News Test Track to be reimagined

[doctornick]

Was World of Motion really popular enough to warrant more than just some winks and nods in this? Genuine question not at all trying to be sarcastic.

I was not alive to ever see it so I can only go by what people talk about in regards to old EPCOT. It’s not usually one of the ones I hear brought up a ton, at least not to the extent that Horizons and the original Imagination do.

IMHO it was better than Horizons. The biggest thing though is that WoM got a great - albeit very different- replacement so it softened the blow of losing a great ride. Also Epcot needed something with more thrill at that point.

 

[doctornick]

I wasn’t alive for World of Motion and have no doubts it was great. But not making the transportation pavilion a thrill ride from the beginning was a wild choice. Maybe the technology just wasn’t there yet…

WoM was fantastic but it definitely suffered from “all the rides in FW are too similar”. In isolation they were all great but that part of the park needed more variety (they started that process with Body Wars but it wasn’t that great of a ride). I agree with you that having the pavilion be a thrill ride from the start was probably a miss.

If that were the case though, would have been nice to see Wade Kimbell design a different ride. His gags and humor were awesome.

 

[Bocabear]

WoM was fantastic but it definitely suffered from “all the rides in FW are too similar”. In isolation they were all great but that part of the park needed more variety (they started that process with Body Wars but it wasn’t that great of a ride). I agree with you that having the pavilion be a thrill ride from the start was probably a miss.

If that were the case though, would have been nice to see Wade Kimbell design a different ride. His gags and humor were awesome.

Funny that now there is nothing similar to what was there... Only Spaceshp Earth which I sure will eventually go under the knife and end up with some IP integration, screens, and a shallower overall experience... Once an only hope that this redo of WOM will be better than the two Test Track versions and include a little of the wonder and WOW that has been missing....

 

[danlb_2000]

WoM was fantastic but it definitely suffered from “all the rides in FW are too similar”. In isolation they were all great but that part of the park needed more variety (they started that process with Body Wars but it wasn’t that great of a ride). I agree with you that having the pavilion be a thrill ride from the start was probably a miss.

If that were the case though, would have been nice to see Wade Kimbell design a different ride. His gags and humor were awesome.

This is also how I feel. I loved all these rides when I was young, but I now see that they were a little to repetitious.

 

[aladdin2007]

This is also how I feel. I loved all these rides when I was young, but I now see that they were a little to repetitious.

they may have been but they had so much to look at and were so long you could keep riding and see other things and physical details you didn't before. The new stuff today? meh. Too many are now one and done. Disney was better than that.

 

[UNCgolf]

This is also how I feel. I loved all these rides when I was young, but I now see that they were a little to repetitious.

If you loved them all, doesn't that kind of disprove that they were too repetitious, though?

 

[Jayspency]

IMHO it was better than Horizons. The biggest thing though is that WoM got a great - albeit very different- replacement so it softened the blow of losing a great ride. Also Epcot needed something with more thrill at that point.

Im just gonna say it: I think WOM is the best EPCOT Center attraction. For me its tied with JII 1.0 though

 

[Jayspency]

Is the only difference the holes in the bottom of the track or is there more I'm not seeing?

looks like one of the concrete footers is finished but I cant really tell

 

[Mr. Sullivan]

If you loved them all, doesn't that kind of disprove that they were too repetitious, though?

Not necessarily no. One can enjoy something while at the same time recognize the need for variety. I enjoy many of the pizza places near me but that doesn't mean I don't think my area could use different kinds of food.

 

[UNCgolf]

Not necessarily no. One can enjoy something while at the same time recognize the need for variety. I enjoy many of the pizza places near me but that doesn't mean I don't think my area could use different kinds of food.

I don't think that's really a fair comparison.

Regardless, EPCOT was at its most successful when it existed in that form, so the argument that it needed more variety isn't really backed up by evidence. They keep adding more thrill rides and it keeps not working.

 

[doctornick]

If you loved them all, doesn't that kind of disprove that they were too repetitious, though?

People who enjoyed those kinds of rides loved original Epcot. Just like people who love roller coasters might be obsessed with Cedar Point. The problem is that many other guests got bored by the "sameness" of a lot of the rides and the didactic/lecturing tone of many of them. While there was clearly a very devoted following for EPCOT Center you also had many people who had no interest in ever going back there.

