New Test Track open for 6 months and still not working anywhere near 100%

[ptaylor]

The new Test Track is still not working nearly 6 months after its opening.

Current Issues (as of May 14 2013)

- Car design performance scores are not being displayed after each test, instead you see a random car and its score.
- Car designs not available for use in the 'Create your commercial' area in the post-show.
- Car designs not available for use in the 'Test Drive your Car' area in the post-show. Infact, this area did not work at all, not even with generic designs.

There are also significant guest flow issues in the queue area. FASTPASS is now being routed past the FASTPASS design kiosks, and through an emergency exit corridor back into the main standby queue Design Kiosks. Single Ride line is continuing to use half of the FASTPASS design kiosks, the other half sit idle. There are cast everywhere, trying to direct people and manage the flow of guests, and it is not working well. It all feels very chaotic and temporary. Noise levels inside the pre-show area make hearing any of the briefing information impossible. Most guests have no idea what they are doing in the attraction.

As with other recent refurbishments, it looks like this has not been completed, and never will be. WDI did not get the queue design right for this, and have not been able to implement a working ride.

It defeats any purpose of designing your own custom vehicle if it does not follow you throughout the ride as it is intended to do.

 

[luv]

Agreed. It was not the best attempt at a theme in the first place, but it doesn't always work. They could just have a ride without all that pre-show and post-ride stuff.

 

[djkidkaz]

I still say this was the worst remake of an attraction. The ride makes no sense anymore, the whole thing is blue and the Tron theme is lame. Making your own car is pointless as it has no bearing on the ride itself. You could just as easily get a rating on your vehicle as your making it like in any racing video game, yet they give you a rating after the ride as if it somehow alters your cars rating.

The old version was much more cohesive and was easily understandable. You knew exactly what you were doing and why.

To me this was definitely a step down and hurts a park with so few attractions as it is.

 

[Master Yoda]

I still say this was the worst remake of an attraction. The ride makes no sense anymore, the whole thing is blue and the Tron theme is lame. Making your own car is pointless as it has no bearing on the ride itself. You could just as easily get a rating on your vehicle as your making it like in any racing video game, yet they give you a rating after the ride as if it somehow alters your cars rating.

The old version was much more cohesive and was easily understandable. You knew exactly what you were doing and why.

To me this was definitely a step down and hurts a park with so few attractions as it is.

I have to agree on this point and I honestly think that it could be drastically improved with just a script change. There is no dialog referencing what test you are doing in many of the scenes. The addition of simple things like "Vertical hill simulation engaged", "Anti-lock brake computer failure test initiated" would go a long way to making the ride make sense.

 

[Next Big Thing]

The script/story doesn't both me as much as the cars not loading into the ride after you spend all of that time working on it and how out of place the outside portion feels now. I REALLY wish they would've enclosed it.

 

[BwanaBob]

I still say this was the worst remake of an attraction. The ride makes no sense anymore, the whole thing is blue and the Tron theme is lame. Making your own car is pointless as it has no bearing on the ride itself. You could just as easily get a rating on your vehicle as your making it like in any racing video game, yet they give you a rating after the ride as if it somehow alters your cars rating.

The old version was much more cohesive and was easily understandable. You knew exactly what you were doing and why.

To me this was definitely a step down and hurts a park with so few attractions as it is.

I have to agree on this point and I honestly think that it could be drastically improved with just a script change. There is no dialog referencing what test you are doing in many of the scenes. The addition of simple things like "Vertical hill simulation engaged", "Anti-lock brake computer failure test initiated" would go a long way to making the ride make sense.

Glad to see I'm not the only one. I've struggled with new TT since day one... and have been chastised from many for this opinion.

 

[tissandtully]

Yup, I only had it show the car I design after each test once. The fastpass queue was a mess. They take you through an area that has design computers with signs all over them that you can't use them. Very non-magical. I don't think the ride is terrible, I just wished it worked right.

 

[WDWDad13]

The script/story doesn't both me as much as the cars not loading into the ride after you spend all of that time working on it and how out of place the outside portion feels now. I REALLY wish they would've enclosed it.

I'm surprised they haven't since the first drop of rain shuts the ride down...another reason why i'm not sure radiator springs would be the best option... don't know

 

[curiousmanners]

I was there 2 weeks ago... and none of the problems you listed were present.

 

[Master Yoda]

I was there 2 weeks ago... and none of the problems you listed were present.

