Space Mountain Testing

[tink713]

Boo! I thought we were getting a SM like DL. I've got to totally disagree with the above poster; the SM at Disneyland is sooo much better, not rickity, better soundtrack, it even seems faster. Makes me consider going back to DL in January instead of WDW. Maybe someday we will get a better SM.

 

[thesupersmartguy]

Woot!! Things are looking good.

 

[dolphindan1]

Anyone who is happy with this refurb has never been to DL and ridden the best of all Disney mountains, their Space Mountain. I could have lived without SM for 2-3 trips to get what California has.

I think they should be different at each park...why build 4 or 5 replicas of the same park...its great strategy make them all different so people will want to go to each park and spend there money...I personally love the current/past SM...I also want to go to DL because of its differences

 

[FigNewton]

I think they should be different at each park...why build 4 or 5 replicas of the same park...its great strategy make them all different so people will want to go to each park and spend there money...I personally love the current/past SM...I also want to go to DL because of its differences

EXACTLY. I don't want exact replicas of every ride at every park. What a boring idea!!!

 

[Pjimmeyer]

I think they should be different at each park...why build 4 or 5 replicas of the same park...its great strategy make them all different so people will want to go to each park and spend there money...I personally love the current/past SM...I also want to go to DL because of its differences

I enjoy the park differences too. We like to alternate coasts because of it. CoP here...Mr Toad there...Phillharmagic here...Alice there etc. Even the differences in shared rides is nice to us.

-Jimbo

 

[Rip]

Boo! I thought we were getting a SM like DL. I've got to totally disagree with the above poster; the SM at Disneyland is sooo much better, not rickity, better soundtrack, it even seems faster. Makes me consider going back to DL in January instead of WDW. Maybe someday we will get a better SM.

Unfortunately, if that ever happens, it won't be for another 30 years. If this is all they were going to do, they could have shut it down for a much shorter period of time and fixed the problem spots and just kept the original intact. I could understand that and the argument for keeping it original, but now it's not even going to be that. Disappointing, to say the least.

 

[Hallowishes]

GOOD NEWS!!! it was a total bummer not to have SM running on my september trip but i am gonna be so excited to check it out new and improved in january!!!

 

[Rip]

Anyone who is happy with this refurb has never been to DL and ridden the best of all Disney mountains, their Space Mountain. I could have lived without SM for 2-3 trips to get what California has.

I've never been to DL, but I can understand the desire to keep it the way it was. Many people have loved the ride since childhood and don't want to see it changed. My disappointment with it is that now it's not even going to be the same. I realize that many people are making that argument, but that's like taking an old car that needs repairs and painting it a different color, changing most of the interior, but leaving the same old, worn out drive train in place and keeping the old AM radio with the crappy speakers (that last bit is pretty much a literal analogy - they apparently scrapped the plans to update the sound system as well).

 

[tzuhouse]

It is interesting because we went to Disneyland in January, very excited to experience the better version. We all thought that it was slower and didn't have a drop like the WDW version. Anxious to try out the improved version of WDW, but hoping they didn't mess with it too much. We prefer it to Disneyland.

Mary

 

[Rip]

I couldn't agree more.

Either way, Disney would be villified for wrongdoing. Update the ride completely, and they will be accused of desecrating Walt's vision and destroying people's memories. Only give the ride a technical overhaul, and they will be accused of "counting the beans" and remaining mired in yesterday's attractions.

You can please some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time ... but never all of the people all of the time.

Since I was the one that first used that term, I'll respond by saying that when their own reasons for scaling down the original project are (1) cost and (2) time, then they themselves are admitting to "counting the beans". Hard to accuse them of something that they've already admitted to.

 

[realityland]

Sorry, Rip. Should have given a direct quote, instead of just the quotation marks, for credit to the original author.

Every project has a budget. SM is no exception. WDW history is filled with projects that got shelved or reduced in scope due to budget constraints, going back to the original park designs.

 

[Rip]

Sorry, Rip. Should have given a direct quote, instead of just the quotation marks, for credit to the original author.

Every project has a budget. SM is no exception. WDW history is filled with projects that got shelved or reduced in scope due to budget constraints, going back to the original park designs.

No worries, I understand that completely. I just happen to think it was a short-sighted decision. It seems to me that if you're not going with a total makeover, shut it down for 2 months, fix the problem spots (particularly the sections of the track that have been welded over so many times), and get it back up in it's original state. Now we're going to have neither the original, nor anything terribly new or interesting. I'm sure it will be just as fun for those that have never ridden it, and still fun for everyone else, but it won't be the same to most people that like the nostalgia of the original.

