Sadly the company couldn't justify paying for the much needed upgrades theirselves.
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Mission Space=Big Flop?
- Thread starter okcthunder
- Start date
PhilharMagician
Well-Known Member
They decided to pull it in early 93. I'll testify it was very popular summer 93
I was there in September 93' and it was busy very busy. WOM seemed to run for about a 1/2 hour then break down for a 1/2 hour and repeat and repeat. It was crazy! Kinda reminds of TT on some days. Maybe a curse or indian burial ground under it.
PhilharMagician
Well-Known Member
In many respects they have not kept the rest of the park up.
FigmentJedi
Well-Known Member
Considering it was the early 2000s when the new ride opened, wouldn't Jerry Springer loving majority of theme park guests be more accurate? Or some other TV scum?
The scum stays the same. The name of the show is all that differs.
Being a contrary-minded person, I did look to the sides. No effect on me, but we're all different when it comes to equilibrium.
I, too, always appreciated Horizons. It had a re-rideability that M:S doesn't have, IMO.
Funmeister's Delight
Active Member
It always makes me laugh when people say Horizons was a tired attraction. If they took our PoTC or HM for something like MS, people would care.
jdmdisney99
Well-Known Member
Plus make your controls actually DO SOMETHING.
jdmdisney99
Well-Known Member
Wait really?
That's crazy. I never really heard that before, but two nights ago I was dozing off and I thought, why don't they use M:S as a transport to Brava Centauri, plus add "Astrolators" and a constellation pre-show as planned and described here? I even made a sketch for what I might do...It would be AWESOME!
englanddg
One Little Spark...
While I get your point, I'd disagree. Horizons was two things.
1) It was the single attraction in Futureworld that bound all of the various themes (with the possible exception of Wonders of Life) together.
So, for example, you'd remember the underwater scenes from the ride when you visited the Seas. You'd remember the orange grove scenes when you visited the Land. All of the energy needed to run all of these things were explained in the Energy Pavilion. The future of transportation was shown in Horizons, and you'd think about it when on World of Motion.
And what did all of this potential "future" (that still looks like a pretty darned good one to me!) require to create?
Communication (Spaceship Earth), technology and computers (Communicores) and Imagination.
As a side note, it was this overarching grand experience that bound Futureworld together. Starting with Wonders of Life, it began to fall apart, and with the removal of Horizons it was completely broken. The "story" was gone.
2) The ride was a classic. Aside from American Adventure, it was the epitome of what Disney could do with animetronics and scene design at the time, and they have never reached that level of detail and epic scale since. When you rode it (like Pirates) you didn't feel like you were riding a ride or watching a show...you felt like you were PART of the show, even though there was a narrator.
How many children peered out at those scenes and thought "Wow, I really can't wait to grow up." How many parents watched the presentation and though "This is a future I wouldn't mind seeing my children live in."
The ride changed people. In a very deep way. How many scientists, engineers, programmers, technicians, designers, etc people (I know I'm one) can point to riding Horizons and think...I want to help make that happen someday.
After experiencing Futureworld, where we are going, then you make it back to the World Pavilion, where you can sample and experience all of the cultural glory of Spaceship Earth. EPCOT told a story. And that's why it was so amazing. Now, the story has been broken.
And THAT is why it was a shame it was removed. At least in my opinion.
http://passport2dreams.blogspot.com/2012/10/an-epcot-generation-manifesto.html
Also, I highly recommend the above blog post to anyone who remembers EPCOT Center. I think the author hit the nail on the head about what Futureworld at EPCOT Center was, the purpose it served and the story it tells (culminating with Horizons tying it all together), and hopefully will be again some day.
Glasgow
Well-Known Member
Not my fav ride but im glad they built it. Sometimes you just have to put the technology out there on display, just so you can move forward and see what is possible. It was a cutting edge ride at the time and still is to some extent. Who knows, maybe its just a stepping stone for greater things ahead.
englanddg
One Little Spark...
I'll add this quote from the article I posted...
"The issues that EPCOT Center tackled in 1982 - communication tools, energy conservation, man's frontiers, transportation technology, human creativity, land use, sea exploration and global culture - all of those are things we see in the newspaper every single day. After thirty years, we're still chasing the same ghosts as we were in 1982. It isn't that EPCOT Center was outdated, it's that it was ahead of its time. In an era when American politics and culture were sinking into hedonism and corporate enslavement, EPCOT Center reminded children that they didn't need to make the same mistakes their parents had.
