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iAmJacksDLand
03-24-2003, 07:22 PM
I've heard on this webpage that Winnie The Poohs Adventures has 'soft' opened. What does this mean? What days can you go to be sure it will be open for a ride? I would've done the AP reservation, but I'll be out of town (and unfortunately not at DL).

Has anyone experienced this soft open thing for other rides?

MonorailMan
03-24-2003, 07:24 PM
Originally posted by iAmJacksDLand
Has anyone experienced this soft open thing for other rides?

3 words: Flik's Fun Fair

They soft opened for a long time. :)

Morrigoon
03-24-2003, 07:34 PM
Yeah, I was there the day that Pizza Port soft opened. In fact... I opened the doors, LOL.

Ghoulish Delight
03-24-2003, 07:46 PM
A soft opening means that the ride goes into operation before the stated date. This allows them the opportunity to get some experience running the ride with the park open. That way, any unforseen issues that arise from having guests in the queue, on the ride, etc. can be identified and resolved/worked around before the official opening when cameras are around. They can do all the testing they want, but nothing can simulate the problems encountered during daily park operation except daily park operation.

For most attracitons, once they soft open, it remains open for the most part. If they don't hit any major snags, I'd expect it to be open, at least for limited hours, every day until the official opening. But that's just a guess and by no means official.

AVP
03-24-2003, 07:48 PM
Originally posted by iAmJacksDLand
I've heard on this webpage that Winnie The Poohs Adventures has 'soft' opened. What does this mean? What days can you go to be sure it will be open for a ride? I would've done the AP reservation, but I'll be out of town (and unfortunately not at DL).

Has anyone experienced this soft open thing for other rides?

A "soft open" basically means that the ride will be staffed, but may or may not be open when you get there. They may open late, close early, close mid-day to correct an operational issue... It's an unannounced bonus.

It gives them a chance to operate the ride with real guests, before the media blitz hits. Restaurants and retail stores do this all the time - the Kohls stores that just opened in Southern California were "soft open" days before the big grand opening events.

Ace
03-24-2003, 08:37 PM
I was at the "soft opening" of Toontown. That's all I remember, I was young.

Tony
03-25-2003, 09:33 AM
As of 10:30, the ride was fully staffed, however, they are currently doing a photo shoot. The current word is that assuming the photo shoot wraps up on time, they will open the ride at about 2PM.

However, this is all dependant on the shoot ending on time, and them deciding to go ahead and open... We all know how often things change.

Ghoulish Delight
03-25-2003, 11:22 AM
Thanks for the info Tony. If you (or anyone) has updates about how long they keep it open today or the odds of it being open towards closing tomorrow, I'd like to hear about it. We're thinking of trying to ride tomorrow, but won't be able to get to the park until after 6. Of course, nothing would be set in stone, but if someone hears a, "everything went wrong and we're not going to open it tomorrow," it'd be nice to know that before rushing over there to find out.

Tony
03-25-2003, 03:26 PM
As of right now, Pooh is open to ride. However, the line is outrageous and the ride is 101 at the moment. (A cascade failure).

Tony

Ace
03-25-2003, 03:55 PM
Originally posted by Tony
As of right now, Pooh is open to ride. However, the line is outrageous and the ride is 101 at the moment. (A cascade failure).

Tony

Can I ask how you know this? Are you on wireless internet, or is there someone at the parks, or are you psychic? Either (of the 3) way, thanks for the updates. Even though I'm nowhere near Disneyland. :crying:

Tony
03-25-2003, 04:32 PM
AVP is at the park and through the magic of cellular phones, text messaging, and psychic projections, I have been getting the updates.

Tony

Kayoss
03-25-2003, 04:58 PM
After waiting 2 hours in line where the cast members constantly said (and I’m not kidding) “Pooh opens 4/11….you can stop waiting in line.” Pooh soft opened to a crowd of about 300 people at 3:45PM. This was after torturous waiting where the imaginers rode the ride over and over again, cycling the cars, then stopping them, and then starting them again. While I don’t mind Cast Members telling people that they’re not sure it will soft open or not, most of them were actually rude and obnoxious about it. When I ran to the bathroom, and asked the front of the line cast member if it was okay to go to the bathroom asking “It’s not going to open in 10 minutes will it?” she bluntly said “Pooh opens on 4/11.” I mean really. That’s just stupid, since low and behold it was open 30 minutes later.

Speaking of stupid, how was the ride? As bad are people are saying it is? Well…..after two hours of waiting and the highest level of excitement imaginable, I can say yes and no. Instantly the look of the interior reminds you of Superstar Limo. That was my very first reaction. Thin, brightly colored flats with cheap water projection flashed everywhere. The vehicle does rock through the entire ride, which is actually nicer then people have been saying, and was actually one of the nicer parts of the ride. However, the figures are god awful, and quite a few steps down from the mostly non-moving figures in the Roger Rabbit ride. There was simply no effort put into this. Plastic figures (especially the tigger) pop in and out with movement of a Disney Store figure (actually, often a lot less, or even not at all!)

