Frozen at Disney's Hollywood Studios for the summer?

danlb_2000

danlb_2000

Premium Member
Bungalow4 said:
Let me preface this by saying I cannot nor intend to speak in place of anyone who is above my pay grade at Disney. Those decisions are out of my hand and by the time this thing was green lit the ship was sailing and we had to get on board.

What I witnessed over the past 14 days backstage is nothing short of insane. The hours put in by those who assemble these events: from technicians, to decorators, to ice rink manufacturers, to dancers, to singers, to pyro techs, to carpenters, drivers, electricians...it's nuts. Managers worked crazy hours, hotel rooms were used for sleep, a tour bus was rented to people could rest, this project had one directive: it must be ready by July 5th.

My department started working 12 hr shifts 10 days ago. we all agreed to it, we did what had to be done. Management in my area was beyond supportive of everyone, and by July 2nd it was clear this was a draining process, yet we would meet the deadline all while they were trying to prepare for the 4th of July. I worked the morning of the 5th knowing full well the stuff that went on between 1am-7am would be nothing short of maddening. Over the span of 48 hours from 7/3-7/5 the DHS Fireworks team worked round the clock. Again, I can't speak for the higher ups in this regard..even the Pyro Crew Chiefs have Designers, Planners, and upper management to answer to. I'm talking about the guys who do the actual labor. The loaders, the shooters, the spotters, the semi trailer drivers. Those guys, and countless other technicians worked they tails off trying to get this thing going...and in the middle of it all they had to test, load, and shoot their biggest show of the season. I saw eyes that were exhausted, legs that were tired, and hours that were long (12-18 hour shifts) in order to make this happen. To all of them I say Thank You

To that end I appreciate all the feedback here. It is the reason I told my family that if they want to come to DHS for the Frozen Summer Fun to wait a week or two for the kinks to be worked out. I also know what lies ahead in August when we have to take this all out of the park on the night of tAugust 22nd, load in Villains for the 23rd, then take it all out and put Frozen back in on the 24th for at least another week.

Listen, I signed up for this. No one forced me to do it. But I've worked with a lot of people here behind the scenes from an entertainment/stage tech/special FX standpoint who gave tirelessly of themselves to make this happen from soup to nuts in a short amount of time.
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This at the same time very impressive and very sad. The work put into getting this together in such a short time is impressive, the management decisions that lead to it having to be put together so fast is sad. If they had done something like this in January or February I would have understood not being prepared so the success of Frozen took a lot of people by surprise, but they could have started working on this event months ago.
 
danlb_2000

danlb_2000

Premium Member
jt04 said:
No evidence they were right which is more telling. I only try to discredit those who use claim insider status so they can then manipulate people with half-truths the rest of the time. That is called propaganda and I will always try to discredit that. Thank you.
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No evidence they were wrong either, so neither of us can say for certain that they were right or wrong. Propaganda is in the eye of the beholder so I will always try to discredit the propaganda that you spread.
 
lazyboy97o

lazyboy97o

Well-Known Member
danlb_2000 said:
No evidence they were wrong either, so neither of us can say for certain that they were right or wrong. Propaganda is in the eye of the beholder so I will always try to discredit the propaganda that you spread.
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There is evidence of what was actually posted. That has been the repeated problem, lying about what was actually said.
 
BrightImagine

BrightImagine

Well-Known Member
We thought the opening day was absolutely amazing. The food and beverage, merchandise, crowd control, parade performers were remarkable. Please take with a grain of salt those comments made not having actually been to the event... and as you said it is only going to improve. I can't imagine the amount of work ahead to remove Frozen, put on Villains and replace Frozen, but seeing the results so far makes it clear that it can be done. Thank you, thank you, thank you to you and your associates @Bungalow4 .
 
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Crazydisneyfanluke

Crazydisneyfanluke

Well-Known Member
Biff215 said:
Great question, I'm also interested in hearing whether it's having an effect, especially since I have a Fantasmic package. I was actually hoping to get out of the 9:00 showing quickly and possibly still catch the fireworks. Is this possible?
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i was able to do this during SWW. Just head towards the park exit turn towards the hat, and they should start within 5mins or just before you arrive.
 
C

CaptainShortty

Well-Known Member
BrightImagine said:
We thought the opening day was absolutely amazing. The food and beverage, merchandise, crowd control, parade performers were remarkable. Please take with a grain of salt those comments made not having actually been to the event... and as you said it is only going to improve. I can't imagine the amount of work ahead to remove Frozen, put on Villains and replace Frozen, but seeing the results so far makes it clear that it can be done. Thank you, thank you, thank you to you and your associates @Bungalow4 .
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As someone who is on the team working to strike frozen, set villians, stoke villains and set frozen in around 12 hours total I can tell you it's going to be quite the undertaking. But well get it done!
 
