Originally Posted By SuperDry A little bird has told me that Cast Member previews for TLM have begun. The early word I've heard is that the sets and effects are incredible, but that the ride seems a bit short in duration.
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt Not surprised about the ride length. As large as the building seems, a big portion of it seems to be the facade.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 Imagine HM if it didn't have the first room, the Stretching Room, the hallway between the SR and the doom buggies, and then the ramp up with Little Leota. Imagine if everything was ground level like a FaL dark ride, and you just entered the doom buggy at the spiderweb/staircase, and exited right after the HHG's. That would be a fairly short ride. It seems longer than it is because of all the other stuff. Maybe that's why they were considering slowing down the LM omnimover. Any word on that? Is it roughly the same speed as HM's? Are they experimenting with various speeds for the CM previews, or have they settled on "the" speed?
Originally Posted By cheesybaby There are some CM reviews of the ride up on micechat. All positive (that I've seen).
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt "Imagine HM if it didn't have the first room, the Stretching Room, the hallway between the SR and the doom buggies, and then the ramp up with Little Leota. Imagine if everything was ground level like a FaL dark ride, and you just entered the doom buggy at the spiderweb/staircase, and exited right after the HHG's." So basically it's about the length of Adventure Through Inner Space or Buzz Lightyear.
Originally Posted By lesmisfan its about six minutes long. its not officail cast previews, sort of a last minute test with people before the officail cast previews.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros >>Are they experimenting with various speeds for the CM previews, or have they settled on "the" speed?<< They're sticking with the original speed that the attraction was designed to run at. Whatever that rumor was about Lasseter being treated like the almighty and the park bending over backwards to please him was just a rumor and nothing more. As far as speeds go, the big news is that the unload area is large enough that they can unload and reload the wheelchair-accessible vehicle without having to completely stop the ride (it can stay in 'creep mode'). From my understanding, this will be the first of the omnimovers where this is possible.
Originally Posted By CuriouserConstance I can't wait either. I think it'll easily become one of my family's favorites.
Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< They're sticking with the original speed that the attraction was designed to run at. >>> I can speak from experience about just how important a ride's speed is. When they opened Monsters Inc at TDL in 2008, they had turned up the speed to be faster than the original design, and it had a huge negative impact on the ride experience. Things flew by so fast that it was hard to know where to look and you definitely got the sense that you were missing things (and not in the good sense like you get in the HM where you simply realize there will be new things to see next time). I don't know what the percentage of increase was, but it sure was enough to change the experience. By the next year, they reportedly had turned it down to the original design speed, and everything just seemed to fall into place at that point, at least for me. Each ride is different, and Mermaid may be different than TDL Monsters in that there may not be specific gags that are supposed to happen in view of each rider at specific times, but overall I'm sure that there are a great many things in each ride that are designed around a specific speed of travel and therefore won't give the best experience if the speed is changed.
Originally Posted By Manfried According to Al Lutz, "Official Cast Member Previews, where Anaheim CM’s can bring friends and family with them to ride, begin May 20th." Well interestingly I talked with some cast member friends yesterday and they told me they were all ready having previews. Okay, so Al covered himself by saying "officially." Sorry Al, you got this one wrong. Oh, and now its "not being slowed down?" This after you claimed it was because John L. wanted it that way? Hmmm, Imagineers I talked to laughed with glee at your post on that one. They fully admit they let that one out just to get you Al. You might want to start double checking your "facts" Al.
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt Manfried, do you know Al personally? I get the feeling that your negative attitude about him goes beyond the stuff he writes in his blog.
Originally Posted By Manfried Dr. Hans, see my post about WDI which applauds Al on his writing on that point.
Originally Posted By Princessjenn5795 I can't wait until my next trip in December! I am so excited to see this ride and the updated Star Tours!
Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< According to Al Lutz, "Official Cast Member Previews, where Anaheim CM’s can bring friends and family with them to ride, begin May 20th." Well interestingly I talked with some cast member friends yesterday and they told me they were all ready having previews. Okay, so Al covered himself by saying "officially." >>> My understanding is that the current CM previews are CM-only, with no friends or family permitted.
Originally Posted By gadzuux You're undoing Manfried's delicate ego. It's important to him that he's right and Al's wrong. We see this every time Al publishes anything. M dutifully sifts through it looking for something to undermine Al, no matter how tiny or ridiculous. You're right Manfried - Al's full of beans and you're the man! Let us know when the LA Times calls looking for the "real scoop".
Originally Posted By avatarmickey115 I think it's hilarious how people can get so worked up just because of what some guy said. OH MY GOSH! CAST MEMBERS ARE GETTING TO BRING THEIR FAMILY TOO!!!! So what? You still don't get to ride it yet, Manfried. Let's just happily discuss about how excited we are for when it opens to the public.
Originally Posted By avatarmickey115 First line correction: I think it's hilarious how people can get so worked up just because Al might have given slightly wrong information about friggin cast member previews.
