Frozen Ever After opening day

[Yankee Mouse]

I think Epcot is a much better park than it was just a few years ago now that Test Track, Soarin, and Maelstrom received much needed updates. Spaceship Earth back in 08 was a stellar upgrade as well (wish I could say the same about the Three Caballeros ride but that one wasn't my favorite haha). Hopefully Universe of Energy & Imagination Pavilion are next. I would be so happy to see the entire Imagination area get bulldozed and a new attraction go there.

Maelstrom wasn't updated. It was replaced.
Spaceship earth was half done and dumbed down.
The Living Seas was killed with Nemo.

As for this frozen ride? I am underwhelmed, it is a nice overlay but the location sucks and it doesn't seem to flow very well. Could have been done better somewhere else.

 

[DisneyJunkie]

Yet we're strictly talking about the attraction ( I am anyways), not where they decided to locate it.

Yes, an attraction which has nothing to do with the pavilion in which it resides.

 

[prfctlyximprct]

Went to work and this thread had 2 pages! Wow! So happy to see all the positive responses regarding this ride! I am refusing to watch the video until I go in November, but reading all the awesome reviews has me itching in anticipation! AHHHHHH!! LET IT GO LET IT GOOOOO

 

[Sped2424]

I know Belle is French, Snow White was German, Sneewittchen, so maybe a return of Scary Adventures

Mommy blogers would never allow a new snow whites scary adventures today's climate.

 

[Sped2424]

So how is Disney going to rebrand the world showcase. The world showcase featuring the story book world attractions (aka attractions "inspired" by the respective cultures). Cause given the now 2 ws attractions it's safe to say having a ride be about the country is now a dead idea to WDI and co.

 

[Disney Analyst]

I take issue with people using the terms overlay, this is not an overlay. It's a Small World Holiday, Haunted Mansion Holiday, Hyperspace Mountain, Jingle Cruise... those are overlays.

This however is a completely new attraction utilizing the flume and boats of an old attraction. You may not like Frozen, you may hate what they did by replacing Maelstrom, but please do not degrade all the artists, technicians, and people who worked on this project, spent countless hours creating it, by calling it an "overlay". It just seems dismissive and rude.

 

[SteamboatStitch]

After watching the video I felt very underwhelmed, but I'm not entirely sure what I was expecting. It just looks kinda cheap, and felt that even though they were using the layout from the older ride, could have done much more to improve the short experience. I dunno where it would have been done, even if it were still in EPCOT, but I feel this ride could have really benefited from being it's own new location with the space granted to give what I feel was lacking the most and that is a sense of grandness. There are a lot of cool visuals in the movie Frozen, and I feel that by using Maelstrom's track, there is no way they could have realized these scenes to tell the story of the film and show off some of those neat locales with the appropriate scale and detail. This for the most part was mostly static animatronics in front of basic murals with no effort made to blend. So jarring. Done with my rambling.

 

[Donaldfan1934]

It was just a retheme of the existing ride, couldnt do much...... Deserved a grander treatment than this.

You are pretty much basing your statement on the fact that it shares a track layout and ride vehicles. By that logic, Dinosuar and IJA are also the exact same ride. The ride itself, however, is longer than Maelstrom was and is entirely new aside from its bones. When judging a new attraction, focus less on its bones and more on the content to determine whether or not its an overlay.

 

[aladdin2007]

I think the weakest part for me is the first scene after the up lift, where olaf is skating around. That looks to be a fairly large show space where the viking scene once was, and yet its just one small olaf going in circles... thats all they could do there?

 

[ssidiouss@mac.c]

I was pretty impressed with what Disney has done here overall.. the last song makes for kind of a weak ending though.. which is a shame because the animatronics there look great.

Also I wish they paid homage to the original ride with the lift hill scene.. they could have easily used a similar effect and made the light blue or something to reflect Frozen. The new lift hill scene has a cheezy mini castle at the top which isn't as impressive as the old illuminating eye.

 

[TLtron]

Also I wish they paid homage to the original ride with the lift hill scene.. they could have easily used a similar effect and made the light blue or something to reflect Frozen. The new lift hill scene has a cheezy mini castle at the top which isn't as impressive as the old illuminating eye.

