EPCOT Journey of Water featuring Moana coming to Epcot

[hpyhnt 1000]

If you're a family with young children, I suspect you're going to get the most out of this area given the water features and interactivity. It essentially becomes an upgraded splash pad.

For most everyone else, it's likely a one and done. While the water features may be kind of neat, at the end of the day it's a closed path with plants and fake rocks. If it connected The Seas with the central hub it would at least have some practical benefit as a regular path, but that literally wasn't the path they chose.

Such a poor use of prime real estate in a park that really needs more rides and/or actual attractions.

Some of the issues that I've heard so far:

- Almost no shade or covering for sun or rain. Like it was designed with California weather in mind?!? (TSL again)
- Not very interesting from an education perspective.
- Not very fun as a play area.
- Most activities can be experienced by a small group, and the next group waiting sees the effect happen before they get there.
- Low capacity.

Maybe the masses won't agree - we'll see

I was thinking these things reading Blog Mickey's impressions, the waterfall cave being the biggest question mark. I'm not sure how that effect will reliably work if multiple people/groups are trying to walk through.

 

[Disney Analyst]

I think it has had a good amount of promotion from Disney, which has certainly built expectations. Its prime location, and the amount of time taken, will certainly add to that. I would expect that a lot of guests who don't follow this, but are aware its happening are very likely to be expecting some kind of ride as part of this. The walkthrough part being the queue.

It’s certainly something that expectations should be managed on. Also by Disney. I know most of the Epcot project got scrapped, but we don’t need to draw this out further or hype it with previews and this or that. Get your testing previews done with CMs, and then just open it, with little fanfare. Give it a social post, say it’s now open, and move on.

Let it be a nice small addition to the park. Just like other walkthroughs in other parks.

 

[NelsonRD]

I don't think that anyone here is surprised by this.

Apparently some people are. When I suggested it was testing poorly, I was dismissed pretty quickly.

I heard it was not testing well from a Cast Members brother’s nephew’s cousin’s former roommate, and that part of the delay is for ongoing adjustments with the effects and overall experience to address this.

Now we got the out of the way, can we readdress the original question?

Has anybody have any additional information on how the previews are actually going other than some negative feedback I heard, and a positive review from a blogger?

I heard this is not testing well during previews. Can anyone else confirm this attraction is receiving poor feedback from previews?

 

[lazyboy97o]

It’s certainly something that expectations should be managed on. Also by Disney. I know most of the Epcot project got scrapped, but we don’t need to draw this out further or hype it with previews and this or that. Get your testing previews done with CMs, and then just open it, with little fanfare. Give it a social post, say it’s now open, and move on.

Let it be a nice small addition to the park. Just like other walkthroughs in other parks.

It can't just be a small addition. It cost too much and its location made it cost more than necessary.

 

[Disney Analyst]

It can't just be a small addition. It cost too much and its location made it cost more than necessary.

I mean regardless of what it cost, it’s a small addition. So if they want to manage expectations, that is what they should do.

 

[wdwmagic]

It’s certainly something that expectations should be managed on. Also by Disney. I know most of the Epcot project got scrapped, but we don’t need to draw this out further or hype it with previews and this or that. Get your testing previews done with CMs, and then just open it, with little fanfare. Give it a social post, say it’s now open, and move on.

Let it be a nice small addition to the park. Just like other walkthroughs in other parks.

I think we had more progress updates on this from Disney than we did on Cosmic Rewind and TRON.

 

[wonkabars7]

We will be there on Sept 24th during our trip...is that a good chance to be able to see it by then?

 

[wdwmagic]

We will be there on Sept 24th during our trip...is that a good chance to be able to see it by then?

We may see the start of some kind of guest previews from September 23. Now it could be Club 33 or media first, followed by Annual Pass and DVC. They could take the best part of October. At this point we have no info the timeline, but Disney says it will open late 2023. If you are there on Sep 24, the most likely we seem to be some kind of preview event.

 

[lazyboy97o]

I mean regardless of what it cost, it’s a small addition. So if they want to manage expectations, that is what they should do.

They can’t manage expectations because they can’t disregard cost. It has to have a return on investment.

