Slightly One Sided New Tomorrowland and SaveDisney thoughts from me

[KevinDisneyFan1]

I have noticed in Disneyland almost EVERYONE deplores the New Tomorrowland.

There is a website, www.savedisney.com, with Tomorrowland: Then/Now, a photo essay showing the old and new.

The Old Tomorrowland to me looked weird. I never really inspected it myself, but it appeared stark white and dull looking. According to a page on the essay:
"Peoplemover, Rocket Jets, and Skyway create a sense of movement, fun and wonder."

While MOvement is a Tomorrowland theme, fun and wonder do not seem to directly be a part. Sure, fun is of course requisite for attractions, but what makes Peoplemover cars putting along a sense of wonder? Same with Skyway. Fun, but not awe inspiring, or wonderfull. Rocket Jets? Wonder? Doubt it.

Anyway, my New Tomorrowland thoughts are pretty much as follows.

1. The Rocket Rods were of course a flop, but on the essay he kees pointing out the abandoned track, which is annoying. It's abanadoned, we get it, but he keeps saying it.

2. Submarine Voyage was fun, but VERY dated. He says -- "Monorail station dubled as Voyage queue. Now, it's a shop." But at least there's SOMETHING in the space!

3. Not once does he point out on SaveDisney the "Movement" of the Autopia, which contributes to the kinetic energy.

4. The Observatron spins the same way the Rocket Jets did, yet he says "The Observatron is space junk". It spins the SAME as the Jets!

5. He seems to mourn about those cartoony murals being gone. While they were cute and its sad, they didn't fit the land. "Future of children?" Umm, no.

6. Space Mountain should go back to copper; it was uglier but it fit better with the New theme.

 

[xfkirsten]

I wasn't much of a fan of the Old Tomorrowland, but there ain't anything there at all, now!

The old Rocket Rods track needs something there, to be sure. It's a waste right now. I say bring back the PeopleMover, if only for that Tron tunnel. :lol: Tron is a futuristic theme, if a bit dated one. It still fits the land, IMHO. And the PeopleMover concept itself can still be seen a futuristic.

Sub Voyage - well, we WILL have something coming there in the forseeable future, so that's a moot point.

Autopia is kind of a generic attraction. I think it's more like Todayland than Tomorrowland, but that's just me. It's still a good attraction, though, miles ahead of its WDW counterpart.

I think the difference he points out with the Observatron is that it's no longer a ride - it's just atmosphere. In fact, it often doesn't even spin anymore. It used to go off every 15 min, and I loved the score medley it played. Now, IMHO, it's a waste of space.

I gotta agree on the cartoony murals. Cute for history's sake, but they were completely irrelevant to the theme.

I hated the copper and red Space Mountain. It looked like puke to me. I'm glad they'v gone back to white. True, it stands out in contrast to the rest of Tomorrowland, but that means it is also set apart. It is, after all, the weenie of Tomorrowland. If it were up to me, ALL of Tomorrowland would be repainted. The New Tomorrowland colors are just ugly.

 

[KevinDisneyFan1]

But..white looks kind of boring. If Rocket Rods, HISTA, Star Tours etc were all white/silver today, think of how ugly it would be.

Autopia isn't futuristic, but it does add some kind of movement in Tomorrowland.

A quick, easy fix would be to simply bring back Rocket Rods. With a sponsor, they could bank the curves and redo some of the track to make it safe.

 

[xfkirsten]

But..white looks kind of boring. If Rocket Rods, HISTA, Star Tours etc were all white/silver today, think of how ugly it would be.

Autopia isn't futuristic, but it does add some kind of movement in Tomorrowland.

A quick, easy fix would be to simply bring back Rocket Rods. With a sponsor, they could bank the curves and redo some of the track to make it safe.

I didn't say it had to be white. I'm just saying don't make it pukey red and gold. :lol: I do sort of like the white, though, if only for history's sake.

Autopia may add movement, but I wish they could find a bit more "tomorrow" theme for it. They don't even make an attempt to pass them off as futuristic cars.

I'd love to say bring back the Rocket Rods! But it's far from being a "quick, easy fix" any way you look at it. Banking the track would be very expensive, and I think they'd be hard-pressed to find a sponsor willing to front the money. If it were that easy, they would have done so long ago.

