What-If Wednesday – Changing Disney’s Hollywood Studios

IMG_0906Ladies and Gentlemen!  It’s time for…….What-If Wednesday!  The game show where we use our imagination to bring about Disney change.  Contestants from Twitter and Facebook go head to head and compete to invent the most popular (pretend) changes.  Get ready to let your imagination run wild!  And as Drew Carey would say, this is “the show where everything’s made up and the points don’t matter.”  Let’s GO!

This week’s episode – Changing Disney’s Hollywood Studios!

Okay, now that you’ve got the idea –  Here’s how this really works.  A couple of weeks ago I posed the question – If you had Superpowers, but only at Walt Disney World, what would they be?  That question was SO much fun and the answers so imaginative, I decided to give it another go.  This week’s question was:  If you had the power to change THREE things at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, what would they be?

Here is what participants had to say:

Get busy on adding Star Wars Land (Bill Maguire @wfmaguire, Mrs. Mouseward Bound IMG_3531@MousewardBound, Jordan Duncan @JordanGhastly, Stephanie via Facebook ).  See, the worst thing about Star Warsland is that Disney spoke of it.  Teased us – led us on, if you will.  Now we want them to fork over the goods!  Will the expense of MyMagic+ be the demise of what would have been a very needed, very popular addition for the Studios?

Update The Great Movie Ride! (Bill Maguire @wfmaguire, Mrs. Mouseward Bound @MousewardBound ).  I’m old enough that I still get a kick out of The Great Movie Ride as is, but you young whippersnappers probably find it a bit out of date.  There are SO many great movies, it would be very cool indeed to see this ride revamped from time to time to include a few newer, yet no less important, classics.

Make it less of a “Half-Day Park” (Waltdisneyworldwords @WDWords) by adding more rides!  I IMG_3081couldn’t agree more with this suggestion.  While we can make it a full day park, it can sometimes be a challenge.  Perhaps that’s been because after you’ve hit Toy Story Midway Mania, Tower of Terror, and Rock’n’ Roller Coaster – everything else seems a bit tame.  My theory is FastPass+ will actually help this – you’ll get more opportunity to spread the big three out over the course of a day and add things like Star Tours, Muppets, Indiana Jones, and the Great Movie Ride in between.  Anybody else think so?

Add a Monsters, Inc. Door Coaster (Bill Maguire @wfmaguire ).  Ah, Bill.  If only.  Think about how innovative and exciting this would be!  Totally different from anything already at Walt Disney World but a perfect (and much-needed) addition for Pixar Place.  The effects they could use for this would make it an e-ticket ride for sure.

Close Backlot Tour (BRGUEST @Florida407wdw) (Forever?)  – Backlot Tour IS currently non-operational.  Maybe that’s a good sign.  If the nice Disney people have no intention of restoring this attraction to some semblance of its former enjoyable-ness, they need to raze it all and put something fabulous in its place.  I adored the original Backlot Tour, but it had become a mere shadow of what it once was and for me, too depressing to contemplate riding (good thing it’s closed then, huh.)

Revise Muppets (BRGUEST @Florida407wdw) – Now that the Muppets have returned to the big screen in a big way, it is time to revamp the Muppet Vision 3D movie experience and throw a little cash and TLC over that way in the Studios.  Much of what’s there is fantastic – it just needs modernized so the younger fans feel like “their” Muppets (Walter!) are well represented.

IMG_3026Build a Hollywood Tower of Terror Resort (Jackie Psarianos @JackiePsarianos) – Jackie!  This would be sensational.  Think of the possibilities!  Restored to it’s 1930’s glory, the Hollywood Tower Hotel would be one of (if not THE) most sought-after resort properties at Walt Disney World.  Just imagine – The dining, the gardens, the pools, the rooms!  Yeah…sigh…good idea.

Destroy the American Idol Experience (Mrs. Mouseward Bound @MousewardBound).  Yes.  ‘Nuff said.  (How about a big round of applause!)

Add a Super Hero section (Stephanie via Facebook) – this idea was seconded by Anna (Facebook) who is ready to see Marvel at Disney World (hey – I gave everyone the power to make changes, that power would certainly overcome any legal obstacles involved, right?).  When you think about all the incredible things Disney Imagineers could come up with involving the Marvel franchise, it boggles the mind!  Sadly, Disneyland (and non-US Disney properties) will be the recipient of anything Marvel-ous for the foreseeable future.

Add an Indiana Jones ride (Jordan Duncan @JordanGhastly).  I would love this.  Indiana Jones was one of those movies that just got to me when I first saw it and made me a fan for life.  There is an Indie ride at Disneyland – I’m sure something like that in the Studios would be an immediate crowd favorite!

Lose Aerosmith on Rock’n’ Roller Coaster and replace them with a better band (Jordan Duncan @JordanGhastly) – WHAT?!  I challenged Jordan on this since I’m a huge Aerosmith fan, but I couldn’t help liking his Beetles and Rolling Stones ideas!  Joseph (on Facebook and member of The Fam) suggested making RnRC longer, which would give music lovers a chance to enjoy more tunes as well.

Add more rides for younger kids like a Disney Jr. area with a giant Mickey Mouse Clubhouse to play in! (Stephanie via Facebook) – Not having little ones anymore myself, I don’t have a good perspective about what’s lacking at the Studios for the curtain-climber set.  I can see that if the Studios had more attractions for the under-8 folks, it could probably go head to head with Magic Kingdom for IMG_3046popularity.

Toy Story Midway Mania drew some suggestions of its own:  The first change would be to how they do FP for this attraction. (Waltdisneyworldwords @WDWords) – I checked and this suggestion had to do with changing the ratio between standby and FastPass guests so the standby line would move a bit better (or at all!)  and second change would be to improve the stand-by line experience for Toy Story Midway Mania – Joseph suggested this one – he is his mother’s son after all.

Wow!  That was FUN!  Thanks for playing, everyone!  What were your favorite ideas?

Any suggestions for next week’s What-if Wednesday?

 

 

 

2 thoughts on “What-If Wednesday – Changing Disney’s Hollywood Studios

  1. I like most of these ideas; we are going to WDW for the 6th time with the kids in April, and we’ve done everything in Hollywood Studios at least twice, except for Tower of Terror. I didn’t know Backlot Tour was closed, but I must say I’m not really disappointed. My favorite suggestions is the Monster’s Inc roller coaster – that would be awesome!

    • Hi Dana! I bet you all are getting pretty excited about your April trip. Have you booked any ADRs? We’re going in May and have selected some new restaurants to try for the first time. My son and I both love Tower of Terror, but the other members of our family not so much – maybe on this trip someone in your group will give it a (another?) try. I agree with you – a Monster’s Inc. coaster would be VERY cool. Thanks for reading and commenting.

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