Cerberus

I was thinking about this the other day actually. The idea of such a large community style ride vehicle on a coaster track does sound REALLY awesome. I would imagine there would be huge problem with trying to do such a thing though. Even more so perhaps than Arrow faced with "X" -Firstly, the undercarriage of the "disk" would need to be redesigned entirely to include coaster style wheels and bogies in order to navigate corners. This would need to be high so the carriage wouldn't come too close around the edges to touching the track when navigating dips. -Secondly, there is NO WAY you'd ever be able to bank into corners. The gyroscopic effects of the spinning disk would put an insane amount of force on the pivot. You can't heartline a 30ft gyroscope. So basically all you could really do is a Scenic Railway type layout, with the corners at the highest point so the carriage doesn't take them any faster than about 7mph. I do believe it could be done though. And I think it'd be one of the greatest ideas ever. I'd like the seats to be facing inwards though

I REALLY don't understand why that was removed. A ten ton train full of screaming lungs grinds over a heavy mechanic clutch system, stalls on the edge long enough for a few swear words to be shouted, then lunges forwards down 100 feet of track to make a sonic boom of air in a tunnel... and the TANNOY was too loud?! You could barely hear it from the ground below the ride.

Eh, I can't do anything about that. The website claimed to offer (what seemed like) a lot of space and bandwidth, but I guess forum use was a little too much for it Although I can't make them appear in topic in the right order and stuff, I've just put them up in my DA Gallery for viewing individually.

Amen to that. I know Disney are really fond of their all sensory, all mind, all time consuming shows- But the majority of the public aren't. I thought that had already been proven to them when the park flopped upon opening and they had to drop everything to get a Space Mountain ride in there quickly. Even if they had to slip right past the 2009/2010/2011 mark without any further installations, I'd rather wait for one of their awesome unique attractions than settle for a few copy-paste shows People nowadays want to be moved physically, not emotionally Cerberus

Just what are the reasons for Dubai suddenly having this rush to expand? I heard that it was because their natural resource safety net of income was slowly depleting and they needed a more substantial industry like tourism.. which seems plausible.. but isn't the extent of what they are building out there seems overkill, even for that reason? Oddly enough, I've never thought of Dubai as a holiday destination I'd put at the top of my list of places to visit, but your trip report alone makes me think that they are seriously worth considering! Awesome stuff. It's like a whole country of "OMG COASTER CONSTRUCTION DIRT PILE!!!1" photo opportunities

Sounds a bit like the problems with trying to film Ghostrider, except Ghostrider has a queue Well you certainly did well with the few opportunities you got then! Well done on holding the camera so steady on Blue Fall! That ride has suffered from some nasty track warping in a couple of the runs.

Great videos! Lots of random comments all the way through. Funny That diving vanish coaster looks really, really awesome. Especially at night. It's cool that they went through the effort of giving is all the splash and light effects. Although I do kinda wish you'd included ground-level footage of the coaster diving into the lake. You know, without being able to see the hole so it does actually look like it is vanishing What's up with that weird arcade game with the gun and the little jumping bean (?) Thanks for sharing!

I still can't believe how cool this one looks. I'm probably going to annoy a bunch of Orlando fans with this, but I think this one looks a lot more interesting than the original tower. It has far more depth to its structure and just the fact that they avoiding making it symmetrical make it look far more realistic as a building and less like a structure build for the purpose of housing a ride. Less obvious, if you will. Two things I wonder about though.. Are there no view points out the facade of the building? That'd be a HUGE shame. Being able to see the lifts rise and fall out of sight is pretty much the classic scene that people recognise this attraction for. Also, those extra blocks that stick out the side of the very top floor of the tower... DCA has them, TDS has them, and now DLP has them. Are they an important part of the ride's system? Do they house some motors or are they purely a visual aspect that the imagineers thought would break up the monotony of an otherwise plain, flat structure?

Haha, awesome Oh man, those little toy replicas are what the REAL animatronic yeti should have looked like! Complete with creepy "Domo Kun" mouth and "I just smoked something strong" eyes Great set of photos! I swear every time someone posts a trip report of this ride there's a part of the village area I've never seen before. It must be huge.

