Disney confirms 'Frozen' makeover coming to Epcot's Norway Pavilion

[peter11435]

.

The Splash Mountain thing has been tried.

And is 100% accurate. If they were doing that today these boards would be ripping them apart.

 

[GoofGoof]

Here's a question for some of our insiders or people more familiar with ride design. How difficult would it be to take out the boats and water part of the ride and install an omnimover system like LM or Spaceship Earth? It would cut down on load times and also be easier to maintain over the long haul. I would think it would be cheaper to operate too so even though it would require an upfront investment to switch out the ride system they would recoup it over time. The boat really isn't needed to tell the story of Frozen. Just a thought and might explain why it would take 18 months to complete.

 

[Cesar R M]

When the "fans" complain about nearly everything the company does it becomes increasingly difficult to take them seriously. And those "fans" regardless of what you choose to believe represent a very small percentage of the guests who visit Walt Disney World. The vast majority of park visitors have never heard of this site let along come here to about Frozen.

So yes catering to your average guest is a much more viable strategy than attempting to appease a minority group of bitter "fans."

You means fans deserved complaining about the broken Yeti?
How about the parks getting stale?
how about the amazing Tangled Toilets that took eons to build?
How about not building ANYTHING of quality of the Frozen thing until it finally exploded and everyone wanted demanded something from frozen?.. and they just put the most quickest and cheapest thing they could muster? ( a sing a long in a studio)

You follow the trend?
I honestly do not thing the problem here are the "fans complaining".

 

[peter11435]

In a year or more? No guarantee whatsoever....

I guess we will just have to come back here in a year and see who was right.

 

[wm49rs]

I guess we will just have to come back here in a year and see who was right.

More than a year....

 

[Cesar R M]

So over a year to convert Maelstrom?! What the heck could possibly take so long?

Most probably the same trick they have used under Igers years.
Split the building and development costs into different quarters to look better to Wall Street.

 

[Cesar R M]

They can't build a parking garage in that amount of time anymore, let alone any sort of attraction.

but..but.. ITS A THEMED PARKING LOT!! it will glitter with pixie dust coming out from the cars!

 

[lazyboy97o]

It's a pretty safe bet that the Frozen ride will be popular. I would bet every last dollar I have that it would be for 2 to 1 odds, heck I would take out a loan so I could bet more.

So what? That's exactly what makes it creatively lazy.

And is 100% accurate. If they were doing that today these boards would be ripping them apart.

It's been discussed. You're trying to play a "Gotcha!" game that does not have the outcome you think. Go back and read the thread.

 

[Captain Chaos]

There are 2 issues here. I'm not a fan of replacing Maelstrom with Frozen. I'm actually less of a fan of cramming Frozen into the Maelstrom show building. Donald Duck invaded Mexico years ago so the bubble was burst on world showcase's purity. I could live with it I guess.

The bigger issue to me is that Frozen deserves a bigger presence in WDW. Without expanding the show building there is no way they can do the movie justice. If you think people complain about LM's story telling, this could be worse. I hold out a small hope that they somehow expand the ride layout and double it's size. An 8 to 10 min boat ride with good AAs and a coherent story could actually be elevated to an E-ticket. Long shot for sure, but possible.

Too much optimism and pixie dust for this thread?

Way too much optimism... History teaches us otherwise. Expect even less than the less we already expect.

 

[Mike S]

There are 2 issues here. I'm not a fan of replacing Maelstrom with Frozen. I'm actually less of a fan of cramming Frozen into the Maelstrom show building. Donald Duck invaded Mexico years ago so the bubble was burst on world showcase's purity. I could live with it I guess.

The bigger issue to me is that Frozen deserves a bigger presence in WDW. Without expanding the show building there is no way they can do the movie justice. If you think people complain about LM's story telling, this could be worse. I hold out a small hope that they somehow expand the ride layout and double it's size. An 8 to 10 min boat ride with good AAs and a coherent story could actually be elevated to an E-ticket. Long shot for sure, but possible.

Too much optimism and pixie dust for this thread?

Yeah, a little too much Pixie Dust

 

[Cesar R M]

So they should just burn a bridge with their lifelong fans in favor of the millions of tourists? What will happen then, should less tourists ever come? Who will be there to fall back on?

Thats probably when Rasulo, Iger..etc.. will jump the bridge and says "MY JOB DONE, THATS ALL FOLKS!".. as they run with their bonuses and pre-sold stock (before it tumbled down). leaving the next guy one hell of a job to recover the entire mess.

It could be even worse if the Animation Studio and the other Movies franchises start to lose money. As the parks as been the only stable income (apart from DCL) ?

 

[peter11435]

It's been discussed. You're trying to play a "Gotcha!" game that does not have the outcome you think. Go back and read the thread.

I don't need to. It doesn't matter what you collectively came up with to defend yourself in that thread. It doesn't change the fact that it's true. The fact is that disney has been installing the occasional out of theme attraction for decades. Not to mention building the occasional less than quality one as well.

