Magic Kingdom:
+ The railroad was being repaired, and the train station at FrontierLand was down.
+ SIDE NOTE: Stitch's Great Escape is GARBAGE and I am extraordinarily sad even more now that Alien Encounter is gone, it was truly one of the best.
Epcot:
(I went on the unDISCOVERed Future World tour and asked a lot of questions)
+ Wonders of Life is closed, indefinitely for now. We got to "sneak" in there and check the place out. The guide told me that they are deciding whether or not to demolish the entire building or simply gut it out, but that it'd need a lot of work. The building is running at all times, A/C is on, etc. and approximately once or twice every other week, they run Body Wars to keep it running condition. They were supposed to re-open it when The Living Seas went down on the 21st, but Soarin' is holding the crowds (avg 50-90 minute wait times too) for now and they just decided to leave it closed. FYI... you technically can just go in yourself, move one of the plants and proceed, the doors are still open and the building is completely empty. (PICTURES OF THE INTERIOR AS OF AUGUST 24, 2005 ARE COMING SOON).
The guide also confirmed that Epcot was treated like the "bad stepchild" all these years and now (in the next 5 years) its going to get a lot of attention from the powers that be. They are still looking to find sponsors right now, unfortunately, its kinda tough for companies to justify laying off hundreds of people yet they still give Disney millions of dollars in aid. Wonders of Life is just going to sit for the near future.
+ SpaceShip Earth's time is almost up, the guide confirmed that plans to gut it out will more than likely happen within the next 2 years. The rollercoaster idea is still the leader, with guests alledgedly taking off at the ground level (for instance where the old AT&T exibit was, and having riders shot into the ball. But it's still very early.
+ He really didn't say anything about the Living Seas unfortunately... it had just closed down 2 days earlier.
+ He couldn't give me an answer to why Honey, I Shrunk the Audience hasn't been removed out however he did say Kodak is reluctant at this time to make any big changes after the nightmare they endured changing the Imagination ride back to Figment.
+ I got to go inside the VIP rooms at Spaceship Earth (it's empty... no sponsors there) and more importantly, the HP VIP room at Mission: SPACE. You know... they have a better giftshop there than they do for the ride. They have cool Mission: SPACE polo shirts and hats. I also purchased a small HP+Disney journal (notebook) with Mars as Mickey's head and the Earth and Moon as his ears on the cover. It's very nice, and its exclusive. Unfortunately, you can't just stroll in there unless you work for HP. I wasn't even allowed to "buy" stuff from the shop inside... but I convinced someone in the room to get it for me and they were more than delighted to help me out.
+ I noticed Test Track's car audio is pretty much shot. In most of the cars I was in, the speakers' bass was all messed up.
+ Universe of Energy is actually the next ride slated for a full rehab, believe it or not, however they've been very hesitant because it was the first ride opened in Epcot in 1982.
+ The guide also said that yes, Soarin's ride video is going to be changed, but that they didn't have a timeframe on it. Note a few things: The guy who hits the golf ball in the ride is Michael Eisner, and the reason why the LA flight scene is so blurry is because it was a test demo, but LA refused to let Disney re-film it.
Disney-Studios:
+ I noticed that they really haven't trashed the MGM logo or name as of yet.
+ It was my 22nd birthday on the 22nd, and I asked the people at guest relations if they'd set me up to go backstage on Tower of Terror, in my opinion, the greatest ride on Earth. THEY LET ME. I got to go inside the ride supervisor's room and looked at all of the cameras inside the ride. The guys were responsible for watching to make sure nothing out of the ordinary happened. Most importantly to me, was that I finally got to see exactly how the ride works, I saw a diagram of the building and ride operations, just generally where the elevators go and come from. Very cool stuff.
I can't think of anything else right now. But if you have any more questions I'd be glad to answer. This was my 17th straight year of going to Disney World, however I'm not sure when my next trip will be right now. I can't wait to go again though.
