Carousel of Progress

Tramp

Tramp

New Member
Original Poster
This ride was operating at reduced hours...11am - 6pm.

During our last trip, we visited the ride two times. Once, the carousel stopped dead center inbetween two of the scenes for a couple of minutes and thru the entire audio out of sync...so they let us go around again.

The second time, the carousel went completely passed a scene, and had to be backed up but, once again, the audio was out of sync.

I'm sadly afraid this attraction is in its golden years and may be retired sooner than we think. I recorded the attraction on video because the day will soon come when we talk about COP as part of Disney History.
 
MrPromey

MrPromey

Well-Known Member
And this is something I'm totally confused about. Disney themselves, tout this attraction as a Disney Classic. The way they talk about it in the video outside and in the introduction, they make it sound like IASW will be out the door before this one will and yet they totally neglect it. It's been on reduced hours for years now and the reason given by management when asked is that they wanted to make it available for guests to enjoy which suggests that the alternative to reduced hours is no hours at all, like it would be another closed building till they decided to put something else in there. Why?.. This thing is no technical marvel, if taken care of and maintained there should be no reason for real problems with it. Instead of running it into the ground like they seem to be doing, they could go in and update the speaker systems so that the voices all sound like they are coming from where they are supposed to be and replace some of the animatronics to make them more lifelike. Even little things like the environmental effects they use in other newer attractions could be added to some degree to make it more interesting. I think that the whole premise of the thing is solid. It seems so lame to so many people because Disney has let it slide. The last time I was on it, someone had drawn a smiley face in the dust on one of the screens that hide the side areas on one of the sets... I mean, it will never be a splash mountain or a Test Track but it could be better than a lot of other things, IMHO... With Horizons gone, there would be nothing like it left in wdw and I think it serves not just as a classic but as a reminder of where we've come from.
 
MickeyMoose15

MickeyMoose15

Account Suspended
Carousel of Progress' Life is getting shorter and shorter by the minute. Originally plans were to keep it around till after the 100 Years of Magic Celebration but seems they plan to move the closing day up to the end of the year. Disney is closing it to cut down on staffing. :( Well, I still have the entire show on tape. :(
 
Tramp

Tramp

New Member
Original Poster
Originally posted by MrPromey
I think it serves not just as a classic but as a reminder of where we've come from.
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Mr. P.....

There were only three things I remember about the 1964 NY World's Fair: Michelangelo's Pietà, Belgium Waffles, and the Carousel of Progress. The COP may not be a technological wonder but it is a 'true' classic with a true history. It's a piece of Walt that should be preserved forever.

By the way...the lines getting into the COP were quite long every time we looked over there...the reduced hours is cramming people into the time slotted. Perhaps that's Disney's intention.
 
MickeyMoose15

MickeyMoose15

Account Suspended
It sure will be missed. It truely was a Disney classic. Where will it go now? They brought the WDW one from Disneyland back in the 1980's. :confused:
 
MrPromey

MrPromey

Well-Known Member
Originally posted by Tramp


Mr. P.....

There were only three things I remember about the 1964 NY World's Fair: Michelangelo's Pietà, Belgium Waffles, and the Carousel of Progress. The COP may not be a technological wonder but it is a 'true' classic with a true history. It's a piece of Walt that should be preserved forever.

By the way...the lines getting into the COP were quite long every time we looked over there...the reduced hours is cramming people into the time slotted. Perhaps that's Disney's intention.
Click to expand...

I would love for that to be the case. Disney is sort of evasive about the whole thing when asked though. They simply say that there are no current plans to close the attraction… As for my comment on it not being a technical marvel, that was meant to be a plus. Since the attraction isn't really complex, it should be hard to maintain. It seems they could be taking better care than the currently are if it had the kind of problems you saw..
 
Maria

Maria

New Member
I loved the big dog and that waist band in which the girl was exercising! I think I was 8 when I went the first time and we all remembered it so vividly! We rode it twice that time and it was one of our favorites for he folllowing trips.... until we grew older and we fell in love with Epcot.... hehehe
 
Fievel

Fievel

RunDisney Addict
Rumor I've heard is that the problem with CoP is not necessarily the ride (theming, audio, etc) but rather the system under the building that controls the ride system. This system is somewhat big and it is starting to deteriorate rapidly. The reason it has been running reduced hours, is because Disney is trying to prolong the life of the CoP. If they were to run it the whole day, it would be even rougher on the system.

Also, this system cannot be easily repaired, or replaced. The kind of repairs needed would require a large section of the building to be removed or destroyed. The cost of such a repair would be such that it would be easier and cheaper to tear out the building and replace it than tear out the entire inside and replace the ride system underneath the building, then rebuild the inside of the building.

So in conclusion, the reduced hours are actually giving the CoP more life. But alas, it may be on it's last legs :(
 
markymark

markymark

Well-Known Member
This is horrible!! all this talk is just soooo depressing. I find it even more sad there even if they wanted to, there is very little they could actually do to it, as mentioned by Fievel.

I just hope it is running OK in September, I just want one more ride on it!
 
