Journey of Water featuring Moana coming to Epcot

[lazyboy97o]

When this is all said and done I would be curious if all the ground work and construction costs if we could have gotten an actual A to C ride that would have actually helped with the crowds.

Multiple.

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

When this is all said and done I would be curious if all the ground work and construction costs if we could have gotten an actual A to C ride that would have actually helped with the crowds.

Probably but then we’d all just be complaining they tore apart the center of the park and we’re only getting an A-C level attraction as a replacement. They can’t win.

 

[DreamfinderGuy]

I miss the early days of the pandemic closure when work completely halted on this, there was most of a CommuniCore still standing, and many of us here had a pipe dream that it could be the catalyst to these plans being rethought. At least something respectable is ending up on the southwest pad I guess, and there's always room to fix this a few decades down the line.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Go on…

And don’t say sinkhole.

I actually believe that one…wonders of life on the other hand is as shell game as it gets

 

[James Alucobond]

How long before the whole thing is littered with patio umbrellas and then awkwardly covered up with Innoventions-style canopies later?

I mean, the art already shows it with canopies?

 

[doctornick]

Let's see... a walk-through attraction about water with lots of foliage in the Florida sun. Nah, that won't be hotter than the 7th level of hell 6 months of the year.

Somehow people manage to experience and enjoy the animal trails at DAK and Swiss Family Treehouse in the same Florida sun

 

[lazyboy97o]

Somehow people mange to experience and enjoy the animal trails at DAK and Swiss Family Treehouse in the same Florida sun

Are those mostly composed of concrete which retains and radiates heat?

 

[LittleBuford]

It does, but almost no one cares about riding half of them. That wasn't an issue in the park's prime.

But the newer crop of Epcot rides are the most popular. Those with the shortest waits tend to be the legacy rides (or at least adapted versions of them).

 

[Disstevefan1]

I mean, the art already shows it with canopies?

We can’t assume because we see in in the art it will be there. We have seen stuff in the art that was never implemented.

 

[LittleBuford]

Well, think about it -- most of the future living concepts from Horizons don't even exist now, nearly 40 years later. It was a very 1980s look at future living, but the concepts themselves still haven't been realized with a few exceptions (like the video chat).

They could do an updated space station, a colony on Mars, and even just a futurist planned green city on Earth with arcologies or something like that -- all things that are likely still decades away.

I agree that it wouldn't be an easily advertised marketing tool, but that's true of a lot of attractions. If it's a great attraction, people will want to go back to ride it again once they've been on it. Current Disney isn't going to build something like that, though, so it's a moot point -- I just personally wish they would, because it would make me a lot more interested in going back to WDW than most of what they've built in the past few years.

I personally love such classic omnimovers (my favourite Epcot attraction is Spaceship Earth), but I’m not convinced that they are especially appealing to the larger public. The most striking demonstration of this I’ve seen is the story of the two Horizons super-fans who, on multiple occasions, were able to get off the ride vehicles and spend time in the scenes, taking photos and videos as proof of their illicit antics. They were able to do this precisely because there were so few people on the ride (at least during the times they visited).

The true story of the unauthorized, daredevil documentation of the Horizons ride at Disney World

Unless you happened to vacation at Walt Disney World Florida in the ‘80s and ‘90s, you might not be familiar with Horizons, a dark ride attraction at EPCOT widely thought of as the greatest vision of “future living” ever created. The two-story, spaceship-shaped pavilion located on the east side...

dangerousminds.net

 

[LittleBuford]

Not really - The odds seem pretty low that anyone who loves the movie and the character would prefer to walk around a fountain-filled grotto for 10 minutes than just watch the decently epic movie whose name is on the sign.

This isn’t an especially meaningful metric, though. Watching a movie and experiencing an attraction based on that movie are two very different things. If you’re asking me to choose, I would always prefer the movie to the attraction, even if I really love the latter.

 

[J4546]

this thread is blowing up, glad to see everyone so excited for this!

 

[UNCgolf]

But the newer crop of Epcot rides are the most popular. Those with the shortest waits tend to be the legacy rides (or at least adapted versions of them).

Oh sure -- my point was just that EPCOT having more rides than it's ever had doesn't mean that much when people don't care about riding so many of them. That wasn't an issue when EPCOT was in its prime.

