Thoughts on Space Mountain exteriors?

[Datameister]

Hey, all. I've been thinking about the Space Mountain exterior lately, and I was wondering...how do y'all feel about the various versions' external appearances? Walt Disney World's original is big and relatively secluded in its placement. Disneyland's smaller take on it is surrounded by other onstage and backstage areas, with a somewhat different design for the spires, and perhaps slightly steeper sides. Also, Disneyland's version does not allow any views of its nondescript backstage base, unlike WDW's, which has a base that's visible from outside the park. Then there's the wildly different DLP version, with its bright colors and high visibility and cannon and different environs.

So I suppose this is just a thread for discussing which take you guys like best. Me personally, I think DLP's Vernesque appeal is pretty and interesting, and WDW's sheer size combines with its "weenie" placement to create a certain magnetism, but DL's remains the only one I've really experienced in person and the only one I'm really attached to. What do you guys think?

[GoldenBoySC99]

Re: Thoughts on Space Mountain exteriors?

I miss the moving walkways that took you up to the queue area at the DL version. They were cool. Plus now you have to walk that huge, steep ramp.

[Datameister]

Re: Thoughts on Space Mountain exteriors?

Mmmm. The current ramp situation does bother me (except for the poor decor of the area around it), but I do really like the moving walkway design better.

[krystledm]

Re: Thoughts on Space Mountain exteriors?

delete please

[krystledm]

Re: Thoughts on Space Mountain exteriors?

r u sure you just don't like the ramp cause it's EXERCISE ?

i'm fine with it, but the empty outdoor area could use some themeing, as has been said many times.

[IMAGINE]

Re: Thoughts on Space Mountain exteriors?

There are plenty of exterior improvements that can be added to enhance the show quality around the exterior for Space, only problem is the cash needed for it. Although it wouldn't really do much for actual guest interaction(other than enhacements in the queue), exterior enhancements would entice, guests into visiting. Something cool on the outside has got to be even cooler on the inside...

[Junthor]

Re: Thoughts on Space Mountain exteriors?

I think the exterior is cool... it's small and unassuming... yet when you get inside...


MAGIC

[GrimmGreen]

Re: Thoughts on Space Mountain exteriors?

i like the way Hong Kong Disneyland's Space Mountain looks personally , not so stoked on the Jules Verne look of DLP

[CaliforniaAdventurer]

Re: Thoughts on Space Mountain exteriors?

Well, I like Tokyo's. No just kidding.

Actually, why is the queue for Space Mountain so pathetic? Awnings? A ramp through a pizza fast food place? Why no theming to get you into the space station?

[patattack]

Re: Thoughts on Space Mountain exteriors?

not as cool as the original concept but what is

[DisneyIPresume]

Re: Thoughts on Space Mountain exteriors?

Well, I like Tokyo's. No just kidding.

Actually, why is the queue for Space Mountain so pathetic? Awnings? A ramp through a pizza fast food place? Why no theming to get you into the space station?

Because that's the way it was done back in the good old days!

[Datameister]

Re: Thoughts on Space Mountain exteriors?

Actually, why is the queue for Space Mountain so pathetic? Awnings? A ramp through a pizza fast food place? Why no theming to get you into the space station?

Agreed. I have to say that I'm disappointed in that aspect of Space Mountain's exterior. It doesn't feel like you're entering a space port or space station until you get under the awnings and see the second Space Mountain sign. (I admit that I feel a geekish thrill just being able to see the mountain up close from the balcony, though. And being able to stand on top of HISTA is cool, too.

As far as the design of Space Mountain itself goes, though, I'm endlessly impressed. It's really a simple design: a slightly truncated cone with a cylinder as a base (and a tapering underground section), a top section that slopes more steeply and is capped at both ends by a simple ring, structural supports at 10-degree increments, and numerous spires of similar design but differing size and placement. Plain white. Visible from a distance from numerous locations inside and outside the park, but rarely visible up-close. The queue's entrance is still a distance from the mountain itself, so you can't get close to it without committing to standing in line. That creates a...sense of mystery, I think. A sense of alien detachment that's quite appropriate and effective for that attraction.

[CaliforniaAdventurer]

Re: Thoughts on Space Mountain exteriors?

/\
Why not turn Starcade over to a new indoor dark space themed queue, complete with Speed Ramp to the second floor, where you continue into the existing indoor queue without ever seeing the outdoors. Then put an outdoor stage on the roof of HISTA and you can have both an indoor and outdoor theater in Tomorrowland.

[CaliforniaAdventurer]

Re: Thoughts on Space Mountain exteriors?

Because that's the way it was done back in the good old days!

No in the good old days you didn't snake above the heads of pizza eating people, you had a speed ramp taking you upstairs and CM's greeting you at the ramp.

[Datameister]

Re: Thoughts on Space Mountain exteriors?

I don't remember snaking over the heads of pizza-eating people in the queue...I mean, I know it's close to Redd Rocket's...oh, wait, is there an outdoor eating area under there?

::goes back to making model of that area, curses self for not taking enough photos::

[brian9549]

Re: Thoughts on Space Mountain exteriors?

I like DL's Space Mountain placement because it is in the center of everything in TL and you can't really see the base from outside the berm. MK's on the other hand shows you everything from the outside. DLP's just looks great. It is so futuristic looking and has a great style.

DL's just looks classic (especially now that it is white again) and looks like a sleek mountain.

[TrojanSkippa]

Re: Thoughts on Space Mountain exteriors?

No in the good old days you didn't snake above the heads of pizza eating people, you had a speed ramp taking you upstairs and CM's greeting you at the ramp.

In the good old days, there weren't pizza eating people, there were trips to the moon and later trips to Mars.

[MarenBoBarren]

Re: Thoughts on Space Mountain exteriors?

I miss the moving walkways that took you up to the queue area at the DL version. They were cool. Plus now you have to walk that huge, steep ramp.

For the longest time after they took those out i thought they were just something i had invented in my head that werent actually there haha....

[TBAAFAN]

Re: Thoughts on Space Mountain exteriors?

I like this one.

[Datameister]

Re: Thoughts on Space Mountain exteriors?

That concept art reminds me of something, though. Does anyone feel like the original plan for having the rockets occasionally swoop outside the mountain would have worked terribly in reality? It's one of those cases where I'm actually glad the original, more grandiose plan was ditched. This would have negated the carefully-maintained darkness within the mountain, and from a storyline or attraction context POV, it made no sense--why would the rockets penetrate the boundaries of interstellar space and suddenly find themselves swooping around the outside of a big white structure in Disneyland?

I know that this was originally suggested because Space Mountain was to be WDW's futuristic Matterhorn. But there's a slight difference between swerving briefly out of a cavernous mountain and peeking out through the edges of the universe, you know? =P

I also think the exterior "satelloids" that some concept art shows were an interesting idea, but I'm glad they weren't included either. (Check out the first pic on this page.) There's something appealing about the simplicity of the final design--1 cone, 2 discs, 20 spires, 36 exterior struts. (Those numbers are for the Disneyland version.) Adding the satelloids would have cluttered the exterior too much.

Tee hee. When I was little, I thought Space Mountain looked too dated. Not anymore.