Originally Posted By AutoPost This topic is for Discussion of: <a href="http://www.laughingplace.com/w/news/2014/02/24/ride-through-video-of-seven-dwarfs-mine-train-attraction/" target="_blank"><b>2/24/14: Ride Through Video of Seven Dwarfs Mine Train Attraction</b></a>
Originally Posted By FerretAfros Looks pretty good. The ride is short (as expected), but looks like it gets some decent speed for its small size. It also looked like the cars did rock some, so that should be fun I think it's interesting that they included the shot of the interior scene, with unfinished work and the work lights on. You'd think they would want to control the image of it a little more, but it looks like it will be really nice whenever they finish it
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt Behind the scenes construction is one of the things that distinguishes the DPB from all the other fan sites out there and helps drive site traffic.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros I know that it drives traffic, but it's rare that they post something that's so near complete with the work lights on. Usually it's an up-close detail so they can control the view, or something that's early enough in construction that it's hardly recognizable. This almost seems like the magician showing all his tricks But I agree that it looks really nice! It's a lot more detailed than I had expected, even with the recent photo's they've posted
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt "This almost seems like the magician showing all his tricks" But isn't that kind of the point? If not it should be. And yes, it looks great. Too bad DL isn't getting this.
Originally Posted By Yookeroo "And yes, it looks great. Too bad DL isn't getting this." If they want to rip out the Storybookland Canal boats to put this in.....I approve.
Originally Posted By CuriousConstance Would this fit back in the old princess Fantasy Faire area? Oh but that Magic Map show is back there, isn't it?
Originally Posted By FerretAfros Without doing any Google Earth measuring to see how it would work, I would guess that the Mine train is roughly the same size as Casey Jr/Storybookland, the Fantasyland Theater, and Big Thunder Ranch areas combined; it's a BIG plot of land. And in DL where they're so tight on space, it seems like somewhat of a waste for such a low capacity ride. But if it's popular enough I'm sure they'll find a way to justify its existance in California. I can just hear it now: "Anaheim was first settled by Germand immigrants, who brought the fairy tale with them..."
Originally Posted By FerretAfros I just did some measuring, and it looks like Storybookland is WAY bigger than I realized. It still isn't big enough for the Mine Train, but it's a big chunk of that footprint The Mine Train site in MK is roughly the same dimensions as all of Toontown west of the little building the jail, mailboxes, dynamite, etc. (Basically the entire residential area, bathrooms, food court, Toontown Park, Five & Dime, and ramp under the DLRR). It's still a very large piece of land for an attraction that will only have marginally higher capacity than Gadget's Go-Coaster
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt "It's still a very large piece of land for an attraction that will only have marginally higher capacity than Gadget's Go-Coaster" You've confirmed this? How much capacity do Casey Jr. and the Canal Boats have?
Originally Posted By FerretAfros Casey Jr has 5 cars, each of which seat 4 guests (you can easily fit more if they're kids, particularly in the cages). The ride takes about 3 minutes, so if you assume that there are 2 trains running, you have a train leaving the station every 90 seconds. This computes to 800 guests per hour The Storybookland boats typically have about 15 passengers, and are dispatched at roughly 45 second intervals. This computes to 1,200 guests per hour. Combined, the two attractions have an hourly throughput of about 2,000 guests per hour Granted, we don't know the capacity of the Mine Train yet, but it's widely assumed to be lower. From photos of the trains running tests, there will be 5 4-person cars. In order to match the 2,000-person capacity, they would need to dispatch trains every 36 seconds, which seems pretty optimistic for this type of attraction (for reference, Space Mountain dispatches ever 20-40 seconds, depending how many rockets they're running). I believe they've said that they built 3 trains, so it seems unlikely that they would be able to meet that goal, even under ideal loading conditions That said, I'm sure that the Mine Train will have a much lower operating cost than Storybookland and Casey Jr, both of which require a lot of CMs to operate. Additionally, the maintenance is probably relatively high on them, since there's a lot of detailed landscaping to maintain, and the miniatures are all exposed to the elements, so there could be somewhat of an argument for the switch (though I can't imagine it would go over well among fans)
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt "The Storybookland boats typically have about 15 passengers, and are dispatched at roughly 45 second intervals." That sounds a bit optimistic. Maybe I'm wrong, but the times I've ridden it the intervals seemed a lot longer than 45 seconds.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros I know that they definitely load faster than Casey Jr, since you can see the train go past the "Storybook Land" topiary while you wait, and it doesn't come by as often as a boat leaves the dock. Even if they both dispatch at 90 second intervals, that gets us an overall hourly capacity of 1,400 which would be hard to match with the Mine Train (50 second dispatch interval; theoretically possible, but does not seem realistic with normal guests
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt Yeah, you're probably right. There'd have to be an additional attraction (Belle?) Included to soak up the masses.
Originally Posted By CuriousConstance I'd be willing to lose most of Toontown, but I'm sure that would create a problem for visiting Mickey since I know that's very popular. I'd like to have a general Fantasyland expansion take over ToonTown. But keep Roger Rabbit, and Mickey's meet and greet.
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt "I'd be willing to lose most of Toontown..." I think most people find it unnecessary. "... but I'm sure that would create a problem for visiting Mickey since I know that's very popular." They could do what they did in Florida and put his meet & greet in the Main Street Opera House. It makes more sense for Mickey to be up front near the park entrance rather than way in back to me.
Originally Posted By CuriousConstance That would work, especially since it would take a good many people out of the ever crowded Fantasyland area and move them into attraction ghostown Main St. Who do we need to call to make this happen?
