Hello all,
I’m seeing several reports today of ridiculously low wait time for the BotM ride (like, 35 minutes). I keep reading chatter that there has apparently been a “drop element” to this attraction that has been currently shelved in order to make this the people gobbler it apparently can be. Reports are that this element has been one of the biggest hitches in ride ops thus far. I’ve not been and haven’t even seen any ride POVs but my question to the lucky few who have is what is this element exactly and if you’ve been fortunate to ride again in the last day or so is the reported omission of this part correct? Cheers!
From what I understand, there is no change to the show or to the actual elevation change on the scissor-lift-type support for the motion-base vehicle. But Universal may have limited the degrees of freedom for the vehicles - specifically, tilting - which minimizes the perceived sense of falling in at least one scene.
Limiting degrees of freedom on the ride vehicles is one way to help boost uptime on a ride where countless things must happen at once. I also have heard that Universal has been trying to reinforce show elements to increase their durability, as well. Much is happening here as Universal tried to make Ministry the people eater it was envisioned to be.
@Robert:
Thanks for the insight! And this is exactly why I don’t like to watch POV videos of new attractions, because I know they are constantly being tweaked. I got to ride several different iterations of Countdown to Extinction at AK before it was renamed as Dinosaur and the initial level of intensity was insane, especially during passholder previews. The version we ended up with is still thrilling, but much more palatable for the average guest. Anyhow, I’m sure that UC will get everything sorted over time and this attraction will remain world class.
This reminds me of the "drop element" on Hagrid's that wouldn't work , cutting the capacity in half for the first few months.