The Wizarding World of Harry Potter - Hogsmeade (Orlando): Part 2

[JungleSkip]

I can't say I agree at all, Teebin.

A ride has never made me feel more in the action than FJ has. Love every minute of it, and the only 2 attractions I'd say come any where close to it in Orlando are Spider-man and the Haunted Mansion.

 

[UNIrd]

And I just have to go against the norm and say I love the Dementors. I think they look enough like the ones in the film and I'm glad they're physical creatures and not projections like Teebin suggested. Also, I thought they were pretty appropriately terrifying, as was the spiders scene. The first time you ride FJ, it's all such a huge thrill. They seriously don't make rides like that anymore.

 

[jtsalien]

And I just have to go against the norm and say I love the Dementors. I think they look enough like the ones in the film and I'm glad they're physical creatures and not projections like Teebin suggested. Also, I thought they were pretty appropriately terrifying, as was the spiders scene. The first time you ride FJ, it's all such a huge thrill. They seriously don't make rides like that anymore.

I also like the fact they used physical effects there as well. Just because I don't think the ride is perfect, doesn't mean I don't really like it. It just could have been better. The spider scene is pretty scary, then again I haven't seen the films so I have nothing to judge it off of. I just think Teebin is right about it being disorienting and choppy at times. I definitely noticed it the first few times I rode.

 

[kingeric]

@Teebin I am going to have to disagree. I think they actually did a great job connecting you to a story, (which sometimes you miss as you are being rushed through hogwarts you are on a tour of Hogwarts, and Harry and Friends are sneaking you out of a boring lecture).

I feel like all the scenes do connect and as someone who doesn't really watch the movies, never read the books I never once felt like I did not, not understand where I was. I felt the story telling was very clear.

I can understand your confusion but for me it was clear.


to me more confusing rides as far as time/place story are as follows

1. The Revenge of the Mummy ending (if you didn't watch the entire hour long pre-show in the queue you have no idea why he is screaming for his coffee)
2. Journey to Atlantis at SeaWorld (why are you going back, why is she angry and why is the Bettle Juice music playing)
3. Malestrom at Epccot (why when they send you over the falls do you end up with polar bears then back to trolls then down to oil rigs)
4. Dudley Do Right's Rip Saw Falls (who what where huh?)
5. The Haunted Mansion (what? are we on a tour? are we afraid of the bride? why are we there?)
6. Stitches Great Escape (ok stitch is bad or good and this is before the first film so we went back in time to be in the future of tomorrowland?)
7. Monster Inc Laugh Floor (so tomorrowland has a door to monstropolis and we are supposed to be in a night club?)
8. Jungle Cruise (ok so I just went from Africa to South America to Asia magically in one river? why am I on tour?)
9. Lights Action Motors (so are ou really filming or are we showing how filming works or who is what?)
10. Tower of Terror (ok so how did those elevator shafts that got blown off by lighting disappear, but they didn't go all the way to the top, and why is there 1 elevator shaft in the lobby when there are two shafts taht we see disappear in the video... and why does the service elevator open up to a hallway... i am so confused.

 

[jtsalien]

to me more confusing rides as far as time/place story are as follows

1. The Revenge of the Mummy ending (if you didn't watch the entire hour long pre-show in the queue you have no idea why he is screaming for his coffee)
2. Journey to Atlantis at SeaWorld (why are you going back, why is she angry and why is the Bettle Juice music playing)
3. Malestrom at Epccot (why when they send you over the falls do you end up with polar bears then back to trolls then down to oil rigs)
4. Dudley Do Right's Rip Saw Falls (who what where huh?)
5. The Haunted Mansion (what? are we on a tour? are we afraid of the bride? why are we there?)
6. Stitches Great Escape (ok stitch is bad or good and this is before the first film so we went back in time to be in the future of tomorrowland?)
7. Monster Inc Laugh Floor (so tomorrowland has a door to monstropolis and we are supposed to be in a night club?)
8. Jungle Cruise (ok so I just went from Africa to South America to Asia magically in one river? why am I on tour?)
9. Lights Action Motors (so are ou really filming or are we showing how filming works or who is what?)
10. Tower of Terror (ok so how did those elevator shafts that got blown off by lighting disappear, but they didn't go all the way to the top, and why is there 1 elevator shaft in the lobby when there are two shafts taht we see disappear in the video... and why does the service elevator open up to a hallway... i am so confused.

