I'm only asking because...

[101disneyfan]

I was wondering if anybody knows anything about a possible replacement for one of my personal favorites, The Great Movie Ride. I only ask because we were there last week, and noticed that TGMR now features Fastpass Plus.

I'm just saying that I never thought that The Great Movie Ride would require a Fastpass, and it never used a regular fastpass. However, could they be adding FP to the building and maybe putting a new attraction in there?

Sad because this is one of my favorites, and my first ever Disney attraction, but I thought that I would throw it out there to see if anyone had something to say about this.

 

[Horace Horsecollar]

With the advent of FASTPASS PLUS, Disney has added a number of attractions that were not previously FASTPASS attractions. This increases how many attractions are available to guests picking their FASTPASS attractions from home.

If Disney ever decides to close The Great Movie Ride in favor of a new attraction in that location, chances are it will be a two-year process. Any new attraction in that location is likely to have FASTPASS PLUS because it's new. There would be plenty of time to integrate FASTPASS PLUS into the new attraction queue.

If anything, I would take the introduction of FASTPASS PLUS to The Great Movie Ride as an indication that the current ride is going to stay around for the foreseeable future.

 

[cmwade77]

With the advent of FASTPASS PLUS, Disney has added a number of attractions that were not previously FASTPASS attractions. This increases how many attractions are available to guests picking their FASTPASS attractions from home.

If Disney ever decides to close The Great Movie Ride in favor of a new attraction in that location, chances are it will be a two-year process. Any new attraction in that location is likely to have FASTPASS PLUS because it's new. There would be plenty of time to integrate FASTPASS PLUS into the new attraction queue.

If anything, I would take the introduction of FASTPASS PLUS to The Great Movie Ride as an indication that the current ride is going to stay around for the foreseeable future.

I agree completely with this.

 

[101disneyfan]

Thank you both for your opinions and insight.

I love The Great Movie Ride and it was my first Disney attraction.

I'm very happy to hear this, because I had read that a new Star Wars dark ride attraction was planned to replace TGMR.

 

[DCTooTall]

Thank you both for your opinions and insight.

I love The Great Movie Ride and it was my first Disney attraction.

I'm very happy to hear this, because I had read that a new Star Wars dark ride attraction was planned to replace TGMR.

There are a ton of Star Wars based rumors floating around ever since Disney started their Star Wars Weekends, and they've gone into high gear since the Lucasfilm Acquisition. I wouldn't put too much stock in any of the rumors at this point.


And as the previous posters mention, Disney has been going around and throwing Fastpass Plus onto a TON of attractions which don't really need it (and even hacking up some classic shows in order to be fit FP+ and additional showtimes in), all in the name of padding the fastpass availability to be used by the new system. I see it as equal parts Advertising/driving guests to less popular attractions, Helping further direct guest flow thru the parks by telling them to ride xxx attraction at certain times, and useless additions to help inflate the system and make it seem like a bigger deal for those who aren't familiar with the parks and the number crunchers.

 

[ls3015]

It might be possible that disney will be updateing the ride, adding in some recent films, just saying some of the older ones are just that old,
still one of my favoite rides.

 

[Josh Hendy]

It might be possible that disney will be updateing the ride, adding in some recent films, just saying some of the older ones are just that old,
still one of my favoite rides.

It's a classic ride alright and has lots of potential to be improved. My whole family got tired of it after the second time we rode it. The queue is not very fun (winding through the movie theater) ... and would you update the movies already! My kids have absolutely no clue who are John Wayne, Clint Eastwood or James Cagney and they don't need to be reminded on every trip to WDW (as if this is an important fact) that 'those two old guys you never heard of actually never made a movie together'.

The whole ride reeks of the 1980s, and not in a good, nostalgic way.

Movies are still tremendously exciting to people of all ages, but especially to young people. Put the movies that young people find exciting into the attraction, or don't have the attraction at all.

You can mix it up with classic movies but at least make the sets and animatronics modular or something so that you can swap them in and out every couple of years. When they make movies they create beautiful sets in just weeks or days and tear them down again, surely you could do the same on the GMR. It doesn't have to be heavy-duty construction, as long as it's fireproof and the ride 'track' and emergency exits are accomodated.

 

[ls3015]

It's a classic ride alright and has lots of potential to be improved. My whole family got tired of it after the second time we rode it. The queue is not very fun (winding through the movie theater) ... and would you update the movies already! My kids have absolutely no clue who are John Wayne, Clint Eastwood or James Cagney and they don't need to be reminded on every trip to WDW (as if this is an important fact) that 'those two old guys you never heard of actually never made a movie together'.

The whole ride reeks of the 1980s, and not in a good, nostalgic way.

