Ride pre-shows

[Levithian]

The problem with JDS is really one of capacity, it's not able to absorb large amounts of people. The whole licence process went a long way to make the process feel shorter as it was inclusive with the ride and was useful to keep kids entertained while waiting, but now it's gone. In place is just the usual, queue lines that extend outside without drawing people in to the experience. If it's busy you can see 1hr wait times here too. For everything else, it's pretty much designed for parents to take virtually unrestricted (by fencing, walls, etc) photos of their kids having fun driving a car in a pretty cool setting. The set looks pretty, the cars are neat and the majority of kids enjoy themselves. If you look at the cost of implementing a ride like that, vs a complete overhaul/upgrade of the existing ride, even with all the theme/set work which was probably done in house, I wouldn't be surprised if it cost significantly less than keeping LTRR open. Not just in implementation, but in maintenance over the years too.

The other half of the building is used for storage, so I reckon it was a win/win situation all round as far as management were concerned and it got the axe. It sucks, but it feels like we are in a phase were the experience about visiting a theme park has been overlooked with more of a focus on profit over recent years.

[Brad2912]

Agree with most you've said Levithan except the whole license thing which whilst novelty value the first time became a gimmick that every bypassed. It didn't really absorb or utilise queueing time, as you actually had heaps of people jumping in front of you by not bothering with the licence printing 

[rappa]

Don't agree with Webslave about Bermuda...

If you found the video on a loop at the end of the day then it wasn't BT's heyday, I remember even at about 4:45 they would still be running the Pre-Show. 

It was somewhat essential to the story really the pre-show IMO. 

 

And it was Viking's Revenge that was first quoted by Arrow but the park built it in house for a fraction of the cost. 

BT really was an amazing Dark Ride, nothing has been built before it or after in Aus that even comes close. Tunes was probably the runner up, but it could match Bermuda in effects and ride system. The thrill BT managed to achieve with a basic boat ride system with ZERO restraints is probably Disney level IMO. 

[pushbutton]

It was awesome.

I find it hard to enjoy going on Storm due to the fact I know what was there before.

[Reanimated35]

1 minute ago, pushbutton said:

It was awesome.

I find it hard to enjoy going on Storm due to the fact I know what was there before. it's not a dark ride

 

[Brad2912]

34 minutes ago, pushbutton said:

I find it hard to enjoy going on Storm due to the fact I know what was there before.

I find it hard to watch my TV.

it may be 65 inches of beautiful high definition, but every time I'm watching the football or my favourite tv show I can't help but shed a tear thinking that my LG tv is a byproduct of the building that sits on the former Wonderland site that are the scenes of so many childhood memories...

[webslave]

10 hours ago, djrappa said:

Don't agree with Webslave about Bermuda...

If you found the video on a loop at the end of the day then it wasn't BT's heyday, I remember even at about 4:45 they would still be running the Pre-Show. 

It was somewhat essential to the story really the pre-show IMO. 

No more than a year after it opened.  I remember it well because in the last hour or thereabouts of the park being open (and as the buses have taken a lot of the crowd away) most rides are walk-on so it was a race to see how many you could get in that time.  We had assumed the BT ops knew this and therefore weren't going to make people sit through the pre-show for no good reason.  Naturally this was still in the days of fire on the mountain, and the turntable still operating.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

20 hours ago, Richard said:

Did you ever ride in its heyday when staff were uniformed, in character and actually sold the experience? Your glowing descriptions of Looney Tunes and Batman Adventure are consistent with those rides at their peak (though BATR2 was always a rambling mess), but your unembellished description of Bermuda Triangle reads like the budget cuts version.

Well it depends on what you consider heyday (as clearly per webslave's comment below) we've all got different opinions. What I can tell you is that all three descriptions i've given are all from around 2004 or later. Given BT was constructed several years AFTER BATR and LTRR, if it wasn't in it's heyday, but the others 'still were' it doesn't say a lot for the quality of the build does it?

Yes, i've experienced the ride with uniforms, in character etc - probably would have been 2004 at the earliest Granted the ride at that stage was over 7 years old, so not sure. I found the attraction as a whole to be great.

I'm not saying it was a BAD pre-show, and the story introduced was definitely necessary for the overall ride, BUT my point is simply that it wasn't THE BEST one on the coast. After you'd seen BT's video, nothing would change - there was no interaction with the guests, and the story imparted could just as easily have been done on the back of a business card that you could read in the queue.

The others (as mentioned) couldn't be replaced as easily.

20 hours ago, webslave said:

The elevator was... an elevator.  Whatever.

Have to ask @webslave - do you mean the ride elevator in the middle of the waterfall, or are you talking about the 'Earth Drill' ? The earth drill never moved - it was just a bouncy floor with two doors.

