UNCgolf, you’re entitled to your opinion but you are in a minority. Amusement Parks (a precursor to theme parks) were created because the public loved motion changes. People loved them so much they were willing to pay to experience it. Motion is very much a core theme park experience to this day because of it. It will always be.
If the way a ride FEELS doesn't matter to you, an at-home POV and on-ride experience should be synonymous. You can watch 360 POVs and strap on a VR headset and that would deliver an identical level of satisfaction.You're right, I haven't been on it -- and that's completely irrelevant because I don't really care about motion. It's why I find roller coasters mostly a waste of time unless they have a significant story aspect, like Revenge of the Mummy.
The way a ride FEELS doesn't matter to me. I don't judge it on that basis.
You and others are setting up an arbitrary scale based on what you like and telling me I'm wrong for not enjoying attractions the same way you do. Shanghai Pirates is less interesting to me than Florida Pirates; riding it would make no difference to my complaints about the attraction. It still involves watching things happen on a screen in front of you.
Is it so important to have your opinions validated that you simply cannot accept that someone looks for something different in an attraction than you do?
I'm not a fan of screen based rides either, grongotts was a major disappointment imo. I like soaring amd pandora ride though.
I think Gringotts is one of the biggest blunders in recent theme park years, alongside Fast and Furious, due to its parking in front of screens, failure to set expectations properly, ride's substance primarily delivered through screens, and lack of excitement.Amusement parks and theme parks are different things. Amusement parks rely almost completely on motion (Six Flags, e.g.); in theme parks it's only part of the experience and doesn't have to be the main driver. It's why rides like Spaceship Earth and Haunted Mansion are still among the best attractions anyone has ever built.
Regardless, I know it's a minority opinion. Why does that matter? I've repeatedly pointed out that other people can feel differently; I'm not the one acting personally insulted about other people's opinion of an attraction.
For one last time, it's completely fine to think Shanghai Pirates is the best ride on the planet! I have never suggested otherwise -- I haven't even said it was a bad ride! It's crazy that people are acting like my personal opinion and preference in theme park attractions is objectively wrong and a personal affront to them, though.
If the way a ride FEELS doesn't matter to you, an at-home POV and on-ride experience should be synonymous. You can watch 360 POVs and strap on a VR headset and that would deliver an identical level of satisfaction.
It's not that you don't like a ride you've never been on that bothers me. It's that your complaints regarding the ride are invalid.
Tron's issues are its unthemed show building, short length, modest capacity, the extreme cost for what you get, unfriendly restraint system (the back rows of the vehicles are accommodating, so not a huge issue), lack of animatronics, lack of storytelling depth, placement in Magic Kingdom, it slows to a crawl entering the show building, and some other complaints you could conjure up. All those are valid complaints.
Arguing that stuff that doesn't exist or happen is a waste of time. Saying Tron's loops are uncomfortable (it doesn't have loops), its show scenes are bad (it doesn't have show scenes), its animatronics look cheap (it doesn't have animatronics), or its preshow is annoying (it doesn't have a preshow) is silly. If you dislike Tron, dislike it for valid reasons.
You're arguing Shanghai POTC is the worst in the world because it stops in front of screens (it doesn't), the primary conflicts of the ride occur on screens (they don't), and screens dominate the ride (they don't).
Shanghai Pirates has far more elaborate, detailed, and grander scenes than any other POTC iteration. Its quantity of enormous scenes may be less, but individually, they win out. However, Shanghai POTC lacks the number of animatronics as the other iterations, so that would easily be a valid complaint.
I'm not trying to gatekeep judgment or opinions on Shanghai POTC, but if you have issues with it, have them be real. We could talk endlessly about Shanghai POTC or Tron (as the last 710 pages of this thread have showcased), but keep the discussions based in reality; there's plenty to discuss without venturing into fairyland.
You haven't even been on it and are criticizing aspects of the ride that it doesn't objectively have a problem with. It's not using screens to be cheaper like Gringotts or Ratatouille; unlike them, it also never parks in front of them. Besides the Jack Sparrow Davy Jones swordfight scene, there isn't one scene that feels like a cop-out. Every other time, screens are used to enhance scenes. The dozens of screens aren't at all what you're arguing they are.
I'm sure Shanghai Pirates is a fun ride. And I love a lot of attractions that have screen - Rat, Soarin, etc.
