The Spirited Seventh Heaven ...

[bhg469]

which makes it worse because it was people with insider info telling HTF ....Personally i dont care what people say about the ride i ll have my own opinion next summer but it seems the land has lived up to the hype but the E ticket has not...not that its not a great ride

Again, the hype I've heard constantly was about Diagon and not really about the ride. It was all about the dragon, the buildings and the themeing.

The ride was anticipated but not nearly as much as the alley itself.

That part seems to have exceeded most people's expectations. I'm ok with that since new fantasy land was exaggerated by people here. It looks nice but the layout is just a bad misuse of space.

 

[twebber55]

Again, the hype I've heard constantly was about Diagon and not really about the ride. It was all about the dragon, the buildings and the themeing.

The ride was anticipated but not nearly as much as the alley itself.

That part seems to have exceeded most people's expectations. I'm ok with that since new fantasy land was exaggerated by people here. It looks nice but the layout is just a bad misuse of space.

again i guess will agree to disagree..the ride was hyped quite a bit and im sure its a great ride...regardless i cant wait to experience it
in terms of New fantasyland (which i visited back in June) i would call it nice, nothing more

 

[misterID]

Not when Gringotts was continually hyped as the second coming for 2+ years.

Eh, this feels a little ticky tac and a whole lot over-exaggerated. The entire land was hyped, including the Hogwarts Express, and it far surpassed the hype in that regard. The ride itself was supposed to be something special, and if you look at it, when you've created such lofty standards, set the bar so high, create these kinds of expectations based on how over the top awesome your new attractions have been on a consistent basis, that's actually pretty cool that an attraction like Gringotts is considered not meeting the expectations in awesomeness... when said ride would be making people go googley eyed had it ended up in DHS, EPCOT and MK.

If that was a disappointment then I can't wait to see how they rebound (pssst: they're planning more rides to be their next big thing...)

 

[bhg469]

Eh, this feels a little ticky tac and a whole lot over-exaggerated. The entire land was hyped, including the Hogwarts Express, and it far surpassed the hype in that regard. The ride itself was supposed to something special, and if you look at it, when you've created such lofty standards, set the bar so high, create these kinds of expectations based on how over top awesome your new attractions have been on a consistent basis, that's actually pretty cool that an attraction like Gringotts is considered not meeting the expectations in awesomeness... when said ride would be making people go googley eyed had it ended up in DHS, EPCOT and MK.

If that was a disappointment then I can't wait to see how they rebound (pssst: they're planning more rides to be their next big thing...)

My big point is the queue. What is the last ride that had that much work put into the queue...

Disney had everest which to me, felt like kali and kilimanjaro to the next level.

Nothing in Disney's mew construction comes close to forbidden journey and gringotts.

The jaw dropping queue is a lost art as far as we is concerned.

 

[Goofyernmost]

We still have unused days on my 10 day no expiration park hoppers that we bought several years ago, so park admission is already covered for us, but I still would not consider purchasing any of these "upgrades". ButI agree there are a lot of people who have been simply priced out of Disney period. I can't help but think that someday soon these policies are going to bite them in the butt.

I generally agree with your statement, but, I think that someplace along the line we have to ask ourselves how many people were priced out back when it was only a $35.00 admission. I had to save for years to get there. All things are relative and if we, as individuals, were unable to keep up with all of the prices in our lives raising around us, we get priced out. Is it fate? Is it opportunity? Doesn't matter, it happens. It happened then and it continues to happen. We cannot look at it on a personal level. Just because we could afford to go back then and can't now or even if we couldn't afford it at any time. Has nothing really to do with the stated generalizations. They are based on realities not on our personal experience.

Personally, I don't think that, per capita, there are anymore people priced out now then back in the golden days. Now people that are willing to pay enormously high rates for hotels, meals, etc. have probably help price some people out. We create the situation because whether we have blue sky, red ocean or see-through undies types of business philosophy's we are still, in the end, going to be victims of supply and demand.

