Eddie Sotto's take on the current state of the parks (Part II)

The Empress Lilly

Well-Known Member
Interesting points all, although I was not a fan of WOM for the same reasons. I want to "escape", and vignettes with lights on them in a room just does not take me there, but to each their own.
That is true. Those sort of rides don't really transport me either. On Pirates you enter a dream-like state, you really are there, in the burning town. Whereas at WoM, you sit in a vehicle and are amused by 3d scenes. But there is a place for both of them. They feel like different ride experiences to me.

The choice is always understood as having been between Pirates and WRE. Once Pirates was decided upon, WRE was dead. But I wonder...was the similarity really that big? Wasn't that thought partly based on WRE taking the place of Pirates in the East Coast park as the big boat ride?

Which then leads me to think Pirates and WRE could've co-existed. One doesn't preclude the other.
 

BlueSkyDriveBy

Well-Known Member
Jafar from Aladdin talks about Apple without Steve Jobs...
Jafar! Excellent! :D

My SO worked at Oracle in the mid-nineties, before following his boss to a start-up venture that rhymes with "wet drape" or something like that. Anyway, his project caught the interest of Larry, for who knows what reason, and it became a political football as other managers fought to take control of said project in order to score points with Jafar. Ugly, ugly mess. And Ellison didn't make it any easier. In fact, I think he got some kind of twisted pleasure watching the various middle managers duke it out for control. Sick.

So... Larry sure is a smarty pants for claiming to know what will happen with Apple post-Jobs.

The dude couldn't even predict how many deep pocketed tourists were going to show up for America's Cup. Now our Mayor wants to put the bite on Ellison and make him pony up the difference, given how much the city paid out to host this embarrassing spectacle of four billionaire "sailing" teams in their modified flying machines with hulls that rarely touch the water.
 

Eddie Sotto

Premium Member
Another Larry? Publisher Larry Flynt and Jabba the Hut?
images
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Omnispace

Well-Known Member
Jeepers. Hmm. I have a few odd tales.

There was a service door from the back area of Character Shop into ATIS, just below the Mighty Microscope and the AtomMobile track. We used to duck inside the ride to cool off when the shop's A/C occasionally went south. Apparently the two areas were on separate environmental systems. Anyway, you almost needed ear protection standing under the track. Not quite as loud as standing under SM's track during operation, but close. (You'll find out how I was able to do stuff like this, further down.)....

Thanks for sharing these stories!! I loved reading them. It seems unusual that there would be a doorway between a shop and an attraction. Perhaps it's because they expanded the Character Shop into the ATIS post show area? Is this something you would just do off hours or would it be possible to get in to the ride during operation? I can imagine a lot of staff would want to get a peak inside there.

The PeopleMover felt bumpy when riding it so I can imagine the racket it made for the adjacent spaces!
 

Omnispace

Well-Known Member
Introducing the "Hyperloop" on Tesla "stationery" no less. Guts. Guts. Guts.
"Tony Stark..... white courtesy phone, calling Tony Stark".
http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/hyperloop
Then get the PDF.. Now that Jobs is gone is nice to know you can still say "here's to the crazies"....

Just skimmed over it but it reveals some interesting insight into Elon Musk's design approach. The first is Economy of design. Instead of going for the perfect solution which may require a huge amount of engineering, he seems to look for more economic equivalents -- thus instead of worrying about evacuating the tubes of air, or even reducing the tube pressure, he looks for ways to pass the air pressure through the car and thus reduce its air resistance. Another unique part of this venture is making it Open Design -- thus he has come up with much of the conceptual design for the project but others are free to contribute to engineering the solution.

Even with this fairly detailed document there's still an enormous number of factors to consider -- including the most important ones relating to human psychology. Are people going to tolerate being sealed into a fairly confined tube for a full half hour? Is this type of transit system going to be perceived as an elegant way to travel or just better than taking a bus? And I am sure there will be those who wonder if they will be able to order a mini-cocktail in transit.

Very intriguing overall idea though. If anything it will get people thinking and a lot can come out of that.
 
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Omnispace

Well-Known Member

The largest physical hurtle is reducing the air resistance on the vehicles so they can achieve high velocities. He plans to "pump" the air through the vehicles to do this but will he still be able to keep this passing air below the Kantrowitz limit that he cites? The air would have to be pumped at velocities greater than those of the vehicles since it would be basically going through a funnel.

That's the best I can do with my physics hat on. :cool: Perhaps a leisurely PeopleMover ride is the better way to go.
 

Omnispace

Well-Known Member

Very dramatic but overly simplistic. Steve Jobs certainly admitted to his mistakes he made during his first go around with Apple. It can be a sure bet that he did as much as he could to prevent that from happening again in his absence. But then one shouldn't underestimate the importance for a company to have a visionary. Even "evil" Larry fills that role with Oracle.

Btw -- that's Larry's backyard behind him -- not the gardens of Kyoto's Katsura.
 

EPCOTCenterLover

Well-Known Member
Re WRE: I love the attractions that take me into another place and time. The whole Wild West aspect would have been incredible. Mostly, I think, I want lengthy, fully immersive attractions that are not based on watching screens, but sets, AAs and plenty of atmosphere. Call me old school. Disney raised its own bar with Pirates, but it seems to be lowering it more often than not.
 

Omnispace

Well-Known Member
Interesting points all, although I was not a fan of WOM for the same reasons. I want to "escape", and vignettes with lights on them in a room just does not take me there, but to each their own.

I never got to ride WOM so I didn't realize that all the lighting was exposed -- makes me think of that show a bit differently now. I have never got that impression from Spaceship Earth where the scenes seem to be more like vignettes floating in the mist of time, to put it poetically. On SE, I am mostly distracted by the exposed, clunky contraption we are riding on. Perhaps they can hire Elon Musk to design a new ride system for that attraction.
 

Eddie Sotto

Premium Member
I do not think it is all that new of an idea. Pneumatic tubes as transportation have been discussed for well over a century. The first subway built in New York City was the Beach Pneumatic Transit demonstration line under Broadway that operated from 1869-1873.

When you read his technical brief PDF, he addresses why those ideas don't really work for something that has to go 600mph. His proposal is tube with a hybrid of low pressure and maglev. Sounds pretty interesting and feasible with enough investment.
 

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