A Walk In The Park Blog

11/16 Theme Park Day Around Orlando

2009-11-16T19:35:00.010-05:00

So I went all over town today and took a bunch of pictures:

First I stopped at the I-4 flea market, it is located in the building where Dixie Stampede used to perform. It was awful, dirty, unorganized, confusing and some place I have no desire to return to, no matter how cool there jumbotron on the side of the building is.

View from Sky Tower of some slide parts over by Aquatice, probably for the 2010 project. The one piece definetely looks funnel shaped.

Bayside Stadium getting ready for the christmas ice show.

Sea World wasn't too busy, here is a shot of the parking lot from the Sky Tower.

Manta is fantastic.

I met Santa Shamu!!

The space shuttle taking off.

I was very impressed with the Polar Express Experiance. The attraction really puts you in the christmas spirit and is much more themed & extensive then I was expecting. In the animal areas you can meet Santa and buy hot chocolate.

Sleepy polar bear.

Went over to Universal, which was empty at 4 o'clock.

Potterland keeps growing.

10/5 Orlando Update: Universal Orlando Resort

2009-10-06T21:40:00.000-04:00

Mickey Mouse & Spider-Man

2009-09-03T14:36:00.002-04:00

Adult Content

This week I feel like I am such a Disney fan. For those who know me you know that I like going to Disney, but when it comes down to it, I normally go the cheaper rout and end up going 7 days at Universal then one day at Disney. Thats not to say I dont love Disney, I do... I just cant aford it. Whats the saying? Living a Champlain live on a beer budget?

This week two story's really cough my eye and got me thinking. The first being the Mouse kicking Universal in the soft "no no" spot by buying up Marvel comics, and with that would be the new owners and holder of any contracts Universal has with Marvel. Kinda makes me think, did Mickey do this just so they could hit Universal where it hurts? Will this hurt Universal?

When I look at Universals IOA, I see two lands that are successful, and some stuff thats not. The kids area, and the comic area are the two areas I feel are the biggest crowed pleasers. This will change with Potter flying in next year. Non the less Disney will now own the rights to one of the more popular areas at IOA. I think thats a low blow and sucks. Again, love Disney...

So my prodiction is that we will only see a few more seasons of our Spider-man ride (witch really is the only big themed ride that would actualy be effected if Marvel left). Good news is that Spider-man and Darkastle were designed in a way that could let the ride system stay, but the ride itself could be re-themed. So now the question is, does IOA have the guts to put in the Knights in White Saten, The Trip!

Wake Up A Walk In The Park Blog

2009-08-30T02:16:00.002-04:00

Hey Folks!

Hello all and welcome to the A Walk In The Park Blog. I know it has been way to long since things were handed off but we are finally back in the saddle and ready to go with some blogging.

First I would like to introduce my self. My name is Clint Novak, and I am taking over things for Pat well he becomes rich and famous. I never really had my own blog before, so this will be a new experience for us! Also want to point out to the people who don't know me my spelling and grammar is not so good, so you will have to forgive me if I spell something wrong. Also, I live in VA and my home park is Kings Dominion, so you will have to forgive me when I talk about Dominator and Intimidator 305 all the time!

I think thats where I will start with the blog. In the last few weeks the Coaster Crew and myself have been running all over covering the new roller coasters that are coming out. Not just coasters but other water rides and such as well. I think I will go down the line and give a little opinion about them.

Kennywoods Unnamed Coaster

This cool looking coaster I think is one of the bigger suprizes of the summer. I did not see Kennywood jumping in to this kind of coaster. The coaster is being built by Primier rides. It kind looks like Speed: The Ride mixed with Flight of Fear. Dont know how great of a ride it will be but I did not see it coming! Kennywoods first launch coaster!

Holiday World's Wildebeest

This was I think the biggest let down of the summer. When the hip first started for this ride I really thought they would be getting there first steel coaster. Then I saw the price tag, and said well its not a steely, but it could be a small woodie. Its a good thing that they are adding to the water park, because there water park is there big money maker and I think thats really cool. But I just think this is a lot of money for a water slide. BUT, it does look like a kick ass water coaster. Not a big fan of water coasters. Been on both in Sandusky (Convar belt and water jet) and really would like to see how the LIM system works with the water coaster. Also would love to see more water parks add flow riders. Love flow riders!!

Kings Dominion's Intimidator 305

Now this ride I can not wait to ride! I will admit that I knew about the details of this coaster before it was announced. I am not going to say how long I knew, but I will say this. If I ever had to choice between knowing before everyone, and finding out with everyone... I want to be a fan and find out like everyone else! That said I am so excited that my home park is getting such a great ride. I know there are a lot of winning coaster nerds and they are unhappy with is, but dude... we are getting a $25 million giga coaster! secend only to MF at Cedar Point in the USA!! I really cant wait. Love the layout.. but don't care for the theme. I am not upset with it because in the last few weeks I have seen how great this theme will be fore Kings Dominion and Carowinds (more so for Carowinds)

Carowinds Intimidator

This coaster is my secend favorite so far this year. As far as B&M Hypers go it looks nice. Kinda like Apollos Cheriot and Dimaond Back mixed in to one. I think Carowinds stepped up the themeing of this coaster and have told us of the details of the Que line and ride entrince. I really hope Kings Dominion does something like that as well.

Over all I really think next year is going to be a great summer. The only other big announcment I think we will see this year is Cedar Point and I am sure its some kind of water ride. So we will have to see in the upcoming weeks what that may be.

Well hope you liked the first blog. I know you are asking "If you are doing the blog, who is doing the podcast?" The answer is also me! Our webguy will be working on getting the feed over to Coaster Crew's website and we will get it back up and running. The podcast will be done the same way it was when Pat was running it. Will need your help to keep it going, so get ready to do some trip reports from the park!

Please feel free to email me if you have any questions, or comments!

Tell next time!

My Final In The Loop Tonight

2009-06-01T13:11:00.003-04:00

Hey Everyone,

Tonight at 8 eastern its my final episode of In The Loop. Tune in at:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/In-the-Loop

5/26 USF "Changes Are Coming" Edition

2009-05-26T22:24:00.008-04:00

Hello Everyone,

Before I get to todays update from Universal I got some news about the future of A Walk In The Park (Podcast/Blog). I got a new job today and will no longer be able to run A Walk In The Park or In The Loop, for more information see my post over at Coaster Crew:

http://www.coastercrew.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2180

Back to today, swung by Universal to see how things were going on the big projects.

Some Pics:

Here is Rip Ride Rockit, moving along well. I didn't see any testing, but there was progress. Lights were on at the top of the lift, station is coming together, a new railing has shown up and landscaping work continues on the 'Citywalk' section of the ride.

Sweet shirt.

Potterland: very large and construction moving very slow. I am starting to have a hard time believing that what is in these pictures, will look like this in just a year.

Ride Count

Men In Black
Simpsons (2 Times)
Mummy (2 Times)
Spiderman
Mummy

5/22 "Quick Trip To DTD" Edition

2009-05-22T20:01:00.013-04:00

I got a little bored today sitting around the apartment and decided to go for a walk around Downtown Disney. Even though I have been critical of the decision to close Pleasure Island, I do enjoy walking around DTD.

They have made some changes since the Virgin Megastore went out of business (insert joke here about Downtown Disney losing it's virginity here). They have taken down the old music banners on the backside of the building and replaced them with Downtown Disney banners and have covered some of the windows with "Celebrate Today" graphics.

Starabillia's has upped its discounts from 20% to 40%, which could be a sign that this store could be on its way out in the near future. I don't think Disney will have trouble selling this piece of property as they have had with the former PI clubs, because this is a much smaller space and is in an excellent location.

Paradiso 37 got it's sign as it gets closer to opening. I have no idea what the opening date for this place is, but I can't imagine its too far off.

I was pretty surprised to here the rumor on Screamscape this week that McDonalds is possibly going to be leaving Downtown Disney. I can see one of two things: It is going as a continued separation between the two companies (fries gone from theme parks & no disney toys in happy meals) or it will close to be rehabbed into a more modern McDonalds, similar to what is currentely being done to the one near the All Stars.

Up merchandise has arrived at World Of Disney, I'm looking forward to seeing this in 3D next week!

I found this cool retro espn shirt in Team Mickey. I am so going to buy this........ once I get a job.

In case you didn't know T-Rex is a huge hit. I have never eaten there (I do want to give it a try), but this mob was around the restaurant at dinner time.

As a big fan of the old Pleasure Island, it actually pains me to see this. They have closed up the clubs and replaced them with this lame excuse for entertainment. Pleasure Island has gone from the home of one of my favorite places on the planet, the Adventurers Club to a dead zone where a mic'd DJ runs around to try and get passers by to do the chicken dance. Yuck!

I walkaround Downtown about once a week, and this is the first time I have ever seen Characters In Flight selling tickets and taking guests up.

Thats it, hope you enjoyed the pictures.

Final American Idol Thought

2009-05-19T21:09:00.002-04:00

This weeks show didn't wow me like I thought it would & I thought the original song at the end wasn't very good.

Favorite This Week & Favorite Overall: Adam Lambert

Star Tours of Freestyle's New Hotness

2009-05-17T14:05:00.007-04:00

So I got some thoughts on some recent things:

Star Tours 2.0

I am so excited that they are filming Star Tours 2.0. The original ride is a classic, but at about 20 years old has become pretty outdated. I think with all the technology out there (HD, 3D, Widescree, Holograms) that the imagineers can really put on a spectacular show here. I guess the big question on this one becomes, just when Star Tours 2.0 becomes a reality, my guess would be it opens on both coasts for the summer of 2010.

Freestyle Coming Together

Well the Freestyle Music Park finally has put more details on there website. They have a full map and ride names, a calender and prices. The big changes include Led Zepplin becoming the Time Machine, with 5 different soundtracks. I really like this idea, as it makes the attraction much more re-rideable. Of course there are some whiny coaster geeks out there that are complaining about the Zepplin being painted pink (these are probably the same losers that bitch about what unthemed coasters are named) but I think the Concept Art of the finished product looks pretty neat. The fireworks are returning, which is something I didn't expect to see.

I think the people behind FSMP seem to know more of what they are doing then the previous operators, but they are still going to need a good marketing campaign to get people to show up. Two major questions I have are just what music is going to be played on the roller coasters and more details about this 'Monstars Of Rock' dark ride that is replacing the Nights In White Satin attraction. I will get a chance to ask these questions tomorrow on In The Loop as a rep from the park is going to come on the show!!

New Hotness

So new rides have started to open and the new hotness is sweeping the country. The picture above is from the LA Times Blog showing off the highly detailed trains (complete with onboard audio) that look outstanding.

Monster Mansion re-opened at SFOG and looks very cool. I loved this ride when I went to the park back in 2002 and really really want to go on an updated version. While I really don't like six flags new super cheap plan of throwing a million dollars at a ride, changing its name and marketing it as new to try and dupe the public into thinking they got a new roller coaster (I actually had a conversation with my dad a few weeks back who said "I see great adventure is getting a new coaster this year" to which I had to respond "No, thats a painted Medusa with a new name") I think this one is really being marketed better, as "we updated a classic come check it out" so I approve.

Finish up this update with a youtube video of some of the new hotness out at DCA. If the rest of the 1.1 billion expansion is this good in quality then I have very high hopes for that parks future.

5/8-14 "Finally Have The Internet Back" Edition

2009-05-14T20:11:00.027-04:00

Its been a while since an update blog (and there's plenty to update about) I haven't had my internet working since Friday, so did plenty of playing here in Central Florida instead. I went to Sea World (5/8), Universal (5/9 & Today), Magic Kingdom (5/10) and Animal Kingdom (5/12).

Some Notes:

- Rode back row on Manta, pretty intense.
- I saw Blue Horizons for the first time and really enjoyed it. Its the dolphin/bird/acrobat/diver show Sea World has, its a bit odd, but I dig it.
- Can't say the same for Believe which I saw for the first time. This version of the Shamu show I thought was pretty tame, really seemed to try and make a bigger deal about itself then it should and I think was designed to mostly sell necklaces.
- Sea Worlds food is great, but a tad on the pricey side $8 Burgers & over $10 for the BBQ.
- Shamu Stadium is absolutely massive, not sure what holds more people this or Lights Motors at DHS.
- Dolphins were fun to watch in their exhibit, as they were swimming in packs.
- Pets Ahoy is just a simple, fun (and air conditioned) little show.

- Saw the vortex-less Poseidons Fury, which isn't nearly as good as the Vortex version, but I don't find awful. The host had a good line while encouraging guest not to move on to the next room "There Could Be Snake In There............. Or Voltemort".
- Why isn't parts of the castle at Dueling Dragons AC'd it made waiting in line very uncomfortable.
- MIB score 218,000.

- I was at the Magic Kingdom on Mothers Day and the park did a very nice gesture and there was a guy on main street giving flowers out to all the mothers that past.
- I got to the park too late to see the new Stitch stage show, while not something I'm particularly looking forward to, it's something new I haven't seen.
- Both cannons were down on Stitch's Great Escape, which really hurts the show.
- Park was pretty empty for the Magic Kingdom.

- Had a really good walk thru of the Majarah Jungle Trek, the tigers were wrestling and the Tapir was swimming around.

- Mummy animatronic was down again today.
- MIB score 269,000
- "I like those rides with scores, you get to shoot stuff" - Simple Man Getting Off Men In Black
- Didn't see to much work going on at Rockit.

Some Pics:

Some of the merch over at Manta, nothing that really strikes my fancy.

Reminder: Your not in Disney World anymore.

Not sure what they were doing, but these two firefighters were walking around the park in full gear.

Am I going crazy or are these boxed trees in Adventureland outside the Jungle Cruise new?

New shirts at Pirates.

Completed Stitch stage.

Small World getting some love and has a temporary tiny entrance not where it usually is.

Sweet Goofy as Davy Jones plush.

Wipeout was a Downtown Disney on Monday, not as impressive as I thought it would be.

Tapir chilling in the water.

This one's for you Rapids Nerd.

A terrifying gathering of birds on the safari.

Why would they let the incredible failure that is 'Celebrate Tonight' grow?? It now has its own fail shack.

I think Laffers got a new color.

Construction continues on Paradiso 37.