 

[Magenta Panther]

Just read about the new Dreamlights ceremony - seems it's getting a Frozen makeover too. And here we were all hoping for a Frozen ice palace at WDW. Heck, why should TDO build one when Elsa can just borrow Cindy's?

 

[lazyboy97o]

I don't need to. It doesn't matter what you collectively came up with to defend yourself in that thread. It doesn't change the fact that it's true. The fact is that disney has been installing the occasional out of theme attraction for decades. Not to mention building the occasional less than quality one as well.

I'm talking about this thread. Splash Mountain has already been brought up. You're still trying to play that "Gotcha!" game.

 

[mm121]

Didn't go thru 67 pages of comments.

My Thoughts:

While i personally think Epcot isn't really an appropriate place to focus on specific movies, I think this could be a sign that disney is tired of waiting around for the actual countries involved in the showcase to pay for attractions/ attraction upgrades.

While I personally dont think the countries should have to, I understand why disney wants them to and that this was one of the fundamentals of the creation of the showcase to begin with.

Was there any word on when this construction is scheduled to start? If its distant, I'd say this is a bluff to get norway to pay for the upgrades at least partially.

Does anyone know what the people of norway's thoughts were on the movie frozen and how it portrayed their nation?

If disney is going to start going down this road of DISNEY paying for upgrades to the world showcase, there really is no reason why new countries can't be added only requiring a small monetary contribution rather than paying for an entire pavilion from scratch.

If they wish to go down this road, they could build the previously proposed Equitorial Africa pavilion and place a lion king ride here, though personally I belive a lion king ride dark ride would fit better at animal kingdom affrica, but both AK & World showcase are in need of attractions, so either location works, and AK already has the lion king show.

There are so many movies they could make if they want to make movies to correlate with specific country locations, not saying they would all be such a massive frozen hit, but they could be if they take their time and do it right.

 

[wm49rs]

It's an adjective used to describe people who act like most of the people on this forum.

There's over 81,000 members of this forum. You no more know what they think or feel than the ones you claim to speak for that visit WDW....

 

[BigTxEars]

In a year or more? No guarantee whatsoever....

Thats why they call it a bet! It will every bit as popular as the current ride at the very least and I think more so for years to come. There is no downside risk for Disney by doing this IMO.

Doubting the polarity of Frozen and it's staying power is not a smart bet IMO. Companies are spending millions and millions of dollars currently betting that the popularity will continue. The avalanche of Frozen merchandise is going to be huge this year in retail. Early signs show strong sell thru of it so far. All the retail signs show a holding if not growing popularity of the license. Time as always will tell.

 

[GoofGoof]

Way too much optimism... History teaches us otherwise. Expect even less than the less we already expect.

Yeah, a little too much Pixie Dust

I know, I know. Just trying to keep an open mind and maybe play devil's advocate a little. Not sure I actually could convince myself to believe it either.

Plus I have had a few cold ones tonight

 

[Captain Chaos]

I know, I know. Just trying to keep an open mind and maybe play devil's advocate a little. Not sure I actually could convince myself to believe it either.

Plus I have had a few cold ones tonight

That would explain it. A few cold ones. About the only way an adult can enjoy Epcot now, having MANY cold ones.

AH HA!!! I think I found out Disney's real play here. Put in a brainless tie in to a mediocre movie that only kids will like, and force parents to drink themselves into a drunken stupor, thus increasing profits since profits on alcohol are MASSIVE. I mean, after all, Disney does not care about guests or guest satisfaction anymore, it is all about profits and the bottom line. Brilliant!!!

 

[misterID]

So let me just understand this. Someone you don't know and have never met posted about something, not an interaction they actually had but rather something they allegedly overheard, and you are inclined to automatically believe that as fact? Just checking.

I hope people realize that these types of decisions while sometimes influenced by, are not made my anyone in orlando. Projects of this size require approval of (and in most cases are driven by) executives in Burbank.

Let me make this clearer for you. THERE IS NO TDO!!!!! Orlando does not approve nor ferment projects such as this. Glendale on the other hand does. TDO is a myth these days.

No, let make this clear to you two. My family worked with WDW, and the TDO team. There are many members here, who I respect, members who don't show up out of the blue to start throwing out "facts" and telling others they don't know what they're talking about, who know about TDO. And I'm pointing out a post that just occured that our lurker friend here decided not to respond to, and if he missed it, I pointed it out. And since you two missed it, I said TDO (yes, they exist) doesn't call the shots on projects like this and are forced to do projects, like FLE. There you go. Yes, they exist. Yes, they make decisions about the park. And yes, they're usually bad.

And I find it funny that these posts from these types of posters strangely, and suspiciously show up at these times during announcements that aren't popular, all with a similar aggressive, condescending, and dismissive tone that sound nearly identical. Just sayin...