Disney to announce overhaul of DL Tomorrowland at D23?

el_super

Well-Known Member
I know hindsight is 20/20 but this is always the right choice. So that’s why when it came to Pixar Pier they learned their lesson and….wait.

I don't think it's always the right choice. If they decided to spend more money on Rocket Rods, it wouldn't have been a better attraction.

Rocket Rods was a good example of how WDI cannot effectively work within a budget. Looking back now we can see that money on that project was absolutely wasted (I forgot that the tunnel from Circlevision had to be built underground for that ride). Throwing more money at the problem isn't always the right answer.
 

Homemade Imagineering

Well-Known Member
I can’t imagine what else they’d be planning aside from aesthetic changes and the return of the PM, as there really isn’t much to work with in the land given the info we currently have. Again, it’s been hinted whatever this is will be an announcement geared towards fans, due to the lack of other news coming to parks panel, so there must be something aside from those aesthetic changes. Now, if we’d get the original 1964 CoP back in the Carousel Theater instead of PM, I might even prefer that scenario
 

el_super

Well-Known Member
I can’t imagine what else they’d be planning aside from aesthetic changes and the return of the PM, as there really isn’t much to work with in the land given the info we currently have. Again, it’s been hinted whatever this is will be an announcement geared towards fans, due to the lack of other news coming to parks panel, so there must be something aside from those aesthetic changes. Now, if we’d get CoP back in the Carousel Theater instead of PM, I might even prefer that scenario

There has been a kind of thinking with Disney/WDI where they "restore" something when taking away something else. Case in point: restoring the Paul Frees cave narration in Pirates when they took away the auction scene. It would make sense if they are planning to bring back *some* form of PeopleMover if they were planning to ditch the Monorail or Subs (or both) finally.
 

Stevek

Well-Known Member
So if they shorten the track and it no longer goes over autopia section, is this what we might get? Much shorter for sure.
CDA2FD87-02F1-4C65-BFBF-5BD48CE05FD9.jpeg
 

mickEblu

Well-Known Member
I don't think it's always the right choice. If they decided to spend more money on Rocket Rods, it wouldn't have been a better attraction.

Rocket Rods was a good example of how WDI cannot effectively work within a budget. Looking back now we can see that money on that project was absolutely wasted (I forgot that the tunnel from Circlevision had to be built underground for that ride). Throwing more money at the problem isn't always the right answer.

I think the point is if they used all that money for one attraction it wouldnt have been Rocket Rods at all. They would have left the PeopleMover alone and develop an actual E ticket for elsewhere.
 

el_super

Well-Known Member
I think the point is if they used all that money for one attraction it wouldnt have been Rocket Rods at all. They would have left the PeopleMover alone and develop an actual E ticket for elsewhere.

But they needed to replace the PeopleMover. And Captain EO. And what was left of Mission to Mars. Tomorrowland as a whole was failing, that's why they came up witht he idea of redoing the whole land (all the way back in the 1980s).

They could have focused the money on one thing, which I guess to a degree is what current WDI does (like Rise). If they had built that one thing, be it a more elaborate Rocket Rods or some other attraction in the Carousel Theater, most of the other venues in Tomorrowland would have stayed shuddered.

Of course, with all the questionable decisions being made on Rocket Rods, I don't know if it would have made sense to put so much faith on a more expensive attraction, even if it wasn't the replacement for the PeopleMover.
 

Disney Irish

Premium Member
Resolved how? If there truly was structural issues they would have to reinforce pylons with more rebar more than likely having to tear down and repour concrete as well as shore up the foundations in the same way, and that's just the outside track. We have no idea the extent of any damage in the indoor portions or how much it would effect the buildings to fix them. To my knowledge this hasn't been addressed and it is a LOT of money just to bring back one nostalgic attraction.

Overblown? If anyone would put their heart into bringing the PM back it would be Tony. He's the first to admit that RR was an underbudgeted mistake and would love to rectify it by bringing the PM back. I have no doubt he did the full gambit of research and discussions with experts. What reason would he have to lie or at the least overblow his explanations?

The only way the PM is coming back is if they tear down the track, replace it with a new one that had evac stairs/elevators every so many yards, place an elevator at the turn table, completely retrofit the indoor portions to either widen them or do enclosed vehicles (yuck). It's a pipe dream. After 25 years this isn't finally "the one" no matter how many "insiders" hint at it.

As I said before, I'd humbly eat crow if this got announced next weekend.

I feel like I've written this exact same post 5 times over the last 10 years :rolleyes:

We don't know where these rumored "structural issues" are located, ie which section of track. It could be in a section over Autopia. So its very possible the rumors of a shortened track is to completely bypass/remove the section that had "structural issues". As such they don't have to replace/reinforce that section and thus its effectively "resolved". And looking at it from that perspective, if its only a certain section of the track that had "structural issues" and not the entire track which was intimated, that is what makes it overblown.

As for the rest, not questioning Tony obviously but its possible he was looking at it at the time from a full redo not the rumored shortened version that might be coming.

Anyways less than 5 days now and we'll see if they announce it.
 

lazyboy97o

Well-Known Member
If they were enclosed, Disney would probably forget to include air conditioning like they did on the Monorail.

Who are the engineers that design these things? Would these things not been considered? If Tony Baxter's team were designing the Rocket Rods, why didn't they take lateral forces into consideration in the first place? How could an accountant remove money for the banked turns if it was a safety issue that Baxter's engineers knew about? The track would hold up but the vehicle would drive off the edge. Why did the vehicles have to be so huge? They looked like dragsters. Somebody screwed up their engineering numbers and Baxter approved it.
An accountant didn’t remove the funds for banking. General Motors was going to sponsor the attraction and pulled out in response to the issues with Test Track. Disney still wanted the fast PeopleMover replacement but was unwilling to make up the lost funding.

It’s not so much that they didn’t consider lateral loads, it’s that the lateral loads as they occurred did not align with the assumptions made during design. The Rocket Rods were in a way remote controlled cars and the slowing down was achieved by braking. The vehicles ate through tires and gave you that nice jerky jerky ride. The assumptions were likely built around getting a smoother ride with more uniform deceleration, not the pulsing that actually occurred.

Building and structural failure is also typically a process, not a singular event. An action can cause damage without causing failure, but repeated damage will eventually lead to failure. The Rocket Rods causing damage that would lead to failure aligns with both structural concerns regarding operating the attraction and more recent assessments of structural viability.

I don't think it's always the right choice. If they decided to spend more money on Rocket Rods, it wouldn't have been a better attraction.

Rocket Rods was a good example of how WDI cannot effectively work within a budget. Looking back now we can see that money on that project was absolutely wasted (I forgot that the tunnel from Circlevision had to be built underground for that ride). Throwing more money at the problem isn't always the right answer.
The tunnel already existed. There are limits to how much can be done with any budget, there is a point where funding is simply insufficient. Tomorrowland 98 was hit by loss of sponsorship, decreases in Disney’s own funding commitment and an insufficient reduction in scope.
 

Animaniac93-98

Well-Known Member
I'm choosing to believe the lengthy refurb the Subs just got suggests that they'll be staying in some form, but I know full well that stranger things have happened than kicking out a recently refurbed ride . . .

This is especially true for Disney submarine rides.

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea was given an extensive refurbishment in 1993 that included adding props to the queue and changing its music loop.

It closed permanently the following year.
 

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

Back
Top Bottom