N

natatomic

Well-Known Member
I have to admit, I was pretty...disenchanted with the sing-a-long. The processional was okay, the Frozen Funland with the ice skating was cute (especially the little show before they opened it up to everyone else), but man, oh, man, the sing-a-long? That was just the most obviously thrown-together, cheap, we're-doing-this-just-because-we-know-you'll-salivate-over-anything-with-the-word-'Frozen'-plastered-to-it-no-matter-how-bad-it-is, cop out of an attraction I've seen in a long time.
I thought it was going to be singing a long with the character actors (which, honestly, sounded corny to me, but I was willing to give it a chance), but what it was instead was the musical scenes cut directly from the movie playing on a screen (literally - it was like someone just stuck a Frozen DVD in and said, "Okay, bring up scenes 2, 8, 13, 15, and 21) while two "historians" summed up the parts in between songs since, obviously, they didn't have time to play the entire DVD from start to finish. And the cheesy acting and personalities of the two historians drove me crazy.
Plus, after the "Let it Go" number (if I remember correctly), they had to rush through the rest of the story, so the two historians had to speak super fast, as if they were racing, and while that was the point of the whole shtick they were trying to go for, they both kept stumbling over their words repeatedly. They very much needed more rehearsals.
The most bizarre part came at the end when one of the historians said that as Hans was about to kill the queen, Olaf ate Hans (or something weird like that...it through me for such a loop, I wasn't sure if I heard it correctly), thus saving Elsa, and everyone lived happily ever after. It was truly weird and completely out of left field. Now, a few minutes later Elsa made a passing comment that, no, it was Anna's true love that saved her as well as herself, but really, it was almost delivered as an afterthought, and I'm sure some people missed that part. I didn't really understand what the point of that was at all. So weird...
 
Y

YodaMan

Well-Known Member
Jakester said:
I was over there working today. My observation was most of the time everyone was in within 5-10mins. Only at one point did I estimate it was 15-20minutes. This was between park open-4:00pm.
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I showed up to the park a little after that (4:30ish) and both the line for the store and the Funland were non-existent. I just walked straight in. And the lines inside were decent as well. Was in the immediate next group to build a snowman and buying any merch/food took under 5 minutes.
 
wdwmagic

wdwmagic

Administrator
Moderator
Premium Member
natatomic said:
I have to admit, I was pretty...disenchanted with the sing-a-long. The processional was okay, the Frozen Funland with the ice skating was cute (especially the little show before they opened it up to everyone else), but man, oh, man, the sing-a-long? That was just the most obviously thrown-together, cheap, we're-doing-this-just-because-we-know-you'll-salivate-over-anything-with-the-word-'Frozen'-plastered-to-it-no-matter-how-bad-it-is, cop out of an attraction I've seen in a long time.
I thought it was going to be singing a long with the character actors (which, honestly, sounded corny to me, but I was willing to give it a chance), but what it was instead was the musical scenes cut directly from the movie playing on a screen (literally - it was like someone just stuck a Frozen DVD in and said, "Okay, bring up scenes 2, 8, 13, 15, and 21) while two "historians" summed up the parts in between songs since, obviously, they didn't have time to play the entire DVD from start to finish. And the cheesy acting and personalities of the two historians drove me crazy.
Plus, after the "Let it Go" number (if I remember correctly), they had to rush through the rest of the story, so the two historians had to speak super fast, as if they were racing, and while that was the point of the whole shtick they were trying to go for, they both kept stumbling over their words repeatedly. They very much needed more rehearsals.
The most bizarre part came at the end when one of the historians said that as Hans was about to kill the queen, Olaf ate Hans (or something weird like that...it through me for such a loop, I wasn't sure if I heard it correctly), thus saving Elsa, and everyone lived happily ever after. It was truly weird and completely out of left field. Now, a few minutes later Elsa made a passing comment that, no, it was Anna's true love that saved her as well as herself, but really, it was almost delivered as an afterthought, and I'm sure some people missed that part. I didn't really understand what the point of that was at all. So weird...
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How about the awesome firework show?
 
wdwmagic

wdwmagic

Administrator
Moderator
Premium Member
natatomic said:
I didn't stay to see that. It's past my 7 month old's bedtime! (And mine!) :) I'll probably catch it here in the next week or two. I have decent expectations for those - it's hard to screw up fireworks! Lol.
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It's a great show - by far the best part of the event in my opinion.
 
wdwgreek

wdwgreek

Well-Known Member
With all this Frozen madness they could just throw some fake ice on SoA and call It: Frozen Streets of America. Osborne Spectacle of Frozen Lights anyone?
 

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