Home > Energy Exchange > Community Forum > Guestbook Though we've just opened our Guestbook in time for our Third Anniversary (July 14, 2005), we've been receiving great feedback for some time now. We'd like to share a few of those comments here, and welcome you to add your own with our new Guestbook form. Whether you have a comment, compliment (always welcome!), question, or even criticism, we'd like to hear from you! 07/18/02 Brett: ...the site is truly spectacular. The descriptions are incredible and the design is simply gorgeous. I especially like the use of the black. Energy was always one of my favorites, and I'm so glad that there is now a real website dedicated to this legendary attraction. Again, this will definitely be a place I will be spending lots of time exploring. 07/21/02 Mark: Absolutely amazing! What an incredibly creative job you have done... Keep up the GREAT work! 12/29/02 Geoff: I've taken a look through most of what you have up there and I'm amazed. I especially like the graphics you created showing the way everything fits within the building. 07/09/03 Dan: thanks so much. i first found the companion site by searching on dogpile for "epcot universe of energy" than links on the site led my to the yahoo group. this is the most comprehensive look at UoE (or any wdw attraction) i have seen anywhere and i commend you for taking this risk with all of the big disney people trying to stop things like this. my other question was do you have or know of a place where i can get a computer video "ride-thru' of the whole attraction. that would be sooo awesome. once again thank you for creating these amazing websites Gary7 responds: Thanks to the very generous contributions and hard work of Martin Smith, we now have selected video clips online. You can also obtain Martin's full ride-through of the Universe of Energy through various sources. Contact Martin (see the link on the credits page) for more information. 05/09/03 Alison: I went briefly to your site and as Ellen would say, it was cool, I mean hot, I mean, cooly hot! I'll have to check it out more in-depth soon. What made you decide to focus on UoE? Gary7 responds: I've always loved Epcot, and Energy is one of my favorites (though it's hard to choose a single favorite among so many greats--at least when you include the originals like Horizons and Journey Into Imagination). I also worked at Energy, so I gained a very personal perspective on it. Then I met NRG_Guy online, and we became the best of friends. It quickly became apparent that our shared interest in Universe of Energy (he's also a former Energy Cast Member) would become a "shared obsession". :) There wasn't much else out there about Universe of Energy--just a snippet here and there--so we set about to change all that. You can read more about the site's origins here. 10/03/03 Paul: I've just glanced at your UOE site and already I can tell that you have put a LOT of work into it, and I can't wait to explore it further. later, Paul writes... I have already discovered a lot more on the website, including the factoid about the Ellen animatronic being third generation...unbelievable! I would have guessed that it was one of the cheapest ones around, given the limited movement. It's almost as bad as Ripley from The Great Movie Ride, yet the Wicked Witch is the most impressive AA I've seen yet. Sadly, everyone I visited WDW with in the early '90s considered UOE to be boring. It was considered 'too educational', and it was such a long show that it was skipped often. If the sponsorship vanishes, here's hoping that it doesn't get torn down in favor of the new 'BANG, ZOOM' mentality. World of Motion was also one of my favorites, and they replaced it with a ride that I have no desire to visit since the first time. I haven't visited Mission:Space yet, but I'll try it out when we go in February. Hopefully it is a more worthy successor to Horizons than TT is to WOM. 01/08/04 Martin Smith from Manchester, UK: What a fantastic site - every attraction should have one!! This really something else. Can you tell me... when is phase two going to be ready, or has the site run its course (hope not!). Many thanks, Martin Gary7 responds: We launched the site with Phase I. We knew that we wouldn't be able to include everything that we wanted right away, so instead of holding off until we had exhausted and implemented every idea we could think of, we decided to implement Phase II on an incremental basis. We work on it as time and inspiration allow, which makes it pretty hit-or-miss, but it is definitely an ongoing project... In Guest Relations, you can read a brief history of the site, and what has been updated in Phase II. You can also read about our upcoming plans, including a hint at our most ambitious to date, Phase III. 04/16/04 Mark from Rhode Island: Hey! I just wanted to let you know that I have been reading your website all afternoon. There is a plethora of information about the much beloved Universe of Energy. I loved all of the technical information. It was great! Too bad we don't have a site like this for every ride in EPCOT. My fondest memory of ENERGY was the laser show at the end of the ride. As a 9 year old, I thought it was the coolest thing ever. The music and the laser - it was awesome! (Too bad you didn't have a movie