News Test Track Closing for Refurbishment January 2020

Railfan Andrew

Well-Known Member
Every attraction in Future World is looking a bit dire, and Test Track is no exception. I remember when the new version first premiered I was excited about it and gave it positive reviews, but now I feel that the original version would have felt less dated now with only some minor tweaks. In it's current form, it's a weird, abstract, half-baked concept at best, and weird, clunky, and frustrating at worst. Even with a Fastpass, you wait forever for it because of the dumb design room being a huge bottleneck. The cars you design are cartoony and cheesy. You're supposed to learn about the balance between the four categories, but it is not well conveyed and I don't think most people grasp it. Your designs have no impact to the ride other than how it ranks them by their already-determined stats at four points. The first few scenes look pretty cool but then you get to the rooms that were previously hot, cold, and corrosion, and I think about how much detail used to be in them, replaced with almost nothing at all. The first room's effect never even works and the third one ("hyperspectral imaging") is just a moving light behind a static image. Then the rest of the indoor portion just took what was already there and put UV paint gridlines over it. Then it makes no sense to exit the simulation grid and enter the real world.
In July 2017 I was at EPCOT for like the 3rd time that year (This time my grandfather had a convention at the Four Seasons resort) and Test Track went down 7-8 times in the span of a few hours. This is one of the most unreliable/unpredictable attractions in theme park history. Every time I get in line I am always expecting it to go down.
 

techgeek

Well-Known Member
My biggest issue with Test Track is how long it takes to get to the actual ride, if you ever want to ride it multiple times. Thus, making it a one-time-only attraction per trip. Which is sad for such a big headliner.

For quick multiple rides, TT has probably the best single-rider line on property. You can skip the design phase and usually walk right on with minimal wait.
 

DiscoveryTank

New Member
Good. Needs major help.

honestly, test track is one of the worst attractions in all of Walt Disney World. It is simply plywood cut outs painted black with neon paint outlining the set pieces. Terrible projections on flat walls, overall very poor quality dark ride. I don’t understand why it gets any praise, besides the fact that it goes fast.
Very true,
I guess it is because it is the only thrill ride in the whole park.
I was hoping that this ride would be changed to be more realistic but I guess not.
But if those neon lights and bad projections are taken away as you said, I would love it more.
 

n2hifi

Active Member
I struggle with Test Track because I want to like it, but deep down I really don't. I did like 1.0 better but not as much as the original WOM.
As much as I hate IP in Epcot, this is one ride I would have no problem with a Cars overlay.
 

Bender123

Well-Known Member
My biggest issue with Test Track is how long it takes to get to the actual ride, if you ever want to ride it multiple times. Thus, making it a one-time-only attraction per trip. Which is sad for such a big headliner.

Single rider line, my dude...Its one of the easiest/fastest single rider lines I use. Daughters and I did it five times with a maximum wait of under 5 minutes for each ride.
 

CAV

Well-Known Member
Just an FYI Test Track will be down January 13 - February 26, 2020 for refurbishment. No changes planned during the downtime just general upkeep.
I just wonder if Mickey's right hand knows what his left hand is doing. Every year, they close headliners -sometimes the same headlining consecutive years- the day after Marathon weekend. Why the hell can't it wait a couple of days? A large segment of the marathon weekend crowd shows up on Saturday and leave during the week after the marathon.
 

Magicart87

No Refunds!
Premium Member
Not likely to happen with this update but I hope in time Imagineering will find a way to give TestTrack 2.0 that extra 10-15% it needs to fix minor "potholes" in it's storyline and to fully develop the ride premise to better reflect what it purports to be; a test simulation of a custom-designed car.

The build-a-car queue arcade, the test simulations, the useless data, the "power" run (that just happens to be outdoors) and it's pointless results ranking could all be revamped to make Test Track 2.0 that much better.

