Bootlegged IOA TR from a WDI guy!!!
Slipstream
Chuck Ballew is a senior WDI show designer, and I heard he was the main man
behind INDY.
I thought it was pretty interesting
ISLANDS OF ADVENTURE
A HUMBLE REVIEW
CHUCK BALLEW
Although IOA isn't officially open, it is allowing guests inside, and I've
been in twice to check things out. I also took a pile of photos. If
anyone
wants to peer at my pics, let me know.
RESORT
There are two hotels under construction, Portofino resort and Hard Rock
hotel. I could only see Portofino from the top of the parking structure,
and from most reports it looks an awful lot like the Portofino hotel for
Disney Seas. It has a lagoon in front of it, much like many of the Disney
resorts. It looks as though boats can shuttle guests to the theme parks.
The Hard Rock hotel has only just broken ground, so I have no idea what
sort
of design it will have. Hard Rock will be right there next to the parks,
within easy walking distance of both Universal and IOA.
The parking structures seemed very well organized to me. It took a LOT of
walking to get to the parks though. A long covered bridge crosses a
roadway to get to City Walk and the parks. Instead of trams for guests,
the
bridge has long moving sidewalks. Its a much less labor intensive
operation
than the trams we tend to use and it forces people to walk through City
Walk.
CITY WALK
The path from the parking garage leads people right through City Walk,
which
is laid out pretty wide to accommodate the crowds that will be inevitable
when IOA opens. This City Walk is much less quirky and gaudy than the one
in California. In fact, its down right ugly. Hideous. The only building
that the group I was with agreed had any design value was the Nascar Café,
which has a strong graphic design to it. The rest just seems randomly
funky, but rather forbidding and unfriendly. It has a street off the main
street called the Latin Quarter which has numerous small night clubs
(their
version of Pleasure Island). This area is laid out to be reminiscent of
New
Orleans (balconies) but all of the architecture is sheet metal siding and
is
just about as ugly an area as imaginable. I wouldn't be surprised if they
end up with gang problems here, because the atmosphere is very unsoothing.
City Walk is definitely the only part of the area that is poorly designed.
The rest of it is VERY GOOD.
City walk is directly between the parks, and therefore very convenient to
get to. Certainly more convenient than getting to the Disney Marketplace.
They've added a very pleasant body of water there between IOA and
Universal,
which seems designed so they can do some sort of water show or spectacular
out there, because the shoreline has built in bleachers.
ISLAND OF ADVENTURE
All of the attractions aren't open yet, but enough of them to be VERY
impressive. This is an extremely well planned park. Although it wasn't
packed, I could tell it will have very good guest flow. Most Disney parks
use a basic hub layout, but IOA is strictly a circle (like Epcot's World
Showcase). You have two choices of where to go when you enter: clockwise
or
counter clockwise. There are no shortcuts bypassing any lands (although
there is a water ride which can cut you across the park to a different
land,
but its not really much of a walk). The lands are mixed up in such a way
that they don't really blend with each other. Rather, they are all
separated from each other by bridges and waterways. In spite of the
bridges
and the large body of water at the center of the park, there is nothing
about the lands that feel like they're islands. Not that it bothered me
much. The only thing that bothered me is how the scenery in each land
sort
of obscures the body of water in the center. Its not nearly as open as
the
lagoon at Universal Studios. They probably did this to differentiate
them,
but if you aren't going to use the water, why pay for it?
Overall, the design of the park is FANTASTIC. It only falls slightly
short
in the realms of final finishing of rockwork and paint, which aren't
nearly
as brilliant as the work done on Animal Kingdom. But it doesn't really
hurt
the design, because the design of each land is very bold. The size of the
park is pretty small relative to the other parks in Orlando. It is
probably
smaller than Disneyland even. But it is absolutely full. One of the
things
we were most impressed with was that when the rides are open, this will be
a
FULLY FINISHED FULL DAY PARK. There aren't any obvious expansion areas
(though they have some tucked in here and there). In fact, its hard to
imagine they'll need to do any expanding for years and years.