And Disney has always thrived by appealing to everyone - having things for all ages and tastes. I think Epcot did drop the ball by not having enough variety in the attractions and it was something Disney realized and why more "thrilling" rides with Body Wars and Test Track were among the first significant changes (and even Maelstrom too to some extent).

This isn't condemning any individual classic Epcot ride - they are were all high quality (well, maybe not if you looked at only the ride portion of the Living Seas) - but they should have gone for a greater variety of experiences to have a better balance.

 

[Mr. Sullivan]

I don't think that's really a fair comparison.

Regardless, EPCOT was at its most successful when it existed in that form, so the argument that it needed more variety isn't really backed up by evidence. They keep adding more thrill rides and it keeps not working.

EPCOT also lost it's popularity with that form as well. It cut both ways. Sure, it opened as a success and stayed that way for awhile, but there's a reason the park started shifting toward where we are now years ago. People stopped caring. We can't change the history. The decision to add rides like Mission: Space and Test Track didn't come from nowhere.

I understand that OG EPCOT fans really, really loved it. I am sure I would have too. EPCOT is my favorite park on property, and I'm sure it would've been at that time as well.

But we've all got to stop pretending that OG EPCOT would survive in the modern world. It was becoming less and less of a point of interest and relevance even in the world of the 90s. And yes, its lack of variety was very much a part of it. I think a lot of OG EPCOT fans have gotten it into their minds that their love of the park and everyone else's love of the park was the same, and it just isn't true. Yes, people loved EPCOT as it was when it opened because when it opened, it offered something insane and new that everyone was blown away by. Fast forward 15-20 years? OG EPCOT fans were still there, but everyone else had moved on.

The evidence that people started to find it boring is there in the response Disney gave to it. Like I said, the idea to add thrill rides didn't come from nothing. It came in response to people starting to get bored of the same ride system used over and over again, even if the attractions themselves were quality.

What was good for audiences at that time was not what was good for audiences down the line. People's tastes and interests changed, and EPCOT felt that change before they started moving toward offering different types of attractions.

 

[Jayspency]

EPCOT also lost it's popularity with that form as well. It cut both ways. Sure, it opened as a success and stayed that way for awhile, but there's a reason the park started shifting toward where we are now years ago. People stopped caring. We can't change the history. The decision to add rides like Mission: Space and Test Track didn't come from nowhere.

I understand that OG EPCOT fans really, really loved it. I am sure I would have too. EPCOT is my favorite park on property, and I'm sure it would've been at that time as well.

But we've all got to stop pretending that OG EPCOT would survive in the modern world. It was becoming less and less of a point of interest and relevance even in the world of the 90s. And yes, its lack of variety was very much a part of it. I think a lot of OG EPCOT fans have gotten it into their minds that their love of the park and everyone else's love of the park was the same, and it just isn't true. Yes, people loved EPCOT as it was when it opened because when it opened, it offered something insane and new that everyone was blown away by. Fast forward 15-20 years? OG EPCOT fans were still there, but everyone else had moved on.

The evidence that people started to find it boring is there in the response Disney gave to it. Like I said, the idea to add thrill rides didn't come from nothing. It came in response to people starting to get bored of the same ride system used over and over again, even if the attractions themselves were quality.

What was good for audiences at that time was not what was good for audiences down the line. People's tastes and interests changed, and EPCOT felt that change before they started moving toward offering different types of attractions.

Nows a good time to present my perfect epcot center future world lineup that will appeal to everyone while adhering to the theme of the park!

-Spaceship Earth
-adventure through inner space adaptation of cosmic rewind
-something in WOL (or WOL itself)
-Horizons/mission space (idk I like both)
-Test Track
-JII 1.0
-Soarin
-living with the land
-something with the seas

-world showcase is fair game

 

[doctornick]

One thing though that I will say about classic Epcot is that the actually had pavilions - areas with multiple related activities. While I think the rides needed to have some better variety of experiences, they should still have more robust and cohesive pavilions. No reason why M:S couldn’t have an area or show devoted to space travel (not just a kiddie play area) or some more in-depth transportation exhibits in TT and so on. And we list the upstairs Imagination. And of course WoL which had a movie and a show and a ride. Why isn’t there “more” in all that space in Cosmic Rewind? (And I absolutely adore that ride, but there still could be additional “stuff” there.)