 

[doctornick]

My big point is the queue. What is the last ride that had that much work put into the queue...

Not for nothing, but we always hear about how Mermaid in MK has a beautiful, elaborate queue (out of proportion to the ride quality). It's certainly different that the high quality theming of the bank room at Gringott's with AAs, but I would argue that Mermaid had a lot of work in its queue.

 

[twebber55]

Not for nothing, but we always hear about how Mermaid in MK has a beautiful, elaborate queue (out of proportion to the ride quality). It's certainly different that the high quality theming of the bank room at Gringott's with AAs, but I would argue that Mermaid had a lot of work in its queue.

yep..when your queue is better than the ride you may want to redefine your priorities

 

[doctornick]

again i guess will agree to disagree..the ride was hyped quite a bit and im sure its a great ride...regardless i cant wait to experience it

Yes, I think that Gringott's -- the ride itself -- had been hyped considerably on the internet including on these pages. I had the distinct impression that it was going to be another game changer, a step beyond FJ. And, it's a very nice ride, but not IMHO groundbreaking compared to anything else at Uni. It's just sort of a merger of Spider-Man/Tranformers with Revenge of the Mummy. After going on it once (we waited about 60 min during the early admission time), I didn't have much of a desire to go on again when similar in quality rides coudl be experienced with much shorter waits.

Also regarding the queue, the majority of the time we spend waiting was in basic switchbacks that was covered but outdoors. There were some nice posters there for mild theming. The highly decorated bank and indoor areas is only the end of the queue which you probably only get to experience the last 20 min or so of waiting.(Contrast to FJ where the queue through the castle is much longer and has more details to enjoy)

 

[Mike S]

Just got off Jurassic Park and Forbidden Journey. The Dino AA's are looking rough, especially the Raptors whose heads were stuck off to the side. First time I saw the Dementor face projections on FJ in a long time, the sound however was clearly broken. Hope both rides receive attention.
Edit: The screens that depict the floo network at the beginning and end of the ride also look like they need a good fix up.

 

[BrianLo]

I'm sitting on the floor of Gringotts as we speak... It's a nice place to hang out at least when the ride inevitably went down.

 

[Mike S]

I'm sitting on the floor of Gringotts as we speak... It's a nice place to hang out at least when the ride inevitably went down.

I'm on the Express right now heading to London.

 

[FigmentJedi]

Speaking of which...
http://thkpr.gs/1tOOFRx

There's some arguments she might have staged the creepy threatening tweets.

Real or fake, it's horribly wrong whether it's the whole Zoe Quinn/Game Journalism internet war getting out of hand or Sarkeesian trying to take advantage of it for attention and Patreon money even though she raised 150,000 on Kickstarter for her videos which have been released on a very sporadic schedule and use game footage stolen from various YouTube LetsPlays.

 

[ParentsOf4]

I generally agree with your statement, but, I think that someplace along the line we have to ask ourselves how many people were priced out back when it was only a $35.00 admission. I had to save for years to get there.

Time for me to trot out my favorite comparison ...

Even as a poor student, I was able to afford a WDW vacation back in the day.

In 1974, WDW did not sell 4-day tickets. However, a 2-day ticket with 17 Adventure Book cost $14.25 (with tax). Minimum wage was $2.00/hour so that’s about 7 hours of work for a 2-day ticket, or the equivalent of about 14 hours of work for 4 days.

In 1984, a 4-day WDW ticket with park hopping was $52 (with tax). Minimum wage was $3.35/hour so that’s about 16 hours of work.

In 1994, a 4-day WDW ticket with park hopping was about $143 (with tax). Minimum wage was $4.25/hour so that’s about 34 hours of work.

In 2004, a 4-day WDW ticket with park hopping was about $233 (with tax). Minimum wage was $5.15/hour so that’s about 45 hours of work.

