Toy Story and Soarin Rumors

[RSoxNo1]

You beat me to it. There is zero way to expand into Soundstage 1 without totally redoing the attraction.

Here's the layout:

Soundstage 1 is to the *left* of all this. The only time the attraction gets anywhere near it is the final section of the outer track.

And the original thread that's from:
http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/toy-story-mania-layout.159467/page-2

-Rob

Thank you!

But just reading that original rumor without the track map, it would be impossible to add capacity to this ride simply by branching off more track into Soundstage 1, even if that building was directly adjacent to the existing ride track. You would still have a set number of vehicles loading/unloading a set number of people over a set amount of time in the station. That's what determines ride capacity; the loading area and how many vehicles it accommodates in how much time.

Adding additional track or spur lines before or after the station loading area does nothing for hourly capacity. To increase capacity at Toy Story Midway Mania you would need to build an additional station, dramatically enlarge the vehicles to seat more people, or a combination of those things in the loading area station.

Soundstage 1 is to the left of the queue.

that post is not correct... nothing is happening behind the soarin/the land building right now... I work in that area.

It sounds like the DisneyAtWork article jumped the gun, but Alektronic did confirm a third theater is a go. Looking at aerials it appears that Soundstage 1 is roughly the same size as the Toy Story show building. Reconfiguring a queue is minimal work. In theory you can have the main queue be the same up to Mr. Potato Head. At which point, the ride forks where 1/2 or 2/3rds can go to the right to the existing track and 1/2 or 1/3rd can go to the left to a new load area/track. I'm no engineer, but am I reading this incorrectly?

 

[Rider]

Hypothetically if you wanted to spend the money to increase capacity of TSMM you could just mirror a duplicate version of the ride into Soundstage 1.

Like so:

 

[Tom]

Hypothetically if you wanted to spend the money to increase capacity of TSMM you could just mirror a duplicate version of the ride into Soundstage 1.

Like so:

This would be the ideal method, as it would minimize downtime. They can't afford for TSMM to be down for very long - they simply don't have the available capacity in the park to absorb the loss.

Relatively speaking, since all the R&D and programming is done, this would be an inexpensive ride to expand/duplicate. It's a warehouse full of screens and track. I say relative, because it's not cheap to do...but nothing compared to the attractions they've built lately. No rockwork. No theme. The ride control system is already in place.

I'd still rather see something new rather than a duplication or expansion of anything.

 

[invader]

Hypothetically if you wanted to spend the money to increase capacity of TSMM you could just mirror a duplicate version of the ride into Soundstage 1.

Like so:

Don't give them ideas

 

[Mr Anderson]

How well would it work to "Frozen" up the queue and leave the ride alone, though? I'm not in favor of the overlay either, but I don't see how that suggestion could be functional. Seems like you'd then just have tons of little girls upset and disappointed because the queue led them to believe that the ride would be about the movie, only to have the current ride still in place.

Nope. Give Maelstrom a refurb to polish it up and give Frozen its own ride elsewhere.

^^^^^ THIS ^^^^^

Give that woman a well-deserved Dole Whip.

 

[cw1982]

^^^^^ THIS ^^^^^

Give that woman a well-deserved Dole Whip.

Hah! I could totally go for a Dole Whip right now too... thanks!

 

[GoofGoof]

Hypothetically if you wanted to spend the money to increase capacity of TSMM you could just mirror a duplicate version of the ride into Soundstage 1.

Like so:

This makes the most sense. Not sure if they would spring for the budget though. TSMM is one of the few rides with real bad FP+ capacity issues so it would make sense to try to increase the available offerings.

Cloning the ride in an existing building should be relatively cheap. If they did do this hopefully it would be a part of a Pixar place expansion and not just a stand alone project. Like @doctornick said they could add several smaller, family friendly attractions that are clones and save time and money. Then shut down the other half of the park for StarWars.

 

[Mr Anderson]

Found it!

 

[George1995]

This makes the most sense. Not sure if they would spring for the budget though. TSMM is one of the few rides with real bad FP+ capacity issues so it would make sense to try to increase the available offerings.

Cloning the ride in an existing building should be relatively cheap. If they did do this hopefully it would be a part of a Pixar place expansion and not just a stand alone project. Like @doctornick said they could add several smaller, family friendly attractions that are clones and save time and money. Then shut down the other half of the park for StarWars.

If only TDO could see it this way. It can't be that hard for them to come up with ideas for smaller family rides in Pixar Place with the almost endless supply of popular Pixar films from the last 10-15 years.

Like many have said, if a TSMM expansion into SS1 is a stand-alone project, in my opinion that would be somewhat of a waste of money that could be spent on completing Pixar Place into a complete "land".

 

[MikeTaylorSound]

This makes the most sense. Not sure if they would spring for the budget though. TSMM is one of the few rides with real bad FP+ capacity issues so it would make sense to try to increase the available offerings.

