LAND/QUEUE:
-The Falcon outside is MASSIVE. The scale of everything is so large it will make you feel like an ant.
-The queue is very impressive. Multi leveled, tons of props to look at.. but isn't physically interactive at all. I'm guessing the Play Disney Parks app will be heavily relied on.
-There is only 1 Hondo preshow room (this seems so cost effective and inefficient to me personally). For efficiency, the room is divided into 2. This 1 room holds a large amount of people and feeds two separate falcon interiors. When the preshow ends, both sides dump out into 2 separate chess rooms.
(this seems interesting... you being in a room full of guests and only seeing your half of the room in the actual falcon... where did the others go?)
-Grouping happens before you enter the chess room
-Every single person is assigned a colored card with a number and a cockpit position on it.
-The chess room is free roam and you will see other groups waiting as well.
RIDE:
-The ride is actually pretty long.. about 5 min is what the cm felt like it was.
-Everyone starts out with $3000. Every time you fire or bang into something, it costs money. At the end, Hondo will tally your score and let you know how much money you have left/if you did good/bad. This group had $300 left and Hondo was not happy.
-PILOT: This position is reported to be the most fun and the most challenging. One pilot controls left/right movement while the other controls up/down. Up/Down is harder and has more game play. There were some small moments with little to do for the left/right pilot. Not only is this position the hardest but you get perfect viewing (front row seats) to the entire show. Adults felt stressed and challenged by this position, can't wait to see how little Timmy handles the attraction.
GUNNER: None of my friends have yet to experience this position but they said the individuals in those seats were having a blast!
ENGINEER: Ok.... where do I begin... So this position will actually be the least favored of the three, but not for the reasons we think. The tasks are actually cool and a lot of fun BUT its very difficult to see the screen/understand what is going on. I don't think the seats are elevated, therefore, you're basically getting the worst seat in the house. I also heard that the projection is not very bright which really did not help the back row at all. The Falcon window is already hard to see out of normally, so sitting in the back wasn't too fulfilling.
DOWNTIMES: The ride actually has a tech difficulty during a friends preview.. the cockpit screen shuts off and turns blank, motion stops, and you just sit and wait for a CM to open your door. They got to re-ride.
EMPTY SEATS: If your cockpit has empty seats, the ride system will know and disregard them.
EXIT: You exit out a different hallway than what you entered but it looks identical.
CMs did not notice any hallway changes as they exited like stated at the Chicago convention.
Another account:
Pretty accurate to what my group and I experienced. A few things I wanted to add:
- the Hondo AA wasn’t working. The CM in the pre-show room pushed a button, left the room, came back and realized it never worked, then pushed something else, and an alternate pre-show played on the screens.
- Gunner seemed like the most popular position among the groups riding. Pilot is fun, but you don’t really participate in any action like the Gunner does.
- The position assigning was completely random. After the pre-show, we were directed down a narrow hallway and were practically in a single file line and the CM at the end of the line was quickly handing out cards with our assigned color and position. Didn’t seem like there was any particular method to this.
- The line moves VERY QUICK with no Fastpass holding back the standby queue. This will be nice during the first few months of operation.
