DisneyQuest

DisneyQuest

Location	Walt Disney World Resort, Lake Buena Vista, Florida, United States
Coordinates	28°22′13″N 81°31′20″W / 28.37033°N 81.52211°WCoordinates: 28°22′13″N 81°31′20″W / 28.37033°N 81.52211°W
Theme	Indoor Interactive Theme Park
Operated by	The Walt Disney Company
Opened	June 19, 1998
Website	DisneyQuest Homepage

DisneyQuest is a five-story, indoor interactive theme park located in Disney Springs West Side, formerly known as Downtown Disney West Side, at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida. It opened on June 19, 1998, as part of a major expansion of Walt Disney World. On June 30, 2015, Disney announced that it was closing DisneyQuest in 2016 after 18 years in operation and will eventually be replaced by a new National Basketball Association-themed restaurant/store called "NBA Experience".^[1] The deal with the NBA fell through but it is still planned to close DisneyQuest, although dates are uncertain.

Background

The DisneyQuest project was designed as a way for the Disney brand to reach populations that 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 many major cities in the United States, like Philadelphia. However, only two locations were built.^[2]

The second DisneyQuest was built and opened in Chicago,^[3] but it permanently closed on September 4, 2001 due to low attendance as well as other, broader issues.^[4] After the failure of DisneyQuest Chicago, the DisneyQuest project was officially brought to an end. Construction that had begun on a DisneyQuest in Philadelphia, at the former site of Gimbels Department Store, was scrapped, and a DisneyQuest at Disneyland Resort in California never proceeded past the planning stage. Disney announced another location to be built in downtown Toronto but the project was cancelled.

After the closure of the Chicago location, Disney Regional Entertainment turned over control of the remaining location to Walt Disney World operations. On June 30, 2015, Disney officials announced that the Walt Disney World location would close in 2016 as part of the continued redevelopment of Downtown Disney into Disney Springs.^[1] The facility will be re-purposed into an "NBA Experience" attraction that is scheduled to open at an undetermined date, which will include a restaurant and retail shop.^[1] A spokesperson for the labor unions that represent Disney employees who work at DisneyQuest stated that displaced workers will be relocated to other positions.

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 and humorous animation of Genie welcoming you and lampooning the airline industry) up to the center of the third floor (the "Ventureport"), where one's visit begins.* This feature of the cybrolator has since been taken out due to safety issues. He is also heard on the end-of-day closing announcements. When a game or attraction is down, a sign reading "The Genie has spotted a technical problem..." is displayed.

Attractions

Virtual Jungle Cruise

Aladdin's Magic Carpet Ride

The third floor atrium

Mighty Ducks Pinball Slam

Ride the Comix

It is housed in a five-story windowless building. Guests enter the first-floor lobby and are transported via a "magic" elevator to the third floor atrium at the start of their visit. Guests enter a large arcade complete with eight attractions inside.^[5]

First floor

• Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for Buccaneer Gold: Man a pirate ship and destroy other ships, sea monsters, and fortresses to collect gold. One player captains the ship by steering and controlling the throttle, while up to four gunners control the cannons to destroy other ships.
• 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. It is based on Jungle Cruise.

Second floor

• CyberSpace Mountain: Guests design a roller coaster on a design kiosk, then sit in a pitch-and-roll simulator and ride it. Guests may also ride pre-built coasters. It is hosted by Bill Nye the Science Guy, who instead refers to himself as "Bill Nye the Coaster Guy". It is based on the ride, Space Mountain.
• Aladdin's Magic Carpet Ride: Players wear a head-mounted display as they ride a magic carpet through Agrabah, collecting gems to find The Genie, who has been hidden away in the Cave of Wonders.
• Animation Academy: Regular sessions throughout the day teach how to draw characters, with lightpens on computer screens. Guests can purchase a printout afterward.
• 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, and then buy it later.
• 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.
• Radio Disney Song Maker: Where you can create your own song, and then buy it later.

Third floor

• Mighty Ducks Pinball Slam: Players "become" a pinball in a gigantic projected pinball game; by rocking their "duck" back and forth, up to twelve players at a time control their corresponding pinball on the screen, attempting to collect the most points.
• Buzz Lightyear's AstroBlaster: Players board bumper cars and attempt to navigate over foam balls ("asteroids") on the floor. By doing so, the asteroids 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 ten seconds. Usually there are two players to a car; however, it is possible for one person to pilot and shoot at the same time.
• Fix-It Felix Jr: Cabinets (from Wreck-It Ralph) can be found on this floor as well. These cabinets were placed in movie theaters to promote Wreck-It Ralph. Two more of these cabinets can be found on other floors.

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. As of early 2011, Ride the Comix 4 has been "overtaken by villains" and is in service only on days where the building is near capacity. However, guests can still play Ride the Comix on the fifth floor directly above.
  On September 7, 2014, Ride the Comix was closed to allow for additional seating for the FoodQuest quick service restaurant.^[6]

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. (This attraction is identical on both the 4th and 5th floor)
  On September 7, 2014, Ride the Comix was closed to allow for additional seating for the FoodQuest quick service restaurant.^[6]
• Invasion! An ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter: Four players ride inside a rescue vehicle to save astronauts: one player drives, the other three shoot enemy aliens. Based on the former Magic Kingdom attraction, ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter.

