SSE descent set pieces

[aladdin2007]

Thanks for the info Martin, there is some hope left it sounds like for some more plussing.
And hpyhnt1000, not a bad idea, sounds nice and a good evened out idea to combine both formats.

 

[joel_maxwell]

Kind of hard to take pictures as a CM during an evac when you need to be focused on the guests' safety..

:lol:

it was meant tongue and cheek

 

[hpyhnt 1000]

Thanks for the info Martin, there is some hope left it sounds like for some more plussing.
And hpyhnt1000, not a bad idea, sounds nice and a good evened out idea to combine both formats.

Thanks. :wave:

And Martin, thank you for that info. Sounds like SSE is far from being finished...

 

[SleepingMonk]

I miss Jeremy Irons.

 

[DznyRktekt]

The real future for Epcot is at Spaceship Earth. Soon one will be able to order quick service meals via touch screen from their time machine vehicles, when table service locations are booked solid because of the DDP. This technology was pioneered by Siemens at Captain Cook's. :lookaroun

 

[krankenstein]

It sure looks like some of the old decent is under black sheets. :shrug:

Thanks for the info Martin!

 

[SleepingMonk]

It's really quite sad that THE centerpiece of the entire park is half finished and patched together with black drapes.

I suppose if you've never ridden it before or even just once or twice you might not notice. But then again WDW should be better than that regardless.

 

[EpcotServo]

The real future for Epcot is at Spaceship Earth. Soon one will be able to order quick service meals via touch screen from their time machine vehicles, when table service locations are booked solid because of the DDP. This technology was pioneered by Siemens at Captain Cook's. :lookaroun

Yeah, booking table service restaraunts via a screen should never be anywhere near the ending of Spaceship Earth, EVER!



:lookaroun

 

[Expo_Seeker40]

I enjoy booking a table under giant cubed screens with an orange and blue guest relations desk near me. :lookaroun

 

[wayneway]

speaking of the triangles, some of them house fire sprinkler heads, one is right in the way of the old peppers ghost effect. this means that it had to be installed during the refurb. I guess some new code required them to add the sprinklers this time around.

 

[DznyRktekt]

Yeah, booking table service restaraunts via a screen should never be anywhere near the ending of Spaceship Earth, EVER!



:lookaroun

I hope my sarcasm was evident...if not, let me look around some more... :lookaroun or add some :hurl: to the idea. (By the way, love your frequent visits you share with us to the World) :wave:

 

[wolf359]

It's really quite sad that THE centerpiece of the entire park is half finished and patched together with black drapes.

I suppose if you've never ridden it before or even just once or twice you might not notice. But then again WDW should be better than that regardless.

Well, I think "half finished" is a somewhat subjective term, made popular on the internet, but doesn't always hold up to reality.

The entire first half of Spaceship Earth has never looked or sounded better. The improvements to the Animatronics, lighting, sound, and special effects are very well done and breathed new life into scenes that hadn't seen any major changes in 25 years.

It really frustrates me when people completely (and conveniently) ignore the huge leap forward of the entire ascent in favor of using the descent as an excuse to dismiss the entire rehab as a disappointment or a cop out. And for what, the removal of some cheap fiber-optics and some crude static Pepper's Ghost displays of yesterday's technology?

Now, I'll be honest and admit that I have a strong nostalgic connection to those very same scenes and effects, and I DO wish the attraction could have opened with a more engaging descent, but I'm not willing to throw the baby out with the bathwater and call the entire thing a failure just because we're only given one cheesy game to look at on the way down, instead of several cheesy blacklight gags and a bunch of blinking tubes attached to chicken wire.

I hope that some day soon we'll see a descent that ups the "wow" factor for everyone and lives up to the high quality show we get on the way up, because I agree that Spaceship Earth IS the centerpiece of EPCOT, and I hope it can remain a great example of what a creative dark ride can be.

 

[Figment571]

I was recently able to go on it for the first time since it got refurbished and I was happy and disappointed.

First of all I absolutely love the new cavemen screen and movingcave pictures. I'm also glad they removed the incorrect line about Egyptians creating the first written language, it was the Sumerians. The Audio Aminamatronics were amazing, especially the math teacher. The blue lights were pretty and I can personally say that the ascent for the most part was a sucess, aside from the go-go dancer and new "Matrix" tunnel I thought it was cool. (Side story about go-go dancer, Mom stattered talking about the giant computer room they had at her college in the 80's, before home pcs and she said "there wasn't anyone who looked like that there." Just interesting tid bit.)