Movies are still tremendously exciting to people of all ages, but especially to young people. Put the movies that young people find exciting into the attraction, or don't have the attraction at all.

You can mix it up with classic movies but at least make the sets and animatronics modular or something so that you can swap them in and out every couple of years. When they make movies they create beautiful sets in just weeks or days and tear them down again, surely you could do the same on the GMR. It doesn't have to be heavy-duty construction, as long as it's fireproof and the ride 'track' and emergency exits are accomodated.

Yep, I'll agree with this, now if only we could talk disney into changeing the movie attractions into more current movies. How ever Disney must be up to something if they are adding fast past to the ride, I have never seen a backup of more than a 20 min wait, as it now sets I wounldn't think the fast pass is needed.

 

[BuzzBelleMom]

I love old movies, but even I have to admit that the ride needs some major updating.

(And confess that one of my biggest fears is to be trapped in the Oz scene while the Munchkins are singing...and I do not mind getting stuck on rides, but not this one.)

 

[DCTooTall]

You can mix it up with classic movies but at least make the sets and animatronics modular or something so that you can swap them in and out every couple of years. When they make movies they create beautiful sets in just weeks or days and tear them down again, surely you could do the same on the GMR. It doesn't have to be heavy-duty construction, as long as it's fireproof and the ride 'track' and emergency exits are accomodated.

Sadly it's not that simple. With movie sets they don't need to last long, or deal with the same type of "repeat the same action every 3 minutes for 12hrs a day, 365 days a year" wear and tear that attraction sets have to deal with. Movie sets are also often designed to only be seen from 1 or 2 carefully controlled angles (due to the camera), and not by sets of human eyes moving through them. It means that the each setpiece and item in there has to be built to a higher standard than your standard movie set.

Yep, I'll agree with this, now if only we could talk disney into changeing the movie attractions into more current movies. How ever Disney must be up to something if they are adding fast past to the ride, I have never seen a backup of more than a 20 min wait, as it now sets I wounldn't think the fast pass is needed.

Absolutely Disney is up to something. They are up to padding the fast-pass capacity of Studios park. The Current Fastpass attractions a few and far between in that park and in no way would be able to single-handedly support the demands on the system once they start actively pushing everybody to pre-book their fastpasses within the new system. The result is that Disney has been adding Fastpass to attractions that have never needed it before in all the parks (including attractions that had fastpass at one time, but then had it removed because it really wasn't needed...such as the Haunted Mansion) in order to increase the overall fastpass availability in all the parks.

The addition of fastpass to attractions should in no way be a hint that Disney is planning on actually touching the attraction itself.

 

[ls3015]

Sadly it's not that simple. With movie sets they don't need to last long, or deal with the same type of "repeat the same action every 3 minutes for 12hrs a day, 365 days a year" wear and tear that attraction sets have to deal with. Movie sets are also often designed to only be seen from 1 or 2 carefully controlled angles (due to the camera), and not by sets of human eyes moving through them. It means that the each setpiece and item in there has to be built to a higher standard than your standard movie set..

It Sounds like you just might be overthinking this a little bit, Disney is great at makeing large changes overnite, I seen them turn the castle into a large cake once in just one night, pretty neat.

Absolutely Disney is up to something. They are up to padding the fast-pass capacity of Studios park. The Current Fastpass attractions a few and far between in that park and in no way would be able to single-handedly support the demands on the system once they start actively pushing everybody to pre-book their fastpasses within the new system. The result is that Disney has been adding Fastpass to attractions that have never needed it before in all the parks (including attractions that had fastpass at one time, but then had it removed because it really wasn't needed...such as the Haunted Mansion) in order to increase the overall fastpass availability in all the parks.

The addition of fastpass to attractions should in no way be a hint that Disney is planning on actually touching the attraction itself.

I believe you are overthinking things here also, Disney is not one to spend or add needlessly, they are in a cut back, how to get another dollar mood, so lets just wait and see what change happens at WDW in the coming year.

 

[DCTooTall]

It Sounds like you just might be overthinking this a little bit, Disney is great at makeing large changes overnite, I seen them turn the castle into a large cake once in just one night, pretty neat.




I believe you are overthinking things here also, Disney is not one to spend or add needlessly, they are in a cut back, how to get another dollar mood, so lets just wait and see what change happens at WDW in the coming year.

LOL.... Not the first time I've been accused of overthinking things.

