Epcot (General Discussion)

[belloq87]

Disney shared this look at the inner mechanics of The American Adventure, and it just underscores how much of a remarkable achievement of engineering it is:


Top to bottom, I think the show is one of Imagineering's greatest accomplishments.

 

[PerceptiveCoot]

Disney shared this look at the inner mechanics of The American Adventure, and it just underscores how much of a remarkable achievement of engineering it is:


Top to bottom, I think the show is one of Imagineering's greatest accomplishments.

I'm honestly surprised there are still people who know how these old animatronics work given all the institutional knowledge loss that happened in the post-COVID layoffs.

Also I'm glad Disney is less averse to posting behind the scenes content that actually acknowledges the mundane details of how park operations work. They recently posted a video where two engineers (one Gen Z and one Gen X) were doing final adjustments on the ride profile, and there's an absolutely ghastly array of cables they pull from the ride vehicle and plug into their computer. Any previous regime would have incorrectly seen that as disrupting someone's perception of the park rather than enhancing it.

 

[Timchat2]

While it's awesome to see the old-school EPCOT Center tech highlighted, and perhaps more importantly those still working every single day to keep it all running, the video mostly makes me sad because we're so far from ever doing this kind of thing in a Disney Park again.

 

[PerceptiveCoot]

While it's awesome to see the old-school EPCOT Center tech highlighted, and perhaps more importantly those still working every single day to keep it all running, the video mostly makes me sad because we're so far from ever doing this kind of thing in a Disney Park again.

The fact that they're making a new Carousel of Progress gives me some hope.

 

[OrlLover]

While it's awesome to see the old-school EPCOT Center tech highlighted, and perhaps more importantly those still working every single day to keep it all running, the video mostly makes me sad because we're so far from ever doing this kind of thing in a Disney Park again.

We will have to see what Abu Dhabi holds for new tech at Disney parks if it ever gets built.

 

[MAC]

I'm honestly surprised there are still people who know how these old animatronics work given all the institutional knowledge loss that happened in the post-COVID layoffs.

Also I'm glad Disney is less averse to posting behind the scenes content that actually acknowledges the mundane details of how park operations work. They recently posted a video where two engineers (one Gen Z and one Gen X) were doing final adjustments on the ride profile, and there's an absolutely ghastly array of cables they pull from the ride vehicle and plug into their computer. Any previous regime would have incorrectly seen that as disrupting someone's perception of the park rather than enhancing it.

I imagine it's very much like software/computer engineers who work on Mainframe or COBALT... systems/languages that are no longer actively maintained/updated, but because there are some critical systems they have a job forever. Of course the concern becomes... what happens when they're no longer doing that job and there's no one to fill in for them.

I'm sure it's similar with the old animatronics. Not sure what they have in ways of new animatronics, but it's something that could quickly go away if they're not funding the training and knowledge behind it.