News Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind attraction confirmed for Epcot

[Casper Gutman]

That is one of the genius things about universals SCOOP vehicle on Spiderman. You really are limited to looking directly in front of you or above you. You never see the sides or the floors. (Same with HPFJ)

In fact, MIB alien attack originally wanted to use the SCOOP vehicles, but the limited view didn't work well for an open shooting gallery ride, so instead they went with the Cat in the Hat system. I wonder if Disney would be better off with their trackless vehicles putting some walls up around the vehicles limiting the views so we can't see the floors

This is 100% spot on. I really don't think there is a better ride system (besides, perhaps, the classic omni) then the SCOOP. Another key element is that the SCOOP does, as you say, restrict the field of vision... but it doesn't FEEL like it is restricting the field of vision. People complain about Transformers copying Spidey, and their is validity to that complaint, but I would happily take a park full of SCOOPs just as I loved the park full of omnis that was the original EPCOT.

I'd love to see an experiment with a trackless with a narrowed range of vision, although I suspect that would introduce new issues I'm not bright enough to forsee.

 

[lazyboy97o]

I'd love to see an experiment with a trackless with a narrowed range of vision, although I suspect that would introduce new issues I'm not bright enough to forsee.

It removes the gimmick. The whole point is letting you see that you’re not on a track even though over the years the tires tend to wear a clearly visible path.

 

[TikibirdLand]

It removes the gimmick. The whole point is letting you see that you’re not on a track even though over the years the tires tend to wear a clearly visible path.

Frankly, I haven't seen a real reason for trackless on anywhere where it's been deployed. The only novel place was on MMRR during the "dance" scene. Seems so out-of-place that it was a demo for the technology. Otherwise, a track or wire-guided vehicle would have done the job nicely -- and cheaper and more reliably.

 

[Casper Gutman]

Frankly, I haven't seen a real reason for trackless on anywhere where it's been deployed. The only novel place was on MMRR during the "dance" scene. Seems so out-of-place that it was a demo for the technology. Otherwise, a track or wire-guided vehicle would have done the job nicely -- and cheaper and more reliably.

I like it on MMRR and (from what I've seen) Mystic Manor. It seems to emphasize the chaos inherent in both rides. However, it still comes with massive drawbacks even when I feel it is used well.

 

[TikibirdLand]

I like it on MMRR and (from what I've seen) Mystic Manor. It seems to emphasize the chaos inherent in both rides. However, it still comes with massive drawbacks even when I feel it is used well.

Even on those rides, I can see how wire-guided or even a tracked vehicle could be used to the same effect. If you add rotation to the vehicle, I think it could mimic all of the "mayhem" you see in MM (an excellent, imaginative ride, IMO). It's all about reliability and number of guests per hour. Trackless isn't up to the task. I'm looking at you, RoTR and Ratatouille!

 

[sedati]

So floor without track is distracting, but track, rail, flume, trough is fine?

 

[UNCgolf]

So floor without track is distracting, but track, rail, flume, trough is fine?

This sounds like a misstatement of the argument. The difference with track, rail, etc. is that it only requires a small portion of the floor and the rest can be themed if wanted.

With a trackless ride, most of the floor needs to be empty or else you already know the ride path, which partially defeats the purpose of making it trackless. It's not really about being distracting and more about leaving a lot of empty unthemed space that isn't necessary in other ride systems.

I'm sure there's a way to build a trackless ride where the system is absolutely necessary for the ride to work, but I don't think I've seen one yet. They generally feel like they could have been done in other ways without losing anything (or at least where anything you lose could be made up in other ways to keep the same overall quality). That's not to say it's worthless -- there are obviously things you can do with it that you can't do with other systems, or at least more easily than other systems -- just that it doesn't feel like one has been built yet that really justifies the system over all alternatives.

 

[No Name]

Frankly, I haven't seen a real reason for trackless on anywhere where it's been deployed. The only novel place was on MMRR during the "dance" scene. Seems so out-of-place that it was a demo for the technology. Otherwise, a track or wire-guided vehicle would have done the job nicely -- and cheaper and more reliably.

Well on the contrary the whole idea is that the formerly-linear train cars have chaotically left the track… I think a track would’ve made the entire ride fall flat. Goofy leaves and rejoins the line of cars, then they’re constantly changing order and direction, there’s valuable uses like the waterfall sequence, they end up in a different order than they started, etc. In fact I literally cannot think of a more important use of the trackless system than MMRR.

