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Movie World - general state of things

themagician

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themagician Experienced

themagician

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Went to MW yesterday for the first time since about May, so will just comment on a few things.

Firstly, the park was near empty with every ride being nearly a walk on, longest we had to wait was 10 minutes. 

It was great to see they've left some of the things out from the DC event, creating more photo opportunities. There seemed to be more character appearances than I remember, as there always seemed to be one out and about. And WW did come out on her float, which looked amazing.

Rhode all the rides, which were all had their effects working. SE had some effects like the drop of pipes with the smoke coming out of them (which I haven't seen happen in a long time), GL had its audio working and JL had all its effects working.

When I last went the audio from the TVs that they have in the queue of AA and the joker audio they play as you board was clashing, but they have since resolved that, and it works really well. Good on MW for putting in the effort.

Hadnt watched HWSD since last year, so wanted to see if there were any differences. And there were, they had a few more comedic elements, but overall it is still a pretty bad show. One of the staff directing guests was providing some good entertainment, dancing and having a laugh with guests, and for me that really made the show. MW should really bring that role back and provide some pre show entertainment.

And DC Rivals just towers over everything in the park now, and literally can be seen from nearly everywhere in the park.

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WalleyWorld Community Regular

WalleyWorld

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15 minutes ago, themagician said:

Rhode all the rides, which were all had their effects working. SE had some effects like the drop of pipes with the smoke coming out of them (which I haven't seen happen in a long time), GL had its audio working and JL had all its effects working.

:o The only time I remember seeing the dropping pipes (with smoke/mist effect) working was when I first rode SE back in 2006. Fingers crossed the effect stays operational and maintained.

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Reanimated35 Experienced

Reanimated35

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25 minutes ago, themagician said:

@Reanimated35 I just watched multiple videos and this is the list of things that didn't work

Entry smoke

Person at the top window

Barricade arm going up

Star lord projection

Some lights on the ship

Some lighting effects/projections

 

So most of the really good stuff. I really wish the park would restore the ride back to open day standards. I know it won't happen due to time/budget, but damn it would be nice to see it happen to all the rides. 

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DaptoFunlandGuy Veteran

DaptoFunlandGuy

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29 minutes ago, Reanimated35 said:

 I know it won't happen due to time/budget

This just shouldn't be an excuse. The park should not bother spending money on putting things in if they're just going to allow it to fall into disrepair, and then turn it off, or not bother to replace it to cut costs. Save your money by not putting it in in the first place, if you aren't prepared to maintain it.

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themagician Experienced

themagician

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It could be argued that in recent times MW have been putting the money into restoring and brining new life to a number of attractions and just the general appearance of the park. Over the past two years they have:

- Refurbished WWF

- Repainted SE

- In the process of refurbishing SDSC

- Refurbished a number of facades down Main Street

- Completely refurbished the WB Department Store inside and out

- Refurbished the courtyard to the right of Ricks Cafe

- Removed the Chinatown arch

- Removed the under utilised western town and installed a whole new area and ride.

- Resurfaced paths

-Refurbished toilet facilities

Yes, the JL probably hasn't had every effect operating since its original opening, but when I went on it yesterday all the major effects which assist with the story line were working. I'm not trying to make excuses and that the park should just forget about it. Of course a ride should nearly always have its effects working as it is what can make the ride great.

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DaptoFunlandGuy Veteran

DaptoFunlandGuy

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3 minutes ago, themagician said:

It couldn't be argued that in recent times MW have been putting the money into restoring and brining new life to a number of attractions and just the general appearance of the park. Over the past two years they have:

- Refurbished WWF - long overdue

- Repainted SE - long overdue

- In the process of refurbishing SDSC - long overdue after how many patch jobs on lasers and smoke

- Refurbished a number of facades down Main Street - nice, but I didn't really think much was needed here

- Completely refurbished the WB Department Store inside and out - nice, probably necessary, but doesn't justify JL

- Refurbished the courtyard to the right of Ricks Cafe - nice, probably necessary, but doesn't justify JL

- Removed the Chinatown arch - nice, probably necessary, but doesn't justify JL

- Removed the under utilised western town and installed a whole new area and ride. - they only removed the area because the needed it for a new ride. Kind of like how BATR was falling into disrepair, and they removed it to install JL

- Resurfaced paths - nice, probably necessary, but doesn't justify JL

-Refurbished toilet facilities - nice, probably necessary, but doesn't justify JL (Actually, Sea World toilets should have been done first)

Yes, the JL probably hasn't had every effect operating since its original opening, but when I went on it yesterday all the major effects which assist with the story line were working. I'm not trying to make excuses and that the park should just forget about it. Of course a ride should nearly always have its effects working as it is what can make the ride great.

