Say Good Bye to Maelstrom....A 'Frozen' Ride is Definite

[lockedoutlogic]

I also hate how they are getting rid of the culture Disney told CMs they will be moving them to other places Norway just won't be Norway anymore. Each country has a cultural aspect even Mexico with its three caballeros attraction. At least that has a Mexico tie in, this frozen one most likely won't have any cultural tie in to the country of Norway. World showcase is a showcase it's supposed to showcase the countries of the world. I told this rumor in May of this year it's now September, it took five months to come true.

Horrific...

But hey, nothing cheesy that is solely to sell merchandise is bad, right??


Shields up, Scotty

 

[lockedoutlogic]

Well, I'm sorry for those who love Maelstrom. I know what it is like to see a beloved ride go.

But...my DD is thrilled! She can't wait to go ride it, so yay. At the end of the day, her face lighting up at seeing this is what I care about, so I'm a happy mom.

I'm still anti-Avatarland though, lol.

Would your DD suffer to just have a good old fashioned country pavilion?

That's the honest question

 

[lockedoutlogic]

Would never all-out boycott Disney over this move....but I definitely don't like the direction things are headed. Hope all the Frozen nuts are happy....and all the parents that enable their kids. Have fun waiting for hours in what's left of Norway, I'll be in the other countries.

You understand the danger in that assumption, don't you?

 

[lockedoutlogic]

I don't care if they change the attractions, it's the spirit of EPCOT they are changing.

EPCOT used to be about hope for a better future and the ability for mankind to come together to make a better world. That vision came directly from Walt Disney and can be seen in classic attractions like Carousel of Progress and It's a Small World. EPCOT was a place where that vision was celebrated, and the other theme parks were for characters, etc.

Now that is slowly changing. I don't mind them updating the rides (in fact we have enjoyed all the various iterations of Spaceship Earth) but it's the loss of that original, Walt Disney-inspired EPCOT vision that concerns a lot of us.

Bingo...

It's not about bored brats ( including mine) or fastpass worthiness...

It's that the builders of the park once had a spine and stood by the premise / idea. They couldn't build a model city in the swamp...but they mortgaged the farm and built something that they and every person that ever worked at the place could be proud of...almost lost the company doing it.

But she has grown and has a kind of "classic beauty" to her. Even with the mismanagement.

Now they are using a country pavilion...the rubicon that shouldn't be crossed...to milk money from, frankly, very shallow consumers for a stock hungry upper management that don't honestly appear to give a crap.

If you sell yourself, you rule the world...for awhile. Until the world is done with you.

(A little over the top...I agree...but this is not "no big deal")

 

[cbg1027]

My DH and I were considering going on September 28th for the Christopher Cross concert. I guess we will have to go if we want to say goodbye to Maelstrom.

I think it's somewhat poor planning on Disney's part to close Maelstrom less than one month after the official announcement.

 

[Planogirl]

Bingo...

It's not about bored brats ( including mine) or fastpass worthiness...

It's that the builders of the park once had a spine and stood by the premise / idea. They couldn't build a model city in the swamp...but they mortgaged the farm and built something that they and every person that ever worked at the place could be proud of...almost lost the company doing it.

But she has grown and has a kind of "classic beauty" to her. Even with the mismanagement.

Now they are using a country pavilion...the rubicon that shouldn't be crossed...to milk money from, frankly, very shallow consumers for a stock hungry upper management that don't honestly appear to give a crap.

If you sell yourself, you rule the world...for awhile. Until the world is done with you.

(A little over the top...I agree...but this is not "no big deal")

Wow, well said.

As for boycotting, that has never even occurred to me. I just don't want to go any more. You can lose your interest in a product even if it has the word Disney stamped on it. Besides I still like the west coast version.

 

[DisneyRobin]

I'm so glad that we have fast passes for maelstrom on 9/26. I can't believe they're closing the old ride so soon!

 

[clsteve]

Unbelievable.

Watch out Yeti. There's already snow on Expedition Everest - I'd hate to see you end up in an Olaf costume.....

But seriously - what do we call The World Showcase now - The (mostly real) World Showcase?

