Al Lutz: Carsland for WDW, FLE not Bringing in Guests

[Wikkler]

Now with fake money!

 

[Wikkler]

They'll wait 10 years, then close LMA and the Backlot Tour, wasting space and ruining traffic flow, then wait 10 years before demolishing them, then wait 10 more years, and construction begins on DVC LAND!!!!!!!

 

[Glasgow]

Personally, I think it's "less than stellar", because it's just mediocre and well, less than stellar. While it is impressive in its details and theming, it doesn't really add anything "new" to the mix. Little Mermaid is a clone. Dumbo is just one more spinner (kiddy ride), and Goofy's Barnstormer is just re-themed. Oh yeah, there is a new restaurant, but guests are smarter than that. They come back expecting something new and thrilling, expecting to be wowed. I'm sorry, but nothing here is wow-worthy.

I'm still not a fan of bringing Carsland here. I just think they can do better. They have plenty of other stories that can and should be told to make WDW unique, why clone something? It's like Walt's saying, "You can't top pigs with pigs". This seems to be a forgotten lesson by Disney. Sadly, I think they're going to have to re-learn it, the hard way.

After visiting FLE last month, I am in agreement for the most part. While the detailing is impressive (very impressive) the content is mediocre so far. The Ariel clone is good for a quick laugh. Belle's cottage was probably the best, most innovative of all of FLE. Hopefully SDMT adds the missing piece that FLE needs. Storytime Circus was a let down I have to say.

 

[Goofnut1980]

I would have thought Luigi's would have been but due to the other problems it has had and not because of any difficulty in building it.

As for FLE, doesn't surprise me at all that it isn't increasing attendance, I just don't see it having enough to make people plan a special trip for it. If anything I think it would increase MK attendance at bit at the cost of attendance at AK and DHS.

We went in December and was in the area for a whole of 15 mins... long enough to look at a 120 sq ft shop, LM ride and grab a LaFou's Brew... beyond that.. we never went back over there all week... It really isn't something we would "need" to do again. (and we are DVC's and have PAP's, and we go 4 times a year)

 

[Goofnut1980]

After visiting FLE last month, I am in agreement for the most part. While the detailing is impressive (very impressive) the content is mediocre so far. The Ariel clone is good for a quick laugh. Belle's cottage was probably the best, most innovative of all of FLE. Hopefully SDMT adds the missing piece that FLE needs. Storytime Circus was a let down I have to say.

Agreed! Circus was terrible.. So chopped up and you had to back-track to get to other parts.. It reminded me of how we hated Disneyland and how you walk all over just to from one ride to another.

 

[ParentsOf4]

We went in December and was in the area for a whole of 15 mins... long enough to look at a 120 sq ft shop, LM ride and grab a LaFou's Brew... beyond that.. we never went back over there all week... It really isn't something we would "need" to do again. (and we are DVC's and have PAP's, and we go 4 times a year)

We got you covered. We spent a little over 2 hours in FLE. About an hour was waiting for and eating lunch at BOG. We also stuck our head in Gaston's and the new shop, did the Belle & Ariel meet & greets, and rode LM. There was absolutely nothing there that my family wanted to do a second time. I really don't know when we'll visit again.

The entire Circus area was pretty no better than before, mostly just different. My family did miss Mickey & Minnie's houses.

I am more optimistic about SDMT.

 

[Goofnut1980]

Toy Story Mini-Land

• Toy Story Midway Mania!
• A relocated and improved Pizza Planet
• Maybe a toy store...?

Monsters, Inc. Mini-Land

• The Door Coaster
• Possibly Ride & Go Seek
• Something Involving Randall

A Bug's Life Mini-Land

• HISTKMSA replaced with a bug playground
• Two rides from the Bug Land from DCA

Ratatouille Mini-Land

• A Ratatouille Restaurant
• The Ratatouille Dark Ride from Paris

WALL*E Mini-Land

• ... I have no idea Circle of Life-type preachy environmental movie.

