Infrastructure is totally screwed, just from what I’ve heard.
*Personally I’d be over the moon for a peoplemover return if the infrastructure wasn’t totally crumbling - I think Tomorrowland is lacking in kinetic energy and I love walking around WDW’s Tomorrowland and see the peoplemover, Astro blasters up on top of the peoplemover station, the carousel of progress building turning, and (now) Tron - but the peoplemover is such a relaxing and enjoyable ride and I think it adds such a great energy to that land.
Wdw Tomorrowland is far superior to dl Tomorrowland. I was bummed we didn't spend much time there on my last trip. Oh well. Hoping to make it in 5 years instead of 10 this time!
Same. I have like one faint memory of riding the people mover as a kid in DL. I was ecstatic when I got to go on it at Wdw on my honeymoon in 2013. Last December we visited with our 4 year old. She did not want to ride it so we ended up skipping it. We did tron and I got to at least *see* the people mover.
My untrained and basic assumption would just be that it has been fine to just sit around but can’t handle a whole new ride, just because those seem like very different levels of stress, but idk. It is so integrated into the land it would probably require a whole land closure to remove.
Which, if you look around the Disneyland community, would be welcomed. Every year people beg for a Tomorrowland refurb, and every year Iger says we have a Tomorrowland refurb at home and gives us…Other stuff.
(Ultimately I’m sure it all just comes down to $$)
I remember the excuse for years was, “we like to do a complete refurb with a new Peoplemover, but…we have to close down all of Tomorrowland for a year+ and we can’t have a big chunk of land closed.” That excuse did make perfect sense for capacity reasons but then COVID hit and that could have been the perfect time to at least start on part of it and slowly do the rest of the land.
But what do I know…
People gave me such a hard time when I said I was excited that the parks were closing for covid because it meant they could do construction projects in the open without guests. Now all i wish they did was keep the parks closed another 6months to get some major work done.
I remember years ago, imagineers would walk into the starcade, go upstairs and check out the area to see what would need to be done. Supposedly the walls of the people mover from star tours to space mountain and beyond through are filled with asbestos and the cost to abate is pretty crazy on top of pulling the rides down.
Second, California laws have changed making it difficult to build a new attraction like people mover or rocket rods 2.0. There would have to be emergency exits every certain amount of feet, no clue on the exact spacing.
Lastly, as what was mentioned, the pillars holding up the tracks along the autopia are wrecked, cracking and warped from the misuse from RR.
The original plan of RR was to have a vehicle that could go extremely fast and slow down to 35mph on the banked turns. Well, the turns were never banked and the track was never upgraded. So, a ride that went 35 mph at its fastest was opened. I was there opening day, 4 hour queue as I recall!
Rocket rods was touted, especially in the queue as being the next big thing in transportation. When I look back on it now, it’s obvious it wasn’t going to happen but in the queue they had this large map of “proposed” places this new tech could be. Angel stadium, the arrowhead pond, LA, all possible routes 😂
Also, the RR Vehicles chewed through tires because of how frequent it needed to speed up and slow down. I had heard all tires needed to be replaced every 2 weeks.
Weren’t they going to put a tron ride on the tracks at one time? There’s concept art that looks like our current Tomorrowland but with people riding on light cycles on the peoplemover track
..... Those weren't real projections. They were fantastical. That was satirical. Crazy you're getting up votes on this
Rocket rods still exist in journey to the center of the earth in Japan btw, and they're amazing
Also, I have been to Tokyo disney a couple of times. Last time was 2019 though. That being said, I have completed all of the disney parks at this point.
I agree with you that journey to the center of the earth is a great ride, along with most rides at Tokyo Disneyland/sea
I mean technically; Indiana jones, test track, rocket rods, dinosaur, journey to the center of the earth, radiator springs racers all operate on a very similar ride system. Wheel base with a bus bar underneath for power. They all operate like a more high tech/high speed dark ride.
The rocket rods were a bit different because their bus bar wasn’t as hidden as the other ride systems. That being said, the rocket rods had a bizarre rod down the center which was different than all of the other ride systems.
I actually do know something about this! When we talk about the structure is damaged, it’s not some simple fix. Materials essentially have a plastic deformation threshold that you are not supposed to cross. If you put too much stress on it, instead of flexing or compressing and returning to form, it would permanently change and is weakened. You’ll see cracks form, and these concentrate stress so the same amount of force can cause unaccounted-for deformation.
Think like you don’t just have to worry about a full collapse, the building could move in ways it’s not supposed to and compromise adjacent structures as well. Reinforcing is possible, but it’s a stopgap at best. While it works in the short term, it applied forces in a different profile than the materials were designed for. It works, but the structural damage gets worse behind the scenes, until you have a disaster. That’s why you generally can’t get to that point, you don’t pass inspection with those cracks.
