Test Track or World of Motion

[Doopey1]

I do really enjoy TestTrack, but I wish they would add some more theming to the whole thing. I only have vague memories of WOM, but it was a very traditional (in a good way), highly themed dark ride. I agree with all the comparisons to SSE.

I don't really get all the nostalgia for Horizons. I last rode it in the summer of 96. It was completely empty -- no line at all (and this was the summer, mind you) and I was completely underwhelmed. It just felt really dated and quaint. And I seem to be one of the very few people who consider Mission Space to be a really amazing, first-rate attraction.

[packwingfn]

I believe World of Motion was very outdated and I have no problem with GM deciding that it wanted a change. At least GM kept their sponsarship.

[Lectrorail]

I just hate, as I said earlier, having to lose both WOM and Horizons. WOM doesn't bother me so much, but there's not a time that I visit Epcot that I don't look over where Horizons used to be and feel a bit sad.

Agree wholeheartedly. What Test Track and Mission: Space don't have that WOM and Horizons did is that flexible scored music. The old attractions at EPCOT Center all seemed to have their own (well written) relevant theme songs to go along with their ultra-detailed presentations. And these songs were easy to identify (still are). Made it easily apparent that these were more than your run of the mill type amusement park rides. Like perhaps a company that got its start in Hollywood making motion pictures had something to do with it, right? Ahhhh, the power days of WED/WDI.

Now, (for me) in a head to head competition, SSE beats WOM hands down so I have to be honest and say that if the choices were; lose WOM and let SSE stay vs keeping WOM and turn SSE into something similar to Test Track (Time Racers), then the right decision was made. Just my opinion.

Back to the subject at hand, Test Track is fun and it keeps a healthy queue. Something WOM was failing to do in the late 90's. I am not sure Test Track fits the Future World theme all that well and as far as facade presentation goes.......well the pavilion was designed specifically for the WOM show and seeing those omnimovers move up the helix as you approached was vintage imagineering goodness. The way the building looks today gives me a mild headache.

[Coheteboy]

I've only ridden Test Track once and thought it was boring. Is it something that gets better or more appreciated the more I go?

[Anders]

I've only ridden Test Track once and thought it was boring. Is it something that gets better or more appreciated the more I go?

I also have only been on Test Track once, but I remember going on World of Motion several times over multiple trips to EPCOT growing up. Test Track was a nice ride, but it didn't really do all that much for me, could be because it took so friggin long for it to open.

I think the technology that Test Track uses could be used much better than it is currently, like the proposed Carland attraction at California Adventure. World of Motion was very similar to Spaceship Earth, sometimes I even combine the two in my memory.

EPCOT had the stigma of being too educational though and in turn more Disney decided it needed more entertainment in their rides.

[dbm20th]

WoM was anything but educational. It was a very lose history and rather silly in its telling. But it was a classic AA ride, and a fun one.

I would say TT is a better experience. There are far better AA rides then WoM. TT was a unique concept and I like how it worked.

[Dustysage]

World of Motion was wonderful. I still remember the funny theme music in the queue.

I think the problem was that Horizons, World of Motion, and Spaceship Earth were all a little too similar in the eyes of the public (slow omni-mover type rides). But with both WoM and Horizons now gone, I do miss them.

Test Track is tons of fun, but isn't the art form that World of motion was.

[dbm20th]

I think the problem was that Horizons, World of Motion, and Spaceship Earth were all a little too similar in the eyes of the public (slow omni-mover type rides). But with both WoM and Horizons now gone, I do miss them.

That is a great point. Epcot was absolutely stuffed with AA attractions, and big sprwaling ones at that. Include American Adventure in this as well.

They were all good, but they felt it was not pulling in what they had hoped. Could it be possible that AA's are no longer a forula for gatebuster attractions?

[kcnole]

I think the technology that Test Track uses could be used much better than it is currently, like the proposed Carland attraction at California Adventure. World of Motion was very similar to Spaceship Earth, sometimes I even combine the two in my memory.

It is in Tokyo. The Journey to the Center of the Earth attraction is test track technology.

Now, (for me) in a head to head competition, SSE beats WOM hands down so I have to be honest and say that if the choices were; lose WOM and let SSE stay vs keeping WOM and turn SSE into something similar to Test Track (Time Racers), then the right decision was made. Just my opinion.

Correct, to me out of the three big AA attractions, WoM was by far the ugly stepchild. In my opinion it was SSE, Horizons, and then WoM. I think one of them definitely needed to go, I'm not sure both of them did. But like you said, if two of them had to go, then they took the right ones. SSE is a complete work of art, well once they get the postshow back where it needs to be it will be. Had that been changed into some type of indoor roller coaster I may very well never have entered the park again.

[yoyoflamingo]

As much as I do enjoy Test Track, I still miss World of Motion (and Horizons) immensely. Just two of the most thought out, and FUN attractions in EPCOT, in my opinion. Also, there's something to be said about a 10+ minute attraction that is fully immersive, to a less than 5 minute thrill. I miss the days of slow, AA intensive omnimover attractions.

