News Tron coaster coming to the Magic Kingdom

[Animaniac93-98]

Personally, I'm surprised by how many people don't feel Guardians is underwhelming.

To me, Cosmic Rewind is the Emperor Has No Clothes moment of this century for WDW. It is fun, sure, but shockingly basic.

I think it comes down to the lack of competition when comparing it to other WDW coasters.

With Primeval Whirl gone, there's now less than 10 of them across the whole resort, including the yet to open TRON.

GotG is at least among the best WDW roller coasters right now...because the competition includes Barnstormer, Slinky Dog, RNRC and the badly aged Space Mountain [which should be a lot better, but that's another issue].

I'd say BTMRR and Everest are both better for not being giant boxes, but it's not hard to understand why someone would think GotG is more fun at its core. It's at least not as disappointingly short as Seven Dwarfs.

As @bhg469 said, if you don't do much outside of WDW when it comes to theme parks, you'd probably be impressed. The lack of major new, built from scratch EPCOT rides over the last 15 years also makes its arrival more exciting.

 

[Disney Analyst]

I think it comes down to the lack of competition when comparing it to other WDW coasters.

With Primeval Whirl gone, there's now less than 10 of them across the whole resort, including the yet to open TRON.

GotG is at least among the best WDW roller coasters right now...because the competition includes Barnstormer, Slinky Dog, RNRC and the badly aged Space Mountain [which should be a lot better, but that's another issue].

I'd say BTMRR and Everest are both better for not being giant boxes, but it's not hard to understand why someone would think GotG is more fun at its core. It's at least not as disappointingly short as Seven Dwarfs.

As @bhg469 said, if you don't do much outside of WDW when it comes to theme parks, you'd probably be impressed. The lack of major new, built from scratch EPCOT rides over the last 15 years also makes its arrival more exciting.

I think the key is: Disney coasters really aren’t designed to compete with the coaster market or coaster parks.

Disney coasters are intended to further flesh out the Disney experience, to add thrills for older demographics, and to remain distinctly Disney.

GOTG is a fun coaster, with an impressive length and scale. It’s great for a Disney theme park.

 

[celluloid]

This above, in a nutshell, when people are hungry, they will call Chicken the value of a steak.

 

[Bocabear]

I think it is a fun ride... The music, the coaster itself... It was a lot of fun...
Not sure how it cost what it cost, but it is great in the lineup, just wish they had done a little more with hiding the building etc.
And if you think that it is short, wait until Tron opens with it's 90 second length... A beautiful setup for a ride that is woefully short. The Shanghai queue was akin to the Disneyland Space Mountain queue... a lot of small hallways with not much going on except overhead monitors, and finally opens up at the loading station. It was a fun ride, but a bit disappointing.

 

[OrlandoRising]

Hagrid cost $300 million so there's the comparison. Disney massively screwed up on this one, especially if the IP can't survive the usual long period in which rides go untouched at WDW.

If Universal had decided Hagrid's needed to be entirely enclosed the price tag would have approached Guardians level. And maybe some of that extra money for Guardians went to ensuring reliable operations. Hagrid's still does not operate at its intended capacity and likely never will.

 

[fgmnt]

Personally, I'm surprised by how many people don't feel Guardians is underwhelming.

To me, Cosmic Rewind is the Emperor Has No Clothes moment of this century for WDW. It is fun, sure, but shockingly basic.

If you are a normal guest to the parks, you probably like it. If you're one of the weirdos on here (we arent wrong, but we are weird) who knows how much it costs, it makes you feel like you're going insane.

Back to Tron, if you are a normal guest, how long it has taken to build this is of little consequence to you; it's either open or not. If you have been following the 5 year project of building a clone, you definitely start to question the nature of your reality.

 

[OrlandoRising]

Guardians seems fine but it wouldn't even be a top 5 ride at EPCOT in 1992.

That's ridiculous. It would have, by a large margin, been the most thrilling ride in a park that was too weighted towards Omnimover and boat rides.

