Andrew C
You know what's funny?
the unique ride system and how it is integrated with the utilized effects is not something we have really seen...
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News Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind attraction confirmed for Epcot
- Thread starter wdwmagic
- Start date
UNCgolf
Well-Known Member
Cosmic Rewind does some unique things. It's understandable it would get an award, even if I think it's more a double than a home run because it never really moves past just being an indoor roller coaster. They could/should have done so much more with it.
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Poseidon Quest
Well-Known Member
Unique? As in rollercoasters with programmable yaw? Like Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts 8 years prior? In a big building with star projections like Space Mountain did a previous 47 years prior?
For good measure, might as well mention its novelty effect, the retracting walls in the pre-show, which was achieved by Poseidon's Fury on a larger scale after its rework in 2001.
Andrew C
You know what's funny?
you’re silly.
surfsupdon
Well-Known Member
It’s because it’s so long. Three separate rooms??!!
And everyone in the rooms “knows what to do” so it’s like a fight to keep moving onward. It’s not enjoyable. Too many people in a mob mentality without a structured line.
Then the exit into the narrowing passageway with the blinking red lights is not fun, enjoyable, or entertaining. This mob now has to form a line.
I hate it, I hate it.
And even an ILL purchase is still a minimum 30min queue.
Yes, Disney could have human-engineered a better crowd flow.
I've learned to just hang back and avoid the scrum. Letting everyone go first barely adds five minutes to the wait to ride, since it has a great PPH.
surfsupdon
Well-Known Member
I actually like what Universal did with Velocicoaster. Having the preshow continually play while you are in a quick moving line. Works well.
It wouldn’t work at Tower (small intimate preshow) but at something like Guardians with those gigantic rooms…queue the space up and have the show continuous on a loop.
Horrible guest flow in its current state.
A 'simple solution' would be to move what's happening in the left corner (GotG, Cosmic Generator, Nova Corp) to the right corner or over the exit doors.
This way, everyone would be facing the correct way, and it would be natural to bunch up by it. Rather than a whole bunch of people move over to... nothing.
mergatroid
Well-Known Member
Yet it feels nothing like Gringotts does it really if we're being honest? One's a continually moving 'coaster' whilst the other is more a ride vehicle that stops in front of screens. I like Gringotts even though I hate Harry Potter, but at no stage does it feel similar to GOTG.
It's subjective whether people like it or not and you could say the same about whether it deserves the award. However it's just as easy to say Velocicoaster "Is just another outdoor coaster" or that "Transformers is just another Spiderman". I don't believe either of those things to be true to the extent that people experience them and not many will think that. I'm not really into how original a ride system is to judge a ride personally. To me it's how much I enjoy the ride experience than whether a particular effect uses a method similar to x,y or z elsewhere.
When the Mummy opened at Universal I read all the technical promo about the brand new technology and how it was the first and only coaster to contain x,y and z. I enjoyed riding it but at no stage did I think "Oh yes, this unique system that's the first to have a backwards moving straight to turntable with an 85 degree fast ascent makes all the difference" (just made that description up as an example, it's not accurate to what they said but you hopefully get the idea). I did however get off and think "That was a bit disappointing because I'd read all the stuff before riding expecting a load of original feeling, never before experienced marvels. Instead I got an indoor coaster with no ground-breaking feel to it". It didn't bother me that much, however all the technical jargon added expectations that were never lived up to as the so called originality of the ride system didn't add anything to my enjoyment of the ride.
Likewise any technical boast of originality that Guardians offers doesn't really affect most people's enjoyment. It's more was that long enough, was it fast and was it fun? A ride can feel original and can be subjective, all this 'coaster in a box' stuff which is used as an insinuation that it's no good can be levelled at most rides. Another 'outdoor coaster' can be levelled at any outdoor coaster but it doesn't tell the whole story there does it as they can each offer vastly different experiences and be enjoyed on many different levels?
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UNCgolf
Well-Known Member
I don't think people are saying it's no good because it's an indoor coaster, or at least that's not what I'm saying. I'm saying it doesn't really elevate beyond just being an indoor coaster -- even if it's a very good one -- and they'd indicated it was going to be something more than that. That doesn't mean it's a bad ride (and it's not a bad ride). I just don't think it's an especially great one and don't think it's even close to being one of the best at WDW.
Your description of Revenge of the Mummy is how I felt about Cosmic Rewind! I think Revenge of the Mummy is a better attraction than CR, even though it's not one of my absolute favorites either.
Of course it's all subjective, though.
Your description of Revenge of the Mummy is how I felt about Cosmic Rewind! I think Revenge of the Mummy is a better attraction than CR, even though it's not one of my absolute favorites either.
Of course it's all subjective, though.
Poseidon Quest
Well-Known Member
The entire point is that there's nothing particularly unique about it. It's essentially just another Space Mountain and is not employing any technology that hasn't been seen much earlier. Gringotts doesn't utilize as much motion, but it doesn't mean it's not capable of it either. I've had a few rides where it bugged out and the vehicle spun in two or three circles. The issue is that people are always claiming that a merit of Guardians is that it's unique and it's very clearly not. Vekoma's technology is incredibly similar to what Intamin had already innovated.
