![]() On board, riders hear pieces and parts of some favorite songs from the award-winning soundtrack, and while the track layout is an instant giveaway and a few allusions are scattered throughout, sights and sounds alone make it impossible to know that Maelstrom ever existed here. Instead, this ride is set after the film, with guests visiting Arendelle and boarding old Scandanavian Viking boats (eh hem.) to celebrate Winter Summer Day – an annual celebration when Elsa plans to (purposefully) coat the kingdom in ice and snow to commemorate the day Anna saved her from her lonely world. A wonderful ride in its own right, Frozen Ever After is a sensational showcase of modern Imagineering and its triumphs.įirst and foremost, it is not a "book report" ride – a term used by Imagineers and fans to describe dark rides that simply whisk guests through a three minute summary of a story they already know. Fortunately, the resulting attraction is, to put it mildly, a total reinvention. That meant that Maelstrom's barely-four-minute ride time and relatively middling capacity would remain, too, now just earning spectacular waits from families dying to see the blockbuster princesses up close.įrozen Ever After opened June 21, 2016. Shortly into construction on the brand new ride, Disney came clean with just what fans had feared: that Frozen Ever After wouldn't just re-use Maelstrom's ride building it would re-use the ride itself. The ride to replace Maelstrom would be called Frozen Ever After. In a nonchalant post on the Disney Parks Blog dated June 9, 2015, Disney Parks’ Social Media Director quietly announced that Epcot would soon play host to a brand new attraction in 2016 based on Disney’s 2013 mega-hit, Frozen. After all, the high seas adventure sailed into the misty past, present, and folktales of Scandinavia nothing else could reliably replace it in its Norwegian setting, right? Surely, even IP-obsessed modern Disney couldn't ever find a matching character license to overlay on a ride through Norway! But in 2002 – along with many other Epcot sponsors – Norway decided to discontinue its agreement against the (predictably pro-renewal) advice of Disney.Įven without outside funds to cover updates and enhancements, Maelstrom seemed like a certainty when it came to Epcot. The 1992 move by the government was renewable in five years increments, and in 1997, they did renew. Since Epcot’s annual attendance is roughly twice the population of Norway, the government of the country saw it fit to step in, funding the pavilion with $200,000 annually – enough to keep it from shuttering as some of Epcot’s sponsorless Future World pavilions did. The company responsible for funding the Norway pavilion would end up selling its stake to Disney directly in 1992. ![]()
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