Truth Traveler VR attraction coming to Branson and Pigeon Forge

There will be a new virtual reality (or so it seems) attraction opening in Branson, Missouri later this year. It is taking over the former Andy Williams Moon River Theater. According to the always-accurate Wikipedia, Andy Williams opened that theater in 1992. According to this article at Thousands Hills, Williams performed there until 2011 when he was diagnosed with cancer. He passed away the following year.

According to an article by SJB, the property had been up for sale and was most recently purchased by Mindscape Creative. They specialize in 5-D theater attractions (the gimmicky name for having 3-D or VR movies that feature things like moving seats, scenes, or in-theater effects such as wind and such).

Per their press release:

Time Travel is making its way to the former Andy Williams Moon River Theater in Branson, MO, with Truth Traveler, a virtual reality ride and attraction developed by the acclaimed Ark Encounter and Mindscape Creative. Mindscape Creative, known for their expertise in blending cutting-edge technology with captivating narratives, has worked with the Ark Encounter to bring Truth Traveler to life at their Kentucky location and is also developing it for Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.

– Truth Traveler Press Release

Ark Encounter is an attraction located in Kentucky that opened in 2016. It features a “life sized” replica of what the biblical Noah’s Ark could have been like.

Unsurprisingly, with their involvement, Truth Traveler is also a bible-inspired attraction.

From the look of some of the concept art, it reminds me of early EPCOT at Walt Disney World.

The images hint of what may be a pre-show, or other exhibit within the attraction.

Several characters have been created for the attraction, including The Inventor, P.O.D. and Rae:

Truth Traveler – The Inventor
Truth Traveler – POD
Truth Traveler – Rae

Although some of the concept art makes it look like a fully immersive ride environment…

…other images reveal that may just be what you see while sitting in a less-themed room and wearing a V.R. helmet:

Of interest, it looks like they are using HTC VIVE V.R. helmets (you can buy consumer versions of those to use at home) and the MX4D movie theater seats (we have those at one of our local theaters here in Des Moines, Iowa). As such, the experience may only be unique for those who have never tried V.R. before, and do not regularly watch movies in moving theater seats. (And we actually have two theater chains in Des Moines with different brands of moving seats, in theaters that feature effects such as wind, smells, etc.)

Hopefully, the storyline will be compelling, as well as any exhibits/pre-shows/etc. to make this stand out from the various other 5-D theater experiences found in Branson already.

And, for those looking for a more Christian-based positive message, the movie alone may be an attraction. For those less interested in that type of messaging, perhaps one of the several other attractions that let you blast zombies or aliens will be more interesting.

Since Branson is just a “short drive” down the road from where I am, I do expect to drive down and check out this new attraction when it opens. At that point, I hope to add new photos to the Branson photo gallery as well as VR images and movies to my Branson in VR projects.

More to come…

Golden Zypher???

Almost no one watches anything I post on YouTube (I created a channel for this site two years) ago), but of those who do, apparently they watch my Golden Zypher video the most. Out of all the things that were at Disney’s California Adventure when it opened in 2001, why is there interest in video of this ride? Thoughts?

Omega Mart. You have no idea.

Deep inside Area 15 (yes, 15) in Las Vegas is Omega Mart. To the casual observe, it looks like any old grocery store… but looks can be very deceiving.

This commercial from two years ago is one of the more up-front videos about the attraction, but when videos started appearing online in 2021, they were far more cryptic.

For instance, take a look at this old Omega Mart TV ad…

“Local coast to coast” and “your family won’t be the same” seemed … odd.

Even the more modern commercials also show that something is not quite right here.

Nebula loaf?

There were also bizarre product ads, like this one for Shrubs, the avocado-flavored French fry treats.

There are even videos about Plenty Valley and how it came to be at Omega Mart.

I fell down this Omega Mart rabbit hole quite deeply. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of Omega Mart videos. Some are presented as TV ads for the grocery store itself, promoting special deals. Others are for what I assume are “store brand” products. And others are like weird informercials…

The videos were scattered around the internet on YouTube, social media, websites and more, so I expect there are plenty I have yet to see. Fortunately, some folks have collected them and put together compilations of all the videos they have found.

And the rabbit hole went even deeper: There are internal employee training videos! Here are all the sections presented as one long video.

So just what IS Omega Mart?

Beats me! And we spent over five hours exploring it.

Here is my VR walkthrough of a tiny bit of it. In the future, I’ll share some thoughts and explanations.

Until then…

Area 15 does not exist.

Area 15 in Las Vegas (not to be confused with Area 51) is an entertainment complex that houses various food, drink, and entertainment offerings. You can ride an indoor zip-line, throw axes, play retro video games, experience Virtual Reality and spend hours exploring Meow Wolf’s Omega Mart.

Here is a VR walk around some of the art displays outside the building:

And here is a VR walk around the inside of the Area 15 building:

Admission to the building itself is free, so you can just go there and look around. Individual attractions and experiences all charge their own fees.

You can buy combo passes to save some money, as well, though I did not check to see how much of a saving this actually is.

