Spirited Spring Break News, Observations & Thoughts ...

[asianway]

Won't River of Light be open before 2017? It's an attraction, no?

That is an entertainment offering not quite the same thing. Although if you ask a guest service operations manager it depends on if it has FP+ or not

 

[MerlinTheGoat]

My question would always be.. isnt more expensive and wasteful to make the changes.. research a new completely track and build it on top of the planned track than just go ahead on the original track + upgraded figures?

I tough we're talking about WDW only?

Depends on how much the extra track pieces cost in order to make it longer along with whatever other changes were needed to make it longer (sensors, brakes, and all the other elements that go into a longer coaster track, i'm no expert in these cases). And how much work and money went into designing the new layout, computers may even do a lot of the work for them that cuts down the expense and effort of developing new basic coaster layouts. I don't know, but there was probably someone in there who saw there was a way to reduce costs and went with the lesser option (otherwise why bother if it was going to cost the same or more?). Either way though the original layout didn't look groundbreaking or difficult to get built in the first place. It would however have allowed more space for extra scenes outside, a funner/longer/intersecting track and potentially greater capacity.

Mermaid was shared by California too though, and theirs was built first (even if they did always plan to bring it to WDW). If you want to be entirely fair, the Mine Train was the first original WDW ride since Everest. And even that is going to Shanghai soon (one wonders in what form and whether it will have changes such as upgrades or downgrades from ours).

 

[RSoxNo1]

I think the ride is nice, but a bit short. That seems to be the common opinion.

To put it in perspective though, it's looking like it's 2 minutes and 30 seconds. Rock 'n' Roller Coaster is roughly 1 minute and 25 seconds but it's all coaster. Revenge of the Mummy (a decent comparison actually) is at around 2 minutes and 45 seconds. Mummy has more thrills, but I think it's the closest comp to Mine Train right now.

 

[RSoxNo1]

It's the other way around. The AAs were upgraded from the original plans. The original plans that everyone is upset over had a longer track length with multiple indoor show scenes. I think Lee posted the plans a long time ago during the early stages of construction. These same plans also had very limited animated figures which were shown briefly at D23. It wasn't until the 11th hour until the AAs were upgraded. I believe Lee and at least 1 other person had seen the original plans and said the finished product AAs were definitely upgraded. So what I'm saying is what if they went with the original plans but never decided to upgrade the AAs? Would that have made it a better attraction? Not in my mind.

Could they have gone with the longer track length and upgraded AAs? Sure. But there was never a set of plans for that version of the ride.

I have been told this is the case as well. One version did have advanced Animatronics, but the digital face animatronics seemed to have been a late in the game decision.

 

[Captain Neo]

Midway Mania opened inbetween in 2008.

what a joke

 

[Animaniac93-98]

To put it in perspective though, it's looking like it's 2 minutes and 30 seconds. Rock 'n' Roller Coaster is roughly 1 minute and 25 seconds but it's all coaster. Revenge of the Mummy (a decent comparison actually) is at around 2 minutes and 45 seconds. Mummy has more thrills, but I think it's the closest comp to Mine Train right now.

But Big Thunder is longer, and more likely to be the common comparison point. Being a mine car coaster in the same park and all. I'd say 30 more seconds would make the run time for this ride fine. Mummy also has more exciting effects IMO.

 

[RSoxNo1]

SDMT's biggest problem might be capacity.

With SDMT, the Magic Kingdom might have its first ride where hour-plus standby waits are the norm even on slow days.

SDMT might turn out to be the Magic Kingdom's version of Toy Story Mania or Soarin'.

I saw 7 break zones (or equivalents) on the attraction, 8 if you're including the indoor portion leading up to the 2nd lift hill. With separate load and unload areas I suspect that 4 cars will be the norm with a 50 second dispatch interval. Here's the breakdown (GPH = Guests Per Hour):
60 second dispatch interval: 1200 GPH
55 second dispatch interval: 1309 GPH
50 second dispatch interval: 1440 GPH
45 second dispatch interval: 1600 GPH
40 second dispatch interval: 1800 GPH

If they can get it in that 40-45 second range they'll be able to keep the wait times below 2 hours, otherwise we're looking at 2-3 hour waits for the short term.

