New rides don’t come along very often at Magic Kingdom. The reality is that The Walt Disney Company always faces long odds in introducing new elements into their most popular theme park. Guests share a certain expectation about where everything should go and which attractions should always exist. Amusingly, many of the same people also want to enjoy new and exciting experiences while visiting Walt Disney World.
Historically, Disney has combatted these conflicting consumer demands by adding new rides at the other theme parks while constantly renovating the most popular attractions at Magic Kingdom. Sure, there’s the occasional repurposing of a space to turn The ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter into Stitch’s Great Escape!, but the general practice is to perfect rather than create anew. That’s why the introduction of Seven Dwarfs Mine Trains proved so shrewd for the corporation.
While performing an expansion of Fantasyland, Disney opened enough space to add a new roller coaster. The instant crowd pleaser isn’t a thrill ride along the lines of Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster or Test Track. What is does deliver, however, is a joyous experience starting the moment people enter the line that continues all the way until the final stop of the coaster cart. In fact, the Imagineers saved a special surprise for people when they reach the end of the line. Let’s go Behind the Ride to learn about how Disney developed such a wonderful new attraction.
The Experience: A New Roller Coaster in an Area Planned for Princesses
The Trick: New Construction and the discarding of a potential attraction
Okay, this isn’t a trick per se, but to appreciate what The Walt Disney Company achieved with Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, you first must understand what they faced. The opportunity to build a new attraction in an established park hub doesn’t come around very often for any Disney theme park gate, much less Magic Kingdom, its crown jewel. Building a new attraction in Fantasyland wasn’t just about constructing the latest and greatest technological marvel. It was about maintaining the delicate balance of guest satisfaction. Deciphering the perfect balance required a nuanced approach.
As originally intended, Fantasyland would stand as a Disney Princess haven. In 2009, Disney announced their plans for the Fantasyland expansion. The initial blueprints suggested a pair of Princess attractions featuring Aurora and a princess to be named later as the stars. The former became The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Undersea Adventure. The latter…became something different. The Fantasyland expansion was to include a large Pixie Hollow section, a broadening of the same premise that remains at Disneyland today. Disney had opened this Magic Kingdom park setting at Mickey’s Toontown Fair in 2008, and they felt satisfied enough with the results to delve deeper into the setting.
Over time, the park planners responsible for New Fantasyland accepted the obvious. The scales of this section tilted undeniably female. Personally, I don’t see anything wrong with this as more than half the population is female. If you’re going to tip the scales a particular way, targeting women makes more sense than men, statistically speaking. Imagineers felt differently. They wanted everyone to experience the same euphoria once the improved park section opened to the public. So, they dropped Pixie Hollow altogether and reconsidered how to approach the second princess. In the end, they prioritized a family-friendly ride that would appeal to everyone. By the start of 2011, plans were in place for a new roller coaster, albeit one that wouldn’t break any land-speed records. After all, that wasn’t the point. This new ride would appeal to Disney loyalists who loved a certain fairytale already popular in Fantasyland.
The Experience: Relief from the boredom of waiting in line
The Trick: employing technology in extremely clever ways
Disney enjoys an enviable problem at their theme parks, especially at Walt Disney World. They enjoy a high volume of traffic from theme park tourists across the globe. That’s why half of the most visited theme parks on the planet are Disney’s Orlando gates. The downside of this is that the company faces an ongoing struggle to eliminate theme park queues. Frankly, there’s no ultimate solution to this problem. It will always exist in some form.
Rather than sit idly by while customers suffer through agonizingly slow, boring lines, however, Imagineers have aggressively attacked the problem. Seven Dwarfs Mine Train stands as one of their greatest achievements to date in this regard. Imagineers have meticulously timed distractions along the ride queue in order to reduce the amount of aggravation that park visitors endure.
Once people enter the covered part of the line, they start to notice a Bejeweled type of touchscreen videogame. There are multiple consoles available to play, and guests can interact from both sides of the display, meaning that they can play for several minutes if so inclined. Best of all, the interactive game allows multiple participants at once, so there’s no fear of someone hogging the game.
This collaborative type of activity spills over into the indoor area. Once people reach the interior part of the queue, they see barrels that they can spin, which is a pitch perfect addition to a dwarf mine attraction. Once people begin to spin, the genius of the apparatus reveals itself on the ceiling. The various dwarfs appear on the roof when people gyrate the barrels quickly enough. If enough people do so at once, a hidden Easter egg unfolds. Snow White herself joins her beloved dwarfs in dancing on the ceiling. Due to its newness and instant popularity, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train claims one of the longest waits at Walt Disney World, frequently in excess of 100 minutes. The enjoyable line games cause a lot of this time to fly by, though.
