Hmm. For me, GMR was always the biggest single draw at Studios, the one "Ride Multiple Times" attraction for me. And at Epcot, Ellen was always the one "ride as many times as possible" attraction. And I always saw the Ellen/Bill Nye chemistry as "everywoman meets science geek." That said, with its fossil fuel sponsorship, it's always been more than a tad biased in favor of fossil fuels.
Everything they are sticking in DHS is low capacity. Toy Story and Star Wars are low capacity but high draw. They need something a kin to POTC capacity wise to balance everything out.
I betcha the rights to something expensive came up for renewal. The ride was doomed anyway from the moment they dumped the MGM co-branding. Disney doesn't like paying to promote stuff they don't own.
Coincidentally, GMR has one of the highest capacities of any Disney attraction. I would be very surprised if the Mickey ride comes anywhere near that capacity. I don't think that there's anything wrong with adding this to the park's lineup, but it shouldn't come at the expense of the park's highest-capacity attraction that also serves as its mission statement. The park has all sorts of issues, but none of them will be solved by replacing attractions rather than adding new ones
Hmm. Seems like just as Disney seems, over the years since I let my pass lapse, to frequently go out of its way to sabotage the chances of my reinstating it (the most notable exceptions being CarsLand and the return of the MSEP), it also seems to be going out of its way to kill my interest in visiting WDW any more frequently than I do (e.g., almost shoving a MagicBand down my throat, mailing me one with an arrival date after my departure date last fall, eliminating the on-site animation studio [and with it, the opportunity to be lectured to on the subject by an actual animator], elimination of GMR and Ellen). At least Gran Fiesta Tour is an immense improvement over "El Desperdicio del Tiempo" (not that simultaneous root canal work and hemorrhoid surgery wouldn't be an immense improvement over "El Desperdicio").
This sucks. But then I can't miss what I've never experienced, can I? If only they could have moved it over here to DCA. No chance of that ever happening. Goodbye Hollywoodland, hello Marvel urban hell.
And with that, The Great Movie Ride has closed as well. Although it needed updates and maintenance, it's still very tough to see it close since it always acted as the park's mission statement. True, the park's identity has been shifting for years (and will continue to), but this seems more like the end of an era than simply the end of a single attraction. The park now only has 4 operating rides (well, 3 if we don't count a simulator as a "ride") and none of the opening day attractions remain. It's going to be a rough few years at the park until everything opens up, and even then it will still have identity and capacity issues. I really hope that this wasn't a shortsighted decision, but I can't think of any other explanation For those playing along at home, between The Great Movie Ride and the Universe of Energy, WDW closed approximately 70 minutes of ridetime and removed 95 AAs yesterday. That's roughly equivalent to the total ridetime of all the rides in DCA combined, with double the number of AAs. Disney has clearly been moving away from large-scale AA extravaganzas for years (arguably since GMR opened), but it's sad to lose two attractions that are so unique on the same day
And this past Sunday, I was just talking with somebody in the DLRR line about Florida, and about how I'd gone out of my way last fall to visit both GMR and Ellen three times each (and making sure I got both scenarios of GMR) during a WDW stay of less than a week.
