I don’t mind Nemo, but I wish they had kept the Hydrolators. It was a great Disney illusion. And the fact that you needed to ride the Hydrolators just to get out was outstanding. God I miss old Epcot
Don’t worry, they have taken inspiration from the Hydrolators and created the Mark 5 Stellavator, and it’s purpose is to transport guests to Centauri Space Station, which is 220 miles above the Earth, so I guess the spirit lives on!
@@baedenwilliams8291 turds. The current crop of imagineers are more about cost-cutting than immersion. I get what you’re saying about the effect/spirit thereof “living on” but it’s so cheap-heat/knock-off.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you! This place was my Dad's (Kym Murphy) baby. He created the Living Seas and ran it for about two years. Dad is one amazing and creative dude. He will love to watch this video.... brings me back too :^)
Kevin Murphy that’s so amazing 😢 it really upsets me that they replace all the classics and good rides. Your dad is a genius 😊 tell him I said thanks 😢
I was thankfully old enough to have experienced this attraction quite a few times (I was about 13-14 when it was redone into Nemo), and it was one of my favorites as a kid. Inspired a longstanding fascination with the oceans and undersea exploration that's still with me. Send your dad my kudos
The simple reasons why the Living Seas turned into The Seas with Nemo and Friends is the same reason why Malestorm turned into Elsa's ride. To take financial and popular advantage of Disney's other franchise's, Find Nemo's and Frozen's success by taking advantage of their respective former attraction's settings.
@@dariusvilla5680This is true of course but now I think about these messages and it’s like- you couldn’t wax poetic about the amazing future today. What would you even say? “Oops our bad it didn’t work out- but here’s how ice sheets melt kids!”
@@dariusvilla5680 sadly. Unfortunately that's what corpos and shareholders do - value their precious, precious, precious fucking profit margins over silly things like quality or originality or creativity or education. Which is especially infuriating when you consider that most of them are already *stupendously* rich.
As cool as the whole pavilion was, the thing that I find most impressive looking back is the fact that they had the hydrolaters there at the end to LEAVE sea base alpha. The illusion never had to be broken. It's details like that that you don't see as often in newer attractions. They put in that extra time, effort, and expense to extend the experience past the "main event." For comparison, you see the gradual decent underwater in the Nemo cue, which is pretty neat, but then you get dumped into a gift shop at the end. I guess guest flow trumps the "show" in this case but the show was so good!
Oh yes... The one that KILLS me is the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland. They're so intent on running people through from the queue to the stretching room that you don't even get the proper show anymore.
Really, the show only started to break down in the cost-cutting measures that took place after United Technologies dropped sponsorship. Like, this video was taken in 2000, after one of the preshow theatres was mothballed and a bypass corridor was built through it so guests could walk straight to the hydrolators if they didn't want to see the preshow, and a year before the Seacabs were shuttered.
I just discovered this video. I wish I had seen it sooner! One of my earliest memories is of going to Epcot as a child and the only thing I wanted to do all day was The Living Seas, but we ended up doing everything else first and the last thing we had time for that day was going down the Hydrolators, look around, then leave. The next time I got down to WDW, the ride was Nemo. Being able to finally see it is a dream come true!
I remember the very first time going on this as a 7 year old child from Venezuela. I didnt even speak English, but I knew they were saying the rain brought the seas. This was the only thing that I really remember very well about this ride. That and the awesome queue with the boat on top. I miss the classic Epcot
Wow, this looked like such a great experience. It's too bad they had to kill it with Finding Nemo. A dramatic film about the origins of the ocean, followed by a trip to a totally really-for-real undersea base? Way, WAY cooler.
@@CrazyManhog no, they wanted to make money. I rode the Living Seas countless times as a kid and fucking loved it. MOST kids love learning about cool things like the oceans. It's only adults who imagine they won't be engaged by anything that doesn't have bright cartoon characters.
Thanks for posting this! I have to make an admission...I really believed this was all "real" when I was a kid. I remember going to Epcot in the 80s and thinking that we had really gone to the bottom of the sea. Actually, for some reason I thought Sea Base Alpha was at the bottom of the World Showcase Lagoon. I actually thought that for years, until I returned as an adult in the 2000's. What amazes me is how well the attraction created and held the illusion that you were in an underwater base. I've taking my own kids to WDW many, many times over the years beginning around 2010 and my they aren't fooled by anything. I'm not sure if that is just because kids are savvier today, or if the imagineering is different. Anyway, thanks for the great video!
This was a truly amazing experience the first few times you rode it. But I remember dreading having to watch the whole movie every time you just wanted to get in and see the aquarium and exhibits. The hydrolators really made it feel like you were going under water to the sea base.
