Stitch: The Escape

[DLMAGICDARREN]

Tuesday, I had the chance to experience Stitch’s Great Escape.

I write my opinion of the new attraction making no false pretense that I was not a fan of the previous attraction, Alien Encounter. I also promise not to give away any spoilers, just present my overall opinion.

When I first heard about the makeover I was very excited, as I said I was not a huge fan of the previous show, thought it was far to intense for an attraction at the Magic Kingdom. Setting up a similar show, far less intense seemed to me a good idea.

I’ll also make no pretense that I’m not much of a Stitch fan, I haven’t really thought Disney has come up with an animation hit since Tarzan on their own, and leaning on another company they way they did with Pixar to me showed no faith in their own animation department, nonetheless Stitch did do better then their last couple of flops.

Yet I still walked in thinking the makeover in general was a good idea. As usual with any special event done by any theme park, it was poorly run. The cast member that I attended with used his maingate, and was told after he should have gone to guest realations so the comp admission would not count on his maingate. So in other words the event was promoted for cast members as you can bring a friend for free, without it counting against your yearly number of maingates, but the reality was if you didn’t go to guest services to get the special ticket, you didn’t know that it did in fact charge your maingate. Problem number two was that their were two lines, one for cast members, one for regular guests, so it was not truly a cast preview the way it was promoted as. I have no problem that they allowed the regular guests on as well, after all they paid to come in, I didn’t. The problem is “bad show”, letting the general public know that a cast member can bump you is purely bad show. What they should have done was a true cast preview, by either backdooring the castmember in, or by doing it after hours, so as the regular paying guest does not feel like a second class guest.

As to the show itself, it was surprising to me how little was actually changed. Without giving any spoilers, for anybody that went on the old attraction you’ll follow the same pattern of pre show, Skippy room, and chamber. The storyline is a big improvement, and makes a lot more sense then Alien Encounter did. The problem for me was not until I hit the chamber room. One of the very first things Stitch does is to me offensive. Call me old fashioned, but I just don’t think it’s funny to rely on farts and vomit for your humor, but unfortunately Disney, as well as other production companies do today. I don’t bat an eye when MTV does this type of humor, but yes it bothers me when Disney does.

Another problem I had was that the darkness factor is still a large element of the show. My impression of the entire makeover was to tone it down, that a ride at the Magic Kingdom should not be terrifying to any age group. Next to me was a small child screaming in fear. Granted you can’t please everybody, but my point is that the scary factor from a small child’s perspective is that something is going to get them, it probably makes no difference to the child, if that something is now Stitch instead of a less familiar alien.

Bottom line is the storyline has improved somewhat, but the problems with the old show I had, I still have with the new. Another concern I have is how recognizable will the character Stitch be in say the next ten years? Once the syndicated series wears off from reruns will kids in 2010 recognize who Stitch is? It’s not like many kids today know who Oliver is from Oliver and Company. Perhaps I just didn’t like the movie Lilo and Stitch enough but I do laugh when a child spots Lilo and says “look daddy, it’s Lucy from Charley Brown!” They already don't really connect with the charecters from the movie.

On a four star scale, I already only rated Alien Encounter two stars, I’d have to say it dropped another notch after seeing the makeover. For this we will now lose Timekeeper, and probably cut back on when Carousel of Progress is open, I don’t see this making Tomorrowland in any better shape then it already was, but hey at least MK’s Tomorrowland still beats the sad shape it’s in at Disneyland.

The attraction officially opens Nov 16, but more then likely anybody visiting Magic Kingdom from now on will be able to experiance the attraction.

[ZeekSlider]

Seriously? You were sitting next to the ride's target audiance? And the child was screaming for dear life?

So much for that improvement.

[DLMAGICDARREN]

Yes, I am serious, and I can't honestly say what my impression might have been been, had I not been sitting next to a child in complete fear, and granted this child may very well be the exception and not the rule.

So my exact impression, was what they were supposedly trying to fix, they didn't even fix, and now all the people that did like the old version, will simply think the new version a lamer show.

