Hi everyone!
Just returned from a mini trip to WDW.
Had a nice time at Epcot. The weather was warm, but not too hot, with a breeze, and some good ole sun and clouds.
Crowds were certainly there and all over WDW for that matter. However, we (my party and I) never found long lines or anything too crazy. We stayed the whole day, didn't do everything, but did get to see what we wanted to see and do.
I think the longest we had to wait was 15 minutes.
Though Soarin had a constant wait of 50-60 minutes, and TT and M:S got pretty busy in the late afternoon.
Before I get into my updates on SSE, I wanted to say a few things about my time at Epcot.
Lot's of Christmas decorations were around yesterday, and after riding in the front of the monorail to Epcot today, noticed that alot, including the landscaping in the entrance planter that had Goofy and the gang, is gone today and has been replaced with flowers.
The metal fence that now serves as some sort of barrier at the park's entrance looks ugly as hell IMHO. :hurl:
Weren't the poles that support the tarps in Innoventions Plaza originally purply pink?! They're now blue....if indeed that is their new color.
Nothing in the flower bed behind SSE, no new flower logo, nothing, but some nice grass if you care to know. :lol:
The Merfcove had a tiny refurb box in it and there was a random Chip and Dale Meet n Greet infront of the Merfcove in the afternoon. :lookaroun
Went on Spaceship Earth 5 times....yes my friends I will get to that soon. :lol:
Holy crap why won't they upgrade to digital projectors?!
Soarin', and the Circle of Life both need help in the film quality and cleanliness department.
Sat behind some LOLGurlz at Living With The Land.
Heard three people say to their party what EPCOT means and they were correct.
Heard ALOT of people say "I don't like what they did to this" "yeah it used to be better" "Why did they do this" to various places around Epcot mostly at the.......entrance!!!!! DUN DUN DUNNNNNNNNN
No sweatshirtmoms at Epcot when I went, it was too warm for them to wear their 1998 Daisy Duck faded grey sweatshirts with the food stains on them.
Saw a MomOnAMission...the Mothers that wear the jogging/exercise suits to the parks and have a GPS strapped to their children, or on a leash, and know exactly what they will do that day, where, when, and how much fun they are projected to have.
Holy crap there is an old school....possibly from 1982...prepaid phone card machine at the locker rooms on the west side of SSE....go check it out.
The palm trees on the sides of SSE are getting taller and taller...should be at a good height within the next year to year and a half.
Stormstruck was pretty cool but the queue and wait is terrible.
Amazed at how Impressions de France still holds up elegantly, though some scenes are outdated.
The colors are not changing on SSE.
I love how Siemens has brought back the rotating earth effect at the end of illuminations, though it only is used for "Promise" didn't this effect last alot longer during the original Illuminations post event?
I'm revamping my entire flickr account, but I do have some pictures from my recent trip to Epcot ready for view that I think you will like, go to flickr.com then under people type.... leexpo and my album should show up for you :wave:
I'm not promoting my stuff, I'm just saying that's where it is.
:dazzle::zipit:
Okay...SSE stuff
first things first, the exterior looks great with the lighting and landscaping, but it really does make the other older areas look tired and faded. No new logo sign on the mirror column, just faded remains and a circular scar on both sides.
The area music for SSE was VERY LOW.....very hard to hear.
when we enter SSE, everythings look brighter....the vehicles look colorful and polished....the panneling, etc. My biggest gripe is that its dusty....you can see fingerprints from CM's that would have walked around the room, and theres a bit of wear and tear to the edges of the walls and ceilings.
Nothing new to report with the touch screens....we select our language go up the ascent select our location, etc, etc
Ok....my thoughts and observations regarding SSE since I rode it 5 times is this....
I still enjoy many of the enhancements and changes, however
while Judi's narration is ok, and the audio comes is nice....still, there is not alot of background score coming in through the other speakers...everything seems quiet....yes you can hear it, but not that well.
The sets, the costumes, the AA's....all amazing.....but its so bright in there that you can see all the black tiled ceilings, the pipes, the ducts, the stage lots, etc. Yes this was evident in earlier versions of the ride, but it seems more visible now with the new lighting and replaced bulbs.
The pheonecians......their port.....none of the boats are there anymore. They do have some cloud like cutouts and other things around the area....all black by the way....but the star field background and water is still there.