Virgin Megastore is now closed, for those of you keeping count at home that makes 8 empty spots in Downtown Disney.

Potter construction.

A temporary stage was being set up at Universal, not sure what its for, I'd guess some special after hours event.

They re-arranged the Mummy gift shop, not sure why this was done.

Some sweet plush for sale in Suess Landing.

Potter keeps growing.

Ride Count

Manta
Blue Horizons
Sky Tower
Shark Encounter
Believe
Pets Ahoy
Kraken

Poseidons Fury
Fire Dragon
Spiderman
Hulk
Mummy
MIB
ET

Pirates
Tiki Room
Jungle Cruise (2 Times)
Stitchs Great Escape
Buzz
Haunted Mansion
Splash Mountain
Wishes

Dinosaur
Everest
Kilamanjaro Safari
Jammin Jungle Parade

Twister
Mummy
MIB
Cat In The Hat
Spiderman

The Podcast Returns

2009-05-14T10:10:00.001-04:00

After about a month and a half off, The A Walk In The Park Podcast has returned. Check out the latest video featuring Clint Novak live from Busch Gardens Williamsburg.

5/5-7 "Back From The Wedding & Back To The Parks" Edition

2009-05-07T20:41:00.026-04:00

So I've come back to sunny Florida after my buddies wedding in Chicago. I was over at Universal on Tuesday (5/5), swung by Downtown Disney yesterday (5/6) to see Wolverine (which I enjoyed) and was at Disney's Hollywood Studios today (5/7).

Some Notes:

- Lots of work going on at the Rockit construction site on Tuesday. There were three different cranes in the lift area doing various kinds of work, there were a few pickers with guys working on some touch up painting. Still no signs of trains, but progress is apparent.
- I love that the 'Yokeian' in the Jimmy Neutron ride has a Universal Studios floppy hat on.
- Mummy animatronic wasn't functioning.
- Over in Potterland a new building has shown up, pretty small near the entrance arch.
- In Citywalk there was going to be quite the party at Latin Quarter for Cinco De Mayo, that included one free beer or margarita per person! I couldn't stay as I didn't wanna miss American Idol.

- Balloon wasn't running again when I was at Downtown Disney. But I have seen it in the air while driving around town and it is pretty cool.
- The discounts still weren't high at Virgin Megastore, even with the end about 3 weeks away.
- There were construction walls over by 'Celebrate Tonight' with a stand/shed like structure looks like it was being built. I swung back around after the movie (hopeful that Disney had already pulled the plug on this piece of crap) but no, it was still there. If you haven't seen it, its basically a DJ with a microphone running around bugging people to dance or talk about celebrating. It's crap.

- Park was busy today, but not packed.
- The tram driver in the parking lot sounded just like CoasterBoy from In The Loop.
- Went to American Idol Experiance and saw the worst set of singers that I've ever seen at that show.
- They had a bunch of cool displays in One Mans Dream, all about the history of the Hollywood Studios. As the park celebrated its 20th birthday last week.
- I love the background music in the Muppet area.
- Pizza Planet was smelling great today.
- "I wanna go on that Looney Tunes Ride" - A statement I overheard some apparentely confused teenage girl say.

Some Pics:

Crowds at 4.

TNA was taping today, I want to go to one of them at some point.

Rockit construction. Lots of work on the lift and some painting. It's getting there.

A neat shirt for sale.

There was a higher then normal number of pickers hanging out in the lost continent.

The entrance archway that used to have a yellow construction wrap, now has a black construction wrap. Also I finally put 2 and 2 together and realized that this is the arch on the signs on the construction walls.

The new small structure which is near the entrance arch and the restaurant.

Hogwarts keeps growing.

Cinco De Mayo festivities.

A shot of the shack/shed under construction and the disgrace that is 'Celebrate Tonight'.

Margaritas coming soon.

This thing sure has a lot of downtime from wind.

Discounts are going to need to be cheaper before I start bargain shopping there.

Banner celebrating the 20th.

Wait times at 1 pm.

New 'American Idol Mickey' plush.

I thought this shirt was funny.

A shirt for the 20th, I like that they made shirts for the event, but this one isn't my style.

Some work being done on the exterior of the theater, not sure what they are doing, maybe adding a facade so it doesn't stand out so much.

Random construction. No idea what this is for, not very big and is on the corner across the street from the backlot tour entrance and club penguin meet and greet.

Construction wall at Pixar Place.

20th displays at One Mans Dream.

Finishing off the update with a shot of Lights Motors Action.

Ride Count

Jimmy Neutron
Mummy
Simpsons

Jurassic Park
Doctor Doom
Spiderman

American Idol
Star Tours
One Mans Dream
Great Movie Ride
Lights Motors Action
Tower Of Terror (2 times)
Rock & Roller Coaster

Manta Review

2009-05-06T20:07:00.003-04:00

I had the chance to catch a soft opening of Manta on Monday and was pretty impressed.

The Look Of The Ride

Manta is one outstanding looking roller coaster. Sea World Orlando like all of the Busch Parks is a very pretty place, adding a large roller coaster like Manta in smack in the middle of the park could hurt that, but they pulled it off perfectly. One of the first things you see when you walk into Sea World is the splashdown section of Manta. The second half of the ride which features the famous splashdown, some low flying manuevers and the waterfall looks just fantastic and makes for great pictures. The first half of the ride is much higher up and is more compact, the lift goes right over a major midway so there is some fun interaction between the people on the train and folks below. The ride looks as if it has always been there.

The Queue

A lot has been made over the Manta queue, and I thought it was nice, but not mind blowing. Before entering the indoor queue (which makes up the most of it) you pass thru the big cave/waterfall thing. The indoor queue with the aquariums is nice, but not as nice as some of Sea Worlds other aquatic viewing areas. There is one view of the aquarium which is very very cool. Another nice thing is that the queue and the area around the ride is that it has a very tranquil background music being played, this works really well in the aquarium area. Also when the train in the station and lifts into the flying position a cool sound effect is played, which is also well done.

The Ride

I liked the ride a lot more then I thought I would. The first half is very reminiscent of the Superman: Ultimate Flight, except better I think there is more flips involved. Of course the highlight of the first half is the pretzel loop, which is one of the craziest manuevers of any roller coaster. I think the second half of the ride is where Manta really makes its mark. The dive out of the block brakes into the 'wing dip' curve and then towards the waterfall fly by are true trademark elements of the ride.

Overall I loved it, I had high hopes and it exceeded them. Looks great and rides great. It is WAY better then Superman: Ultimate Flight, and no not as good as Tatsu, but it is A LOT closer then I thought it would be.

Check Out Some Pictures:

4/28-29 EPCOT-USO "Trackwork Is Complete" Edition

2009-04-29T22:22:00.018-04:00

I went to EPCOT yesterday to meet up with an In The Loop listener and then stopped by Universal today to see how the construction was going and to enjoy the nice weather.

Some Notes:

- I did the Test Track single riders line and had no wait whatsoever, didn't even had to watch the preshow, just walked thru the line right onto the car. The ride experiance wasn't so great, because the on board audio wasn't working, this really hurts the ride.
- I rode Mission Space Green Team for the first team. I definetely prefer the more intense version and wouldn't recommend green unless you have a motion sickness issue.
- Universe Of Energy = great place for a nap.
- At Universal today I was thrilled to see the track had been completed on Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit, yep including the troublesome lift hill. There was a lot of construction people working all over this thing, it seems like Universal is putting the pace into overdrive to open this thing up asap. I can't wait to ride it myself.
- I did Shrek 4D for the first time since the big move earlier in the month and this is by far the worst 3D movie in central Florida. The jerky movement of the seats is a bit painful and the lack of theming in the main theater gives me a real un-inspired feeling.
- For some reason the background music around Men In Black was 2 Legit 2 Quit, which gave me flashbacks to that awful MC Hammer concert from earlier in the month.
- Scored 315,000 on Men In Black today.
- Both Universal parks were pretty empty, which was nice for me as a guest, but probably kills their bottom line.

Some Pics:

Crowds on Monday at 10:50 AM.

I enjoy both of those.

Crowds today at 2:40.

And there it is in all of its lift hill goodness. Man, going up that thing is going to be crazy. There was also some more work being done back in the turnaround area, not exactly sure what that picker was doing back there. Also there were two guys working on what look like the brakes at the end of the ride. I wonder how long before we start seeing some trains & testing?

And while the ride is under construction, you can still buy the merch!! I didn't see anything that I was in love with, seems like they went very 'cool' on the t shirt design.

Cool HHN display outside of the Horror Make Up Show.

First time I've seen the Shrek meet and greet character and well, its kinda creepy.

Potterverse keeps growing.

A little shout out to my buddy The Rapids Nerd.

I only posted this because I love the term St. Practice Day.

Sign for Thursday's 80's Night at The Groove. I'm not the biggest 80's guy, but the folks over at the Save Pleasure Island Blog reccomend it. Thinking about it I could probably use a good drunken night out club hopping at Citywalk.

Ride Count

Test Track
Mission Space
Universe Of Energy
Seas With Nemo
Spaceship Earth
Figment
Honey I Shrunk The Audience
Living With The Land
Soarin

Horror Make Up Show
Shrek 4D
Mummy
MIB
Doctor Doom
Spiderman

Life In Orlando Note

So for some reason this is for sale at the gas station near my place, wierd right.

American Idol Thougts

2009-04-29T13:03:00.001-04:00

Favorite This Week: Adam Lambert

Favorite Overall: Adam Lambert

Who I Think Should Go: Matt Giraud

Aquatica Review

2009-04-28T21:21:00.013-04:00

Last weekend I had the oppurtunity to visit Aquatica, Sea World's Waterpark. I had a lot of fun in the three hours I spent there. My opinion of the park is that what they have is nice, but the park is a bit on the small side. The theming in some places is pretty good and in more then half the park theming is non-existant. With the exception of a few things its a very 'off the shelf' waterpark. Also at $45 (which I think makes it the priciest waterpark in the country) it is not worth the cost. I'm going to give my thoughts on the various sections of the park as I post pictures from them.

First up some shots of the park in general. As you can see they still have some Busch Parks classics like the beer canoe and flowered eagle. The picture of the colorful animals statue, you see things like this all around the park and those characters act as the mascot for Aquatica. The picture of the lady is a character actor they had entertaining guests at the entrance of the park.

Aquatica's biggest attraction is the Dolphin Plunge slide and this part of the park is very well done. The slide itself I enjoyed more then I thought I would, looking at I was thinking this would be one of the super fast claustrophobic 'feel like you drowning' speed slides, but it wasn't, it was a gentle enjoyable slide. I got on this one twice, and while I didn't see any dolphins on my trip thru the shoot I could see the aquarium very well. Another cool thing about the plunge area is you can view the dolphins from two different areas, a traditional aquarium type viewing area on one side, and on the other side you get a great view of the dolphins and the slide from the lazy river, which makes this the coolest area in the park.

This section of the park was a very cool idea, something I haven't seen done before. It was a lazy river with a pair of bowl slides in the middle and the only way to get to the bowl slides was to take a half trip around the lazy river, and then the slides dumped you right back out into the lazy river. This was also the lazy river with the commerson dolphin plunge viewing float past area.

This was your average 'every waterpark has one' four tube slide complex. It was fun, ordinary and didn't ever have a line.

Aquatica has a double wave pool and it's just an ordinary wave pool, no Typhoon Lagoon, but a fun average waterpark wave pool. When I went in there was a duck swimming around in the wave pool with the guests for a while, that was different.

The family tube slide complex. Both sides were pretty fun, but nothing to write home about.

The racing slide was a surprise to me. It was a lot taller then any other one I been on and you really start picking up speed. This was the surprise of the park for me.

Another highlight of Aquatica was this, its a speed up version of a traditional lazy river. Theres no tubes, you can just go in swimming or grab a life vest and float. It may not sound that appealing, but this thing can really book and was a ton of fun to float a few laps in.

I'm gonna finish up my review with the two sections of the park I didn't explore, the two childrens areas. The water playground/fortress was one of the largest I've ever seen.

To sum it up, Aquatica was good not great, small and not worth $45 admission. Highlights were the 2 lazy rivers, racing slide and the dolphin plunge.

4/26-27 DHS DTD "Not To Busy" Edition

2009-04-27T22:03:00.018-04:00

I spent the afternoon over at the Hollywood Studios yesterday, and took a quick trip around Downtown Disney today to pick up a few things.

Some Notes:

- I stopped by the WDW Radio meet of the month. If you've never heard of WDW Radio its one of the biggest Disney podcast on the net and is truly top notch. I had a good chat with host Lou Mongello, about various things including both of our moves to the sunshine state.
- Crowds really weren't bad at all, this was the least busy day I've seen a Disney park since moving here.
- The posted wait time at Tower Of Terror was way off, the attraction was a walk on, but for some reason the sign read 40 minutes, thats just wrong.
- If you've been on Tower Of Terror more time then you've needed to, try looking straight up while in the drop section, its different.
- Great Movie Ride was running at half capacity, but didn't have a wait anyway.
- "Your gonna hate this ride." A dad to his little kid behind me about to board Great Movie Ride.
- I got to see former Adventurers Club French Maid Sugar Snap as Paula in American Idol Experiance, which was a lot of fun.
- Downtown Disney was quick, picked up some things at World Of Disney, took some pictures.

Some Pics:

Park wasn't busy, but there were still two showings of Fantasmic. I guess they must have been predicting higher numbers, cause I can almost guarantee that that 10 PM show was rather sparsely attended.

Some rides closed up early for I'm guessing grad night stuff.

Stage for grad night.

Crowds at 1.

Fastpasses were still available at 1 o'clock for Toy Story Mania, which is almost unheard of.

Found another shop where you could buy a Mr.Gibbs action figure. I think one day I'm gonna spend the entire day just park hopping around Disney World trying to find the awful product that no one wants that is the Mr.Gibbs action figure. Sao Feng is actually worse.

I like this shirt, almost bought it. Still thinking about it, might need to go back.

It was a little bit windy today, so the balloon was grounded.

Virgin has started its going out of business sale, as it has about a month left before closure. The 20% off just brought the DVD's down to regular prices.

Adventurers Club........ still closed. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Curl has it's "WERE OPEN, NOT CLOSED LIKE THE REST OF THE ISLAND, PLEASE COME IN" sign out.

