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Walt Disney World Resort


Benin

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Very excited for all these new rides and ideas, especially the tron coaster and Star Wars Land. Disney could be onto an absolute winner with that one and it's great to see so many new projects coming along.

 

One thing I'm not very happy about is the confirmed closure of the Great Movie Ride. As it looked an absolute master piece and would argue it's a greater loss than the DCA Tower ride. If they had to change it they could've at least just converted it to Disney movies only rather than purely a Mickey and Minnie ride.

 

Makes me sad I'll be missing it's closure by a year when I take my first trip.

 

Losing Universe Of Energy is still a shame, but was looking dated though.

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Ellen's Energy Adventure was a good laugh but it is quite dated now - amazing how even the "old" rides at Disney/Epcot are a lot more impressive than a lot of attractions over here :P

 

The Great Movie Ride is "classic" Disney and we did enjoy it when we went - I remember laughing quite a lot at the animatronic Tarzan and his battle cry as he swang in on a rope :D

 

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I always feel like the only person on Earth who doesn't give the tiniest crap about Star Wars, but it's clearly the franchise which will give them something to rival the draw of Potter at Universal. I'm sure it'll boost their fortunes for many years to come, unlike Avatar which is just a very pretty way to spunk billions of dollars.

 

It's over a decade since I've been, but I don't recall the Great Movie Ride as being particularly Great. Got to love a mine train though!

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Avatar? What's that? You honestly wouldn't know Disney had built an Avatar land, no one cares as expected.

 

Star Wars has expansion pads built in for a 3rd ride at both sites with Florida's able to grow more around Muppets 4D.

 

Great Movie Ride was nothing special from my memory, just really slow. But to have another ride closed at that park is just brilliant. And still no new name announced. I know they take a while to build stuff, but to rename a park? Come on guys.

 

Woo at Tron although it is just so they can close Space Mountain and fully refurb it, Ratatouille is an easy fix and very loose Guardians ride announcement. Yay. From what I've heard Universal and Disney had chats about the contract and came to some agreement that suits both parties (I.e Universal getting a new Marvel ride too, anyone remember the Iron Man flying suit concept thing?)

 

I'm impressed Disney announced so much stuff, especially as a lot of it isn't opening till 2021 but hey, Iger wants to leave on a power high (if he ever actually leaves).

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  • 3 weeks later...

It has been a while since this thread saw any activity, so on the above poster's discussion of the Star Wars aspects of Hollywood Studios... I figured I would share my video blog trip report having returned not too long ago from Florida myself. I think Hollywood Studios could quite well be renamed Star Wars land given the amount of stuff we saw!
 

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Just got back from a 2 week break in Orlando.

 

The Avatar: Flight of Passage ride is superb.  Naturally, the queues are horrific (they were hitting 220 minutes almost every day whilst we were there!) but most people will say it's worth the wait.

Think of Soarin' upscaled 1000% and you are getting close. 

The ride is visually brilliant, and the attention to detail is great.  Unlike Soarin' you sit on what essensially looks like a bike (similar to the seats on Kobra at Chessington for instance), and this is the "Banshee", which you fly on.  Thay have installed pads on the side of the seat that give you the feeling that the Banshee you are sitting on the back of is breathing as you are flying around Pandora! 

All-in-all, I was hugely impressed with it.

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  • 3 months later...
On 17/07/2017 at 1:02 PM, pluk said:

I always feel like the only person on Earth who doesn't give the tiniest crap about Star Wars, but it's clearly the franchise which will give them something to rival the draw of Potter at Universal. I'm sure it'll boost their fortunes for many years to come, unlike Avatar which is just a very pretty way to spunk billions of dollars.

I say this from the bottom of my heart, it is one of the most beautiful, immersive areas I have ever seen. It feels a joy to just be in an area that feels so alive and brimming with character and atmosphere. 

 

On 17/07/2017 at 8:06 PM, Mitchada04 said:

Avatar? What's that? You honestly wouldn't know Disney had built an Avatar land, no one cares as expected.

This is one of the most wrong statements I have ever read on these forums. 

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  • 6 months later...

In some cases it’s actually longer than a whole day.

 

Still evidence that Hollywood Studios needs more attractions, but that will be resolved once Star Wars Land opens alongside the Runaway Railway and the hype eventually dies down.

 

Here’s a POV I found (spoiler alert).

Looks better than expected, especially like the look of the second launch and Wheezy animatronic at the end. 

 

 

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Of course Mack have made a brilliant family coaster here. I like how the second launch looks a bit like a hot wheels track and the train theming is great. I hope this encourages Disney to invest in bigger Mack rides. I know Walt invested in and supported Arrow which is why the majority of Disney rides are Arrow / Vekoma. Mack are having a brilliant year though, so many great new rides being completed.

