WDW Fantasyland Add On

It will probably HELP Disney by bringing more families to Orlando that needed the extra incentive to get there.

I can't even imagine how you make that ride ADA compliant and safe.

The Nemo Subs at DL have an "alternate viewing" location---a room with a video feed taken from one of the subs.

http://www.mouseplanet.com/6663/Disneyland_Park_Update

As for Potter---I think it will at least get someone at TDO to sit up and take notice. We are annual February visitors to Florida, and pretty serious Disney dorks, and we are likely to do Universal instead of Disney in 2011. "Instead of" rather than "in addition to" because of the way that admission pricing punishes sampling, and because we know we'll be back.

Harry Potter is HUGE! The movies are still raking in the cash. The books are still selling very well. I don't see any reason why Potterland can't draw in people of all ages. This is really good for Disney also, because I am starting to agree with those here who say that Potter will draw them to Orlando, where people will visit Disney as well.

I am probably more excited about Potterland than any new coaster ever built, well, except for Millennium Force.

This fantasyland rehab sounds really nice. It's not often that Disney builds anything to write home about, because when they do something, they make it timeless.

EDIT - aded the letters l, a, n, and d to the word fantasy.

Acoustic Viscosity said:
It will probably HELP Disney by bringing more families to Orlando that needed the extra incentive to get there.

I don't necessarily agree. Disney's success in recent years has been pushing its week-long packages, discounting 7-day passes and on-site lodging to make sure guests stay on property.

Potter is a game changer. The family coming down for a week isn't going to want to spend all of their time in Disney next summer, so they may opt out of the packages entirely. They may hit Disney for a day or two, but they may find it perfectly fine to stick closer to USF/IOA and just hit Wet & Wild or Sea World.

Manta's success since its springtime opening has probably been limited to Sea World Orlando.

At the same time, are they going to want to spend two days at UO at the current ticketing rates? I think they've got the right deals in place, but I might be easily compelled to think that the good deal at UO for two days comes at the expense of reducing a Disney stay, and therefore killing the Disney value proposition.

Just playing D.A., of course. I'd go to both regardless.

I was going to post a huge post on why some people here are crazy but...

crazy horse said:
I doubt that Harry potter will have that much of an impact on Disney.

^ What he said.

If UO can pitch the combo ticket with SWO and BGT, then I could see families completely opting out of disney. With Disney pushing the multi-day thing so strongly, I can't see too many people doing UO for two or three days and then Disney for two or three days. You just lose way too much discounting that way.

Disney's core market is families with little kids. That doesn't mean that adults don't vacation there without kids or that teenagers don't visit the parks and enjoy them. They all do. It's just that the core market is the little tykes.

The Harry Potter market is more the teenage set, from 13 and up. You don't see a lot of 8 or 9 year olds walking around with Harry Potter gear (you see some, just not a lot of them).

I think the two markets could compliment each other and in the end Disney might get more visitors because a new market of families are coming to Orlando. The only problem, as mentioned above, is that the current pricing structure makes that a difficult proposition. Disney needs to find a way to effectively siphon some of those Harry Potter visitors who are going to UO no matter what and might be on the fence about a stop by to Disney World.