DisneyQuest
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Disney theme park | |
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| DisneyQuest | |
|---|---|
| Location | Lake Buena Vista, Florida, USA |
| Opening Day | 1998 |
| Resort | Walt Disney World Resort |
| Theme | Indoor Amusement Park |
| Website | DisneyQuest Homepage |
| Operator | The Walt Disney Company |
DisneyQuest is an "indoor interactive theme park" located in Downtown Disney at the Walt Disney World Resort. A DisneyQuest was originally in Chicago, but was closed in 2003. It is housed in a five-story windowless building; guests enter the first-floor lobby and are brought via elevator to the third floor atrium as the start of their adventure.
DisneyQuest contains several virtual reality attractions, classic and recent arcade video games, web terminals, and a Cheesecake Factory cafe. It is popular as an area where parents can bring their kids to run around without them getting lost, or a place to go when the weather is bad. It is also popular with locals, who can get an annual pass for less than the cost of three daily admissions.
DisneyQuest is rumored to be closing in 2008 to make way for an ESPN Zone. [1] Disney denies this and Cast Members working at DisneyQuest report hearing nothing about the site closing.[2].
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[edit] Background
The DisneyQuest project was designed as a way for the Disney brand to reach populations who may not have the chance to travel to its various theme park destinations. It was meant to target large cities and urban areas. Had the project continued, Disney had plans to construct locations in most major cities in the United States.
The second DisneyQuest was built and opened in Chicago, but it was permanently closed on September 4, 2001 due to low attendance. After the failure of DisneyQuest Chicago, the DisneyQuest project was officially brought to an end. Construction that had begun on a DisneyQuest in Philadelphia was scrapped, and a DisneyQuest at Disneyland Resort in California never proceeded past the planning stage.
After the closure of the overall project and the Chicago location, Disney Regional Entertainment, which operated DisneyQuest, turned over control of the remaining location to Walt Disney World operations.
[edit] Design
The locations were to be moderately identical concerning layout and attractions. This was so the various locations could contribute financially to new attraction designs (which cost in the range of several million USD), thereby reducing the cost that each location has to foot itself.
The attractions at DisneyQuest are of a modular design, so that they could be easily replaced and updated. Originally, the idea was that no attraction would ever go unchanged for more than two or three years. However, after the Chicago location and the DisneyQuest project overall were closed, the one location in Florida has been unable to financially merit a complete attraction overhaul.
The only time an attraction has been changed out was in preparation for the opening of DisneyQuest Chicago. An attraction based on the Disney version of Hercules was replaced with Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for Buccaneer Gold.
[edit] Mascot
The Genie from Aladdin is an unofficial mascot of DisneyQuest. Upon entering at ground level, one is brought by an elevator (here called a "cybrolator," containing a short animation of Genie welcoming you) up to the center of the third floor (the "Ventureport"), where one's visit begins. He is also heard on the end-of-day closing announcements.
[edit] Attractions
[edit] First floor
- Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for Buccaneer Gold: Stand on the deck of a small pirate ship while wearing 3-D goggles; one player mans the wheel and controls the ship's motion, while the other players run back and forth to fire the cannons at other ships and sea monsters.
- Virtual Jungle Cruise: Paddle an inflatable raft (with real paddles) as you make your way down a prehistoric river, avoiding dinosaurs and occasionally getting sprayed with water.
[edit] Second floor
- CyberSpace Mountain: Guests may design a rollercoaster on a design kiosk, then sit in a pitch-and-roll simulator and "ride" it.
- Aladdin's Magic Carpet Ride: Players wear an HMD as they ride a magic carpet through Agrabah, collecting gems to defeat Jafar.
- Animation Academy: Regular sessions throughout the day teach how to draw characters (with lightpens on computer screens), or how to create simple animations consisting of a few frames. For a fee, a guest can purchase a printout afterwards.
- Sid's Create-a-Toy: A program featuring the evil Sid character from Toy Story that allows one to custom design a toy out of parts of other toys.