PORT OF ENTRY
This is the name of IOA's Main Street. It is an ecclectic collection of
weird storybook architecture, that looks exactly like Dinotopia without
the
dinosaurs, or a sort of pumped up Myst. There is a huge funky looking
lighthouse at the entry to IOA. Its very impressive when you stand at the
bottom of it, but seems somewhat small when viewed from a distance.
This street is very well laid out, with merchandise, camera stores and
restaurants laid out in the same places you'd find them in Disneyland.
We ate in a very nice restaurant in this area (with a real menu and real
food and prices that weren't insane) called Confisco grille. This is the
'customs house' of the land and is decorated with props which were
confiscated from the various other lands in the park. Its a kind of
strange
idea, and I doubt most guests get the concept.
The main street leads to the edge of the water. Seuss Landing is to the
right, but most guests seem to go to the Left, toward Marvel Super Hero
Island (Unwieldy name for a land), because it has a humungo green roller
coaster roaring away.
MARVEL SUPER HERO ISLAND tm
THE HULK is the big green coaster. Those who rode it (not me) say its a
pretty good coaster. It has an accelerated launch on the lift, and lots
of
rolls and loop and stuff.
THE STREET of this land is designed to look like a standard city street in
a
Marvel Comic. The store is called STORE, the ice cream stand is called ICE
CREAM. The land itself has a bit of a sci fi quality to it, because they
used a lot of interesting materials to create the buildings. Special
kinds
of glass and metal. There are numerous superhero graphics hanging on the
buildings, and I can't make up my mind whether I like them or not. They
are
oversized comic book drawings of super heroes and villains battling it
out.
They were obviously drawn by some professional comic book guys, and are
very
well done. Their graphic presence, however, makes the land feel less
lived
in than most of the park.
DR DOOM is a pair of towers which rocket people 150 feet up into the air
for
a freefall experience. Nobody in my group rode this. But it looks good
if
you like that sort of thing.
SPIDER MAN is, simply put, the best ride in the park, and uses a
groundbreaking technology that will cause hundreds of Imagineers to have
to
rethink the projects they're working on right now.
You enter the Daily Bugle (the paper that Peter Parker works for) and wind
through the offices of the paper. Everything in here is themed as if it
came right out of an animated Spider Man cartoon. That is, everything is
laid out simple and bold, with a limited color palate. For instance, a
persons desk may have a phone, a computer, a bagel and a cup of coffee,
but
all of it will be painted turqoise blue, with simple highlights on the
edges. Its not very attractive, but very effective. There are a number
of
video monitors throughout the queue with short animated segments depicting
how a group of super villains has used an antigravity weapon to steal the
statue of liberty. The owner of the paper, J Johah Jameson needs you, the
visitors, to go get the story by riding a prototype vehicle called 'the
scoop'. (JJJ sounds an awful lot like Crusty the Clown). These videos
are
slightly amusing, but in one room at least the video loops again and again,
and you're likely to see it four or five times while you're waiting... bt
the ride is in testing, and maybe they aren't up to full capacity yet.
Somewhere along the way you pick up 'safety goggles', that are relly your
standard 3-d glasses. You board the vehicle, which is a 12 person ar
similar in size to Indiana Jones. The sides of the car wrap up to
restrict
your view to the front, which is important for the effects in the show to
work. The vehicle itself feels a lot like the Indiana Jones car, in that
it
has a motion simulator, and drives on a track. But its different in that
it
can also spin 360degrees on axis. This is also necessary for the effects
in
the ride to work.
You drive through some city streets, spotting the Spider Signal on a wall.
The vehicle drives backward for a short distance then spins around
suddenly,
and you are now looking into an Imax screen, which is framed by
dimensional
city flats. The image projected on the screen was created with computer
graphics, and is 3d. In this case, Spiderman jumps onto the hood of the
car. He looms in the foreground thanks to 3-D, and the motion simulator
makes the front of the vehicle sag under his weight. Its pretty
effective.
The vehicle never stops moving. It basically follows an arc toward a
screen
then away from it, finally rotating quickly away to look at another
screen.
You'll have to ride this ride to understand how well this works. For
instance, each 'virtual' scene is designed to pan, so as your car makes
its
arc in front of the screen, the entire perspective in the background
shifts,
really ENHANCING the 3-D. Personally, I thought the figures that loom in
the foreground looked less dimensional than the stuff in the deep
background. Maybe its just my eyes, but I cant quite focus on a 3-D image
when it gets very close to me.