Paradiso 37 construction moving along. Margaritas, so soon. I hope they serve them in those GIANT margarita glasses, that be sweet.

Happy Hours are good.

Ride Count

Rock & Roller Coaster (2 times)
American Idol Experiance
Great Movie Ride
Tower Of Terror

Flower & Garden Festival

2009-04-26T19:50:00.015-04:00

Currentely going on at EPCOT is the Flower & Garden Festival, while I don't have a green thumb nor am I that into horiculture, I do enjoy the festival because it fills the park with some very awesome topiaries. While some of them are the same as last year, walking around and seeing them everywhere is pretty cool. Here are a whole lot of pictures of what I'm talking about:

So post in the comments section with which one is you favorite. Me, I really like the chinese dragon.

Another cool thing during Flower & Garden, the shuttered Wonders Of Life pavillion opens its doors as Garden Town. While none of the old rides operate anymore it is neat to be somewhere thats normally closed. Here are some pictures of whats left.

Outside of Garden Town/Wonders Of Life.

Where the old Body Wars mural used to be.

Some presentation areas. (Notice in the second picture the large Cranium Command marqui is no more)

Past those blanked out signs is where you used to enter Body Wars.

Not sure what this is for, reminds me of 'The Line Ride' from that South Park episode.

A small exhibit for the new movie.

4/24 IOA USF "Construction Abound" Edition

2009-04-25T19:37:00.017-04:00

So I had to go to the bank of Friday and since the bank is right next to Universal, I decided to stop in for 2.5 hours of playtime and to pick up some construction pictures.

Some Notes:

- Wasn't too busy at the parks when I was there, but this was my first time to Universal since moving down that it wasn't a Mardi Gras night.
- I saw the Sinbad stunt show for the first time since the big move if your into fart jokes, a guy spitting mist (sort of like the move by former WWE wrestler Tajiri) and the kitchen sink then this is the show for you, personally its not my favorite.
- Animatronics were back working at Revenge Of The Mummy.

Some Pics:

A cool Margaritaville shark golf cart, not sure exactly what its purpose is, but its neat.

Wait times around 3 o'clock.

Work continues on what I think is going to be the structure that acts as the entrance to Potterland.

Three Broomsticks restaurant is getting its roof.

The massive main Potterland building. There was a large 'pumping services' machine doing something there on Friday.

Some huts over by Flying Unicorn.

An interesting T Shirt in Jurassic Park.

Not sure what this is, would have investigated but needed to get home before Yankees vs. Red Sox.

Rockit getting closer to 'Summer'.

I was excited to see that a large crane was over in the area of the lift hill. There were guys in that bucket hanging from the crane doing work the entire time I was there. Not exactly sure what they were doing, but my guess would be some sort of electrical work on those cables.

More good news for Rockit, the work walls are down in the turnaround area. It seems like all the work is done on the firehouse bust through. One question I have though is where is the entrance and queue going to be for this ride? There isn't a whole lot of room around the station and I would guess they are going to need a queue that holds a very large number of people.

New Land Of The Lost giant poster.

Happy Hours are a good thing.

Ride Count

Seuss Trolley Ride
Sinbad
Dueling Dragons Ice
Spiderman
Mummy
Jaws
ET

Thoughts On A Few Things

2009-04-24T20:14:00.010-04:00

Files Gone

So as some of you may have heard on the Special Edition Of A Walk In The Park Podcast I dropped something on my external hard drive and have lost all my files. The fine folks at Best Buy told me they could save the files for ......... $1500, no thanks. I was able to save my all my music because it was on my iPod and 300 or so of my favorite pictures from my digital picture frame, the rest are history. The big stuff I lost were the 3000+ non-favorite pictures and all my videos, including the complete history of A Walk In The Park Podcast, bummer but life goes on.

Freestyle Music Park

So Hard Rock Park is now Freestyle Music Park, and even though many people have said otherwise, I don't hate the name. I think it is original and not a 'cop out' like they could have easily gone with something generic like 'Rock Hard Park' or 'Rock & Roll Theme Park' or 'Music Park'. While the first thing that comes to my mind when I hear 'Freestyle Music' is an Eminem 8 Mile-esque rap battle, I still don't mind the name. What sends up a red flag for me though is that they are a month away from supposedly opening back up and have no information on there websites about what will be at the park, when the park will be open or how much it will cost? How are people supposed to plan a trip (which I am doing) when these important pieces of information are missing.

2008 Attendence Numbers

The 2008 Attendence Numbers came out this week, nothing too groundbreaking, but I did have a few thoughts.
- I was surprised there wasn't much of a bump from Toy Story Mania at DHS or DCA, I absolutely love the attraction, but apparentely it didn't equal an attendence increase. Hollywood Studios was up 1% and California Adventure down 2%. I would think that DHS would see higher numbers from people showing up one day seeing the insane lines at TSM and then coming back earlier on another day of their vacation.
- IOA was down again, no big surprise as this was another year with nothing major added (yes I know Potter is coming - I take pictures of it once a week).
- Jungala cost BGT a lot of money, their reward a 2% attendence decrease.
- I'm always impressed Knotts does 3.5 million.
- Canada's Wonderland is a monster when it comes to attendence, but never seems to get talked about in the enthusiast community.
- I wonder how high Kings Island jumps this year with Diamondback. It only needs 72,000 to leapfrog CP for top park in Ohio.
- I'm shocked Hersheypark was down so much. I know 07 was big for them with the 100th anniversary and the boardwalk, but they still got Farhenheit last year.
- Aquatica opens strong with almost a million guests in not a full first year of operation, sure seems like that was a good idea.
- Damn Splish Splash jumped up 17.6% without adding a thing!! I grew up about an hour from this park and do enjoy it, wish them continued sucess and expansion.

Sum Of All Thrills Coming To Innoventions

There's a new attraction coming to the ever changing Innoventions at EPCOT and it's a Robotic Simulator Called Sum Of Thrills. Whats awesome about this is that its using the very cool Kuka Robocoaster technology. This is something I'm pretty excited about and something that seems way too good for an Innoventions attraction. Also Disney isn't building a whole lot right now, so at least its something to look forward to.

Kings Dominion Getting A New Coaster Next Year

I was pretty surprised this week when Kings Dominion Filed Paperwork For A New Roller Coaster. Of course now the million dollar question becomes, what is it? Personally, I'm not sure. Normally you would look at park chains trend of expansion and the roller coasters Cedar Fair parks have been adding the past few years have been Geauga Lake Leftovers (all outta those), GCI Woodies and B&M Hypercoasters, so the smart money would be on one of the last two. I guess seeing a coaster at KD isn't too shocking, as I don't think they will be adding much to the three parks on the chopping block (CGA, VF & WOF). I do like that Cedar Fair has really been beefing up the former paramount parks and I'm still a fan of them taking over.

And that's whats been on my mind lately in the theme park world.

4/22-23 MK EPCOT "Starting To Get Hot Here" Edition

2009-04-23T21:56:00.016-04:00

I took a quick afternoon trip to EPCOT yesterday and spent the afternoon today at Magic Kingdom, nothing too groundbreaking.

Some Notes:

- I was only at EPCOT for about two hours, I wanted to take pictures of the Flower & Garden Festival, (like the one above) should have a full F&G update sometime this week.
- The descent on Spaceship Earth looks like its half finished with some trippy illuminated triangles have been added in spots.
- I had breakfast this morning at 1900 Park Faire at the Grand Floridian. It was excellent, the food from the buffet is delicous and the 'cooked to order' omelette guy is my favorite. Its a character breakfast so Mary Poppins and Winnie The Pooh among others stop by from time to time. It is a tad expensive (I think it was around $25) but I think its worth it from time to time as a special thing.
- Magic Kingdom was busy today, but not packed. I was there about 4 hours and got on quite a bit of attractions. Its a bit harder to tell just how busy MK is now with three attractions down for rehab (Hall Of Presidents, TTA, Space Mountain).
- Monsters Inc Laugh Floor got me giggling with one of the jokes: "Why did Snoop Dogg carry an umbrella? For drizzle."

Some Pics:

Pagoda is half way back.

American Adventure was 'Bushed Off' for a private event which I assume was both very large & very expensive.

A humorous and quite good chalk drawing.

Crowds on Thursday at one.

Village Haus getting some love.

Construction walls up between the entrance to Pirates Of The Caribbean and its gift shop. I'm assuming this is for The Pirates League which is essentially a manned up version of the Bippiddi Boppiddi Boutique, could be a cool idea.

Tomorrowland has some huge balls.

Stitch construction. More details have been added to the lower part of the stage since the last time I've been there.

This sign is at the entrance to Tomorrowland letting everyone know that Space Mountain is down.

The fastpass return lane at Peter Pan's Flight can get quite backed up.

Ride Count

Spaceship Earth

Tiki Room
Pirates
Stitch
Buzz Lightyear
Monsters Inc
Haunted Mansion
Country Bears
Big Thunder Mountain
Peter Pan's Flight

American Idol Thougts

2009-04-22T15:09:00.003-04:00

Favorite This Week: Kris Allen

Favorite Overall: Adam Lambert

Who I Think Should Go: Lil Rounds & Anoop

4/21 "Been To Many Parks Since Friday" Edition

2009-04-21T17:06:00.029-04:00

Well I been doing a lot of parks lately and have seen a lot of stuff. I hit EPCOT Friday, Aquatica (full review coming soon) IOA & USF on Saturday, DHS on Sunday and DAK/MK yesterday. Got a whole bunch of pictures and thoughts so here we go.

Some Notes:

- Nothing too special to report from the Friday EPCOT trip.

- Grabbed a big 32 Oz beer at the outdoor bar at NASCAR Grill before heading into Universal on Saturday. Not a bad value at $7.50. I was first put off by the idea of the NASCAR place, because I'm not a NASCAR fan, but I didn't see anything NASCAR at the outdoor bar and they were playing NFL & NHL on TV.
- The animatronic was functioning the first time I rode, but not the second.
- Got to hang out with my Coaster Crew blogging buddy Erik Yates for the day, which was enjoyable as always.
- The Jimmy Neutron ride has cameos from Rocko's Modern Life & Ren & Stimpy, which is awesome!
- "I'm Bill Paxton"
- I had a little bone to pick with the ops at The Simpsons Ride, they moved us into the small preshow rooms before the first preshow had ended, so anyone riding for the first time wouldn't know as well just what is going on in the ride.
- I'm getting better at Men In Black got a score of 129,000 this time.
- Been a while since I've done T2:3D, that is one awesome show.
- This was the last night of Mardi Gras and the concert was Nelly. I'm a big Nelly fan and have all his albums and was very happy with the show. He went thru all his hit songs and performed for an hour and twenty minutes, which is longer then the other Mardi Gras concerts I've seen. He brought Murphy Lee & the rest of the lunatics with him, so they performed as well. Good show, I'll miss Mardi Gras.

- Crowds weren't as bad Sunday at Hollywood Studios. The easter crowds must have finally left. Tower of Terror was a walk on often. Got on Toy Story Mania during the first showing of Fantasmic in about 20 minutes which is unheard of.
- I saw the American Idol Experiance Finale Show for the first time ever and that was a pretty cool thing to see. I do like that show quite a bit, and see it pretty much every time I'm at the park.
- I saw Fantasmic for the first time since they cut down the performances. This was the most pleasent WDW Fantasmic experiance I've ever had. The park wasn't busy and for some reason there were two shows. I went to the second show which was about half filled and sat down in a good seat 2 minutes before the show. Much better then the insane crowds this show normally draws.

- Not too much out of the ordinary at DAK/MK on Monday.
- It rained which made the day less fun.
- McDonalds is completely gone from Dinosaur, no signs, no "Brought To You By A Generous Grant From The McDonalds Company" announcement.

Some Pics:

Ate at ESPN Club on the Boardwalk on Friday. Enjoying some beer & wings, while watching the Yanks in a day game. Cool place, since I'm a big sports fan I really enjoyed it. The prices were well, Disney prices.

The cool Velcro frog I made in Innoventions.

Crowds at EPCOT on Friday at 5 pm.

Guy rocking the old school Yanks shirt jersey.

You can guess which part of this sign caught my attenion.

Crowds on Saturday at 2.

Construction of Rip Ride Rockit. When I was there on Saturday they were working on the firehouse bust through and some touch up stuff in that area. Still no sign of a lift hill. The station looks better then the last time I was there.

Do they have Kingda Ka or El Toro? Cause thats how I like my Great Adventure.

Potterland construction continues.

Starburst makes ice pops?!? I wasn't in the Ice Pop mood at the time, but that sounds delicous.

Some cool plush prizes from one of the midway games at USF.

A shirt with reference to the classic "Oops I Ripped My Pants" episode of Spongebob.

I'm astonished that Universal has this big empty building right in the middle of the park.

Nelly!!!!!

Crowds at DHS on Sunday in the afternoon (sorry I didn't write down at what time).

Because other people in my group wanted to, I saw the High School Musical street show. Not my favorite.

Another new personal high score for me at Toy Story Mania!!

Signs for the new Picnic In The Park program at DAK.

Crowds on Monday at 1:20.

Crowds at MK on Monday in the afternoon.

Space Mountain refurb signage.

Stitch construction is getting there.

TTA doesn't get the fancy signage Space Mountain has.

