Disney announces massive renovation project for Epcot, Tron roller coaster for Magic Kingdom

And say goodbye to The Great Movie Ride. That Mickey-centric ride sounds awesome. Yay!

Take that! And that, and that, and THAT, Universal!

;)

Bad wording on the Times' part. I assume that the Guardians ride is in addition to a Mission Space revamp rather than Space being rethemed as Guardians.

Correct. Guardians of the Galaxy will replace Universe of Energy.

I didn't see it anywhere else but apparently Lyft is behind the Minnie Vans.

https://www.engadget.com/2017/07/31/lyfts-minnie-vans-drive-disney-world/

I like Lyft and prefer it over Uber. Although every single driver will tell you they do both, they all seem to think Lyft is a much better company to work for.

I feel unsure about this. I like the newness being injected into these parks, obviously, but is Epcot really the ideal park to be commercialized? The whole original point of the park was opposite of that. As for Magic Kingdom, Tron, really? I'm sure it'll be an awesome ride, doubtless actually. But it doesn't seem to be the best basis for a themed ride. How about a more generic but original space/computer themed ride instead, like the original Space Mountain? Tron isn't a particularly special franchise. They're in a no-lose situation, Disney, but I feel like the aura and innovation of the parks starts to get lost when they start adding these commercialized things to them just to put butts in the seats.

Huh? Everything in Future World has been sponsored since the day it opened.

Jeff said:

Huh? Everything in Future World has been sponsored since the day it opened.

There's a difference between sponsored and themed-to. And I'm not really a Disney fanatic like lots on here for some reason, I don't care that much about the parks. But I get what they were supposed to be about and this news is mildly bothersome to me.

Disneyland was a sea of corporate sponsorships the day it opened, and a number of sponsors participated in the planning and design process. Carousel of Progress, sponsored by General Electric, showed off various GE appliances.

Though my favorite was the Wizard of Bras on Main Street. I'm fascinated that someone would say to herself, "while I'm at Disneyland I shoud get fitted for a brassiere."

There's a difference between sponsored and themed-to.

Sure, but World of Motion was both, and was an opening day attraction.

I've almost forgotten about World of Motion. I liked that the vehicles took a little trip outside for a peek at the midway, and vice versa. It was very world's fairish.

Before the park debuted I got the big EPCOT coffee table book full of the concept renderings, photos of park models, story lines, and imagineer info. Every once in a while it's fun to pull it down and look at the original EPCOT. A lot is the same and a lot has changed.

bjames said:
.... is Epcot really the ideal park to be commercialized? The whole original point of the park was opposite of that. As for Magic Kingdom, Tron, really?

Yes, but ....

Epcot was a commercial product to begin with; the point of the park, like everything else in "the World", was to entice guests to spend as much money as possible.

I think bringing Guardians to the park is a smart move and will bring new energy to an under-visited area of the park. I can't even remember the last time I went to that corner of Epcot.

Why not Tron? Guests don't have to be familiar with the movie the ride is themed to to enjoy the ride, anymore than they have to be familiar with Song Of The South to enjoy Splash Mountain.

I'm not a Disney "regular" by any means, but on our couple trips over the past few years, the one area of the Magic Kingdom that felt way behind and in need of a nice shot in the arm was Tomorrowland. Tron is exactly what the doctor ordered.

With regards to Epcot, I'm a bit amazed that Ellen's attraction lasted as long as it did. And while Mission: Space was a cool experience, the ride visuals felt like an outdated video game; probably state-of-the-art when it was released but quickly surpassed by better technology.

I've still yet to do Mission: Space. I suppose I should, but it doesn't even sound interesting.

I did it once. That was enough. Frankly, nothing in the front half of Epcot is really that great with the exception of Soarin and maybe Golf Ball: The Ride, IMO.

kpjb said:

nothing in the front half of Epcot is really that great with the exception of Soarin and maybe Golf Ball: The Ride, IMO.

Do yourself a favor and go to a couple of Turtle Talk w/Crush shows. If you get even a little bit lucky, the kids' questions lead to some hilarious moments.

Mission Space is the only ride that I have felt claustrophobic on. We sat in the seats waiting to take off for almost 10 minutes before the mission started. I could feel the panic starting to settle over me, and I have never been claustrophobic before. I have managed to re-ride since then, but for whatever reason, if we don't get started quickly, I start to feel the same.

The forces on Misson:Space are really interesting and trick you into feeling like you've really lifted off in a rocket. Of course I don't have independent corroboration of how that really feels. As SVLFever suggests it did feel very claustrophobic and the visuals are prehistoric. Also there is an "interactive" portion of the ride as well that is pointless since your actions don't have any baring on how the ride turns out.

Well, everybody has a job or something.

But if your willing to suspend belief slightly, the forces in the cabin seem real. It's kind of like the Gravitron illusion. If you can't see that you're spinning, are you?