The two very different fantasyland's

[AEfx]

LOL, sometimes we all need to step back.

There is no such thing as a ANYTHING-ticket anymore. It's simply a fan label at this point, and about the same as arguing if Ben Kenobi should be referred to as General or Jedi Knight. It simply doesn't matter.

We know what to expect from Mermaid, and that is it will at least be the biggest ride thus far in our Fantasyland. It looks impressive enough to me from what I have seen, plus we are getting an amazing exterior as well. As a lover of dark rides, and this film (and music) in particular, I'm extremely pleased about it, no matter what letter grade people want to give it.

With the Mine Train, I remain cautiously optimistic. SWSA is hands down my favorite ride of all time, but the fact that I find the Disneyland version far superior and we are getting a unique Snow White ride, is keeping me from devastation over it's loss. (I think it's also pertinent to note that this is a brand new, original ride - not the "clones" people cry over so often).

I wish it were a plain 'ol dark ride, instead of a roller coaster, but as long as it has some decent show scenes I'll be happy. I'm not all that jazzed about the "swinging" motion (seems a bit unnecessary, I don't see why everything has to have a gimmick) but hopefully it won't be that disturbing.

In any case, all of this is so terribly exciting because we finally are getting a Fantasyland. We never really had one, and while I tried to make the best of it it was always the least impressive place in the park, visually. It looked nothing like a "Fantasyland" before. Besides the larger number of attractions, that was what made Disneyland's stand apart so much for me - that it really feels like a "Fantasyland" where the characters live, and not some barely-themed block of buildings over basic pavement.

It's honestly the most exciting addition to me in my lifetime - even just with the placemaking, it's really going to change how people look at the MK.

 

[MKCP 1985]

WDW's Fantasyland doesn't have any E ticket attractions. The Little Mermaid is apparently a D ticket attraction. The Dwarf Mine Train has been confirmed by insiders such as Lee also as being a D ticket. Matterhorn is apparently the only E ticket ride at any Fantasyland around the world.

Meet n Greets aren't what i'd call a competent and substantial replacement for a ride.

Fantasyland does have and always has included an E ticket attraction. Just because you might not like it doesn't change that fact.

from vintagedisneylandtickets.blogspot.com:

 

[djkidkaz]

The Little Mermaid - Ariel's Undersea Adventure, Disney California Adventure, 2011

I know people tend to knock Mermaid in DCA for not having an awesome show building like ours will have, but that is still a beautiful building!

 

[MerlinTheGoat]

Fantasyland does have and always has included an E ticket attraction. Just because you might not like it doesn't change that fact.

from vintagedisneylandtickets.blogspot.com:

I do like Small World, love it in fact. It's hard for me to picture a Disney park without it. I didn't know it was ever considered an e-ticket. Which i guess makes sense considering how long and detailed it is, and considering the time that it was originally built.

Though i think perceptions of what makes something an e ticket can change over time as new rides are built. An e ticket ride built in the 60's wouldn't necessarily be considered of e ticket caliber in the 2000's. It depends.

 

[danlb_2000]

I know people tend to knock Mermaid in DCA for not having an awesome show building like ours will have, but that is still a beautiful building!

I love the DCA LM show building, really beautiful piece of architecture. Sort of hard to compare it to what we are going to get at WDW since they went two totally different directions with the show building, but I think both are perfectly suited to the locations where they are in the parks.

Dan

 

[MKCP 1985]

I do like Small World, love it in fact. It's hard for me to picture a Disney park without it. I didn't know it was ever considered an e-ticket. Which i guess makes sense considering how long and detailed it is, and considering the time that it was originally built.

Though i think perceptions of what makes something an e ticket can change over time as new rides are built. An e ticket ride built in the 60's wouldn't necessarily be considered of e ticket caliber in the 2000's. It depends.

agreed Since there are no coupon books any longer, today it is all a matter of opinion.

In my opinion, the Snow White ride won't be missed much once the new mine train ride opens, and the princess meet and greets will continue to be very popular.