On a slightly off-topic note, I picked up on this sentence in the JimHilMedia article... Sounds like exactly what they did on the Paris Studios park's "Studio Tram Tour" attraction. There's a massive set straight from the "reign of fire" film, promising all sorts of stunning dragon-themed effects... but no, you just get a growl and a shot of fire. No dragon. They must kill off SOOO many awesome ideas at the point where price tags come into question... =(

Haha. And now riots What a farce. I wonder if Disney research into their proposed building sites in any other aspects besides finance. I'd have thought the boycotting actions of the French to the Paris park would have taught them a lesson to build into the attitude and favour of the locals more in future. "Hey Mr. Board Director guy, there's a lovely sandy coloured country called Afghanistan where we can put another one of our parks. Plenty of room for patriotic shows there, they never stop talking about the west, they must love us!"

I had a great time getting footage at DLP during the off season. Maybe it's because there were now crowds making nuisances of themselves, but the staff were all in really good moods. I took the camera on everything, with no hassle whatsoever. In fact on Space Mountain, the platform staff women actually took the camera from me, lowered the restraint, and then handed it back to me with a smile once I'd squeezed my arms comfortable the bars. She also helpfully suggested I hold it flat against the car's bonnet, but I don't trust Vekoma's trackwork with having a direct shock path against my camera

I dunno about the actually look or design of the rides, but I know for a fact that each and every one of them will have a docking and fixing point for camcorders on the front car

Sounds good to me! I love this site and it'd be pretty cool to help in some way with it. Drop me a message some time and I'll see what I can do The next thing I want to do is going to involve a Vekoma Thrill Lift. (Someone on coasterforce mentioned Disney buying one and theming it), I'll probably send that as fan art to Vekoma or something.

Those photos of EE are awesome! You're the first person I've seen photos of that ride from who didn't just point the camera where they WANTED you to see. The view of the helix is great, as is that one from the highest point... cause I can see walkways and escape routes.. which are exciting to me for some unknown reason Great stuff Tim

Very good question. One that I did have to think about a few times. I figured the whole thing would operate in a sort of "Heavy road traffic" way, with all the vehicles driving forwards a distance and then stopping at the same time, all over the course. Kinda like as if someone was turning the power on and off repeatedly on forty second intervals (The minimum time one would have to spend in the eruption shaft). Stopping points would be the River Crossing, the part where you take in the mountain for a moment before driving up onto it, the lion caves, scar's plotting cave, the entrance to the first cave, the stall after the handbrake turn... well, yeah.. you get the idea. However, I did calculate that the hourly capacity would be pretty crappy at about 1400pph... so... er.. Disney would have to invest in longer hours? That's why I would make a bad imagineer. Lack of realistic thinking and blissfully ignorant of building costs. Plus, I don't have the creative talent to devise ride systems of my own- they're just existing ideas wearing a new dress. On the point of having a thrilling drop, that was there simply because I really wanted to use the sheer height of the mountain usefully. Some of my original idead were a FirstGen Intamin freefall from the top, then a River Plunge type ride. But the lift and cars seemed like more of a complete attraction. I did however, just like you said, explore the idea of trying to make the cars jump. If I still have the doodles, I'll show you. Thanks for the comments everyone. If I'm ill again some time, I'll try come up with something new. As for sending the ideas somewhere, I can't say I would know how to go about that at all. Approach them in a professional way as if showing a portfolio? I'm not ready for a career yet! That imagineers talent scouting website was an interesting read... but scared me off by being overcomplicated. It seems they have a pretty vivid idea of who they want, and the entry requirements show it =/ Thanks again Tim Edit: A few people mentioned wanting to see more. Rather than me cluttering the forum with stuff, you can see a few things on my DA.com website, listed in the tab list below*

