My Thoughts on the 2017 D23 Parks Announcements – Part 2

Click here for part 1 of my thoughts on the 2017 D23 Parks announcements.

Alrightie, welcome back. I’ll be finishing up my thoughts on the remainder of the announcements I haven’t already covered.

Let’s start with that amazing confirmation that the TRON Coaster from Shanghai Disneyland will be coming to the Magic Kingdom for Walt Disney World’s 50th Anniversary!

This announcement makes me so happy. We’re getting an addition to Tomorrowland and nothing is being removed for it! The videos I have seen of TRON Coaster look incredible, and to me it will be a welcome addition to the Magic Kingdom. The Magic Kingdom hasn’t received an E-Ticket attraction since 1992! The park needs more thrill rides for the older generations, while not creating longer lines for rides of all ages. This coaster will help with that. Magic Kingdom is also in desperate need of extra capacity, and the installation of TRON will help with that issue immensely.

I’m very excited to ride this.

Also being added to the Magic Kingdom is a brand new theater, just off of Main Street U.S.A..

I probably won’t visit the theater much, because when I’m in the parks I prefer to use my time for riding the attractions, but as I said before, the Magic Kingdom is in desperate need of capacity. This theater will easily eat up over a thousand people per show, thus lowering the amount of guests in line for attractions, and making my trip a little more enjoyable.

That’s it for Walt Disney World attraction announcements. Now let’s look at the rest of the things coming to the resort.

Disney announced a new hotel that will be built on the lake in between EPCOT and Disney’s Hollywood Studios to be named the Disney Riviera Resort.

I think the Disney Riviera Resort concept art looks so fancy. It was said that you will be able to view both EPCOT and Disney’s Hollywood Studios’ nighttime spectaculars from the resort, which I think is a great bonus (although it will probably mean a hefty price tag).

I understand why some people think the resort looks really plain and unthemed, but I think it looks super classy. Not every resort has to have Polynesian Village Resort level of theming, but I do hope that Disney isn’t straying away from their classic attention to theme and detail at their resorts as well as their parks.

And would you look at that! They aren’t! At least not with the newly announced Star Wars Resort Hotel.

This is something truly innovative and something only Disney can come up with and do properly. It’s a hotel that immerses you in a Star Wars story. You’re given costumes, a hotel room with a view of the galaxy, and your own Star Wars roles. I think this looks like a fun idea, I just don’t know if I would ever pay for it. I’d have to see an itinerary and if I’d ever be allowed to leave the hotel (or “spaceship” if we want to get technical …).

Next is the Disney Skyliner, a transportation system almost like a ski lift, that will take you to and from select Walt Disney World parks and resorts.

I’ve always wanted to ride the original Skyway at Disneyland Park or the Magic Kingdom (heck, even Tokyo Disneyland!). That’s why I’m very VERY excited (what else is new) for the Disney Skyliner! I don’t care if riding the Skyliner will take longer than driving a car around the Walt Disney World Resort, I want to sit back, relax, and keep my hands, arms, and legs inside the gondola at all times. This looks like a very fun way to be transported around Walt Disney World, and a nice throwback to the original Skyway.

An Uber like service, called “Minnie Vans” was also announced. It’s $20 a ride. I don’t really have an opinion on it, besides that the van is quite an eye sore.

So that’s the rundown of the Walt Disney World D23 announcements. Let’s move onto the things announced for the Disneyland Resort.

Pixar Fest was announced.

Woohoo?

My thoughts on Pixar Fest is that it’s a distraction while Disneyland fast tracks Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge to open by spring 2019. They’re bringing the Pixar Play Parade across the street to Disneyland Park, and this was received with literally no applause during the panel at D23. Want to know why? No one asked for the parade to come back.

People did ask for the fan favorite Paint the Night parade to come back though! So what does Disney do? They bring it to Disney California Adventure! Personally I think the parade fits better at DCA than it ever did in Disneyland Park because the parade seemed to consist of mostly Pixar characters anyway, but I think most people would rather have the nighttime parade at the park where nighttime parades originated. Just a thought.

There will also be a new fireworks show for Disneyland Park, and I don’t feel great about that. Disneyland Park should be mostly about the classics, not recent acquisitions, and having an entire nighttime spectacular for an acquisition (even if Disney had involvement from the start) messes with that classic formula. I’m sure the fireworks will be amazing, but thematically it doesn’t make sense to me.

Something else that doesn’t make sense to me is Pixar Pier.

Huh?

Disney California Adventure becomes less and less about California with every announcement. I don’t mind the addition of the Pixar characters to the pier, but permanently calling the place Pixar Pier is mind boggling to me. It doesn’t help that we know almost nothing about the changes besides what we kind of see in the concept art.

Will the entire pier be renamed to Pixar Pier or will it still be Paradise Pier but now featuring the Pixar characters? What will happen to the already Disney themed rides on the pier? Will those we rethemed/removed? What about Mickey’s Fun Wheel? The concept art shows that it will be renamed to the Pixar Fun Wheel. Are you telling me that you’re going to take down the gigantic Mickey head (also known as the icon of the park) and replace it with a giant Pixar icon?? Also what does this whole thing mean for the Paradise Pier Hotel? This announcement has created so many questions, and I need more information before I can make any conclusions.

Small announcements such as Halloween coming to Disney California Adventure is nice. The concept art for that looks very cool.

I love me some Oogie Boogie!

More Marvel expansions were also announced for DCA, but nothing besides some hints were actually talked about. Also, they can’t use the Marvel name, so Super Hero Universe is what they keep referring to it as. That makes me laugh.

Disneyland Paris can use the Marvel name though, so they’re revamping Hotel New York and turning it into Disney’s Hotel New York – The Art of Marvel. Quite the mouth full.

It looks nice enough to me, but I don’t think the Marvel characters lend themselves well to a hotel. They seem more like action packed E-Ticket attraction characters to me. Maybe I’ll be surprised.

Disney Cruise Line is adding another ship on top of the previously announced two, to their fleet.

I LOVE the Disney Cruise Line, and the more ships the merrier. I’m going to guess that as more ships are introduced, the prices for the other cruises will go down significantly. That means more trips on the Disney Magic for me!

 

I think that covers all the major announcements that were made at the 2017 D23 Expo. As you can probably tell, I’m very excited for pretty much everything. All the concept art looks great and I know that the Imagineers will definitely deliver! The next few years will be a great time to be a Disney Parks fan, and I’m anticipating my visits in the coming years to experience all the new things!