That to me is the bigger issue with how FW changed from its origins.

 

[Rich Brownn]

One thing though that I will say about classic Epcot is that the actually had pavilions - areas with multiple related activities. While I think the rides needed to have some better variety of experiences, they should still have more robust and cohesive pavilions. No reason why M:S couldn’t have an area or show devoted to space travel (not just a kiddie play area) or some more in-depth transportation exhibits in TT and so on. And we list the upstairs Imagination. And of course WoL which had a movie and a show and a ride. Why isn’t there “more” in all that space in Cosmic Rewind? (And I absolutely adore that ride, but there still could be additional “stuff” there.)

That to me is the bigger issue with how FW changed from its origins.

To be fair, nether Energy nor Horizons had anything but the ride in the pavilion. Exxon did have an interactive area in CommuniCore though

 

[danlb_2000]

If you loved them all, doesn't that kind of disprove that they were too repetitious, though?

I only visited "classic" Epcot once, I visited in 1985 but not again until 2009. If I had been going on a regular basis I would have preferred a larger variety in the types of rides.

 

[FiestaFunKid]

Energy had to go IMO - too long, too old, too Ellen. I will miss the song.

Seas was just IP overlayed, so is still very much the same type of ride - so they added little variety here.

Keeping one of WoM or Horizons (with updates) would have made sense in retrospect and could have been viewed as an enduring classic like Pirates or Mansion. You could argue Horizons replacement already has aged out. This would not have kept Epcot from adding new style attractions like Soarin', etc - and would have maintained precious central theming.

 

[doctornick]

Energy had to go IMO - too long, too old, too Ellen. I will miss the song.

Seas was just IP overlayed, so is still very much the same type of ride - so they added little variety here.

Keeping one of WoM or Horizons (with updates) would have made sense in retrospect and could have been viewed as an enduring classic like Pirates or Mansion. You could argue Horizons replacement already has aged out. This would not have kept Epcot from adding new style attractions like Soarin', etc - and would have maintained precious central theming.

The ride they messed up on was not keeping original Imagination. That one was a timeless classic that would have survived the test of time with just upkeep. It was the most distinctive of the classic FW rides too and the one that avoided the "sameness" of the other rides with their history lessons then aspirational futurism.

I agree that having one of WoM or Horizons would have been good too (I'd vote for WoM myself). In an ideal world, it would have been great to have both WoM and something akin to Test Track running together as that would have been complimentary.

 

[doctornick]

To be fair, nether Energy nor Horizons had anything but the ride in the pavilion. Exxon did have an interactive area in CommuniCore though

Energy was basically multiple activities all in one though - the pre-show with the awesome Radok blocks, a film while in the theater, then the ride. Kind of like the Seas, it was a fully fleshed out pavilion but was presented in a more linear fashion of the experience.

Personally, I think Horizons was the weakest of the original Epcot pavilions, so I don't really hold that up as a model of anything. I think replacing it with a Space concept was absolutely a sensible choice, but the execution left something to be desired - the original Space ideas where M:S was just the first portion and overall it would have been more robust would have been great IMHO.

 

[abaker1975]

I remember visiting EPCOT for the first time in 1987. I was twelve at the time. At that time, I did think all the "rides" in EPCOT were boring and they all did the same thing.

My adult brain (who is now more into dark rides) thinking back, now remembers Horizons and WoM fondly. I do remember thinking WoM was amazing as it went up a floor and at that time, I thought the video used to make it feel you were moving fast was exciting!

I think it would be good if they could refurb Spaceship Earth back to an A show and have one other E ticket dark ride that could somehow give the awe and fun of UoE, WoM and Horizons. It would need to be a brand new (or replacement for WoL) to house or give the reason for a brand-new dark ride. Test Track is perfectly fine for what it is, and the park needs. I hope someday Mission Space gets drastically changed. Space is a great concept for a pavilion at Epcot, but the attraction there now is very underwhelming.