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

[dstrawn9889]

The new meet and greet is probably a shop too because a whole building just for meet and greet is stupid.

But the original Epcot is dead. Has been for a while. Mexico. Living Seas and now this.

Ps. Can Norway get a bigger bakery with this?

did a rough calculation from measurements on google earth. Princess hug and grope at the MK fits into a polygon 120' by 175'... 21,000 sf of nothing but M&G(rough and dirty measurements, since bldg is not square...)

 

[RayTheFirefly]

It's the same thing to me if the focus is on the cartoons instead of the country. You get peeks of mexico on the ride, which are almost always interrupted by a cartoon asking where is donald.

No, I totally agree. I'm just talking about the fictional land vs. actually real country thing.

 

[Zac Skellington]

I concur. Approximately 12,000 square foot new building.

Don't forget about 8,000+ square feet of magical parking lot. Expansion pad lost...

 

[Mike S]

Don't forget about 8,000+ square feet of magical parking lot. Expansion pad lost...

Fatality........

 

[RSoxNo1]

If I were building this new facility in the real world, which is what I do, here's how I'd throw together a 5-minute estimate:

1) Site work is intensive. Lots of clearing. Lots of removal of existing buried utilities and storm. Huge buried detention system (very expensive) in lieu of detention pond. Site grading. Building Pad @ 12,500sf. New storm and other utilities. $750,000 - $1,000,000 site package, easily.

2) The building, built to Disney and Florida standards, will likely be structural steel wrapped in concrete or masonry with a flat rubber roof. 12,500sf @ $150/sf = $1,875,000 for the building shell, with major mechanical systems in place and electrical service to the building.

3) If built out similar to PFTH, it's a lot of standard office-type construction, with magic stuff added to it. Build-out of an interior retail/office space is $75/sf, so $937,500 to build out the interior, plus probably $500,000 worth of magic (scenery, show lighting, controls, security).

4) Whatever exterior scenery they put back. If just trees and landscaping, maybe $50,000. If rock work, $200,000.

5) Hardscape is probably another $75,000.

6) Parking is another $75,000

This comes to about $4.66M for the building and related site work, using all the worst case numbers. I'm sure we can add a 20% Disney cost inflation to that.



The new building is not indicated as being modular. The reference was to the existing modular storage building that has to be torn down and moved to the east end of this lot. It will be out by the service road.

If your number is $4.66 million, I'm guessing Disney will easily be twice that.

 

[imagineer boy]

Thank god for the hat removal. Between this and Avatarland, the hat removal is finally something to look forward to!

 

[Zac Skellington]

The ride itself isn't changing. It's getting an overlay on the original ride. Similar to Test Track 2.0.

You mean it will be devoid of any quality show elements, imagination, and story?

 

[Zac Skellington]

Believe it or not, a lot of people, not just "little princesses" like Frozen and are excited about a larger presence in the parks.

What people could get onboard with is a proper Frozen attraction, like is being hinted for SDL. The problem for most of those against this, is location.

 

[SnarkyMonkey]

The creators of Frozen took inspiration from Norway but did not attempt to make an accurate representation of Norway and it's culture, they just picked and chose what they want to use. For this reason I feel it is inappropriate to have this ride be part of the Norway pavilion. If it turns out that they are going to use the Frozen characters to teach you about the real Norway then I might not have as big a problem with it, but all indications are that this is not what the ride is going to be.

The entire World Showcase is and always has been Disney picking and choosing part of particular cultures to display. Most people would agree that the a Disney version of each country does not completely (or accurately) showcase a nation's culture. I personally don't think this is problematic and understand that it's a theme park, not a museum. I promise you Canadians don't walk around dressed as lumberjacks, Chinese don't eat sweet and sour chicken, and Germans don't hang pickles on their Christmas trees. Disney takes an idea from a culture and uses creative license to make it entertaining.

Just to clarify, I'm not a big Frozen fan. The movie was fine but not one of my favorites. However, I recognize that a lot of people love it and that it, therefore, makes sense for Disney to incorporate it into WDW.

When I first saw the movie, it immediately occurred to me that it would fit wonderfully into the Norway Pavilion. So when Disney made that decision, I thought it was a no brainer.

 

[Zac Skellington]

Currently, 1 meet & greet and 1 show in DHS which is kind of a placeholder anyway until they can put up something more permanent. Not very large at this point.

If you're looking at a park map, you're correct. If you actually walk on WDW property and look around... not so much.

 

[doctornick]

Don't forget about 8,000+ square feet of magical parking lot. Expansion pad lost...

There's so many expansion pads in the WS though that the loss of one really doesn't make a difference. It's not like there are tons of other plans coming down the pike that will have to be cancelled due to not having space now.

In fact, due to China and Norway being right next to each other, the expansion pad between Mexico and Norway would probably be the last one used if they were adding multiple countries.

