News Is Carousel of Progress getting a major refurb?

[montyz81]

I just read this article on Yahoo.com https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/one-ride-disney-world-never-210349211.html. where the following quote appeared "In fact, there’s a compelling reason to believe that Disney will opt for a revamp—a full script makeover, not just the paint job done in 2016—instead of shuttering the Carousel of Progress."

I know there was some noise of this last year, but I hadn't heard any additional news on it. I did do a search in the forum and there was some mention of it in another post about a year ago. Anything new coming up that hasn't been mentioned before?

 

[GlacierGlacier]

I just read this article on Yahoo.com https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/one-ride-disney-world-never-210349211.html. where the following quote appeared "In fact, there’s a compelling reason to believe that Disney will opt for a revamp—a full script makeover, not just the paint job done in 2016—instead of shuttering the Carousel of Progress."

I know there was some noise of this last year, but I hadn't heard any additional news on it. I did do a search in the forum and there was some mention of it in another post about a year ago. Anything new coming up that hasn't been mentioned before?

Make sure to Check Out @MisterPenguin's s big ol' rumor and discussion compendium pinned to the top of the forum. Here is the information about Carousel of Progress's changes

Magic Kingdom

• Tomorrowland
• • Carousel of Progress is getting a refurb, most likely updating final scene and reskinning the AAs [likely]

 

[wdisney9000]

Yahoo is a less credible source than bus drivers.

 

[montyz81]

Yahoo is a less credible source than bus drivers.

Well, it was actually a Readers Digest article. That said... hey, I work for Verizon who owns Yahoo.

 

[DisneyGentlemanV2.0]

MisterPenguin said:
Magic Kingdom

• Tomorrowland
• • Carousel of Progress is getting a refurb, most likely updating final scene and reskinning the AAs [likely]

The new ending will just have the family sitting in silence, staring down at their phones in complete silence.

The 21st Century nuclear family...

...It's a great big beautiful tomorrow!

 

[wdwperry]

Maybe they can put seatbelts on the seats to keep people from standing up constantly during the show. The amount of times I've had to rewatch scenes is too high.

 

[gorillaball]

Maybe they can put seatbelts on the seats to keep people from standing up constantly during the show. The amount of times I've had to rewatch scenes is too high.

Can’t say I’ve ever seen that happen once

 

[Phil12]

CoP obviously needs a major refurbishment and a lot of TLC. In the second act there are multiple extension cords hanging from the ceiling and the attraction blows a main fuse every time I've ridden CoP! No wonder people stand up during the show. They probably want to be close to the exit in case Jimmy runs out of new fuses and instead puts a penny in the fuse socket. You can't be too careful!

 

[Ninja Mom]

The upholstery on the seats is filthy, that's why people keep standing up. It's clear Disney has given up completely on the basic cleaning of this attraction.

I love the Carousel of Progress. It's such an iconic attraction. At some point it needs to be "frozen in time" just like Walt's head. I suppose the other thing you could do would be to knock out the first scene and replace it with the scene from "today" thus keeping the 80's Xmas scene. How hard would that be to do?

~NM

 

[Texas84]

Can’t say I’ve ever seen that happen once

Happened once to me. A group left and the scene was restarted.

 

[V_L_Raptor]

They need to shut down the attraction for a while just to clean the seats. No, really. Those seating areas are disgusting.

 

[DisneyDebRob]

CoP obviously needs a major refurbishment and a lot of TLC. In the second act there are multiple extension cords hanging from the ceiling and the attraction blows a main fuse every time I've ridden CoP! No wonder people stand up during the show. They probably want to be close to the exit in case Jimmy runs out of new fuses and instead puts a penny in the fuse socket. You can't be too careful!

Not to mention the fire hazard in the last scene with the stove. We are lucky that the kitchen hasn’t exploded yet.

 

[eliza61nyc]

Hope this attraction always stays. Rode it for the first time just this last year (when I first visited MK), and it was wonderful.

Not every show has to have a million lights and pyrotechnics to be impactful.

No it doesn't but it does seem to be an oxymoron to have a ride called the "carousel of progress " and to not be somewhat up to date. I don't think updating the last scene would be amiss.

 

[montyz81]

They need to shut down the attraction for a while just to clean the seats. No, really. Those seating areas are disgusting.

I do agree with this. It reminds me of a movie theater in the 1980s. I can't see why they don't just buy the comfy theater seats of today.

 

[LaughingGravy]

Happened once to me. A group left and the scene was restarted.

If your scene was restarted due to someone leaving in your section, what happens to the groups in all the other theater sections?
Does everyone get paused and restarted? I would think they have to. How do you transition otherwise?
I love this attraction to no end, and this just occurred to me.

