Laughingplace.com has pictures and video of the soft opening of the new Winnie attraction at Disneyland. It is appears to be nicer than I expected (of course my expectations were low).
New Winnie Preview up at Laughingplace.com
- Thread starter MikePezz
- Start date
www.mouseinfo.com has a preview too. Looks ok, nothing spectacular.
If you read comments from people on Disneyland discussion boards who have already been on the Pooh ride, there seem to be two major groups: those who think it's OK, and those who flat out hate it. Many people who have ridden it say the videos online make the ride out to be much better than it actually is.
Apparently the DL Pooh has fewer sets, characters and effects than the Florida version, and suffers from several gaps of nothingness between scenes and a confusing, disjointed storyline.
The theming of the ride's exterior and queue are getting high marks all around, though, and everyone is raving about the ride soundtrack, oddly enough.
I'm interested to see what the general public reaction will be when DL's Pooh officially opens.
Apparently the DL Pooh has fewer sets, characters and effects than the Florida version, and suffers from several gaps of nothingness between scenes and a confusing, disjointed storyline.
The theming of the ride's exterior and queue are getting high marks all around, though, and everyone is raving about the ride soundtrack, oddly enough.
I'm interested to see what the general public reaction will be when DL's Pooh officially opens.
airlarry!
Did you know some ferns date back to Prehistoric t
- Joined
- May 30, 2000
I'd like to know the problem here with DL's Winnie the Pooh.
Why didn't they get a version of the TDL Winnie, especially with the big anniversary coming up?
Who was in charge of this attraction? Was it a WDI creation? Was it the Development group--the Cali Adventure guys--who did it? Or was it a combination of the two?
Why didn't they get a version of the TDL Winnie, especially with the big anniversary coming up?
Who was in charge of this attraction? Was it a WDI creation? Was it the Development group--the Cali Adventure guys--who did it? Or was it a combination of the two?
I can only speak about the Tokyo and Florida versions since I've ridden both. Tokyo was far better, but I can definitely see the different intended target audiences according to different pundits that I've read. The reasoning is that the Florida version will be enjoyed mostly by families with small children, while the Tokyo version will be ridden muchly by shop girls and office ladies - single and married women with money to burn who love plush toys and Pooh. Not to mention Tokyo DL is a major dating scene and I'm sure girls love to get plush toys for their birthdays and the like. Thus, the reasoning is that the ride there has to be better and more sophisticated to draw these people and their bulging wallets to the park. That's what I've read anyway. The bottom line is that the Florida Pooh is cute, but the Tokyo Pooh is awesome.
d-r
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- Joined
- May 31, 2000
The main thing that is better about Pooh-san's honey hunt over wdw's pooh is the free-motion ride vehicles, imho. It's more than just a nifty "wow" factor that they aren't on tracks. I don't know if I have the writing ability to explain it, but the free moving cars are just amazingly better because they allow for more fun and interesting movements. For example, say that there are three cars about to go up to the scene of Tigger bouncing. The cars can move around each other so that the last car goes to the front, the front car to the middle, the middle to the back. I'm not explaining that very well, but it really is a great improvement. And in the huffalumps and woozles scene it is really great, because the cars can spin around and zoom around each other - I'm not explaining this very well, but it is a real improvement. It is like aquatopia, only indoors, the cars move as freely, up to scenes, back out, spin around, etc. like the aquatopia cars do.
That's really the big improvement over wdw, imho. THere are a couple of minor improvements - when pooh falls asleep and the dream pooh flies out, the whole scene turns into a star field with an effet that feels like the one in tower of terror. The animatronics may have a more full range of motion, I'm not really sure though, but sometimes they seemed a little more interesting.
The cue is also better at tokyo, in some ways, but it is maddening, too, because there is so much cue. There is about 15-20 minutes worth of cue beyond the fast pass entry. The first part is much better than wdw, with a walk outside Pooh's house and around Pooh-san's garden, which is cute. Who knew that Pooh kept a Japanese garden? You go in to the house through a gardening workshop, and that is cute. But then there are pages and pages of walking through giant ply-wood type book pages that form cues. Kind of like the pages outside WDW's version. That part is a drag, if you ask me. All in all, though, Tokyo's cue is better than WDW's, which suffers from the same problem as all of wdw's fantasyland.
What the wdw version has that is better than Tokyo is the "when the rain, rain, rain, came down, down, down" scene. That just isn't there in Tokyo, and that is one of my favorite parts. No flood in Tokyo, no swaying car, no flood scene at all. The Tokyo version is basically just Tigger bouncing, pooh's dream - huffalumps & woozles, and the end party, iirc. I may be missing something, but it seems shorter than wdw without that portion. I think that the huffalumps and wozzles section is probably longer in Tokyo, or at least you spend more time in there with your ride vehicle zooming in and around.
Both WDW and Tokyo have a scene were Tigger pops up and invites you to bounce with him. The disneyland ride doesn't bounce at all. Apparently, it constantly sways back and forth, although only mildly, like you would expect to cut in during the flood scene. The comments that I have seen about disneyland's are that the animatronics are especially poor, like disney store window type displays.
We're going to disneyland in the fall and I look forward to riding it there, and thereby becoming the all knowing rider of all pooh rides in the world
As it is right now, I would rate Tokyo's version higher than WDW's, but not the quantum leap of difference that you might expect - the ride vehicles are a quantum leap forward, but the overall ride, without the flood scene, seems shorter and missing something. So that's my opinion - Tokyo's is certainly superior, but not by an amazing amount, to me. I don't know if wtg2000 will agree with me though!!! The whole dream scene, from pooh falling asleep through the huffalumps and woozles in Tokyo is absolutely awesome though! Absolutely. The Tokyo version is on par with Pirates, HM, and Splash; the wdw version is more on par with peter pan or Buzz.
