On layoffs, very bad attendance, and Iger's legacy being one of disgrace

[UNCgolf]

I took his comment as a crack about the terrible/cheap/outdated/laughably bad CGI in the Soarin’ around the World film, not the screen tech itself.

Oh, you could be right.

That CGI is atrocious. The film would be much better if it was exactly the same with the CGI removed; it's so bad it actually takes you out of the attraction.

 

[Mac Tonight]

Ok

I loved horizons. But we really need to stop ignoring some of the recent achievements.

Recent WDI achievements...

... yeah, I got nothing.

 

[UNCgolf]

Recent WDI achievements...

... yeah, I got nothing.

Rise of the Resistance, Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway, and Flight of Passage are all good rides. I also think Navi River Journey, while too short, is solid and an overall plus for the area.

I prefer original EPCOT over all of those in a landslide, but it's not like they've only been building Little Mermaid quality disasters recently. They're also doing some really impressive looking stuff in Japan -- won't know for sure until it's actually open, but the Beauty and the Beast ride looks like a masterpiece thus far.

 

[UNCgolf]

OK, I thought you were being serious until you got to Navi River Journey - you got me! Joke's on me!

It's a very good C ticket. Lush, detailed, I don't really understand why people hate it so much other than the fact the lines are way too long, which isn't the ride's fault. Again, it should be a few minutes longer and more animatronics would be nice (the ride certainly isn't perfect and there are numerous ways it could be improved), but I'd take 10 more rides like NRJ over Frozen Ever After, Little Mermaid, Alien Swirling Saucers, etc. any day. It's much better than anything else they've built on the C ticket level in WDW in decades, unless I'm completely forgetting something.

It's like people are mad it's not an E ticket, which it was never supposed to be.

 

[Touchdown]

Recent WDI achievements...

... yeah, I got nothing.

Have you not ridden Rise of the Resistance? That ride transports me to a new world, I truely feel apart of that world and experience a roller coaster of emotions. There are so few rides out there that do that for me, Haunted Mansion, Tower of Terror, Spider-Man, The three potter rides (haven’t done Hagrid,) Radiator Springs Racers. All those rides believably bring me into their world and make me feel like I am an important part of it (instead of an observer.)

Rise is currently my favorite non roller coaster ride in the world (finally dethroning ToT) it is a massive achievement and deserves to be talked about amongst the greats.

 

[Mac Tonight]

Rise of the Resistance, Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway, and Flight of Passage are all good rides. I also think Navi River Journey, while too short, is solid and an overall plus for the area.

I prefer original EPCOT over all of those in a landslide, but it's not like they've only been building Little Mermaid quality disasters recently. They're also doing some really impressive looking stuff in Japan -- won't know for sure until it's actually open, but the Beauty and the Beast ride looks like a masterpiece thus far.

I'm 95% joking, btw.

I actually haven't been fortunate enough to ride any of those attractions yet. Though, of the three main ones you mention, only Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway has my attention. Obviously, WDI still has some good folks around and quality attractions up their sleeves... It's just not like it used to be.

 

[UNCgolf]

I'm 95% joking, btw.

I actually haven't been fortunate enough to ride any of those attractions yet. Though, of the three main ones you mention, only Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway has my attention. Obviously, WDI still has some good folks around and quality attractions up their sleeves... It's just not like it used to be.

I haven't been on Rise or MMRR either, actually. But they certainly look like quality attractions in videos. I couldn't care less about Avatar (never even seen it) but I have been on and enjoyed both rides in Pandora.

I agree that it's not like it used to be (I don't think there's a Tony Baxter anywhere there now), but I'm not sure how much of that is WDI's fault and how much of it is management's fault. The type of things they're accomplishing in Tokyo makes me think more of the blame should fall on US management.

 

[Mac Tonight]

Have you not ridden Rise of the Resistance? That ride transports me to a new world, I truely feel apart of that world and experience a roller coaster of emotions. There are so few rides out there that do that for me, Haunted Mansion, Tower of Terror, Spider-Man, The three potter rides (haven’t done Hagrid,) Radiator Springs Racers. All those rides believably bring me into their world and make me feel like I am an important part of it (instead of an observer.)

