Frozen Ever After vs Maelstrom

Better ride?

  • Total voters
    163
Virtual Toad

Virtual Toad

Well-Known Member
Took our sons, then about 9 and 12 years old, on FEA once. My wife and I stressed before we got on it that even though it might not be their cup of tea, they were to be polite and keep any critical comments to themselves, as some people might be big fans of the IP and we wouldn’t want to ruin their experience.

Long story short, we rode in the same boat with another family with two sons about the same age as ours. And immediately after the ride their kids went into a tirade about the ride which freed up our kids to do the same and everyone had a good laugh.
So I understand if some really like it but it’s more of a princess ride than an adventure for everyone, which is a shame. In any case count my vote on the Maelstrom side and similar votes from my sons as well. Classic and thematically cohesive is still better than an IP driven advertisement IMHO.
 
DCLcruiser

DCLcruiser

Well-Known Member
Hopefully Disney will buy the rights for History's Vikings and we can just redo the ride in all of it's glory. Floki can take us on a boat ride to see Bjorn, Ragnar and the Lagatha battle Harlad...and then after, they could march down to the France and UK pads for an invasion. Skol!

It's a dinky ride bc the story telling isn't adventurous, or exciting. It's also not true to the original, which is a shame. If Norway sponsorship had continued they could have updated it, maybe less about oil rigs and more about their future energy endeavors.
 
Heppenheimer

Heppenheimer

Well-Known Member
Maelstrom, including the short but beautiful film most people skipped and the pre-dumbed-down, pre-princess Akershus ignited a decades-long desire in my 12 year old mind to visit Norway (have since visited this awesome country twice). No other pavilion in Epcot had that same or as lasting an effect. This seems very much in the spirit of Walt's idea of Epcot as a permanent World's Fair.

Frozen Ever After, although a decent ride, did not instill within me a desire to re-watch the movie. I'm certainly not the target demographic, though.

I don't want to get the impression that Maelstrom was on the level of some lost classic like the original Imagination pavilion, or the nostalgia some have attached to Horizons. But it was a better than average ride, it introduced a fascinating culture to eager young minds that were willing to learn something on vacation, and it served as the closest thing Epcot had to a thrill ride for almost two decades. I'm not too upset by it's loss, but I would have preferred an updated ride (HAH!, like that would have happened...) to the quick cash-in that we got with Frozen Ever After.
 
Goofyernmost

Goofyernmost

Well-Known Member
graphite1326 said:
I'm in my 60s. I have never seen the movie Frozen and I never will. Someone said here Maelstrom seemed like a brocher Norway. DUH no kidding. They sponsered the attraction and wanted to tell you about their country and it's culture. I'm not waiting in line to go on Frozen.
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Double DUH, that was hardly what it was. It was a depressing and the most unappealing travel promotion I have ever seen. The ride did nothing to make anyone want to travel there so if the intent was to build up travel it failed miserably. Frozen at least had something that one could relate too. You ought to take a few minutes to watch Frozen. Corny, sure, but since I'm in my 70's and thought it was worth seeing, maybe only once, but worth a look it would be tough to compare with any degree of legitimacy. Is it an E-ticket attraction? Hell no, but it is at least entertaining which is something the Maelstrom seriously lacked.
 
Cadbury

Cadbury

Well-Known Member
Goofyernmost said:
The ride did nothing to make anyone want to travel there so if the intent was to build up travel it failed miserably. Frozen at least had something that one could relate too.
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Oh yeah like FEA is totally making people want to go to Norway now.🙄

btw can you point out Arendelle on a map of Norway for me? I just can't seem to find it no matter how hard I look. lol
 
Goofyernmost

Goofyernmost

Well-Known Member
BourbonStreet said:
Oh yeah like FEA is totally making people want to go to Norway now.🙄

btw can you point out Arendelle on a map of Norway for me? I just can't seem to find it no matter how hard I look. lol
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I don't believe that Norway is actually paying for it anymore. If they are it isn't anymore then the gift shop. I never said that Frozen was a come to Norway set up. I believe that I read someplace that Norway did notice an increase in tourist though after Frozen became part of the pavilion.