That said, I agree with wtg200 about some of the reasoning behind the different ride vehicles - there are aiming at a l different group, with more families riding it at wdw and more mature audience and office ladies in Tokyo. I guess they figured it wasn't worth the bucks in Calilfornia for the ride vehicles, which is a shame really. It seems to me that most of the cost in retro-fitting bear hall would be installing the ride vehicles. Intead of laying that track they could have used the trackless ones. It wasn't like in Toad hall where there was track already. I'm sure it would have cost more, but the development costs have already been paid by OLC so why not benefit from that?? Plus, it doesn't seem to me like the animatronics could have cost that much more. It seems a shame to loose the bear animatronics for very simple ones. If it is worth doing, it should be worth doing right the first time.
I wonder what happened to the bears.
DR
That's really the big improvement over wdw, imho. THere are a couple of minor improvements - when pooh falls asleep and the dream pooh flies out, the whole scene turns into a star field with an effet that feels like the one in tower of terror. The animatronics may have a more full range of motion, I'm not really sure though, but sometimes they seemed a little more interesting.
The cue is also better at tokyo, in some ways, but it is maddening, too, because there is so much cue. There is about 15-20 minutes worth of cue beyond the fast pass entry. The first part is much better than wdw, with a walk outside Pooh's house and around Pooh-san's garden, which is cute. Who knew that Pooh kept a Japanese garden? You go in to the house through a gardening workshop, and that is cute. But then there are pages and pages of walking through giant ply-wood type book pages that form cues. Kind of like the pages outside WDW's version. That part is a drag, if you ask me. All in all, though, Tokyo's cue is better than WDW's, which suffers from the same problem as all of wdw's fantasyland.
What the wdw version has that is better than Tokyo is the "when the rain, rain, rain, came down, down, down" scene. That just isn't there in Tokyo, and that is one of my favorite parts. No flood in Tokyo, no swaying car, no flood scene at all. The Tokyo version is basically just Tigger bouncing, pooh's dream - huffalumps & woozles, and the end party, iirc. I may be missing something, but it seems shorter than wdw without that portion. I think that the huffalumps and wozzles section is probably longer in Tokyo, or at least you spend more time in there with your ride vehicle zooming in and around.
Both WDW and Tokyo have a scene were Tigger pops up and invites you to bounce with him. The disneyland ride doesn't bounce at all. Apparently, it constantly sways back and forth, although only mildly, like you would expect to cut in during the flood scene. The comments that I have seen about disneyland's are that the animatronics are especially poor, like disney store window type displays.
We're going to disneyland in the fall and I look forward to riding it there, and thereby becoming the all knowing rider of all pooh rides in the world
As it is right now, I would rate Tokyo's version higher than WDW's, but not the quantum leap of difference that you might expect - the ride vehicles are a quantum leap forward, but the overall ride, without the flood scene, seems shorter and missing something. So that's my opinion - Tokyo's is certainly superior, but not by an amazing amount, to me. I don't know if wtg2000 will agree with me though!!! The whole dream scene, from pooh falling asleep through the huffalumps and woozles in Tokyo is absolutely awesome though! Absolutely. The Tokyo version is on par with Pirates, HM, and Splash; the wdw version is more on par with peter pan or Buzz.That said, I agree with wtg200 about some of the reasoning behind the different ride vehicles - there are aiming at a l different group, with more families riding it at wdw and more mature audience and office ladies in Tokyo. I guess they figured it wasn't worth the bucks in Calilfornia for the ride vehicles, which is a shame really. It seems to me that most of the cost in retro-fitting bear hall would be installing the ride vehicles. Intead of laying that track they could have used the trackless ones. It wasn't like in Toad hall where there was track already. I'm sure it would have cost more, but the development costs have already been paid by OLC so why not benefit from that?? Plus, it doesn't seem to me like the animatronics could have cost that much more. It seems a shame to loose the bear animatronics for very simple ones. If it is worth doing, it should be worth doing right the first time.
I wonder what happened to the bears.
DR
I'm not sure about the length of each ride. The Tokyo ride seemed to have much more to it. I certainly enjoyed it much more. You're right that Tokyo doesn't have the rain scene. Perhaps it was hard to get the honey pots to act like a boat. And, there are different scenes to compensate.
The ride vehicles do make the major difference and that is important. Imagine going through Test Track on the boats from Small World!
The ride vehicles do make the major difference and that is important. Imagine going through Test Track on the boats from Small World!
d-r
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- Joined
- May 31, 2000
Here is a piece from the LA times about DL's 
http://www.calendarlive.com/family/themeparks/cl-wk-kids10apr10.story
http://www.calendarlive.com/family/themeparks/cl-wk-kids10apr10.story
Yeah, Country Bears was an E-Ticket attraction.
Everything I've heard about DL's Pooh is that it isn't as good as Florida Pooh, but the queue is nice. One thing I will say though, as much as I liked Country Bears (DL used to dress it up for chirstmas and do a different Chirstmas show. It was pretty cool) I LOVE Mr. Toad's wild Ride and Disneyland still has Mr. Toad's, so Neener Neener
to you Florida suckers.
Everything I've heard about DL's Pooh is that it isn't as good as Florida Pooh, but the queue is nice. One thing I will say though, as much as I liked Country Bears (DL used to dress it up for chirstmas and do a different Chirstmas show. It was pretty cool) I LOVE Mr. Toad's wild Ride and Disneyland still has Mr. Toad's, so Neener Neener
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