The Internet is all A Buzz...

[Moonliner]

Reports seem to be flooding the Internet from the soft opening of buzz (yes it's open). Who will be the first to post a swanky review?

[Name]

mmmmmmmmm.........more soft openings..........:homer drool:

[Moonliner]

mmmmmmmmm.........more soft openings..........:homer drool:

Pluuuueezzz.. That's sooo 10 minutes ago... :rolleyes:

[Cadaverous Pallor]

I'm trying to not read reviews. I want to decide for myself. But after I ride it I'll post, that's for sure. ;)

[Name]

Pluuuueezzz.. That's sooo 10 minutes ago... :rolleyes:
Got caught in a time vortex for about 20 minutes, so I am still back about 30 minutes ago.

[Motorboat Cruiser]

I rode it this afternoon. I'm too tired to get into detail right now but will post more in the morning. We did really enjoy it though.

[scaeagles]

I rode it this afternoon. I'm too tired to get into detail right now but will post more in the morning. We did really enjoy it though.

It is the morning. You posted at 1:56a.m. I want to know now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Motorboat Cruiser]

It is the morning. You posted at 1:56a.m. I want to know now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

See, that's the problem with this country. You conservatives are waking up just as us liberals are getting to bed. :)

We went to the park yesterday to meet LSPoorEyooric and her boyfriend. As we walk up to them, she says "We have 4 fastpasses for Buzz and we can go on right now!" It was such an unexpected treat and we made our way there, to find out that the ride was down. Not a big deal because we understand the concept of a soft opening. They said it would be back up later and it was. A few hours later, we were able to ride.

OK, here are my thoughts. I'm using the spoiler function to err on the side of caution, as this is somewhat detailed.

First, this wasn't a ride I was expecting to enjoy. It just didn't sound like my kind of thing. Still, it was a NEW RIDE and I'll take all of those that I can get.

We were told that the fastpass line would be about 30 minutes. That was more than likely because of the earlier downtime. Most of the wait was outdoors. Once we got inside, it didn't take too long at all. The ride appears to be pretty high capacity, due to the omnimover-type loading. The indoor queu wasn't all that impressive. It looked nice because, well, it is new, but I felt that they could have done more to entertain. There is one cool scene with a giant etch-a-sketch though. Once you are there, you are very close to being loaded.

We then boarded the ride vehicles, which were very cool, IMO. Pretty roomy too. Entering the ride, my first impression was, "Wow, they didn't really skimp here." There was lots of moving targets, the sets were more elaborate than anything in Pooh, and in essence, they put some work into this one, IMO. I would be able to go into more detail except that I was busy shooting everything. :) (I need to ride again and just look around)

Speaking of which, I like the fact that the guns light up when scoring a hit, but I didn't think they aimed very accurately. As someone who is a pretty good shot, I had a hard time adjusting to the sights. Or... maybe I'm just sore that Matthew beat my score x10 . :mad: ;)

The spin control of the vehicles is cool. Make sure you remember it is there. We did a lot of shooting before we remembered "Oh, that's right, we can spin!" Finally, I was pretty surprised at the length of the ride. It seemed longer than any of the other dark rides. It did go into creep mode at one point and these futuristic barriers came rising out of the floor surrounding the scenery. (I have no way of knowing if it did the same thing in every room) You could not shoot while in creep mode, much to my dismay (I had some serious points to catch up, damn it)

Once we exited the ride, we were surprised to find out that you can email a picture from the ride to yourself at, (are you sitting down?) NO CHARGE! Although, imagine all of the email addresses they are accumulating this way. I didn't see any sort of "we won't share your address" disclosure. We tried to use this feature but our picture never showed up on the screen. There were many blank spots on the screen that said "Image not available". I'm assuming they still have some bugs to work out here.

Overall, we were pleasantly surprised. The ride was longer, and the queu shorter, than we had expected. It was more elaborate than we expected and, I have to admit, a bunch of fun. I saw a repeatability factor that I did not expect. I'm not saying everyone will adore this ride but you may just find that your competitive side comes out more than you anticipated. All in all, I think they did a good job. Thumbs up and a snap. :snap:

[Gemini Cricket]

Thanks for that, MBC.
Can't wait to ride Buzz.
:)

[mousepod]

Thanks for the review MBC!

I'm really looking forward to Buzz - though I'm still wondering how it differs from the WDW version...

(note to self: future MousePod topic "How attractions with the same name are different in each Disney Park; or why do the Japanese have the best Pooh?" - maybe that title won't work in an audio show...)

[MerryPrankster]

Great review, MBC! :snap: Woohoo!! Buzz sounds waaaay better than Pooh!

I can't wait to check it out. It sounds like my nephews will really dig it too! :D

[scaeagles]

See, that's the problem with this country. You conservatives are waking up just as us liberals are getting to bed. :)

As someone who is a pretty good shot, I had a hard time adjusting to the sights. Or... maybe I'm just sore that Matthew beat my score x10 . :mad: ;)

Early to bed, early to rise.....this is why conservatives are so much smarter. :p

You only lost because liberals think gun control is taking guns away. Real gun control is knowing how to shoot it. ;) :evil:

[Motorboat Cruiser]

You only lost because liberals think gun control is taking guns away. Real gun control is knowing how to shoot it. ;) :evil:

Nope, not taking that bait. :)

[mousepod]

Memories of WDW '02 (please forgive my frightening "in-between" hair)

http://www.ped-xing.com/buzz.jpg

[mhrc4]

were headed up to the park now, it was open earlier today, hope it will be here in about 40 minutes! :D

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Ack! Must...go to park...:eek: I have a friend coming over, can't go just yet! Here's hoping we can kick her out early and be there tonight ;)

[Monorail Man]

Ack! Must...go to park...:eek: I have a friend coming over, can't go just yet! Here's hoping we can kick her out early and be there tonight ;)

You meanies! :p :evil:

[Kevy Baby]

Memories of WDW '02 (please forgive my frightening "in-between" hair)

http://www.ped-xing.com/buzz.jpgNo, I like the blond highlights in front. It goes well with the white T-shirt yu are wearing. :evil: :gnome:

[mousepod]

No, I like the blond highlights in front. It goes well with the white T-shirt yu are wearing. :evil: :gnome:

... I was asking for that one.

