Guardians of the Galaxy - Mission: BREAKOUT! Reviews, Photos, Info

[George Lucas on a Bench]

I'm old enough to remember when the original Tower of Terror first opened with a lap bar across the rows and one drop.

 

[Professortango1]

The storybook ride is a genuine classic, though. Nothing at DCA is classic.

ToT was classic. It was badly situated, but a home run from Disney in terms of ride and story. Tough to be a Bug was another incredible Disney attraction which suffered from placement. With the loss of them, I don't visit DCA anymore as everything that is left feels generic and lacks the Disney quality.

 

[TROR]

Grizzly River Run's honestly really great but I do wish it had some animatronics throughout.

 

[shambolicdefending]

I'm sure if Disney replaced Storybookland with a Six Flags style coaster, they'd see much longer lines for that replacement. This doesn't mean that it would be a wise decision based upon Disney's reputation and brand.

Well, I think that's where you have to say that just looking at wait times isn't the ultimate metric (I know we were using it as a comparison point earlier in the thread). The question is, would turning all or part of Fantasyland into Six Flags be good for Disneyland's business? Would they end up selling more tickets or significantly improve margins? Likely not.

Whereas, changing ToT over to GGMB seems to have, at worst, had a neutral effect on the overall financial success of DCA.

 

[socalifornian]

DCA's TOT didn't come with DHS' greatest special effect that is the elevator coming out of it's shaft and going into another shaft.

I like that scene, only wish they had better climate control. The surprise of being dropped always felt ruined when I could feel the blast of Florida humidity as you left the twilight zone room. You knew you were *basically* outside where riders could be seen screaming

 

[DanielBB8]

The 5th Dimension Room was groundbreaking, but the designing of the actual space was rushed and a miss, as Imagineers themselves have said. The groundbreaking effect also has its own set up issues. Sure, DCA's didn't have this feature, but the trade off was that we got a more reliable attraction, a really nice practical effect with the mirror scene, a drop scare after the hallway scene, and a more thrilling pace to the entire attraction. The effect of having the car leave the shaft is almost duplicated with the car pulling away from the doors and having the elevator shaft melt away into nothingness; a great bookending effect for the ride which serves the story. What we gained by not having the trackless vehicles I think is outweighed by what we gained, especially as elevators combined with darkride vehicles are becoming more common (Transformers, Rise of the Resistance).

You explained what should have compensated for the lack of the shaft switching, but it didn't work. The story tracks too closely to DHS' TZ original without having any build up. In DCA version, they should have added more suspense when the car left the loading room. They should have added a 5th dimension effect before the car left the room. They showed the swirling graphic against a painted rusty door. It was a fuzzy image. Instead, they should have made the room pitch black, then showed projections and special effects in a room that looks like it's more than a loading bay before the car entered the shaft. This would have taken an extra 20 seconds, but it would have been a much better improvement.

 

[planodisney]

I enjoyed DCA’s ToT. My problem was that I had ridden the DHS version first. The first time I rode it,
I enjoyed the ride and then the elevator door opened and our cart began moving. My jaw literally dropped. I’ve only had that same feeling twice before. The year Star Tours opened and my first ride on Indiana Jones.
On repeat ridings I began to notice, gosh, they sure could have themed this better, but it still added a twist to the ride that made it seem, just more....

However, the single biggest crime of the original DCA ToT, was the exterior. The building itself was vastly inferior to the WDS structure, but even worse was the embarrassing faux finish paint job on the exterior. One of the worst faux jobs I’ve ever seen.
But I still loved the ride!!!
I guess I’m just not sophisticated enough to know what I’m not supposed to enjoy.

 

[nevol]

I rode MB for the second time last week. and Incredicoaster for the first time. Takeaways: Both fun attractions, however, they have some interesting effects on the park overall;

First one, most obvious: Every unique experience that had a unique mood and dramatic theme is being homogenized into an inconsequential, character-driven, voice-over funny thrill ride. Everything is just funny now, evocative of little/nothing else. Incredicoaster, RSR, and Guardians are the same darn ride.

