Soarin' Expansion and new Soarin' Around the World film

Unplugged

Unplugged

Well-Known Member
Unplugged said:
I also hope their use of digital technology supports the randomization of scenes as they do with ST2.0. If they're going through all the trouble to upgrade, why not add the element of repeatability. It's a great ride now and will most likely remain packed even with the new theater(s) long into the future, so why not add plus it beyond expectations without excessive costs?
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Is it faux pas to quote myself? Sorry if so! It got me thinking...I love the dynamic element added to Star Tours 2.0, and Tower of Terror. Just wondering why they don't do something like that on Mission:Space. Easy to make a single theater pick the show randomly from a selection of scenes and download the dynamic data set a la Tower of Terror. How cool would it be to fly to Mars one time, then land on a Comet the next time?...or even fly to a moon base to rescue someone and fly back simulating the 2 different gravities (Earth & Moon)?
 
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xstech25

Well-Known Member
danlb_2000 said:
I don't know if anyone really knew the plan, but this way makes the most sense, of course current management hasn't always done things that make sense. I don't think having Frozen open will help matters and it could even make things worse by bringing more people into the park who may end up wanting to ride Soarin when they are there.
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Are you saying they should operate Soarin with 1 theater instead of taking it down for a substantial rehab? It's already enough of a mess with 2 theaters! Having it closed will inevitably a lot of people off but Soarin is not a ride you can operate with 1/2 capacity all day, thats like 500 people per hour for the parks most popular ride. It will make people more angry waiting in that line than having it closed.
 
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GoofGoof

GoofGoof

Premium Member
xstech25 said:
Are you saying they should operate Soarin with 1 theater instead of taking it down for a substantial rehab? It's already enough of a mess with 2 theaters! Having it closed will inevitably **** a lot of people off but Soarin is not a ride you can operate with 1/2 capacity all day, thats like 500 people per hour for the parks most popular ride. It will make people more angry waiting in that line than having it closed.
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When the third theater opens you can take one of the original 2 down at a time and never have less than 2 open. Eventually when all of the work is done you have 3.
 
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xstech25

Well-Known Member
But then you have 1 with the new show and 1 with the old show. It doesn't make any sense to construct a theater with the old technology then close it down to redo it shortly after, close the whole thing down and do it right IMO.
 
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doctornick

Well-Known Member
danlb_2000 said:
That's assuming the new theatre will open with a new show which at this point is not certain.
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I thought the current rumor is: Frozen Maelstrom opens in late 2015, at that time Soarin' closes for 6 mo for construction (new theater) and updating (old theater) and opens sometime in 2016 with the new show and digital projections. Which is around the timeframe for Shanghai to open.
 
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doctornick

Well-Known Member
Space Mountain said:
Soarin will not close for that long. The new theater will be built with the attraction remaining in operation. Attraction will go down for a short period of time when its time to bring everything together. Once Theater C is in use, Theater A will go into refurbishment, followed by Theater B.
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As other have noted, this would result in having a period (when Theater A is down and Theaters B & C are being used) where one theater is "updated" (Theater C) and the other theater is "old" (Theater B). I'm a little skeptical about that, especially if the new film is digital and not usable in the old theater.

Theater C being built while the other ones are still in use makes sense. I think they will close down the ride for some period to both connect Theater C to the existing queue as well as upgrade A & B simultaneously. Admittedly 6 months seems quite long for that to occur, but I do expect a significant downtime for the ride (maybe 2 months) and waiting until Frozen is open makes some sense.
 
danlb_2000

danlb_2000

Premium Member
Original Poster
doctornick said:
I thought the current rumor is: Frozen Maelstrom opens in late 2015, at that time Soarin' closes for 6 mo for construction (new theater) and updating (old theater) and opens sometime in 2016 with the new show and digital projections. Which is around the timeframe for Shanghai to open.
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Yes, that is the rumor, but it's not confirmation. DCA's is going down for a refurb early next year and I believe the rumor there is that it will get the digital projectors, but not the new film. If this is the case they could open the new theater at Epcot using the digital version of the old film, even if the new one is ready, then switch everything over at once.
 
FerretAfros

FerretAfros

Well-Known Member
danlb_2000 said:
Yes, that is the rumor, but it's not confirmation. DCA's is going down for a refurb early next year and I believe the rumor there is that it will get the digital projectors, but not the new film. If this is the case they could open the new theater at Epcot using the digital version of the old film, even if the new one is ready, then switch everything over at once.
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It wouldn't surprise me if WDI took advantage of DCA's downtime to do some programming for the Shanghai attraction. The 4-5 month refurbishment seems awfully long for simply swapping out the projectors and doing a general refresh. In the past DCA has shut down one theater at a time for Soarin' refurbishments, which leads me to think there's something else going on here

I know that when they were creating ST:2 they used the old Body Wars simulators to program the motions, which were then quickly installed at the various Star Tours attractions. Especially with the rumors of huge construction problems and delays in Shanghai, it would be particularly beneficial to have the programming completed for a quick turnaround to transition from construction to operation
 
GoofGoof

GoofGoof

Premium Member
xstech25 said:
But then you have 1 with the new show and 1 with the old show. It doesn't make any sense to construct a theater with the old technology then close it down to redo it shortly after, close the whole thing down and do it right IMO.
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I don't know about the technology changes, but I would assume they could build a new theater and show the old film in it. Then each of the existing theaters could have the projectors updated one at a time but still have the old film. Once all of the technology updates are done the new film should be ready to be added. At which time they could close each theater one at a time again to add the new movie.
 
danlb_2000

danlb_2000

Premium Member
Original Poster
FerretAfros said:
It wouldn't surprise me if WDI took advantage of DCA's downtime to do some programming for the Shanghai attraction. The 4-5 month refurbishment seems awfully long for simply swapping out the projectors and doing a general refresh. In the past DCA has shut down one theater at a time for Soarin' refurbishments, which leads me to think there's something else going on here

I know that when they were creating ST:2 they used the old Body Wars simulators to program the motions, which were then quickly installed at the various Star Tours attractions. Especially with the rumors of huge construction problems and delays in Shanghai, it would be particularly beneficial to have the programming completed for a quick turnaround to transition from construction to operation
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I think it's rumored that the DCA version will get some queue improvements which would be a reason for shutting down both theaters.
 
Alektronic

Alektronic

Well-Known Member
danlb_2000 said:
Yes, that is the rumor, but it's not confirmation. DCA's is going down for a refurb early next year and I believe the rumor there is that it will get the digital projectors, but not the new film. If this is the case they could open the new theater at Epcot using the digital version of the old film, even if the new one is ready, then switch everything over at once.
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That is the current plan for DCA (but of course, subject to change) and there is a lot more changes than just the projectors. And Epcot will be getting the changes also which takes a lot longer than just an projection swap out.
 

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