Can you point out any actual Trolls that tourist can see if they visited Norway? All that Maelstrom had was a couple of Polar Bears, a huge looking oil drilling rig, trolls and a couple of building fronts. Oh, yea and a boat that had a reverse drive! Wow, where can I buy my ticket to Norway. Everyone knows that WDW is a world of fantasy and that really includes World Showcase. It is a make believe Worlds Fair with just small dribbles of reality at every pavilion. More people have visited the Norway Pavilion since Frozen was activated. In all my years of traveling there and riding Maelstrom I never had to wait and I was never on a full boat.

The only pavilion in WS that showed, at least a little, negativity was the United States that did show a few bad directions this country has taken, but it still was more positive then negative. If you ever attended an actual worlds fair you would see that all the pavilions only showed how great they were. There were no failures listed and each pavilion did it's best to be miles better then the one next door to them. WDW and WS never made that choice of direction.
 
Jrb1979

Jrb1979

Well-Known Member
Goofyernmost said:
I don't believe that Norway is actually paying for it anymore. If they are it isn't anymore then the gift shop. I never said that Frozen was a come to Norway set up. I believe that I read someplace that Norway did notice an increase in tourist though after Frozen became part of the pavilion.

Can you point out any actual Trolls that tourist can see if they visited Norway? All that Maelstrom had was a couple of Polar Bears, a huge looking oil drilling rig, trolls and a couple of building fronts. Oh, yea and a boat that had a reverse drive! Wow, where can I buy my ticket to Norway. Everyone knows that WDW is a world of fantasy and that really includes World Showcase. It is a make believe Worlds Fair with just small dribbles of reality at every pavilion. More people have visited the Norway Pavilion since Frozen was activated. In all my years of traveling there and riding Maelstrom I never had to wait and I was never on a full boat.

The only pavilion in WS that showed, at least a little, negativity was the United States that did show a few bad directions this country has taken, but it still was more positive then negative. If you ever attended an actual worlds fair you would see that all the pavilions only showed how great they were. There were no failures listed and each pavilion did it's best to be miles better then the one next door to them. WDW and WS never made that choice of direction.
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I don't care that it was a walk on most of the time. My issue has always been with the amount of IP being put into IPCOT.
 
Cadbury

Cadbury

Well-Known Member
Goofyernmost said:
I don't believe that Norway is actually paying for it anymore.
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Not since 2002 I believe.
Goofyernmost said:
Can you point out any actual Trolls that tourist can see if they visited Norway?
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At least trolls are part of Norwegian and Scandinavian folklore. I'm pretty sure a talking snowman who loves warm hugs isn't.
Goofyernmost said:
Everyone knows that WDW is a world of fantasy and that really includes World Showcase. It is a make believe Worlds Fair with just small dribbles of reality at every pavilion.
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I'm starting to question if you've ever stepped foot in WS at all. Even the most casual Disney/Epcot fan knows WS was intended to educate the public about the countries being represented. What can Frozen teach us about Norway? hmm?
 
Cadbury

Cadbury

Well-Known Member
Jrb1979 said:
I don't care that it was a walk on most of the time. My issue has always been with the amount of IP being put into IPCOT.
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Most naysayers will use the "walk on" excuse as a reason why they never liked Maelstrom. But then again these are the same people who rode it just to kill time and never paid any attention to the ride itself.
 
Goofyernmost

Goofyernmost

Well-Known Member
Jrb1979 said:
Not since 2002 I believe.

At least trolls are part of Norwegian and Scandinavian folklore. I'm pretty sure a talking snowman who loves warm hugs isn't.

