The Theme Park Topic

[Gabz Girl]

I never got the chance to ride (or rather stand) in Alien Encounter, even though it was still there when we went. D: Maybe my parents could tell the attraction wasn't made for 10 year old me, 4 year old brother, 13 year old sister and the grandparents?

 

A bloody shame though because from the videos I've watched online it looked awesome. I only wish I could FEEL the experience too! Feeling the alien breathing down your neck, licking it and shit like that ahhh so cool! ><

[Osmium]

Here's something different.

 

So, what is your favourite version of any Disney Attraction? You can compare any different versions, such as comparing WDW's Pirates to DL's Pirates. 

 

I guess I will post my favourite of one attraction: Space Mountain. 

 

My favourite Space Mountain is Walt Disney World's Space Mountain. Yes, I like the original old clunky two track version compared to Disneyland's smoother faster ride and Paris's' cannon inversion awesomehouse. 

 

 

Why? First of all WDW's Space Mountain gets the theming perfectly. Compared to other Space Mountain's you get an extremely elaborate pre and post show to go along with the coaster. This was such a big deal that Space Mountain was being advertised so you could skip the coaster entirley, go through the queue, and then go see RCA's home of the future, with lazerdiscs and everything!! 

 

WDW's Space Mountain queue has to be one of my most favourite queues anywhere. You first walk into the polygonal Satellite building, and walk down some stairs. This is so you can get underneath the Railroad Track. Then you walk through the Star Corridor, which plays some pretty famous music. In the 70's, a version of "Here's to the future and you" played instead of the music. 

The star corridor was originally gray, and the right side had portholes looking out into space. When the corridor started to go up again, RCA had some displays of their latest stuff, which would be updated over the years.

 

 

 

Then you walked through the dark and eerie Zigzag corridor which plays a version of the Star Corridor theme, but with a bunch of 70's futuristic ambient noises added. The darkness of this hall made you more used to the dark lighting of the coaster.

 

One of the things that was visible outside of the portholes. 

 

Finally, you would wind your way through the huge loading room. It used to be open, but they closed up the ceiling during the 2009 refurb, so you cant look down from the Peoplemover anymore. 

The closed ceiling Loading Area, post 2009 

 

This queue really makes you feel apart from Tomorrowland, and like you are in some weird 70s spaceport or something. Speaking of being in Space, this queue actually demands a pretty big thing from guests, and it succeeds. What I mean is, how you are just randomly walking down a hall, and the next second you are looking out into space. There is no explanation to how you are randomly now in Space, but it really works. 

 

After the ride, you would go and view RCA's House of the Future via the longest speedramp at WDW. Near the end of it, you can view yourself on multiple TVs. In the 70s, this was the highlight of Space Mountain for some people.

 

 

 

In 1985, the House of the Future was replaced by RYCA-1 "Dream of a new world" which is basically still there, although modified. You can still see yourselves on the TVs, though! 

 

WDW's Space Mountain is my favourite also because of how much it retains the weirdness of the concept. Two tracks,open loading room,awfully long preshow and postshow, it's all there. 

 

At Disneyland and the other space Mountains, you walk around the Mountain, you go inside and walk through some short hallways, get into you rocket and go. That's it. At Disneyland, there was a room in the queue that let you looked out into space and at that awesome geosphere, but that was removed in 2003. 

 

I don't think that people will react to this kindly, but I almost compare WDW's Space Mountain and DL's Space Mountain like how I would compare DL's Pirates to WDW's Pirates. DL's Space Mountain is a lot smaller and much less imposing than WDW's Space mountain. it's still fun, but there's not nearly as much to add to the fun. 

I never got the chance to ride (or rather stand) in Alien Encounter, even though it was still there when we went. D: Maybe my parents could tell the attraction wasn't made for 10 year old me, 4 year old brother, 13 year old sister and the grandparents?

 

A bloody shame though because from the videos I've watched online it looked awesome. I only wish I could FEEL the experience too! Feeling the alien breathing down your neck, licking it and shit like that ahhh so cool! ><

[Osmium]

I would like to make this post in tribute to one of the best omnimovers ever. 

 

Adventures Thru Inner Space. 

 

Actually, it was the first omnimover. When Disney went to the 1964 World's Fair, they noticed some other companies pavilions and their ride systems. Some ride systems had many ride vehicles constantly moving in a chain. This was all and well, but there was no way to move guest's eyes away from parts of the attraction that were not to be seen. Disney's response was the Atomobile. 

 

 

These could swivel around to surprise guests and show guests certain things. These were quite revolutionary when Adventures Thru Inner Space opened. You may notice these Atommmobiles have a striking resemblance to the Doom Buggies of the Haunted Mansion. They are basically the same vehicles, but Adventure Thru Inner Space preceded Haunted Mansion by over two years. 

 

This attraction had an extremely serious tone. Paul Frees, the same man who played the "Ghost Host" in the Haunted Mansion was the voice of the scientist who narrated the ride. 

 

When you walked into the showbuilding, you would already be hearing scientists talk and dramatic music which made the area feel very eerie. You would see the Monsanto Microscope which Atomobiles would travel into, and you would see miniaturized guests in Atomobiles inside a clear glass tube in the microscope.

 

 

 

In the attraction past the microscope, you would see snowflakes. They would get gradually larger until you travel through the crystalline structure, and see atoms of Hydrogen and Oxygen. You would penetrate the Oxygen atom, and then see the nucleus on the inside, surrounded by electrons. You would get larger again, seeing the snowflake had melted. Throughout the whole thing, you would hear Paul Frees who gave announcements along with eerie warped music that made the whole experience seem quite alone and threatening. This ride had an extremely dark, lonely tone that made you feel completely apart from the rest of Tomorrowland. 

 

 

 

 

 

The post show showed displays of some of Monsanto's products as the song "Miracles and Molecules" played over. 

 

 

 

Notice how the Peoplemover would travel just above the showroom. 

 

This attraction is very strange as it was extremely popular during it's run and was removed in 1985. It's just really strange to think of a Haunted Mansion-es-cue ride being removed right in the middle of Disneyland. 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-4-RUuuqQw

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KA3uFkF1A9o

 

It was replaced by Star Tours. 

[The Tenth Doctor]

I raise this thread from it's grave once more! Wanted to discuss theme parks once more. Wanted to discuss the big changes to Disney World to start off and see where we go.

Let's start off with the Hollywood Studios (I'll still call it MGM thanks). They are adding Star Wars Land and Toy Story Land. While Toy Story is mostly unknown (I imagine it'll be similar to the Paris and Hong Kong areas) but Star Wars has been getting the most attention. I'm upset that the Animation areas have been removed (Mulan was made there guys) but I am excited to see what is made. We'll be getting a ride in the Falcon and also experience the First Order fighting the Resistance. As long as we get equal representation to originals, prequels and new and I'll be happy.

Then we have the opposite end of the spectrum. Animal Kingdom will be adding Avatar Land soon. It will be getting boat rides and battle rides but man, I hate this. Now I know Animal Kingdom was originally envisioned to celebrate extinct animals, animals of today and animals that never were but Avatar? Really? I don't think Avatar is that popular any more and you have to put up with James Cameron's ego controlling everything. Hell, he wanted it in Magic Kingdom before being talked down. Even with the sequels coming, this is an awful idea. 

 

Also found this nifty documentary about the parks.

 

[Failinhearts]

I'm really excited for the Star Wars stuff coming to Disney World!

You know, I haven't been in Disney World in years but my parents are planning to return one day. Hopefully Star Wars Land will be ready by then. (Also, I hope there's some good prequel representation. I wanna meet and greet Clone Troopers!)