 

7 minutes ago, Tim Dasco said:

^ you also forgot while building a 30+ million dollar ride.

No. No. No. No. No.

They don't get to get away with not performing general maintenance on attractions just because they resurfaced a fucking footpath. They don't get a free pass on general maintenance just because they're building a 30 million dollar attraction around the corner. If you can't afford to keep the standard of your existing rides up, you have no argument. A new ride is one attraction in a lineup - the new one, despite having the biggest budget that year is in the minority when stood against every other attraction in the park. You  can't say "well, we aren't fixing that up because we just blew our wad on a $30million coaster" - because what happens when the $30 million dollar coaster looks like shit in 7 years time, and needs a repaint, and they go "well, we can't afford to do that, but we are building this bright shiny new thing over here.... *look! a distraction!*"

I'm sick of our parks building something nice, shiny and new, and then forgetting about it and going and building something else new, and then using the new thing to justify why they can't keep the upkeep on the old things. Its such a shitty, dreamworld thing to do.

And then - when someone in the exec finally takes a park walk and goes "fuck, the place really does look like shit" - they go on a spending spree sprucing shit up with paint, and then try to trumpet that as something great, rather than something they should have done 5 years ago.

Next year, MW will spruik a repainted ice cream shop and a renovated food outlet as 'new attractions' and a walk over the swamp on the new bridge to Top Golf as a new 'experience' as an excuse for lack of new attractions.

We all know why MW won't have new attractions next year, but the spin of "check out this new experience" or "check out our brand new retail \ food outlet" is bullshit.

I mean - fuck me but Disney painters touch up things around the park EVERY FUCKING NIGHT. Their electricians used to replace light bulbs when they reached 75% life to ensure there was never a burned out bulb on stage. I don't expect VR to be anywhere near that level, but how hard is it for them to go and replace a few light bulbs that are part of the attraction? How can we - as (particularly detail oriented) guests notice differences in effects between opening and now, and their own maintenance teams can't identify it? (or just can't be bothered?) Whats wrong with the boom gate that it no longer goes up and down and honestly how fucking hard would that be to fix?

*deep breath* /rant

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DaptoFunlandGuy Veteran

DaptoFunlandGuy

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You're all good @Tim Dasco, I know what you meant.

it was another reason to be acknowledged, the problem is that they shouldn't use these reasons, let alone have enthusiasts try to excuse the park on their behalf.

It'd be like Disney turning on all the house lights in their dark rides because they can't afford to replace the blacklights, and people going 'yeah, but recognise they've just built Shanghai - they've built an entirely new park, and they've refitted ToT to Guardians, and they've built star wars land, and Avatar land, and they resurfaced a footpath, so they've done a lot guys - you can't expect them to buy $500 worth of blacklights as well!

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Slick Experienced

Slick

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14 minutes ago, AlexB said:

You're all good @Tim Dasco, I know what you meant.

it was another reason to be acknowledged, the problem is that they shouldn't use these reasons, let alone have enthusiasts try to excuse the park on their behalf.

It'd be like Disney turning on all the house lights in their dark rides because they can't afford to replace the blacklights, and people going 'yeah, but recognise they've just built Shanghai - they've built an entirely new park, and they've refitted ToT to Guardians, and they've built star wars land, and Avatar land, and they resurfaced a footpath, so they've done a lot guys - you can't expect them to buy $500 worth of blacklights as well!

Both of your posts I agree with 100% - parks in general, be it here or abroad should never be given a free pass because they're building something shiny and new. It never pans out long term & Six Flags Magic Mountain has been a shining example of this over the years, amongst dozens of others.

