It's a small world interactive queue concept art leaked

[aladdin2007]

They sure have lost sight about whats important. Spending money on all this tacky nonsense while the things that really need attention and money arent getting anything. Were going to be stuck with a crumbling peter pans flight, splash mountain, imagination, stitch, etc etc for a long time to come. I cant believe they didnt learn from the SSE atrocity mess. I want to send a letter to TDO too but it doesnt do any good they probably just pitch it. :brick:

Another point, they can spend billions on all this yet we cant even have a worthy daytime parade??? Something is wrong with that.

 

[Ignohippo]

The idea of monitors in the cars is horrid. The only reason it may be cool would be to point out little facts about the attraction as you go through it.

IASW is such a classic and there's so much going on, why in the world would you need something to take you away from that (like a tv in the boat)? Seems like complete overkill to me. :shrug:

 

[RSoxNo1]

I'm still waiting for the touchscreen centralized Fastpass systems... you know a place where the technology would actually enhance the guest experience.

 

[zooey]

Exactly!! I spend thousands of dollars at WDW each year. I have an annual pass. I travel several times a year and stay in Disney Resorts, I am a D23 member, etc.

I spend a lot of money on Disney. For the first time ever, I seriously started to visualize the letter I would write to TDO letting them know why I won't be vacationing there anymore.

I don't want to watch tv screens, squeeze horns, ring bells, etc, lol. WDW is turning into a nursery, a billion dollar nursery.

I have a WDW pictorial souvenir book that has a picture in it that basically sums up that exact problem. The picture is of the Crystal Palace dining room. At the center is a string quartet playing live music for the dining guests. The gentlemen playing the instruments are dressed in tuxedos. The guests are in casual to typical tourist dress, but everything about the environment they are in just says "class." Everything about it is classy, simple yet elegant. And that is, let me remind you, in the Magic Kingdom of all places. Compare that to today where CP is loud, messy, incredibly overpriced, and filled with silent and obnoxious cartoon characters instead of live (and beautiful) music. Yup, that's how far we've come.

 

[menamechris]

One more strike against NextGen in my mind. This is such a joke. Obviously focus is on everything except what guests actually want... I am glad certain executives and Imagineers are having so much fun with all this - but they aren't there to entertain themselves...

 

[WDW1974]

I'm still waiting for the touchscreen centralized Fastpass systems... you know a place where the technology would actually enhance the guest experience.

I'm still waiting for Disney to raise the bar on themed family entertainment in attractions ... something they haven't done in O-Town since ToT in 1994 ... or if you're talking about a new park then KS in 1998.

The MK is a tired stale shadow of what it once was, one that hasn't had a truly large scale addition since 1992 (a lifetime for some of the younger folks here), and so long as the Social Media whores keep telling the fans how MAGICal things are, this is the kind of (expletive deleted before being written) you're going to get.

Again, they can't get away with this elsewhere like Anaheim ... they'd love to be able to, but can't.

They are so out of touch with reality (both the folks spending a billion plus and the fanbois who defend it on up to Iger who approves it). UNI builds amazing things with bricks and mortar and WDI still thinks (this is the old Tom Fitzgerald 1990s mentality modernized with our tech toys of today!) that screens entertain. If they do, here's an idea for folks, stay home and watch your screens (from 60 inch home theaters to your hand-held toys) and save thousands of dollars ... maybe donate it to charity or something worthwhile in your community ... like cleaning a beach.

~Off to the beach!~

 

[WDW1974]

I have a WDW pictorial souvenir book that has a picture in it that basically sums up that exact problem. The picture is of the Crystal Palace dining room. At the center is a string quartet playing live music for the dining guests. The gentlemen playing the instruments are dressed in tuxedos. The guests are in casual to typical tourist dress, but everything about the environment they are in just says "class." Everything about it is classy, simple yet elegant. And that is, let me remind you, in the Magic Kingdom of all places. Compare that to today where CP is loud, messy, incredibly overpriced, and filled with silent and obnoxious cartoon characters instead of live (and beautiful) music. Yup, that's how far we've come.

Just gotta get in one shot (before heading to the beach here in paradise!) ... but class ... have you looked at the typical guests at WDW today?

There is nothing that says anything close to class in a typical group of WDW visitors today.

Why would you want real musicians playing real music when you can get a teen dressed like Peter Pan to sign autographs and take pics instead?

~OK, now I am gone!~

 

[optjay]

Maybe with removal of safari ending over at Animal Kingdom, they could just replace it with a bunch of monitors?

