Great Movie Ride closes for Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway

[rteetz]

Which reminds me...you have to go to the left to see the Star Wars show. The launch point is awful and towers
For the show block all the bursts to the right

FYI

I was going to try for the dessert party to get a guaranteed spot.

 

[lockedoutlogic]

it's actually a new storyline for Frozen Ever After where you are traveling to the Ice Palace to see Elsa - so it mixes in elements from the original movie and the Frozen Fever short, etc.

It's a pretty lose story though but you can follow it

Ummm...you should try it with your eyes open...

It's poorly placed (overlay) animatronics and the frozen songs in 30 second snippets...
It is what it is

 

[rteetz]

It's an ok kiddie ride...
But as feared it's a very simple kiddie ride and it's now anchored in the world showplace.
It makes the three caballeros look like a graduate history course as far as cultural significance.

My problem isn't what's there...it's that the ride system is not working well now, it took an unreasonable amount of time and money.

"These things take time" doesn't justify the product.

And what was truly misguided from the start:
They could have just built a new omnimover...On the pad next door they wasted

It's always easier to knock down a house and build a new one than restore it...architectural fact.

But here...they had to take something OFFLine. That is symbolic of bad leadership in WDW and particularly Epcot.

I don't think you can blame imagineers here though. They were given the place and time frame they needed to get it done. I can garuantee imagineers would've rather built a completely new ride than build in the existing facility using the same ride system. I don't think this is Epcot leadership either. It goes straight to Burbank making that call.

 

[lockedoutlogic]

I was going to try for the dessert party to get a guaranteed spot.

...or just stand to the left in fairly light crowds...as opposed to giving Money to the beast

 

[lockedoutlogic]

18 months and a 9 figure budget?

Less money than tower or terror or splash mountain from scratch...even with inflation offset...
It's not all their fault...but this is not a "success" story if you're honest. It's not great on any level of the decision process.

 

[skier_pete]

The great movie Ride with partial recorded narration stinks...by the way. Just thought I'd mention that.

Just like the land

Actually - I don't think it stinks, but it's pretty stupid. You still have a CM in the cart - but they just sit there mute or either that or chat with a disembodied voice. Change for the sake of change. Dumb.

It's kinda unforgivable that they haven't added/updated that ride in 27 years though...isn't it?

Well, I will point out that with the exception of Aliens and Indiana Jones, everything in the GMR was 30 years old when the ride opened - which to me was a problem almost right from the beginning. I mean, I love these old movies, but again - it always felt to me more like the Great Movie History Museum than a ride. But sure, it doesn't help that now all these movies are 60-80 years old. As I've said, the only scene the EVER worked for me in the whole ride is the Wizard of Oz scene.

 

[rteetz]

...or just stand to the left in fairly light crowds...as opposed to giving Money to the beast

I wanted to do something special during my dopey challenge week.

 

[lockedoutlogic]

Ok. Now that's just funny.

How'd that pressure to provide more work out?

Sorry...that "should" motivate them...Eisner gave it a bit of a go on the 90's...

But then have largely ignored it.

 

[lockedoutlogic]

I wanted to do something special during my dopey challenge week.

Eat somewhere nice

 

[lockedoutlogic]

I personally think harkening to the golden age of Hollywood is a good concept and always has been...it's fascinating in many ways. And lends itself naturally to ties of walt Disney.

Watch the Aviator...even with dicaprio's awful performance it's still a great movie to watch...very interesting.

But I get that 20th century nostalgia is dying off...though it will have a renaissance when today's economic realities start to really set in/hit home.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

I have no recollection of any freezing effect when I went on it during our late June trip. I'm assuming it wasn't working back then.



I was thinking the same thing when I watched the Live Stream of them a couple weeks ago. All the explosions looked blocked. Maybe I'm in the minority...maybe it's due to my apathy for Star Wars...but I didn't think there was anything spectacular about watching clips of a movie projected onto a building...

The freezing effect was when you went backwards after seeing Elsa and then get engulfed by the fog - my kids loved that part!

We also saw the Star Wars Fireworks show and thought it was amazing - being in the middle of it and hearing Darth Vader's breathing behind you to the left, and then the right and then he appears on the building 3 stories high and the laser effects during the fight scenes - it really doesn't come through only watching a video of it

 

[rteetz]

Eat somewhere nice

Oh I am but I've never done a dessert party and felt the one to try is at DHS. That's beside the point though back to GMR and Mickey.

