EPCOT Announced: Mary Poppins Attraction in UK Pavilion

[DznyRktekt]

And sadly neither/nothing will be done to satisfy Chapek and the shareholders.

 

[Crazydisneyfanluke]

And sadly neither/nothing will be done to satisfy Chapek and the shareholders.

But the Shareholders are voting no!

 

[Cesar R M]

Doesn't seem that way to me. Seems to be startlingly high budgets where the funds aren't allocated correctly.

Costs now seems to be a battering ram for PR BS. "look how much we spent in this attraction, you better enjoy it!"
Similar to how people shove real actors in big marketing on the animated movie attractions while pretty much shunning voice actors (exactly what Robin Williams feared since Aladdin )

 

[WDW Pro]

I tend to agree - I enjoy Spider-Man and respect how innovative it was, but I rode both Spider-Man and Indiana Jones at Disneyland for the first time within a month of each other and I was WAY more impressed by Jones. It takes all the best elements of a simulator and runs it through a practical environment.

Ratatouille would be much improved by having some EMV features within the vehicle - that lack of a motion base in the ride vehicle really hurts it when you're parked in front of a screen and meant to believe you're careening through the kitchen. Even some light pitch and yaw would do wonders. But I'll stop there, since my criticism of Rat goes much further and I'm just gonna derail the thread.



To whom do I make out the Human Sacrifice in order to make THIS happen? If we're meant to finally get a Mary Poppins Attraction, something like this is really the form it should take. I'm sure the Double-Decker Carousel would have been nice enough, but Mary deserves better than another bunted spinner.

No human sacrifice needed... but you couldn't ask for a better earnings report if you're hoping to see projects revived. Capacity, capacity, capacity, right?

Began life as a dark ride when the theme was changed from Brave.

Then a “flat” ride

Then a “spinning” ride.

Got so far as backstage survey markers.

Survey markers were for the two-level carousel.

 

[TikibirdLand]

No human sacrifice needed... but you couldn't ask for a better earnings report if you're hoping to see projects revived. Capacity, capacity, capacity, right?



Survey markers were for the two-level carousel.

Or the markers could be for the additional food booths needed

 

[SplashJacket]

Or the markers could be for the additional food booths needed

Ah! Imagine that! Two-story food booth, where profit, I mean guests, move along on a conveyor belt draining their wallets as they go round and round!

 

[WDW Pro]

Or the markers could be for the additional food booths needed

I'm all about this meme, but if you can believe it... I don't think any food additions were every a part of the plans. Just a façade, M&G, and attraction. It's a limited space.

 

[castlecake2.0]

I'm all about this meme, but if you can believe it... I don't think any food additions were every a part of the plans. Just a façade, M&G, and attraction. It's a limited space.

Any idea how much the pavilion would have been altered to make this fit?

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Doesn't seem that way to me. Seems to be startlingly high budgets where the funds aren't allocated correctly.

Correct…but isn’t it part of the “carousel of dysfunction” that plagued the whole operation?
1. Overblown announcement on a ridiculous timeline
2. Big budget to impress people
3. “We’re not really spending that much…shhhhh”’to the investors
4. WDI starts spending/blowing budget
5. Cuts start almost immediately for design/construction
6. Budget blown. WDI leak onto fan boards to vent “sorta out in the open”
7. 7 years later…overhyped…”something” opens.
8. It underdelivers…PR isn’t alerted
9. Not enough stuff gets built
10. WDI disgruntled
11. Customers disgruntled
12. Travel agents put up memes advertising how “amazing” the “experience” is.
13. Comcast takes shots on its Twitter feed
14. Repeat steps 1-13

I'm not sure it made it far enough into development to determine the screen content. The idea was to have half the Carousel open-air and then half (or perhaps a third, don't remember) in the building with the screens. Content would be different over time, and it was pitched this would reflect positively on Mary Poppins' live action - animation hybrid style in ride form. There was another concept that had the horses leaving the carousel (which would have been faux) via multi-lane tracks to go into a show building hidden by residential home facades, but I think that was dismissed for costs.

