Frozen ride replacing Maelstrom?

[danlb_2000]

I was honestly shocked to find out anyone was expecting an announcement of an Epcot overlay on a primetime ABC special. When has something like that ever happened?

I agree. I thought there was a slight possibility, but new it was a long shot.

 

[lebeau]

I hopped on Twitter and saw people expressing disappointment. A friend informed me that apparently a lot of people were expecting an announcement regarding Epcot. That's just not the sort of thing Disney does today. I was shocked that anyone expected it.

I think a lot of parks fans look through things with their park-fan goggles and completely loose sight of where the parks rank in the grand scheme of things.

 

[BrerJon]

I still don't get it i'm bit confused! Last night no announcement about frozen ride!

Nevertheless all the evidence points towards it. To me the biggest clue that Norway is for the chop seems to be that point made earlier about no more Cultural Representatives being sent out for attractions or merchandise after this month.

We can deduce a lot from this. One of the strict terms of the Q visas the participants get is that they can only be hired to directly represent the country in which they are working, which is their home country. Nobody is allowed to work anywhere outside their pavilion, or represent anywhere else, and this is strictly enforced by the US government.

If the only people still being hired are for foods, we can assume that Akershus and the bakery, along with the front of the pavilion, are safe, but the whole back area with the shops and Maelstrom is being turned into Arrendale. If they were doing that, legally they couldn't hire Norwegians to man the roles (as they would be representing a fictional country rather than their own), so would have to freeze (ho-ho) the hiring process, and that appears to be exactly what they've done.

 

[Tomcat47]

Now the only even thought that this is happening is the fact you cannot get a Fastpass beyond Sept. 28th correct? Maybe someone claiming to be a castmember has posted "They were told" by management but no refurbishment or closure has been officially announced. All this talk seems familiar like all the rumors of Indy at DHS.

 

[tl77]

I think they stopped announcing attractions on TV with the WDW 20th anniversary show called "WDW Past Present and Future" it aired in prime time as part of the Sunday night Magical World of Disney series, but 4 of their 6 "future" announcements never happened... and most of the "present" attractions from that show are no longer there either

 

[BrerJon]

Now the only even thought that this is happening is the fact you cannot get a Fastpass beyond Sept. 28th correct? Maybe someone claiming to be a castmember has posted "They were told" by management but no refurbishment or closure has been officially announced. All this talk seems familiar like all the rumors of Indy at DHS.

See my post just above yours. All the cast members in Norway are from Norway, and none except those working in foods have been given contracts beyond this month.

 

[GLaDOS]

Now the only even thought that this is happening is the fact you cannot get a Fastpass beyond Sept. 28th correct? Maybe someone claiming to be a castmember has posted "They were told" by management but no refurbishment or closure has been officially announced. All this talk seems familiar like all the rumors of Indy at DHS.

They've also stopped recruiting Norwegians to come operate the ride after that date.

 

[tl77]

See my post just above yours. All the cast members in Norway are from Norway, and none except those working in foods have been given contracts beyond this month.

does this mean the shops will close as well?

 

[Tomcat47]

From the rumors the new exit would be through the rear of the store because the new queue line would be in the theatre that everyone runs through to avoid the movie so store would have to be re-configured.

 

[DisDan]

They've also stopped recruiting Norwegians to come operate the ride after that date.

Yea, it looks like Disney will seek out people from Arendelle to come operate the ride starting after that date. It will also no longer be known as the "Norway" Pavilion and will become the Arendelle Pavilion.

 

[BrerJon]

does this mean the shops will close as well?

It's difficult to tell. They've stopped hiring for the shops, but that could be because there are lots of ex-Maelstrom workers whose contracts won't expire for many months and need somewhere to work, so they may be transferred.

My guess is they will split the shop, making it half Frozen and half Norway.

 

[dadddio]

I was honestly shocked to find out anyone was expecting an announcement of an Epcot overlay on a primetime ABC special. When has something like that ever happened?

I think that because one of the 'insiders' claimed that it was going to happen that many got their hopes up.

 

[dadddio]

Nevertheless all the evidence points towards it. To me the biggest clue that Norway is for the chop seems to be that point made earlier about no more Cultural Representatives being sent out for attractions or merchandise after this month.

We can deduce a lot from this. One of the strict terms of the Q visas the participants get is that they can only be hired to directly represent the country in which they are working, which is their home country. Nobody is allowed to work anywhere outside their pavilion, or represent anywhere else, and this is strictly enforced by the US government.

If the only people still being hired are for foods, we can assume that Akershus and the bakery, along with the front of the pavilion, are safe, but the whole back area with the shops and Maelstrom is being turned into Arrendale. If they were doing that, legally they couldn't hire Norwegians to man the roles (as they would be representing a fictional country rather than their own), so would have to freeze (ho-ho) the hiring process, and that appears to be exactly what they've done.

I think that your logic went off track at the bolded bit. I suspect that it's more likely that CMs simply won't be needed for those areas as they won't be open during the transition.

 

[Tomcat47]

If and when this happens there will be a press conference in the pavilion with the Frozen characters etc. They may still be negotiating with Norway over what stays and what goes so Norway does not pull all their funding like is rumored to be threatened. It will still be special to me, the pavilion I met Edgar and Sig Hanson.

 

[dadddio]

If and when this happens there will be a press conference in the pavilion with the Frozen characters etc. They may still be negotiating with Norway over what stays and what goes so Norway does not pull all their funding like is rumored to be threatened. It will still be special to me, the pavilion I met Edgar and Sig Hanson.

Didn't they stop funding the pavilion something like a dozen years ago?

 

[Tomcat47]

I'm just repeating the article I read about a month ago

 

[aladdin2007]

Yea, it looks like Disney will seek out people from Arendelle to come operate the ride starting after that date. It will also no longer be known as the "Norway" Pavilion and will become the Arendelle Pavilion.

This is not true. It will still be the Norway Pavilion and there will still be a Norwegian presence to some extent, or so they have promised.

 

[cjk0318]

Just made FP+ Reservations for Maelstrom for October 1... then it's not available/showing any after that. September 26th was a hoax

 

[lazyboy97o]

This is not true. It will still be the Norway Pavilion and there will still be a Norwegian presence to some extent, or so they have promised.

A snack counter is not much of an extent.

 

[Next Big Thing]

I was honestly shocked to find out anyone was expecting an announcement of an Epcot overlay on a primetime ABC special. When has something like that ever happened?

@WDW1974 started the rumor they would announce it on the special, which was what got people all riled up about it.