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[CafeFantasia]

Nobody seems to have discussed what was said during the Table Ronde Actionnaires on 7th December 2011. There's a great post about it on DisneyCentralPlaza. Here's what it looks like when you run it through Google Translate:

http://translate.google.co.uk/translate ... mpte-rendu

[littlemermaid83]

Sounds interesting, thanks Alan for posting.

[peter]

Thanks for that.

[Epcot_Boy]

December 21, Philippe Gas will sign a deed of part of the Esplanade (between Disney Village, train station and parks), to facilitate this movement (one common excavation Disney Village and parks) and the management of undesirable persons on this one (street vendors).

I can think of many a person who will be chuffed with this. A friend of mine's young daughter used to really cower when entering this area :x  However, free trade and all that

The future of the show of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, which begins to make his time is also being studied (optimization of the room while keeping the ability to restore).

Not sure if I've got this right but is it saying that the future of the BBWWS is in dought? I'm not sure how many upgrades there have been to this show, but I for one think it's well past its sell by date

[Josh]

Interesting. I thought I'd highlight certain bits:

"He also stressed the arrival of the Word of Disney, with the study of the overhaul of the street (the World of Disney find themselves in duplicate with the Disney Store). And the ability to recover (or not taken based on the options for the future of the street) the starry night on this one."
What does it mean by "starry night"? It looks like this bit wasn't translated correctly by Google.

"and the management of undesirable persons on this one (street vendors). "
What's this? Getting rid of the street vendors?

"Star Tours 2 is studied but not a priority, because for a guest who comes in the park illegally (according to polls), Star Tour (1) is a great experience. Despite this he still admitted that the two tested a few days apart (the first two) and is aware that there is no picture between the two, especially since Star Tours 2 has a great ability to return direct (guest who once again) because you never know what movie we will find ourselves immersed. "
So it's not a priority, but they're considering it. I don't think we can expect anything better than that, so that's good.

"Ratatouille is a study with the banks, an expected result (final decision) is the beginning of 2012. after must be provided within 2 years of construction."
Final decision, eh? I hope they say yes. But it's good if the banks want to force Disney to complete it within two years.

"A study is made of Armageddon (since the license to use the film ends soon and that it is in significant decline in attendance). Given the number of licenses owned by Disney, the choice will be difficult (spiderman was mentioned as likely as not licensing issue with Universal in France, unlike other countries where universal parks are installed)."
So -- in other words -- we'll get a new ride. A spiderman one will be much more popular, and will no doubt make the Marvel fans happy. XD They might base it on the new Spiderman film and recreate a particular scene in it.

"Expectations of short films are in development with teams from John Lasseter, but it may be very long as it is very picky about the quality of his films ... "
I'm not sure what is meant by "films", but I'm assuming they mean Imagineering projects. It's great to see that John is taking an interest in DLP. It seems typical that he would take a while for being a perfectionist. XD

[CafeFantasia]

Ok, here's a proper translation of the text done by an actual human being I know, and not by Google Translate. I reworded some of the sentences because the original French was crap (apologies to the author).

Disney Village

Philippe Gas is very pleased about the arrival of new brands in the Disney Village (Starbucks Coffee and Earl of Sandwich) and reminded us that the Starbucks store, a week after its opening, was generating the best global revenue, and continued doing so for several consecutive weeks. For the Earl of Sandwich, he emphasised the fact that the location was risky (furthest away from the entrance to the parks) but in a pleasant setting, with an unobstructed view over Lake Disney and the Resort hotels. He also emphasised the arrival of the World of Disney store, with a study about the general overhaul of the street (due to the Disney Store now being redundant). He also mentioned the possibility of bringing back the starry sky lights (or not, depending on what is decided for the future of Disney Village).

One shareholder mentioned the idea of a culinary contest between restaurant chefs in order to boost catering performance. Philippe Gas bounced off the idea and announced that top chefs have been negotiating to have some of their signature dishes appear in the parks' restaurants.

The future of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, which has been around for a while, is also being considered (optimising the use of the venue, while retaining its catering facilities).

There will be a range of 20th Anniversary marketing products (seems logical).

On December 21st, Philippe Gas will sign a certificate of land ownership for part of the esplanade (between Disney Village, the RER station and the parks), to improve guest flow (to have only one security search for Disney Village and the parks) as well as remove the unwanted people there (street traders).

The Parks

The Central Plaza stage is going to be removed (we already knew that but now it's official).