A good starting point for brainstorming a solution: What is the purpose of test track 2.0? Is it a physical/practical simulator or a digital simulation? What are the passengers in this scenario? Is the concept car, just that or can it be something more? What is the purpose of having park guests design a car? Results/Ranking... What's the point? How do we better explain or explain away the outdoor portion of the simulation? What would be a more satisfying finale to this attraction? Etc.
 

No Name

Well-Known Member
Good. Needs major help.

honestly, test track is one of the worst attractions in all of Walt Disney World. It is simply plywood cut outs painted black with neon paint outlining the set pieces. Terrible projections on flat walls, overall very poor quality dark ride. I don’t understand why it gets any praise, besides the fact that it goes fast.
It used to be great in its first incarnation, in my opinion. But for a company that prides itself on storytelling, the current iteration removes exactly that. And aside from technology that looks decreasingly cool as the years pass, it doesn’t add much in return. I understand from a corporate sponsor’s perspective why they like the new version better, but I think the cool aesthetic and design element of the current and the actual story of the former could’ve been combined into a ride that’s truly superior.
 

Jwhee

Well-Known Member
I stand by my statement as it is one of the worst. Obviously you’ll be able to point out that some are worse, but then again TT is one of the headliners at Epcot and that’s what makes it so laughable. Solid D ticket at best.

Laughable in comparison to basically any other “e-ticket” in Orlando. Even compared to Imagination. Sure figment in this version is annoying and everyone likes to hate the Imagination Institute theme, but it’s a fully themed immersive ride with impressive sets. TT is awful. All card board cut outs in the dark with an exposed warehouse ceiling, glow in the dark paint and flat walls with horrible projections. Only savior is the queue and unique ride system.
 

Horizons '83

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
No
Agree to disagree... look at the attraction as a whole not segregated pieces of the attraction. Also be sure to compare this E ticket to other Orlando E tickets that opened the same time frame, so throw all potter stuff out, what do you have?
 

Little Green Men

Well-Known Member
I stand by my statement as it is one of the worst. Obviously you’ll be able to point out that some are worse, but then again TT is one of the headliners at Epcot and that’s what makes it so laughable. Solid D ticket at best.

Laughable in comparison to basically any other “e-ticket” in Orlando. Even compared to Imagination. Sure figment in this version is annoying and everyone likes to hate the Imagination Institute theme, but it’s a fully themed immersive ride with impressive sets. TT is awful. All card board cut outs in the dark with an exposed warehouse ceiling, glow in the dark paint and flat walls with horrible projections. Only savior is the queue and unique ride system.
Compared to version 1 where there was no dividing walls and the lights were on the whole ride so you saw the entire layout of the building throughout the ride. Its not just cardboard, it has the city, aerodynamic scanning mirror, the truck, etc. What does RnRC have on the ride?
 

TrojanUSC

Well-Known Member
Every attraction in Future World is looking a bit dire, and Test Track is no exception. I remember when the new version first premiered I was excited about it and gave it positive reviews, but now I feel that the original version would have felt less dated now with only some minor tweaks. In it's current form, it's a weird, abstract, half-baked concept at best, and weird, clunky, and frustrating at worst. Even with a Fastpass, you wait forever for it because of the dumb design room being a huge bottleneck. The cars you design are cartoony and cheesy. You're supposed to learn about the balance between the four categories, but it is not well conveyed and I don't think most people grasp it. Your designs have no impact to the ride other than how it ranks them by their already-determined stats at four points. The first few scenes look pretty cool but then you get to the rooms that were previously hot, cold, and corrosion, and I think about how much detail used to be in them, replaced with almost nothing at all. The first room's effect never even works and the third one ("hyperspectral imaging") is just a moving light behind a static image. Then the rest of the indoor portion just took what was already there and put UV paint gridlines over it. Then it makes no sense to exit the simulation grid and enter the real world.

The original, while flawed, would continue to hold up. It was a simple, straightforward story with show scenes that made sense. Now you really don't know what's going on half the time.

Doesn't help that the cars you "design" look like they're from a mid-90s arcade game.
 

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