 

[TikibirdLand]

Well on the contrary the whole idea is that the formerly-linear train cars have chaotically left the track… I think a track would’ve made the entire ride fall flat. Goofy leaves and rejoins the line of cars, then they’re constantly changing order and direction, there’s valuable uses like the waterfall sequence, they end up in a different order than they started, etc. In fact I literally cannot think of a more important use of the trackless system than MMRR.

Wire guided does this in warehouses today. Not a biggie. Bus-bar switches would allow this to be done with traditional dark ride tech. MMRR has nothing that can't be done tech invented 30 years ago.

Not sure what specifically the waterfall sequence can't be done. Would be curious to hear your description what's special being done with trackless...

 

[No Name]

Wire guided does this in warehouses today. Not a biggie. Bus-bar switches would allow this to be done with traditional dark ride tech. MMRR has nothing that can't be done tech invented 30 years ago.

Not sure what specifically the waterfall sequence can't be done. Would be curious to hear your description what's special being done with trackless...

Regarding the waterfall scene, the cars each park in front of their own section, then turn around to see the previous room transformed to underwater. I’m not saying it’s a perfect scene but it would be more expensive and/or less effective to do that with a track.

I’m not really sure what else to add on top of what I said before. I’ll just say, lazyboy mentioned the whole gimmick is not being able to see a track, and that gimmick is pretty critical to the point of this ride.

 

[UNCgolf]

Well on the contrary the whole idea is that the formerly-linear train cars have chaotically left the track… I think a track would’ve made the entire ride fall flat. Goofy leaves and rejoins the line of cars, then they’re constantly changing order and direction, there’s valuable uses like the waterfall sequence, they end up in a different order than they started, etc. In fact I literally cannot think of a more important use of the trackless system than MMRR.

I agree that MMRR is probably the best use I've seen -- almost mentioned that in my post above. It definitely does several things that wouldn't be possible (or would at least be significantly harder) without the system.

I just think they could have easily built something as good, if not better, with a different system. It may have been a different ride than what exists in certain places, though.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Regarding the waterfall scene, the cars each park in front of their own section, then turn around to see the previous room transformed to underwater. I’m not saying it’s a perfect scene but it would be more expensive and/or less effective to do that with a track.

That scene would be possible with a wire guided system which allow Ys, double backs, crossovers and pretty much everything else that Disney’s true trackless rides do but without the significant cost.

 

[trainplane3]

That scene would be possible with a wire guided system which allow Ys, double backs, crossovers and pretty much everything else that Disney’s true trackless rides do but without the significant cost.

Ghostwood Estate at flipping Kennywood is a trackless ride and has a party trick like that. I rode it in December and was reminded it's trackless and thought "why do these get so much hype? This has been here since 2008!".

 

[PuertoRekinSam]

Wierd that Mantis isn't featured here while she is on the the DL version....different timelines?

mantis debuted in Avengers; so I assume she is off limits on this coast.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Ghostwood Estate at flipping Kennywood is a trackless ride and has a party trick like that. I rode it in December and was reminded it's trackless and thought "why do these get so much hype? This has been here since 2008!".

Ghostwood Estate is not a true trackless ride, it uses ETF’s wire guided system like Symbolica at Efteling.

 

[trainplane3]

Ghostwood Estate is not a true trackless ride, it uses ETF’s wire guided system like Symbolica at Efteling.

Sorry, that's what I was implying based off your comment of wire based rides. True it's not "real" trackless but it's similar enough that some might not know the difference.

 

[gorillaball]

Frankly, I haven't seen a real reason for trackless on anywhere where it's been deployed. The only novel place was on MMRR during the "dance" scene. Seems so out-of-place that it was a demo for the technology. Otherwise, a track or wire-guided vehicle would have done the job nicely -- and cheaper and more reliably.

Luigi’s Rollickin Roadsters

 

[GoombaGoomba]

Is there a moderator in here that can get us back on track? gooood lawwwwwd.

 

[𝕴𝖒𝖆𝖌𝖎𝖓𝖊𝖊𝖗97]

I'll get us back on track! I ask this question every few months here, so it's time once again, now that some people have actually been inside the attraction. Are there any animatronics at any point during this experience? I'd settle for the queue, but a nice animatronic pre-launch would be really nice. Or a kiss-off a la Wheezy?

 

[EricsBiscuit]

Is there a moderator in here that can get us back on track? gooood lawwwwwd.

What track? We are talking trackless ride systems!