Dude…none of that is happening. They just dangled a carrot so the diehards would talk about it/create buzz…then ate the carrot as soon as nobody was watching

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

I'm all about this meme, but if you can believe it... I don't think any food additions were every a part of the plans. Just a façade, M&G, and attraction. It's a limited space.

Sarcasm alert!

 

[Bocabear]

Sad but true....Imagine the simplicity of leaving the Communicore buildings in place, repurposing the Innovations show building as the new event "World Celebration" space, Tear down the World Showplace tent to allow expansion for a proper Mary Poppins attraction and even have room for a Harrods Style food hall.
Reorganize the space between the Comminicore buildings with new fountain and landscaping and save millions of dollars while having a much better guest experience...

 

[Epcot82Guy]

Sad but true....Imagine the simplicity of leaving the Communicore buildings in place, repurposing the Innovations show building as the new event "World Celebration" space, Tear down the World Showplace tent to allow expansion for a proper Mary Poppins attraction and even have room for a Harrods Style food hall.
Reorganize the space between the Comminicore buildings with new fountain and landscaping and save millions of dollars while having a much better guest experience...

That was 100% what I wanted. Have 4 buildings - one shopping (Creations), one food (Connections), one festival/event center and one attraction (I would have voted to bring One Man's Dream to Epcot, being anchored out front with Dreamer's Point). And they could have even retrofitted the Festival one to have a rooftop bar to view the show.

They could have easily added a JoW-type space behind OMD with that money saved, and I think it would have created a much, much more cohesive theme and approach.

 

[Bocabear]

That was 100% what I wanted. Have 4 buildings - one shopping (Creations), one food (Connections), one festival/event center and one attraction (I would have voted to bring One Man's Dream to Epcot, being anchored out front with Dreamer's Point). And they could have even retrofitted the Festival one to have a rooftop bar to view the show.

They could have easily added a JoW-type space behind OMD with that money saved, and I think it would have created a much, much more cohesive theme and approach.

Exactly... I would add to that moving the Carousel Of Progress to the One Man's Dream exhibit with the original finale scene...
A whole section on Walt and the World's Fair... And what if Dreamer's Point also featured an expander version of the Tower of the Winds...
So much could have been done to have kept the flavor of the park while accenting and adding...Even the new areas...Like World Nature/ World Celebration could have worked better with the central core still in place to define World Nature...Or I think anyway. The concept of EPCOT was not a throwaway... It just needed to be updated in a meaningful way (well that is my opinion anyway)

 

[larryz]

I, in a way, consider the trackless dark rides a spiritual successor to that. There are drawbacks; the trackless vehicles are massive and cumbersome. One wonders if a smaller, faster trackless vehicle is a possibility.

It is, but they're called "Bumper Cars."

 

[larryz]

Any idea how much the pavilion would have been altered to make this fit?

I think there were some plans/maps/diagrams about 200 pages or so back in this thread...

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Any idea how much the pavilion would have been altered to make this fit?

Somebody can probably post one of those maps with the Epcot expansion plots to show the pads?

one was taken by millennium village…so they would likely have had to go behind the IG?

 

[UNCgolf]

Somebody can probably post one of those maps with the Epcot expansion plots to show the pads?

one was taken by millennium village…so they would likely have had to go behind the IG?

I think someone suggested it would involve tearing up the garden area at the back of the pavilion with the gazebo and hedge maze.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

I think someone suggested it would involve tearing up the garden area at the back of the pavilion with the gazebo and hedge maze.

Right…they used to have entertainment and weddings there…who needs that?

 

[MisterPenguin]

Somebody can probably post one of those maps with the Epcot expansion plots to show the pads?

one was taken by millennium village…so they would likely have had to go behind the IG?

There's .8 acres for the undeveloped part of UK (orange below). And another .8 acres if they take over BoH.

For comparison:

• MK Carousel - .12 acres
• Peter Pan - .31 acres
• Winnie the Pooh - .44 acres
• Buzz - .55 acres
• Main building of Little Mermaid ride - .55 acres
• Ratatouille - 1.25 acres
• Haunted Mansion - 1.8 acres

 

[MisterPenguin]

Right…they used to have entertainment and weddings there…who needs that?

It's used now for Brexit Reenactors.