 

[tribbleorlfl]

Yeah.... because building new M&G buildings sure beats building new attractions!

Here's my take on the M&G vs ride debate. If you had asked me 15 years ago when I was finishing up college and not yet married, I would have agreed with you. I was all about rides and lammented the increasing amounts of M&G's in the parks and criticized the long lines of people who queued up for them.

However, if you asked me a few weeks ago at the MVMCP when we finally got into the A&E M&G and I got to see the pure, unadulterated joy on my daughter's face, I'd say, "I get it."

M&G's are just a different type of attraction and diversion from reality, like the other side of coin from rides. They have their place in a well-balanced mix of attractions. Besides, if they're constructing a whole building just to house a M&G, perhaps it's indicative the whole experience might be more akin to Storytime with Belle rather than a simple M&G.

 

[dupac]

Not that I think Frozen shoehorned into the Norway pavilion is okay, but I saw the other day at work that we have offices located in Arendal, Norway. I didn't remember seeing that such a place exists here before.

ETA: I see this has been said like 5 pages back. Whoops!

 

[danlb_2000]

Things need to change to stay relevant and you'll never be able to get everyone to agree with what change or how much is acceptable. When I was a kid we went about every 2 or 2.5 years to the world and every time there was something new to look forward to. I think if we saw the world through our child's eyes (or our child eyes) we would be more willing to except these things and more excited for them.

It's not a question of change, it's a question of appropriate change. I don't recall anyone that was unhappy that the Celebrate a Dream Come True Parade got replaced with Festival of Fantasy, since FOF was well done and completely appropriate to MK.

 

[Zac Skellington]

Things need to change to stay relevant and you'll never be able to get everyone to agree with what change or how much is acceptable. When I was a kid we went about every 2 or 2.5 years to the world and every time there was something new to look forward to. I think if we saw the world through our child's eyes (or our child eyes) we would be more willing to except these things and more excited for them.

I don't know you, so I can't speak for your children or your "child eye". But I do know my children, DD10 and DS12, aren't happy about this.

Daughter says, "NOOOO!!!!" to this refurb.
Son says, "What's for me?"
My 46 year old "child eye" says, "a M&G? No. I wasn't interested in them as a kid, not interested now..."
Expansion pad lost.

 

[DisDan]

The "What's in it for me?" people need to try and see the big picture. Almost everyone on here complains about the Frozen changes coming to Epcot. But really I haven't heard a single plausible alternative to get a Frozen attraction into WDW while taking all current plans (rumors) into consideration. I am not trying to defend Disney here, I have no reason to, I am a longtime WDW visitor myself having first gone when I was 5 years old back in 1983. We used to take family trips to Disney every couple of years, since we only lived 4 hours away.

Anyhow, as I already said once in this thread, I am trying to see things from Disney's perspective and considering as many factors as I can think of, this is really the only reasonable option to do a Frozen attraction RIGHT NOW!. I think much like Toy Story or Little Mermaid there might be an opportunity (down the road) for a much larger presence of Frozen in WDW at another park (MK?) depending on how the franchise does over time. But for right now, this is it.. IMO.

Also, we are all just speculating about what this attraction will look like, if done well it could still honor the theme of Norway and provide an up close look at some aspects of Norwegian culture while still providing entertainment though the characters and story of Frozen.

 

[BrianLo]

Expansion pad lost.

Epcot has plenty of problems, expansion pads are not one of them.

Nothing precludes this building from being razed in 20 years to use the pad once more. However, it won't be, because the odds of Epcot gaining five countries to require that (let alone one) in the next 20 years is nil.

But - you are certainly entitled to your opinion that an empty expansion pad is better than one with a meet and greet. The likelihood of it actually being used for something else doesn't factor into the discussion though.

The only thing being lost are trees.

 

[Zac Skellington]

Not that I think Frozen shoehorned into the Norway pavilion is okay, but I saw the other day at work that we have offices located in Arendal, Norway. I didn't remember seeing that such a place exists here before.

Then you didn't read the thread.

 

[sshindel]

There's so many expansion pads in the WS though that the loss of one really doesn't make a difference. It's not like there are tons of other plans coming down the pike that will have to be cancelled due to not having space now.

In fact, due to China and Norway being right next to each other, the expansion pad between Mexico and Norway would probably be the last one used if they were adding multiple countries.

Plus the fact that these expansion pads have existed since the park's construction in '82 and Norway was basically the only use of one of the expansion spots (I don't count Morocco which was not present on opening day, but '84).
So, at the rate they are going, 1 expansion slot used in '88, the next in 2015(2016?), I think we're set for quite a bit of time on expansion slots.

 

[dupac]

Then you didn't read the thread.

Hah, I kept up with this thread until about 150ish pages and gave up because it was the same thing over and over. My apologies for contributing to the redundancy of this thread.