I don't miss the old version, I just don't think the new version is any better, it's no worse either, but no better. I consider my opinion of it not being an improvement, therefore neutral, wil be outweighed by the AE fans that completely disapprove if the new version. So to me the bottom line means no oversall guest satasfaction improvement.

I'm sure a few more will walk on though, now that they can market it as the Stitch attraction instead of the Alien attraction, but as for a repeat attraction? I don't think so, once was more then enough for me.

I'm certainly not saying I'll never go on it again, but I do think many guest will feel that way.

[JRob2k1]

As usual with any special event done by any theme park, it was poorly run. The cast member that I attended with used his maingate, and was told after he should have gone to guest realations so the comp admission would not count on his maingate. So in other words the event was promoted for cast members as you can bring a friend for free, without it counting against your yearly number of maingates, but the reality was if you didn’t go to guest services to get the special ticket, you didn’t know that it did in fact charge your maingate. Problem number two was that their were two lines, one for cast members, one for regular guests, so it was not truly a cast preview the way it was promoted as. I have no problem that they allowed the regular guests on as well, after all they paid to come in, I didn’t. The problem is “bad show”, letting the general public know that a cast member can bump you is purely bad show. What they should have done was a true cast preview, by either backdooring the castmember in, or by doing it after hours, so as the regular paying guest does not feel like a second class guest.

The 3rd and 4th were set aside strictly as CM previews. The fact is that very few CMs were showing up so the operation folks were letting regular guests in, instead of just having the attraction sitting around, not being used.

Regular guests used stand-by and CMs used FP. I mean regular guests use stand by every day and watch FP go first.... I dont see how this is any different. And they should feel lucky that they even got to experience an attraction that wasnt even open.

Finally, when I went on the 3rd, the CM FP line was only like 20 people long...so the majority of the guests were regular guests.

-JRob

[DLMAGICDARREN]

The 3rd and 4th were set aside strictly as CM previews. The fact is that very few CMs were showing up so the operation folks were letting regular guests in, instead of just having the attraction sitting around, not being used.

Regular guests used stand-by and CMs used FP. I mean regular guests use stand by every day and watch FP go first.... I dont see how this is any different. And they should feel lucky that they even got to experience an attraction that wasnt even open.

Finally, when I went on the 3rd, the CM FP line was only like 20 people long...so the majority of the guests were regular guests.

-JRob

Well I see it as a real bad show, as I explained, because a paying guest should always have priority over a CM that is "playing", at least on stage. If the reality is that enough CM"s did not come, then that's pretty much an internal same message as the ones I'm hearing, but what they could have easily done, if they determined that they didn't have enough CM's coming, why not just cancel the CM preview and consider it a soft opening? Then the guest does not feel like a 2nd class person.

I agree guests got on ok, but they had a longer wait. To me it's bad show to explain that longer wait was because somebody that works there gets to ride first. Of course that happens, but it should happen off stage, not on stage.

[Michael]

Sad to hear the bad review, but I will reserve judgement until next month whe Jen and I have a chance to see it in person.

[DLMAGICDARREN]

Sad to hear the bad review, but I will reserve judgement until next month whe Jen and I have a chance to see it in person.

As you should! When are you coming?

[JRob2k1]

The way I see it, when you get to experience an attraction 2 or 3 weeks before it even opens you loose all rights to complain about wait times and people going in through FP.

They could have made you wait until Nov 16th you know....




Plus Stich sucked, so its not a big deal.

-JRob

[Alpha]

I really lked the Lilo and Stitch movie, because bad was shown how to be good. The old tale of good triumphing over evil. But this show seems to just play on the bad in Stitch, the dark, perhaps that is why it is not popular with younger kids. They usually want their world to be, or at leist end up, friendly.

Well next week I will see it and decide for myself.

[DLMAGICDARREN]

The way I see it, when you get to experience an attraction 2 or 3 weeks before it even opens you loose all rights to complain about wait times and people going in through FP.

They could have made you wait until Nov 16th you know....




Plus Stich sucked, so its not a big deal.

-JRob

Which is exactly my point. My gripe was more about the injustice to the regular paying guest.