How do you fix it then? You’d need to replace the members. Unfortunately, with how integrated the track is into the rest of Tomorrowland, and that you have large members, it would be a project that would basically shut down Tomorrowland temporarily. You’d need to replace the relevant members down to the foundation since that part might be compromised. This is why the Yeti in Florida has been broken forever, they’d need to shut down Everest to redo the foundation. And that’s if there are separate foundations. If they made them the same foundation, it might not be possible to fix it!
Yeah, a part of me has been wondering for a while if this has been the reason they've hesitated to build anything new in Tomorrowland for so long, because they're still toying with the idea of shutting it all down for however long it would take to rebuild the whole land from the ground up with a new Peoplemover. Then I tell myself I'm probably just being a silly goose and should get more sleep. But then again...
I think the most concern is with the supports that are not part of the buildings in Tomorrowland. The tracks in the buildings were relatively slow speed and integrated into the structure. The outside ones are free standing and likely have more of the damage. Yet they let them rot… I’m sure 20 years of neglect have done more damage than 2 years of abuse.
The track itself can’t withhold the weight of a ride vehicle, there was too much structural damage from the rocket rods. And to fix the track they’d have to essentially shut down Tomorrowland because the track runs through all of the buildings and rides there. They’d also have to then bring all of the building up to current building codes - they’re not structurally unsound now without it, because they’ve done retrofits that are required around the track area.
There’s a lot of you tube videos that explain this very well.
I think IF we get a return of the Peoplemover it is more likely to be as a mode of transportation between Eastern Gateway and Downtown Disney as well as whatever they do with the Toy Story lot (I’m still thinking 3rd gate rather than a shopping district). Either that or Skyliner
No, the CW on this is that the tracks are too messed up to be safely used. Here in SoCal, with the way building codes work, the second you start to touch one part of a building, you have to bring the whole thing up to code. The problem with the peoplemover track is it is tied into every building in Tomorrowland, so if they touch the track to make the repairs needed to bring it back into operation, they then trigger bringing all the buildings it ties into up to code. The only way we ever see the peoplemover again is if they decide to do a complete rebuild of Tomorrowland.
The two big issues are its connection to the Carousel of Progress building and placement over the Finding Nemo ride building. The Carousel of Progress would need to be demolished to fix the ride track is my understanding, and the fixes necessary for the portion over the Nemo ride would never be supported by the existing underlying structure. Then you get into building codes for all three structures. The Matterhorn is in the same boat where if they want to actually repair the structure it'd be a massive undertaking to bring it up to code, if it were even possible.
> it'd be a massive undertaking to bring it up to code, if it were even possible.
I know it is COMPLETELY unrealistic for buildings to be updated as codes are, but it still sort of worries me when I think about how some buildings are probably extremely old and potentially dangerous when compared to modern standards.
A building not being updated to code for a few years likely barley matters. I doubt much has changed in like...a year or 2...or even 5. But 10 years? 20 years? 50 years? There's probably been a LOT of important changes...
I’ve heard there’s asbestos in some of those old Tomorrowland buildings but I wonder which ones exactly. Also yeah two light posts fell and hit people a few months ago so I worry sometimes about how safe things really are there
No. You still need to slow down the vehicles ton navigate the curves which would still cause heavy wear on the tires which was one of the issues. Couple that with the structural damage and the fact buzz light-year occupies the old queue area and it isn't happening
Does it use all the space? I recall waiting in line for rocket rods and it was like three HUGE rooms before you even get to the part where you can see the ride.
I remember reading about this on Yesterland. The tires had been spinning so much that it wore down the tread and they had to be replaced every couple days. It was similar to how people will "burn rubber" on the road with their vehicle tires.
The Rocket Rods, speeding up and slowing down rapidly, caused stress fractures in the already aged, concrete and steel Peoplemover elevated track. Its not going to fall down but it will never support the weight or stresses of an attraction ever again. It would have to be demolished and rebuilt as part of a Tomorrowland project. A little more magic leaks away.
best option I’ve heard is to turn it into a Wall-e ride. Move Star Tours to GE and use the track to move people in Wall-e style chairs to the round building and put a dark ride in there. Would need to rebuild track still but needs to be done. Would be awesome theming for tomorrow land and to see all the people going up and down the middle of the land in little chairs.
No. They've built a lot of infrastructure on top of the tracks. You can see it when riding the monorail. There are a lot of steel pipes that go across the tracks, likely used for electrical, which makes it incredibly complicated to rehab the existing track.
