Originally Posted By standor It is cheaper to have a meet and greet because there are no repair costs. Once the costumes are made there is very little upkeep.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros But it also has a ridiculously low capacity. Although there are only a couple CMs needed to work it, fewer guests will be able to experience it. The 'per guest' cost of a meet & greet is actually quite high, especially when compared to an attraction like Snow White that has minimal staffing, straightforward maintenance, and decent hourly throughput. More advanced attractions that have a lot of special effects, complicated ride systems, and require a dozen or more CMs to operate (Tower of Terror, Dinosaur, etc) are able to get more guest through in an hour than a M&G, but may (or may not) be more expensive per guest. From my understanding, if a single M&G location is able to process 300 guests per hour, it's doing really well. Even the lowest capacity attractions, like Dumbo, get 500-600 guests per hour on average. Certain systems, like POTC, omnimovers, COP, and TTA are capable of handling well over 2,000 guests per hour. While most of those require more staffing than a M&G, proportionally, M&G's are very labor intensive to run.
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt "It is cheaper to have a meet and greet because there are no repair costs. Once the costumes are made there is very little upkeep." Costumes that are worn and for 16 hours a day don't need to be dry cleaned and repaired on a regular basis? The facility that houses the attraction doesn't have lighting, flooring or other features that need to be cleaned, fixed and maintained daily? "Although there are only a couple CMs needed to work it, fewer guests will be able to experience it." You're right, assuming that there's only one room to meet the Princesses, but I'm thinking that this might be like Mickey's Movie Barn, where there are multiple Mickey's hidden behind various doors, which of course would mean that the cost to operate the attraction would be even more.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip <<It's a lot cheaper to have a meet and greet than a computer generated ride. Disney is only concerned with the all mighty $$$$$$$$.>> Isn't it reasonable that Disney would build a meet and greet for Fantasyland? I don't know the plans in detail and haven't been to the MK for over a year. But I believe TWO meet and greets are being lost to the Fantasyland expansion... the one in Mickey's Toontown Fair and the one by where the subs used to be. Isn't it reasonable that they would devote space in Fantasyland to a new one? After all, they are EXTREMELY popular with the kids who are the primary target of FL. Besides, there will still be a Snow White themed attraction with the Mine Coaster, which I can guarantee will be far more popular than the dark ride ever was. I get really tired of this "Disney is only concerned about the $$$$$" BS. $$$$ are not always an indicator of how popular an attraction will be. They spent a fortune on Mission Space and most times of the year it is close to a walk-on.
Originally Posted By tashajilek "Isn't it reasonable that Disney would build a meet and greet for Fantasyland" I think noboby has a objection to adding a MG as well as keeping SW. Disneyland had pretty much no space and they managed to squeeze in a Tangled MG without removing any original attractions.
Originally Posted By tonyanton I'm still holding out hope for another dark ride (silly, I know)...but wouldn't a "Mickey's Mad House" be a great fit for both Storybook Circus and Paradise Pier at DCA? (this was a potential attraction developed back in the 1970s for "Dumbo's Circus" area of Disneyland that was never built, based on 1930s Mickey Mouse cartoons).
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt "Disneyland had pretty much no space and they managed to squeeze in a Tangled MG without removing any original attractions." I think that it's temporary until DL's Fantasyland gets its permanent Princess meet & greet next year.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros DL has had the 'permanent' (though temporary looking) Princess Fantasy Faire for about 6 years now, yet they opted not to have Rapunzel greet guests there. The 'temporary' (though permanent looking; less so with recent changes to the exterior) Tangled M&G still managed to find a home elsewhere, in a small shop that was seldom open (though in the 6 months prior to the M&G, it was open almost continuously, with 2 completely different setups, each with a really nice sign that disappeared when it closed). I can't think of any underutilized/unused spaces MK like the Christmas Shoppe/Wishing Star Crystals/Candy Shoppe that was in DL, but that doesn't mean that they need to replace a ride with a meet & greet. The original FL expansion plans called for some fairly major M&G locations, but they could have easily built several scaled-back facilities within the new footprint, and also include all of the other attractions that they're currently building. If WDW was short on space, I'd understand, but it has the 'blessing of size' to make up for that. And speaking of changed FLE plans, does anybody know what's going in the area that was originally slated for Pixie Hollow? It's located between The Little Mermaid and Storybook Circus, and was shown with a Mater's Junkyard Jamboree-like ride in early concept art. As far as I know, there hasn't been any announcement of how that space will be used. Why not add the meet & greets there, in addition to the current capacity they have right now with the existing Snow White ride?
