Space Mountain changes over the years...?

KevinPage

KevinPage

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
How have the ride vehicles/restraints changed over the years? I remember riding it for the first time 23 years ago (when I was 7) and sitting in the same seat with my father (in his lap). I don't see the room or the ability to do this in the current ride vehicles.

All I remember if coming off the ride telling him "Dad, I think I'm going to have a heart attack" and clutching my chest :)
 
Littlefitzy2004

Littlefitzy2004

New Member
yes, your right, they have changed. When the ride first opened, you sat in two's, two in the front seat, two in the back seat without a lap bar, and there were two more riders than now. 6 people can ride now, 8 people could ride then, 4 in the front car, 4 in the back car and you did sit in there lap, theres a website that has a picture of this type of seating from back then.
 
TimeTrip

TimeTrip

Well-Known Member
Unless I'm missing something.. that page doesn't show the old "flume" style of seating. It just shows the lap bar change that they made on the 3 seat configuration. :(
 
Shaman

Shaman

Well-Known Member
Anyone know why they changed it...its seems (by the pics) to me the old type was better (even though I never rode it then).....

:confused:
 
mrtoad

mrtoad

Well-Known Member
Originally posted by KevinPage
How have the ride vehicles/restraints changed over the years? I remember riding it for the first time 23 years ago (when I was 7) and sitting in the same seat with my father (in his lap). I don't see the room or the ability to do this in the current ride vehicles.

All I remember if coming off the ride telling him "Dad, I think I'm going to have a heart attack" and clutching my chest :)
Click to expand...

We rode it the year it opened. I like the way it use to be with the 2x2 in each seat. When we take my daughter next year, I know she would prefer to sit with her mom that by herself. I think it would be to hard to calm down a scared child the new way.

As for your heart attack quote. I was scared to death when ever I rode it as a kid. I would spend the whole countdown wiping the sweat off my hands on my short so that my hand would not slip off the little handles. When I say the whole countdown I mean it. I would do it, grab hold of the handles 2 sec later do it again. Whoever I sat with, my mother or father would keep telling me to stop but I was too chicken.

Then I would spend the whole ride screaming for them to get me off this thing.

I kept riding it every trip thinking this time I will be ok. I never was.

Now I just scream on the inside.
 
Lee

Lee

Adventurer
Originally posted by bearboysnc
the original seats used to look like the Matterhorn bobsleds... like this:

http://www.mouseinfo.com/photo.php?.../photos/DSC00577.JPG&cap=A+Matterhorn+Bobsled

THe new rockets have a T-bar or something don't they?
Click to expand...

Bingo!
In fact, the bobsleds are old Space Mountain rockets.
I was gonna post a photo, but I didn't have a clear one, and the Matterhorn photo is one of them anyway.

On a side note, ever wonder where old rockets go when they die?
Check my photo album...
http://photoalbums.wdwmagic.com/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=3193&thumb=1
 
Lee

Lee

Adventurer
Ummm...no?
From what I have been told, the bobsleds that are in use on Matterhorn are old WDW SM rockets.
Just like the current DL Small World boats are old WDW Pirates boats.

Do you know different?
 
mrtoad

mrtoad

Well-Known Member
Jerm

Jerm

Well-Known Member
Originally posted by Lee
Ummm...no?
From what I have been told, the bobsleds that are in use on Matterhorn are old WDW SM rockets.
Just like the current DL Small World boats are old WDW Pirates boats.

Do you know different?
Click to expand...

Well the current bobsleds have been around for years and the old SM rockets were just retro fited with the seats a few years ago then they got all new sleds with the t-bar? Plus if I recall the old rockets had more of a V shape to them. I am not sure about this but I know the bobsleds have been around forever. I would have to see some side by sides of them to know forsure but I don't think they are.