Disney diehards have this dogmatic view that early Epcot was objectively the greatest park ever. Attendance figures in its early years suggest the general public didn't agree. A more balanced ride lineup probably would have helped.

 

[J4546]

Hypothetically if they ever tore down and replaced Space Mountain like they are doing in Japan, they could move the new building southwest a bit, opening up a much larger space between tron and SM, and then use/modify the railroad underpass that is used at the current SM or create a new one, and use it as an access point for guest to a new massive courtyard in front of the tron canopy giving it an area like in Shanghai with a dj booth and stuff. Hell you could fit a TRON bar in that space itd be massive

 

[lazyboy97o]

If you are a normal guest to the parks, you probably like it. If you're one of the weirdos on here (we arent wrong, but we are weird) who knows how much it costs, it makes you feel like you're going insane.

Back to Tron, if you are a normal guest, how long it has taken to build this is of little consequence to you; it's either open or not. If you have been following the 5 year project of building a clone, you definitely start to question the nature of your reality.

While guests may not know the hows and whys, these sort of issues absolutely have consequences for them. The high cost of attractions is part of why capacity has been squeezed and not adequate.

That's ridiculous. It would have, by a large margin, been the most thrilling ride in a park that was too weighted towards Omnimover and boat rides.

Disney diehards have this dogmatic view that early Epcot was objectively the greatest park ever. Attendance figures in its early years suggest the general public didn't agree. A more balanced ride lineup probably would have helped.

EPCOT Center was successful. Attendance was far more on par with Magic Kingdom and the parks business so successful that it made up for the losses at the studio and kept Walt Disney Productions profitable. There’s a reason Disney is wrapping Epcot in EPCOT Center imagery, because EPCOT Center still carries cultural meaning.

 

[celluloid]

If Universal had decided Hagrid's needed to be entirely enclosed the price tag would have approached Guardians level. And maybe some of that extra money for Guardians went to ensuring reliable operations. Hagrid's still does not operate at its intended capacity and likely never will.

In even keeled-ness, many rides don't. Guardians, even with a building a bigger price tag is falling flat on that for a while. Good thing Universal built two intimin coasters within five years vs a new major ride in a park every ten for DIsney.

And I don't know about enclosed coaster factor driving the price up that much. Don't forget how low in cost Forbidden Journey and Gringotts were created in comparison. Disney is just inflated.

 

[lazyboy97o]

And I don't know about enclosed coaster factor driving the price up that much. Don't forget how low in cost Forbidden Journey and Gringotts were created in comparison. Disney is just inflated.

Universal’s costs have absolutely exploded. They couldn’t do a Hogsmead type land today for that little.

 

[UNCgolf]

That's ridiculous. It would have, by a large margin, been the most thrilling ride in a park that was too weighted towards Omnimover and boat rides.

Disney diehards have this dogmatic view that early Epcot was objectively the greatest park ever. Attendance figures in its early years suggest the general public didn't agree. A more balanced ride lineup probably would have helped.

Attendance in its early years was very high -- beyond that, what's your point? Early EPCOT was by far the greatest park ever built, but I've never seen anyone suggest that's objectively true. Nearly everything we discuss is subjective and it's a waste of time to point it out in every comment. Different people like different things -- there are plenty of people who think a park like Cedar Fair is better than any Disney park, because they are mainly interested in roller coasters. They're not objectively wrong to feel that way.

Guardians is nowhere near as impressive as World of Motion, Spaceship Earth, Journey into Imagination, Horizons, or the original Universe of Energy, not to mention the original Seabase Alpha version of the Living Seas. Therefore, it would not be a top 5 attraction at EPCOT in 1992. You're free to disagree, but you certainly can't tell me I'm wrong. It is, after all, subjective.

I don't even think it's close to being a top 10 attraction at WDW right now, but I find rides that rely mainly on thrill for entertainment value to be kind of boring.

