Did anyone believe the Hydrolators were real?

[MarkTwain]

We had an interesting discussion about the Hydrolators in the Living Seas a while back, and I just thought I would see who was actually deceived by this rather nifty trick of Imagineering. I guess you could say I'm wondering to see if the effect would impress as many people today as it did in the 1980s.

The Hydrolators/ride portion of the Living Seas closed when I was pretty young, but I still remember them clearly. I'll admit I was taken in every time I rode them, until one incident we were the last to leave the pavilion late at night, and the CMs had left both doors on either side open for cleaning (or something like that). Kinda ruined it for me then. :lol:

How about you? The poll is up.

 

[ChrisFL]

The Hydrolators may be gone, but they do have a spiritual successor in Tokyo DisneySea, Journey to the Center of the Earth has elevators that are similar and some great effects to make it seem like you're going down a long way

 

[Master Yoda]

I was in my early teens the first time I rode a Hydrolator. While they sure did seem real to me I knew they couldn't be and it was only a matter of time before I figured out how the effect was done. Like most magic, Disney or otherwise, it was pretty simple yet completely convincing. I still think that they are one of the best effects that Disney has ever done and they are one of the few things I wish could have been preserved from the original pavilion.

 

[SirNim]

As I recall, the hydrolators had "Otis" branding on the doors and floor (befitting since Otis is a subsidiary of United Technologies, the former sponsor), and thus in all respects actually resembled very real elevators. Great detail which probably made some astute detail-hawks second-guess the unreality/reality of SBA.

 

[Bravo 229]

The first time I rode the Hydrolators on a 3rd grade trip, I thought it was real. After I overheard someone talking about it being fake, I was kind of upset, but didn't let it ruin the effect on the many trips I had taken after that. Would've been nice if they had kept them around as a second option to Nemo. But as with all things EPCOT, they ultimately become replaced with something new and uninspiring.

 

[the-reason14]

I would assume that since you enter and exit through different doors that it wouldn't fool so many people as what elevators do you go on that you come in one way but out another? I think I read before I went on that they were fake, and my Aunt and Dad knew right off the bat that it was just s special effect and nothing more.

 

[MissM]

I would assume that since you enter and exit through different doors that it wouldn't fool so many people as what elevators do you go on that you come in one way but out another? I think I read before I went on that they were fake, and my Aunt and Dad knew right off the bat that it was just s special effect and nothing more.

Hospitals. They often have double-sided elevator doors.

I'm sure on my first visit as a kid I believed them to be real. No reason not to when you're a kid. You don't think things are fake; you just accept them as they are.

 

[Phonedave]

I would assume that since you enter and exit through different doors that it wouldn't fool so many people as what elevators do you go on that you come in one way but out another? I think I read before I went on that they were fake, and my Aunt and Dad knew right off the bat that it was just s special effect and nothing more.

Quite a few elevators have doors on both sides, and depending on the floor open on either side.

I belive some in Newark Airport do. I know the IKEA by me has one as well. They also have that nifty speed ramp that you can take shopping carts on and they don't roll away.

As for the hydrolators, I don't know what my answer should be.

I was maybe 12 when I went on them. I knew we were not going to some seabase at the bottom of the ocean, but I did think they went down one floor. For some reason I throught we entered on the upper floor, and went one floor down in the Hydrolator to simulate going under water.

-dave

 

[Future Guy]

I believed they were real when I was 10. I didn't go back to EPCOT until I was 18, and by then I could see past the illusion, although I still enjoyed suspending my disbelief.

 

[lazyboy97o]

but I did think they went down one floor. For some reason I throught we entered on the upper floor, and went one floor down in the Hydrolator to simulate going under water.

Now that would have been really cool. It also would have required a return trip up. What really killed the hydrolator effect was the pavilion exit that just happened.

 

[britlightyear]

Does anyone have a picture of them? Or a youtube link maybe? I have no clue what these things are. :shrug:

 

[MarkTwain]

The Hydrolators may be gone, but they do have a spiritual successor in Tokyo DisneySea, Journey to the Center of the Earth has elevators that are similar and some great effects to make it seem like you're going down a long way

I've heard about those... yet another reason to save up for that trip to Tokyo.

I was in my early teens the first time I rode a Hydrolator. While they sure did seem real to me I knew they couldn't be and it was only a matter of time before I figured out how the effect was done. Like most magic, Disney or otherwise, it was pretty simple yet completely convincing. I still think that they are one of the best effects that Disney has ever done and they are one of the few things I wish could have been preserved from the original pavilion.

Definitely agree with you there; I thought they were such a great effect, and I would be so much more satisfied with the Nemo pavilion if they had been kept.

I believed they were real when I was 10. I didn't go back to EPCOT until I was 18, and by then I could see past the illusion, although I still enjoyed suspending my disbelief.

I enjoyed that too. :wave: Even today as an adult, such a great part of the Disney magic is pushing the disbelief out of your mind, and just letting the experience wash over you.

Now that would have been really cool. It also would have required a return trip up. What really killed the hydrolator effect was the pavilion exit that just happened.