 

[KevinDisneyFan1]

What I meant by quick, easy was that it wouldn't involve Research/Development, etc. They'd just get a sponsor (perhaps General Motors) and bank the track.

Rocket Rods wasn't even that bad with the flat curves. It was fun, and it felt rather fast.

Rocket Rods died WAY too quickly, with no major reason. WHY did Disney say "closed for rehab, opening spring 2001" and then do nothing? Were they EVER Planning to do rehab or was it just a way to slowly shut it down forever?

Did they get rid of the vehicles, as in demolish them? Or are they stored somewhere? Did they pop up anywhere? I heard one was in DCA.

 

[xfkirsten]

What I meant by quick, easy was that it wouldn't involve Research/Development, etc. They'd just get a sponsor (perhaps General Motors) and bank the track.

Rocket Rods wasn't even that bad with the flat curves. It was fun, and it felt rather fast.

Rocket Rods died WAY too quickly, with no major reason. WHY did Disney say "closed for rehab, opening spring 2001" and then do nothing? Were they EVER Planning to do rehab or was it just a way to slowly shut it down forever?

Did they get rid of the vehicles, as in demolish them? Or are they stored somewhere? Did they pop up anywhere? I heard one was in DCA.

The key there is getting the sponsor - and with the initial investment on the part of the sponsor, that's much easier said than done. I just don't see it happening. It's a nice thoought, but I don't think it's likely.

As for why it died - cost. Plain and simple. The horrible maintenance requirements that plagued it were just too much to make it worthwhile, and they weren't the kind of problems that would get any better (like working the kinks out) if they let the ride keep running. It was inherent design flaws that killed it. My guess is they never planned to refurb it. Remember, Light Magic was supposed to come back, too.

I know some of the vehicles were sold on eBay, but I don't know if they sold all of them or if they still have some lying around.

 

[KevinDisneyFan1]

I am having trouble understanding why Rocket Rods was SO mechanically horrible.

I experienced it in early 1999, and the wait was long but the ride didn't seem especially unreliable.

Oh, and xfkirsten, did you read about in my first post I quoted, "Peoplemover, Rocket Jets and Skyway create a sense of ... wonder"? Isn't that kind of ridiculous?

 

[imagineer boy]

Well you see, since the rods didn't have any banked turns, the viecles would go into the unbanked turns really quickly and it would break alot of machinery from the centrifical forces. Test Track doesn't have many problems because it has banked turns that keeps anything from being thrown too violently.

 

[KevinDisneyFan1]

I thought the vehicles SLOWED DOWN on turns... that's what it did when I rode it. I do know that the attraction was ill-fated from the start.

I WANT IT BACK THO, it's so depressing to see the old loading area, unused since Sept 2000.

 

[xfkirsten]

Oh, and xfkirsten, did you read about in my first post I quoted, "Peoplemover, Rocket Jets and Skyway create a sense of ... wonder"? Isn't that kind of ridiculous?

I agree, they don't, at least by today's standards. Then again, nothing in TL now does, either.

I thought the vehicles SLOWED DOWN on turns... that's what it did when I rode it. I do know that the attraction was ill-fated from the start.

I WANT IT BACK THO, it's so depressing to see the old loading area, unused since Sept 2000.

They did slow down, yes, but not enough. Since they're much lighter than average cars, the normal force and thus the force of static friction between the tires and the track was significantly less than a regular car. That means that it has to take turns considerably slower than a real car to keep traction, and you can imagine the number that did on the tires, going around corners all day, every day, even if it did slow down.

 

[KevinDisneyFan1]

I was wondering,

You Know the Cosmic Waves fountain? The one that got deactivated in late 2000 or something?

How come AS SOON AS it was turned off it became all dull looking, when in all the active photos of it the floor is bright. And now it is dull and gray.

 

[xfkirsten]

Not sure on that. A lighting issue, maybe?

 

[KevinDisneyFan1]

Didn't you notice? As soon as it went off, the floor was all dull!

Anyway, back to Rocket Rods. About when was the sign removed?

I know that they announced it was dead April 28 2001. But when did the sign come down?

I thought the RR sign was neat, although the other side that had the purple "Rocket Rods" small sign looked pathetic.