I much prefer animatronics to screen-based rides and that's just a fact for me when it comes to Pirates. I don't want high tech, latest/greatest. I want a hairy leg swinging at me as I float under it. And a drunk man singing with a pig. Sadly, I'd like no reference to the movies at all if I could have it my way.
I wouldn't call Shanghai Pirates a screen-based ride; certainly not compared to something like Flight of Passage or even Gringotts. There are a couple of places where it uses screens to its detriment IMO, but the ride has plenty of physical pieces and even has AAs -- it's quite impressive overall. It's just not perfect.
Are you arguing with me about my opinion?
I prefer my Pirates ride without screens for the reasons I stated and I think Shanghai is more about the Pirate movies than the original ride is. Doesn't have the charm in my opinion. I wish they never even added Jack Sparrow to the original rides.
No big deal. Just my preference. No I haven't been on it (just watched and quite frankly, saw a lot of screen use), but if we aren't allowed to make assumptions about rides we haven't gone on, then someone better go close that Tiana thread....(and most of this one).
I think Florida's Pirates is better than the Shanghai version.
The Shanghai version is neat and the ride system is really cool, but there's too much watching a video on a screen in front of you. It does a good job incorporating physical effects with the video, but it's just not as impressive/immersive as being in a space full of physical sets, AAs, etc.
Yes, I do. It's your opinion if you like something or not. However, not all opinions are created equally because they could be based on misconstrued facts. It's your opinion, I can't force you to change that, but it doesn't mean you aren't either misinformed or that you aren't looking at the objective aspects to get to your opinion.
Let's go over some facts, shall we?
Scenes without any screens at all (not counting minor projections):
View attachment 685405
View attachment 685391
View attachment 685392
View attachment 685395
What exactly are the screens you have a problem with then? Are these the screens that are a problem to you, the supplementary ones like Na'vi River Journey? Mind you, the ride vehicle NEVER parks in-front of any screen.
Supplementary screens to scenes:
View attachment 685404
View attachment 685406
There are only two 'exclusively screen' scenes versus the half dozen or more on the much shorter Ratatouille and Gringotts with much less time spent in them on Shanghai's Pirates. The waterfall-esque thing is a projection before the first screen of you going underwater. The first 'screen' finds us underneath the ocean approaching Davy Jones' Locker.
It's worth noting that the scene that follows is an equally mind-blowing physical set with the Flying Dutchman at the bottom of the ocean:
View attachment 685401
The second exclusively-screen scene has the vehicle rising to the surface for the physical set pirate ship battle scene (notice how you can't even tell where the water begins and ends? It literally looks like that at times in-person):
To understand why fears about 'screens' on this ride are overblown, these two scenes clock in at a combined ~58 seconds of a 540-second-long ride. While this is subjective, in my opinion, having ridden it, neither scene takes you out of the ride, but actually, enhance the experience. I don't think a non-IMAX screen would be more effective which is why I don't view it as a cop-out. What isn't subjective is that there's only two of them:
View attachment 685402
Both of these scenes have this eerie realness to them in-person, similar to the screens in Rise's Cannon room. There is depth to them and are very convincing in what they set out to do. Given that you are moving sideways the entire time, it never feels like a simulator or screen-based ride like Gringotts during the two brief scenes (especially compared to the ride's length). Both of these transitional scenes are followed by MASSIVE set pieces that last longer.
Frankly, I don't think these transitional scenes would be improved by making them set-based, that is what's notable here. I genuinely believe, having been on it in person, it is the best execution for the story content it is handling. Mind-blowing doesn't even quite grasp those two 'screen' scenes either, I'm hard-pressed to find anyone that has been on it having a disdain for them. That is my opinion, and you can argue all day that one screen-only scene is too many, but you're acting like that's most of the ride when it's not even a quarter of it. That is what I'm talking about when I say 'objective' here.
If I'm counting right, there are 2 exclusively screen scenes, 1 screen-heavy scene (the screen I discuss next), and 8+ without screens at all or only supplementary ones.
No, I didn't 'admit your opinion' because it's a 20-second scene in a 540-second ride. Even if we assume the two transitional 'screen-based scenes' I already talked about are inherently bad (I don't think so), that amounts to less than 15% of the entire ride!
