where does Tinker Bell go?

[FettFan]

where does Tinker Bell go?

She's got a litterbox in the corner.

It keeps her from ruining the guest experience.

 

[pumpkin7]

you mean, she isn't really flying??

 

[Jane Whalebones]

...Pixie Hollow, of course!

 

[Amber]

I remember from the Keys to the Kingdom tour someone asked the question about Tink's landing. Our guide answered, "Yep, that's right folks, Tinkerbell flies into a burlap sack."

 

[Californian Elitist]

Wow, it really is a straight shot.

 

[Californian Elitist]

Yeah, and in the pics, that's before the cable is tensioned. They only tension it before the flight (or tests), that's why it looks slack right there.

How come she can't go up and down and go backwards? The castle is too tall?

 

[FettFan]

One would think that they would coat the wire at the end with a bit of rubber or plastic to help slow her down when she gets to Tomorrowland.

 

[Californian Elitist]

She goes down by gravity, there isn't any kind of motorized thing on there...unless you are just being sarcastic ;-)

Nope, not being sarcastic at all. Disneyland's Tinkerbell goes forward, backwards, up and down. That's why I asked and I assumed it was because of the height of the castle.

 

[flynnibus]

How come she can't go up and down and go backwards? The castle is too tall?

The setup at DL is entirely different. DL's is a moving trolly where tink and dumbo are moved up and down independent of the zip line itself. There is no Matterhorn equivalent to give a place to have a running trolly setup like DL has.

The tink part of the show is so vastly different. Tink in DL also wears an oversized head/mask where WDW does not AFAIK.

 

[Californian Elitist]

The setup at DL is entirely different. DL's is a moving trolly where tink and dumbo are moved up and down independent of the zip line itself. There is no Matterhorn equivalent to give a place to have a running trolly setup like DL has.

The tink part of the show is so vastly different. Tink in DL also wears an oversized head/mask where WDW does not AFAIK.

Aahh, so that's it. I understand now. Yeah, I've seen the mask and it's very creepy.

 

[Californian Elitist]

Yeah I haven't seen the DL setup, so I wouldn't know what the difference is, but there is definitely no way for her to do anything but move down and forward.

Skip to 1:44

 

[Redsky89]

Since I used to work on the Tinkerbell "Flight Crew" I can give you some more concrete details on the WDW version at least. She lands, as some have said, on the roof, close to Buzz. There's a metal platform up there and a pad at the end. Although the pad is there, if she hits it at full speed, there's a good chance she will injure herself. When I worked the landing, two Ent Tech would go up there (including me) and we'd have a black bag to put the flight equipment in (which would be identical to the bag they went up into the castle with from the launch position) and a moving blanket. We would have to grip the moving blanket REALLY hard (she is really moving quick when she is at the point we were at) and then run fast to sort of match her speed and she would literally crash into the blanket we were holding as we slowed her down.

As for the guy rumor, it could be possible, but I never worked with any. All the Tinks we worked with were female, and yes, they were tiny. I can't remember what the exact height/weight was, but it was around 5 foot tall and not too far over 100 lbs. There were about 2-3 we rotated through.

A few times I assisted with a sand bag test we did. During the day, we would send some sand bags down the line to test the line. If you want an interesting shot of what it looked like from the landing position, here's a shot I took with my cell phone once when I was waiting down at the landing point.

Thanks for sharing those awesome pics! Thats really cool how it works.

 

[dreamfinder]

Skip to 1:44

Kinda strikes me as being similar to the overhead camera they use in football games.

 

[Lee]

Kinda strikes me as being similar to the overhead camera they use in football games.

Same technology.
EDIT: Ok...kinda the same.

 

[FettFan]

One thing I learned as a tech is that you would think Disney would do a lot of things more high tech, but as with just about any entertainment company, they many times just go with simple and cheap. Two guys and a moving blanket apparently seemed ok to the show developers. The day a Tink gets hurt will be the day they may look at it again.

I guess DisneyCo doesn't take to the old adage of "ounce of prevention is cheaper than a pound of cure", eh?

I mean you could get a gallon of rubberized Tuff Coat for $85 and spray it on the end of the cable. The added friction of the rubber would help to slow Tink down and make things safer for both her and the flight crew.

 

[Californian Elitist]

Kinda strikes me as being similar to the overhead camera they use in football games.

Yeah, same here.

 

[flynnibus]

It's a different concept from the field cameras. The field cameras you see on Fox sports, etc (like SkyCam) change their height by the amount of tension on the lines so the camera doesn't swing. Tink is lowered and raised independent of the runner cables changing. Tink has a shuttle that is moved back and forth, and has other cables to control her vertical.

Edit: 'tension' may not be the best way to describe it. Amount of runout may be better. Basically the camera hangs down.. and by controlling it from above and multiple points.. the balance of cable runout from each cable controls it's verical and horizontal position.

Tink rides under a shuttle..

 

[ExtinctJenn]

Skip to 1:44

WOW! I had NO idea the flight Tink makes at DL was so drastically different. That was absolutely incredible!

 

[Californian Elitist]

WOW! I had NO idea the flight Tink makes at DL was so drastically different. That was absolutely incredible!

Neither did I! It is very different and before I couldn't understand what everyone was talking about when the comparisons of the two Tinkerbells were going. I assumed the way she flew was the same on both coasts. I've never seen an MK firework show so I was confused when people kept calling Tink's flight at DL impressive. I didn't understand until I saw a video of Wishes and saw that Tinkerbell just flies one way! I didn't finish the video, does she come out a second time like at Disneyland?

 

[ExtinctJenn]

I didn't finish the video, does she come out a second time like at Disneyland?

Nope! She does one single drop and that's it!