How is guest spending at EPCOT? That is the real question. Anyone think they sell as much Ellen's Energy Shirts, Mission Space Nasa foam helmets or retro EPCOT items as much as Butterbeer or wands? Or even Minion shirts? Besides Nemo and World Showcase food EPCOT's guest spending is pretty low.
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Test Track refurb???
- Thread starter NicNoc12
- Start date
KevinYee
Well-Known Member
It is, and I wish I'd remembered Star Tours when writing about Test Track. They are about equal in my mind, both with massive repeatability. And both are very successful re-skinnings, rather than new attractions, which is an interesting coincidence (not coincidence? Disney doesn't build new stuff anymore?)
KevinYee
Well-Known Member
Obviously, I disagree that I've gone soft. It's not like I've been silent about the Splash and Tree nets.
As you and I talked about that day long ago around the lagoon, my position is to call it simply and honestly. When something is good I say so. I am not, nor do I wish to be, someone who always points out only the negative as a way to get them to change.
Speaking of columns, though, I'm sure we could get you one!!
Renovations like Test Track and Star Tours are what makes WDW a complex place. It's not JUST falling apart. They still can and do deliver quality sometimes. It's not like they've stopped spending money. There is something new to go see every weekend in WDW... far more than is the case at Disneyland.
So it's not a simplistic situation, and adopting a simplistic worldview won't do anyone any favors.
Thrill Seeker
Well-Known Member
According to the official rankings Epcot is #6 in the world, the 2nd place park from WDW... Still very good...
I agree Epcot isn't what it use to be, as is the case with most of the Disney Parks except for MK. Test Track is a big step in the right direction. Give that kind of refurb to Energy, Imagination and Mission: SPACE, finish SSE's decent, update (or at least clean up) Soarin' and you have a much better park. WoL also needs a replacement...
Thrill Seeker
Well-Known Member
Get use to it. During the 3 times I went during CM previews, I got my design to sync maybe once.
alphac2005
Well-Known Member
The city really harkens back to the the finale of World of Motion and if you look at the old souvenir World of Motion GM brochures that they used to give away annually at WOM, there's art on the cover of some of those that really have that feeling and look of what they've done here in the city part of Test Track 2.0.
Kind of.... but not exactly. Its more of a generic future city, much like SSE94 had. WoMs Centercore finale had more in common with the cityscapes seen in Horizons and the original UOE.
ExtinctJenn
Well-Known Member
Blah! I was really hoping that after the CM previews they'd shut the doors to fix that stuff up before the opening tomorrow instead of opening the doors to more guests. I thought that was the whole point of previews like that (to find issues)? Wonder how tomorrow will pan out!?
montyz81
Well-Known Member
There is one thing that occurred to me about this refurbe. Is this the fist refurb that was happened without some sort of character overlay since M:S? That to me has been the biggest issue with any park that isn't MK. Too much in the way of character overlay. I get it makes them money but sometimes it is done to excess. Epcot was not suppose to have any characters in it from the beginning. It is nice to see the WOM pavilion getting bac closer to its roots!
RSoxNo1
Well-Known Member
Photo?
RSoxNo1
Well-Known Member
I've seen that before and I have a few of them. I wonder if they're using up the old inventory of Test Track paper before new paper? They changed Star Tours post refurb.
fastpass7300
New Member
Anybody know if they are doing soft openings till 9:30 today?
bubbles1812
Well-Known Member
Was wondering about that. I think the ride looks great, I really do. Also think the Create a Car is really neat but thought it might be a bit of a disaster in the making between the amount of people using it every few minutes and trying to then sync that with the ride. Hope they manage to fix the bugs.
RSoxNo1
Well-Known Member
I don't think it's fair to criticize him for writing about a new attraction. This week is about new offerings, I have no problem with people writing positive stories on the new things as they come out.
RSoxNo1
Well-Known Member
It's definitely not growing:
1998: 10,596,750
1999: 10,100,000
2000: 10,300,000
2001: 9,000,000
2002: 8,280,000
2003: 8,600,000
2004: 9,400,000
2005: 9,900,000
2006: 10,460,000
2007: 10,930,000
2008: 10,935,000
2009: 10,990,000
2010: 10,825,000
2011: 10,825,000
Attendance jumped up because of Soarin', but for the most part the park hasn't had a substantial increase over the last 13 years. Coincidentally, that's about the same lifespan as the "New" Future World. This call for thrill rides in Epcot hasn't exactly been a huge boost to that park.
