What is this? A theme park for ants?!?
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The Miscellaneous Thought Thread
- Thread starter mickEblu
- Start date
What is this? A theme park for ants?!?
PiratesMansion
Well-Known Member
The internet has failed me in that there does not appear to be a single excellent video of the entire Haunted Mansion experience (defined by me as from entering the front door of the house to exiting the doom buggy) for either Magic Kingdom or Tokyo Disneyland, despite the fact that both versions of the attraction are overall superior (IMO) to the Disneyland version. This fascinates me.
On one hand, some blame can be placed on operational policies:
-WDW rushes everyone through the pre-ride portion, so it's harder than one would expect to find a video where the person filming is in the foyer before the spiel starts, or isn't just shoved into the stretching room. Also, for reasons that are unclear to me, footage of the WDW stretching room often comes across as somewhat blurred, which doesn't appear to happen for DL or TDL, and I have no explanation for it. Any super nerds out there have any possible reasons for that persistent blur in WDW POVs, regardless of who is filming or how recent the video is?
-Tokyo, on the other hand, runs the timing of everything properly, but is (the only resort worldwide that is) super strict on filming on ride or filming indoor attractions or queuing areas, and of course all of the pre-DB portions have CMs. And since it's Tokyo, they are politely aggressive about any and all rule breaking.
There's also the (mistaken, IMO) belief by many people (including a lot of the prominent Disney YouTubers) that the attraction experience doesn't really begin until you board the Doom Buggy and that the stretching room, etc. is just a preshow, which doesn't help things, because according to the internet, all preshows suck and are therefore excluded from POVs.
By contrast, it's not at all hard to find entering-house-through-exiting-doom-buggies videos of HM at DL or Phantom Manor that are of good quality. Maybe the "extra hallway" that you experience on foot really does elevate the pre-ride portion in people's minds?
Does it matter at the end of the day? Probably not. It just strikes me as extraordinarily odd.
On one hand, some blame can be placed on operational policies:
-WDW rushes everyone through the pre-ride portion, so it's harder than one would expect to find a video where the person filming is in the foyer before the spiel starts, or isn't just shoved into the stretching room. Also, for reasons that are unclear to me, footage of the WDW stretching room often comes across as somewhat blurred, which doesn't appear to happen for DL or TDL, and I have no explanation for it. Any super nerds out there have any possible reasons for that persistent blur in WDW POVs, regardless of who is filming or how recent the video is?
-Tokyo, on the other hand, runs the timing of everything properly, but is (the only resort worldwide that is) super strict on filming on ride or filming indoor attractions or queuing areas, and of course all of the pre-DB portions have CMs. And since it's Tokyo, they are politely aggressive about any and all rule breaking.
There's also the (mistaken, IMO) belief by many people (including a lot of the prominent Disney YouTubers) that the attraction experience doesn't really begin until you board the Doom Buggy and that the stretching room, etc. is just a preshow, which doesn't help things, because according to the internet, all preshows suck and are therefore excluded from POVs.
By contrast, it's not at all hard to find entering-house-through-exiting-doom-buggies videos of HM at DL or Phantom Manor that are of good quality. Maybe the "extra hallway" that you experience on foot really does elevate the pre-ride portion in people's minds?
Does it matter at the end of the day? Probably not. It just strikes me as extraordinarily odd.
1HAPPYGHOSTHOST
Well-Known Member
The videos you seek are out there. Try looking up : ATTRACTIONS 360 on youtube. or THEME PARK WORLDWIDE
Animaniac93-98
Well-Known Member
Disney Irish
Premium Member
Unless some SoCal nut brings their "Comfort Croc" into the park.
Hey you leave Lyle out of this...
PiratesMansion
Well-Known Member
Attractions 360 normally delivers, but alas, they are one of the many who start their POVs at the Doom Buggies. ALWAYS.
In the TPW video, they enter the mansion, it focuses on the foyer portrait for five seconds, no foyer spiel is given, and then it goes immediately into the stretching room, where it is again blurry.
I refuse to believe the internet cannot do better.
it can and it does. @George Lucas on a Bench includes nudity and Titanic references in his Haunted Mansion videos.
Practical Pig
Well-Known Member
Tonight we ordered a calzone from our neighborhood "pizza and more" place. When it arrived, it wasn't the one we ordered. It was a vegetarian's order. Mind you, we liked their selection, but I'm sorry they probably received the chicken, bacon, onion, yellow bell pepper and spinach that we'd wanted.