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. This attraction was plagued by interference from emerging technologies such as cell phones, and was finally closed after one of the vehicles caught fire. The clear flooring and mazes could still be seen near the Virtual Jungle Cruise area, adjacent to the Safari hunting games until 2007 when the floor was recovered and new games moved to the area. This area is now entirely jungle themed and is home to several Let's Go Jungle!: Lost on the Island of Spice arcade machines.
• 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.
• "Hercules in the Underworld" was a team game where six guests 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".
• All redemption games were removed from the facility in January 2015 as a cautionary measure, in response to a state law that Disney believed made the games illegal under certain circumstances.^[7]

Other games

• Classic arcade games such as Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Asteroids, Tron, BurgerTime, Zaxxon, Pengo, Kangaroo, Berzerk, Donkey Kong (in all its iterations), Joust, Robotron: 2084, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, Marble Madness, Moon Patrol, Spy Hunter, Asteroids Deluxe, Centipede, Millipede, Q*Bert, Missile Command, Frogger, Arkanoid, Mario Bros., Dig Dug, Mr. Do!, Gorf, Galaga, and others.
• Arcade games from the 1990s and 2000s such as an eight-player linked Sega Daytona USA (which has been recently replaced with EA Sports/Global VR's NASCAR Racing), a four-player linked San Francisco Rush 2049, a four-player linked Sega OutRun 2, two Pump It Up dance games (Fiesta and NX2), Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA 2, several Guitar Hero Arcade games, a number of fighting games such as Tekken 5, Marvel vs. Capcom 2, and the arcade edition of Soulcalibur. There were many more games, such as two Sega Crazy Taxi machines, 6 Sega Sea Hawk machines, one Sega Star Wars Trilogy Arcade sit-down machine, double two-player linked Mario Kart Arcade GP cabinets, several sports arcade games including Sega Air Trix, Virtua Tennis, Sega World Series Baseball, Bowl-O-Rama, Sega Marine Fishing, F&F Super Bikes, an extremely rare Sega Flash Beat, two Fruit Ninjas, one Pac-Man Battle Royale, and many others.
• Skeeball, "shoot-the-hoops", air hockey, and other games of skill.
• Upcoming games from DisneyQuest are the 4-player Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 3 DX+, a single deluxe Motor Raid cabinet and a Dance Dance Revolution Solo 4th Mix cabinet.

Dining

DisneyQuest features two quick-service restaurants, both of which are included on any meal plan that has quick-service meals. On the fourth floor, the Wonderland Cafe features desserts, drinks, and grab-and-go food items. On the fifth floor, food is served at Food Quest, which offers burgers, chicken, wraps and sandwiches, pizza, and salads.

Since fall 2008, alcohol has been served on the fourth floor in the Wonderland Cafe area. This includes a small selection of wines and beers.

Both of the Cheesecake Factory restaurants were closed at the end of May 2008 after the Cheesecake factory's contract expired. The restaurants were reopened in June 2008 as Food Quest, Disney owned and operated quick service outlets, which are still there as of 2015.

Price

Except for prize-play (claw) machines and photo booths, all games and attractions inside DisneyQuest are included after admission is paid, usually $26 to $36.Now $45. ^[8] 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. Within a few years, this was changed to a single flat fee for entry, and the cards and readers were no longer used. The card readers continued to be used for a few years as means to insert credits (the card readers were set to free mode, and pressing the green "OK" button would insert a credit), but as new games moved in and old ones were retired, the card readers began to vanish as the machines were simply set to free play within the games themselves and, while a few can still be found, they are incredibly scarce today, and have all been disabled completely.

One section of the fourth floor, called "Midway on the Moon", was devoted to redemption games. These games were not included in the admission cost of DisneyQuest, and still used the swipe cards even after the rest of the facility switched to free-play. Players could exchange tickets won at these games of skill for various prizes. However, in late 2005, the games were converted to free play and no longer dispense tickets.

Certain attractions have souvenirs available for purchase in the second floor Guest Gallery. Cyberspace Mountain has an available video of the created roller coaster, with footage of the guests riding the attraction.

References

1. Sandra Pedicini (June 30, 2015). "DisneyQuest closing at Downtown Disney". orlandosentinel.com. Tribune Newspapers. Retrieved June 30, 2015.
2. Gunts, Edward (December 10, 1998). "Disney to build Philadelphia theme park 'DisneyQuest' to be centerpiece of Market St. Development". The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved July 18, 2013.
3. "Disney Quest in Chicago - Guide to Chicago Disney Quest". travelape.com.
4. "What went wrong at DisneyQuest?". tribunedigital-chicagotribune.
5. "DisneyQuest® Indoor Interactive Theme Park". Walt Disney World.
6. "Disney Quest's 'Ride the Comix' set to close this weekend". wdwmagic.com.
7. "Disney Is Removing Redemption Games And Crane Machines From Its Florida FECs". Vending Times. Retrieved February 6, 2015.
8. "WDW History.com". WDW. 2013.

External links

• Official website