Actually, If I remember correctly, there were Hydrolators at the exit too to complete the effect.

...Unless you're referring to how you would step directly off of the Hydrolator back into Future World?

Does anyone have a picture of them? Or a youtube link maybe? I have no clue what these things are. :shrug:

Pictures and videos can be tough to find... and believe me, I've looked. Possibly because it's a difficult effect to capture on film, or because the Hydrolators were so often full of people that it was hard to get a good photo, so no one really tried. It never really occurred to me to get a picture of it because I never assumed they were going away, if that makes sense.

This piece of concept art depicts the Hydrolators pretty well, though:

Basically, you would step onto the Hydrolator and the doors behind you would close. Then the floor would start to rumble, with the walls outside the windows rising and bubbles floating up. Then the doors in front of you would open, and you would truly believe (or not) that you had descended into a tank. Very magical effect.

 

[ChrisFL]

Yes, there were exit hydrolators at first, though they may have removed them later, I can't recall exactly

There was a difference in the exit hydrolators, there was no longer a view of the bubbles and rocks going the opposite way, IIRC it was just more plain

 

[britlightyear]

[/QUOTE]Pictures and videos can be tough to find... and believe me, I've looked. Possibly because it's a difficult effect to capture on film, or because the Hydrolators were so often full of people that it was hard to get a good photo, so no one really tried. It never really occurred to me to get a picture of it because I never assumed they were going away, if that makes sense.

This piece of concept art depicts the Hydrolators pretty well, though:

Basically, you would step onto the Hydrolator and the doors behind you would close. Then the floor would start to rumble, with the walls outside the windows rising and bubbles floating up. Then the doors in front of you would open, and you would truly believe (or not) that you had descended into a tank. Very magical effect. [/QUOTE]


Thank you very much! I kept reading all this stuff about them but for the life of me all I could figure out was that they were some sort of water elevator :shrug: Kinda wish they still had them, they do sound pretty neat!

 

[Rob562]

As others have said, on my first visit, I believed they were really moving. I was 9 years old, and it was 1986. (Living Seas was brand new, only open 3 months!),

But by the time I made my second visit at age 18, I wasn't fooled (and probably already had read somewhere that they didn't move). But then again, I've always been involved with theater and know a bit about visual trickery and illusions...

In fact, the floors *did* move about an inch, to help give the illusion of the hydrolator starting and stopping motion. The shaking floor was a little more obvious on the exit/ascent hydrolators because they typically weren't totally full, and you could see the floor moving where it met the stationary walls.

And the person who supposed that Otis is a subsidiary of the original sponsor United Technologies, you'd be right. Otis did actually supply the door mechanisms, so they looked like real two-part elevator doors that everyone is used to, adding to the illusion that you were entering a real elevator.

The exit hydrolators didn't have windows because even though they could do ascending rocks quite easily, the bubbles in the water outside the windows wouldn't look right. So the windows were just blank panels, and the roof had some kind of frosted skylight in it with a lighting effect above. (It may have even been a moving light that got closer to the car as you neared the "surface", I don't recall)

Martin's Living Seas Tribute video has video of the Hydrolators.
http://www.martinsvids.net/?p=61
It's a great video, I suggest you watch the whole thing. But if you want the Hydrolators right away, fast-forward to the 15-minute mark. You even get to see some of the outside effects that people missed if they got right on a waiting hydrolator, like the descending/ascending lights on either side of the doors, the bubbling of the water under the bridge to the doorway and the sound of the Hydrolator car "arriving".

The exit hydrolators are are the 30:40 mark in the video.


On a side note, the now-closed Star Trek experience in Las Vegas handled their turbolifts slightly different, though I'm not sure it was more-convincing... They used a single car that only had one door. You entered from one room (the bridge) and as you were supposedly moving down through the ship, the car slowly rotated so that it faced a different direction when the doors opened and you exited out into a totally different set than you entered.

-Rob

 

[Susan Savia]

I never really thought much about it. I remember once boarding one and we stood a moment waiting on the door to shut and right after it did the door on the opposite side opened and a CM stood there and I remembered him saying, "Opps!" and then the door shut and we began our 'decent'.

 

[bgraham34]

I remember believing they were real when I was 13 I think or that is when I realized that they were not real. No matter what I did believe in them.

 

[Master Gracey 5]

I believed they were real when I little, but was told by my dad that they weren't. We actually went through the exit backwards one time when my aunt went diving in the main tank and I saw it without the effects which was an odd experience.

 

[musketeer]

Our first visit to Epcot, around 1986, my brother who was 4 at the time, bought it completely. In fact, while walking around the pavilion, he kept asking my parents if there was enough air, and if they had emergency air, and if we could escape quickly if water started leaking in, and kept asking when we were going to leave. He's 28 now, but we still give him crap about it.

 

[the1nonlysinger]

Have to admit, I was too little to remember them when I went as a kid. And they were gone before I returned as an adult. So I searched on youtube to find out what a hydrolater was exactly. Found this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syQEcf0VtgA