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History.
Ariel L. informs me that it was opened along with the park, in
fact it is the only Space Mountain to be built and opened with its park on April 15,
1983.
I don't know much else. Any helpful souls
willing to email me
with a description that I can use? (Be sure to take out "NOSPAM" from
the email address.) I'll paraphrase you if you want, or give you credit.
Walk Through the Queue.
The entrance to TDL's SM is by a speedramp, like Anaheim's used to be. At
the base of the speedramp is a series of chain and rope switchbacks on open
concrete. When I was there, the queue was never too deep into these.
Underneath the speedramp and against the side of the mountian are some
planters and benches. The fastpass entrance is right in front of the
speedramp- the CM's will hold back the standby queue until fastpass is all
or mostly clear. At the top of the speedramp is the balcony, much like
what what Anaheim had before the 3D theatre went in. It's just the part
under the eaves of the mountain, though, not the whole circle that wrapped
around the old ampitheatre. The entrance into the mountain is actually
directly ahead of you, but the line splits to the left (fastpass) and right
(standby) along the balcony. A CM takes fastpass tickets there and points
holders in the right direction. When you get to the end of the balcony,
you do a u-turn and enter a small room. In the middle of the room against
the inner wall (mountain-wise) is a video showing the SM rocket cars and
coke bottles zooming through space, up and around SM. On the other side of
that room you exit onto the main balcony again, back in the center portion.
You then enter the mountain and the queue is identical to Anaheim's, except
there are no TV's showing FedEx commercials and the girl in the safety
video is Japanese. There is a repeat of the safety spiel in English,
though. Through the whole queue, the original Anaheim background sounds play
("This is control. Load trajectory into computer." That sort of thing.)
Inside the load area, the large screen at the far end of the upper level of
the queue shows different numbered spacecraft and has slightly different
graphics, though it's basically the same as Anaheim, and the spacecraft
hanging from the center of the room is labeled TDL-2000. Because TDL is
still using the A-E ticket system, your ticket is taken or your passport is
checked at the top of the ramps down to the boarding zone- where the
turnstiles are. There is only one set of loading gates for the ride (Anaheim has two, though they only use one), and no FedEx robot, of course.
Mock Ride-Through.
Exactly the same as Anaheim's, except with
two differences: no music and the lights aren't as dim. That's something
I noticed throughout TDL, is that even in the darkest rides (like Peter
Pan), you can easily see the ceiling and all of the many exit signs. The
Japanese seem very concerned about safety. You can't get within three feet
of the yellow line in the boarding zone without being shooed back. The coloring
on the deceleration tunnel is different, too, more of a purplish, and there
are mirrors along the bottom side. Exiting from the ride there is no speedramp,
just a long ramp in the same place. The hall turns right and then left,
just like Anaheim, before exiting. There are pictures on the wall like Anaheim,
mostly SM riders and coke products in outer space.
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