Second: Cars land was great, but the land in scale far outweighed the popularity of the IP upon which it was based. When DCA was on the up and up, it had a bunch of supporting/legacy E-tickets and lands, and then CARS. Now, there is more IP at DCA, which brings Carsland back into a more balanced perspective. Kind of a good thing tbh, but what is causing this to happen is again, what I mentioned above; the homogenization of the rest of the park into silly/funny IP character-driven thrill rides with no connective tissue to their respective lands, dramatic theming, mood, or support of a larger park-wide idea.

I have grown accustomed to the guardians facade, even as I can stand in line and criticize how silly it is that their broken air vent is meant to be storytelling that nobody in line can even see, etc etc etc. Its an art deco hotel painted over. The ride is actually fun. But the loss of the Tower is still a far greater crime than Pixar Pier. Pixar pier is disappointing, but at least it just took the back end of the park and breathed some new color, signage and energy into it. It didn't replace something that was as good as the tower. (Yes, hollywoodland still stinks, TOT was really ill-placed, these overlays are just the next steps in a 20 year history of terrible planning and theme park design that is the world's largest open-air bar otherwise known as DCA).

DCA for 4 hours feels fresh, exciting, fun. If you just go there once per every 3 visits to disneyland, you can keep this enthusiasm and appreciation. BVS looks nice, so does cars land, even the pier. I'm nostalgic for the tower structure and ride system and I still sort of get that big budget E-ticket thrill fix with guardians. I enjoy the ritual of boarding a heavy duty ride vehicle and putting on a seatbelt. But there is NOTHING like leaving DCA, even when you are feeling mildly impressed, and walking back over to disneyland, and being overwhelmed by all of the textures, colors, hardscapes, softscapes, music, flora, nooks and cranies, all of the charm. Noticing the detail just when looking up into the windows at plaza inn. When I'm at DCA, I notice things like, the side of stucco show buildings, giant backstage walls, power lines, unthemed theaters, awnings and windows on the side of the animation building, the super-wide parade corridor, nearby hotels, the paper chandelier in lamplight lounge from all the way over in front of the ferris wheel, the fact that the line for soarin can be 80 minutes UNTHEMED while the right theater is almost exclusively fastpass. It needs a railroad or riverboat equivalent. The layout is a disaster, and everything radiates outward now from the parade route with few exceptions, so while the land planning and environment design is probably doomed forever, it really needs A-C tickets that are not flat rides. It needs a boat ride. It needs a paranormal/psychedelic experience (TOT). It needs environments that encourage exploration and relaxation like NOS ( the paradise gardens just don't do the trick).

 

[SSG]

I rode MB for the second time last week. and Incredicoaster for the first time. Takeaways: Both fun attractions, however, they have some interesting effects on the park overall;

First one, most obvious: Every unique experience that had a unique mood and dramatic theme is being homogenized into an inconsequential, character-driven, voice-over funny thrill ride. Everything is just funny now, evocative of little/nothing else. Incredicoaster, RSR, and Guardians are the same darn ride.

Second: Cars land was great, but the land in scale far outweighed the popularity of the IP upon which it was based. When DCA was on the up and up, it had a bunch of supporting/legacy E-tickets and lands, and then CARS. Now, there is more IP at DCA, which brings Carsland back into a more balanced perspective. Kind of a good thing tbh, but what is causing this to happen is again, what I mentioned above; the homogenization of the rest of the park into silly/funny IP character-driven thrill rides with no connective tissue to their respective lands, dramatic theming, mood, or support of a larger park-wide idea.