- Living Easels: An interactive touch screen program where guests can place various images onto several selectable backgrounds. A full-color printout of a guest's design may be purchased.
[edit] Third floor
- Mighty Ducks Pinball Slam: By rocking their "duck" back and forth, up to twelve players at at a time control their corresponding pinball on the screen, attempting to collect the most points.
- Buzz Lightyear's Astroblasters: Players board bumper cars and attempt to navigate over foam balls on the floor. By doing so, the balls will be sucked up into the cabin where players can then load them into a cannon and shoot at the other cars. If hit in the correct spot, one's car may spin around uncontrollably for several seconds. Usually there are two players to a car, however, it is possible for one person to pilot and shoot at the same time.
[edit] Fourth floor
- Ride the Comix 4: Players wear an HMD to "enter the comic book world." Players battle with super villains by using a laser sword. Up to six players can be on a team at a time.
[edit] Fifth floor
- Ride the Comix 5: Players wear an HMD to "enter the comic book world." Players battle with super villains by using a laser sword. Up to six players can be on a team at a time.
- Invasion! An ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter: Four players ride inside a rescue vehicle to save astronauts: one player drives, the other three shoot down enemy aliens. Based on the now-extinct Magic Kingdom attraction, ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter.
[edit] Removed attractions
- The corkscrew "Cave of Wonders Slide", 150 feet (46m) long, took guests from the third floor to the first. It was closed in DisneyQuest's first year of operation.
- In "Treasure of the Incas", players could drive small remote-control toy trucks through a maze in search of treasure. Along a wall were stations with a steering wheel and a video screen by which to drive the truck; the floor of the room was clear plastic through which friends could see the trucks driving around so that they could shout directions to the driver. The clear flooring and mazes can still be seen near the Virtual Jungle Cruise area, adjacent to the Safari hunting games.
- At "Magic Mirrors", once located on the second floor in the create zone, guests could take a picture of themselves and then edit their faces to appear like cartoons. The attraction closed in 2005 and has since been converted to seating.
- A team game, "Hercules", was once one of the most popular attractions in the building. This game took 6 guests who would each control their own character from Disney's Hercules with a joystick. The object of the game was to collect lightning bolts and defeat Hades. This attraction was replaced with "Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for Buccaneer Gold".
[edit] Other games
- Classic arcade games such as Pac-Man, Asteroids, Tron, BurgerTime, Zaxxon, Pengo, BattleZone, Kangaroo, Berzerk, Donkey Kong Jr., Joust, Robotron, Star Wars, Marble Madness, Moon Patrol, and many others.
- Arcade games from the 1990's and 2000's such as an eight-player linked Sega Daytona USA, a four-player linked San Francisco Rush 2049, a four-player linked Sega OutRun 2, an old Dance Dance Revolution (1st mix USA), Pump It Up: Exceed 1 & 2 machines, a number of fighting games such as Tekken 5 and Marvel vs. Capcom, a Sega Brave Firefighters, three Sega Star Wars Trilogy Arcade machines, four-player linked Mario Kart Arcade GP cabinets, several sports arcade games, and many others.
- Skeeball, "shoot-the-hoops," and other games of skill.
[edit] Price
Except for prize-play (claw) machines, all games and attractions inside DisneyQuest are free after admission is paid (US $30-$36). Depending on daily attendance levels, late-night tickets are sometimes sold for half-price two hours prior to closing each night.
When DisneyQuest was first opened it had a lower admission fee but each attraction and game required a player to swipe a card to pay "credits" for it, and the card could be "recharged" by putting it and some money into a recharging station, similar to Dave & Buster's gaming restaurants. This was greatly unpopular with parents, however, who didn't like that there was nothing to do once they stopped spending money recharging the cards, so DisneyQuest moved to a single flat fee for entry. The old card swipe consoles can still be found on many of the attractions, even though they now have little or no purpose.
DisneyQuest also used to have a redemption area that would cost extra ("Midway on the Moon") on the fourth floor where players could exchange tickets won at games of skill for various prizes, but it was closed in 2005.