1HAPPYGHOSTHOST
Well-Known Member
The videos are out there. try some of the other vloggers like fresh baked or justin scarred, etc. even though i cant stand them some of their ride work is good. another good one is ATTRACTIONS MAGAZINE
PiratesMansion
Well-Known Member
Believe me, I've looked. If you've found one that meets my criteria, I would love for you to share it.
George Lucas on a Bench
Well-Known Member
That never happened.
I just checked and it said it’s temporarily closed on google. Anyway, it looks really nice. I’ve never been there. Have been to Race track across the street with my late grandfather many times though.
TROR
Well-Known Member
Google's a liar. I would definitely recommend a visit since there's not really much else to do. Here's a link to the ticket page just to prove they're open.
Los Angeles Arboretum Foundation
1328aa.blackbaudhosting.com
Awesome, thanks!
smooch
Well-Known Member
Exactly, the idea for a Star Wars Land was an amazing concept and I was so excited. I didn't get my hopes up in an unrealistic way, I was cautiously optimistic, but the reception has been so lackluster. I haven't been personally so I will not speak as if I have, but the main things that bother me are the bland, dull color scheme of the land, the lack of activities in the land that you don't have to pay $100-200 minimum for, the lack of walkaround characters such as aliens and droids which make Star Wars so aesthetically special, and the whole idea of a single IP land in Disneyland.
That being said, I think Pandora has had a better reception in general because of a few reasons, one being that I think people didn't know what to expect for an Avatar land and thus didn't get their hopes up. Avatar isn't nearly as popular of a franchise as Star Wars, so the fact that they didn't have huge expectations coming in helped. I also believe the fact that Pandora opened with it's E-Ticket attraction that doesn't have capacity / reliability issues is also very important. Sure, Avatar suffers from the same lack of walkaround characters because it would be tough to make a costume in the correct proportions of an Avatar, and I will say Star Wars at least has more of a reason for people to buy the merchandise than anything at Pandora, but that's still extra money you would need to spend. Neither parks really have much going on in terms of experiences outside of rides or paying, but Pandora at least has a ride that if you want to ride that day you can get on the ride. You don't need a boarding pass and you don't have to hope the ride won't break down for an extended period of time. Also, Pandora is incredibly beautiful. The area was incredible to walk around and explore, the floating islands are absolutely gorgeous in person, and it had a really natural feel to the whole area.
Despite the fact that I think Avatar is a better land than Galaxy's Edge seems to be (I can only assume due to reviews from others, as well as photos / videos online) I don't think Avatar would work as well in Disneyland. The first problem I would anticipate is how they would block the massive floating islands from the rest of the park. I know it's forced perspective so I'm not sure how tall the structure actually is, but I don't see how they could as easily hide them from other points of the park. Even without that problem, as others have said, Star Wars has a much better standing with the public perception of the brand and thus it isn't as big of a problem when the single IP land they chose to build was based off such a well received IP that has already been in the parks for years. Like in the episode of The Imagineering Story when Tony Baxter was talking about creating Star Tours, it held the same esteem as Disneyland at the time. The argument about if the sequels will harm that perception long term could also come into play in terms of the land, and that is why I have such a huge problem with them designing the land to specifically take place during the canon of the sequel trilogy and they can't have walkaround characters of Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, Han Solo (young or old), etc. or any rides based off the originals or the prequels.
I would have much preferred to either expand Frontierland or create another land that wasn't tied to a single IP to fit the rest of the park, but we're stuck with what we have. And even if it was between Galaxy's Edge or Pandora, while I do think Pandora is a much better land I don't see how it would fit in Disneyland. Well, I guess I don't see how Galaxy's Edge fits in either, so I'm really not sure.
BrianLo
Well-Known Member
Only minor quibble. Flight of Passage actually has a worse capacity and was plagued with reliability issues. Generally speaking because of the nature of the four theatres, three of them could be down and the attraction still 'open' with a capacity of like 300pph. But through the course of the day it was extremely unreliable.
I personally like both quite a bit. No doubt Pandora is way prettier, certainly befitting of Animal Kingdom. There is more to do in Galaxie's Edge and Millennium Falcon is a better attraction than River Journey. Pandora's retail is very mediocre, but I think their quick serve is better than Docking Bay.
But as you mentioned the poor reception can almost be entirely linked to not opening with its main attraction - Plus the entertainment and characters. Also the link of the only attraction that did open into Lucasfilms really only out and out flop (Solo). All of which should have been fairly repairable.
There really wasn't enough latency prior to COVID to demonstrate this in Anaheim, but Galaxies Edge seemed to have the bigger Edge in Florida. Ever since RoTR, even compared to Pandora there.