Escape From Pompeii

[DrMoneyReturns]

Thank you Carter! I think the sun dial is pretty. I know it was a disaster zone before but the old archeological stuff was getting really old and nasty.

But why take out the staging area that makes the ride make sense? If the stuff is old and ratty, replace it for sure, but shouldn't it be replaced with something that serves BOTH functions (HoS/CT and setting up the ride)?

Without the archaeology stuff, what you have is a boat in a rundown building. You have an amusement park ride. Couldn't they have replaced the old, worn-out stuff with new archaeology stuff that could easily be over-layed or moved for CT?

Why a sundial? What does a sundial tell the guest about the ride? How does a sundial tell the story? How does it communicate the concept of the ride?

 

[Zachary]

They could've just as easily replaced the old rock and dig-site theming with new dig-site theming and put an archaeological tent or something in the middle covering a concrete pad. For special events, the large bits of dig-site theming are moved, the tent is taken down, and you have a big concrete pad to set your huge Santa Claus statue on. Easy. I normally don't have a problem with the park replacing theming in favor of something that's multi-functional and can be easily changed when the need arises but when I see things that just end up completely dethemed, that's completely different.

 

[Ghost of Pretzel Kaiser]

They could have, but that's not the direction they went with. Maybe theyr're just storing it, but even if they don't put it up again, the ride theme does not suffer. Story is still displayed in other ways.

 

[CarterGee]

Did anyone else we're discussing the EXACT same thing in two different threads?

I'm just going to say this: It's a freaking sundial. It will....be fine.

 

[DrMoneyReturns]

They could have, but that's not the direction they went with. Maybe theyr're just storing it, but even if they don't put it up again, the ride theme does not suffer. Story is still displayed in other ways.

How? It's simple mathematics:

You're saying a=b. So you're telling me that a sundial and some hedges (a) is just as effective as tents, maps, shovels, posters, and archaeological effects (b) at telling the story of an archaeological dig site. No way.

In this case a is less than b. If you don't care about the loss of theming, that's whatever, but to say that a sundial does the job as well as the previous set...come on dude.

 

[Ghost of Pretzel Kaiser]

The uniforms still say "dig site", plus why else would you be going on a boat into ruins? You're saying the theme is ruined because of a few props gone missing, but the theme is still there.

 

[Haberdasher1973]

They could've just as easily replaced the old rock and dig-site theming with new dig-site theming and put an archaeological tent or something in the middle covering a concrete pad.

Regardless of which side of the argument you're on, concrete-pad-with-themed-slipcover would have been brilliant.

 

[David]

Lets put it this way....
If you see the name "Escape from Pompeii" and dont know the story/theme.... That's not the parks problem.

 

[Ghost of Pretzel Kaiser]

Lets put it this way....
If you see the name "Escape from Pompeii" and dont know the story/theme.... That's not the parks problem.

This. And the inside of the building still looks like a dig site....

 

[CarterGee]

The ride does not suffer from this at all. The sun dial is pretty and green. It is in the correct time period. It's just not what you're used to. The whole thing still looks like a dig site.

And yeah, the sundial DOES do as good as a job because it makes that land into a multi-use piece of land. In a year you won't even remember it being anything else

 

[Zachary]

^ It makes the land into a multi-use space for everything except the huge attractions it's surrounded by. Also, I'm good at holding grudges, I'll remember.


The last half the the story (escaping) is told by the ride. I argue that there is hardly anything to show or indicate that you're an archaeologist venturing back into the ruins of the ancient city of Pompeii. Escaping ______ is much too bland of a story to be used by itself. Back-story must be given to make the idea effective and different.

 

[Ghost of Pretzel Kaiser]

You mean besides the scaffolding inside the building and old lanterns?

 

[Zachary]

I'd be willing to bet you money that if you asked the average rider if they could describe the dig-site theming inside the ride, they'd have no clue what you were talking about.

 

[Ghost of Pretzel Kaiser]

I'd be willing to bet that if you ask the average rider about the story, they wouldn't care.

 

[CarterGee]

I'd be willing to be money that if you asked the average rider what was there before the sundial they wouldn't be able to tell you.

" " what the theme of Alpengeist is they wouldn't be able to tell you

" " what Mach Tower is themed around they wouldn't be able to tell you

etc, etc, etc.


My point being, it's really not all that effective at "telling a story" to begin with.

 

[Zachary]

Lets say it wasn't effective. Shouldn't it have been renovated to improve its effectiveness? If something does its job 50% of the time, why would you change it to do it none of the time? Shouldn't the goal be to improve what's there instead of replacing it with a sundial? I fail to see the reasoning behind the people defending it.

 

[Ghost of Pretzel Kaiser]

Because it was not important to tell the story. The queue structure, uniforms, and props in the ride indicate it's a dig site.

 

[Haberdasher1973]

Lets say it wasn't effective. Shouldn't it have been renovated to improve its effectiveness? If something does its job 50% of the time, why would you change it to do it none of the time? Shouldn't the goal be to improve what's there instead of replacing it when a sundial? I fail to see the reasoning behind the people defending it.

I think this is the point that a few of us have been trying to make regarding a few different topics on here...

 

[netdvn]

The archaeological stuff wasn't as effective in telling the story of the ride. I recall it being sorta off to the side away from the queue. I hardly noticed it was gone until it was mentioned here.

That's not to say I support the park removing details like that. The park could do a lot to enhance the ride's story by simply moving props around to a location that more people would notice, adding TVs (sorta like what they did with Deadline last year with the fake news stories), and signs (like an archaeologist's diary) recounting the events and maybe giving a little history lesson about Vesuvius and Pompeii itself.

 

[DrMoneyReturns]

I never thought I could lose my cool over a theme park discussion...but geez...

Why not just build a flat asphalt parking lot and set up roller coasters on it? Why do some of you even go to Busch Gardens? Is it just the closest place to your house? You seem to have no appreciation whatsoever for the storytelling aspects, or the theming. You don't seem to care when they totally abandon really good themed elements in favor of generic nothing. You go so far as to say that these types of elements don't matter and are irrelevant to the audience. Not only is that demonstrably false, but it leads me to wonder what you even like about BG to begin with.

The condescension from some of you is getting old, too. Don't tell me what I won't remember, or won't care about. Don't act like you know better than me what I like...don't dismiss people's opinions (well defended, reasoned positions) as "you just don't like it because it's different." That's not only rude, it's also stupid. I don't like it because the THEME park has replaced THEMED elements with something that has absolutely, positively, 100%, completely NOTHING to do with the THEME of the ride. Nothing. At all. You replaced something good with something bad, and even though you did it for some good reason, you failed miserably to find a good solution to your problem, as it took all of 1 day for some fans on an internet forum to come up with a better idea (Swiftman's tent).

I swear, they could pave over the whole place and set up hotdog carts throughout, and a long as they still SAID it was European, it seems like some of you would give them a standing ovation.

If ANY change in recent memory could be universally derided as an OBVIOUS move away from good theming towards bland, uninteresting, King's Dominion amusement park crap, it would be this change. It serves absolutely no improving function save that it supposedly makes the space more versatile for a limited-engagement special event, which could, in any event, have been achieved in a better way (Swift's tent). And yet, the cheerleaders are out in full effect, going so far as to say that staging a ride's queue area is a waste of time. At Busch Gardens.