 

[FigmentFan82]

Is there any indication that the light & power co gift shop refurb is going to be something grander than just a general refresh (in current Disney speak I'd also call it de-theming) or is there hope for something cool like the often mentioned Flynn's Arcade theme idea that always gets floated around?

I feel like lately TDO is either doing super underwhelming refurb/refreshes or random "wow that's way better than I thought it would be"

 

[UNCgolf]

If Universal had decided Hagrid's needed to be entirely enclosed the price tag would have approached Guardians level. And maybe some of that extra money for Guardians went to ensuring reliable operations. Hagrid's still does not operate at its intended capacity and likely never will.

If money went towards ensuring reliable operations, it apparently wasn't well spent. The ride is having serious problems recently.

 

[Disney Analyst]

The average guest doesn’t think about nor care how much anything cost to build.

They care about:

How long do I have to wait?

Is it a fun ride?

Was it worth the wait?

I know we are on a message board if diehards who do care, and that’s fine, but it feels like this conversation has been going in circles. We know the alleged cost.

Is the ride a success or not? Is it filling a niche at Epcot? Is it doing what it is meant to do?

 

[danlb_2000]

The average guest doesn’t think about nor care how much anything cost to build.

They care about:

How long do I have to wait?

Is it a fun ride?

Was it worth the wait?

I know we are on a message board if diehards who do care, and that’s fine, but it feels like this conversation has been going in circles. We know the alleged cost.

Is the ride a success or not? Is it filling a niche at Epcot? Is it doing what it is meant to do?

But the average guest does think about vacation costs and what new things have opened since their last visit, and build cost impacts both of those things.

 

[UNCgolf]

Is the ride a success or not? Is it filling a niche at Epcot? Is it doing what it is meant to do?

I think it's definitely a success, but I'm also not sure it's performing as well as Disney hoped and maybe not quite doing what they wanted it to do. It doesn't seem to be driving crowds from the other parks to EPCOT.

 

[wdwmagic]

I think it's definitely a success, but I also think it's not performing as well as Disney hoped and maybe not quite doing what they wanted it to do. It doesn't seem to be driving crowds from the other parks to EPCOT.

EPCOT is still largely an unattractive option for many, and I think a lot of people are happy to visit for a short period to do Cosmic Rewind, Soarin', Spaceship Earth, Test Track, Rat - and leave. I think it is especially a hard sell for single day tickets. I could imagine someone buying a single day ticket for MK and DHS, but EPCOT?

 

[UNCgolf]

EPCOT is still largely an unattractive option for many, and I think a lot of people are happy to visit for a short period to do Cosmic Rewind, Soarin', Spaceship Earth, Test Track, Rat - and leave. I think it is especially a hard sell for single day tickets. I could imagine someone buying a single day ticket for MK and DHS, but EPCOT?

That definitely makes sense.

I get the impression that Disney management thought Guardians alone would be enough to drive crowds, though. Especially since they cancelled (or indefinitely postponed) most of the other changes/additions that were supposed to come, like Mary Poppins and the SSE overhaul. That plus the amount of money they spent on Guardians makes me think they had expectations that it would go a long way towards "fixing" EPCOT mostly by itself (along with Ratatouille, to be fair). That doesn't seem to be happening.

 

[wdwmagic]

That definitely makes sense.

I get the impression that Disney management thought Guardians alone would be enough to drive crowds, though. Especially since they cancelled (or indefinitely postponed) most of the other changes/additions that were supposed to come, like Mary Poppins and the SSE overhaul. That plus the amount of money they spent on Guardians makes me think they had expectations that it would go a long way towards "fixing" EPCOT by itself (along with Ratatouille, to be fair). That doesn't seem to be happening.

Maybe GoTG, Poppins, Spaceship Earth, Play! pavilion, Rat, and a popular new nighttime show all opening within a year would have done the job. But somewhat like the DHS relaunch, it fizzled out.