CycloneMan

Hey Harry, thought I'd give you a reason to appreciate not living in Florida. A couple of months ago when I came home, this was on the wall outside my front door. Then a month ago, I opened my front door and this little fellow was on the wall across from me. The next day I saw him on my stairs. Then a couple of weeks ago this guy was ON my bedroom window. And then today, while walking around Port Orleans, we saw this big guy! Sleep tight

This was my third visit to the park, and each time their Rapids were closed. lol, this is true. Patrick wanted to go, and it was different. Patrick's strange, he wanted to go, but wasn't happy about it. Wait till California, you'll see what I mean We are trying to convince him to get a pass and too go. But he keeps saying it's too expensive. But if my connection is willing to help, then I'll run it by him

The cast of today's adventure. Myself, Patrick and Jackie. This was Patrick's birthday trip and as you see, he is not too thrilled with going to Wild Adventures, but he did want to get his coaster count up before we go to California in June. This was Jackie and I's third time (and year) going to the park. On the drive from Orlando, FL to Valdosta, GA we got to drive through a wildfire. Yay Wow! Those welcome signs are getting stranger and stranger. Disclaimer: I do not work at Universal, I don't know how we ended up with this name tag in the car And because we're cheap, we stopped to get coupons. We pulled into the parking lot afraid we wouldn't be able to find a spot. Welcome to Wild Adventures. ...yay This was our first impression of the day. One ticket booth opened only an hour after park opening. Patrick can't wait to go inside. Once inside the park, we were able to tell this place was deserted. First stop of the day was Ant Farm Express. The park's Vekoma Roller Skater Patrick and Jackie ready to ride this unique coaster. It was rought Every Vekoma ride needs one of these at the entrance The parks Wild Mouse coaster was next. Go Bananas! is your typical Maurer Sohne Wild Mouse coasters It was rough and trimmed. They're Bumper Cars just seem so out of place. Next we did their Vekoma Jr SLC, Swamp Thing. It was boring and rough...NEXT! Here you see the parks Aviator, which was running like crap by the way, and Boomerang. What you also see is a nice plot of land where a ride used to be, there's plenty of them around the park. So yea...here's the Boomerang. A very unique and exotic ride. It was rough, moving on. Walking on the boardwalk to our next location. We headed over to Cheetah Due to Cheetah's location, it's a hard ride to get photos of, so we'll come back to it later. After the lovely and talented Cheetah, we rode this monstrosity of a ride. Viking Voyage is a Miler coaster. This one was relocated from Celebration City The ride is very uncomfortable and extremely rough. It is easily one of the worst engineered coasters out there and should be used only for scrap metal. I seriously wonder who thought it was a good idea to make this god awful ride. Good luck Vikings! We saved the best for last. Twisted Typhoon. Twisted Typhoon is the park's Vekoma SLC. Up until last year, this coaster was named Hang Man and had a different paint scheme. The new paint job really makes the ride look nicer. Hang Man was repainted and renamed to Twisted Typhoon to math the neighboring water park, Splash Island. I seriously love SLC lift hills... ...and that's about it. With the new look, the coaster did not get new trains. Thus making this coaster your standard, painful Vekoma SLC. Across from Twisted Typhoon, you can get Gator meat. Scrumptious! We had lunch here. The food looked good but it really wasn't. And a couple of hours later, we were all feeling sick. After lunch, we decided to ride Rattler. Great idea after eating Firecracker is probably the smallest S&S Space Shot I've ever seen. And it wasn't really powerful either. Nice try Wild Adventures. We went to go get our Cheetah fix. As you can see, it was crazy busy. The train going up the lift. Now give me an "oooooooh," now give me an "aaaaaaaaah" Cheetah is an out and back with a figure eight at the end. Doesn't sound like much, but this coaster maintains it's speed, it's smooth, and it's packed with airtime! As much as I try, I'm just not going to get it. Perfect shot of the tree blocking the train. Another train load of satisfied customers. I know everyone wanted to see what the lift hill looked like again. So here you go! We wanted to do their Flyers....but when we walked up to it there was no operator in sight. The queue was open and the operator panel was in plain site. So we just walked away. No Falcon Flyers for us today. I wanna see your peacock cock cock! Your peacock cock! At this point we were starting to get really bad head aches and nausea. For some stupid reason we decided to do the Boomerang on the way out. Patrick was smart and sat out. Jackie and I got our own train on the Boomerang. It was really painful, a good sign to tell us it was time to go. See ya Wild Adventures! Thanks for having Cheetah, otherwise you would have been a waste of a drive up here. On the drive out of the park you go around the entire property, which means you can get some shots of Cheetah. Here's the train going down the first drop. And the train in the turn around. And why not another photo of the "new" Twisted Typhoon. After a short drive back into Florida, we were greeted into my home state by this flag. Thaaaaaaaaaanks, I feel so welcomed. Oh, and I forgot to mention the worker who asked Patrick, "Are ya'll Yankees?" Yea... -Dainan "I can wait another year before going back again" Rafferty

