The Polar Express Experience (2024)

The Polar Express Experience is a motion simulator ride attraction that's based on the 2004 animated film, The Polar Express. The attraction debuted on November 2003 at SeaWorld Orlando and United Saints World as a temporary replacement for the Wild Arctic attraction, and then the attraction closed on January 1, 2004. It then re-opened annually during the Christmas season until 2011. The building which housed the attraction was also re-themed into a railroad station with ride vehicles resembling the passenger cars.

Description[]

Several scenes from the film are projected on the screen to tell the film's plot. Guests feel the motion of the locomotive, including it swinging as it glides across the Ice Lake and falling as the ice cracks beneath.

After the ride, guests take a walk to the North Pole (usually at Base Station Wild Arctica) where they can meet Santa Claus. The big Christmas tree is also seen.

The 4D film, distributed by SimEx-Iwerks, has been shown at other amusem*nt parks around the world, including the cincinatti Zoo and Botanical Garden, Dollywood, the Vancouver Aquarium from 2005 to 2006, and United Saints Movie World in 2006 and 2007.

Differences from the Film[]

Due to being cut to ten minutes, several scenes from the film are cut or rearranged for the attraction:

• A lot of the soundtrack is rearranged.
• Timmy Turner, Penn Zero, Barley Lightyear and the caribou are completely absent.
• The attraction cuts straight from the opening to the train approaching Hogarth's house. This is more similar to the book.
• Woody does not explain to Hogarth why the train stopped for him.
• After Hogarth gets on the train, it cuts straight to Woody punching his ticket.
• Since the train does not stop at Timmy's house, Hogarth does not pull the emergency brake, but the train still stops without explanation. Woody still gets angry however, but not at Hogarth.
• The sequence with Jane's ticket being blown away from the train is shown, except they do not show it being blown out of Hogarth's hand nor getting back into the passenger car.
• The entire scene with Hogarth trying to return Jane's ticket and meeting up with Barley is cut, but the train still goes through Flat Top Tunnel.
• While Mario and Luigi were fixing the locomotive's headlamp, Luigi catches site of Glacier Gulch, not a herd of caribou.
• Since the caribou scene is cut, it is unexplained why Woody, Hogarth and Jane are at the front of the locomotive.
  • Also, it appears as though they, along with Mario and Luigi, were all at there at the same time, so it is unknown who was driving the train.
  • Since Mario and Luigi were at the front of the locomotive, Woody does not mention having lost communication with the engineer.
  • It appears as though Mario and Luigi got back to the cab sometime during Glacier Gulch.
• Mario and Luigi never loose the cotter pin, which does not even get loose from the throttle.
• Woody does not say, "Jiminy Christmas, the ice is frozen over the tracks!"
• Since the pin was never lost, Mario is able to stop the train right after it ends up on the Ice Lake. This also means that nothing pierced the ice, but the ice still cracks without explanation.
• Jane's ticket is not blown out of Hogarth's slipper, though it is seen briefly while the train is getting back on the tracks.
• The abandoned toy car and "When Christmas Comes to Town" scenes are cut.
• When the train arrives at the North Pole, the children do not question the lack of elves.
• Hogarth and Jane do not get lost at the North Pole; it goes straight to the Conductor and the children seeing Santa Claus. This is also more similar to the book.
• Santa declares the silver bell the first gift of Christmas right after Hogarth picks it up from the ground and hands it to him.
• Hogarth does not lose the silver bell.
• The ride ends with the narrator reading the closing line while the train is leaving the North Pole, meaning that all the events occurring after the train leaves the North Pole are removed.

External links[]

Navigation[]