I went to Disney world my whole life from age four in 1998 to present day. I now see why I remember just about nothing from this attraction. I imagine my dad didn’t bother taking me on it more than a few times. My only fleeting memory is of the hydrolater and the room with the doors and the open water (but I’m not sure that actually existed or was just in the video). I could not believe how slow the vehicles were moving. But I see that was just a way to get into the Seabase. The seabase itself is super cool and I’m glad it mostly is still intact today. I never saw it much while it was the Living Seas I imagine because there was too much of a barrier to entry (long movie, painfully slow “ride”). The current iteration of the living seas is still so lacking. The biggest insult is when the cartoon fish are projected over the real fish in the background. I get what they were going for, and the effect is OK, but it just seems like a metaphor for what is prioritized now at EPCOT (IP over learning and discovery). The living seas deserves a much more impressive attraction. They could have modernized the existing ride instead of slapping Nemo on top, with just about the most annoying voice actor for Marlin imaginable. RIP classic EPCOT, I hardly knew you, but everything I see I prefer over what we have today.
I came to this video because I distinctly remember being terrified when I went on this as a little kid. I only ever rode it once, and I think it must have been the same trip as doing the 20,000 Leagues ride. I was expecting this one to be the same, so cramming into the Hydrolator and seeing the bubbles in those windows as we went down (at least I think there were)...Anyway, my parents had to assure me this was not a scary ride, lol
i think the video helped me realize early as a kid that nature is terrifying as well as beautiful. it's a respect of nature that many do not share in this world.
Great example of the full immersion of original EPCOT pavilions! I’m just sorry we didn’t see the effects inside the hydrolator in this! 😢 definition of “plussing” an attraction!!! 😎
As the sea cab goes around the main spindle, a super scary drain is on the left hand side... I guess if the tank windows ever leak but I just remember that drain being huge and covered by a grate. I do like the Nemo addition but this pavilion was fine in its original form.
+disney4845 The current Omnimover ride is the old Seacab ride, but with an additional extension built through what used to be the first pre-show theater.
Back when EPCOT was the best park in Central Florida. Now, it's nothing but just another kiddy park. They've ruined it because the soccer moms bitched that "children" were bored. The Living Seas was awesome... now just a cartoon ride. Totally ruined.
se ha perdido mucha calidad en la atracciones , antes vivias la aventura y ahora la vez por pantallas y pantallas de tv, no es la edad la que me hace pensar esto es la `poca calidad de lo de ahora.........................A lot of quality has been lost in the attractions, before you lived the adventure and now the time for screens and tv screens, it is not age that makes me think this is the `poor quality of what is now
For sure. It’s not even close. I like Nemo as a movie, but on the ride you can’t even see the actual aquatic life very well with all the bright colored Nemo stuff.
why did Disney kill Epcot with cartoons they should of put that stuff in magic kingdom if I became president I could because I still young I can make my job option still I would make a project code name: yester t with makes all the old pavilion with updated ideas and new style
I remember this ride and remember saying to myself why did you need the vehicles when you could have just walked through this? The concepts for this seemed better than the actual ride we got. That was my opinion back then. Oh and here I found a video of this early concept. ruclips.net/video/P7TGeBE_0cQ/видео.html
I do not miss the old format of this pavilion in the slightest. I enjoyed it well enough, I guess; but my god, was this pavilion ever a time vampire. Stand in line for the preshow, sit through the preshow, stand in line for the hydrolator, get in, wait some more, get out, get in line for the slow ride, ride the slow ride, and FINALLY you make it to the aquarium section that you actually want to see. And then when you're done, you have to board ANOTHER hydrolator and wait AGAIN to get out. Say what you want about the new face of the pavilion, but at least it moves you faster.
People are gonna disagree with me but this is one of the few times the new version is better than the original version. Don't get me wrong, the hydrolators were super cool, but the ride part of the ride was a complete slog and dare I say, Boring? Even the preshow was boring to get through. There's a reason The Living Seas isn't as remembered as fondly as things like Horizons or the Original Journey into Imagination, and it's because The Living Seas just doesn't feel like an EPCOT Center attraction. It feels more like a SeaWorld attraction. The Nemo version feels more like a classic EPCOT Center attraction than the actual classic EPCOT Center attraction, Nemo has a big sweeping song, there's actual sets on The Seas with Nemo and Friends, you still learn alot in the queue and post show, and it has a animatronic (yes I count the fish on the Kukka Arm as an animatronic). I can understand why someone would prefer the original The Living Seas, but I feel like that love comes from their rose tinted glasses.
