Rumor Magic Kingdom 50th Refurbishments

Ponderer

Ponderer

Well-Known Member
dryerlintfan said:
I've only been on it once. It was meh. At best. I'm going to give it another try during our September trip. I'm a HUGE fan of dad jokes, so I was really looking forward to this ride. I missed almost all the jokes, as they were said while the skipper was looking away from the audience so he could interact with the ride. I think this ride has a lot of potential though, and it had to have been pretty glorious at some point since it has such a huge diehard following. A refurb will likely help it a great deal.
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We had an interesting contrast on our October trip. We went on Jungle Cruise, and we had a skipper who was saying potentially funny stuff, asides about her nonexistent social life - when we could hear it. She was just going so fast and mumbling so much that most of the experience was lost. My wife, especially, came out of that with a big meh.

OTOH, we were at Kilimanjaro the next day and HOLY COW, it was a blast. The animals were delightful, but the difference was the CM, who was hilarious and personable and on-target, and made everyone’s day. My wife came out of that saying, “That’s what I thought Jungle Cruise was supposed to be.”
 
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BigThunderMatt

Well-Known Member
Ponderer said:
OTOH, we were at Kilimanjaro the next day and HOLY COW, it was a blast. The animals were delightful, but the difference was the CM, who was hilarious and personable and on-target, and made everyone’s day. My wife came out of that saying, “That’s what I thought Jungle Cruise was supposed to be.”
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Kilimanjaro Safaris and Jungle Cruise are like comparing apples and oranges. Your experience on KS can vary so wildly from ride to ride that some are just as meh as Jungle Cruise and others are amazing. If the stars align and you get a great driver who can ad-lib on the fly well, good weather and animals being active, it's a fantastic experience. But having been a safari driver for a spell I can say there were just as many safaris that I did where I didn't deviate from the required portions of the script (there are parts you have to share every safari versus parts you only share if specific animals are visible) because nothing of import was happening or not much was visible. At least on Jungle Cruise you have the jokes to kind of attempt to kill the boredom.
 
Ponderer

Ponderer

Well-Known Member
BigThunderMatt said:
Kilimanjaro Safaris and Jungle Cruise are like comparing apples and oranges. Your experience on KS can vary so wildly from ride to ride that some are just as meh as Jungle Cruise and others are amazing. If the stars align and you get a great driver who can ad-lib on the fly well, good weather and animals being active, it's a fantastic experience. But having been a safari driver for a spell I can say there were just as many safaris that I did where I didn't deviate from the required portions of the script (there are parts you have to share every safari versus parts you only share if specific animals are visible) because nothing of import was happening or not much was visible. At least on Jungle Cruise you have the jokes to kind of attempt to kill the boredom.
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Oh, I’m sure that’s true, but all we have is our experience to go by, you know? I mean, my wife is not the die-hard Disney Park person that I am, so they had one chance to sell her one chance to sell her on the experience. And having a skipper no one can hear just wasn’t gonna do it, especially when you had a another corny-jokes-through-the-wilderness experience that landed completely.
 
Dragonman

Dragonman

Well-Known Member
They should repair the animated butterflies in the loading area and add the frogs back:
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There were 11 animated frogs originally on the ride from 1971-73 however Nunis thought they “looked stupid” and ordered their removal.

You can read more about the frogs here: http://passport2dreams.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-year-of-frog.html?m=1

The frogs and other lost Jungle Cruise effects are discussed here:
http://www.omniluxe.net/wyw/jc.htm
 
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UNCgolf

UNCgolf

Well-Known Member
Ponderer said:
Oh, I’m sure that’s true, but all we have is our experience to go by, you know? I mean, my wife is not the die-hard Disney Park person that I am, so they had one chance to sell her one chance to sell her on the experience. And having a skipper no one can hear just wasn’t gonna do it, especially when you had a another corny-jokes-through-the-wilderness experience that landed completely.
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Last time I rode the Safari there weren't even any jokes (that I can remember) because they weren't necessary. There were animals all over the place including a baby elephant. I'm sure you can have a mediocre experience if most of the animals are far away/out of sight, but when they're out and about it's one of the best things at WDW.
 
Ponderer

Ponderer

Well-Known Member
UNCgolf said:
Last time I rode the Safari there weren't even any jokes (that I can remember) because they weren't necessary. There were animals all over the place including a baby elephant. I'm sure you can have a mediocre experience if most of the animals are far away/out of sight, but when they're out and about it's one of the best things at WDW.
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Yeah, I think we got a day a little more sparse with animals (the last time I did the Safari back in the late 90s, I had a giraffe get close enough that I could feel his breath), so the CM had more room to play. Plus, we were just really impressed with how our CM handled an unexpected backup when an animal decided to take a nap right in the middle of the ride path. It was just an experience where the CM made everything fun.
 
Jones14

Jones14

Well-Known Member
Mjt5126 said:
The explosion effects at DL are awesome but I like how you get whipped around more at WDW. I suspect a refurbishment will take that away.
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I wouldn’t be too worried about that; I think the Florida version’s wildness is more due to the larger track layout (as well as minor differences such as the tumbleweed area) than the wear and tear of the track.
 
Jones14

Jones14

Well-Known Member
lazyboy97o said:
It’d be great if they would install quiet anti-rollback devices on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. It’s hasn’t happened on any of the others, but it’d still be a great change.
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If they do, I would want a sound effect of the train struggling up the hill to replace it, but I’d much rather lose the clacking on Space Mountain instead if it came down to it.
 
TeriofTerror

TeriofTerror

Well-Known Member
The first and foremost responsibility of an actor is to be heard and understood, and role commitment isn't far behind. Give me 30 minutes with those CMs and I could improve the experience by a significant margin. Even if you can't train them all to be great, there's no reason why "consistently enjoyable" should be unobtainable!
 
Phineas

Phineas

Well-Known Member
I watched a video of Tokyo’s JC, and while well done, I found the projection mapping of the temple to be so unnecessary and out of place. I love how mysterious and creepy our quiet temple is, and feel like this modern tech would take away from that, much like recent “additions” over at the mansion.
 
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