However, and exceptionally notable as it's unlike the other 2 screen-based scenes, this is the only scene on the entire ride where a screen was used in place of what sets could do, akin to Ratatouille, Mickey, Gringotts, FnF, or Kong. While it looks way better in person, as it's nowhere near as out-of-place as this YouTube POV makes it look, this is my single criticism of the entire 8-and-a-1/2-minute ride. A scene that lasts 20 seconds at most.
Add an additional 20 seconds to that previous 58 seconds of 'screenz' for the only scene that feels like a cop-out on the ride. By comparison, the transition screen-based underwater scenes, in my opinion, enhance the ride:
View attachment 685394
I'm not arguing that a classic-style Pirates is bad.
DLP's Pirates is literally one of my favorite rides of all time (Orlando's pales in comparison), alongside DLP's Phantom Manor, HKDL's Mystic Manor, TDS' Journey to the Center of the Earth, and Universal's Hagrid's. None have 'screenz'. Those rides can co-exist with rides like Shanghai's Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for the Sunken Treasure and Rise of the Resistance. They are all incredible in their own ways. My issue with your take on Shanghai's Pirates is that it actually has more in common with Rise of the Resistance than the rides with 'screenz' that you think of (like Gringotts).
Your perception of what this ride is like is inaccurate, NOT because my opinion is different than yours but because you are making Shanghai Pirates out to be something it's not exasperated by the fact, you're basing it exclusively on a POV. However, even then, you can still tell the objective metrics I have talked about. It's not remotely similar to screen-based rides like Gringotts for reasons I have already listed such as Shanghai's Pirates not being dominated by cop-outs for physical sets. Since you've said you're not opposed to all screens, I am hard-pressed to figure out what's so bad about this ride to you. I can see why you'd think that, before I rode it, I was concerned too about it being like Gringotts (a ride I'm merely lukewarm to), but I literally am laying out objective evidence to placate your concerns as they are unfounded.
If you don't like supplementary screens which this ride has a lot of, fine, that's your opinion, and I respect it, but this ride isn't objectively dominated by screens like Gringotts, and is more like a Na'vi River Journey meshed with Rise of the Resistance which is what you seem to be implying is bad about it.
For comparison:
This is just misinformed in so many ways.
I know this is a TRON thread, but there's always that occasional person in this thread that's like, "I'm so glad we got TRON and not that screen-based rip-off Pirates," so I think it's time to settle it.
TRON is fun, but infinitely inferior to another particular ride at Shanghai Disneyland.
Some are so against any projection technology, now labelled as "screens" (which I find reductive and dismissive to the many talented artists who work in projection design and technology),
How do you feel about calling Disney Transports "buses"?
Care to explain your issue Shanghai Pirates then? I literally quoted your posts. I don't really have much else to go off of.
Your original post ^^^ got a lot of attention even though it wasn't based in reality at all.
We…. Disagree GREATLY.
Edit to add: just read you haven’t ridden it. I can’t begin to tell you the experience that is pirates Shanghai.
And if you’re gonna pick a different version of pirates that’s better, you might not wanna go with the absolute worst one. Lol. Shows the favoritism for the home team.
Wow. There ar w some long a$$ answers in this thread debating about nonsense.
Can we move on to start a debate on when we think Tron opening will be announced (i got next week) and it will be April 1
Yes, I do. It's your opinion if you like something or not. However, not all opinions are created equally because they could be based on misconstrued facts. It's your opinion, I can't force you to change that, but it doesn't mean you aren't either misinformed or that you aren't looking at the objective aspects to get to your opinion.
Let's go over some facts, shall we?
Scenes without any screens at all (not counting minor projections):
View attachment 685405
View attachment 685391
View attachment 685392
View attachment 685395
What exactly are the screens you have a problem with then? Are these the screens that are a problem to you, the supplementary ones like Na'vi River Journey? Mind you, the ride vehicle NEVER parks in-front of any screen.
Supplementary screens to scenes:
View attachment 685404
View attachment 685406
There are only two 'exclusively screen' scenes versus the half dozen or more on the much shorter Ratatouille and Gringotts with much less time spent in them on Shanghai's Pirates. The waterfall-esque thing is a projection before the first screen of you going underwater. The first 'screen' finds us underneath the ocean approaching Davy Jones' Locker.
