Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind SPOILER Thread

[Epcot82Guy]

Except it fits perfectly in World Discovery.

I'm sorry - but can you remind me again how a pavilion showing a stylized version of car design, a realistic approach to training people for space flight, a 100% fantasy alien race having a world showcase pavilion and a virtual-focused meet and greet are easily tied to together under one, cohesive, easy to understand theme? I know what Disney has said, but that's a collection of words - not a centralized theme IMHO.

The best I can come up with is how technology - real and imagined - helps us explore real, fantasy and other worlds. But, that's the best I could do with a lot of contortion. And, how does that fit into the new park overall?

Otherwise, it feels like very, very vague concepts to justify throwing random things together.

 

[bcoachable]

Well Universal seemed to get back to work in a timely fashion. Also 500m!!! TWDC has lost the institutional knowledge to build and run theme parks.

I Bolded the part that I think is most noteworthy.
I had a chance to tour a local water treatment plant the other afternoon.
The tour was led by a gentleman of some age and experience, and a recent High School graduate who was learning the ropes.
I asked the younger of the two how does one learn all the intricacies of testing water quality and what to do when something isn't going as planned (knowing a whole community counts on clean drinking water)...
The answer of course was that he had a GREAT MENTOR.
Who is still around TWDC today that can be called a Great Mentor? Maybe they are still around, but it seems, to this outsider looking in, that anyone with any valid experience at running this ship well has been asked to move along.
Ask Boeing how that played out...
sorry for the thread high-jack...

 

[OG Runner]

I'm sorry - but can you remind me again how a pavilion showing a stylized version of car design, a realistic approach to training people for space flight, a 100% fantasy alien race having a world showcase pavilion and a virtual-focused meet and greet are easily tied to together under one, cohesive, easy to understand theme? I know what Disney has said, but that's a collection of words - not a centralized theme IMHO.

The best I can come up with is how technology - real and imagined - helps us explore real, fantasy and other worlds. But, that's the best I could do with a lot of contortion. And, how does that fit into the new park overall?

Otherwise, it feels like very, very vague concepts to justify throwing random things together.

You are right. This should have been the first pavilion in the Other World Showcase!

 

[FerretAfros]

It would also be fun if they put a Ferris Wheel in the hub, right in front of the Castle. I bet a lot of people would be excited for that.

That would obviously be sacrilege of a much higher magnitude than that of Guardians going into EPCOT, but the very nature of a theme park is a place full of fun experiences that fit the theme.

With all the space, time, money, and resources Disney has had access to in trying to right the ship at EPCOT, there's no legitimate reason they cannot provide something that is both lots of fun and in theme.

They just haven't the interest.

A Ferris wheel in the hub? They would never! ...oh, they did? Well, nevermind...

Fun fact: Disneyland's State Fair promotion 1987 & 88 was the reason that WDI installed the Partners Statue. Seasonal promotions were (and still are) mostly done locally at the individual parks, and WDI thought this one crossed a line. It's a lot harder to use a location for seasonal promotions when there's already permanent infrastructure there.

At least they had the good sense to take advantage of the railroad's closure for Splash Mountain construction, and put a Ferris wheel on the tracks in front of Main Street Station. MK's railroad has been closed for how many years due to the Tron construction, and they haven't figured out a way to do anything to partially offset the capacity loss?

Say what you will about the (admittedly, too-often tacky) seasonal promotions of yesteryear, but at least they added on to the existing offerings and also had fairly constant investment in new permanent additions; too often these days, it seems like we're supposed to get excited over ever-decreasing things to do in stale parks.

 

[WDWJoeG]

A Ferris wheel in the hub? They would never! ...oh, they did? Well, nevermind...

Fun fact: Disneyland's State Fair promotion 1987 & 88 was the reason that WDI installed the Partners Statue. Seasonal promotions were (and still are) mostly done locally at the individual parks, and WDI thought this one crossed a line. It's a lot harder to use a location for seasonal promotions when there's already permanent infrastructure there.

At least they had the good sense to take advantage of the railroad's closure for Splash Mountain construction, and put a Ferris wheel on the tracks in front of Main Street Station. MK's railroad has been closed for how many years due to the Tron construction, and they haven't figured out a way to do anything to partially offset the capacity loss?

Say what you will about the (admittedly, too-often tacky) seasonal promotions of yesteryear, but at least they added on to the existing offerings and also had fairly constant investment in new permanent additions; too often these days, it seems like we're supposed to get excited over ever-decreasing things to do in stale parks.