Though I did praise most of the ascent I do have a lot of problems with waht they did do however. I did not at all care for the new narration. I belive that it was extremely dumbed down and condescending. It also seemed odd that it didn't seem to mention the fact how far we have come since the invention of the home pc as the 94 version did, heck when EPCOT Center opened pc's weren't even around, look at the mural in front of SSE NO PC's odd how much the world has changed. Also the new score did not have the same dramatic feel and effect the older one especially at the end and the Earth reveal. The older score had a much more emotionally moving effect than the current one. Now my biggest problem was, as with most people, the descent.

For most of the attraction you have been taken on a wonderous journey through history and time to see how the future has been created (not a theme I like, calling Rome the first World Wide Web, that is a very long strech!). Then you see Earth and descend and you are told you are going to be making the future.... which turns out to be a Jetson's Jib Jab cartoon! This is not what it should be imo. The old version gave you a dramatic and movig challenge to us to improve and better our world throught the new and emerging tools that we have to build a better and brighter world for all who follow us. Now we have a cartoon... That is not fitting for that attraction. I do belive that even shows how far and dumb America has become. no we cannot have a challenge to ourselves because that would be too hard.

Ultimatly I belive that the cartoon was a bad idea becuse it is the last part of the attratcion and that sends you off and just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

 

[kingslyZISSOU]

I personally believe the "your future" cartoon is placed in the wrong spot. Specifically, there is too much build-up to it. Lets be honest, the thing that gets everybody so excited about the videos isn't the fact that you answer six or seven question to "personalize" it; its the fact that you can see your face in the video (some of the time anyway). For the average guest, they could care less about what the video is about, just as long as their face is in it.

As it stands now, the touch screens make it difficult to put anything outside the ride vehicles. You're focus is suppossed to be on the video, not outside the vehicle, so, in theory, there doesn't need to be anything there because you're not suppossed to be looking there. If you are looking outside the vehicle, then you're defeating the purpose of the video.

Here's my idea of nice compromise: eliminate all the questions, but keep the video. Where you would normally be answering the questions, have one screen of options, ala Horizons, where you pick a category of the future (ex: healthcare, energy, transportation, etc.). Your video then plays as you proceed through the blue lights, showing future technologies and innovations for what you chose, and of course incorporating you face. The video would end where the old glitter city was.

From that point on, a new larger, more elaborate future vision would take you to the unload area. In this area, you combine all the options you had for the video. In other words, show that flying car you saw in the video. Show that new health scanner you saw in the video. Show that new energy harnessing power from the video. This way, it reinforces the idea that we all have a choice in our future, but at the same time, all of our futures are interconnected, and when brought together, can create a hopeful and spectacular vision of tomorrow.

This way, the video is still prominent, we still personalize the journey by choosing which video we wnat to see, and there is now something outside the vehicle to see that complements the video and ties everything together. That would be a SSE I would like to see (and it is very possible to do that, I might add).

EDIT: Sorry about my imagineering ramblings, but I had to get that out there.

I like your ideas about not having to answer those questions. those seem more like work than fun. I think the idea of picking the future is a lot better.

And I completely understand your desire to ramble about imagineering, please continue to do so. For me, this is my only real outlet to discuss this stuff because everyone I know doesn't really care. It's probably the same for you I would imagine.

 

[kingslyZISSOU]

ok, so If it COULD be finished, what would it be finished with???

I mean, what relevant show aspects could be there? more hanging LEDs? stitch? nemo? stitch eating nemo? maybe some triangles?

But seriously, was theres supposed to be something cool there that isn't there now?

 

[marni1971]

The plans are for something cool as you say. Something to satisfy the purists, regular guests and fans of the older SSE.

 

[aladdin2007]

The plans are for something cool as you say. Something to satisfy the purists, regular guests and fans of the older SSE.

In your opinion and I know you said they are waiting for funds, but do you think this is something they will be working on and doing currently in the remainder of this year? Or rather more 2009/2010ish or even later?

 

[HMF]

I thought they were there in January 08 when I was evacuated. Because the glitter city and the peppers ghost scene were covered with black sheets that were stretched and stapled to the max....yet when merf took that photo a few months ago it looks like glitter city is indeed gone.

Can you post that photo?

 

[TheDisneyMagic]

I think I would be 100x more happier if they reused the previous score in this version of the attraction. There are many points in the current version where you hear next to no music at all (this is not the best with a ride system such as the one in Spaceship Earth where it can be quite loud in places.

 

[aladdin2007]

I think I would be 100x more happier if they reused the previous score in this version of the attraction. There are many points in the current version where you hear next to no music at all (this is not the best with a ride system such as the one in Spaceship Earth where it can be quite loud in places.

Yeah they really missed the mark with the score, its barely there and does not make itself known, just background much of nothing. No more sense of discovery and depth and ooo ahhh like before.