105 - The Park Ops Special

Matt takes a step back from the big headline attractions and looks at the operational side of Walt Disney World — the things that can quietly make or break a trip.

From capacity and entertainment to transportation, park flow, resort logistics, staffing, crowd management, and the overall guest experience, this episode looks at where Disney seems to be improving, where problems still remain, and what needs to happen next as Walt Disney World heads into its next major era.

It is not just about what Disney is building. It is about how Disney is going to handle the crowds, the demand, the expectations, and the pressure that comes with new lands, new shows, new resorts, and a more competitive Orlando market.

Twitter/X Handles:
Dizhappenings: https://twitter.com/dizhappenings
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Matt: https://twitter.com/mattpeto

Before/After Watch

Music in Dizhappenings copyrighted by Audio Jungle 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:12

It is happening. Welcome to another episode in season one. And in this episode, we are going to discuss operational problems that Disney needs to solve. Like, how should the experience evolve, right? And I actually think overall, Disney solved more problems than people give them credit for. You know, the question isn't whether Disney is in trouble. The question to me is what's next. And we're going to discuss, you know, post-COVID recovery, right? We're going to, we're going to discuss the new attractions that are coming, entertainment returning, and the parks feeling healthier. And we're first going to get into though, we're going to talk about the lightning lane question. I want to start there. I mean, if we look at the fundamental part of lightning lanes, right, what is the purpose of lightning lanes? The purpose is to improve the guest experience so that they can skip the standby line, right? Or skip most of the standby line. They can be in a queue where they're actually not in a queue, right? They can be somewhere else and doing what? Buying merch, right? Buying food, having some downtime, because they have a virtual spot with a lightning lane. But the problem with lightning lanes, as everybody knows, is that it causes standby inefficiency, right? The more lightning lanes that you hand out, the worse the standby cues are going to be. And honestly, it kind of just shifts around the the demand and supply of the parks, right? And there's been countless studies, right, on this. But if Disney was to rip out lightning lanes completely, and they kind of made this a quality system for for all guests, do you think people would be happy? No, not at all, right? Like we all know that skipping lines is an important component. Nobody wants to sit in lines all day. And I and I understand the big picture. I understand that if everything was a standby, we look at how they came out of COVID, right? It does create this equality, right? I totally get it. And it does help the standby lines, but people still don't want that. And Disney doesn't want you to be in lines all day. They don't, but it does clog up the the walking path, right? And the in the um in the lands overall, because people aren't occupied in lines, they're in virtual queues. And it makes sense to me on why Disney kind of flipped the gear here when they went to Genie Plus and they started to charge consumers. Because it's still uh it's still a perk, right? It's it's still when I say a perk, it's not a free perk, but it's still a perk way to tour the parks. You don't need the lightning lanes. It is an option and it is an upcharge experience. And I'm I'm I'm not saying that I'm defending it, but you know, when you handed out lightning lanes to everybody, or or FastPass Plus or FastPass previously, if you were handing those out and you were handing them out for free, it was it was too much quantum. At least there is a um a supply and demand component where you do have to buy it and you are gonna somehow limit it, right? If there's a thousand guests, maybe six hundred of them have lightning lanes. Where before you had a thousand people light lanes. It didn't mean that they were occupying, but they were occupying time slots. So what's working? It's it's you know, there's there's now there's there's more flexibility for the guests because they can they can be eating dinner or eating um uh you know a snack or spending time with their family in a casual area while they're virtually waiting in line. It helps with the trip planning perspective. But what's not working about it is we know it's complex. And and Disney has tried to their credit, you know, they they launched Genie Plus. And honestly, that system was probably the most bang for your buck. There was cons with it. You had to wake up early to use it, right? Um, I would argue that the one in Disneyland is probably more legit because you got to be in the park before you start kicking them off. But there's there's also that perceived inequity, right? It you know, when you watch people, when you're in a standby line with outlanding lanes, and you just watch people pass pass you, it, you know, it it definitely is not a great feeling, right? You you and it's tough for you to go with a family of four or six or eight, and you watch these people pass as you, and it creates this, this, this perceived uh inequality, right? It's it's not uh it's not equal, right? And uh the other part of it is it can really be taxing in terms of strategic thinking. The lightning lane multipass system is it does create strategy, right? And for some people, it's too much. And uh you know, I really think you know, where is it going from here? Are we at the you know, are we at the the the final state for lightning lane multipass? Is this is this the program that's gonna be out there for 10 years, 20 years? My gut feeling says it is, but could there be tweaks? And