Frozen Ever After opening day

[P_Radden]

And so why did TDO put Frozen in Malstrom anyway? No, seriously, how was this a good idea?

As mentioned already, FEA doesn't fit WS theme and legacy & it has too low capacity for the IP demand. It feels forced.
The only thing I can think of (and I agree with some of you guys) is that this is probably the first of more IP attractions that will come to WS. As much as I don't like it, it seems like they are paving the road for WS will be the "fantasy land" of Epcot. Why else?

 

[Ginzuishou]

And so why did TDO put Frozen in Malstrom anyway? No, seriously, how was this a good idea?

As mentioned already, FEA doesn't fit WS theme and legacy & it has too low capacity for the IP demand. It feels forced.
The only thing I can think of (and I agree with some of you guys) is that this is probably the first of more IP attractions that will come to WS. As much as I don't like it, it seems like they are paving the road for WS will be the "fantasy land" of Epcot. Why else?

From what I heard, Norway was not sponsoring the ride anymore, so Disney decided to do whatever they wanted with it. Frozen was somewhat related to the Norwegian theme, so they thought it was a good fit for the area.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

And so why did TDO put Frozen in Malstrom anyway? No, seriously, how was this a good idea?

It was supposed to be cheaper and faster than building a new Frozen ride from scractch. In the end only one of those really turned out to be true.

It's another example of short terms gain vs long term value.

 

[P_Radden]

From what I heard, Norway was not sponsoring the ride anymore, so Disney decided to do whatever they wanted with it. Frozen was somewhat related to the Norwegian theme, so they thought it was a good fit for the area.

It was supposed to be cheaper and faster than building a new Frozen ride from scractch. In the end only one of those really turned out to be true.

It's another example of short terms gain vs long term value.

Yeah and I bet some TDO executive got a fat bonus for coming up with this

 

[CinematicFusion]

There are plans but nothing is remotely green lit. And may not be.

This IP demanded capacity. Not the park.

CBJ and CoP are rarely completely full but Space Mountain is.

Disney can't change the Frozen ride. It is what it is and whatever capacity ride problems aren't going to be fixed.
I agree nothing is on the table but it makes sense when and if they decide to spend money on Epcot after Avatar, Star Wars, Toy Story.

1. Fix Imagination and make it the go to ride at Epcot. Disney is all about the powers on using your imagination. This ride should be top 5 at Disney World. You could even make an argument this ride should be the ride that best represents Walt Disney World.

2. Add popular Rataouille ride into France, they have the space and it wouldn't change the asethetics of WS and it wouldn't hurt the idea of WS as much as Frozen did. It would also give three rides to WS. More crowds, more food and drinks sold. That is how Disney will see it.

3. The energy ride. Make a new film at the beginning and bring in state of the art Dinasaur world into the ride area. ( kids still love Dinasaurs) This ride doesn't need to die, concept is good. Just needs a major overhaul. Get it out of the 80s and into 2020s.

Maybe this...
4. Wonders of life...needs major overhaul. Disney could come up with a great thrill/dark ride concepts using both the trackless system and advancements in virtual reality headsets. There are better ways now to recreate the film fantastic voyage from the 60's. For health and fitness, come up with a ride with Goofy as the lead. Base it on the "how to " flicks of the 50's.
The idea of wonders of Iife is still relevant.

 

[Mike S]

Disney can't change the Frozen ride. It is what it is and whatever capacity ride problems aren't going to be fixed.
I agree nothing is on the table but it makes sense when and if they decide to spend money on Epcot after Avatar, Star Wars, Toy Story.

1. Fix Imagination and make it the go to ride at Epcot. Disney is all about the powers on using your imagination. This ride should be top 5 at Disney World. You could even make an argument this ride should be the ride that best represents Walt Disney World.

2. Add popular Rataouille ride into France, they have the space and it wouldn't change the asethetics of WS and it wouldn't hurt the idea of WS as much as Frozen did. It would also give three rides to WS. More crowds, more food and drinks sold. That is how Disney will see it.

3. The energy ride. Make a new film at the beginning and bring in state of the art Dinasaur world into the ride area. ( kids still love Dinasaurs) This ride doesn't need to die, concept is good. Just needs a major overhaul. Get it out of the 80s and into 2020s.