Incomudro
Well-Known Member
You're making the argument that something can only be as good as the sum of its parts.
It's not a very good argument.
osian
Well-Known Member
I got to ride it 11 times during my recent 10-day holiday and I got to know its layout fairly well. You are right in that projections, controlled turning of the vehicle, and indoor coasters have been done before, but this is actually incredibly well designed and I think better than any other inddor coaster I've experienced. I thought the same about Paris' Space Mountain. When you get to know the layout it's easier to appreciate the thought and design that went into the layout, to give certrain forces and feelings at various points.
The theming? Meh. The "story" doesn't add anything to the ride, I don't think I followed much of it anwyay. Screens and projections and pop songs do not a good ride make. It would work just as well, if not better, if it was just a ride about the Big Bang and your journey through the newly created universe, with an appropriate atmospheric soundtrack.
Highlights:
The one complete 360degree rotation about halfway through the ride.
The upwards launch towards the end (although the effect diminishes somewhat the further back you sit)
The helix around the moon. OMG that is so well done. It gets tighter towards the end and drops at the same time, while you're sat at an angle, giving you a lot of "oomph", especially towards the back.
It's not "essentially just another Space Mountain" at all. But even Space Mountain wasn't just thrown together. Those drops occur in very strategic places and with a specific profile to give maximum impact.
Technology is just a tool that can be used to, erm, tell a story. It can be used well, or not, and it can be used to enhance. Doesn't really matter if Vekoma did something similar to Intamin, I would argue that this ride does it better than Gringott's.
[Edit: I get that you were responding to the "unique" argument, that the technology it uses is not unique and it's been used before. But my point is that it's being used in a better way, and it does provide a unique experience, considering the track layout and how the rotations work in harmony to provide certain forces, not just to point you to a particular object)
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osian
Well-Known Member
LOL, I think that was what I was trying to say, but not quite as concisely!
My nbr 1 coaster (out of almost 700 that I've ridden) is Nemesis, at Alton Towers (UK). There are loads of coasters like it, cookie-cutter elements, it's not the biggest and it's not the fastest. But it was like capturing lightning in a jar. It's more than the sum of its parts. It's a work of art.
tpoly88
Well-Known Member
agree, just rode this again on sunday. still a great ride, flock of seagulls was the music this time. youre right its hard to hear the guardians talking with the music going but its the music that really makes the ride! was not as fun with tears for fears. Disco inferno and Blonde "one way or another" are the best.
was strange this time though, the whole que was rushed, didn't even finish the celestial scene before the doors opened.
mergatroid
Well-Known Member
The bit highlighted part I would disagree with as it's not really like Space Mountain is it especially if we're looking at the technology is uses as you clearly are? I mean if we're arguing that then we may as well say that every ride using a screen is essentially the same and that all the roller coasters outside are all the same. We may as well say the still being built Epic Universe is just a park copying IOA and US which it clearly isn't.
Space mountain is in indoor roller coaster in the dark. Space Mountain doesn't go backwards at any point, it doesn't reach the speeds Cosmic Rewind does, it isn't as long as CR is, it doesn't have vehicles that spin like CR does and to the point you're arguing it doesn't use the technology that CR does. If we're arguing something is essentially the same to that degree then we get to the point where we may as well say Jurassic Park us 'essentially the same as Pirates' as they're both boat ride attractions including animatronics.
The technology may have been used before but the award it won which triggered this conversation wasn't in any way related to 'the best ride using unique technology award' so it just seems a bit strange mentioning it. I think when people refer to it as unique it may be because they've personally never been on a ride using that technology before? However it could also be that they mean they've never been on a ride using that technology that also utilises the storyline, the music, the darkness and the screens in that way combined? They're possibly referring to the whole experience rather than dissecting the technological aspect of which screws and ride systems were used and letting that somehow spoil the experience the ride allowed them to feel.
It's subjective as to whether people enjoy it or not, as is whether it deserved the award or not. It's just whenever we read "It's just a coaster in a box" it usually is an argument that would make 99% of attractions the same and just feels a bit of a lazy way of saying that the person saying it doesn't like the ride.
tpoly88
Well-Known Member
i think its a great ride, yes not like space mnt. i missed that part.
Rich Brownn
Well-Known Member
Actually the Presto-Chango room (as Landmark called it) was there since Poseidon opened in 1999. Orginally you walked in with the walls already up . When you were rescued by Zeus (Poseidon was the bad guy in this version) the walls dropped down to give the illusion you were back in the previous room/People had trouble understanding it so in the new version it starts with walls down
Bocabear
Well-Known Member
There was a much better version of the flying walls trick used at the Star Trek Experience in Vegas... It really was an amazing effect...Smaller room, and the cast were all fully playing their roles as starship team members....It was really well done... but long long gone now....that opened in 1998.
Casper Gutman
Well-Known Member
I’d sum it up as CR is a vastly better coaster than Gringotts but Gringotts is a vastly better theme park attraction than CR.
The really glaring failure of the ride in comparison to other, similar attractions is the changing room. As Boca points out, the effect was done spectacularly at a Las Vegas Hilton decades ago. Even with that model, Disney messed up the effect so badly and at such a fundamental level it actually makes one question their competence.