and honestly, yeah, there could be, but let's let's just talk park by park, right? We have let's let's just kind of start and let's put our our forward-thinking glasses on here. And let's say that we're five years into the future here, and here we are in Animal Kingdom, and we have tropical Americas. And right now, you have the Lightning Lane single pass for a great unlegendary ride, right? Avatar flight of passage, where it's the consumer is still willing to spend the money for it. But if you look, that's one of the lightning lanes that doesn't really sell out. Um, it might sell out day of, but it doesn't really sell out too too much prior. And now you got tropical Americas. And the interesting about tropical Americas is you have two attractions that could potentially compete with this lightning lane single pass. What I think is gonna end up happening is I think Animal Kingdom will go to a tier system as soon as Tropical Americas comes on board. I don't know when. I I you know to me, I think you know, when the when the land first opens, you know, next year, and let's assume that both attractions come up by the end of 2027. I'm on record, I've said this on forums, that I think that Tropical Americas will open by Memorial Day of next year. That seems really bold, but if you look at where Disney tries to drive and tend to visit, they really want people to come in the summertime. That is their soft spot. That's where you see the four-day ticket package. And even they just released the two-day package just a just a little while ago, right? And they've had other ones that you can come in after 4 p.m. whatever, like Cole Kids Summer. That was all part of a promotion to make Epcot and other parks better for children and better for families. Where else are you seeing the four-day ticket, guys, for 400 bucks? It's not the rest of the year. There's tremendous draw for most part of the of the year. And you have this June, July, August, September that's kind of a pillow for them. It's kind of a soft spot. That's why I think Tropical Americas is going to open next Memorial Day. It might not mean that both attractions open. I do think that the entire land will be open and functional by the end of next year, but I could definitely see, you know, maybe the Indiana Jones attraction opening first or in Canto. Honestly, I don't know. I don't know which one could open first, but I do think by the end of next year both attractions will be live. And I do think the land will open or soft open, whatever, by Memorial Day next year, just because I don't see the other offerings coming. I mean, you have carousel progress. I don't know what else could be coming next summer that would draw people like they did this year. Um, unless they just really want to go with heavily discounted tickets. And you know, Universal had to do that right before Epic came online, so it's not impossible. Maybe you'll see $50 tickets next year. I don't know. But if they open up Tropical Americas, that fixes the problem. But back to Lightning Lanes, what is gonna happen with Animal Kingdom? And I I kind of go in a couple different directions, but my gut feeling says is that one of them will be lightning lane single pass, the other one will be lightning lane multi-pass. I kind of think that flight of passage, there is a height limit, right? And we know that there's gonna be a height limit on Indiana Jones. I I don't remember what dinosaur was. I feel like I should know this off the top of my head. I want to say it was 40 inches, maybe it was 42. I think that Indiana Jones will have this similar height requirement. Uh now, of course, we have Tron that that carries that and Guardians, right? Those both have height limits too. But if I was a betting man, I think that Indiana Jones ends up on Lightning Lane multi-pass. And I think Encanto opens up with Lightning Lane single pass, at least in the beginning. And what will happen is maybe you put, I don't know, maybe you have Navi River Journey, maybe you have um Indiana Jones and Everest as tier to ones. I don't know, guys. I mean, that doesn't seem like the strongest lineup ever, but you could also put, you know, the new carousel as a tier two. Um, and you know, of course they have their shows on for tier two and better zoogether. Like, I I I just think this is their opportunity to start breaking things into tiers. And unless they say, you know what, it's time to rein in Flight of Passage and make that a Lightning Lane multipass, it's possible. I mean, it is an aging attraction. You know, it's gonna be 10 years old, and honestly, the thing needs TLC. It needs TLC. I know if it was up to James Cameron, that thing would be updated. Maybe that's where they go. Maybe Flight of Passage becomes a Lightning Lane multipass, tier one, and so is Indiana Jones becomes tier one, and then you're just selling Encanto. You know, the thing is, is the Encanto attraction is gonna be family-based and people are gonna want to get on it. I could definitely see that starting with a virtual queue as well in the beginning, but I think eventually, I don't know. I just have a feeling that's gonna be a lightning lane single pass. If I had to bet that's where I'm going, and that's that's Animal Kingdom future state, right? Really interesting to me. And then let's flip let's flip over to Hollywood Studios. I don't think anybody thinks that the door coaster is not gonna be a lightning lane single pass, right? It has to be, it has to be a lightning lane single pass. I mean, unless they're willing to do something with Ryze, I mean, Rise is older too. I still think you know that attraction is still selling its weight. Um, you know, it's still the most expensive Lightning Lane single pass. And I think that they will appear to you can only buy two per day. And I and I think they do that because they don't want to cut into you know VIP like experiences, right? I think that's