Who Has Been Picked to Ride During a Soft Opening?

zombiebbq

zombiebbq

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Have you ever been randomly (or maybe not so randomly) offered by CMs to ride an attraction for it's soft opening?

My family and I were back in March of 2006 for Expedition Everest. I was in my senior year of highschool and even though it was not *that* long ago I don't remember too much of the situation besides we happened to be walking by the not yet opened ride and a CM approached us asking if we wanted to ride a "brand new" coaster. I don't even think she really explained it hadn't opened yet but we literally walked on with less of a wait than a fast pass so that should have been a major clue. (Plus the no one else in line...at all) I honestly don't remember anyone in my family even fully realizing it was in soft opening? Back then I wasn't into Disney as much as I was today, if I had been I would have realized how special that was! And i can proudly say i got to see a brand new Yeti in full A mode!!

I'm assuming but again can't recall that we were asked after what we thought of the ride.
I look back and realize we were probably targeted because we were a family of 4 with one older teen and one younger teen, girl (me) and boy. A good test family for that kind of ride.

So what soft openings were you a part of?!
 
TwilightZone

TwilightZone

Well-Known Member
I was, but it was at california's great america, not wdw. The ride was the mass effect ride, and the seats did not move, which was a bummer. In case you don't know, the seats are supposed to move. I'm not entirely sure why they didn't work, because they worked fine when it was spongebob 3D, but my guess is they didn't work because, unlike spongebob, mass effect has randomized shows, and the seats are the same old seats from spongebob, so they would need quite a bit of programming.
 
zombiebbq

zombiebbq

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
TwilightZone said:
I was, but it was at california's great america, not wdw. The ride was the mass effect ride, and the seats did not move, which was a bummer. In case you don't know, the seats are supposed to move. I'm not entirely sure why they didn't work, because they worked fine when it was spongebob 3D, but my guess is they didn't work because, unlike spongebob, mass effect has randomized shows, and the seats are the same old seats from spongebob, so they would need quite a bit of programming.
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Could have been they were still "testing" it? Malfunction maybe? I don't know this ride (looking it up now).
 
J

jwieber

New Member
We were at Hollywood Studios a few days before Star Tours reopened and we saw the ride door open and walked on and into the then new version of Star Tours. The actor who played C3P0 was in the building and ultimately he was in the ship in the row behind us, when we got on and our son was picked as the Spy for that ride. Very memorable.
 
FettFan

FettFan

Well-Known Member
Chef Mickey said:
I was one of the first guests to ride Test Track before it officially opened.
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Likewise. May 1998. That was an amazing trip. Bugged my parents to buy me an art set from the Magic of Disney Animation......had charcoal pencils, colored pencils, markers, and a full set of pastels.



I loved that kit.


I miss the Magic of Disney Animation.
 
Chef Mickey

Chef Mickey

Well-Known Member
FettFan said:
Likewise. May 1998. That was an amazing trip. Bugged my parents to buy me an art set from the Magic of Disney Animation......had charcoal pencils, colored pencils, markers, and a full set of pastels.



I loved that kit.


I miss the Magic of Disney Animation.
Click to expand...
Remember it breaking all the time and taking hours to restart it?
 
Nemo14

Nemo14

Well-Known Member
We were at a MNSSHP before the new Fantasyland opened, and a couple of CM's loved our costumes so they took us through the door in the wall to see it all.
 
FettFan

FettFan

Well-Known Member
Chef Mickey said:
Remember it breaking all the time and taking hours to restart it?
Click to expand...

Strangely enough it didn't when we went on it. Luck of the draw I guess. Some of the effects were not working....all of the interior lights were on, so it looked even more like a warehouse than normal (which I thought was actually pretty cool and a bit more visually interesting than the low-light final version) the robot arms didn't move, the big rig's headlamps didn't flash nor did its horn sound, and the car crashing in the test bay was static....which I never even knew was supposed to do anything until I saw a YouTube video of it in action just last year.

When went back two days later, and it was completely closed with an empty car zooming around the track every once in a while.



Which brings me to the other part of what made that vacation so great.....we got a few more go-rounds on Horizons before its final closure.
 
T

thomas998

Well-Known Member
We have been on some soft openings along time ago, though more recently the ones that we've been near were exclusive to particular groups sometimes AP holders and sometimes at DL it was for Club 33 members only... I figured they decided go that route to make the APs and Club memberships seem more valuable. has probably been more than 10 years since we got in on a soft opening just because we were a regular visitor in the right place at the right time.
 
Damon7777

Damon7777

Well-Known Member
Disneyland '07: Nemo Subs

Brother and I were marveling and drooling at the sight of fresh subs circling the lagoon after years of inoperation post Submaine Voyage days when a cm approached us and started conversing.......after some exchanges she asked if we wanted to ride.
We said "no thanks, we have more important things to do like people watch and count how many Mickey balloons we see"

PSYCH!!!!
Damn straight we got our tails over to the entry real quick and dropped down those semi spiral stairs into a sub and grabbed a seat without delay.
 
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CTC

CTC

Member
At Universal Studios in the early 90's and a woman came by telling everyone that they were testing Back to the Future. At that time the park closed at 7pm. We waited on line and got into the ride at about 8pm. Never been on anything like that before in my life. It was pretty amazing.
 
The4mousekeeters

The4mousekeeters

Well-Known Member
We were there the day they soft opened the new Fantasyland in Magic Kingdom. 7DMT and Be Our Guest weren't finished/open yet, but we got to ride Journey of the Little Mermaid and do the Meet-n-Greet. Also got to check out the shops and have LaFou's Brews (jury still out on that drink :cautious:). It was a really great surprise that day and made the whole family happy - especially our 8 year old (at the time) daughter! :happy:
 

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