Favourite 'special effect' on a ride?

[Ian]

^ I don't think it's supposed to be a proper effect, just good timing. At the top of the lift hill there are water sprays. If the sunlight catches them at the right moment, a rainbow effect will appear. I certainly can't recall seeing a rainbow effect when I rode it back in 2007.

 

[Casio]

I haven't done it myself, but the disappearing monkey in DisneySea's Tower of Terror preshow always impresses me on the POVs. It's such a minor thing in the context of the ridiculous ride, but it's just a perfect moment of Disney magic.

 

[Ploddish]

^Yeah I was tempted to post that myself - I love effects that leave me stumped as to how they're done for ages.

For example, I love the mirror/painting/door intro to the Beauty and the Beast show in the new Fantasyland bit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrQLHvBZ-9I#t=02m11s

The production values on that entire place is through the roof - the animatronics especially. I'm pretty sad I don't actually care much for the show itself, but it's clearly not targeted at me. To be fair though, had I done that first as the target market I'd have lost my mind.

 

[Tomatron]

Favourite one is the bouncy bit with Tigger on Pooh's Hunny Hunt at Tokyo Disneyland, just makes me laugh everytime.

 

[Gazza]

One that always impressed me for it's ingenuity (I didn't notice till after a few rides) was the lift room on Transformers...you don't even notice you've been lifted up the top floor of the ride building, and it's genius the way the projected sequence has you driving uphill, which matches the stomach feeling you get from the lift.
Ditto for the "drop" at the end.

 

[divvie_dave]

Similar to Transformers Gazza, the "freefall" section of Spiderman is really well executed.

Along the same lines as Temple del Fuego, Backdraft was amazing for pyro effects. There is a brief section where barrels explode and launch like they do in the movie, blew my mind when I was younger.

Something a little more obscure; Bermuda Triangle at Sea World Australia. There are a bunch of clever effects in the dark ride section. A UFO seamlessly disappears (not the best video, but around 2:00 in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1i_Sbvzs0s). Floating aircraft, pyro effects and a bizarre backwards section too.