Spaceship Earth Vehicles

[rdour@techminds]

When I visited WDW in November, I noticed a few things that were very different from my trip in 2003. Let me remind everyone, I'm visually impaired, so I probably noticed these things for this reason.

The ride track when moving from the early days of telephone technology to the information super highway room seems to hit quite a bump. I'm wondering if cars ever leave the track in a situation like that. The track overall seems like it is in need of some replacement. When we hit the bump, the audio crackled, disappeared entirely, and then crackled back to life about 10 seconds later.

Overall, the audio seemed to be very quiet in the ride Vehicle. Have they lowered it to allow for people to listen more to the ambient soundtrack and dialog from the animatronics?

Has anyone else noticed the unique smells in these older dark rides? Each one has its own distinct smell. Most can be described as a musty but clean fragrance. Very much like opening a very old box of books, but without the dust. If you had a way to quiz me on the smells, I could identify each of the rides just by their smell.

Ryan

 

[Mecha Figment]

the speakers are soft because they are old and need replacing.

the ride is bumpy because since Atand T went bust and pulled out as sponsor disney desided not to invest in the costly and frequent repairs spaceship earth required for the shocks built into the ride. So they were removed... hence the big bump you felt.

perhaps the new sponsor will fix these problems.

 

[ssidiouss@mac.c]

I love the smell of Splash Mountains que area.. while your waiting in line in the cave areas near the boats.. ahhh.. reminds me of disney world:xmas:

 

[mousermerf]

Vehicles in an omnimover can "leave" the track, so to speak. It's more a function of pressure exerted than hitting a bump though.

The vehicles in the chain pull in various directions as they travel the track. Sometimes vehicles are pulling the whole chain forward, sometimes tilted to the side, etc. Most prominently, if something occurs to cause a vehicle of group of vehicles to experience more drag, the vehicles behind that problem will tend to "bunch up" until too much pressure is exerted the vehicle essentially pops out of the track due to the pressure.

At re-grouping omnimovers like the Tomorrowland Transit Authority and the old Joruney into Imagination, this occurs at the station as vehicles are physically slowed there - sometimes too much - to keep insynch with the moving platform.

On single-chain omnimovers like Spaceship Earth and the Haunted Mansion, a vehicle losing a wheel and dragging slightly or rotating imporerly and dragging with cause such problems.

Specificly on Spaceship Earth, the ascent tunnel is very steep and therefor much friction and force is required to keep the vehicles moving forward and upward. When the outside air temperature and humidty reaches a certain key level, that friction on the climb is lost, and the vehicles actually begin a stretching motion until they begin to reverse the entire chain. This rarely happens, but demonstrates the sort of plasticity of such a seemingly solid vehicle group.

 

[rdour@techminds]

I'm missing some info though. How does the omni mover system work?

 

[peter11435]

the speakers are soft because they are old and need replacing.

the ride is bumpy because since Atand T went bust and pulled out as sponsor disney desided not to invest in the costly and frequent repairs spaceship earth required for the shocks built into the ride. So they were removed... hence the big bump you felt.

perhaps the new sponsor will fix these problems.

I find that hard to believe. I remember SSE being just as bumpy as it is now for the past 10 years at least. I don't think it is any worse since ATT pulled out. I don't think the bumpy-ness has anything to do with lack of upkeep but rather the nature of the ride system. No other continuous Omnimover tries to do so much.

 

[djronnieb]

When I visited WDW in November, I noticed a few things that were very different from my trip in 2003. Let me remind everyone, I'm visually impaired, so I probably noticed these things for this reason.

Ryan

Just a question, I'm not making fun or complaining... But how do you post and read stuff on the computer if you're blind?

 

[DisJosh]

Just a question, I'm not making fun or complaining... But how do you post and read stuff on the computer if you're blind?

Visually impaired does not mean completely blind. I had a friend in high school who was "legally blind." I'm not sure exactly what that meant but I do know he wore some very thick glasses and made his way around just fine. He was also able to read. Point being there are many diferent degrees of severity when it comes to being visually impaired.