There is no question that it has gotten better as time has gone on. My first tip was about 2 weeks after opening and nothing seemed to work right. Fast forward that to our trip a couple weeks ago and everything worked on multiple ride throughs.
My big issue is lack of a coherent story. In TT 1.0 you knew what you were doing ,why you were there etc. On 2.0 the concept of designing a car it pretty clear. On the other hand, testing it is a jumbled up mess, 95% of which could be fixed with a modified audio track.

 

[WDWFREAK53]

I actually don't mind the outdoor portion if they just said what you were doing. A simple, "Your creation will now become a reality" line or something like that would work a lot better and tie in why you are outside.

 

[wdwmagic]

There is no question that it has gotten better as time has gone on. My first tip was about 2 weeks after opening and nothing seemed to work right. Fast forward that to our trip a couple weeks ago and everything worked on multiple ride throughs.
My big issue is lack of a coherent story. In TT 1.0 you knew what you were doing ,why you were there etc. On 2.0 the concept of designing a car it pretty clear. On the other hand, testing it is a jumbled up mess, 95% of which could be fixed with a modified audio track.

I think currently it is very random. I've had recent reports of things being nearly 100% to reports being very similar to the original post in this thread.

 

[Polaris1]

I still say this was the worst remake of an attraction. The ride makes no sense anymore, the whole thing is blue and the Tron theme is lame. Making your own car is pointless as it has no bearing on the ride itself. You could just as easily get a rating on your vehicle as your making it like in any racing video game, yet they give you a rating after the ride as if it somehow alters your cars rating.

The old version was much more cohesive and was easily understandable. You knew exactly what you were doing and why.

To me this was definitely a step down and hurts a park with so few attractions as it is.

I agree with you. I was pretty disappointed in the refurbishment. Creating my vehicle really didn't have an influence on the ride whatsoever. And FWIW, I know this is 100% in my mind, but the ride just feels slower and less exciting to me. I don't know what the reason for it is - maybe the tron theme? It just doesn't feel as fast as it did before. Maybe because it's darker inside you don't have the perspective of things approaching quickly? Not sure why, it just "feels" slower.

 

[Zman-ks]

The script/story doesn't both me as much as the cars not loading into the ride after you spend all of that time working on it and how out of place the outside portion feels now. I REALLY wish they would've enclosed it.

Me too!

 

[ptaylor]

There is no question that it has gotten better as time has gone on. My first tip was about 2 weeks after opening and nothing seemed to work right. Fast forward that to our trip a couple weeks ago and everything worked on multiple ride throughs.
My big issue is lack of a coherent story. In TT 1.0 you knew what you were doing ,why you were there etc. On 2.0 the concept of designing a car it pretty clear. On the other hand, testing it is a jumbled up mess, 95% of which could be fixed with a modified audio track.

I'm a local, so get to try it fairly often, and I would say is is very questionable if it is getting better. Breakdowns of the ride system are still very common, leading to frequent evacs. The RFID features are not at all consistent in operation, and the queueing system has deteriorated since opening. So with all that I cannot say that things have got better.

 

[Master Yoda]

I actually don't mind the outdoor portion if they just said what you were doing. A simple, "Your creation will now become a reality" line or something like that would work a lot better and tie in why you are outside.

Exactly. "We are now going to load your design along with the designs of the other riders into our multi-design test vehicle and see how it performs under extreme conditions."

 

[t3techcom18]

The new Test Track is still not working nearly 6 months after its opening.

Current Issues (as of May 14 2013)

- Car design performance scores are not being displayed after each test, instead you see a random car and its score.
- Car designs not available for use in the 'Create your commercial' area in the post-show.
- Car designs not available for use in the 'Test Drive your Car' area in the post-show. Infact, this area did not work at all, not even with generic designs.

There are also significant guest flow issues in the queue area. FASTPASS is now being routed past the FASTPASS design kiosks, and through an emergency exit corridor back into the main standby queue Design Kiosks. Single Ride line is continuing to use half of the FASTPASS design kiosks, the other half sit idle. There are cast everywhere, trying to direct people and manage the flow of guests, and it is not working well. It all feels very chaotic and temporary. Noise levels inside the pre-show area make hearing any of the briefing information impossible. Most guests have no idea what they are doing in the attraction.

As with other recent refurbishments, it looks like this has not been completed, and never will be. WDI did not get the queue design right for this, and have not been able to implement a working ride.

It defeats any purpose of designing your own custom vehicle if it does not follow you throughout the ride as it is intended to do.