Pride Mountain Because "The Lion King" deserves its own ride! Okay, I know this is going to raise a lot of questions about my social life, but you have to understand that I’ve been ill, out of college and bored at home for the best part of a week. Anyway!… (Long post ahead warning) See, I loved “The Lion King”. I thought it was pretty much Disney’s greatest success in the animated film scene. It really captured my imagination as a kid. Rather disappointingly though, they have never really translated this piece of awesomnery (That is totally a word..) into their theme parks! I mean, we get a few models, character meets and a restaurant… Where’s the interaction there?! Well, since they’ve insisted on wasting this perfect opportunity, I took it upon myself to do their job for them… Well, up to the end of the brainstorm session anyway. I kinda lack the ability to construct hundred foot mountains. Right, so onto the ride. I love Indiana Jones Adventure. The EMV ride system is just pure genius. So I’m going to steal that idea, and expand on it. Then there’s Tower of Terror. Also great. But how to mix the two and still manage to incorporate the Lion King theme… An outdoor Safari themed EMV ride system, which drives around Pride Rock amidst the action of the film before a performing a dramatic freefall finale. But enough talk, more visuals. So you know what I’m talking about and wont get too bored… This is the layout. As you can see, the ride path is light green which darkens in places where the route goes underground in tunnels. The brown splat shape is in fact the mountain in plan view. The grey blocky section on the rear of it is an extra ride space warehouse type structure. But wait.. EMV vehicles can't do that. They can only run indoors, out of the weather!? ..So it'll need a more advanced version. Something stronger, more powerful and better in the computer-frazzling rain... For purely aesthetic reasons, the car has a canvas ‘roof’ like real safari cars. I know this would block the passenger view, so it’d probably have to loose that.. Bah, I didn’t think it through. Okay, the basics and structures are there, now for the ride experience. This will be long, cause I’ve been lame enough to plot each little detail. So if you don’t fancy doing a whole lot of reading, just scroll down quickly and pick up the illustrated bits. Tourist Centre The ride starts in the “Pride Rock Safari” tourist centre where the indoor queue weaves amongst various safari related items (Mounted skulls. Photographs, etc). Eventually you reach the main loading room where Safari trucks travel single-file between two raised platforms, one for ride staff, and one for boarding guests. The trucks are loaded with twelve guests arranged in three rows of four. These trucks are the EMV ride vehicles. Once everyone is seated and secured (Lap seatbelt), the truck drive slowly out the station and down a small exit ramp onto the plains of the park. As the vehicle descends the ramp the four pneumatic actuators are raised and the ride program reset. The plains The start of the journey has the vehicle meandering gently along a dirt track, accompanied by a cheesy tourist information video (Ride safety spiel) and a faint version of the film’s “This Land” musical score. Guests are driven towards a flimsy-looking river crossing where the first display of the ride’s powerful movement system is given. The truck jostles and bounces over the small bridge before continuing past a couple of animatronic Giraffes and gently off towards the base of Pride Rock. The Tour Path The truck slows briefly to allow guests to regard the information board and journey ahead (Revealing the sight of various vehicles darting in and out of the rockwork overhead) before crawling forwards and driving up onto a wooden road. This road laces around the mountain just below the main plateau and through the first major scene, a lion cave where the animatronic felines gaze at the truck with a yawn as it trundles by. The truck stops briefly for this scene and then pulls away to continue along the track. End of the road The truck follows this road steadily as it leads across a decorative waterfall structure. The benefit of the weather-resistant EMV vehicles means that the guests can be splashed occasionally by the dripping rockwork. A small corner leads the truck into a second cave, this time occupied by a group of more intimidating figures, Scar (the films villain) and his posse of hyena henchmen. As the truck tries to creep by unnoticed, Scar is overheard talking about his evil plans to overthrow the monarchy, setting the story for the rest of the ride. Suddenly the vehicle jolts to the left, narrowly avoiding a fearsome hyena animatronic who’s suddenly taken an interest in the tourists. The truck pulls away quickly and re-routes off the track to get the guests out of trouble, scurrying around the edge of a crumbling rock path to a more frantic audio exert from the film’s “King of Pride Rock” song. The wooden tour path ends abruptly and a moment of sudden airtime is felt as the truck leaps off the safety of the man-made track and onto the raw rockwork beneath. A sharp hairpin turn to the left keeps the truck from falling off the mountain (Although the crashed wreck in the bushes below suggests previous guides were less fortunate) and into a very dark and misty cave. The Plateau The truck slows down again and slinks into the darkness, turning down the tourist audio so the “driver” can concentrate. As things get a little too dark, the vehicle’s high beams are clicked on, throwing light around the little room and revealing a horrifying scene of a dozen or so hyenas preparing to attack. The vehicle leans back with the screech of tyres and accelerates at full speed to escape, reaching the ride’s top (Horizontal..) speed of 35mph before bursting out of the mist and onto rocky outcrop of the Pride Rock Plateau. Unfortunately, the tip of this platform of reached pretty quickly at such a speed, and guests are treated to a terrifying handbrake turn that keeps them from plummeting