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[Anthony]

I've mentioned elsewhere that the last weekend of Summer was crazily busy at the Studios. With new attractions and hopper ticket offers it's really hit its stride. The queue for Tower was right through the queue line and out to Place des Stars, RNRC was at 50mins, Animagique full to capacity, heck they were even using the queue line of Art of Disney!

One of the most noticeable things though was that Disney Bros. Plaza and especially Disney Studio 1 couldn't really cope with these crowds. At least, not whilst keeping them enjoyable places to be in. Studio 1 was a constant surge of people heading one way or the other (mostly walking into each other because of the darkness).



So what'll happen in the future? Will expansions like TSPL ease this overcrowding as people can finally move further into the park, or will they just make it worse, with even more visitors heading to the park? And if so, what's the plan with Studio 1? It's not as wide as Main Street, and doesn't have the arcades... opening up the backstage areas either side isn't really ideal...

Discuss. :wink:

[Alpop]

I guess that the future idea would be to try and keep people beyond studio 1.
Surely, if Studio 1 was used mainly as the entrance, the surges would be mainly at opening and closing. BUT at the moment you have only around a good half days worth of entertainment (prepared to be shot down). A lack of rides means that people just dip in and out.

"Let's do crushes coaster, Tower of Terror, Aerosmith &...... is that the rides done???"
Sort of, but you can probably get my drift.

[luke85]

It's hard to imagine what the people at DLP will do to help this problem.

The main issue with Studio 1 is that it tends to make people wander through, with no sense of purpose. It's very narrow, with one shop running down one side, and a fast-food restaurant running down the other. The actual "walkway" through the middle is scattered with props and performers (which are great), but these tend to make people meander through in no clear direction. This creates a terrible crowd problem on busy days.

I sometimes think that they should have a larger "exit" in Studio 1. As you can see from the picture below, I though maybe if they made this bigger, then guests would see the "Partners" statue which would be a focal point and draw them into the park, much like Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant does in Disneyland!


Main Street USA on the other hand has a far larger walkway, and the arcades are a godsend! If only WDS had the equivalent!

[pussinboots]

What an excellent topic.

I think Alpop highlights something interesting, namely the fact that it's not a place to be; it's an entrance/exit. They try to keep you in the shops by funneling you through that bottleneck, but they didn't actually bother to make the shops interesting. So all you have is a nuisance of a bottleneck.

It should have been so much grander, bigger. They should have realized that any park's "Main Street" is its core, and tossed a bigger portion of the budget there. (Well okay, they should have had a bigger budget.)

If the Studios had been in California and given a fixer-upper budget, here's what they would have done. They would have taken some Hollywood staple that slightly resembles Studio 1, anything even remotely arcade-like, and pimped the structure. (At the risk of using a word that's just so 2004.) Widened the entrances, utilized the backstage areas on either side, changed the setting to full 1930s romanticization.

In any case, the interior would be ripped out and replaced. But hey, here in Paris they don't even have enough money to paint the thing on the outside!

Even worse is Disney Bros Plaza... Talk about something that should have been grander. But there isn't an awful lot they can do to open up the space except remove more planters, and that would only add to the industrial, cold feeling.

[mehdi5]

It is an interesting question, personally i wouldn't have had studio 1 in the design in the first place to be honest, it is nice, but i would've put something more DHS style instead, as that holds crowds much better, an example being Main Street in Disneyland Park.

[Alpop]

What an excellent topic.
 it's an entrance/exit. They try to keep you in the shops by funneling you through that bottleneck, but they didn't actually bother to make the shops interesting. So all you have is a nuisance of a bottleneck.

I will emphasis that this is the case 90% of the time. The slight variation on this is when people like us go. We are waiting for the "lights camera action" opening. We are hunting out those hidden details, waiting for the streetmosphere  (is it called that??). Flicking the lighting switches next to Liki Tiki.

[pussinboots]

What an excellent topic.
 it's an entrance/exit. They try to keep you in the shops by funneling you through that bottleneck, but they didn't actually bother to make the shops interesting. So all you have is a nuisance of a bottleneck.

I will emphasis that this is the case 90% of the time. The slight variation on this is when people like us go. We are waiting for the "lights camera action" opening. We are hunting out those hidden details, waiting for the streetmosphere  (is it called that??). Flicking the lighting switches next to Liki Tiki.

Well it's hardly enough. I'm never enticed to stick around, anyway.

I also think the place feels much smaller than it actually is... Main Street isn't exactly the Champs Elysées either, but it feels like a grand place because of the forced perspective and the sheer multitude of architectural styles and details. That's even more true in California, where Main Street probably isn't much wider than Studio 1's boulevard...

[Anthony]

I also think the place feels much smaller than it actually is...

Oh absolutely, it's an enormous space. You never quite feel that when you're walking down the middle, but climb up to the stairs to the mezzanine of the fast food place and suddenly you're in this warehouse.





