I killed it yesterday. I did every ride in the park (and Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway twice) except one, Lightning McQueen's Racing Academy which is an interactive stage show for very young children.
Let's talk about the two new rides: Mickey and Minnie's and Rise of the Resistance. They are very different but share interesting characteristics. They are both trackless rides and it was the first time I have ever been on that type of attraction. Like I said the pre-shows for Rise are amazing. First you get a BB8 animatronic and Rey hologram which is really well done. Then they load you into a second pre-show where you're on a ship that gets tractorbeamed into a first order ship. There are screens on either side of the ship and an animatronic pilot. The neat part is that while on the ship it is spinning around but you don't feel it. So you enter from a resistance base, then you exit out the same door but now you're in the first order ship and are greeted with this:
While they don't walk around, their heads move so it gives the impression they are real. From there you then get on the actual ride. Also the staff do a good job of acting. They kinda act creepy in the Haunted Mansion but on this ride they really commit. Once on the first order ship they are jerks to you and order you around...it's fun.
With both of these rides they mix real props and animatronics along with screens very well. A lot of people complain that Universal relies too heavily on screens for their rides and I think these two show that a lot of screens mixed with physical elements can make for an amazing ride.
Mickey and Minnie's is supposed to be about going through an animated adventure. They too rely heavily on screens but there are all sorts of physical set pieces and animatronics with digitally projected faces. In that one the cars also have a rumble feature like in a video game controller so it helps with the immersion. There is this one part where you go over a waterfall and each ride car is in its own, domed IMAX type screen that is really neat. I loved The Great Movie Ride but this is a fantastic replacement. It gives me hope for the remix of Splash Mountain. (Although the movie ride was never tied for my all time favorite attraction.)
Took a couple more pics and everyone loves a slide show (hah) so here we go:
It's neat how the line for Smuggler's Run gives you a view of the back of the Falcon.
And I managed to get a pic of the front with no one around so that was nice.
Star Wars Land is cool and very well done but I still think that Avatar Land is the best of the movie related lands. Seeing the floating islands irl is really neat.
I like this one. With the dark clouds and the wet pavement it helps give the tower a more ominous feel.
I was able to do the trip for $73 including gas, tolls and $5 I spent at 7-11. And that's with me being lazy and taking the turnpike the whole way there and back instead of using I-95 for part of the trip to save on tolls, so that's not bad. I can get it down to around $60 if I avoid some of the tolls.
And now I just have to wait until Tues to be back and spend 2 more days in the parks! Oh and even though people did a good job of distancing in lines I probably have COVID now but screw it, Disney trips are worth it.
