9/12/14: Maelstron is Officially Being Turned into Frozen Attraction at Epcot

Originally Posted By RoadTrip

I'm really looking forward to the opening of the Frozen attraction. I hope it pulls some of the crowds from Soarin' and Test Track.

 

Originally Posted By mrkthompsn

I remember seeing the first scene of the movie on opening day, thinking to myself "this is going to replace EPCOT Norway. This is going to change all of World Showcase"

If they rebrand World Showcase to become DisneySea, it will all make sense.

 

Originally Posted By FerretAfros

If they did it with the same quality and attention to detail (not to mention number and scope of attractions), I'm not sure I would mind it at this point. As it is, Epcot is limping along with old attractions and a mangled mission. If they committed to a TDS-style replacement, at least it would have a clear identity. As much as I love what Epcot started as, it's really just a hot mess these days

 

Originally Posted By dagobert

Frozen Ever After video from D23.

<a target="blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=je0fPVpzA04">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...fPVpzA04</a>

 

Originally Posted By dagobert

Concept art.

<a target="blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.facebook.com/302042929839518/photos/a.408006435909833.89949.302042929839518/935536013156870/?type=1&theater">http://www.facebook.com/302042...&theater</a>

<a target="blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.facebook.com/302042929839518/photos/a.408006435909833.89949.302042929839518/935536726490132/?type=1&theater">http://www.facebook.com/302042...&theater</a>

 

Originally Posted By FerretAfros

The outdoor concept art appears to be the new meet & greet area, since you can see the existing pavilion in the background. I'm surprised to see how Norwegian it looks, since I was under the impression that once (if?) the popularity of Frozen eventually dies down, it would become a generic meet & greet for whatever characters needed a spot. I guess they could put some Fab 5 characters into Norwegian outfits, but this doesn't seem to be the "princess palace" that was initially rumored for that spot. I'm still not thrilled that they're using a full expansion pad for just a meet & greet (especially one that will give Norway disproportionate frontage), but I'm happy to see how thoughtfully designed it appears

The ride on the other hand, just looks like they're cramming Frozen into a spot where it doesn't really belong. At this point I'm not sure there's anything they can say or do to convince me otherwise. It seems like it will be a nice attraction, just horribly misplaced and with horribly low capacity for something that will surely be very popular

 

Originally Posted By dagobert

LA Times article about the Frozen ride coming to EPCOT.

<a target="blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.latimes.com/travel/themeparks/la-trb-frozen-ever-after-epcot-20151028-story.html">http://www.latimes.com/travel/...ory.html</a>

 

Originally Posted By dagobert

Today I've listened to the lasted Season Pass Podcast interview with Tony Baxter (August 2015). In the podcast they also talked about the new Frozen ride coming to WDW. According to Tony an Imagineer who worked for Efteling in the Netherlands and later under Tony Baxter for Disneyland is responsible for the project.

Tony says he is looking forward to that ride and he really likes what they are doing. Baxter also says that this Imagineer knows that the ride is in Norway in EPCOT and does not represent Arendelle. Some pieces for the building are built in Europe because they want to get the Norwegian detail right. WDI is also using new technology, but he didn't specify it. At first I was sceptical about Frozen, but since Baxter likes it, I'm looking forward to that too. I trust Tony Baxter's view, because he was responsible for the most beautiful Disneyland park and he created some of Disney's best attractions.

 

Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt

His fondness for steampunk all but destroyed DL's Tomorrowland, but like any artist he should be judged by his best work, I guess. Glad to hear that a considerable amount of thought is being put into the execution of the attraction.

 

Originally Posted By dagobert

>>>His fondness for steampunk all but destroyed DL's Tomorrowland,<<<

Tony talked about the Tomorrowland makeover in another podcast and according to him, they had to same budget for that like they had for the Indiana Jones Adventure.

>>> like any artist he should be judged by his best work<<<

I think so too and given DLP's quality, in my opinion his best work, Tony Baxter was definitely one of Disney's best imagineers.

>>>Glad to hear that a considerable amount of thought is being put into the execution of the attraction.<<<

I'm really glad that they get that it's the Norway Pavillion and not Arendelle.

 

That's just crazy!!!

 

It is long but I would say that it's normal for the opening of a new attraction. If you think that is long you should have seen the Indiana Jones ride the first day which went 6-7 hours long.

 

I watched the ride thru and thought the ride was pretty cute. No real recap of the movie just a clip show. The AAs are very nice. Disney could do better with a bigger version of this ride. It beats the Kong Skull Island 360 drive-in with monkey head thing.

It still has no business being in Epcot though. Does that mean Norway doesn't have to sponsor a ride anymore? I guess the fictional country of Ardendale will pick up the tab.

 

That is part of the reason we now have "Frozen Ever After"... Norway discontinued their sponsorship payments in 2002.

 

How many other countries have discontinued their sponsorship?

 

From a technical level, I'm very impressed by this redo. The AAs look great and the motion on them is pretty good. I'm especially impressed by the arm-waving of the Elsa AA; it's clearly come a long way from the Wicked Witch in The Great Movie Ride, which is still an impressive figure all these years later

After years of WDI bashing us over the head with linear storylines, it's interesting that this doesn't appear to have much of one. It really doesn't make any sense at all, but it hits all the points from the film that I would expect it to

That said, it has absolutely no business in World Showcase. It's essentially a recap of the movie, highlighting the parts that have the least relation to any authentic Norwegian elements (music, ice castle visual design, stupid snowman). The meet & greet next door seemed to do a pretty good job of having Frozen in a setting that's appropriate for World Showcase, so it's a real shame that the ride is so horribly misplaced (not to mention all the issues with reusing the old ride system)

 

I feel like the waits for Indiana Jones were that long throughout the entire summer of its first year. I certainly remember it stretching halfway across the park. As recently as a couple years ago, I've seen it with 3+ hour waits on ultra-busy days during the Christmas season, using the upper level of the Jungle Cruise boathouse for overflow queue

That said, I imagine that this ride will settle into shorter waits quickly. Most of the Frozen hysteria has died down in recent years, and there doesn't seem to be much that's truly groundbreaking here. The capacity is woefully low, but I suspect it has a somewhat narrow audience as well

To my knowledge, most of World Showcase operates without sponsors, though there are some partnerships for specific retail/food locations (like the Twinings shop in the UK). Mexico is sponsored by the San Angel restaurant group, Japan has Mitsukoshi, and Morocco is backed by the government, but I think those are the only pavilion-wide sponsorships remaining. Contrary to popular belief, most of World Showcase was financed by Disney, while Future World was where the majority of the high-roller sponsorships were at play

 

The difference between Norway and the other countries is that Norway had an expensive to main major attraction. The only other "ride" in the showcase is the little boat ride in Mexico which really doesn't compare. I think Disney decided that if they had to take on an expensive refurbishment, they were going to do it with a Disney tie-in.

 

As long as they're maintaining a ride anyway, I don't think there's a huge difference between something like the Mexico ride and Maelstrom. Yes, Maelstrom had some limited AA's and the lift hill/drops to maintain, but I doubt that was a significant addition to the maintenance (certainly nothing like the fancy new tech that they added for Frozen)...maybe another 20-30%, which seems insignificant in the overall WDW operations budget

For what it's worth, my parents are in the real Norway right now. I haven't heard much from them but they seem to be having a good time. As far as I can tell, they haven't seen anything that resembles this ride in any way (though apparently there are lots of sweaters similar to the ones that used to be in the gift shop, but have since been replaced by Frozen merchandise...go figure)

 

Even with the simpler boat ride in Mexico, when it was updated Disney inserted Disney IP with The Three Caballeros.