You are not the first to think this way.

Nor shall you be the last.

 

[Disney Analyst]

Also, I believe the Puffins are from Maelstrom.

 

[ford91exploder]

Yeah...I wonder if there's any chance a proper representation of that film will ever be in any Disney park anywhere. It's so odd. All the awards it won, its huge success...none of that seems to matter much at today's Disney.

Remember in house produced IP sucks and only purchased ip is worth anything that of course leaves out the fact that 10 years ago you could have bought Marvel for a used car and a prepaid gas card but we all know it became MAGICal when Iger bought it

 

[PhotoDave219]

You are pretty much basing your statement on the fact that it shares a track layout and ride vehicles. By that logic, Dinosuar and IJA are also the exact same ride. The ride itself however is longer than Maelstrom was and is entirely new aside from its bones. When judging a new attraction, focus less on its bones and more on the content to determine whether or not its an overlay.

No. I'm basing my statement on the fact it should have been built elsewhere, not in Epcot, and given a grander treatment.

I know what I'm basing things on. No need to argue with the tequila.

 

[Jimmy Thick]

Frozen not popular anymore yet the parks are filled with mostly little Elsa's?

Looking forward to experiencing this tomorrow, unless it has a five hour wait.

 

[Stevek]

No. I'm basing my statement on the fact it should have been built elsewhere, not in Epcot, and given a grander treatment.

I know what I'm basing things on. No need to argue with the tequila.

And hopefully that's what we'll get out here at Disneyland...and tequila.

 

[Stevek]

Yes, an attraction which has nothing to do with the pavilion in which it resides.

My guess is that the average guest absolutely does not care and quite honestly if they did, would feel it's close enough as they associate the ride & the movie as being "Norway" ish in feel and look. It's not ideal but it's here and the naysayers were likely all there bright and early to ride it...and will be there again and again.

 

[MGMBoy]

I didn't realize until watching this how few show scenes Maelstrom had. And this one even has an extra. So they are using the old theatre and fishing village (theatre holding) as the queue & load/unload. Am I right in saying that it looks like they added a little back and forth track between load and the climb to use the old queue area for the "Do You Wanna Build A Snowman" sequence? AAs are beautiful but I totally agree that there really isn't a plot as much as a "Look at all your favorite characters from Frozen" idea behind it.

 

[flynnibus]

Oh and let's bet how long the "special effect" with the mist will work, 6 months? 8 months? If WDI has done the same "great job" as they did with EE we can expect the first effects to break down in a few weeks, remember EE where the first effects stopped working days after the grand opening?

How about... we know what to watch for... and will just watch for it... instead of predicting doomsday and not enjoying anything?

 

[Figments Friend]

If I remember right after reading one of his interviews, the lead on this ride worked, trained under Tony Baxter before he left.

michele den dulk, I know I misspelled his name sorry, is the designer of this and deserves much applause. almost seems like an attraction that would be at the park he came from in Europe.

Michel den Dulk is a Dutch designer and artist who previously worked on several projects within a few famous European theme parks such at Alton Towers, the Efteling, and Europa Park.
He is a real talent and easily captures the charm of various European architecture in his projects.
His beautiful artwork and charming design sense captured the attention of Tony Baxter, who pursued him for a few years and succeeded in convincing Michel to come and work with him at WDI, starting in 2009.


Besides the newly opened 'Frozen Ever After' Attraction, Michel is probably best known to Disney fans for his lovely work done for Disneyland's 'Fantasy Faire'.
This former location of the Plaza Gardens was turned into a quaint and beautifully themed European village to house the mandatory Princess character meet & greet as well as a refreshing of the theater and food service options.
It was the last major project Tony worked on before his 'retirement' from full time duties at WDI.
A rather fitting 'closure' to a era, as the Plaza Gardens area was where Tony began his career working for Disney as a CM.

A photo of Michel standing in front of one of the 'village houses' at Disneyland's 'Fantasy Faire' in 2013 -





A example of Michel's beautiful artwork, in this case a project he did for Europa Park -





Here is another example, this being some of the concept art he did for Disneyland's 'Fantasy Faire'.
Just gorgeous artwork....look at all of the detail !