Norway Pavilion Frozen construction - Frozen Ever After ride

[ford91exploder]

This is funny, however, I am arriving in a week and a half. When I booked my trip, Frozen, ROL and I think Soarin were speculated to open before I arrived. Now if I look at all the parks and what we can do. AK is still a half day park, HS is a 1/4 day park with everything in the back all closed up. Epcot is getting dangerously close to 1/2 day park because of the sorry state of Imagination,ROE and Seas, the closure of Soarin, the don't ride state of M:S for everyone in my family. I am beyond annoyed as we as a family are going to break away from WDW for up to 5-6 years to let the construction dust settle. I know I should be positive, but I am kinda wishing I didn't book the trip this year and just waited.

You are still in the full refund cancellation window. And you could take a peek up I-4 there is LOTS to do in Orlando besides Disney, KSC comes to mind immediately

 

[Sped2424]

Ok thanks. Hopefully we'll get some clarification soon but I'm telling ya if they shoot for July 4th as the actually OPENING for this show, they are throwing gasoline on a operational crowd nightmare

Well they've never proven to be intelligent before lol

 

[WildcatDen]

Toy Story 2 was absolutely in the theaters.

Originally it was supposed to be a direct to video, but they loved the storyline so much, they pumped extra money into it to add the additional minutes into it to make it a full length feature.

I did hear that the original director was kind of 'jobbed' when they decided to change it to a Theatrical release. He was demoted and basically replaced with Lasseter. . .

 

[WildcatDen]

It's been my understanding that Christopher Tolkien is the barrier. Once he passes to the Halls of Mandos the rest of the family will be more than happy to cash in any remaining chips they have.

That geezer is 91, so it probably won't be terribly long now.

As I said in another thread, as part of my Tuesday nights with Gandalf, I may have a bit of information to share on this from time to time. Unfortunaltely, last night he got off topic discussing Henry Cavill. He just started drooling and mumbling something about where he'd stick his staff. . . Either way, as a fan of the franchise, I do not see how this one can be done justice with a land or even two. In my opinion, Middle Earth deserves its own park or at least half of a park so you can flesh out the Shire, Rivendell, Mordor, Rohan, etc. . .

 

[glvsav37]

As I said in another thread, as part of my Tuesday nights with Gandalf, I may have a bit of information to share on this from time to time. Unfortunaltely, last night he got off topic discussing Henry Cavill. He just started drooling and mumbling something about where he'd stick his staff. . . Either way, as a fan of the franchise, I do not see how this one can be done justice with a land or even two. In my opinion, Middle Earth deserves its own park or at least half of a park so you can flesh out the Shire, Rivendell, Mordor, Rohan, etc. . .

agreed. As much asI love the franchise, 1. I don't see it being a single attraction and 2. Where the heck would it go?

Even Avatar with only 1 movie in the books has its own land....LoTR has 6 movies (counting the Hobbit series) and countless backstory.

Honestly I don't see it being a fit of Disney (sad to say).

 

[WildcatDen]

May as well go ahead and put the Remy ride in France.

And Brother Bear in Canada, Mulan in China, Big Hero Six in Japan, Alice in Wonderland in England (or Mary Poppins), Pocahontas in America. . .

 

[Bocabear]

agreed. As much asI love the franchise, 1. I don't see it being a single attraction and 2. Where the heck would it go?

Even Avatar with only 1 movie in the books has its own land....LoTR has 6 movies (counting the Hobbit series) and countless backstory.

Honestly I don't see it being a fit of Disney (sad to say).

I agree, LOTR is not a good fit for Disney...Disney has enough IPs of their own to work with, without purchasing another...
and honestly, the Remy ride would not bother me much in the France pavilion....as that film is actually set in Paris... VS Frozen which takes place in a mythical land...

 

[Brer Panther]

I have the feeling all of the imagineers working on this attraction are starting to wish they'd left Maelstrom alone.

 

[Bartattack]

My T-shirt is packed for my visit next month...

 

[Brian Swan]

Oh absolutely. I agree with every bit of that...but I was thinking more along the lines of disasters like rocket rods and things like that. I'm with you on all of that though...they are blowing it bad with this decision in many ways

Ah yes, the Rocketrods... As a Disney history buff I'm glad I got a chance to ride them once during their short life span (and they were actually kind of fun), but what really saddens me is that there was no way to revert to the original PeopleMover - which was a far superior ride to the WDW version.

 

[Brian Swan]

I love the mermaid ride! I think it's immersive, fun, and has some incredible AA's. I think it fits and nicely and compliments the other Fantasyland attractions like Pan, Pooh, and IASW. The lighting was poor but has now been fixed. I don't think everyone hates it at all....