 

[mvk]

LOL at all of the outrage. They are replacing a ride in a pavilion that was sparcely populated until the Princess breakfast moved in, with something that caused the pavilion to be flooded with guests when they brought the meet & greet in. The Maelstrom was never a classic ride, was simplistic and boring, but at least it was an attraction. That about sums up why people rode it.

BUT TEH CULTURE!!!! Ugh, yeah, you're mostly getting caricatures of the countries there, so some replacing it with something that pretty much the entire world loved, that is based off of the country depicted, is a success. Just get the ride right.

OMG PRINCESS INVASION!!! WALTS VISION!!!! EPCOT as it was built wasn't Walt's vision. The pavilion is being plussed, so more people can enjoy the area. That was Walt's vision for his parks.

Maelstrom was an okay diversion to get out of the heat, now they are replacing it with something that most people will look forward to.

 

[Dan29racing]

Maelstrom was my favorite ride in Epcot and if I have to lose it, I just hope it's not replaced with an off the rack omnimover sing-along ride i.e. The Little Mermaid.... It would ease the feeling of loss if something different and innovative went in there! Back, back, over the falls!!! Aww, I just made myself sad :-(

 

[Ghostoftheforest]

I agree with mvk, to many princesses.

 

[clsteve]

LOL at all of the outrage. They are replacing a ride in a pavilion that was sparcely populated until the Princess breakfast moved in, with something that caused the pavilion to be flooded with guests when they brought the meet & greet in. The Maelstrom was never a classic ride, was simplistic and boring, but at least it was an attraction. That about sums up why people rode it.

BUT TEH CULTURE!!!! Ugh, yeah, you're mostly getting caricatures of the countries there, so some replacing it with something that pretty much the entire world loved, that is based off of the country depicted, is a success. Just get the ride right.

OMG PRINCESS INVASION!!! WALTS VISION!!!! EPCOT as it was built wasn't Walt's vision. The pavilion is being plussed, so more people can enjoy the area. That was Walt's vision for his parks.

Maelstrom was an okay diversion to get out of the heat, now they are replacing it with something that most people will look forward to.

I said this in the other thread, but is it really necessary for WDW to become just one big Magic Kingdom? Some of us like the separation of themes by Park and some uniqueness. And they already have a Park for princesses, magic, make believe, and fantasy and EPCOT is not it.

And for some of us older types, it's just another dumbing down of EPCOT.

It's just lazy on the part of the Exec Mgt Team - no net increase in rides, no real love for EPCOT and how the heck are they going to manage the hordes of princesses and their families in that space?

The 2016 F&W is going to be really interesting......

 

[Ghostoftheforest]

I agree. I dont agree with the slow influx of characters at epcot. If anything keep them to a minimum.

 

[mom2rtk]

I said this in the other thread, but is it really necessary for WDW to become just one big Magic Kingdom? Some of us like the separation of themes by Park and some uniqueness. And they already have a Park for princesses, magic, make believe, and fantasy and EPCOT is not it.

And for some of us older types, it's just another dumbing down of EPCOT.

It's just lazy on the part of the Exec Mgt Team - no net increase in rides, no real love for EPCOT and how the heck are they going to manage the hordes of princesses and their families in that space?

The 2016 F&W is going to be really interesting......

I think more than anything it points to the short sighted nature of Disney's planning recently.

 

[beer dave]

Bingo...

It's not about bored brats ( including mine) or fastpass worthiness...

It's that the builders of the park once had a spine and stood by the premise / idea. They couldn't build a model city in the swamp...but they mortgaged the farm and built something that they and every person that ever worked at the place could be proud of...almost lost the company doing it.

But she has grown and has a kind of "classic beauty" to her. Even with the mismanagement.

Now they are using a country pavilion...the rubicon that shouldn't be crossed...to milk money from, frankly, very shallow consumers for a stock hungry upper management that don't honestly appear to give a crap.

If you sell yourself, you rule the world...for awhile. Until the world is done with you.

(A little over the top...I agree...but this is not "no big deal")

I'm in both camps, I guess-- I get all the nostalgic things about Epcot, being one of a kind, and for 1980 an aggressive move. And I love it. The problem is that now it is 2014, and a lot has changed. In the 80's, if we wanted to see even photos of a foreign country, there were some books available at the libraries, or the occasional TV show, or national geographic.....