Originally Posted By tonyanton Ferret...I think the repurposed tents are essentially in that spot. From aerial images, their appears very little space between TLM and the tents, most likely backstage access or landscaping to transition the two areas.
Originally Posted By Witches of Morva ORDDU: I see plenty of open spaces on the Fantasyland expansion map that could have housed a new princess Meet and Greet. I agree with the sentiment that if Disneyland can squeeze things in, so could the Magic Kingdom. ORWEN: Me too! Did you see how well they squeezed that fairly new seasonal restaurant in over by Pecos Bill's in Frontierland? It's called the Golden Nugget, I think. I used to just be an empty space but now it's a little nook for fast food loving guests.
Originally Posted By Witches of Morva ORWEN: Sorry! I meant to say 'it' used to be an empty space--not that I used to be. ORGOCH: Got that right! No space is empty when yer in it! Got lots a empty space in yer fool head, though! (Sounds of smackings and whackings on someones poor, tender head...)
Originally Posted By sjhym333 I agree. The best thing Disney could have done is update the Snow White ride and keep it running then put the new meet and greet in some other location in Fantasyland. There is plenty of space in the area to do it all. If I really had my way, they would have updated Snow White and Peter Pan also and relaunch Fantasyland
Originally Posted By Daannzzz I think this goes back to what a Spirit said years ago. Disney has done survey after survey and determined that people are "generally" happy if they get in X amount of attractions per day. There comes a point where , on average a park has enough attractions to accomplish the "generally happy" goal and at that point they do not need to add more and more attractions (never mind that that concept would exceed "generally happy) so you get to a point where when you want to add something new, something old has to go. Since the payroll on Snow White is sooooo expensive it can not stay with the new "expanded" Fantasyland.
Originally Posted By Kennesaw Tom <<Since the payroll on Snow White is sooooo expensive it can not stay with the new "expanded" Fantasyland.>> I really don't think payroll played a role in any decision to remove SWSA. I really can't see how SWSA required any more castmembers to run than anyother ride in Fantasyland. I think the determining factor was that the MK wanted to have a Princess meet and greet close to the castle in an enclosed air conditioned/ heated environment. I can't fault their reasoning here. But quite frankly a Princess meet and greet could have been accomplished anywhere in Fantasyland or in the "New" Fantasyland reclamation project. I dislike removing rides/ attractions in premier locations ( nearest to the castle ) for less desirable things as queue expansion ( in the case of Peter Pan ), or for Princess meet and greets.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip Less desirable in OUR minds. I think you would get a very different response from most young girls.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip We still enjoy the attractions (though I personally thought SW was the poorest of the three in FL) and we remember enjoying them as a kid. Because of that we can't understand why they would be removed, forgetting that today's kids have TOTALLY different interests. It all comes down to self-interest. We think that any attraction that we like is a great attraction, and those we don't like are terrible. I think I can safely say that LP'ers do NOT represent your typical WDW visitor.
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt I've read that the Princess Pavilion meet & greet location at DLP has waits of up to 40 minutes on some days.
Originally Posted By Witches of Morva ORWEN: Well, of course! Anybody who's every actually taken the time to meet a princess gets addicted to her! Why do you think all those princes love those girls so much?
Originally Posted By Witches of Morva ORGOCH: Heck! Them dang princes couldn't care less 'bout none a them prissy princesses! They's just pretendin' ta love 'em whilst what they's REALLY interested in is another prince!!!