I agree. I think LM is very good for what it is - a ride designed for the 10 and under set to see favorite characters and scenes from a well-loved movie. The target audience probably pays no attention to walls, ladders, etc; they're excited about seeing the characters and colorful scenes. And let's face it - they didn't exactly hide the walls in iasw or PoC either...

 

[Brian Swan]

updates - source: http://www.disboards.com/threads/norway-ride-rivers-of-light-disappointing-progress-updates.3500871/

Norway (Epcot):
. . . the boats FINALLY start to go into the water TONIGHT (4/11/2016)
. . . these are the previous boats and boat designs
. . . many of the CM's don't think the boats can maneuver one of the turns, while Imagineers say, "Yes"
. . . the CM's think even if they navigate the turn, they will "bunch up"
. . . the ride test trials start SLOWLY tonight so we should see
. . . no word on soft or hard opening dates
. . . They have been training ride operators for over 6-weeks.
. . . the ride was to open 3-4 week sago.
. . . Tech difficulties, and a lack of painting halted progress.
. . . of course, they laid-off 140 painters
. . . The hold-up was so bad, that CM's had NOTHING to do.
. . . many of them, were paid to just sit around
. . . other areas did not want to take them all, as the other area budgets would have been over-plan
. . . yes, some were temporarily deployed
. . . As for not hearing before, bad planning or difficulties is not something WDW likes to publicize.

NOTE: The above info is from CM's working on or in the rides, and not an official statement from WDW.

The maneuvering the turns bullet caught my eye... Could they have replaced the "switches" that sent the boats backwards and then back to forwards with 180-degree turns, keeping the boats forward-facing the whole time? This would be a much bigger ride system change than was expected...

 

[Clowd Nyne]

I literary died laughing.

So... You're a ghost? You looking for a job? I know a guy who is always looking for 1 more

 

[Cesar R M]

At one point when we heard the rumors and knew that Maelstrom was going to be closed, they were aiming for end of December last year.
The show-building is old and full of dangerous and hazard materials, this is the main reason for them being late with this new attraction.
I think they got a big shocker when they discovered that this wouldn't be as easy as it seemed...

dangerous and hazard as in .. peeled cables, leaks, chemicals? corroded and parts about to fall apart?

 

[Cesar R M]

While I generally agree with you on the way WDW seems to be running construction, to be fair if what we're hearing is true about hazardous materials, the problem simply might have been greater than they expected and planned for.

Annectdotaly speaking, I did a kitchen remodel this past summer. When they ripped out the old cabinets and drywall, previously-unknown water damage (and the accompanying mold), out of code wiring and a problem water line all conspired to delay completion of my project by two weeks. This was for a fairly straightforward 10x10 kitchen remodel. I can only imagine what can happen to a multi-million dollar water flume attraction.

plot twist.. they found so much mold and plants between walls and the flume.. that they will retheme the ride to zootopia's rainforest asap

 

[Cesar R M]

. . . Tech difficulties, and a lack of painting halted progress.
. . . of course, they laid-off 140 painters

... need painters... management decides to lay off painters.. . whine that the project is progressing too slow.. then try to blame the cms when its management stupidity....

 

[Cesar R M]

I really appreciate the connection with Norwegian culture. Awesome addition to EPCOT!

...connection
...Norwegian culture
....Awesome addition

 

[Cesar R M]

My condolences over your death literary or otherwise! Good thing that it wasn't literally because that would mean that you actually are dead and would bring the question... Who typed up your post? I assume that in this case literary means... "so to speak"

clearly someone summoned this ghost.. HERESY WITCHCRAFT! BURN THE INFIDEL!!

 

[Sped2424]

I agree. I think LM is very good for what it is - a ride designed for the 10 and under set to see favorite characters and scenes from a well-loved movie. The target audience probably pays no attention to walls, ladders, etc; they're excited about seeing the characters and colorful scenes. And let's face it - they didn't exactly hide the walls in iasw or PoC either...

That's not a good excuse for poor ride execution though. There is a quote by Walt that is one of my favorites and its "You're dead if you only aim for kids. Adults are just grown up kids anyways". And they hide the walls by putting a false sky in the Pirates attraction why which shows the level of themeing there.

 

[Disney Analyst]

I agree. I think LM is very good for what it is - a ride designed for the 10 and under set to see favorite characters and scenes from a well-loved movie. The target audience probably pays no attention to walls, ladders, etc; they're excited about seeing the characters and colorful scenes. And let's face it - they didn't exactly hide the walls in iasw or PoC either...

While there are always instances of sometime seeing some unthemed aspects to rides, even I was shocked at the Flotsam Jetsam scene... It's probably the worst offender i've ever encountered at Disney... There was zero attempt to theme anything aside from the entrance to the lair... It's horrible, and could easily be fixed.