[alphabassettgrrl]

Now I can't wait to ride it- we'll see how well this liberal can shoot! :)

Thanks for the review!!!

[Ghoulish Delight]

My review

Honestly, much the same as MBC's. We first rode it twice in standby, because the standby line was only about 30 minutes while our FPs were 3+ hours away from maturing. Like MBC said, the inside queue is really short, very little to it. Some cute touches, and one very cool Buzz animatronic using the giant etch-a-sketch to detail your mission. It's very well done, a lot of movement, cool projected face.

The ride itself, quite entertaining. My first impression was...hmm, I was paying a lot of attention to shooting and din't see much of the ride other than the larger animated set pieces. Which was fine with me, I had fun shooting (we were still able to shoot in creep mode, and even when it stopped). The second time through, I paid a little more attention, but the urge to shoot took hold. The third time through, I just shot like mad. But what I saw was entertaining. Not "blow you away spectacular" but entertaining. Definite repeatability.

Our last time through we checked out the photo emailing thing. At some point during the process it did show a "we won't save or use your information" message on the bottom of the screen, so no worries there.

It will be interesting to see how the online interactive dealy works when they get it up and running.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

What GD said. :)

On our second time through we were stuck still for like 5 whole minutes. The cool automatic gates went up and down, so obviously CMs were walking the track. We could shoot the whole time. But it was lame to be stuck for so long. I wonder why.

I liked the ride and will definitely go again and again. It could have used more 3D elements, but as it was, there were some cool things to look at. I dug the free email ability, very cool of them, although there certainly weren't enough kiosks for that. The Leota-head Buzz in the queue was VERY impressive - awesome movements.

[blueerica]

I'll just concur with the above, and for the purpose of not wanting to be redundant, will also tell you to read my reviews above, as written by GD & CP.

KThanks...

:D

[innerSpaceman]

The ride's cute and a lot of fun, but I don't think the shoot'em-up video game conceit quite begs all forgiveness for another two-dimensional, cardboard-cut-out ride in the Pooh vein. I think they expect the gunfire aspect to distract guests from noticing that the sets are so cheap. And that they do; while I was in shooting mode, I didn't see much of the ride aside from the targets. When I rode again without the raygun, there was, imo, a lot more fun revealed ... and a lot more cheapness. And for a spinning ride, it sure didn't have very much in-the-round design. Nowhere near the all-aroundness of Roger Rabbit.

An enjoyable ride, however, and very appearling. Cool Buzz animatronic in the queue. A great bird bit on Planet Z that's straight out of Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, and -best of all- a wonderful light tunnel effect that's a brilliant homage to Adventure thru Inner Space.

A nice C-Ticket ride. And I hate the rapid cartoonization of Tomorrowland, but at least this is one step away from Ghosttown.

[Motorboat Cruiser]

Good. Glad it wasn't just me. :)

Some more thoughs, as I've had a bit of time to ponder more...

(also keeping with the spoiler tradition, for the time being)

- Interesting that you could shoot while stopped, GD. The more I think about it, the more I think that we were actually stopped and not creeping when we realized that we weren't able to score points. I wonder if it was stopped due to something having to do with the gun interaction. Hard to say.

- I was expecting the indoor area to be about 40% queue and 60% ride. When I saw the length of the queue though, I knew the size of the ride would be decent. It's a pretty big building.

- Also, glad to hear about the email info! As we never got that far into the process (no picture available), we never saw the privacy policy. I also must concur heavily with CP and say that they did not set up enough of these kiosks. We waited quite a while to get up there. I hope the pictures stay up long enough to compensate for the wait.

- I was trying to figure out if you could hit the same target multiple times or if it is necessary to keep switching to different ones. Anyone have any input on that?

Glad y'all enjoyed it!

[Motorboat Cruiser]

Also, kind of off-topic, (ok, very off-topic) but I am really enjoying the new color scheme of Tomorrowland so far!

[Ghoulish Delight]

Oh, you could totally hit the same target multiple times. I think some targets reset faster than others, but when we were stopped, I found targets worth as much as possible and just pummeled them.

[Ghoulish Delight]

On a procedural critique note, they need to find a different queue solution. Currently, it wraps around the side of the building, up towards Ariel's Grotto (hehehe). Even with a queue that was only 30 minutes, we saw several people being very confused. One person was just trying to distinguish the Buzz queue from the queue (or non-existant queue at the time) to get into Ariel's Grotto (hehehe). While several other people had to wade their way through the Buzz queue in an attempt to get to Ariels' Grotto (hehehe), only to be turned back by a CM who didn't want to help them unhook all the chains they would need to cross over to get there and told to go all the way around. Spectacularly poor planning in the queue department on this one. I can't imagine what they are going to do when the ride actually opens and they get lines longer than 30 minutes.

[Motorboat Cruiser]

Yeah, I hope they are working on a better solution. Of course, it doesn't help that the Astro Orbiters are clogging up that whole area anyway.