dud attractions (those that fail to serve a purpose)

[toonaspie]

Now we all know that nearly every attraction at a Disney theme park is fully committed to entertaining us but which attractions have you been on and have found to be pointless and should not have been built in the first place?

I can think of only two: the first is Ellen's Energy Adventure at Epcot. The problem for me isnt Ellen, it's the attempt to make the attraction into a part movie, part-ride, but the ride part doesnt add anything to the story being told, and to add to that...it's super slow. If you are sitting in the box in front you have to wait 5-10 mins when you get to the end of the ride portion in darkness for the other boxes going at 2mph to catch up before the movie can continue. All I can say is take out the ride portion and save the extra 10 mins. I hope that parents are smart enough to not take small children and babies on this ride because no small child can stay put for 45 mins straight and babies can bring unexpected troubles.

The other dud attraction: NARNIA!!! God, I cant help but feel sorry for people who wait in line to watch the preshow only to end up watching the same thing when they go inside. For a park thats very small, I consider this a shameful waste of space to promote a film that was released two years ago by showing the same old trailer. The only thing good about this attraction is that it's a good place to go and cool down if it's hot outside, because it's cold to make it feel like winter. The white witch appearances to nothing to enhance the act either, especially since she's only on for 30 seconds and then leaves. And you have to stand during the whole attraction, some people in the back wont be able to see the outdated movie trailer anyway.

[mousercise]

Re: dud attractions (those that fail to serve a purpose)

STITCH'S GREAT ESCAPE! Worst thing I've ever seen. Yes, even worse than the Tiki Room Under New Management. It's just terrible.

[k_peek_2000]

Re: dud attractions (those that fail to serve a purpose)

Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor... It's pointless and Turtle Talk with Crush is 10 times funnier, without even trying...

[ecdlanddude]

Re: dud attractions (those that fail to serve a purpose)

Stitch's Great Escape: What's there to say? Just terrible all around, bring back ANY of the old attractions in that building and I'd be happy.

Tiki Room: Under New Management: Please bring back the original! This one is just tacky beyond belief, it had a no wait on Christmas! I'd be willing to bet good money Disneyland's original does better on the average day in the off-season than this one does any day of the year.

Aladdin's Magic Carpet Ride: Why is this here? They already have two superbly executed versions of this ride in the park (Astro Orbiter and Dumbo)!

Narnia: Seconded, wouldn't it be great to have a real Narnia ride though?

Pretty much everything in the cheap Hester & Chester area of DAK.

Journey Into Imagination: Can anyone give me one good reason why they removed the original?

Studios Backlot Tour: I used to (believe it or not) enjoy this when I first went in 1996. Ever since LMA came and removed half the tour it is just sad. They either need to make whats left interesting again or they should just remove it. Not to mention it dumps you off into two (yes, two!) gift shops and shamelessly promotes a bad movie from 2001 (Pearl Harbor).

Well that's all I can think of at the moment. What makes these sad is that almost all of them had an incarnation vastly superior to them that could've just been upgraded.

[TheDisneyInquisitor]

Re: dud attractions (those that fail to serve a purpose)

Narnia has to top my list. It is basically the DVD extras with some added decorations. Other than that......

Magic Kingdom - Can't think of any pointless attractions. I may not like Country Bears and AO, but I don't find anything pointless.

Epcot - The only thing IMO that comes close to pointless here is Circle of Life (and maybe the post ride lets-keep-them-hostage-for-ten-minutes ending to Maelstrom.

Studios - Animation Tour would definitely be added to my Pointless list as the attraction has been dull ever since animation left.

Animal Kingdom - Can't think of anything pointless here (although the Riverboats they used to have would definitely make the list).

[Jerren]

Re: dud attractions (those that fail to serve a purpose)

Pointless? Well there are a few attractions I'm not happy with but only one I would define as pointless: Pooh's Playful Spot - Why do we need a playground for the 4 and under set when there's chip and dales around the corner in toontown? There are so many playgrounds and they don't even rate as an A ticket, you have at least one on TSI, two in Toontown if you count Donald's boat, and now one in fantasy land. Amazing waste of space and in my book pointless, although the theming is well done and ties into pooh attraction.

[kcnole]

Re: dud attractions (those that fail to serve a purpose)

The ride portion is by far the best part of UOE. Without it its just another outdated movie.

