Let's Remember Disaster Transport!

...as it once was. I'll jot down everything I can remember. Please add to it/correct it following the number scheme!

1) First queue room (where 3-D glasses are sold today). Lit up pictures/diagrams of the train on the far wall. Pictures of various locations that Dispatch Master Transport travels to line all the other walls (ones without fluorescent paint and monsters). Black lit.

2) Second queue room (reduced to a narrow hallway of metal walls today). Animatronic room 1. From the entrance, high up on the front, left, and back walls there were various screens, light-ups, etc. The animatronic robot was on the lefthand wall. He was silver, only a few feet tall, and stood high above the queue. I think there were 2 video screens (one on the front wall, one on the back) which displayed various video to interact with the robot. The robot had a sort of C-3P0ish voice. There was one video of a Star Wars-ish pilot within a cockpit who complained about being pursued by space pirates. The robot replied with something like, "Space pirates? That's not possible in your current location," or something like that.

3) Third queue room (still intact today). Animatronic room 2. The repair bay. From the entrance, the foreman robot was located inside the lefthand wall. He was framed by the entrance/exit holes for the conveyor belts which are still in operation today. He sat in the middle of the wall and was blockly looking, not having a face/hands/legs/etc. He glowed whenever he spoke. His voice was deep, almost like they had used slow-motion on the tape. He would be instructing other robots (which didn't speak) on their repairs of the train. One train car still sits inside the right hand wall, where various contraptions move and "repair" it. The conveyor belts circled the room. There was a large button the far wall which would flash "overheating" every so often. The only quote I can remember of the foreman is, "Noooo, noooo don't use chainsaws!"

4) Hallway with paintings of boxes (minus fluorescent paint). Large Disaster Transport logo on wall at the base of the stairwell. Several TVs lined the stairs going up, showing a video of a woman dressed in a neon orange jumpsuit who explained details of your flight (ala flight attendant). The video was funny. I can't remember any of the dialogue.

5) Load platform. Ride Ops wore orange neon jumpsuits like the woman in the video.

6) Lift Hill. No air conditioning! Red chaser lights on both sides all the way up. Hot, noisy, and disorienting. Large light above top of lift which also displayed "overheating."

"Uh oh, space pirates."

7) Ride room 1. Large explosion shown on the screen ahead of you as you enter the room. Track snakes left, then right. Can't remember much else.

8) Ride room 2. Room with large metallic object in the center which you sort of circle. Used to be well-lit and quite shiny/erie looking. I remember there being hanging things in this room (spiderish?). Cricket type noise filled the room, as well as some fog around the base of the object? (later this room was pitch black, later still the object was painted bright colors)

"I'm losing control!"

9) Mining room just before final brakes. Small room with picture of mars-like landscape and some sort of large machinery.

"Welcome to Alaska."

Please add! I can't remember if I'm leaving out one of the smaller ride rooms or not. Also, I was unsure of the locations of the many block brakes, or I would have included them to help.

Wow, that sounds awesome! I wish I could have rode it then; I never thought Cedar Point was that serious with theming.

The ride still sucked. Put an elaborate theme and queue around a turd and it just becomes a turn with a theme. Still stinks.

I remember the C-3P0 robot well. It was so impressive as a young kid seeing that. I also remember at that age that the story line and the ride effects added so much to the ride.

My dad bought me a Disaster Transport visor with red, green, and yellow led lights on it that year. I wonder where that went...

The elaborate theming for the ride back then only hyped up a very lame ride. I think it made the ride even more dissapointing once you got on it.

Gone are the days when CP cared... Soon Maverick won't even have a tunnel.

Qualify your opinion. Why?

The tunnel will be there, but I would question how long they do the upkeep on the water cannons.

I couldn't care less about the water features, personally. I didn't notice either while riding, and the tunnel was still exciting, sans fog/mist/whatever.

I give the water effects two seasons, and I give the canyons five seasons before showing signs of crumbling, which in any other case, would be humorous irony.

I think Jeff, that as adults, yes DT sucked back then and still does now, but those who rode it as a little kid probably loved it.

I don't know if I would take it that far. Thunder Canyon still has all of it's canyons. They aren't crumbling into the water last time I checked...

Apples and oranges. With TC, those are more integral with the ride as compared to those on Maverick.

Wow. I never new it was so elaborate. I mean, I always thought that room with the robots "repairing" a car was really cool, and wondered why more of it wasn't that way. I always have to explain to people why it says we arrived in Alaska.
Does it even mention Alaska anymore? I didn't ride it this year, but they would do better without it, since it doesn't make sense anymore.

^^ I would dispute that. Those canyons are every bit as integral to Maverick's sidewinding experience as TC's canyons are to its waterfalls.

Jeff: you've probably already expostulated on this before in one of the many DT threads that have floated across the forum, but is there any incarnation, interior or exterior, where DT/AR wouldn't suck in your opinion? *** Edited 6/25/2007 6:53:45 PM UTC by Ensign Smith***

Eek - I misread. I read "cannons" instead of "canyons", an error which made your post seem as if it were in a completely different language. :)

THe only mention of Alaska that I know of in the past few years has been a ride op occasionally will say, "enjoy your trip to Alaska," as you depart the load station. There is no signage otherwise.

Come to think of it, I believe this was the main purpose of the video on the stairwell (mentioned in 4). The girl on the video explained something about going to Alaska I'm pretty sure. I seem to think it was an evacuation from...something.

cheese_on_a_stick said:
The elaborate theming for the ride back then only hyped up a very lame ride. I think it made the ride even more dissapointing once you got on it.

Totally agree. The theming was much cooler then the ride. It was entertaining and fun. Really it was the best part of the experience. Get out of the heat for a while and be entertained. The fact that you got to ride an OK coaster at the end was just an extra bonus. I was very disappointed when I went back and saw nothing but a sheet metal maze. Still worth keeping around though. Not every ride has to be super thrilling.

The ride is what it is. You can think it sucks, or you can like it - just like any other ride on the planet. But, it was definitely better when the "effects" were working in the queue and the ride itself. Now it's just an embarrassment.

I haven't even ridden DT yet this year. Every year I'm disappointed more and more. I gues as a kid I thought that it was amazing. That was before I was hooked on the the taller, faster rides that were yet to come. I still think it could be a good ride, especially for kids if the theming had been maintained, I'm just not sure it would even entertain kids anymore, if anything it might creep them out since you no longer are able to forget the fact that you're in a warehouse.

I was a kid when it was Avalanche Run, and thought it sucked then. And this coming from someone who didn't ride much at the time. Then as DT, my sophomore year in high school, I waited two hours for it. It still sucked. When I brought Catherine on it last summer, who was at the time scared of Mine Ride, she thought it sucked.

It's dull, dull, dull. And now it's also an eyesore on what could be a beautiful beach front.