And all of those installations (including the motorcycle globe of death in the hub) and the Epcot circus were temporary for a season. The abominations that WDI installs today (oil rigs in World Showcase, hideous Guardians tower, gigantic blue box in Epcot, etc.) are permanent or there for years.

The company just doesn't care about theme, sightlines, or any sense of cohesive design. The plopping down of Shanghai's Tron in MK's Tomorrowland is truly unbelievable and WDI and the fans just love it because it goes "wheeeeeeeee!!!!".

Disney as we knew it is dead.

 

[Marc Davis Fan]

Didn’t read all 22 pages of this thread so not sure if anyone cares anymore at this point but I was able to ride it twice so far. The one word I would use to describe it is FUN! While I’m on it I’m smiling ear to ear. It’s not intense or scary at all, but the two elements that really pull it together and put it over the top is the music and the movement of the cars. The vehicle cars don’t spin crazy like your on a tea cup or anything, it’s more like your sitting side ways and whipping around a turn while you listen to Disco Inferno. The whole thing is just fun! To get an idea, think about this for a second…you have a roller coaster that plays a Tears for Fears song. Like if that doesn’t make you laugh, giggle or atleast smirk then I don’t know what will.

The ride that most impressed me and gave me all the feels in my 20+ years of going to Disney was Flight of Passage. Obviously a completely different ride but I wouldn’t say Guardians tops that for me. This is still very rock n roller coaster-esque where your in the dark and then see something and then in the dark and see something else, all synced to music. But the coaster track layout is fun and MUCH longer then RNRC.

One last thing I would add is that this ride is going to be tough for people prone to motion sickness for sure. I can ride every ride at WDW but the turning of the cars and having to look in different directions at what is going on definitely made my stomach a little woozy. But I’m also someone who can’t read a book in a car without feeling nauseous.

Overall, great ride and I think people will love it as long as they can deal with the “spinning” motion for 3 minutes on a coaster.

FUN FUN FUN!

Thanks for posting your review!

How would you describe the level of "wow factor"? In addition to being fun, how impressive did you find it?

 

[mergatroid]

Looking forward to seeing the POV's when they drop. A verbal review here where it's described as the smoothest coaster ride (among other things). I know somebody will say "Ooh $400 million for a smooth ride" but that's ok, it's just one of it's attributes.

 

[mergatroid]

Enjoyed this review a lot. Some highlights (some obviously more subjective than others).

Smoothest coaster he's ever been on, said smoother than both Hagrid's and Velocicoaster which surprised him greatly.
Extremely comfortable, tall and wide people should fit easily.
The darkness works exceptionally well, no light leaking in.
Very crisp visual effects which work well with the movement of the ride vehicle and direction including large curved screens.
Says the 'jumps' match up closely to the artists impressions with the hexagons lighting up as the renderings showed.
Keeps mentioning how 'enjoyable' and 'fun' the attraction is, gives you a real feel good factor and desire to ride again.
Says he rode along to 'Everybody wants to rule the world' and it fitted perfectly (surprised me as personally sounds the worst fit of them all) but there you go.
He says that POV's won't do it justice due to struggling to adjust between the constant light and dark changes but it works perfectly in person.

 

[tallica]

Rode it yesterday. It is very smooth but gave me motion sickness. Nothing at Disney or Uni gives me motion sickness with except for Mission space. It was very hard to hear the dialogue over the music, sound was very muffled. may have been bad a tech issue with our car. The same was true for my daughter sound and motion sicknesses. First impression was meh. Flight of Passage and Mission Breakout were much more enjoyable the first time I rode them.

 

[Tegan pilots a chicken]

Only because they changed Future World (partially) into World Discovery so they could build this. A change which, outside of adding Guardians, is so far a change in name only. It's lip service paid solely so they could disregard what the park was actually about.

Changing the theme of a land really isn't commendable when the land you're replacing had a better and more legitimate theme than the new one. World Discovery is such a non-thing - it's merely an excuse to include IP that didn't fit before. You know they could have built a killer, in-theme roller coaster in Future World as it was . . . but that wasn't what they wanted. They wanted to build one using a big name brand. And if the big name brand didn't fit in Future World, then to hell with Future World. Which is the antithesis of a Theme Park ethos.

If you swapped out every projected element in Cosmic Rewind for one that fit Future World's theme and left the rest of the ride as-is, you'd still have a monstrously successful attraction. It could have been a proper Future World attraction - and probably would have saved some big bucks on the fees of those A-List actors they filmed. But the vested interest is in leveraging existing properties regardless of the park's theme. We're seeing this all over and Guardians really isn't any different in this regard.

Idk. A roller coaster about solar panels and petroleum seems kinda odd.

