AstroOrbiter Refurb 2019

britain

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Saw on another site (rhymes with Slappin' Face) that walls have wrapped around the AstroOrbiter. Didn't see any discussion about it yet, so started this here thread.
 

britain

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Please remove those ugly rocks that Tony Baxter added in 1998. I get that Mr. Baxter was facing ugly executive forces in Paul Pressler for the overall New Tomorrowland project, but the design decision to go with those rocks was just bad, bad, bad.

The sculpted rocks were better than the dirty paint job on Space Mountain. But still, Tomorrowland 98 was pretty much a failure all around.

I mean I even think the orbiter is more beautiful than the old rocket jets, but it really shouldn’t be at the entrance to the land.
 
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TP2000

Well-Known Member
I mean seriously, how could you screw this up that badly?...

9-67_TLEntrance.jpg


And then 20 years later, you still don't want to correct the huge mistake because your theme park division only created $4.2 Billion in after-tax profit to the Company's bottom line for the year???

Seriously, I'm increasingly convinced that TDA is filled with idiots.

But if Mr. Damaro and his latest gaggle of TDA suits takes this one, last opportunity to fix a two decade old wrong before absolute chaos descends on the park this June, then I'll admit that maybe they aren't as idiotic as they seem. Now let's see what they do this winter with this five month long Astro Orbiter rehab. :rolleyes:
 

mickEblu

Well-Known Member
I mean seriously, how could you screw this up that badly?...

9-67_TLEntrance.jpg


And then 20 years later, you still don't want to correct the huge mistake because your theme park division only created $4.2 Billion in after-tax profit to the Company's bottom line for the year???

Seriously, I'm increasingly convinced that TDA is filled with idiots.

But if Mr. Damaro and his latest gaggle of TDA suits takes this one, last opportunity to fix a two decade old wrong before absolute chaos descends on the park this June, then I'll admit that maybe they aren't as idiotic as they seem. Now let's see what they do this winter with this five month long Astro Orbiter rehab. :rolleyes:

Wow. What a great pic! I wish I could have experienced TL in its former glory. The clearest memories of TL are from the early/ mid 90s which was still far better than what we have today. I can also vaguely remember America Sings.
 

TP2000

Well-Known Member
I can also vaguely remember America Sings.

I actually liked America Sings better than Carousel of Progress. Not that Carousel of Progress was a bad show, it was great, but America Sings was just so incredibly kitschy that even in the 1970's you knew you were watching something weird and wonderfully of its time.

It hurts to go on Carousel of Progress now out at WDW, since the lowered standards of WDW means they maintain it like a dusty window display at a Woolworth's. But America Sings at Disneyland, now that was special. And also hysterically and awesomely corny.
 

mickEblu

Well-Known Member
I actually liked America Sings better than Carousel of Progress. Not that Carousel of Progress was a bad show, it was great, but America Sings was just so incredibly kitschy that even in the 1970's you knew you were watching something weird and wonderfully of its time.

It hurts to go on Carousel of Progress now out at WDW, since the lowered standards of WDW means they maintain it like a dusty window display at a Woolworth's. But America Sings at Disneyland, now that was special. And also hysterically and awesomely corny.

To this day my Dad says it was his favorite Disneyland attraction (and he’s not that into Disneyland). For whatever reason it stuck with him. That and America the Beautiful/ Circlevision.
 

Phroobar

Well-Known Member
Tomorrowland back then was pretty awesome. I also really enjoyed America Sings. As I kid I also liked the AT&T display. It was fun playing with the phones. Best part was taking the speed ramp up to Space Mountain.
 

Curious Constance

Well-Known Member
Five months to rehab the orbiter? Couldn’t they take it apart and rebuild it 20 times in that amount of time?

Hey, it just occurred to me I never saw how the Matterhorn queue rebuild turned out.
 

britain

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I actually liked America Sings better than Carousel of Progress. Not that Carousel of Progress was a bad show, it was great, but America Sings was just so incredibly kitschy that even in the 1970's you knew you were watching something weird and wonderfully of its time.

It hurts to go on Carousel of Progress now out at WDW, since the lowered standards of WDW means they maintain it like a dusty window display at a Woolworth's. But America Sings at Disneyland, now that was special. And also hysterically and awesomely corny.

I always felt that the last act was essentially Marc Davis being dragged kicking and screaming into the rock & roll era, ending with Three Dog Night's "Joy to the World" - not quite the epitome of 70's rock.
 

