Spirited News, Observations & Thoughts IV

[aladdin2007]

SSE, Mansion, Horizons...

Big sets, immersive environments. Being transported to a different place. A darkride is the physical equivalent of the movie experience. A sort of dreamlike state, where you are part of another world.

Yes, its what Disney did best or use to anyway. They dont know how anymore though sadly.

 

[manutdfan1]

SSE, Mansion, Horizons...

Big sets, immersive environments. Being transported to a different place. A darkride is the physical equivalent of the movie experience. A sort of dreamlike state, where you are part of another world.

This, this, this!! Haunted Mansion is the best ride in Florida, IMO.

 

[manutdfan1]

SSE, Mansion, and Horizons are all made for slow moving dark rides. Star Wars certainly isn't.

You could most certainly turn a Star Wars storyline into a great Omnimover style dark ride. Let's not forget that some of the best aspects of Star Wars are its worlds and characters. Riding through Endor with Ewok AAs and Tattooine with a Jabba the Hut AA would likely make fans pee on themselves from excitement. The battle scenes and special effects were never what made Star Wars special. If that were the case, the new trilogy would be considered better than the old.

 

[rael ramone]

Good info, it's interesting so hear what kind of IT infrastructure they are using. All the technology pieces you mention seem reasonable. A few definitions for the non-tech savy..

Enterprise Service Bus: Software that makes it easier for multiple system to talk to each other through messages. It's a good way integrating different systems together. Progress is the vendor (http://www.progress.com/). I have used some of their products but haven't used their ESB.

Oracle 10 Database: Oracle is a high end database. Version 10 was released in 2006, so these are likely databases for existing systems.

SAS 9.3 EBI: Enterprise Business Intelligence, this is a data analysis and reporting tool.

JAVA J2EE: This is a language and platform for developing enterprise applications. Probably used for a lot of the software used behind the scenes.

These technologies all make perfect sense to build a system like NextGen.

Hearing more details about this actually makes me even more disappointed....

So a big component of MM+ is a massive infrastructure catchup - that didn't get approved unless there was some aspect that hoped to reach deeper into our wallets - instead of, you know, actually keeping up with infrastructure demands as part of the cost of doing business.

Real encouraging for those who feel the physical infrastructure needs work. If a fix doesn't include an additional stream of revenue, then no fix happens

 

[GLaDOS]

You could most certainly turn a Star Wars storyline into a great Omnimover style dark ride. Let's not forget that some of the best aspects of Star Wars are its worlds and characters. Riding through Endor with Ewok AAs and Tattooine with a Jabba the Hut AA would likely make fans pee on themselves from excitement. The battle scenes and special effects were never what made Star Wars special. If that were the case, the new trilogy would be considered better than the old.

Sorry, but people don't go, "Remember that time Luke and Obi Wan sat around talking in Star Wars!?"

They talk about the trench run. Or the Hoth Battle. Or the battle of the second Death Star. Riding through an Ewok village would be about as interesting as watching paint dry.

 

[The Empress Lilly]

Sorry, but people don't go, "Remember that time Luke and Obi Wan sat around talking in Star Wars!?"
They talk about the trench run. Or the Hoth Battle. Or the battle of the second Death Star. Riding through an Ewok village would be about as interesting as watching paint dry.

But you need to imagine huge physical sets, exciting music, mysterious clouds of vapour...

Like Pirates, or Horizons' space scenes. But this time with Darth Vader looming large in the middle of it...to force you into submission with the power of the dark side and the might of his light saber...and his kewl dance routines!

 

[Lee]

My problem with a Star Wars dark ride would be that I wouldn't want it to be just a disjointed collection of scenes. Ride through Hoth...then somehow transition to Dagobah...then find yourself on Bespin...wind up on Coruscant...and...gift shop.

Unless they could make it a long ride through one location, and keep it interesting...I'll pass. Give me a thrill ride.

Odds are...no Star Wars omnimover will ever appear.

 

[flynnibus]

Unless they could make it a long ride through one location, and keep it interesting...I'll pass. Give me a thrill ride.

You pretty much just justified pod racing...

 

[George]

You pretty much just justified pod racing...

And the X-Wing, Tie Fighter dual coaster that whizzes you across the surface of the Death Star.

 

[GLaDOS]

You pretty much just justified pod racing...

While Phantom Menace is and will always be awful, I still think Pod Racing is legitimately cool and would make a great coaster.

 

[Wikkler]

And the X-Wing, Tie Fighter dual coaster that whizzes you across the surface of the Death Star.

 

[Scuttle]

While Phantom Menace is and will always be awful, I still think Pod Racing is legitimately cool and would make a great coaster.

Agreed.

