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Did anyone believe the Hydrolators were real?

Were you ever tricked by the Hydrolators?

  • I thought they real the whole time... but I was still young when it closed.

    Votes: 15 12.5%

  • I thought they real the whole time... even as an adult!

    Votes: 3 2.5%

  • I thought they were real at first, but realized otherwise after repeated visits.

    Votes: 59 49.2%

  • I never thought they were real, even as a kid.

    Votes: 11 9.2%

  • I never thought they were real, but then I was an adult the whole time.

    Votes: 18 15.0%

  • I don't even remember the Hydrolators.

    Votes: 14 11.7%
  • Total voters
    120
TinkerChelli

TinkerChelli

Member
I miss them, it was fun!!! I love to watch the Scuba Divers too.
I am sure I thought they were real too and then was sad when I found out there weren't.
Living Seas was pretty darn cool. Thank god the tanks are still there though. :>):sohappy::wave:
 
wdwjmp239

wdwjmp239

Well-Known Member
The first time I was in a hydrolator was after I saw some special on TV with the late, great, John Ritter where he was at The Living Seas. My parents surprised me with a trip to Orlando, FL when I was 11 years old (we were living in New York at the time). I remember telling my parents I wanted to go in the "water elevator" and knew exactly where to take them. :)

"The Seas" as it's now called is themed heavily with Nemo. While the theming is cute, it's a shame that the hydrolators are gone. Now, wasn't there a movie theatre in the Living Seas where you watched some film short on life in the ocean? I think it was at the end of some ride that brought you around the inside and showed you the oceanlife in the tanks. Man..that was so long ago.
 
jvenegas

jvenegas

Member
I have to admit that at first I thought they were real, but hey, it's Disney, you were supposed to believe they were real, right?:lookaroun
 
joel_maxwell

joel_maxwell

Permanent Resident of EPCOT
Phonedave said:
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
Click to expand...
I was 6-7 when EPCOT opened and we visited for the first time. As you Dave, I knew that we werent going to "Sea Base Alpha", but I sure did think we really went down. I remember my parents always helped make the magic real. Playing along.

I think the floor barely moving from side to side really enhanced the illusion. That combo'd with the bubbles was just pure genius and made the experience and all the memories truly magic.

EDIT: In 1999, I took my now wife for her first visit to WDW. I recall going on the hydrolators and her first reaction was, "Are we really going down?" followed by a "Wait, I dont want to know." She loves the illusions even as an adult. Now, I know she didnt think we were going down to SBA, but if the illusion made it seem for a first time visitor that we might actually be going down a floor, then so be it. :D I dont spoil things for her if she doesnt want to know how they work.
 
DisneyHeather

DisneyHeather

Member
What a throwback memory! I cannot remember the last time I rode the Hydrolator, I was definitely a child. But I absolutely believed them to be real! And I am so glad that I did - to have had that time where I was fully immersed in the magic!
 
ChrisFL

ChrisFL

Premium Member
ntn_haqqer said:
"The Seas" as it's now called is themed heavily with Nemo. While the theming is cute, it's a shame that the hydrolators are gone. Now, wasn't there a movie theatre in the Living Seas where you watched some film short on life in the ocean? I think it was at the end of some ride that brought you around the inside and showed you the oceanlife in the tanks. Man..that was so long ago.
Click to expand...

Yes, there was. you can see it on the link to Martinsvids posted earlier in this thread :animwink:
 
MarkTwain

MarkTwain

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Interesting poll results. Apparently most people weren't fooled as an adult - they either found out at some point, or were still pretty young when the ride closed.

the1nonlysinger said:
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
Click to expand...

Good find! I've never been able to watch a video of the Hydrolators before this thread, so this video and Martin's are definitely bringing back some memories. :)

TinkerChelli said:
I miss them, it was fun!!! I love to watch the Scuba Divers too.
I am sure I thought they were real too and then was sad when I found out there weren't.
Living Seas was pretty darn cool. Thank god the tanks are still there though. :>):sohappy::wave:
Click to expand...

Yeah, I feel like the Living Seas were underrated as a pavilion. Fortunately, they keep the best part, the tanks and the physical representation of Seabase Alpha. :D I actually like the new color scheme (blue instead of yellow) much better.

jvenegas said:
I have to admit that at first I thought they were real, but hey, it's Disney, you were supposed to believe they were real, right?:lookaroun
Click to expand...

Of course! That's part of the fun.

cowboibabyy said:
You mean to tell me that they weren't real? Next you will try to tell me that the stretch room isn't really stretching. :brick:
Click to expand...

:lol:

I almost added an option to the poll that said "You mean the Hydrolators weren't real!?" but forgot to put it.
 
Phonedave

Phonedave

Well-Known Member
jmaxwell007 said:
I was 6-7 when EPCOT opened and we visited for the first time. As you Dave, I knew that we werent going to "Sea Base Alpha", but I sure did think we really went down. I remember my parents always helped make the magic real. Playing along.