Rise is currently my favorite non roller coaster ride in the world (finally dethroning ToT) it is a massive achievement and deserves to be talked about amongst the greats.

I have not. I'm a DL-local and we really only had 2 months worth of time to try and ride it before Covid shut the park down (and I was unfortunately not willing to sift through the reservation/boarding pass madness). But, being not that huge of a Star Wars fan, I'm still a bit tepid on it. I can certainly applaud the attraction's scope and their efforts to make something of substantial size... but I don't know. I know it's not fair to critique something based on videos online... but it just looks... ok? Again, that's an un-ridden opinion.

 

[Mat Cauthon]

Works for Soarin’

The next step in screen and physical set integrated rides would be The Volume technology they used to film much of The Mandalorian. The cost of such a ride would probably be beyond anything Disney has built so far but realistic immersion would be stupid good.

 

[UNCgolf]

Frozen Ever After > NRJ
Little Mermaid > NRJ
Alien Swirling Saucers > NRJ

NRJ is the only ride that I actually wanted to ask the attractions host at the exit for my 3 minutes of my life back - and I had a Fastpass and walked right on. It is an embarrassing joke and everyone at WDI associated with it should be fired. If there ever was an attraction that shows modern WDI's complete lack of storytelling and pacing is NRJ. Literally one and done - forever.

That's insane to me. NRJ is 1000x better than all three of the rides you mentioned; I honestly can't understand how anyone would like any of them more other than pure IP love.

It absolutely suffers from a lack of storytelling and pacing. That's one of the many things that could be improved about it. But it at least actually transports you to another place and is full of interesting details; you can look around that ride and not immediately tell you're in a mostly empty warehouse like you can on Little Mermaid and FEA (both of which also have horrible pacing and storytelling). It's basically half of a really good ride whereas FEA and Little Mermaid are maybe 5% of a really good ride (FEA moreso than Little Mermaid; Little Mermaid has almost no redeeming qualities whatsoever).

Little Mermaid is a contender for the worst ride Disney has ever built; NRJ shouldn't even be in that conversation despite its flaws.

 

[Mac Tonight]

I haven't been on Rise or MMRR either, actually. But they certainly look like quality attractions in videos. I couldn't care less about Avatar (never even seen it) but I have been on and enjoyed both rides in Pandora.

I agree that it's not like it used to be (I don't think there's a Tony Baxter anywhere there now), but I'm not sure how much of that is WDI's fault and how much of it is management's fault. The type of things they're accomplishing in Tokyo makes me think more of the blame should fall on US management.

Virtually nothing about Avatar excites me either... and I can almost guarantee that I'd get motion sick riding FoP.

I think you're right though in that US management should shoulder most of the blame. I'm not trying to go down an "everything is based on an IP" rabbit trail... but well, you know. If the shoe fits...

 

[UNCgolf]

Ah yes, when you love it, WDI did it. When it sucks, management's fault.

Who did the design work for the exterior of Guardians' tower at DCA and the engineering for Rocket Rods? Oh, yeah, management. That's right.

Uh, no? I didn't say anything remotely close to that.

WDI designed Little Mermaid, which is a dumpster fire. I'm very sure management didn't come in and tell them they had to make everything look as cheap as possible.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Is it the same tech? That's why I was asking; literally didn't know. I'm fine with being wrong! Sounds like they would have just needed a new movie to play on the screen rather than having any need to replace the screen itself.

The projectors were changed to a digital array in preparation for Soarin’ Around the World, but Soarin’ Over California was originally a 75mm IMAX film.

 

[UNCgolf]

Virtually nothing about Avatar excites me either... and I can almost guarantee that I'd get motion sick riding FoP.

I think you're right though in that US management should shoulder most of the blame. I'm not trying to go down an "everything is based on an IP" rabbit trail... but well, you know. If the shoe fits...

