Red Randal
08-03-2007, 05:03 PM
It took three tries, but I think I've figured out this whole posting thing. You'd think I'd have learned somewhere around post 1,000 or so.
My roller coaster countdown continues with the second of the World's coasters, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad...known amongst our lazier posters as "BTMRR."
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
"Hang onto them hats and glasses, 'cause this here's the wildest ride in the wilderness!"
Intro: Opened in the Magic Kingdom's Frontierland in 1979, "Big Thunder" helped turn a mostly empty and, in many ways, boring section of the park into the most crowded and constantly trampled land in the Magic Kingdom (of course, it was the addition of Splash Mountain a decade or so later that really pushed things over the top.) With Disneyland's Matterhorn bobsleds and Tomorrowland's Space Mountain, Disney toyed with the concept of a roller coaster that the whole family could enjoy. This was achieved by taking what were essentially "wild mouse" coasters and "plussing" them (as Imagineers like to say, or so I'm told) by giving them stories or putting them in the dark. Big Thunder Mountain would be on a much grander scale have a much deeper story and much more closely resemble a real roller coaster than anything else Disney had attempted. Let's see how it turned out...
Queue: Through a "wild west" themed maze of mining tools and other such things, guests weave towards a train depot at the bottom of the "cavern" like queue. The idea is that guests are preparing to head out to a mining site to strike it rich.
Ride: The trains (yes, they are actual mine trains here) move out of the station and weave around the dark for a while (hey, this is starting to look familiar) before making their way up a lift hill towards sunlight...and A WATERFALL!! Relax though, because it's a swerve and nobody gets too wet. Instead the trains go down a hill and into some helixes past rock formations and cacti.
It's past some mining equipment and through some tunnels and caves before heading up a second lift hill. This gives riders a moment to catch their breath and catch a glimpse of the WDW Railroad trains going by and of the various bits of theming strewn about. The trains head down the hill and over a few bunny hops then turn into a mine.
After the mine, it’s over a few more hops and then down into a helix, past some dinosaur bones (strange for Disney to let us know that an innocent Tyranosaurus Rex died for our enjoyment) and and a geyser before pulling into the station.
Thoughts: Well, my review is pretty terrible because roller coasters don’t translate too well to play-by-play. The idea is that a big flood came through and mangeled the train tracks, thus resulting in the wild ride. There are little things that you need to look fast with a keen eye to see that help tell the “flood” story. Note that the rivers of America are nearby and that there is a geyser. At various points there are things like a guy floating on a bathtub in a small tidal pool that are meant to show that the river wasn’t meant to go through this area.
Really, though, the story is completely unimportant and the ride’s merit exists soley on account of it’s nature as a roller coaster. That having been said, the ride is good but nothing spectacular. Once again, the themeing is much more elaborate than a roller coaster you’re likely to see any run of the mill Six Flags but from a coaster enthusiast’s standpoint, the ride is nothing special.
Nevertheless, Disney was getting better at doing roller coasters and then next time they built one in Orlando (almost 2 decades later) they tried their best to knock it out of the park.
Overall Rating: *** 3/4
My roller coaster countdown continues with the second of the World's coasters, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad...known amongst our lazier posters as "BTMRR."
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
"Hang onto them hats and glasses, 'cause this here's the wildest ride in the wilderness!"
Intro: Opened in the Magic Kingdom's Frontierland in 1979, "Big Thunder" helped turn a mostly empty and, in many ways, boring section of the park into the most crowded and constantly trampled land in the Magic Kingdom (of course, it was the addition of Splash Mountain a decade or so later that really pushed things over the top.) With Disneyland's Matterhorn bobsleds and Tomorrowland's Space Mountain, Disney toyed with the concept of a roller coaster that the whole family could enjoy. This was achieved by taking what were essentially "wild mouse" coasters and "plussing" them (as Imagineers like to say, or so I'm told) by giving them stories or putting them in the dark. Big Thunder Mountain would be on a much grander scale have a much deeper story and much more closely resemble a real roller coaster than anything else Disney had attempted. Let's see how it turned out...
Queue: Through a "wild west" themed maze of mining tools and other such things, guests weave towards a train depot at the bottom of the "cavern" like queue. The idea is that guests are preparing to head out to a mining site to strike it rich.
Ride: The trains (yes, they are actual mine trains here) move out of the station and weave around the dark for a while (hey, this is starting to look familiar) before making their way up a lift hill towards sunlight...and A WATERFALL!! Relax though, because it's a swerve and nobody gets too wet. Instead the trains go down a hill and into some helixes past rock formations and cacti.
It's past some mining equipment and through some tunnels and caves before heading up a second lift hill. This gives riders a moment to catch their breath and catch a glimpse of the WDW Railroad trains going by and of the various bits of theming strewn about. The trains head down the hill and over a few bunny hops then turn into a mine.
After the mine, it’s over a few more hops and then down into a helix, past some dinosaur bones (strange for Disney to let us know that an innocent Tyranosaurus Rex died for our enjoyment) and and a geyser before pulling into the station.
Thoughts: Well, my review is pretty terrible because roller coasters don’t translate too well to play-by-play. The idea is that a big flood came through and mangeled the train tracks, thus resulting in the wild ride. There are little things that you need to look fast with a keen eye to see that help tell the “flood” story. Note that the rivers of America are nearby and that there is a geyser. At various points there are things like a guy floating on a bathtub in a small tidal pool that are meant to show that the river wasn’t meant to go through this area.
Really, though, the story is completely unimportant and the ride’s merit exists soley on account of it’s nature as a roller coaster. That having been said, the ride is good but nothing spectacular. Once again, the themeing is much more elaborate than a roller coaster you’re likely to see any run of the mill Six Flags but from a coaster enthusiast’s standpoint, the ride is nothing special.
Nevertheless, Disney was getting better at doing roller coasters and then next time they built one in Orlando (almost 2 decades later) they tried their best to knock it out of the park.
Overall Rating: *** 3/4