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Next Walt Disney Challenge 6

Walt Disney World: Our final four contestants must design a water ride as we near the finale.

From Andy Milio
Posted March 9, 2011 at 3:34 PM
REMAINING SCHEDULE:
6. Water Ride
7. Themed Land
8. Theme Park

This week, we are designing a water ride for a Disney park. Please name what kind of ride it is (boat, flume, rapids, etc.), it's theme, what happens on the ride, where it's located, and an approximate run time.

I have decided that for the final 2 challenges (themed land and theme park), you may use any main theme park (Disney, Universal, Busch Gardens, etc.). If you have another park that you want to use, ask me for permission NOW, so you have time to think or find another solution.

This challenge ends on March 16th.


Comments in chronological order. Most recent at the bottom. Scroll down to respond.

From Andy Milio
Posted March 11, 2011 at 5:05 AM
Sorry Damond, but you are not the Next Walt Disney. Thanks for playing, and feel free to continue posting your ideas.

From James Koehl
Posted March 11, 2011 at 6:11 AM
Andy, you're the "Donald Trump" in this game and can do what you want, but I'm just curious why, in a competition called "The Next Walt Disney" you are opening the last two challenges to any theme park, even those outside the Disney family. Forcing the competitors to keep their ideas in the Disney universe made it a little bit different from Theme Park Apprentice.

From Andy Milio
Posted March 11, 2011 at 2:14 PM
^You know, it was fun to keep things different from TPA. But wasn; it you (maybe not..) that said this contest wasn't as popular as TPA because it referred only to Disney, and some people wanted to see their hometown park. Maybe I'll change it...

From James Koehl
Posted March 11, 2011 at 3:14 PM
I apologize if you took my question as a criticism. It wasn't meant to be, and I'm not suggesting you change the competition one way or the other. I was just curious as to why, since the heart of the theme is Walt Disney. Walt Disney wouldn't design a new attraction for Cedar Point or Six Flags or Universal.

From Andy Milio
Posted March 11, 2011 at 4:13 PM
You make a good point, James. I think I'll leave it as Disney, and the next competition can be based on Universal or all parks.

From Joseph Catlett
Posted March 11, 2011 at 7:43 PM
Darn...I'm going to have rethink some of my preliminary ideas for a land.
Universal Florida was going to have a pretty kick-arse new land coming to Islands of Adventure. Oh well, I'll save it for next time.

From Andy Milio
Posted March 12, 2011 at 6:33 AM
^Yeah, me too. I had an awesome idea for a theme park for Universal. Guess it'll have to wait...

And btw, I claim a Bugs Life river rapids ride

From Tim W
Posted March 12, 2011 at 10:15 AM
Oh man sooooo many choices for this one. I have about 4 ideas but I think Im gonna go with Pocahontas: Just Around the River Bend - Coming soon to Frontierland in Magic Kingdom and Disneyland

From Andy Milio
Posted March 13, 2011 at 4:19 PM
Photobucket
A Bug's Life River Rapids

The newest river rapids ride coming to Walt disney World's Animal Kingdom!

From Joseph Catlett
Posted March 14, 2011 at 9:19 PM
Coming to the UNITED KINGDOM Pavilion at EPCOT's World Showcase....

MONTY PYTHON'S COMPLETE IDIOT'S GUIDE TO THE
HISTORY OF ENGLAND

Class begins momentarily, don't be late for Professors Idle, Cleese, Palin, Jones and Gilliam's guided boat tour down the River Thames for a Time Traveling Python's eye view of English History.

