Antarctica - Something to Finally Get Excited About

stitch2008

Member
Thank you sir... Are we now at a point where SeaWorld is out doing Disney in central Florida??? :lol:

Not really. Disney is still the king or Orlando and always will be IMO. SeaWorld is passing Universal IMO for #2. By the end of the decade I think SeaWorld will be a resort honestly.

In truth, I dont see everyone's fascination with trackless rides. I see people go oh Imagination should be trackless. Why isn't our Pooh trackless? Why can't Mermaid be trackless? Nobody in the industry really cares that much about it. Everybody can do it. Sally has it. There really isn't anything too amazing about it. It just an add on. :shrug:

BOTH Sea World and Universal are outdoing Disney. It's great to see from those parks but disappointing from Disney.

Disney and SeaWorld are outdoing Universal. Universal still has a long way to go in my book. I'm not jumping on the Potter hype train. It's a nice ride don't get me wrong. But they need more then that. Replacing Jaws with the original concept they had in mind instead of Potter 2 would have made me rethink the argument a bit for sure.

Most of my life I've been following Universal. I was a huge fan from the 90's till about 2004. I can show my 95 program and vacation planning DVD from 2002. Then I saw IoA get nothing for years, the B&M's become the roughest B&M's I ever rode, and watched amazing concept after amazing concept fall by the wayside. They had me for a long time and then lost me. I'm not buying them yet.
 

cheezbat

Well-Known Member
Not really. Disney is still the king or Orlando and always will be IMO. SeaWorld is passing Universal IMO for #2. By the end of the decade I think SeaWorld will be a resort honestly.

In truth, I dont see everyone's fascination with trackless rides. I see people go oh Imagination should be trackless. Why isn't our Pooh trackless? Why can't Mermaid be trackless? Nobody in the industry really cares that much about it. Everybody can do it. Sally has it. There really isn't anything too amazing about it. It just an add on. :shrug:



Disney and SeaWorld are outdoing Universal. Universal still has a long way to go in my book. I'm not jumping on the Potter hype train. It's a nice ride don't get me wrong. But they need more then that. Replacing Jaws with the original concept they had in mind instead of Potter 2 would have made me rethink the argument a bit for sure.

Most of my life I've been following Universal. I was a huge fan from the 90's till about 2004. I can show my 95 program and vacation planning DVD from 2002. Then I saw IoA get nothing for years, the B&M's become the roughest B&M's I ever rode, and watched amazing concept after amazing concept fall by the wayside. They had me for a long time and then lost me. I'm not buying them yet.

What are you smoking? Disney is not outdoing anybody anymore. Not in central Florida. Universal big time upped the ante with Potter, and they're at it some more with a new night time show, another expansion, more rides coming to BOTH parks in the next few years...Sea World is doing some great things too...Antarctica is going to be good. What is Disney doing? The Fantasyland Expansion? What about after that? :shrug: My hopes for WDW have dropped drastically over the past five years.
 

stitch2008

Member
What are you smoking? Disney is not outdoing anybody anymore. Not in central Florida. Universal big time upped the ante with Potter, and they're at it some more with a new night time show, another expansion, more rides coming to BOTH parks in the next few years...Sea World is doing some great things too...Antarctica is going to be good. What is Disney doing? The Fantasyland Expansion? What about after that? :shrug: My hopes for WDW have dropped drastically over the past five years.


Potter is not a game changer for Orlando IMO. The original idea to replace Jaws with WOULD have. And it would really bring me back to my original view of USO. But they are gonna roll with Mr. Potter again it seems.

When it comes to future expansion, especially with IoA, I believe it when I see it. I heard about so many amazing plans that were on the table and very close to approval. Some people on the net have heard, some that havent made it online yet. But none of them got approved. Then Potter came to town and gave IoA it's first big attraction since opening. What makes me really pessimistic is that I watched IoA get nothing for all those years. I'm worried that history is going to repeat itself. Since I loved IoA(still do), I'm praying I don't have to wait nearly ten years for the next major addition as I did with Potter. And I don't mean the future Transformers land to replace Marvel(that's coming).

At least with Disney, were getting refurbishments and Fantasyland. Word is starting to get around to us in the industry that Disney is gearing up for something else in Florida. I dont know if its Avatar or something else. And were also hearing that SeaWorld is going to be building on a hotel soon to make themselves a resort themselves.

I want Universal to prove me wrong. I miss Universal. But it's gonna have to prove it to me personally. I was ready to be proven wrong with the Jaws replacement. But they decided to get more Potter. That's nice and all but the original idea woulda been out of this world.

So I'm down on Universal cause I know they could have made these efforts sooner and they could added a real world changer in 2014/2015. You think Potter is making an kind of impact? Nothing compared to what this would have done. Or maybe cause I think the attraction I'm thinking would have done more damage then Potter. I don't know. :shrug:

Cheez if you wanna know more about what attraction I'm talking about just PM me. I don't really wanna put it out here yet since it's still relatively fresh and someone could get in big trouble if anything got leaked. I don't want anyone in trouble.
 

Pete C

Active Member
In truth, I dont see everyone's fascination with trackless rides. I see people go oh Imagination should be trackless. Why isn't our Pooh trackless? Why can't Mermaid be trackless? Nobody in the industry really cares that much about it. Everybody can do it. Sally has it. There really isn't anything too amazing about it. It just an add on. :shrug:

Well, not exactly in the case of Pooh. Tokyo Disneyland's Pooh system is totally unique compared to those systems. It is not just an old-school single buried wire like Tower of Terror. It is also much more complex than Sally's multi-path trackless system. Pooh (as you probably already know) uses an underground matrix of wires and a computer program that tracks and randomizes the movement of the hunny pots in the main room. The pots interact with each other as well as various AAs throughout the room. It is a truly unique experience.