It's worth noting that the scene that follows is an equally mind-blowing physical set with the Flying Dutchman at the bottom of the ocean:
View attachment 685401
The second exclusively-screen scene has the vehicle rising to the surface for the physical set pirate ship battle scene (notice how you can't even tell where the water begins and ends? It literally looks like that at times in-person):
To understand why fears about 'screens' on this ride are overblown, these two scenes clock in at a combined ~58 seconds of a 540-second-long ride. While this is subjective, in my opinion, having ridden it, neither scene takes you out of the ride, but actually, enhance the experience. I don't think a non-IMAX screen would be more effective which is why I don't view it as a cop-out. What isn't subjective is that there's only two of them:
View attachment 685402
Both of these scenes have this eerie realness to them in-person, similar to the screens in Rise's Cannon room. There is depth to them and are very convincing in what they set out to do. Given that you are moving sideways the entire time, it never feels like a simulator or screen-based ride like Gringotts during the two brief scenes (especially compared to the ride's length). Both of these transitional scenes are followed by MASSIVE set pieces that last longer.
Frankly, I don't think these transitional scenes would be improved by making them set-based, that is what's notable here. I genuinely believe, having been on it in person, it is the best execution for the story content it is handling. Mind-blowing doesn't even quite grasp those two 'screen' scenes either, I'm hard-pressed to find anyone that has been on it having a disdain for them. That is my opinion, and you can argue all day that one screen-only scene is too many, but you're acting like that's most of the ride when it's not even a quarter of it. That is what I'm talking about when I say 'objective' here.
If I'm counting right, there are 2 exclusively screen scenes, 1 screen-heavy scene (the screen I discuss next), and 8+ without screens at all or only supplementary ones.
No, I didn't 'admit your opinion' because it's a 20-second scene in a 540-second ride. Even if we assume the two transitional 'screen-based scenes' I already talked about are inherently bad (I don't think so), that amounts to less than 15% of the entire ride!
However, and exceptionally notable as it's unlike the other 2 screen-based scenes, this is the only scene on the entire ride where a screen was used in place of what sets could do, akin to Ratatouille, Mickey, Gringotts, FnF, or Kong. While it looks way better in person, as it's nowhere near as out-of-place as this YouTube POV makes it look, this is my single criticism of the entire 8-and-a-1/2-minute ride. A scene that lasts 20 seconds at most.
Add an additional 20 seconds to that previous 58 seconds of 'screenz' for the only scene that feels like a cop-out on the ride. By comparison, the transition screen-based underwater scenes, in my opinion, enhance the ride:
View attachment 685394
I'm not arguing that a classic-style Pirates is bad.
DLP's Pirates is literally one of my favorite rides of all time (Orlando's pales in comparison), alongside DLP's Phantom Manor, HKDL's Mystic Manor, TDS' Journey to the Center of the Earth, and Universal's Hagrid's. None have 'screenz'. Those rides can co-exist with rides like Shanghai's Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for the Sunken Treasure and Rise of the Resistance. They are all incredible in their own ways. My issue with your take on Shanghai's Pirates is that it actually has more in common with Rise of the Resistance than the rides with 'screenz' that you think of (like Gringotts).
Your perception of what this ride is like is inaccurate, NOT because my opinion is different than yours but because you are making Shanghai Pirates out to be something it's not exasperated by the fact you're basing it exclusively on a POV. However, even then, you can still tell the objective metrics I have talked about. It's not remotely similar to screen-based rides like Gringotts for reasons I have already listed such as Shanghai's Pirates not being dominated by cop-outs for physical sets. Since you've said you're not opposed to all screens, I am hard-pressed to figure out what's so bad about this ride to you. I can see why you'd think that, before I rode it, I was concerned too about it being like Gringotts (a ride I'm merely lukewarm to), but I literally am laying out objective evidence to placate your concerns as they are unfounded.
If you don't like supplementary screens which this ride has a lot of, fine, that's your opinion, and I respect it, but this ride isn't objectively dominated by screens like Gringotts, and is more like a Na'vi River Journey meshed with Rise of the Resistance which is what you seem to be implying is bad about it even as you say you like those rides.
For comparison:
This is just misinformed in so many ways.
I know this is a TRON thread, but there's always that occasional person in this thread that's like, "I'm so glad we got TRON and not that screen-based rip-off Pirates," so I think it's time to settle it.
TRON is fun, but infinitely inferior to another particular ride at Shanghai Disneyland.
Register on WDWMAGIC. This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.