Originally posted by Rider
The Cars are VERY well themed on DD.
The front car has a head on the top, a bottom jaw on the bottom and the OTSR are colred like a tounge (while the other OTSRs are differnt color). The rest of the cars have claws coming up between the riders legs and over head the the body of the dragon.
As for durring the ride the castle is always there and the ICE dragon just misses it. Not to mention the water and trees (although little). I'd say it has more durring ride theming then Space Mountain or possiblly RnRC.
Dare to compare? First take a good look at the pictures from the first link. It has a few good shots of the cars of DD at IOA, then follow the second link over to a company that specializes in cutting edge ride themes for their products and look at their dragon themed coasters and explain to me how much more elaborate and advanced DD's cars are in comparison - theme only.
http://www.ridezone.com/opparks/F/Usf/ioa/dd.htm
http://www.astroamusements.com/ourmidway/kiddy/kiddy_coasters.html
As I said before, the theme of the queue line area is totally top notch. If all you did was stand in line on this attraction it would get an A+ in my book for theme. I really liked the way they did the stained glass trick - my only complaint with that is that I've seen a line go that far back and the one time that I stoped to watch it in it's entirety, I had people shoving past me. Perhaps this would have been something better to have in that last area just after you split between the two coasters but then the scenery you pass on the way there wouldn't make a whole lot of sense so I don't know... In any event, I hardly consider the track of one of the coasters getting close to the wall of the queue area a single time during the ride to be any great stride in the way of theme nor do I think of trees as adding much since most steel coasters that I've seen and been on (as well as some wooden ones) have trees. To be honest, I always thought of the water as a retention pond but I suppose it could be a moat that's next to the castle instead of around it. Another problem with this ride (as well as the hulk and the fear fall) is that since Universal Owns next to nothing in terms of land and since it's got I-Drive on one side and a residential neighborhood on the other, you get a nice shot of the greater Orlando area on each up stroke. The fact that all these 'tall' rides are on the outskirts of the park doesn't help this matter any. Still, DD could have been themed a LOT more than it was. The idea of Fire & Ice dueling dragons provides tons of great ideas. How about tunnels, one with heat lamps and the other with cold mist cannons? How about having a part of the tracks (besides the loading and unloading) going through the actual castle? How about some sound effects in the areas where the coasters do their near collisions? This is all simple, relatively cheap stuff that's 100% doable from the mind of a person who fully admits they have no experience with engineering at all. It's a roller coaster and for the moment as roller coasters go, it is a very good one. You have a wonderfully themed line that you stand in for this coaster but once you get on it, it's a coaster much like can be found anywhere else in the world at other parks, save for the fact that it's a dueling AND inverted coaster - which I'm sure B&M will never ever design for anyone else ever again, just like the lift hill on the Hulk. So many people in this area are quick to point out how biased the people that creep in here from the rest of the forums are but many of you seem to be no better even when someone tries to point out the obvious which is that these rides are special today but that's only until another company contracts to have something better built. And I can't speak for anyone else but personally, I don't really care so much about if it's the only coaster in the world at the moment with a type of launch or the only coaster in the world that's inverted and dueling at the moment. I don't care that much if it's the first to have a 'camel hump' or currently has the largest inverted loop or the most quark screws or anything else. My body probably isn't going to take a whole lot of notice of most of the things that the coasters on the top lists have that get them on those lists. I mean, if Universal didn't tell you that DD is the only inverted dueling coaster would you know? Would you care? If they didn't tell you that the diagonal launch of Hulk were a first, would you know and do you think most people care beyond using is to statistically prove it's superiority to something else? I'll probably never go to a park in South Dakota so if they had a coaster with the same sort of launch as the Hulk do I really care? Does it make the the ride experience feel any different because it isn't the only one? Does the worlds tallest coaster feel that much more thrilling than the second tallest and would it if you didn't know that the first one was the tallest? I could tell you that RnR actually puts more G's on your body than either of the dragons or the Hulk but would you know from riding it? Except for the sake of debate, do any of us really care? Is anyone getting my point? Rides like most of what you find at Disney, most of what you find at Universal Studios, you know, rides more like Spiderman are special because they are and for the most part, will always be unique. MIB doesn't have to worry about someone else building a taller diagonal launch or an inverted dueling coaster with more close calls. I mean, Disney's crapy new coaster in AK has more in the way of actual theme once on the track than either the Hulk or DD and a lot of us consider it to be not only a cheap carnival ride but a poorly themed one as well. It doesn't take much of a theme on much of a ride to be a better themed ride than one that has for the most almost no theme at all. Please don't think I'm trying to say that the coaster in AK is better than any of the coasters in IOA as coasters go. If you have payed attention to anything that I've typed in this post, you'll know that's not what I mean but from a few of the replies I've gotten from recent posts, I'm beginning to get the feeling that some people are choosing to read selectively.
Try asking yourself this: Would either the Dragons or the Hulk look out of place in Universal Studios or a Disney park as is? Could the rides (with the exception of the queue line for DD - not part of the ride) go into a six flags or paramount park as is and fit in with the park's other offerings?
