Junge Cruise, Indy and the infine variety...

[fastpassmountain]

This evening I have been thinking about how the Imagineers boasted about the randomness technology of Indy when it first opened. It was supposed to be a ride with an endless amount of possibilities. The most obvious of these is the three doors. Besides that, there's supposed to be subtle variations of terrain, what Indy says, and slight differences with regards to what the jeep interacts with (e.g. does it stop on the bridge or not).

While I love Indy and do see the variations on the ride, it never came close to what the Imagineers touted it as. As I further pondered this possible shortcoming, my mind shifted towards something else...

Indy's next door neighbor, the Jungle Cruise, has always offered a different experience. From the jokes told to the slight variation in pace each skipper chooses, each ride is unlike the last. The Jungle Cruise is also quite different at night than it is during the day, creating an infinite variety of experiences. It may not be cutting edge, but there's a lot to be said about how no two rides on the Jungle Cruise are alike. It's interesting to note how such an early attraction surpassed the novelty/innovation of a 1995 Super-E.

Now, with all that is Gnu in the ride, I have come to appreciate the attraction more than ever. It's a testament to Walt, Wedway/WDI, and the willingness to experiment with adding and deleting from the ride over time as needed!

Anyone have any comments/thoughts about the Jungle Cruise and it's impact as we approach the 50th?

[pyrateslife4me84]

The difference is the people factor. Of course any ride that hinges so greatly on CM performance will have great variability insofar as the CMs are different. The reason Indy was so impressive was b/c it had variability without the need for people--that is why it is a big advancement. No longer do you have variability causing one ride to be great and another to suck (e.g. when you get a cruddy skipper)--every ride on Indy is awesome yet different from the last, which is ideal.

[eyes_of_mara]

yeah, different for the casual tourist, but not for the AP or the CM. Though it's still a great ride, every trip into that temple has become the same.

[pyrateslife4me84]

yeah, different for the casual tourist, but not for the AP or the CM. Though it's still a great ride, every trip into that temple has become the same.

there's still more variability than most other rides and attractions. Compare it with say...Splash, where the only variability is how wet you get and which animatronics are not working.

[melmel]

I love riding Indy... each day, I get a different track. Last time I went, for the first time, I got the "future" door, on the far left. My boyfriend and I made a bet. I betted we'd go in the Fountain of Youth door, and he betted we'd go in the Riches door, but we were both wrong!! We exchanged five dollar bills.

[Bass Shakers]

^The riches door is the safest bet. The order of selection goes left, center, right, center, and then back to left to start all over again. (Or future, riches, youth, riches). So riches is statistically favored by a factor of 2...which explains why it seems like I always get riches. I'm quite a wealthy man now. I just wish I would live long enough to enjoy it, or could predict what I should do with it.

[SpeMarX]

I've always only gone into the middle door, I thought that was the only real door. I only see track going into that door. Are we talking about the same doors here?

[melmel]

I've always only gone into the middle door, I thought that was the only real door. I only see track going into that door. Are we talking about the same doors here?

Each time you ride... the track changes, and "fills in" the other two tracks so that the car doesn't go on those. It's visible... And I always look to the track to see which room I go to, not the actual doors!

[captsmith84]

Umm, no. Common mis-conception. There's only one track on Indy. The actual room & doors move, not the tracks. You always enter the same room with different lighting.

[Fantasmico!]

i have never gone in the future doors. i also find the indy a bit stale. the tiny differences in ride aren't that noticeable to me. maybe it is because i only go to dl once a year. splash never seems to get old to me. not sure why. maybe the "plausible impossible" is easier to accept on that upbeat ride.

[Bass Shakers]

Umm, no. Common mis-conception. There's only one track on Indy. The actual room & doors move, not the tracks. You always enter the same room with different lighting.

What Bill said. So what I meant was that the doors/walls/lighting changes such that the different "rooms" are affected in the cycle: future, riches, youth, riches.

[disneyfreeek]

LOL!!! For a while I thought "how they heck do they fit 3 diff tracks in there", then one day I saw the doors moving right before we went in. Ohhhhh now that made alot more sense.

[CousinPhil]

So what exactly makes each ride slightly differnet? Someone mentioned about the jeep stopping on the bridge or not. What are some of the other possibilities for the Indy ride?

