Walt Disney World will permanently close MuppetVision 3D and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, likely next year, but you wouldn’t know that if you exclusively followed the Disney Parks accounts on social media. While the theme park giant released details about the closures and what comes next for the attractions on its blog, none of Disney’s social media accounts that we checked announced the news as of publish time. We checked the Disney Parks and Walt Disney World handles across Facebook, Twitter, Threads, Instagram, and TikTok. The move is likely to avoid backlash from a fan community that did not handle the news well.
Disney Avoids Posting MuppetVision 3D Closure & More Hollywood Studios Changes on Social Media
It’s relatively rare for Disney to avoid announcing news on any of its social media channels, especially when that news concerns significant changes at its theme parks. Even recent unpopular decisions such as the closure of Tom Sawyer Island and the Rivers of America at Magic Kingdom made it onto Disney’s social media channels. The comment sections were mostly filled with negative remarks about the Magic Kingdom changes, but at least the information was out there.
To put this into perspective, there was all-new concept art shared, closures of attractions and experiences, and significant details about The Muppets taking over Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster for an all-new experience. None of that was shared by Disney with its fans on social media.
While I think that Monsters Inc. Land will be well received by the average Disney guest, and is a better use of the space than what is there currently, I’d also like to see Disney have the confidence in the plan to post it on social media where the fans can speak. A blackout of the news doesn’t instill confidence and indicates that Disney knows that the change is unpopular with its most loyal fans.
That said, I have to start to wonder out loud if the opinions of hardcore fans simply don’t matter. Sure, Disney doesn’t want to have hundreds of negative comments under an announcement showcasing the future of one of its theme parks, but Disney certainly isn’t changing course based on the predictable backlash from its biggest fans.
To the contrary, Disney Experiences Chairman Josh D’Amaro has pushed forward with changes that he knew would be unpopular to Disney’s biggest fans. To state this as simply as possible: more people will book vacations for the new Cars-themed attractions in Magic Kingdom than were booking vacations for Tom Sawyer Island. Similarly, Disney’s bottom line will be far more positively impacted by a Monsters Inc. roller coaster than MuppetVision 3D.
Disney Experiences is looking to the future, aiming to capture new audiences and new dollars – recently announced changes reflect that. At the same time, they appear to be acutely aware that these changes are not popular with their current hardcore fans and have chosen not to publish the recent announcements on social media.
Right now, there are no indications that fan backlash is steering Disney’s decisions in the slightest – except on whether or not they should post about the changes to social media.
As always, keep checking back with us here at BlogMickey.com as we continue to bring you the latest news, photos, and info from around the Disney Parks!