DCA, Future Expansion
Topic: I Rode DCA's Midway Mania! SPOILERS

#	Author	Message
1	Westsider Thu 5/15/2008 9:06p	So the 72 Hour Test of Midway Mania has begun today, one of the last steps involved before WDI hands over a new attraction to Operations, and CM's were allowed to ride as many times as they want today. The testing goes through Saturday, and thousands of CM's will be riding during this 72 hour period. I rode Midway Mania today five different times, before and after my shift, and I am very impressed with this attraction. Before I give my thoughts on the ride itself, it's important to mention how well done and thoroughly detailed the ride facility and attached store really are. As you move through the queue, the pre-show, the loading area, and the exit and post-show (and there is stuff coming to that area that isn't installed yet), you really pick up quickly on how fantastic this looks. It makes the rest of Paradise Pier look just as cheap and stupid as all of us DCA Non-Apologists knew it was since 2001. THIS IS NOT PAUL AND CYNTHIA'S DCA ANYMORE! A new era is dawning for DCA, and it's dramatically different than the vision Paul Pressler and Cynthia Harriss had for the place. I hadn't seen the facility in person yet, and it is extremely well done. It looks almost too nice for a theme park, especially the loading area and exit areas. Hardwood floors, stone surfaces at the baseboards, beadboard wood paneling on the walls, hand carved trim everywhere, finely detailed paintwork, inlaid tiles, and custom light fixtures throughout speak a design language more attuned to an upscale seaside hotel or a nice restaurant than a theme park ride. The age of ugly cement queues like Screamin', Madness and Zephyr have suddenly come to an end here, even though they could have just done another ugly cement queue for Midway Mania if they wanted. I know there's big chunk of our paying guests that don't have the sophistication level to pick up on this type of detailing in surfaces and materials used, but a lot of our guests are intelligent enough to get it and process it, and it really combines into a high quality experience even though it's a ride themed to a corny midway boardwalk. The costumes for the hosts/hostesses are also something completely different than the rest of the Pier. Themed to a specific time period, fully accesorized, and custom made for the rides color scheme, the new Attractions costumes look really great. The plain jane, cheap-o look of the rest of the Pier costumes can't go away soon enough. As for the ride itself?..... it's awesome! It's surprisingly addictive, and you laugh through the whole thing. And the video I've seen on YouTube doesn't do the interior justice. It's oddly impressive once you get inside to see how big this building is, and see all of the other vehicles spinning and zipping around from one game to the next. There are quite a bit of real props placed about in the areas leading into the building, and in between the different game areas. There are also lots of hanging lights and banners above you in the game areas, plus the game screens themselves have a proscenium around each screen that gives it depth and detail. After seeing the WDW version on YouTube I was not that impressed, but in real life it's much better. There are several big walls that have been painted instead of layered with props, but the paintings are of games and art projects that Andy has done that are actually very clever and you don't really get the feeling "Oh, this is where they ran out of money" like the Dart Room in Indy. The interior of the building is really pretty neat, and with the lighting effects and audio going, it's a very unique and whimsical environment to be inside of. The games were great overall. The 3-D effect wasn't quite as blatant or memorable as I thought it might have been, but you do get the sense of three dimensions with the glasses on. There are other special effects that took me by surprise, and they seem to be activated by hitting the highest point targets or by activating one of the many, many "easter eggs" inside the ride. The pace is very fast, and it only gets faster as the ride progresses. I never felt cheated with the length of time spent playing each game, the timing seemed to be just perfect. I timed the ride overall at about a five and a half minute long experience, and an Imagineer in the station told us that the DCA ride track is longer than the WDW track. It seems like more than five and a half minutes though, which is odd because time usually flies when you are having as much fun as you have on Midway Mania. If I waited an hour for this ride, I would be very satisfied with the experience. Surprisingly, the vehicles move very quickly, and do a bit of spinning and tight turning and whipsawing around the inside track. It's not quite Roger Rabbit when it comes to spinning, but it's definitely zippier than Pooh or Alice or any other dark ride. That was surprising, and people susceptible to motion sickness might want to be cautious. The cars move totally independently, and you