Originally Posted By tricircleD I spent a week with my children at WDW last week. As resort guests, we got to enjoy evening Extra Magic Hours at DAK on Wednesday night from 6 to 9. No Daylight Savings Time last week, so it got dark at around 7 PM. We had ridden EE earlier that day, and were favorably impressed. But, riding this attraction at night was spectacular! The mountain is lit up with huge spot lights to give off a purplish glow. In the dark, the effects in the Temple on the lift hill are much more visible. The caves that the train travels through became very dark, which is much better than on a bright day when you can still see the track and the opening that the train is heading for. The best part was the AA Yeti. Since your eyes are already adjusted to the dark, you can really get a good look at the Yeti when riding at night. During the day, it kind of looked like the Yeti was backed up in a cave, and I could only see the front part of his body. At night, it is clear that the Yeti is a full body AA, and is standing away from the wall, crouching over the train. For some reason, he appears a lot closer to the train at night. Also, the roaring sounds that you hear in the tunnels seem louder and clearer when the tunnels are completely dark. EE is a better ride in the dark! Unfortunately, there will not be many opportunities to do this now that Daylight Savings Time has arrived. If you get the chance to ride at night, take it! Also, the material for Extra Magic Hours did not list EE as one of the open attractions. I asked a CM about this, and he told me that it was not listed because EE was not officially open yet. This lack of publicity probably accounted for the fact that the lines at night were very short. We got to ride three times in about an hour- all via the standby line. The other EMH nights we attended (at MK and EPCOT) were very crowded, and had longer waits for some attractions than during the day (e.g. Test Track). I think we just lucked out last Wednesday, it was a perfect spring evening, and our rides on EE were magical!
Originally Posted By melissa_m OOOH, sounds exciting!! What are the ages of your children? Mine will be 6 & 10 by the time we visit in November, and so far they love coasters. Were there any drops that "took" your stomach, like on Splash Mtn. And how was the sensation when you went backwards? Just curious. I'm guessing that the best bet to ride EE will be to get a FP when you first enter the park.
Originally Posted By tricircleD I have twin 10 year olds and a 14 year old. Although the drop supposedly is the biggest at WDW, the drop at Splash Mountain seems more extreme to me. My kids all love roller coasters. The Mummy at USF had been their favorite-now it is EE! A strategy that worked for us in the mornings was to arrive just before the park opened and head right back to EE. We ususally could ride the ride two or three times before the line got bad, and then took a FP for later in the day.
Originally Posted By tricircleD Sorry, forgot to answer the question about the sensation of going backward. You travel backward into a dark tunnel, and the whole thing is very disorienting. I might be wrong, but it feels like you are going up a hill and curving, because I felt some G forces. It also seems like the train accelerates as it is going up the hill and curving backward! Like you are being pulled up the hill. This confuses your body, because when you first travel back into the tunnel, you are going down hill. It is not like any sensation I have felt on a coaster before. Much more impressive than the backward potion of the Mummy coaster.
Originally Posted By TDLFAN >>Much more impressive than the backward potion of the Mummy coaster.<< I agree, as long as you are taking about the Mummy version in Orlando, because the version in Universal Hollywood has a much longer, more satisfying backward portion that does not make you sick to your head like EE's portion does. Also..like I have stated before.. they need to close the gap around the track to really make it dark and prevent guests from looking thru into the interior mesh of the mountain structure.
Originally Posted By ssWEDguy >> they need to close the gap around the track to really make it dark and prevent guests from looking thru into the interior mesh of the mountain structure. << Where am I missing this? When I ride EE the reverse portion is 100% dark for me. I don't recall seeing light come through.
Originally Posted By TDLFAN Ride the front of the train and look down when you go in reverse, or ride the left side of the train and look over the side of the train as you go in reverse.
Originally Posted By ssWEDguy I'll look more closely next time I go. I've not looked in that direction -- I've been looking up or to the side. (Or with eyes wide shut, actually) I want to ride a last car as well to better observe the switch track at the first reversal. (They don't call me ssWEDguy for nothing)
Originally Posted By danyoung >Where am I missing this? When I ride EE the reverse portion is 100% dark for me. I don't recall seeing light come through.< You have to do it the TDLFAN way - squint your eyes, stare intently, and say to yourself "I'm on one of my famous "quality control rides", and the public demands that I MUST find something wrong here!"
Originally Posted By Labuda Now, now. That is not at ALL what happens. Heck, last time I saw him, we rode the monorail together, and it just so happened that the car *I* chose, when we sat down.... had above my head a broken bit of ceiling insulation.
Originally Posted By LuvDatDisney "You have to do it the TDLFAN way - squint your eyes, stare intently, and say to yourself "I'm on one of my famous "quality control rides", and the public demands that I MUST find something wrong here!"" Not true, DanYoung. I have seen the same 'holes' while riding EE. It doesn't ruin the ride for me, but it seems like it's something Disney should have thought about and dealt with before. It does effect the illusion that you're shooting thru an ice cave high in the Himalayas.
Originally Posted By TDLFAN See? that's where most people who try to entice me into an argument faile miserable. Like danyoung does all the time... My petpeeves are based on real things that I see and that can be verified by others. Those who claim otherwise are just trying to be catty for the heck of it without being knowledgeable about the subject, and you always end up loosing credibility.
Originally Posted By LuvDatDisney ^^I wouldn't let it get you down. You clearly love Disney and WDW and want to see it at its best. If others can't or won't see, or choose to ignore, things that aren't right, that's their choice. To me, after seeing the amazing detail work that Rohde and his team put into the attraction, from the queue to the Yeti himself, it would seem obvious that someone would have stopped and said 'You know, we have some openings where light pours in and destroys some of the illusion. Let's get on fixing it.'
Originally Posted By danyoung Before this takes a serious and potentially ugly turn, do I really have to say "I was just kidding"?
Originally Posted By tricircleD I saw the defect that TDLFan is talking about. In the day light, if you sit in the front of the train, you can see the infrastructure of the mountain in the tunnel that you back into. The point that I was trying to make about EE being better in the dark, is that the tunnels are all very dark at night, which improves the ride experience. It's too bad that more people won't get a chance to ride this attraction in the dark.
