Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway confirmed

[WDWtraveler]

Photo update as of Sunday, November 4, 2018. Another view of the reopened Chinese theatre courtyard.

The main entrance doors appear the same.

Here is the actual old entrance to The Great Movie Ride, on the right side of the lobby.

With most of the pavement work completed, and the temporary stage gone, it's nice to see an unobstructed view of the theatre.

 

[JEANYLASER]

It's the signage for the Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway is coming let?

 

[NiarrNDisney]

Seems like a missed opportunity not to open this attraction on Mickey's 90th birthday! (11/18/1928)

 

[JEANYLASER]

I would like to see the signage of the Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway will look like when it's comes.

 

[JEANYLASER]

agreed

i hope its a lit up,eye popping kind of signage to match the manic ride i am hoping for

fun fun

agreed

 

[mickEblu]

agreed

i hope its a lit up,eye popping kind of signage to match the manic ride i am hoping for

fun fun

Being that you are supposed to be entering a theatre wouldn’t an old school Marquee with the letters spelling out “Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway” make more sense? With maybe a poster of the “movie” on the side somewhere. With that said, I could see some Signage like you are hoping for on a smaller scale off to the side somewhere (low and small). Kind of like TOT/ GOTG: MB at DCA.

 

[aladdin2007]

anyone know how much longer the unobstructed view will last? was hoping to pop in there this week and see it once without a stage. Just wasnt sure of the refurb schedule for that.

 

[mitchk]

Seems like a missed opportunity not to open this attraction on Mickey's 90th birthday! (11/18/1928)

Missed indeed ... and will be missed' by a lot..from what I have heard they just started putting up some walls inside the gutted attraction. Not sure when we will see an official opening date

 

[DinoInstitute]

The place will be mobbed for years to come, so why not have the queue enter through the main entrance doors? It's such a grand way to go in, instead of shuttling in through a side door off the courtyard. It would give the vibe of the original theater, which always has a big crowd in front also.

Or is it such that the new pre-show area can only be accessed via the side door?

To me it looks like you do enter through the main doors. The FP+/standby signs are above those doors, as will be the main sign, and the covered side entrance in front that was used for GMR seems to have permanent railings along every side.

 

[Magic Feather]

The place will be mobbed for years to come, so why not have the queue enter through the main entrance doors? It's such a grand way to go in, instead of shuttling in through a side door off the courtyard. It would give the vibe of the original theater, which always has a big crowd in front also.

Or is it such that the new pre-show area can only be accessed via the side door?

As before the original entrance is reserved for fatpass.

To me it looks like you do enter through the main doors. The FP+/standby signs are above those doors, as will be the main sign, and the covered side entrance in front that was used for GMR seems to have permanent railings along every side.

I was shown a proposed queue layout similar to the one (hastily) pictured below. Not sure of its accuracy, but it would make sense and expand queue space. It basically would allow for both the space inside the courtyard (especially on the Standby side) and the adjacent extended queue area, outside the courtyard, to be used to their full ability. Although, there has been a strong question as to what an extended queue in the courtyard would look like, most likely propped up by temporary, removable stanchions that do not warrant drilling holes.

 

[GlacierGlacier]

I was shown a proposed queue layout similar to the one (hastily) pictured below. Not sure of its accuracy, but it would make sense and expand queue space. It basically would allow for both the space inside the courtyard (especially on the Standby side) and the adjacent extended queue area, outside the courtyard, to be used to their full ability. Although, there has been a strong question as to what an extended queue in the courtyard would look like, most likely propped up by temporary, removable stanchions that do not warrant drilling holes.
View attachment 324457

Generally for queue design you don't want to show the guest that they're walking away from their goal. Having the entrance in the center then doing that whole spaghetti to the right for standby just doesn't seem good, guest experience-eisr.

 

[Marc Davis Fan]

Where will the exit be?

 

[GlacierGlacier]

Where will the exit be?

Likely where the old exit was/is. If load/unload is in a similar position as the old attraction, I wouldn't imagine them changing that up much.

And there's not much room for them to put it elsewhere. It's bordered by the commissary and Sci-fi on one side, SWL at the back, backstage/incredibles area on the west, and the queue to the northwest side. (Correct me if my cardinal directions are wrong).

 

[shortstop]

Generally for queue design you don't want to show the guest that they're walking away from their goal. Having the entrance in the center then doing that whole spaghetti to the right for standby just doesn't seem good, guest experience-eisr.

Tell that to Roger Rabbit in DL. You enter the building, see the load zone, and then proceed to snake through a maze of queue before returning to load.

 

[YodaMan]

Tell that to Roger Rabbit in DL. You enter the building, see the load zone, and then proceed to snake through a maze of queue before returning to load.

Yeah, it goes either way. I understand the downside of having guests enter near load and then walk further away, but there’s also something beneficial about having the standby and Fastpass entrances right beside each other. Attractions where Fastpass and standby have entrances that aren’t directly near each other confuse guests way more than one would expect and guests consistently end up in the wrong queues.

 

[Kram Sacul]

Tell that to Roger Rabbit in DL. You enter the building, see the load zone, and then proceed to snake through a maze of queue before returning to load.

I kind of like it. It’s the biggest tease but the queue is so great it doesn’t matter. Just getting on the ride without going through the queue is a crime.

 

[marni1971]

Likely where the old exit was/is. If load/unload is in a similar position as the old attraction, I wouldn't imagine them changing that up much.

And there's not much room for them to put it elsewhere. It's bordered by the commissary and Sci-fi on one side, SWL at the back, backstage/incredibles area on the west, and the queue to the northwest side. (Correct me if my cardinal directions are wrong).

Unload is roughly where the finale theatre was, building exit doors the same.

 

[Movielover]

I was shown a proposed queue layout similar to the one (hastily) pictured below. Not sure of its accuracy, but it would make sense and expand queue space. It basically would allow for both the space inside the courtyard (especially on the Standby side) and the adjacent extended queue area, outside the courtyard, to be used to their full ability. Although, there has been a strong question as to what an extended queue in the courtyard would look like, most likely propped up by temporary, removable stanchions that do not warrant drilling holes.
View attachment 324457

Thats how the original overflow was for GMR. I figured they would go for this set up for Mickey as well.

 

[GlacierGlacier]

Tell that to Roger Rabbit in DL. You enter the building, see the load zone, and then proceed to snake through a maze of queue before returning to load.

And that's why it's one of the most infuriating queues in DL

 

[RSoxNo1]

Cost was the reason GMR closed. Cost of running it and the cost of the work that was needed.

If in their minds something else can be as popular, cost much less to run, and come in around the same price as the GMR update would have cost, it makes perfect business sense.

GMR was popular. It was suffering in the satisfaction surveys for having dated content. I forget the figures but the attraction had a high utilisation but a low %excel score.

They just can’t see off the spreadsheet to the lack of overall park capacity.

Certainly not disputing your information, but considering the silly amounts of money being spent on new attractions lately, I have zero reservations about saying they should have and could have done both.