the 50ft drop onto the roof of the tourist centre. The vehicle rocks and steadies for a moment before the gearbox is heard grinding back into action and it heads back down the mountain. This is a sorta cut-out view of the warehouse section at the rear of the mountain, showing what’d be inside it. Hopefully it doesn’t look too confusing and you can fill in the gaps with your imagination… Caves of Destiny Not really wanting to chance taking the same path back through the hyena caves, the tour is forced to delve deeper into the mountain structure through a small opening on the left. The vehicle bounced and rattles violently over the rocky terrain, ducking to avoid the tangled mess of thorns of shrubbery hanging from the ceiling. The pace slows down again as the vehicle enters a larger room where an animatronic Simba is seen staring into the twilight sky (all projected). His father’s ghostly apparition reminds his of his family duty before swirling away in a blast of compressed air towards the truck. The lights go out and the vehicle trundles deeper into the darkness. A few more twisted and rough turns in the darkness follow, scaring riders with the sound of dripping dark caves and the occasional twinkle of a bat’s eyes. The second half of the warehouse area, leading back into the main mountain structure.. Be Prepared The vehicles banks around the corner and bursts into the ride’s largest and most elaborate show rooms. A massive open cave of fire and lava, guarded wall-to-wall by hyenas and littered with thousands of elephant bones. Jets of steam and fire erupt around the truck and it desperately tries to navigate the rocky cavern, the famous “Be Prepared” sound echoing around the interior. Cackling hyenas grin down at you, mocking your powerless descent as the vehicle skids and bumps down the spine of a particularly large skeleton structure and lands with a jolt at the foot of Scar’s (Audio Animatronic figure) throne. After interrupting Scar’s war speech so rudely he’s not looking so pleased with the tour groups arrival. He crouches to swipe at riders (which the car tilts heavily to one side to avoid) and the truck screeches back into action, accelerating quickly into a steamy opening ahead The eruption Unfortunately for the tour, this opening leads absolutely nowhere. The truck crashes (Simulated, of course. The car’s hood will be fitted with it’s own animation system which will crumble it in time with the impact) into the rocky wall ahead and bounces back into the centre of a tiny circular room, engine stalling and headlight smashed out of action. Riders hear the desperate attempts to restart the engine whirring ahead of them whilst from behind them, low growls and cruel laughter suggests the evil community is stalking them from the previous room. Suddenly, the room glows red from the floor up, steam and smoke billows from various cracks in the walls and the animals behind can be heard reluctantly backing away. Tension is held for a moment longer with the gradual swelling of a deep rumbling sound as clamps secretly secure the ride vehicle to the platform of a powerful lift mechanism. With a blast of light, noise, heated air and smoke effects the vehicle is forced upwards on a simulated blast of volcanic activity. The ride vehicles motion system will still be in action, rocking and bumping violently about as if the rock it was riding were grinding against the walls of the vertical chute. About 60ft up, the view ahead is opened to the daylight through a vertical cut on the face of the mountain, showing guests just how high and fast they are rising. A profile cut-away view of the mountain and the secret ride system that gives the attraction its ass-whooping finale. The fall The elevator slows down quickly, floating riders out their seats before steadying at the last open window of the mountain, roughly around the 160ft mark. The ride vehicle tilts forwards for a moment, cruelly forcing guests to observe the view below, then slowly reclines as the elevator starts moving again, lifting the riders into the very top room of Pride Rock. Ahead on a large screen projection, Scar and Simba fight atop the mountain and finally re-enact the dramatic kicking throw scene of the film. Simultaneously to Scar being thrown off the rock, the elevator system releases and the ride vehicle crashes back down the shaft in a 175ft freefall… King of Pride Rock The bottom of the shaft this time is entirely in the dark except for a projected video clip ahead of Scar limping away defeated. Also feeling pretty battered and worn from the adventure, the ride vehicle finally clatters into life and splutters onwards to the sound of A dragging exhaust pipe… The tour descends out the cave and into the final show scene, a whole host of animatronic figures bowing respectfully to a proud Simba watching over his prize pride lands with the dramatic main film score playing all around. Please take all litter with you… The vehicle creeps around a corner and right back into the tourist centre from where you started your journey. You exit through a different room to that which you boarded the ride, leaving behind a rather worn and tattered looking jeep. The ride vehicles crawls out of sight, reset themselves to their original state and proceed back into the loading room to begin the next journey. Guests leave through the Tourist Centre gift shop (ride gift shop…) and on-ride photo collection point. Yup, so that’s my idea. I congratulate anyone who decided to hear me out. It must have been painfully long One more thing. I recently obtained an audio mixing program, and have been itching to use it. So I created the ride’s main audio. It’s pretty basic, cause I had to rely on existing sounds and musical scores, but hopefully it’ll make sense. I’ve attached it to this post in a zip file along with the ride show scene timings. (deep breath) So…. Does anyone else think that the Imagineers should do more with this prime opportunity? I know a certain Paris park that is just perfect for a nice, big, unique attraction Tim PMAudio.zip Ride Audio