As for the Car Design Performance Scores: That's been an issue since day one. Outside of anyone's hands except for WDI's.

"Car designs not available for use in the Create your commercial area": That's news to me. Those have been working much better recently than anytime in the past.

"Car designs not available for 'Test Drive your Car'": Again, mostly news to me. Most of them have been completely but the driving table nearest the commercial area is the buggiest. The rest are working just fine, the readers can be hit or miss. That's under GM's control, however.

When it comes to the 'guest flow issues'....TT had about 400 complaints between the time it opened to the beginning of February from people in the FP line, complaining to Guest Relations that they were not able to design your own car and did not like at all the expedited version. Upper management caught wind and changes needed to be made. The beginning of the trials for this new version of loading the Design Studios weren't pretty but they finally got it down to a system where it makes sense. The trials were deemed a success and now this is permanent.

Expect a small refurb to happen in the possible near future that reconfigures the FP/Single Rider/Standby queues. Some walls will be going down. Plans are being drawn up as we speak, so the current layout is just a temporary solution until that is put in place.

As for WDI not getting the queue design right...as I've mentioned before on here, this was the best situation describing WDI and Ops not talking to each other when planning things out. Let's just say that the WDI folks, when Ops came in, were stunned when they learned about Ops' FP ratios and such.

 

[SirLink]

I still say this was the worst remake of an attraction. The ride makes no sense anymore, the whole thing is blue and the Tron theme is lame. Making your own car is pointless as it has no bearing on the ride itself. You could just as easily get a rating on your vehicle as your making it like in any racing video game, yet they give you a rating after the ride as if it somehow alters your cars rating.

The old version was much more cohesive and was easily understandable. You knew exactly what you were doing and why.

To me this was definitely a step down and hurts a park with so few attractions as it is.

As much as I like to criticize some of Disney up the wahzoo it is pretty straight forward and makes a lot of sense even emphasized on the attraction. When you go up the first hill and says pretty in plain English "Welcome to the SimTrack" and thus your mind is supposed to be oh I'm "going into the computer to test my creation against a stock car" it makes sense...that is at least one thing I will say.

Oh also your in the Chevy Design Centre again pretty straight forward messaging ...

 

[COProgressFan]

I was there 2 weeks ago... and none of the problems you listed were present.

I was there two weeks ago too. I was in the single rider line...when myself and others got to the design your own car screens, most people had no idea what to do, or even why the computers were there.

So while things may have been "working" the storyline and point of what you were doing is not entirely clear. As someone who is actually in the know about the refurb (through reading the boards), even I really couldn't follow what was going on. A better script explaining what was happening and how it related to the car you designed would be helpful.

I also think that for most guests (of various ages, backgrounds, etc. -- sure there are going to be some who love this aspect) the designing your own car thing really doesn't hold that much appeal. I didn't really find it all that fun or exciting. And it really has nothing to do with the ride anyway. The fact they show how your car ranked each time...big deal?

 

[tissandtully]

As for the Car Design Performance Scores: That's been an issue since day one. Outside of anyone's hands except for WDI's.

"Car designs not available for use in the Create your commercial area": That's news to me. Those have been working much better recently than anytime in the past.

"Car designs not available for 'Test Drive your Car'": Again, mostly news to me. Most of them have been completely but the driving table nearest the commercial area is the buggiest. The rest are working just fine, the readers can be hit or miss. That's under GM's control, however.

When it comes to the 'guest flow issues'....TT had about 400 complaints between the time it opened to the beginning of February from people in the FP line, complaining to Guest Relations that they were not able to design your own car and did not like at all the expedited version. Upper management caught wind and changes needed to be made. The beginning of the trials for this new version of loading the Design Studios weren't pretty but they finally got it down to a system where it makes sense. The trials were deemed a success and now this is permanent.

Expect a small refurb to happen in the possible near future that reconfigures the FP/Single Rider/Standby queues. Some walls will be going down. Plans are being drawn up as we speak, so the current layout is just a temporary solution until that is put in place.

As for WDI not getting the queue design right...as I've mentioned before on here, this was the best situation describing WDI and Ops not talking to each other when planning things out. Let's just say that the WDI folks, when Ops came in, were stunned when they learned about Ops' FP ratios and such.

I will say when I went to ride it for the first time I had not read that FP guests were able to design cars, so I was kind of meh on going in a FP lane. Only when I realized that FP guests were now able to design did I get a FP for it.