J
 
josh_e_washie

josh_e_washie

New Member
Hey I know this is the wrong place to post this but all this reading really makes me want to say it.... I LOVE the part on SM when you are going up the lift and you are at one angle, cars pass you at a different angle and the astronauts are upside down...it is so disorienting but I think it is so neat....does anyone else know what im talkin about?????:) :) :lol: :lol: :confused:
 
TimeTrip

TimeTrip

Well-Known Member
Hmm that reminds of something I usually do on SM. While going up the lift hill.. turn and holler to the people on the people mover. Then when the track doubles back beside the lift.. scream and yell towards the people on the lift going up. That usually gets em pretty often :)

But yeah.. the way the lift is setup.. you don't feel disoriented until you see how the people mover is on a level track. throws ya off :)
 
Lee

Lee

Adventurer
Originally posted by mikebegley
Lee that is a very cool picture. Where is that and where is it taken from?

Mike
Click to expand...

That is a shot from about 4-5 years ago. It is the "Pluto" lot, which is just east of Space Mtn. I know the subs are gone now, and I assume the rockets are as well.
 
Lee

Lee

Adventurer
Originally posted by Jerm
Well the current bobsleds have been around for years and the old SM rockets were just retro fited with the seats a few years ago then they got all new sleds with the t-bar? Plus if I recall the old rockets had more of a V shape to them. I am not sure about this but I know the bobsleds have been around forever. I would have to see some side by sides of them to know forsure but I don't think they are.

J
Click to expand...

Actually, on closer examination you may be right. SM is on it's third batch of trains. I just looked at a photo of the very first ones (the ones that supposedly went to Matterhorn) and there do appear to be slight differences, mostly in the length of the front "nose" area. The seats are identical, though. Interesting.
 
Ijones88

Ijones88

Member
Originally posted by Lee
That is a shot from about 4-5 years ago. It is the "Pluto" lot, which is just east of Space Mtn. I know the subs are gone now, and I assume the rockets are as well.
Click to expand...
Any idea what they did with the subs?? I miss 20k ride.....:(
 
mrtoad

mrtoad

Well-Known Member
Originally posted by Lee
That is a shot from about 4-5 years ago. It is the "Pluto" lot, which is just east of Space Mtn. I know the subs are gone now, and I assume the rockets are as well.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. I know one of the subs in MGM. Last time were there, we were on a tour and saw it.

I also read in a book "Since the World Began" that one of the subs was in the Smithsonian Museum in DC, but when we went I could not find it and nobody knew anything about it.
 
Lee

Lee

Adventurer
Actually, the sub at MGM is only a small replica, not one of the original ride vehicles.

As for the subs, I believe 2 are at Castaway Cay, one was stripped for parts to sell on ebay, and the rest were simply destroyed.

I know we are soooo off topic, but an interesting side note:
When the new Tomorrowland at DL was being planned, Tony Baxter wanted to put the 20K subs into the DL lagoon. However, the Nautilus subs are longer than the DL subs, and couldn't make the turns. So.....long story short.....they are gone.
 
mrtoad

mrtoad

Well-Known Member
Originally posted by Lee
Actually, the sub at MGM is only a small replica, not one of the original ride vehicles.

As for the subs, I believe 2 are at Castaway Cay, one was stripped for parts to sell on ebay, and the rest were simply destroyed.

I know we are soooo off topic, but an interesting side note:
When the new Tomorrowland at DL was being planned, Tony Baxter wanted to put the 20K subs into the DL lagoon. However, the Nautilus subs are longer than the DL subs, and couldn't make the turns. So.....long story short.....they are gone.
Click to expand...

Are you talking about the one that was on a tour where was water explosions and stuff (it is kind of fuzzy)? I thought it was full size but don't remember. The last time I rode the original was early 80s. My wife and I were going to go on it when on our honeymoon in 93 saw the line said we would get back to it another day. Never did. Next time we went back it was gone. :cry:

I so regret not doing it then. Same thing happen before Toad went away.

As for the Ebay thing. Yes I saw stuff from it auctioned off from Disney Auctionears about a year ago. Someone bought both a porthole and a jumpseet for quite a big dollar figure. I think for about $1000 for the two (in seperate auctions). I saw them when I was looking for 20K stuff to buy. I bougt a blue print of the sub to frame for my basement.
It is pretty cool. There was a guy on ebay how had a blue print machine and he had purchased many blueprints from estate sales and was making copies. He had the Natulius (Spell?) and it was a copy from a WDP original. Very cool.

I still want one for the Haunted Mansion.
 

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