This is kinda random, but:
Does anyone know what happened to
@JediMasterMatt? I remember he used to share some really cool info in this thread and the DL thread. He hasn't posted regularly in quite a while, but he hasn't posted
at all since GE opened. I, for one, would be curious to hear his thoughts/opinions on GE's crowds, budget cuts, interactive effects, RotR, etc.
Yeah, whatever happened to that guy?
Answer - he was asked nicely to stop talking.
I'm still here. Just keeping my promises to my friends.
My thoughts are very much in line with what everyone else has shared. I've been to GE (both coasts) a few times. Been up to the destroyer once even (just the hanger bay unfortunately). It's a shame that things couldn't have worked out the way they should've been. A lot of what if scenario's would've made things better. What if the streetmosphere's budget hadn't been slashed? What if Alcatraz hadn't fallen behind? What if the attention that was pulled from Alcatraz to accelerate the opening of Batuu had been kept on task? What if the decision of leave the random ride profiles of the Falcon had been left in?
I certainly understand the majority of complaints. While the Falcon is an E-ticket in every sense, if you go back to my very first words about this attraction - I made the comparison to the Hogwarts Express experience. This was very, very intentional. To some, the Hogwarts Express is nothing more than a train with a screen on it that happens to take you to another park. For a fan of that universe, it is a fantastic case of wish fulfillment. This is very much the underlying issue with the Falcon, minus the delivery of being an actual source of transportation. Do I think the current state of the Falcon achieves the same level or immersion that the Hogwarts Express does - no. The bar to hit that is simply too high to achieve. The practicality of having a functioning theme park attraction that needs to serve thousands of guests per hour doesn't make it easy for a ship the size of the Falcon to accommodate everyone. Rampgate is the least of the concerns. With what limitations they had to work around, the execution of what was accomplished is still astonishing. I've been on the ride with people who have been on several of the actual Falcon sets and they were all still impressed by what the ride accomplishes. At the end of the day, it's still a motion simulator and that is the best way to accomplish the job; but, - it was never going to be the headliner that the land needs.
Rise will be.
When it opens, the tide should turn. It's going to be a great attraction; but, I am worried that some may not heed the caution about the "ride" part. My earliest words on this project was that it was going to blur the lines of "where does the attraction actually begin" and this is very, very true of Alcatraz. If you believe the Haunted Mansion starts the moment you enter the doors (which it does) and not the moment you enter the Doombuggies then you have the right frame of mind for how exceptional this attraction will be. I'm not one that believes that MK's Pirates queue compensates for the deficits of it's peers (it doesn't); but, if you are going into Rise with the thought the attraction is only the part in the troop transport - you are making a mistake. While the part in motion will be spectacular, to limit your mindset to just the last act of the experience is setting you up for disappointment as the entire experience needs to be viewed as a whole.
Much like Galaxy's Edge.
None of us, up until a very few select few that have been on RotR, have been able to experience the big picture yet. Even those aren't getting what was originally planned with the droids, beasts of burden, drones, etc.
Still, the picture will get a lot clearer in the next few days.
I can't wait to complete my journey when I head back down to Batuu for the opening.
*BTW - if they add background music in the land, it will make a lot of the problems go away. Potter lands without the underlying score would suffer the same penalty.
