A Hippie in the House of Mouse (Jim Henson at Disney, 1980)
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I mean, that's the entire point of the Disneytowns: A budget theme park that gives locals a taste of the Disney experience.
Disney Recreation would still put in a lot of effort to build something like DT San Antonio or DT Denver (since quality is still very important to the I-Works/Recreation) but they'll rehash or reuse existing DL/WDW attractions during construction and when they replace them as a logical cost cutting measure, especially when most of their department is busy with Valencia and Long Beach.
As for DL/WDW, I have a feeling that if most of the guests there are middle-class to extremely wealthy families or tourists (which seems to be the constant OTL and ITTL), then they will just scalp everything in the parks anyways. But unlike OTL, families will literally not care because they believe they're getting the bang for their buck with the high quality stuff Disney puts out in an era where Walt's thinking still reigns supreme (put in the heavy investment and you'll get the profits from new/returning Disney customers) instead of the min-maxing ideology of the Eisner/Pressler days. Heck, we had a post where Jim and the executive board raised admission prices to Disneyland/WDW and attendance went UP.
Of course, people are naturally going to complain about Disney's absurd markups, but the counterarguments are more justifiable as Disney doesn't go on the cheap on their theme park projects. Besides, what other competitors could ever hope to compete with ITTL Disney in terms of quality and experience, especially during the 90s?
Not gonna lie, I would've loved Disneytown Philadelphia if I visited. The fusion between Colonial America and Disney does sound very appealing to me, and the food offerings do sound quite delicious, especially breakfast/dessert! If Disney's America doesn't exist (which is likely), then this is probably the closest thing to it ITTL.
Plus a Minuteman Mickey plush?!
(Image source: Ebay)
Absolutely epic.
Speaking of visiting multiple parks, I had a very devious scheme where Disney would reward guests that visited multiple theme parks across the globe with a specialty pin (As always, stay tuned if that pin turns up, you'll never guess what it will be for), just to provide urgency and a sense of prestige for wealthy guests and repeat visitors. Guess Disney could also add unique specialty pins for each Disneytown too just to enhance their allure as a unique regional experience for Disney fans and pin collectors to salivate over.
I do like Scenario #2 over Scenario #1.
Would the current economy of the 90s help with the success of the Disneytown project? I heard that the decade was known for big spending and a lot of disposable income for many middle-class families before the dot com bubble and the 2008 Great Recession.
I hope so.
Could the Disneytown's be a good way to soft retire old rides at the big parks by touring them through the various Disneytowns. This could also lead to customization as the different Disneytowns keep the rides that proved the most successful.
This is the reason I thought that Colorado's Disneytown should have been closer to Colorado Springs instead of Denver, but oh well.
How about a discount on admission for each Disneytown someone visits.
It depends on if Clinton or someone like Clinton is president in 1992, I feel that the economy under Bush or other Republican probably wouldn't be quite the same as OTL.
The DT Phillie idea is brilliant.
Methinks if a certain indian-american director still makes certain Philadephian-set movies under Disney, maybe an attraction based on it may be at DTP?
I can also picture Disneytowns in say, Nova Scotia and Quebec, Canada, or England.
Methinks if a certain indian-american director still makes certain Philadephian-set movies under Disney, maybe an attraction based on it may be at DTP?
I can also picture Disneytowns in say, Nova Scotia and Quebec, Canada, or England.
Both are brilliant, the Eisner idea especially, though i'm still deciding which is better.
Yes, that was also the main goals for the Disneytowns too. A way to give new lease on the retired attractions at the mainline parks if possible.
What about a promotion where Disney does a discount on admission prices every time someone visits an existing Disneytown. With DTSA and DTD coming, it means that it could be a viable way to invite guests into the mainline parks after the opening of a Disneytown.
With politics going fairly similarly to OTL, it's possible that someone like Bill Clinton would be President, especially if Atari Democrats rise up to become the dominant power players in the Democratic Party.
Canadian Disneytowns does sound pretty interesting, especially if it was situated in Quebec or Ontario.
Oh, this really stands out, especially the LGBTQ+ part. It would be really neat if this came up in a post about the community and Disney's relations.