 

[mikepizzo]

Still don't remember the cold but remember the fog v0v.

And fair enough with the Star Wars fireworks. I still think I'd be underwhelmed in person, but that's probably just because of my personal opinions in regards to Star Wars.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

I was going to try for the dessert party to get a guaranteed spot.

we did the dessert party and really liked it - good food and unlimited adult beverages, the storm troopers come by through the area, you can trade with the jawas, etc. - and then was great to have a dedicated spot to walk out to without having to wait (and having a good spot does matter for this show).

Plus you get a Chewie stein if that matters to you (granted, now we have 5 and don't really need all of them)

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Still don't remember the cold but remember the fog v0v.

And fair enough with the Star Wars fireworks. I still think I'd be underwhelmed in person, but that's probably just because of my personal opinions in regards to Star Wars.

That's possible and obviously not everything is for everyone. I know some people that think Illuminations is the best night time show they have and others that think it is terrible

I will say I have heard reports from people that don't like Star Wars and still loved the show - but obviously liking Star Wars helps

 

[k8Davies]

Sorry being fantastically lazy and have not read through the whole post - but is the close down date right? 2017? won't that mean there's another thing closed before the new stuff opens.

Wouldn't it be more prudent to wait until TS land opens before shutting down something else?

As at this rate there'll be no attraction left.

again apologies if this has already been discussed to death before I got caught up

 

[Princess Minnie of Disney]

This is really exciting news, I've never done the GMR and always felt it was out of place in DHS especially now with the new expansion. A Mickey ride thou sounds awesome and does pay true homage to the mouse that started it all. Plus, they can market it as the first ride with the mouse. I can't wait to see it!

 

[rteetz]

Sorry being fantastically lazy and have not read through the whole post - but is the close down date right? 2017? won't that mean there's another thing closed before the new stuff opens.

Wouldn't it be more prudent to wait until TS land opens before shutting down something else?

As at this rate there'll be no attraction left.

again apologies if this has already been discussed to death before I got caught up

Yes this will close before anything opens.

 

[rteetz]

This is really exciting news, I've never done the GMR and always felt it was out of place in DHS especially now with the new expansion. A Mickey ride thou sounds awesome and does pay true homage to the mouse that started it all. Plus, they can market it as the first ride with the mouse. I can't wait to see it!

With the former theme of the park it wasn't out of place. It was a center piece attraction about some of the greatest movies ever made.

 

[dreiwhit]

Yeah we'll see how Star Wars land as a whole works. I enjoyed the original ones, the prequels...yeah not so much..and I enjoyed that most recent one for the most part. I was never a big fan of Toy Story *gasp* so I'm kinda indifferent to that new area. Maybe if I have kids when I next go I might feel differently. I'm glad they are getting things finally done but just like I said sucky timing for me.

I've been a fan of Star Wars since 1977. I'm sure i'll go once to check out the Star Wars land once, but it won't be a "sell the farm and put the kids to work so I can go to Star Wars land for the umpteenth time" thing for me. For what its worth, i've never been a Toy Story fan, and my kids aren't either. We'll go at least once, but its a "meh" for us.

It's poorly placed (overlay) animatronics and the frozen songs in 30 second snippets...
It is what it is

Its also a way for Frozen crazy pre-tween girls to get their parents to go on a ride. We're going the next time we go to Disney, but only because my daughter wants to go on it. IMHO, i'm really, really, really sick of Frozen. Disney has run that one into the ground.

So I'm curious - I realize many people like the GMR, but does anyone consider it a true "E-ticket"? (And while I hate that term in referring to new rides - MY definition of an E-ticket is that it ranks as the highest must-do/popular ride.) I myself would put the GMR below every other ride in DHS - below Star Tours, ToT, RnRC, and TSMM.

FWIW, I consider GMR as an E-ticket ride for me. For the rest, I was underwhelmed with Star Tours - I though Mission Space was much better. I did enjoy TSMM and I scored better than my wife for bragging rights, but I can remember telling her that if I had just waited an hour for this, I would have been very angry. I was also underwhelmed by the Muppet Theater, and I really like the Muppets. Fantasmic also left me feeling underwhelmed.

IMHO, for us, DHS is rapidly turning into a park that we don't enjoy going to.