9/17: Compendium, Pt. I

[Al Lutz]

Part I: Universal's new coaster; DisneyWorld's Tomorrowland rehabs... discuss them here...

DIRECT ARTICLE LINK: MiceAge.com - A different look at Disney...

[jcruise86]

Loose items

Thanks, Kevin!

I disagree with your encouraging guests to ignore the loose items warning. You may be correct with the new coaster, but I lost a set of keys while I was on Universal's Hulk coaster. I know it's a very different ride, but the inconvenience this caused makes me take all loose items warnings seriously. Vacations are often too short. Why risk disrupting a holiday?

[The Shadoe]

Re: 9/17: Compendium, Pt. I

Not only are most of the show elements still there, apparently
the track itself is being only "partly" replaced.

Look closely at the following photos:


and from July:


The astronauts are in completely different positions, with different props. Rumors were floating about the figures getting movement. Changes are being made, they're just rather subtle. Too bad the entire track doesn't look like it's being replaced; this may be a decision they wished they had learned from Pressler's penny-pinching ways when 5 years later TDA ended up having to replace EVERYTHING.

It looks like TDO is plussing the ride, like they did to Haunted Mansion. The original Space Mountain can cater to those who always want the "old things" back, while still pleasing people in search of thrills. And it's being done rather inexpensively (though I still think the entire track should be replaced). Overall, this is a win-win-win.

[ryno1986]

Re: 9/17: Compendium, Pt. I

First of all, I agree with your review of HRRR. It is a very mediocre coaster, and an even lousier experience. Let me clear some things up. Everyone picks their own song. I thought that was painfully obvious from all the queue videos since it's the whole point of the ride. The speakers are high tech enough that you never hear the person next to you's song.

Also, there's no "computer algorithm" that choses the soundtrack on Rock'n RollerCoaster. Every train plays the same soundtrack all the time. One train plays Love in an elevator/Walk this Way, another plays Dude Looks Like a Lady etc.

[KevinYee]

Re: 9/17: Compendium, Pt. I

^ Now *that* I did not know. This is what I get from having small kids: we seldom go on Rock 'n Roller Coaster, and I must have a false memory of different songs. Maybe I'm conflating the onride song list with the really long queue area song list.

[Disneyland Tickets]

Re: 9/17: Compendium, Pt. I

Hi Kevin, Big fan here always love your articles. The WEDway is my favorite attraction at WDW, nice to see its been cleaned up and is running again, I rode it four times in a row last July!

I am sad however to see the Skyway building destroyed. Yes closed and unused buildings are bad in general, but that building had a some serious style and history with the park. Couldn't they have converted the interior to a restaurant? It seemed like a pretty large structure, complete with its own bathrooms.

I guess is was woefully out of date and I guess I'm just living in the early '70's still. From my blog post July 2008

RIP WDW Fantasyland Skyway Station

[sediment]

Re: 9/17: Compendium, Pt. I

Maybe screams will be added to the track via speakers. Like a sit-com with a laugh track, some people just need to be prompted.

[Club 33]

Re: 9/17: Compendium, Pt. I

^ Now *that* I did not know. This is what I get from having small kids: we seldom go on Rock 'n Roller Coaster, and I must have a false memory of different songs. Maybe I'm conflating the onride song list with the really long queue area song list.

If I can clear this up a little further. There are five songs total (technically six, more on that in a moment). As stated each roller coaster car plays one song, all the time. If you pay attention to the license plates on each train you can actually tell which song you're going to get (although which car plays which song has changed over the years).

The soundtracks are, in nearly every case, a mix of several Aerosmith songs, and unlike Rip Ride Rockit the tracks for Rock N Roller Coaster were all specifically remixed to coincide with the roller coaster action (purportedly a producer repeatedly rode the ride with a laptop strapped to his lap).

The tracks you can get are (in alphabetical order):

1. Back in the Saddle / Dude Looks Like a Lady
2. Love in an Elevator / Walk This Way
3. Sweet Emotion
4. Young Lust / F.I.N.E. / Love in an Elevator
5. 9 Lives

It might be noted that Sweet Emotion is the only soundtrack mixed from a live performance of the song by Aereosmith; the rest are studio recordings (despite the fact that we are supposedly listening to a radio broadcast of a live Aerosmith concert).

Track 4 contains one part specifically rerecorded for the ride; the end lyric is "Love in a Roller Coaster" instead of "Love in an Elevator".

Finally, there was a 6th track produced, from the song "What Kind of Love Are You On?". This features another rerecorded lyrics ("What Kind of Ride Are You On?" instead of "What Kind of Love Are You On?"). The track is not currently used, and I'm not sure when or if it ever was; I've read some places that it was used as a "power failure track" but I'm not sure what that means.

Now to your point Kevin it could be argued that even these remixes do not coincide with the ride experience as much as those coasters with original scores do, but one can at least appreciate that these songs were specially remixed for the ride, as opposed to Rip Ride Rocket which uses unaltered sections of songs. Now, on the other hand, personally I think that the ability to choose your own song (particularly with the large number of bonus tracks available) more than makes up for this, though I haven't had a chance to ride the coaster myself.