There are, I estimate, about 13 screens in the ride (more or less) each
telling a part of the story, which is basicly a sustained battle sequence.
At one point our vehicle gets hit with the anti gravity gun and floats
high
up over the city. How they figured out how to make this work is beyond
me.
But it does. You really feel like you're eighty stories up, spinning and
falling out of control, in spite of the fact that the ride track is
perfectly level. Amazing.
I rode this ride maybe 5 times in the two trips I made. Personally I
found
the story kind of annoying, and after only 5 times I found it kind of
boring. I've ridden Indy hundreds of times, and still get excited. In my
opinion, there's something to be said for real scenery. As great as the
computer scenery in Spider Man is, you know its not real, so it isn't as
impressive. BUT that said, the technology is awesome, and the folks who
created this ride are just brilliant. I ran into one of the creators,
former Imagineer Phil Bloom, while waiting on line. He was very happy and
proud. Apparently the concept for the ride was more like a dark ride, but
Phil and a few others came up with the groundbreaking concept for the ride
and when they proposed it they were instantly supported by their bosses
and
were able to implement it without the severe second guessing that Phil
experienced at WDI.
TOON LAGOON
Just past Marvel, is the next land, which is the home of a slew of cartoon
characters that Universal either owns or has licensed for use. This land
has a VERY GRAPHIC approach to design, and I really didn't like it much.
Everywhere you look are enlarged graphics of cartoon characters, from
Hagar
the Horrible, to Betty Boop, arranged in such a way that it looks more
like
a Warner Brothers store than anything else. It's colorful, anyway. There
is going to be a big stage spectacular in this area, but it hasn't opened
yet.
This land has two big water rides. One is DUDLEY DOORIGHT'S RIPSAW FALLS,
which is a flume ride that isn't open yet. It is very heavily themed,
sporting a mountain face with a sort of mount rushmore made up of
characters
from those Jay Ward cartoons. The big drop is interesting in that it has
a
dip drop at the bottom, which I bet will be pretty exciting.
POPEYE AND BLUTO'S BILGE RAT BARGES is a white water raft ride. I rode it
twice and its the best white water raft ride I think I've ever been on.
Not
only is it exciting and bumpy and twisty and wet, it also has a story.
Bluto has kidnapped Olive and you and Popeye are trying to save her. The
figures on this ride are very simplistic, but right in keeping with a Max
Fleisher cartoon. I've ridden the Kali River Rapids at Animal Kingdom,
and
as far as ride experience goes, Bilge Rat is much more fun, and probably
only slightly wetter. (I got soaked down to my undies) Of course, the
queue is not nearly as fantastic as the Kali River queue, which is just
about the most beautiful Queue on earth. But the ride is just plain
funner.
ME SHIP THE OLIVE is a ship that serves as a playground for kids. Its an
extremely ugly looking thing, the compromises made to accommodate guests
have made it hardly look like a ship at all. But what'cha gonna do?
JURASSIC PARK
Just clockwise of Toon Lagoon is our favorite Dinosaur Enclosure. I'm not
too impressed with this land, simply because it doesn't live up to its
source material. There aren't herds of dinosaurs on hand, and the ones
that
are here aren't half as well made as the ones in Animal Kingdom.
CAMP JURASSIC is a large kiddie play area, which I didn't go into. It
looks
fun enough, but not very visually inviting. Around its edge is a ride
called PTERADON FLYERS, which has two person hanging cars that soar over
camp Jurassic. I wanted to ride it, but the line was an hour long. The
days I went none of the rides had a line longer than ten minutes, which
leads me to believe that Pteradon Flyers has a very low ride capacity.
JURASSIC PARK RIVER ADVENTURE is the exact same ride as the one here in
California. The dinosaurs aren't terribly impressive, neither is the
scenery. Its got a monster drop, but its kind of lame. The ride building
is gigantic, and looms over the entire land, looking kind of out of place.
Next to the ride, however, is a very nicely designed fast food restaurant
which has huge windows that look down on the runout of the big drop.
