does UoE need to be more relevant?

[Expo_Seeker40]

I'm sure (and hope) we can all gather that while EPCOT Center entertained, informed, and inspired, Epcot allows us to discover the wonder and explore and with that it makes me wonder about the Universe of Energy...

while the attraction is lighter on the education than its 1982 counterpart, this 45 minute ride would be hard to turn into a thrill ride or anything remotely thrilling, unless they gutted it and turned it into something different...

but since Epcot's Future World still allows us to see where we came from and where we may go, or even celebrate what we have now i.e. soarin, what do you think should become of the UoE?

Does it need to be revized, or can the 1996 version (when gas was less than a dollar back then) can still hold out.... :wave:

IMHO...the ride needs to be refurbed....it doesn't need a spokesperson, but a narrator, maybe one with a great voice like Morgan Freeman, etc

but if this is Future World, and still Epcot, this could be the ride like the new SSE that can still somehow be fun, but somehow informative, it may not need touch screens, but can't it still be a ride that people can relax, and learn something about 21st century alternative fuels?

 

[unkadug]

I'm sure (and hope) we can all gather that while EPCOT Center entertained, informed, and inspired, Epcot allows us to discover the wonder and explore and with that it makes me wonder about the Universe of Energy...

while the attraction is lighter on the education than its 1982 counterpart, this 45 minute ride would be hard to turn into a thrill ride or anything remotely thrilling, unless they gutted it and turned it into something different...

but since Epcot's Future World still allows us to see where we came from and where we may go, or even celebrate what we have now i.e. soarin, what do you think should become of the UoE?

Does it need to be revized, or can the 1996 version (when gas was less than a dollar back then) can still hold out.... :wave:

IMHO...the ride needs to be refurbed....it doesn't need a spokesperson, but a narrator, maybe one with a great voice like Morgan Freeman, etc

but if this is Future World, and still Epcot, this could be the ride like the new SSE that can still somehow be fun, but somehow informative, it may not need touch screens, but can't it still be a ride that people can relax, and learn something about 21st century alternative fuels?

Where did you buy gas in 1996 ?

 

[WDWFigment]

Around here, gas was like 78 cents all summer then, if I recall correctly.

 

[Expo_Seeker40]

I was living in the northeast then and I'll never forget that same year we had gas at 96 cents because it was 1996 (96 and 96) and for a while after than we hovered at 99 cents.....and then we hit a dollar....and no one thought gas would hit two dollars :lookaroun

 

[EPCOT.nut]

Where did you buy gas in 1996 ?

Hey! I remember when I got married (1994) gas was 94 cents here.

To the OP - YES YES YES! Me and my sister were talking today about solar power and the solar panes these days are much thinner and smaller than the ones in UoE. I'm sure a lot of great improvements have happened that would be so nice to learn about.

It would be so great if they could make a "house of the future" which would really be a "house of the present" that had solar panels and whatever other great energy-saving stuff they have now. I have no clue what that would be, which just goes to show they could be teaching us something...:lookaroun

And I am so tired of "Brain Power." :lol:

 

[erasure fan1]

I would love for them to update this ride. Get some new state of the art AAs at the very least. I have always loved Dinosaurs so this ride has always been one of my favorites since I was a kid. So bring on the update.

 

[Tom Morrow]

Honestly, I think its awesome that the overall message of the ride is more relevant now than it ever was.

It needs a few adjustments to the script, but not much else, IMO.

 

[hardcard]

the attraction also states that dinosaurs broke down over time into petroleum oil... which has recently (within the last 7-8 years) been scientifically disproven.

 

[Legacy]

Frankly, I think the attraction needs to drop Ellen and Bill Nye.

Bill Nye isn't relevant anymore, Ellen isn't as popular as she was in the 90's and Alex Trabek shaved his mustache.

It's dated, poor and simple.

 

[wannab@dis]

:lookaroun

 

[Tom Morrow]

Frankly, I think the attraction needs to drop Ellen and Bill Nye.

Bill Nye isn't relevant anymore, Ellen isn't as popular as she was in the 90's and Alex Trabek shaved his mustache.

It's dated, poor and simple.

Who cares? Bill Nye is still entertaining, and its not like kids need to know who he is to enjoy him.

Ellen is more popular now than 10 years ago... she has her own talk show.

 

[Legacy]

Who cares? Bill Nye is still entertaining, and its not like kids need to know who he is to enjoy him.

