Documenting DHS before the major changes happen

ddindy

ddindy

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As any of you who have attended a Jim Korkis event at Pixelmania know, it's important to document the parks as they are today because they will change tomorrow. ; Well, it's time to start concentrating on certain areas of the Studios because, based on comments made by Jim Hill made at the Dayton Disneyana meet and on a recent Touringplans.com Disney Dish podcast, it looks like major changes are coming.

I'll let you listen to the podcast for all of the details and disclaimers, but basically it looks like this: ; Star Wars Land will take over the area between Hollywood Boulevard and Star Tours. ; Echo Lake will be converted to Mos Eisley spaceport, featuring the famous cantina. ; The Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular will go away and be replaced by a speeder bike ride through the forests of Endor. ; (Based on Jim's comments at Dayton, it sounds like this is similar to some racing simulators where your vehicle is surrounded by hi-def video monitors, giving you an immersive experience.) ; The props in Backlot Express will be replaced by props from various George Lucas films. ; Jedi Training Academy will move indoors to the Sounds Dangerous building.

If all of this happens, we'll want to have photos of the areas as they exist today. ; You have your assignment - get to work!
 
thank god Sounds Dangerous is going .. that was just a waste of space.
[/size]
[/size]No mention of Carsland?
 
I just listened to that podcast yesterday and was thinking of what Jim Korkis would say at each of the meets. ; I will be spending a little bit of extra time at the Studios next week.
 
"Sean&Karen" said:
[/size]No mention of Carsland?
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I think they know that if they are going to remove the last bastion of the original "movie studio" theme park they are going to lose a major chunk of the park during the construction....so getting rid of LMA and the Backlot Tour at the same time it would probably be better to close the park, which they have never done. ; I guess they want to do this first, Cars Land second.
 
I don't remember if Jim Hill said this in the podcast or not, but at Dayton he said that Star Wars definitely has priority over Cars Land. ; He also said that the changes to DHS are in the blue-sky stage now. ; The plans may change depending on how much money gets approved, if and when anything is approved.

A couple of other changes I remembered around Star Tours: ; The JTA stage and Ewok Village will be removed. ; The AT-AT set piece will be replaced with a complete version, and the control cab and one leg will probably move.

Regarding Cars Land, only the Mater ride and Radiator Springs Racers will be built. ; Luigi's Flying Tires will not, and it may be removed from DCA. ; The biggest difference is that due to the frequent rain in Florida, they want to make RSR an indoor ride. ; If they do, I seriously doubt that it will have the same visual impact as the DCA version.

He also mentioned Avatar Land. ; Progress is slow because James Cameron is frequently somewhere in the ocean and hard to contact. ; The main feature of the land will be a ride like Soarin', but instead of a queue with a fixed path, you'll have to make your way through a field of Pandoran plant life. ; Sounds like a one-and-done to me.
 
Shooting in DHS was high on the list for my trip in September, but it looks like it moved to the top. ; If they're still in Blue Sky phase, hopefully we'll still have an opportunity to shoot that stuff in December as well.
 
Yeah, I thought I'd have a chance a few weeks ago, but didn't get there until late at night, and it was the first night up there with a friend, so we didn't really get to do a photo tour of all the areas that are to be torn down. ; I may try again in September when I'm up there solo.
 
I spent an extra hour in the insane heat today walking around Echo Lake taking shots. ; It was fun to take pictures knowing it all could be gone soon if the rumors are true



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I've also read rumor/reports that this may be the last year for the Osborne family lights. That would really bum me out if they disappeared... That makes this year's Pixelmania all the more sweeter.

~Joanie
 
Okie dokie, I've listened to that great podcast and it's got me thinking about ride technology. I'd totally love to see industrial robot arms used as a locomotion platform for a speeder bike ride or a Pod race ride.

The other thing I am thinking is that Disney should design a ride car platform that then would be featured in the new Star Wars movie. What I mean by this is that it will be easier to incorporate a workable ride vehicle design into the movie versus trying to use a design from the movie and try to work it into a ride vehicle.

My 14 year old son is a huge Star Wars fan and we often trade ideas about what we would like to see in the park for Star Wars Land. When they turned Spaceship Earth into a giant Mike Wazowski we knew it would be a small leap to turn it into the Death Star. We also wonder if Future world would be a better location for Star Wars Land....

So much to think about and consider concerning Star Wars Land...

~Joanie
 
"Joanie Eddis-Koch" said:
industrial robot arms used as a locomotion platform
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Unfortunately the best one for human use is locked up with a North American exclusive agreement.[nb]By a competitor[/nb] ; Disney has one they can use. ; It's at Epcot, and not in Innoventions.
 
"Roger" said:
Unfortunately the best one for human use is locked up with a North American exclusive agreement.[nb]By a competitor[/nb] ; Disney has one they can use. ; It's at Epcot, and not in Innoventions.
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Hmmm... This is a bummer to hear. I was thinking they could just go to "Robot Arm Mart" (Kind of like Walmart, but for robot arms.... they have those right??) and just pick up one for each ride car, program it with the moves after they developed a vehicle platform and then away we go!

So is the other Robot arm in Mission Space?

~Joanie
 
Nope. Right land of Epcot, wrong side.

It's what is holding up the Anglerfish during the Sea Cabs part of the Seas
 
Several years ago a CM swore that the Osborne Lights would be moving to Sunset Blvd. the next year. ; It never happened. ; I don't think they'll be moving off the Streets of America in the foreseeable future.

But I've been known to be wrong. ; ;)
 
"ddindy" said:
Several years ago a CM swore that the Osborne Lights would be moving to Sunset Blvd. the next year. ; It never happened. ; I don't think they'll be moving off the Streets of America in the foreseeable future.

But I've been known to be wrong. ; ;)
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The whole Star Wars area is still in Blue Sky....heck the stuff they are going to show at D23 seems like it's going to just be concept art/demos, which could still feasibly NOT HAPPEN.

I don't think they will break ground on anything until the end of 2014. ; The Board hasn't even approved anything except the low budget Phineas and Ferb redo of the Imagination Pavilion (which is actually a good fit with that Pavilion)
 
Phineas and Ferb will be a great fit for the Imagination Pavilion. ; As for Starwarsland, it sounded as if there were at least three possible plans for it. Which means they could still scrap those and go with a fourth or fifth idea...


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