| # | Author | Message |
11
| Disneyland55
Tue 12/4/2007 1:47p | WDW SM is my favorite too. I have only been on DL, WDW, and DLP's SM, but have heard that the other two are not that great.
I agree with what you said, plus I also really like the queue area with the stars, commets, etc. You can also see SM vehicles go by, which I think is neat. |
12
| MPierce
Tue 12/4/2007 3:17p | That was a fair judgement Greg. Most everyones favorite ride is based on nosalgia or just how a particular ride effects you. Everybody is entitled to their own favorite ride. In the end it doesn't matter what anybody else thinks, as long as the ride makes you smile. |
13
| leobloom
Tue 12/4/2007 5:00p | I agree with you Greg. WDW's Space is the most minimalist of the pack, and I think its simplicity is its superiority.
I hope they don't put a soundtrack to WDW's Space, because I think the music would distract from the experience. It's much more fulfilling to hear the other cars racing around the track and the screams of other riders.
In short, anything to keep Space from turning into RnRC II is good. RnRC is just a disappointment to anyone who likes good rollercoasters or good on-board scenery. |
14
| lauwmw
Tue 12/4/2007 5:01p | I find the articles and comments to be interesting. I designed both the WDW and the DL rides so it would be hard for me to favor either one; kind of like comparing your two children. When I designed the WDW ride, I did not know what kind of a building it would be installed in, so I had a lot of freedom except that my boss insisted that I use a Matterhorn type vehicle. To achieve the capacity that is required for an "E-Ticket" ride it was necessary to have two-car trains and two tracks. (Matterhorn had individual cars at that time). My only experiance in coaster design was a test track that we used for Big Thunder Railway. That project was set aside when it was decided that Space Mountain had priority. I had already written most of the computer programs and was able to use the test track to evaluate the necessary coefficients, but the thing I didn't know is what the roll rates should be into the banked turns. Some of those turned out to be a little excessive for a dark ride and we went back and changed them.
When it came time to design the DL version, the frst issue was the space available at DL. The building would be much smaller. To get sufficient capacity the vehicles had to be larger and therefore the track had to be larger. And it all had to fit in a 200 ft. diameter building. So the spiraling down through the several right hand turns was because there wasn't room to double back. And in order to accommodate the guests that felt that WDW was too wild, the roll rates into the curves are about half of the worst-case WDW rate. I don't feel that roll rates have much to do with thrill factor; it's more of a comfort issue.
I had nothing to do with the Paris SM, and I've never been there. The Tokyo and Hong Kong SMs are identical to DL. |
15
| gmaletic
Tue 12/4/2007 5:06p | >I hope they don't put a soundtrack to WDW's Space, because I think the music would distract from the experience. It's much more fulfilling to hear the other cars racing around the track and the screams of other riders.
I agree. I'm not opposed to the idea of a soundtrack for a roller coaster, but in general I've found the music they've selected for the Disney roller coasters--the Space Mountains and California Screamin'--to be a real disappointment.
If they do add sound, I think I'd rather have it be sound effects than music. |
16
| gmaletic
Tue 12/4/2007 5:09p | >I designed both the WDW and the DL rides
Very glad to have your comments! Are you George McGinnis? |
17
| lauwmw
Tue 12/4/2007 5:45p | George McGinnis designed the show. I am the engineer that designed the track, the track equipment and the vehicle chassis. Other specialists did the body styling and the electronics. My name is Bill Watkins. |
18
| gmaletic
Tue 12/4/2007 5:52p | Hi, Bill; very glad to have you join the conversation.
It's interesting: I almost wouldn't have guessed that the same person designed the two tracks, they seem so different. Beyond the logistical changes that you detailed in your post (necessitated by the smaller show building), did you feel that you were trying to deliberately create a ride that felt different? Or was it solely due to the logistical issues?
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19
| gmaletic
Tue 12/4/2007 5:53p | Sorry...that last post was a little vague. My question about "deliberately creating a ride that felt different" refers to Disneyland's Space Mountain. |
20
| lauwmw
Tue 12/4/2007 7:32p | The simple answer is that the ride is designed to fit the building, but there are so many parameters that influence the thousands of decisions that were made. I suppose that to entertain the guests is paramount, but safety is an overiding factor. But who knows what it takes to be entertaining. You could study that and plot responses . You would probbably get a classic bell curve with most people saying that they enjoyed it to various degrees, but at one end you would have peole saying that it was the worst experienc of their lives and on the other end that it was so dull that they had a hard time keeping from falling asleep. So the answer is that, after experiencing response to WMW, I established a set of parameters that I felt would satisfy the majority of the millions of people who would ride it.
If you're interested, you should look at:
http://www.mouseplanet.com/mark/mg051026bw.htm
and click on the link to an earlier article by George McG and I.
Bill
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