...and the day before that. And the week before that. And the week before that

Oh wow! That totally is ours

That ship is absolutely gorgeous! I hope you post more Harry -Dainan "Needs to a Disney cruise soon" Rafferty

We went to Busch Gardens Tampa today for the afternoon...again (was there a week ago). And I seriously can not get enough of Cheetah Hunt. It may not be the tallest or fastest coaster out there, but it is seriously one of the best Intamin coasters out there. If you ever are in Orlando for vacation, it's worth the hour drive just for this...and Montu

We arrived at Universal Orlando at around 6:30. We were there to see the Cydni Lauper concert and the Mardis Gras parade, but we got there early to take a stroll around the park and get dinner. Hollywood Drive is opened and popular. I seriously need to make time to do this. We only did Universal Studios Florida today. There's only one more week left of Mardis Gras Despicable Me is coming along and is set to open on time. Hey there Mardis Gras stilt walkers! They're costumes were fantastic. The others I was with got better pictures than I did. But here you go. Yup....pretty fantastic. Cyndi, it's not your time yet! We will see you later tonight. The park area had some little food vendors set up and gypsy tents. Universal's Cinematic Spectacular is almost ready for it's opening night. Note to self, don't stand here. Looking down the street of San Francisco you can see the emptiness that was once Amity Island at the end. Bruce finally got a new home next to Richter's As much as it saddens me to see the final bit of the Jaws Ride gone, it is nice to see Bruce in his new location. That as you can tell by this photo, fits well. This used to be Amity Island. When walking into the site formerly known as Amity, this is all you see. I wonder how long this sign will still be here. A couple of thematic elements are still left in Amity on the other side of the wall. The restroom building is the only building left from Amity Island. This used to be... ...this. Alright, enough of the depressing stuff. Let's move on shall we? After dinner, I decided to take a ride on Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit. It was running really smooth tonight. Fun ride, but still not the best. We got our spot for the concert first, so we watched the Mardis Gras parade from a far tonight. I don't have that many photos because, as you see, people were throwing their hands in the air trying to catch beads and I was too busy trying to dodge them... However, I did end up catching 12 bead necklaces The air boat float from a far. The Bourbon Street float. After this photo, I gave up trying to get photos of the parade. This was our spot for the concert. It may be a little far back, but I was content with it. I also really like how Rockit is right behind the stage. Shhhh, Cyndi Lauper's on. Okay kids, that's all for now. See you next time. -Dainan "Cyndi put on an excellent concert btw" Rafferty

I like the fact that we are getting this ride in this area of the park. However, the colors of the ride doesn't make sense in that area of the park. It looks ridiculously out of place. Also, the globe on the top is ridiculously obnoxious. Even more so than dare I say, the Jumbo Tron

^I've been trying to find the shirt we saw yesterday, but so far I haven't found it. I'll post it when I do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syAtmgKqc9c

WOHOOO! California is officially booked! ....and it's the right number too!

