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Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT! replacing DCA's Tower of Terror


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The irony, too, is that Marvel Land and a Guardians of the Galaxy retheme of Tower of Terror seem like they would fit much better in Hollywood Studios, now that that park is getting Toy Story Land and a general refocus towards WWoHP-style lands. (I should add, though, that that thought is only based on secondhand information--I haven't been there before. But that does seem to be the direction that Disney is taking it in...)

 

It is unfortunate that Disney is taking an "all new IP, all the time" approach to their parks at the moment. I can't help but feel like this is a (from an enthusiast's perspective) negative side effect of Potterland's success at USO/IOA. I liked GotG (and, heck, even Frozen.) I wouldn't even mind if Frozen and GotG would get their own NEW rides. Or, like bkroz said, at least put the rethemes in appropriate areas! GotG in Tomorrowland is a no-brainer! Frozen is a no-brainer for Fantasyland! I don't know the extent of how landlocked Disneyland and California Adventure are, but it sure seems like Star Wars would be a better fit in an Islands of Adventure-type park, rather than awkwardly fitting it in the non-IP lands of Disneyland. ("Here you leave today and enter the world of yesterday, tomorrow, fantasy... and Jar Jar Binks.")

 

This feels like Disney is cannibalizing themselves to become Universal. In the meantime, they're reminding me a whole lot of Paramount (or, at least, how several people who knew KECO's KI describe Paramount's IP-related additions.) I'm not sure how much I like that. I'm not happy that California Adventure's themes are getting obscured before I can get there...

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You made a valid point about being landlocked. It's not only the physical land that might be in the mix, but also the surrounding society in that area. I don't know if the people of the community are also tightening the area that Disney takes up.

Californians love their amusent parks, but they also love snail darters. Perhaps they can't expand past a certain point due to legal reasons.

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When I first read the topic and replied on it last night, I immediately took to YouTube.

 

Below are a couple of videos if you've never experienced the FL version of Tower of Terror or are intrigued by the ride technology itself.

 

 

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I know you already know this as stated in your earlier post, but just to be clear for those joining us: this changing into a Marvel ride applies ONLY to the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror at Disney California Adventure. The original ride at Hollywood Studios in Florida is not changing. And I doubt it will.

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Especially at Disney's pace.

 

Maelstrom -> Frozen took 20 months. This transformation (which looks to be floor-to-ceiling, literally) will take five.

 

If it's that easy to install, one would hope it's easy to UNinstall. What a tremendous relief it would be if Disney announced that this new Guardians ride would be temporary – say, a year or two, until the Marvel Land is ready – before transforming BACK into Tower of Terror. Like, literally, we'd all breathe easy. Sigh.

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I get the feeling that this announcement is because we might start seeing scaffolding soon.  This would let Disney get a start on the exterior work this fall while the ride is still open.  Then it closes for good in January after the holidays.  I would think it should be easy at that point to get it changed over before the movie opens next summer.

 

While this is not official, if I wanted one last ride before it is changed I would not wait until December.  Who wants to remember the ride covered in scaffolding?

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The first two weeks of December is one of my favorite times of year to visit Disneyland and Disney World.  The decorations, lights, and shows have already changed for Christmas, except school is still in session so I find it to be one of the slower times of year.  The problem is that the closer you get to Christmas the worse the crowds get.  Leading to the week between Christmas and New Years which is the busiest time of the year.  The trip would have to be free to get me in a Disney park during that week.

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I've visited Disney World the first week of December before and it was fantastic!  The weather was nice, the decorations were up, and the crowds were extremely low.  I remember the year we went down there at that time, we visited Hollywood Studios and in the evening, there was no line for Tower of Terror, so my sister and I marathoned it. We would exit, then run around to the entrance again.  We did this for quite a while.  What an amazing ride this is and it's sad that it's getting a crappy re-theme.  Let's pray the one in Florida is safe so that at least one ToT will remain intact.

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Never rode the California one but once your inside the ride vehicle it's all projections right?

So beside the set pieces it should be easy to put in and take out if needed right? Plus if the rides open or not the outside could be continued to be worked on. Right? Maybe?

I'm up for this. And i love the idea that maybe it's only a temp thing till Marvel Land opens.

As for parks changing. They have to. They have to change to the crowds. Plus the MCU is slated to make new movies till at least 2019 if not farther.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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If sources on other websites are to be believed (and I think it's safe to say they can, as they predicted this months ago), the only reason that the original is safe is because of the woefully inadequate capacity at Disney's Hollywood Studios. So I guess the closures did one good thing for that park, I'd hate to imagine this monstrosity looming at the end of Sunset Blvd.