I don’t mind Nemo, but I wish they had kept the Hydrolators. It was a great Disney illusion. And the fact that you needed to ride the Hydrolators just to get out was outstanding. God I miss old Epcot
The effect was simple, yet surprisingly convincing. As a kid, I actually believed that the hydrolator was actually descending/ascending.
Amen
Don’t worry, they have taken inspiration from the Hydrolators and created the Mark 5 Stellavator, and it’s purpose is to transport guests to Centauri Space Station, which is 220 miles above the Earth, so I guess the spirit lives on!
@@baedenwilliams8291 turds. The current crop of imagineers are more about cost-cutting than immersion. I get what you’re saying about the effect/spirit thereof “living on” but it’s so cheap-heat/knock-off.
Am.i right in thinking all this area is just a walking area now? Like flat floor, stroll around
Thank you for preserving this so I can reminisce at 130 in the morning. Bless you and all who read this random comment😎👍
Ha ha it’s 1:30 for me and thanks
Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!
This place was my Dad's (Kym Murphy) baby. He created the Living Seas and ran it for about two years. Dad is one amazing and creative dude. He will love to watch this video.... brings me back too :^)
Kevin Murphy that’s so amazing 😢 it really upsets me that they replace all the classics and good rides. Your dad is a genius 😊 tell him I said thanks 😢
That was my very favorite attraction at Epcot. I was so sad when the attached it to Finding Nemo.
I was thankfully old enough to have experienced this attraction quite a few times (I was about 13-14 when it was redone into Nemo), and it was one of my favorites as a kid. Inspired a longstanding fascination with the oceans and undersea exploration that's still with me. Send your dad my kudos
I So Remember this Ride. I grew up near there in the 80’s/90’s. I Miss this Epcot. Its not the same anymore
It's a shame a lot of these cool attractions that EPCOT used to have no longer exist.
yea rip maelstrom
The simple reasons why the Living Seas turned into The Seas with Nemo and Friends is the same reason why Malestorm turned into Elsa's ride. To take financial and popular advantage of Disney's other franchise's, Find Nemo's and Frozen's success by taking advantage of their respective former attraction's settings.
Gotta love IP rides...
@@dariusvilla5680This is true of course but now I think about these messages and it’s like- you couldn’t wax poetic about the amazing future today. What would you even say? “Oops our bad it didn’t work out- but here’s how ice sheets melt kids!”
@@dariusvilla5680 sadly. Unfortunately that's what corpos and shareholders do - value their precious, precious, precious fucking profit margins over silly things like quality or originality or creativity or education. Which is especially infuriating when you consider that most of them are already *stupendously* rich.
As cool as the whole pavilion was, the thing that I find most impressive looking back is the fact that they had the hydrolaters there at the end to LEAVE sea base alpha. The illusion never had to be broken. It's details like that that you don't see as often in newer attractions. They put in that extra time, effort, and expense to extend the experience past the "main event." For comparison, you see the gradual decent underwater in the Nemo cue, which is pretty neat, but then you get dumped into a gift shop at the end. I guess guest flow trumps the "show" in this case but the show was so good!
Oh yes... The one that KILLS me is the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland. They're so intent on running people through from the queue to the stretching room that you don't even get the proper show anymore.
Really, the show only started to break down in the cost-cutting measures that took place after United Technologies dropped sponsorship. Like, this video was taken in 2000, after one of the preshow theatres was mothballed and a bypass corridor was built through it so guests could walk straight to the hydrolators if they didn't want to see the preshow, and a year before the Seacabs were shuttered.
Back in the 80s this was the most immersive experience. You actually felt like you were going to an underwater facility.
I never got to ride this, but this video provided me with an immense amount of satisfaction.
I just discovered this video. I wish I had seen it sooner! One of my earliest memories is of going to Epcot as a child and the only thing I wanted to do all day was The Living Seas, but we ended up doing everything else first and the last thing we had time for that day was going down the Hydrolators, look around, then leave. The next time I got down to WDW, the ride was Nemo. Being able to finally see it is a dream come true!
And rained, and rained, and rained…the deluge. 🤣
So vivid still in my memory
I remember the very first time going on this as a 7 year old child from Venezuela. I didnt even speak English, but I knew they were saying the rain brought the seas. This was the only thing that I really remember very well about this ride. That and the awesome queue with the boat on top. I miss the classic Epcot
this was amazing, the current version is a pale shadow of what this attraction once was
This is great!! My mom and I could never remember which one rained... and rained.... and rained....
Until a deluge ... and the sea was born.
Lies 😂
Wow, this looked like such a great experience. It's too bad they had to kill it with Finding Nemo. A dramatic film about the origins of the ocean, followed by a trip to a totally really-for-real undersea base? Way, WAY cooler.