This is an easy one, The Right Stuff ...well, my room mate who worked there told me just now when I asked her. So give Jackie (x. Million. Miles. Away. X.) the credit

Welcome to Busch Gardens Tampa We entered the park and met up with my friend Sean. First thing's first. Montu. My brother Anthony had never been to Busch before this trip and has wanted to go since we were little kids. After 15 years of waiting, we finally get to ride Montu together. Oh Montu, you're such a sexy beast. Ready for our first ride of the day. Me, Sean, Jackie and Anthony. King Tut's Tomb ...I don't even know. The mythic twin pharaohs. Next up, Cheetah Hunt. The more I ride this, the more I love it. It's not really intense tho. It's more of a graceful ride. Jackie's ready to ride. What is this Cheetah Hunt? Next up we thought we'd do the SkyRide. Except it E-Stopped....so we decided to just walk. Sean was the most exotic animal we could find. In this photo we have hyenas, giraffes and Montu! While walking in Nirobi, you can get some really good shots of Cheetah Hunt. Why hello there. It's just so pretty. The elephants were pretty active today. In the Animal Care Center was saw a lecture on preparing food for the animals. Wow, we made it all the way to Timbuktu. Scorpion was fantastic as always. Anthony got all nostalgic on it because he misses Laser at Dorney Park. Yup....they still have their Intamin Looping Starship. And yup, all my change from my pockets because I'm a moron. Next we hit up Sand Serpent. Pretty standard. Oooh bumper cars. Wait! What's going on here? We were hoping to get on Kumba, but as we were walking up to the ride, this train stopped here in the blocks. Yea...Kumba's down. Well, I can still take pictures. Boo to Kumba being down. Looks like they're resetting now. We'll come back. Oh Kumba, please open soon. Stanley Falls is your typical log flume. Time for Sheikra. Oh hey! No lines for Sheikra is what I like. Jackie and Anthony ready to ride. Here come's our train. Ooh! Look what's open now! Yet another ride Anthony and I have wanted to ride together since we were really little. What's up with these black restraints? Kumba was running really fast and intense today. I warned Anthony about how intense it is and he said, "I went on anticipating Medusa or any other standard B&M and I got Scream Machine instead." I don't care. I still adore this coaster, even if age hasn't been nice to it. We took the Skyride back to Morocco for lunch. Sheikra rises like Olympus above the Serengeti (Toto reference) We see you Gwazi, we will get to you soon. Cheetah Hunt E-Stopped. We ate at the Crown Colony for lunch. I love it in here. Anthony and Jackie enjoying Crown Colony. Sean and I. The view of the Serengeti Plain from our table. After lunch we did Cheetah Hunt again. It's just so graceful. Time to see Iceploration. Iceploration is in the beautiful Marrakesh Theater. Waiting for the show. Iceploartion includes ice skating, puppets, acrobats and real animals from all over the world. We decided to go to the Myombe Reserve Oh hey there Chimps, whatchya up to? Alright Gwazi, you're time has come. Gwazi was actually dueling today. This is the only picture I have because, as usual, Gwazi's crew was ridiculously slow and I didn't want to waste my time standing around waiting for them to dispatch so I can take pictures. From Africa to Australia. Well there goes my attempt to impress the Kangaroos Ahh! They're so cute. Oh hey there! See you Roos We ended our day by marathoning on Montu. I just love the atmosphere around this ride. All this for a B&M Invert. Time to say good night to Busch Gardens. We had a great day. -Dainan "Anthony says he already wants to go back" Rafferty

So yea.... the new Spiderman at Islands of Adventure....pretty incredible =)

