Animaniac93-98
Well-Known Member
When you read something like this you can't help but shake your head in disappointment.
Dare I ask if the ride will even have the same hourly capacity as GMR?
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Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway confirmed
- Thread starter wdwmagic
- Start date
When you read something like this you can't help but shake your head in disappointment.
Dare I ask if the ride will even have the same hourly capacity as GMR?
aliceismad
Well-Known Member
I guess I don't get why it's silly to keep 30-year-old shows at HS but not at places like Epcot or even MK. Or is the argument more than people want all the shows to be updated and better maintained rather than flat out replaced?
GlacierGlacier
Well-Known Member
A lot of people don't realize how outdated ride tech gets. For the longest time, media was done (and I'm sure still is in some installations) with laserdisc. Something at Universal still uses a floppy disk for storage. Wishes ran windows ME, illuminations's globe barge ran 95. Dinosaur/Indy did (and maybe still does) store on-board audio and other data in a 35MB EEPROM block. Space Mountain in Paris had something similar about the size of a shoebox.
When a refurb like that for GMR is done, there's an incredible amount of work done just to bring infrastructure and hardware up to date. At that point, a company has to choose whether they want to invest the time and money to rebuild this old thing with updated tech or to build a new thing with updated tech.
Animaniac93-98
Well-Known Member
Especially WITH a corporate sponsor. Let's not forget GMR had one.
Kman101
Well-Known Member
Or calling a meet and greet an "attraction", like Enchanted Tales with Belle. I mean, a land was built with a restaurant and meet and greet (the Beauty and the Beast area), that also says it all, doesn't it?
I can see your point. I mean, Festival of Lion King has been around for 20 years. I'd hate it if they got rid of it. So I understand that. I guess it makes most of us hypocrites, lol.
I just personally feel shows should have a shelf life, just like parades and fireworks. It keeps things fresh. But if the same shows still draw an audience ... I can see why they haven't replaced or updated them.
For me, after 30 years of the same show, I'd like something new. I'm encouraged they might update Indy. I do enjoy all three shows, don't get me wrong. They carry with them a lot of nostalgia, but I just don't think I should watch a video from 1989 and see the same show 30 years later ... I guess I'm more torn on this than I thought. (I was watching some 1989 and early 1990s MGM stuff on YouTube and I miss it a lot, but I digress ...)
I know there are still new visitors every day who have never seen these shows, so I get it. I just think it's a bit lazy and cheap of them not to. They should want to update these shows because they can. But it usually becomes "they NEED to finally do this" ... anywho ...
Kman101
Well-Known Member
But had they put money into it over the years ... but yeah, it does cost a ton to upgrade. I sort of 'understand' but I'm still disappointed they let it basically rot (except for the brief sponsorship of TCM). I miss when they seemed to do things and upgrade things because they could.
Some would say it was strategic to let it rot. Who knows?
Honestly I would have accepted a Muppets overlay. But I know current MGMT would never put the Muppets in the main attraction as you walk in. But it could have been a really fun and "current" upgrade, to showcase a behind the scenes, wink/nod to the original. But oh well ... I guess we can't live in a world of "what could have been" ... if anything replaced GMR, I can (still slightly begrudgingly) accept it being a Mickey ride.
aliceismad
Well-Known Member
Enchanted Tales with Belle baffles me. It's cute, and it's different from a meet & greet, but I don't really get why it's so popular. To each their own, I suppose.
Kman101
Well-Known Member
I agree (and be prepared for some to swiftly defend it), and like you, to each their own, I suppose. I guess it has it's place, and not saying it was this OR a dark ride, but why not both?
aliceismad
Well-Known Member
Both is always better.
Sadly I'm sure the lower budget option most often comes to fruition.
Kman101
Well-Known Member
Both is always better.
I think you nailed it
HoustonHorn
Premium Member
I'll take the bait. Not attacking anyone - I'm fully are that nothing at WDW is for everyone, so if you've done it and don't like it, no judgment. And I also fully agree that BOTH is always the better option - I miss the classics, while understanding the desire for new. But here's my defense of Belle:
Enchanted Tales with Belle is simply unlike any other attraction at WDW. There are meet-and-greets; there are shows; but there are so few places where a child gets to be part of the show (Jedi, MILF, Crush, any others?) But even those are different - Belle is neither a meet-and-greet nor a dark ride - it is actually something unique, which is hard to come by.
Is it for everyone? No, but nothing at Disney is truly for "everyone."
If my wife and I went as a couple, would we do it? No, but there are plenty of things we did as a couple that we can't and won't do with a toddler.
But my toddler has done it twice and absolutely loved it. I can only assume that those bashing it or not understanding its point don't have small children. Because the first time we did it, I was thinking it would be a terrible timesuck, but seeing my child enchanted (pun fully intended) changed my mind.