They wanted to attract kids
It didn't sell enough plushies and t-shirts though, which of course to Disney is extremely important :/
We said the same with Splash Mountain and Tianas 😂
@@CrazyManhog no, they wanted to make money. I rode the Living Seas countless times as a kid and fucking loved it. MOST kids love learning about cool things like the oceans. It's only adults who imagine they won't be engaged by anything that doesn't have bright cartoon characters.
Thanks for posting this! I have to make an admission...I really believed this was all "real" when I was a kid. I remember going to Epcot in the 80s and thinking that we had really gone to the bottom of the sea. Actually, for some reason I thought Sea Base Alpha was at the bottom of the World Showcase Lagoon. I actually thought that for years, until I returned as an adult in the 2000's. What amazes me is how well the attraction created and held the illusion that you were in an underwater base. I've taking my own kids to WDW many, many times over the years beginning around 2010 and my they aren't fooled by anything. I'm not sure if that is just because kids are savvier today, or if the imagineering is different. Anyway, thanks for the great video!
Epcot used to be so inspiring 😢
Now, nothing but just another kiddy park.
And only getting worse with the recent changes. Journey of Water, oh boy....
This was a truly amazing experience the first few times you rode it. But I remember dreading having to watch the whole movie every time you just wanted to get in and see the aquarium and exhibits. The hydrolators really made it feel like you were going under water to the sea base.
I liked it better like this (science) rather than the current movie ad it’s become.
Everyone thinks that too, but Disney doesn't care. It's sad. $$$$$
Thank you for posting this! This ride brings back so much memories.
I went to Disney world my whole life from age four in 1998 to present day. I now see why I remember just about nothing from this attraction. I imagine my dad didn’t bother taking me on it more than a few times. My only fleeting memory is of the hydrolater and the room with the doors and the open water (but I’m not sure that actually existed or was just in the video). I could not believe how slow the vehicles were moving. But I see that was just a way to get into the Seabase. The seabase itself is super cool and I’m glad it mostly is still intact today. I never saw it much while it was the Living Seas I imagine because there was too much of a barrier to entry (long movie, painfully slow “ride”). The current iteration of the living seas is still so lacking. The biggest insult is when the cartoon fish are projected over the real fish in the background. I get what they were going for, and the effect is OK, but it just seems like a metaphor for what is prioritized now at EPCOT (IP over learning and discovery). The living seas deserves a much more impressive attraction. They could have modernized the existing ride instead of slapping Nemo on top, with just about the most annoying voice actor for Marlin imaginable. RIP classic EPCOT, I hardly knew you, but everything I see I prefer over what we have today.
I’m a Japanese high school student, but this ride, especially Hydrolator is fantastic✨
If I have a time machine, I want to go there once!
For some reason the pre-show scared the shit outta me as a kid. I think it was how loud the lava, rain and thunder were.
I came to this video because I distinctly remember being terrified when I went on this as a little kid. I only ever rode it once, and I think it must have been the same trip as doing the 20,000 Leagues ride. I was expecting this one to be the same, so cramming into the Hydrolator and seeing the bubbles in those windows as we went down (at least I think there were)...Anyway, my parents had to assure me this was not a scary ride, lol
Same lol
i think the video helped me realize early as a kid that nature is terrifying as well as beautiful. it's a respect of nature that many do not share in this world.
Right because of how serious the voice is to little kids and how dark many areas it is 100% creepy it's like they are being eatin by the building
The best pre-show film ever
I"m from VENEZUELA , this was a wonderful ride. Thaks for the video.
It's a great ride
I will share this video
This stuff never "obsoletes". No need to update or turn into a projection character ride. Epcot ain't Epcot anymore.
I would love to see this ride make a return to epcot
I Loved this ride . it was very awsome to go on. they need to bring old school rides back
I always liked seeing sharks and rays when I rode the sea cabs.
This film used to terrify me as a kid, it really, really freaked me out.
Now as an adult I can see that it is brilliant,
That's exactly that things kids were terrified that why changed it
Anybody else have a siezure watching the pre-show?
Great example of the full immersion of original EPCOT pavilions! I’m just sorry we didn’t see the effects inside the hydrolator in this! 😢 definition of “plussing” an attraction!!! 😎
Glad you enjoyed it!
The Deluge!!
Every single time I hear or say the word deluge I think of Living Seas
Makes me so sad that you can see all these windows from the ride still in the aquarium and they're just covered up for a very boring cartoon ride
Exactly, we saw the movie already don't need it in the ride.