TRICERATOPS ENCOUNTER is a place where you get to meet a Triceratops up
close and personal. You wind through a pretty long queue through a
jungle.
You are ushered I groups into a zoolike enclosure which has a full size
audioanimatronic Triceratops that occasionally looks alive, and
occasionally
looks like a big statue. A live actor plays the part of its keeper. This
show is very dry, pretty much exactly like a similar experience in a real
zoo, meeting a real elephant. There are no explosions or "and something
goes terribly wrong" moments. The Dinosaur just stands there, pees,
farts,
burps, sneezes and grunts and roars. It even lifts one foot off the
ground,
to prove its real! I could tell that some of the smaller guests really
believed it was real. I think they need to work on their script a bit.
This show is so mundane as to be boring. I think they're going for a
sense
of magic, however, and they fall just a little short.
JURASSIC PARK DISCOVERY CENTER. This is a building that is a sort of
reproduction of the main building in the movie, including the large
dinosaur
skeletons in the center of a rotunda. I is two stories tall. The second
story has food and a store, and the first story has this discovery center,
which was intended to be sort of a kid's science museum. But the displays
are pretty lame.
> THE LOST CONTINENT
Now we move onto a VERY NICE area, made up of mythological areas from
various time periods. At the entrance on both ends of the land are some
very
nicely made hippogryph statues.
DUELING DRAGONS is a large hanging roller coaster. The guests queue into
a
dilapidated midevil castle. The queue is heavily themed throughout, and
winds deep into the bowels of the scary castle. There are dead knights
hanging from the ceiling, skeletons inset into the walls, magic stained
glass windows and the disembodied voice of Merlin the magician. But when
you reach the load platform the theming stops! In fact, the opposite wall
and ceiling of the load area are entirely unthemed. Its very strange,
almost as if two entirely different groups were working on it.
The coasters themselves are very interesting. They are a pair of coasters
that intertwine. Both vehicles are dispached at the same time, so they
spin
around each other (dueling, so to speak). Those who rode them say the ICE
coaster was better than the FIRE coaster, and both of them are much better
if you are sitting in the front row. Otherwise you really cant see
anything
but the person in front of you. The coaster is almost entirely unthemed,
and painted extremely unattractive colors. They're still doing some major
landscaping below the coasters, and boy do they need it.
ENCHANTED OAK TAVERN is a large self service eatery inside a huge tree
stump. Its very pretty inside, and even features some subtle animal
shapes
worked into the rockwork. Joe Rhode thinks this must be an intentional
Homage to Animal Kingdom's Tree of Life. (the stump of life).
EIGHTH VOYAGE OF SINBAD is a stage stunt show that I missed. There is an
Arabian village around the entrance to it that is very nicely designed.
It
has numerous shops and a bunch of carnival games. One thing that really
impressed me is that the employees in this area aren't wearing a standard
uniform, but each is individually dressed in a particular and unique
costume. This made this area of the park feel incredibly lived in, just
like the experience of going to a renaissance fair. The Architectural
details and themed lighting fixtures in there area are just plain
beautiful.
POSEIDON'S FURY is a ride that isn't open yet, and I have no idea what
sort
or ride it is. But the area in front of it is just FANTASTIC. It
features
the remains of a collapsed statue of gigantic proportions. Just awesome.
Has to be seen to be believed. The finish on the rock work is kind of
scaly
and fakey, but this area will make for perfect photography. I bet this
will
be the most photographed area in the park.
MYTHOS RESTAURANT is a beautiful sit down restaurant. The outside of the
building looks like a mountain carved with huge looming faces. Inside it
is
a very large cave. Some of the details are strange, but the rockwork is
very impressive.
FINALLY we come to
SEUSS LANDING
This is the absolutely best place in the park, in my humble opinion. It
is
an almost perfect 3d realization of the good doctor's design sense. There
are Seussian creatures everywhere, and little plaques with bits of his
inimitable poetry. The only thing I'm not too sure about is that the
concrete has been painted some pretty bright colors. Eventually foot
traffic is going to make the pathways look gross. I think they would have
done better to pour tinted concrete, instead of painting it so brightly.