Finding Nemo Mini-Land

• A Submarine Adventure Clone Crush Coaster

The Incredibles Mini-Land

• An Incredible (pun intended) motion simulator

UP Mini-Land

• A M&G inside Carl's House

Brave Mini-Land

• Something like the current place at MK

Cars Mini-Land

• Possible a clone of RSRs
• Maybe MJJ
• Either Flo's V8 Cafe or the Cozy Cone Motel

Very Nice! what about using Brother Bear, Hercules, Treasure Planet, Bambi or Atlantis.. They could use some Disney (non-Pixar) movies...
Somewhere they have lost their way. Walt Disney acquired that land to keep expanding and keeping coming up with fresh new ideas... We have to stop worrying about margin every 3 seconds and focus on why WDW is what it is today... I know you need to make money to be profitable...let the creative team, uh I don't know... Create?

 

[TP2000]

whats this? i went to dl last sept and saw carsland and didnt see this. luigis seemed like it was just a building/gift shop

How do you miss Luigi's Flying Tires???

This is the entrance to the ride, in a nicely themed interior queue through Luigi's formal tire showroom, then his memorabilia room and his back office.

And then the queue goes out back to his "tire garden", where the actual Flying Tires are.

 

[Tom Morrow]

Agreed! Circus was terrible.. So chopped up and you had to back-track to get to other parts.. It reminded me of how we hated Disneyland and how you walk all over just to from one ride to another.

Well, once SDMT is complete, Storybook Circus will connect to near the entrance to Mermaid. Storybook Circus "dead ends" because of the construction.

 

[pmaljr]

Once again, I can't believe I'm the one defending Disney on this. I keep seeing all these comments about how the new LM ride is a one-time ride, how it's not something they will do again, and it just makes me cringe. I'm sorry because I know it's going to be controversial to this crowd, but we rode LM four times in a row on the half-day D23 preview and I never got tired of it. I would have ridden it all day as it was pretty much a walk-on and we loved it, but they were kicking us out at 12, we got a late start, and we wanted to try the meet and greet with Ariel, try Lefou's Brew, and try Enchanted Tales with Belle as well as see the new restaurant. Some of you either didn't care for the LM movie and thus it's no fun, have never seen the new ride much less ridden it, or are just expecting something from a ride that is totally different from what you have gotten traditionally in the rest of Fantasyland and the MK in WDW. LM is a better ride experience in every way than all the old stuff in WDW Fantasyland. Yes, I said it. I'm not talking Disneyland, as after going there for the first time a couple of years ago, I think DL's Peter Pan, Small World, and Snow White are just better overall but as far as WDW goes, the new LM is just better. It is better than WDW Peter Pan, better than Small World, better than Winnie the Pooh, better than Toad, better than 20K, better than Snow White, better than the Mad Tea Party, etc. I've ridden them all, back to my first trip in the mid 70s as a kid. If you want to argue that it's not faithful to the movie, fine. If you want to argue about the overall FLE and about how much space they wasted with all the scenery and the fact that they only added one net ride in all of this, go ahead. I personally think they should have added a BatB ride at minimum instead of just using all that space for story-time and I despise that they shut down Snow White. Go ahead, be my guest. If you want to be upset because they've never updated PP with the latest technology to make it feel more like you are flying and it's still the same since the 80s, go ahead. But anyone who says LM is bad and they don't know if they will ever ride it again is one of the three things I said above and aren't going to like it unless it has a secret tunnel that leads to an underground version of Horizons and a handshake from Chuck Norris awaiting in a robe and crown. This is from someone who has been there, actually ridden it, and can't wait to get back to it again in May. If you aren't in line, then I guess it will be easier on the rest of us.

 

[Mr Bill]

Rode it once during previews, that was enough for me. Rode it again with family because they hadn't been on it yet.

I guess I'll be one less person in the 70-minute standby line for an omni.

