Germany Boat Ride

EPCOT Explorer

EPCOT Explorer

New Member
Timon said:
I used to make regular trips through the Germany load/unload area in the 80's & 90's. Yes it was indeed used as storage area, I recall one time seeing row after row of benches pulled out of the park during off season, I suppose to reduce weathering and maintenance.

Anyway the area was totally unfinished, and "L" shaped. The walls were just bare beams with cuts in the concrete floor for the boat flume leading in one wall and out another. The mural wall is just bare metal studs and another smaller filled in arch on the Beer Garden side.

I used to visit the Beer Garden tech booth and used a catwalk which runs over the mural arch on the "boat"side which was really high but made it easy to see the floor cutouts for the flume.

Later in the 80's most of the space was outfitted with walls and drop ceilings for Entertainment rehearsal rooms which I suppose is still the case. From the catwalk these rehearsal rooms are strange looking far below.

There is also some really cool hallways that are on either side of the clock tower that are walkable and windowless where you can look down at people eating and look directly at the mural.

The catwalk I mentioned before went to the Tech booth and what was to be a VIP lounge that overlooked the inside Beer Garden. This area was themed and was/is used for special purposes.

If WDI decided to use this as a boat ride it would take less than a week to clear the rehearsal rooms out of there the way they are made.

I made the sing-along images which used to be part of the Beer Garden show.
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That's VERY cool..What else did you work on in EPCOT?:wave:
 
Spike-in-Berlin

Spike-in-Berlin

Well-Known Member
KaliSplash said:
I like your idea. A Lot. :sohappy:
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Thanks a lot. I just had another idea. Perhaps some of you already know it but a lot of US christmas traditions come from Germany, including the christmas tree and a lot of christmas customs and songs. So I just included a traditional German Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas Market) in the ride. After Cologne with the cathedral you pass Nuremburg during winter season with its famous Christkindlmarkt covered with snow and hear German Christmas songs like Oh Weihnachtsbaum (Oh Christmas Tree), Stille Nacht (Silent Night) etc.

And somehow I am quite sure, if the ride I just sketched down would be built it would be a success.
 
yankspy

yankspy

Well-Known Member
Spike-in-Berlin said:
I think a german ride could still work out, however not as a tame ride like El Rio but more like maelstrom or even a downsized german Splash Mountain. Mountains and fairy tales/legends have a high value in German culture and folklore. Why not combine them in an adventurous and wild river ride? It could include several minor and one bigger plunge (although not as big as Splash Mountain) First it takes down a minor plunge into a German wood (Black Forest perhaps) where you see scenes from German fairy tales and the struggle of Siegfried and the dragon, this could be a first highlight with an AA firebreathing dragon. Then through and up a mountain (Blocksberg), watching the dwarves in their mines, pass a sleeping King Barbarossa and out again, onto the summit of the mountain and pass by a witch sabbath on Walpurgisnacht and see valkyries in the sky to the valkyries ride of Wagner. Then follows a big plunge down the mountain into the Rhine. You pass several castles standing high above on the surrounding mountains (and seem to see even some ghosts in the castles?) and see Siegfried on his Rheinfahrt again with the famous music from Wagners opera and pass the Lorelei. At the end it goes again down a plunge (Rheinfälle). Finally the ride becomes more tame and you pass through a collage of modern Germany, including famous German buildings like Cologne Cathedral, see an ICE-train passing on high speed and finally you are on the Spree River and passing the Reichstag in Berlin before the ride comes to an end.
Just my idea.
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I could be happy listening to Wagner while seeing dragons, dwarves, etc. This seems awfully ambitious though. Do you think they have enough space for something of this magnitude? Good idea anyway.
 
J

Javier Boughton

New Member
in perspective..the building looks huge...

germany.jpg
 
Spike-in-Berlin

Spike-in-Berlin

Well-Known Member
yankspy said:
I could be happy listening to Wagner while seeing dragons, dwarves, etc. This seems awfully ambitious though. Do you think they have enough space for something of this magnitude? Good idea anyway.
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If you take a look at the picture posted by javier you have to consider, that this is less than half of the show building originally intended for the Rhine River Cruise. And there is more space left in the backyard of the German pavilion. But I have to admit, my design is definitely on a much larger scale that the originally proposed tame ride. Something more like Mt. Fuji than like El Rio or Maelstrom. It would be a first E-Ticket in WS.
By the way I know have a first idea for a name and a story for my Germany-Ride. "Deutschland - Land der Musik" (Germany - Land of Music) as you hear German music all over the tour, e.g. Hansel und Gretel by Humperdinck in a part of the Woods scene where you see them together with the witch at her gingerbread house, several times Wagner, the Loreley-Lied in a part of the Rhine, the already mentioned christmas songs in Nuremberg, Kraftwerk in Berlin etc.