To be fair, I don't recall Movie World touting toilet refurbishments or other minor renos as great new guest experiences on social and I think it's fine if they do something new like the Main Street Deli it's worth some marketing attention, but you're right, painting things and maintaining an expectation set by your guests shouldn't be worthy of undue praise, especially when it's just simply doing the right thing.

TLDR, I don't get praised for not cheating on my girlfriend, so we shouldn't be so quick to praise theme parks for doing the right thing either.

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DaptoFunlandGuy

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2 minutes ago, MickeyD said:

Has anyone seen the state of Splash Mountain at Disneyland lately?

It kinda throws all of this out the window..

Yeah, but recognise they've just built Shanghai - they've built an entirely new park, and they've refitted ToT to Guardians, and they've built star wars land, and Avatar land, and they resurfaced a footpath, so they've done a lot @MickeyD - you can't expect them to....

Yeah nah. It doesn't throw anything out the window, it just points that Disney too are flawed. I'm not going to stand up and defend the park for letting it's standards drop. I haven't heard anything about the state of Splash, so i'm keen to hear more (or by all means link me up if theres an article somewhere), but if it is as you imply, then they too need a swift kick in the pants.

edit: ok - just did a quick google. Can't find any issues raised with splash in the last two years - there are issues raised but all are 2014 and older. Keen to read more - care to share?

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red dragin Community Regular

red dragin

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6 hours ago, themagician said:

SE had some effects like the drop of pipes with the smoke coming out of them (which I haven't seen happen in a long time), GL had its audio working and JL had all its effects working.

When I last went the audio from the TVs that they have in the queue of AA and the joker audio they play as you board was clashing, but they have since resolved that, and it works really well. Good on MW for putting in the effort.

My first visit since before Doomsday Destroyer started construction. 

SE: Pipes where working this morning, but no smoke. Seemed to be a few lights out in the fake station area. Announcements much less irrating in the waiting area. 

AA: I like the new video screens, audio all working except on the train. Bloody rough now, never had sore shoulders previously with the new seats. Smoke coming out of the car in the courtyard. 

GL: Audio working. 

Scooby: It misses it's theming dramatically, so dark everywhere. 

Got 7 rides in 1hr 20min this morning, at one stage was the only person waiting for SE for about a minute.

DCRH: Station looks very simple but tidy from the outside.

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rappa Experienced

rappa

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1 hour ago, MickeyD said:

Has anyone seen the state of Splash Mountain at Disneyland lately?

It kinda throws all of this out the window..

I'll pay that one... As a bit of a Splash mega fan I have noticed a lot (ok I actually haven't ridden it in about 13 months so maybe it's been fixed up) not working. And much of that was OSHA issues with access that were identified a few years back.

 

Much worse than that though is Indy, it's very very sad right now. I guess people give Disney a pass because the rides are SOO good even when half isn't working they are still 5 times better than anything else, but I don't believe that's an excuse.

 

Also get those damn Tractors tipping on Radiator Springs Racers whilst you're at it Disney!

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MickeyD Experienced

MickeyD

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Indy hasn't been a 100% for years. I wish they could get the effect of the multiple entries working at the start of the ride. The lighting changes in the room that were implemented a few years back  isn't nearly as effective.

@AlexB go to miceage.com. the last couple of Disneyland updates have covered quite a bit on Splash. I get that the ride needed to be operating throughout the Summer but surely much of the aesthetic issues could be tended to during closing. The majority of issues appear to be lighting but the ride has needed a serious update of it's AA for a long while, so the poor lighting  could also be to cover up a lot of broken scenes. Pics from Miceage.com 

 

A few weeks ago we showed you that Splash Moutain has been having some major lighting problems. Both exterior and interior lighting is out all over the attraction and some of the Animatronic figures are also nonfunctional. So let’s take a ride through this week to see just how dark this “dark ride” is getting.

08232435-1068x712.jpg

08212157-1068x712.jpg

08212126-1068x712.jpg

08232589-1068x712.jpg

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YaBoySlam

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On 31/08/2017 at 9:11 AM, themagician said:

 

Rhode all the rides, which were all had their effects working. SE had some effects like the drop of pipes with the smoke coming out of them (which I haven't seen happen in a long time), GL had its audio working and JL had all its effects working.

 

Weird, last time I rode SE the water effect wasn't working (That was in 2014 though)

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