Norway Pavilion Frozen construction - Frozen Ever After ride

[Scor1pion]

Just wait for it:

Inspired by the spirit of Frozen....
Kilimanjaro Safaris on Ice!

Starring Anna and Elsa and their skating tigers.

Thats just so wrong I couldn't help but laugh

 

[SpectroPhoenix]

And here's the pre-show.

I remember my brother was chosen to hold the slime at the beginning. I was jealous for sooo long after that. Probably some childhood scarring. The Hanna Barbara attraction actually made me too afraid to go to the movie theaters in fear that the seats would start moving. That whole trip ruined me. I think that's why I can't help but to like Disney more than Universal. Pure resentment.

 

[mahnamahna101]

Extra Magic Hours at the Magic Kingdom last Saturday...7DMT still had a 50 minute wait at 1:30 am. and I don't think that was accurate either as the Queue was completely full and the line went out onto the sidewalk and down the side of the attraction...at 1:30am... They have GOT to do something bout capacity in these parks!!

SDMT has the unfortunate distinction of being the sole thrill ride and latest attraction for Fantasyland. If TDO were to do a phase 2 (involving a reworked backstage area), SDMT would hardly get the lines it's getting. Same goes for Soarin' and TSMM - if their areas of the park had major E-tickets worth doing, their waits would decline drastically.

If Imagination were compelling, a new E-ticket pavillion added between Land and Seas, with the Nemo ride getting rethemed/upgraded, along with 4 theaters for Soarin', the ride would likely have 20-40 minute waits throughout the day.

If DHS had double the attraction count (similar to DCA), along with the 3rd track, TSMM would have 30-40 minute waits all day.

SDMT wouldn't have 90-120 minute waits if there was also a B&TB dark ride, Pinocchio water ride (mini-Splash Mountain), a dark ride replacement for SWSA instead of a M&G, Bald Mountain and a Wonderland mini-land (all possible if most of Storybook Circus and all of the Speedway were removed).

Because then, people have as many options as DL's Fantasyland. 2 Es, 1 D and 2 Cs would be enough to make SDMT a lesser commodity.

 

[ToTBellHop]

When this opens and the waits for the ride hits 4 hrs and the M&G 5 hrs, Disney will be all over the media as this is such a huge success with waits as long as Harry Potter.

They'll be able to ride this success and justify other much wanted changes, like more M&G's, more cartoons and kid rides in WS and more and more Frozen attractions.

Disney actually doesn't like M&Gs. Guests demand them. They are very expensive to run for their abyssmally low capacity. Disney would prefer stage shows in big theaters like they've added to World Showcase recently--more bang for their buck. But guests demand to grope a princess at a prearranged time so their little snowflakes will be guaranteed face time 60+10 days out.

 

[Jose]

People are so annoying repeating the screens thing. Do you already know that cutting edge AAs will be installed?

 

[wdizneew]

Extra Magic Hours at the Magic Kingdom last Saturday...7DMT still had a 50 minute wait at 1:30 am. and I don't think that was accurate either as the Queue was completely full and the line went out onto the sidewalk and down the side of the attraction...at 1:30am... They have GOT to do something bout capacity in these parks!!

I was there that night too. Waited about 45 min. The line on the outside of the attraction was actually people waiting to get their magicbands scanned. The reason I waited was that I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to come back to MK to ride it so I just bit my tongue and waited.

Peter Pan and Space Mountain had extended waits as well. These three rides will always have extended waits no matter the time of day. (Frozen M&G had a 30 min wait too)

 

[ToTBellHop]

SDMT has the unfortunate distinction of being the sole thrill ride and latest attraction for Fantasyland. If TDO were to do a phase 2 (involving a reworked backstage area), SDMT would hardly get the lines it's getting. Same goes for Soarin' and TSMM - if their areas of the park had major E-tickets worth doing, their waits would decline drastically.

If Imagination were compelling, a new E-ticket pavillion added between Land and Seas, with the Nemo ride getting rethemed/upgraded, along with 4 theaters for Soarin', the ride would likely have 20-40 minute waits throughout the day.