I think the floor barely moving from side to side really enhanced the illusion. That combo'd with the bubbles was just pure genius and made the experience and all the memories truly magic.

EDIT: In 1999, I took my now wife for her first visit to WDW. I recall going on the hydrolators and her first reaction was, "Are we really going down?" followed by a "Wait, I dont want to know." She loves the illusions even as an adult. Now, I know she didnt think we were going down to SBA, but if the illusion made it seem for a first time visitor that we might actually be going down a floor, then so be it. :D I dont spoil things for her if she doesnt want to know how they work.
Click to expand...


All this hydrolator talk made me start thinking about the hydrolators and SBA.

What exactly is the backstory on SBA.

We walk into The Living Seas, so we know we are in Orlando FL. Last I checked, the ocean is quite a distance from Orlando.

I always wondered why the hydrolators went down through rock. Ah-ha! We are in Orlando, of course we are going down through rock, we are in the middle of the State.

So what was SBA supposed to be? In an underground ocean under Orlando? Were the hydrolators supposed to make a sharp left and head out to the coast? How exactly were we supposed to be in an undersea lab by heading straight down from Florida? I guess somwhere in the Indian Ocean is antipodal to Orlando, so maybe they dug really really deep ?


-dave
 
PhilharMagician

PhilharMagician

Well-Known Member
Great watching the videos.

I will say I was in my mid 20's the first time I visited WDW and I clearly remember being completely puzzled when I exited the hydrolators for the first time. Looking back and wondering what the heck just happened. I kept saying to myself this couldn't be true, but did I just decend? That is specifically what was great about them and Disney. It was a slight of hand trick that was played perfectly. Unfortunately it only got most of us once, but it was still magical.

I do enjoy the new queue as you go from land slowely into the deep. It is well done, but will never be like the Hydrolators!
 
MarkTwain

MarkTwain

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Phonedave said:
All this hydrolator talk made me start thinking about the hydrolators and SBA.

What exactly is the backstory on SBA.

We walk into The Living Seas, so we know we are in Orlando FL. Last I checked, the ocean is quite a distance from Orlando.

I always wondered why the hydrolators went down through rock. Ah-ha! We are in Orlando, of course we are going down through rock, we are in the middle of the State.

So what was SBA supposed to be? In an underground ocean under Orlando? Were the hydrolators supposed to make a sharp left and head out to the coast? How exactly were we supposed to be in an undersea lab by heading straight down from Florida? I guess somwhere in the Indian Ocean is antipodal to Orlando, so maybe they dug really really deep ?


-dave
Click to expand...

I always wondered about that too. :lol:

EPCOT Center's Future World was/is one of the only places in WDW that makes no effort to pretend it's not in Central Florida. So it was a little confusing that Seabase Alpha required you to think that you HAD left Central Florida, and had transported you hundreds of miles away... or did it?

In hindsight, I don't really care... there are far more conflicting story issues in WDW today.
 
Figment82

Figment82

Well-Known Member
I loved the Sea Cabs and Hydrolators - so many great memories. Although they make somewhat of an effort nowadays to simulate your journey underwater in the Nemo queue, I always wished they had kept the Hydrolators at the exit. As it is now, you're just dumped into a (surprise! :rolleyes: ) gift shop and sliding doors with bubbles etched in them - not much of an illusion.

I remember hearing stories of people going to Guest Relations to complain about how their ears popped and they suffered other "illnesses" descending to Sea Base Alpha - guess it fooled more than a few people! :)
 
W

wdwfanatic4yrs

Member
i know that a while back someone tried to sue disney because of the hydorlators. stating that the pressure from "going down at a rapid pace caused problems to them." then disney broke it to the person trying to sue that you really didn't go anywhere. :lol:
 
wdwjmp239

wdwjmp239

Well-Known Member
Figment82 said:
I remember hearing stories of people going to Guest Relations to complain about how their ears popped and they suffered other "illnesses" descending to Sea Base Alpha - guess it fooled more than a few people! :)
Click to expand...

LOL!!! :ROFLOL::ROFLOL:

I wonder how many class action lawsuits were filed against Disney because of such "illnesses." :lookaroun
 
M

musketeer

Well-Known Member
I've been reading this thread for a few days now, and I even posted about how my little brother reacted, but I had to think hard about what I thought about it. I think I was around 7 or 8 yeard old. I'm pretty sure that I actually DID believe we were going down, but that the water was just an illusion. I believed we were just taking an elevator down to the lowest floor of the living seas structure. I don't think I actually believed we were under water, especially not the bottom of the ocean, simply because the ride down would have taken MUCH longer.

It was 25 years ago, so it's all a little fuzzy, but that's the best of my recollection.
 

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