[AstroBlaster]

Re: 9/17: Compendium, Pt. I

Thanks for the update Kevin. I for one am looking forward to Space Mountain's return now that my kids are old enough to get on it.

[kcnole]

Re: 9/17: Compendium, Pt. I

They must have taken steps to keep this coaster quiet, perhaps by stuffing something into the tubes of the track

They did, the entire track was filled with sand so that the ride wouldn't be too loud. Universal wanted to be able to run this attraction late at night, even after the park closed. One of the rumors is that you'll be able to pay to ride it from a Citywalk access point once the park closes for the night. So they had to make it quiet so as not to disturb the nearby neighborhoods.

The music is loud enough that I assume each row must have the same music (is this a premature assumption?) which if true probably means the "first" person to enter a song decides for the whole row.

Someone else already mentioned this, but that's not true. The speakers are placed around your head in a way that only you hear your song.

[a-net-fan]

Re: 9/17: Compendium, Pt. I

I just have to say it.....I LOVE TTA!!!!!

[MickeyMania]

Re: 9/17: Compendium, Pt. I

A bit confused by the thing at the end. Are you on Twitter, Kevin?

[KevinYee]

Re: 9/17: Compendium, Pt. I

I have a twitter account (user cafeorleans) but after experiementing a bit, think I'm going to only update the facebook one more often. The twitter one will get much less frequent updates.

[WEDway100]

Re: 9/17: Compendium, Pt. I

From the article about TTA, "They've otherwise erected visual barriers; you can't see what they are doing to the ride and queue area. "

I rode this last Sunday. I have a concern that these are not temporary barriers. It appears as if they have erected permanent walls that block TTA riders from viewing the SM load area. If you look at the top of the barriers, they are very thick and have an angled upward wall at the top, almost as if they have created a more enlcosed load area.

I hope I am wrong. At the risk of sounding old, I remember when they changed If You Had Wings to Take Flight. They closed off a view of the TTA to the left. Those windows are still blacked out, which makes for a boring section of the TTA just after the Buzz window on the right.

[a-net-fan]

Re: 9/17: Compendium, Pt. I

From the article about TTA, "They've otherwise erected visual barriers; you can't see what they are doing to the ride and queue area. "

I rode this last Sunday. I have a concern that these are not temporary barriers. It appears as if they have erected permanent walls that block TTA riders from viewing the SM load area. If you look at the top of the barriers, they are very thick and have an angled upward wall at the top, almost as if they have created a more enlcosed load area.

I hope I am wrong. At the risk of sounding old, I remember when they changed If You Had Wings to Take Flight. They closed off a view of the TTA to the left. Those windows are still blacked out, which makes for a boring section of the TTA just after the Buzz window on the right.

Oh wow that wouldnt be good! The more and more they close off the more irrelevant the TTA becomes. I mean part of the idea is to give a tour of Tomorrowland and when you close off all the viewing areas within the show buildings this just becomes a Monorail with tunnels. If I remember right doesnt the soundtrack for the ride mention Space Mountain? Has that part been taken out of the soundtrack after the update? If it has then chances are you may be right and this wall off is indeed perminant. I also find it really odd that they chose to light that area of the track. Any ideas why they chose to do that?

PS: LOVED DreamFlight and Take Flight. I miss those rides.

[WEDway100]

Re: 9/17: Compendium, Pt. I

Oh wow that wouldnt be good! The more and more they close off the more irrelevant the TTA becomes. I mean part of the idea is to give a tour of Tomorrowland and when you close off all the viewing areas within the show buildings this just becomes a Monorail with tunnels. If I remember right doesnt the soundtrack for the ride mention Space Mountain? Has that part been taken out of the soundtrack after the update? If it has then chances are you may be right and this wall off is indeed perminant. I also find it really odd that they chose to light that area of the track. Any ideas why they chose to do that?

PS: LOVED DreamFlight and Take Flight. I miss those rides.

Rmember that SM is not open. Right now, the lights are on for the construction. And there was no sound at all when I rode it (just the hum of the magnets).

I should point out that they did leave the glass section in place after the load area where you can view the track from TTA. That now has black curtains so we can't see the construction, but I suspect those curtains will be removed when SM re-opens.

[jmelrose]

Re: 9/17: Compendium, Pt. I

When I rode HRRR I was thoroughly frustrated by the song I picked: Daft Punk's song should have been energy from start to finish, but the first 30 seconds of the song were the build-up and intro section, and by then the best part of the ride was over. It was very off-putting, to say the least. RNRC does a much much better job matching music to ride experience.

U2's Vertigo is a hidden track... Now that I know that I can't wait to see how much better the experience with with a song that at least will be into "the good stuff' by the time the top of the lift hill is reached.

By the way, Kevin, it is possible to link Facebook and Twitter, so posting to twitter updates your facebook status as well. Might be the way to go. The reverse, facebook --> twitter updates, are not easily possible as I understand it.

[ghosty4]

Re: 9/17: Compendium, Pt. I

The first red flag for how mild Rip Ride Rock It was going to be should have been the lack of over the shoulder restraints...putting it lower than The Mummy is pretty bad though, since the one at Universal Studios Hollywood is probably THE lamest attempt at a roller coster I've ever encountered...