In 2014, a 4-day WDW ticket with park hopping is about $377 (with tax). Minimum wage is $7.25/hour so that’s about 52 hours of work.

WDW never was cheap but Disney increasingly has been pricing its customers out of the market.

 

[Hula Popper]

When I was growing up, my family didn't have enough $ to travel down and enjoy WDW. My first trip was a week off from work during a summer college break. My GF and I got the cheapest tickets possible through some discount thing, drove 14 or something hours down there rather than flying, stayed in an off-site Quality Inn we had booked months earlier for $29/night, had cereal in our room for breakfast, brought PB&J or ham/cheese sandwiches for lunch, and had sandwiches or made stuff like mac & cheese for dinner, and had an absolutely amazing time.

 

[misterID]

I just want to say that Gringotts is a really cool ride, and it's an incredible addition for USR, and would be for any park. There was just no way it could live up to the hype it was getting, and in defence of the hype machine, things were changing and being cut from the ride considerably over time as well... I believe it even led to a bit of a public meltdown of one of it's creators... Anyway, I think it's a great ride, it's nice to see one of the resorts actually show up in an "arms race." I would have loved to have seen the ride tech on an Avengers attraction.

 

[bhg469]

Not for nothing, but we always hear about how Mermaid in MK has a beautiful, elaborate queue (out of proportion to the ride quality). It's certainly different that the high quality theming of the bank room at Gringott's with AAs, but I would argue that Mermaid had a lot of work in its queue.

That was the only ride we used a fp+ on so admittedly I can't speak for it. I'll have to retract that part of my statement.

 

[bhg469]

Time for me to trot out my favorite comparison ...

Even as a poor student, I was able to afford a WDW vacation back in the day.

In 1974, WDW did not sell 4-day tickets. However, a 2-day ticket with 17 Adventure Book cost $14.25 (with tax). Minimum wage was $2.00/hour so that’s about 7 hours of work for a 2-day ticket, or the equivalent of about 14 hours of work for a 4 days.

In 1984, a 4-day WDW ticket with park hopping was $52 (with tax). Minimum wage was $3.35/hour so that’s about 16 hours of work.

In 1994, a 4-day WDW ticket with park hopping was about $143 (with tax). Minimum wage was $4.25/hour so that’s about 34 hours of work.

In 2004, a 4-day WDW ticket with park hopping was about $233 (with tax). Minimum wage was $5.15/hour so that’s about 45 hours of work.

In 2014, a 4-day WDW ticket with park hopping is about $377 (with tax). Minimum wage is $7.25/hour so that’s about 52 hours of work.

WDW never was cheap but, Disney increasingly has been pricing its customers out of the market.

@ParentsOf4 someday I'd like to shake your hand.

 

[flynnibus]

I have zero interest in Game of Thrones ... it seems like I'm almost always tripping over that little dude at industry events

You should... it's a really great drama that only suffers from two flaws
1) You must binge watch... not enough is exposed in 1hr blocks
2) You'll love the books even more

You don't seem like a book reader type.. but I would highly recommend it.

The TV show is not just 'another LOTR' - its far more focused as a drama piece (they don't even show the majority of the fights in the early seasons) and one that is highly addicting.

 

[the.dreamfinder]

There's some arguments she might have staged the creepy threatening tweets.

Real or fake, it's horribly wrong whether it's the whole Zoe Quinn/Game Journalism internet war getting out of hand or Sarkeesian trying to take advantage of it for attention and Patreon money even though she raised 150,000 on Kickstarter for her videos which have been released on a very sporadic schedule and use game footage stolen from various YouTube LetsPlays.

She can take footage from LetsPlays with attribution under fair use.

 

[Mike S]

Gringotts: Broken.
Soft serve ice cream machine: Broken. No ButterBeer flavor for me

@BrianLo you still in line or did you exit already?

Edit: false alarm. I heard the people at the ice cream shop saying the machine was broken but I was able to get it from the fountain of fair fortune next door. Eating it now