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Got the opportunity to visit Galaxy's Edge and ride Hollywood Studios new D-ticket attraction Smugglers Run last week. Firstly, just an FYI, I like Star Wars, I like Disney and I like themed attractions. I was still cautious about this area. Disney are going down a road where the only thing that matters is IP based attractions. When they said at D23 that they plan to make the parks more 'Disney', it spells the end of original themed attractions such as Thunder Mountain or Expedition Everest or even cult classics like Country Bear Jamboree. When the only thing that matters is selling more customisable R2D2's, I sense problems in the future.

 

Anywho, my fears were mostly pushed aside as the area is impressive and has a very authentic Star Wars feel. Classic Star Wars ships litter the area, droids around every corner, Characters from the franchise roam the areas, we regularly saw Ray and Chewbacca walk into the Millennium Falcon. E978D64E-BA05-4668-8E09-6617B737B453.thumb.jpg.b7f5f7720c542c6d3ebb1b43a049f3fb.jpg

 

The ride itself is very fun. It takes on the guise of an interactive attraction where you take on the role of a pilot, a gunner or an engineer and your success at interacting with the controls dictates whether you have a successful mission or not.  There are six people to a 'pod' with two assigned to each role. For my first ride I was an engineer where I essentially fixed the ship whenever a pilot crashed it into a rock or a building or another structure. My second ride I was a gunner which involved me shooting enemy ships and a firing at a train to steal its cargo. My final two rides were as pilot where you either control up and down motion and hyperdrive or where you control left to right motion. 

 

 

Clearly, the pilot is the only role which has any baring on the story. As an engineer you have to just watch the action and press buttons every now and then depending on the skills of the pilot. You fire hypoons to steal cargo but if your pilot doesn't do the job properly, you can't do that often. The gunner just fires a lot and doesn't do much frankly. The pilot is the most interesting as the action on screen all revolves on how skilled you are. The pre-show doesn't really do a lot of explaining to be honest. You're given cards in batching which tell you your role and what you need to do but once you're strapped in that goes out the window. The two rides where I wasn't an engineer, the pilots had not one clue how to control the ship so were crashing left right and centre. This made the ride so much fun to be honest, some of the most fun I've had on a ride for ages.The ride vehicle bumps up and down like Star Tours and it feels completely out of control loved it. As a pilot, my fiancé and I were incredible. What can I say, I'm a natural. We had a high final score, stole two pieces of cargo and got the good ending. It made the ride less fun I can imagine, but it's good to have a ride that tries its hardest to make you the rider a key component.

 

A criticism I have is that the ride seems to struggle with motion. The screen had these very obvious skips in frames where the action was too fast so the screen would freeze for a second before carrying on. It happened a couple of times and doesn't detract as such, just seemed at odds with the seemless feel the area is going for. We queued a maximum of 40 minutes for each ride, it currently isn't operating fastpass+ as they feared the ride wouldn't be able to cope. That has opened it up to criticism that the ride isn't popular as it is failing to retain its initial opening 80 minute queue. Just to clarify here, the ride is a pure people eater, in the 1600 people per hour range. It was joyful to be able to move through its queue at speed. I fear once Fastpass becomes active, this thing will always be stupidly busy.  hate fastness, just saying.

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The other issue is, like its Californian equivalent, it seems to have affected crowd levels. Attendance is down across the two resorts which has meant cuts have hit Magic Kingdom (the muppet show has gone completely and the celebration parade has gone from four to two). Hopefully this is just a blip and isn't related to Galaxy's Edge. The second attraction, Rise of the resistance' will provide a second phase launch for the area.

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I enjoyed my rides and would say Smugglers Run is a great edition to Hollywood Studios.

 

 

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The ride which has been proclaimed as the worlds best by enthusiasts who haven't ridden it yet has broken down.

Also it's at capacity, do people in Florida just not work and go to Disney.

 

https://insidethemagic.net/2019/12/breaking-rise-of-the-resistance-breaks-down-opening-day-kc1/?utm_content=buffera3c46&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer&fbclid=IwAR20lZOxFzln6iWMnTECvs0tIJ-PHuoJsWbC-ZdIOEAagZvcxxAHWV7qoFw

 

 

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I'm as cynical as the next guy so therefore I think your post is a bit much. New ride breaks down, not to be unexpected, worlds best description given by a lot of people who have ridden but are likely to be swayed by 'exclusivity' and 'the hype train' and frankly, its Disney World around the holiday season. Flight of Passage was sporting a four hour queue last week.

 

None of this is any surprise.

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