Peter Pan Refurbishment in January 2019?

[Tavernacle12]

I’m not sure if Disney (who seem to keep kicking the can down the road for a much cheaper Philharmagic update that would presumably increase popularity there) would prioritise redoing one of their most popular attractions. Clearly most guests don’t care that it’s out-dated. While it’s not my favorite, I do kind of like how old school it is.

I imagine Shanghai’s wouldn’t fit in place of WDW’s current plot, but much of the animatronics and effects could be pulled over instead of the track layout.

 

[EPCOTCenterLover]

Riding DL's less than a month after riding WDW's, the differences were astounding.

 

[brb1006]

Nana in Disneyland’s Peter Pan Flight has been confirmed to be an opening day prop. The vehicles in Toad are from opening day too last I heard.

I'm surprised the Nana prop at Disneyland still looks in good shape.

 

[brb1006]

Afraid not. But it’s become a topic for discussion I see.

This ride needs dragging into the 90s effects wise, let alone 2018.

Maybe Jim Hill might know more info about the attraction. Yes I know he gets some flack but he shares really fasinating stories about Disney and the Parks that some are extremely obscure.

 

[jt04]

Afraid not. But it’s become a topic for discussion I see.

This ride needs dragging into the 90s effects wise, let alone 2018.

While they are dragging it around perhaps they can drag it over to the UK pavilion.

 

[Tavernacle12]

Everyone sees the wait time/queue but no one hears what a lot of guests say on their way out:
"We waited all that time.. for THAT?!?!"

I’ve always interpreted that as being due to how short it is, not how dated, but I could be wrong.

 

[marni1971]

While they are dragging it around perhaps they can drag it over to the UK pavilion.

That ship has sailed. Not that it wouldn’t have worked.

 

[jt04]

lol Not disagreeing with you...I think it would be too tight an area to put an expanded version of PPF and two other attractions... But I like the idea as long as they move Small World to EPCOT...

There is also space behind IaSW.

 

[jt04]

That ship has sailed. Not that it wouldn’t have worked.

I'd settle for the MP dark ride somebody recently posted.

 

[marni1971]

I'd settle for the MP dark ride somebody recently posted.

I’d settle for any decent dark ride.

 

[nace888]

Off the wall and not FantasyLand, but while on the topic of Dark Rides, I LOVE HM, would love if they'd update it some, but not like a complete makeover..

 

[jt04]

Off the wall and not FantasyLand, but while on the topic of Dark Rides, I LOVE HM, would love if they'd update it some, but not like a complete makeover..

Agreed. HBG would be cool. Also had another idea last night. They should add an effect that is rarely seen. That would really become popular and sell a ton of merch and t-shirts. Creates a lot of new interest. People drive forever to see the Marfa Lights for instance.

 

[MerlinTheGoat]

Unless they do a complete teardown and rebuild (possibly in a new location) I don't think they would or even could clone Shanghai Pan as it is now. The ride system is apparently very different. And it appears the building itself is considerably larger than WDW Pan.

I also doubt they'd be able to exactly clone the upgrades from California and Paris either. Those versions are themselves almost identical to one another, however they too have somewhat different ride systems and building layouts compared to the WDW version. For one thing, the ride vehicles are able to stop at the loading area.

Regarding what I feel is at least within the realm of possibility, the best hope for updating WDW Pan will probably be if Disney decides to clone the upgrades made to Tokyo's version of the ride recently. Tokyo's Pan prior to 2016 was an exact clone of WDW. Same ride system, seemingly identical show building and track layout and practically identical scenery. As of 2016 Tokyo Pan went down for rehab and this is what it came out looking like-


The first and last thirds of the ride are very similar to the original, just with some updated effects like digital projection mapping, new fiber optic effects etc. A few cases of buildings being shifted around in the London flyover. The middle scenes with the flight over Neverland island were basically gutted and re-designed. They instead implemented the miniature Neverland island model from the other versions (though the model itself is strange and badly designed, looks nothing like the source material or other Neverland models in the other versions, they should fix that). The scenery with the Mermaids, Lost Boys and Indians are a little different and have new effects. One subtle but very striking upgrade throughout is that they added lit stars shining through the black curtain backdrops like in the other versions. It's a simple upgrade that goes a long way to improving the immersion and atmosphere.

My reasoning is that given the fact that WDW and Tokyo were effectively clones of one another, any hope for major changes to WDW are probably reliant on them cloning the Tokyo upgrades. This would likely be the easiest and cheapest way for Disney to substantially update it. I would be shocked if they went any farther, and i'm skeptical they'd even go that far.