If DHS had double the attraction count (similar to DCA), along with the 3rd track, TSMM would have 30-40 minute waits all day.

SDMT wouldn't have 90-120 minute waits if there was also a B&TB dark ride, Pinocchio water ride (mini-Splash Mountain), a dark ride replacement for SWSA instead of a M&G, Bald Mountain and a Wonderland mini-land (all possible if most of Storybook Circus and all of the Speedway were removed).

Because then, people have as many options as DL's Fantasyland. 2 Es, 1 D and 2 Cs would be enough to make SDMT a lesser commodity.

One day, SDMT will have the same lines as Barnstormer. And that would be appropriate. It's still very new but it hardly gets glowing reviews from the folks in line for 100 minutes. Once the park reaches a point where most of its visitors have experienced the ride at least once, lines will decline. This usually takes a few years and a more recent addition/update. Soarin' is actually popular while TSMM suffers from being in a park with a paucity of rides for the whole family. I don't actually see the expanded capacity to either leading to much of a wait-time reduction (at least not a reduction to what most of us would consider a reasonable wait). I think it will just allow more guests to ride. Right now, lots of guests are being turned away altogether by 240-minute waits. They would get in a shorter line. For most of us, even if the wait drops to 200 minutes, we will still view both rides as first-thing-in-the-morning or only-with-Fastpass rides. But Disney will get fewer complaints from guests saying they weren't given an opportunity to ride. Those complaints will shift to Frozen Ever After...

 

[Frankie The Beer]

Is the ride still going to be on water in the boats or are they going to theme it right with the boats being on ice? Going to be a little hard to sell water in the Ice Castle, but either way, even if the ride is a disappointment, its still going to be huge.

 

[ToTBellHop]

Is the ride still going to be on water in the boats or are they going to theme it right with the boats being on ice? Going to be a little hard to sell water in the Ice Castle, but either way, even if the ride is a disappointment, its still going to be huge.

Those of you complaining about water coexisting with ice and snow must live somewhere warm.

Oh, look--Wandering Oaken's!

 

[danheaton]

I think a good example is TSM in California Adventure. It doesn't even have FastPass and usually has waits in the 30-45 minute range. The reason is that people have California Screamin', RSR, Soarin', Grizzly River Run, etc. as other options. If DHS has the same popular options, it would be a similar case.

In the case of Frozen (and Soarin' and Test Track), EPCOT just doesn't have enough headliners. Like others have said, the solution is to make Imagination and Energy something guests want to visit and even use the Wonders of Life pavilion as more than a special events place. That would split up the crowds and might even make the Frozen rush more bearable.

 

[mahnamahna101]

One day, SDMT will have the same lines as Barnstormer. And that would be appropriate. It's still very new but it hardly gets glowing reviews from the folks in line for 100 minutes. Once the park reaches a point where most of its visitors have experienced the ride at least once, lines will decline. This usually takes a few years and a more recent addition/update. Soarin' is actually popular while TSMM suffers from being in a park with a paucity of rides for the whole family. I don't actually see the expanded capacity to either leading to much of a wait-time reduction (at least not a reduction to what most of us would consider a reasonable wait). I think it will just allow more guests to ride. Right now, lots of guests are being turned away altogether by 240-minute waits. They would get in a shorter line. For most of us, even if the wait drops to 200 minutes, we will still view both rides as first-thing-in-the-morning or only-with-Fastpass rides. But Disney will get fewer complaints from guests saying they weren't given an opportunity to ride. Those complaints will shift to Frozen Ever After...

With 4 theaters, a trackless dark ride to replace the remnants of Figment, a legitimate EO replacement, a Weather pavillion with an E-ticket EMV dark ride, and Nemo actually being transformed into a decent ride, the lines for Soarin' would easily decline.

Soarin' might be popular, but if that side of Future World had another E-ticket, plus a revamped Imagination pavillion, and Frozen Ever After opening, and an extra theater (4 instead of 3), I doubt Soarin' would have 90-120 minute waits. It would have the 25-45 min waits DCA's gets.

Soarin' benefits from the entire right side of FW being a dead zone. Same goes for Test Track - open the WoL back up and fix the Energy pavillion... lines would go down.

