News Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind attraction confirmed for Epcot

[Lil Copter Cap]

Just participated in the preview this morning and my only complaint is, still, the show building. This ride would be truly impressive—queue, pre-show(s), and ride—had it been hidden from guests' view. RotR...it's a jaw-dropping experience that you can't fully anticipate because you cannot actively see where you're going.

This ride was a blast and at moments I did feel the sensation of 'being in space' (the technology successfully blends at certain points)—but was this ride worth the price tag with the big blue box forever looming over the parking lot? Eehhh, that'll be my forever debate.

 

[Incomudro]

Any kind of spaceship there would make a lot more sense in the context of the ride. It seems like we have either become massive Celestial size beings ourselves or it's just a little asteroid.

EDIT: To head off any complaints -- this is not suggesting that the whole ride is terrible. It looks fun. But if we aren't going to discuss (critique) it, what's the point of having a thread? Everyone just says "it's amazing!" and the thread is over?

Circling a physical ship, would be better - though I haven't ridden the ride.
Circling a ship where perhaps there's an animation of the occupants of the cockpit.
Yeah, that would be cool.
A moon is far less expensive, so I'll assume that's where any idea of that went.

 

[DznyRktekt]

Absolutely, and months ago I swore there would at least be a Rocket like there is in Mission Breakout.
But, their omission on this ride doesn't hurt it - and it makes more sense that they are not there with you story wise.

I bet the AA's in California's tower were a result of Joe Rohde being on the project.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Circling a physical ship, would be better - though I haven't ridden the ride.
Circling a ship where perhaps there's an animation of the occupants of the cockpit.
Yeah, that would be cool.
A moon is far less expensive, so I'll assume that's where any idea of that went.

This thing cost nearly half a billion dollars. It should have every expensive trick in the book. Beginning to end should be “Wow! Look at the effort they spent on that!”

 

[Lil Copter Cap]

This thing cost nearly half a billion dollars. It should have every expensive trick in the book. Beginning to end should be “Wow! Look at the effort they spent on that!”

That's it. This is an elevated Space Mountain and I couldn't tell you where the money went....

 

[wdwmagic]

The pre-show doesn't really matter though.
Would it be better if it was better? Sure, but much like ToT it has little to do with the enjoyment of the ride.

But its the pre-shows, and the quality of them, that really separates Disney from a lot of the competition. They pretty much invented the concept of the pre-show, and they can make a HUGE difference to the experience. I think without doubt Cosmic Rewind would have benefitted from a pre-show involving AA's and not just screens.

 

[Casper Gutman]

But its the pre-shows, and the quality of them, that really separates Disney from a lot of the competition. They pretty much invented the concept of the pre-show, and they can make a HUGE difference to the experience. I think without doubt Cosmic Rewind would have benefitted from a pre-show involving AA's and not just screens.

Also, I missed it in that comment the first time, but the ToT preshow is fantastic, integral to the experience of the ride, and features some relatively subtle but very effective SFX. It's one of the best preshows in the world. M:B also has a pretty good preshow.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

That's it. This is an elevated Space Mountain and I couldn't tell you where the money went....

Imagineers spent many weeks conducting exhaustive research trips to...LAs most expensive clubs.

 

[yensidtlaw1969]

This thing cost nearly half a billion dollars. It should have every expensive trick in the book. Beginning to end should be “Wow! Look at the effort they spent on that!”

For real.

People seem to keep forgetting that Cosmic Rewind is the single most expensive attraction in Walt Disney World History. By about 100 million dollars. Does it look like it? Does it feel like it?

For the price of this one ride you could build half of Animal Kingdom.

Instead we get one ride that looks basically like Space Mountain, an attraction that isn't known for its eye-popping visuals? If you're gonna spend more money than ever before, shouldn't this ride look like nothing we've ever seen before?

If it cost as much as Rise of the Resistance and Expedition: Everest COMBINED, why is it so much less impressive?

 

[James Alucobond]

For real.

People seem to keep forgetting that Cosmic Rewind is the single most expensive attraction in Walt Disney World History. By about 100 million dollars. Does it look like it? Does it feel like it?

For the price of this one ride you could build half of Animal Kingdom.

Instead we get one ride that looks basically like Space Mountain, an attraction that isn't known for its eye-popping visuals? If you're gonna spend more money than ever before, shouldn't this ride look like nothing we've ever seen before?

If it cost as much as Rise of the Resistance and Expedition: Everest COMBINED, why is it so much less impressive?

I sort of get your point, but as a layperson with zero understanding of attraction costs, I find it a difficult thing to be outraged about except in the vaguest sense of wishing that money had gone elsewhere because I don’t particularly love coasters. I am sure many rides I love cost substantially less than others that I might not find particularly impressive. If you were to ask my extremely uneducated self where all that money went, I would simply assume that the ride system is especially expensive and that the inordinately long track further ate into budget. I’m probably terribly wrong, and perhaps it was mismanaged to a distressing degree, but again, no frame of reference whatsoever, nor do I necessarily expect budget to directly correlate to enjoyment or impressiveness.

 

[wdwmagic]

For real.