 

[Speedy71]

Agreed. HBG would be cool. Also had another idea last night. They should add an effect that is rarely seen. That would really become popular and sell a ton of merch and t-shirts. Creates a lot of new interest. People drive forever to see the Marfa Lights for instance.

HBG should be added. I mean they're selling merch of him so why not?

 

[JenniferS]

Unless they do a complete teardown and rebuild (possibly in a new location) I don't think they would or even could clone Shanghai Pan as it is now. The ride system is apparently very different. And it appears the building itself is considerably larger than WDW Pan.

I also doubt they'd be able to exactly clone the upgrades from California and Paris either. Those versions are themselves almost identical to one another, however they too have somewhat different ride systems and building layouts compared to the WDW version. For one thing, the ride vehicles are able to stop at the loading area.

Regarding what I feel is at least within the realm of possibility, the best hope for updating WDW Pan will probably be if Disney decides to clone the upgrades made to Tokyo's version of the ride recently. Tokyo's Pan prior to 2016 was an exact clone of WDW. Same ride system, seemingly identical show building and track layout and practically identical scenery. As of 2016 Tokyo Pan went down for rehab and this is what it came out looking like-


The first and last thirds of the ride are very similar to the original, just with some updated effects like digital projection mapping, new fiber optic effects etc. A few cases of buildings being shifted around in the London flyover. The middle scenes with the flight over Neverland island were basically gutted and re-designed. They instead implemented the miniature Neverland island model from the other versions (though the model itself is strange and badly designed, looks nothing like the source material or other Neverland models in the other versions, they should fix that). The scenery with the Mermaids, Lost Boys and Indians are a little different and have new effects. One subtle but very striking upgrade throughout is that they added lit stars shining through the black curtain backdrops like in the other versions. It's a simple upgrade that goes a long way to improving the immersion and atmosphere.

My reasoning is that given the fact that WDW and Tokyo were effectively clones of one another, any hope for major changes to WDW are probably reliant on them cloning the Tokyo upgrades. This would likely be the easiest and cheapest way for Disney to substantially update it. I would be shocked if they went any farther, and i'm skeptical they'd even go that far.

Yup, I’ll settle for the Tokyo upgrades.

Anybody know how long the ride was down to complete that refurb?

 

[yensidtlaw1969]

Unless they do a complete teardown and rebuild (possibly in a new location) I don't think they would or even could clone Shanghai Pan as it is now. The ride system is apparently very different. And it appears the building itself is considerably larger than WDW Pan.

I also doubt they'd be able to exactly clone the upgrades from California and Paris either. Those versions are themselves almost identical to one another, however they too have somewhat different ride systems and building layouts compared to the WDW version. For one thing, the ride vehicles are able to stop at the loading area.

Regarding what I feel is at least within the realm of possibility, the best hope for updating WDW Pan will probably be if Disney decides to clone the upgrades made to Tokyo's version of the ride recently. Tokyo's Pan prior to 2016 was an exact clone of WDW. Same ride system, seemingly identical show building and track layout and practically identical scenery. As of 2016 Tokyo Pan went down for rehab and this is what it came out looking like-


The first and last thirds of the ride are very similar to the original, just with some updated effects like digital projection mapping, new fiber optic effects etc. A few cases of buildings being shifted around in the London flyover. The middle scenes with the flight over Neverland island were basically gutted and re-designed. They instead implemented the miniature Neverland island model from the other versions (though the model itself is strange and badly designed, looks nothing like the source material or other Neverland models in the other versions, they should fix that). The scenery with the Mermaids, Lost Boys and Indians are a little different and have new effects. One subtle but very striking upgrade throughout is that they added lit stars shining through the black curtain backdrops like in the other versions. It's a simple upgrade that goes a long way to improving the immersion and atmosphere.

My reasoning is that given the fact that WDW and Tokyo were effectively clones of one another, any hope for major changes to WDW are probably reliant on them cloning the Tokyo upgrades. This would likely be the easiest and cheapest way for Disney to substantially update it. I would be shocked if they went any farther, and i'm skeptical they'd even go that far.

Personally, I loooathe what they did to TDL's Neverland Room. It completely stepped backward in terms of design (if it did so while stepping forward in terms of effects). At opening, WDW's Neverland fly-thru was a total improvement over Disneyland's flyover model island, which always did and in some ways still does lack the magic of the Flight over London. WDW's Neverland Room could use an update - some Fiber Optics and new paint would work wonders - but what they did in Tokyo killed the best part of the ride. You spend too much time flying over an island you used to fly through, and then they jammed the remaining, charming little figures into a corridor of unresolved set pieces that don't compare to their previous settings.