Regardless of why they changed the name of the north half of the park, they did in fact change it. Honestly, I much prefer the new neighborhoods approach. Each neighborhood will be able to be stronger as a result of not necessarily having to fit the Future World theme.

EPCOT will be stronger and better in the future because of this new framing.

 

[yensidtlaw1969]

Rode it yesterday. It is very smooth but gave me motion sickness. Nothing at Disney or Uni gives me motion sickness with except for Mission space. It was very hard to hear the dialogue over the music, sound was very muffled. may have been bad a tech issue with our car. The same was true for my daughter sound and motion sicknesses. First impression was meh. Flight of Passage and Mission Breakout were much more enjoyable the first time I rode them.

Sorry to hear you didn't feel well after. Do you think you'll try it again in the future, or was it bad enough that you won't go back?

Very little has been said about the onride experience - does it somewhat feel like a roller coaster that passes through Flight of Passage-style projection domes?

 

[celluloid]

I'm sorry - but can you remind me again how a pavilion showing a stylized version of car design, a realistic approach to training people for space flight, a 100% fantasy alien race having a world showcase pavilion and a virtual-focused meet and greet are easily tied to together under one, cohesive, easy to understand theme? I know what Disney has said, but that's a collection of words - not a centralized theme IMHO.

The best I can come up with is how technology - real and imagined - helps us explore real, fantasy and other worlds. But, that's the best I could do with a lot of contortion. And, how does that fit into the new park overall?

Otherwise, it feels like very, very vague concepts to justify throwing random things together.

In the future, we could have intergalactic showcases much like the world's fair was on one planet. I think that kind of diplomacy is a classic theme to think about and at least on the surface I think it is fair to give it that. How it is executed in the attraction I do not know.

I think that would be on par with the 100 percent fictional abstract take on being inside the human mind and emotions that Cranium Command was. I have no doubt that Cranium Command pulled it off better and was more inspiration focused, but on the surface the Alien Race intergalactic showcase at least makes some sense and I have to give it that.

 

[Tegan pilots a chicken]

I'm sorry - but can you remind me again how a pavilion showing a stylized version of car design, a realistic approach to training people for space flight, a 100% fantasy alien race having a world showcase pavilion and a virtual-focused meet and greet are easily tied to together under one, cohesive, easy to understand theme? I know what Disney has said, but that's a collection of words - not a centralized theme IMHO.

The best I can come up with is how technology - real and imagined - helps us explore real, fantasy and other worlds. But, that's the best I could do with a lot of contortion. And, how does that fit into the new park overall?

Otherwise, it feels like very, very vague concepts to justify throwing random things together.

Future World was always divided in half this way; the eastern half featured the lengthy “hard science” style pavilions with heavy narrations. The western half featured the more whimsical, freeform, and organic pavilions. Even from 1982, the west half of FW had water features and flowing, curvy elements whilst the east half is dry and utilized clean lines and angles. And eventually thrill rides.

The renaming simply allows each area of the park to be that much stronger and better defined. Now it doesn’t matter if The Land doesn’t have synergy with something on the other side of the park because they aren’t as much a part of the same overall theme.

I just don’t see how anyone can see this as anything but a win for EPCOT.

Would you rather have the park as we’ve known it from about 2003? Or would you rather see the most unique park in the world continue to grow and change as it was always intended to?

 

[celluloid]

Future World was always divided in half this way; the eastern half featured the lengthy “hard science” style pavilions with heavy narrations. The western half featured the more whimsical, freeform, and organic pavilions. Even from 1982, the west half of FW had water features and flowing, curvy elements whilst the east half is dry and utilized clean lines and angles. And eventually thrill rides.

Even those Eastern side hard science ones had whimsy. Let us not forget that Sea Monster and Marc Davis style designed sight gags in World of Motion with its entire narration written to be a counter to the sights seen for cartoony humor, and the bustling in film like qualities of Horizons as well as the eventual Wonders of Life which really through it all. I know I am preaching to the choir but Spaceship Earth itself after all, although dry in comparison, is a ride based on the conceit that we are time traveling and going inside data depending on the version.

There is something to EPCOT: The Real is fantastic and The Fantastic becomes real.

I am not saying that Guardians should not be inspiring. If there are not inspiring humanitarian elements, than there should be. That is what EPCOT always was to me. People get hung up on Edutainment. Entertaining education is a part of it and can be done well, but at the end, it needs to be inspiring. If Magic Kingdom is Americana Mythology/literature, EPCOT was the Humanities course of our existence.

 

[yensidtlaw1969]

Idk. A roller coaster about solar panels and petroleum seems kinda odd.