1. You don't have to see the entire thing. And the point of a pre-show is to set up the story for the ride. Is it a crappy ending? Yes. Does that mean it makes no sense? No.
2. For treasure. PMS. Sea World was cheap.
3. Because it's a fake theme park attraction about a country a lot of people know not a lot about.
4. You've entered a Dudley Do Right cartoon.
5. You are guests of Mr. Gracey on a tour of his mansion.
6. He's bad. The timeline of the movie has nothing to do with the theme park attraction.
7. Yes. And no, you're in a comdey club.
8. Are you gonna be confused as to why you're looking at fake animals too?
9. Both. That's the point of the show. They're filming a movie and you get to see how they do it.
10. Because you're in the Twilight Zone.

 

[JungleSkip]

1. You don't have to see the entire thing. And the point of a pre-show is to set up the story for the ride. Is it a crappy ending? Yes. Does that mean it makes no sense? No.

I'll vehemently disagree with this. The story of RotM is one of the dumbest, crappiest, most confusing things in theme parks. There are plot holes all over the place. I wish we had Singapore's story setup.

But the ride is fantastic, so I really don't care.

The idea of "story" is way overblown. Rides like Pirates, Mansion, Big Thunder, etc don't have "stories"(no matter what today's crap-tastic WDI tries to do). They were meant to evoke the feeling of an experience (raiding with Pirates, touring a haunted house, the jungle, etc), not tell a linear story. And personally, that what I feel FJ does. It's purpose is to put you into the craziness of the Potter series, and it works very, very well if you ask me.

 

[jtsalien]

I'll vehemently disagree with this. The story of RotM is one of the dumbest, crappiest, most confusing things in theme parks. There are plot holes all over the place. I wish we had Singapore's story setup.

But the ride is fantastic, so I really don't care.

The idea of "story" is way overblown. Rides like Pirates, Mansion, Big Thunder, etc don't have "stories"(no matter what today's crap-tastic WDI tries to do). They were meant to evoke the feeling of an experience (raiding with Pirates, touring a haunted house, the jungle, etc), not tell a linear story. And personally, that what I feel FJ does. It's purpose is to put you into the craziness of the Potter series, and it works very, very well if you ask me.

It's a garbage story. Without a doubt. I said it sucks. But my point was about the ending. As stupid as it is, it makes sense. But that doesn't excuse the other problems. And yes, I do too.

And yes, somewhere along the long "experience" became "story". I think, I could be wrong, that Teebin was saying the way the ride was executed made it disorienting and confusing. Not the idea itself.

 

[Teebin]

To clarify, I only meant the distant dome should be a projection if outdoors, a sky, if indoors a huge vaulted ceiling. Otherwise, I intended that the dementors that come close are physical yet should better executed, lit and presented.

Once you leave the spider scene, the whole ride goes into a land of blackness and disorientation, nothing is clear and well pointed up unless you are in the dome screens. The suck your soul effect is half baked, kitchy and when and if it works it is blah with nothing but blackness everywhere except for a bright projection lens in the distance. I have never heard anyone say that the Womping Willow is awesome or Chamber of Secrets was 'really great'.

The climax is nothing but a glorified "Sounds Dangerous". Where are the sets, the walls falling around us, the sand and dust falling from above with a final huge slab falling to crush us just as we escape beneath back into the outdoors in the final dome screen? Instead, we get tossed around in total blackness only to be dumped into the final screen all saved, but from what exactly?

If you feel the ride gets better and better after the spider scene and ramps to an amazing effects laden ending full of 'wow', then I guess we see things differently.

 

[kingeric]

I will say the Womping willow is awesome. the first time I rode the ride it surprised me and startled me.

 

[Teebin]

I felt the story telling was very clear.

I can understand your confusion but for me it was clear.