Maybe this...
4. Wonders of life...needs major overhaul. Disney could come up with a great thrill/dark ride concepts using both the trackless system and advancements in virtual reality headsets. There are better ways now to recreate the film fantastic voyage from the 60's. For health and fitness, come up with a ride with Goofy as the lead. Base it on the "how to " flicks of the 50's.
The idea of wonders of Iife is still relevant.

Why does everyone who wants more of these kinds of rides in WS seem to want Ratatouille in France? Wouldn't B&tB be the better option here?

Unlike Frozen it's an actual fairy tale from the country as well.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beauty_and_the_Beast

Not saying I want them to continue doing this, just wondering.

 

[MagicHappens1971]

Why does everyone who wants more of these kinds of rides in WS seem to want Ratatouille in France? Wouldn't B&tB be the better option here?

Unlike Frozen it's an actual French fairy tale.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beauty_and_the_Beast

Not saying I want them to continue doing this, just wondering.

Batb in France would be awesome! Ratatouille did take place in France if I remember right though.

 

[Bocabear]

Why does everyone who wants more of these kinds of rides in WS seem to want Ratatouille in France? Wouldn't B&tB be the better option here?

Unlike Frozen it's an actual French fairy tale.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beauty_and_the_Beast

Not saying I want them to continue doing this, just wondering.

Ratatouille to me seems a better fit as it takes place in modern day Paris...it is sort of about French cuisine... looks French, feels French...B&TB, while French (like Hunchback) feels more a fit for Fantasyland...as it is a fairytale, VS a story set in a real time and place... Leave the Fairy Tales for Magic Kingdom...World Showcase could take Ratatouille, Mary Poppins,MUlan... IPs set in the actual host countries, not mythical places.

 

[CinematicFusion]

While I wouldn't mind seeing more attractions in WS, I still believe this was all about getting a popular movie shoehorned in someplace "quickly". It was the most obvious current ride to take over, simple as that.

Guess we'll have to see if anything follows in WS, but personally I think they should be more concerned with FW updates.

Why does everyone who wants more of these kinds of rides in WS seem to want Ratatouille in France? Wouldn't B&tB be the better option here?

Unlike Frozen it's an actual French fairy tale.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beauty_and_the_Beast

Not saying I want them to continue doing this, just wondering.

I'm with you, that could fit and it would be cool and a huge hit....but I'm not sure Disney would do it after the fantasyland expansion.

 

[CinematicFusion]

Ratatouille to me seems a better fit as it takes place in modern day Paris...it is sort of about French cuisine... looks French, feels French...B&TB, while French (like Hunchback) feels more a fit for Fantasyland...as it is a fairytale, VS a story set in a real time and place... Leave the Fairy Tales for Magic Kingdom...World Showcase could take Ratatouille, Mary Poppins,MUlan... IPs set in the actual host countries, not mythical places.

Agree

 

[twebber55]

The thing they're missing is that something bigger could've achieved a similar result as well.

At least the ride turned out decent despite these issues.

if they re reading this forum they re not missing it lol
although i do agree with you Mike

 

[Bocabear]

Agree

If Scotland Secedes from the UK over the BREXIT, they could add a Scotland Pavilion Sponsored by Merida... lol

 

[gmajew]

I think all the countries should get rides... Why not at this point... It does not hurt the countries and actually gets people moving through the park for more then food and liquor. Everyone was ok with some of the mountain talk for Japan in the past because it was an extreme ride why not do a little bit of everything with things that actually fit the countries.

As far as this ride the throughput is going to be horrible and it was a mistake in this location for sure... We all know this but we are now stuck with it... I hope they get it all to work right all the time because when I rode it and it was all working it was a real good ride...

 

[Bocabear]

I think they did a great job with the ride...and I think everyone agrees it is a very sweet ride and well done...the debates were over it's placement abd capacity... that said, yes by all means add more attractions...World Showcase was always supposed ot have more attractions...Just make them relevant to the pavilion

 

[tribbleorlfl]

ever? even worst than say Stich?

Or Journey into your imagination. Or the ride at the Israel Pavilion in the Millennium Village. Or...

 

[RSoxNo1]

Somehow Disney making a ride that's too popular is the worst decision ever made...oookay

Yes, it absolutely is. They put it in the wrong park and retrofitted it into a ride profile that was never equipped for an attraction this popular. World Showcase deserved more and Frozen deserved more.

