Magic Kingdoms Space Mountain Re-Opens

[BP317]

http://www.attractionsmagazine.com/blog/2009/11/13/video-photos-space-mountain-soft-opens-to-guests-with-enhanced-queue-video-games/

Cosmetic improvements to the queue, added the video games in the queue, and redid/enclosed the station. The ride itself has some updated effects and a completely new PLC program to prevent/expedite downtimes.

[FRD714]

I was surprised to see how much wasn't changed. There was talk about new trains, but that didn't happen. Overall I'm happy with it. I'd much rather see this than a completely new ride. And not that the ride was horribly rough before, but it has been completely smoothed out, and some new supports have been added for longevity. They kept a lot of the stuff like the Star Tunnel music, which is classic, and updated the exit show a bit. Everything is just really cleaned up.

[monsterfan99]

I like that the que was updated, but why que games? I think of Soarin' for que games, in it is a ride that last a bit longer and only has 2 ride systems running. Meanwhile, Space Mt. is a ride that is always loading and has an ultra short ride cycle. It just seems the money could be spent elsewhere.

I'm very interested to see if they did anything about the rides roughness. I know how bad it was before the refurb, hopefully they did something to help.

[Danhockey04]

I just rode it today. My assessment:

Queue: Much improved, didn't get to play the games, there was no line. A lot of paint and cosmetic work. The station is much better and enclosed, which looks really cool. The air gates look well done and have that futuristic look to them.

Ride: Nothing better here. The show is better in the tunnels, the sound effects are much better now than before, same lighting in the though. The on-ride photo is right after the first tunnel before the lift and flashing a really bright light at you. The ride is darker, but you can still see the track fairly well and know what is coming. The projection was a little better probably cause it was darker. The ride itself is unchanged, still rough and jerky. I have heard of 2000 feet of track, only 13 feet had work done on it, which is very believable.

Post Ride: The on-ride photo is right when you get off and it has new carpeting, makes it look much better. The moving path back has been redone and updated, looks better.

Overall: For the time closed, it was a piss poor job ride wise, show wise it was decent but could have been better. The best part of the refurb is easily the queue.

[BP317]

It doesnt surprise me they decided to not do the huge track replacement overhaul like they did at DLR. With the way the economy is now a lot of people are postponing or canceling their vacations and having one of the resorts staple rides at the flagship park closed doesn't help that cause.

I know i'm gonna get ripped for this, but having the ride closed now doesn't do them any good. Any of you that have been to MK when its real busy knows how bad it can be, and the huge crowds flowing through the gift shop at the rides exit and onride picture sales place is a major part of the business. I wouldve liked to see a bigger scale project done also, but they have investors and in this economy they need to have the ride open this time of year.

[Mr. D.T.]

I may be one of those in the minority, but I like the ride the way it is. Sure, I been on a launch coaster like Rock n' Roller Coaster, and I do know about the Paris counterpart. It's nice they re-did the queue and added a modern twist to it, but I'm glad they kept the classic ride layout because that's the first, and original Space Mountain ride.

After all, they re-vamped Spaceship Earth and cheapened the heck out of the finale. Long ago, they did the same with Journey Into Imagination and made an embarrasment out of it, and took away the second floor. People aren't as creative as they used to be in most areas of entertainment. Sad but true.

[monsterfan99]

^ Creativity is never the problem. It's giving them a quarter to half the budget needed that is the problem.

I also refuse to believe the "economy" bs the company is giving. This is a company that is profitable even during the current recession. On top of that, everything involved in the project from labor to steel to other materials is cheaper now then it will be in 3-5 years. This is just a company trying to cut budgets to boost company numbers. However, the company just needs to remember the old saying "A stitch in time saves nine."