August 31, 2007: Rocket Rods

[michael crosson]

Welcome to "miceage",a site I'm most grateful to know about! I was keeping up with "mouseplanet" and they lack very many details and juicy updates!
Anyway,well,yes about rocket rods! It was awesome! To some or many who did not know of the single rider deal,which you'd get when nearly entering the building or simply walking up and asking,the ride may have been disapointing! To me it was awesome! It was futuristic! At least the look! I remember underground an illuminated sign of where the rocket rods would travel in the future but never became a reality! It was a good ride but yes,it needed banks on those turns and I can remember once waiting in line and it did break down! I would bring my family and since we all wanted to ride together,just get a soda and snack and wait the wait!
But it proved to be most awesome during the absence of my spouse who became unfaithful! There was much grief and pain and being blasted over tommorrowland at 35mph with all the cool sounds was beautiful! So good indeed that I went to disneyland 3 times in one week just to ride the rocket rods! I liked how it lifted up slightly in front and the front seat had the best view! Everything flying at you! If you ever rode it in the rain,well,it hurt! The rain would beat on your forehead and I was surprised it was even running in the rain but at least I think it served a purpose,to at least help me cope with lifes' trials and tribulations! Also helpful to me at the those grieving times was the disneyland railroad! I just liked talking to the engineers and going where it said" do not enter" on main.st and standing next to the firebreathing trains and feeling its' power! Sometimes the engineers would let you up on the locomotives before they resumed tender rides! Surely,it is a glorious piece of machinery that can't stop on a dime so that is how I faced my trials,directly! My car has red hub caps,"disneyland railroad" labeled on the sides,a red glowing light at night for the fire ,bells and whistles,also tinkerbell on the rightside on vinal stickers printed with ink! Also a very unique light show inside ,inspired by disney,with soundtracks to many dsineyland atractions,even a fog machine that brings the imagination to life! Cool,huh? It took a lot of dreaming and believing! Also there is projected images recorded to vhs and burned to dvd of disneyland so you have a vision of the park,its' sounds,and the lights with more strobes than any emergency vehicle you can think of! But not as many as during fantasmic at the finale before the mark twain makes its' appearance!
Well some of the new up dates say there will be another people mover! What a total snore! I would like it to move fast and have much interacting or futuristic designs but we'll have to wait and see! Thanks!07
**********believe07**************

[danyoung]

While I acknowledge the shortcomings, and understand that it had to go away, I really enjoyed the ride for what it was, especially if I got an up front seat and the car raised up on acceleration (a feature that didn't always function!) I waited 90 minutes the first time, then did the single rider almost every time after that. I've maybe been on 10 rides or so, and managed to have fun while wishing that Disney had done it right the first time.

[PragmaticIdealist]

The fact that Rocket Rods is no more is fairly good evidence that there is a God. They were utterly depressing, obnoxious, and soulless, much like the executives who were responsible for the attraction's creation.

[Asterix]

At the time I believed the ride had some potential. I remember that Rocket Rods irked quite a few of us at the time because we all thought Disneyland was going to continue to deteriorate, and that we would never see another true E-ticket again; that this was as good as it was going to get from now on. Luckily things have turned around, at least somewhat, but at the time we felt that it might really be too late to save the park from ultimate decline. So that may explain some of the passionate dislike some of us have for this ride, it's symbolic.

The main thing that offended me was the part of the queue that went through CircleVision. And it still was CircleVision, even though it wasn't supposed to be, because they didn't even bother to take CircleVision out -- you were supposed to stand there inside what used to be an attraction that we all considered part of Disneyland, with the lean rails and the screens all still there, and suspend your disbelief and pretend it was the queue for Rocket Rods. Not only did they leave the screens up, one of them had a big ugly tear in it. This felt like a total disregard both for Disneyland's history and for the guests who have been supporting the park for so many years.

So then you went further along in the queue and I recall seeing some "theming," a design on the floor, a grid of fluorescent orange lines which were apparently made by sticking glow tape in rows and columns. The edges of this tape appeared to be peeling up already when the attraction opened.

For me, those kind of "wow, isn't this cheap" moments tended to eclipse the parts of the ride which were actually pretty sort of okay.

[Tava Dault]

I really wish they would put something else there. It is so aweful that they have done nothing with that ride. It was like the sub ride. How long did it take to figure out something to put there. They need to do something.