nickys
Premium Member
Ah OK. Thing is though it’s to allow kids to play while you wait. There isn’t any other ride I can think of where they have a play area right outside a ride or attraction to entertain little ones.
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Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway confirmed
- Thread starter wdwmagic
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Ah OK. Thing is though it’s to allow kids to play while you wait. There isn’t any other ride I can think of where they have a play area right outside a ride or attraction to entertain little ones.
TrainsOfDisney
Well-Known Member
Yeah it was designed with that in mind, as I said they tested the same thing at rock n roller coaster. You waited in the courtyard and they had a dj and some guitar hero games.
I continue to believe that had they updated a couple of the scenes (including adding some in place of the movie theater at the end) and changed the ride system to a trackless vehicle system to give it a little more oomph/unpredictability, much like Pooh in TDL, a revitalized GMR would have been enormously popular with guests.
nickys
Premium Member
I have a hunch the target demographic was different for RnR.
So they discovered that adults and big kids had less desire to play whilst waiting for a ride, than pre-schoolers. Who’d have thought it?
TrainsOfDisney
Well-Known Member
I have a hunch the target demographic was different for RnR.
So they discovered that adults and big kids had less desire to play whilst waiting for a ride, than pre-schoolers. Who’d have thought it?
Sorry... I’m clearly doing a terrible job explaining my point- the rock n roller test was at about the same time the new dumbo opened. Back then I think Disney was thinking about using the virtual q system more in the future..... it would seem like that is no longer the case as many rides have opened with all different target demos and the virtual q has not been attempted.
I don’t have any inside knowledge... just assuming that if a company tries something new, and then never does it again, it wasn’t considered successful.
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Goofyernmost
Well-Known Member
GMR was a trackless system. It just wasn't terribly flexible because of it being a theater seating ride vehicle. Huge and cumbersome. Adding a few new scenes might have fired up some curiosity, but, not enough to save it. It was a very expensive ride to operate and really didn't attract enough people to warrant continuing on. Sad but true.
Yes, I am aware. You're missing the point. Redoing the ride system, removing the cumbersome "theater" type vehicles, in lieu of the more modern iteration of a trackless system (akin to Pooh at TDL), where the smaller vehicles traverse the various show scenes and giving different angles/points of view with each ride, along with some updated/refreshed show scenes, would have given it a new life.
Goofyernmost
Well-Known Member
OK, but I still think that the concept, as much as I liked it, was no longer what the guest of today is seeking. Adding bells and whistles to a theme that is no longer popular will not fix anything, in my humble opinion.
Rich Brownn
Well-Known Member
GMR technically wasn't trackless, as it followed a wire imbedded in the floor. It was an AGV like Energy and Tower. So to change the vehicle direction would have required the floor to be wiped apart and a new wire laid down
Goofyernmost
Well-Known Member
That would be the definition of trackless. It isn't running on tracks and is guided by electronic signals embedded in the floor or wall or wherever it will work. It is tracking based on the signals received, but the two things are not the same. I don't think that the floor would have had to be completely dug up all that had to happen would be that the current signals could be easily deactivated and signals embedded with new remote (wifi type) modules, but it would still be the same theme unless it were to be completely redone like they are actually doing with MMRR. I'm sure that is how the technology works now. I'm not even close to being an expert on these systems, but considering what can be done it with electronics today, it doesn't seem like it would be out of possibility.
TrainsOfDisney
Well-Known Member
??? I remember seeing the line regulalry out the door and into the outdoors. I don’t think I ever rode GMR and didn’t have at least a 10-20 minute wait even on a super slow day when tower was 13 minutes.
Indeed. But Goofyer is entitled to his opinion.
Rich Brownn
Well-Known Member
No, its still a track. Its just hidden. It can't be reprogrammed like a trackless, nor can the vehicles cross over the wires like a true trackless can. These were called AGVs, and have the same limitations visible track systems do -- it just looked more impressive.
No Name
Well-Known Member
And then the whole plot of the ride would be gone? Not sure that’s a step forward. Getting rid of the plot of GMR isn’t like getting rid of the plot of Kilimanjaro Safaris. Regardless, your idea sounds like it would require a vast vast majority of the ride to be changed to actually work well, and l’m not sure I see the positive ROI.
Steph15251
Well-Known Member
I rode it a few times with no wait at all
Rich Brownn
Well-Known Member
A lot of times when there was a wait it was running at 50% capacity (the Western sequence wouldn't be running)
Goofyernmost
Well-Known Member
There was a wait because when fully operational the queue would fill up but almost completely empty out when they loaded the two trains. Then later it happened because they were operating only one train, but the last few times that I rode it there was one train it there was no line in the queue at all. All of us have seen other days when it might have been more crowded and in it's early years there was always a line, always, but overtime that line diminished and there was an awful lot of unused capacity. It frankly lost most of it's audience when taken on an average. One can stand in denial of that forever, but if it had that kind of massive ridership it would have stayed and MMRR would have gone elsewhere. Things happen for a reason.
The point is that the ride was dated and needed to a top-to-bottom refresh, including a new more up-to-date story and ride system. There is no reason, however, that every element from GMR had to be removed. They could have very well created a new "Journey Into the Movies" type ride, with lots of new IP elements, including increased immersion as movies got more visually complex with time but keeping some of what made GMR so special.
donaldtoo
Well-Known Member
I have a hunch the target demographic was different for RnR.
So they discovered that adults and big kids had less desire to play whilst waiting for a ride, than pre-schoolers. Who’d have thought it?
Actually, I’m willin’ to bet that adults and big kids play WAAAAAYYYYYYY more in a ride queue than preschoolers...on their cell phones...!!!
