RIP Maelstrom

[ssphillips]

They have been closing a number of rides/attractions almost immediately after announcing their closure. Would have liked to experienced Maelstrom 1 more time on my visit this weekend.

 

[999DoomBuggies]

As we speak the last maelstrom rides are occurring. This is a sad day in disney theme park history. Frankly, this is an acknowledgement of poor management.

 

[wiscbugs]

I find it odd that nobody ever talked about Maelstrom before and now everyone acts like the world is coming to an end. The ride is "meh" at best.... my kids rode it in June and didn't care for it. It was ok but nothing better than you can see at Six Flags or any other amusement park. I think the new Frozen ride will be a great upgrade and I am sure my kids (and my wife and I) will enjoy the ride much more!

 

[999DoomBuggies]

I find it odd that nobody ever talked about Maelstrom before and now everyone acts like the world is coming to an end. The ride is "meh" at best.... my kids rode it in June and didn't care for it. It was ok but nothing better than you can see at Six Flags or any other amusement park. I think the new Frozen ride will be a great upgrade and I am sure my kids (and my wife and I) will enjoy the ride much more!

This is the problem. The respect for the dark rides of old is slim to none when it comes to wdw visitors.

Can you tell me how a frozen overlay is all the sudden going to vastly improve this ride? Tell me this, is Winnie the Pooh overlay an improvement over mr. toads wild ride? In my opinion, the Winnie the Pooh overlay has had no added benefit.

Maelstrom is original imagineering. It is the type of imagineering that could spawn a movie, e.g pirates of the Caribbean. A maelstrom movie would be insanely great.

One day when Winnie's the pooh or Ariel's under the sea adventure closes you will not find the same fallout as you did with maelstrom, horizons, mr toad, etc.

 

[mesaboy2]

This is the problem. The respect for the dark rides of old is slim to none when it comes to wdw visitors.

Can you tell me how a frozen overlay is all the sudden going to vastly improve this ride? Tell me this, is Winnie the Pooh overlay an improvement over mr. toads wild ride? In my opinion, the Winnie the Pooh overlay has had no added benefit.

Maelstrom is original imagineering. It is the type of imagineering that could spawn a movie, e.g pirates of the Caribbean. A maelstrom movie would be insanely great.

One day when Winnie's the pooh or Ariel's under the sea adventure closes you will not find the same fallout as you did with maelstrom, horizons, mr toad, etc.

That the ride will be down for over a year strongly suggests this will be more than a simple overlay. I may be pipe-dreaming, but if they were to go in the direction of a trackless dark ride I think it could be a big improvement to Maelstrom. Just my humble opinion.

 

[MickeyMinnie1971]

We rode for the last time around 6:30. We had a FP, but the posted wait time was 65 minutes. Last I saw it was 100 min. There was security at the ride entrance.

 

[999DoomBuggies]

We rode for the last time around 6:30. We had a FP, but the posted wait time was 65 minutes. Last I saw it was 100 min. There was security at the ride entrance.

I saw the time as high as 130 minutes. Pretty pumped that maelstrom is going down with a lot if love.

 

[999DoomBuggies]

That the ride will be down for over a year strongly suggests this will be more than a simple overlay. I may be Pipe-dreaming, but if they were to go in the direction of a trackless dark ride I think it could be a big improvement to Maelstrom. Just my humble opinion.

Trackless would be pretty incredible. I believe, knowing current disney management, that this frozen ride will end up being on the same exact track with an Ariel type of overlay. I just can't see disney throwing more bucks into this project knowing how extended they are with MDE and avatarland.

Either way, i will attend per usual. Wdw already has all of us hard liners. Sometimes we win with something new and sometimes we don't.

 

[Planogirl]

Trackless would be pretty incredible. I believe, knowing current disney management, that this frozen ride will end up being on the same exact track with an Ariel type of overlay. I just can't see disney throwing more bucks into this project knowing how extended they are with MDE and avatarland.

Either way, i will attend per usual. Wdw already has all of us hard liners. Sometimes we win with something new and sometimes we don't.