You may not! I was very concerned about that too but was totally fine on Flight of Passage. For comparison, I will never ever ride Forbidden Journey again because it made me sick for over an hour, and the last time I rode Expedition Everest it gave me horrible motion sickness too.

 

[Mac Tonight]

You may not! I was very concerned about that too but was totally fine on Flight of Passage. For comparison, I will never ever ride Forbidden Journey again because it made me sick for over an hour, and the last time I rode Expedition Everest it gave me horrible motion sickness too.

See... that's strange since I didn't get sick on Everest (and we had the last seats in the train). Haven't ridden Forbidden Journey yet. When it's mostly shaking and turbulent, I'm OK. But when it's screen-based motion... blech.

I also can't go upside down. CA Screamin' nearly ruined my entire day once. Never again.

 

[UNCgolf]

See... that's strange since I didn't get sick on Everest (and we had the last seats in the train). Haven't ridden Forbidden Journey yet. When it's mostly shaking and turbulent, I'm OK. But when it's screen-based motion... blech.

I also can't go upside down. CA Screamin' nearly ruined my entire day once. Never again.

I've been on Everest before without getting sick, but on my most recent trip the backwards portion just killed me.

I'd recommend not riding Forbidden Journey if screens are your concern. It's a combination of shaking, turbulence, AND screen-based motion. There are really steep simulated screen-based dives. I got horribly sick on it -- my GF didn't get sick, but her neck hurt the next couple of days because of how much it tosses you around.

I also don't go upside down.

 

[lazyboy97o]

You may not! I was very concerned about that too but was totally fine on Flight of Passage. For comparison, I will never ever ride Forbidden Journey again because it made me sick for over an hour, and the last time I rode Expedition Everest it gave me horrible motion sickness too.

See... that's strange since I didn't get sick on Everest (and we had the last seats in the train). Haven't ridden Forbidden Journey yet. When it's mostly shaking and turbulent, I'm OK. But when it's screen-based motion... blech.

I also can't go upside down. CA Screamin' nearly ruined my entire day once. Never again.

This is why I enjoy meclizine, a miracle from molecules!

 

[Mac Tonight]

This is why I enjoy meclizine, a miracle from molecules!

I'm more of a Bonine or Dramamine guy myself... but I pretty much reserve those for air-travel.

 

[UNCgolf]

Rode all of those with a group of friends and family - even on Alien Saucers everyone laughed and had a good time and yet they all had the collective "WTH?" look on their face after the disaster of NRJ. How anybody can defend that attraction is beyond me, but it goes to show why WDI's bar is so epically low these days as customers will suck up the slop.

I wish we had access to the exact budget that was wasted on NRJ - would love to see how it ranks, inflation adjusted, with all the rides in Disney history. Thinking it does not fare well....

You're talking about sucking up slop while defending Frozen Ever After, Little Mermaid, and Alien Swirling Saucers.

Your position is much worse than mine in terms of taking whatever WDI gives you.

The other difference between me and you is that while I think all of those rides are horrible, I don't begrudge someone else for enjoying it. If someone can have a good time on Little Mermaid, then great! I'm glad. It certainly doesn't make them some type of sycophant like you're suggesting (otherwise, you'd be example A of what you claim to hate).

 

[UNCgolf]

Rode all of those with a group of friends and family - even on Alien Saucers everyone laughed and had a good time and yet they all had the collective "WTH?" look on their face after the disaster of NRJ. How anybody can defend that attraction is beyond me, but it goes to show why WDI's bar is so epically low these days as customers will suck up the slop.

I wish we had access to the exact budget that was wasted on NRJ - would love to see how it ranks, inflation adjusted, with all the rides in Disney history. Thinking it does not fare well....

Also, the second part of your post is hilariously ironic considering you've been defending Little Mermaid, which apparently cost roughly $150 million to produce one of the cheapest looking (and worst) attractions in Disney history. NRJ likely cost significantly less, but even if it cost $200 million it would be money well spent compared to Little Mermaid.