DisneyQuest closing to make room for NBA Experience

I'm not sure if I know anyone who has ever actually set foot in that building.

I have visited DisneyQuest twice, not recently however 2001-2002. It was entertaining for a few hours. The pirates of the Caribbean interactive game was awesome for a small group of friends and the most notable attraction. It will be missed. I always felt the place would have been better suited with no admission policy and pay as you go. The collection of vintage games was also interesting.

When I was a Cast Member, we would go once a year on our free ticket in the holiday coupon book. I never spent money to get it, nor would I. It was usually good for a couple hours of arcade games. It has been very tired and outdated in the last several years, and many features, such as the Genie in the elevator had long been removed.

I'm sure when it first opened it was fantastic. But it is time.

I've visited DisneyQuest every time I've gone to Disney! Granted, I'm 30, and I grew up on a good variety of the arcade games they have there, and their unique experiences weren't terrible, either. I'm not surprised by this announcement, given the state of things there recently, though.

There was a small collection of group games; Pirates of the Caribbean, Astro Blaster "bumper cars" and the virtual Jungle Cruise. POTC consisted of a small group standing on a ship's bow shooting. Players would use a "pull string" cannon shooting other ships. Not resemblance to the original ride or movies, except for the pirate theme. It was okay, but unique being able I was able to play with my four friends. Astro Blasters was awesome, each car held two guests; one to drive and the other to shoot tennis-like balls. Each car was inside a cage and well protected. After a number of hits, the car would spin around a few times. The last group ride was the virtual Jungle Cruise. We sat in a motion based raft, simulating the river. We had a physical paddles that controlled our speed; we were racing against time. Again, no connection to the original Jungle Cruise, it was more like a river adventure with rapids. All three rides were low capacity and probably wouldn't work in a typical Disney park.

Overall, it was a fun place to visit. I visited it once with a free pass.

Astro Blasters and Jungle Cruise were at the top of the list for our family when we went, along with CyberSpace Mountain. Its age is probably showing since EPCOT added Sum of All Thrills.

Jeff said:

I'm not sure if I know anyone who has ever actually set foot in that building.

You know me, and I went there once - but only because we got some kind of included admission/token amount with our ticket package back in 2004 or so. We got bored quick, but the Buzz Lightyear bumper cars that picked up, and fired soccer balls out of a "cannon" were cool, once.

I guess I should have said that I don't know anyone who has set foot in there and has bothered to tell me. :)

I went to the Disneyquest in Chicago (which closed 14 years ago), once.

I found it disappointing. I was expecting a Disney Park experience and it didn't make it to that level. It was fine for what it was, but it was like seeing a building bearing a big Saks Fifth Avenue sign, only to find a Sears inside the doors.

I'm truly bummed I never made it in there to try the design a coaster ride.

Kind of surprised by the choice of an NBA restaurant to go in at an "upscale" shopping/restaurant venue. I don't think sports restaurants/HRC-type eatery when I think of upscale (unless it's a Shula's or something).

bunky - we did the design-a-coaster at EPCOT (Sum of All Thrills). It was cool but not really all that. On return visits, Jill wasn't interested in doing it again. The Robocoaster riding part was pretty fun, but the design options as I recall were pretty limited. Assuming the DisneyQuest version was the same concept, you didn't miss too much.

NBA City was easily the best restaurant on Universal's City Walk for quite a few years. Really excellent food. And I don't know what's "upscale" about Downtown Disney anyway. Planet Hollywood is a dump and there's a McDonald's there.

Jeff, I get that, but with them turning the Downtown Disney into Disney Springs, I thought they were revamping everything.

Downtown Disney's a whole lot less fun now that you can't party like it's New Year's Eve every night :)

It's also not as much fun now that partying like it's 1999 is so last-century...

And that's rough when my girl wants to party all the time, party all the time.

Partying, partying, YEAH!

You've got to fight for your right to paaaahhr-tay!