Carousel of Progress

Lori60 · Post by **Lori60** » Aug Fri 17, 2007 12:51 pm

CoP is truly one of those rides that brings back childhood memories for me. And that theme song, "there's a great big beautiful tomorrow, waiting at the end of everyday" just gets stuck in you head. Plus it is a great place to cool off on those really hot days.

MouseMan · Post by **MouseMan** » Aug Fri 17, 2007 12:58 pm

"Stuck" is truly the right word. My kids saw it for the first time when we went in Feb 06 and were singing it the rest of the day. Even now i can just begin softly humming tune and they break into the whole song ...... loudly.

Lori60 · Post by **Lori60** » Aug Fri 17, 2007 1:22 pm

Ah! now that's the "magic" of Disney! EarWorms......

Joe90 · Post by **Joe90** » Aug Sat 18, 2007 3:56 am

COP is great as it is. It could be better though. The last time jump is large and misses out a lot of recent history, space exploration for instance. It could do with at least one extra scene from the 60s or 70s before a final year 2100 or some such. The final scene has a "present" rather than a "future" feel.

Still a must see every trip though

it certainly has that original Disney magic.

Hypermommy · Post by **Hypermommy** » Aug Sat 18, 2007 6:12 am

Of course, the design is only for four scenes, right? I wonder if it's time to start a little bit more recently so the four scenes could be maybe the 20s or 30s, the 50s or 60s, the present and the future. But then we'd miss out on the turn of the century and I do love that scene.

Blackie Pueblo · Post by **Blackie Pueblo** » Aug Sat 18, 2007 8:04 am

Yeah, how impossible would it be to enlarget the building? I mean add another room to the Carousel to add another scene? I know financially it wouldn't be feasable due to the contructing of the room, moving everything down one, buying all the props, creating another animatronic...

Never mind... it's impossible.

"We call it imagineering, the blending of creative imagination with technical know-how."
---Walter Elias Disney

Joe90 · Post by **Joe90** » Aug Sat 18, 2007 8:30 am

Blackie Pueblo wrote:Yeah, how impossible would it be to enlarget the building? I mean add another room to the Carousel to add another scene? I know financially it wouldn't be feasable due to the contructing of the room, moving everything down one, buying all the props, creating another animatronic...

Never mind... it's impossible.

"We call it imagineering, the blending of creative imagination with technical know-how."
---Walter Elias Disney

Hmmm.

The whole ride is in a circle already divided into 5 segments.(Isn't the opening and closing scene only a curtain no anamatronics) If you could use this as the final scene(or first scene) we would be off and running with an increased ride.

Technically I believe it could be done. All it would take is time money and a sprinkle of Disney magic. 8)

Post by **js3901** » Aug Sat 18, 2007 2:43 pm

Blackie Pueblo wrote: Never mind... it's impossible.

But, didn't Uncle Walt used to say that "It's kind of fun to do the impossible"?

jbvenn · Post by **jbvenn** » Aug Sun 19, 2007 1:18 pm

My kids are in their teens and they love all the AA stuff. However, they are both Disney babies and have been visiting WDW since they were toddlers, so it's all second nature to them. They like the newer attractions and thrill rides too.

BirdandRobot · Post by **BirdandRobot** » Aug Sat 25, 2007 10:41 am

Rather than trying to fit another scene into the ride, I think it would be more feasible to alter the 1950's scene and update it to either the 1960's or 1970's.

Mr.ToadWildRider · Post by **Mr.ToadWildRider** » Aug Sat 25, 2007 7:57 pm

Joe90 wrote: Hmmm.

The whole ride is in a circle already divided into 5 segments.(Isn't the opening and closing scene only a curtain no anamatronics) If you could use this as the final scene(or first scene) we would be off and running with an increased ride.

Technically I believe it could be done. All it would take is time money and a sprinkle of Disney magic. 8)

The problem is they load/unload people into the theater with the time between scenes here. You couldn't add another scene to be shown or they'd have no time to have people enter/exit the theater.

DisBeamer · Post by **DisBeamer** » Aug Sat 25, 2007 8:43 pm

Hypermommy wrote:Of course, the design is only for four scenes, right? I wonder if it's time to start a little bit more recently so the four scenes could be maybe the 20s or 30s, the 50s or 60s, the present and the future. But then we'd miss out on the turn of the century and I do love that scene.

As much as I'd hate to dump the first scene, I think that's probably the best way to update it. I think part of the original idea was to impress people with how much progress there was between 1890something and 1960something when it was first shown, and it was impressive then. But now it's been 110 years and, imo, we've crossed the mental barrier where it doesn't seem that long ago anymore, you know what I mean? 110 years was a pretty long time ago; doesn't really surprise me that things were 'old fashioned', so the fact we've made a lot of progress since then is kinda 'so what?'.

Another problem with just updating the last scene (which badly needs it) is if you leave the previous scenes as 1890something, 1920ish, 1940ish and then make the next scene, like, 2050, you have a huge disconnect there that would damage the flow of the story (in my opinion, anyway).

I think one of the better ways to update it at this point would be to bump up the first scene to around 1920, and the advent of widespread electricity, etc. like they have now, then do the 2nd around 1950ish.. maybe 1960ish and touch on the Space Race? Put the 3rd scene around 1980ish and the nascent digital revolution, then go somewhere in the non-specific near-but-not-too-near future. I think that hits a lot of the big things that happened over the century without making too-big jumps.

Of course that's probably way, way more refurbing that Disney will do, but a girl can dream.

Joe90 · Post by **Joe90** » Aug Sun 26, 2007 4:11 am

Mr.ToadWildRider wrote:
Joe90 wrote: Hmmm.

The whole ride is in a circle already divided into 5 segments.(Isn't the opening and closing scene only a curtain no anamatronics) If you could use this as the final scene(or first scene) we would be off and running with an increased ride.

Technically I believe it could be done. All it would take is time money and a sprinkle of Disney magic. 8)
The problem is they load/unload people into the theater with the time between scenes here. You couldn't add another scene to be shown or they'd have no time to have people enter/exit the theater.

Six segments five theatres, more stops, re-engineer the gap between the entrance and exit doors. Technically pretty easy stuff. 8)

Post by **rdeacon** » Aug Sun 26, 2007 2:07 pm

They could easily rework the COP to have more stops.

I think the current one works ok as long as they keep the last scene relatively current with today's technology.

As long as ti remains I'm happy

Rich

Hypermommy · Post by **Hypermommy** » Aug Sun 26, 2007 6:22 pm

if they had more stops wouldn't they have to change up the theater section? That would seem to be a bit of a chore. But then again, anything's do-able.

Actually, I think COP would be more interesting if they'd go slightly into tomorrow for the last scene. Not way in the future but just a few years. Like a year or so ago over at Epcot when I saw the "thumbprint" thing for opening the front door. That was so cool. Then a few months later I read that the things are actually on sale. That kind of stuff would be neat in COP.

On thing they definitely should mention is the concept of online schooling. I think that's going to really take off here soon. My kid does it full time (his teachers and classes are online -- think distance learning but in middle school). And I know a lot of kids in the area are doing it to supplement classes or take classes that their particular school can't offer.

Anyway... those are my thoughts for the day for what they're worth.