CAROSEUSSEL is a giant carousel that dominates the land. It is a
veritable
Seussian mountain topped with Horton and various Seussian birds. Instead
of
horses, it has a plethora of beautiful Seussian creatures to ride. Just
amazingly well designed. I am in awe.
THE CAT IN THE HAT is a great ride through a classic story. This ride is
mostly lit with white light, but has some black light sections. The ride
vehicles spin on axis, and can speed up and slow down. Its very dynamic.
I
think they are still adjusting it, because when I first rode it I felt
like
my eyeballs were going to be spun out of my head, but on my second trip a
week later, the spinning was tolerable. The thing I am most impressed
with
about this ride, though, is that is tells a simple and complete story.
Each
little scene delivers a bit of easy to understand dialogue, and by the end
you really know what the story was. Most of our dark rides are simplified
versions of complex movies, so they end up just reminding you of the
movie.
But the story of the cat in the hat is so simple it is perfect for a dark
ride. Another thing that is different about this ride from most similar
Disney rides, is that it doesn't have scenery everywhere. They spent
their
money on the story telling elements, and the spaces between are almost
entirely blank walls that are interesting to look at because of the weird
lighting on them. A neat touch is that throughout this ride there are
several family photos on the walls of this cartoon house. Each photo is
actually a little sculpture with the characters almost popping out of
them.
A weird and very whimsical touch. I like this ride very much!
ONE FISH, TWO FISH, RED FISH, BLUE FISH is a Dumbo like ride, of which the
ride vehicles are a variety of shaped fishes. The difference is that this
ride has lots of squirting going on!! As it spins various jets of water
shoot out at the guests, getting them pretty wet in some cases. A song is
playing that gives guests clues to go up or down, which is supposed to
save
you from getting hit with water! But whether this actually works or not I
don't know, because I didn't ride it.
CIRCUS McGURK's is a large self service restaurant in a giant Seussian
circus tent. The interior of this restaurant is very cool. It has
animatronic circus performers on the ceiling, and a live performer playing
silly selections on an organ.
There are numerous gems throughout the land. Pretty much a reference is
made to every Seuss book in the library.
FINAL ANALYSIS
WOW... all I can say is WOW.
Universal may finally be able to compete with Disney. This park will be
a
full day experience from the moment it opens. Unlike Animal Kingdom which
has some expanding to do before it can claim the same.
In some ways I kind of hope IOA does well, because that will give our
company the incentive to invest a bit more in our projects. At least I
hope
so. Has anyone worked on a project where just 1 million more dollars
wouldn't have improved them significantly?
I also visited Universal for the umpteenth time. IOA is truly a
significantly better guest experience (except T2 3-D which is my favorite
show of all times), and it leads me to believe that Universal's policy of
hiring laid of Imagineers is finally going to pay off for them!
--
Stuck Inside Orlando with the Vegas Blues Again
TEEVTEE
behind INDY.
I thought it was pretty interesting<<<
thanks for posting the report Slip, but Chuck was NOT the main man behind Indy,
the denior show designer was ofcourse Tony baxter.
Anyway i thought he gave a fair report and I gree with him almost point for
point. The sole real exceptions being that he loves the Poisiedon facade while
I really dislike it, and he has a stronger affection for Suess than I, though I
do like Suess very much.
I certainly agree in his review of Spiderman and how he really likes it but
grew a bit bored with it as well. In fact as I said, pretty much everything he
commented on was pretty accurate. IOA is a mixed bag of some great design and
some aweful design and I think DD (as Chuck pinted out) is a microcosm of the
whole park. Parts are simply beautiful while other sections are just crap.
Overall though IOA's good out wieghs it's bad.
This review also reveals yet again what I have said before...that this huge
Disney V.S. Uni thing really only exists in the FANS minds. Those actualy
working on the attractions view it more as a friendly competition and are more
than happy to recognize the other companies victories.
Teevtee:
Ya man!!!
Disney SUCKS BIG TIME!
They got NOTHING!
They SUCK!!!!
AK is nothin' but a mess of trees and the MK is for babies!
EPCOT is nothin' but old movies and even Disney fans hate MGM!
IOA RULES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Rock on UNIVERSAL!