No, I was not talking about 'story' at all. I was talking about a sense of place, where am I, what am I seeing.

 

[kingeric]

No, I was not talking about 'story' at all. I was talking about a sense of place, where am I, what am I seeing.

Again as someone who didn't read the books and fell asleep during most of the movies, i felt like i understood my location in the hogwarts area, whether that be in a class room, in caves, under the school, outside the school. in a forest of scary stuff.

 

[UNIrd]

There's A LOT to take in during Forbidden Journey. It moves at a frenetic pace and it can be both confusing and disorienting. But it's a 4-minute ride, not a film. It's meant to be experienced more than once and is probably impossible to get it all during just one ride. I notice something new each time I ride it, which I did with with Spider-Man for years and I still do with Simpsons with all jokes they pack into it into a short few-minute experience. Forbidden Journey wastes no time putting riders into the center of the action, but it uses the entire queue before it to set up the story pertinent to this attraction.

You also can't admit to not be a fan of the source material it's based on and then wonder why you don't know what's going on. Forbidden Journey is an incredible experience on it's own, but it's also part of an overall story that includes 7 books and films.

 

[Scarletwebslingr]

FJ is confusion in that it hops from daylight to night back to day, has less-than-perfect transitions between screen and dark-ride elements (for instance, the odd projected wall bricks and tacky hanging leaves), and mostly the fact that it ends with everybody celebrating Harry's Quidditch victory and ignoring the fact that a) Hagrid let a flipping dragon loose that nearly killed people and b) oh yea, Dementors kinda attracted the school... haha. I mean, the ride is fun and innovative to a point where the absurdities doesn't really matter though so I won't complain too much.

 

[UNIrd]

I'm pretty sure they're celebrating that you made it back to Hogwarts alive as well.

 

[Felipe]

Teebin, I agree that FJ would definitely benefit from better lighting and a reconfiguration of the vehicles' positioning to give us a better, more focused view. There's fairly important details of the ride I've missed for over a year and numerous rides, like the crushed bench. I wonder how many more of those things I've missed....

FJ is confusion in that it hops from daylight to night back to day, has less-than-perfect transitions between screen and dark-ride elements (for instance, the odd projected wall bricks and tacky hanging leaves), and mostly the fact that it ends with everybody celebrating Harry's Quidditch victory and ignoring the fact that a) Hagrid let a flipping dragon loose that nearly killed people and b) oh yea, Dementors kinda attracted the school... haha. I mean, the ride is fun and innovative to a point where the absurdities doesn't really matter though so I won't complain too much.

Definitely!

 

[armstrong8991]

Out of my times riding FJ I think the simulated brick walls bothered me the most. And that's nitpicking for me to be honest because I was truly impressed by its innovation uniqueness. But that's not to say it can't be improved either.

 

[Scarletwebslingr]

I'm pretty sure they're celebrating that you made it back to Hogwarts alive as well.

Well, other than Dumbles, we see Harry lifted in the air holding the Snitch and cheering and Slitherin in the background frowning because they lost the game. More celebrating Quidditch success than making it out alive based on the videos.

 

[armstrong8991]

^Well he says "Thanks everybody. You were brilliant."

 

[Felipe]

Out of my times riding FJ I think the simulated brick walls bothered me the most. And that's nitpicking for me to be honest because I was truly impressed by its innovation uniqueness. But that's not to say it can't be improved either.

Definitely what we're doing is nitpicking The ride is out of this world, and the improvements could only make it better. But yeah, as is, the ride is pretty outstanding! I wonder since they're putting HD projectors everywhere, if we won't see better projections in FJ soon... Though I also wonder if the blurry projection isn't partly due to the domes rotating and our movement too, but then things like the brickwork (inside of the fireplace) should be a projection on a static screen/wall/whatever, so IDK... :shrug: Let's hope over time we'll see this ride being tuned up and perfected. I'm sure it will be, sooner or later.

 

[Scarletwebslingr]

^Well he says "Thanks everybody. You were brilliant."

And just after we left he went on to also thank God, his parents (rest their souls), his friends, and, first and foremost, "you, the fans Gryffindor" as he graciously accepted his trophy.