Angel Ariel
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 1, 2006
- Messages
- 8,291
sad night 

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 am so sick about it closing. Actually sick. Especially considering the thing that is replacing it: a fictional country that has no relation to Norway.
Read Snow Queen. Seriously, read it. It was written by Hans Christian Anderson - a Danish author. The actual setting was not in Norway. At most, they set part of it in Lapland and Finland. It's a a crazy story, and I think the kids end up married at the end. Yeah, everyone says it's only the basis for Frozen, but that's like saying The Little Mermaid is the basis for Finding Nemo.
But I think that Maelstrom is one of those rides like Mr. Toad or Carousel of Progress or even HM that we all love and just take for granted that it will always be there. It's a touchstone - you go to EPCOT, you ride Maelstrom. Having a rehab of the ride that is still BASED in Norway mythos would be great. Bigger, better, cleaner! Like HM (although that wasn't "clean"), they made it better. They kept the theme, just shined it up a bit! Why couldn't they do that with Norway? And what will they do when Frozen dethaws? Face it folks - it WILL go away. Fads ALWAYS go away. And what will Disney do then?
Why couldn't Disney have thrown it into Captain EO? I just don't get it. I just don't. Poor Norway, getting the shove from Disney. Why, oh, why not a thousand OTHER things besides this? There are so many other ideas that they could have used, so many other things for Disney to do besides what amounts to a poor overlay.
It's just so sickening and I am so done with Frozen and the over-princessfication of 'freakin Disney.
Sad.Mostly being selfish as I arrive at Epcot on the 17th. DBF and I were planning to celebrate our heritage at F&W. He is German 100%. I am half Norwegian and half French. Norway is sort of out of the picture. The restaurant is now a "Princess Dinner". The ride is gone. The store is being "refurbished" (probably into a M&G). Goodbye half of my heritage that used to be in World Showcase. But...hello WDW in 12 days! Please make it worth it WDW. No, the Lumberjack show is not it.
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.
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.
My husband was one of the security guards there. He said there were many people upset that Maelstrom was closing, but everything went smoothly.
I think people who are Disney regulars and who appreciate the classic rides will be trampled by the hoards of parents trying to get their child on the latest Frozen themed ride. Although most on the Disboards are getting sick of all this Frozen stuff taking over the parks the general public is coming in masses to see it. Disney will not suffer from the changes because they are selling out hotels selling park tickets just to meet two girls dressed like the sisters. There is still a huge demand to see anything Frozen.
Glad it went smoothly for your husband. Did he mention that the only folks excited for frozen are under 11 years old?
Both my DDs now hate Frozen. My 15 YO never liked the movie, but has loved Maelstrom since she was 3. She has said she never wants to go on the ride when it's done. I can't blame her. My 11 YO liked Frozen the first time she saw it, but has gotten sick of it, and she hasn't even been to a Disney park since she saw the movie. To remove a well liked ride, that surely needed some updating but could easily have been kept in an appropriate World Showcase theme, just to put this Frozen ride in, is short sighted to say the least, IMHO. A Frozen ride could have appropriately been added just about anywhere, except for World Showcase. But Disney management seems to have a lack of long term vision lately. Failing to add to the number of attractions (instead of replacing beloved ones), I think, is going to eventually cost WDW visitors. We had already booked our October 2015 WDW vacation before I heard about this, and we'll keep our plans. But I'm much less excited about this trip than any others I've made to WDW, and am not sure we'll really want to go back after that. At the very least, there's one huge reason less now for us to visit World Showcase. I am sure our lack of desire to see Frozenland will be temporarily offset by people who want to try the Frozen ride, but many people are going to be very sad over the loss of Norway, the Stave Church, Maelstrom, the movie, the little village at the end of the ride, and even the gift shop.A 16-month schedule just doesn't sound like enough time to put in something that would end up being a "classic" ride, given WDW's snail's pace construction the last few years. If this ends up being like the Nemo ride or the Ariel ride, I will be even more heartbroken than now. RIP.
RIP Maelstrom.