I'm starting to question if you've ever stepped foot in WS at all. Even the most casual Disney/Epcot fan knows WS was intended to educate the public about the countries being represented. What can Frozen teach us about Norway? hmm?
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And Trolls are still part of the pavilion, they haven't been left out even though they don't actually exist. Just for information I have been to WS just about every year since 1983. I know exactly what it attempted to show, but I have also been to actual Worlds Fairs. One in Montreal in 1967 and one in Osaka, Japan in 1970. The US pavilion, like others, merely showcased US accomplishments. The exhibits included everything from American Folk Art and Elvis Presley's guitar to NASA's Apollo Command Module and Lunar Excursion Module. So I do know the comparison between WS and a real Worlds Fair. And whatever each countries main accomplishments were highlighted and displayed proudly. Real worlds fair are just technological bragging that each country showcases to impress and elevate the opinion of the world in favor of it. World Showcase is a fun place but it is basically a front. It is a front mostly for gift shops or restaurants. Canada had a compelling film for tourism, followed by China and Mexico. Otherwise they were places to buy things or eat. Japan with all it's technological advances sells Pokémon and other cartoon characters. Selling the countries in a Worlds Fair was done mostly by hard exhibits and an occasional small movie. Trolls would have acted as comic relief if they bothered at all. And the Norway Pavilion still does that in the pavilion. What can Frozen teach us about Norway, nothing of any importance, but neither did Maelstrom. Trolls, Oil Rigs and Polar Bears.

To a certain limited extent I liked Maelstrom, but I was never impressed with it. It was a cool place to go for a short boat ride but to keep something because that is the way it was, is a good reason to showcase dead, not updating with new offerings. People now leave Norway with a positive outlook and feel good. I swear Maelstrom was one of the most depressing rides and was easy to understand why it was a walk on most of it's existence. And with Americans questionable grasp on geography, I'm sure they leave there happily thinking the Frozen takes place in Norway and it does absolutely no harm for them to think that is true. Remember WDW = fantasy.
 
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Jrb1979

Jrb1979

Well-Known Member
Goofyernmost said:
And Trolls are still part of the pavilion, they haven't been left out even though they don't actually exist. Just for information I have been to WS just about every year since 1983. I know exactly what it attempted to show, but I have also been to actual Worlds Fairs. One in Montreal in 1967 and one in Osaka, Japan in 1970. The US pavilion, like others, merely showcased US accomplishments. The exhibits included everything from American Folk Art and Elvis Presley's guitar to NASA's Apollo Command Module and Lunar Excursion Module. So I do know the comparison between WS and a real Worlds Fair. And whatever each countries main accomplishments were highlighted and displayed proudly. Real worlds fair are just technological bragging that each country showcases to impress and elevate the opinion of the world in favor of it. This was done mostly by hard exhibits and an occasional small movie. Trolls would have acted as comic relief if they bothered at all. And the Norway Pavilion still does that in the pavilion. What can Frozen teach us about Norway, nothing of any importance, but neither did Maelstrom. Trolls, Oil Rigs and Polar Bears.

To a certain limited extent I liked Maelstrom, but I was never impressed with it. It was a cool place to go for a short boat ride but to keep something because that is the way it was, is a good reason to showcase dead, not updating with new offerings. People now leave Norway with a positive outlook and feel good. I swear Maelstrom was one of the most depressing rides and was easy to understand why it was a walk on most of it's existence. And with Americans questionable grasp on geography, I'm sure they leave there happily thinking the Frozen takes place in Norway and it does absolutely no harm for them to think that is true. Remember WDW = fantasy.
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MK is fantasy. EPCOT hasn't been about fantasy til recently. The original EPCOT had little IP in it. They could have continued that path but most GP only care about something if IP is attached.

EPCOT would so much better had they decided to continue what they started and added in the original attractions that were planned. EPCOT once had the best attractions in all of WDW with Horizons and World of Motion. It's now gone away from it's original theme to just another IP based park.
 
graphite1326

graphite1326

Well-Known Member
Goofyernmost said:
Double DUH, that was hardly what it was. It was a depressing and the most unappealing travel promotion I have ever seen. The ride did nothing to make anyone want to travel there so if the intent was to build up travel it failed miserably. Frozen at least had something that one could relate too. You ought to take a few minutes to watch Frozen. Corny, sure, but since I'm in my 70's and thought it was worth seeing, maybe only once, but worth a look it would be tough to compare with any degree of legitimacy. Is it an E-ticket attraction? Hell no, but it is at least entertaining which is something the Maelstrom seriously lacked.
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I'm in my 60s my boys are men I am not watching Frozen. Unless John Wayne is in it. Is he?
 

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