Mouse Extra

I wanted to make you aware of Tuesday’s updates to the Orlando Sentinel’s Theme Park Rangers blog.  There are a couple of stories that deserve mention.

First is this story about Disney World’s most glaring recent screw-up, the limited show times for Fantasmic!  and the new way we must all view the accompanying dinner package.

Previously (years ago), we had walked in a separate entrance, and we only needed to be there a half hour early. One of the reasons we had done the dinner package was to cut down our wait time; we were with two small children who by that time of night can’t keep up their good spirits with an hourlong wait. So that was disappointing. However, we heard others on the way out saying they had gotten there 90 minutes early, so we did cut some wait time. Still, it’s good to know that even if you buy the dinner package, there will be a fairly substantial wait involved.

We talked about this on Mouse Extra a couple of months ago, and quite frankly the author here has gone easy on Disney for this awful decision.  I want to join Matt Hochberg of Studios Central in calling for everyone to write in or better yet if you are at the parks stop into Guest Services and express your anger and disappointment with Disney officials for limiting Fantasmic!  This is one of Walt Disney World’s most popular shows and they have turned it into a logistical disaster for paying customers who deserve better.

As for the other story, we get a look at the new Characters in Flight hot air balloon taking to the skies over at Downtown Disney.  While I am not at all a big fan of the name they chose, I do think the graphics on the balloon are rather nice.

It really was only a matter of time before the down economy had an effect on one of Disney’s third-party retailers.  According to the Orlando Sentinel, Virgin Megastores will be closing all of its location by the summer of this year, including the one found at Downtown Disney’s Westside. 

Disney spokeswoman Zoraya Suarez said Virgin’s last day of operations at Downtown Disney will be May31.

The store “enjoyed strong sales,” she said, and Disney is in talks with several other retailers about filling the space.

This can not come at a good time for Disney, not that there is a good time for such news.  But with all the empty buildings littering the Pleasure Island landscape having another big fat empty elephant in the middle of the room is going to go a long way towards turning this once vibrant area into a proverbial ghost town. 

But, of course, we here at Mouse Extra are Disney World addicts.  The only thing we care about now is what is going into that huge space.  The longest running rumor has been that a giant flagship ESPNZone would go into that building.  At first, the rumor was Disney Quest would make way for the new sports-themed mega-restaurant.  But just over a year ago, we reported a Jim Hill Media rumor that indeed the Virgin location would be the one to go.

The problem here for Disney is the shear enormity of the building.  There are only a few things that could handle such a size without completely tearing the building down and starting fresh, which may very well be what happens.  Needless to say, this is going to put a major dent in the already struggling appeal of the non-Marketplace Downtown Disney area in the short term.