Magic Kingdom 3/12/12 Storybook Circus Soft Opens to the public for the first time Photos All of these photos were taken after sundown on my cell phone, so the photos aren't the best quality Obligatory Big Thunder Mountain refurbishment photo. Tonight they were working in the queue. This is on the Fastpass kiosk at Splash Mountain. Every single Fastpass machine on WDW property has this sign on it. Fastpass rules are being strongly enforced. Before you used to be able to come back with your Fastpass late, however you are no longer able too. This will help with capacity and assuring shorter waits. The Liberty Belle Riverboat looks beautiful at night. hmmm, I think we shall. Being this is a soft open, most of Storybook Circus was....wall. You can now get closer to the Little Mermaid construction. I need to go back in the day time and take photos. Here's the new entrance to Dumbo Being only one side of the new "Dueling Dumbos" was the only one ready, the actual queue line wasn't being used, they had what looked like a temporary fix. Sadly my phone doesn't take the best pictures. But the new Dumbo is absolutely gorgeous! The most exciting part to me is that it finally has water below it. The Barnstormer also got an overlay. And as you can see....Fastpass Personally, it doesn't look as "Disney" as it did before when it was themed to Toontown Fair. What you see in this picture is the only theming out in the actual ride path. ...yup The new queue is also very long. (No, we didn't ride, just looked) Some theming in the queue. And then the ride E-Stopped. Good ol Vekoma. A closer look at the new trains. A look inside the new Fantasyland Train Station. The new train station restrooms. There was a lot of cute circus props all around the area. We then decided to head over to Tomorrowland to ride the Peoplemover...basically because it didn't have a line. This is my cousin Joy and I. Erin and Lauren ready to be moved. Before we left the park we decided to do Stitch's Great Escape because it didn't have a line. This is the typical, "What did they do to the ExtraTERRORestial Alien Encounter!?!?" face. -Dainan "That's all for now" Rafferty

^YES! Some one else used to rock the fanny pack too This photo is 4 years old, but I'm totally rocking a fanny pack

