Disney’s newest roller coaster, Wandering Oaken’s Sliding Sleighs at Hong Kong Disneyland, has a problem: it’s too well themed.
From the exterior, Wandering Oaken’s Sliding Sleighs looks phenomenal. Like Disney’s other classic “mountain” coasters the track weaves around giant rockwork with waterfalls and plunges toward a manmade lake. It has the level of theming we’ve come to expect from Disney for a major attraction.
So what’s the problem?
It’s all about managing expectations and giving guests the correct information to make an informed decision.
While it looks like a E-ticket attraction from the outside, in reality, Sliding Sleighs isn’t a major attraction. In fact, it’s in the bottom five of all Disney roller coasters worldwide in terms of track length. It’s less than half the length of the other comparably themed coasters, including Seven Dwarfs Mine Ride.
The layout is basically a figure-eight inside a circle. The coaster portion of the ride lasts ONLY 25 SECONDS!
Excuse my crudely drawn layout sketch
🔧 “Frozen Land” construction is progressing at Hong Kong Disneyland with the recent arrival of theming details (like the Clock Tower, Arendelle crest and town facades) and the coaster track for “Wandering Oaken’s Sliding Sleighs”!
Reporting and photos via @hkdlfantasy. pic.twitter.com/5T8uGmLXZs— DLP Report (@DLPReport) February 25, 2021
For all the other Disney coasters with a similar short length, you can see the entire ride from the midway. Pair that with knowing how long the wait is and you can make a decision whether it will be worth it to wait in line or not. You can probably see 75% of Sliding Sleighs’ track from the midway as well. The problem is the ornate theming will lead most to assume there is more to it inside the mountain. Guests might be expecting the next Expedition Everest and instead they’re getting Barnstormer. Or Rookie Racer from Six Flags St. Louis, another comparable length kid coaster except with no theming.
I don’t think Sliding Sleighs is a bad ride at all. But I foresee a lot of negative reviews simply due to the fact that the incredible theming will set expectations really high then when the reality of how short the ride experience is, that will lead to disappointment, especially if the lines are consistently long.
How Wandering Oaken’s Sliding Sleighs Could Have Been Better
So, what’s the solution? Ideally, the track length should have been longer. The coaster seems like it has a lot of momentum after the plunge towards the lake, it immediately hits the brake run with a lot of speed. Even one final helix would have been an improvement. But maybe the budget didn’t allow that.
One method amusement parks have been using to increase ride duration without having to spend more money on more track is with track switches. Wandering Oaken’s Sliding Sleighs is so short you should really get to go around twice. This could have been accomplished with track switches just like DarKoaster at Busch Gardens Williamsburg. The load/unload is on a separate spur so you can still run multiple trains to keep the capacity up but you can extend the ride experience to increase guest satisfaction.
Of course, maybe the easiest option would have been to just theme the ride less and make it more on par with similarly sized coasters like Gadget’s Go Coaster or Magic Kingdom’s Barnstormer:
Even Universal’s Flight of the Hippogriff and Wood’s Nuthouse Coaster are themed appropriately relative to their size.
Major Franchises Deserve Major Attractions
Another reason guests might come away disappointed due to the attraction not meeting their expectations is because it is themed to one of Disney’s biggest and most popular properties. According to “The 15 Highest-Grossing Disney Animated Movies of All Time” list, Frozen 2 is number one and Frozen is number two. The Frozen franchise with all the merchandise has generated an estimated $14 billion dollars of revenue for Disney, yet the roller coaster doesn’t even break the thousand foot mark.
Wandering Oaken’s Sliding Sleighs isn’t the only disappointing attraction considering the IP or theming. A few other hyped-up attractions that fail to live up to the franchise they represent include:
- Six Flags’ Dark Knight coasters. While a “wild mouse in a box” is a fun idea, you would expect so much more out of a ride themed to the epic Dark Knight movie – the first billion dollar superhero movie and largely considered one of the best superhero movies of all time.
- Fast and Furious: Supercharged at Universal Studios Florida is neither fast nor furious. A franchise with ten movies and counting deserves an attraction where the ride is better than the queue.
- Zootopia is the seventh highest grossing Disney animated movie and deserves better than merely being a replacement show at Disney’s Animal Kingdom.
What are you thoughts on Wandering Oaken’s Sliding Sleighs? Can a roller coaster be too well themed? What’s another ride that failed to live up to its theming?
I agree there is a miscommunication on what to expect. I would be disappointed to wait in line for that. It is very pretty so it would be sad to make it look worse but somehow there needs to communicate that this is a filler ride and not a top attraction.
Limited space at Hong Kong Disney makes it almost impossible to build a “full length “ ride.
Nope, don’t buy that at all. They have the 5 and 6th longest Disney coasters already. Could’ve fit more track on the same plot of land.