I don't remember there being much more than grass and a parking lot.
Yep. That is grass and a parking lot.
The point isn't the view straight ahead at the parking lot, it's the Tatsu-like way that the lift follows the contour of the land for quite some time, then just before you crest the hill, the land drops off into a valley, leaving the train a LOT higher up than expected. By the time you get around to looking down the drop, it's substantially bigger than expected.
Don't be hating on parking lots now