 

[MarkTwain]

I'm surprised no one has highlighted the most potentially offensive part of this change. From the article itself:

Taking advantage of the NextGen infrastructure in which guests will be able to personalize their experiences at Walt Disney World, the “it’s a small world” interactivity begins at home. Using their computer or smart phone, guests will design their own “it’s a small world doll.” When they visit the attraction at the Magic Kingdom, monitors placed throughout the attraction will virtually ride along with the guest (or the monitors may be installed in the vehicles, this is an unknown at this time). Guests will also be able to send e-cards spotlighting their virtual trip aboard the happiest cruise to have ever sailed the seven seas.

That's right... these screens aren't just being placed throughout the queue, but possibly, and as other sources have hinted, throughout the entire attraction.

...

Although my initial reactions aren't appropriate for a family forum, thinking about it a bit more, the furious internet uproar that broke out during Disneyland's 2009 refurb springs to mind. During that refurbishment, an American scene was added (in the style of the other scenes), but the much more controversial decision was the insertion of Disney characters throughout the ride.

Where's that controversy now? This proposal seems like a much more serious threat to the attraction's artistic and historic integrity than what Disneyland got a few years ago. At least the Disney characters were placed in the show scenes in physical model form, and were put in primarily to increase the ride's relevance to guests. These screens aren't even the same medium (screens vs dolls), and bright flashing screens throughout the ride will steal the attention away from the children of France and Japan and India infinitely more than the Disney characters did. And worse yet, this is part of a money-making scheme. Where will the message of world peace and the unified children of the world singing in harmony be then?

Mary Blair would be so proud.


For those more interested in some of the outcry surrounding Disneyland's small world refurb, see here:

The blog owner's excellent review of the small world changes: http://imagineerebirth.blogspot.com/2008/03/theres-so-much-that-we-share.html

The outcry from prominent Disney animators:http://imagineerebirth.blogspot.com/2008/04/world-of-animation-speaks.html

The reaction from Mary Blair's family itself: http://imagineerebirth.blogspot.com/2008_04_01_archive.html

 

[MarkTwain]

I like the art, but the idea of monitors being installed all over the place makes me want to throw up a little. That park is going to have more monitors in it than a discount electronics warehouse. Which really cheapens the place. Why can't next gen be an investment in three-dimensional set pieces that are just as interactive? I guess they already have an issue with maintenance and they know it, so monitors it is! Honestly, it sounds alot like SSE ending. I can't believe they didn't learn their lesson on that one.

Another observation--look at the headline below this one on Stitch Kingdom. Disneyland is hiring for a girl's singing group to do 1920s, 30, and 40s songs in the style of Ella Fitzgerald and such on Buena Vista street. Now that is something I can get excited about. THAT is Disney entertainment I will book a trip for. This interactive non-sense? Please. It's something I'll ignore and not a single thing I've heard about "next gen" has really made me interested in booking a trip to experience. That is sad for anyone who loves WDW.

Especially since (I thought) part of the point of the interactive queues was to draw guests' attention away from their phone and ipad screens, and back into the physical nature of the attraction. Installing more screens into the queue seems to me to be counterproductive. Now instead of having the option of taking in the surroundings and enjoying things like the rotating clock face, picking out the global icons "hidden" in the giant mural, etc., our attention will now be forced back onto these screens.

Installing these in completely bland queues like Pooh and Peter Pan, I understand and even applaud. But Small World?

Very Six Flags-ish indeed.

High capacity with a moving line... Hmmm... Like Haunted Mansion?


I get it for rides like space. Long standby with not much to do. But rides with short lines and high capacity that aren't even slowed by FP? Ugh.

Yeah, I don't doubt this for a second. I'm starting to wonder if whoever is calling the shots on where these installations are located has 0 understanding of park operations. The fact that Mansion now splits people between the old, fast-moving queue and something which by nature greatly slows the line down, does not seem like an effective queue refurbishment. Considering how quickly I've seen the line moving at small world, I could see these screens causing nothing less than major bottlenecks.

 

[invader]

It's in concept stages, I highly doubt it will ever see the light of day.

 

[zooey]

Just gotta get in one shot (before heading to the beach here in paradise!) ... but class ... have you looked at the typical guests at WDW today?

There is nothing that says anything close to class in a typical group of WDW visitors today.

Why would you want real musicians playing real music when you can get a teen dressed like Peter Pan to sign autographs and take pics instead?

