So long Living Seas!

[mousermerf]

Day #5

What statistics say about The Living Seas..

Incase Grizz was wondering, the official Living Seas theme:

"A better understanding of mankind's reliance on the seas, our past relationship with them, and the role they will play in our future."

The queue holds 350 people. That's not very many for a queue. The queue itself is designed to resemble a wave in it's layout and features the history of ocean diving. The "oldest" item in the queue is an illustration of the diving bell used by Alexander the Great in 332 B.C. From there we work our way to modern times until we reach 20k Leagues Under the Sea's Nautilus and diving suit.

When it had a sponsor, guests were only supposed to be in the big circular room for 2 mins and 20 seconds. However, with the removal of the 2nd theater, the show time was greatly increased in the holding area. (6mins i do believe)

The pre-show movie, The Seas, was written, directed, etc.. by Paul Gerber. It's roughly 7 mins long.

The main building itself contains 850 tons of structural steel and 900 tons of reinforced steel around the ocean enviroment, with walls that are at places 3 feet thick. The pavilion took 22 months to construct and has 185,000 square feet under its roof.

The Coral Reef Restaurant seats 264 people. It offers a signature beer, Reef Amber Lager.

61 acrylic windows that are 8 feet by 24 feet look out into the main tank. They weigh 9000 pounds each, and are the largest single acrylic casting ever attempted.

The gravel on the bottom is dolomite.

The main tank, btw, is 203 feet in diameter and 27 feet deep (holding 5.7 million gallons of water!)

It took 27 truckloads of salt to create the enviroment, and the water was drawn slowly from various wells to protect the underground water supply.

The Carribean Coral Reef Ride (called SeaCabs by most people) traveled at 1.7 feet per second.

 

[CThaddeus]

If ANYONE can get a video of the full preshow film (before the Hydrolators) I`ll be a friend for life!

(G - you already are! :wave: )

I have almost all of the attraction on video (including the movie). I'm currently in the process of transferring everything I own to DVD (amazing how many Disney Park tapes you can amass in 20 years), and would be glad to send a copy of it (and/or any other Disneyland/Disney World attractions you might want that I have), especially if you have something I could trade you for.

 

[dolbyman]

If ANYONE can get a video of the full preshow film (before the Hydrolators) I`ll be a friend for life!

(G - you already are! )

I would have made one .. but videotaping was forbidden :dazzle:

 

[marni1971]

CTHaddeus; you have a PM!

 

[Hakunamatata]

Anyone know how long the rehab is to take?

By the way....one of the best threads Ive seen in a while....GOOD SHOW!!!!!!!

 

[wannab@dis]

By the way....one of the best threads Ive seen in a while....GOOD SHOW!!!!!!!

Agreed! I'm surprised that all the 'nay-sayers' around here have not jumped all over this thread. Thanks for the information Merf! :wave:

 

[Buzzes Dad]

I beleive the rehab is suppose to be completed by the end of Nov. if I remember right.

 

[LongballMG]

Yesterday i went to the pavillion and took almost 50 archival photos. I was thanked mightly by all the cast members there. I saw the film and then went in the other direction to see the direct entrance into the Hydrolators (Since i always view "The Seas" I'd never been this way before.)

What used to be where the temporary wall that just says "HYDROLATORS" is now?

I then procedeed into my last hydrolator alone. It was Hydrolator #1. As i decended to Seabase Alpha, i took several photos.

When i reached SeaCab load, I took several photos. Can someone describe this area minus the temporary walls. and was there actually an option to skip the SeaCabs?

Then i continued forwards to the Visitors Center. But not before stopping to look in the door...YES THAT DOOR... there was a large white construction wall up around where you used to be able to spy on the idle sea cabs in load. i did not take pics for i feared for myself as I am still a cast member for four days.

I then quickly looked around and proceeded to the Seabase. I took numerous photos of everything and then left through Hydrolator #22.

That's It! RIP The Living Seas. You will be missed.

Mike

 

[wannab@dis]

That's It! RIP The Living Seas. You will be missed.

Mike

I don't get it! Why the "RIP"? The rehab will bring new life to the pavilion. You should be happy they are looking to improve instead of letting it sit there and decay into an even more pitiful state.

 

[marni1971]

It`s RIP to The Living Seas and Seabase Alpha - and welcome another movie tie in. By the sounds of it.

 

[marni1971]

LongballMG; there was a bypass of the Seacabs, using the corridor that you took direct to Seabase Alpha. When the Hydrolator doors opened the room opened out into a loading area, with the Omnimover running left to right along the far wall. Have a look in my album here for some pics. Any chance of uploading your pics?? Love to see them!

Lets pray someone manages to tape The Seas before next week...

 

[LaughingGravy]

I think the RIP was suggested based on what they did with JII, Stitches escape, the stitchification of the monorails, and the lengthy conversion/closure of 20K leagues into what will finally (how many years later??) be a Pooh meet and greet w/ attached playground. Don't forget about the wonderful things done with Circlevision 360/Timekeeper and the short life of Wonders of Life. I'm not against change by any means, but why shouldn't it be a change for the better instead of lingering closures?

I am really happy they are keeping CoP in Tomorrowland and went ahead with new carpeting and whatever other repairs were or are still made on the rolling basis.
I'm a huge Jean Shepherd fan, to be sure, but the voice doesn't synch as well with the AA movements as it did in its previous incarnations. That, and Old Shep sounds a bit bored in his delivery as if they only had two possible takes when they made the audio, and this was the best one. There are lots of great people who do voice-over work. Excelsior!

As for Toad, IMHO the Snow White ride does the job in a very similar fashion. The conversion to Pooh was quick,too. I was a little sad to see Toad go, but at least DL still has it , so it's not gone forever. Pooh is such a huge character for Disney, it does make sense to have that ride.