From Joseph Catlett
Posted March 15, 2011 at 4:24 PM
MONTY PYTHON'S COMPLETE IDIOT'S GUIDE TO
THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND

Located in the far corner of the United Kingdom pavilion at Epcot's World Showcase, visitors will find a very ostentatious looking office building with a sign above the door reading "MINISTRY OF HISTORICAL RESEARCH (formerly Ministry of Silly Walks)".
You enter the building where the queue for the ride begins, and into a lecture hall where a film strip projector is running photos of great moments in English history interspersed with the occasional photos of girls on the beach (someone's vacation slides must have gotten mixed in with the others, don't know how that happened). The queue then enters the next room a preshow begins with life like projections (like those used for Harry, Ron, Hermione and Dumbledore at Universal's Potter ride) of all five surviving Monty Python troupe members. Eric Idle, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones and Michael Palin are dressed in the robes and mortar board hats of college professors and introduce themselves as experts on English history and invite you all outside onto awaiting boats to sail the River Thames and journey back in time to witness first hand the true history of this country.

Now, being that our tour guides are the Pythons, this trip is not meant to be taken all that seriously. Real historical events will be shown but with a humorous take on things. Think back to WORLD OF MOTION and its silly take on history and you'll get the idea.

Heading "outside", we find ourselves on the docks of the Thames River at sunset. 10 Riders at a time will climb aboard flat bottomed boats adorned with a coat of arms emblazoned with a large red python with a latin phrase which translates to " Pythons and History make strange bedfellows". The sets in the loading area look like London complete with stylized version of Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace and Piccadilly Circus.
Once seated our boat takes off, meandering down the river and past the modern day city of London at night. Our narration begins as our boat climbs up a hill and into a swirling fog bank as our narrators (the Pythons, who appear at times throughout the ride as they did using the projection technology mentioned earlier) explain that this is no ordinary London fog, but the very mists of time itself. We are heading back to where it all began, to the very beginning of English history. From our boat we see lit by spotlight a very confused looking neanderthal (the first of many audio animatronics) waving a bone at us and grunting at us. " Judging from the accent he must be Welsh", says Palin. "No, no no...this is much too far back", says Cleese "push it forward...about 200 thousand years should do it." We pass into the next room through more fog into a stonehenge scene with druids in robes chanting what sounds like Spinal Taps song STONEHENGE. "That does it", Cleese says. "It looks like one of those heavy metal album covers", Gilliam says.
We then sail onwards through another fog bank and into the period of Roman occupation "Why do those Romans need to come here? They've got their own pavilion right across the way. I hear the pizzas smashing over there", says Idle. We see Roman soldiers tearing down a sign that reads Welcome to England and replacing it with one that reads Under New Management.
"Of course the Romans didn't stay forever. The Vikings had their crack at us too" "What is it with people? They've got these nice pavilions all around here and all they seem to want to do is take over our place. Who's next? The Canadians? The Morracons? Does the Imagination Institute have its grubby little eyes set on us next?" They all look at Idle, who looks around sheepishly whistling a lazy tune.
Our boat then enters another fog bank as it is explained that it would all change forever as a group called the Normans from northern France invaded in 1066.
Our boat then goes up another hill, at the top of the hill above our heads are three knights taunting us (inspired by the french taunters from Monty Python and the Holy Grail). Our narrators ask "What are you doing in England?' They respond in french accents "Mind your own business, you silly english types, you think you are safe from our taunts? Your mother was a hamster and you father smelled of elderberries. Now go away or we shall taunt you a second time." At this we zip down a waterfall and find ourselves in the middle of the Battle of Hastings. The battle is shown via animation on the walls in the style of the Bayeaux Tapestry.
"This was the turning point, modern England emerged, William the Conqueror took the crown and we all lived happily ever after" Jones says.

more to come

From Joseph Catlett
Posted March 15, 2011 at 4:20 PM
"Well its not quite modern yet, after all its only the middle ages. It was a time of violence, of inequity amongst the people." says Cleese.
We pass by scenes of knights riding on horses, peasants being harassed by wealthy landowners, a nobleman looking very warily at a copy of a paper labeled MAGNA CARTA, Merlin the sorceror and a figure made up as Graham Chapman's version of King Arthur (a nod of the hat to the departed Python). "It was a dangerous time," Gilliam says,"full of marauding hordes, knights who say NI, killer rabbits and sea monsters!" At this, a Terry Gilliam designed monster (using his very cartoony art style) bursts out of the water ahead of us, snarling and growling sending a spray of water all over us.
"Don't be ridiculous", says Cleese,"and now for something completely different. The Renaissance."

