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There is so much happening right now at Walt Disney World and beyond, and we’re on the cusp of massive changes. Theme parks continue to grow and look for new ways to draw guests, and Disney remains at the forefront. The impending arrival of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge will have a huge impact on Disney’s U.S. resorts and a lot more. The current landscape raises many big questions about the next stage of this rapidly expanding market. It’s the perfect time to speak with Len Testa, the president of Touring Plans.com and co-author of The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World.
Testa is my guest on the latest episode of The Tomorrow Society Podcast to discuss many important topics. It’s his fourth appearance on the podcast, which sets a new record. On this extended conversation, we talk about the different layers of issues facing Disney and its parks. Testa is an expert on the industry and regularly talks about similar topics on The Disney Dish Podcast with Jim Hill. He has plenty to say and speaks candidly about how Disney operates.
Big Questions for Disney’s Parks
During our latest conversation, Testa and I cover the following key Disney topics:Why hasn’t Disney focused more on higher capacities for its new attractions, and how will they handle the crowds that will descend on the parks for Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge?
What will be the “Galaxy’s Edge Effect” on the industry a few years after the opening of this new land?
Given the diminishing success of restaurants like Be Our Guest and Le Cellier, is it possible for an extremely popular dining spot in the parks to retain its quality and value?
Looking beyond the Skyliner opening, what are the next steps with transportation that Disney should take to improve access?
How will Disney handle expanding resort types that go beyond simple categories like Deluxe, Moderate, and Value in the future?
What would we choose to do on the new “World of Dreams” tour to make it worth the $12,000 price tag?
Show Notes: Len Testa
Learn more about Touring Plans.com and the Unofficial Guides. Follow Len Testa on Twitter and listen to the Disney Dish Podcast with Jim Hill.
Tomorrow Society Podcast, Episode 39: Seven More Questions with Len Testa (March 26, 2018)
Episode 20 : Seven Disney World Questions with Len Testa (February 21, 2017)
Episode 8: Len Testa of Touring Plans.com (January 6, 2016)
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There were two questions I had some thoughts on, and was surprised Len didn’t elaborate on. 1. Where will all the additional guests to DHS go? I have been thinking about this since I waited 2.5 hrs for Flight of Passage. Say the two rides are 1800/hr capacity, 1/3 of the line is standby, and the standby lines are 3 hrs long. That’s 3600 people waiting in line for those 2 rides. Say Mickey & Minnie is a 2 hr line with similar capacity. 1200 more, so we’re up to 4800. 2 million more guests is an average of 5500/day so we are almost there with the queues for those 3 rides. You could probably make up the rest with other attractions lines increasing and more shows, which is one of the things Len mentioned.
Now, where will they eat? Epcot! How will they get there? Skyliner! I think the park hopping combo of Epcot & DHS with an emphasis on SWGE will be perfect. You also have the walking path, and boats, but I think a lot of people will try out the skyliner to park hop (especially after many hours on their feet waiting in line). You’d be able to see this if Epcot’s attendance went up with DHS’s in 2020. Galaxy’s Edge will open too late in 2019 to impact attendance at either park appreciably. I think they count tapstile touches for attendance, so you would add one to both DHS and Epcot if you did that hop (would be willing to accept correction if I’m wrong on that).
Interesting point about the Skyliner. The big question is whether people will want to leave DHS (especially in the early months) or just wait until they can enter Galaxy’s Edge. The eating question is a real one, and Epcot is not a bad idea. It depends on the Skyliner being reliable and easy, and I really hope that’s the case. If so, it will make a huge difference in how guests tour the parks. And if expansion happens like I discussed with Len, the impact could be even more substantial. It’s exciting to think about the possibilities.
I expect to see two groups utilizing the Epcot-DHS combo. One group rope-drops or has early FP+. They spend 5-6 hrs at DHS in SWGE and are ready for something less crowded (or better tasting), then head to Epcot for dinner. The other group has later FP+, or are going to stay at SWGE until park close. When Pandora was first open and had morning and evening EMH, so open from 8am-midnight, did people stay that whole time? Maybe you grab lunch at Epcot and then head to DHS for 2-midnight.
I have done the first a number of times, especially when DHS’s ride offerings were slimmer.
Disney’s transportation infrastructure improvements are huge. I agree that some additional pedestrian paths would be nice, like they did for Disney Springs. I don’t think they’ll do self-driving cars from the MK to Epcot. They already have one! It’s the monorail. Using self-driving cars on open access roads makes so little sense to me as someone that works in tech when you have a very limited set of entry/exit points the ‘fixed’ options like the monorail, skyliner and boats make more sense. Decreasing overall transit time – including wait times – will have a significant positive impact on guest experience, especially when park hopping.
On our last trip, I was picking up breakfast at the Animal Kingdom Lodge around 9 a.m. Someone who was eating there was talking about how he’d already gone to the Animal Kingdom (which had a morning Extra Magic Hour) at 6 a.m., rode Flight of Passage, and was back for breakfast. It won’t be that quick given the crowds, but I agree that we could see something similar with Star Wars that fits with the scenario you’re describing. It’s going to be interesting.
I haven’t quite done that, but we had an 11:30 “breakfast” reservation at ‘Ohana, and we were staying at the Polynesian. My older daughter wanted to try the Rock-n-RollerCoaster, so we hit DHS for rope drop, did that and Star Tours (she hadn’t done tower of Terror yet), did some shopping and were back with plenty of time for “breakfast”. There was an 8am EMH, so that’s a good chunk of time, even including bus time back and forth. I’ve done Flight of Passage, Kiliminjaro Safari, Everest and Dino on an 8AM EMH morning and was on my way to park #2 by 10AM.
It would have been fun to do the late night EMH when Pandora first opened, and I imagine Galaxy’s Edge will be pretty cool at those times as well. A nice thing about EMH is they don’t do FP+ then, so the standby line is the line. I could easily see people touring one of the other parks and then heading to DHS for a Galaxy’s Edge evening, even before they start doing the hard ticket night events there.
I’m going to be in Orange County (CA) in July and am debating testing the crowds at Disneyland for a day. You might see park hopping to manage crowds first there as people bounce from DL to DCA.