[JiminyCricketFan]

fastpassmountain is on the right track

You are on the right track with your idea. As with current video games, which have multiple possibilities, new rides should incorporate this concept. Indy is hard, however. It really was not designed to do this. I think some minor variation are possible, but I would love to go through all three doors and see different experiences. It would really take some more space and engineering to do that. You are right that the opportunity for surprise, is the real factor that can make rides more fun in the future.

[Jspider]

yeah the scrims or whatever they're called get light shining on them differently to change them

one way you'll see the art for youth the other way you'll see art for knowledge of the future and then the lights will shine yet another way and the scrims turn transparant and you can see the props sitting on the sides for riches

So what exactly makes each ride slightly differnet? Someone mentioned about the jeep stopping on the bridge or not. What are some of the other possibilities for the Indy ride?

it can stop in other places it shifts differen't ways as already mentioned

Indy's dialoge is randomly selected too for the most part (or at least he keeps saying different things to me :P)

[Jspider]

You are on the right track with your idea. As with current video games, which have multiple possibilities, new rides should incorporate this concept. Indy is hard, however. It really was not designed to do this. I think some minor variation are possible, but I would love to go through all three doors and see different experiences. It would really take some more space and engineering to do that. You are right that the opportunity for surprise, is the real factor that can make rides more fun in the future.

video games?

what're you talking about?

I'm a gamer and I'd say for the most part the amount of endings hasn't really increased at all, I mean sure some games have two

the best game for multiple endings was Chrono Trigger which came out in the mid 90's (it had something like 13 endings I think)

Chrono Trigger had a half sequal half um totaly different game called Chrono Chross which had a similar amount of endings AND featured multiple paths, sadly the game isn't a classic mostly because with 42 characters alot of the plot feels watered down (to handle whatever character you decide to use for whatever chapter) why SquareEnix won't make another sequal when these games have a huge cult following is beyond me (heck all gamers ever do if Square announces a mystery game is whine about why they haven't created Chrono Break like they said they would)

but overall I'm going to say that for all the promises of multiple endings and infinate play are for the most part unfulfilled, most games never really give you what they say they will in that respect (I believe Chrono games take forever to make because they're a writing nightmare that requires alot of well thought out plot direction for it to make since with every possibility)

[pyrateslife4me84]

This isn't on topic, but there is a newer game called Fable that allows you to attack any person you want (good or bad) and go anywhere you want on any quests you want, which changes the outcome of the came. Talk about possibilities...

I do think Indy could use some updates...I'm glad they fixed all of the broken effects during the last closure, but now I'd like to see more additions like the kewl snake they have now that is MUCH better than the old one. The best way to randomize it would be of course to have so many effects that you only experience a handful of them on a given ride--it wouldn't be that difficult to do, and they could pretty much do it without closing the ride--just add a couple new effects every night.

[SpeMarX]

Umm, no. Common mis-conception. There's only one track on Indy. The actual room & doors move, not the tracks. You always enter the same room with different lighting.

Wait, ok so you always go in the middle, just the doors move left and right?

[fastpassmountain]

Wait, ok so you always go in the middle, just the doors move left and right?

That's correct.

And with this discussion about how much the same/similar Indy is, it all comes back to my original comment about Jungle Cruise and how it has a seemingly infinite variety: there are different skippers who use different spiels, and as mentioned before, there's the community feeling since you get to laugh and duck and clap with your fellow boatmates. A good skipper plays off of the people in the boat, especially the newbies. How many times have you been on the ride and not seen anyone duck as the boat passed by the "reloading" baby elephant?
That's the AP boat!

[robotpirates]

I just recently figured out that the doors change, haha. It's been fooling me for 10 years.

Every time I go on Indy, it FEELS different. The jeeps jitter a different way, stop in different places, etc. Sure, it's not exactly what I had in mine in my 9 year old idealistic self but it's still pretty good. You also get variation by sitting in the back or front (like most rides); in the back you'll get thrashed around a lot and in the front it's a bit tamer.

Okay, random question: Does anyone here "act" with the ride? Like you're going into the Temple of Mara for the actual riches/youth/future knowing and blame someone in the jeep for looking in her eyes and screwing everything up? Yeah... my friends and I do. We even act scared during the arrows.