Spiderman at Islands Of Adventure: Backstage
Universal Orlando: View my little report of when I got to go backstage at Spiderman.
Recently, believe it or not, I was lucky enough to get a 2 hour backstage tour of Spider-man at Islands of Adventure. First we went to the control room which was very cool. Our tour guide showed us how the ride is monitored 24 hours a day and how to manually set off effects. It was also neat watching people through the cameras. Our guide also told us how they restart the ride and what happens when the ride closes.
Next we made a quick stop in the 3D glasses cleaning room. The neat thing is that they have 3000 glasses.
Our last stop was the best…. the maintenance bay. Our guide put one of the cars through all the motions it goes through in the ride. Without the audio, the car is noisy. He also explained how the cars worked. It was really neat that the ride can run 20 cars out of 22.
I really enjoyed having the chance to see how this amazing ride works and I will ever forget it.
From Joe Lane
Posted December 9, 2004 at 11:09 AM
Sounds awesome, Matt. Tell me, was it part of a VIP Universal Tour that anyone can sign up for, or was this a special event?
So, how do the cars work?
How often do the control room folks have to do effects manually?
Why do they have people monitoring the ride after hours? That's not something I've heard of on other rides. Sure, there's a maintenance and custodial staff working the third shift, but never an attractions/operations person.
Yes this was a special tour.
What I meant by the ride being monitored is that the survielance cameras run 24 hours a day and they are recording everything on tape.
The effects never need to be operated manually, but they can be.
How do the cars work?
Basicly there are a few pistons tilting the car. The pistons are connected from the car to a turning mechanism mounted on the base. The drive wheels to the car are sideways. They press against the center rail and turn. That's how the car moves forward. If you pay attention you will notice each car moves slightly differently. This is because each car is programed individually. The cars also contain part of the audio. The rest of the audio comes from speakers on the sets in the ride.
Here is a neat little fact:
There is a fourth set of doors at the end of the ride but they are not used. This is because during stackups the doors would not work very well.
Thanks for the extra info!
That drive wheel arrangement answers some of the questions I had about the ride from my (many) times on it.
No problem. I've been on it 300 times.
From Joe Lane
Posted December 9, 2004 at 6:00 PM
This an official count there, Matt? :-)
I'd like to think I've been on it that many times, too. Regardless, Spiderman is always a blast.
Yes that is an official count.
And yes, Spider-man is a blast. Even when it stops for 15-20 minutes and you are on it!
You've been on Spider-man 300 times!?
Yes. The staff even think I've broken the record.
Since my uncle works for Disney he got to walk through the HAunted Manshion before it opens. He said it was intresting I would think so to because you would get to see the special effects clearly and how they are done. As for Spiderman sounds intresting and 300 times is a awful lot. So Matt Rogers answer this question, I never been on Spiderman before but tell me this, Is it better than( in my opinion) the world's greatest ride Tower of Terror!!!
In my opinion, yes, Spidey is much better. I'm very sure that once you ride (when everything is working) Tower of Terror will come in second place on your list.
Lucky, do you think that they chose this ride for any particular reason? Such as this one is under rated...?
Actually I got to decide which attraction I wanted a tour of.
Really? Although Spiderman was very high Tech, I think I would have chosen the Jurassic Park ride. But that's just me.
to me, spicer man is a good ride, if you are in the mood to relax and get to ride the ride because you are old or too tired from all of the other good rides. i liked spider man, but to me, it isnt a fast roller coaster that i love riding. but all in all it is a great ride w/ all of the effects that there are.
Yes.
I have another interesting fact. The car can be manually backed up and in the maintenance bay they must be manually driven.
This discussion has been archived, and is not accepting additional responses.