The Experience: A pleasantly bumpy ride on a twisting coaster
The Trick: An inventive new kind of coaster design
One of the many skills that differentiate Imagineers from other ride designers is their ability to think creatively. The people tasked with what would become Seven Dwarfs Mine Train knew from the beginning that this coaster would not go fast. It was replacing Snow White’s Scary Adventures, and the focus was on crafting something that the entire family would enjoy. Expedition Everest and Tower of Terror might not be for every Disney tourist, but the Seven Dwarfs ride should satisfy the young and young at heart.
Still, the one thing Disney cast members won’t accept is duplication. They demand more of themselves, and that’s why Seven Dwarfs Mine Train features a new coaster experience. Each cart twists and turns independently. Imagineers describe it as a “tilting vehicle” design, but they didn’t embark on this strategy randomly. Always emphasizing story in all phases, Disney employees recognized that transporting guests on a mine train wouldn’t deliver a smooth ride. Instead, they’d suffer through all the bumps of underground train tracks.
Transitioning that concept to an outdoor roller coaster required innovation. Imagineers discovered that they could anchor all the cars in a full mine cart together while still providing individual movement. Think of it like an airplane. Imagine if each row of seats were capable of independent motion. The plane itself goes the correct direction, but the sections can sway back and forth to add a rocking sensation that…well, it would have you reaching for the Dramamine, but you get the point.
Simply by re-thinking the need for a solid ride cart from front to back, they delivered an unprecedented ride experience. It’s also noteworthy that this isn’t something that Disney could do with a faster coaster for basically the same reason as the airplane example above. It’s only because the mine train runs at a maximum of 34 MPH that such swaying is enjoyable. A significantly higher speed combined with a rocking motion would require a barf bag.
The Experience: Dwarfs, witches, and princesses come to life
The Trick: The most advanced audio-animatronics in the history of Disney
Image: Disney
While evaluating the replacement to Snow White’s Scary Adventures, Disney execs deduced that status quo wouldn’t be acceptable for the new attraction. They’d need to push themselves with regards to bringing the tale of Snow White’s labor-intensive allies to life. Otherwise, park guests would view the new ride as a lateral move of sorts.
Imagineers went back to the drawing board and once again attacked an age-old problem. Audio-animatronics are ingrained as a key aspect of park lore, and Disney employees always feel driven to improve on the work of the innovators that came before them. In the case of Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, several upgrade opportunities presented themselves. There could add a layer of intrigue by casting shadows on the walls. This tactic would make the rider feel as if they’re joining the Dwarfs on their journey. Several shiny barrels and sacks of gems would enhance the vibe of the glorified treasure hunt that drives the Dwarfs through the workday.
None of the above would matter if the Dwarfs themselves weren’t lifelike, though. The problem Disney faced is that they didn’t want to build entirely new audio-animatronics (AAs). They had a full set for the Snow White fairytale already; it’d be wasteful to dump those and start from scratch. This sense of pragmatism led to a clever design premise.
The outdated AAs could maintain utility if repositioned. Disney moved the proven, timeless AAs to a new location just before the end of the ride. To avoid concerns about the age of these character models, they employed obscured glass techniques to prevent excessive scrutiny of the not-quite-retired AAs. Through this tactic, they added a terrific set piece at a moment when people think the ride is over.
Image: Disney
With the outdated AAs displayed elsewhere, Imagineers could flex their creative muscle by deploying new AAs. These stunningly life-like character models exemplify how far technology has come in the 2000s. While Disney constantly tweaks their existing attractions to keep them state-of-the-art, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train represents the first true step forward in AA technology in a generation of Disney attractions. And the results speak for themselves. The very first display has a special purpose in this regard. Doc’s jeweled glasses show off the new technology and its stunning attention to detail.
That’s not the greatest trick, though. That one is hidden in plain sight.The head of Disney’s Parks & Resorts division, Tom Staggs, had a simple request. He asked for the most life-like Dwarfs possible, and while he loved the initial results, he wanted more. He realized that a realistic fairy tale character is a bit of a misnomer, which is why he went a different way. He requested that Snow White’s worker bee buddies look like something more tangible. He asked for a set of characters that resembled something more iconic.
The next time you enjoy Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, pay attention to the look of the Dwarfs and see if they remind you of anything. They should. Disney modeled the 2014 version of the Seven Dwarfs after their original style, the one from the 1937 movie, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. In this manner, Disney looked forward with a new attraction that is the centerpiece of New Fantasyland. In doing so, they also paid homage to the movie that started it all for the company, a fitting tribute to their founder, Walt Disney.