TravMatte
fact, its down right ugly. Hideous.<
I heartily agree! By its almost total lack of cheerful colors or round
shapes, you'd think Uni was deliberately trying to scare folks away. And the
bizarre mixture of themed facades and structural roofs makes it look like a
shopping mall. Nothing works!
>It has a street off the main street called the Latin Quarter which has
numerous small night clubs (their version of Pleasure Island). <
The other night I saw that they have just completed a SF-inspired
"Lombard Street," which made me laugh. PI has had one for ten years. Why must
Uni constantly copy Diz?
> IOA is strictly a circle (like Epcot's World
Showcase). You have two choices of where to go when you enter: clockwise or
counter clockwise<
I've been wondering whether this will cause most morning crowds to enter
Marvel and TL first, leaving Seuss and Lost C virtually empty until the early
afernoon. Why didn't Uni have a wienie in Seuss to balance the Hulk? This might
be what Grinch Mtn will do. But they have to build it first.
> In fact, its hard to imagine they'll need to do any expanding for years and
years<
No, just a lot of fixing.
>SPIDER MAN is, simply put, the best ride in the park, and uses a
groundbreaking technology that will cause hundreds of Imagineers to have to
rethink the projects they're working on right now.<
I hope Teev reads this.
ParisByAir
Trav, well Teev is his own person. But I'm sure Teev shook his head when he
read the part where he calls T2:3D the best ride ever.
Rick
TEEVTEE
groundbreaking technology that will cause hundreds of Imagineers to have to
rethink the projects they're working on right now.<
I hope Teev reads this.<<<
Jesus Christ Trav...are you kidding me?
I have praised Spiderman to holy heaven FAR more than in this post you quote
from. How you manage to distort my words in that deranged head of yours to
paint it that I somehow do not like Spiderman or do not think it is great
technoloy is simply beyond me.
TEEVTEE
read the part where he calls T2:3D the best ride ever.
<<<
Actualy he said best SHOW ever I think. But either way I was shaking nothing,
I agree than Terminater is a good show, as I have repeatedly said, for almost 3
years.
Now the best show ever/ Not in my opinion, but the damn best show at USF no
doubt and certainly as good as any similar show ona technical level. I find no
fault with it there (or anywhere really) it is simply that my tastes vere more
towards the whimsy of the Muppets or Bug's than the somber mood of T-2...but I
like 'em all ... a lot.
If there is one thing you should believe by now is that I have no real bias
against Uni whatsoever. I have priased them very frequently recently because I
see lots to praise. In the past there has been little to praise (in my
opinion) so I did not, but I did so not because I don't like Uni, simply
because I did not feel they warrented praise...now they do.
TravMatte
>>Jesus Christ Trav...are you kidding me?
I have praised Spiderman to holy heaven FAR more than in this post you quote
from. How you manage to distort my words in that
deranged head of yours to paint it that I somehow do not like Spiderman or do
not think it is great technoloy is simply beyond me.
Boy, are you sensitive, Teev! All I was implying was that here was a
rave from one of your fellow Imagineers, who didn't mind admitting that Uni had
beaten Diz fair and square.You always seem to hold back.
TEEVTEE
rave from one of your fellow Imagineers, who didn't mind admitting that Uni had
beaten Diz fair and square.You always seem to hold back.
<<<
Trav, I have praised Spiderman to high heaven and I have praised many things
that I like about IOA.
If you read my review of Spiderman you would see that I was NOTHING but
positive about it. I "hold back" as you say only in proclaiming it the best
ride ever, I personaly do not feel that it is...but it's a kick ass ride and
you should understand that I feel that way by now.
Teevtee:
I got screwd out of the turkey man.
TravMatte
I should consider this a victory.
>I got screwd out of the turkey man.<
I forced myself to visit the CS on Sunday. They're guinea fowl, not
turkeys. (I can't belive I took that insanely dull by the Wonderful World of
Grass train ride, just for this!)
TEEVTEE
now.<
I should consider this a victory.<<<<
Well, Universal should consider it a victory. The fact that you never
understood my posts (for some unimaginable reason) and could not percieve that
I was yelling that I loved the ride is no cause for celebration.
Teevtee:
TravMatte
could not percieve that I was yelling that I loved the ride is no cause for
celebration.<
The next time you want to yell, use caps.