rocket rods

[maelstrom]

i'm new to this board, yay! i'm 17 years old and i've been to disney world 15 times and disneyland twice. i hope there wasn't a post on this already, because then i'd feel dumb.

during my last trip to disneyland, i had the opportunity to ride the rocket rods. at first i was upset that the wedway was gone. but once i rode the rocket rods, i was almost pleased with the change; i did like the ride. i was around 14 years old then (or maybe 13 or 12, i can't remember). i remember thinking the waiting line for the ride was really.. trippy. i don't know why. going underground and stairs and what i think was the circlevision 360 theatre. last night i read that rocket rods has already been shut down. i read it was due to the small number of passengers per car, the number of cast members needed to monitor the ride, and excessive breakdowns. i didn't notice any breakdowns while i was there, but who knows. the ride seemed really popular. the wait was over an hour.

i'd love to hear what anyone has to say about the rocket rods or has any pictures of it. also, since the rocket rods is gone, what is running on the wedway track now? i really need to visit disneyland again, but my next disney trip is going to be to disney world in late november and early december.

 

[imagineer boy]

Rockett Rods did seem rather interesting. There is a ride video of it at:

http://www.disneylandsource.com/rocket/index.html

It has other info. of Rocket Rods on there including pictures and an explanation of why it closed. Nothing is currently running on the People Mover track any more.

 

[ToTBellHop]

Rocket Rods closed because the track it was on (specifically, its supports) were never designed to handle the stress of a high speed thrill ride, and fell apart. That is why the PeopleMover did not return; now the track couldn't even support that, and Disney is not willing to pay to fix it for a slow, moderately popular ride like PeopleMover to return; thus, it stays vacated....indefinitely.

 

[DisneyCP2000]

That's so sad . I was there the day before it ever opened. We wanted to give it a try but couldn't get on. I guess it was for special ticketed guests!?!? But I sure do wish I could have gone on it, from the video it looked pretty cool.

Now I really want to go to DL just to see what it's like! It's been soOOoo long.

 

[DCA Fan]

Rocket Rods was closed mainly b/c of these things:
> No Sponsorship
> Low Ride Capacity
> High Breakdown (Radio Miscommunication)
> Track defects (was not built to withstand the pressure

Since the track is now fractured, nothing runs on it. We'll see what Jay Rasulo can do about it.

 

[imagineer boy]

Originally posted by DCA Fan
We'll see what Jay Rasulo can do about it.

Who's Jay Rasulo?:veryconfu

 

[SL 1993R]

the cars were also having stress fractures.. when they finally closed up 17 of the 31 or 32 cars were still available for use... while the other 14/15 cars had significant stress fractures occuring...

 

[netenyahoo]

Originally posted by imagineer boy
Who's Jay Rasulo?:veryconfu

He is the new head over all the theme parks.

 

[rzalaskus]

I never liked Rocket Rods, 90 minute wait, 3 minute ride. It stank. The pre-show was boaring, and you waited so long, you saw the same films 15 times! It was quite a shame. Origianlly, GM was to sponsor it, but due to their anger over Test Track delays, they pulled out. This left RR with no banking, cheap theming, and a poor ride system that broke down every day. Good Riddance!

BTW, WEDway was at WDW. It was called People Mover at Disneyland. Both are similar, but both have different means of propulsion.

 

[SONiCSenshi]

Actually it was called WEDWay People Mover at Magic Kingdom Park (people seem to forget that WDW is actally seven theme different parks) and the Goodyear People Mover at Disneyland Park. Today the WEDWay People Mover is now known as the Tomorrowland Transit Authority and is one of my favorite attractions that I have previlege of operating.

 

[SONiCSenshi]

Going back to Rocket Rods, does anyone know where I can find that cool rendition of "Born to be Wild" that was heard during the evolution of motor vechical segment in the Circlevision 360 theater room?

 

[Merlin]

Rocket Rods (like most of New Tomorrowland in general) was a HUGE disappointment! True, the VIDEO of it makes it look like it was a cool ride (the commercials made it look that way too), but it was just a real let down. They wasted all that space in the CircleVision Theater as part of the queue area. I could never figure that out. The ride itself had about 1.2 seconds of excitement. That came at the very beginning when you launched out of the station and along the straightaway before turning into the Star Tours building. But it almost immediately slowed down right after it launched, so it made it very anti-climactic. The rest of the ride was pretty much just a bunch of little mini-launches and braking. And a constant sight when walking around Tomorrowland was looking up at the track to see Rocket Rod vehicles just sitting there (It broke down ALL the time)!

 

[RU42]

Yeah, it was an OK ride, nothing like what they hoped it would be.

Now if they managed to get a loop in there, that would be something else. :drevil:

RU

 

[imagineer boy]

Yeah, I was watching the ride wideo again, and I noticed that every time a rockett rods car whipped around a corner you would hear a squeaking sound like twisting metal.