There was no winning scenario with this. If the ride stunk then it would have been a bad ride with a poor thematic connection. If the ride is good (which is is) it's woefully short in capacity and has a poor thematic connection.

There are plenty of rides that Disney has made that are worse than this, the ride itself is good. However, no one has been able to argue that this wasn't a big mistake.

 

[RSoxNo1]

And wasn't everybody here talking about the potential capacity problems? That Norway would turn into a disaster area? Pixie-dusters, Disney-downers, and general park enthusiasts alike all predicted these problems. And why wouldn't we, it was such an obvious DUH no-brainer. And yet TDO didn't consider these issues? Did they expect that the Frozen mania would die down so much that the issues we all worried over wouldn't arise? I can't believe they're all that shortsighted, clueless or stupid. What could possibly be their excuse for all this?

Talk about snatching defeat from the jaws of victory...the Frozen ride turned out a lot better than many of us expected...and yet it's plagued with breakdowns and the Norway pavilion is turning into a dump. Someone really ought to be called on the carpet for this. But then again...I think someone here said that the guy responsible for coming up with the idea of putting Frozen in Maelstrom has left the company. So he's well out of this, I guess...

Yes, except I think all of us critics of the idea still anticipated a solid ride. I wrote this on MiceChat a few days after the official announcement:

Assuming no changes to that time table, we have reason to believe that the changes will be more than a couple of static figures put into the existing attraction framework. I have no expectations that this will be a cheap overlay.

It is more than reasonable to expect the Frozen attraction to be a quality attraction. Given the popularity of the movie, it is also reasonable to expect it to be among the most popular attractions in all of Walt Disney World. Building a Frozen attraction is truly a no-brainer.

I then went on to talk about how building the attraction is a no brainer, shoehorning the attraction into World Showcase tells me that collectively they have no brain.

 

[RSoxNo1]

Plus, they can point to the long lines and say, "Look how popular our ride is, with the line going all over the place." It's the same reason why video game console manufacturers send out so little hardware for Black Friday- so the media can get their shots of people waiting hours in the cold to buy the darn thing.

The Powers That Be didn't do this without thought, they just had different priorities.

Written last September... a year after the official announcement:

It’s not unreasonable to expect lines to regularly exceed three hours for Frozen Ever After. I also expect Fastpass+ reservations to be fully reserved before the thirty day reservation window opens for non-resort guests. Neither of these should be considered a measure of success for the attraction. Frozen is an incredibly popular property and the signature attraction is going into an area that was never designed to satisfy that demand.

 

[RSoxNo1]

ever? even worst than say Stich?

Or Journey into your imagination. Or the ride at the Israel Pavilion in the Millennium Village. Or...

These are both great examples, but they don't have the operational nightmare issues that Frozen has. Stitch and JIYI were just horrible executions but if the execution of either one was at the level of quality that Frozen Ever After is currently, the complaints would be significantly reduced.

The Israel Pavilion was a temporary attraction, beyond that I'm not going to be able to speak intelligently enough about it. I'm fairly sure I only went on it once.

One of the dumber things that was done on a much smaller scale were the Tigger bounce pads in the Winnie the Pooh queue, but again at least they realized (albeit after installation) that this was a horrible idea.

With Frozen Ever After, short of coming up with a design for new boats to increase capacity, I don't see a solution to this until the ride is demolished and the franchise is relocated. That may never happen.

Add in the fact that it's the final nail in the coffin for World Showcase and yes... Frozen Ever After is the worst attraction decision in the history of Walt Disney World.

 

[twebber55]

These are both great examples, but they don't have the operational nightmare issues that Frozen has. Stitch and JIYI were just horrible executions but if the execution of either one was at the level of quality that Frozen Ever After is currently, the complaints would be significantly reduced.

The Israel Pavilion was a temporary attraction, beyond that I'm not going to be able to speak intelligently enough about it. I'm fairly sure I only went on it once.

One of the dumber things that was done on a much smaller scale were the Tigger bounce pads in the Winnie the Pooh queue, but again at least they realized (albeit after installation) that this was a horrible idea.

With Frozen Ever After, short of coming up with a design for new boats to increase capacity, I don't see a solution to this until the ride is demolished and the franchise is relocated. That may never happen.

Add in the fact that it's the final nail in the coffin for World Showcase and yes... Frozen Ever After is the worst attraction decision in the history of Walt Disney World.

cant say i disagree thats for sure