WotC It's time for a D&D Theme Park

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Sounds like you went to Southern Faire in Irwindale back in 2019. Are you honestly telling me you missed the unavoidable amount of 17th/18th century pirates, the fantasy/anachronistic cosplayers, the petting zoo, the TARDIS by the food court, the trampolines, the swing rides, etc...? I recall running into Scarlet Witch who answered when I called her Wanda.

I was wrangling children, so maybe?

And what's anachronistic about petting zoos?

 

[ValamirCleaver]

You said :

I think we should be hoping for "basic carnival, with D&D theming."

I responded :

That sounds like Ren Faires.

You implied that since Ren Faires don't have "rollercoasters and tilt-a-whirls" they wouldn't qualify as a "basic carnival" :

I think we should be hoping for "basic carnival, with D&D theming."

If there are renaissance faires with rollercoasters and tilt-a-whirls, they're pretty strange ren faires.

So I listed a bunch of carnival-like things larger Ren Faires often have :

When's the last time you've been to one? Have you not seen pirates on the Queen's zip-lines, fairies ordering food from the King's food trucks or furries in the Duke's inflatable hamster balls?

Are you honestly telling me you missed the unavoidable amount of 17th/18th century pirates, the fantasy/anachronistic cosplayers, the petting zoo, the TARDIS by the food court, the trampolines, the swing rides, etc...? I recall running into Scarlet Witch who answered when I called her Wanda.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

Disney thinking something is too expensive to add to a theme park gets us pretty close to the "can God create a stone too heavy for him to lift" territory.

Well sort of. Disney goes through phases of spending lavishly on their parks and phases of trying to penny pinch. And the rest of the industry seems to spend whatever they feel they need to to compete with Disney.

If Universal Studios didn't have Harry Potter land, and felt like they were getting trounced by Disney at the moment, I can imagine them trying a licensed D&D land in their parks as a possible angle. But Disney went all in on Galaxy's Edge which didn't do the sort of numbers it needed to justify the expense, so I think we're probably looking at a bust cycle for grand scale Disney park building for a few years, which means less pressure for anyone else to do a new land in a park, much less a whole new park.

Maybe if the movie does amazing numbers someone will do D&D the ride at one theme park or another with an attached themed restaurant and gift shop. That's about all I can imagine realistically happening.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Paramount would have been perfectly position to do this given they are the partners for the D&D movie and TV show, but they foolishly sold their parks to super generic Cedar Falls, including Canada's Wonderland

Well sort of. Disney goes through phases of spending lavishly on their parks and phases of trying to penny pinch. And the rest of the industry seems to spend whatever they feel they need to to compete with Disney.

If Universal Studios didn't have Harry Potter land, and felt like they were getting trounced by Disney at the moment, I can imagine them trying a licensed D&D land in their parks as a possible angle. But Disney went all in on Galaxy's Edge which didn't do the sort of numbers it needed to justify the expense, so I think we're probably looking at a bust cycle for grand scale Disney park building for a few years, which means less pressure for anyone else to do a new land in a park, much less a whole new park.

Maybe if the movie does amazing numbers someone will do D&D the ride at one theme park or another with an attached themed restaurant and gift shop. That's about all I can imagine realistically happening.

Word is that Universal is going after LotRs instead.

Disney screwed up that Galaxy Edge thing from what I hear, they went mostly in on the sequel trilogy, when tons of hardcore hate those movies, instead if the OG series, and they set it right at a preexiting theme park, so it was competing with itself. A new cool location would have been better like Universals new smaller theme parks, like the horror one they are setting up in Las Vegas.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

Disney screwed up that Galaxy Edge thing from what I hear, they went mostly in on the sequel trilogy, when tons of hardcore hate those movies, instead if the OG series, and they set it right at a preexiting theme park, so it was competing with itself. A new cool location would have been better like Universals new smaller theme parks, like the horror one they are setting up in Las Vegas.