Regardless of why they changed the name of the north half of the park, they did in fact change it. Honestly, I much prefer the new neighborhoods approach. Each neighborhood will be able to be stronger as a result of not necessarily having to fit the Future World theme.

EPCOT will be stronger and better in the future because of this new framing.

Right, because Future World was all solar panels and petroleum, and there are definitely no other ideas that would have fit the theme and made a good coaster

Regardless of why the name was changed, I would say we don't yet have any real proof that the Neighborhood concept will provide a strength that Future World could not. Will the Neighborhoods at their worst offer an overall better experiences than the dog days of Future World did? Perhaps - Future World was permitted to fall to some low lows, but that mostly won't be seen for another 2 years or so until construction is done. Will the Neighborhoods at their best offer an experience rivalling the glory days of Future World? They don't yet, and it seems quite unlikely since the most major element of the project is about to come online but won't have a meaningful impact beyond the footprint of its showbuilding. The front half of the park is still a mess and one new hit ride doesn't magically undo all the other problems.

More than a handful of the Pavilions are still being allowed to limp along with halfhearted attractions. Dreamers Point and Journey of Water won't alter the fabric of the land such that its problems are gone, they're little more than cosmetic changes. What we see in a month when Guardians opens will essentially be the general state of EPCOT for the foreseeable. Which is basically just Future World with some altered signage, a new Airport cafeteria, and net gain of 1 new ride. All with some shiny Philips Hue lighting.

EPCOT won't really be "stronger and better" if everything that's open now will still be basically as it is despite one new ride added to the lineup. Disney should know by now that one attraction - even a great one - doesn't solve park-wide problems. EPCOT needs more than some makeup and a really expensive bandaid.

 

[yensidtlaw1969]

Future World was always divided in half this way; the eastern half featured the lengthy “hard science” style pavilions with heavy narrations. The western half featured the more whimsical, freeform, and organic pavilions. Even from 1982, the west half of FW had water features and flowing, curvy elements whilst the east half is dry and utilized clean lines and angles. And eventually thrill rides.

The renaming simply allows each area of the park to be that much stronger and better defined. Now it doesn’t matter if The Land doesn’t have synergy with something on the other side of the park because they aren’t as much a part of the same overall theme.

I just don’t see how anyone can see this as anything but a win for EPCOT.

Would you rather have the park as we’ve known it from about 2003? Or would you rather see the most unique park in the world continue to grow and change as it was always intended to?

I don't understand why you think these are the only 2 options.

Renaming Future World because the theme doesn't permit the intrusion of Comic Book Superheroes is not the park "growing and changing as it was always intended to". It's growing and changing in ways it was decidedly not intended to, or they wouldn't have had to break up the land into three and change the theme to do it.

Your post seems to be somewhat at odds with itself - in the first paragraph you cite (accurately) the dichotomy of Future World East and West, but in the second you suggest that the Land was subject to synergy with the attractions across the park . . . which, for the record, never happened in either the best or worst days of Future World.

Future World's theme was never so limiting that nothing exciting and amazing could be done with it. They just chose not to for the last 25~ years. Disney ran the place into the ground in the 90's, let the Festivals prop it up for the 2000's, strung it along in the 2010's and then looked and said "We have to DO something, nobody likes this anymore!" . . . well, duh, guys. You let it fall to pieces. But the pieces themselves weren't bad - pick them up and build something new with them! It would be easy, and if well done you'd have a great park, new attractions, and a unified vision.

But again, their interest is no longer in having a unified vision. It's in using the Marvel characters however they can in Florida to prop up sagging numbers. Animal Kingdom got a new hit ride in 2017, DHS in 2019, MK is seemingly evergreen . . . and then there's EPCOT.

It's a shortcut. They aren't interested in making the park "stronger and better defined" or they'd actually be doing that. Instead they're putting a giant, Marvel-shaped pot under the leaky roof and calling it fixed. And it's a big pot, so it'll hold a lot of water. But the roof's still leaking and they don't really care to fix it.

 

[tallica]

Sorry to hear you didn't feel well after. Do you think you'll try it again in the future, or was it bad enough that you won't go back?

Very little has been said about the onride experience - does it somewhat feel like a roller coaster that passes through Flight of Passage-style projection domes?

yes , will try again. whole experience happened so fast. very dark and disorienting. Almost feels like a high speed water ride that drifts in the turns. Projections are huge but way off in the distance so they don't light up the vehicle. it took less than five minutes to enter building and board ride. went from sun to dark so my eyes never adjusted, this may have contributed to motion sickness .

