Disney’s Toy Story Mania!, Universal’s Disaster! Win Awards

Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando are among the winners of the Themed Entertainment Association’s annual awards.

Disney’s Toy Story Mania! was honored as one of two outstanding attractions. Judges said the ride, which is in both Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Disney’s California Adventure, is “consistently innovative, excellently executed and reflects next-generation guest care on every detail.”

While praising the ride’s experience and effects, judges seemed just as impressed by its operational achievements – highlighting, for instance, a higher-than-usual throughput for a ride-through shooting game, a particularly effective practice teaching round, an adjustable lap bar/shooter mount that can accommodate guests from 40 pounds to 400 pounds, on-board closed captioning and easily accessible but well-themed emergency exits.

“It is a suite of many technical and creative innovations,” the judges wrote.

Universal’s Disaster! was honored as outstanding attraction rehab, with judges calling it a “an ingenious reworking” of the former Earthquake attraction. “It is reinvigorated through humorous and even sarcastic writing, innovative technology and creative surprises,” they said.

Judges singled out the attraction’s use of holographic-projection technology to make it appear as if Christopher Walken has appeared on stage with a live performer, the use of image-capture technology to incorporate riders into the show and finale featuring an over-the-top movie trailer starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson – and the guests themselves.

For the rest of Jason Garcia’s article…please go to the Orlando Sentinel

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