 

[SL 1993R]

The bad thing is, they took out two attractions to make one. Circle Vision and People Mover.. Just around the corner they also shut down the submarine ride... One thing I didn't like about the Rocket Rods was all noise they made, as they accelerated about. When they went over head, they were so loud, if you were in a conversation you had to stop until they passed,, which was very un-Disney like...

 

[JLW11Hi]

Poor Tomorrowland...so neglected lately. This is the only land at Disneyland I didn't really like. Just about every attraction needs an update. I dont see Disney spending money to fix the Peoplemover unless they get a better idea for a ride.

And more on Tomorrowland....

I could kinda see what they were trying to do with Innoventions, but the exibits really have very little to offer. I cant believe I waited in like for that GM thing. Mabey they should have gone with a sort of "Home of Tomorrow" tour like they have at Epcot.

Star Tours and Honey I Shrunk the Audience need to be updated. They just dont fit in Tomorrowland like they do at their respective Parks in Disney World. The thing thats so great about MK's Tomorrowland is that it emphasises the idea of a futuristic community (minus the CoP and the Speedway, which really dont fit into that mold). But, you know, you have (or had) the Community Center, with Timekeeper, the research Building thing with Alien Encounter, the "Space Ports", with Space Mountain and Astro Orbiter, and the community ttransit system, with the TTA.

They should try to do something like that at Disneyland when they change Tomorrowland there,. Make the rides fit together more like parts of a "community".

 

[AndyMagic]

Rocket Rods was such an incredible failure on so many levels that I don't even know where to begin. First they close down two attractions to create one. Then this new ride, is fun but not great, breaks down constantly, and then shuts down completely. So two attractions were lost for nothing! Disney just lets all that money and technology that was poored into Rocket Rods just sit there! Sure the ride wasn't amazing but it was one of the most unique experiences at Disneyland and probably the most fun ride in Tomorrowland aside from Space Mountain. It is such a shame. The vehicles were so cool and innovative and now they just sit in a storage facility somewhere. I say, bank the turns! That would prevent a good deal of stress and it would prevent the ride vehicles from having to break everytime the ride was getting fun. Sad... Sad indeed.

 

[imagineer boy]

Originally posted by JLW11Hi
Poor Tomorrowland...so neglected lately. This is the only land at Disneyland I didn't really like. Just about every attraction needs an update. I dont see Disney spending money to fix the Peoplemover unless they get a better idea for a ride.

And more on Tomorrowland....

I could kinda see what they were trying to do with Innoventions, but the exibits really have very little to offer. I cant believe I waited in like for that GM thing. Mabey they should have gone with a sort of "Home of Tomorrow" tour like they have at Epcot.

Star Tours and Honey I Shrunk the Audience need to be updated. They just dont fit in Tomorrowland like they do at their respective Parks in Disney World. The thing thats so great about MK's Tomorrowland is that it emphasises the idea of a futuristic community (minus the CoP and the Speedway, which really dont fit into that mold). But, you know, you have (or had) the Community Center, with Timekeeper, the research Building thing with Alien Encounter, the "Space Ports", with Space Mountain and Astro Orbiter, and the community ttransit system, with the TTA.

They should try to do something like that at Disneyland when they change Tomorrowland there,. Make the rides fit together more like parts of a "community".

Well, the Tomorrowland in DL is more Jueles Verne than 30s sci-fi like WDW's Dinseyland. Star Tours defenately needs an up date. You should see the saftey video. Horrible 80s clothes styles and hair cuts. Ick! I think H,IStA fits well in Tomorrowland. Although, I must agree that the GM exibit was rather disapointing. I couldn't sit up well in those chairs. By the way, I have a correction to make. Alien Encounter is in a Convention Center ( Tomorrowland Interplanetary convention Center ), not a reasearch center. And Time Keeper is in a research center ( Metropolis Science Intstitute. )

 

[SONiCSenshi]

Originally posted by imagineer boy
Well, the Tomorrowland in DL is more Jueles Verne than 30s sci-fi like WDW's Dinseyland.

Actually our Tomorrowland at the Magic Kingdom Park (we are not WDW's Disneyland) is themed the way people envisioned the future back in the 1940's and 1950's. Think Buck Rogers and just about every sci-fi show/movie in the 1950's. In fact the architecture style is called "Art-Techo". In some ways even the Jetsons and Futurama apply to our vision of the future.


So many negitive comments about Rocket Rods, but I liked it I miss it a lot. I seem to notice that people that rode it for the first time at night seem to love the ride, while people that rode it in the day hate it. I rode it at night and wait in the queue for 90 minutes (This is before I was a Cast Member and would actually wait in line for attractions ^_^) and my friends and I love it so much, we jumped back in line to ride it again.

 

[trekkie]

I rode RR a few times, and loved it. But, it did stop on the track a lot (Full speed one second; totally still the next). I do miss it, but I'm not suprised that the ride was taken away. WDI is reportedly coming up with ways to incorporate it into the new Space Mountain. Let's hope that TDA doesn't initiate one of their infamous -- not to mention useless -- budget cuts here!