And true, I've seen Disney do some amazing overnight transformations before, but I don't think it would be cost effective for them to approve the idea of designing sets to be swapped in and out quickly in the GMR. I also wonder how easy it would be to have pre-built sets to move in and out of the attraction in a short time like that. [Think about the month+ it takes to install the holiday overlays in Disneyland] (Oh! and For the Record... i remember seeing the Castle when it was being painted Pink before they put the inflatable candle decorations on it. It wasn't an overnight transformation either)


And Adding Fastpass+ to an attraction that didn't need it isn't really "spending needlessly". In order for the MASSIVE investment in the fastpass+ system to work, there have to be fastpasses for guests to reserve in advance. There also has to be enough of them to make people see a "value" in the system and want to use it. Currently, there is not enough fastpass capacity in several of the parks to allow the system to really work on the scale Disney wants it to. MGM has only 4 attractions currently with fastpass [that I can think of]... ToT, Toy story, RnRC, and Star Tours. Those 4 attractions cannot support by themselves the Reserve your Fastpass system for every guest who would want to visit that park, so they need to find a way to increase the total fastpass capacity at the park. Since they can't build another Tower of Terror, the cheapest and easiest way to do it would be to add fastpass to other attractions and shows.


There is also the social engineering aspect of the new system. Disney has stated that one of the ideas of the whole nextgen project (with things like it's cell phone alerts aspect) is to help distribute the crowds evenly around the park to try and make more efficient use of the overall park capacity. Lets say they have 10,000 guests in the Fantasyland section checking out the attractions in New Fantasyland, and classics like Small world, Peter Pan, and Pooh. Currently this crowd could end up being a moving clog thru the park as the day continues since Disney has no way to help direct a crowd this large. The Idea is that with Nextgen, thru the alerts.... and also the fastpass "packages", That disney could take these 10,000 people, and try and help break the group up by sending some towards tomorrowland via their next Fastpass, Others towards the Haunted Mansion or Frontierland.... and maybe even a 3rd group back to Adventureland and the Jungle Cruise/Pirates, which for many guests who still follow the clockwise/counter-clockwise touring pattern, is not part of their natural tendency to basically head back towards the front of the park from the back.

 

[101disneyfan]

This may be a bit off topic, but if the Animation Courtyard would ever way down the road become a later phase of Pixar Place, they could replace The Great Movie Ride if they needed to move One Man's Dream out of that area. It would be considered a great signature attraction to the theme park.
Just thought I'd throw it out there as an idea.

 

[ls3015]

LOL.... Not the first time I've been accused of overthinking things.

And true, I've seen Disney do some amazing overnight transformations before, but I don't think it would be cost effective for them to approve the idea of designing sets to be swapped in and out quickly in the GMR. I also wonder how easy it would be to have pre-built sets to move in and out of the attraction in a short time like that. [Think about the month+ it takes to install the holiday overlays in Disneyland] (Oh! and For the Record... i remember seeing the Castle when it was being painted Pink before they put the inflatable candle decorations on it. It wasn't an overnight transformation either)


And Adding Fastpass+ to an attraction that didn't need it isn't really "spending needlessly". In order for the MASSIVE investment in the fastpass+ system to work, there have to be fastpasses for guests to reserve in advance. There also has to be enough of them to make people see a "value" in the system and want to use it. Currently, there is not enough fastpass capacity in several of the parks to allow the system to really work on the scale Disney wants it to. MGM has only 4 attractions currently with fastpass [that I can think of]... ToT, Toy story, RnRC, and Star Tours. Those 4 attractions cannot support by themselves the Reserve your Fastpass system for every guest who would want to visit that park, so they need to find a way to increase the total fastpass capacity at the park. Since they can't build another Tower of Terror, the cheapest and easiest way to do it would be to add fastpass to other attractions and shows.


There is also the social engineering aspect of the new system. Disney has stated that one of the ideas of the whole nextgen project (with things like it's cell phone alerts aspect) is to help distribute the crowds evenly around the park to try and make more efficient use of the overall park capacity. Lets say they have 10,000 guests in the Fantasyland section checking out the attractions in New Fantasyland, and classics like Small world, Peter Pan, and Pooh. Currently this crowd could end up being a moving clog thru the park as the day continues since Disney has no way to help direct a crowd this large. The Idea is that with Nextgen, thru the alerts.... and also the fastpass "packages", That disney could take these 10,000 people, and try and help break the group up by sending some towards tomorrowland via their next Fastpass, Others towards the Haunted Mansion or Frontierland.... and maybe even a 3rd group back to Adventureland and the Jungle Cruise/Pirates, which for many guests who still follow the clockwise/counter-clockwise touring pattern, is not part of their natural tendency to basically head back towards the front of the park from the back.

Yep I agree, I hope disney continues to add new things like the fantasyland addition and update old things. The last few years it just feels as though Disney has been cutting back chargeing more and giving less, the returning quests people get bored of the old and want to see new for the price of their travel, lets hope the Disney Suits can see ahead towards the future. Ever since Eislaman was run off, WDW seems to have become stagnate.