People seem to keep forgetting that Cosmic Rewind is the single most expensive attraction in Walt Disney World History. By about 100 million dollars. Does it look like it? Does it feel like it?

For the price of this one ride you could build half of Animal Kingdom.

Instead we get one ride that looks basically like Space Mountain, an attraction that isn't known for its eye-popping visuals? If you're gonna spend more money than ever before, shouldn't this ride look like nothing we've ever seen before?

If it cost as much as Rise of the Resistance and Expedition: Everest COMBINED, why is it so much less impressive?

It is very hard to believe that Cosmic Rewind cost more than Rise. Ignoring fun factor, and in terms of content and quality there is just no comparison in my opinion.

 

[Lil Copter Cap]

But its the pre-shows, and the quality of them, that really separates Disney from a lot of the competition. They pretty much invented the concept of the pre-show, and they can make a HUGE difference to the experience. I think without doubt Cosmic Rewind would have benefitted from a pre-show involving AA's and not just screens.

Exactly this.

I think something like Flight of Passage, which can be compared to this attraction's pre-show (2 themed rooms with screens) doesn't allow space for AAs. The space of the pre-show rooms for Cosmic Rewind are massive and you can tell they were meant to be something more than what they've become. We now have a highly themed DINOSAUR pre-show, where Glenn Close is the only stellar performance.

 

[JAB]

Just got back, and while we weren't in any of the preview groups that got to ride, I still felt like sharing some thoughts.

First, the ship is huge! I knew that it was 1:1 and that it was 51 ft. tall, but I don't think that really registered until I saw it in person; the photos don't really convey the size. I also thought that both the ship and the pedestal looked better in person than in the photos.

We were in Epcot on 5/5 during the media day, and the stage they had set up was used for a private concert event around 8-ish. They even shot off some small fireworks (My wife and I were watching the SSE Beacon show at the time, and one confused family thought that the Beacon light show and the pyro from the concert were "the fireworks" and once the Beacon show was done, they left. )

I talked to a cast member out front during the extended hours last night, and he said that the line for previews yesterday was over 3 hours at one point because of "technical delays." He said that one they go live with the official opening the plan is to use the VQ to limit the wait time to 70 minutes, which he said is the length of the indoor queue.

 

[UNCgolf]

I talked to a cast member out front during the extended hours last night, and he said that the line for previews yesterday was over 3 hours at one point because of "technical delays." He said that one they go live with the official opening the plan is to use the VQ to limit the wait time to 70 minutes, which he said is the length of the indoor queue.

I wonder what they're going to do when they finally open for standby. It will definitely get lines longer than 70 minutes, and they have nowhere outside to put those people outside of throwing up some stanchions.

 

[yensidtlaw1969]

It is very hard to believe that Cosmic Rewind cost more than Rise. Ignoring fun factor, and in terms of content and quality there is just no comparison in my opinion.

Thank you! Yes, it really feels unfathomable. And the rumors that TRON has crossed north of the $400 million mark are equally perplexing. Both these E-Tickets lack a level of intricacy that normally befits attractions of such caliber. Which isn’t to say that intricacy is necessary for a high-level E-Ticket experience, but then what the heck is costing so much on these rides?

 

[UNCgolf]

Thank you! Yes, it really feels unfathomable. And the rumors that TRON has crossed north of the $400 million mark are equally perplexing. Both these E-Tickets lack a level of intricacy that normally befits attractions of such caliber. Which isn’t to say that intricacy is necessary for a high-level E-Ticket experience, but then what the heck is costing so much on these rides?

Wait, TRON? $400 million?

That ride shouldn't cost more than a quarter of that. There's barely anything to it -- it's a D ticket IMO and that's solely because it goes fast.

I don't think CR looks like the greatest ride in the world, but it's certainly vastly superior to TRON.

 

[donsullivan]

For real.

People seem to keep forgetting that Cosmic Rewind is the single most expensive attraction in Walt Disney World History. By about 100 million dollars. Does it look like it? Does it feel like it?

For the price of this one ride you could build half of Animal Kingdom.

Instead we get one ride that looks basically like Space Mountain, an attraction that isn't known for its eye-popping visuals? If you're gonna spend more money than ever before, shouldn't this ride look like nothing we've ever seen before?

If it cost as much as Rise of the Resistance and Expedition: Everest COMBINED, why is it so much less impressive?

I’d love to see the adjusted for inflation actual numbers that support this conclusion.

 

[yensidtlaw1969]

I’d love to see the adjusted for inflation actual numbers that support this conclusion.

Okay, you got me, a little less than half:

 

[Animaniac93-98]

I’d love to see the adjusted for inflation actual numbers that support this conclusion.

Expedition Everest cost $100 million in 2006. That's about $150 million today.

Is CR better than three Everests?

 

[The Empress Lilly]

This thing cost nearly half a billion dollars. It should have every expensive trick in the book. Beginning to end should be “Wow! Look at the effort they spent on that!”

Unrelated, the last time I felt this was at Shanghai Pirates. It's a riveting sensation in its own right, partly separate of and partly strongly reinforcing the ride experience itself.

At WDW, GE at times achieves this. Pandora too. The bits where both are at their best.