I just decided that I will place a more elaborate description of the ride in the imagineering forum in the next days because I really start to like it.
 
J

Javier Boughton

New Member
if you look at germany from the back..it looks even bigger..

germany2.jpg

compared to the other countries:

  • italy is very very small
  • USA looks almost the same size
  • mexico is bigger
  • norway a bit smaller (even with maelstrom)
  • china...J shaped so is hard to put it in perspective
  • japan...huge building on the back, that part only is as big as USA
  • morroco...like italy very small
  • france some what the same size
  • england, small buidlings big space
  • canada..just the 360 mountain is bigger than anything else in canada.
 
shakes20

shakes20

Active Member
Thanks everyone for the fascinating information! I'm every bit the Disney geek that others are on this board, but I can't get there that often. It was always a dream of mine to be an Imagineer someday (oh, well, plans change), but getting to here so many of the details and stories is the second best things I guess! Thanks again!!!
 
B

Bolna

Well-Known Member
Spike-in-Berlin said:
Thanks a lot. I just had another idea. Perhaps some of you already know it but a lot of US christmas traditions come from Germany, including the christmas tree and a lot of christmas customs and songs. So I just included a traditional German Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas Market) in the ride. After Cologne with the cathedral you pass Nuremburg during winter season with its famous Christkindlmarkt covered with snow and hear German Christmas songs like Oh Weihnachtsbaum (Oh Christmas Tree), Stille Nacht (Silent Night) etc.

And somehow I am quite sure, if the ride I just sketched down would be built it would be a success.
Click to expand...

I think your concept is great - especially since it now includes my hometown: Nuremberg :king:

What about making it a raft ride and taking the raft down a plunge from the alps down the Isar into Munich?
 
hpyhnt 1000

hpyhnt 1000

Well-Known Member
EPCOT Explorer said:
Nice pics!

When were these taken though...I don't see any ROE equip.:veryconfu

(and how is there a truck in front of the pavilion?!:lol:)
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Yeah, must have been an early morning shot. Google Earth has it where there's a truck in the middle of France, and Live Local also has an angle where there are about six or seven Friendships in WS Lagoon as they all go racing to their docks in the Epcot resort area. Kinda fun to see.
 
EPCOT Explorer

EPCOT Explorer

New Member
hpyhnt 1000 said:
Yeah, must have been an early morning shot. Google Earth has it where there's a truck in the middle of France, and Live Local also has an angle where there are about six or seven Friendships in WS Lagoon as they all go racing to their docks in the Epcot resort area. Kinda fun to see.
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Pretty cool!I agree.:)
 
M

MAGICFLOP

Well-Known Member
The downside to Germany not building the ride is:

We are missing out on an aweful lot of good rumors from the Rhine boat Captain.
 
Rob562

Rob562

Well-Known Member
EPCOT Explorer said:
Nice pics!

When were these taken though...I don't see any ROE equip.:veryconfu

(and how is there a truck in front of the pavilion?!:lol:)
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The RoE spotlight is there, it's just hidden in this angle. You can just barely see the edge of it on the tallest roof, sticking out behind the round turret.

-Rob
 
MythBuster

MythBuster

Active Member
Oriolesmagic said:
nice pics. May you please explain what the extra building on the back is.
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That is the Electronic Equipment Room, it is where all the ride controls would go, all the empty racks are still there. It houses all the audio for the Germany pavilion and ROE controls for Germany.
 
MythBuster

MythBuster

Active Member
Timon said:
I used to visit the Beer Garden tech booth and used a catwalk which runs over the mural arch on the "boat"side which was really high but made it easy to see the floor cutouts for the flume.

There is also some really cool hallways that are on either side of the clock tower that are walkable and windowless where you can look down at people eating and look directly at the mural.

The catwalk I mentioned before went to the Tech booth and what was to be a VIP lounge that overlooked the inside Beer Garden. This area was themed and was/is used for special purposes.
Click to expand...

There is one hallway that goes in front of the Glockenspiel and then through the Tech booth and on the other side there is a new secret addition for Kim Possible.
 

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