Global access has changed so that the world showcase is losing it's wow for the younger generation. And I guess for almost all generations..

And not to mention how international travel has increased in this same time period.

I guess when we start bridging the gap in access to visitation of other planets, they can convert world showcase to galaxy showcase, and maybe later universe showcase...... Isn't that what it's design was intended to do?

 

[Suger Mag]

LOL at all of the outrage. They are replacing a ride in a pavilion that was sparcely populated until the Princess breakfast moved in, with something that caused the pavilion to be flooded with guests when they brought the meet & greet in. The Maelstrom was never a classic ride, was simplistic and boring, but at least it was an attraction. That about sums up why people rode it.

BUT TEH CULTURE!!!! Ugh, yeah, you're mostly getting caricatures of the countries there, so some replacing it with something that pretty much the entire world loved, that is based off of the country depicted, is a success. Just get the ride right.

OMG PRINCESS INVASION!!! WALTS VISION!!!! EPCOT as it was built wasn't Walt's vision. The pavilion is being plussed, so more people can enjoy the area. That was Walt's vision for his parks.

Maelstrom was an okay diversion to get out of the heat, now they are replacing it with something that most people will look forward to.

I admitedly so not have the same level of investment to the original epcot, but to me... keeping a 20+ year old vision as unchangable, in itself does not honor the true vision of Epcot. Change is necessary. Never mind the Frozen overlay to Maelstrom. Folks get all worked up over changes that in all reality are much ado about nothing... like the switch to Carsberg Beer. While a Danish originated brewery, it just happens to be the largest brewer in Norway (based in Oslo). So in effect, it is a Norweigian beer.

In all honesty I think trying to make those disgruntled long time visitors happy is an impossible task, it makes more financial sense to court the newer visitor who is still thrilled with the idea of going to Disney. I am also looking forward to the change. It does not bother me to lose artistic images of oil rigs.

 

[PuppyJonathan]

I think it's somewhat poor planning on Disney's part to close Maelstrom less than one month after the official announcement.

Off topic but I remember whenever they announced Snow White was closing I told myself I needed to say goodbye. After my last ride it stayed open for 14 more months. I kind of prefer that to a park near me that whenever they announce they are closing a ride, the closing date is within the next 3 days. What was the shortest notice Disney gave us other than a month for this and American Idol (which when original announced was supposed to be for 3 months out)

 

[Ghostoftheforest]

I'm not sure people would be as upset if they just announced a refurb and not frozen. I like maelstrom the way it is but understand why people might want an upgrade. But I wish it wasn't frozen. I'm pretty sure disney has enough money to keep the country's in WS updated without said country's support.

 

[skier_pete]

So its being said that the reopening won't be until "early 2016", which at a year and a half they are clearly completely redoing the ride. I would like to see them keep it a boat ride though - as a PP said, it would be neat if they did something unique with it instead of the standard Omnimover system. I don't have much hope for that. I am also not a fan of the Fantasyland-ing of Epcot. The Nemo ride, which is cute enough - is this as well.

Regardless of what you think of the move, you have to admit the popularity of the ride is going to be humongous. This makes me think they probably will go with some sort of Omnimover system, though I suppose boats can also have a high capacity (IaSW and PotC both are high capacity rides) I wonder if they are going to actually expand the footprint of the building to give it a larger queue area. This will be a 2-hour wait type ride!

 

[rteetz]

So its being said that the reopening won't be until "early 2016", which at a year and a half they are clearly completely redoing the ride. I would like to see them keep it a boat ride though - as a PP said, it would be neat if they did something unique with it instead of the standard Omnimover system. I don't have much hope for that. I am also not a fan of the Fantasyland-ing of Epcot. The Nemo ride, which is cute enough - is this as well. Regardless of what you think of the move, you have to admit the popularity of the ride is going to be humongous. This makes me think they probably will go with some sort of Omnimover system, though I suppose boats can also have a high capacity (IaSW and PotC both are high capacity rides) I wonder if they are going to actually expand the footprint of the building to give it a larger queue area. This will be a 2-hour wait type ride!

Rumors say it will stay as a boat ride mostly have the same track layout maybe a few minor changes, they are supposed to demolish the theater for the Norway movie for a new queue.