NEWS: The Quest is over for DisneyQuest WDW

[Homer]

Jim Hill Media: DisneyQuest to close in 2008, to be replaced with an ESPN Zone

 

I can see how this whole entire chain was a flop, but I had a few good memories and birthdays there that I will surely miss. Cyber-Space Mountain was the tits though.

[Movieguy]

I went to this place in 1999 and I loved it, really loved it. I'm gonna miss it, but I can see why this place needs to change after going there last summer. There wasn't much of anything new, and the place was basically suffering from the fact that Arcade games, by and large, have sucked since 1999...I mean, at that point, the place had that big "Star Wars" game, and "House of The Dead 2"...compare that to what's been there lately.

[ECZenith]

That place was cool but very expensive. I'd rather see it stay there, however, than an ESPN Zone.

[robbalvey]

Oh man, I'll totally miss that Buzz Lightyear shooting bumper cars game. That thing was AWESOME!

 

--Robb

[VekomaSucks1234]

I liked Disney Quest, but I LOVE ESPN Zones. Everytime I go to Disneyland I find myself at the ESPN Zone every night watching games or playing all the games upstairs.

[resonancej]

Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't here already one at the Boardwalk? My parents insist on going there every time they come down.

[Homer]

^If you clicked the link, it says that the ESPN Club at the Boardwalk resort will close down in favor of the Downtown Disney ESPN Zone restaurant.

[okinawaboy11]

Yuk. I hate sports therefore I hate ESPN Zone.

 

Disney Quest is SO fun. I'm just glad they aren't closing the Chicago one. It really rack's in the money.

[cfc]

Oh man, I'll totally miss that Buzz Lightyear shooting bumper cars game. That thing was AWESOME!

 

--Robb

 

Aghh! I never could figure out how those things worked.

 

But the Pirates of the Caribbean game was great, and Cyber Space Mountain was fun. I kind of liked that game with the remote control trucks in the ancient tomb, too. (Any bets on whether some of this stuff will end up at other Disney theme parks?)

[DerekRx]

Thats kinda disappointing. Glad I'm sending my relatives there this year even though their travel agent told them to stay away from Disney Quest because you have to pay for all the arcade games. WTF?

 

I know I won't be stepping foot inside once its converted to an ESPN Zone. If I was intended to be a professional sports star, I wouldn't have been born stinking at sports and ending up being only 5'5" and having to prodigy my way thru 7 years of college in 5 years to make 6 figures a year.

 

RIP Cyber Space Mountain and Pirates of the Caribbean

[Erik Johnson]

Crap, I really like the Pirates of the Carribean game. I may have to go back sometime before 2008.

[Jew]

Ugh...

 

ESPN Zone blows. DisneyQuest doesn't. Therefore this sucks.

[SharkTums]

I wouldn't worry too much about all of the attractions, this is Disney we're talking about! They'll all find new homes somewhere! Think about what a great bonus this will be for Innoventions!

 

Here's to our friend at the ESPN Club getting a promotion during the big move to the Zone!

 

And here's to another kickass restaurant going into the boardwalk area! (Hopefully!)

[YoshiFan]

I have never been to DisneyQuest but I have been to ESPN Zone in Baltimore and it didn't seem like anything that special to me. DisneyQuest looks fun but I have heard the lines can be ridiculous because capacity is so bad. I wish the planned one for Philadelphia would have opened.

[BoardwalkandBaseball4Ever]

Honestly, DisneyQuest was overpriced crap. If the admission price was 10 to 15 bucks or so a day -- it would be worth it. But $35 dollars a day? Give me a break.... it was a terrible attraction. Only the Buzz Lightyear bumper cars and Virtual Coaster attractions were worth it. Pirates was dumb -- the "boat rowing" attraction was even more dumb.

 

I'm a Gen-X guy, so it should have appealled to me. I love arcades -- but the defunct Sega Parks were way better. Let it DisneyQuest die. Just another lame Disney effort.

[USRoadTripper]

I never really cared for DisneyQuest. I went in twice...didn't have to pay either time...and left within about 2 hours both times. I liked Cyber Space Mountain and that pinball game where you control your ball by tilting around on the platform, but in my opinion, everything else was pretty lame. Not nearly worth what they were charging for it, and I seemed to have the problem of being overrun by unsupervised children! It seemed to act a lot like a babysitter while mom and dad did something else as far as I could tell!

 

No big loss, as far as I am concerned.

 

-Julie

[JT3000]

ESPN Zone? So this is the part where Westside, like PI before it, goes to hell in a handbag...