 

[BryceM]

Once again, I can't believe I'm the one defending Disney on this. I keep seeing all these comments about how the new LM ride is a one-time ride, how it's not something they will do again, and it just makes me cringe. I'm sorry because I know it's going to be controversial to this crowd, but we rode LM four times in a row on the half-day D23 preview and I never got tired of it. I would have ridden it all day as it was pretty much a walk-on and we loved it, but they were kicking us out at 12, we got a late start, and we wanted to try the meet and greet with Ariel, try Lefou's Brew, and try Enchanted Tales with Belle as well as see the new restaurant. Some of you either didn't care for the LM movie and thus it's no fun, have never seen the new ride much less ridden it, or are just expecting something from a ride that is totally different from what you have gotten traditionally in the rest of Fantasyland and the MK in WDW. LM is a better ride experience in every way than all the old stuff in WDW Fantasyland. Yes, I said it. I'm not talking Disneyland, as after going there for the first time a couple of years ago, I think DL's Peter Pan, Small World, and Snow White are just better overall but as far as WDW goes, the new LM is just better. It is better than WDW Peter Pan, better than Small World, better than Winnie the Pooh, better than Toad, better than 20K, better than Snow White, better than the Mad Tea Party, etc. I've ridden them all, back to my first trip in the mid 70s as a kid. If you want to argue that it's not faithful to the movie, fine. If you want to argue about the overall FLE and about how much space they wasted with all the scenery and the fact that they only added one net ride in all of this, go ahead. I personally think they should have added a BatB ride at minimum instead of just using all that space for story-time and I despise that they shut down Snow White. Go ahead, be my guest. If you want to be upset because they've never updated PP with the latest technology to make it feel more like you are flying and it's still the same since the 80s, go ahead. But anyone who says LM is bad and they don't know if they will ever ride it again is one of the three things I said above and aren't going to like it unless it has a secret tunnel that leads to an underground version of Horizons and a handshake from Chuck Norris awaiting in a robe and crown. This is from someone who has been there, actually ridden it, and can't wait to get back to it again in May. If you aren't in line, then I guess it will be easier on the rest of us.

Agreed. It gets way too much unnecessary bashing on here.

 

[Californian Elitist]

Mermaid for the most part is fine, but like others have said, the ending is beyond underwhelming. You're expecting something really cool, like the movie, and you're left with a small Ursula cutout-like figure in a corner. What is that? That was a letdown, for me at least.

 

[AswaySuller]

Mermaid for the most part is fine, but like others have said, the ending is beyond underwhelming. You're expecting something really cool, like the movie, and you're left with a small Ursula cutout-like figure in a corner. What is that? That was a letdown, for me at least.

Aren't all the rides in FL a let down.... Except maybe Peter Pans flight? Half of them are full of cardboard cut outs and the story is very confusing because its so rushed especially to people like my GF who hasn't seen a lot of the Disney movies

 

[flynnibus]

How do you miss Luigi's Flying Tires???

This is the entrance to the ride, in a nicely themed interior queue through Luigi's formal tire showroom, then his memorabilia room and his back office.

In fairness - the ride itself is not readily visible from the road. If you weren't aware, it would be easy to write off Luigi's as just another shop like those around it. You have to walk down that side street a bit to actually see most of the ride.

 

[AswaySuller]

see, now if you're going to clone- start cloning things like this! I would love this to come to wdw... and I could not give a rat's patootie about carsland..or avatar. sheesh, avatar is having a huge display opening at my local science institute, and I won't even visit it there, for free, as part pf my membership!

You couldn't care if Carsland comes to WDW?

I'm gonna take a wild guess that you haven't visited Carsland at DCA...

I was very sceptical about Carsland and RSR before I went ... I don't really care for the cars franchise.... but that land is nothing short of breathtaking and RSR is the best disney built attraction since TOT!

