Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway confirmed

yensidtlaw1969

yensidtlaw1969

Well-Known Member
marni1971 said:
Paris is the same (and the DLP version was seen as the as-perfect-as-possible version, correcting mistake of the previous two)
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I think the only quibble I have with DLP's Pirates is that the lift hill being towards the beginning feels weird and is sort of a spoiler that you're gonna go down a drop at some point. In every other version of the ride the drop is a relative surprise in the darkness, which is a lot of fun.

Though, in execution, DLP's lift is still probably better than Disneyland's "going up the waterfall" lift, which is a totally fun idea that doesn't really read in person if you haven't heard Walt talk about taking guests back up the waterfall. I recall that on my first ride of Disneyland's Pirates as a 10 year old who'd only ever ridden WDW's Pirates, going up the waterfall felt like the setup to a big final thrill . . . which slightly let down when the ride simply ended. I felt a little faked out because the entire ride prior had already blown WDW's out of the water - even at age 10 this was clear - and I thought they were about to really clinch it. The lift was spooky and mysterious and didn't register to me as simply the way to get back to ground level, it felt like a lot of suspense was building. Even now when I ride I sort of feel that way, knowing there's no payoff coming. Sort of the opposite of the DLP lift quibble - at least that one delivers on the suspense it builds. I just wish it wasn't there to build any.

In an absolutely perfect world I think there'd be a version of Pirates somewhere that does that - eliminates that lift, keeping the first drop a surprise, but then keeps everything else laid out the way DLP does. It would probably need a separate unload and load station, like WDW, so the boats could get back up to level between them. And maybe leave Jack Sparrow out of it. Maybe.

What any of this has to do with Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway, I'll never know.
 
Rich Brownn

Rich Brownn

Well-Known Member
yensidtlaw1969 said:
Right - but the Stretch Room isn't any sort of practical necessity in Florida and they built it anyway because they liked it as part of the design. They did, however, elect to skip the "boundless realm of the supernatural" as a story and design element, which is what's curious to me - the load at WDW is instead made to look like a practical part of the house. The spiel still mentions the boundless realm bit if you listen closely, but there's nothing in the ride that suggests its presence. Phantom Manor, while totally different in story, uses the same layout as Disneyland with the Elevator (though it doesn't actually go under the railroad) but also does away with this "Limbo" area in favor of a grand staircase - which may simply be a matter of the story being different, but it makes me wonder, what were they going for with the load area in Disneyland?

There's some famous art for it out there that shows the house slowly fading into nothingness, but it's even then the concept of taking guests "across the veil" only to bring them back to the house is sort of murky. I just wonder what they were going for there, it seems in some way elemental to the Disneyland Mansion concept and yet is not even acknowledged at any of the other Mansions. It's not like they couldn't have themed the Disneyland Load Area to part of the house if they'd wanted to. It feels like a conceptual set up to the ride, but one that's never really been made sense of . . . which was maybe the point?
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Well, Disneyland only had the elevators because it was going to be a walk-through with two identical mansion at the bottom. Plus I think part of DL's is into the ground. Our show building probably would have required a taller building - as it is it peeks through the trees a bit
 
Goofyernmost

Goofyernmost

Well-Known Member
Rich Brownn said:
Well, Disneyland only had the elevators because it was going to be a walk-through with two identical mansion at the bottom. Plus I think part of DL's is into the ground. Our show building probably would have required a taller building - as it is it peeks through the trees a bit
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Disneyland's actually did move up and down as an elevator so that they could go under the Disneyland Railroad track. It wasn't for show it was for show and function. Building size had nothing to do with it AFAIK. But, it was a popular feature so they brought it to WDW.
 
yensidtlaw1969

yensidtlaw1969

Well-Known Member
Rich Brownn said:
Well, Disneyland only had the elevators because it was going to be a walk-through with two identical mansion at the bottom. Plus I think part of DL's is into the ground. Our show building probably would have required a taller building - as it is it peeks through the trees a bit
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Yes, I'm very familiar with the history of Disneyland's Mansion and its development - what I'm more referring to is the storytelling decision they made relating to the aesthetic design of Disneyland's load area. I wouldn't expect WDW to copy the showbuilding directly if they didn't need to, but they did copy almost every story element beat for beat (while adding a few new scenes for MK) with the exception of the one I'm referring to, where guests pass through the spirit world before resuming their tour of the house:

347874


347892


347894

It's just interesting to me that this part of the ride is nested deeply enough in the experience of the Mansion to indicate it wasn't just a way of dressing up a big empty room left over out of utility, but instead an intentional idea in the ride - it's mentioned several times in ways in the Ghost Host Spiel, in the old published 'Story and Song of the Haunted Mansion' Record, there's concept art (though the execution is less detailed) and it was even built into the ride model as seen in the last photo above. And yet, what it really is and why, and how it relates to the Haunted Mansion experience and sets it up is still sort of a mystery.

It may simply be that the Imagineers felt whatever they were trying to do here simply didn't work and so they never repeated it in the future Mansions, but they've also never redone the scene into something else, which they might have found a way to do by now if the idea was no longer of importance to them. Like I said, the light levels have diminished the visual impact of the scene for 2 decades now, so it's not like they couldn't do better. They've certainly had their hands all over the respective Mansions in the last 50 years, and Disneyland now gets plenty of refurb time with the Holiday overlay going in and out. You'd think by now it would be something else if it wasn't important. I've read some interesting theories about what it is and how it relates to the Mansion, but there's very little in the way of "word of God" from any Imagineer about what the scene is in the "story" of the Mansion experience.