 

[DizWhizKid]

I find that hard to believe. I remember SSE being just as bumpy as it is now for the past 10 years at least. I don't think it is any worse since ATT pulled out. I don't think the bumpy-ness has anything to do with lack of upkeep but rather the nature of the ride system. No other continuous Omnimover tries to do so much.

I think the shocks were removed when AT&T decided to go cheap when they resigned their sponsorship deal in 93/94. That's why it's been bumpy for so long (and also why the show scenes that got "rennovated" are just plastic dolls and video monitors).

 

[srkingdom2]

I also noted that the last time i went on Space Ship Earth it was plagued with problems albeit ones that can easily be fixed like the sound system was terrible and everytime it would hit a bump it would crackle and go off and the bumps were just annoying!! Every five seconds there was one! I hope Siemens can fix these minor nuisances...

 

[peter11435]

I also noted that the last time i went on Space Ship Earth it was plagued with problems albeit ones that can easily be fixed like the sound system was terrible and everytime it would hit a bump it would crackle and go off and the bumps were just annoying!! Every five seconds there was one! I hope Siemens can fix these minor nuisances...

Well, its up to Disney to fix the problems, Siemens just needs to pay for them.

 

[mousermerf]

Two things:

A) He uses a text reader.

B) An omnimover is a chain of vehicles which have no "self power" but rather a series of motors at intervals along the track. The motors push/pull the vehicles along the track typically by having wheels which spin and grab a fin or or such area on the vehicles.

On the Haunted Mansion, the contact point is located underneath the curved shape of the doom buggie. On Spaceship Earth it is on the outer-side of the vehicles, and thus has created many problems. People getting out of the vehicle while the ride is in movement have on more than one occasion become "engaged" in the motor devices. This is opposed to the Haunted Mansion where you'd get out the vehicle and the biggest risk was from the movement of a vehicle hitting you or from the fall to the floor as not all scenes have floors (several are 20-30ft below the scene).

Rides like the Tomorrowland Transit Authority or the old Imagination ride were variants on the omnimover system. They load just like an omnimover with the moving platform, but then break off into seperate chains by accelerating at some point in the ride. The TTA is powered by magnets and the vehicles simply coast along as the magnets switch on/off under the vehicles. Imagination is another motor system, but is against moreso under the vehicles than on the outside like Spaceship Earth.

Anyways, the chain of vehicles becomes like a rubberband. It appears fully solid and inflexible, but physics proves otherwise. The problem I mention about the loading/unloading station is typical for the smaller-train rides like the TTA. The vehicles are allowed to increase speed throughout the ride, and sometimes will return to the station at a higher speed than intended. The way the ride system works, upon arrival at the station, the vehicles essentially become a single chain.

So, if a fast vehicle arrives, exerting force, then the system will have to release that force somewhere. The station itself tends to be the strongest link, as it's locks and motors will not give way for safety reasons. The vehicles in the station are trying to maintain what the station is doing, but they are usually what fail - as the pressure exerted becomes too great and a vehicle "pops out" of the track.

 

[DisJosh]

Wow merf, very educational!

All I do know is that asside from SSE at times being quite the bumpy ride is that those seats are super uncomfortable to begin with. Shocks, no shocks, expansion, contraction, whatever....just lose the 90 degree angle seat backs and add some padding! And how about raising the head rests? At 6'1" the current head rests are painfully effective as neck rests! :lol:

You wouldn't think SSE was my favorite Epcot attraction lol. See, I endure pain to get my SSE fix!

 

[dandaman]

I love the smell of Splash Mountains que area.. while your waiting in line in the cave areas near the boats.. ahhh.. reminds me of disney world:xmas:

Same here.

 

[srkingdom2]

I wish they made a perfume like that

Eau de Splash Mountain?

 

[rdour@techminds]

I use a piece of software built into my Macintosh that reads pages out loud. Visit http://www.apple.com/accessibility for more information, and a nice QT movie showing how Voiceover works.