The cynical side of me sees the Backlot Tour as some sort of twisted experiment. As in "How much of an attraction can we keep taking away until people stop riding it?"
There may come a point where all the tram does is go out to a peaceful scene of a truck in a canyon before heading back to the gift shop -- er, museum.
This ride has a special place in my heart because I got to be the boat captain (that gets 10,000 gallons of water dumped on him) during the opening sequence on my honeymoon in 1996. I was pretty disappointed that they don't have the audience participation anymore when I visited last year.
See, that actually makes it sound like you're doing exactly what you say you're not doing. Your criticism of the attraction is that it isn't what it once was. This is really irrelevant. The question is, how does it serve the current needs of the park.
It's still a ride (or has a ride component) in a park that has very few rides.
It is one of only 3 rides with no height restriction. (And one of those has prohibitively long lines.)
It adds capacity to the park.
It is arguably a worthwhile experience to newcomers.
See, there is only three rides with height restrictions as well.
6 total.
Compared to DCA, this is barely ONE LAND of the park.
They need to double the rides to 12. Kill a stunt show -- or two.
Of the two, I'd rather get something new. Touring a theme park that nominally served as a studio in decades past just isn't very appealing no matter what they do to spruce it up.
Yeah, of the many complaints about DCA, the attraction lineup isn't one of them. If DHS had an attraction lineup that matched DCA it would have a higher attendance than Epcot.
I'm not really a Universal fan, but their tram tour in Hollywood is worth the price of admission! The DHS tram tour is worth the price of a churro.
Those "hot sets" you used to go through - oh please, LOL, I used to love how they'd tell you "this courtroom is going to be in a major TV show this fall!" "Who's in it? What's it called? What network?" were questions they could never answer. The most egregious was the "amazing music video!" being filmed just as you happened to tram on by. They had a "director" out there, a crew, cameras, etc. - all actors. You'd drive by, they'd do a little "look we are working!" show, and then as you passed they'd reset the whole thing (you could look behind you and see). And you wonder why they could never tell you what artist was filming a video.
Does anyone know if the company plane used by Walt Disney to scout potential land for the Florida Project is still there?
The complaints about DCA circa the Spring of 2001 were often about the attraction lineup. But after a decade of gradual fixing and expansion, in 2011, the complaints about DCA center mainly around the abundance of construction walls. :lol:
And just less than a year from now DCA will have four additional rides to choose from, on top of the already strong roster it enjoys in 2011.
Why they have left DHS to struggle for 20 years with the paltry and short list of "rides" it has is beyond me. As for the studio tour, it was long but still a bit weak 20 years ago. And now it's just embarassing, especially for anyone who has ever enjoyed the 75+ minute GlamourTram tour at Universal Studios Hollywood. That tram tour, of which the DHS version is a very pale copy, is the end-all and be-all of working movie studios tram tours.
I'm not really a Universal fan, but their tram tour in Hollywood is worth the price of admission! The DHS tram tour is worth the price of a churro.
If they're going to keep the tour around, I wish they would at least still do something like this. It would be all part of the joke, just as the Jungle Cruise hasn't been a serious tour since its very early days. The Indy Stunt show has featured actors pretending to be a second unit film crew all these years, and nobody complains about that, despite the fact it makes no sense.
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