Oh, they've run off a few hard liners. Believe me I know.

 

[Disneylover99]

I find it odd that nobody ever talked about Maelstrom before and now everyone acts like the world is coming to an end.

Not odd at all. There are lots of rides at Dw that aren't frequently talked about.....Carousel of Progress comes to mind. But you can bet if it was on the chopping block, people would talk about it.

 

[Disneylover99]

I saw the time as high as 130 minutes. Pretty pumped that maelstrom is going down with a lot if love.

Nice.

 

[Disneylover99]

I guess it's officially closed by now.

 

[999DoomBuggies]

I guess it's officially closed by now.

i just threw up on my kids when i explained to them that Maelstrom has just passed away.

 

[Lurch]

Very sad about this. I would have much preferred that they update Maelstrom instead of doing away with it.

In all fairness, Disney does need to add more princesses. There is so much focused on boys and not enough on girls. We can do without a ride featuring trolls with such a dearth of princess attractions in the parks. Probably should bulldoze "One Man's Dream" while they are at it to expand Wandering Oakens Trading post.

I recently returned from a trip and I can honestly say my entire family was sick to death of Frozen by the time we left.

 

[999DoomBuggies]

Very sad about this. I would have much preferred that they update Maelstrom instead of doing away with it.

In all fairness, Disney does need to add more princesses. There is so much focused on boys and not enough on girls. We can do without a ride featuring trolls with such a dearth of princess attractions in the parks. Probably should bulldoze "One Man's Dream" while they are at it to expand Wandering Oakens Trading post.

I recently returned from a trip and I can honestly say my entire family was sick to death of Frozen by the time we left.

all good points. I would love to see Olaf take over as host of the Carousel of Progress. Like you, I feel like there are not enough disney princess experiences. If we could only get more group breaking attractions like Under the Sea Adventures with Aerial then times would be good. I wonder if Disney considered having Olaf chop wood with the new cast in the Canada pavilion. There is snow in Arendelle and there is snow in Canada so this is a perfect fit.

 

[epcotty]

I really hope there was some sarcasm in the last posts, otherwise Anyway, maybe it was good that we didn't go this weekend, most likely wouldn't have gotten a fp with waiting too late/it closing and wouldn't have liked the high standby wait times

 

[DisneyFoodieFan]

I liked Maelstrom. I also like Frozen. However, I just feel that World Showcase is not the place for it and would have liked to have seen Captain EO removed and something Frozen related put there.

I still am not over losing Off Kilter

 

[epcotty]

Right, exactly. Arendelle is not part of the world. Captain EO is even older than Maelstrom and really has nothing to do with the actual future, why not there?

 

[999DoomBuggies]

I really hope there was some sarcasm in the last posts, otherwise Anyway, maybe it was good that we didn't go this weekend, most likely wouldn't have gotten a fp with waiting too late/it closing and wouldn't have liked the high standby wait times

Total sarcasm.

I would not be surprised if Disney did not attempt to shove Frozen into Dinosaur in hopes of squeezing a few more bucks out of the public.

The point of my *****ing is that yes, Disney is making a financially smart move in the short term but in the long term Disney may and likely will suffer. I can imagine that many of the imagineers are less than thrilled to see classics stomped on by current management. For the sake of imagineering in general I would hope that Disney regains some sort of swagger instead of attempting to capitalize off of hit movies. When will we see another Haunted Mansion, Mystic Manor, Pirates of the Caribbean, Maelstrom, Spaceship Earth, Space Mountain, Thunder Mountain, etc? Right now all I can see is Avatarland, SW7DMT, Princess Fairy Tale Hall, the many adventures of winnies the pooh, the ariel mess, etc. No creativity. Imagineers are stuck creating attractions based on movies that sell, instead of creating attractions as in the days of Walt et al. I can promise you that ten years from now kids and adults would have been more captivated and creatively stimulated by a norwegian ride based on adventure and folk lore than the olaf snowman pushing you over the falls.

 

[MistressMerryweather]