I have grown accustomed to the guardians facade, even as I can stand in line and criticize how silly it is that their broken air vent is meant to be storytelling that nobody in line can even see, etc etc etc. Its an art deco hotel painted over. The ride is actually fun. But the loss of the Tower is still a far greater crime than Pixar Pier. Pixar pier is disappointing, but at least it just took the back end of the park and breathed some new color, signage and energy into it. It didn't replace something that was as good as the tower. (Yes, hollywoodland still stinks, TOT was really ill-placed, these overlays are just the next steps in a 20 year history of terrible planning and theme park design that is the world's largest open-air bar otherwise known as DCA).

You had me at 'the world's largest open-air bar.'

 

[wityblack]

Out of curiosity, what would you guys think of the ride if Disney were forced to get rid of the Twilight Zone IP, and came up with this as a replacement?

Also, my nostalgia for The Twilight Zone will never let me say that this is the better attraction, especially with the shoe-horning.

 

[wityblack]

Its Monsters Inc. replacement isn't all that interesting or memorable. It's flat out terrible when compared to the Tokyo ride.

Although not super exciting, if you didn't know Superstar Limo existed, you would probably think they came up with everything from scratch. What makes it impressive is how they overlaid an awful ride using most of the same assets, and it doesn't feel forced. Compared to Tokyo though, it's as exciting as King Triton's Carousel.

i wish they would enclose the outside queue and extend the theming

Wasn't this in the plan at some point? I heard rumors about it somewhere.

 

[ᗩLᘿᑕ ✨ ᗩζᗩᗰ]

They clearly should have turned TOT into the Sanctum Sanctorum and had Dr. Strange drop and lift you into different scenes using his wavy hand circles.

Full disclosure, I LOVE Dr. Strange and feel like his powers are super underrated. His efforts in the fight against Thanos in IW still blow my mind.

This. It's been mentioned a few times on the forum. A perfectly acceptable IP overlay for DHS's tower, IMO.

 

[Kram Sacul]

Come on, guys. Let's not get carried away with the "story" of Tower of Terror. Disney sure didn't. Some people went in an elevator and disappeared after a bolt of lightning struck the building...right. All the usual social commentary and shocking twists of The Twilight Zone are completely absent. It doesn't even really resemble the TV show despite various references.

Bottom line, it's a drop ride. No one is lining up for the plot here...

The thing is that there are quite a few classic TZ episodes that didn’t involve social commentary or shocking twists. Some of them just had weird stuff happening like falling into another dimension, talking dolls, and time traveling swimming pools. Tower of Terror fits in quite well with those.

 

[socalifornian]

The thing is that there are quite a few classic TZ episodes that didn’t involve social commentary or shocking twists. Some of them just had weird stuff happening like falling into another dimension, talking dolls, and time traveling swimming pools. Tower of Terror fits in quite well with those.

Ape on a wing

 

[planodisney]

When are we going to get a
Dark Shadows attraction?

 

[George Lucas on a Bench]

Zzzzzzz...

 

[Phroobar]

When are we going to get a
Dark Shadows attraction?

Or a Tales from the Dark Side attraction.

"Man lives in the sunlit world of what he believes to be reality. But... there is, unseen by most, an underworld, a place that is just as real, but not as brightly lit... a Darkside. Welcome to Baatu. Good Journeys."

 

[Kram Sacul]

There really needs to be more attractions based on horror content. The original Fantasyland dark rides were frightening with their nightmarish imagery. Now all we get is wimpy family coasters and sci-fi video games. Where's the danger in that?

 

[THE 1HAPPY HAUNT]

The thing is that there are quite a few classic TZ episodes that didn’t involve social commentary or shocking twists. Some of them just had weird stuff happening like falling into another dimension, talking dolls, and time traveling swimming pools. Tower of Terror fits in quite well with those.

so hot tub time machine is part of the twilight zone extended cinematic universe??

 

[Mac Tonight]

Or a Tales from the Dark Side attraction.

"Man lives in the sunlit world of what he believes to be reality. But... there is, unseen by most, an underworld, a place that is just as real, but not as brightly lit... a Darkside. Welcome to Baatu. Good Journeys."

Best intro ever.