That spot just there on the stairs gives a good perspective.

Now why the heck did they build toilets and the parade control room within the building, over behind Last Chance Gas? Surely they should have been tucked out the back somewhere, like they are on Main Street.

Yes, if there comes a point that the rest of the park finally has another large restaurant and shop, I'd love to see the place gutted and rebuilt from scratch like pussinboots says. It'd be quite a good location for something like a Walt Disney Story walkthrough, over several floors. The full story of how he came to and conquered Hollywood. Set the scene.

I guess that the future idea would be to try and keep people beyond studio 1.

You might have got it. Rather than changes around Studio 1 it'll be more about shifting the whole body/emphasis of the park further out, say to where Studio Tram Tour is now. The problem with Studio 1 is that it's not just the entrance and the exit but pretty much the only restaurant and shop to serve more the half the park.

Give Toon Studio a good-sized restaurant and shop, expand the Boulevard with proper buildings, and people won't be forced to keep dipping in and out of here all the time.

Things like the candy floss, face painting, coffee stalls and restaurant menu boards that extend into the main walkway inside Studio 1 don't really help in the mean time.

[pussinboots]

The building does have potential to be something really neat. It's huge and dark; a veritable playground for Imagineers.

Then again, having it become the park's main attraction would hardly help us with our bottleneck problem...

[Alpop]

Here's a little too much information for you, but......

When I went last year (mid september (so not massive queues)), I was busting for the loo. Ran into Studio 1 to nip behind the cactus and.......... The only location to have a queue of people going to the male toilets. Generally there isn't a queue at the males (always one at the females it seems).

So possibly extend the toilet area here with an altered queuing space. As in maybe from outside rather than inside next to the crowds who are also queuing to get into queues or through the crowd.

[davewasbaloo]

Funny, when Studio 1 opened, the walking space was about the same as Main Street (before the characture artists, shopping rails and external seating were put in). I used to LOVE to hang out there with the live big band playing, and the italian cinema band, and the street mousphere. And the vibe felt like I was in a scene from Singing in the Rain. I thought this was the one part of the Studios they got right for vibe, and still feel it is excellent in the main. And with the rubbish Northern European weather, I am glad it is indoors (something that was in the original MGM Europe plans too).

[Willow]

Well its different than the usual entrances to the parks, I like it. In terms of guest flow, its terrible though.

There needs to be more routes into the park, perhaps 2 paths either side of Studio 1, kinda like the Main Street arcades. (Obviously with some kind of theming, maybe the history of Hollywood)

I would also kinda suggest to take out two planters, or replace them with smaller versions.

The main problem, I think, is that there isn't really a way to navigate from RNRC to Toon Studio without having to go back through Studio 1, because the park is kinda Horseshoe shaped.

[experiment627]

I really like Luke's idea of enlarging the exit doors. A bigger door at the end of the street might draw guests faster to the other side than the smaller doors do now. It would feel more like a gateway that you just have to pass...

Of course, then they would have to deal with the additional light pouring in, ruining a bit of the interior lighting design (which right now is excellent, by the way). Also, the draft (which already is pretty bad on colder days) might pose a bigger problem.

And then move some of the clutter like the facepainting into the park (Hollywood Boulevard?), get rid of the "outside" tables on the street and have streetmousphere more inside the park than in this area. This should ease crowd flow...

By the way, I agree with davewasbaloo: I think they got Studio 1 pretty right. I love the atmosphere, the music, the lights, the movie references. It is setting up the "story" of the WDS quiet nicely...

[Anthony]

When I went last year (mid september (so not massive queues)), I was busting for the loo. Ran into Studio 1 to nip behind the cactus and.......... The only location to have a queue of people going to the male toilets. Generally there isn't a queue at the males (always one at the females it seems).

Nip behind the cactus, haha! In fact, the whole of WDS is the only place in the world to have queues for the men's toilets and the women's behind Art of Disney seems to have a constant queue out the door. Not good.

I was playing with some Google Earth pictures trying to rejig the place and wondered straight away why on earth they decided to take up so much of the precious floorspace by having toilets inside the building. They should have been built out to one side, like the kitchens of Restaurant en Coulisse.

By the way, I agree with davewasbaloo: I think they got Studio 1 pretty right. I love the atmosphere, the music, the lights, the movie references. It is setting up the "story" of the WDS quiet nicely...

The music is wonderful, and incredibly hard to find. I've wanted to catalogue all the animated neon lights for ages...

Arcades would be a major construction project but not impossible. I might post something in the Imagineering forum about those later, keep my armchair ideas out of here. The obvious theme would just be to build the rest of the Hyperion Studio onto what they've already built...



Complete with Mickey Mouse/Silly Symphonies sign. Make them look like the office corridors of the old 1930s Walt Disney Studios. You could even have a Liberty Tableux-style walkthrough scene of Walt's office...