Our boats enter the next scene, this room representing the English Renaissance/Tudor period features singing and dancing figures, William Shakespeare directing a scene from Romeo and Juliet (Romeo seems to have forgotten his lines and is reciting from Hamlet), Queen Elizabeth at court welcoming back explorers Sir Francis Drake and Sir Walter Raleigh.
"It was a time of rebirth, exploration and the arts," says Palin "nothing but smooth sailing ahead."

We round a bend and down a waterfall to find the Spanish Armada firing on the English coastline, cannonballs whizzing over our heads and landing in the water next to our boats. London is ablaze in the night sky.
" Smooth sailing indeed! What is this, Pirates of the Caribbean? We must've taken a seriously wrong turn somewhere. Where's the bloody map?", says Idle. "These aren't Pirates,"says Cleese,"its the Spanish Armada attempting, thank goodness unsuccessfully, an invasion. London is ablaze because of the great fire of 1666. Nearly wiped out the entire city. Engand, however, rebuilds and greater days await."

We round a bend and see in front of us a group of Scotsmen in kilts playing bagpipes and caber tossing, a contingency of Welsh and Irish all meeting and shaking hands with the English. "It was at this time", Jones says," that the people of this island banded together and formed a United Kingdom."
We move into the final scene, a large room passing by numerous time periods from 1800 to present day 21st century, as a new song written and performed by Eric Idle (the song writer of the group) is played.It is a slightly cheeky tune in the style of his song "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life". We pass Beefeaters at the Tower of London, Charles the First playing chess with Oliver Cromwell. Artists Shelly, Byron and Keats looking very disinterested with the goings on. Queen Victoria dancing at a ball with Prince Albert. The Artful Dodger and Oliver Twist picking a man's pocket. Robin Hood and his Merry Men waving to us from a cliffside. The room is literally crammed with figures representing both literary figures like Ebeneezer Scrooge, real notables like Oscar Wilde, entertainers like the Beatles and leaders like Winston Churchill.

We then enter a final fog filled tunnel as our narrators say " Thank you for joining us on this trip through the history of England. Hope you were taking notes, there is a test at the end. We didn't tell you that? Oh we must have. Well feel free to ride through again if you need to....or better yet cheat off the girl next to you. She looks cute. No, not her, the other one. The one with the glasses. She looks smart."

You then enter the exit station and disembark from your boat with the theme from Monty Python's Flying Circus playing in the exit hallway. You then exit through the gift shop full of Monty Python merchandise, souvenirs of the U.K. and books on English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish history.

From Joseph Catlett
Posted March 15, 2011 at 9:27 AM
approximate run time : 11 minutes.

From Eric S
Posted March 15, 2011 at 10:28 AM
I claim a Steamboat Willie ride

From Andy Milio
Posted March 15, 2011 at 5:18 PM
Photobucket
A Bug's Life River Rapids!

The newest river ride coming to Animal Kingdom!

Background: Flik has decided to come up with a new invention: bottle cap river rafts. The ants are constantly finding discarded bottle caps all over the ground, so Flik has decided to put them to good use. He attaches seats and a rail onto dozens of caps, and decides to use the newly made rafts in a river ride!

Queue: In the queue, guests seem to have shrunk. As they walk through the line, they see all sorts of common items you would litter (plastic, soda cans, etc.), but they are much larger: larger than YOU! Guests see different sights before they approach the loading area, which is in constant motion with one of those moving floor things.

Ride: You board your raft, and the ride begins. You start out going slow, heading through large blades of grass, going towards Insect City (located under a large, artificial trailer). You head down there and float through the city, viewing the different insects commuting on the streets. At one point in the city, P.T. Flea (animatronic, of course) appears and warns guests.

"You guys better hurry to your little ant colony, you odd little insects! I hear that Hopper is back for revenge!"