I hate the matrix tunnel..........perhaps going on the ride 5 times has helped give me that feeling.
the tunnel goes quite a ways into 180top....you can tell where the screens and structure are....you can see that they removed the roof because 180top is above us....you can also see the projector projecting the image onto us....I went through this area in creep-mode once and as far as I can tell the old tunnel is gone....stripped down to bare black walls. They should have just kept the old tunnel.
180top is very bright. sometimes the stars go fast, sometimes they don't.....another problem is that it seems so bright in there that you can see the outlines of all the behind the scenes stuff. I really think this should be desguised with some slight lighting and facades that make it look like we are on the moon looking back at Earth.
going down the old space station...one can look up and see the window prop very easily because our screens turn on right about here and the glow reflects onto the structure.
the descent looks ugly!!!!!
reason is.....the glow from the screens gives off light everywhere, especially toward the ceiling.
as we pass into the old gas clouds room....if you were to look away from your screen you will see the triangles don't light up or do anything but they are held into the ceiling by poles and connected via wires. if you're traveling backwards...your left hand side offers nothing....above you with the triangles are strings of blue infinite lights and white lights....all of this goes into the crevices on your right side...but its obvious that you see them hanging from foam sprayed supports, etc....its ugly I tell ya....ugly
so...pepper's ghost...honestly nothing different here....yes there are some white lights wrapped in cloth at the base of the track on our right side...the curtains have folds in them and go all the way up to the ceiling. Above us....again more triangles.....no twinkle stars..and the triangles don't work.
the starburst at glitter city was partially working...with a blue/purple UV light pointed at part of it. Glittery city isnt there...atleast not where it used to be for there is a black paneled wall and a curtain are now behind the star pattern....atleast they were there since the starburst was installed.
as we head further down we enter canopy cove.....lol.......the canopy is stripped to the bone....no more fiber optics twinkle stars like I saw on it in january 2008. more triangles some working ,some not.....as in some of them are lit....on our sides are some twinkle effects and sometimes not.
The time portal arch is not what it seems Martin, its actually just a wall that seperates the two areas of the descent with some air duct.
we leave canopy cove and enter the final corridor which contains star curtains on both or left and right...a mesh of fiber optic lights above us....with triangles hanging from the ceiling....not a canopy....the triangles do work....with a pattern of blue swooshing about them....our vehicles then turn and we head toward project tomorrow.
Just returned from a mini trip to WDW.
Had a nice time at Epcot. The weather was warm, but not too hot, with a breeze, and some good ole sun and clouds.
Crowds were certainly there and all over WDW for that matter. However, we (my party and I) never found long lines or anything too crazy. We stayed the whole day, didn't do everything, but did get to see what we wanted to see and do.
I think the longest we had to wait was 15 minutes.
Though Soarin had a constant wait of 50-60 minutes, and TT and M:S got pretty busy in the late afternoon.
Before I get into my updates on SSE, I wanted to say a few things about my time at Epcot.
Lot's of Christmas decorations were around yesterday, and after riding in the front of the monorail to Epcot today, noticed that alot, including the landscaping in the entrance planter that had Goofy and the gang, is gone today and has been replaced with flowers.
The metal fence that now serves as some sort of barrier at the park's entrance looks ugly as hell IMHO. :hurl:
Weren't the poles that support the tarps in Innoventions Plaza originally purply pink?! They're now blue....if indeed that is their new color.
Nothing in the flower bed behind SSE, no new flower logo, nothing, but some nice grass if you care to know. :lol:
The Merfcove had a tiny refurb box in it and there was a random Chip and Dale Meet n Greet infront of the Merfcove in the afternoon. :lookaroun
Went on Spaceship Earth 5 times....yes my friends I will get to that soon. :lol:
Holy crap why won't they upgrade to digital projectors?!
Soarin', and the Circle of Life both need help in the film quality and cleanliness department.
Sat behind some LOLGurlz at Living With The Land.
Heard three people say to their party what EPCOT means and they were correct.
Heard ALOT of people say "I don't like what they did to this" "yeah it used to be better" "Why did they do this" to various places around Epcot mostly at the.......entrance!!!!! DUN DUN DUNNNNNNNNN
No sweatshirtmoms at Epcot when I went, it was too warm for them to wear their 1998 Daisy Duck faded grey sweatshirts with the food stains on them.
Saw a MomOnAMission...the Mothers that wear the jogging/exercise suits to the parks and have a GPS strapped to their children, or on a leash, and know exactly what they will do that day, where, when, and how much fun they are projected to have.