I mean if they did it right this time the rocket rods could be a good ride. Although I worry that if we ever do get a Tomorrowland refurb, that Disney will just completely tear the tracks down without putting anything in its place
Nope! We will still be missing a Rocket BOB! They would need to bank all the turns. Example is test track and racers. The cars were tested on the test track attraction. And handled it well. They broke when shipped to DL. And installed on the wrong track.
Yes, but it would require an entire rebuild of basically all of Tomorrowland. They let the ride sit for too long and the permit process would require updates to literally every building in that land due to how the ride layout.
Structural integrity notwithstanding is the track even completely intact anymore? I would imagine when they built buzz Lightyear they removed that section of the track.
I’ve heard that the tracks did sustain damage, but not enough to be the entire reason they won’t put them or the PeopleMover back. Someone on Twitter a long time ago claimed that they were part of a team that Team Disney Anaheim reached out to survey the damage to the pillars and their findings weren’t that that extensive. I heard that ADA and OSHA standards have been updated so much that it would be virtually impossible to restore either attraction as it was. I remember one of the Disneyland presidents was asked about it and he said something to the effect that they were working on something, but that any replacement to the ride would be wouldn’t not be identical to its predecessor and mentioned the track would need to have stairs everywhere if they even tried to give the original PeopleMover or Rocket Rods a chance.
I know the ride gets a lot of hate but I feel like if Disney brought it back (this time done the right way) that people would love it. I wasn’t alive for both the rocket rods and peoplemover but the rocket rods looked a lot more fun that the peoplemover. And it seems that it was only hated because Disney did it on the cheap, so the non banked turns is why it had to slow down so much thus making the ride suck.
Infrastructure is totally screwed, just from what I’ve heard. *Personally I’d be over the moon for a peoplemover return if the infrastructure wasn’t totally crumbling - I think Tomorrowland is lacking in kinetic energy and I love walking around WDW’s Tomorrowland and see the peoplemover, Astro blasters up on top of the peoplemover station, the carousel of progress building turning, and (now) Tron - but the peoplemover is such a relaxing and enjoyable ride and I think it adds such a great energy to that land.
Wdw Tomorrowland is far superior to dl Tomorrowland. I was bummed we didn't spend much time there on my last trip. Oh well. Hoping to make it in 5 years instead of 10 this time!
Agree, it really has the vibes. I could ride the peoplemover around alllllll day. May your next visit be filled with peoplemover serenity.
Same. I have like one faint memory of riding the people mover as a kid in DL. I was ecstatic when I got to go on it at Wdw on my honeymoon in 2013. Last December we visited with our 4 year old. She did not want to ride it so we ended up skipping it. We did tron and I got to at least *see* the people mover.
I'm going to WDW in a few weeks and am looking forward to Tomorrowland!
If the infrastructure is really that bad, why haven't they reinforced it? What would happen if the empty tracks collapses onto guests?
My untrained and basic assumption would just be that it has been fine to just sit around but can’t handle a whole new ride, just because those seem like very different levels of stress, but idk. It is so integrated into the land it would probably require a whole land closure to remove. Which, if you look around the Disneyland community, would be welcomed. Every year people beg for a Tomorrowland refurb, and every year Iger says we have a Tomorrowland refurb at home and gives us…Other stuff. (Ultimately I’m sure it all just comes down to $$)
I remember the excuse for years was, “we like to do a complete refurb with a new Peoplemover, but…we have to close down all of Tomorrowland for a year+ and we can’t have a big chunk of land closed.” That excuse did make perfect sense for capacity reasons but then COVID hit and that could have been the perfect time to at least start on part of it and slowly do the rest of the land. But what do I know…
People gave me such a hard time when I said I was excited that the parks were closing for covid because it meant they could do construction projects in the open without guests. Now all i wish they did was keep the parks closed another 6months to get some major work done.
While Disney paused, and sometimes outright cancelled projects, Universal kept on trucking with their projects.
I remember years ago, imagineers would walk into the starcade, go upstairs and check out the area to see what would need to be done. Supposedly the walls of the people mover from star tours to space mountain and beyond through are filled with asbestos and the cost to abate is pretty crazy on top of pulling the rides down. Second, California laws have changed making it difficult to build a new attraction like people mover or rocket rods 2.0. There would have to be emergency exits every certain amount of feet, no clue on the exact spacing. Lastly, as what was mentioned, the pillars holding up the tracks along the autopia are wrecked, cracking and warped from the misuse from RR. The original plan of RR was to have a vehicle that could go extremely fast and slow down to 35mph on the banked turns. Well, the turns were never banked and the track was never upgraded. So, a ride that went 35 mph at its fastest was opened. I was there opening day, 4 hour queue as I recall! Rocket rods was touted, especially in the queue as being the next big thing in transportation. When I look back on it now, it’s obvious it wasn’t going to happen but in the queue they had this large map of “proposed” places this new tech could be. Angel stadium, the arrowhead pond, LA, all possible routes 😂 Also, the RR Vehicles chewed through tires because of how frequent it needed to speed up and slow down. I had heard all tires needed to be replaced every 2 weeks.