Ride Count

Friday

The Seas With Nemo & Friends

Saturday

Mummy (2 times)
Men In Black
ET
Doctor Doom
Spiderman
Seuss Trolley Ride
Jimmy Neutron
Twister
Simpsons
T2
Disaster

Sunday

American Idol (3 times)
High School Musical
Tower Of Terror
Toy Story Mania
Rock & Roller Coaster
Fantasmic

Monday

Dinosaur
Everest
Haunted Mansion
Philharmagic
Buzz Lightyear

4/15 BGT "Its Been A While Edition"

2009-04-17T12:10:00.023-04:00

Some Notes:

- This was the first time I've been to Busch Gardens Tampa since 2002. I have always loved this park and after my visit on Wednesday, I still do.
- I apologize for the quality of pics in this update, my camera battery died half way thru the visit, so half the pictures were taken on the iPhone.
- I was only at the park for half a day, cause I wanted to drive over to St. Pete to watch the Yanks beat the Rays.
- I was kinda bummed they don't have koalas anymore, and they don't even use the really cool koala building.
- Equally as bummed about the lack of free beer.
- Walking past the land of the dragons they were playing this insanely dumb Banana Phone song.
- Sheikra was a sweet ride. I had high expectations after riding & loving Griffon, and they were met. The holding break before the big drop is an awesome idea. Between the two I don't have a favorite as they are so similar. This was my 307th Roller Coaster.
- Jungala didn't wow me like I thought it would. I thought the tiger habitat was very well done and the rest of it was just okay, I guess I have high expectation from the Busch brand or I'm spoiled from living 10 minutes from Animal Kingdom.
- Kumba is still pretty smooth and still kicking ass.
- Got on Cheetah Chase, an average wild mouse, nothing special. Was Roller Coaster number 308 though.
- They had crane machines in the arcade for 50 cents, which I like. Didn't win though.
- Rhino Rally was one of few attractions with a lengthy line over an hour, so I didn't get to do that.
- Saw the new KaTonga show. I thought the sets and costumes were excellent, but the story and songs to be just mediocre.
- Montu has been in my top ten steel coasters, and after yesterday it still is. I love all the tunnels.
- Gwasi broke down when I was in line, so that was a no go as well.

Some Pics:

This was cool, one of the first thing you saw after going thru the gate was these flamingos just hanging out on the midway.

Tiger exhibit = very cool.

This ones for you Rapids Nerd.

Best name ever!!

Even though the run in Williamsburg ended, Captain Lucky lives on in Tampa.

DING! Coaster #308.

I wasn't expecting to find this in one of the gift shops.

I didn't get on this today, but I prefer Kilamanjaro myself.

Hey Micheal, does this count?

Anacondas!! Someone warn Ice Cube & J-Lo.

A cool museum type area all about the history of the park with some cool artifacts and pictures.

I miss Akbar. I hate when a park just shutters an attraction with no replacement.

I didn't get on Gwasi Wednesday.

Ride Count

Sheikra
Kumba
Cheetah Chase
Montu
KaTonga

So I haven't gotten an update up in a few days, here some more random pictures from my adventures this week.

I went to the Yanks vs. Rays game at Tropicana Field on Wedneday. The game was great with a come from behind Yankee victory. The stadium I enjoyed more then I thought I would, the dome I think is rather ugly, but the corridors and amennities around it are pretty good. Parking around the stadium is kind of a mess.

New 'Celebrate Tonight' DJ's at Pleasure Island, complete crap, bring back the Adventurers Club.

Construction continues. I will be drinking margaritas there soon enough.

Got the 'Full Montagu' sandwich at Earl of Sandwich. Delicous just like anything else there.

I played mini golf at Winter Summerland for the first time ever. Very cool, well themed putt-putt course.

4/13/2009 MK "Easter Crowds Are Still Here" Edition

2009-04-14T10:57:00.013-04:00

Spent the afternoon at Magic Kingdom yesterday, very very busy.

Some Notes:

- I was surprised how crowded it was, park had people and long lines everywhere.
- Crying little kids ruined my Carousel Of Progress experiance.
- It was so busy we went over to Tom Sawyers Island (where I haven't been in forever) still has some cool stuff: escape hatch, caves, gun turrents in the forts, barrel bridge. The caves are an excellent place to lose little kids.
- "Celebrate A Dream Come True" is not my favorite 3 o'clock parade.
- Ended up sitting in the front row for Philharmagic, it was a different way to see the show, not something I'd be jumping at to do again.
- All the effects were working on Stitch's Great Escape.
- Time is ticking on Space Mountain with the big refurb coming on Sunday. I got a ride on it and its still a wild little ride, can't wait for updated effects and have fingers crossed for on board audio.
- Had an excellent Jungle Cruise skipper. When stalling for time he told some Disney jokes including: "Why is Cinderella bad at soccer? She keeps running away from the ball ..........and has a pumpkin for a coach."

Some Pics:

Crowds at 1 pm.

Stitch stage show construction.

You know there getting desparate if there advertising "Come in it has air conditioning!"

Giggle Giggle.

Long line at Haunted Mansion.

Highly themed vending machines.

Matt rocking the double guns.

........I know a better 'Mystery Mine'.

Go Teixeira!!

Stupid people, instead of saying "Hmmn bushes and a rope, maybe I should go around" they walked thru the bushes and hopped over the rope. It was rather amusing to watch the people struggle while at Pecos Bills though.

That is one big ass keychain.

Do any of you blog readers out there have this DVD set? I been wondering whats on them and if there good?

Sweet retro Tomorrowland mug.

Really Disney! Who is going to buy a figurine of Mr.Gibbs from a tomorrowland gift shop? I don't know anyone who would really want one anyway, but if they did it would be at Pieces Of Eight or maybe the Emporium, but not Mickeys Star Traders. I wonder how many of these they sell each day?

Ride Count

TTA
Carousel Of Progress
Walt Disney World Railroad
Tom Sawyers Island
Celebrate A Dream Come True Parade
Philharmagic
Stitch
Space Mountain
Jungle Cruise

4/11/2009 DHS EPCOT "Yep, I Was In Harbor Attack & Went To A Peter Noone Concert" Edition

2009-04-12T17:59:00.021-04:00

So I spent all day yesterday at the Hollwood Studios & EPCOT. Fun day, not too much out of the ordinary.

Some Notes:

- Started of at Toy Story Mania like usual, me and Matt tore it up! I got my highest score ever, 198,000.
- Matt made the observation that the second room of Star Tours queue has some big time similarities to the Disaster Transport queue at CP.
- Crowds were big, but not as big as they were on Tuesday when the parks hit capacity.
- Great line by the guy playing Simon at American Idol Experiance "that was a performance worthy of any Six Flags Over Georgia Salute To America show I've ever seen"
- Did the 'new' automated spiel Backlot Tour, ride still isn't any good. But I was in Harbor Attack.
- Watched the trampoline section of Block Party Bash, love that parade.
- Took the friendship boat over to EPCOT, where I did a whole lot of nothing.
- My friend really wanted to see the Peter Noone concert, so I joined, and was surprised when I didn't hate it and actually knew three of the songs (which was more then I figured I would).

Some Pics:

Starting to get good at Toy Story Mania.

Very long line to get fastpasses.

Epic Stunt Spectacular was a packed house.

Crowds at Noon.

I had a kids meal for lunch (anyone can order them) and its a pretty good value at only 5 bucks.

I got to be in Harbor Attack which was fun, Matt got some good video of it.

D23 ad on the Backlot Tour.

Sweet Binford Tools Merch!!!

One Mans Dream brought to you by D23.

Broken seat at tower.

Matt picked up this sweet souvenir.

Picked up one of these for my brothers birthday.

Bern Baby Bern!!!

My favorite autographed picture at Sid Cahuengas.

How many teams ago was this??? I mean is anyone gonna buy this?

I knew all 5 answers, go me.

Spoodles, still here for now.

Thats Peter Noone, a very happy older man that put on a decent show.

This pastry was a lot bigger then it looked, but still delicous.

Ride Count

Toy Story Mania
Rock & Roller Coaster
Great Movie Ride
Star Tours
Muppetvision
Indiana Jones
American Idol
Backlot Tour
Tower Of Terror (2 Times)
Block Party Bash
Illuminations

Vote TL Brown

2009-04-10T22:17:00.003-04:00

My buddy from the Kalahari trip & occaisional In The Loop co-host TL Brown is up for 'Fredericksburg Idol' and he needs your vote. Voting is really really simple and takes 2 seconds (no signing up or anything), just click the link below and place a vote for TL Brown (Option #1).

http://www.993thevibe.com/ManageFolder/BurgIdol

MK 4/9/2009 "Quick Evening Trip" Edition

2009-04-10T12:08:00.008-04:00

So last night after a long (and successful) day of unpacking here at the apartment, I needed to get out and was craving some ice cream, so I hopped in the car and headed over to Magic Kingdom for two hours of relaxing.

Some Notes:

- I took the ferryboat over for the first time in years. I prefer the monorail, though they did play Hi Ho and Country Bears on the ride over the loud speakers which I give a thumbs up.
- I despise the fish smell from Columbia Harbor House.
- Playful spooks interrupted my tour again, I haven't gotten a 'clean' ride on Haunted Mansion yet since moving down here.
- I watched Wishes from over by the Adventureland bridge, not a great view.
- Philharmagic might be the most plesent attraction in all of Walt Disney World.

Some Pics:

I got to the park during the 9 o'clock Spectromagic and the park was so packed (easter week) they were actually sending guest backstage (behind main street) instead of up main street like usual. As a disney geek I loved this of course.

I thought this shirt was a little different, would look good on my dad.

This is the first time I remember seeing these, Disney branded Lego rip offs. A cool idea and since I like any attraction specific merchandise, I'm all for it, probably won't be purchasing it though.

They are really working hard to finish up the Stitch Stage Show, there were people working on this thing at 11:15 PM.

Ride Count

Haunted Mansion
Wishes
Jungle Cruise
Pirates
Philharmagic
TTA

How People Find This Blog

2009-04-09T10:57:00.002-04:00

So it always boggles the mind as I run thru the analytics and see what kind of wacky searches that have led people to this blog, some of my favorites this month are:

a walk in the park bear mountain soundtrack
adam lambert nights in white satin
azamat
blog comments for legoland discovery center
bull fright pic
coaster enthusiast salary
goodsites spoof movie
i was "putrid." capital p, capital u, capital trid.
jurassic park dark continent 2011
knoebels dream suite
lou mongello moving to sunshine state
mc hammer concert in orlando sucked
public invasion jana model in park
schlitterbahn in kansas stupid idea
schlitterbahn lockers cost
six flags over georgia pay scale
what is the closest apartments for rent by kalahari sandusky ohio

DHS MK 4/7/2009 "Holy Crap Easter Week Is Crowded" Edition

2009-04-08T22:36:00.016-04:00

I hit up the Hollywood Studios for the first time since being down here on Tuesday, and DAMN Easter Week is busy.

Some Notes:

- So I've never been to a park as busy as DHS/MK were on Tuesday. Both parks closed to capacity at some point. Some of the peak wait times I saw were: 160 minutes at Toy Story Mania, 2 hours for Tower of Terror & Rock and Roller Coaster, 170 minutes for Space Mountain. Even traditional 'walk-on' attractions were busy: 40 mintures for Muppets and 60 minutes for Stitch.
- Got on Toy Story Mania twice. Beat my ride partner once & lost once. Scores of 164,000 and 158,000.
- For some reason I did the Narnia 'attraction'. Not fun, more of a commercial then an attraction. With Disney not doing anymore Narnia movies I can't see this sticking around long.
- Sounds Dangerous was actually open, so I saw it. Not great, good place for a nap if ya need one.
- Ate lunch at Studios Catering Company, one of few places you actually get an annual pass discount, I saved a whopping 67 cents.
- Bounced around a little bit after seeing Block Party Bash, swung by Port Orleans Riverside enroute to Magic Kingdom.
- Move It Shake It Celebrate was different because of high winds. The characters weren't on top of the presents and no confetti.
- My one friend lost her car in the massive parking lot of the Hollywood Studios, which reminds me as a tip always write were you parked down in your phone.
- Spent 13 hours in the parks with friends both old and new, and had a excellent fun filled day.

Some Pics:

The morning mass cattle stampede to Toy Story Mania.

The beatdown I layed on some guy I rode with right after opening.

Yep, thats the wait time 15 minutes after park opening. Toy Story Mania is a great ride, but its hard one to ride as lines get really long really fast and fastpasses run out early.

Some cool Mickey T's, there a lil different, but I kinda dig um.

Crowds at 12:50.

Crowds at 5:00.

Stitch stage show construction, anyone know when this thing is opening? (I'd guess pretty soon after Space Mountain & TTA go down for refurb)

I thought this was a very cool piece of merch.

So we passed by this van about 5 times in our pathetic (and quite lengthy) search for my friends car. Go Ravelli!!

Ride Count

Toy Story Mania (2 Times)
Journey Into Narnia
Rock & Roller Coaster
Great Movie Ride
American Idol Experiance
Sounds Dangerous
Block Party Bash
Move It Shake It Celebrate
TTA
Carousel Of Progress
Tower Of Terror

A Few Random Things

2009-04-06T17:23:00.006-04:00

Got a few things on my mind today:

Wrestlemania 25
So last night I watched Wrestlemania 25, and was pretty impressed. For those of you that don't know I have been a big WWE fan for a long time. The show was a tad long at four hours but was filled with great moments like:

- Kofi Kingston's mad ups in the ladder match
- Santino as Miss Wrestlemania
- Mickey 'Ram Jam' Rourke knocking out Y2J, wish he would have gone of the top rope like in the movie though
- Jeff Hardy is crazy, its incredible he hasn't really seriously hurt himself yet
- Stone Cold beer HOF celebration
- Rey Mysterio's Joker outfit
- The army of Cena look-a-likes
- The highlight the night was definetely Undertaker vs. HBK. A classic match, between two future hall of famers. I thought taker almost broke his neck on the dive out of the ring.

New York Yankees
Season starts today and I am sooo pumped. Rotation is stacked this year and a brand new 1.5 billion dollar stadium should make for a good time.

Adventureland
I saw this movie today (at the closest theater to me, which is at Downtown Disney, nice theater, comfy seats) and I really didn't like it. I went in expecting to laugh my ass off at a Superbad-esque comedy, what I got was a boring romantic movie. I think I may have only laughed once or twice. Very disapointing, as I was looking forward to it growing up only 20 minutes from the park it was based on (Adventureland in Long Island NY). And for a rated R movie there weren't even any boobs!! But, I don't recommend it, thumbs down!!

And finishing up with some PI pics I took after the movie. Word on the net is the dueling DJ's started playing last night.

USF IOA 4/4/2009 "Hammertime Edition"

2009-04-05T16:09:00.022-04:00

I hit up Universal both parks and hung out at Mardi Gras.

