Originally Posted By sjhym33 Was out at EPCOT today and got a chance to try out the new Sum of All Thrills, the new attraction that is opening this week at Innoventions. First off let me tell you that EPCOT was PACKED. You could barely move in World Showcase. They were expecting 40,000 people today and it looked like it. We also had the opportunity to see Season of the Vines which used to be at DCA but is currently playing at the old Making of Me theater in Wonders of Life. A cute little movie. Food and Wine was going strong. Miss some of the larger type pavillions this year (like the large New Orleans display last year)since there are only the food booths. The lines at every booth were long. If your planning to do Food and Wine I would say avoid the weekends. The Sum of All Thrills attraction is using the technology similar to the virtual Space Mountain attraction at DisneyQuest. You enter the queue and a CM gives you a card with a magnetic strip on it and give you a number to stand on for the preshow. The preshow talks about engineering and the part the sponsor (Raytheon) plays in various things including thrill rides. You then move to the next are that has a flat table computer screen and you get to choose your thrill: either a bobsled, roller coaster or jet plane. You then build your course or track. You test the parts as you go along and you have to balance the height of hills and loops against your speed. When your done or when time expires you move upstairs to the load platform and give the CM your computer card. There are lockers at the load area that you have to put your things in before loading. Its free and you hold on to the key. You board the vehicle which looks like a single seat Mission Space vehicle. The top pulls down over you and the screen is now in front of your whole face. Not a good thing if your clostrophibic. The seat/vehicle lifts and you ride the thrill that you build. It lasts about a min or so. You get to keep your magnetic card and you can go home and watch your thrill on your computer for up to 2 years. I want to say that it was fun attraction. The lines are going to be TERRIBLE. The hourly capacity for the attraction is 125. There are only four vehicles and each on sits 2 people. It is going to be a mess. I believe that this technology is the same that is going into the new Harry Potter ride but those vehicles will be on a track. Watching the thing move from the ground is pretty impressive and terrifying. Lastly, I want to beat the parking dead horse one last time. They parked 6 lots today. Which meant that the trams were making the long trip out to the hinter lands then came back along the main tram lanes in the center. They were running 2 trams even though they were still busy parking cars at 6pm. The wait to board a tram either from the parking lot or from the front entrance was as long as 15 mins. Absolutely terrible guest service when your charging $14.00 to park.
Originally Posted By -em >>Absolutely terrible guest service when your charging $14.00 to park.<< agreed
Originally Posted By vbdad55 make no mistake- while I am not ready to hang them for $14 parking rates as Ifeel manymore cars park for free these days anyway ( DVC alone) - I give them ZERO passes for crappy service like 15 minute tram waits - not acceptable period
Originally Posted By brotherdave That's 15 minutes less that these poor guests can be purchasing something in the park! What's wrong with the bean counters here?!?
Originally Posted By EPCOT Explorer Sounds cool, here...Much like the old "Create-a-Coaster" in ye olde CommuniCore in EPCOT Center
Originally Posted By sjhym33 The technology is really amazing. It will be interesting to see what Universal does with it. It could possibly be Spiderman on steroids and give Disney a real run for its money attraction wise.
Originally Posted By magic0214 Im going soon, so I'm looking forward to it. I love Innoventions, so this is great they are getting all these new exhibits. I really enjoyed the Banking one that recently opened. I miss the Great American Pizza Game though, and Where's the Fire? is still one of my favorites.
Originally Posted By sjhym33 I thought it was pretty intense, though since you design your own experience you can make it as intense or tame as you want it.
Originally Posted By sjhym33 Yes but I believe it is a different system that delivers the ride. Think of a long and large robotic arm with a 2 seat ride vehicle on top. The arm can move the vehicle in amazing dips and heights and turn the vehicle upside down.
Originally Posted By MPierce Do they have the queue set up to where it won't cause a traffic jam. At a capacity of 125 an hour there will definetly be people waiting in line.
Originally Posted By sjhym33 There is a back and forth queue that I think will fill quickly. They are expecting that it will be a queue nightmare once guests can see the attraction in operation. Everyone involved is also shaking their head over the capacity. I am not sure whose decision that was Disney's or the sponsors.
Originally Posted By MPierce That's what I was afraid of. It sounds like a really fun little attraction. I'm also sure it's there to let people see the wizardry behind Harry Potter, and be able to see it in action in it's rawest form.
Originally Posted By sjhym33 Sum of all Thrills opened today at Innoventions. Here is the article from the Sentinel: <a href="http://www.orlandosentinel.com/travel/attractions/orl-bk-disney-world-new-ride-101409,0,1658144.story" target="_blank">http://www.orlandosentinel.com...44.story</a> Not sure it is a good thing when the idea is cant wait to see what the theme park down the road does with the technology.
Originally Posted By -em I went to check it out today (didn't realize it was *the* grand opening today- explains why I got a free cookie with the logo on it) and all in all I was impressed. I do see where the capacity will be *the* killer (esp with those odd sized parties that will leave seats empty) but it seemed that they do try hard to keep everything moving.. It took me about 45 min from start to finish (and that included some small groups that kept getting escorted though the line...) I liked the building portion and how easy it was to build and balance your coaster (you have to make sure its "safe" aerodynamically) and I was a "super thriller" with 6 inversions.. I liked the lockers they have to secure all things while riding on the platform I also liked the 2 tier riding system for kids between 48 and 54 where they can ride but their card blocks them from including inversions. I think its a great addition to Innoventions and all in all I'm very impressed with the current offerings in Innoventions- I find myself spending time each trip there... -em
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo Funny thing is, Legoland in California has had this sort of attraction for years now. Lol
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo True, but there are several different severity ratings. I think this is a cool offering at Epcot, but I also do not feel this is new. Futuroscope in France opened a design yourself version 2 years ago.
Originally Posted By brotherdave It sounds like an interesting 'small' attraction for Epcot, but the extremely low capacity for the ride is troublesome. Somehow, I expect that Disney will get lots of complaints about the slowness of the line. Still, the concept sounds cool, if even a bit nauseating. I wonder if this will make its way to other Disney parks elsewhere? Also, I'm now even more curious as to how Universal will be developing their's for Harry Potter. I would guess that the arm's will be larger and hold more guests at one time than Epcot's. Plus, with multiple units traveling along a track, I'm sure that they figured out how to manage to increase capacity to that of, say, Spiderman or Men In Black. At least I hope they did!!!