[evanescence4ever]

I don't get why they took out a ride for a new one, why not have both (or Disney World running out of room?)

no, they have planty of development room, it is just that they cannot maintain that many rides, because with EPCOT, all of the rides have sponsors, which fund the major rides, like nestle with the land, and Siemens with spaceship earth. When a company's sponsorship contract expires, if they dont renew it, then the ride is replaced with a new one, depending on if a new sponsor takes the place of the original sponsor. Really, if the original company had reewed their contract, we may still have world of motion, but i doubt it. they would have replaced it with a more thrilling ride by now. This is also why the rides over in the imagination section are dying out. Also why Ellen's is on the verge of extinction (ROFL ironic, it is about dinosaurs and energy. get it? dinosaurs, extinct. ROFL)

[asdfasdfa]

no, they have planty of development room, it is just that they cannot maintain that many rides, because with EPCOT, all of the rides have sponsors, which fund the major rides, like nestle with the land, and Siemens with spaceship earth. When a company's sponsorship contract expires, if they dont renew it, then the ride is replaced with a new one, depending on if a new sponsor takes the place of the original sponsor. Really, if the original company had reewed their contract, we may still have world of motion, but i doubt it. they would have replaced it with a more thrilling ride by now. This is also why the rides over in the imagination section are dying out. Also why Ellen's is on the verge of extinction (ROFL ironic, it is about dinosaurs and energy. get it? dinosaurs, extinct. ROFL)

Just for clarification, GM was the original sponsor and continues to be to this day, they supposedly wanted a thrill ride and thus, disney created one for them which really ticks me off because I think that Disney should create the rides then find sponsors, not the other way around!

[kcnole]

it wasn't all GM pushing Test Track. Disney wasn't happy with the dismal turnstyle numbers of World of Motion either. Don't think for a minute that the sponosors can dictate everything that easily.

And yes, while many of the attractions at Epcot and some of the other parks are sponosored, that isn't required. Look at the amount of profit the theme parks division has been making. They can staff, run, or create rides without needing the sponsors, they just choose not to.

[Digital Jedi]

World of Motion was by no means boring to riders who took the time to just take the experience in. That includes children. I was a kid who enjoyed both Horizons and World of Motion, and I was by no means one of those exceptional students or even all that interested in learning. What rides like these did was pique the latent interest in individuals rather then just give them a quick show. It was substance over flash. It presumed your ability to learn rather the just cater to your basest instinct for fluff.

And World of Motion was indeed educational. Particularly the post show, which was a futuristic showroom floor with a number of concept cars lending the theme credence. One of the first things I learned from EPCOT was at World of Motion with regards to wind resistance and gas mileage. To this day I remember the video that taught me that. The robotic arm that taught this lesson along with an animatronic parrot sticks in my mind to this day.

Today, Test Track is a watered down, speeded up version of what World of Motion was. The journey from past into transportation's future is completely erased in favor of a very brief run through of the here and now. Your not really taught anything, your not given glimpses into the future or reminded where you came from. Your just racing around a test facility with the theme firmly rooted in the present. Even your egress into the post show can barely be compared with a showroom floor, with cars I could go see in the parking lot. It's much smaller, with far fewer activities and presentations then it's predecessor. So much so, that what used to take us thirty minutes to leave the pavilion now takes no more then five.

It's far less immersive now, then it was before. And this has resulted in the whole experience being a flash in the pan that's over without anything really coming from it. (That can be said of a few of the Future World pavilions today.) Sure, some thought it was boring. But some think Test Track is boring. That's neither here not there. What made World of Motion so special was the fact that it offered so much more then Test Track does. Sprawling animatronic sequences, beautifully made models and a decent ride time coupled with cleverly made lessons in automotives. Add to that a higher ride capacity, and you had much more substance of a ride then Test Track could ever hope to be.

Presuming that Motion or Horizons were unpopular because they sometimes had empty ride cars is a false assessment. Both rides had higher ride times and higher ride capacity. They could shuffle through a much larger percentage of the park in a single hour then some of your older lower capacity Dark Rides or new thrill coasters. The ride was made to have shorter lines and fewer crowds. Especially towards the end of the day when most people had assaulted their favorite rides already. That, again, was part of its genius and substance. (And let me add, personal observations of lines has always been subjective. I've never had to wait in line at Space Mountain, or most of the Walt Disney World Resort. Never even seen a long line there since the '70s, but I don't presume that this is the way the ride always is for everyone. Horizons and Motion were still loved and frequented, but Disney seems to think a line has be forming around I-Drive in order for an attraction to be considered "popular".)

[kcnole]

World of Motion was by no means boring to riders who took the time to just take the experience in. That includes children. I was a kid who enjoyed both Horizons and World of Motion, and I was by no means one of those exceptional students or even all that interested in learning. What rides like these did was pique the latent interest in individuals rather then just give them a quick show. It was substance over flash. It presumed your ability to learn rather the just cater to your basest instinct for fluff.

Good stuff. As a child, Epcot Center captured my imagination. It inspired my creativity, gave me excitement for what the future brought, and hope for a world united. I know that many people today think those thoughts of human achievement are wrong. In a day and time where it is cool to think human achievement is responsible for all the wrongs in the world and that we're going to burn ourselves out of existence in the next 100 years, I can think of no better theme than that of hope that the original Epcot gave to us.

As to the attractions such as Horizons and WoM. I agree with Disneyjedi. There isn't one ride I miss any more on the Disney property than Horizons. The end sequence where we got to choose our own ending made my day every time. The thought of the bio's in the desert, underseas, and outer space were some of the most amazing things I could imagine. I wish for a day where Epcot again reaches for the stars and tries to be something different, and something so much more than any theme park in existence. For a day where it once again touches each and every person who comes and has the power to change people's lives as it once did as it certainly did mine.

However now most of that has been removed in favor of the current pop flavor of the month. One day, somehow, I hope that the powers that be will realize what Epcot once was. No, it wasn't the park that everybody loved, but it was the park that many people loved above all else.

Now, back to this conversation. In reality I can agree that there were probably too many long, slow, sprawling animatronic rides which tended to make futureworld one dimensional and I have no real problem with WoM going for something for another set. But it's the slow removal of all those old themes that makes me so sad. I know that change must come, but let us not completely forget the heart that EPCOT Center once had at its core. It's still there, I know it, just waiting to be revived again.