where they're comfortable. They're comfortable with a two-limit lightning lane single passes. So I'm going with with the Mastropolis Door Coaster as a lightning lane single pass. I'm going with the Mastropolis Glob Theater as a tier two. Um, and I don't know, you know, what's gonna happen with the Olaf presents. Is that gonna be a uh a lightning lane tier two? I don't know. I I say no, I say that's just a standby thing only, but we'll see. Um, and I guess let's you know, Epcot is what it is. Epcot's lineup is pretty robust. Like, you know, they got Guardians as the single pass. And then you have they got Remy's Test Track, Frozen, and Soren. That is really a strong lineup. I mean, honestly, if you compare that with other attractions at other domestic parks, man, that is up there. That is a strong, heavy lineup, right? For a park that is built around, in my opinion, uh opinion, exploring and and kind of just taking in the world showcase and world celebration and world discovery. It's more of, you know, it's got edutainment and then it's got these banger for rides. It's just Epcot is a great park. Um, and then you know, you add in the nighttime show. It's it's just an unbelievable park. Well, I think Epcot could use more hours. Like I it drives me crazy that nine o'clock and then you get the 9.30 candlelight processional window. Um, you know, but besides that, it's a nine o'clock close unless you got extended evening hours. And then Magic Kingdom, I think, is a very fascinating part to talk about Lightning Lane futures. What is it gonna do, right? You got piston peak. You know, does Seven Dorse Mind Train finally, does it finally go back to Lightning Lane Multipass? And when I say go back, I'm only referencing to you know the days of Fast Pass Plus, where it was uh the most demand fast plus uh fast pass plus attraction. And it to me that that's a um an a uh you know an analogy, right, where it's it's closely with lightning lane multipass, right? It's closely affiliated with that with that kind of um structure. I I think that I think the seven doors mind train be does become a uh you know a lightning lane multipass. I think that you know, I think they'll and they could do Tron instead. You know, I think the problem, I think Tron sells, man. Tron is an Tron is a great attraction, and you know, they could still get more money for that for that experience than they can get with Seven Doors. You know, uh I think any of the thrill seekers are are looking out for Tron, right? So I think the piston peak, when that comes online, becomes a single pass. But does it? Because five years in the future, now you got two more villain attractions at least. Man, what is gonna shake out from that? I mean, my gut feeling says, you know, maybe it's the villain's attraction that becomes the lightning lane single pass, and you know, maybe maybe the Piston Peak becomes another Lightning Lane single pass. Tron and Seven Doors go to multi pass. That seems like it makes the most sense to me. And I don't even know what the second attraction at villains land, but I would imagine one would go multipass. And I don't see them breaking the mold of let's throw to let let let people buy three now. That would be the next generation of um, I guess of lightning lane. I don't think they're gonna go there. I think the system is staying hold for a for a long time, but just think about the capacity gains that's gonna that's gonna present to Magic Kingdom. Um, you know, adding those attractions, it's gonna be a huge lift. And it's gonna make you know getting on those other tier one attractions right now so much easier, you know, Big Thunder Mountain and Space Mountain and Jungle Cruise. It's really gonna impact Magic Kingdom in a huge and positive way. And we should mention that, you know, the Metropolis Umorcoaster is gonna really pay huge dividends. You know, people people are so short-sighted. You know, there's there's there's a movement guys on the forums that just hate this idea. They they hate the metropolis idea. You know, some people think, you know, it's not gonna be a real interesting land. You know, meanwhile, the imagineers are saying this is gonna be like Zootopia and Shanghai. This is gonna be something really new and and and very interactive land. We'll see if they pull it off. Um, but it's gonna pay huge dividends. You're adding where a parking lot was, you're gonna add hopefully a people eater, and it's and it's an in an indoor roller coaster, it's gonna pay huge dividends. It's not gonna go down, right? Like a slinky dog dash would be in in storms. It's it's just I think it's gonna it's gonna be a huge impact on Slinky Dog. Huge impact. Um, and rock and roller. So uh very exciting there. So I I definitely think like it and look, let's face it, will they be able to charge more money for these landing lanes? That's gonna go up all the time. Like it's gonna incrementally go up, and I'd expect the same thing. They are gonna be able to get more money from us guys on single pass and multipass. Premier pass, I'm not even talking about that, right? Premier pass, it's your once-in-a-lifetime trip, and you just want to unlock everything and have a true you know, experience where you don't have to care and and money's no object to you. Great. Um but I'm talking about basically the common person, which is most of us here that are listening and aren't springing for for Premier Pass. Um so yeah, you know, and I guess this brings me to the next thing. I started with Animal Kingdom. What happens to Animal Kingdom after tropical Americas open? You know, does it finally become a full day park? You know, we used to have these segments and happily everything, Disney with Christina and Mike, and I definitely think if it's you if it's your one trip every three or four years, you could get a full day out of Animal Kingdom. Like you definitely can. You do have to make sure you get