[s2pids2]

rather upsetting news, but I saw it coming.

 

After going to Disney Quest in Chicago for the first time, I was intruiged. Needless to say I'm not surprised the Chicago one closed only after a year, but it does however make sense to have DQ in Orlando, especially at Downtown Disney. After a day of theme parks, water parks, and lots of walking...its a great place to go especially when the weather is bad. However, it was only entertaining if you had the Ultimate Park Hopper Pass...where you go to go in for free as many times as you wanted. You can't go wrong with their great quick service Italian resteraunt on the top floor, over looking Buzz's Bumper Blast. I forgot the name, but their sandwiches were yummy!

 

Overall, I'll be sure to check out ESPN Zone when it takes over. If it's anything like the one in Chicago, then I will avoid it all costs.

 

Food poisoning sucks.

[mcjaco]

Yuk. I hate sports therefore I hate ESPN Zone.

 

Disney Quest is SO fun. I'm just glad they aren't closing the Chicago one. It really rack's in the money.

 

Um yeah, that one closed after about a year. I went twice, the first time it was packed, 6 months later it was empty....on a Saturday afternoon in the middle of winter.

[jackskellington101]

That's most saddening. I've been a fan of Disney Quest since it's inception and thought it was a great idea. I agree with the person in the article, that if it got more publicity and more of a push after that first two years, it would have succeeded immensely, but I think after the losing battle for one in Philly, the whole concept fell. It's a shame really. ESPN Zones are nice, but I like Disney Quest over ESPN. Oh well, money talks and I'm sure ESPN will easily be a better financial success than Disney Quest at this point.

[SpeedFigure]

This "quest" is finally coming to an end.

 

What was once supposed to have been the flagship of an entire chain of 30 indoor theme parks, one that would have eventually encircled the globe, DisneyQuest will be closing in 18 months. Then this 5-story tall, 100,000 square foot structure -- which towers over the West Side section of Downtown Disney -- will be gutted & turned into a brand-new ESPN Zone.

 

According to one WDW insider who was privvy to this decision:

 

"I'll be sorry to see DisneyQuest go. But this is really the right choice for Downtown Disney. A ESPN Zone will freshen up the mix on the West Side. This new sports dining and entertainment venue will have strong appeal to both WDW guests as well as Orlando locals. And given that we'll regularly be doing broadcasts from an on-site studio, this ESPN Zone will also help up Downtown Disney's profile. So it's really a win-win for Walt Disney World."

 

As you might imagine, the cast members who currently work at WDW's DisneyQuest and/or the ESPN Club over at Disney's Boardwalk Inn resort (Which will be closing once WDW's new ESPN Zone opens) have a very different take on the company's decision to shutter its indoor theme park. Said one DisneyQuest staffer:

 

"This just stinks. Sure, attendance has been flat at DisneyQuest for the past few years. But that's because we haven't had a new attraction since "Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for Buccaneer Gold" replaces "Hercules in the Underworld" back in 2000. Plus Disney doesn't really promote us anymore to people staying on property. So how is DisneyQuest supposed to attract WDW guests with no shows and zero promotion?

 

If the company had just gotten behind us, I'm sure that we could have been a success ..."

 

Ah, but that was the real problem, folks. Disney Company executives felt that they'd already poured enough money into the development & creation of DisneyQuest. Initial work on the indoor theme park project began back in 1994, with proof-of-concept field tests of various proposed DQ rides & attractions (Remember the "Imagineering Lab" at Epcot's Future World? Where two lucky guests from each tour group got the chance to try out the prototype version of "Aladdin's Flying Carpet Ride"?).

 

After four years of R & D, the Walt Disney Company was finally ready to go forward with the DQ project. Which (in theory) would have brought the Disney theme park experience into urban enviroments. Which would have then allowed the Disney corporation to tap into a potentially huge new customer base.

 

The only problem was the initial cash outlay for constructing a DisneyQuest was huge. Enormous. $80 - $100 million each. And then ... Well, it was going to take Mickey years (and dozens of other DQs having to be built in untapped markets all around the world) before Disney Regional Entertainment (I.E. The division of the Mouse House that actually ran herd on the DisneyQuests) finally began making any serious money off of this project.

 

Which is why -- almost from the get-go -- the Walt Disney Company began cutting corners on the DisneyQuests. Whereas the WDW version was 100,000 square feet, the Chicago version of DisneyQuest (Which opened in June of 2000) was only 90,000 square feet. And the DQ that was in the works for Philadelphia (Before that project was abruptly cancelled in 2000)? That DisneyQuest was only supposed to be 80,000 square feet.

