Soarin' Expansion and new Soarin' Around the World film

djkidkaz

djkidkaz

Well-Known Member
Keep in mind you are seeing wait times for Soarin and TSMM that are operating with a very busy crowded weekend. Soarin currently is an hour and half wait around 11am with busy weekend and the fact it just reopened and locals are also squeezing in one last look at the film. TSMM is at 50 minutes right now. Think about what these times will look like after the summer crowds are gone, say September.
 
Bolt

Bolt

Well-Known Member
djkidkaz said:
Keep in mind you are seeing wait times for Soarin and TSMM that are operating with a very busy crowded weekend. Soarin currently is an hour and half wait around 11am with busy weekend and the fact it just reopened and locals are also squeezing in one last look at the film. TSMM is at 50 minutes right now. Think about what these times will look like after the summer crowds are gone, say September.
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This is true. I had no desire to go to Soarin the last few years, but now it's back for a few weeks, I might just got out to be able to say I did it again.
 
Adam N

Adam N

Well-Known Member
Next Big Thing said:
Yup. As I said earlier, Disney probably could've opened this months ago. It just wasn't as imperative as getting it open for one of the busiest weekends of the year for them.
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I guarantee you that they were not ready months ago. I can without a shadow of a doubt also guarantee you they wouldn't have even been able to open last week. WDI wanted it all to open end of June for global. Ops thought they needed something open for Memorial. So, a compromise.
 
flynnibus

flynnibus

Premium Member
180º said:
Interesting. I may be mistaken, but it's possible Soarin' at DCA may use laser-lit projectors, which are common, but not the new "IMAX with Laser" system with its specially developed and powered prism-less dual projectors. It kills me that I can't remember where I heard this, but I thought the plans involving IMAX's brand new system fell by the wayside after the refurb project was picked up in 2015 after its delay from 2014.

But like I said, I may be completely mistaken. I only wonder because what I see in DCA's upgrade looks nothing like what is described in reviews like this: http://gizmodo.com/imaxs-new-laser-projectors-make-me-wish-i-lived-in-a-mo-1689480610
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I've not seen Dca since the upgrade... But I have seen imax laser for several films here and the image is nothing to complain about at all. Big domes can be done with multiple projects quite nicely... But I guess we need to have some press interview Disney and get the real scoop. :)
 
flynnibus

flynnibus

Premium Member
Next Big Thing said:
Yup. As I said earlier, Disney probably could've opened this months ago. It just wasn't as imperative as getting it open for one of the busiest weekends of the year for them.
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I think you are going too far there... If it could have opened.. There is little reason to not have. It's a headliner that is not labor intensive and something the park needs greatly.

My point only was the motivation is capacity for the holiday... Not that they want to open with a holiday :)
 
Next Big Thing

Next Big Thing

Well-Known Member
flynnibus said:
I think you are going too far there... If it could have opened.. There is little reason to not have. It's a headliner that is not labor intensive and something the park needs greatly.

My point only was the motivation is capacity for the holiday... Not that they want to open with a holiday :)
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My point is they likely could've gotten all this work done by spring break if they weren't sitting on their hands half the time.

All they did was switch out projectors and connect the third theatre. No way that should have taken 5 months.
 
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flynnibus

flynnibus

Premium Member
Next Big Thing said:
My point is they likely could've gotten all this work done by spring break if they weren't sitting on their hands half the time.

All they did was switch out projectors and connect the third theatre. No way thT ghouls be taken 5 months.
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Trust me.. I'm no defender of disneynexecution time... But in this case it's not too out of line I think.

The imax here took a month to upgrade their screen, projectors, and audio tweaks. And this is a commercial theatre losing revenue everyday it's closed. Disney was doing construction and doing two theatres plus finishing the 3rd.

Could things be done faster... Always... When you throw money at a problem things change. The question is, are things abysmally slower than a normal, comparable instance. I don't see Disney bringing in two extra imax crews instead of working sequentially for instance.

As usual tho... If people stop building up their own expectations (like the queue and expecting it to change) then they'd be happier :)
 
JohnWD

JohnWD

Well-Known Member
Just went through the fp queue. Confirmed with the CM one old theater is not being used. The fp queue doesn't seem any different though there were a lot more in the line than I've seen. The Concourses are labeled - A to the left, C straight ahead, and B to the right. My fp group went to B, though a huge amount right in front of me went to C. (Concourse A is closed.). The pre show seemed exactly the same except for "over California ". The sound and video quality of the pre show was good - normal.

I was in the far left seat in the back (lowest) row. I'm used to seeing the film imperfections when it first begins, but no imperfections now. The video seemed as high of quality as the film as far as density. The sound seemed fuller also. I could also smell the oranges again!

Very fun!!!
 
danv3

danv3

Well-Known Member
JohnWD said:
Just went through the fp queue. Confirmed with the CM one old theater is not being used. The fp queue doesn't seem any different though there were a lot more in the line than I've seen. The Concourses are labeled - A to the left, C straight ahead, and B to the right. My fp group went to B, though a huge amount right in front of me went to C. (Concourse A is closed.). The pre show seemed exactly the same except for "over California ". The sound and video quality of the pre show was good - normal.

I was in the far left seat in the back (lowest) row. I'm used to seeing the film imperfections when it first begins, but no imperfections now. The video seemed as high of quality as the film as far as density. The sound seemed fuller also. I could also smell the oranges again!

Very fun!!!
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Thanks for the first hand report!
 
donsullivan

donsullivan

Premium Member
I grabbed a FastPass this morning so I did a quick drive-by of Epcot to ride this afternoon as well and saw only 2 theaters running just as described above. I got routed to concourse 'C' straight down the middle which is the new theater. The area of the queue for Concourse 'C' does not seem different at all than the other 2 did before the updates. The only difference I noticed was the little glider wings on the floor to count the guests are not in the queue. I haven't ridden the old theaters yet since the refresh so I don't know if those are still there in those, or the've been removed there as well.

The reality is, that if you didn't know Concourse 'C' was new you'd think it had been there since '05 when the attraction opened; it's essentially identical.

The movie looks great with the digital projection. I noticed details I'm not sure I ever saw on the previous physical film version of the show which bodes well for the new movie when it arrives in a few weeks. All of the smells were intact so it was the full Soarin' experience with a nice clean video image.

When you leave Concourse 'C' the exit hallway seems to go forever and right now is just rough textured walls painted a dark blue shade. It has the feeling that they could add travel posters of the locations in the movie as they finish up in the coming weeks. That however is purely me projecting what I might do, not anything I've heard they are planning.
 
DisneyRoy

DisneyRoy

Well-Known Member
I wonder if only two theaters are open because they only have two copies of the film? I can't imagine they are still working on one of the old theaters?
 
JohnWD

JohnWD

Well-Known Member
Figment2005 said:
I was there yesterday (Saturday) and there was a posted 110 minute wait. Actual wait time was 50 minutes, and concourse A was not in service. Take wait times with a grain of salt as they can be manually altered to adjust crowd flow.
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You waited in line??? Not a good thing to admit on this board... :) :)
 

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