the shows in the middle part of the day because they don't play all day. And let's face it, you know, you're talking about a six o'clock closing for some of the year, you know, probably a third of the year, you get 7 p.m. And then, you know, even less than that, you get it 8 p.m. closing. You might get some deluxe evening hours. It really is a part that's not open a lot of hours. And I rank it six on the domestic parks, guys, because it's got no nighttime show. And it closes early. I think those are legitimate criticism. Like, you can't, like, people are like, oh, Animal Kingdom, it's my favorite park. Like, yeah, and I hear that a lot from people coming out west. I get it because it's so unique, but man, you gotta weigh those things. The park closes at six. That's not a great experience. That's not a park that's confident in its lineup. And it does need a nighttime show. And it's time, guys. They're gonna add three attractions in tropical Americas. Let's add the nighttime show. And even if they want to say, let's run it seasonally, I can deal with that. If that if they're like, hey, starting in 2027 in the fall through the winters, and then we're gonna run a nighttime show, right? And now you like think about what that does. Not only does it turn Animal Kingdom into a full day park, but it also helps Magic Kingdom out. It helps Epcot out, it helps Hollywood studios. People that want more content at night have to hop. You get a nighttime show, there's not time to hop. And Animal Kingdom does need to do another major expansion. You know, I look at this Bluey experience where, you know, they went from a virtual queue to a standby queue. I don't know if it's causing tremendous demand, but man, you could see it's just Animal Kingdom needs more. They need more and more beyond tropical Americas. You know, I love the Lion King Log Flo. I think that'd be awesome. Put it next to the Festival of the Lion King west of it. I think it would be so great for the park. I you know what I don't want them to do is I don't want them to take a Cali River Rapids and be like, let's add IP, let's add jungle book. I don't think that's it, guys. Like, I don't think that makes that ride. To me, the only way to make that ride better is to make it longer. And it's a fine ride. Like, I don't want them to close it. It takes a lot of, you know, it takes a lot of real estate. And you always you always have to be concerned about those attractions that that have a lot of um a lot of land. And that's the thing too. If they're not gonna use the the the amphitheater, then freaking cover it, you know, like cover it with with land and do something with the land, you know. I don't want that. I don't want them to fill in World Showcase either. Although I do have this crazy idea in my head what they could do, maybe another time. Um I still want water there, by the way. But anyway, um, Tropical Americas um is is definitely gonna be a big help to Animal Kingdom, but it's gotta be the start, and I think I think the executives know it, and I hope that they do something else in that space, in that in that park. Um, you know, they could also expand on Pandora. You know, these movies are still making a billion dollars. I I do think that you know you do kind of have I mean, it's like Law of Diminish and returns. People have to know that it's it's tough to, you know, even like the the Marvel movies did the same thing, the Star Wars movies, and you put out the first one that goes gangbusters, and then each successive one, you know, you're gonna get Some people that don't they kind of fall flat with it. It's tough to keep that enthusiasm and that momentum going for even if the movies are good, it's just tough to maintain. And I think sometimes it's not a fair barameter. I know Zootopia is super popular, man, and I wish they would do more with that IP at world, but I think Better Together sticks for a while in that tree of life. And honestly, I think we all want that because we don't want it to go anywhere else in Animal Kingdom. And I think that's where they would want to go with it. So I'm going with bring us the Lion King attraction. Or you know what? If you want to do an ocean, and I don't know how to say that, but an ocean land and give us Moana, sure. You know, um what I would like to see is I would like to um I'd like to see them go in another direction with Moana. Um what I'd like to see them do is post Monstropolis, I'd like to see a water ride in Hollywood Studios. Hey, you could bring back the Earful Tower, you know, if you got a water ride. No, but how about a Moana ride replacing the Indiana Jones stunt spectacular, which is basically neutered? Um costs of so many cuts, right? You know, the boulder, the the the crowd being part of the show. It's not the same show. And people are like, yeah, it's a crowd eater, it eats so many crowds. It does, but it doesn't run the whole day, it runs like 10 to 4 or 10 to 5, right? So it's not affecting rope dropping, it's not affecting traffic after five. So to me, like, give me give me a thrill ride there. But whatever they do in Hollywood post-Montropolis is they do need more family rides. I'd love to see a Moana log flood ride, but give me a stitch dark ride in the same area. Is does that fit Hollywood Studios theme? I don't know, guys. Like uh it's not super important to me at this point because you know they got Pixar all over the place, and now they got Monstropolis, you know, it's like I don't know. You know, they have they have Galaxy's Edge, like it's Hollywood Studios in name, and I do like the fact that you know Animation Courtyard is on theme again. They do have the update this the state shows for the love of God. Like, and and I and I love the fact that Hollywood Studios is so great with entertainment, um, with their quantity of shows, but they could they could kick it up a notch, guys. They could, they could, you know, it's