Disney Parks: Epcot's Future World Redesign & Galaxy's Edge Attendance Impact

Epcot's Future World Closures and Redesign

• 📌 Several Future World areas, including Fountain of Nations, Innoventions East, Colortopia, and Nanoo's Break Room, are slated to close on September 8th.
• 🛍️ Mouse Gear will move to a temporary location, and the Starbucks at Fountain View will also close and relocate, highlighting the need for accessible retail and refreshment options during the transition.
• 🗺️ The park's entrance area will be transformed to focus on the current festival, featuring outdoor kitchens and beer gardens, aiming to enhance the guest experience from the moment they enter.
• 🎨 The Art of Disney store is moving to Heritage Manor in the American Adventure, a location that may impact sales due to its distance from the park entrance and the heat.
• 🥤 Club Cool is also scheduled to close and be relocated, with temporary structures and frequent moves expected throughout late 2019 and 2020.
• ⏳ The overall Epcot transformation is expected to take approximately a year and a half to two years, with the goal of a more open, cooler environment with water features by the 50th anniversary.
• 🎭 Character locations are also shifting, with Minnie Mouse moving to the World Showcase Gazebo, Daisy Duck to the American Adventure, and Goofy to the Imagination Pavilion.

Ticket Price Analysis and Attendance Trends

• 📈 Analysis of Disney ticket prices shows incremental increases, with most months seeing a 2.2% rise, aligning with inflation.
• 📊 Certain months like April, September, and November show lower price increases, while May, June, August, and October have higher increases, suggesting Disney uses pricing to manage attendance.
• 💰 Disney believes they have reached a balance in supply and demand through ticket pricing, with recent increases primarily serving as inflation adjustments.
• 📅 The number of ticket price tiers is increasing from five in 2019 to seven in 2020, adding more granular pricing options.
• ☀️ Summer crowds in Epcot were observed to be lower than usual, with attractions like Spaceship Earth having significantly shorter actual wait times than posted.

Galaxy's Edge Attendance and Immersive Land Development

• 📉 Since the opening of Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge, Disneyland has experienced unusually low attendance, with a significant number of days rated as '1' on a 1-10 crowd scale.
• ⏳ The development of immersive lands, like Cars Land and New Fantasyland, has historically taken long periods, often around 4.5 to 5 years from announcement to completion.
• 🚀 Pandora – The World of Avatar also faced lengthy development timelines, taking over 5.5 years from acquisition of rights to groundbreaking and construction.
• ⚡ In contrast, Universal's Wizarding World of Harry Potter was developed and opened much faster, within approximately 3 years from announcement.
• 💰 High costs are associated with these large-scale immersive lands, with Galaxy's Edge estimated at $600 million per land, while Universal's Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade cost significantly less combined.
• ⚠️ Disney's Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge faced initial capacity issues and has seen lower-than-expected attendance, raising concerns about the return on investment for such lengthy and expensive projects.
• 🎢 Competition from Universal, including the rapid development of attractions like Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure, is putting pressure on Disney's development timelines and costs.
• 🦊 The acquisition of Fox assets is creating pressure to integrate new intellectual properties, such as The Simpsons, into Disney parks to recoup investment, despite potential brand juxtaposition.