The fun of referencing the Neverland Model of the Disneyland original is, to me, not worth the loss of what was actually a better, more enveloping show scene. WDW's Peter Pan's Flight is in need of no more than a cosmetic upgrade, it certainly lacks nothing in it's structure. I don't know why Tokyo messed that much with what they had, but I feel like they turned the most dynamic part of the ride into the most passive, when all they had to do was lay that visual treatment over what was there already.

EDITED TO ADD: I'm still not convinced that even Disneyland's recent update to PPF was without fault - the landscape of London looks flatter than ever after its repaint, and some of the new projections butt up against the inky darkness of the ride in ways that are not flattering . . . why does the water around Neverland Island just end? Because Projection technology sort of necessitates it, but the limit outweighs its worth. The new figures are fine, and the laser Pixie Dust is a nice add, but in general I think I preferred what it was before, which has been maintained better than WDW for nearly 2 decades now. They had a head start and I'm not sure they got their money's worth with the new plussing.

I'd settle for new paint, Fiber Optics galore, some light projection mapping (the water in the final scene is nice, and Tink's Pixie Dust), and a nice cosmetic makeover for all figures as per Disneyland's more on-model looks. But the ride doesn't need a rethink, and each time they try I find myself cringing a little. DLP has done the best so far - and again, they had pretty good bones to begin with.

 

[EricsBiscuit]

I'd be happy if they replaced IASW w/ the Peter Pan ride they're building in TDS and just replaced the current one entirely.

 

[MerlinTheGoat]

I'm of two minds about the flyover Neverland island scenes regarding WDW vs Tokyo (post-refurb). I may be in the minority here, but WDW's has always felt a little off to me. I recognize they were trying to do a forced perspective effect where you're gradually descending lower and lower from the sky. The inverse of the London scene. Set pieces are smaller at first and gradually get larger as you progress. On an individual level the set pieces are well made and effective at conveying scale and forced perspective. I recognize the ambition here. The problem is that this room is an open space with no barriers to hide the different sized set pieces. The illusion is broken when you look around. Even as a child this always felt off to me, and the effect of you descending was sort of lost on me. The room also feels cramped.

This is in contrast to the takeoff scene in London. The effect was masterfully designed at WDW and still looks great today IMO (give it some new paint and some new effects and it'll still be fantastic). There's depth to the buildings due to the choice of modeling them as 3-dimensional props instead of a mostly flat floor surface. And a gradual scale down of the buildings as you progress to convey an ascent. They also put up good separations in the London scenes as well, the effect doesn't break like it does in Neverland.

I got to experience DL Paris as a kid. I really enjoyed the Neverland island miniature model and felt a little less taken out of the experience as a result. All the fiber optic starfield and pixie effects were a fantastic addition IMO. So I kind of preferred many of the Neverland scenes. Paris doesn't seem to suffer from that really strange and abruptly ending square pattern to the water like Cali does either...

I don't dislike the idea of changing the WDW scenes to the Cali and Paris variants, but the way they did it in Tokyo does look cramped. The Mermaids, Indians and Lost Boys are all just lined up in a single hallway without separation as mentioned. The island model has a very strange and ugly design, along with being far tinier and more cramped as well. I have no idea what happened, the models at Cali, Paris and Shanghai are lovely.

One other thing i'll mention. To this day, IMO Paris still has the best version of the pixie dust effect on the ship helm near the end. At Paris, the entire surface of the ship is covered in a very large fiber optic mesh, engulfing it with a curtain of light when it activates. It's stunning and makes a huge visual impact. They attempted variants of this effect at Cali and Tokyo in their recent refurbs, didn't succeed in capturing the same wow factor. Cali uses a digitally mapped laser projection instead of a fiber optic curtain. It's more sparse, flickery and just looks nowhere near as good. Tokyo seems to use fiber optics and has a very nice swirly pattern to the lights. But it only covers a small portion of the background (about a fourth, and it doesn't wrap around the other parts). So an effect from 1992 is still king.

 

[FullSailDan]

From what I’ve been able to gleam, pan has multiple code exemptions that are grandfathered. If they altered the building or the ride too much they are forced to comply with new codes. At some point they’ll have to do something, but until then... spend the dollars elsewhere and stick to paint and light upkeep.

 

[marni1971]

Just update the visuals and audio. That alone would work wonders; Paris looked more advanced in 1992 than WDW does today.