Anyway, even the newer, less-expensive trackless systems allow the ride vehicles to do some things that track-based systems are not as good at, like allowing the ride vehicles to move forward and backward into and out of a single space, like the leaked ride plans show for the new Antarctica attraction. An omnimover, or any track-based system, could not do that very easily. They would require track pieces re-routing or flipping over like Everest.
 

stitch2008

Member
Well, not exactly in the case of Pooh. Tokyo Disneyland's Pooh system is totally unique compared to those systems. It is not just an old-school single buried wire like Tower of Terror. It is also much more complex than Sally's multi-path trackless system. Pooh (as you probably already know) uses an underground matrix of wires and a computer program that tracks and randomizes the movement of the hunny pots in the main room. The pots interact with each other as well as various AAs throughout the room. It is a truly unique experience.

Anyway, even the newer, less-expensive trackless systems allow the ride vehicles to do some things that track-based systems are not as good at, like allowing the ride vehicles to move forward and backward into and out of a single space, like the leaked ride plans show for the new Antarctica attraction. An omnimover, or any track-based system, could not do that very easily. They would require track pieces re-routing or flipping over like Everest.

Fair enough.

I do remember hearing that SWO made the trackless decision very late in the design process. Apparently been thinking about another kind of ride system. But they decided to roll with this.
 

Communicore

Well-Known Member
Looks like a classic 70's area of the park has been demolished to make way for this attraction. Oh well, I liked the 70's-ness of that area! I'm surprised that there aren't any 70's Sea World discussions!
 

Pete C

Active Member
Looks like a classic 70's area of the park has been demolished to make way for this attraction. Oh well, I liked the 70's-ness of that area! I'm surprised that there aren't any 70's Sea World discussions!

:lol: It was totally 70s! I can't say that I was a fan of it though. If I had gone there many times as a kid I would probably have some attachment to it, but for whatever reason we didn't go to SeaWorld much back then...it was always Disney. Going there now as an adult it feels more like a city aquarium or science center than a theme park attraction. Themed environments have become key to the experience of an Orlando theme park.

Epcot has made an effort to shed or hide its deeply entrenched 70s-ness (I know it opened in 82, but there is no denying the look and feel of Future World). They have a long way to go still!
 

Pete C

Active Member
On a side note, it's rather strange that they are going to open a huge 'realm' for Antarctica, but decided not to move the animals from Wild Arctic over to it. We already know Wild Arctic's 4D theater is on the chopping block for the future. That would have freed up ALL of Wild Arctic's real estate for a future attraction. However, they decided to just make it the "Empire of the Penguin". Now they are stuck with Wild Arctic's habitats and still wanting to replace the theater with something new.
 

stitch2008

Member
On a side note, it's rather strange that they are going to open a huge 'realm' for Antarctica, but decided not to move the animals from Wild Arctic over to it. We already know Wild Arctic's 4D theater is on the chopping block for the future. That would have freed up ALL of Wild Arctic's real estate for a future attraction. However, they decided to just make it the "Empire of the Penguin". Now they are stuck with Wild Arctic's habitats and still wanting to replace the theater with something new.

Well for starters, I've heard SeaWorld was gonna do a new simulator film or something for Wild Arctic.

However, I would find it even more strange to see polar bears and beluga whales from Wild Arctic to show up in Antarctica: Empire of Penguins. Considering that those animals only live in Arctic region and not the Antarctic region.
 

Pete C

Active Member
Well for starters, I've heard SeaWorld was gonna do a new simulator film or something for Wild Arctic.

However, I would find it even more strange to see polar bears and beluga whales from Wild Arctic to show up in Antarctica: Empire of Penguins. Considering that those animals only live in Arctic region and not the Antarctic region.

I see. I wondered about that, but didn't bother to look it up :hammer:.
 

FigmentJedi

Well-Known Member
Oh wow, didn't expect things to be trackless. Can't believe that another park is using this system before Disney got the chance to do one here in the US.

http://www./2012/04/seaworld-orland...s-experiences-when-antarctica-debuts-in-2013/
 

djlaosc

Well-Known Member
I can't wait for Antartica to open - it was always nice to see the penguins, and you would think that that experience should only get better!

My question is, is the whole thing just a ride, or will you be able to go and see the penguins just as a walkthrough like before, (similar to how you can see the animals on "The Seas with Nemo & Friends" at Epcot, and you can also walk around the aquarium - it will be disappointing if you have to queue for the ride (not that I won't be going on the ride - looking forward to it) in order to see the penguins - you should hopefully get to spend as long as you want looking at them, rather than seeing them for 3 or 4 minutes at a time and then having to requeue for the whole ride!
 

cheezbat

Well-Known Member
I'm pretty sure they'll build a walk through exhibit as well as the ride...sort of like they did with Manta. It's a great idea, seeing as how not everyone can ride the rides.

I think this will be a great addition!
 

Pete C

Active Member
I'm pretty sure they'll build a walk through exhibit as well as the ride...sort of like they did with Manta. It's a great idea, seeing as how not everyone can ride the rides.

I think this will be a great addition!

Yeah, that would be the perfect solution. I was surprised at how cool Manta's aquarium attraction was!
 

HTF

Well-Known Member
The only thing I have heard is screens will be utilized among large open air sets. Sort of like the FJ but not on such a grand level. Still going to be a great family attraction though since it has a pretty sizable budget.
 

cheezbat

Well-Known Member
The only thing I have heard is screens will be utilized among large open air sets. Sort of like the FJ but not on such a grand level. Still going to be a great family attraction though since it has a pretty sizable budget.

That's good news. I like the direction Sea World has been going lately.
 

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