Classics have to Die Sooner or Later Part 1

MickeyMoose15

Account Suspended
Original Poster
As Disney goes forward with plans to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of Walt Disney's birth and the opening of brand new theme parks like Disney's California Adventure, Tokyo DisneySea, and Walt Disney Studios Paris, I can't but remember the attractions that have fallen to make way for the new. Sure the new attractions are great but we also love the classic rides that are truely Disney. Must they be destroyed for flashier and more bigger attractions?

1994 was not a good year for the old attractions of Epcot. That was the year that Eisner and Company decided to clean up the theme park. Why? Ever since he arrived at Disney in 1984, the most complaints he got were about Epcot. Many complained it was too educational and had a real lack of thrill rides. Eisner decided to change that. Communacore was changed to Innoventions, Captain EO changed to Honey, I Shrunk the Audience, and The Land had a huge revamp. Even Spaceship Earth got a change of narration from Walter Cronkite to Jeremy Irons. World of Motion was next to go. After much debate with General Motors, they decided to replace the attraction with a brand new, high-tech thrill ride.

Why World of Motions? Everything else had been updated or refurbished. Also the attraction seemed to get the most complaints from the public.

Disney announced the attraction in 1996 and said by Summer 1997, it would be the longest and fastest Disney attraction ever built. Unfortunately that confidence died after an accident with the test run of the attraction in early 1997 that delayed the opening almost two years. I won't go too much into detail because of a future story that will discuss the problems the attraction caused for General Motors and the future of the Rocket Rods attraction in Disneyland. Let us just say that it was very close to never happening.

Now that it is up and running, Test Track seems to be the best thrill ride in Walt Disney World next to the Tower of Terror and Rock 'n' Roller Coaster. Though it has had frequent break downs, not many can complain or compare this with the tired, olde World of Motions. But the question remains, do classics have to die to make way for the future?

Till Next Time, See Ya!!! :cool:

Coming Soon:
Part 2: Mr. Toad's Wild Ride (Wednesday)
Part 3: Horizons (Thursday)
Part 4: Country Bears (Disneyland)
Part 5: Great Moments with Mr. Lincolin (Disneyland)
Part 6: Timekeeper
 

Maria

New Member
I liked World of Motion, specially how it had two floors and you could get on the ride and then pass "outside" and see how the queue was! haha

I saw Test Track being built, was there for its openning, and rode it many times. However, I could only endure once or twice the queue area inside. Sure there were lots of things to see, but it was too noisy and boring. The rest of the times I rode it, we always went on the "single" line and did it fast and avoided the queue.

World of Motion was a "learning" ride. I liked it, but I also like the speed in Test Track and learning how they test the cars before going out in the market, but it would have been nice to make a ride with some of the history of motion and Test Track itself, I mean a mix of World of Motion and Test Track.

I agree that rides have to die to make room for others or guests won´t return. In the tourism industry, you need to offer new things so your clients come back. If you let them bore with the same old rides and attractions, sure, new people will come, but about your faithful ones that have already been there once or twice? Am I making sense? Hope so....
;)
 

MickeyMoose15

Account Suspended
Original Poster
True, True. I was disappointed with Test Track. Probly because I waited almost 3 to 4 years for it and it wasn't as good as I was anticipating. I joke with my mom that the ride is just like how she drives. :D :D :D
 

wdwmagic

Administrator
Moderator
Premium Member
I have some points I would like to raise on... :)

All of the attractions in Future World had a *planned* shelf life of 10 years. It was the plan right from day 1 to do major rehabs or replace after 10 years had elapsed. They knew from day 1 that the original set of attraction would appear dated in 10 years time. Now the fact they we as guests loved the old classics, doesnt really disguise the fact that they no longer represented the future. So according to the opening day plans, these classics were removed.


My second point relates to your comment about Test Track. The reason for the opening delay gets more and more sinister every time I here it retold. Now I dont know for sure what happened, since I wasnt there the whole time to see :) . But having spoken to some people who worked on the ride during construction, during the test periods, and during the soft openings - the common issue was just general software/reliability/capacity problems - that are fairly common with every new complex software application. There was no sinister crash or cars coming off the track. Beleive it or not, one of the most basic parts of Test Track is how the cars stay on the track - its like a coaster - they cannot come off (it has upstop wheel etc). :)
 

MickeyMoose15

Account Suspended
Original Poster
I will soon (note soon which probly means some time in the far distant future :D ) write a story and the real problems about what went wrong with the Test Track test run in early 1997. A car had come off the track and had crashed which caused problems that delayed the opening for 2 YEARS!

The 10 year thing isn't entirely true. The option to update or replace an attraction is up to the sponsor of the attraction and hwo much they are willing to pay. This may change since some sponsors like United Technoloies and Met Life are pulling their sponsorship.

Eisner made it his mission when he got there to change Epcot for the better and the 10 year plan had nothing to do with it. I have no idea if he implemented the plan or not, it was not the cause of World of Motions closing. Epcot needed some serious help because it was TOO educational.
 

DisJosh

Well-Known Member
Re: Re: Classics have to Die Sooner or Later Part 1

Originally posted by wdwmagic
I have some points I would like to raise on... :)

All of the attractions in Future World had a *planned* shelf life of 10 years. It was the plan right from day 1 to do major rehabs or replace after 10 years had elapsed. They knew from day 1 that the original set of attraction would appear dated in 10 years time. Now the fact they we as guests loved the old classics, doesnt really disguise the fact that they no longer represented the future. So according to the opening day plans, these classics were removed.