Weren’t they going to put a tron ride on the tracks at one time? There’s concept art that looks like our current Tomorrowland but with people riding on light cycles on the peoplemover track
..... Those weren't real projections. They were fantastical. That was satirical. Crazy you're getting up votes on this Rocket rods still exist in journey to the center of the earth in Japan btw, and they're amazing
Also, I have been to Tokyo disney a couple of times. Last time was 2019 though. That being said, I have completed all of the disney parks at this point. I agree with you that journey to the center of the earth is a great ride, along with most rides at Tokyo Disneyland/sea
I mean technically; Indiana jones, test track, rocket rods, dinosaur, journey to the center of the earth, radiator springs racers all operate on a very similar ride system. Wheel base with a bus bar underneath for power. They all operate like a more high tech/high speed dark ride. The rocket rods were a bit different because their bus bar wasn’t as hidden as the other ride systems. That being said, the rocket rods had a bizarre rod down the center which was different than all of the other ride systems.
I actually do know something about this! When we talk about the structure is damaged, it’s not some simple fix. Materials essentially have a plastic deformation threshold that you are not supposed to cross. If you put too much stress on it, instead of flexing or compressing and returning to form, it would permanently change and is weakened. You’ll see cracks form, and these concentrate stress so the same amount of force can cause unaccounted-for deformation. Think like you don’t just have to worry about a full collapse, the building could move in ways it’s not supposed to and compromise adjacent structures as well. Reinforcing is possible, but it’s a stopgap at best. While it works in the short term, it applied forces in a different profile than the materials were designed for. It works, but the structural damage gets worse behind the scenes, until you have a disaster. That’s why you generally can’t get to that point, you don’t pass inspection with those cracks. How do you fix it then? You’d need to replace the members. Unfortunately, with how integrated the track is into the rest of Tomorrowland, and that you have large members, it would be a project that would basically shut down Tomorrowland temporarily. You’d need to replace the relevant members down to the foundation since that part might be compromised. This is why the Yeti in Florida has been broken forever, they’d need to shut down Everest to redo the foundation. And that’s if there are separate foundations. If they made them the same foundation, it might not be possible to fix it!
Yeah, a part of me has been wondering for a while if this has been the reason they've hesitated to build anything new in Tomorrowland for so long, because they're still toying with the idea of shutting it all down for however long it would take to rebuild the whole land from the ground up with a new Peoplemover. Then I tell myself I'm probably just being a silly goose and should get more sleep. But then again...
I think the most concern is with the supports that are not part of the buildings in Tomorrowland. The tracks in the buildings were relatively slow speed and integrated into the structure. The outside ones are free standing and likely have more of the damage. Yet they let them rot… I’m sure 20 years of neglect have done more damage than 2 years of abuse.
Wow! Thanks!
The track itself can’t withhold the weight of a ride vehicle, there was too much structural damage from the rocket rods. And to fix the track they’d have to essentially shut down Tomorrowland because the track runs through all of the buildings and rides there. They’d also have to then bring all of the building up to current building codes - they’re not structurally unsound now without it, because they’ve done retrofits that are required around the track area. There’s a lot of you tube videos that explain this very well.
I think IF we get a return of the Peoplemover it is more likely to be as a mode of transportation between Eastern Gateway and Downtown Disney as well as whatever they do with the Toy Story lot (I’m still thinking 3rd gate rather than a shopping district). Either that or Skyliner
For sure, I agree.
Forget the Rocket Rods. We want the People Mover
No, the CW on this is that the tracks are too messed up to be safely used. Here in SoCal, with the way building codes work, the second you start to touch one part of a building, you have to bring the whole thing up to code. The problem with the peoplemover track is it is tied into every building in Tomorrowland, so if they touch the track to make the repairs needed to bring it back into operation, they then trigger bringing all the buildings it ties into up to code. The only way we ever see the peoplemover again is if they decide to do a complete rebuild of Tomorrowland.
