answering some of the questions if i may, actually u'd be surprised 737's are certified for autoland.... don't know for that particular 734 that you were in GHOSTRIDER, depends on the aircraft.
as for the autothrottle part, yes it's usually kept ON until u take over flying manually from the autopilot as said by cav-not-ok. Even when you take over, you keep the A/T in armed mode in case of a G/A.