My second point relates to your comment about Test Track. The reason for the opening delay gets more and more sinister every time I here it retold. Now I dont know for sure what happened, since I wasnt there the whole time to see :) . But having spoken to some people who worked on the ride during construction, during the test periods, and during the soft openings - the common issue was just general software/reliability/capacity problems - that are fairly common with every new complex software application. There was no sinister crash or cars coming off the track. Beleive it or not, one of the most basic parts of Test Track is how the cars stay on the track - its like a coaster - they cannot come off (it has upstop wheel etc). :)

I hate to have to disagree with you stev b/c I know you know what you're talkin' about........but a few years back when I went to WDW with this oldsmobile golf tour thing, my mom and step dad went to some kind of dinner. They had the chance to sit with and have a conversation w/ the vice president of Disney(see I dont even know his name:rolleyes: ). On that specific trip when we wnt TT was suppost to be open but it wasnt.......I clearly recall my mother and step dad coming back to the hotel and telling my friend and I that the VP told them him self that there was an accident with the TT and that was the reason for the delays. My parents had no reason to make up such a story so I tend to believe what came out of their mouths was the truth.Thats what I thought the reason was all along and I still believe that reason........
 

Skipper Timekpr

New Member
Alright I'm going to tell you exactly what happened since guess what I was there! I was with my dad who is in security at Epcot he was there for the removal of The World of Motion and they even got several security gaurds together after closing and played imaginary baseball in transcenter. What happened is at the part where the cars are supposed to slow down and do the "Well since they're warmed up lets get a scan." or whatever it didn't stop and ran into the wall it wasn't going super fast or anything but it did make quite a mess. Then they had to send the cars back to GM which I can back up since as hard as it may be to believe my cousin is the President of GM Packard Division in Brazil. But the day I was there when it went wrong I was talking to my dad about the day and I was with some friends when he was called over the radio to go to test track since he worked Epcot East then Echo 1 I believe to report there for an incident report. And he came back 10 min later and told us that he wouldn't be able to come back that he had to take care of this and so he told me the story later that night. And I can back this up with my friend who is actually my youth-ministers husband, he is a maintainince worker at Test Track but he said since they installed the new maintinance bay things should go better.
 

Tramp

New Member
Perhaps all the delays was a premonition of things to come. I rode Test Track 3 times this year and everytime it stalled several times during the course. So, several times I demanded a complete ride and they sent us thru again.

Personally, I don't like test track. I've been driving for 35 years and don't need the experience.
 

Herbie53

Premium Member
Originally posted by Tramp
Personally, I don't like test track. I've been driving for 35 years and don't need the experience.

HAHAHA! Well Said Tramp!

As for Eisner's meddling with EPCOT, much of it was needed and much appreciated. Of course Eisner listens to public opinion! People won't pay to visit a park they don't like, and you certainly can't force them. Personally I liked World of Motion better than Test Track, but I recognize the need for EPCOT to be on the cutting edge.

I agree with Steve's 10 year shelf life theory. Anyone who is smart enough to be an imagineer is smart enough to figure out that it won't be long before the future is today, or even yesterday. Afterall that is a huge part of the Disney philosophy! There may not have been an actual replacement formula, but I'm sure the updates came as no surprise to the imagineers.

The whole Test Track accident thing sounds a bit like Urban Legend to me. More often than not in matters such as this, the truth is much more mundane than we would like to believe.
 

MickeyMoose15

Account Suspended
Original Poster
If the accidents were promotion, General Motors wasn't happy about it. At the very last minute General Motors pulled out of sponsoring Rocket Rods at Disneyland.
 

MrPromey

Well-Known Member
Originally posted by MickeyMoose15
If the accidents were promotion, General Motors wasn't happy about it. At the very last minute General Motors pulled out of sponsoring Rocket Rods at Disneyland.

Well, the Rocket Rods were a lot more trouble than TT is. As far as I know, that attraction is now closed down. I have heard that part of the problem with it was that they didn't modify the track layout of the original People Mover to have banked curves when they put Rocket Rods in and that as a result, the curves were putting too much stress on parts of the vehicles... I don't remember where I heard that from but it sounds reasonable...
 

MrPromey

Well-Known Member
Originally posted by Herbie53



I agree with Steve's 10 year shelf life theory. Anyone who is smart enough to be an imagineer is smart enough to figure out that it won't be long before the future is today, or even yesterday. Afterall that is a huge part of the Disney philosophy! There may not have been an actual replacement formula, but I'm sure the updates came as no surprise to the imagineers.


That was, after all, the problem with the original design to Tomorrowland...
 

MickeyMoose15

Account Suspended
Original Poster
This is what happened. General Motors was planning a huge car promotion centered around the opening of Test Track in 1997. Unfortunately, when the accident with the test run occured, they had to postpone the opening of the attraction and General Motors had to cancel the promotion. They were extremly upset and to get back at Disney they decided not to sponsor the Rocket Rods attraction. Since Disneyland has such a tight budget as it is, Disneyland only paid $25 million for a $50 million attraction which is the reason it didn't run half the time.
 

Register on WDWMAGIC. This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.

Back
Top Bottom