it's time to bring in some new properties, bring in Rapunzel, bring in Mulan, you know, like bring in, I don't know, bring in Pocahontas, bring in bring in Moana, bring in Stitch, right? And and the other thing is you could kill Indiana Jones and expand the parking lot out that's side and create a whole new land with not just the two attractions that I mentioned, but you could also absorb Star Tours, which is just kind of sitting out of nowhere, and make that an attraction that fits the new land. You know, I mean, whatever they do, they have to get three for, you know, if they're gonna close two pro you know, two attractions, they gotta get net benefit to me to make it worthwhile, you know, if not do a true expansion, right? Um, but if they can be close to attractions and they open four, okay, you know, or four that actually eats people, I think that'd be great, right? Maybe they go, you know, in a little, you know, DCA light with uh with with with an area for kids. I don't know. You know, maybe they they look to see what Universal's doing out there in Frisco, and maybe they meet that area a bunch of spinners and all that kind of stuff. That stuff wouldn't excite me, but man, it'd be good for families to counterbalance all the darn thrill rides that the the uh Hollywood Studios has. That would help capacity for sure. I don't think they want to do that because I don't think that builds intend to visit. Um, but that could be something they could do. They do have to fix the capacity issues at those parks, and they have to fix the capacity issue in Magic Kingdom, but there is a lot coming in Magic Kingdom, and of course, I have been a broken record about this from the beginning. They have to fix the nighttime issue in Magic Kingdom, which is you can't just have one preferred area to watch fireworks. You need to build new spots. Uh, so come on, let's go, Villains Land. Make sure you have a spot that you can incorporate happily ever after, at least the pyro, create a unique show that's on villains, and now you got two experiences. Now you're also going to create a little bit of a problem because what you're gonna end up doing is people are gonna be like, Well, I need two knights in Magic Kingdom, one to see the villains version, one to see the the the standard happily ever happily ever hit the version. That's part of it for sure. Um, you know, I don't know another way to do that unless they can repurpose land northeast, you know, where I don't know, I don't know. It's like it's a small world, it's perfect where it's out of Disneyland because they can do that. I don't know if there's another spot like that. You guys would know better than me. Um, so but I hope they can fix some of these capacity issues. And I think they can. They're doing that with all these extra attractions. That's a good thing. All right, this gets to the next segment here, and I want to talk to everybody about what I'm calling it the table service problem. You know, if you peruse the ADRs, um, you can pretty much get whatever you want, guys. I mean, there's a few exceptions, you know, the Cake Big Shop and some Topolino's Day of and Um Space 220 Lounge is kind of hard, but these restaurants aren't filling up. And it and it's that's another reason why you're seeing these crazy annual pass discounts throwing at you know, 30%, 40% at Toledo's and stuff. It's just, you know, and I like Toledo. Toledo is cool. Toledo is not open seven days a week. What does it tell you about it? You know, it's there it there's an issue there. I think there's some things they could do. I think one is this would be my thing. I think a lot of these resort um table service restaurants need to have earlier dinner times. There's like, you know, Artist Point, you know, will have like a 4 or 4.30 dinner window, but a lot of them, like, look at a restaurant like Sanaa. Sanaa will will go lunch from like 11 to 2.55 and then it starts back up at 5. Well, what do most people want to do at 5 o'clock or 6 o'clock? They want to go back to the parks. There's some people that just want to chill at the resort, but I you know, and I know I'm sure backstage or, you know, um, I'm sure I'm sure the cooks need time to prepare and all that stuff. To me, like that should be standard. 3 30 starts dinner, the dinner window. That like it all resorts. So Toledo, you don't start at 5, you start at 3 30. And I I really do think that people would take more advantage of eating at the resort if you did that. And you probably would have some high-demand 330 dining. Um, I I think that would help a little bit. And, you know, they've tried to do things with the dining plan. I mean, look what they've done, right? To try to incentivize like people to fill up, you know, um, the restaurants, these annual past discounts. They brought back the dining plan. Uh, they have brought um the I don't, I think it's called the deluxe dining plan, where you get two credit, two table service credits per day. You know, they have tried. They made the window two hours for canceling. Like they, they're they have they have made some tweaks. I still don't think it's getting enough butts in the seats. To me, you know, one thing they could do, like I said, change it to 330, right? You know, the other the other thing is, is like, I'm telling you, people probably want to spend their money on lightning lanes and other things that were included in their admission. And the price of these restaurants, I don't think are abysmal, but they they challenge people. They challenge kids. You know, they're they they I'm sorry, they challenge families that have older kids. And, you know, my my daughter's 14 and 11. Neither of them are Disney kids anymore. So I gotta pay for adult meals with the dining plan. So one thing they should definitely do is they should introduce a a junior um child class, whatever, whatever you want to make that, you know, 10 to 17, right? Or