 

Given that the WDW version of DisneyQuest (Which had been built to handle 1400 guests an hour) rarely if ever met its attendance projections, the corporation quickly lost all enthusiasm for this project. Cutting back on its original plan to swap out 15-20% of the rides, shows & attractions every two years as well as abandoning its plan to build the other 28 DQs in the chain. The Chicago operation closed in September of 2001, after only 27 months of operation.

 

And the WDW version of DisneyQuest? ... Well, that's pretty much limped along ever since. The staff & management team there knew that the end was eventually coming. They just didn't know when Mickey would eventually pull the plug.

 

But clearly there were signs. When the DisneyQuest Emporium got rid of virtually all of its merchandise featuring the DQ logo and began selling generic Disney trinkets ... Well, that was one indication that Mouse House managers were finally getting ready to make their move.

 

Then earlier this year, when Walt Disney Company officials announced their plans to begin "freshening up" Pleasure Island by shutting down various stores & restaurants there that were under-performing ... DisneyQuest workers, realizing that this West Side facility hadn't ever met any of its attendance or financial projections in years, knew that DQ would soon be on the chopping block.

 

So, when I called a couple of DisneyQuest employees earlier this week looking for comment of the upcoming closing, most folks were sad but not surprised. Some even tried to be a bit upbeat. As one cast member told me:

 

"At least we're getting plenty of advance notice about the closing. Plus if they stick with this 18 months timetable, we'll still be able to celebrate DisneyQuest's 10th anniversary. That should be one hell of a party."

 

So just a "heads up" here, folks. If you're a big "CyberSpace Mountain" fan, make sure that you drop by WDW's DisneyQuest in the coming months and get in a couple of rides. For -- come January of 2008 (Reportedly right after the Christmas crowds go home) -- DisneyQuest will close its doors forever. And then -- after several months of extensive construction -- this distinct structure will eventually re-emerge as Downtown Disney's new EZPN Zone.

 

Disney PR types are hoping that this new sports dining and entertainment experience will be ready to open by October 1, 2008 (Just in time for Disney World's annual press event). But those who are familiar with all the work that will need to be done in order to change the old DisneyQuest building into a state-of-the-art ESPN Zone say that the proposed construction schedule is overly optimistic. And that -- more than likely -- it won't be 'til the late winter or early spring of 2009 'til this revamped West Side facility is actually ready to serve its first customer.

 

But what do you folks think? Are you sad to learn that Downtown Disney will soon be losing the world's only remaining DisneyQuest? Or are you excited to hear the West Side will soon have its very own ESPN Zone?

 

Your thoughts?

[okinawaboy11]

I have never been to DisneyQuest but I have been to ESPN Zone in Baltimore and it didn't seem like anything that special to me. DisneyQuest looks fun but I have heard the lines can be ridiculous because capacity is so bad. I wish the planned one for Philadelphia would have opened.

 

The ESPN Zone in Baltimore REALLY sucks. I still hate ESPN either way, I've been to other ESPN zones, and Baltimores, isn't good.

 

Yuk. I hate sports therefore I hate ESPN Zone.

 

Disney Quest is SO fun. I'm just glad they aren't closing the Chicago one. It really rack's in the money.

 

Um yeah, that one closed after about a year. I went twice, the first time it was packed, 6 months later it was empty....on a Saturday afternoon in the middle of winter.

 

Really? Wow, I went about 4 times, each time, it was packed with people. No one ever told me that It closed. I thought it was still open...

 

Well that sucks.

[dandaman]

Aghh! I never could figure out how those things worked.

 

But the Pirates of the Caribbean game was great, and Cyber Space Mountain was fun. I kind of liked that game with the remote control trucks in the ancient tomb, too. (Any bets on whether some of this stuff will end up at other Disney theme parks?)

 

1. Apparently, you have to flip the thing that you put the cannonballs in before you can shoot. Took me at least 3 tries to get it.

 

2. Only did the Pirates thing once, but only because we didn't have enough time to do another.

 

3. CyberSpace Mountain... how I will miss thee. Then again, we should pretty much take anything Jim Hill says with a grain of salt.

 

4. I've spent at least 10 hours on that thing. Used to chase it around and around and call out to my dad:

 

"NO! Go LEFT!"

 

"Left?"

 

"Right."

 

"Right?"

 

"NO!"

 

[Jew]

I just thought of something: a 100,000sqft ESPN Zone? Holy effing crap that's big! That's more than double the size of any other ESPN Zone.

[RctInfinity]

I loved that place! It is the home of my first upside down ride ever!