them about the vague Summer date though. We're still fairly far enough out that you never know what problems they could run into and they've just been badly burned by announcing a specific date for Rivers of Light prematurely this year. I'm sure they don't want to go through that again.

 

[rhino4evr]

yeah..I guess I was just expecting it to be SPRING 2017.

They could technically wait until September to open this at this point.

 

[rhino4evr]

to be honest, I think they should have just NOT had the conference. If you aren't going to reveal anything worth while, why market it as so? There is no reason to have such a build up for a gift shop and drink counter service. Not to mention the idea of a Tiki Mech is actually kind of revolting to me.

 

[twebber55]

yeah..I guess I was just expecting it to be SPRING 2017.

They could technically wait until September to open this at this point.

I still expect it to be finished by May and are just being extra cautious, the ROL debacle is quite embarrassing

 

[rhino4evr]

I guess we will see. So I guess the only good news to come out of the conference is that they plan on leaving ToT alone, and that more work is coming to Epcot. Everything else feels like a disappointment.

 

[Nick]

to be honest, I think they should have just NOT had the conference. If you aren't going to reveal anything worth while, why market it as so? There is no reason to have such a build up for a gift shop and drink counter service. Not to mention the idea of a Tiki Mech is actually kind of revolting to me.

Well to be fair, this wasn't a proper D23 Expo, no one should've been expecting any huge announcements. Normally they just celebrate a park anniversary at these Destination: D things, and they did - MK's 40th was pushed at this.

In any normal year, people wouldn't even have thought twice about there being any announcements, but leave it to Disney to put Joe Rhode and James Cameron on the schedule, leading everyone to believe there would be more.

 

[twebber55]

Well to be fair, this wasn't a proper D23 Expo, no one should've been expecting any huge announcements. This was whatever they call the thing they do in the off year. Normally they just celebrate a park anniversary at these things and they did - MK's 40th was pushed at this. In any normal year, people wouldn't even have thought twice about there being any announcements, but leave it to Disney to put Joe Rhode and James Cameron on the schedule, leading everyone to believe there would be more.

yeah thats what got me I thought surely with J Cameron there this would be the grand reveal
nope not even close

 

[belloq87]

The thing about the battle ride AA number (if true) is it will just be a crap ton of storm troopers, which will be pretty easy.

At this point, I'll take what I can get. A ride overflowing with actual, physical things to look at, even if it's many of the same things, sounds just fine to me.

 

[Brian G.]

Elsewhere, marni1971 has reported that - to the best of his knowledge - the animatronic in the new video is not merely the only AA in the boat ride, but also possibly the only AA in the entire land!

I actually just heard that myself over the weekend as well. Talk about a bummer.

 

[Nick]

I actually just heard that myself over the weekend as well. Talk about a bummer.

Supposedly the FoP queue will have a lot of "animated figures" and physical props that will makes the whole queue very alive and with a lot of movement, but no AA's in that queue.

For a $1b dollar land though, you'd think they could do better than 1 Animatronic.

 

[WAJAS]

Spends 300 millions dollars on R&D for a new AA. Realizes he only has enough money leftover for one Tiki Bar, some rides, and one AA.

 

[Brian G.]

Supposedly the FoP queue will have a lot of "animated figures" and physical props that will makes the whole queue very alive and with a lot of movement, but no AA's in that queue.

For a $1b dollar land though, you'd think they could do better than 1 Animatronic.

Yup. Way I was told - "enjoy the shaman because that's about it for the awesome AA's."

 

[Blaw923]

Yup. Way I was told - "enjoy the shaman because that's about it for the awesome AA's."

Man, this would be sooooo disappointing.

What does a guy have to do to see a Kong sized Elephant/Hammerhead Shark AA haha

 

[UK-Trigg]

What on earth is a "Shaman"?

 

[quinnmac000]

What on earth is a "Shaman"?

Essentially a witch doctor...Someone who can talk to the spirits.