What's "not right for kids" about that? Isn't that a message we all want to pass on to the next generation? And what better media format to tell it in than a place where you can be inspired and have fun - not a museum, but a theme park? With a singing dragon?
As an EPCOT child, that's what I find most troubling about Epcot The Theme Park - not that X or Y specific component is now missing, but that the message of the theme park isn't getting out there. That enrichment is fun. Learning is lifelong. That we are all "tomorrow's children"."
"The issues that EPCOT Center tackled in 1982 - communication tools, energy conservation, man's frontiers, transportation technology, human creativity, land use, sea exploration and global culture - all of those are things we see in the newspaper every single day. After thirty years, we're still chasing the same ghosts as we were in 1982. It isn't that EPCOT Center was outdated, it's that it was ahead of its time. In an era when American politics and culture were sinking into hedonism and corporate enslavement, EPCOT Center reminded children that they didn't need to make the same mistakes their parents had.
What's "not right for kids" about that? Isn't that a message we all want to pass on to the next generation? And what better media format to tell it in than a place where you can be inspired and have fun - not a museum, but a theme park? With a singing dragon?
As an EPCOT child, that's what I find most troubling about Epcot The Theme Park - not that X or Y specific component is now missing, but that the message of the theme park isn't getting out there. That enrichment is fun. Learning is lifelong. That we are all "tomorrow's children"."
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epcotisbest
Well-Known Member
Yes, re-rideability is a good term for Horizons. MS is, for us, re-skippable. Might do it on the wimpy side maybe every other trip at best...never on the other side though. Interestingly enough, we were on the first flight of the first day open to the public of the less intense side, sometime in May of, I believe 2006 or so.
Oh, me too. M:S is okay for what it is, but there's only one outcome! As often as one rode Horizons, there were at least a couple of different outcomes based on the choices we made while riding. And I completely loved how it tied in with Carousel of Progress.
Glad to see you 'round these parts!
englanddg
One Little Spark...
Well, as you said elsewhere...if the Navigator doesn't press their button, there should be consequences!Oh, me too. M:S is okay for what it is, but there's only one outcome! As often as one rode Horizons, there were at least a couple of different outcomes based on the choices we made while riding. And I completely loved how it tied in with Carousel of Progress.
Glad to see you 'round these parts!
The first time I rode it (both versions) was in 2010. The kid thought the line up theme was good, I thought it was decent. But, once you leave the staging room with the spacesuits it's like...ok...we ran out of money. The queue turns into a room that looks like a stairway in a hospital high rise...
But, that first and second ride, I felt it. The weightlessness, the awesomeness of it.
Every ride since 2010 (and there have been a lot since then)...I feel nothing.
epcotisbest
Well-Known Member
Thanks...I still read sometimes, and occasionally chime in. Horizons was an all time favorite. A classic like CoP. For some reason the multi-skilled kitchen robot at Horizons comes to mind...we need one of those around here at our house! Loved smelling the oranges as well.Oh, me too. M:S is okay for what it is, but there's only one outcome! As often as one rode Horizons, there were at least a couple of different outcomes based on the choices we made while riding. And I completely loved how it tied in with Carousel of Progress.
Glad to see you 'round these parts!
englanddg
One Little Spark...
And now I want to go watch @marni1971 's videos again.
I miss that ride. I rode it over and over again, and each time absorbed something new (my grandfather would drop me off at Disney when he had to teach college in Orlando and I had a Floridian Annual Pass, so I could pretty much go anywhere on property, and I did...some of the best memories I have growing up).
The only ride I miss at the same level is the original Figgy.
I really wish I could have shared those two rides with my daughter. Nostalgia for me, but inspiration for her. To teach her, to inspire her, to show her...
But...alas, Disney screwed them all up. And now Futureworld sits in a quagmire and I'm not seeing any signs of it pulling out soon.
epcotisbest
Well-Known Member
Oh yeah, the original Imagination with Dreamfinder and Figment was outstanding. Dreamfinder used to meet guests outside near the leapfrog fountains...I think your daughter would have enjoyed Horizons and Imagination, and I believe she would indeed be inspired. I remember a pic you posted awhile back with her in a "Judge me by my size, do you?" shirt...showed that pic to my wife and we both got a kick out of that. Looks like you are making wonderful memories!