This is really, really a plywood paradise. We’re talking almost NO three dimensional sets whatsoever. If there was, it wasn’t very noticeable. Nothing even remotely remarkable as the fountain in Mr. Toad, or the wooden pipe organ in Snow White. This is actually several notches lower then Roger Rabbit folks. Several.

Which brings me to the conclusion: do I hate the ride? Strangely, I don’t. Let me tell you what works:

1) There’s a cheap, obviously labored rain effect that comes off as rather charming mainly because of how low-tech it is. Also, the height of the building gives a ‘large’ impact to the sets, it’s just disappointing that they’re all obviously flats. They had so much space to do something incredible.

2) The music is truly lovely, both in pre-show and in the interior, although they do need to adjust. Sometimes is just sounds like a mess.

3) There is a charming Pooh projection effect that comes off as Alice In Wonderland Hedgehog version 2.0 . This is a much cleaned up and brighter projection. Bravo.

4) The Heffalumps and woozles scene is really incredibly disappointing because of it’s completely lack of moving characters. What were they thinking? But despite this, there’s some really silly, forced psychedelic effects, that, although cheap, are also slightly disturbing. Look for the big , sinking honey vortex thing in the middle of the room. Most of them are they type of illusions found in Small World (think the spinning sun, and you get the idea). Ironically, they did the same sort of thing in Superstar Limo.

And then there’s the noisy and boring ending that really smacks you with a “that’s it?” kind of question. But what do I know? There was a little girl in the back that was smitten by the old thing. But then again, what does she know? She’s five! ;)

As a huge lover of dark rides, I liked the ride, but then again, I liked Superstar Limo. Mainly because it was a fun ride to be drunk on. The new pooh is very very cheap as everyone has said, but it still had some elements that made me laugh, and whisked me along for the 3 minutes. Although it’s the worst dark ride of the park hands down, it’s still better then the Country Bears.

By the way, the saddest thing about the ride is looking back to see the much-talked-about three heads from the country bears just bolted to the Plywood set near the end of the ride. And the answer is: They’re not moving. All those great animatronics, just sitting there motionless. Actually it fits with pretty much the rest of the ride. So I guess it’s appropriate, huh?

Lashbear
03-25-2003, 05:34 PM
Well, I'm happy now - nothing very different than WDW pooh then. (Except for Max, Buff & Melvin)

merlinjones
03-25-2003, 09:42 PM
>>>>Well, I'm happy now - nothing very different than WDW pooh then. (Except for Max, Buff & Melvin)<<<<

Actually, the following snip from a (very long) post by SIR at XS Tech from LP marvelously details the differences between DL's Pooh and WDW's. It's almost unbeleivable that they could shoot this low with a property that has made BBBB-Billions in profits for the company!!!:

http://www.laughingplace.com/default.asp?WCI=MsgBoard&WCE=T-32790-P-48&Refresh=0325191706

>>>What differences, when you rode Pooh at DL, did you notice from when you rode Pooh at WDW?<<<

>>The most obvious difference is the length. DL's is significantly shorter. We have an extremely truncated blustery day scene, minus Rabbit and his Garden, and no projected blowing leaves. This goes into the Floody Place. Owl's house is now relegated to a flat on the side of the track, you don't go through it like in FL. The Floody place is less elaborate but still impressive, though my favorite effect, the rain washing away the words in the storybook, is absent (as is the book motif). We pass a couple of Tigger figures which bounce up as we pass by, then to Poohs where we see him fall asleep. Then into Heffalumps and Woozles, to me too overly bright and colorful but of course that's what these characters are like (but did they have to make this the biggest part of the attraction?). Then we see Pooh in Hunny Heaven(sticking out of a
knothole surrounded by Hunny)we hear Piglet's voice waking him up, see his empty bed (which is wierd because I know there is a Pooh figure meant for that area; maybe it's been added since) and then into the Party and through the doors out the CBJ exit tunnel (I wonder if the Wonder Bread Logo is still up there...). <<

>>Some more complaints: The order is not as nice. I like the Fl's Dream sequence to Floody Place order better than the way it is here. Also only the Blustery Day scene is out in the sunshine. The rest is indoors or in the dark or rain. This may not seem like a big deal but I notice in Florida that the illusion of Daytime in the Forest (in the
Garden, or at the Pary at the end) is very cheery. We don't really have that. Ours is very much more gloomy. <<

>>The sets for Poohs house are minimal, very little was done to transform the flat straight architecture of the building into this house within a tree, such a cool place to imagine being as a child. <<

Sophie832
03-25-2003, 09:52 PM
After hearing all this, I think I'll just stick with the AP preview days. I don't think I would want to wait to 2 hours to maybe or maybe not ride it. April 8th isn't that far away...

Disneyphile
03-26-2003, 09:03 AM
I just rode it last night, instead of waiting for the AP days.

