Last night I visited PKI with Ryan (Boddah). On that way there we stopped at Chan's Asian Wok on Exit 19 because I had to take some pictures for an article. The restaurant, which shares a strip mall with Kroger, has excellent food.

We met up with Ronnie, Bill, and Tom. First we rode the FX Theater and saw the Hanna-Barbera film. I thought that it was cute, but everyone else thought it was tastefully challenged. Next came FoF - always an awesome ride. Then we rode The Italian Job Stunt Track - which could make me feel like I'm in Hollywood if I drnk enough.

We rode The Beast afterward - and our last ride of the night was TR:TR - which was okay. They no longer close the doors before the pre-show (the film), which made it a less exotic experience.

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there!

Italian Chef

That was fun last night chef, i agree about TRTR, I as well was dissapointed about how the pre-show works, sorry I couldnt join you guys for dinner afterwards, I got thrown back on the highway and couldnt get a good place to turn around.

::Shows Ronnie his cell phone::

and our last ride of the night was TR:TR - which was okay. They no longer close the doors before the pre-show (the film), which made it a less exotic experience.

Requires fewer operators that way -- hence less $$.

Just another example of cost cutting measures that are in place at PKI. Measures that negatively impact the guest experience.

Heh, I thought they were doing it so we wouldn't notice the shabby condition of the antechamber theming...but staffing reasons work too.

^LOL Rob.

Now they really have an excuse not to fix the triangle effect.

and our last ride of the night was TR:TR - which was okay. They no longer close the doors before the pre-show (the film), which made it a less exotic experience.

Requires fewer operators that way -- hence less $$.

Hmm seems like that was tried back in 2004, and wasn't liked to well by managment.

^Yep. It's all about the show.....until it becomes all about shaving a little off the budget.

So John, when did they turn The Racer backwards?

So John, when did they turn The Racer backwards?

I think they did it in 1996, does that sound right?

It's 1982 ^ I'm for sure

That was joke

Hey I loved how that door opened and really they paid the money to put it there and they should pay a worker to make it work.

Yeah TR:TR reminds me of Psyco path from last years FearFest. Just form one big line and keep walking. Hopefully they just turn all the lights and audio off during the ride, that would really save some money.

I feel bad for the people in guest relations because I am sure they are getting more complaints than normal.

I feel bad for the people in guest relations because I am sure they are getting more complaints than normal.

Actually, I'm willing to say that more people than not aren't familiar enough with the ride to know when things are working. i do however feel sorry for those people because they are being robbed of the true Tomb Raider experience.

Yes. They don`t know what they are actually missing with all the effects running. Same goes for IJST. They don`t know what they are missing because they don`t know otherwise. I have a feeling a majority of guest complaints might stem from the new opening procedure, which has yet to be run like a well oiled machine.

Yeah TR:TR reminds me of Psyco path from last years FearFest.  Just form one big line and keep walking.  Hopefully they just turn all the lights and audio off during the ride, that would really save some money.

I feel bad for the people in guest relations because I am sure they are getting more complaints than normal.

Like Bodda mentioned, I never knew that the Durma statue was supposed to light up to form an evil glow until I saw both Opening Day photos and videos from the Travel Channel.

Technically, turning off all the light and audio effects happened about three weeks ago on the Sunday where it was raining off and on. I had gotten off early because we only had less than 2,000 people in the park, and had ran over to TR:TR before the park closed. They had both the triangle door and secret entrance door open so peeps could just walk all the way through the queue. Then the ride ran and for the first ten seconds they had the fog lights on and the music and effects off. Me and my friend yelled for them to turn it back on, which it did right before you're about to do your first backflip. Unfortunately, they still had the fog lights on, which ruined the experience.

All in all, even though there were hardly any people at the park (and there were only 9 of us total on TR:TR), it still bothered me that they pulled a stunt like that. Think of a person who rode it for the very first time in a condition like THAT, and everyone else had told them the ride was awesome with pitch black areas and cool music and a cool pre-show area thingy.

^Chances are that it wasn't a specific person who turned of the effects you are talking about. It was probably a glitch in the system, dont get all bent out of shape and think it was the ride ops turning off the theming.

I wish I could ride with the lights on so I could snap some pics.

If you are ever sucessfull at that please share the pictures, it would be uber cool to see

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/pkiguy1/deta...37c.jpg&.src=ph

LOL

I was actually expecting ''On Ride'' Pictures lol.......Little Did i Know.