See, I don't mind him in either spot, I just prefer that he doesn't have his back to us. Even if he was sideways to the ride path, guests could at least see his face. He's not actually supposed to be hawking his papers to the riders, he's just there doing his job and we're silent observers, like you're bringing up.
I said the same thing...no Rome road lights or additional animation...
The Rome animation of the chariot hasn't worked for quite awhile as far as I can tell. I remember they worked, I think, before the last refurb and now no longer work.
Best thread for the best ride in all the parks (IMO)
There is a difference between no longer works and is no longer there. That later is what we have. I think that with the change in the scene it was no longer thought to be important. It was nothing more then a projection on the wall anyway.
I believe that and the harbour animations were deactivated in 07.
They should still be there, just turned off.
I have ridden it twice (with a couple of weeks between rides) since early last month and both times the video was not receiving photos. It just defaulted to generic cartoon faces (which is what occurs when a car is empty). This also included the large screen as you exit the ride. The steam in the press room has also been missing a few times. While not exactly broken, the video of the mammoth hunt could also use some work, bit fuzzy and dull. And last week the first animatronic in the cave painting scene was frozen and contorted in an awkward position. That is however the first time I have ever seen a broken AA on this ride. I notified a cast member exiting the ride of this particular figure because broken AA's are past my threshold of tolerance for show issues (seemed eager to want to fix it but who knows?). The ride has generally been kept in decent condition otherwise though, i'd like for this one at least to maintain that level of upkeep. I only just recently first saw these issues. Again besides the air conditioning being so poor, which is something that has affected other areas of the parks as well.
The entire ride had a communication theme up until 2007. The original sponsors were Bell Systems and later AT&T and they only dropped the communication concept when the sponsor changed to Siemens in 07. Most scenes are largely the same travelling up the ball, though the narration was changed in 07 to drop the communications theme and adopt a more general world history retelling. The big changes start right before you get to the top, at the scene with the vintage "tape" computers lining the walls. That scene along with the garage scene following are completely different ones from prior versions of the ride.
I know! I was *so* shocked when Marni told me this ride had air conditioning already. LOL.
I don't see why we need to blame anybody. It's still a great attraction, personally I like the screens in the vehicles. I never was a great fan of the descent before and I'm not overly excited about it now. It doesn't matter why it ended up the way it did, but, it seem to me to make sense that if you are going to provide a show via vehicle screens that having anything else there to distract your attention would be counter productive. If you talk about cost, Do you suppose that all the hundred and some odd vehicles retrofitted with computer screens just fell from heaven and landed in front of the seats. I would think that the cost of that was enough to choke a horse. I'm sure, at one point, they considered different endings for the ride, but, for whatever reason this is what they decided to spend their money on. I don't know about the rest of you, but, I fully intend to enjoy what is there and not obsess over what I think should be there.
Glad you enjoy the descent now and I agree that it must have cost a ton o' money and isn't going away anytime soon. We've had a few laughs over the cartoon Plan Your Future thing during descent, but what I dislike is having my attention directed at a small screen. I would rather be looking at a cool effect around me, rather than a little video screen.
I think that many of us, that saw it before probably feel the same way, however, it is still fun to do and keeps your mind off the fact that you are falling over backwards off a cliff. It's just that others seem to remember the descent as some great work of art, whereas, I was never all that impressed with it. Yes, there were a couple of scenes, a few shadow box type displays, and mostly "screens" the very thing that seems to be awful now, but, other then that, to me, not much to write home about. I feel that we all remember things better then what they actually were. I'm just glad they were able to find a sponsor to invest in it, otherwise, we would be seeing the same thing we saw 20 years ago. It was a good upgrade, different yes, but, not all that bad.Glad you enjoy the descent now and I agree that it must have cost a ton o' money and isn't going away anytime soon. We've had a few laughs over the cartoon Plan Your Future thing during descent, but what I dislike is having my attention directed at a small screen. I would rather be looking at a cool effect around me, rather than a little video screen.
