andrew@orca.UUCP (Andrew Klossner) (12/02/85)
>> However, at least at Disney World's version of the Haunted Castle, there >> is a segment of the haunted ride where you are taken by a large >> picture window, through which you can see a bunch of ghostly figures >> dancing around a gothic banquet hall. This has to be done by holograms; > How this is done is quite obvious. You see the scene from very high up and > must look down. Underneath you is a setup of all the 'ghosts' in a black room > moving about. What you see is merely their reflection upon a semi-mirrored > surface in front of the entire 'live' room you see that is really in front of > you. When the Haunted Mansion first opened at Disneyland (California), an episode of the "Walt Disney's World" television show was devoted to it. This non-hologram explanation above matches the one presented on that show. The ride at Disneyworld (Florida) appears to me to use effects identical to those in Disneyland, so I would guess that the same mechanism is used. However, it isn't the case that the Disneyworld rides are clones of the Disneyland rides. Construction of Disneyworld took advantage of new technology. For example, many of the rides at Disneyland employ pneumatic linkages, while at Disneyworld it's all solid state and computerized. One of the biggest user-visible difference I saw at Disneyworld was that the bayou prelude to the Pirates of the Carribean was missing. In California, the ride travels for a minute or so through a simulated bayou at night, with flitting fireflies and an old shack from which lazy banjo plunking can be heard. In Florida, the ride begins in the caves. Another was that the old "GE Carousel of Progress" had been reworked and installed in Florida. Alas, they substituted a new song for the old one ("There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow", a snatch of which can still be heard on the GE ride at Epcot Center). In California, the big round building now houses the "America Sings" show. And, of course, Florida has the Hall of Presidents, but California does not. [Any further non-technical discussion of Disneyland/Disneyworld should be diverted to net.misc.] -=- Andrew Klossner (decvax!tektronix!tekecs!andrew) [UUCP] (tekecs!andrew.tektronix@csnet-relay) [ARPA]