9 hours ago, Brad2912 said:

I find it hard to watch my TV.

it may be 65 inches of beautiful high definition, but every time I'm watching the football or my favourite tv show I can't help but shed a tear thinking that my LG tv is a byproduct of the building that sits on the former Wonderland site that are the scenes of so many childhood memories...

See - THIS - THIS is what is worth crying about. not the lack of a dark ride or the replacement of a ride that clearly by all accounts was no longer in it's heyday. #GettingOnInYears

[webslave]

1 hour ago, AlexB said:

Have to ask @webslave - do you mean the ride elevator in the middle of the waterfall, or are you talking about the 'Earth Drill' ? The earth drill never moved - it was just a bouncy floor with two doors.

Haha, yep, you got me.  I had assumed it was an elevator early on, but by the time I later found out it didn't actually go anywhere it was always known in my mind as 'the elevator'.  Twas the earth drill.

[Richard]

1 hour ago, AlexB said:

Given BT was constructed several years AFTER BATR and LTRR, if it wasn't in it's heyday, but the others 'still were' it doesn't say a lot for the quality of the build does it?

I would say that the deterioration of all three rides roughly coincided and had nothing to do with quality of build so much as budget and lack of willingness to maintain any of them. I'm not sure why you're putting BATR and LTRR up on some pedestal -- both along with BT were run into the ground over the better part of a decade.

BATR's upgrade to version two killed that ride. The original was well done and had a theme, pre-show, ride and attendant scripts that all made sense. Best film tie-in the park has ever done... obviously in those early days when WB Burbank still had hopes for their own theme parks. The second was an ordinary cartoon shoehorned into the existing theming that was even more forgettable than the Justice League ride that replaced it. LTRR needed a huge refurbishment long before it closed. It died a sad, slow death.

It seems to be unanimous that Bermuda Triangle was a great ride. Anyone that remembers the plot of the ride should remember that the pre-show film sets up a twist/reveal that leads to the climax of the ride. I'd argue that there's no other easy way to set the story they told into motion -- it couldn't have been done well with queue props or once the ride had started. If we're talking special effects then no it's not the winner, but if it's about how it relates to and sets up the ride then Bermuda Triangle's pre-show was perfect.

If we're judging pre-shows as a standalone experience then a Mad Mike performance at Police Academy Stunt Show wins hands down and always will.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

1 hour ago, Richard said:

If we're judging pre-shows as a standalone experience then a Mad Mike performance at Police Academy Stunt Show wins hands down and always will.

This has been my point all along. We were judging pre-shows as a standalone. That was my interpretation of Push's post. I repeated that interpretation several times, but as I said a day or two ago - i think we were debating different things - this makes it clear that we were.

I'm not holding BATR or LTRR on a pedestal. All three rides did die a slow death. I totally agree.

Yes, BT's plot twist was awesome - the reveal was well thought out and well set up, but it didn't kill the ride if you didn't understand it - the rest of the ride was still very cool and very detailed... I guess the same could be said for BATR and LTRR - the only difference is there wasn't an easy way for the park to skip the pre-show scenes with both of those rides having elaborate sets across several rooms, whereas with BT it was easy enough to just leave the doors open and have the video on a loop - it didn't require an actor to take part in the show, whereas LTRR and BATR did - and I think that the continued pre-show usage for those two is what makes it appear (perhaps with rose coloured glasses) that they continued to remain 'original' for longer.

Could the park realistically have thrown open the doors on LTRR, allowing guests to walk through to the dock without stopping? #Shudder - probably.

As for BATR - I only have vague recollections of BATR1 from a 1994 visit, and by the time I came back it was BATR2. I'm sure those who remember both vividly have a passionate dislike for number 2, but anyone who never saw 1, or doesn't remember it would still view 2 as a solid attraction - nothing appeared out of place with the change to the storyline if you were ignorant to the first.

 

All of that said, I 100% agree with you that a Mad Mike performance wins hands down. As a matter of fact - it doesn't even have to be a PASS pre-show to win. Any street performance of his will do.

[Richard]

14 minutes ago, AlexB said:

This has been my point all along. We were judging pre-shows as a standalone. That was my interpretation of Push's post. I repeated that interpretation several times, but as I said a day or two ago - i think we were debating different things - this makes it clear that we were.

What I probably didn't enunciate too well above is that none of them make any sense as a standalone. There's no point to any of them as an experience on their own. So you can only meaningfully judge them in terms of what they contribute to the attraction as a whole. Otherwise our next topic might as well be rating the comfort of roller coaster trains before the restraint comes down.

Except Mad Mike... if they'd kept him on as pre-show entertainer for Hollywood Stunt Driver then walking out after his bit would make more sense than if you stayed on for the show.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

I'm so tempted to make that topic now...