TSMM would also decline in wait if there were a Pixar Place expansion, a Star Wars Land, a Muppets mini-land, a Toontown revamp/expansion for Animation Courtyard, an updated GMR, and a Sunset expansion. Add in 6-8 more family-friendly attractions, plus some more headliners and TSMM will have waits similar to DCA.

SDMT won't have Barnstormer-esque lines unless they do a NFL Phase 2. It'll have 40-70 min waits - not as bad as the 90-180 minute waits, but still awful. Fantasyland needs more for teens/adults to do in order to ease SDMT's wait times

 

[odmichael]

I think a good example is TSM in California Adventure. It doesn't even have FastPass and usually has waits in the 30-45 minute range. The reason is that people have California Screamin', RSR, Soarin', Grizzly River Run, etc. as other options. If DHS has the same popular options, it would be a similar case.

In the case of Frozen (and Soarin' and Test Track), EPCOT just doesn't have enough headliners. Like others have said, the solution is to make Imagination and Energy something guests want to visit and even use the Wonders of Life pavilion as more than a special events place. That would split up the crowds and might even make the Frozen rush more bearable.

The whole area with Captain EO and Figment could be completely transformed if they wanted to. I'm a bit optimistic that will be there next target. Putting new stuff in that sector of the park would really push crowds away from the other half. Adding more space to Soarin will also help.

 

[danlb_2000]

Lets be realistic, how much longer will frozen be popular for? Years? With Frozen 2, Frozen the Musical coming in the future, I think this is a smart move by disney, do I think in 15 years will the lines be even close to how they will be on opening day for Frozen ever after? Nope. I totally thing disney has made a bad mistake making the ride in epcot, but would they really take up an attraction at MK right now? Does it seem logical?

Yeah, they were in a somewhat tough spot with this one. A Frozen attraction would fit best in MK, but at the moment it's the part that l

Meet and Greet was the first of this rumor reported originally be WDW1974:

November 15, 2013: WDWMagic.com user WDW1974 has reported that the expansion pad between Norway and Mexico is a landing spot for a potential Princess Meet and Greet led by the characters from Frozen.

Then a month later, Jim Hill first mentions publicly the Frozen characters going to Maelstrom:

December 23, 2013: At the end of episode 52 of the Unofficial Guide's Disney Dish podcast, Jim Hill mentions that Disney is considering adding characters from Frozen to Maelstrom.

However, I believe @lentesta mentioned that Jim gave him similar info about Frozen characters being considered for Maelstrom for the 2014 edition of the guide, and that would have pre-dated the Meet and Greet info.

I can add a few dates to that timeline. All the permits drawings have two dates on them, 5/24/14 in the title block and 2/10/15 in the list of revisions. If the 5/24/14 is accurate and not just a cut and paste error then it appears they were working on this pretty early on. The other date I found was 10/15 which is when they requested some outside engineering services for storm water control design.

 

[doctornick]

People are so annoying repeating the screens thing. Do you already know that cutting edge AAs will be installed?

Agreed. There's a lot of legitimate stuff to complain about regarding this ride. But the evidence is that, while there will be some screens, it is mostly physical sets with AAs. And the AAs will be more advanced ones like the ones used on 7DMT.

 

[Wikkler]

I'm not sure if this will make it past the censors.
Aaron on June 10th, 2015 at 10:32 am
Your comment is awaiting moderation.

Epcot doesn’t have enough rides for kids! The ones they do like are boring for me! So this ride is a good idea. Theming? What’s that? You mean the buildings are supposed to look like something? What a stupid idea.

Maelstrom was outdated. It looked like it was from 1988 or something. Disneyworld needs a ride that looks like 2013! Nobody went on Maelstrom or whatever anyway (Everyone knows a ride isn’t worth riding if it has less than a 40 minute wait).

PEOPLE LOVE FROZEN! So this is a good idea. Nobody wants to ride a ride about Vikings. Vikings are boring. Ya know what isn’t boring? The Avengers. Thor is my favorite.