 

[realityland]

I agree, short-sighted indeed. The logic escapes me. Meanwhile, they are on the verge of completely upending Mickey's image in the hopes of capturing the emerging "Shanghai" market.

 

[FigNewton]

No worries, I understand that completely. I just happen to think it was a short-sighted decision. It seems to me that if you're not going with a total makeover, shut it down for 2 months, fix the problem spots (particularly the sections of the track that have been welded over so many times), and get it back up in it's original state. Now we're going to have neither the original, nor anything terribly new or interesting. I'm sure it will be just as fun for those that have never ridden it, and still fun for everyone else, but it won't be the same to most people that like the nostalgia of the original.

It's not EXACTLY the original but it is fundamentally the same with some upgrades to keep it from being stylistically out dated.

Of course, none of us can say for SURE that it "went too far and yet not fat enough" until we get to ride it. I suggest we all stop bagging on it till we get that chance.

 

[mykidslovesdisney]

Another CT person...

SM's lap bars still leave you free enough to get your hands over the seat in front of you. Make sure they put her bar down tight, and then just place your hands on her shoulders. She'll be fine.

Place my hands on her shoulders!! My hands are hanging on for dear life!! I am not the best w/ rollar coasters and only ride bc DS9 and 10 love to ride. So how I feel better w/ a white knuckle grip! I literaly squish the life out of her on BTMRR. I have nightmares of her flying out of her seat on the ride! I finally feel confident w/ both DS to ride on their own. I guess I am a bit of a nut!

 

[Rip]

It's not EXACTLY the original but it is fundamentally the same with some upgrades to keep it from being stylistically out dated.

Of course, none of us can say for SURE that it "went too far and yet not fat enough" until we get to ride it. I suggest we all stop bagging on it till we get that chance.

Be that as it may, we do know the basics - they superficially changed some of the asthetics but not much else. I think it was a wasted opportunity. I don't have to wait until the end of the month when I'm there to have that opinion.

 

[quantumottle]

http://www.screamscape.com/html/wdw_-_magic_kingdom.htm

The latest whispers from the Ultidoors is that Disney fans may be highly disappointed when Space Mountain reopens next month. As we had been hearing for some time now, the scope of the once massive refurbishment project had been scaled back from a proposed total ride replacement, that would have taken 12-16 months, to a more modest technical refurbishment that could be accomplished in half the time. While budget cuts are always a factor in any project like this, the real killer was the refusal of WDW Management to allow for Space Mountain to be closed for the winter holidays. I’ve been baffled for years as to why they hold onto the short winter holiday season as some kind of golden goose that they are afraid or unwilling to close any major attraction during. Meanwhile they are more than willing to disappoint the millions of guests over the busy 3 month long summer season, rather than close anything during the 2 week winter holiday period. Go Figure...
Anyway… this preference, mixed with the recession and falling attendance figures, was enough to turn what was once proposed as totally rebuilt version of Space Mountain into a project where most guests wont even notice the majority of the improvements at all. As we’ve seen from the construction pictures, the track is still pretty much the same old system that has been there since the ‘70’s. Old track sections have been modified here and there, or replaced where needed to take care of the “problem spots” where maintenance has been welding and repairing the stress cracks for years. But once the total track replacement concept was thrown out the window, the on-board audio system went with it.

This breaks my heart. Oh well, guess I have to start planning another trip to DL...

 

[FigNewton]

Be that as it may, we do know the basics - they superficially changed some of the asthetics but not much else. I think it was a wasted opportunity. I don't have to wait until the end of the month when I'm there to have that opinion.

You also said:

Now we're going to have neither the original, nor anything terribly new or interesting.

You are making the argument that it's also not going to be the original. You can have the opinion that it's a wasted opportunity, that they should have done more... but the assertion that it's been changed too much so as to not have the feeling of the original is baseless without seeing what's actually been done.

 

[Dolce27]

I've been on DL's SM and while it was fun, I still really enjoyed WDW's SM on my last trip.

This was taken from the above screamscape link that a pp posted:

I’ve been told that the ride system itself is getting a new state of the art computer control system that is supposed to allow for the Mountain crew to get the ride restarted more quickly than ever from any E-Stops. Previously, the procedure to recover from an E-Stop was to send CMs out onto the track to release each stopped car one at a time, and only releasing the next car on the line once the previous one had reached the unload station. This was a very time consuming process that could take anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes to accomplish, so a new more automated system will increase the recovery time by quite a bit.

That will be great news!

 

[Rip]

You also said:



You are making the argument that it's also not going to be the original. You can have the opinion that it's a wasted opportunity, that they should have done more... but the assertion that it's been changed too much so as to not have the feeling of the original is baseless without seeing what's actually been done.

It's not going to be the original. It's going to be the same track with updated asthetics.