Some Notes:

- First thing I did was pick up my premium pass, a tad pricey at $300 but I think it will be worth it between the free express pass after 4 and the free Citywalk admission.
- Parks were crowded, not sure if this was due to Mardi Gras or the start of easter week, but probably a combination of the two.
- I got a great view of Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit from Doctor Doom, that ride is gonna be sweet.
- Hulk is getting a bit rough now that its turned 10 years old.
- The first mummy animatronic wasn't working, bummer.
- This was the first time I went on Simpsons since the opening, that is one well done ride. I think I had a good positioned car, cause the dome looked massive.
- I rode Jaws twice, for some good cheesy fun.
- MC Hammer was the concert tonight, and well besides "2 Legit 2 Quit" & "U Can't Touch This", it was terrible. I mean no one knew any of his other songs and they were generally un-entertaining.
- I hung out at the Citywalk Rising Star for a bit after the concert and thats a cool place.

Some Pics:

Crowds at IOA at 3 PM.

After hangning out at Disney for a few days, this was a clear sign that I was NOT at a Disney park, there was beer everywhere.

They are into construction of what I think will be one of the entrances to Potterland. This structure is at the dead end in the back of the Lost Continent (where the carnival games are).

Construction of what I think is going to be the Potter Restaurant.

Construction of the main Potterland show building, I'm guessing that newer construction near the corner of the warehouse might be for the large tower section of Hogwarts Castle.

Some cool Popeye merch.

If I was a little kid I would love this.

Express Pass lines can get a bit backed up.

This was a good find. The bar at IOA does a happy hour and its only $3.50 for a 20 oz beer, sweet deal!!

Rockit station is going to need some touch up paint.

I didn't see any construction going on at Rockit today. The progress I saw agrees with what online reports have said that there might be some problems with the lift design. Which is a shame, cause I'm looking forward to riding this as soon as possible.

.................... a classy Universal customer.

I am gonna finish this update with the man himself, MC Hammer.

Ride Count

Spiderman
Doctor Doom
Incredible Hulk
Cat In The Hat
Jaws (2 times)
Simpsons
Mummy

EPCOT DAK DTD 4/2-3/2009 "I Think I Could Get Used To This Edition"

2009-04-04T10:55:00.033-04:00

So I hit EPCOT for the afternoon & Evening on Thursday, and Animal Kingdom on Friday with a quick side trip to Downtown Disney for dinner.

Some Notes From The Days:

- Looks like they were doing some work to the descent of Spaceship Earth, as I don't remember the funky triangle designs the last time I rode.
- Good to see the fountain out of refurbishment.
- My buddy Matt had never tried the Beverley at Club Cool, so I had to do that. Always a fun time.
- There was a different Hat Lady playing the piano then the last few times I been to EPCOT, and it wasn't a change for the better. This lady was very very old and not that entertaining.
- I saw Reflections of China for the first time ever, some reall cool scenes in that Circlevision film.
- The tram speel always includes "Sit Back & Hold On Tight" which reminds me of
my In The Loop Co-Host Will Holder
- Got on Back Row Expedition Everest for the first time ever and that was good fun. Yeti still not working.
- Saw Flights Of Wonder for the first time ever, parts of the show were entertaining, parts were excruciating.
- I really hate that Primeval Whirl didn't use its fastpass. Its a fun ride, but I'm not going to wait the 30-45 minutes for it.
- The animals on the trails were pretty awesome on this trip. The tigers we out and jumping around, the hippo was gigantic and swimming around the pool and the gorillas were wandering around and one even did the King Kong chest pound thing, I didn't even know that was real, figured it was just in the movies.
- One of the cast members I was talking to grew up like 3 blocks away from me, wierd. Guess it is a small world after all.
- While having dinner at Downtown Disney the loop played the Main Street Electrical Parade soundtrack, I was pleased.

Some Pics:

Crowds at 5 PM.

Fountain is back.

Gary Sinise, sort of like Disney's answer to Bill Paxton from Universal.

I always liked that commercial.

Some neat merch from the Flower & Garden Festival.

On my trips in December and February there were a lot of discounts in the shops, I haven't seen that many since I have moved here, this is the first one.

Mexico has some wierd stuff.

A note to all budget watching Coke loving folks, most places 20 oz bottles are $2.50 and for some reason this stand in Morocco has them for $2.00.

I love the pastry shop in France, this time I went with the eclair (the most fallic of all the pastries) which was like everything from that store was delicous.

I had a Strongbow beer at the Rose & Crown. Different kind of beer, tasted more like apples or wine then beer.

Kung Fu Mickey, not to be confused with Kung Fu Naki.

Crowds at 12:40

Everest has some wierd merch.

And some cool merch, I'm not big on skulls though. Surprisingly I don't have an Everest shirt............ yet.

Rumors on the net have McDonald's leaving as a sponsor of Dinosaur, and while I didn't see the golden arches on any signage, they did still have the "made possible by a generous grant from the McDonalds corporation" recording playing in the hallway after the pre-show.

I took the "Train To Nowhere" for the first time in many visits.

Sale at Starabillas, I've heard rumors that they were in a little bit of trouble.

New balloon ride looks sweet and I think is a perfect addition to Downtown Disney. Sixteen bones is a tad pricey, but seems in line with the rest of Disney's prices.

Adv Club .........still closed, sad face.

Paradiso 37 construction, I'm looking forward to this one cause I enjoy a good frozen drink.

T-Rex Cafe, very popular at dinner time on a Friday night.

Hawaiin BBQ sandwich for dinner from Earl of Sandwich. Absolutely delicous.

Word on the net is that this is where DJ's will now be entertaining passers by at downtown disney. I saw someone in the booth, but i was out of DTD by 7 so no idea if they were doing anything on friday night. Seems dumb to me, pay DJ's to play music to people walking by instead of hmmmmn maybe in one of the empty nightclubs perhaps.

Ride Count
Spaceship Earth
Mission Space
Test Track
Figment
Maelstrom
Grand Fiesta Tour
Reflections Of China
Illuminations

Everest (2 Times)
Dinosaur
Tough To Be A Bug
Train To Nowhere
Kilamanjaro Safari
Flights Of Wonder

Life In Orlando Note

So when I returned from a fun evening at EPCOT I found this little guy hanging out on the pathway to my apartment. I was a bit surprised cause well I'm not used to having armadillos hanging around. They are kinda neat though.

MK 4/1/2009 "Happy Birthday Edition"

2009-04-02T15:33:00.013-04:00

Hello eveyone,

Been a while since I posted over here on the blog. It was a big week moving out of my old apartment, driving the 20 hours to my new pad here in Orlando Florida. After checking in an unloading the car here in the wonderful new apartment I decided to spend the rest of my birthday at Magic Kingdom.

Notes from the day:

- Crowds were medium. Mountains were around 40-60 minutes.
- I picked up my birthday $75 gift card!!
- Didn't have a good ride on Stitch, one ear on my headset was out and one of the really cool cannons that I love wasn't working.
- I had my favorite MK foods for the big 24th B-Day: Dole Whip, Pecos Bills & Main Street Popcorn.
- My buddy Matt had never had a dole whip before, so we had to fix that.
- There were real deer just wandering around in the back of Walt Disney World Railroad. This was pretty cool and you really had to do a double take cause there are fake deer on the ride.
- I really don't like it when the fireworks are at park closing cause the mass exodus of people is no fun.
- I saw part of the Electrical Water Pagent for the first time in years.

Some Pics:

I think this is the first time I have ever seen this place open.

Stitch stage show construction, pretty big set up.

Boo to you non-functioning cannon.

A pirates shirt I don't own ..........yet.

There needs to be more Big Al merch.

I like these computerized ordering stations.

Nothing says the old west like a phone!

SWEET!! When did they start selling Dibs in the park?

I entered the annual passholder contest to win a piece of Space Mountain.

Ride Count
Stitch
TTA
Pirates
Country Bears
Haunted Mansion
Tiki Room
Big Thunder
Walt Disney World Railroad
Space Mountain
Snow White
Philharmagic
Small World
Pooh
Monsters Inc.
Buzz Lightyear
Wishes

Life In Orlando Note

NEVER go to this grocery store, its insanely overpriced like a 40% markup. Screw you Goodings. Stay away.

Guest Podcast Spot

2009-03-27T23:45:00.002-04:00

I just wanted to let everyone know that I was a guest on the Season Pass podcast this week. Myself, host Doug Barnes & his wife discuss enthusiast events, SFMM & a bunch of stuff.

Doug does a great job with his podcast (in case you haven't heard about it) and I have been a listener for over a year.

Check out this weeks show with me at:

http://seasonpasspodcast.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=447874

Getting Close

2009-03-26T21:23:00.003-04:00

With my last day at work tomorrow and the big move to Orlando happening on Monday, I got most of my stuff packed up and have been quite busy.

American Idol Thougts

2009-03-25T22:51:00.002-04:00

My Favorite This Week: Matt Giraud/Danny Gokey

My Favorite Overall: Adam Lambert (Sorry Ricky)

Who I Think Should Go: Michael Sarver

Old School Universal

2009-03-21T00:51:00.004-04:00

So, I was linked to this series of 9 YouTube videos from the old 1991 Souvenir Video from Universal Studios Florida called: "Universal Studios Florida: The Magic Of Movies". It is about an hour long, and I just had an absolute blast watching it. Its incredible to see how much that property has changed since then. Here are some thoughts:

- Wild West show looked like a hoot.
- Love the old KongFrontation ride system.
- Hehe, The Fashions of 1991.
- Not too much is still there from 1991 (ET & Fievel, is about it. You could see the JAWS lake in a few of the overhead shots, but it wasn't mentioned in the video & I think opened later). Some is still similar but different to what was there in 1991 (Horror Make Up, Earthquake, Beetlejuice).
- The aerial shots of the Pre-IOA/CityWalk/Parking Garage Universal are eye openers.
- I think back in 1991 USF was so much better then DHS 1991. Nowadays I prefer the Hollywood Studios.
- The Murder She Wrote Editing Show Looked Awful.

Got a spare hour, check it out:

Final MouseFest Show Now Up

2009-03-20T23:22:00.001-04:00

This week its the fourth of four episodes from this past Decembers MouseFest.

American Idol Thougts

2009-03-17T23:24:00.002-04:00

My Favorite This Week: Matt Giraud

My Favorite Overall: Adam Lambert

Who I Think Should Go: Michael Sarver

Nights In White Satin, SOON Reaching The End?

2009-03-17T15:02:00.006-04:00

A newspaper article came out last week talking about the triumphant return of Hard Rock Park (I don't know why I like blogging about this topic so much, guess I just find it interesting) and quite a stir has developed on the internet from this quote:

The rides similarly play to the park's music focus. Baker plans no major changes.

At least one will definitely go – Nights in White Satin, a “dark” glide-through ride synchronized to the old Moody Blues art-rock standard. Cars glided past 14 scenes in 4 1/2 minutes.

“The park needs to be a bit more family-oriented,” Baker says, and yanking Nights is a move in that direction.

So it appears the Hard Rock Parks best reviewed and most talked about attraction is no more. Really there are two different views on this:

Why It Makes Sense

While it may be cool to me and the readers of this blog, Nights In White Satin The Trip should probably have never been built. A ride about a band no one cares about, and a song no one under the age of thirty has heard of, was bad enough reason, but the whole thing was about drugs. It was an attraction that wasn't family friendly and completely un-marketable. It seems like the infrastructure of ride vechicles and projection screens, would make a re-theme a not to difficult thing to accomplish.

Why It Doesn't Make Sense

The obvious one, is that its a good ride, some even say great (my two In The Loop Co-Hosts Clint & Will even claim better then Spiderman....... blasphemy in my mind, but I've never been on it). The reviews of HRP tended to be along the lines of: good theme, good shows, not a lot of rides, Max RPM was broke, Led Zep is mediocre for a B&M and NIWS is both odd and awesome.

The real reason this doesn't make sense to me is that there isn't a lot of rides at Hard Rock Park and taking away a star attraction won't help that. I mean taking away Nights, Hard Rock Parks 4th best ride is either a kiddie coaster or small flat ride, not a good thing for a park.

If I Ran The Park

With not enough time to do anything with Nights In White Satin The Trip for the 2009 season, I would operate the ride for one more season and then hire Sally to re-theme it as a new family friendly attraction for the 2010 season. Not sure what I would re-theme it too; CoasterBoy on the CoasterCrew forums suggested "Rick Roll The Ride" which would be both hilarious and socially relevant. Personally my dream would be for this to become a Beatle's Yellow Submarine attraction, I mean with the trippy cartoon Beatles and colorful sets it could still have an 'acid' feel but it would be much much more suttle and it would fit perfectely in the 'British Invasion' section of the park.

Nights In White Satin
Never Reaching The End

My First Roller Coaster

2009-03-14T20:13:00.003-04:00

So my fellow coaster blogger The Coaster Critic gave me the idea of making a post about My First Roller Coaster.

I got to thinking about it, and well I don't quite remember. It must have been when I was very very young. I have an idea of what it might have been and I'm gonna go with the Roller Coaster at the defunct Nunley's back in Long Island New York.

My memories of Nunleys aren't too clear as the old fashioned destination was closed down when I was 10 years old. What I do remember is that the place was 10 minutes from my house and was old school. It had maybe 7 or so kiddie rides (the coaster being one of them) a whole bunch of classic style arcade games and a famous carousel. The Roller Coaster wasn't anything special, it was a standard small kiddie coaster and like everything else at Nunleys it was old (the coaster opened in 1954). The Roller Coaster was in the back of the small park and right up next to the neighbooring High School Football Field.

My favorite memories from Nunley's actually weren't the rides, but the classic style arcade games they had. While as a kid I liked the more modern stuff at places like Nathans & Chuck E. Cheese, the old school games at Nunleys were a nice change of pace. They had things like put a quarter in and watch the puppets sing and dance, old time photo booths and all the Pac Mans/Centepide etc.

I know I've heard on again and off again plans about the Carousel re-appearing somewhere on Long Island, but now that I no longer live there I'm out of the loop.

If you want to learn more about Nunley's check out this video report I found on YouTube (which for some reason is hosted by a Bunny Puppet).

American Idol Thougts

2009-03-10T22:15:00.002-04:00

So, as some of you may know I'm a big fan of the TV Program American Idol (it helps me get from football season to baseball season). Today was the first show on the big stage (which they did an awesome job replicating at Disney's Hollywood Studios by the way) and the Top 13 took the stage. So just like last year I am going to give my thoughts every week.