 

[LaughingGravy]

They need to shut down the attraction for a while just to clean the seats. No, really. Those seating areas are disgusting.

I can't think of another attraction in any park that has cloth seats the same way. Add people in shorts dripping in sunscreen and yeah, not the best. That's why I wear long Dad Cargo Shorts.
But, I do like the look of those older theater style seats. They should just recover the panels with new material scotch-guarded to the Nth degree. They look to be a common type in junior and high school auditoriums across the country and those are often re-upholstered.
I would imagine that's something they could get done pretty easily and cheaply with all the vendors out there that do that sort of work.

 

[HMF]

My vote would be to set the final scene on Dec. 31st 1999 into January 1st 2000 so I can keep some of the millennium celebration music somewhere on property and keep the show contained to one century.

 

[Expo_Seeker40]

I've said it before and I'll say it again, my solution to solve the CoP is:

Have the Tomorrowland Metro Retro Historical Society "sponsor" the show. New 4-5 minute preshow on bigger TV monitors with better sound quality to help set up the show.

The load theatre becomes both a load and unload theatre (think Philarmagic, Hall of Presidents, etc) guests enter on one side and exit out the other side. Guests would still enter the theater thru the left doors and then exit out thru the rarely used right side doors.

The original 1964 orchestral soundtrack is brought back. The curtains are removed and replaced with a movie screen using digital projection. The screen uses a new CGI animation made to mimic the original kaleidophonic screens (like they did for the D23 Carousel of Projects exhibit a few years ago) the kaleiodphonic graphics transform into a screen with a quick recap about the history of the attraction and how it wound up in Tomorrowland, explaining to guests that they will see the original show, which followed the era of Walt Disney's life (turn of the 20th century thru the 1960s) and then see a glimpse at the future.

Acts 1-3 are restored further to how they were in 1964, minus references to GE.

Act 4 is remade to look either like the 1964 ending (suburban neighborhood backdrop) or 1967 Disneyland ending which featured Progress City/EPCOT in the background.

The current unload theatre is turned into Act 5, a bonus look at the future. It can always be updated from time to time and never effect Acts 1-4. The cast hired to rerecord new updates to act 5 will also do the records for the set in stone script for acts 1-4 for vocal consistency.

PLEASE NOTE: the load and unload stages are shorter than acts 1-4, so act 5 will be a bit more narrow in size and depth, but can still show our carousel family somewhere in the 21st century.

 

[The Pho]

I've said it before and I'll say it again, my solution to solve the CoP is:

Have the Tomorrowland Metro Retro Historical Society "sponsor" the show. New 4-5 minute preshow on bigger TV monitors with better sound quality to help set up the show.

The load theatre becomes both a load and unload theatre (think Philarmagic, Hall of Presidents, etc) guests enter on one side and exit out the other side. Guests would still enter the theater thru the left doors and then exit out thru the rarely used right side doors.

The original 1964 orchestral soundtrack is brought back. The curtains are removed and replaced with a movie screen using digital projection. The screen uses a new CGI animation made to mimic the original kaleidophonic screens (like they did for the D23 Carousel of Projects exhibit a few years ago) the kaleiodphonic graphics transform into a screen with a quick recap about the history of the attraction and how it wound up in Tomorrowland, explaining to guests that they will see the original show, which followed the era of Walt Disney's life (turn of the 20th century thru the 1960s) and then see a glimpse at the future.

Acts 1-3 are restored further to how they were in 1964, minus references to GE.

Act 4 is remade to look either like the 1964 ending (suburban neighborhood backdrop) or 1967 Disneyland ending which featured Progress City/EPCOT in the background.

The current unload theatre is turned into Act 5, a bonus look at the future. It can always be updated from time to time and never effect Acts 1-4. The cast hired to rerecord new updates to act 5 will also do the records for the set in stone script for acts 1-4 for vocal consistency.

PLEASE NOTE: the load and unload stages are shorter than acts 1-4, so act 5 will be a bit more narrow in size and depth, but can still show our carousel family somewhere in the 21st century.

That could be cool. What I’ve wanted is the introduction to be done by a Walt Disney animatronic. Let him introduce his ride. We certainly all know that they have enough of him on camera to piece together a worthy script about it and other things.

 

[Texas84]

If your scene was restarted due to someone leaving in your section, what happens to the groups in all the other theater sections?
Does everyone get paused and restarted? I would think they have to. How do you transition otherwise?
I love this attraction to no end, and this just occurred to me.

Yes. Maybe someone here knows why they reset. Safety issue I guess.