~OK, now I am gone!~

Yeah, I agree about the average guests, but the whole point is to be able to tour in a classy environment. While that probably wouldn't change the way people dress, it most definitely would effect the way they behave. The "role" of a guest at a Disney theme park was that of "good guest." An environment so clean, relaxed, and beautiful that the majority of folks, the decent ones, would not dare litter, yell at their children, berate others, or do all the other horribly obnoxious things that the WDW of today ENABLES the guests to do. They've lost control over the environments they've created, and so the guest is now lost in what their role is, meaning they divert to stress and anxiousness. Cost has a lot to do with that as well, because the more something costs the more seriously you take it, as in, "I paid 5k for this magical vacation it better darn well be magical or I'm going to punch a CM in the face." But, all this next gen stuff, while touted as being helpful to the guest, just makes the place MORE stressful, louder, less-simplified(more convoluted), even overtly generic, which means that those guests, while perhaps having a passable time, will not differentiate the feelings cultivated at WDW from those feelings cultivated from their local shopping mall. It's seriously going to get that bad. They need to elevate the property and brand, and expect the consumers to follow them. Unfortunately, there isn't a visionary in place to take them there, so, we get short-term thinking like next-gen; a complete misunderstanding of what guests want out of the parks.

 

[marni1971]

It's in concept stages, I highly doubt it will ever see the light of day.

We can always hope they change their mind.

 

[rioriz]

High capacity with a moving line... Hmmm... Like Haunted Mansion?


I get it for rides like space. Long standby with not much to do. But rides with short lines and high capacity that aren't even slowed by FP? Ugh.

before you freak out are we even sure that this has been approved

 

[zooey]

We can always hope they change their mind.

Even if it isn't approved, it's frightening that this is the kind of thing that gets far enough in development to be leak-worthy. Honestly, it should have gone as far as one imagineer raising his hand saying,"Hey, what about monitors that show waving cartoon characters WHILE you go along the ride!?" And in reply every other sane imagineer throws wadded paper at him.

 

[MarkTwain]

Even if it isn't approved, it's frightening that this is the kind of thing that gets far enough in development to be leak-worthy. Honestly, it should have gone as far as one imagineer raising his hand saying,"Hey, what about monitors that show waving cartoon characters WHILE you go along the ride!?" And in reply every other sane imagineer throws wadded paper at him.

Yeah, this. One of the most saddening things is that this kind of idea leaves the meeting room and onto a drawing pad in the first place.

 

[invader]

Yeah, this. One of the most saddening things is that this kind of idea leaves the meeting room and onto a drawing pad in the first place.

Yeah but you don't even know that it was brought up for this specific ride. How do you know it might not be used for DCL, SotMK, DQ or other things? Everyone jumps to conclusions because they see some pictures that someone with photoshop could make...

 

[blm07]

TVs throughout the ride? Barf. Instead of spending money on an idea like that, spend the money on making current attractions top notch in quality.

 

[aladdin2007]

Yeah but you don't even know that it was brought up for this specific ride. How do you know it might not be used for DCL, SotMK, DQ or other things? Everyone jumps to conclusions because they see some pictures that someone with photoshop could make...

That is true,,, but now is the time to speak out about it before they go through with it all the way, if they are going through with it all the way.

 

[RSoxNo1]

I'm still waiting for Disney to raise the bar on themed family entertainment in attractions ... something they haven't done in O-Town since ToT in 1994 ... or if you're talking about a new park then KS in 1998.

The MK is a tired stale shadow of what it once was, one that hasn't had a truly large scale addition since 1992 (a lifetime for some of the younger folks here), and so long as the Social Media whores keep telling the fans how MAGICal things are, this is the kind of (expletive deleted before being written) you're going to get.

Again, they can't get away with this elsewhere like Anaheim ... they'd love to be able to, but can't.

They are so out of touch with reality (both the folks spending a billion plus and the fanbois who defend it on up to Iger who approves it). UNI builds amazing things with bricks and mortar and WDI still thinks (this is the old Tom Fitzgerald 1990s mentality modernized with our tech toys of today!) that screens entertain. If they do, here's an idea for folks, stay home and watch your screens (from 60 inch home theaters to your hand-held toys) and save thousands of dollars ... maybe donate it to charity or something worthwhile in your community ... like cleaning a beach.

~Off to the beach!~

Screens can be used well in an attraction - I think there's some good uses in The Seas with Nemo and Friends, the Forbidden Journey Queue, and Star Tours.

The problem is, there are other times where it just seems lazy. Something like Gran Fiesta Tour has always been screen heavy - but the finale scene had a lot more moving parts in it prior to the refurb. I don't want to say eliminate screens entirely - but I wish they would be more conservative with their usage.