Favorite This Week: Adam Lambert

Who I Think Should Go: Allison Iraheta & Jasmine Murray

Back From Orlando

2009-03-04T21:35:00.003-05:00

Hey Everyone,

Sorry for the lack of posts/shows lately but as you can imagine things have been pretty crazy here between the big Orlando trip last week and continuing to set up the move (plus a cold this week hasn't helped anything out).

If you want to check out what I did on the trip last week my In The Loop Co-Host did an excellent job of keeping track of all of my facebook mini-updates and consolidated them into this thread over on the boards:

http://www.coastercrew.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1934

Things are moving full force on the move happening at the end of the month. Check out the apartment complex where I signed my lease at:

http://www.rent.com/rentals/florida/orlando-and-vicinity/orlando/lake-buena-vista/alexandria-parc-vue-at-lake-buena-vista/426249/

I am absolutely thrilled with my new pad. I got a deal on the place with only $675 a month for rent. The place has a pool, hot tub, excercise room & best of all is only 4 minutes from Walt Disney World property!! I can't wait to move in and think I am going to be much happier living down there.

Stay tuned I should have a new show up tomorrow night.

Pat In Orlando & Latest Episode

2009-02-19T22:08:00.003-05:00

Hey Everyone,

I get on a plane to sunny Orlando Florida tomorrow. I am doing a lot of exciting things on this trip including:

- Plenty Of Days At Disney
- Mardi Gras Media Day & Ne-Yo Concert At Universal
- New York Yankees Spring Training
- Apartment Shopping
- ESPN The Weekend

I have decided to do something special on this trip for all of you out there in internet land, I will be updating my status frequently (about 5-10 times per day) on facebook and invite everyone out there to 'friend' me on facebook to be a part of this semi live trip report.

Friend Me At:
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=13706137

Hope you all enjoy my 'semi-live trip report' and check out the lastest episode:

MouseFest 2009 Cancelled

2009-02-16T15:03:00.003-05:00

Well this is sad news as it came out yesterday that MouseFest 2009 Has Been Cancelled. I went to MouseFest for the first time last December (Check Out My PTR Here) and had a blast, I got to meet so many of the Disney Podcasters that I have been listening to for years and got to make a lot of friends that shared the same passion for the parks I possess.

While I understand the reason for the MouseFest executive comittee, in that the Chairman stepped down and they had no one willing to step up to that level of time comittment and responsibility. I can't say I agree with the idea that "Well MF 2009 won't be as deluxe as MF 2008, so lets just quit". I mean wouldn't a 'MouseFest-Lite' with no lanyards, registration or Mega Mouse Meet be better then no MouseFest at all.

Hard Rock Return?!?

2009-02-12T20:43:00.004-05:00

So I was quite surprised earlier this week when it came out that Hard Rock Park Found A Buyer For 25 Million and this new buyer plans on opening in time for the popular memorial day weekend. My first thought was "SWEET, I am going to get to go to the park I thought that I would never experiance" and I will get to ride the Moody Blues: Nights In White Satin ride that has gotten most excellent reviews and peaked my dark ride loving interest.

Then my coaster dork mind shifted to thinking "Okay, HRP was one of the most collosal failures in the history of the theme park industry, What could a new owner do to prevent history from repeating itself?"

Here is what I came up with:

Focus On The Evening
Most people that are coming to Myrtle Beach are coming for either The Beach or The Golf, and do that during most of the days of their trip. But once the sun goes down, beaching or hitting the links is no longer an option, which explains the sucess of the million Mini Golf course in Myrtle and the entertainment complex, Broadway At The Beach (which is fabulous by the way). So I think if they have a relatively inexpensive 'after 5 pm' admission of say $20, I think sucess could be made. Since HRP was more of a theme park then an amusement park, it is clearly possible that people would come for an evening of relaxing in a cool atmosphere, ride a few rides, grab a beer (just look at how much money EPCOT makes off booze in the evening) and some snacks, listen to the live bands and watch the fireworks. Seems like it could work, but you gotta let people know, which brings me to me next thought.

Better Marketing
While I wasn't exposed to much of the parks marketing, I think it is rather clear whatever they were doing sucked ass. By the crowds seen on this awesome guest AWITP episode from HRP it sure looks like the public didn't get the message. Know I admit, Hard Rock isn't the normal amusement park people are used to, so getting the public to understand just what the park is and why they should spend there money is no easy task. But I think there is enough there if an ad were to show scenes of: Led Zep, fireworks, live music, the giant guitar to peak peoples interest.

Lower Prices
While I would have paid it given the chance, fifty beans with no kids prices is a tough sell to the general public. Also its easier for the Cedar Point/Disney Worlds/Six Flags of the world to charge higher admission because they are institutions in there communites and people have been going for years and know what to expect. This isn't the case for HRP, and its said "You only have one chance to make a first impression" and for many people I think that impression was driving to the park, seeing the $50 admission and $10 parking, and drove on. I am thinking more like $35 and $20 for kids.

Drop Some Licenses
I think one of the articles said the park owed somewhere between 5 and 10 million in licensing fees per year. Thats pretty steep. To me the first one to go would be the "Hard Rock" name which I think they were dropping 2.5 million for, I mean would the park generate 2.5 million dollars in revenue with Hard Rock Park as a name rather than, "The Rock Park" or "Rock & Roll Theme Park". The bands would be a tougher call for me, clearly the eagles and bananna splits should hit the road. But Moody Blues, Led Zep & Queen might be worth paying, but if not bring in Sally to develop a new trippy soundtrack to there ride and pay some musician to develope a score for the coaster and fireworks, I mean Space Mountain & Illuminations soundtracks are incredible and don't have a known name behind them.

Special Events / Theme Weekends
With so many musical groups that have large cult like followings I think it would be smart to cater to those audiences, by having weekend dedicated to those bands. Bring in cover bands for the various stage venues in the park. Have vendors selling all types of merchandise from the groups. And most importantly engage the fan communites by saying "COME TO HRP FOR **** WEEKEND, HANG WITH OTHER **** FANS & LISTEN TO COVER BANDS" because the best part about fan gatherings tend to be meeting other people with the same passion as your own. Some bands with crazy followings that might work:
Beatles
Elvis
Grateful Dead
Dave Matthews
KISS

So those are my ideas, What ya think? Got any of your own, post in the comments section.

A-Rod *

2009-02-10T22:11:00.005-05:00

So I got this comment on the ol blog today:

"When will you be blogging about A-Rod!!

Btw, I am a fellow die-hard Yankees fan!"

First off, if there is any topic you guy want me to blog about, just post in the comments section of any blog post and chances are I will do so.

Moving on to Mr.Rodriguez. For those of you that don't know I am a HUGE fan of the New York Yankees, I grew up in Long Island New York and have been to the stadium more times then I can count. I watch every game I can, probably around 120-130 of them each season. So this Saturday when I woke up, walked to the computer to find messages from 6 of my friends informing me that A-Rod tested positive for roids I was pretty depressed.

The more I thought about it the more depressed I got. It actually ruined my entire Saturday (going to see Paul Blart: Mall Cop didn't help). I felt betrayed, I felt angered, I felt worried cause I know A-Rod is super sensitive and was concerned about what this controversy would do to his on the field production (I mean I am a fan of the Yankees team first and certain players second and Alex isn't my fav on the team).

I think most of all what depressed me was what A-Rod was supposed to be, he was supposed to be Baseball's White Knight, the one that breaks all the home run records and takes them back from roided up freak Barry Lamar Bonds. But no, thats gone now. I mean even if the Yanks wouldn't be having a good year (unlikely) then I would still seek enjoyment from watching the quest of A-Rod to set things right, not anymore.

I was proud on Monday when he fessed up and admitted his mistakes and that he did it. I would have hated for him to take the Bonds or Clemens approach of fighting it with never-ending headlines and stories and congress hearings and lawsuits. He was a man about it, explained his usage and asked for forgiveness.

Myself, this makes me less proud to wear my A-Rod T Shirt or Jersey, or have my sweet bobblehead pictured above. It opens up my beloved Yanks to even more criticism from jealous fans of other teams. I will still watch my 120-130 games this year, watch this year as the Yanks win their 27th championship and cheer on my favorite team as I always have, but won't be rooting as hard for #13.

Knoebels Buys The Golden Nugget

2009-02-03T21:21:00.002-05:00

So the word came out last week that Knoebels has bought the track and trains of the Golden Nugget from Moreys Pier. For those that don't know the Golden Nugget was a unique coaster/dark ride that has been on the jersey shore since 1960 (here are some pictures from this past weekends 'farewell event').

Here are my thoughts on the topic:

- This is a "Very Knoebels" move.
- This is a ride that has always intrigued me (love dark rides) so I am happy to see that it is going to live on.
- I think I saw an article that said Knoebels may go with a 'coal mine' theme instead of the current 'old west' theme.
- Are the trains/track going to be any good? I mean the ride opened about 50 years ago and hasn't operated in 10 years and just sat there rotting away in the sand and wind, so how much of whats left be of any real value?
- Hasn't Knoebels learned their lesson from Flying Turns? Its a disaster, never ending construction project (I think they started building what really is a relatively small wood coaster in either 2005 or 2006) and still don't know when or if it will open. Now they are trying to 'resurrect' another classic, which will probably be quite the construction project and uses 50 year old technology.

I do wish Knoebels the best of luck, and this is one I'd be really interested in riding.

Super Sunday

2009-02-01T14:12:00.003-05:00

So today is of course Super Bowl Sunday, a great day for all americans. I love the Super Bowl, a spectacle on a grand scale.

I honor of todays game, here are my three favorite NFL coaching blowups:

Kings 'Clint Gets Stuck' Dominion Vidcast Up

2009-01-22T23:33:00.001-05:00

Fun video from Kings Dominion this week:

Change

2009-01-21T22:07:00.003-05:00

Well this week on In The Loop we played a little game where with the Inauguration this week we looked back on the past 8 years and looked to ahead for what to expect in the next 4. While if you know me, then you probably know I hate politics with a passion (but love theme parks) so I wanted to expand on the conversation a little bit with a blog post, because a lot has happend these past 8 years and we have a lot to look forward to.

The Past 8 Years (a long time when you think about it)

Halloween Explodes
We have seen halloween events go from one or do weekends at the end of the year with a few pumpkins and maybe a haunted house, to full blown spectacles with some that last from mid-September to early November. This has become in many parks the most popular time of the year and while I'm not the big haunted house guy, I do enjoy a good halloween event.

SFGAdv Evolves To Superpark Status
The past 8 years have been very good to my former home park. It has added Nitro, Superman: Ultimate Flight, Kingda Ka, El Toro and The Dark Knight Coaster. While they have lost a large number of flat rides, I think the addition of the big timers more then makes up for it and I mean I pay $50 bucks to ride El Toro, not the scrambler. One of my best memories in the past 8 years was attending opening day of the worlds tallest & fastest coaster with my brother back in 2005.

Cedar Fair Buys Paramount Parks
Probably the biggest single thing to happen in the past 8 years when it comes to amusement park news. While theres always going to be haters out there, I have been happy with the move. Some of the former paramount parks have seen the addition of some really great rides and hey, its one less season pass to buy!

Six Flags Regime Change
Dan Snyder, Mark Shapiro and Red Zone took over the struggaling Six Flags chain. They made a lot of changes like putting ads everywhere, adding smaller rides all cheaply themed to a license, raising prices and removing rides. While I think from a business standpoint they have made the right moves, but from a fan standpoint I completely hate it and hope the stock stays in the toilet and they FAIL FAIL FAIL.

Sweet New Designs
We have had the Intamin Rocket Coaster, the B&M Flyer and the Intamin Woodie. All awesome and I hope we see many more of them in the future.

E Tickets
Not a great 8 years for E Tickets but we did have Revenge of the Mummy, Soarin & Expedition Everest......... I am expecting better in the next 4 years.

Podcasting
This new medium (which I completely love) was born and flourished. Its obviously become a hobby of mine between running A Walk In The Park Podcast for the past 2.5 years and were getting to almost a full year of doing the new In The Loop. We have had a lot of really great podcast come up including Coaster Radio & Season Pass and many excellent disney ones: Inside The Magic, WDW Today & WDW Radio Show.

Zero New York Yankees World Series Championships
This was not cool ..........at all.

New Parks Flopping
I think we've learned that building parks is a very very risky thing to do, and has a high chance of failure. We have seen flops like Wild West World, Cypress Gardens (rides side), Celebration City and the biggest theme park flop possibly of all time Hard Rock Park.

Old Parks Gone
It wasn't only the new parks that struggled, we saw some parks that have been around for quite a while calling it quits including Geauga Lake, Astroland (it was a dump, good riddence), Astroworld (not a good decade for parks with 'astro' in the name) and The Myrtle Beach Pavillion.

Looking Forward To The Next 8 Years

What Will Happen To The Busch Parks?
InBev has taken over and needs money and the disposable non-core asset that the theme parks are, well are being put on the block. They've already cut out the free beer (boooo). The parks have always been excellent and in my mind of a quality just below the Disney/Universal level. The million dollar question is whose going to buy?? No one knows, but it will be fascinating to watch. Will all the parks be sold together or will they be split up? Would a Disney or Universal be interested or will a foreign company take the reigns? Boy, I would love to see Disney take over the Sea World Orlando parks.

What Will Become of Six Flags?
There stocks in the toilet, they've got a butt load of debt and they're building hair salons.

Many New York Yankees World Championships
Bank on it, its gonna happen.

E Tickets
This one has me really excited 2010 brings The Wizarding World of Harry Potter to Universal Orlando, and while we haven't been told just whats going to be in the giant show building residing in between Jurassic Park & The Lost Continent, but I am expecting something spectactular. 2011 brings Transformers: The Ride to Universal Hollywood, spiderman technology meets giant robots..... sign me up! The biggest things to happen in the next 4 years will be in the 1.1 billion dollars being put into Disney's California Adventure. I am sooo pumped for Wonderful World of Color, The Little Mermaid and Radiator Springs Racers.

Christmas Events
Will Christmas be the next Halloween? A lot of parks seem to be jumping on the bandwagon and while its not as easy to pull off, it seems to be gaining steam.