DisJosh

DisJosh

Well-Known Member
How can you tallk about this so openly?! I cant mention carousel of progress being closed with out breakiing down and crying!:( j/k......I would really hate to see it go.....I love it I love the song and its really a shame that Disney doesnt take better care of it. At least I have it on video....
 
MrPromey

MrPromey

Well-Known Member
Originally posted by Fievel
Rumor I've heard is that the problem with CoP is not necessarily the ride (theming, audio, etc) but rather the system under the building that controls the ride system. This system is somewhat big and it is starting to deteriorate rapidly. The reason it has been running reduced hours, is because Disney is trying to prolong the life of the CoP. If they were to run it the whole day, it would be even rougher on the system.

Also, this system cannot be easily repaired, or replaced. The kind of repairs needed would require a large section of the building to be removed or destroyed. The cost of such a repair would be such that it would be easier and cheaper to tear out the building and replace it than tear out the entire inside and replace the ride system underneath the building, then rebuild the inside of the building.

So in conclusion, the reduced hours are actually giving the CoP more life. But alas, it may be on it's last legs :(
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You see, this is what doesn't make a lot of sense. The one we have here in FL is not even the original. That one can be found in DL now serving as their Innoventions. The thing about it is that the Carousel is still in operation in this new design. If that one was in good enough condition to keep it running in a new attraction what's up with ours? The other thing that doesn't make a lot of sense is the story about the parts that are in disrepair being unreachable. Does that make a lot of sense really? I mean who builds a mechanical devise and then walls off access to important moving parts? doesn't anyone think that in the design stage of the attraction, someone might have thought about the inevitable repairs that might be needed? Does this mean that Disney has done nothing to maintain the inner workings of this attraction from day one?.. Also, I'm sorry but I find it more than a little hard to believe that they would run an attraction straight into the ground with guests on it. Is it just going to break half way through one day and then never open again? That really doesn't sound like the way Disney has ever done anything to me... If it's been going down hill all these years in this capacity why wasn't it fixed or replaced during the New Tomorrowland renovation? That would have been the time to do it without getting much heat since they changed a lot of stuff in that part of the park at the time... All the other attractions have accessible parts for repair and have regular maintenance schedules. Why doesn't/wouldn't this one?
 
markymark

markymark

Well-Known Member
Hey Promey! You make a great point there. It's true, it does seem a bit bizzarre that they should install something that they have absolutely no way of repairing.
I also agree with the part about it not being very Disney to just run it into the ground till it stopped.
So what does all this mean then? Is is going to stay open, just with reduced hours, and this is what has sparked all these rumours about it closing. Or are they going to close it, just simply to replace it with something else?
 
MrPromey

MrPromey

Well-Known Member
Well, there were a lot of rumors flying around when they closed the Skyway that they might be getting a flying saucer attraction similar to something that DL had at one time a long time ago. It was very popular but the technology didn't really exist to properly maintain it at the time and it was always breaking down. Supposedly it was the most dreaded attraction of all time by the Disney maintenance team (although Rocket-Rods may have managed to surpass that). Essentially, you got in these little round things on a platform and the platform had holes in it that would shoot up jets of air filling a sort of skirt around the bottom of the saucers sort of like a hovercraft only with the air coming from below instead of coming from the vehicle. You would then steer it by leaning in any direction... The closest thing I can think of to explain what they looked like is to imagine bumper boats without the water... Only thing is, there wouldn't be enough land for something like this with just getting rid of the TL skyway station... There was even an article about this possibly happening in a local newspaper which lends a (very) little bit of credibility to the rumor. There was no mention of anything about COP in the article but when I look at The Skyway station and at what's around it, I think to myself "they aren't getting rid of Space Mountain"...
 
MickeyMoose15

MickeyMoose15

Account Suspended
Almost every year I tape the entire Carousel of Progress. I don't if I got in 2000 or not, maybe I shouldn't be so lazy and get to transfering it to tape.

Based on the system that turns the theater 360, we all have to remember that this came from Disneyland in 1980 something. The thing just got a repaint job and update in 1994.
 
MrPromey

MrPromey

Well-Known Member
Originally posted by MickeyMoose15
Almost every year I tape the entire Carousel of Progress. I don't if I got in 2000 or not, maybe I shouldn't be so lazy and get to transfering it to tape.

Based on the system that turns the theater 360, we all have to remember that this came from Disneyland in 1980 something. The thing just got a repaint job and update in 1994.
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Nope, that's not true. DL still has theirs... When COP closed there it reopened as America Sings. Then it was closed for a long time but still there... Now it is a 2 story Innoventions that rotates. The
 
Tramp

Tramp

New Member
Original Poster
Originally posted by DisJosh


I like taping it b/c it's probably the easiest atraction in all of WDW to tape and it comes out great!
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Josh...just so ya know...the CM announces in the beginning that there be no flash photos and NO video taping (not just no video taping with external lights)....I noticed this on other attractions too...

I taped it last visit but i had this nervousness about Disney security wanting to confiscate my tape.
 

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