really 10 to 20, because you can't get alcohol until 21. So I think they could do that too, and in and not make it as expensive, right? Um, I'm sure that makes it a little bit more complicated because now you have different kinds of table service credits. But, you know, if you want people to use it, right? And the other thing is is Disney's challenge in itself because let's face it, the quick service places are good. The festival booths are good, and these restaurants are competing with them. I mean, you know, think about Diet Epcot, those table service restaurants must be that must be their most busiest time, right? Because they're not competing with the darn booths. The booths are a major draw. That's why restaurant Marrakesh hasn't reopened, because it's just what's the point? You know, they can't fill these seats, guys. So there's a few things they can do. Um I'll be interested to see what the next thing that they try with the table servers. You know, they could do the free dining, you know. Last year they did the you know, free kids, you know. Um is it this year? I think it's this year, but they're not bringing that back next year. They need to rethink it a little bit. Um it's it's a very interesting problem, and it is a problem. I mean, I'm telling you, it's it's hurting Disney that people don't use their table service restaurants. It's not quite the experience it was, you know, pre-COVID, where people were lining up to get these restaurants. It's just not like that anymore. You know, where you had to worry about getting them in 180 days. Character dining has become so expensive. Um, so there's little things they could do. They could also restore the extra snack credit. Is that gonna move the needle? Probably not, but it it's it'd be a good gesture to do. Um or maybe you build dining plans around, you know, I don't know, food booths or quick services, but with the with the with the intent of you gotta use some of these credits up at the at the restaurants. I don't know. And then, you know, want to talk about you know, Disney World is not gonna add a fifth gate. Not anytime soon. I'm not gonna say never, but you can see like how they spinning guests down. We we're talking about it. We're you know, it's like adding new attractions is gonna help them. They're adding it. Animal Kingdom, Hollywood, and Magic. Don't think that Epcot's not far behind. I'm sure we'll get some juicy news at D23. And you know, the seasonal offerings and the entertainment and the resort experiences, right? Like there's a lot of ways that they can continue making capacity better without charging more to keep people out. And I think that they are doing that, they're taking steps. So I think we should be happy about that. All right. So the next part is I want to talk about the atmosphere versus the efficiency balance. How do we make things easier without making them feel less magical? You know, like there's there's this like whole AI thing going on, right? Where it's everywhere, man. I mean, in business, in life, right? I mean, I'm using I'm using AI to help me plan trips now, right? Where I used to be a planner, now I'm using AI to help me plan trips. And the apps do a really good job, right? You know, now you got the mobile ordering and the lightning lanes, and now you can even book your theme park reservations if you're an annual person or an annual pass holder, right? Um, and they did try to introduce that genie component that would kind of drive you where to go. I think they need to continue to do that. I know it seems like such a failure, but they need to build more wrinkles in there. That's like, hey, did you check this out? Did you, you know, you missed this attraction? Or hey, we notice you have two days in Magic Kingdom. You haven't had jungle cruise yet. You know, like, did you know that we put um a new, you know, a new animatronic and jungle cruise? Like, drive people to some of these things that they're not hitting. Did you know we put a new scene in Fill Hour Magic? We notice that you haven't been there in a while, like things like that. Like, and people don't want to be on their apps all day, but they are. That's not going away. You know, you're that's kind of part of the charm, I think. Like when you're just perusing a park like Apcot or Disneyland, right? It's like you can kind of do that. Some of these other parks, you do have to play with the lighting lanes, you do gotta look at rides, I mean uh standby lines. But you know, it's like it's it's not about moving people efficiently, it's it's more about you know, moving people efficiently, efficiently without without everybody noticing, right? Like spread the crowds, drive people to do new things that they haven't done, drive people to do some of these hidden things, you know. I still haven't done that little Star Wars game. So, you know, what what's next? What's going on here? So, you know, we talked about landing lanes and where those attractions are going, and um, you know, I definitely think Animal Kingdom's gonna have another expansion. I think Epcot, I just watched a video recently on somebody projecting where they could put new country pavilions. Man, dude, that would be so great. We need more pavilions. We do, but do we? You know, you add a restaurant. Are are people gonna go there? Maybe in the beginning, it's like you're gonna be battling the festival booth, right? Um, but yes, that would be awesome. Uh, and you know, there's you know, people were talking or this one person, and I and I really should source them here. Let me see if I can find who it was. Just so I'm uh I'm being sensitive to their content here. Uh hanging there here with me one second. It's by attraction ideas. Um, they put the future of Epcot 12 showcase. I would definitely check it out. Some really good information there. And one thing that he mentioned is that there's you know, by um the refreshment outpost, um, where