My Move To Orlando
While not official official yet (I am about 95%, barring any unforeseen events its on) I am planning on moving to the center of the theme park world. I don't like my current city or area of the country (it was -33 wind chill last week) don't like my job enough to stay here and could use a change in my life and to me there is no better town to live in. Stay tuned to the blog in Mid-February, thats when I will be making the official call to move to the sunshine state with the target move date of late March.

Hope you enjoyed reading, please post your comments!!

No Coaster Con Report

2009-01-18T18:23:00.020-05:00

Yesterday, I spent the day at the American Coaster Enthusiast event; No Coaster Con. For those that have never heard of/been to a No Coaster, essentially its a day long convention in the middle of the off season where a whole bunch of different parks throughout the midwest come and give presentation all about whats going on with there parks.

The event is MC'd by a guy named Marty. This guy wears bad hawaiin shirts and tells bad jokes, which has become a tradition a the event. ACE carries a lot of stereotypes on the net for being filled with nerds and wierdos (which isn't true) but this guy really gives the haters a good arguement.

ACE President Mark Cole talked a bit next. I have had no problems with anything he's done during his reign, but he is not a good public speaker.

Stan Checketts from S&S was the first real speaker to hit the stage. He is an older gentleman and doesn't appear to be to politically correct, as he started off his presentation with a joke about lesbians (which was pretty funny). Stan doesn't have much going on in the US, so mostly discussed his two big european projects the worlds fastest coaster coming to Germany and the very cool and very original 'free flyer' coaster going into Sweden. Stan gave out keychains to everyone, so that was very cool. The free flyer looks like very neat concept, check out this youtube of it

Brandon from Worlds of Fun was up next and gave what I thought was the presentation of the day. He is a good public speaker and had a presentation that was filled with jokes relevant to the topic and went over very well with the enthusiast crowd. He talked a lot about Prowler, there New For 2009 wooden coaster, which should be a fun ride. This was one of my favorite gag slides he had:

Next up it was some club member giving a presentation about getting little kids into roller coasters. THIS WAS TERRIBLE. It was boring, seemed completely out of place with anything else going on in the con, and most annoyingly he brought his son up with him and would continually give the little one the mic. I almost fell asleep somewhere in the middle, three quarters of the way thru I was wondering when it was going to end and why I paid $32 dollars for this event to listen to a toddler on a microphone.

Waldameer Park was up next. He talked a lot about how happy the group was with Ravine Flyer II. Not the greatest public speaker, but gave a lot of insight into how a small park operates from season to season. In his speech he mentioned the park doesn't have much room to expand, but they are looking at some options. He gave a list of improvements for the 09 season (check out the picture below) including a Mega Disko. He also played a clip from when Theme Park Review was at the park this past season, this seemed a bit odd to me because I didn't think TPR & ACE were too friendly (even though its pretty much the same crowd that makes up both groups, the crowd at last years West Coast Bash was really no different then that of a regular ACE event, maybe West Coast Bash skewed a bit younger but thats it). Video was good, overall his presentation was decent.

Robin Innes from Cedar Point was next in line and was talking not only about CP, but all Cedar Fair parks. He didn't have too much for when it came to breaking news, but he did mention that Voodoo at Dorney Park will be changing its name to Possesed and that Cedar Point will be getting a new show at the Palace Theater. One bit of good news was that CP will be stepping up there CoasterMania enthusiast event, which this year will be a 2 day event and will include something online where attendees get to vote for where they want ERT.

Lunch was good (tasty beef, chicken, rolls and cake).

Don from Kings Island was up next. His presentation was of course all about Diamondback. He like many of the presenters was having some A/V problems (this was a theme) and we all ended up watching the teaser animation about a million times. They announced they will this year start hosting a park sponsored enthusiast event entitled something like Ride Warriors Coaster Weekend. He also announced something new for this years operation will be that both The Beast & Diamondback will be opening early this year for anyone in ACE or with a gold or platinum pass.

Brooke Gabbert from Six Flags Great America spoke next. Great America is the closest park to No Coaster, so it had much of the crowd paying full attenion and her talk was one that was more newsworthy. She talked a bit about the new Buccaneer Battle, splash battle type attraction, which is one I'm not looking forward to but had some cool looking concept art. It will also have those cool looking people dryers that were on display this year at IAAPA. She talked about some of the changes coming to the parks food & shops next year including:
Antoines is becoming a Internet Cafe
The Snack Stand near Demon is becoming a Johnny Rockets Express
Tweety Store is becoming a Mars Candy Shop

Also she told everyone to be on the lookout at the spot of where Space Shuttle America is/was, for the 2010 project. Rumors in the past have had that piece of land pegged for Waterpark expansion, so a Deluge type ride would be my guess.

A 'Dick Clarks Bloopers' Movie will be playing in the parks IMAX theater this year. My thoughts: THIS IS COMPLETE CRAP. Who is going to want to see a show that shouldn't even be on tv/ever made and is completely outdated for the audience in a theme park. The past two years they have had entertaining 3D movies in that theater.......... this year they will have parp.

She also mentioned that the park will be adding more of the mandatory lockers this year and then made the rediculous statement "We don't make any money off the lockers, the dollar fee is just to pay for the installation". MORE CRAP FROM SFGAM. Now, I know this is a PR person and her job is to spew BS for a living, but don't lie to me. I have no idea what lockers cost to buy, but I can guarantee they are turning a solid profit on these things. The rides give millions of ride each year and the lockers used thousands of times. If you couldn't tell, that line pissed me off.

She also dropped a bomb during her presentation and was easily the biggest news to come out of No Coaster and that was Mr. Six Will Be Returning To The Six Flags Marketing Campaign. Yay!!! Very cool news, I love the wierd old man that dances to Venga Boys "We Like To Party" (she said the song will be returning as well). This time Mr. Six will not be just a silent character but will talk and at some points act as "FunRator" someone who rates the amount of fun being had. He will be replacing 'Flags Man' aka the yelling asian "More Flags, More Fun" guy. Mr. Six will also be appearing in the parks as a walkaround meet and greet character.

Duane from RCDB spoke next and gave a presentation all about new coasters in 2009 and ones that were there in 2008 and won't be in 2009. It was a very good presentation and he made sure to bring attenion to the fact that 24 coasters were lost (including the one at Micheal Jacksons Neverland Ranch!!) and only 15 new ones built.

Tom Rebbie from PTC talked for a bit. He talked about what they are doing this year (see pic above) and didn't seem too optimistic for the future, which seemed valid as with both GCI & Gravity Group having there own trains now, who would buy from PTC. Tom is a very good public speaker.

Jeff Seibert from Schlitterbahn closed out the show with a very good presentation. He gave out loads of free stuff, everyone in attendence got a free admission ticket to Schlitterbahn, a magnet & a cooler bag. He talked about the new Schlitterbahn Vacation Village in Kansas City and shared videos from Dragons Revenge and Christmas at Schlitterbahn. He mentioned some details on their enthusiast event named SchlitterCon. Schlitterbahn looks like a awesome waterpark, I hope to visit one day.

A few more scenes from the day, my In The Loop buddies and audience I'm sure would love this book:

This was really cool in a coaster geek kind of way, this guy took an old chair from Steel Venom at Geuaga Lake and made it into an office chair. I have to say this has my Alien Encounter chair & restraint beat.

Thats it and thats all, some interesting stuff, some not so interesting stuff. I have only been to one of these events before, but this seemed like the less interesting of the two.

If you have any questions, just post in the comments section and I will get back to you.

Stuck In 1981..... Only For Another 3 Months

2009-01-16T20:17:00.005-05:00

It was happy times last week when word came out that Walt Disney World's Space Mountain was announced to go down for a major rehab from the middle of April until 'late 2009'. I loved this news, as I have been yelling for a while that this ride desparately needs a rehab. My thought process was more along the lines that the ride was needed updating to get with the times, more so then the roughness of the ride (it was a bit rough, not unbearable, but not smooth). I especially thought the WDW version needed a reworking after riding the incredible Space Mountain they have at Disneyland.

The following things have been announced as part of the refurbishment:
- layout is the same
- new track
- new queue
- new roof
- more modest then disneylands 2 year makeover

A couple of things that I am still holding out hope for:
- On Board Audio
- Updated Effects
- New Post Show

Even though I may not get everything I'd like out of a Space Mountain Refurbishment, its still good to see some major projects at WDW moving foreward. That got me to thinking about other rides that I would like to see recieve a bit of retooling at 'the world'

Everest - gotta get the Yeti working
Star Tours - really needs more of a complete overhaul then a rehab, whether it be HD monitors, new storyline, 3D, its another stuck in the 80's ride
Great Movie Ride - needs to get with the times a little bit, while I still like the ride it is 20 years old and some of the animatronics look a bit creepy and they could really switch out a scene or two with something more modern

MouseFest Round Up

2009-01-15T22:37:00.002-05:00

So, MouseFest 2008 was about a month ago (which means MouseFest 2009 is only 11 months away!!) and by now everyone has had a chance to get their content up on the net, so I wanted to share the ones that I've found with everyone:

WDW Radio Show - MouseFest ReCap Rountable
Inside The Magic - ITM Meet Recording If you listen carefully, I am actually on the show.... and answer a trivia question wrong
Inside The Magic - Riverboat Trivia Meet Picture Try & Find Me In There
MousePlanet - Chris Barry's A Newbie Looks Back at MouseFest 2008 Article
All About The Mouse - MouseFest 2008 ReCap
Studios Central - Star Tours Meet Picture I'm in this one too, this one its a lot tougher to find me.

Back From Kalahari

2009-01-14T22:31:00.002-05:00

So this past weekends Kalahari adventure was more fun then I'd thought it would be, and I had some high expectations. It was great to hang with my In The Loop Co-Hosts for the weekend and a bunch of others, as we relaxed in the hot tub, hit the slides, drank, exchanged stories and thoughts.

If you want to here more about my trip check out this weeks In The Loop at:

http://www.coastercrew.com/intheloop.php?action=play&fileid=188

And you get to hear the following stories:

Clint Getting Stuck On The Zip Coaster
Why I Ended Up Doing The YMCA On Stage At The Club
Wal-Mart Won't Write The Word 'Douche' On A Cake
And Of Course The BP Mitchell Phone Ballet:

Off To The Kalahari

2009-01-08T15:27:00.002-05:00

So in about an hour or so I am headed out to the Kalahari Indoor Waterpark Resort in Sandusky Ohio. I will be joining In The Loop Co-Hosts Will Holder & Clint Novak for a weekend which I'm sure will be filled with shenanigans and good times.

Back to blogging on Monday.

Free Beer, Not Here

2009-01-06T22:24:00.003-05:00

Well it was some sad news this week when the announcement came that Sea World & Busch Gardens Park Will No Longer Offer Free Beer. This while not unexpected after the InBev takeover, is still dissapointing news.

I was a bit surprised that the free beer was stopped now and not when the parks got new owners. There are a few different reasons for this I've seen hypothizied on the net, the first is that this makes the parks easier to sell and that the new owner when they arrive won't look like the 'bad guy'. Another possible reason I've heard is that after the InBev restructuring the parks had to swallow the cost of beer instead of the brewery devision.

To me this is a much bigger deal at the Sea World parks then the Busch Gardens parks, just because the Busch Gardens parks have so much more to offer. Sea World (Orlando, at least, not sure about the others) had both a hospitality house and a brewmaster club, which amounted to about 4 free beers. Clearly this wasn't enough to get someone smashed, but was a nice relaxing break escaping the summer heat.

I also thought the free beer was a great marketing tool as well, because people would learn all about and taste the exotic beers in the AB catalog. I would always try the wacky ones I've never had before, not the same ol Bud Light I've had a thousand times. I still drink 'Wild Blue' from time to time and wouldn't have known about it without the Brewmaster Club.

While I know a new owner may have no interest in keeping a 'Beer Sampling' attraction, but I don't know why AB-InBev couldn't work something out with the new owner to keep the tasting going. It would give the park an added attraction that people enjoy and have come to expect, and would give AB-InBev the good publicity that they could use and solid marketing. I mean it wouldn't be any different then 'commercials/attractions' found in EPCOT's Innoventions or in the Test Track Post Show.

This week on A Walk In The Park Podcast (Season 3: Episode 50), I pay tribute to the Free Beer Tradition with a fun video (featuring Clint Novak, Will Holder & Myself) from Busch Gardens Europe.

NYC Trip PTR

2009-01-05T20:42:00.030-05:00

So when I was home in NY for Christmas I got the chance to take the train into New York City for a day and spend the day exploring.......... and taking pictures for the blog.

Fancy McDonalds Sign

Ripleys Believe It Or Not Museum, a relatively new edition to NY's lineup of attractions. I have been to a lot of Ripley's (Key West, Niagra Falls, Wisconsin Dells, Hollywood) and I can say the NY location is easily the best I've been to.

Entrance

Robert Wadlow, Tallest Man Ever, Ripleys Museum Staple.

Cow With Extra Leg

Beautiful Wooden Car/Boat

Worlds Fattest Man

See The Smile On My Face, There's A Reason For It. Whenever Someone Sits On The Couch (An Obvious Photo Spot) A Speaker Implanted In The Couch Made A Loud Farting Noise And The Moose Above The Couch Would Move. Pretty Funny.

This Was My Favorite Gag In The Place. Those Two Wax Figures Of People Pretending To Take A Picture, Is Placed Right On The Other Side Of A Doorway, So That People Walking Towards The Next Room Would Pause & Stand Still Not To Interupt The Folks Taking The Picture......... Until They Realized It Was A Hoax. Worked On Everyone That Passed Through The Door, Including Yours Truly.

These Two Cool Animatronics Were Located Right By The Entrance & Would Sing Along To Modern Songs Played, It Was Funny Because It Was All Modern Songs Like Akon etc...

Me & Dad Posing With "Enigma" A Sideshow Freak Who Was Doing Shows Hourly At The Ripleys Museum.

A Beautiful Sight To Myself & All My Fellow Yankee Fans. This Modells (Local Sporting Goods Store) Was Literally Half Yankee Shirt Jerseys. And Yes, Of Course I Picked Up The New CC.

Times Square On The Gloomy Day

This Is One Of Those "Only In NYC" Type Of Things. A Set Of Highly Themed Bathrooms In The Heart Of Times Square Complete With Custom Made Charmin Bathroom Theme Music.