 

[Californian Elitist]

Aren't all the rides in FL a let down.... Except maybe Peter Pans flight? Half of them are full of cardboard cut outs and the story is very confusing because its so rushed especially to people like my GF who hasn't seen a lot of the Disney movies

Heck no. I love all of the Fantasyland dark rides. The ones in Disneyland, at least. Given the era in which they were built and designed, they are some great, classic rides. I might be a little biased, since I used to operate the dark rides at DL. I love them to death. Not to mention, Walt Disney didn't have the funds he wanted and needed for Disneyland, which is why we got the ugly and cheap tent facades. Thankfully that was corrected during the big Fantasyland redo in 1983.

Old Fantasyland:

New and updated:

Mermaid is 21st century... There's no reason the ending should have been that way. They had the money to do a proper ending, they were just too lazy.

 

[Tom Morrow]

I think if Mermaid were not the headlining attraction of the grand opening of first major expansion of the Magic Kingdom in decades, along with being the ONLY new major attraction for MK since Splash in 1992, more people would be willing to look past it's shortcomings.

 

[RandomPrincess]

I think if Mermaid were not the headlining attraction of the grand opening of first major expansion of the Magic Kingdom in decades, along with being the ONLY new major attraction for MK since Splash in 1992, more people would be willing to look past it's shortcomings.

I agree if the whole area had opened at once with the Mine Train people wouldn't be so hard on LM also they may have been able to bring more people into the parks. I also think the ads for the FLE are bad. Lots of cartoons of the characters. Not a lot of substance.

 

[Disneyhead'71]

Once again, I can't believe I'm the one defending Disney on this. I keep seeing all these comments about how the new LM ride is a one-time ride, how it's not something they will do again, and it just makes me cringe. I'm sorry because I know it's going to be controversial to this crowd, but we rode LM four times in a row on the half-day D23 preview and I never got tired of it. I would have ridden it all day as it was pretty much a walk-on and we loved it, but they were kicking us out at 12, we got a late start, and we wanted to try the meet and greet with Ariel, try Lefou's Brew, and try Enchanted Tales with Belle as well as see the new restaurant. Some of you either didn't care for the LM movie and thus it's no fun, have never seen the new ride much less ridden it, or are just expecting something from a ride that is totally different from what you have gotten traditionally in the rest of Fantasyland and the MK in WDW. LM is a better ride experience in every way than all the old stuff in WDW Fantasyland. Yes, I said it. I'm not talking Disneyland, as after going there for the first time a couple of years ago, I think DL's Peter Pan, Small World, and Snow White are just better overall but as far as WDW goes, the new LM is just better. It is better than WDW Peter Pan, better than Small World, better than Winnie the Pooh, better than Toad, better than 20K, better than Snow White, better than the Mad Tea Party, etc. I've ridden them all, back to my first trip in the mid 70s as a kid. If you want to argue that it's not faithful to the movie, fine. If you want to argue about the overall FLE and about how much space they wasted with all the scenery and the fact that they only added one net ride in all of this, go ahead. I personally think they should have added a BatB ride at minimum instead of just using all that space for story-time and I despise that they shut down Snow White. Go ahead, be my guest. If you want to be upset because they've never updated PP with the latest technology to make it feel more like you are flying and it's still the same since the 80s, go ahead. But anyone who says LM is bad and they don't know if they will ever ride it again is one of the three things I said above and aren't going to like it unless it has a secret tunnel that leads to an underground version of Horizons and a handshake from Chuck Norris awaiting in a robe and crown. This is from someone who has been there, actually ridden it, and can't wait to get back to it again in May. If you aren't in line, then I guess it will be easier on the rest of us.

I just think that UtS:JotLM is a stunning combination of bad. Bad storytelling, bad show lighting, and way too many simple mechanical figures. It really feels like a ride thru "Disney Store" window display. It is more grand in scope than most Fantasyland dark rides, but bigger does not mean better. It's BIG and Plasticy. The Under the Seas scene is way to big and bright. It feels like you are in a warehouse and the industrial AC ducts and light rigs just drive that feeling home. And there is a stunning lack of intimacy in that ride.

I do enjoy the Scuttle and Sebastian AAs a lot.