Holy crap there is an old school....possibly from 1982...prepaid phone card machine at the locker rooms on the west side of SSE....go check it out.
The palm trees on the sides of SSE are getting taller and taller...should be at a good height within the next year to year and a half.
Stormstruck was pretty cool but the queue and wait is terrible.
Amazed at how Impressions de France still holds up elegantly, though some scenes are outdated.
The colors are not changing on SSE.
I love how Siemens has brought back the rotating earth effect at the end of illuminations, though it only is used for "Promise" didn't this effect last alot longer during the original Illuminations post event?
I'm revamping my entire flickr account, but I do have some pictures from my recent trip to Epcot ready for view that I think you will like, go to flickr.com then under people type.... leexpo and my album should show up for you :wave:
I'm not promoting my stuff, I'm just saying that's where it is.
:dazzle::zipit:Okay...SSE stuff
first things first, the exterior looks great with the lighting and landscaping, but it really does make the other older areas look tired and faded. No new logo sign on the mirror column, just faded remains and a circular scar on both sides.
The area music for SSE was VERY LOW.....very hard to hear.
when we enter SSE, everythings look brighter....the vehicles look colorful and polished....the panneling, etc. My biggest gripe is that its dusty....you can see fingerprints from CM's that would have walked around the room, and theres a bit of wear and tear to the edges of the walls and ceilings.
Nothing new to report with the touch screens....we select our language go up the ascent select our location, etc, etc
Ok....my thoughts and observations regarding SSE since I rode it 5 times is this....
I still enjoy many of the enhancements and changes, however
while Judi's narration is ok, and the audio comes is nice....still, there is not alot of background score coming in through the other speakers...everything seems quiet....yes you can hear it, but not that well.
The sets, the costumes, the AA's....all amazing.....but its so bright in there that you can see all the black tiled ceilings, the pipes, the ducts, the stage lots, etc. Yes this was evident in earlier versions of the ride, but it seems more visible now with the new lighting and replaced bulbs.
The pheonecians......their port.....none of the boats are there anymore. They do have some cloud like cutouts and other things around the area....all black by the way....but the star field background and water is still there.
I hate the matrix tunnel..........perhaps going on the ride 5 times has helped give me that feeling.
the tunnel goes quite a ways into 180top....you can tell where the screens and structure are....you can see that they removed the roof because 180top is above us....you can also see the projector projecting the image onto us....I went through this area in creep-mode once and as far as I can tell the old tunnel is gone....stripped down to bare black walls. They should have just kept the old tunnel.
180top is very bright. sometimes the stars go fast, sometimes they don't.....another problem is that it seems so bright in there that you can see the outlines of all the behind the scenes stuff. I really think this should be desguised with some slight lighting and facades that make it look like we are on the moon looking back at Earth.
going down the old space station...one can look up and see the window prop very easily because our screens turn on right about here and the glow reflects onto the structure.
the descent looks ugly!!!!!
reason is.....the glow from the screens gives off light everywhere, especially toward the ceiling.
as we pass into the old gas clouds room....if you were to look away from your screen you will see the triangles don't light up or do anything but they are held into the ceiling by poles and connected via wires. if you're traveling backwards...your left hand side offers nothing....above you with the triangles are strings of blue infinite lights and white lights....all of this goes into the crevices on your right side...but its obvious that you see them hanging from foam sprayed supports, etc....its ugly I tell ya....ugly
so...pepper's ghost...honestly nothing different here....yes there are some white lights wrapped in cloth at the base of the track on our right side...the curtains have folds in them and go all the way up to the ceiling. Above us....again more triangles.....no twinkle stars..and the triangles don't work.
the starburst at glitter city was partially working...with a blue/purple UV light pointed at part of it. Glittery city isnt there...atleast not where it used to be for there is a black paneled wall and a curtain are now behind the star pattern....atleast they were there since the starburst was installed.
as we head further down we enter canopy cove.....lol.......the canopy is stripped to the bone....no more fiber optics twinkle stars like I saw on it in january 2008. more triangles some working ,some not.....as in some of them are lit....on our sides are some twinkle effects and sometimes not.
The time portal arch is not what it seems Martin, its actually just a wall that seperates the two areas of the descent with some air duct.
we leave canopy cove and enter the final corridor which contains star curtains on both or left and right...a mesh of fiber optic lights above us....with triangles hanging from the ceiling....not a canopy....the triangles do work....with a pattern of blue swooshing about them....our vehicles then turn and we head toward project tomorrow.