The_Mesh_Hatter

Well-Known Member
Every Star Wars fan descending on Disneyland this summer is going to want to ride Star Tours in addition to experiencing GE. In fact, it wouldn’t be a terribly bad idea to double down on the Star Wars presence in Tomorrowland while GE is fresh to satiate the crowd’s appetite for all things Star Wars.

If TDA does the smart thing trying to balance out crowds between the east and west sides of DL, opening up the pathways on the east side of the park is just as important as clearing the west side thoroughfares. There’s really good reason to move the Astro Orbiter deeper into the land.
 

mickEblu

Well-Known Member
Every Star Wars fan descending on Disneyland this summer is going to want to ride Star Tours in addition to experiencing GE. In fact, it wouldn’t be a terribly bad idea to double down on the Star Wars presence in Tomorrowland while GE is fresh to satiate the crowd’s appetite for all things Star Wars.

If TDA does the smart thing trying to balance out crowds between the east and west sides of DL, opening up the pathways on the east side of the park is just as important as clearing the west side thoroughfares. There’s really good reason to move the Astro Orbiter deeper into the land.


Well, I think it takes them like one day to get Hyperspace Mountain up and running.
 

Ismael Flores

Well-Known Member
Every Star Wars fan descending on Disneyland this summer is going to want to ride Star Tours in addition to experiencing GE. In fact, it wouldn’t be a terribly bad idea to double down on the Star Wars presence in Tomorrowland while GE is fresh to satiate the crowd’s appetite for all things Star Wars.

If TDA does the smart thing trying to balance out crowds between the east and west sides of DL, opening up the pathways on the east side of the park is just as important as clearing the west side thoroughfares. There’s really good reason to move the Astro Orbiter deeper into the land.

That is a really good idea, when SWGE opens they should probably consider adding the star wars overlay to Space mountain, bring back a show for the eatery in tomorrowland, update the pathetic theater in tomorrowland with something to entertain the crowds and basically overload tomorrowland with Star wars stuff to keep crowds satisfied for the summer.

It might not go well with some Disney fans but it will help spread the crowds. I'm actually surprised they haven't started one of those yearly Star Wars events like at Orlando Disney's Hollywood studios
 

Ismael Flores

Well-Known Member
I wonder if the Astro Orbiter would fit where that spinning rock is now. Then turn the entire dead Starcade into Space Mountain queue.

It actually does. during one of those boring days at work, i went ahead and photoshopped to scale the astro orbirtor in several areas of tomorrowland away from the entrance of the land. The astro orbitor fit nicely in the area used up the spinning ball and trees surrounding it.

another thing they can do is remove the extended queue they built for Captain EO in front of the magic eye theater and make it a walkway. that way the small walkway between that and newly placed astro orbitor can be used for queue

Of course the best thing to do is to put it back up on a platform and integrate it to a newly built structure that would replace the innoventions building. A multi purpose structure that would house a new "E" ticket inside and the smaller orbitor outside.


Edited to add picture..

here is a quick cut and paste to size of the area.

Yellow being the astro queue and blue being the area that should be removed for walkway since it is an unused extended queue

relocated-Astro.jpg
 
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Ismael Flores

Well-Known Member
What they really should do is also relocate the Space Mountain entrance to the north side of the area. The starcade entrance would be a new themed entrance queue for Space mountain. I know they just added the upstairs extended indoor queue but they should have just used both floors. No need for escalators instead build a wrap around ramp against the walls of the area using every available space downstairs for queue that leads to the base of the ramp to the second floor.

The ADA entrance would stay where it is now.

new space mountain.jpg


Gut out the magic eye theater and turn that into an eatery that could also have entertainment, tear out all the wall dividers along this walkway that is used for the space mountain exit. Those dividers were added to separate the exit area of the magic eye theater form
the walkway. right now it just creates a bottleneck. This would create a nice wide open exit path for the ride and access from the eatery to the restrooms. it makes no sense to have the pizza port on the opposite side of the area away from restrooms.

walkway.jpg



Now they have the large piece of property that is used by Pizza port and all the extended seating behind it to actually build an indoor family attraction. This whole section can de designed to fit with the new structure built to replace innoventions and an elevated platform for the relocated astro orbitor. The idea that was once talked about to make tomorrowland a multi level experience with walkways can be obtained. It could even be the stepping stone to rebuild that section of tomorrowland with a much wider an ADA acceptable second floor tunnel area that can be used for a family style attraction that can travel around the land like the old peoplemover did but with added visual effects. A slow ride like that can be made to feel fast and thrilling now a days with the advanced use of projections and old time effects
 
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