CycloneMan

^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 =(

So, I've been living in Florida since summer of 2009, and I haven't done any photo updates from the parks down here. So I'm going to try to do some more frequent updates.

 

1/31/12

 

I had family in town for a surprise weekend. They stayed at the Polynesian Resort on their weekend in WDW.

 

Disney is family friendly for everyone!

 

Kicking back and relaxing on the Polynesian beach on the 7 Seas Lagoon.

 

Grand Floridian

 

Contemporary

 

I just love the Polynesian. Out of all of the Disney hotels, it's my favorite. Followed closely by the Contemporary and Wilderness Lodge.

 

I just love it =)

 

My cousin Emma and I enjoying the beach.

 

We get to the Magic Kingdom and see that they're still taking down decorations.

 

Big Thunder Mountain closed on January 10th for a 6 month refurbishment.

 

Some more work going on in Frontierland on new pavement.

 

The cement is dry now and it looks very lovely.

 

Fantasyland is coming along.

 

 

 

Next we headed over to Space Mountain...

 

Which wasn't open yet so we hopped on the Peoplemover to see it with the lights on.

 

 

They were working on taking down the Christmas lights from the castle!

 

My Uncle Brian was amused by the crane.

 

See ya real soon!

 

2/14/12

 

The reason we came to the park was to try out the new Sorcers of the Kingdom interactive game. It's still in testing phases until the end of the month.

 

Jackie (X Million Miles Away X) and I are ready to play.

 

These were our two favorite cards. I don't have any more pictures from this game. Basically you run around the Magic Kingdom from screen to screen, holding your card to the screen to cast your spell to get rid of the villains. It was cute but not the most exciting thing.

 

Obligatory ride on Space Mountain.

 

Getting ready for blast off.

 

We hopped on the River Boat a little later in the day. Here's a picture of Aunt Polly's on Tom Sawyer Island and the Haunted Mansion.

 

Splash Mountain and the Tom Sawyer Island rafts as seen from the River Boat.

 

Approaching Big Thunder Mountain.

 

Big Thunder Mountain is closed for a 6 month refurbishment. During this refurbishment they will be redoing and updating the queue. They are also doing cosmetic work to the mountain and re-gauging the track and ride structure.

 

 

 

 

 

The Tiny Town of Tumbleweed as seen from the Walt Disney World Railroad

 

The new Storybook Circus train station.

 

 

We got some popcorn and watched the sun set over Main Street from the train station.

 

Jackie enjoying popcorn.

 

Oh yea hi! I'm here too.

 

Jackie was too busy with her Sims to really care about the Magic Kingdom.

 

Take a guess as to what ride we are on! That's right, Small World.

 

It's like being in Hell! Which is a shame, I really do love the work of the Sherman Brothers and Mary Blair, I just hate this attraction.

 

Our last photo will be of Jackie and I on our very own rocket on Space Mountain at the end of the night. And yes...we ended up getting stuck on it! lol.

 

That's all for now.

 

-Dainan

We did not. To be honest, it looked very....carnivalish. But I don't live far from the one at Magical Midway in Orlando. I haven't been on it yet, and Jackie's been trying to make me ride it since we moved here in 09.

Last night my room mate Jackie (X Million Miles Away X on these boards) and our best friend Patrick went to the County Fair/Rodeo in town. We didn't stay too long, and it was quite awful, but I took pictures. So here they are.

 

Kissimme Valley you say? What valleys are here in Osceola County?

 

Typical blurry fair photo.

 

They're signage was very up to date! Good for them =)

 

We walk in and see this toy stand at the entrance. I can't think of a park down the road that might be upset by this! Can you?

 

So yea....basically the only reason we came here was to get the credit.

 

Zyklon is your typical traveling, compact Pinfari coaster.

 

They manually pushed the cars out into the ride path.

 

...and they manually catch and stop the cars. Good job guys!

 

Who's ready for some quality Pinfari?

 

I know I sure am!

 

Now on to the random photos of rides! This is a Star Flyer. Everybody say "ooooooooooh" Now everybody say "aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah"

 

They had a Top Spin but we didn't ride it. The ride operator was standing within inches of the ride as it was going and playing chicken with it! We didn't want to ride when we saw that.

