News Primeval Whirl, Stitch's Great Escape and Rivers of Light permanently closed

rle4lunch

Well-Known Member
Significant number of posters on these boards say they dislike IP, but here we had an example of Disney creating something non-IP, and this is the result.

I agree that it lacked draw, but I also think it is often tough to create draw when the audience doesn't get familiar characters.

WDW visitors usually want characters they know. People will sometimes make a few exceptions: thrill rides like coasters, stock characters like pirates, and a tiny exception for opening day/very long standing attractions like SE. But all thee exceptions still = something familiar.
Or it could be weak storytelling. Navi river is beautiful to look at, but what are you learning from it? Jack crap. So it's visuals are awesome, but it doesn't draw you in. And it's an IP.

As long as it's quality, it shouldn't matter if it's got someone recognizable or not.
 

wdwmagic

Administrator
Moderator
Premium Member
Original Poster
Are the midway games of Chester and Hester operating? If not, that means the spinner is the only thing open in that sub-land.

I could see them moving the spinner to somewhere else in the park with new decoration. It's cheap to operate and is one of the few rides people under a certain height can do.
Yes the spinner is the only thing operating.

DSC07428-1.jpg
 

Fox&Hound

Well-Known Member
As in the first one.

Between RoL and Fastpass+ that’s quite a few bonuses not paid. At least they're being honest in a PR fluff way. Shame; the original RoL had potential and some lovely music.

Marni, do you mean RoL is going away as in that particular show or they have no foreseeable plans to perform ANY show on the water? It would be such a waste to go through all the work to build the seats and then let is just sit there....
 

JohnD

Well-Known Member
Hopefully they can come up with a replacement for RoL that will actually work and be a good show.

So what’s next to be axed? Unpopular thought but HEA? Very expensive to run when they could just have Once Upon A Time with a small amount of pyro. Also Harmonius sounds like it will be like HEA on water.

My picks:
MK: Aladdin -- open up Adventureland as it was intended to be. There's already the Dumbo spin ride
EP: Figment -- currently worst ride on property. I'm all for closing it now so long as an Imagination 1.0 replacement is on "the horizon"
HS: Indy -- I understand it's a people eater but making movies is no longer the focus of HS. Plenty of property to turn into something else at a later date.
 

marni1971

Park History nut
Premium Member
Marni, do you mean RoL is going away as in that particular show or they have no foreseeable plans to perform ANY show on the water? It would be such a waste to go through all the work to build the seats and then let is just sit there....
No plans for a replacement at the moment. Given the current climate that’s possibly to be expected.
 

MickeyLuv'r

Well-Known Member
As long as it's a great ride (Haunted Mansion, Pirates (originally) and Space Mountain) then it doesn't matter if it has an IP or not (ride wise). I do think Disney will definitely lean towards IP's for the most part when it comes to their rides in the future though. It makes sense financially. They can sell more merchandise with characters like Ana and Elsa.

And as long as it works with the theming (Ratatouille), I'm sure most of us are alright with it.

Pirates, HM, and SM all fall into the list of exceptions. Ghosts and Pirates are both stock characters. They are also both legacy attractions that date back (almost) to the park opening. Fifty years ago, all of MK was new. If pirates (first) opened in 2020? Hah, I doubt it would be welcomed as it was in the 70's. Guns, drinking, burning cities, oh my!

SM is a coaster. Most coasters don't need theming to be popular. In many places, even Primeval Whirl is popular. Elsewhere it is called a Wild Mouse. Some parks have added theming, but many haven't. Check out: Atlantis Spin (Bali Safari), Crash Test (Ocean Beach Pleasure Park), Crazy Mouse (steel Pier, Brighton Pier, Hirakata Park, Playland (NY), Del Grosso's, Azur Park), Mad Mouse (Bell's, Joyland, Arnolds), Wild mouse (a number of parks) and many more....