Cloning the ride in an existing building should be relatively cheap. If they did do this hopefully it would be a part of a Pixar place expansion and not just a stand alone project. Like @doctornick said they could add several smaller, family friendly attractions that are clones and save time and money. Then shut down the other half of the park for StarWars.

They're going to need expanded capacity, especially for that ride, when other attractions close when the rebuild around Streets of USA begin.

 

[AEfx]

IF true, boy they will look for any way to not add attractions. Using Soundstage 1 for that instead of a new ride queue ... I hope it's not true. Maybe, you know, opening another family friendly ride right next door would, you know, ease the lines on TSMM.

No! TSMM is such a busy attraction because it's so revolutionary! It pulls all those people because of the superb quality of the attraction, not the fact that there simply are very few rides in the park that don't have height requirements and a family can ride together. Duh!

I've seen a lot of folks comment like this and I don't agree really. There is a trend to diminish the potential quality of the Frozen ride as just being an "overlay". I've seen the words "cheap" and "value engineered" used constantly as well. We don't really know the details or scope of the ride yet and it's quite possible that a very well done ride could be done in the Maelstrom space.

It's possible. They could gut the whole thing and add completely new show scenes and make it completely unrecognizable.

But they won't.

Not only does history show us this when it comes to similar glorified refurbs of this type, but so does the fact they are doing an "overlay" to begin with. To be honest, with the age of that building, it wouldn't likely be much more expensive to just build a new ride if they were going to that drastically change it. At some point, massive rebuilding is less cost-effective as starting from scratch.

What will likely happen is exactly what is being rumored - an overlay, using what existing elements they can, and doing as little structurally as possible. Given the amount of dark/blank space in Malestrom, I can't help but think it will have a lot of projections - lots and lots of projections, and a few AA's.

You are absolutely right that it could be a lot more - but I just don't see it happening.

This makes the most sense. Not sure if they would spring for the budget though. TSMM is one of the few rides with real bad FP+ capacity issues so it would make sense to try to increase the available offerings.

Cloning the ride in an existing building should be relatively cheap. If they did do this hopefully it would be a part of a Pixar place expansion and not just a stand alone project. Like @doctornick said they could add several smaller, family friendly attractions that are clones and save time and money. Then shut down the other half of the park for StarWars.

Yeah, it would be pretty cheap at this point - I mean, the Wii has been replaced by the Wii U, so you can get a few Wii units pretty darn cheaply these days, throw up some projection screens, fabricate a few ride vehicles - and hey, they'd be good to go.

One of these days I'm going to write up a little WikiHow How-To build your own version of the ride in your living room for under $200 - less if you can find a used office chair to spin you around.

 

[FutureCEO]

If Frozen goes to Epcot at least people will flock to the park

 

[dadddio]

If only there was a thread in which we could discuss the Frozen Maelstrom thing.

 

[ParentsOf4]

Hypothetically if you wanted to spend the money to increase capacity of TSMM you could just mirror a duplicate version of the ride into Soundstage 1.

Like so:

This is essentially what I was told was being considered some time ago, though I haven't heard anything about it being greenlit.

I realize many prefer new attractions but it's exactly these types of non-sexy improvements that make WDW a more enjoyable experience for guests.

 

[Kman101]

Nah. A more enjoyable experience would be to have a new attraction, but it wouldn't shock me in the slightest if they did this. It's a way to appease guests without actually adding something new. I can't really fault them for it because people still come regardless and the general audience would eat it up.

 

[CTXRover]

I'd rather a new attraction to help ease the lines at either Soarin' or TSMM than simply adding more capacity. Perhaps the one exception of the two would be an additional theater for Soarin'. I refuse to wait in that line that never seems to move unless I have FP.

 

[Kman101]

In the case of Soarin', I do agree they should build the third theater to ease the lines. I very much disagree with a cloned TSMM (of course, not saying it's happening). I'd be more OK with a cloned TSMM if we were told other Pixar attractions would be going in.

 

[DVCOwner]

Both Toy Story and Soarin' have continued to have unusually long wait times from day one. I would love to see additional new attractions, but expanding both of these could do nothing but help in the long run. New flim coming soon for Soaring is just going to add to the problem of wait times.

 

[Mawg]

I don't think a new attraction will help the wait time for Toy Story much. HS is not a full day park in my opinion. With a new attraction, I feel, the same amount of people will still want to ride TSM as before but now another attraction too. Until HS has enough attractions that fill the whole day the line at TSM will not get smaller. As much as I want to see a new attraction, I feel increasing capacity of TSM is a no brainer. Just like Dumbo needed it.

 

[invader]

I don't see Disney doing such a thing unless they make it marketable by changing the ride up a bit. Doubling capacity isn't something you can easily advertise to consumers as Disney would want to do so for such an investment. There's no wow factor being added if they only double it, it wouldn't draw people like they desire.