“We have a couple of formulated scents just for this. It’s going to smell just like an old steel mill would. There’s a blast furnace on the ride, and it’s going to smell exactly like burning coals,” said Roly Garcia.
Friday, April 12, 2019
Take a Ride on The Old Mill at CMU
“We have a couple of formulated scents just for this. It’s going to smell just like an old steel mill would. There’s a blast furnace on the ride, and it’s going to smell exactly like burning coals,” said Roly Garcia.
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I went on this ride today and I thought it was so cute, the tour guides were so fun just pretending it was broken and that they got lost. I don’t really know much about the Old Mill and I’m not sure if I was supposed to learn anything but I did think it was a fun cute little thing that these students did. I definitely applaud the work that went into creating and building this, it does not look like it was easy to build at all. It reminded me of a non-scary basement haunted house that my neighbors used to do when I was really little. I am not sure what kind of budget they had to build this ride, but I think they definitely could have benefited from a higher budget to make some of the things look more realistic instead of just pained wood, but the thought was definitely there. The things that I liked the best were the ones that moved so I wish there was more of that as well.
I had the privilege of visiting this dark ride today with a few of my friends. It was, in a weird way, such a heartwarming experience. The people working the ride were super enthusiastic and wonderful to talk to. They took on the characters of steel mill workers, and they played them pretty well. Their cheeky comments like, “Oh I think I went the wrong way, don’t tell my boss,” made me chuckle a little. It was basically just a fun time. I hope their arms did not get too tired from pushing people around in the ride all day though. In addition to that, the ride itself was incredibly interesting. It had a lot of important historical information, and overall just looked really good. They definitely achieved the “I can’t believe kids built this” aspect they were going for. If you have time in the next few days, definitely check it out in the basement of Skibo.
I hadn’t heard of this ride at all until I saw it today at Carnival. I had no prior knowledge about it but decided to go with my friends anyway. I find the idea of a dark ride to be incredibly ambitious, yet it was also thought through and well done. All of the students monitoring and controlling the ride remained in character, which contributed to the overall experience. The mechanics of it were evident, and the audience could likely tell how the ride functioned (i.e. a cart on casters, in place by a track, etc.), but there was an extreme level of detail present that was truly remarkable. I really agree with what the article says about how this ride could inspire children and even other college students to have a dream and actively pursue it. The fact that this entire ride was conceptualized, built, and installed within a year is really impressive to me.
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I went on this ride with some of my friends yesterday and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I was very impressed by the level and quality of the work that was being produced by these students. While I would say that I was not particularly immersed in the experience—it was quite easy to notice the structure and pretty obvious what was supposed to and not supposed to happen—but I thought the whole concept and execution was a lot of fun and I really appreciated the level of work and commitment each of the people involved had. The whole experience was just a lot of fun and I am really glad that I made the decision to participate. While, like Annika, I don’t know how this project is structured and what the financial situation is, I think the team could have definitely benefited from perhaps a higher budget that would have helped them to cover up some of the less immersive aspects of the experience.
I love dark rides. I someone told me I could only design one thing for the rest of my life and never be able to do anything else I would design dark rides. There is something inherent in the design that is transportative. When you are strapped into your seat and whisked into the first scene you could be in a mansion, a sea port, or in this case a steel mill. I did talk to one of my friends today who like me is an avid dark ride fan and they were not impressed. I will admit to the same but I understand the difficulty that these rides is that starting from scratch is that a majority of the cost probably goes to the ride system leaving little for set dressing and special effects. The genius of the original old mill rides is that they utilized already existing systems that were converted to become entertainment vehicles.
I ended up in Skibo at some point the other day and rode this, and it was definitely not what I expected. Which I guess is not saying much considering no one could explain to me what we were waiting 45 minutes in line to do. They just kept saying, “it’s a ride.” And it was.
I thought it was pretty cute, our tour guide person was really into his character and I had a good time but mostly because of the novelty of it. It’s really cool that they were able to pull together a real ride inside of this building, with a storyline and everything, and then run it all weekend, I was pretty impressed especially given the circumstances of it all. If I’m going to get picky about anything, I’d say their masking could have been better (cue Dick Block “I told you so”). There were points where I could see other people coming through the ride and it either gave away what was about to happen or distracted me from what was happening, but other than that I thought it was a grand ole time.
Carnival has been one of the most anticipated events of the year and as a freshman I had no idea what to expect. People who don’t attend CMU come to this event with their friends and family looking for a good time. So far, carnival has definitely been a great time. Given that the weather has finally warmed up and at the perfect time, it has just been a nice breather from all the stress in school- I truly didn’t know CMU could be this fun. Obviously, carnival doesn’t happen every weekend, so I think it being once a year makes it that much more special and interesting. It been a time to spend time with the people I love and get to know the people I’ve always wanted to. The atmosphere is always in a relaxed state and it’s refreshing to see everyone having a good time and being happy, rather than running to class and freaking out over tomorrow's exam.
With all the talk surrounding this new “ride,” I was more than willing to stand on line for The Old Mill. Along the path that the line followed, there were numerous museum-like displays portraying what life would have been like for steel workers. I really appreciated the amount of effort that went into making those displays, but wondered how the historical sense would influence the ride itself. After over forty minutes standing on line, we finally reach the ride, and it immediately became clear to me why it had taken so long for us to get to the front; only 2 pairs of 2 could experience the ride at a time, and the little cars that guests sat in were pushed through the whole thing by students. The ride itself was underwhelming, in my opinion, though I could appreciate how the students had mechanized all the triggers in the tracks and built everything that we saw. I just wish I had been more scared, entertained, or surprised-- but I wasn’t.
I went in line with a few friends the first day of Carnival to see the Old Mill ride. We waited in line for over 30 minutes and came out pretty underwhelmed. My experience seems to be a lot different than other people in the comments, but I think it’s because my perception of what the ride was going to be was altered by the workers and people walking out who had just rode it. They gave off the impression like it was supposed to be scary and have very entertaining sounds and pop-ups - but that was not the case at all. The person that pushed me and Davine’s cart was very into it but just wasn’t great at executing the acting portion of it, half of the time we were super confused. We thought something bad was going to happen when she walked away but then she just came back and we kept going. I thought the look of it was extremely well done, I just wish my perception of the ride had been unbiased before riding it.
I do not want to be overly harsh about this, but it really was not that impressive. The whole thing was kind of weird and out of place. I was never really clear as to why it was built or what it was trying to accomplish. And that is just on the idea level. The execution was not really that impressive either. Raw 2x4s were everywhere and cardboard seemed to be a major building material for much of it. Now granted, I am sure they did not have much of a budget or anything so there is that to consider, but I do not know if that is enough to justify the end result at what it was. My tour guide was a fun guy who seemed to be enjoying himself, and made the overall experience pretty good for me as well, but it was still weird. I feel like this was trying to be a different kind of booth, but really did not stand out above any of the booths that I saw this year.
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