they were gonna build the African pavilion a long time ago. There's enough room there to put two countries with attractions. Like, let's go, let's do it. Let's add Brazil, let's add Greece, you know, let's let's add to it, man. Like, it's that's where it's at. No question about it. I think Epcot needs it. Epcot needs to redo Figmin. Epcot needs inside out representation. That's an IP that's super popular and it's not really anywhere. Like there's there's little things that it can do and tie-ins that could do. I think it could use Wally. I don't know if Wally's too controversial, but there's some IPs there, man, that are just slam dunks. Epcot's got to pounce. Um, you know, Disney Springs, you know, you know, there's a lot of controversy with Disney Springs right now because resort guests um are gonna be able to go around like they want, but um, if you're not a resort guest, they don't want you coming in the front door. They don't. Why? I that's the interesting question to me. Do they not want these people on site? Like, I could understand why they don't want the work from home people coming, but it's probably such a one-in-in-a, you know, a onesie twosie thing. I don't think it's a big deal, honestly. Do they get more upset with you know the class that's getting their Disney vibe by using a playground at a resort? I don't know. That's that you know, something's bothering them with it. I I don't think it's about getting paid for parking. I I really don't. Um, you know, Disney Springs is not connected to the theme parks, right? Um, like a downtown Disney or Disney villages, where it's the the entrance to the theme parks, like City Walk is at Universal, right? It makes sense to me that it's free parking. They're trying to draw people in to shop and to dine. It's a shopping district, right? But Disney Springs could kick it up a notch. There's no reason not to bring back the drone show. It was super popular, it added so much for the summer. I know it was an operations mess. Learn from it and figure it out. Because guess what? If you can have a Disney Spring show, heck, if you could charge for it. Or you know what? Here's another idea. I don't know. You guys remember the Park Hopper Plus? Remember that it would get you into Disney Quest? I never did Disney Quest. Bad, bad, that's bad by me. I never got to it. But imagine if that got you a spot to watch the drone show, right? Now you can say, well, it's not free. Maybe there's still areas to watch it, it's just not as ideal. But maybe you get, you know, a privileged view with the Park Opera Plus, right? Or maybe you charge for it. I don't know. Maybe you charge if you don't want that, you can pay to get in the preferred area to watch. I know it could create some operational issues, but it had to be good for Disney Springs. It had to be good for those restaurants. It drew people there. But what I think is so important is that by adding more nighttime shows, it takes some of the pressure off the other parks. Takes pressure off of Apple Yabra. It takes pressure off of Luminous, it takes pressure off of Phantasmic, takes pressure off of Starlight. It does those things, right? And you can see again, you can say, well, it's a free area and all that stuff. There's ways they can incorporate it. You know, the electrical parade, it helps. It it's not a tremendous help. I think that's more of a resort thing. But the drone show definitely had a following, right? And you know, beyond that, they need to do more with entertainment. They need to like sorry if you're a beauty and the beast live on stage, but they need to like basically, in my opinion, um get a bunch of shovels and and sh and put all those uh costumes and those aging uh you know sets. They need to bury a man. Like, it's time to just do something new. Indy is old. It's not the same show. So let's go. Let's let's improve our entertainment. They could do little things, they can bring the citizens back, you know, in magic and Hollywood. I don't think they care about that. I don't think it had the draw that most people think they did. I think it's a nice little thing. They could do more things. Bring a parade back to some of the other parks, even if it's a light parade, you know, a light in size. Do something in Galaxy's Edge for the love of God. That's a boring area, right? I mean, you've got the drummer dudes over at Toy Storyland, and when they're playing, people are watching. The Green Army guys, right? Why doesn't Galaxy's Edge have something? Why isn't there a parade? You know, like is Galaxy's Edge has so much potential, and it's just it's it's it hurts, guys. People should love that land. It shouldn't be electric at night, there should be A nighttime show there. There's one out west. Improve entertainment. Make a commitment to it. Bring a nighttime show back to Animal Kingdom. Like, this is not hard. You can't bring the Tapestry of Nations back because of what they did with the boost, right? I understand that. But they could do more entertainment, dude. Kill that Encanto show. Nobody wants to see that anymore. Like, that doesn't, it doesn't belong in the park to begin with, right? And now it's like running for three years. It's like, I'm not saying that kids aren't enjoying it. There's gotta be more they can do than an Encanto show. There's gotta be. Communicators hall's got more potential than what we're doing with it, right? It does. You know, like what I love so much is I love um Festival of the Holidays, and how they have the storytellers, now they have Candlelight Processional, and now they have the festival booths, and you have the Christmas decorations. It is elite Epcot. Elite. And a little corny side note, you get a 9:30 clothes until you get an extra half an hour. Perfect. It's so great, right? I'm not gonna say perfect. 