Should Splash Mountain have been prioritised over Indiana Jones and the Lost Expedition?

[Zeock]

Indiana Jones and the Lost Expedition was a very ambitious idea. It would involve a retheme of Adventureland at Disneyland, and would include an EMV dark ride on a larger and more ambitious scale to the three we got, and would also include a minecart rollercoaster. Jungle Cruise and the Disneyland Railroad would both pass through. This would all be enclosed.
However, another team of Imagineers were working on what would become Splash Mountain. Eisner favoured that project, so it went ahead.
Personally, I would have preferred Indiana Jones and the Lost Expedition because it seems like it would have been a very high-budget area whereas Splash Mountain ended up being a Disney classic, but not to the same scale as the Indiana Jones area.

 

[Llama]

I believe the Disneyland Railroad was to pass through the show building, rather than the monorail. Generally I think the whole concept was too big and too expensive to ever see the light of day. A massive show building with two new rides, plus taking down the train and the jungle cruise during construction... it would not have been cheap.

I don't think that conception of the ride would have ever been built. I think it was canceled while it was still in the blue sky stage, but had it been given the go-ahead, it would have been trimmed down quite a bit, likely meaning the removal of the minecart roller coaster, which leaves us with roughly what we have today.

 

[Zeock]

I believe the Disneyland Railroad was to pass through the show building, rather than the monorail. Generally I think the whole concept was too big and too expensive to ever see the light of day. A massive show building with two new rides, plus taking down the train and the jungle cruise during construction... it would not have been cheap.

I don't think that conception of the ride would have ever been built. I think it was canceled while it was still in the blue sky stage, but had it been given the go-ahead, it would have been trimmed down quite a bit, likely meaning the removal of the minecart roller coaster, which leaves us with roughly what we have today.

It was the Disneyland Railroad; sorry.
Cost is a good argument for Splash Mountain. Don't know if it is true or not, but I heard that the EMV ride alone would have cost $220 million! (The EMV ride we got, Indiana Jones Adventure, for comparison, cost just under $100 million and Splash Mountain at Disneyland cost $75 million). I don't blame Eisner for choosing the cheaper option.

 

[jon81uk]

Also Splash Mountain at Disneyland reused many of the anmatronics from America Sings, making it by far the cheaper option.

 

[Llama]

I don't know about that; with a bit of creative storytelling they could have fit a few dozen singing birds and bears into the Indiana Jones ride without too much of a problem

 

[jon81uk]

I don't know about that; with a bit of creative storytelling they could have fit a few dozen singing birds and bears into the Indiana Jones ride without too much of a problem

Well some of the America Sings animatronics also became droids in the Star Tours queue.

 

[Llama]

Another thought about this thread: remember the original concept for Galaxy's Edge and then what we got? There was to be a dinner theater, a slow Bantha ride around the whole land, and a level of interactivity with chacters and random happenings with the land that would have been somewhere on par with the new Star Wars hotel, except it wouldn't have cost an arm and several legs. This was turned into what was actually built, likely entirely for budgetary reasons. The same would've happened with the Indiana Jones area, unfortunately. Splash Mountain was a much safer bet, especially with the ability to reuse dozens of animatronics.

Well some of the America Sings animatronics also became droids in the Star Tours queue.

I'd forgotten about that, good call! Though it is much easier to reuse an animatronic when you can take the skin off and call it a droid. I'm really curious to see if they re-reuse the same set of animatronics for the new Tiana ride, which would put them at a solid 50 years old when the ride opens. I'd like to think they're going to retire them for good, but it's Disney, so if they can save a buck I'm sure they will do so.