The current grows stronger, and the raft turns and starts heading out of the city towards the ant colony (also artificial). Just for laughs, as the raft turns, guests can hear P.T. say:

"I wonder what kind of bugs those weird creatures are..."

About a minute later, the raft approaches the large anthill looming over them. They enter through the side of the hill, and things go dark, except for some light shining through holes in the roof. Things are eerily quiet, until you hear crashing, and light pours in. Hopper! The current grows extra strong, and seems to be pulling the guests down deeper into the hill. Guests can hear Hopper talking to the ants.

"Look, little ants, this is going to be easy. Just give over your food supply, and nobody gets hurt." (by the way, Hopper is a hologram, like the ones in the Forbidden Journey's queue). Hopper notices the raft's movement, and he drops down in front of them.

"Hey! Quit moving! I can see you trying to esca-" He stops and starts freaking out.

"HUMANS! HUMANS! THEY MUST BE EXTERMINATORS! MEN, FLY FOR YOUR LIVES!!!" Hopper and his grasshopper goonies escape the hill, and the ants cheer and celebrate. You pass by an AA Flik, you thanks you for your service, as well as for riding his rafts. You exit the colony and arrive back at the loading area, where guests can exit and shop at the Bug's Life gift store.

A Bug's Life: River Rapids could be located at 2 places: 1) the old Kali River Rapids area, or 2) in the large open area of water. For a map, see this link. (my own map :D)

Thank you for riding A Bug's Life River Rapids!

From Joseph Catlett
Posted March 15, 2011 at 5:16 PM
Andy, that's a fun concept. It seems to me that the only logical place to put it would be where Kali River is now. I've never been a big fan of the theme of that ride and yours is an improvement. On top of that, having two rapids rides in one park seems extraneous. Kali has got to go.

From Andy Milio
Posted March 15, 2011 at 5:19 PM
Eric and Anthony, ideas are due tomorrow

From Anthony Murphy
Posted March 15, 2011 at 9:52 PM
I am sorry, but I am really having writers block. I am bringing back an old one. I will try and think if this is not fair, but it won't be til Thursday!

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice


This flume ride will be part dark ride, part thrill ride telling the story of the Sorcerer’s Apprentice from the classic movie, Fantasia. The ride will feature special effects, animatronics, and, of course, the classic music.

Situated in the new music section of Disney’s Hollywood Studios, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice will take place in the castle of Yen Sid who has a Waterfall Coming out of his castle... The boats will be in the “round” (Like Kali River Rapids or Popeye’s), but will be fashioned like buckets.

From Anthony Murphy
Posted March 15, 2011 at 9:54 PM
he attraction will start out with Yen Sid making items out of thin air at the loading area. It will then go down the water and see Yen Sid animatronics point to Mickey to fetch water as he goes up the stairs. The next scene has Mickey put on the hat and cause one of the brooms to come to life. We follow them up the stairs (a lift hill) to the signature sound. When we get up, we see Mickey in a chair and fall asleep. Fog surrounds us and we are now in Mickey’s Dream with him on a mountain directing stars in the air and causing waves to crash around his mountain, causing rapids to get the guests wet as they travel around it. However, Mickey is awaken by a splash. The well above the patch is overflowing causing water to fall on the guests. There is a short drop and we see Mickey chopping up the broom in a shadow. We then see that the brooms multiply as they start marching into the water around us. The next big scene is Mickey floating around a whirlpool that we are caught in, causing the raft to spin. We then make it to our final assent with the lift hill being surrounded by brooms that overturn their pails and pour water on the guests. Right before we are to go down the big drop. We see Yen Sid above before we fall trying to stop the water by raising his arms and causing water to hit the sides, but it’s too late for us as we fall through the waterfall flume into the moat. After going through the moat, we enter back into the castle through a hole and see Mickey giving back the hat. As we exit the ride, we see Yen Sid smacking Mickey’s Backside with the broom.