 

[UNCgolf]

I personally love such classic omnimovers (my favourite Epcot attraction is Spaceship Earth), but I’m not convinced that they are especially appealing to the larger public. The most striking demonstration of this I’ve seen is the story of the two Horizons super-fans who, on multiple occasions, were able to get off the ride vehicles and spend time in the scenes, taking photos and videos as proof of their illicit antics. They were able to do this precisely because there were so few people on the ride (at least during the times they visited).

The true story of the unauthorized, daredevil documentation of the Horizons ride at Disney World

Unless you happened to vacation at Walt Disney World Florida in the ‘80s and ‘90s, you might not be familiar with Horizons, a dark ride attraction at EPCOT widely thought of as the greatest vision of “future living” ever created. The two-story, spaceship-shaped pavilion located on the east side...

dangerousminds.net

It does say they had to specifically plan it out by counting vehicles etc. -- it's not like they were able to just do it on a whim whenever they wanted. It was also an omnimover with a massive hourly capacity, and attendance was not as high then. It could have had 1500 people ride in an hour and still had huge gaps with no riders (the hourly capacity was like 2500+, I'm pretty sure).

More importantly, this was when the ride was close to shutting down (in fact, they'd already closed it and then reopened it just for additional capacity). The scenes were pretty outdated at that point, as was the major video. Horizons did not have an issue attracting guests when it was newer; I remember having to wait in line to ride it even in the early 90s.

 

[Incomudro]

When was Epcot ever this? Please, give examples.

The past 15 years or so.

 

[LittleBuford]

Oh sure -- my point was just that EPCOT having more rides than it's ever had doesn't mean that much when people don't care about riding so many of them. That wasn't an issue when EPCOT was in its prime.

But it’s the rides from the “prime” era that people are no longer interested in riding. (Sorry if I’m missing your larger point.)

 

[lazyboy97o]

It does say they had to specifically plan it out by counting vehicles etc. -- it's not like they were able to just do it on a whim whenever they wanted.

More importantly, this was when the ride was close to shutting down (in fact, they'd already closed it and then reopened it just for additional capacity). The scenes were pretty outdated at that point, as was the major video. Horizons did not have an issue attracting guests when it was newer. I remember having to wait in line to ride it in the early 90s even though it was an omnimover with a massive hourly capacity.

The park’s attendance was also in a trough and there were notable slow periods. Even as recently as the late 00s and early 10s I went during times when the parks were deserted, riding classics like Pirates of the Caribbean alone.

 

[UNCgolf]

But it’s the rides from the “prime” era that people are no longer interested in riding. (Sorry if I’m missing your larger point.)

It's not, really -- they're almost all gone. The only ones left are Spaceship Earth and Living with the Land, both of which still generally have waits (albeit short ones) despite being very high capacity rides. I had to wait about 15 minutes to ride SSE the last time I was there, which was pre-covid January during a "slow" period. With SSE being an omnimover with nearly 3k per hour capacity, even a 15-20 minute wait (it was apparently over 20 minutes yesterday) means there could be nearly 1000 people in line.

Regardless, that's really beside my point. The comment I was originally responding to was in response to another comment saying EPCOT needed attractions for people to ride, and I was just saying that EPCOT having a number of attractions isn't that helpful if people don't want to ride them. Animal Kingdom has less attractions, for example, but almost all of them are popular.

 

[Incomudro]

Where to begin….

Nah. I give up.

Good.

 

[LittleBuford]

It does say they had to specifically plan it out by counting vehicles etc. -- it's not like they were able to just do it on a whim whenever they wanted.

They counted how many unoccupied vehicles there were between riders to determine how long they had to wonder the sets. The fact that there were so many unoccupied vehicles to begin with is what I find striking and telling.

More importantly, this was when the ride was close to shutting down (in fact, they'd already closed it and then reopened it just for additional capacity). The scenes were pretty outdated at that point, as was the major video. Horizons did not have an issue attracting guests when it was newer. I remember having to wait in line to ride it in the early 90s even though it was an omnimover with a massive hourly capacity.

That the ride had so few people on it even after its closure was announced is to me an even clearer indication that such attractions are not as popular as we here think (or wish) they were.

The same goes for my beloved Country Bear Jamboree, which is (unsurprisingly) one of my very favourites but which I have to acknowledge doesn’t get many bums on seats these days.