Spent a couple hrs at MK today and among other things rode Pirates, Splash, and Thunder, three attractions that's had show issues in the past. Here's some observations from earlier.
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Pirates - Generally impressed with the ride thru today, more than usual.
-Starting just after the load area and before the caves, the "Ship in the distance" effect on the right has really nice moving cloud projections which are either recent or easier to notice than before.
-Waterfall projection is still Blackbeard however.. still waiting for the "limited engagement" to finish
(As posted on Disney Parks Blog 5/6/2011 - "Look for Blackbeard soon in this classic attraction, and the return of Davy Jones later this year." Lol!)
-At the "Skeleton Captain at the Wheel" scene, noticed when the strobes were going off you can no longer see it thru holes in the rockwork as before. Hopefully this was fixed!
-In the "Wicked Wench" battle, one of the cannons blasted air right at the side of my head which was awesome! I've heard of it doing this before but haven't had it happen in a while. Glad I took my sunglasses off my head moments before just in case
-The cloud projections on the ceiling, something I always look for going into the Burning Town scene, were turned off. Usually see this working so maybe a small downtime.
-The Hat Pirate was working good (though with slightly fewer hats than he used to have)
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Splash Mt - Better condition than before but still a few show issues.
-Finale Scene looking much better than the show quality disaster that was reported before. All animatronics working save for one goose to the left of the ship that was hunched over on a log like he had a stomachache, lol! Oddly enough his eyes were still blinking.
-Also another show issue at the end where Brer Fox is getting his tail chomped by Brer Gator, right underneath these two AAs there's a black curtain that hides a backstage hallway that today was brightly lit and partially visible from the ride. Hoping this gets covered better.
-The outside splash cannon, the big one that soaks people on the bridge, also wasn't working, but the exterior waterfall that soaks logs on the ride after the drop is back to being a real waterfall instead of the trickle they've had before.
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Big Thunder - Could use more show fixes
-Upper queue and lower loading area still pretty warm, not sure where the newly-installed AC was :I ?
-There were many places in the loading area where water was dripping down on the trains and platform from the ceiling after a recent rainstorm. Unloading platform on the right side had a trash can under one leak and CM standing next to telling people to watch your step.
-This I can't recall completely so correct me if I'm wrong, but it looks like they moved the queue split from one line to 2 that used to take place at the top of the downramp (to loading area) down to halfway down the first ramp, which doesn't make sense now since you have people running into the handrail who aren't seeing it and a cast member screaming to people to use both lines from even further away than before. Not sure the reasoning behind this.
-This one was sort of baffling. Once the train left the loading area, in the cave portion to the bottom of the first lift hill there was a hole in the wall on the left that provided a clearly lit view into what looked like a backstage maintenance area.
-At the end of the ride after the dino skeleton all the geysers were turned off. I almost always see them working so guessing it'll be a quick fix. There were small hisses of mist like it was trying to work but no actual geysers.
-And lastly to finish on good news. The exit geysers were working great! First time I've seen them in person since the recent refurb and they are huge!! So glad to see them working after being down for what? 5 years? Took a short video and posted on Youtube.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pirates - Generally impressed with the ride thru today, more than usual.
-Starting just after the load area and before the caves, the "Ship in the distance" effect on the right has really nice moving cloud projections which are either recent or easier to notice than before.
-Waterfall projection is still Blackbeard however.. still waiting for the "limited engagement" to finish
(As posted on Disney Parks Blog 5/6/2011 - "Look for Blackbeard soon in this classic attraction, and the return of Davy Jones later this year." Lol!)
-At the "Skeleton Captain at the Wheel" scene, noticed when the strobes were going off you can no longer see it thru holes in the rockwork as before. Hopefully this was fixed!
-In the "Wicked Wench" battle, one of the cannons blasted air right at the side of my head which was awesome! I've heard of it doing this before but haven't had it happen in a while. Glad I took my sunglasses off my head moments before just in case
-The cloud projections on the ceiling, something I always look for going into the Burning Town scene, were turned off. Usually see this working so maybe a small downtime.
-The Hat Pirate was working good (though with slightly fewer hats than he used to have)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Splash Mt - Better condition than before but still a few show issues.
-Finale Scene looking much better than the show quality disaster that was reported before. All animatronics working save for one goose to the left of the ship that was hunched over on a log like he had a stomachache, lol! Oddly enough his eyes were still blinking.
-Also another show issue at the end where Brer Fox is getting his tail chomped by Brer Gator, right underneath these two AAs there's a black curtain that hides a backstage hallway that today was brightly lit and partially visible from the ride. Hoping this gets covered better.
-The outside splash cannon, the big one that soaks people on the bridge, also wasn't working, but the exterior waterfall that soaks logs on the ride after the drop is back to being a real waterfall instead of the trickle they've had before.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Big Thunder - Could use more show fixes
-Upper queue and lower loading area still pretty warm, not sure where the newly-installed AC was :I ?
-There were many places in the loading area where water was dripping down on the trains and platform from the ceiling after a recent rainstorm. Unloading platform on the right side had a trash can under one leak and CM standing next to telling people to watch your step.
-This I can't recall completely so correct me if I'm wrong, but it looks like they moved the queue split from one line to 2 that used to take place at the top of the downramp (to loading area) down to halfway down the first ramp, which doesn't make sense now since you have people running into the handrail who aren't seeing it and a cast member screaming to people to use both lines from even further away than before. Not sure the reasoning behind this.
-This one was sort of baffling. Once the train left the loading area, in the cave portion to the bottom of the first lift hill there was a hole in the wall on the left that provided a clearly lit view into what looked like a backstage maintenance area.
-At the end of the ride after the dino skeleton all the geysers were turned off. I almost always see them working so guessing it'll be a quick fix. There were small hisses of mist like it was trying to work but no actual geysers.
-And lastly to finish on good news. The exit geysers were working great! First time I've seen them in person since the recent refurb and they are huge!! So glad to see them working after being down for what? 5 years? Took a short video and posted on Youtube.