+ The railroad was being repaired, and the train station at FrontierLand was down.
+ SIDE NOTE: Stitch's Great Escape is GARBAGE and I am extraordinarily sad even more now that Alien Encounter is gone, it was truly one of the best.
Epcot:
(I went on the unDISCOVERed Future World tour and asked a lot of questions)
+ Wonders of Life is closed, indefinitely for now. We got to "sneak" in there and check the place out. The guide told me that they are deciding whether or not to demolish the entire building or simply gut it out, but that it'd need a lot of work. The building is running at all times, A/C is on, etc. and approximately once or twice every other week, they run Body Wars to keep it running condition. They were supposed to re-open it when The Living Seas went down on the 21st, but Soarin' is holding the crowds (avg 50-90 minute wait times too) for now and they just decided to leave it closed. FYI... you technically can just go in yourself, move one of the plants and proceed, the doors are still open and the building is completely empty. (PICTURES OF THE INTERIOR AS OF AUGUST 24, 2005 ARE COMING SOON).
The guide also confirmed that Epcot was treated like the "bad stepchild" all these years and now (in the next 5 years) its going to get a lot of attention from the powers that be. They are still looking to find sponsors right now, unfortunately, its kinda tough for companies to justify laying off hundreds of people yet they still give Disney millions of dollars in aid. Wonders of Life is just going to sit for the near future.
+ SpaceShip Earth's time is almost up, the guide confirmed that plans to gut it out will more than likely happen within the next 2 years. The rollercoaster idea is still the leader, with guests alledgedly taking off at the ground level (for instance where the old AT&T exibit was, and having riders shot into the ball. But it's still very early.
+ He really didn't say anything about the Living Seas unfortunately... it had just closed down 2 days earlier.
+ He couldn't give me an answer to why Honey, I Shrunk the Audience hasn't been removed out however he did say Kodak is reluctant at this time to make any big changes after the nightmare they endured changing the Imagination ride back to Figment.
+ I got to go inside the VIP rooms at Spaceship Earth (it's empty... no sponsors there) and more importantly, the HP VIP room at Mission: SPACE. You know... they have a better giftshop there than they do for the ride. They have cool Mission: SPACE polo shirts and hats. I also purchased a small HP+Disney journal (notebook) with Mars as Mickey's head and the Earth and Moon as his ears on the cover. It's very nice, and its exclusive. Unfortunately, you can't just stroll in there unless you work for HP. I wasn't even allowed to "buy" stuff from the shop inside... but I convinced someone in the room to get it for me and they were more than delighted to help me out.
+ I noticed Test Track's car audio is pretty much shot. In most of the cars I was in, the speakers' bass was all messed up.
+ Universe of Energy is actually the next ride slated for a full rehab, believe it or not, however they've been very hesitant because it was the first ride opened in Epcot in 1982.
+ The guide also said that yes, Soarin's ride video is going to be changed, but that they didn't have a timeframe on it. Note a few things: The guy who hits the golf ball in the ride is Michael Eisner, and the reason why the LA flight scene is so blurry is because it was a test demo, but LA refused to let Disney re-film it.
Disney-Studios:
+ I noticed that they really haven't trashed the MGM logo or name as of yet.
+ It was my 22nd birthday on the 22nd, and I asked the people at guest relations if they'd set me up to go backstage on Tower of Terror, in my opinion, the greatest ride on Earth. THEY LET ME. I got to go inside the ride supervisor's room and looked at all of the cameras inside the ride. The guys were responsible for watching to make sure nothing out of the ordinary happened. Most importantly to me, was that I finally got to see exactly how the ride works, I saw a diagram of the building and ride operations, just generally where the elevators go and come from. Very cool stuff.
I can't think of anything else right now. But if you have any more questions I'd be glad to answer. This was my 17th straight year of going to Disney World, however I'm not sure when my next trip will be right now. I can't wait to go again though.
