Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA <I always loved Wonders of Life. It just seemed like the perfect marriage between education and entertainment.> I agree, leemac. The combination at 'Wonders of Life' was very, very much what an EPCOT pavilion should be. Unfortunately, hot pink - bright aqua -- and vivid golden yellow, become dated very quickly. I was working at WDW at the time, and hosting a radio station for the opening of 'Wonders of Life.' I remember the first week 'Body Wars' opened -- and then the interesting tweaks they did to the movie -- The one I remember was when Elizabeth Shue's character is examining the splinter -- She loses her footing and screams 'May Day!' Shortly after the grand opening, they re-recorded Shue's dialogue so that, when she broke away and got sucked into a capillary she wouldn't sound so panicked. Also, the chase to get Shue's character was edited a bit -- to be shorter, and the simulators were toned down slightly. I always thought that the line 'We're going to have to pass through the blood brain barrier' During the grand opening, I remember driving along the backstage service road behind Future World. There, sitting on the curb of the access road (waiting for her Tour Guide or other Disney rep I suppose) was Elizabeth Shue. Being a young smart-aleck(surprise!)cast member, I slowed down, rolled down the window and said, 'Excuse me, can you tell me where 'Horizons' is?' She smiled and actually started to look around to see if she could help me. I told her I was joking, and that I was looking forward to seeing her in 'Back to the Future - Part 3' -- her comment -- 'Look fast! I'm not in it very much.'
Originally Posted By mousermerf They cut down the lung sequence - it's why her final comments don't quite make sense about all the place you've been. I believe it's the right lung that got cut. Tower/Operators were not to stop the ride during a portion called "the worst of it" (oddish name, but any CM there would know what you were talking about) that lasts about 30 seconds about 3/4 of the way through the experience. Stopping the probe (e-stop, evac stop, fire stop.. any of them) during that portion would result in an extremely violent movement of the vehicle to reset itself in the home position, as "the worst of it" put the vehicle at its limits for movement off the various axii.
Originally Posted By MPierce >> <--worked at Body Wars, had to ride it daily for test flights, misses it. << Your tough Merf.
Originally Posted By MPierce >> Body Wars was nauseating in a way that Star Tours never managed (for me, anyway)...I think it was all the "suck and blow" motion that did it. I'm fine with up and down and side to side. Same here X. I could ride Star Tours all day without any problems.
Originally Posted By MPierce >> Every time I see the Wonders of Life pavilion, I think about how ill WDW management makes me. << Isn't this where somebody steps in and saids "at least it's open for F & W festival" or "they needed more room for convention use". Just another under used building at Epcot.
Originally Posted By Sara Tonin I puked on Star Tours once...the last time I rode it...they put me on too soon after breakfast....
Originally Posted By MPierce >> A manager at Epcot did not like Wonders. He shut us down while they were doing guest counts during EMH testing to see where guests went during those hours - they later used those numbers to pick which attractions stayed open for EMH. they also used them to justify closing Wonders. << What was the justification?
Originally Posted By MPierce >> In fact, I thought it was one of the most inviting, friendly and "timeless" pavilions out of all those at Epcot. Always busy too, every time I was there (probably a couple of dozen times at least, over the few years it was open). << Funny it always felt cold, and sterile to me.
Originally Posted By MPierce >> One of the complaints that we always hear about is that the multi-attraction pavilions are confusing to people - they don't understand what is in there and for many it is a trek over to the pavilion to discover it too. No idea if that is reality. I don't really recall it ever being uber-busy like The Land. << I believe the vastness, and concept alone, could be a little overwhelming for a lot of new visitors to Epcot. >> Personally I found the decor very dated even in the early nineties. It just felt rather cold. << I never really thought of it as dated, but it definetly felt cold to me.
Originally Posted By MPierce >> I forgot to add that Kirk/Trousdale worked on Cranium Command too. The days when WDFA used to enjoy working on park stuff! << So what's changed Lee?
Originally Posted By MPierce Mousermerf are you saying it was a conscieous effort by WDW's managemnt that led to the demise of WOL?
Originally Posted By MPierce >> I puked on Star Tours once...the last time I rode it...they put me on too soon after breakfast.... << Did you make it outside or did you let it fly in your space ship?
Originally Posted By Sara Tonin Luckily, I was the last person boarded for that row and there was an empty seat to my left...and well, I'll just say that cabin went 101 as we were being disboarded.
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA Ugh. My friend told me his story about 'splashing' on 'Mission: Space' -- nothing like a cabin that smells of pancakes, sausage and VoBan.
Originally Posted By Mr X ***One of the complaints that we always hear about is that the multi-attraction pavilions are confusing to people - they don't understand what is in there and for many it is a trek over to the pavilion to discover it too. No idea if that is reality.*** That makes sense. To a fan, it's cool to have lots of stuff (and likely we already know what to look for too), but for an average customer I can see why it might be confusing. ***I don't really recall it ever being uber-busy like The Land.*** ***The queue to enter the building used to go down the slope out front - it has a capacity as a whole and that number was reached in the early days.*** That's what I remember too. Perhaps also because it was smaller than the Land, it seemed busy to me (plus the Body Wars lines were ridiculous at times as mousermerf mentioned). Of course, it all depends on your time-frame of reference, on my first couple of visits to Epcot way back in the stone age I remember extremely long lines for EVERYTHING, even Horizons and World of Motion too
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA One of the complaints that we always hear about is that the multi-attraction pavilions are confusing to people> The Wonders of Life and The Land were unique, in that they have a series of things to do under one roof. I find those pavilions to be really, really cool. But in this rush-around-to-every-attraction-wheres-the-next-ride mentality that visitors have -- I can see how a pavilion like The Land would be...'confusing.' Sounds like it's marketing-speak for 'boring.'
Originally Posted By Mr X I'd include in that same concept the Communicores, Spaceship Earth and even World of Motion, though not to the same extent. Oh, and Journey as well (I remember thinking Magic Journeys and the Imagination Station were far cooler than the "main" ride...not to mention the dancing fountains). Back in the opening days it was clear one was expected to spend lots of time (even a couple of hours) exploring just one pavilion. Personally, I loved it. In fact, my very first visit to Epcot back in 1983 (I think, or maybe 84) I never even made it to the countries section...we were just so enamored with Future World and it took all day just to see it all. But for the "okay, where's the next ride!?" types, yeah I can see how they don't dig it. Particularly since the multi-attraction idea involves *some* "big stuff", and *some "small stuff", and they get pissed when they get stuff with small stuff along the way.
Originally Posted By Mr X ***we were just so enamored with Future World and it took all day just to see it all*** Mind you, that was before Living Seas and Wonders of Life. But the lines were pretty daunting so that sucked up a lot of time too.