Ellen is more popular now than 10 years ago... she has her own talk show.

And, oh no! Alex doesn't have a mustache anymore?? The whole ride must GO!!!

A daytime talk-show doesn't get the ratings a sitcom does.

Frankly, they need to ditch the whole, "Celebrity" aspect of it and simply make something more relevant.

But heaven forbid something at Epcot change from what it was.

 

[tdonald]

As much as I like it is now... it needs to change. It's so outdated and just needs to be changed. Maybe someone could come up a way to regularly update rides like that so that it's always "fresh". I don't think it would be all that hard, considering that E.T. at USF has been saying individual people's names for nearly 20 years with only minutes to "prepare", and the technology used in MILF and TTwC.
I don't think it should be gutted, but a different "spokesperson" or narrator(s), and new films that are more exciting, and more humor of good sense wouldn't hurt either.

 

[EPCOT.nut]

It could stand to be less time consuming. A shorter or removed pre-show, leave the entire dinosaur scene, and then a shorter rest of it would be nice.

I agree with the no celebrity idea.

But I disagree that nothing in EPCOT should be changed. :lol: Changes are great and what keeps the park interesting to those of us that go very often.

 

[JimboJones123]

I had 87 Cent gas in 1995. I remember the day still. 7-11.

 

[JimboJones123]

:lookaroun

I'd prefer a retool. Save the plow for WOL.

 

[828tnt]

i toyed with this idea a week ago in a post about the monorail system. there was a lot of discussion about a solar field being used to power any monorail expansion and i made mention to possibly using UoE as a show point for this.

i really like the house of tomorrow idea too! this was just reintroduced at DL and really makes some sense......

back to the monorail idea, tie it into transportation obviously. of course that could be an entirely separate pavilion, although it may step on the toes of test track....

but without a doubt, solar energy should be move of a focal point in epcot.

 

[Rob562]

the attraction also states that dinosaurs broke down over time into petroleum oil... which has recently (within the last 7-8 years) been scientifically disproven.

Actually, to quote from the current ride:

Ellen: "Wait a minute. You're telling me we're filling our gas tanks with dinosaur soup?"

Bill Nye: "Well, not exactly. But dinosaurs did live when fossil fuels were developing in the Earth. Dinosaurs are just cool!"

I don't even think the original attraction said that dinosaurs were part of fossil fuels.

-Rob

 

[EPCOT Explorer]

I'm sure (and hope) we can all gather that while EPCOT Center entertained, informed, and inspired, Epcot allows us to discover the wonder and explore and with that it makes me wonder about the Universe of Energy...

while the attraction is lighter on the education than its 1982 counterpart, this 45 minute ride would be hard to turn into a thrill ride or anything remotely thrilling, unless they gutted it and turned it into something different...

but since Epcot's Future World still allows us to see where we came from and where we may go, or even celebrate what we have now i.e. soarin, what do you think should become of the UoE?

Does it need to be revized, or can the 1996 version (when gas was less than a dollar back then) can still hold out.... :wave:

IMHO...the ride needs to be refurbed....it doesn't need a spokesperson, but a narrator, maybe one with a great voice like Morgan Freeman, etc

but if this is Future World, and still Epcot, this could be the ride like the new SSE that can still somehow be fun, but somehow informative, it may not need touch screens, but can't it still be a ride that people can relax, and learn something about 21st century alternative fuels?

Agreed.UoE is one of my faves but,yes, it is old.It's time to a refurb.

Frankly, I think the attraction needs to drop Ellen and Bill Nye.

Bill Nye isn't relevant anymore, Ellen isn't as popular as she was in the 90's and Alex Trabek shaved his mustache.

It's dated, poor and simple.

A daytime talk-show doesn't get the ratings a sitcom does.

Frankly, they need to ditch the whole, "Celebrity" aspect of it and simply make something more relevant.

But heaven forbid something at Epcot change from what it was.

True...But the celebrity aspect draws people to the ride(or it used to)If we could bring in some new people and still keep it relevant and informative(it's a hot topic for today,it would do great)

It could still be the UoE and still have the same theme but why not make this EPCOT's "green" pavilion?They have the solar cells,why not bring the conservation aspect of energy into the attraction.

If they were to do this right,it would be AMAZING.:sohappy:

 

[tdonald]

Hmmm

Do I smell a Legacy vs. Epcot Explorer in this thread too?