 

[marni1971]

Won't River of Light be open before 2017? It's an attraction, no?

Its a show.

 

[marni1971]

Talk of long and short Dwarf Coaster...

Original vs built

 

[Crazydisneyfanluke]

Is there a unload and a load station? if so you could run 4-5 cars on a good day. I would say while 1 leaving mine, 1 is entering, 1 on first lift, 2 unloading/loading

 

[DisneyDad1977]

Talk of long and short Dwarf Coaster...

Original vs built

View attachment 52538

Pathetic.

 

[the.dreamfinder]

Which version of SDMT is Shanghai getting?

 

[Bairstow]

Talk of long and short Dwarf Coaster...

Original vs built

View attachment 52538

So the original had a much shorter indoor show scene in favor of more helices?

 

[Cody5242]

So, as of June 1, 2014 or so, will we be in the beginning of an approximate three year gap with no new Disney attractions?

Better?

There's Soarin Over the World coming. That will be considered a new attraction for me because I never ride the original. Hopefully they will upgrade the ride system itself

 

[Sevier]

Pathetic.

Yeah, the ride is clearly "pathetic." Good call.

 

[Sevier]

Its a show.

Shows are not attractions? Do you need to have a bunch of screens set to a god awful summer blockbuster to be considered an "attraction"?

 

[Cody5242]

Something to keep in mind as Spidey's BO returns come out over the weekend.

I thought ASM2 was excellent. I liked how it was character driven

 

[GoofGoof]

It's unlikely that the track reduction had anything to do with better figures being approved. Until very recently, even when the current track layout was already well under construction they were still planning to use the older less advanced figures. If the track reduction did have something to do with it, we'd probably have known about the more advanced figures a long time ago. As it stands, Lee saw the lesser figures just about a year ago, so it was clearly a last minute change and I see little logic in assuming the track reduction had much to do with the figures being upgraded. I'm glad they did upgrade the figures, but i'd much rather have had the original track layout AND the newer figures, it really shouldn't be too much to wish for both as even the original concept for the ride's layout wasn't anything that bold or daring from a design perspective. The longer track would not just have made the ride better and allowed for more outdoor show elements, it may also have added additional capacity as well (speculation on my part but a longer track would likely have allowed more trains on the track at once).

Here's again what the original track layout looked like apparently (though not identical to the concept art, it's pretty close)-

And the current version of the layout-

One does wonder who made the decision to give the ride more budget to upgrade the figures though at the last minute. It's actually shocking.

Yep. These look like the plans I was thinking of. The original plans had the ride being longer with more indoor show scenes. These plans had a longer track length, but less quality AAs. I don't think they upgraded the AAs because they shortened the track. Those probably were 2 independent decisions.

My only reason for bringing this up is I hear a lot of people say that Mine Train is good but it would have been better if they went with the longer layout. I totally agree with that as long as we still got the upgraded AAs, but what guarantee do we have that it would have happened. Plans change. Maybe with the longer track and more show scenes they wouldn't have upgraded the AAs. We will never know.

 

[SoupBone]

That may be true, but it is not what insiders here who saw the plans said. The new AAs came along well after they switched to the shorter track length. To my knowledge there were never plans that included both a longer track length and the upgraded AAs.

The fact that this is even a discussion point is a large part of the problem. The Disney of old would never have sacrificed one for the other, they would have built both.

 

[Bairstow]

Yep. These look like the plans I was thinking of. The original plans had the ride being longer with more indoor show scenes. These plans had a longer track length, but less quality AAs. I don't think they upgraded the AAs because they shortened the track. Those probably were 2 independent decisions.

My only reason for bringing this up is I hear a lot of people say that Mine Train is good but it would have been better if they went with the longer layout. I totally agree with that as long as we still got the upgraded AAs, but what guarantee do we have that it would have happened. Plans change. Maybe with the longer track and more show scenes they wouldn't have upgraded the AAs. We will never know.

Personally, the ride as-built, with a very long indoor show scene featuring multiple top-rate figures seems way more interesting than a longer low-intensity coaster with more swooping helices.
Then again, I get bored on the last half of Expedition Everest.
Anyway, if what we ended up getting is a true kiddy coaster/dark ride hybrid rather than a toned-down Big Thunder, I think we got the better deal.