Disney's most ambitious ride in years has barely cleared the launch tower, but Imagineers already are talking about what's next for the company's parks and cruise line.
One day after dedicating the $100 million Mission: Space ride at Epcot, company officials today are expected to confirm plans to build another ride at the park and to announce several projects for the Orlando resort during the next three years.
They're changes Disney hopes will help the entertainment giant recover from a tourism slump that has softened earnings.
Along those lines, Disney executives also are looking ahead to longer-range projects -- ones that are in their infancy -- at the parks and cruise line.
Though plans are sketchy, there is talk of refreshing Epcot's Future World and extending the cruise line beyond Port Canaveral to California and possibly the Mediterranean and Asia.
"We don't have any current plans or thinking on what we're going to do specifically," Al Weiss, president of Walt Disney World Resort, said Thursday.
But this spring, Disney Enterprises Inc. of Burbank, Calif., applied to trademark the name "SSE: Time Racer" -- the initials of Epcot's iconic Spaceship Earth -- for unspecified "amusement-park services."
Disney also has applied for a trademark on the name "Discoveryland," also for amusement-park services.
"There's nothing greenlighted," Weiss said. "There's nothing concrete."
But "we always do a lot of brainstorming on different things," he noted.
Discoveryland, for instance, has been discussed as a possible new name for Epcot's Future World area, Weiss said.
Conceived as a showcase for cutting-edge technology, Future World faces the unique challenge of constantly needing to reinvent itself as the future becomes the present.
Reducing or eliminating the need to always update Future World's attractions is "something we'll always ask and try to figure out," Weiss said, adding that the company has made no decision about what changes to make, if any.
Less speculative are plans to grow Disney's cruise business.
The company intends to add a third ship to its fleet, but construction plans are on hold because of an unfavorable exchange rate between the dollar and euro, Weiss said, noting that all four of the shipyards that build cruise ships are in Europe.
"You do some preliminary designs, you go out and get a price for that, and then you can really start the process of looking at the currency exchanges," he said.
"We're in the middle of that process right now, of getting the prices back from the shipyards that would build that. But we won't be able to go forward until you get much closer to parity between the euro and the dollar," Weiss said.
Jay Rasulo, president of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, said the company may expand its cruise business beyond Florida.
"I am very optimistic about the depth of that market for us, not only here domestically, but ultimately internationally, whether we're talking about the Mediterranean or Asia," he said. "California is obviously a cruise market as well."
As for what lies ahead in the next two or three years, Disney executives will discuss several major projects today, the final day of a three-day media tour.
They include the Expedition Everest roller coaster planned for Disney's Animal Kingdom and details of a stunt show at Disney-MGM Studios that is expected to feature stunt cars, similar to an attraction at Walt Disney Studios Park in Paris.
Disney also is expected to confirm plans to bring to Epcot a virtual clone of Soarin' Over California, one of the most popular rides at Disney's California Adventure park in Anaheim, Calif.
The attraction takes guests on a simulated hang-glider ride over California, from the state's redwood forests to its citrus groves and beaches.
Such additions are crucial, not just for Disney but also for Orlando, said Abraham Pizam, dean of the Rosen School of Hospitality Management at the University of Central Florida.
"It really means a lot," he said. "The parks need to reinvent themselves, to refresh themselves, to add new attractions to give people another reason to come back."
Disney's decision to add several rides and attractions in a relatively short period also could be a powerful enticement for people who haven't visited Orlando, Pizam said. "It could bring a lot of fresh new faces."
On Thursday, as several hundred journalists, celebrities, astronauts and Disney executives looked on, the company dedicated its latest fresh face, Mission: Space.
On stage with Disney Chairman Michael Eisner were Hewlett-Packard Chief Executive Carly Fiorina, whose company sponsors the ride; NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe; and several astronauts, including Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, Jim Lovell and Wally Schirra.
As a nearly full moon rose behind the attraction, Eisner praised the Disney Imagineers for marrying strong storytelling with sophisticated technology.
Mission: Space, he said, is "the quintessential Disney attraction."
Orlando Sentinel
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