Got a chance to catch this ride today for its opening. They really didn't advertise that this ride was open elsewhere in the park, which surprised me, although billboards on I-64 state that it is now open.
I've never really loved the queue in this attraction house. It provides a nice respite from the summer heat, but you have no context for where you are in the line and what is going on with the ride. The line didn't move for several minutes after I first got in line, and a large gaggle of folks ended up leaving, telling everyone that the ride was broken as they departed. This made me think. Ten years ago I never would've expected a downtime on a BGW ride with no announcement, but today, I wouldn't be surprised. I remembered that as I entered the queue, a ride attendant was hanging up the Aiphone. Is it possible that the ride was down and she just let me walk past without telling me? No, it was far likelier that the ride had been down and had just resumed to normal operations. Does that mean then that no one had been informed of this downtime? It seems likely, but worse, I wouldn't be surprised, which really disappoints me.
I grabbed a large sized emerald mask and put it on to find it was surprisingly comfortable and fit well for people of all sizes. The preshows were decently done, but it definitely felt that the second one was just buying time for the show to end and the theater to empty. The enchanted lens was surprisingly easy to snap on and sat comfortably on the mask. Kudos to BGW for the R&D on this one. They precluded what I think was the easiest pitfall for this attraction: difficulty for people to assemble the VR headsets could have caused all kinds of holdups and longer lines. I thought this part of the attraction really worked. I'm not too familiar with VR with the exception of some of the late 90s technology at DisneyQuest, but I thought everything looked pretty good, although the graphics were only of maybe Corkscrew Hill quality. I do fear that this attraction relies on its gimmicky nature and as technology ramps up, it will fall by the wayside if the park doesn't keep up with it. As for the ride itself, I think the most I can say is that it was interesting. The technology was well executed, but the ride was not thrilling, and the fun is derived from the uniqueness of the attraction. As this ride becomes less unique, I think people will like it less. The incorporation of the heavy fans from Europe in the Air helped aid the sense of motion. It was entertaining, but not exceptional. I appreciate that the park is shooting for a new and unique attraction in its opening, although it does not for me undo the closure of DarKastle which was that kind of ride for a regional theme park. I would say this will be a decent attraction this year in danger of becoming a footnote in the future. The park needs to maintain this ride probably year in and year out in a way they never have.
Side note: perhaps I did something wrong, but it felt like I had to look to the right to see most of the action, and I really would've preferred everything relatively centered up. Again, though, this may have been my mistake as I couldn't wear my glasses, which is another downside of this ride.
All in all, the wait was only about 20 minutes, but frankly, I'm not sure I'd wait longer for this ride. On slow days I might pop into this ride, but it still isn't as much fun as I remember Corkscrew Hill being. I didn't notice any signs of the ride not being ready for opening as was talked about on media day, but it was just an average attraction for me.