AK's version was never all that popular, so in that sense I'm not surprised to see it close. I'm a little surprised though, because it is an amusement park staple. AK's likely would have survived with better theming and if it had been just a tad smoother. Maybe if they had re-themed the whole area to a movie like Up.
 
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Goofnut1980

Well-Known Member
If you actually attempt to do everything at DAK. As in, ride every ride, see every show, do the trails, take your time to soak in the atmosphere, and eat a quick service and full service meal, DAK is absolutely an all day park. I'm tired of everyone complaining about "half day parks" when the real answer is that this is your Nth visit to WDW so you've already seen everything so you don't want to do all of it, and you have a Fastpass for FoP, Everest, and Safaris and maybe do one or two other things and leave.

Islands of Adventure has more major attractions, but guess what, if you have an express pass or go on a slow day, or only do the top tier attractions, you can see it, too, in a few hours.

To me it just isnt as magical. To each there own. And yes the next trip is trip 78 for me. I have been a few times. So there are natually things I do not personally want to see every trip I take. But if others like it, that's great for them. For me it is just meh.
 

Marc Davis Fan

Well-Known Member
I think it was effective with the Hester and Chester gift shop but when everything else opened, it just overpowered the main theme. I mean, today, after passing through the Dig, that's what you see. The e-ticket ride is off to the side and largely hidden by growth* and could almost be missed by someone casually walking in.

It's actually kind of funny (not in a ha-ha way) to think that for a land devoted to dinosaurs in a park that is was focused on real, actual animals, the only part of the entire land that really does the dinos any justice is the queue for the Dinosaur ride.

Anyway, since the majority of the themed part of that land became the "tourist trap", that's effectively the face of Dinoland and similar to the way much of the original California Adventure didn't work, it turns out, that creating a "theme" to mimic a crappy shoddy experience that most people come to Disney to avoid, isn't the best of ideas.

I'm sure someone somewhere thought that being able to use a "theme" as an excuse to go cheap with attractions was a clever loophole but in the case of AK, it's the wart on Mona Lisa.

*Not to say the growth itself is the problem. It's obviously there in part to hide the massive show building the attraction itself is housed in.

THIS!

I think you've hit the nail on the head.

The land had potential before Dino-Rama. Not only did Dino-Rama destroy the land's aesthetic as you described, but it messed up the crowd flow so that a big percentage of guests now completely miss the land's actual main attraction.

Not only should they remove Dino-Rama in its entirety, but they should fix the pathways so that guests are actually funneled to the land's true centerpiece. The percentage of AK guests who are never aware of Dinosaur's existence is ridiculous. Fixing that problem would almost be like adding a new e-ticket to the park.

The truth is, even from the beginning, the placement of Dinosaur was one of the weirdest design decisions that Disney had ever made in a theme park. It should have been the land's "weenie," just like the EE mountain is for Asia, the tree in front of KS is for Africa, etc. But at least improving the guest flow would make more people aware that it exists...
 

SilentWindODoom

Well-Known Member
What a waste of the stadiums for RoL

At least it cleared up a ten year mystery.

They have the IP for Planet of the Apes. That'd be kind of cool.

I didn't even think of Fox acquisitions.

I vote for a land based on the time travel segment from the greatest Treehouse of Horror special!



Crap, do they work under the same deal as Marvel?

If things were normal This would be great but they aren't. If only they could fill it with some cheap off the shelf boardwalk rides because even that might stretch the budget 😜. Its a decent size area so something of the Wakanda or Zootopia type of project would be cool but I can't imagine they're in the right place in the foreseeable future.

Zootopia would be nice. The Theatre in the Wild has always been a weird gray area and a Zootopia overlay could probably take it over and retheme the exterior.

I could see them moving the spinner to somewhere else in the park with new decoration. It's cheap to operate and is one of the few rides people under a certain height can do.

There's gotta be a small area of Discovery Island they could fit a spinner with different colorful animals.
 

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