have no control over the spinning and fast movement. The ride is going to have an hourly target of around 1,100 guests per hour, which isn't that great compared to most big Disneyland rides. Pirates averages 2,900, Mansion is around 2,200, Thunder is 2,250, etc. But compared to other dark rides, it's very good. Peter Pan is only around 600, and Pooh is usually around 900 per hour. Buzz Lightyear is around 1,700 per hour though, so it is a very good thing that Midway Mania at DCA is not going to have Fastpass. I have no idea why they wanted to put Fastpass on this ride at WDW, but then there's a lot of operational stuff in WDW that they do that is just mind boggling to a Disneylander. That's another thread, though, isn't it? The queue should shuffle along and move much faster than the dark rides in Fantasyland though, and Mr. Potato Head is going to be one the big highlights as everyone in the queue passes right in front of him. The whole Midway Mania experience all adds up to something very unique in the theme park world, in my opinion. It's something only Disney could do, and your local Six Flags or Busch Gardens could NEVER pull this type of ride off, and certainly not do it as well as WDI has done with Midway Mania. It's closest cousin would obviously be Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, but Midway Mania takes the concept to an entirely different level. Buzz Lightyear now seems rather dated and low key (dare I say boring?) when you compare it to Midway Mania. On a scale of 1 to 10, I would rate Buzz Lightyear a 7, and Midway Mania a 9. Another way to look at it would be to think of Buzz Lightyear as a cute Kindergartner, and Midway Mania as a hyper Junior High kid. Midway Mania just seems more advanced, and more enveloping as an experience, than Buzz Lightyear. But honestly, only a Disney Geek would compare this to Buzz Lightyear. Midwway Mania is really a whole new concept, and something very different, and most casual visitors will not have any point of reference for it. And I think it's going to be much more popular than Buzz Lightyear ever was. Unless you just have NO DESIRE to play zany midway games and laugh with your friends and family, you will enjoy Midway Mania. Rumor has it that CM's will continue unofficial previews through the end of the month, then comes an official ticketed Cast Member Preview event at the end of May that includes a little keepsake given to each CM. Then comes the official ticketed AP Preview days after the first of June when they will also fold in some soft openings for random guests in the park. Then comes fairly regular "soft openings" each day during regular DCA hours, until the media event and official opening later in June. If your a CM, head over there this weekend during the 72 hour test for as many rides as you can get in. And if you are a guest, stay tuned for the first soft openings in a few weeks. Midway Mania is better than I thought it was going to be, and it will surely be very popular this summer!
2	k_peek_2000 Thu 5/15/2008 10:42p	WOW, I can't wait to ride it during the the ticketed CM preview!!!!!! Thanks for the enlightenment.
3	ArchtMig Fri 5/16/2008 12:25a	Westsider, thanks so much for writing your detailed report. After reading the thread about the DHS version in the WDW boards, I was feeling concerned that ours would be lacking due to the reported slightly smaller pre-show/queue area, which, they say, results in a few of the oversized toy props in the DHS version being omitted from the DCA version, due to lack of space. But after reading your review, I suspect that the quality of this custom made building more than makes up for the loss of a few props. It looks like you are trying to avoid giving off spoilers, and I appreciate that. I've violated my personal rule of not reading up on attractions until after I've had a chance to ride them first in person, but could not resist checking out some of reviews on the DHS version by Rebekah here at LP and on other sites. Assuming you are familiar with the backstory of the ride, which is the reason explaining all the props in the queue, how do you think the theme is pulled off here when compared to the reviews describing how it works in the DHS version? I assume you've looked at the pictures of the DHS version? One thing I noticed on one of the pictures in Kevin Yee's review is that there appears to be bare exposed roof structure (including flat black painted joists and ductwork) with exposed hanging theatrical lighting looming high over what is supposed to be the story theme of the queue. What a way to ruin the theme as far as I'm concerned. This is how EVERYTHING at DCA was finished off in the Pressler/Braverman days, and it just drives me crazy. I hope they did a much better job for this totally new building in the "new DCA" era than what looks like it was shoehorned into a soundstage in the DHS version. Did you happen to notice? -Regardless, I can not wait to check out this attraction. I will be at the resort this Tuesday for Minnie's... man how I wish they were doing soft openings by then.