[Imaginationeer]

Re: dud attractions (those that fail to serve a purpose)

Stitch's Great Escape
Magic Carpets of Aladdin
Hall of PResidents
Living with the Land
Honey, I shrunk The Audience
Impressions De France
Reflections of China
Sounds Dangerous
High School Musical School's Out
Festival of the Lion King

Only my opinions, no need to shout.)

[jane2073]

Re: dud attractions (those that fail to serve a purpose)

Studios Backlot Tour: I used to (believe it or not) enjoy this when I first went in 1996. Ever since LMA came and removed half the tour it is just sad. They either need to make whats left interesting again or they should just remove it. Not to mention it dumps you off into two (yes, two!) gift shops and shamelessly promotes a bad movie from 2001 (Pearl Harbor).

I absolutely agree! It used to be a lot of fun. Now it is pathetic.

High School Musical School's Out

Blaphamy!!! (says my two-going on fourteen-year old daughter)

[Imaginationeer]

Re: dud attractions (those that fail to serve a purpose)

Blaphamy!!! (says my two-going on fourteen-year old daughter)

LOL!!! I asked for no hateful messages please.

Also, no flash pictures, please.

[Phonedave]

Re: dud attractions (those that fail to serve a purpose)

The only one that I find totally pointless is Narnia. I fail to see how ANYBODY can come out of there and think it was entertaining. I cannot see anybody, child or otherwise, having been on it and saying "Let go and do the Narnia attration again"

Everything else I can see some value in. Are they pefect - not by a long shot (Chester and Hester *cough, chough*) but there are SOME people who like that sort of thing. We can all argue its' merits and drawbacks, it's themed lack of themeing, and other aspects, but there are some people who like it.

Tiki Room - Yes, garish and in your face, but my oldest loves it, so there you go, not totally useless, but not what I would call a great attraction

MI:LF - I find it amusing. My kids still walk around going "watching, allways watching" So again, some enjoyment was had, it does have a use.

Stitch - My youngest loves getting indignant on that attraction. Again, some use.

I could go on and on providing examples of people who enjoy some aspect of the attract, except for Narnia. Anybody I know who has been in there comes out with a "Did we just see the DVD trailer in a well air conditioned room" expression on their faces. Even my kids said "wait, was that it?"

-dave

[Jerren]

Re: dud attractions (those that fail to serve a purpose)

Hey PhoneDave lets go do the Narnia attraction again!

[Coheteboy]

Re: dud attractions (those that fail to serve a purpose)

Oooh I'll play!

Magic Kingdom

-Magic Carpets is pointless. It's a rip off of Dumbo which is so much more charming. Plus it's fantasy so you can believe an elephant can fly. Aladdin carpets though... it's a visual eye-sore in a place that should look like an exotic land. Carpets is a good idea for a full-on E-Ticket and WDW definitely has the space for it.

-Stitch's Great Escape -- Ok what's the point? Really. What does one take from this? Stitch escapes. Yes, that's what the name of it was. But guess what? he actually does escape! Of course... the key word here is "great". It wasn't. It's just a series of nonsensical events that leads to his eventual disappearance. What made it even more awkward is that the introductions were 2D hand drawn cartoons and then the attraction is animatronic. Can we please be consistent? Make puppets or animatronics for the people on the screen too! Don't do a halfarse job! Alien Encounter is miles better than this because you're going in wondering what kind of alien encounter it will be. Will be pleasant? Will it be scary? You'll have to do it to find out! In Stitch... the name of the attraction ruins the eventual payoff. Perhaps they should rename it back to Alien Encounter but featuring Stitch. It'd still be a horrible attraction but at least you won't confuse the guest by having "GREAT" in the title.


EPCOT
Epcot is clean. Though Ellen's Energy thing is completely outdated, it still serves a purpose in informing the guest about different types of energy. It still has value in it for that reason alone.


DISNEY-MGM STUDIOS
-voyage of the little mermaid -- a retelling of the film using animation clips, live actors, and puppets. But, it's not even a good retelling. It's just a series of random scenes and songs. The human world.... is a mess. Sebastian was right.


DISNEY'S ANIMAL KINGDOM
-Hester & Chester's Dino-Rama -- yah, let's make a very beautiful park and then turn one land into total crap. "Yah uh... we intentionally made it look like crap because it's supposed to!" If it looks like poo, smells like poo, and floats like poo... chances are it's poo.

