Originally Posted By Witches of Morva ORWEN: Since so many of you ducklings out there love meeting and greeting with the Disney characters almost as much as I do, I thought I'd give you all a heads up about Peter Pan's newest meet and greet location. It is located behind the queue line to his dark ride attraction back where a small rest room used to be. We had thought this would be turned into an interactive queue for guests and maybe it still will be. But for now they have painted a large map of Neverland on the wall and have Peter meeting and greeting with guests there. Sometimes Capt. Hook can be found there, too. ORGOCH: Thanks a lot! Just what I needed to know--where ta find Peter Pansey an' Capt. Hooker! Next thing ya know you'll be tellin' us where ta find Stinker Bell's new meet 'n greet! I can hardly wait!! ORWEN: Get another splinter in your hiney from your latest broom stick ride, old biddy???
Originally Posted By FerretAfros I was also under the impression (from general online rumors) that the old restroom would be turned into additional queue space, but this seems like as good a use of it as any. Instead of just adding an interactive queue, we'll still have the ride plus a new meet & greet. While it's not my personal cup of tea, it's another item added to the park's roster, which can only be a good thing
Originally Posted By Mickeymouseclub They could turn the Carousel of Progress into a revolving meetngreet. Makes it super easy for everybody.
Originally Posted By TP2000 I'm reading on other boards how the remaining "interactive queues" that NextGen was supposed to bring have been cut from the budget. The NextGen MagicBand and Fastpass+ programs are way over budget, and so they've cut the interactive queues from any future planning. The wear and tear and poor performance of the existing interactive queues at Mansion, Big Thunder, Pooh, Mermaid and Dumbo also played into this decision. It's a concept that just isn't working well, and American audiences are tearing these queue elements to shreds within months of their opening. Good thing they didn't ruin any Disneyland queues before they discovered this inconvenient truth out at WDW. Of course, many of us here could have told them this would have happened, but apparently WDI and TDO live in some alternate universe where their theme park guests are polite and sophisticated people.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros I agree that it was foolish to think that the interactive queues would hold up well against daily wear and tear. Any time you encourage a lot of people to touch something, it begins to have age very quickly; and encouraging it in certain queues will likely make it spread to other areas of the park where there aren't interactive features. The whole idea behind the push for interactive queues just seemed silly to me, so I'm glad they're stopping them >>...but apparently WDI and TDO live in some alternate universe where their theme park guests are polite and sophisticated people.<< From the people who brought you Stitch's Great Escape, full of bodily function jokes? I don't think there are are too many people in either WDI or TDO who think of the guests as either polite or sophisticated. I wish they did, but I just don't see the evidence to support that; only some ill-concieved ideas to make waiting in a standby queue less miserable
Originally Posted By tonyanton They would probably be able to maintain all of the new interactive queues (and the rest of the parks) if they had they same number of maintenance folks they had through the mid-90s.
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt "I agree that it was foolish to think that the interactive queues would hold up well against daily wear and tear." The interactive queue isn't a flawed concept, it's the poor maintenance that's the problem. It also isn't a new idea.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros They've had interactive elements in the past (like Indiana Jones at DL), but the maintenance has always been an issue. Even at places that get fewer guests touching things, like the Penny Arcade on Main Street or Innoventions, there always seems to be something that's not working. If it's not sustainable for large crowds of people interacting with it, perhaps it's best to keep it out of reach And to a certain extent, the interactive queues also encourage guests to touch props all over the parks. By having some things that are meant to be played with, I suspect that they will have more resort-wide wear and tear on items that are within reach
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt Including them as part of the guest experience is one thing. Proper design and maintenance is another. Personally I think tactile experiences add to the richness of the parks. One of the few strengths of Toontown are the things you can touch that trigger explosions, a barking dog, and talking manhole covers. Setting up scenarios in standby queues where story related props can be interacted with is one of those details that make people smile and distinguishes Disney from other theme park operators.
Originally Posted By TP2000 Hans, I just went to Knott's Berry Farm for the first time in years. Interactive queues aren't the only thing that distinguishes Disney from the others. I hadn't realize how low the standards had become at the other parks, quite frankly. There are still some major judgment errors on display with the broken down NextGen queues at WDW, but in so many other areas Disney is far and away better than the others. So many areas. Putting Knott's boysenberry jam on my toast in the morning now makes me sad.
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt Oh wow, that's terrible. I thought Knott's had made some sort of comeback.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros From what I've seen, the maintenance at Knott's has improved greatly recently, but it's still the same basic park. Although there's some nice stuff in the Ghost Town area, the overall execution on the themes around the park have a long way to go to match Disney's best. Combined with the huge rides looming above any attempt at a theme, and there's really only so much that good maintenance can do. From what I've seen, it's a great turnaround, but still doesn't really compare to Disney