4	Westsider Fri 5/16/2008 1:34a	I've seen pictures/video of the queue and pre-show in DHS. As it's being explained online the DHS theme is that it's Pixar studios in Emeryville and then suddenly it's Andy's room and we're now shrunk down to toy size and they have set up midway games under his bed? Or something like that. Mr. Potato Head and the queue soundtrack wasn't turned on today, but the overall theme of the queue and pre-show at DCA is.... You are walking along the boardwalk midway, and look here's part of the midway where the Toy Story characters have set up their own midway games. How cute, let's ride! And off we go inside to play. I'm not a huge fan of psycho-analyzing pre-shows and elaborate backstories. If anything, the elaborately worded backstory that you have to research on the Internet to discover is often a modern byproduct of weak storytelling and/or insufficient budgets for thematic decor. (The backstory Walt gave on national TV to describe both Pirates and Mansion took about 10 seconds to explain, with a few pauses to let the pretty tour guide to catch up.) We could sit and tear apart the bizarre nature of entering a grand building in New Orleans and finding a stream of boats just inside that launch us into a night on the coastal Louisiana bayou before suddenly plunging down into rocky caverns in a geographic area that has a very high water table and no caves, and then we're in the Caribbean sailing with ransacking pirates who sing. Walt summed it up by saying "We'll put you in a boat and then you go down a waterfall and you'll come across pirates and things". Thanks Walt, that's all we really need. To me, the theme at DCA works beautifully. There is no need to play with graphic gimmicks in the queue etc. The queue is an elaborately designed Victorian midway pavilion, and that's more than enough visual cues to set the stage for a really great ride about midway games. No contrived backstory about being under someones bed is needed. However, the six months out of the year when the climate in Orlando is horrifically oprresive and rainy, I'm sure that air conditioned indoor queue with all the props will be welcomed by the guests. As for the interior set design, I rode five times, and I never noticed the ceiling. If I think about it, there was a very black ceiling above us, beyond the strands of lights and banners. But I never once noticed infrastructure or lighting rigs up there. There is some light effects that play out along the track, controlled from above. But there was always plenty of stuff to look at closer to eye level for me to ever expand my vision upwards. You are kept pretty busy at eye level by the show, so if you really start studying the ceiling above the games and props, then this probably isn't the ride for you. I do confess to checking out the ceilings in slow moving rides like Pirates, Mansion and Small World however, so I know what you're getting at. The interior of this ride is very dark however, so that hides the ceiling more than if you looked at pictures/video. It seems about as dark as the darkest scenes in Fantasyland rides, like the Tulgey Wood part of Alice or the Pleasure Island part of Pinnochio. Midway Mania is very dimly lit inside.
5	Westsider Fri 5/16/2008 1:51a	I heard some of the WDI guys talking to some TDA folks on one ride today, and WDI was explaining that they have Single Rider and Fastpass on Midway Mania in Florida. And neither of those queues go past Mr. Potato Head. The general rule for Fastpass is that 65% to 70% of your hourly capacity is distributed via Fastpass tickets. And the average Single Rider percentage is around 5% of the hourly capacity of a ride. So that means at least two thirds and maybe up to three fourths of the Florida riders won't get to interact with the potato. That's just odd to purposely operate an attraction like that, and purposely have the majority of your guests miss out on a very clever pre-show offering. I have no idea why they would have put Fastpass on this ride in Florida. It won't have Fastpass or Single Rider in DCA, and the queue snakes right in front of the potato, in addition to being very visible and audible to people walking along the boardwalk in front of the ride.
6	The Goddess Mara Fri 5/16/2008 8:30a	I love FastPass and it's just insanity not to have it on this ride, which is going to have hour-long waits for the foreseeable future. The only time I'll ride it, because of that, is when the park opens. You anti-FastPass people are an odd bunch.
7	ni_teach Fri 5/16/2008 9:06a	The reason that there is no fastpass is just because of the low number of people which can ride the attraction per hour. At 1,100 per hour the fastpass would cause the standby line to reach hours long. It the same reason that there is no fastpass for rides like peter pan. Now I have not found anyone to confirm this but I head that the WDW version was slightly bigger and could do more people per hour. Which is one of the reasons fastpass works for them.
8	ADMIN Fri 5/16/2008 10:02a	Message removed by an administrator. Click here for the LaughingPlace.com Community Standards.
9	jmuboy Fri 5/16/2008 10:11a	I have heard nothing but great things about this ride. I'm really excited to see and hear that DCA finally get a "knock it out of the park" hit - the first since Soarin' in my opinion (just based on what I have read).
10	The Goddess Mara Fri 5/16/2008 10:36a	They have FastPass for Peter Pan in Orlando and it works like a charm, so that theory doesn't work. Also, I've heard that Toy Story Mania is actually slightly longer in DCA and in Orlando. Perhaps I'm confusing that.

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