 

[BigThunderMatt]

Fantasyland does have and always has included an E ticket attraction. Just because you might not like it doesn't change that fact.

from vintagedisneylandtickets.blogspot.com:

Seems to me that from the looks of it those attractions on that ticket (at least the ones that are still around) would have been the highest hourly guest capacity attractions at the time, perhaps with the exception of Jungle Cruise (which is a painfully slow loading attraction even when they have many boats).

Correct me if I'm wrong but when they were added before the elimination of the ticket system weren't Space Mountain AND Pirates both E-tickets as well? Both of those are also high capacity attractions.

I don't think popularity is a good measure. I believe Peter Pan was a D or C ticket back in the day. Sure, it gets long waits, but that's because it's a horrendously low-capacity attraction whose low-capacity issues are exacerbated by the use of FP.

 

[Jakester]

IMO, i think they should find an area within Cinderella Castle to showcase the princesses, and leave the old Snow White Building for a brand new attraction.

 

[Scuttle]

Seems to me that from the looks of it those attractions on that ticket (at least the ones that are still around) would have been the highest hourly guest capacity attractions at the time, perhaps with the exception of Jungle Cruise (which is a painfully slow loading attraction even when they have many boats).

Correct me if I'm wrong but when they were added before the elimination of the ticket system weren't Space Mountain AND Pirates both E-tickets as well? Both of those are also high capacity attractions.

I don't think popularity is a good measure. I believe Peter Pan was a D or C ticket back in the day. Sure, it gets long waits, but that's because it's a horrendously low-capacity attraction whose low-capacity issues are exacerbated by the use of FP.

I know for a fact Space was an e-ticket, but I'm not sure about Pirates.

 

[unkadug]

I know for a fact Space was an e-ticket, but I'm not sure about Pirates.

 

[jt04]

IMO, i think they should find an area within Cinderella Castle to showcase the princesses, and leave the old Snow White Building for a brand new attraction.

From what we have heard they possibly need to expand dining options elsewhere before they could do this which would explain the rumor that the new m&gs in the old SWSA building are only an interim step. We should know more when the Circus area partially opens next year but I could imagine they are considering adding a restaurant there. Perhaps one that functions as the BatB restaurant will with counter service during the day and table service in the evening.

 

[CountryBearFan]

I very highly doubt that we'll get that kind of an eatery in the Storybook Circus, Jt.

 

[MerlinTheGoat]

agreed Since there are no coupon books any longer, today it is all a matter of opinion.

In my opinion, the Snow White ride won't be missed much once the new mine train ride opens, and the princess meet and greets will continue to be very popular.

I won't miss it since the Mine Train looks like it'll be a fun little ride. The current Snow White Ride was and is probably my least favorite of the Fantasyland dark rides. It's still good fun and all, but i got really spoiled from riding the one at Paris, which is much more up to date with IMO better story progression and more elaborate scenes. The most i like about it are the painted backgrounds in both the queue and inside the ride itself. For cutouts, they're actually really well designed. WDW's is very dated though. Of course that kind of speaks for WDW Peter Pan as well too (again, i got spoiled by Paris' there). Heck, even Pooh already feels slightly dated compared to Tokyo's version...

While i won't cry about it being gone, it's Shame valuable ride real estate has to be dedicated to a M&G and not a cool new dark ride (perhaps something like a Sleeping Beauty dark ride, which has never been done before). Hopefully rumors flying around are true that it's temporary until the rest of Fantasyland is done, but i won't hold my breath.

 

[jt04]

I very highly doubt that we'll get that kind of an eatery in the Storybook Circus, Jt.

You may well be right but I will give you my reasoning. There is a huge advantage to having a restaurant on the edge of the MK and next to the backstage area as many of the offerings can easily be prepped off site and brought in which lessens costs and increases profitability. This possibility hinges on if they ever intend to close the Banquet Hall and/or the PVH. I am not saying this will happen in the short term but I could believe they intend to go in this direction by the 50th. Especially if the m&gs going into SWSA are truly temporary before going to a permanent location as one rumor implies. It just makes sense logistically and as a way to improve the guest experience. IMO.