clip of this on your site) Now that I'm 30, I still enjoy going to see this attraction year after year. Just wanted to let you know what a great job you guys are doing. Keep up the great work! Gary7 responds: You may be interested to know that the laser-like effects in the very striking finale, were actually done with film projections. Much (if not all) of it was computer-generated animation, which at the time was still a pretty new and exotic technology, and had never been used on such a scale before. One projector provided the images for the "apex" screen, while three others were devoted to the "main" screens. The images from the main screens (the same screens used for the animated film at the beginning of the ride) were reflected upon the mirrored walls, extending the visual range, and enveloping the guests in the dynamic imagery. We'll be covering this more in Ride & Show Technology, in an upcoming article, Cinematic Elements. We also now have a video clip of the finale in our Multimedia: Video section. 04/26/04 Jason: I have been a long time member on the Horizons tribute board and we have conversed there a few times. However, I just got around to looking and reading through the Universe of Energy Companion site, and Kudos man, that site is great. So much information and pictures, I enjoyed all the descriptions and talk about the ride systems, (If I understand correctly you worked maintenance on ride systems at EPCOT?) Anyway, a great site. Thanks for putting it together. I only wish there was something this detailed about Horizons, albeit less ground breaking than energy I know but still would be great. Any word if the "Phase II" will ever be done to add more? Anyhow.. I miss EPCOT Center. Don't you? Gary7 responds: NRG_Guy and I were both Operations Cast Members at Universe of Energy, though at different times. I happened to run into him online, and immediately recognized the "NRG", which is probably lost on most people. :) The rest is history. Having worked there at different times, and having different perspectives, we each were able to contribute to the site in different ways. I was always fascinated with ride systems in general, and Energy's in particular, so I made a point of learning all that I could about it. Twenty-some years after its debut, I still think it's pretty amazing, and I love telling others about it! I thought once about seeking a transfer to Maintenance, but I would have really missed the guest contact and being "part of the show". I know it probably looks like we've abandoned Phase II, but there's actually quite a bit in the works. Other obligations have kept us from doing updates as frequently as we'd like, but there's always a lot going on behind the scenes, and it's slowly coming to fruition. Among the things we have planned are the completion of Community Forum, an expansive Cast Members section, and much more. I'd love to do a Horizons site as well. I started working on one once ("Explore Horizons, from the Planet7 Observation Deck"), but unfortunately I don't have too much material for it. It would also be tough to do alone. This site has been a team effort between NRG_Guy and myself since the start. I never could have taken on such an ambitious project without his help! 09-06-04 Daniel: This is one of my favorite sites of all time, but I have a quick question, When is the site going to be updated? I can't find any [Ellen's Energy Adventure] media online and I am hoping to some soon. But kudos so far! Gary7 responds: I have to admit that NRG_Guy and I were more fond of the original show (though Ellen's is a much better rehab than most in recent history). I also had much more experience with the original, having worked it for close to two years. We try to present a balanced view of both shows regardless, but we do tend to have more interest and more material for the original. Right now, we have a few photos from Ellen's [finale, Theater II], the full script, a detailed description of the rehab to Ellen's, and perhaps a few other goodies. At present, we don't have a source of Ellen video, but once we do, we'll be certain to include some segments from the show. 2-21-05 Justin: I must say, I'm really impressed with your site. All of the in-depth UoE information is amazing, and the pictures are fantastic! What are the future plans for the site? Will Spaceship Earth receive the same love that Energy did? Good work. Gary7 responds: Unfortunately, as with Horizons, I just don't have a lot of material on Spaceship Earth. I'm afraid that I'd just be duplicating what's already found on other sites, such as the outstanding EPCOT Discovery Center and Widen Your World, among others. That said, if there's anyone out there reading this who has a wealth of material on these or other classic EPCOT Center attractions-- enough to create something unique--I'd certainly entertain the idea of doing another site, after I get more work done here. As for this site, we still have a lot of great new features coming as we continue to wrap up Phase II. Then there's still Phase III coming after that! We're both amazed at how big the site has grown already, and there's no end in sight! You can read more about where we've been, and where we're going in Guest Relations. Want to add a comment of your own? We'd love to hear from you!