I mean, I don't think they were "competing with themself" at Disneyland, they were just driving more traffic to Disneyland. The situation in Orlando is a little more complicated, because they put it at a less popular park in a multipark resort. Fundamentally I think the real problem is that there is significant lead times on these major attractions, and Galaxy's Edge was being developed from the time they bought Lucasfilm, and maybe it would have done the sort of numbers that they were looking for if it had opened as Disney's first Star Wars foray, or even after The Force Awakens (which, despite grumbling from certain grumblers, mostly left the public still in the "take my money" mood they are after a long dearth of no Star Wars). But then Disney went full saturation Star Wars with a movie coming out every year, and then TV shows, and even big fans wanting their Star Wars fix, felt reasonably satiated without making a trip to a damned theme park. So Galaxy's Edge has been visited by everyone who would normally go to a Disney park, by some super fans, and by less committed fans in areas where its a day-trip, but it hasn't been making the sort of numbers of people plan trips to Disney parks who wouldn't that it might have if Disney wasn't exploiting that IP to death in every other way. Yes, better movie outings might keep the fan base more ready to spend by a degree, maybe the park could be better, etc., but fundamentally there were only ever going to be so many Star Wars dollars to be had each year, and Disney has tried to grab them in too many directions at once.

A similar phenomenon happened in the early 00's of there being so much Star Wars merchandise that the hardcore Star Wars collectors stopped collecting. Which, tangentally related to D&D, had to do with Hasbro overpaying Lucas for the toy license.

As much as I think it would be infinitely cooler if Hasbro tried to capture my limited D&D dollars by making an awesome theme park happen (through licensing), than by trying to fleece me with some online services I don't want or need, they seem pretty hellbent on the latter option.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Disney screwed up that Galaxy Edge thing from what I hear

The massive competition to get in to Galaxy's Edge each day at Disneyland, even now, suggests otherwise.

All the sequel-haters are still going to go to Galaxy's Edge when they get a chance, given that the Force Awakens was basically "hey, remember all the reasons you liked the original trilogy? Please love us again," packed into a single film.

they set it right at a preexiting theme park

In an essentially dead area of Disneyland they were going to plow under and redevelop no matter what.

A new cool location would have been better like Universals new smaller theme parks, like the horror one they are setting up in Las Vegas.

Disneyland is one of the biggest attractions in the entire United States and even ranks highly amongst all tourist sites on the planet, even with a bunch of new Disney parks around the world today. Adding a new major attraction area at Disneyland, which is serviced by five international airports within easy driving distance (maybe six, if one counts San Diego) is an extremely smart move.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

It is worth noting that Galaxy's Edge not doing the evidently unrealistic numbers Disney hoped for their overall short-term ticket sales (to the extent that it forced an executive's resignation) does not mean it is unpopular or some sort of failure. And while Disney parks have to have a big new draw, and it perhaps underperformed on that front, they are not nearly as big new draw focused as most of their competitors. I'm sure the Star Wars lands will fill hearts with childlike wonder and rake in bucks for decades to come.

In an essentially dead area of Disneyland they were going to plow under and redevelop no matter what.

The last real dead scrap of land in the park (though autotopia takes up a phenomenal amount of real estate for a ride that I always found mind-numbingly dull). When I was young and we'd go to Disneyland my dad, having an architecture background, used to draw our attention to how few areas they really have left to develop. Unlike the Florida parks with near endless land the Anaheim location has to pull off engineering wonders of compact design to fit their attractions in a location hemmed in by freeway and major roads where even Disney bucks won't get them more land. And naturally when my father would point out the few places that seemed to still have room for a major attraction I'd dream of what attractions could possibly go there, and naturally a whole Star Wars land would have been exactly placed top of the list of what would improve Disneyland.

So in any case I'm pretty sure I at some point dreamed about putting a Star Wars land exactly where one ended up going at Disneyland 20 years before it happened. Clearly the power of positive thinking at work.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

https://www.equestriadaily.com/2022/05/new-hasbro-amusement-park-to-be-built.html

New Hasbro Amusement Park To Be Built in Mexico - Hasbro City

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Even if they could, I suspect Hasbro would rather one based in several Hasbro franchises.

A theme park based in Stryxhaven as rival of Harry Potter?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I also found this old thread Where's Our D&D Theme Park?

Chorley, obviously. Closed now. I can't think why. Camelot Theme Park - Wikipedia

 

[Henadic Theologian]

https://www.equestriadaily.com/2022/05/new-hasbro-amusement-park-to-be-built.html

New Hasbro Amusement Park To Be Built in Mexico - Hasbro City

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Even if they could, I suspect Hasbro would rather one based in several Hasbro franchises.

A theme park based in Stryxhaven as rival of Harry Potter?

It's a little over 2 acres, it's a small theme park. For comparsion Wonderland is 300 arces.