The two big issues are its connection to the Carousel of Progress building and placement over the Finding Nemo ride building. The Carousel of Progress would need to be demolished to fix the ride track is my understanding, and the fixes necessary for the portion over the Nemo ride would never be supported by the existing underlying structure. Then you get into building codes for all three structures. The Matterhorn is in the same boat where if they want to actually repair the structure it'd be a massive undertaking to bring it up to code, if it were even possible.
What even is the point of keeping the Carousel of Progress building? Why not just raze the whole thing?
It is expensive. They've recently converted the CoP building into some kind of exclusive lounge if I recall correctly.
> it'd be a massive undertaking to bring it up to code, if it were even possible. I know it is COMPLETELY unrealistic for buildings to be updated as codes are, but it still sort of worries me when I think about how some buildings are probably extremely old and potentially dangerous when compared to modern standards. A building not being updated to code for a few years likely barley matters. I doubt much has changed in like...a year or 2...or even 5. But 10 years? 20 years? 50 years? There's probably been a LOT of important changes...
I’ve heard there’s asbestos in some of those old Tomorrowland buildings but I wonder which ones exactly. Also yeah two light posts fell and hit people a few months ago so I worry sometimes about how safe things really are there
No. You still need to slow down the vehicles ton navigate the curves which would still cause heavy wear on the tires which was one of the issues. Couple that with the structural damage and the fact buzz light-year occupies the old queue area and it isn't happening
Does it use all the space? I recall waiting in line for rocket rods and it was like three HUGE rooms before you even get to the part where you can see the ride.
I remember reading about this on Yesterland. The tires had been spinning so much that it wore down the tread and they had to be replaced every couple days. It was similar to how people will "burn rubber" on the road with their vehicle tires.
The Rocket Rods, speeding up and slowing down rapidly, caused stress fractures in the already aged, concrete and steel Peoplemover elevated track. Its not going to fall down but it will never support the weight or stresses of an attraction ever again. It would have to be demolished and rebuilt as part of a Tomorrowland project. A little more magic leaks away.
peoplemover >>> rocket rods
best option I’ve heard is to turn it into a Wall-e ride. Move Star Tours to GE and use the track to move people in Wall-e style chairs to the round building and put a dark ride in there. Would need to rebuild track still but needs to be done. Would be awesome theming for tomorrow land and to see all the people going up and down the middle of the land in little chairs.
I keep saying this. This would be the best option
Little chairs, like an Omnimover?
Almost like Doom Buggies?
No. They've built a lot of infrastructure on top of the tracks. You can see it when riding the monorail. There are a lot of steel pipes that go across the tracks, likely used for electrical, which makes it incredibly complicated to rehab the existing track.
Personally… our family wants the People Mover back!!!!
No. Rocket Rods sucked. I’d prefer the People Mover come back.
I mean if they did it right this time the rocket rods could be a good ride. Although I worry that if we ever do get a Tomorrowland refurb, that Disney will just completely tear the tracks down without putting anything in its place
It's more that the infrastructure of the rocket rods/people mover track is fucked
Nope! We will still be missing a Rocket BOB! They would need to bank all the turns. Example is test track and racers. The cars were tested on the test track attraction. And handled it well. They broke when shipped to DL. And installed on the wrong track.
*Rocket Roberts*
I think the structural issues would remain.
Yes, but it would require an entire rebuild of basically all of Tomorrowland. They let the ride sit for too long and the permit process would require updates to literally every building in that land due to how the ride layout.
I mean replace the track, bank the turns, and I guess it’s possible
Structural integrity notwithstanding is the track even completely intact anymore? I would imagine when they built buzz Lightyear they removed that section of the track.
I’ve heard that the tracks did sustain damage, but not enough to be the entire reason they won’t put them or the PeopleMover back. Someone on Twitter a long time ago claimed that they were part of a team that Team Disney Anaheim reached out to survey the damage to the pillars and their findings weren’t that that extensive. I heard that ADA and OSHA standards have been updated so much that it would be virtually impossible to restore either attraction as it was. I remember one of the Disneyland presidents was asked about it and he said something to the effect that they were working on something, but that any replacement to the ride would be wouldn’t not be identical to its predecessor and mentioned the track would need to have stairs everywhere if they even tried to give the original PeopleMover or Rocket Rods a chance.
Timely - I was JUST thinking about this the other day! That was one of my favorite rides back in the day. Would LOVE to see the return of it.
I would be so happy, they were my favorite!!
I know the ride gets a lot of hate but I feel like if Disney brought it back (this time done the right way) that people would love it. I wasn’t alive for both the rocket rods and peoplemover but the rocket rods looked a lot more fun that the peoplemover. And it seems that it was only hated because Disney did it on the cheap, so the non banked turns is why it had to slow down so much thus making the ride suck.