Disney Parks had a promotion this winter for "One More Disney Day" for Leap Year. Whoever booked a vacation at either Disneyland Resort or Walt Disney World Resort for 3 days or more would get one more day for free. Part of the promotion was that the Magic Kingdom and Disneyland would be open for 24 hours straight. Well, being a local, how could I pass up the opportunity to be in the Magic Kingdom in the middle of the night as a guest? 2/29/12 We started our evening by getting dinner at Wendey's down the road from Walt Disney World at 9:30pm, At about 10pm we got to the TTC. This woman walked across the Toll Plaza to ask the Cast Member at the booth a question. ...yup The monorails weren't too packed. Monorail....Monorail....MONORAIL!!!!!! So...it's about 10:30pm and the turnstiles are PACKED! This should be a foreshadowing of things to come... And there it is. Happy Leap Day everyone! Leap Day William was not present unfortunately. Who's ready for this? I know my group was very apprehensive about the whole thing. But did we stay till closing? You shall find out. They were handing out these buttons when we walked in. Well, the Hub looks packed. As does Tomorrowland. Let's see how Space Mountain looks. 70 minute wait....yea, about that. We'll come back. Well, the line for the Peoplemover starts back here. But it'll move fast. Oh look, we're almost there. Wait...what's that? The ride just went down? okay we'll wait it out. Patrick and Jackie show you what it looks like to be on the Peoplemover after a 20 minute downtime... I love me some Peoplemover. Oooh, Fantasyland Construction. That structure behind the blinding light is the Little Mermaid dark ride. Over at Country Bear Jamboree, we ran into our room mate Joanna who had been at the park since 6am! She was determined to stay until the park closed for the full 24 hours. Guess what folks, she did it! And she did EVERY SINGLE ATTRACTION! This includes every show and character meet and greet. Alright gang, let's head on over to Splash Mountain. Oh looky there. Chickapin Hill. Luckily we didn't get too wet Zip A Dee Doo Dah Zip A Dee Ay! Over at Big Thunder Mountain, the construction crew was working on the queue. Working on rock work. Time to relax, just for a bit tho. It's only midnight. The park's open for 6 more hours. Hello there Sunshine Pavilion. Patrick had never done the Tiki Room so we brought him in. It's so nice to have the original Walt Disney version back instead of that stupid "Under Management" In Adventureland, Magic Carpets of Aladdin travel at lightning speed. Sleeping guest outside the Diamond Horseshoe at 1am. We saw A LOT of this during the night/morning. Oh, the Carousel doesn't have much of a wait. Let's do that! Jackie and I love old school Carousels. Patrick has that, "Oh my god, I'm still awake" look. Oh hey Heather, fancy seeing you here. Lauren is being hardcore with a cut out of Grumpy. ...I guess it's better than waiting in a ridiculously long line to meet him. Back in Tomorrowland. Let's do Astro Orbiter. Everything else has ridiculously long waits anyway. It's only 2:30 guys. We can still do this. Lauren and Jackie in the heavily themed elevators of Astro Orbiter. Flying high above Tomorrowland. From the Astro Orbiter platform, you get a great view of the Contemporary Resort. Taking flight in 3. 2. 1. BLAST OFF! Phineas and Ferb even came out for the festivities. To do the Peoplemover again, or to not do the Peoplemover again? It's 3am. Let's go on Carousel of Progress Oh the future of the 1990s. oh look, a dance party in front of the Castle. Goofy getting down with his bad self. Partners with Disco Castle We headed over to Sleepy Hollow for some breakfast. mmmm, waffle with Nutella, strawberries, blueberries and bananas Okay Space Mountain, we can't hold of anymore. The line was out the door for Space Mountain, posting a 45 minute wait. But we didn't wait more than 25 minutes. So Space Mountain was running incredibly fast and intense. There was airtime everywhere. It was a bit rough but still one of my favorite coaster out there. Why hello there Uncle Michael. Funny running into you here. Short wait for Speedway. Why not? Most people don't like this attraction because it doesn't fit into the park. I agree with them that it doesn't fit, but I still enjoy this. It's 4:40am, still awake. Lauren looks like she's getting to that point. Luckily she didn't hit me. 5am, Haunted Mansion time. I adore the Stretch Room. Looks like we are getting to that point where people are starting to leave. Sunrise behind Beast's castle. Okay, so we just walked on to Snow White. Do you think it'll be the same for Whinnie the Pooh? Yup, pretty much no one here. A site you will probably never see. Our last ride of the night was Mad Tea Party Hey guys! Still awake? Obligatory shot of the Castle. Alright guys, 10 more minutes! We can do this. Yup, this was the crowd at closing. 6am! We made it. I don't know if you can tell behind our smiles, but we were basically the walking dead being all of us were up early from the day before for work and stuff. The last photo will be of the foggy dawn over the Contemporary. -Dainan "Got home and crashed before even hitting the pillow" Rafferty

It seems like they're out sourcing their super hero theming more and more. First Boardwalk, then Frontier Adventure, and now (possibly) Golden Kingdom. Maybe we'll see a Flash themed dark ride in Fantasy Forest On a side note: I do like the idea of getting a drop tower on the side of Ka. Just theme it differently.

I don't know if Great Adventure would necessarily bring a new simulator into the park. Let alone SF as a company bring them into the parks. Simulators aren't as popular as they used to be. Yes, parks still get new simulators but it's not as often as it used to be, and most of the simulators being put in these days are just replacing older ones. With everything going on in Orlando (Harry Potter, Spiderman updates, Antarctica), I have a feeling more parks are going to try and do a more immersive experience with thrill rides. Could they possibly put a new simulator in? Sure, anything's possible. Do I think it's likely? No, no I don't

Dancer in the Dark Shock Treatment War of the Worlds (remake)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCKgyXBohLk

Disney just announced that Snow White’s Scary Adventures last day of operation will be May 31st =(