They still did the "goodbye" in 2008 when we were there. We had more fun with that than the ride itself.
My son's name wasn't something they could program in and he was dissapointed on our first go-round, so we rode again and had a little fun with creating unique names by putting two or more shorter names together (Things like Billy and Bob. Just so we could hear ET say 'Goodbye Billy Bob'. And I HAD to use Elliot, just so I could hear ET use that name!)
Then we started using girl names for the guys and vice versa. We were just being silly, but the folks manning those stations were getting a kick out of it and helped us with some unusual names we could use!
I really can't name a ride we didn't like. There are some we may not bother with on our next trip, but they were all fun once.