 

[wdwmagic]

They can’t manage expectations because they can’t disregard cost. It has to have a return on investment.

Yep. It cost a fortune, and ROI is critical. They will do whatever it takes to get some of that cost back, and quickly.

 

[Disney Analyst]

Yep. It cost a fortune, and ROI is critical. They will do whatever it takes to get some of that cost back, and quickly.

How does one gauge ROI on an attraction of this type? It's just a walkthrough. It will add something to do in the park, but isn't going to drive attendance. I can't imagine they saw substantial ROI for something like this? Apart from adding something families can experience.

This feels like it was always a minor addition, meant to flesh out the park a bit more, but now seeming more important due to everything else getting cut...

 

[lazyboy97o]

How does one gauge ROI on an attraction of this type? It's just a walkthrough. It will add something to do in the park, but isn't going to drive attendance. I can't imagine they saw substantial ROI for something like this? Apart from adding something families can experience.

This feels like it was always a minor addition, meant to flesh out the park a bit more, but now seeming more important due to everything else getting cut...

The same way they do other attractions. They need people to say on surveys that Journey of Water was a major reason for why they decided to visit Epcot.

It was always going to be stuck having to out perform its offerings because of its base cost and then the premium required by its location.

 

[wdwmagic]

How does one gauge ROI on an attraction of this type? It's just a walkthrough. It will add something to do in the park, but isn't going to drive attendance. I can't imagine they saw substantial ROI for something like this? Apart from adding something families can experience.

This feels like it was always a minor addition, meant to flesh out the park a bit more, but now seeming more important due to everything else getting cut...

You would be amazed at how much of a factor ROI is at Disney. They will survey and measure every aspect of its impact on the bottom line.

They will very much be expecting it to drive attendance. Nothing is built with ROI, especially something this expensive.

 

[Disney Analyst]

The same way they do other attractions. They need people to say on surveys that Journey of Water was a major reason for why they decided to visit Epcot.

It was always going to be stuck having to out perform its offerings because of its base cost and then the premium required by its location.

Are they that stupid then? They know what they designed and budgeted for. This was never going to rank on surveys in that way.

I can't imagine anyone in the company would actually believe it would, could, or should?

Regardless, it's almost done, almost open, and we can all move on.

 

[Disney Analyst]

You would be amazed at how much of a factor ROI is at Disney. They will survey and measure every aspect of its impact on the bottom line.

They will very much be expecting it to drive attendance. Nothing is built with ROI, especially something this expensive.

So in this case, ROI is simply ... good reviews?

 

[TheMaxRebo]

This feels like it was always a minor addition, meant to flesh out the park a bit more, but now seeming more important due to everything else getting cut...

Exactly - it was supposed to be part of the larger Hub overhaul and the larger Epcot update. If this was opening basically the same time as Guardians and Remy and Mary Poppins, etc it would feel like a nice complement .... But with so much getting cut and the rest spread out, and then Iger saying "Epcot update will b complete with Journey of Water" if feels like it *has* to be a bigger deal than it was originally meant to be

 

[wdwmagic]

So in this case, ROI is simply ... good reviews?

No they will be looking for it to have a direct impact on attendance numbers, guest satisfaction scores, and merchandise sales.

 

[Disney Analyst]

No they will be looking for it to have a direct impact on attendance numbers, guest satisfaction scores, and merchandise sales.

Where’s the gift shop?

 

[wdwmagic]

Exactly - it was supposed to be part of the larger Hub overhaul and the larger Epcot update. If this was opening basically the same time as Guardians and Remy and Mary Poppins, etc it would feel like a nice complement .... But with so much getting cut and the rest spread out, and then Iger saying "Epcot update will b complete with Journey of Water" if feels like it *has* to be a bigger deal than it was originally meant to be

This has happened so many times in recent years when projects are opened in pieces instead of a whole. Even the impact of Galaxy's was hit by the staggered opening.

But yes, Moana, although expensive, was a component of a larger project that did not get fully realized.

But none of that changes the fact that Moana will now be judged as a stand-alone attraction.

 

[wdwmagic]

Where’s the gift shop?

Kiosk inbound 3.....2......1......