The 20th Anniversary will mainly focus on shows (especially one that'll be very unique. It makes you wonder what he's talking about since he never mentioned Dreams!)

As far as catering is concerned, Videopolis is the biggest earner in the park, but they have trouble deciding on a new show for the venue, since it would reduce the area where people can sit down and eat. On the other hand, he told us that a survey about Discoveryland (which he called Tomorrowland) has been requested because of bad guest flow and attractions with little appeal (I think he used the Visionarium as an example to avoid talking about Captain EO).

Star Tours 2 is being considered but not a high priority, because for a guest who regularly visits the parks (according to surveys), the original Star Tours is still an excellent experience. Despite that, he admits having ridden both within a few days (Star Tours 2 first) and is aware of the fact that there is no contest between the two, especially because Star Tours 2 has a high repeatability factor (meaning guests go back on it straightaway) since you never know which film you'll be shown. He thinks it's a very strong concept but the main focus is the Walt Disney Studios Park, so that it can grow to be the same size as Disneyland Park.

Ratatouille is still being considered by the banks and there's hope of results (meaning a definite decision) by early 2012. After that, a construction period of two years is to be expected.

To the question (that I found on Facebook) "What do you plan to do between Christmas 2011 and the start of the 20th Anniversary celebration?", the answer was that the off-peak period is difficult to manage, so they're going to work on some last minute deals (e.g. early booking) to prevent a severe attendance drop. They're also planning to announce the 20th Anniversary celebration as late as possible so that people don't think, "why don't we wait for the 20th Anniversary? There's nothing special to see right now" or something like that.

Someone mentioned wait time issues with some attractions (e.g. Crush's Coaster, Big Thunder Mountain and Peter Pan's Flight, among others) and was told that a guest who gets on seven rides in a day, is a happy guest. A guest who gets on six rides in a day is dissapointed. And a guest who gets on eight rides or more is on cloud nine. But the design of Crush's Coaster doesn't allow for a Fastpass system to be installed.

A study has been carried out about Armageddon, because the licence for using the film is coming to an end soon and also because attendance has dropped significantly. Given how many licences Disney own, it's going to be a difficult decision (Spiderman has been mentioned as a possible replacement, since there won't be any licence problems with Universal in France, unlike other countries with Universal parks).

Short films for some of the attractions' queues are being developed by John Lasseter's teams at Pixar, but it's probably going to take a very long time, seeing how fussy he is about the quality of his films.

[Josh]

It would be great if they brought back the sky lights in the Disney Village.

Also, John is working on films for the attraction queues? That's a good idea. We knew he was working on ones for TSPL.

[DedicatedToDLP(Steve)]

Thanks for that translation Alan.

Pity about Star Tours 2. Reading into that it sounds like we won't be getting much in Disneyland Park until WDS has grown a lot bigger, which is a shame as Star Tours 2 could lead to Star Wars weekends, more visitors etc. It also isn't consistent with them stopping development of Ratatouille, but that seems to be in hold until things like Dreams and Disney magic on Parade have been finished.

I'll be interested to see what they do with Armageddon - changing it to Spider-Man could be interesting but it's not a very big building and its not really themed for Spider-Man - it would need a total overhaul. They won't, because they don't create things that don't have films attached these days, but they could use the current building to house a space themed attraction, a better one than Armageddon. That'd save money by not needing to rip everything out and start again and could be quite fascinating and educational.

The short films are much needed. Cars attracts lots of young children and is a deathly slow and dull queuing area. I always wondered why they don't show the Mater Cartoons.

[littlemermaid83]

I would not like a Spiderman attraction, to me it just wouldn't fit and Marvel; even though its owned by Disney to me it just isn't Disney iykwim.

[spicy]

^Yet Armageddon is 'Disney' to you?

Thank you for posting that Alan, a really good read. Hopefully Ratatouille will be confirmed in the new year and they can get on with expanding WDS.

Didn't know they were closing the whole village Disney store because of the World of Disney store, that frees up a huge amount of space in the village, will be interesting to see what they do with it.

As for the videopolis, it just seems so badly designed in there. I would like that to have a complete overhaul and make it into a really good theatre before they create a new show, it doesn't really work with how it is now, you never get a good view of the stage. Won't happen though.

Nothing to get too excited about there though, at least Ratatouille is still on the cards, lets just hope the banks approve it as its pretty vital for the whole resort if they aren't adding anything to Disneyland Park until WDS is the same size.

