BrianLo
Well-Known Member
Not even close.
It's impossible to understand how they spent $500 million on it. It's not remotely at that level of quality from a themed attraction standpoint -- obviously it's a fun/quality coaster, but a coaster like CR that has little story/theming on the actual ride shouldn't cost anywhere near that much. Hagrid's, as a counter example (and which has far more themed content than Cosmic Rewind), supposedly cost "only" $300 million.
Hagrid's (which I also like very much) is largely an outdoor coaster than hugs terrain. It can't be stated how much it costs to house such a massive coaster indoors. Cosmic Rewinds is even longer than Hagrid's in terms of track length. The money was spent simply on such a massive indoor ride.
I get the sentiment about tastes though. If they are going to spend all the money - you and many others would probably rather a largely outdoor coaster with copious rock work.
Though in terms of whether it was 'worth it'? For Disney the answer is a resounding yes. There's nothing on the docket for Epcot anytime soon and Cosmic Rewind will slowly pay itself off on the back of ILL and that's what they were after. That's the final indictment of the ride, did they deliver something big enough to be seen as a mega headliner that people will pay a la carte for years for? Yes. Does the public think it's a good enough attraction to pay a la carte for? Also yes.
Though I also 100 percent appreciate Hagrid's would achieve the same thing. But again, that's largely outdoors.