I am extremely happy the TTA/ Wedway is still operating. So sad it's gone in California. To me, that's the kind of thing Tomorrowland is all about.
Imagine bumping up our country's infrastructure so we're not dependent on driving around 2-3k of steel per person to get around? WW.

 

[dxwwf3]

Agreed! I'm surprised that all the 'nay-sayers' around here have not jumped all over this thread.

No kidding! I figured the "Replacement Patrol" would be all over this thread talking down upon people who actually liked the original Living Seas set up. Actually enjoying something old is usually frowned upon here :lol:

Let's hope that the Nemo changes will be well done. I will miss the overall theme of the original Living Seas and nothing is better than hearing "The Deluge" or "Welcome to Seabase Alpha". This changeover follows the typical motto I go by: Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst. Somehow I don't think we are going to be disapointed here though.

 

[mousermerf]

What i always found suprising - for how many people LS can move fairly efficiently, it has a tiny main pavilion queue and even tiny-er ride queue. People ask "what's behind the wall?" at the loading area and it's literally just like Peter Pan, for example, with those - what? 2? Maybe 3? - switchbacks and then the moving platform and the ride itself.

However, being an omnimover it would move people extremely fast.

 

[marni1971]

One of the clever design featyres of the pavilion was the way the various preshow elements broke up the flow of people entering the Seabase; as mentioned elsewhere, the Hyrdolators regulated the ammount of people queing for a Sea Cab, and the duel preshow theatres ensured the first queue wasn`t too long.

Here`s a simple plan of the original layout I`ve drawn; red arrows are guest flow, blue areas guest areas. After the initial blue queue, guests entered the first preshow (purple) with a United Technologies slideshow. They would then enter one of 2 theatres for The Seas preshow film, like the double stretch rooms in The Haunted Mansion. After the film they would enter the common Hydrolator loading area, travel down (!) to the visitors center main level, then board a Sea Cab. This would circle under the Observation deck, and guests would then disembark in the center of Seabase Alpha:

 

[PeeplMoovr]

Lets pray someone manages to tape The Seas before next week...

Okay - I'm fairly certain I'm heading to WDW for the day Thursday (as long as I can skip out of a conference I'm supposed to be at). I'll bring the video cam with me and hope for the best. Perhaps if a CM says something, I'll play for a little sympathy and "one for old times sake" and see what happens.

I'll PM you if things work out.

And it rained and rained and rained. The deluge.

 

[mousermerf]

Day #4

Drawing Connections -
What does the Living Seas have to with air conditioning?

What does an attraction based on ocean life, and from all accounts themed entirely to water, have to do with air conditioning? There's the surface level connection: The Living Seas was sponsored by United Technologies www.utc.com which owns/operates the Carrier brand of air conditioning and climate control system. The old pre-show audio rambled briefly about the wonders of innovative Engineering - a trademark of the sponsor. United Technologies even owns Otis, the elevator company, which sort fo explains the hydrolators and their faux-elevator movements. Things are a bit more complicated than that though...

The Living Seas was engineered/costructed by Montgomery Watson www.mwh.com and is even referenced as one of their triumphs on the company's website: http://www.mwhglobal.com/aquaculture_aquarium_design.asp

It was, however, flawed.

In the mid-90's, things needed to be rethought. The Seas simply wasn't working, the building could of been pushed to the point of needing to be demolished. Disney called in a company called CH2MHill to fix the problems http://www.ch2m.com/corporate_2004/ . Several fixes were brought to the enviroment and the pavilion as a whole - so much so that Disney considers it an acomplishment of redesign as detailed in this article: http://www.myflorida.com/fdi/edesign/news/9806/seas.htm

Other work from Disney and CH2MHill can be read about here: http://www.ch2m.com/webuploads/newsgenerator/ext_facility_services/fs_ccm_experience/ext_fs__1_04618-10017`a.asp

Essentially, together they created the a series of guidelines for building in Florida - in hot, humid, water-filled enviroments. They showed how to create a climate which is sustainable through design despite the surroundings.

So, the Living Seas preshow from United Technologies was a bit prophetic:

Ladies and Gentlemen, United Technologies is proud to welcome you to The Living Seas. In a few moments, you will be entering the earth's greatest frontier: the oceans. Before your adventure begins, consider for a moment the accomplishments of those courageous pioneers who have come this way before. It was their insatiable curiosity and engineering skill that parted the waves for today's subsea explorers.

 

[wdwishes2005]

bye living seas! hope that you are better thna ever.

 

[marni1971]

mousemerf; very interesting - thanks!

PeeplMoovr - as well as a great screen name, great news! I have a few other leads too, but its great to know with 3 days left there is a good chance of getting The Seas captured for all time (thanks for your understanding with CMs rules too)

 

[mousermerf]

Marni,

Been lookin at your layout of Seas. It's certainly better than I can do, but there's some parts I know are wrongish.

Things I actually learned from my last walk-through of the place:

The holding room "circle" is actually an oval. The queue has a door that goes outside "To Coral Reef" before the long walkway to the holding area. This hall is actually heading right back to the entrance, so the queue is like an "IZ" if you understand that. There's a few steps and a doorway at the entrance doors which apparently enter the unused theater or a hallway between it and the holding room.

The preshows are smaller than the modules and the holding room is half their width. They are squares. You enter and exit on the same wall (rear doors enter, forward doors exit to hydrolators), which is connected to the "long" end of the ovals. They're attached at the oval at an odd angle.

The hydrolators are not in a straight line - this compensates for the odd angle of the theaters to make the area look square. Looking from left to right facing away from the SeaCab load and the tank itself, Left hydrolator is closest and right is farthest, or closest to preshows. Roughly 1/2 to 1 length of distance for each hydrolator.