 

[celluloid]

EPCOT

yes , will try again. whole experience happened so fast. very dark and disorienting. Almost feels like a high speed water ride that drifts in the turns. Projections are huge but way off in the distance so they don't light up the vehicle. it took less than five minutes to enter building and board ride. went from sun to dark so my eyes never adjusted, this may have contributed to motion sickness .

Motion sickness tends to come from repetitive motion or visuals not synched with our eyes, you probably already know this, but I doubt the darkness had anything to do with it for the most part. That being said, do you find other dark rides disorient you at all where you may think that is a part of it?

This sounds counterintuitive but put something easy on your stomach, to avoid doing in empty or dehydrated and see if that helps. I hope you find you enjoy it next time.

 

[Epcot82Guy]

Future World was always divided inW half this way; the eastern half featured the lengthy “hard science” style pavilions with heavy narrations. The western half featured the more whimsical, freeform, and organic pavilions. Even from 1982, the west half of FW had water features and flowing, curvy elements whilst the east half is dry and utilized clean lines and angles. And eventually thrill rides.

The renaming simply allows each area of the park to be that much stronger and better defined. Now it doesn’t matter if The Land doesn’t have synergy with something on the other side of the park because they aren’t as much a part of the same overall theme.

I just don’t see how anyone can see this as anything but a win for EPCOT.

Would you rather have the park as we’ve known it from about 2003? Or would you rather see the most unique park in the world continue to grow and change as it was always intended to?

I guess there are two things here. You are 100% right that the park was always divided. to the point the East side had linear paths to map to the left side of the brain and West/right side was more organic, creative, natural sides. The issue is all of Epcot up until these recent additions was based in the real world. Real things - sometimes more or less fantasitcally presented. But still based in the real world.

I am not at all saying I want the park we had for the last 20 years. Some may, but most I have talked to aren't saying that at all. Rather, we are saying we want the THEME and STORY of the original park - presented in updated ways. By your argument, I would assume you want Frontierland, Fantasyland, Tomorrowland, etc. totally destroyed in MK - since they are all 50 years old now, right? I say that in jest, but the point is the IDEA of Epcot was and remains still a highly viable thing. It's the execution, poor upkeep, abandonment, etc. that's the issue. UoE was absolutely due for a replacement. It's THIS replacement that is the issue since it doesn't fit Epcot, and the new idea doesn't make sense.

With that, I'm not in the camp that says IP can't be used at all. There are a lot of versions - of this very ride - that could have worked. Even with the same basic premise, if this was a new Sci Fi Pavilion or CGI Pavilion with Cosmic Rewind as the main attraction, that could loosely work. But, it would have the focus being how the real world inspired Stan Lee and others to create MCU. Or how we can use technology to create the MCU. It needs a definitive, clear anchor in reality. That's what every FW (and most WS pavilions save for Frozen and sort of Remy) have had until recently. And that creates the major divide IMHO.

Guardians sounds like a really solid attraction (albeit overpriced) which would have been a smash hit in TL or even Studios. It simply doesn't fit the theme of Epcot. And, the new "theme" they are pushing doesn't make sense. I'm sorry, but there is no tie between M:S, TT and Cosmic Rewind. Two are real world tech. One is 100% fantasy alien races showcasing fantasy technology - which is the story and theme of TL, not Epcot.

This comes down to lazy storytelling to shoehorn things in. Pandora showcased they can make things fit pretty well when they try. They simply aren't trying any more.

 

[mergatroid]

Sorry to hear you didn't feel well after. Do you think you'll try it again in the future, or was it bad enough that you won't go back?

Very little has been said about the onride experience - does it somewhat feel like a roller coaster that passes through Flight of Passage-style projection domes?

I've linked two after ride reviews on this thread where it's described. Basically it's described as the smoothest coaster ride ever, even in comparison to Velocicoaster and Hagrid's. The vehicles don't spin randomly, but rather turn to face the direction they want you to look in. This means some of the ride you're travellling facing sideways, backwards or forwards however you're not spun for the sake of spinning like the teacups. The level off 'thrill' is described as less than RnR by quite a distance and somewhere between EE and SM. It's also said that you're not thrown around the ride vehicle at all and the 'smoothness' keeps being repeated. The projections vary but one part complimented was a very large curved screen which you face as you make a large turn. Apparently it syncs perfectly with the movement of the vehicle to create a very realistic feeling and that part was compared to Flight of Passage but the other screens aren't as big or impressive.

Obviously it's all subjective when it comes to enjoying an attraction or not. I've not ridden it and can only go off the testimonials of those who have and in the last few posts on here somebody who's ridden it doesn't rate it that much. That's fair enough and can be said about about every ride in every park, it's all about opinions.