I suppose the way all this relates to this thread is just that this scene provides a different and very curious set up to the Haunted Mansion ride at Disneyland vs. the one at Walt Disney World, similar to the way that Runaway Railway might need a different set up to make sense both in Toontown at Disneyland and Hollywood Boulevard at WDW.

EDITED To Add: This cool, recent picture I just found of the Load Area at Disneyland:

347896
 
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ppete1975

ppete1975

Well-Known Member
britain said:
Disneyland proper hasn't had an E-Ticket since Indy Jones 24 years ago! It's overdue!

EDIT: I mean with respect to DL getting Star Wars rather than DCA. I grant you MMRR could go to DCA instead, especially after Star Wars has been added to DL.
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The problem i see with star wars in Disney land. Its more quaint and nostalgic. Where wdw brings in tourists dl is more locals that grew up with the park its more of a nostalgic (my parents took me). Its still built like an older park. Just to get ready for it they have had to make walkways bigger, remove planters etc. im afraid the influx of tourists will ruin some of the charm that dl has that world doesnt, and i really dont know if its built for the crowds it will see. Dca would have been a better place, heck they could have put it where pixar pier is (I haven’t mapped it out btw). Then build a few e atreactions that are more classic disney and unique.
In my head it makes perfect sense, not sure if i can put it into words.
 
MickeyMinnieMom

MickeyMinnieMom

Well-Known Member
ppete1975 said:
The problem i see with star wars in Disney land. Its more quaint and nostalgic. Where wdw brings in tourists dl is more locals that grew up with the park its more of a nostalgic (my parents took me). Its still built like an older park. Just to get ready for it they have had to make walkways bigger, remove planters etc. im afraid the influx of tourists will ruin some of the charm that dl has that world doesnt, and i really dont know if its built for the crowds it will see. Dca would have been a better place, heck they could have put it where pixar pier is (I haven’t mapped it out btw). Then build a few e atreactions that are more classic disney and unique.
In my head it makes perfect sense, not sure if i can put it into words.
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I also thought SWGE would have “fit” better in DCA. Seems odd in DL, but I haven’t looked into why they chose that... space constraints??
 
Rich Brownn

Rich Brownn

Well-Known Member
Goofyernmost said:
Disneyland's actually did move up and down as an elevator so that they could go under the Disneyland Railroad track. It wasn't for show it was for show and function. Building size had nothing to do with it AFAIK. But, it was a popular feature so they brought it to WDW.
Click to expand...
Hence why the elevators were required. Otherwise the original version would not have had them. By the time the design had been altered the elevators had already been there. Otherwise it could have been done with one elevator or no elevator at all by simply dropping the ride vehicles down like Pirates.
 
HauntedPirate

HauntedPirate

Park nostalgist
Premium Member
yensidtlaw1969 said:
Yes, I'm very familiar with the history of Disneyland's Mansion and its development - what I'm more referring to is the storytelling decision they made relating to the aesthetic design of Disneyland's load area. I wouldn't expect WDW to copy the showbuilding directly if they didn't need to, but they did copy almost every story element beat for beat (while adding a few new scenes for MK) with the exception of the one I'm referring to, where guests pass through the spirit world before resuming their tour of the house:

View attachment 347874

View attachment 347892

View attachment 347894
It's just interesting to me that this part of the ride is nested deeply enough in the experience of the Mansion to indicate it wasn't just a way of dressing up a big empty room left over out of utility, but instead an intentional idea in the ride - it's mentioned several times in ways in the Ghost Host Spiel, in the old published 'Story and Song of the Haunted Mansion' Record, there's concept art (though the execution is less detailed) and it was even built into the ride model as seen in the last photo above. And yet, what it really is and why, and how it relates to the Haunted Mansion experience and sets it up is still sort of a mystery.

It may simply be that the Imagineers felt whatever they were trying to do here simply didn't work and so they never repeated it in the future Mansions, but they've also never redone the scene into something else, which they might have found a way to do by now if the idea was no longer of importance to them. Like I said, the light levels have diminished the visual impact of the scene for 2 decades now, so it's not like they couldn't do better. They've certainly had their hands all over the respective Mansions in the last 50 years, and Disneyland now gets plenty of refurb time with the Holiday overlay going in and out. You'd think by now it would be something else if it wasn't important. I've read some interesting theories about what it is and how it relates to the Mansion, but there's very little in the way of "word of God" from any Imagineer about what the scene is in the "story" of the Mansion experience.

I suppose the way all this relates to this thread is just that this scene provides a different and very curious set up to the Haunted Mansion ride at Disneyland vs. the one at Walt Disney World, similar to the way that Runaway Railway might need a different set up to make sense both in Toontown at Disneyland and Hollywood Boulevard at WDW.

EDITED To Add: This cool, recent picture I just found of the Load Area at Disneyland:

View attachment 347896
Click to expand...

With all this info and pictures... You're killing me, Smalls!!! ;) I was really looking forward to riding this, but I missed it when I was as Disneyland because it was closed for the NBC overlay. 😢
 
Jtdancy

Jtdancy

Member
Sorry if this has been mentioned elsewhere - what is the latest people are hearing on an opening date? I heard somewhere that they were shooting for May to coincide with the 30th anniversary of DHS, but I've also seen that it will no be until fall?
 

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