"Roll up! Roll up! Roll up your 'smokes' bruvas and be prepared to hand over all your loose change innit, cause this here's tEh wildest ride in da hood!" Cerberus

Looks kinda like it was a perfectly good, operational park up until a couple moments ago when some big, phat avalanche came down the mountain and rolled it into mulch Nice of you to go there and report on it for us to check out. It is now your duty as a coaster fanatic to loot as much junk as possible, regardless of whether or not it looks like anything, then sell it on Ebay under the title "OMFGWTFBBQ rare old intamin track!!!!" Cerberus

I keep hearing about this place and REALLY wanting to know more about it. From the few photos and comments I've seen, the theming there is supposed to be pretty level with Disney, and it even has the mysterious, illusive EMV ride. The drop tower and log flume look amazing. The drop vehicles slide up inside a huge tiki mask at the top of the tower and the log flume features drops out of pagodas and down the side of a massive cliff face. Cerberus

Intamin, all the way. They're original, innovative, inventive and never scared of pushing the boundaries of what would be considered rediculous in order to move the industry on a notch. When Screamscape started posting the curiously extreme details of TopThrillDragster before it was announced, hardly anyone would beleive it. But to our surprise, there was Intamin, going all out again! Their rides are strong and powerful, and the forces feel wild and unpredictable as opposed to the controlled, limited forces of a typical BaM. I find I can literally watch one of Robb's POVs of a BaM ride and already know what it's like to ride. As for some of their rides being a bit gritty- I always liked to think of it like this: If Intamin's creative and design team were as monotonous and boring as BaM's, they would also have the time to fine tune every needless little aspect of their products. Cerberus

The greatest thing in the world would be an Intamin Giant Drop down the side of that thing. No contest, it'd be plain awesome. It would be what, seven/eight seconds of pure freefall? However, I'm not sure if it would actually be possible. There must be a limit to how long and fast those rides can travel? I don't think they even run on wheels, more of sliding pads. That'd probably be an issue at such a grand scale. Also, anyone who's ridden Blue Fall will know that one particular track has a nasty little wobble in it. Was that perhaps a sign of the limits that modern engineering has when trying to make things perfectly straight for huge distances? ^ I don't follow your idea exactly, but the idea of one of those round rides with swing out cars does sound good! Anyone know the rough dimentions of the tower top? I'd like to have a go at designing something for it Cerberus

^ I said the ride system will be the same. But on a ride like this, the theme and visual appearance are most of what the attraction is offering, so when that sort of stuff is different, the whole thing becomes different. A top spin in a fairground with a zillion spangly lights is bold and energetic. A top spin in a park themed to 'Icarus' is subtle and mysterious. Same basic attraction, very different resulting ride given.

No it won’t. You can already see that it is going to be different. Look at the window frame styles and the lack of out-of-structure elevator shafts and... well.. lack of anything that looks like the California version! Only the ride system will the be the same. The tower, theme and everything else will be unique to this installation of the attraction (Just like at DisneySea!). I'd personally expect the building to look more European. The gothic style windows might be indicating a sort of cathedral styled building. Borderline Gothic and Renaissance. Probably some sort of 17th Century Baroque, perhaps. The windows are the only thing to really judge it by so far. Hopefully it'll look as pretty as the Tokyo one that's also currently being built. Cerberus

For the most part it is driven by tyres, yeah. It is basically a rectangle track layout with a station at one of the shorter ends, and a weird corkscrew-exit-into-corkscrew-first-half at the other end. Which is the part where it rolls freely. That centre also has an Intamin shot tower up the middle. I really want to know more about that place. The Arrow one looks really crude. There's a certain corner in one of those photos that just looks like it was bend AFTER the track was formed. Like a knex coaster or something :? Cerberus