You're right, this has been more significant than any of the attraction changes except for maybe Soarin'.
WeekendGM
Active Member
RSoxNo1
Well-Known Member
You just spent $500 million and you haven't built anything new yet.
Tom Morrow
Well-Known Member
After riding a few more times, unfortunately I am a bit less optimistic about the makeover as I was initially. I predict that everything about the designing aspect is not going to go over well with the average guest, and may ultimately need some re-tooling. Before you bring up the unchanged SSE 2007 descent and it's negative reaction from fans, keep in mind that for SSE, the average rider isn't thinking about the ride being anti-climatic, having a drastic change in tone, etc. Rather, they are getting a kick out of seeing their head on a cartoon body looking stupid.
Maybe it will improve with time, but waiting to enter the design studios (there are two with either 16 or 20 design kiosks each, not sure which number is right) is a sluggish process. The rooms are essentially pre-shows, but the cycle time is a bit longer than the typical pre-show. Designing your car is fun, but is a hand-held process like Sum of All Thrills, which is to be expected. For example, you draw the outline of the shape you want your car to be, but it then makes you click "Optimize" - in which its actually selecting the pre-set model that most closely resembles the shape you drew. From there, you select and tweak other pre-set options, though admittedly there are a lot more than you would expect.
From here, you (as in, a first time rider who knows nothing about what to expect) are left with the assumption that your creation will have a meaningful impact on your ride experience. I guess the biggest problem I have with it, and keep in mind I already knew the circumstances, is just how little it ends up actually mattering. Basically you have the four categories of testing, and after each of those segments on the track, a screen displays the cars that have been uploaded to your SIM car and ranks them in that category. That's it. There isn't really even too much of an element of surprise in the rankings either, since you already know how your car performs in those categories during the design process.
I can see the average guest either not even understanding the purpose of designing your car and uploading it to the sim-car (in which case, the ride will make no sense to them), or, if they do "get it", being completely disappointed in the fact that it doesn't change anything other than what's on the ranking screens.
Now, I don't exactly care for interactive elements on rides, whether real (TSMM) or faked (Mission: Space), so on one hand I'm relieved that the actual ride isn't truly interactive. But, on the other hand, since they bothered to do it... I guess I feel like the payoff of having to take the time to design your car should have been better. Also, the entire onboard narration is basically trying to convince you that your design does matter.
Now, on to the ride itself... At first, it was simply exciting to see the familiar Test Track "track" with completely new window dressing. A lot of that excitement comes from comparing what it looked like before to now. Now that that newness has worn off for me, I feel the visuals are just a bit lacking. One thing I'd like to point out is that the ride looks amazing in the POV videos because they are darker than the track actually is. In reality, you can still clearly see the walls and, while it does still look very pretty and nice, it is not as convincing as the POV videos show. Stuff like the laser grid trees springing up and the new laser grid truck are very cool... but there could have been more of that. The three environment chambers are definitely the weakest part. The first room is either supposed to, or needs to, have fog in it so you can actually see the laser beams scanning your vehicle. The second room needs actual strong wind blowing at the car to match the visuals in the mirror. The third room doesn't even interact with your car in any way. And then there's of course the outside loop, which is unchanged and lacking any onboard audio.
In the end, I still feel that this is an improvement, fits Test Track appropriately in with Future World, and gave it the face-lit it definitely needed. I just think it may not be the grand slam makeover we all initially thought it was.
Maybe it will improve with time, but waiting to enter the design studios (there are two with either 16 or 20 design kiosks each, not sure which number is right) is a sluggish process. The rooms are essentially pre-shows, but the cycle time is a bit longer than the typical pre-show. Designing your car is fun, but is a hand-held process like Sum of All Thrills, which is to be expected. For example, you draw the outline of the shape you want your car to be, but it then makes you click "Optimize" - in which its actually selecting the pre-set model that most closely resembles the shape you drew. From there, you select and tweak other pre-set options, though admittedly there are a lot more than you would expect.