 

[TP2000]

I know people tend to knock Mermaid in DCA for not having an awesome show building like ours will have, but that is still a beautiful building!

Yes, they really did a lovely job with the DCA show building for Mermaid. And they were able to incorporate the Palace of Fine Arts rotunda from the old Golden Dreams theater that used to sit there. It really is a very large building, and has a changeable facade and skyline as you walk around and past it.

Queue Entrance at DCA

Which gets me to my next point.... I think the Little Mermaid ride may go down in history as the one cloned attraction (and the interiors are said to be nearly identical once you step onto the loading belt) that has the most wildly different exterior facades and queues. Certainly there are different versions of the Haunted Mansion's, well, mansion. And Pirates' in the parks takes a different look and feel. But I can't think of a recently cloned ride that looks so radically different in two parks. It helps that one is in WDW's Fantasyland and one is in a more literal "Victorian seaside boardwalk" environment at DCA, but still.

I think the only thing that gets close to these radically different yet cloned attractions is Midway Mania. At DCA it's on a.... wait for it... midway. And at DHS it's in a studio soundstage type thing.

But Mermaid surely takes the cake as the cloned ride with the most wildlly different facades and queues!

 

[Jakester]

DCA's Mermaids Facade fits the Theme of the area, WDW's facade will fit into Fantasyland.

Both are (and will) be great, Comparing the facades is like comparing Cinderella Castle to Sleeping Beauty Castle

 

[unkadug]

DCA's Mermaids Facade fits the Theme of the area, WDW's facade will fit into Fantasyland.

Both are (and will) be great, Comparing the facades is like comparing Cinderella Castle to Sleeping Beauty Castle

What's wrong with comparing the two castles...they both serve as weenies for their park, they both sit relatively in the same place, they both are named after Princesses, they both serve as an entrance to Fantasyland, etc....

 

[InsiderImagine]

What's wrong with comparing the two castles...they both serve as weenies for their park, they both sit relatively in the same place, they both are named after Princesses, they both serve as an entrance to Fantasyland, etc....

I dont think he was bashing the two castles but making a statement that they both work well in the surrounding given to them.

For example, if you saw Sleeping Beauty's castle here in WDW then you would hear more of an uproar.

Cinderella's Castle works well in Orlando and probably would not work in Anaheim.

 

[majortom1981]

I dont think he was bashing the two castles but making a statement that they both work well in the surrounding given to them.

For example, if you saw Sleeping Beauty's castle here in WDW then you would hear more of an uproar.

Cinderella's Castle works well in Orlando and probably would not work in Anaheim.

I just came back from disneyland in california and I think cinderella would work well at disneyland. I missed having the castle atleast look big from mainstreet.

also having rode The Little mermaid at california adventures 4 times, yes its not an Eticket attraction its still worthy of riding multiple times in a row. My wife who is a huge little mermaid fan would have rode it even more.

Its also a ride that has great throughput. Even with all the other rides having 40 plus minute waits at california adventure, little mermaid while we were there only had at most a 10 min wait.

While the fantasy land in disneyland had more rides, i think it was too cluttered. Once the park got busy it made being in that section horrible as you could barely walk around. I also think some of the rides that disneyland fantasy section has that ours does not would not work as well because i think world gets more guest at a time .

 

[The Duck]

Seems to me that from the looks of it those attractions on that ticket (at least the ones that are still around) would have been the highest hourly guest capacity attractions at the time, perhaps with the exception of Jungle Cruise (which is a painfully slow loading attraction even when they have many boats).

Correct me if I'm wrong but when they were added before the elimination of the ticket system weren't Space Mountain AND Pirates both E-tickets as well? Both of those are also high capacity attractions.

I don't think popularity is a good measure. I believe Peter Pan was a D or C ticket back in the day. Sure, it gets long waits, but that's because it's a horrendously low-capacity attraction whose low-capacity issues are exacerbated by the use of FP.

The E Ticket pictured must have been from the early days of MK. Pirates didn't open until 1973 and Space Mountain in 1975.