My Favorite attraction at Epcot from March 9, 2002 until August 21, 2005 when the attraction closed forever to make room for Nemo
I wish this ride was still alive😄😀
try to imagine ... even if just for a moment.... Sigh,,,,,
And it rained, and rained, and rained....
@7:35, "We welcome you to Sea Base Alpha" then that dramatic music! Still gives me chills.
this is such a weird vague memory of mine lmao pretty sure it closed when i was still super young
As the sea cab goes around the main spindle, a super scary drain is on the left hand side... I guess if the tank windows ever leak but I just remember that drain being huge and covered by a grate. I do like the Nemo addition but this pavilion was fine in its original form.
This w3as SO much better that Nemo!
I used to work this attraction!
Wait a Minute there used to be a Attraction in the Living Seas
Ok so now I understand why it needed updating, but I would have preferred EPCOT to keep it's educational integrity.
i didn't realize this took you up and around all the tanks. they must have really redid track layout.
actually the track is exactly the same. it stayed on one level.
+disney4845 The current Omnimover ride is the old Seacab ride, but with an additional extension built through what used to be the first pre-show theater.
I do like the finding Nemo theme this has now
United Technologies ended its sponsorship in 1998.
Im more of a structure person. Wonder what did they do with the preshow room once they converted it to Finding nemo
It became part of the queue...
@@intercot thanks for the information
The living closed to make way for the seas with nemo and friends
Great vid but I think the watermark could be smaller and a bit more transparent.
😊😊🦥🐬😊😊
Back when EPCOT was the best park in Central Florida. Now, it's nothing but just another kiddy park. They've ruined it because the soccer moms bitched that "children" were bored. The Living Seas was awesome... now just a cartoon ride. Totally ruined.
finding Dory
se ha perdido mucha calidad en la atracciones , antes vivias la aventura y ahora la vez por pantallas y pantallas de tv, no es la edad la que me hace pensar esto es la `poca calidad de lo de ahora.........................A lot of quality has been lost in the attractions, before you lived the adventure and now the time for screens and tv screens, it is not age that makes me think this is the `poor quality of what is now
The deluge.
Was the pre show really that blinky 😳
No, that happens when you record film with a video camera. Film=24 frames per second, video=30 FPS, hence the flicker! 😎
Why did they edit out the Hydrolator experience!!! :(
Sorry, wasn't edited out - just didn't capture it originally for some reason. I have no idea why I did it only on exit.
Disney ruined it when it was re-imagined as The Seas With Nemo an Friends.
Anyone else prefer this version over Nemo? 🙋♀️
For sure. It’s not even close. I like Nemo as a movie, but on the ride you can’t even see the actual aquatic life very well with all the bright colored Nemo stuff.
Should soon make a new version of this video, but please don't make the watermarks such an eyesore.
why did Disney kill Epcot with cartoons they should of put that stuff in magic kingdom if I became president I could because I still young I can make my job option still I would make a project code name: yester t with makes all the old pavilion with updated ideas and new style
I remember this ride and remember saying to myself why did you need the vehicles when you could have just walked through this? The concepts for this seemed better than the actual ride we got. That was my opinion back then.
Oh and here I found a video of this early concept. ruclips.net/video/P7TGeBE_0cQ/видео.html
EPCOT sucks now because it's just now more cartoon and movie crap and not real life and history and beauty and science and energy anymore.
I do not miss the old format of this pavilion in the slightest. I enjoyed it well enough, I guess; but my god, was this pavilion ever a time vampire. Stand in line for the preshow, sit through the preshow, stand in line for the hydrolator, get in, wait some more, get out, get in line for the slow ride, ride the slow ride, and FINALLY you make it to the aquarium section that you actually want to see. And then when you're done, you have to board ANOTHER hydrolator and wait AGAIN to get out. Say what you want about the new face of the pavilion, but at least it moves you faster.
People are gonna disagree with me but this is one of the few times the new version is better than the original version. Don't get me wrong, the hydrolators were super cool, but the ride part of the ride was a complete slog and dare I say, Boring? Even the preshow was boring to get through. There's a reason The Living Seas isn't as remembered as fondly as things like Horizons or the Original Journey into Imagination, and it's because The Living Seas just doesn't feel like an EPCOT Center attraction. It feels more like a SeaWorld attraction. The Nemo version feels more like a classic EPCOT Center attraction than the actual classic EPCOT Center attraction, Nemo has a big sweeping song, there's actual sets on The Seas with Nemo and Friends, you still learn alot in the queue and post show, and it has a animatronic (yes I count the fish on the Kukka Arm as an animatronic). I can understand why someone would prefer the original The Living Seas, but I feel like that love comes from their rose tinted glasses.