Here's my summary recap:

1) Thank goodness I only had to wait for 10 minutes. (But, after riding, I felt it was 10 minutes too many.)

2) *VERY* flourescent. Very.

3) The "most impressive" effect: the "blustery" wind machine (Sadly, I can duplicate this at home by sitting in front of a fan while watching "The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh" on video.)

4) Who wrote the script? Wait, *what* script? At least Super Star Limo had somewhat of a storyline.

5) Now I know why a lot of people didn't look overly thrilled upon exiting the ride.

6) My IQ has now been reduced by 10 points.

7) If I ever ride again, I'm going to have a few margaritas from DCA first.;)

8) Thank the heavens that Pressler is gone.

9) I want my Country Bears back!

Not Afraid
03-26-2003, 08:00 PM
I'm sorry I didn't read this earlier. On Tuesday, I went to the Park after work (about 6:30ish) and rode Pooh 3 times before 7:30. The line was a whopping 10 minutes. It never broke down and everything ran smoothly.

In my opinion, the ride is not a big deal. The word FLAT comes to mind.

But, don't be afraid. Go see it at least once.

Durliin
03-26-2003, 08:28 PM
I didnt know people were comming off bored I was there 8 hours today and Kids were comming off happy and Families liked it and they kept reriding..... only people who seemed not to like the attraction that much were the park Regulars.....

One of the many Dave CMs

Morrigoon
03-26-2003, 09:15 PM
Okay here's my verdict:

It's cute. As long as they do not make more rides on that cheapness level, I can tolerate this one being as cheap as it is. There really are too many flats, in places where 3-d objects would really have been more appropriate. If they continued to "flesh it out" a bit, it would be a good thing. But aside from being too flat, it's cute. Wind effect was nice, rain effect was nice, I do wonder why they couldn't have added the "little black rain cloud" bit, as that would have been cute.

It's a bit bare-bones though, I'd say at the rock bottom of the scale of acceptability for a Disney dark ride. Not one single complex AA in the whole thing.

BUT, again, as long as this is the bottom of what they do, and don't continue to make rides on this cheapness level, it's fine. It's "good enough".

And yeah, I'll probably ride it again sometime when the line is as short as it was today.

Though nothing can clear it if the unforgivable crime of replacing my bears...

Ace
03-26-2003, 09:27 PM
Originally posted by Morrigoon
Okay here's my verdict:

It's cute. As long as they do not make more rides on that cheapness level, I can tolerate this one being as cheap as it is. There really are too many flats, in places where 3-d objects would really have been more appropriate. If they continued to "flesh it out" a bit, it would be a good thing. But aside from being too flat, it's cute. Wind effect was nice, rain effect was nice, I do wonder why they couldn't have added the "little black rain cloud" bit, as that would have been cute.

It's a bit bare-bones though, I'd say at the rock bottom of the scale of acceptability for a Disney dark ride. Not one single complex AA in the whole thing.

BUT, again, as long as this is the bottom of what they do, and don't continue to make rides on this cheapness level, it's fine. It's "good enough".

And yeah, I'll probably ride it again sometime when the line is as short as it was today.

Though nothing can clear it if the unforgivable crime of replacing my bears...

It strikes me as strange that they'd spend (what seems to be) more on a ride that's only up for 3 months of the year (HM:NBC) than a ride that will run every day for a number of years. :confused: Silly Disney. I hope Rasulo puts a stop to things like this.

Polar33
03-26-2003, 09:29 PM
Originally posted by Kayoss
she bluntly said “Pooh opens on 4/11.” I mean really. That’s just stupid, since low and behold it was open 30 minutes later.

A typical Disney spin answer for these situations. The day the "45 Years Of Magic" parade TV taping/soft opening I visited City Hall to ask when the parade would be and they gave me a "there is no parade scheduled today" line when they fully knew when it would be that afternoon. The year that Holiday Believe... had it's first test and adjust show during Cast Blast I asked the Guest Relations CM at the Hub info board when the fireworks were that night and I recieved the same line.

If they say it will open and for any number of reasons (it is a soft opening/test and adjust after all) it dosn't there will be a line down Main Street of people wanting their money back and lifetime passes. On the other hand it does open, nobody is going to complain that Disney essentally gave them something that wasen't "planned" that day for no extra cost.

Although it's annoying, I find it completely understandable.

PurpleDove33
03-27-2003, 01:06 AM
Well I rode it Wednesday night. I didn't know it was going to be opened. And since the AP nights were all booked up, I figured that I just would wait to ride it whenever. We went to ride on Splash mountain and noticed that it was opened. It was about 7:30 and noticed that no one was in line, so the people who I was with wanted to try it, since they live in oregon and they wanted to do it.
I can say its cute, but not to wait in any amount of long line. I did hear they have a car that I can sit in my wheelchair. But tonight I just transfered out instead. I am wondering how bad will the line be when they offically say the ride is opened. Well at least now I can say I rode it. Good like for any of you that will try to be there on the 8th and 9th. I am sure there will be a lot more people there then.