Another 5 Blocks, Another Icon.

"The Cube" Apple Store, Very Popular.

Greeter Outside FAO Schwartz.

The Muppet Whatnot Workshop Inside FAO. It Was Very Cool, You Got To Pick Your Own Muppet Parts (Head, Nose, Eyes, Body) & They Would Build It For Ya. Very Cool, But Pricey At Over A Hundred Bucks.

It Was A Busy Day In NYC.

Last Pic, The Worlds Most Famous Christmas Tree.

I Hope You Guys Enjoyed The Pictures, It Was A Fun Day!!

Christmas In My Apartment

2009-01-03T20:17:00.005-05:00

So I am putting away my Christmas stuff this weekend. I don't have too much, but I'm a single guy that lives alone, so what do you expect. The one tree has fiber optics in it and is pretty sweet and of course I love the WDW ornaments.

Season 3: Episode 49 a bit delayed

2008-12-31T08:45:00.003-05:00

Hey Everyone,

If you were checking your iTunes paitently waiting for A Walk In The Park Podcast Season 3: Episode 49 to pop up, your going to have to wait a bit longer. The file conversion process took longer then I had expected so I couldn't post the show last tonight. Tonight is New Years Eve, so clearly I'm busy with things far more important then podcasting, so be on the look out for the show sometime Thursday.

I am going to get back in the blogging biz, next week I swear, things have just been crazy with the holidays.

Merry Christmas

2008-12-25T13:58:00.002-05:00

I just wanted to take a minute out of my holiday and wish all the readers of the blog a Merry Christmas. I am back in NY, spending time with family (which explains the lack of updates this week). I of course watched the WDW Christmas parade this morning as always. I am hoping to get to NYC on Saturday and could bring back some good stuff for the blog.

MouseFest PTR

2008-12-19T20:47:00.023-05:00

So last weekend I had the oppurtunity to experiance my very first MouseFest. I had really high expectations for the event, because it was talked about in such high regard from all the big Disney websites & podcasts, the event not only lived up to the hype, it exceeded it. I had an absolute blast, met sooooo many people, made a lot of friends and had a time I will remember for a while.

I arrived in the Orlando Airport right on time and hopped on the Magical Express bus to Disney property. Check In at the Carribean Beach resort was very slow, probably due to the fact that all the cast members working the desks were members of the international program. I like the fact that the CM's you meet are from everywhere, but they should really spread them out more cause they are far slower then the regulars. If there was one part of the trip I wasn't thrilled about it was staying at the Carribean Beach Resort. The place although very well themed, was just too big. You had to get on a internal bus system to get from check in to your room or your room to the food court, I didn't like this at all. I won't be staying there again for a long time.

I had a little bit of time so I headed over to Downtown Disney. Of course because I wanted to punish myself, I had to walk past the closed Adventurers Club.

Sad, indeed. I did grab a drink at the outdoor bar across the street from the Adv Club, but unfortunately they weren't serving the Kungaloosh that night. I did ask the bartender and she said they do serve the Adv Club concoction, but only one bartender knows how to make it.

With drink in hand I explored the rest of Downtown Disney. I checked out the T Rex Cafe, which was neat, but I think the pictures I have seen make it look cooler then it was. The highlight of DTD for me now that the clubs are closed is the massive World Of Disney Store. I perused for a while and ended up buying a set of 8 action figures (because I'm a huge dork) which features different characters from the famous attractions like Figment & Big Al. I also noticed they had started construction on "Characters In Flight" the large balloon ride being built near the west entrance to Pleasure Island.

But it was off to bed early, because there was Extra Magic Hours at the Magic Kingdom at 8 AM. The MouseFest activities didn't really get going until after lunch, so I spent the morning exploring MK. Here are some thoughts from that:

- Space Mountain is stuck in 1981
- The pirate who used to wear about 5-6 hats..... now doesn't
- The Haunted Mansion upgrades are still great
- I saw a giant Florida bird swoop down and steal a mans churro, one of the funniest/oddest things I ever seen in WDW

I was only in the Magic Kingdom for about two hours before hopping on the monorail to the Polynesian to grab my favorite breakfast treat in Disney World, which is of course TONGA TOAST

If you've never experianced Tonga Toast, its deep fried sourdough bread with bananas inside and topped with powdered sugar. While it is a 'Brick Of Death' it is delicous. If you've never been to the Poly, its one of the best Disney resort, this is the lobby:

After breakfast I moved one stop over on the monorail to check out the christmas decor at the Grand Floridian. Which like the Poly is another beautiful Disney property:

The star of the holiday festivities at the Grand Flo is of course the life size gingerbread house. This is very cool and actually has a shop inside it where you can buy cookies.

Soon after that it was time to head over to the Contemporary to start MouseFest!! Walking around the Contemporary I found this sweet baseball themed skeeball machine:

Then it was time for MouseFest 101 which was a talk given by Mark Goldhaber of MousePlanet and Mike Scopa from WDW Today. They talked about the history of the event, some of the big meets, and some tips for those that haven't been before. Then MouseFest founder Dave Marx from Passporter officially welcomed everyone to MouseFest and we all enjoyed a nice spread of snacks.

The talks were very good, but there wasn't too much time to socialize before it was back to the Magic Kingdom for Mike Scopa's annual Dole Whip Meet. This was one of the more popular meets and had some cool swag that came along with it. That was one of the neat things about MouseFest, each meet you went to the host would give out a pin to hang on your lanyard and by the end of the weekend there wasn't much room left on the lanyards. Shortly after the Dole Whip, I went to the Monsters Inc Laugh Floor (MILF for short) for the Comedy4Cast meet. This was one of the more fun meets because the host gave all that attended Groucho Marx goofy glasses, here is a picture of the group:

We got on the big screen during the show as a group and had a blast. I ate dinner at Pecos Bills (home to the famous fixins bar). Shortly after nightfall it was time for Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party. Now not only was this my first time at MouseFest, but it was also my first time at WDW during Christmastime. I really enjoyed all the Christmas things I saw during my visit and I think those during the party were the most well done, as a big part of a day at the Magic Kingdom is that 'Warm & Fuzzy' feeling and that only is amplified with all the extra Christmas activities going on. The most obvious decoration is the lit up Cinderella Castle:

While this may seem great in pictures or youtube videos, it really needs to be seen to be believed, it's a breathtaking sight. I really enjoyed the two live stage shows during the party, both were well done. I was a little let down by the parade, as I had sky high expectations after the awesome Boo To You parade during the halloween party. The highlight of the night had to be Holiday Wishes fireworks spectactular. It was a great show and mixed with the snow on main street made for a great time. The party also included complimentarty cookies and hot chocolate, I didn't care much for the cookies but LOVED the hot Cocoa.

The next morning began with a few hours at Disney's Animal Kingdom. I grabbed a fastpass for Everest and then headed to Africa to grab a delicous pastry and head off to the all ears meet. The All Ears meet had some of the best swag in the weekend including change purses, hats and buttons. The Everest meet was very popular, us MouseFesters took up I think somewhere between 3-4 full trains. Yeti is still in B show for those wondering. I grabbed rides on other DAK classics Kilamanjaro Safari's & Dinosaur before heading to the Studios for the afternoon.

I got to the studios a little bit earlier with hopes to grab a fastpass for Toy Story Mania, but it was a popular day and they were all gone by the time I got there around noon. After lunch the MouseFest gang filled 1.5 starspeeders at Matt Hotchberg's Star Tours meet. I got the whole Muppetvision experiance at MuppetMeets including going through the extend queue which I didn't even know existed, and is filled with posters that are, very Muppet.

Podfest was the next event and was a lot of fun. Podfest is a chance for podcasters to meet their suscribers and each other. There were about 30+ podcasters there and a lot of good conversation. This was held at a restaurant that served beer, which only added to the fun. I have listened to some of the big disney podcasts for years and it was great to put faces to the voices I've listened to forever.

It was a busy day at the studios (Toy Story Mania was at least 60 minutes all day) but I got on the rest of the rides. The upcoming American Idol Experiance actually has a pretty cool looking exterior, and from the outside appeared to be ready to open any day now.

Once night fell it was time for the Osborne Festival Of Dancing Lights which is another one that has to be seen to be believed. The large scale dancing segments were mesmerizing, but the display had a lot of little touches like bikes covered in lights and plenty of hidden mickeys. One thing, I bought a souvenir cup filled with Hot Apple Cider and it was awful. The cider was boiling hot and tasted like pee........... I recommend avoiding it if your at the studios.

After the lights it was back to Carribean Beach for a much needed good night sleep.

But before long it was up for Day 3 at EPCOT. I grabbed a ride on Soarin' & Living With The Land before heading over to the Beach Club for the Mega Mouse Meet. The Mega Mouse Meet is the 'main event' of MouseFest, it is in a big convention hall and has lots of tables from podcasters, authors, advertisers and websites. There are lots of giveaways and raffles at the meet, I didn't win anythingn but had fun.

I caught a ride on the Universe Of Energy with some of the guys from The DPN, it is one of the more boring attractions at WDW.

One of the highlights of the afternoon from me was watching the World Showcase Players. Does this guy look familiar:

That is my favorite performer from the old Adventurers Club and he was absolutely hilarious in his role at EPCOT. He was in a heavily guest interaction re-telling of A Christmas Carol. He noticed a few of us MouseFesters in the crowd that rememberred him from his old role, and promptly gave the club salute and a hearty Kungaloosh. The actor played many differnt roles including Marley & the three ghosts. The best laugh came when he was the third visiting ghost, but instead of 'The Ghost Of Christmas Future' he had a Mickey Mouse hand puppet behind a screen and was 'The Ghost of ChristMOUSE Future' and proclaimed "Think its expensive now, just wait. Its going to be fifty dollars for parking, one hundred dollars for a hamburger and there going to close everything you love!" which had a high level of signifigance coming from the former Professor Otis T Wren. Good show, I highly recommend.

Now I have no idea why they were there, but the guys from Deadliest Catch were signing autographs in the Norway pavillion.

They were very cool down to earth guys and were laughing when I told them of our old Deadliest Catch drinking game we would play back in college when we'd drink every time anyone on the show said 'Crab' or 'Pot'.

After dinner things got really fun. I drank halfway around the world including listening to The Hat Lady piano player for a while in the Rose & Crown pub. I probably had a good 6-7 drinks before Illuminations, which had a special Christmas tag which was spectacular.

Then it was off to the Jellyrolls Dueling Piano Bar meet. This place was a lot of fun and is definetely the bar on disney property now that they closed PI. I got really drunk that night as well, I went in with a pretty good buzz and just drank drank drank. And since it was a piano bar there was plenty of booze inspired singing along from the MouseFesters in attendence, which included some very popular podcasters. This was the drunkest I been in a long time and my memory of the latter half of the evening is spotty at best. I do remember meeting some very cool people ......... and I think the piano player actually played and encouraged a drunken singalong of "Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow". Great Night.

That night was great, the next morning was complete hangover hell. The Magic Kingdom is no place to be hungover. Sunday was kind of a finish up day for me at MouseFest. I met my In The Loop Co-Host Erik Yates for lunch over at the Spectacular Wilderness Lodge.

The only real meet I did on Sunday was Ricky Brigante's Inside The Magic meet. I have met Ricky a few times now, cool guy. This was I think the first time I was ever actually on the riverboat.

Saturday & Sunday, they had a great sale going on including 40% of all T Shirts. I ended up buying four, three by choice and the 'Grumpy' long sleeve I was wearing in the picture above with the deadliest catch guys to avoid freezing at EPCOT, it gets colder then you'd think in Florida December.

MouseFest came to an end for me around 4:30ish for me and the depression hit as soon as I left the magic kingdom that afternoon. I actually was on my Magical Express ride home with a fellow MouseFester who I ended up chatting with until it was time to board the plan. It was those kind of friendships and conversations that really make MouseFest as much fun as it is. I met sooo many people and made sooo many friends. A great time, you can be sure that I will be at MouseFest 2009.

People I Met
Mike Scopa, Len Testa, Matt Hotchberg & Mike Newell (WDW Today)
Lou Mongello (WDW Radio Show)
Dave Marx (Passporter)
Mark Goldhaber (MousePlanet)
Clinton (Comedy4Cast)
Ricky Brigante (Inside The Magic)
Mike (MouseStation)
Jana (LTAD)
Bryan Ripper (All About The Mouse)
Northern Mouse Guys
The Crew From Disney Indiana Podcst

Ride Count
Space Mountain
Pirates Of The Carribean (3x)
Jungle Cruise
Peter Pan's Flight (2x)
Snow White's Scary Adventure's
The Many Adventurers Of Winnie The Pooh
Haunted Mansion (4x)
Mickey's Philharmagic (2x)
Country Bear Jamboree
Monsters Inc Laugh Floor
Tomorrow Land Transit Authority (2x)
Stitch's Great Escape
Castle Light Show
Mickeys Twas The Night Before Christmas
Its A Small World
Celebrate The Season
Christmas Parade
Holiday Wishes
Dinosaur
Expedition Everest
Kilamanjaro Safari
Rock & Roller Coaster
Star Tours
Tower Of Terror (2x)
Muppetvision
Great Movie Ride (2x)
Soarin
Living With The Land
Universe Of Energy
Imagination
Tiki Room
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
Liberty Bell

MouseFest PTR Coming

2008-12-17T08:30:00.002-05:00

I know there has been a lack of blogs lately, I was in Disney World for MouseFest this past weekend and it was an absolute blast, I will get a full PTR up tonight or tomorrow.

iPhone Pictures Take #1

2008-12-07T22:21:00.010-05:00

So ever since I got the iPhone I been using the camera feature to take pictures of things I found neat, here are a few:

This was an actual 'Decoration' we found at some hole in the wall bar we went to in Williamsburg the night before BGE. Remember "Don't Turn Your Back On The Wolfpack".

A Mango Margarita. I usually enjoy frozen booze, this one wasn't so great.

I think I must have been drunk after a night out in Chicago when I took this, cause I have no memory of doing so.

I thought this was one of the funnier cutouts I've ever seen.

Large stuffed bear in one of the shops at LaGaurdia airport.

Bass Pro Shop, a fun store.

I've never heard of this movie, but the banner was huge and humorous.

Turtle