Meow Wolf Omega Mart in Las Vegas

First, a quick update to my Miscellaneous (“Other Places”) photo gallery… I found some Las Vegas, Nevada photos I took in 2000 during a work trip. These were taken with my 1996-era Epson PhotoPC digital camera, so the “high resolution” was only 640×480. You can take a glimpse of Vegas through the eyes of a first-generation digital camera here:

http://misc.disneyfans.com/OtherPlaces/Nevada/index.html

Next, Omega Mart has been added to the gallery! After running in to some very weird “commercials” on YouTube for this “grocery store” a few years ago, I went down quite a rabbit hole watching their in-universe videos. Omega Mart is an interactive experience where you can walk through and just look at bizarre artistic creations, OR go down the rabbit hole yourself and explore the underlying story. For this one, Omega Mart is a grocery store operated by a corporation called Dramcorp. Dramcorp is up to some questionable business practices, involving alien worlds, extracting “the source” from humans, and stuff that it would take a book to fully explain. If even possible.

I really wanted to get to Omega Mart, but ended up in Denver earlier this year, and thus my first Meow Wolf experience was their Convergence Station (see photos in the gallery).

But now, Omega Mart has been visited:

http://misc.disneyfans.com/OtherPlaces/Nevada/LasVegas2024/Area15/index.html

It is located inside a facility called Area 15 (15, not 51) which was quite the site on its own—attractions, food, drinks, VR, arcade, shopping and, of course, Omega Mart.

VR photos posted to Park Hopping in VR on Facebook, and VR videos will be on my Park Hopping in VR YouTube channel (currently unlisted, but I will make them available soon—or ask, and I’ll send you the link sooner).

More to come…

Silver Dollar City “An Old Time Christmas”

The Disney/MGM Studios was epic at Christmas time when it had the “Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights”, but that has been gone for years. If you want a Christmas light fix, check out Silver Dollar City in Missouri. They basically said “hold my (root) beer” (no alcohol in the park, you see) and put up 6.5 million lights — more than what the Disney display had.

Photos from this event have been added to the Theme Parks gallery:

http://themeparks.disneyfans.com/SilverDollarCity/index.html

I have also been posting VR/360 photos to my Park Hopping in VR Facebook page and VR/360 videos to my Park Hopping in VR YouTube channel.

Explore!

World’s Largest Toy Museum?

In Branson, Missouri is a building claiming to be the World’s Largest Toy Museum. I do not know if this is truly accurate, but after visiting, I can say this place certainly is the largest collection of toys I am aware of 😉

https://worldslargesttoymuseum.com

The facility opened around 2001 (it is unclear on the website when the actual year was, only that they moved to Branson that year). It was initially one building, then in 2015, they expanded in to the building next door. That building also has a lower floor accessible from the outside, so I refer to it as the third building.

As I go to write this, I now see there is the original building – World’s Largest Toy Musem – and the second building is called The Memory Barn. This explains the charge on my credit card I was trying to figure out.

My gallery now has aver 500 photos taken in the museum — and that barely (BARELY) scratches the surface of what all is in these three buildings. While I was there, I also took over 100 VR360 photos, which I will eventually get posted to a gallery on the Branson in VR Facebook group.

You can check out my photos here:

http://misc.disneyfans.com/OtherPlaces/Missouri/Branson/Branson2024/ToyMuseum/index.html

There are other things new to the Branson section, so explore a bit if you are Branson-curious.

Until next time…

Silver Dollar City Harvest Festival photos

My Theme Parks gallery now has over 2500 photos taken at Silver Dollar City in Branson, Missouri. The most recent batch features their Harvest Festival, featuring thousands of pumpkins, special lighting, and more.

You can find these photos here:

http://themeparks.disneyfans.com

I did a bit more sorting to the photos as I learn the layout of this park. I still have virtually no understanding of where one “area” ends and another begins, beyond the obvious areas like “Grand Exposition” (which has a big sign as you enter it), “Fire District” (also a sign) and now “Wilson Farms” (another sign).

Eventually, I’d like to group all the photos by the area they are in. According to the map…

…it looks like I have much to learn:

  1. Fire District
  2. Grand Exposition
  3. Homestead Ridge
  4. Hugo’s Hill Street
  5. Main Street
  6. Midtown
  7. Rivertown
  8. Valley Road
  9. Wilson’s Farm

Nine areas shouldn’t be too difficult to learn, should it? But at Silver Dollar City, most of the areas look like Frontierland to me, and I have yet to “learn” the subtle differences so I can recognize one western building selling corn dogs form another western building selling corn dogs.

Everybody needs a hobby…

Universal-SeaWorld gallery updated – over 49,000 photos.

New photos added to the Universal Studios/SeaWorld gallery. This includes Universal Orlando Resort, SeaWorld, SeaWorld’s Howl-O-Scream event, and photos from my first-ever visit to the amazing Discovery Cove.

http://us-sw.disneyfans.com

This brings the total to over 49,000 images, going back to 1996.

Walt Disney World gallery updated – over 43,000 images.

New photos added to the WDW gallery (no theme parks, just some resorts and Disney Springs stuff):

http://wdw.disneyfans.com

This brings the total to over 43,000 images, going back to 1996.