10 o'clock is perfect. It's so great. It's that's the time you want to be at Epcot, no question about it. That's the best that Epcot can be with all those things going on. It's better than food and wine, it's better than Flower and Garden, and it's better than Festival of the Arts, which are all great in their own way. But there's something different about Festival of the Holidays. And that's peak. That's Peak Epcot. What else can you do? I don't know, but the fact that there's entertainment in every pavilion nearly, and even in between pavilions, there's entertainment. It's just really good. It's really incredible. Um what I really love to see, and I kind of alluded to this in the beginning, is I want to see it's a small world of Epcot. Um I think it's a tremendous waste of space in a Magic Kingdom and in Fantasyland. I don't know where it should go. The only spot that there's a couple spots that you could probably fit it's a small world where it should go is World Showcase. How's it gonna go there? It's not gonna go there unless you unless you fill World Showcase. Unless you fill it. Do I want them to do that? No. Is there a way that they could fill World Showcase but still have water on top of the pavilion? I don't know. You know, if you can dream it, I don't know, guys. That would be like the best thing ever if you could descend a little bit, right, and experience an experience it's a small world, and actually go around the countries like you would, right? In a circular motion around the world, but on top is still water, and on top is barges for the nighttime show. Is it possible? Probably not. Um maybe you can go at World Show Place. Maybe they can change some backstage buildings uh behind the American Adventure and build a long queue entrance there. I don't know. Or maybe maybe they can utilize the Odyssey somehow and connect that around again backstage. You know, obviously Odyssey's in a weird spot, but maybe there's a way to to build a long queue back there. Like, like, you know, think like Indiana Jones and Adventureland and Disneyland. I don't know. But that's where it belongs. It belongs in Epcot. And I know if you Google this, it's I'm not the first person at saying this. There's other people that have said it. But that's where it needs to live. And it can get out of Magic Kingdom and you can do something so much with that space. Rapunzel ride for sure. Some other bus car rides would fit there so nicely, and it would return such a charm to Magic Kingdom that exists in Disneyland, but it doesn't exist in Magic Kingdom. So is it ever gonna happen? I don't probably not, but it would be amazing if it did. So anyway, I hope you guys like this. I know I was a little bit all over the place, but I do think Disney is addressing some of the things we're talking about by just building more rides and people that say, oh, it's it's a one-for-one, you know, the the river boat and Tom Sawyer Island. Come on, get out of here, man. Like the two attractions at Frontierland that are coming with cars is gonna draw people way more than the boat. And the boat's nice. I'm glad it still lives out west. If you're a fan of the boat, you could still do it. You could still go visit an island out west, right? You could still do a lot of stuff out west. These aren't the originals, guys, you know. I'm very excited about Piston Peak. Very excited. Um, you know, and I'm on board with the changes. And I, you know, the villains land, we'll see what happens. I hope they they get tough with it. They don't they don't get too soft with it. I don't want it to be scary, but I I want it to feel tense when I go in there. Does that make sense? I want to feel I want to feel some emotion. I want it night to have to have this vibe, right? Uh again, I don't want to scare kids, but I want it to I want it to feel a little bit more like, okay, we're going into a spot that is cold and hard, maybe a little scary. But all the parks are addressing the capacity concerns, with the exception of Epcot. But Epcot has got other things going for it, and I do think that it's time for more development in Epcot. Spaceship Earth, Mission Space, Figment, an extra pavilion, bring me inside out somewhere, put it to Small World somewhere, bringing the Mary Poppins ride back. I take it. That's another spot, probably back in that area there. I mean, I think the only way they get it to Small World is they're gonna have to make major changes to backstage, unless you want to put it in, you know, um, the Wander's Pavilion, right? Like, and I hope they utilize that space too, but that's I don't want it's it's a small world shouldn't go there. It's not the right spot. But back in that direction, do something with it. I don't care what, but things are on the up. I think it's a very exciting time. Disney is spending a lot of money on the theme parks and especially a world. Um, and uh, you know, we didn't even talk about Disneyland. Disneyland, Disneyland's exciting guys, you know, Coco. We don't know what they're doing out at DCA if they're flip-flopping between Avatar and uh Zootopia. I think they're gonna go with Zotopia. I think just from the train perspective, like, come on, dude, just with the monorail, just do Zootopia, and just tell people Avatar's still coming, and it can come in part three. Like I've told you guys, this Disneyland Ford thing, this is their one chance to add a third park, a third gate. It's gonna happen. Uh, and people think I'm crazy. I'm like, why would they just keep infinitely expanding Disneyland and DCA? Why? What what benefit is it? The parks do well as it is, make more money by selling a third gate. So I'm not saying that that's that's an easy thing, but throw Avatar in gate three, throw Westcott in gate three. Um, they you know, in a Disneyland 4, they they mention all kinds of IPs, you know, throw Arendell in gate three. Like, come on, there's there's so much they can do. So, anyway, this was a long episode. Hope you guys enjoyed it. See you next time at this happens.