Exactly the metaphor I was looking for! Yes, an expensive nursery....
The noise generated by the interactive queues in HM and Space have totally ruined the atmosphere previously conjured by those areas. Gone is the spacey vibe and half of the effect that reinforced the idea that you are in a space station in the last queue tunnel for Space Mountain. The thematic purpose of the video games really do not make sense in the context of the overall attraction. One can at least reconcile with the idea of finding ghosts in HM's new graveyard, but, overall, HM has it much worse than Space post-NextGen because the new queue nearly ruins the ride itself. The graveyard queue seriously diminishes the payoff for discovering that the ghosts are friendly once they receive your sympathetic vibrations. Before, the beginning of the ride was much more suspenseful because you didn't know what the ghosts' intentions were. The new queue spoils the surprise by telling you right off that bat that the ghosts are friendly, rendering the entire ride from the foyer up to the wake meaningless in terms of the overall experience.
The enhancements for the Pooh queue were, for the most part, great. The masonry, the woodwork, the characters' houses, and the new foliage do a stellar job of making the Hundred Acre Wood come alive before you step onto the ride. I'm even okay with the runny honey screen and the pop-up gophers, and, with a little tweaking, Tigger's Bouncy Place (RIP) would have also been a fun feature. The shame of it is that the effect is slightly compromised by the noisemakers and other junk in Rabbit's garden, which could have been another nice area with a few little sight gags in addition to the gophers. Instead, the area is more prone to inducing headaches with trinkets that only appeal to little kids instead making the wait for the ride pleasant. The irony is that the Hundred Acre Wood is not a particularly noisy place. It's a relatively peaceful, idyllic countryside setting, and the noisy kindergarten toys kind of contradict that.
I can't imagine a potential IASW interactive queue would be any better. It would also be totally unnecessary because of the ride's high capacity. The ideas for the screens in the ride that are being tossed around are an abomination, and I hope they remain nothing more than a rumor. That idea is even worse than what happened in DL's version. The issue with the characters in the DL ride is not really their presence but the fact that the movie songs cut into the soundtrack to call attention to the characters. The visual competition of classic IASW with the new elements distracts from the story of the ride. I would be totally okay with it the Disney characters were strictly window dressing in their respective scenes. What is being rumored now for WDW's version would be the same issue that plagues DL's version now, exacerbated tenfold. The Disney characters in DL are more passive in competing for the attention of the rider than these guest-created characters would be.
I don't like where WDW is headed, not one bit...
