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This is a post that was meant for last summer, but I haven’t gotten around to until now. Some of you have looked at the video in my sig, or haven’t yet, called “My Submarine Voyage”. You are probably wondering what this is or how I did, so here is my chance to tell you. The reason why it took so long to get this post to surface, is the dread of trying to figure out how to explain this to everyone in a simple and easy to understand manner. So, I have finally did and here it is.
Since I was about 8 years old, I have always had a fascination with the orignal Submarine Voyage. I even had a little yellow wooden submarine I would climb in (named the Nautilus, of course) and I would recite what I could remember of the speil. Later that year, I was disappointed to find out that my beloved attraction had shut down for real. I couldn’t believe it.
Zoom to early 2007, my interest in the Submarine Voyage started to grow again, with the anticipation of the new Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage opening in the coming summer. Many of you are familiar with what I do in my free time, building Disneyland models and my “Crawl-throughs” under my model train layout. Some of these “Crawl-throughs” include Pirates Of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion Holiday, and the Tiki Room. So, to commemorate the new sub attraction, and my interest in the old ride, I decided to recreate the old ride under my train table. It was a complicated process to develop the layout of it, how it would work, how the people would see it, and how the heck I was going to fit every single scene under a 4’ by 7’ table.I had eventually did in 5 months. Lets see the ride first, then I’ll show you how everything works. So squat down and crawl into the viewing area for a trip on my Submarine Voyage!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v= <a h...VF3dcWhMLs</a>
Now that you have struggled to get out of the table, lets see how it works. In an aid to show how it works, I created a full on 3D model of it in Google Sketch-Up, (which you can download here.). This is an overall view of the table.
You can see where the operator (me!) sits, where the guests view , and where all the scenes are.
Here is another view, with the viewing area on the left and the scenes on the right.
This is where it gets tricky and technical and hard to explain. You could probably save your self a headache by not trying to figure this out.
Here is the diagram of what it looks like to the operator and how the scenes are laid out.
Everything is laid out very much like a stage show with backdrops, legs, etc. The “dock wall” is basically a backdrop that raises and lowers in front of the portholes. The “south seas lagoon scenes” are on a segmented belt (called “belt 1” in the diagram) very similar to the “carousels” you might find at an airport. These belts travel in front of the portholes around the main turqoise backdrop and back to the starting point on the right side of the portholes. The Atlanis, volcanos, and sea serpent scenes are also on a smaller, belt (Known as "Belt 2" in the diagram). This one travels along the inside of the longer “south seas lagoon belt”. The polar icecaps, like the dock wall, is a prop that lowers into the viewing area when the ride is at that point. The rest of the scenes, the graveyard of lost ships, deep sea angler fish, and the giant squid; are all painted flats that travel along a network of suspended “wire tracks” that span the entire length of the table. Lastly to create that underwater look, thin plexiglass boxes with fish tank air stones, filled with water, are between the porthole windows and the scenes that give that water look and of course, bubbles. This is very similar to the effect TDS has in their 20,000 leagues under the sea ride.
The scenes themselves are mainly made out of paper mache. The seaweed is all done out of rosemary bush clippings. Just about all the sea life is sculpted out of clay, but some had to be flats because of the tight clearances.
Now in 2008, like the orignal submarine Voyage, mine is now gone too. In its place, currently, is a version of the original Haunted Mansion (which I have yet to post), which is very detailed with lots of effects ( including a full on pepper’s ghost effect of the ballroom).
I hope you all have enjoyed my little presentation and I hope it all made sense too!
Originally Posted by skiingdude103 
Re: My Submarine Voyage 
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