We rode Forbidden Journey and it was cool - but I felt horrible the rest of the day, like I had a huge headache. My daughter loved it though, so we went again the next day. That time I closed my eyes for the movies - and I was fine! I'd thought it was the robotic benches doing me in with all the motion, but really it's the movie scenes.
So we rode it again. I was on an edge bench and peeked. When your bench swoops in to the movie cut scenes, your bench is attaching itself to a rotating set of movie screens. It looks like there are 5 or 6 or so screens stuck in a circle, rotating like a clock. Your bench comes in, attaches to a screen, and then follows the screen, rotating clockwise or counterclockwise until the scene is over and then your bench swoops back out.
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| How the Forbidden Journey Movie Cut Scenes Work |
In the above photo I've drawn a clockwise rotating set of screens with 3 benches watching the movie as one bench approaches and one leaves (like my blue swoosh lines?)
With my eyes closed I could "feel" the movement of the bench gently following the screen in its circle - this is a subtle motion that the wild flying motion is on top of. My problem is that when your eyes are open, the scene in front of you doesn't match that rotation.
Sometimes in the movie your the scene darts in the direction of the real world motion. Those don't mess up my inner ear too much. Sometimes the visible motion is mostly forward, but the real world still rotates around it's clock. That's not too bad. Sometimes the visible motion jerks completely opposite of the real world motion. That's really bad!
Now that I know what's happening I can "feel" the real world and that helps a ton. If it feels too bad, I close my eyes.
FWIW, the "benches" are really interesting industrial robots attached at the back to supports that travel a preset path. You can sometimes see the huge bit behind a neighbor's bench if you look off to the side.