[SomethingWicked451]

Re: dud attractions (those that fail to serve a purpose)

Sorry to see so many on UOE. I still love it. The old version was truly a travisty. they completely forgot the "tainment" part of edutainment.

I think Stitch and Magic Carpets (and all Dumbo clones) are pretty bad.

[toonaspie]

Re: dud attractions (those that fail to serve a purpose)

Oooh I'll play!

DISNEY-MGM STUDIOS
-voyage of the little mermaid -- a retelling of the film using animation clips, live actors, and puppets. But, it's not even a good retelling. It's just a series of random scenes and songs. The human world.... is a mess. Sebastian was right.

I'm surprised that that attraction is popular enough to have FastPass kiosks for it. While the special effects stuff is pretty entertaining, the dissapointment comes in when after Ariel is turned into a human by Ursula, the video clips fastforward through the rest of the movie. Eric and Max only have like a minute of screen time after that and I was like "wait...that was it?" Also I think in the Part of Your World scene, it would be more entertaining if Ariel was actually swimming around (just like "Just Keep Swimming" sequence in Finding Nemo the Musical). That would give the attraction some more points, but otherwise it comes real close to being a dud. I'm amazed at how many dud attractions there are at MGM.

[Sadako]

Re: dud attractions (those that fail to serve a purpose)

In the defense of Narnia, while I was at MGM during the Invasion, I was pleased to find out that they updated it with a behind-the-scenes preview of 'Prince Caspian'.

[sir clinksalot]

Re: dud attractions (those that fail to serve a purpose)

^ Shucks, I was wondering if they had done that. We would have gone back in. Oh well.

For me, I think that every attraction serves a purpose, for somebody. Yes, even the Tiki Room. (maybe).

I can't say that Stitch is a dud, because our Son LOVES it. And anybody who was at MNSSHP with us, and saw the smile on his face when he convinced EVERYBODY to go on because he wanted to will attest ... it really did make the attraction at least somewhat tolerable.

There are some that are certainly uneccesary (the carpet's really could go to MGM) ... but somebody likes them.

[Coheteboy]

Re: dud attractions (those that fail to serve a purpose)

There are some that are certainly uneccesary (the carpet's really could go to MGM) ... but somebody likes them.

You bring up a point that is interesting because there is such thing as liking something even while knowing it's out of place.

I like the Aladdin Carpets the same way I like Dumbo and to a fuller extent Astro Orbiter (the up high version, thank you). And I'm sure all who go on the carpets enjoy the ride also. But it is as you said, uneccessary.

But somewhere they should have said "we have two types of these rides in the same park. Do we need another to clog up Adventureland? Perhaps Dumbo's capacity just doesn't reel them in so they felt they had to, but it could have easily gone into Toon Town Fair and not been out of place.

Does Adventureland need another attraction? Definitely. An Aladdin dark ride would have been something I would have rather seen.

[Jerren]

Re: dud attractions (those that fail to serve a purpose)

Sorry to see so many on UOE. I still love it. The old version was truly a travisty. they completely forgot the "tainment" part of edutainment.

I think Stitch and Magic Carpets (and all Dumbo clones) are pretty bad.

You know if they brought back the "Radok Blocks" in the preshow and reverted it back to the original without Bill and Ellen I think it would be a much better attraction. I have nothing against Bill and Ellen I just feel that the whole attraction was "dumbed down" to the point where its slightly offensive.

For those who don't remember/know what I'm talking about you can read more here: http://imagineerebirth.blogspot.com/...ul-motion.html

[Esdeebee]

Re: dud attractions (those that fail to serve a purpose)

>>I like the Aladdin Carpets the same way I like Dumbo and to a fuller extent Astro Orbiter (the up high version, thank you). And I'm sure all who go on the carpets enjoy the ride also. But it is as you said, uneccessary.<<

I agree, as rides go at the MK, the Carpets are sort of lame. That said, my 5 year old absolutely loved them and couldn't get enough of them. I probably went on them 5 times, more than any other ride (unfortunately) because it was his favorite, and he didn't like the thrill rides or even POTC too much. Had to do something he liked.

And every time we went by Dumbo, the lines were LOOONG! This at a time when most of the other rides were relatively short or close to "walk on". By contrast, the lines at the Carpets were less than 5 minutes, and a few times it was just a walk on. Maybe if they put it somewhere else it draws more riders, too, and that might be a good thing because there would be no way I'd wait in Dumbo-length lines for this ride more than once...;-)

Scott