 

[CDavid]

Especially for a property like Star Wars? Come on, people. That'd be like building Transformers as a slow moving boat cruise.

There are aspects/scenes from Star Wars which lend themselves to a slow-moving omnimover just as much as speeder bikes/X-wings suggest a coaster. No, we may not want a collection of disjointed scenes in the dark ride, but can you seriously say you would't want to explore inside the Millenium Falcon or down the corridors of the Death Star? Doesn't mean it will ever happen or would necessarily even be the best choice for a Star Wars E-ticket, but such slow moving rides are where Disney used to be something truly special (note Epcot of the mid-80's). Anybody can do thrill rides; Disney once gave us attractions better than what we thought we wanted.

Riding through an Ewok village would be about as interesting as watching paint dry.

That must be some mighty interesting paint! An Ewok village wouldn't be anyone's first choice, unless it was leading up to something else (like the Death Star), but we can't honestly say it would have no interest whatsoever.

 

[GLaDOS]

but can you seriously say you would't want to explore inside the Millenium Falcon

In a walk through, maybe. As a ride? Nope.

or down the corridors of the Death Star?

Not particularly. What's interesting about the corridors of the Death Star?

Anybody can do thrill rides; Disney once gave us attractions better than what we thought we wanted.

You're right. Disney totally never should have built all those mountains. I'd much rather have Big Thunder Mine Omnimover!

but we can't honestly say it would have no interest whatsoever.

Sure I can. That sounds boring as toast.

 

[sshindel]

Hearing more details about this actually makes me even more disappointed....

So a big component of MM+ is a massive infrastructure catchup - that didn't get approved unless there was some aspect that hoped to reach deeper into our wallets - instead of, you know, actually keeping up with infrastructure demands as part of the cost of doing business.

Real encouraging for those who feel the physical infrastructure needs work. If a fix doesn't include an additional stream of revenue, then no fix happens

That is the way of the business world though. Straight IT / Infrastructure projects that provide no visible benefits to the business are almost never approved. Just telling them "Our system will be up to date and will perform better" is nearly never enough. You have to show value to the business in order to get them to spend money on it.
I've long held the thought that NGE, all the MM+ stuff, was the "bells and whistles" on top of a very needed IT systems upgrade. It's the selling point to the business and the customers on top of the real project.

 

[jakeman]

That is the way of the business world though. Straight IT / Infrastructure projects that provide no visible benefits to the business are almost never approved. Just telling them "Our system will be up to date and will perform better" is nearly never enough. You have to show value to the business in order to get them to spend money on it.
I've long held the thought that NGE, all the MM+ stuff, was the "bells and whistles" on top of a very needed IT systems upgrade. It's the selling point to the business and the customers on top of the real project.

Up until last year my company was using Outlook 2003...we just upgraded to...Outlook 2010.

Heck, I had Office 2000 until 2007 when I got upgraded to Office 2003.

We are also using IE8, which replaced IE6 only two years ago. They grudgingly put Firefox on our machines about two years ago but can only use it for a handful of application.

 

[Beholder]

I think SW provides plenty of material for just about ANY type of attraction. An X-Wing style coaster with the Death Star and an asteroid field,epic! A classic dark ride with perhaps a rogues gallery of bounty hunters, Sith, and imperial stock mixed up with a little more obscure things like Chewbacca's home planet or Cloud City. I think any SW "land" would also be a great way to combine a existing IP with originality by creating some WDW unique characters, perhaps droids or new creatures.

 

[Lee]

You pretty much just justified pod racing...

Yes but...

While Phantom Menace is and will always be awful, I still think Pod Racing is legitimately cool and would make a great coaster.

That.

 

[sshindel]

Up until last year my company was using Outlook 2003...we just upgraded to...Outlook 2010.

Heck, I had Office 2000 until 2007 when I got upgraded to Office 2003.

We are also using IE8, which replaced IE6 only two years ago. They grudgingly put Firefox on our machines about two years ago but can only use it for a handful of application.

Same thing here. We're in the middle of a multi-year multi-million dollar project to get everyone off XP and onto Windows 7 / Office 2010. It's been a fairly large disaster. Many starts and stops, yearlong delays, etc. I've lost software I needed, lost productivity, etc. The scope of what Disney seems to be trying to do is crazy to me.

 

[stevehousse]

http://attractionsmagazine.com/blog...-twister-ride-system-may-be-themed-to-planes/

I know the article says themed to the new planes ride, but design the car as an xwing fighter and that would be one awesome Star Wars ride! It would be perfect!

An arial battle across te Star Wars galaxy shooting lasers at all the cars in front of you swinging and rotating around! This is the Star Wars ride I want to see come to fruition!