ETw/B is pure Disney magic. Animatronics, storytelling, meet-and-greet, theming, magic.
Attachments
aliceismad
Well-Known Member
I’m glad you loved it. My DD was not enthralled at 2 1/2 and doesn’t seem interested now at 5. If she was, maybe I’d feel differently? We did like the door effect and the wardrobe and Lumiere. One of the best things about WDW is the wide variety.
Kman101
Well-Known Member
I agree it's unique for a meet and greet and I'm not trying to say it doesn't have it's place ... I guess it sounds like that. I also agree there are things not for everyone, it's not for me and that's fine, but there was once upon a time when rides and attractions weren't designed for just one specific group.
Anyway ... I'd have preferred a dark ride and I'm glad they made it more than just wait in line and snap a picture ... to me it just felt like instead of a dark ride they decided it was cheaper to do this. And it kind of rubs me the wrong way (is that unfair of me? Probably ... LOL). Not saying it's not well done (also not trying to say it was either this or a dark ride, I don't even know that a dark ride was an option, but it should have been, and I know they built two others so they felt a restaurant and meet and greet were enough I guess) and that it doesn't have it's place ... at least I wasn't trying to say that.
I'd just prefer more than a restaurant and a meet and greet
I'm pretty jealous of Tokyo getting that fantastic looking ride (and I understand we almost got it in France at Epcot, but seriously, Rat makes more sense because, you know, B&TB has a mini land at MK, the ride makes far more sense there). And we have a meet and greet ... not begrudging anyone liking it I'm sure it's special for a kid to do something like that. It is unique in a sense. For me as a kid it wasn't about meeting the characters. It was just cool seeing them. It seems there's a lot of focus now on having to meet certain characters. I get it, I guess.
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RSoxNo1
Well-Known Member
I assumed as much, but that wasn't the question. Consider the price of MMRR being placed into the GMR building and then my question was how much on top of that to put MMRR elsewhere and refurb GMR? I ballparked $150 mil for that. $75 mil in additional cost of putting MMRR elsewhere and $75 mil for a proper refurb to GMR.
Surferboy567
Well-Known Member
I never understood that either (I personally have never been it in but seen video)...but hey that mirror effect is really really cool. Rip it out and put the new dark ride in!
mikejs78
Premium Member
I agree it's unique for a meet and greet and I'm not trying to say it doesn't have it's place ... I guess it sounds like that. I also agree there are things not for everyone, it's not for me and that's fine, but there was once upon a time when rides and attractions weren't designed for just one specific group.
Anyway ... I'd have preferred a dark ride and I'm glad they made it more than just wait in line and snap a picture ... to me it just felt like instead of a dark ride they decided it was cheaper to do this. And it kind of rubs me the wrong way (is that unfair of me? Probably ... LOL). Not saying it's not well done (also not trying to say it was either this or a dark ride, I don't even know that a dark ride was an option, but it should have been, and I know they built two others so they felt a restaurant and meet and greet were enough I guess) and that it doesn't have it's place ... at least I wasn't trying to say that.
I'd just prefer more than a restaurant and a meet and greet
No reason they can't do it in the future. I know it's popular to bash Disney for not spending enough, and in a way it's justified because for a long time they didn't. But now they are investing heavily again. We can't expect them to do everything at once, they are a public company after all and would face a shareholder revolt if suddenly they were spending $30B in the parks all at once. But the amount of current investment is impressive.
What remains to be seen is if the investment continues past the 50th.. Hopefully they've learned from their mistakes and continue a steady flow of investmemt into the future. And maybe sometime next decade that means bringing the TDL BatB dark ride to Fantasyland.
Or just keep it, as some people really love it, and add a dark ride in addition to ETwB.
150 on top of the MMRR capital cost? At least. Which is pushing it above what was spent for TSL.
Still cheaper than the Guardians project though.
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phillip9698
Well-Known Member
The ride was 30 minutes of air conditioning and a straight walk on for years. I'm glad it's being replaced. That thing needed a 100% gut job to remain relevant.
eliza61nyc
Well-Known Member
Did Disney ever put out an official reason for getting rid of the ride?
Goofyernmost
Well-Known Member
Technically, It would be impossible to see anything that wasn't an IP. If no one thought of it, it can't be seen. I really wish that the people that hate IP's so much could find a distinctively different word to describe what they mean. Everything, everything, everything ever created no matter who created it is an IP. Imagination (aka Dreamfinder and Figment, Small World and others are Disney IP's) where as Cinderella, Snow White, Pinocchio, Mary Poppins and many others are someone else's IP (creations) that Disney adapted and/or paid for. All the same thing. If Disney can put it's own brand/spin on it, and it can be entertaining then it should be there because frankly the theme parks would be might empty without them.