Space re-modeling Again?

[Tiffer]

I personally prefer the old Space Mountain. The new one does nothing for me. It was a destination in itself for us before, and we tried it a few times after the refurb...but now we don't even go on. We really don't care for it.

I heard the powers that be are going to refurb it again or at least tweak it a bit?? Any word on this??

 

[exDS vet]

I personally prefer the old Space Mountain. The new one does nothing for me. It was a destination in itself for us before, and we tried it a few times after the refurb...but now we don't even go on. We really don't care for it.

I heard the powers that be are going to refurb it again or at least tweak it a bit?? Any word on this??

Sorry, but your post in nonsense. First of all, unless you liked a bumpy ride with too much light and a sound system that was always faltering, I cannot understand how you could prefer the old Space Mountain. Secondly, the new track is exactly the same as the old one, so I guess the old one did nothing for you either. Maybe you were expecting a different ride experience when the refurbished one opened. But I'm sure you knew like the rest of us that the ride was not changing.

Finally, all Disney attractions go through routine refurbishments each year. I'd imagine that Space Mountain has not had it's annual maintenance yet, since it re-opened just over a year ago. It will probably close for a few weeks or even a month after the 50th anniversary celebration is over. But you can be sure that it (a) won't be an extended closure, and (b) won't be "tweaked" in any way that you would notice.

 

[mrp4352]

Maybe Tiffer meant DL's Space Mountain. It just came out of a major refurb for the 50th anniversary.

I don't believe the track changed, but the sound system was working and had the new music from the Incredibles composer playing. Also, it was very, very dark in there - so dark I thought we were the only ones on the ride.

Personally, I thought it was a fantastic redo and and hoping, hoping, hoping we get a similar redo at Disney World!

 

[exDS vet]

When they refurb'd Space Mountain at DL, they completely gutted the inside and, yes, they did replace the entire track. That's why the new ride is so smooth. The track is, however set-up exactly the same as the old one.

Since the WDW version has not had a major refurb, I am pretty sure that the OP is referring to the DL version.

 

[ChrisFL]

If it is referring to the DL version, I doubt any refurb will happen unless they are having issues.

That said, I was on the new DL space mountain a few months ago and it literally blows the WDW Space Mountain away...the effects are incredible...especially the ending...it makes it like a brand new ride IMO

 

[Another Voice]

It just came out of a major refurb for the 50th anniversary.

Actually, due to years of inadequate maintenance, the track in Disneyland's 'Space Mountain' had reached a point where it could no longer be repaired. Since Disney was building a 'Space Mountain' clone for Disneyland Hong Kong, it was decided to order a second track and use that for Disneyland.

However, Disneyland's track suffered a major break one morning just before opening and the attraction was shut down months earlier than planned. In order to save money, the original "second track" schedule wasn't changed. The original intention was that a revised 'Space Mountain' would be center of Disneyland's post-50th marketing campaign (save something to get all those Southern Californians to come back).

However Part Two, when management actually got around to looking at the plans for the actually 50th Birthday Celebration - they amounted to little more than gold Mickey Mouse Ears, a slide show accompanied by a couple of fireworks, and merchandise saying "Walt gave us our dreams, but all Eisner sold me was this lousy t-shirt". The schedule for 'Space Mountain' was accelerated by cutting out most of the effects.

A lot of these new effects are for a planned night-time "overlay" called 'Rockit Mountain'. The plan is that in the later hours the soundtrack and effects will be switched to a "rock'n roll" version. Basically you'd get a disco ball instead of stars and some third rate unknown grunge band instead of ‘The Incredibles’ score remix (note: BRING BACK DICK DALE!). Why anyone thought this was a good idea remains a mystery. Disneyland did turn on the ‘Rockit Mountian’ effects during this year’s Grad Nights. All indication is that no one was whelmed.

It’s unlikely you’ll see a similar make-over at WDW. Disney is not going to lay out the money without a direct and easy-to-see line to higher profits. Adding Johnny to ‘Pirates’ is easy to justify because you can force people passed the wall of Johnny Dolls at the shop/exit. Making ‘Space Mountain’ a better ride doesn’t pay off in ways you can put on a PowerPoint slide.

 

[Another Voice]

P.S. - Yes, the new Disneyland version is a fast, smooth ride. It hasn't been this good in a long time. But all that points to is how much Disneyland was left to rot in the last twenty years, not how good today's management is.