 

[SJN1279]

Enhancements we are getting about this new attraction/refurb:

-State of the art animatronics
-Increased ride length and track
-Newly themed ride and queue
-Well known and catchy soundtrack
-A family ride for the entire family
-Still keeping fun backwards sections and drop into finale


Negatives
-Low capacity/long waits

I'm very excited for this new attraction. With Frozen, Kong, and new Seaworld coaster, Orlando will be the place to be in 2016.

 

[mahnamahna101]

I'm not sure if this will make it past the censors.
Aaron on June 10th, 2015 at 10:32 am
Your comment is awaiting moderation.

Epcot doesn’t have enough rides for kids! The ones they do like are boring for me! So this ride is a good idea. Theming? What’s that? You mean the buildings are supposed to look like something? What a stupid idea.

Maelstrom was outdated. It looked like it was from 1988 or something. Disneyworld needs a ride that looks like 2013! Nobody went on Maelstrom or whatever anyway (Everyone knows a ride isn’t worth riding if it has less than a 40 minute wait).

PEOPLE LOVE FROZEN! So this is a good idea. Nobody wants to ride a ride about Vikings. Vikings are boring. Ya know what isn’t boring? The Avengers. Thor is my favorite.

Vikings are a lot more to me... especially if it were like GMR where Vikings pillage your boat and make you their prisoners. Far more enticing than 'Let it Go' and an Olaf AA dancing.

Plus, there are so many other ways to make Epcot more kid-friendly. A tour of London hosted by Mary Poppins. Inside Out replacing the WoL pavillion. Upgrading Figment to trackless. Getting rid of the Nemo ride and make it educational. More rides throughout World Showcase (one per pavillion). Something between Land and Seas. Replacing the empty Odyssey area with IASW. Making Ellen a worthwhile attraction. Fixing Innoventions. Fixing up SSE.

This guy is crazy though... clearly doesn't understand theme parks or the detail/Imagineering that goes into them.

If TDO really wanted to, they could have used the expansion pad between Mexico and Norway for a Frozen dark ride AND M&G. One with double the capacity. And Maelstrom could still stand today.

 

[mahnamahna101]

Enhancements we are getting about this new attraction/refurb:

-State of the art animatronics
-Increased ride length and track
-Newly themed ride and queue
-Well known and catchy soundtrack
-A family ride for the entire family
-Still keeping fun backwards sections and drop into finale


Negatives
-Low capacity/long waits

I'm very excited for this new attraction. With Frozen, Kong, and new Seaworld coaster, Orlando will be the place to be in 2016.

Maelstrom has always been a family ride. Infants, toddlers and preschoolers have been allowed on since its opening. I think you mean "all-ages dark ride dumbed down for Snowflake demo".

And the ride is almost the exact same length. Hence, why capacity will be the same as Maelstrom. An extra 10-15 seconds isn't something to call an 'enhancement'.

Mako and Kong are major additions to their parks that won't be capacity nightmares (well Kong more than Mako). Frozen Ever After is just a misguided, low capacity band-aid.

 

[Slowjack]

I have a feeling the young girls the attraction is designed for are going to love it along with the 99% of guests who don't read these boards.

This is not a scientific sample, but let me pass this along. My daughter, who is 9, was a big fan of Frozen when it came out, as were most of her friends at her school. Every child you saw was singing "Let It Go" non-stop.

But that was then. My daughter informs me that at the end-of-year party, someone played "Let It Go" and everyone was begging for it to stop. They are all Frozen-ed out.

Maybe there are enough die-hard fans that this ride can still succeed based on the tie-in alone, but in the long run, it still seems like success is dependent on quality and not mere affiliation.

 

[Mike S]

Enhancements we are getting about this new attraction/refurb:

-State of the art animatronics
-Increased ride length and track
-Newly refreshed* ride and queue
-Well known and catchy soundtrack
-A family ride for the entire family
-Still keeping fun backwards sections and drop into finale


Negatives
-Low capacity/long waits

I'm very excited for this new attraction. With Frozen, Kong, and new Seaworld coaster, Orlando will be the place to be in 2016.

*Chose to replace the word themed with refreshed to make a better point

Missing quite a few negatives there. Every positive I've highlighted could've been accomplished with this as well.