Disney would have competition with Canada's Wonderland in Ontario and I don't think the Maritimes would have the population base for one, and Disney might had well build one in Boston given their closeness to New England. Montreal would be a good contender, though.
Part of me would like to see Calgary petition to build one to one-up Edmonton's Galaxyland (formerly Fantasyland) in West Edmonton Mall, but I have a hard time picturing it since the city already has Calaway Park.
I'm leaning on Scenario #2 because Batman was a box office smash and Disney is gearing up for Spider-Man. I'm not overly familiar with Michael Eisner, but would he start a bidding war with Warner over Malibu to get in on the superhero action?
Come to think about it, I wonder if Disney has The Rocketeer in development.
If anyone wants here's its development so we can get ideas. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rocketeer_(film)#Production
In other words, having it be made under the Hollywood Pictures studio is the most likely idea for this.
nick_crenshaw82 said:
Denliner said:
Yes, all of that. Jack Linquist, Dick Nunis, and Bo Boyd are writing this up as we speak.
Denliner said:
Exactly. Rather than chuck an abandoned ride entirely, you can reuse and repurpose, assuming it's still in reasonable enough shape, otherwise the restore would cost more than build new!
Pyro said:
Stay tuned! More Disneytown goodness coming soon. Some will be new construction, some will be refurbished locations, some will be...different!
Disney parks iOTL have been a bit ahead of the curve on LGBTQ acceptance even if their films are behind the curve in overt representation (not counting queer coding, which is as old as Snow White!), though the latter is mostly to get past Chinese censors. Even the Republicans on the Disney board are more socially liberal Orange County Republicans rather than SoCons. Henson and Wells slightly accelerate this trend, of course. Though in Philly's case it's an organic development: Philly LGBTQ originally feel safe since Cyclia follows the same policies on same sex dancing as the Anaheim and Orlando parks, so D'town PA gets a reputation as a Safe Space. And given that Von Steuben's sexuality will undoubtedly leak to the PA LGBTQ community (if it hadn't already by this point), "his" Gasthouse is an obvious place for the community to meet.
I'll think about that community relations post, actually.
Rocketeer is coming, and you may be surprised where it's coming from.
Sure, but what's the unique theme here - grunge, coffee and totem poles?
So long as it's wilderness, whalers, polar explorers and colonial Victorian architecture, instead of... whatever this is.
I suspect that even an alien invasion will overlook Vancouver.
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Agreed in theory. In practice, a change in management could easily value-engineer/min-max the Town & Land system so that we end up with a string of cheap DCAs and a WDW that effectively shuts out blue and white-collars.
And native cultures if its lucky. Keep in mind the utter monstrosity that was Residential schools were still going on at the time (and one reason I don't like Canada Day anymore).
Tell that to Expo 86, or the dozens of films shot there.
Well there's also the fur trade... but while I'm not a native seattlite, yeah I don't know. Also, grunge may not be suitable for most 90's families in execs' eyes.
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Nothing wrong with celebrating Canada and acknowledging that there's problems with it. Cancel it this year, but ending it altogether is pretty much our "defund the police."
First Nations cultures definitely needs to be celebrated. Question is, would they want that, or would they be scared of it becoming the Polynesian Cultural Center?
And those dozens of films all pretend Vancouver's another city!
Really, is some in Snow White?
Disney does have several bands. The Misfits, Holograms, and Stingers could do some expansion into grunge.
Totem poles and other native stuff definitely. Maybe one of the restaurant options, a seafood place and adding what native produce can be grown and appeals to a wide pallet.
Seattle was the gateway to the Klondike, and that's probable as close as a Disneytown can get anyway.
Have Scrooge the main character there and give him something like the Old Eagle Inn where you can hear stories of the gold rush days.
Glittering Goldie for dance hall fun and "gambling"(games are historically accurate but no actual money changes hands*).
We could work in some culture with a Jack London and Robert Service section for more stories.
Could Disney get Sgt. Preston of the Yukon?
*except maybe if they have an at night grownup time, but they need to keep it small and not too wild.
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Neither am I, but I'm not sure how willing the Cree or Huron or Haudenosaunee would be to play dress up and run a Tiki Room (or worse, have white actors do it for them) for idiot tourists. Or if even Henson!Disney is willing to talk with them and do it respectfully.
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