From Anthony Murphy
Posted March 15, 2011 at 9:54 PM
BTW, this is my favorite idea!

From Andy Milio
Posted March 16, 2011 at 4:02 AM
Very good, and I am totally fine with you using your previous ideas (you are the only one who has competed in TPA besides me).

From Andy Milio
Posted March 16, 2011 at 4:03 PM
Eric, I need your idea TODAY

From Eric S
Posted March 16, 2011 at 10:42 PM
Disney's Hollywood Studios proudly presents their first water ride, replacing The Voyage of the Little Mermaid, in the heart of Animation Courtyard:

Steamboat Willie's Timeless River

Background: Mickey has always dreamed of being the captain for the Steamboat Willie. Unfortunately Peg-leg Pete is in charge. He is always throwing Mickey around, not being nice, and taking over the wheel any time he wants to.

From Eric S
Posted March 16, 2011 at 10:42 PM
Queue: The exterior of the queue is very colorful. As the riders get further into the queue, the colors fade and the entire ride is black and white. The queue winds its way through a re-creation of the Steamboat Willie's dock.

From Eric S
Posted March 16, 2011 at 10:43 PM
Ride: The riders board a 12 person round raft. The whole ride is a dark, indoor, rapid ride. The ride starts out with screens to your right and left. The screen plays the famous scene of Mickey steering Steamboat Willie, as you are on a lift. After this video, all of the rest of the scenes are animatronic. Right before you go over the edge, Steamboat Willie whistles and sends the raft down into the rapids. Mickey's whistling is loud as the rapids begin to pick up.

From Eric S
Posted March 16, 2011 at 10:45 PM
We see Minnie Mouse waving to be picked up. Minnie Mouse attempts to jump on to the Steamboat Willie. As she jumps, she drops sheet music in the water. When the music hits the water, everything goes dark and the sound of instruments blasts.

From Eric S
Posted March 16, 2011 at 10:47 PM
There are different water cannons from both sides of the river, as well as from directly above. The rapids get rougher and the sounds are louder. The sound of the instruments is so loud, that Peg-leg Pete gets annoyed. He threatens to throw Mickey off of the Steamboat Willie and into the water. Minnie whistles to get Pete's attention. The riders can hear Pete talk to Minnie. While Pete is distracted, Mickey kicks him over the edge of the boat and into the water. This splash is gigantic and makes one wave over the boat. The last scene is Mickey sailing the Steamboat Willie, whistling with Minnie next to him. In the background of this picture, you can see Pete hanging off the edge of the boat, trying to climb aboard.

The ride would take about 4 minutes.

From Andy Milio
Posted March 17, 2011 at 1:34 PM
REVIEW!!!
Joseph- Your ride idea was great. I love Monty Python (:P) and it sounds like the perfect fit for a boat ride. The dialogue was a good inclusion, but 11 minutes seems like a long ride...anywho, runner-up to favorite.
Anthony- Ah, Anthony. One of your best ideas! You recycled one of your ideas from TPA, and you recycled the right one. This sounds like an excellent ride, and would be a perfect fit for Disney. My favorite this week.
Eric- You had a good idea. I like the idea of bringing back Steamboat Willie (I want a comeback too!). Having the whole ride in black and white would perfectly fir the theme. One minor complaint: I think this would fit better as a boat ride than a river raft ride.

The poll shall be up soon!

From Joseph Catlett
Posted March 17, 2011 at 8:48 PM
Andy, thank you for the praise. Now, regarding the length of 11 minutes, its actually relatively short for a boat ride at Disney. Pirates in California clocks in at about 18 minutes, Small World about 15, The Land Boat Ride at EPCOT is just about 16. 11 really is on the short end...that being said, for current Disney attractions it is a tad longer than the average.

From Eric S
Posted March 18, 2011 at 6:05 AM
Yeah I went back and forth between boat and raft ride. I mostly stuck with a raft ride because I thought that the feel of Steamboat Willie would be much like Popeye at Islands of Adventure.

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