[peter]

TWDC are going to have to do something soon though, if nothing new is going into disneyland park until WDS is the same size, well its going to be an even bigger task than DCA.

[CafeFantasia]

Ok so here's my own opinion and reaction to that information I posted the translation of...

I think the idea of Disney redesigning the esplanade, and finally getting rid of the street traders and building one unified security point, is great. That will really improve the experience of arriving at the parks, which is currently very ugly and messy.

Getting rid of the Central Plaza stage is also a great idea because it should provide a clearer view of Sleeping Beauty Castle again, and provide more space for guests to stand (so that they stop trespassing on the grass).

If Videopolis is such a big earner, can't they just get rid of the Lion King stage and go back to having some simpler/cheaper stage entertainment? Perhaps some live musicians, such as a small brass band? Space Brass Nano!

Even if Star Tours 2 isn't a high priority, they really ought to build it as soon as possible. Star Tours 1 is very dated and gives you a sort of depressed feeling, like you're in a theme park that's been abandoned. It's kind of a disgrace to the Disney name (which is supposed to stand for quality) that the video and projection systems used in Star Tours 1 are worse than the HDTVs most people now have at home! They need to build Star Tours 2, not necessarily to attract new visitors to the park, but to maintain the Disney quality for guests already in the park.

I hope Ratatouille gets approved in April 2012 and is open by Summer 2014. It's exactly what the Walt Disney Studios park needs.

I don't understand this thinking of announcing the 20th Anniversary as late as possible, to avoid an attendance drop. If the theme park is truly excellent, people will come at all times of the year, and they'll come back again when your new attraction is open! Do the management of Disneyland Paris think the announcement of Cars Land at Disney California Adventure in October 2007 has stopped people from visiting that park for the last 4+ years? What about the Fantasyland Expansion in Florida? Have people really not been visiting Walt Disney World since they announced that in 2009?

Crush's Coaster doesn't allow for a Fastpass system to be installed because by design it has too low of a capacity to exist in a Disney theme park. But, knowing that, they went ahead and built it anyway.

I'm glad to hear that the license for Armageddon is expiring soon. That attraction is hugely disappointing, has poor word of mouth, and is something that no-one ever wants to do again. It should be closed immediately, gutted, and replaced with a proper attraction that actually ATTRACTS people.

What sort of Spider-Man attraction could replace Armageddon? Armageddon exists on a relatively small section of land. You couldn't build a ride there.

Short films for the queues of the Pixar rides is a good idea. It would be nice to have animated videos custom-made for the queues of Crush's Coaster and Cars Race Rally.

[Anthony]

I don't understand this thinking of announcing the 20th Anniversary as late as possible, to avoid an attendance drop. If the theme park is truly excellent, people will come at all times of the year, and they'll come back again when your new attraction is open!

I think I might just put this quote in my signature! An excellent post Alan.

Armageddon is interesting, I had no idea they had a separate licence to use that film. Makes me wonder when exactly it runs out - 10 years, 15 years? In any case, I wouldn't personally hope for too much with a replacement at this point. You could probably retheme it to Spider-Man keeping much of the main show room in place, perhaps suggesting guests are part of some villain's experimental lab which Spidey saves us from. Although whether Disney would want to put their name to that as their "first Marvel attraction", I don't know.

The news about taking ownership of the main esplanade is almost too fantastic to take in... Although you know the street traders will still find somewhere around there where they can't be moved, it'll at least give Disney Hotel guests an unobstructed route through to the parks each morning.

[CafeFantasia]

Thanks Anthony. I'm glad you enjoyed my post. I actually always look forward to your posts, because you have a fantastic understanding of the parks (better than Philippe Gas') and your opinion is always spot on.

I'd hate to see Armageddon simply given a Spider-Man overlay. It would be like putting a plaster on a broken arm. It wouldn't solve the problem. The attraction would still stuck, and it would bring down the Spider-Man brand with it.

The street traders will probably move their business to the car park, so that you have to dodge little eiffel towers as you find a parking space! Actually, I think Disney should buy some of their crap and add it to Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast as a series of targets. How satisfying would it be, to shoot one of their little robotic dogs with a laser gun?

[Adam]

Thanks for sharing the translation Alan.

I am pleased to hear the street traders are going to sorted out - but as you say, they will move elsewhere! It will be interested to see where they actually put the security gate, as it is a wide expanse to put gates etc across.

I don't think Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show will last long, as adding Mickey was simply to try and extend its life. It is wise to commit to keeping the catering element, as people seem to like this.