From here, you (as in, a first time rider who knows nothing about what to expect) are left with the assumption that your creation will have a meaningful impact on your ride experience. I guess the biggest problem I have with it, and keep in mind I already knew the circumstances, is just how little it ends up actually mattering. Basically you have the four categories of testing, and after each of those segments on the track, a screen displays the cars that have been uploaded to your SIM car and ranks them in that category. That's it. There isn't really even too much of an element of surprise in the rankings either, since you already know how your car performs in those categories during the design process.
I can see the average guest either not even understanding the purpose of designing your car and uploading it to the sim-car (in which case, the ride will make no sense to them), or, if they do "get it", being completely disappointed in the fact that it doesn't change anything other than what's on the ranking screens.
Now, I don't exactly care for interactive elements on rides, whether real (TSMM) or faked (Mission: Space), so on one hand I'm relieved that the actual ride isn't truly interactive. But, on the other hand, since they bothered to do it... I guess I feel like the payoff of having to take the time to design your car should have been better. Also, the entire onboard narration is basically trying to convince you that your design does matter.
Now, on to the ride itself... At first, it was simply exciting to see the familiar Test Track "track" with completely new window dressing. A lot of that excitement comes from comparing what it looked like before to now. Now that that newness has worn off for me, I feel the visuals are just a bit lacking. One thing I'd like to point out is that the ride looks amazing in the POV videos because they are darker than the track actually is. In reality, you can still clearly see the walls and, while it does still look very pretty and nice, it is not as convincing as the POV videos show. Stuff like the laser grid trees springing up and the new laser grid truck are very cool... but there could have been more of that. The three environment chambers are definitely the weakest part. The first room is either supposed to, or needs to, have fog in it so you can actually see the laser beams scanning your vehicle. The second room needs actual strong wind blowing at the car to match the visuals in the mirror. The third room doesn't even interact with your car in any way. And then there's of course the outside loop, which is unchanged and lacking any onboard audio.
In the end, I still feel that this is an improvement, fits Test Track appropriately in with Future World, and gave it the face-lit it definitely needed. I just think it may not be the grand slam makeover we all initially thought it was.
ChrisFL
Premium Member
Tom Morrow...I agree with some of your points, but I think that it will be tweaked over time as this attraction, more than many others recently, seems to have a lot of attention to detail, so perhaps they'll do some changes after more info comes in from the average guest.
I do know a few things that they could change. First i agree they should change the optimize and make it automatic, also I didn't realize the first time I attempted to do a car design that the front and back wheels are different options, so I ended up changing the front wheels but not the back ones.
The problem is, you want people to have a lot of options for their "dream" car, but you also want it to be a smooth process for everyone. That has to be a difficult balance.
I do know a few things that they could change. First i agree they should change the optimize and make it automatic, also I didn't realize the first time I attempted to do a car design that the front and back wheels are different options, so I ended up changing the front wheels but not the back ones.
The problem is, you want people to have a lot of options for their "dream" car, but you also want it to be a smooth process for everyone. That has to be a difficult balance.
alphac2005
Well-Known Member
Speaking of the notion of interactivity with the attractions as a whole, this is where it will be interesting to see how things shake up long-term. Taking out personal opinions about the redo of Test Track, one of the greatest things of "classic" DL and WDW attractions was that you were immersed in an environment where you were essentially taken into a story and you got to experience it all the while not having to actually do anything except enjoy it. Nearly everything at WDW now has to have some interactive element and while I understand the concept of making a queue way more enjoyable for kids because they're downright boring for kids (and adults many times), but the need to make us an interactive part of so many attractions, that's interesting. I like the idea of sitting back in an omnimover and just watching the show.
Maybe it's not so much about a lack of attention span of today's guests, maybe it's more about the narcissistic personality that so many have today. They have to be part of the action, just like they have to scream from the rooftops about everything in their life on Facebook or Twitter (not putting them down because I like them, but you know what I'm trying to say) along with the need for 15 minutes of fame on some "reality" show. People are so full of themselves today that maybe Disney is just giving the collective guests what they really want, to seem important, and part of the show. The last thing I want to do is watch myself on a screen on SSE, but I digress....