 

I've also seen the "Disneyland will never be complete..." quote from Walt Disney being used by some people defending this move. However, I don't think that quote refers to doing cheap overlays of the best attractions the resort has to offer. Plussing a classic attraction to keep it interesting? Yes. Twilight Zone Guardians of the Tower of the Galaxy of Terror? No.

 

Guardians of the Galaxy should have gotten its own brand new experience. Universal must be laughing at all the backlash Disney has seen so far at this announcement.

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^ I do not believe anyone said this might be temporary, everything points at this being permanent. This is the first piece of the Marvel land and will be a part of the new section of the park.

Bkroz mentioned it, and he may have a point, easy to install, maybe easy to uninstall.

The collection that makes up the line queue looks pretty much like the movie props, behind pexiglass cases, so less damage. The rest might be hologramic gewgaws until the drop. just a different film playing

Isn't this the ride that's programable 20 different ways? They aren't going to toss the Serling gig into the trash, it"s going to kept and filed.

Edit to add: shark got to it before I did! Better learn to touchtype.

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I get the feeling that this announcement is because we might start seeing scaffolding soon.  This would let Disney get a start on the exterior work this fall while the ride is still open.  Then it closes for good in January after the holidays.  I would think it should be easy at that point to get it changed over before the movie opens next summer.

 

While this is not official, if I wanted one last ride before it is changed I would not wait until December.  Who wants to remember the ride covered in scaffolding?

That's my guess to. There will be working on this starting soon to get it switched over just leaving the ride open as long as they can for guests, especially the holiday crowds. I'm guessing most of the exterior work will be completed by the time they close it down and that's when they will redo the interior.

This likely to be a quicker layover than Maelstrom to Frozen too because that ride involved taking out numerous show scenes and turning a theatre into a queue and expanding the track some, while this will likely be primarily screen and projections and no change to the ride system itself (most likely). So the only major installations will involve putting up some screens and lighting effects and the props in the queue. Much less intensive than the work that Frozen required.

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Especially at Disney's pace.

 

Maelstrom -> Frozen took 20 months. This transformation (which looks to be floor-to-ceiling, literally) will take five.

 

If it's that easy to install, one would hope it's easy to UNinstall. What a tremendous relief it would be if Disney announced that this new Guardians ride would be temporary – say, a year or two, until the Marvel Land is ready – before transforming BACK into Tower of Terror. Like, literally, we'd all breathe easy. Sigh.

Journey Into Your Imagination took like a year, and look how that turned out.

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  • 1 month later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Just when you think it can't get any worse.

 

Looks like the horrific, abrasive Blue Sky version of the exterior was too ambitious to pull off in real life. Model revealed today: 

 

https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2016/10/collectors-fortress-transformation-underway-now-as-guardians-of-the-galaxy-mission-breakout-prepares-for-summer-2017-opening-at-disney-california-adventure-park/

 

 

As if they don't understand that it's become a refrain of guests who're against this (most of them), they even quote Imagineer Joe Rohde in referring to it as a "warehouse, fortress-like power plant.”

 

Disney does a pretty good job controlling and censoring comments on their Blog. Instead, check out the replies to the tweet linking to the blog: https://twitter.com/DisneyParks/status/783026531274600448

 

Unreal.

 

Even understanding the corporate juggernaut that is the Walt Disney Company, I cannot fathom how they haven't backpedaled even a BIT on this. 

 

And still I say, this changeover is taking only 5 months to put in place. If it's easy to install, that means it's easy to UNINSTALL, too. If they said, "Guardians of the Galaxy - Mission: BREAKOUT! will super-size Disney California Adventure's attraction lineup while we Imagineer a new Marvel super hero area for the park. But fans of the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, don't worry – your reservation for an extended stay will be honored when the Hollywood Tower Hotel re-opens in 2020." It's already confirmed that Marvel is coming in a bigger presence, so let this be a holdover UNTIL the rest of the land is ready. 

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Maybe I'm in the minority but... I kinda dig it.

My whole life I had heroes from the funny pages. And never could really be immersed. Then Spider-Man the Ride in Orlando was great.

Now for this its just such a cool look for the collector.

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"It's gonna look like... a brand new attraction"

 

Aside from the fact that this should have been an actual brand new attraction, I don't know if I can agree completely. Sure it's a lot uglier, but you can still see the Tower of Terror under all the new paint and randomly glued on pipes and spikes. Why does this fortress/power plant/warehouse have so many balconies, what is it? A hotel? Oh wait...

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At first, I didn't understand why this was so upsetting, but this editorial provides some nice context. Disney invested so much into fixing Eisner's mistake. And now they're slapping down an IP, one that has nothing to do with the theme of the park, onto an original attraction. It'd be like if Knott's replaced Calico Mine with some sort of EA VR attraction after investing so much money into restoring Ghost Town.

This is a stark reminder that the juggernaut Disney, who usually hits it out of the park with every new attraction, is still capable of fault.

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