Luigi's Flying Tires Getting Rid of Beach Balls
Disneyland: Have no fear of getting hit in the head...
Disneyland just announced that Luigi's Flying Tires is getting rid of the beach balls. While it added kinetic energy, I don't think it was fun if you got hit in the head. But you should be glad they're getting removed because the vehicles will now be 20% faster. Thoughts?
From Jay R.
Posted August 16, 2012 at 3:39 PM
Well, technically, I think it makes sense.
The beach balls never served any real purpose, it seemed like they served more as a distraction than anything else.
Once you're let onto the platform, everyone runs for the balls, and they are so big, once you're in the tire, you can't get one. Once the tires are in motion, you'd see people reaching for them & unable to pick them up.
So after the first toss, if someone didn't catch it was over with.
Plus it was weird if you didn't know anyone else riding, you'd been throwing large beach balls at random people.
I threw my beach ball toward the wall because it was just getting in the way.
Farewell large beach balls...
From AJ Hummel
Posted August 16, 2012 at 4:03 PM
My brother went today and confirmed that the beach balls are gone. I haven't been on the ride yet, but it sounds like an improvement since people would just try to play with the beach balls instead of flying the tires. Imagine a bumper car ride where nobody presses the pedal, and you get the idea.
According to what my brother heard in a History of Disneyland class he took this summer, the beach balls weren't originally part of the attraction and were added at the last minute as a deterrant to keep people from going too fast (if you're good and don't hit anything, you can get those tires to around 15 MPH). I guess they didn't quite work out. Other fun things he learned about that attraction include that it functions fine in the rain, but the fans reduce visibility to about 12 inches, and that if you put one of those parachute army men on it before turning it on, the fans are strong enough to launch the parachute man to the top of Tower of Terror.
From Jay R.
Posted August 16, 2012 at 5:13 PM
Cool to hear they are already gone, & yeah they did seem like a last minute edition as they somewhat didn't fit the tire / car theme.
Plus there wasn't any objective to throwing them, it was just random.
I've been reading that the main reason they took the beach balls away is that they were causing a slow loading ride to be even slower. This is basically an attempt to shorten the wait times.
From James Rao
Posted August 23, 2012 at 5:28 PM
I am a huge Disney fanboy, but this ride just seems like a giant choke. I don't think anything can save it. What is the over/under on its removal? Less than one year?
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