We were shown a full ride through of the Shanghai Pirates of the Caribbean ride. At first, when the ride was starting to move and there was narration/talking over still skeletons, I was starting to het very disappointed and thought it was going to be entirely like that, but then Jack Sparrow was magically brought from the skeleton and I immediately felt surprised and intrigued, even though I could barely understand what was going on. The animatronic work was fairly believable, much more impressive than I expected at first. The full screen parts were the most effective for me, as I'm sure in person they would take up more of my view and suck me into the experience much more.
However, there were some parts where the immersion was broken, and for an experience ride like this one, those parts were painful to sit through, such as the part where the screen up ahead was visible when changing. The audio work and music definitely helped, and was the most integral part of the whole experience, as even if the effects were stellar, without the audio and music it would have felt fake or fell flat.
I did not understand the language that was spoken, because I don't speak Chinese. Despite this obvious setback, the viewing was still really enjoyable and immersive for me, and it was definitely the audio work and immersive fullscreen parts that sucked me into the experience. It reminded me of the times I rode on the experience rides at theme parks, and how in that environment everything felt so much more real. Not being actually there makes my eye more critical of the flaws I see, and I think this ride would have effectively connected with me much better if I was there. The sense of adventure, the excitement throughout the ride, I felt some of it, even if it wasn't all of it. I have to really give props to the music honestly, the audio work made me feel things even if my brain was skeptic and unwilling to be truly immersed.
This experience, from what I've got it, was an adventure you were pulled along with viewer interaction. From an adaptive standpoint, the only true medium that has genuine audience engagement on a one on one basis is video games, and for this type of immersive experience, I would adapt this ride to Virtual Reality. The headset would seal in the eyes in darkness, and allow full control of what the person can or cannot see, making it easier to cater the experience for specifically one viewer.
The changes I would make are simple, more audience engagement, and if budget would allow, there would be a 4D seat for the player to sit in that would move in accordance to the movements shown in the VR scene. The animatronics would be replaced with real actors or CGI ones shown in the screen, and won't have to have that uncanny feel to them. It would feel quite real, but without danger of having water splash onto you. (Unless you wanted to have extra immersion, we could have someone with a water bucket on standby.) There would be more player engagement of course, more choices, input, control over where the boat is headed, etc. This would let there be a reason for some people to choose the VR ride version over the actual ride version, because if it was exactly the same, there would be not much novelty in trying out the VR version if there was already the same physical ride.
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