 

What other classic carnival rides do we have here? Oh look! A Fire Ball. ...yeah, we didn't ride it.

 

Oh look. A Zipper! ...We didn't ride it either.

 

Generic carnival dark ride! Almost as good as the one down the road

 

Oh look! Something we did ride!

 

We enjoyed it. Gravitrons are good and all, but I miss living near a park with a Rotor

 

Ooh look! Another dark ride! This one was really bad! Like....not even comically bad.

 

Very German Fun House.

 

What this has to do with a Fun House, I'll never understand!

 

There Wave Swing was very pretty.

 

What in all that is unholy is that!?!?

 

Got to love carnival food! And before you ask, no. We did not eat this!

 

Wow, there signs are really crappy at this place!

 

Oh look, they had there very own 90s boy band of awesomeness!

 

Yup...carry on

 

This stand was making home made ice cream in this machine of some sort.

 

We will end with their kiddie swing. It had the best artwork.

 

Wow! It's like we are really at Walt Disney World!

 

That's all for now.

 

-Dainan

Wohoo! Go you Harry! =)

If I remember correctly, it was after the second vertical loop

ORLANDO, Fla. — Universal Orlando, with an eye on bolstering attendance, announced ambitious plans Wednesday for a daily interactive character parade and a nighttime light and pyrotechnics show at the theme park highlighting the company’s 100 years of moviemaking.

The interactive parade and the Morgan Freeman-narrated evening show — with images from Universal movies projected onto screens created by waterfalls in the middle of a lagoon — is the most significant addition to attractions at the Universal Studios park since the hugely successful Harry Potter attraction opened in 2010 at Universal’s other Orlando property, Islands of Adventure.

Jim Timon, senior vice president for entertainment at Universal Orlando, said the parade and night show will debut sometime this spring, although specific dates weren’t announced.

 

Daily parades and nightly fireworks displays have been featured at Walt Disney parks for years. Until now, Universal has done parades only occasionally, usually as part of seasonal offerings at Halloween and Christmas.

 

The night show will celebrate the company’s movies through the last 100 years and will run 18 to 20 minutes. The three high-definition screens projected on waterfalls will be surrounded by 70 LED-lighted fountains and pyrotechnics, Timon said.

 

“This is very much a big end-of-day spectacular,” Timon said. “This is the big show we send our guests off with, with the Universal brand and message and emotion and impact.”

 

The “Universal Superstar Parade” will feature characters such as Nickelodeon’s Dora & Diego and SpongeBob SquarePants. Timon said each float will be set up as a separate show with its own special effects and musical score that can be featured individually around the park when not in the parade.

 

Also Wednesday, Universal said that a previously announced new ride based on the “Despicable Me” animated film will open this summer in the Universal Studios park. The ride replaces Jimmy Neutron’s Nicktoon Blast simulator and will utilize a sophisticated digital 3-D projection system.

 

Like the 2010 movie, the Universal ride, called “Despicable Me Minion Mayhem,” will feature the villain Gru (voiced in the movie and on the ride by Steve Carell), his three adopted daughters and, of course, the not-too-bright minion characters. Universal says riders will be transformed into minions before embarking on the 3-D adventure and get to participate in a minion “dance party” at the end of the ride.

 

Similar high-definition digital technology is also being applied to a retooled version of “The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man,” scheduled to open in the Islands of Adventure park sometime in March. A combination of the nifty 3-D animation, roving motion vehicles and special effects have made the Spider-Man ride a crowd favorite for more than a decade. The upgrade has been in the works for about a year, and the ride will close for several weeks while new equipment is installed, although Universal did not provide specific dates.

 

“It’s really a mind-boggling presentation, when you look at the imagery,” said Mark Woodbury, president of Universal Creative. “When Spider-Man jumps onto the vehicle, you’ll see every thread of his costume, and the details behind him are rich and deep and full and really spectacular.”

 

 

Separate admissions of $85 for adults and $79 for children under 10 are required for the Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure parks.

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/travel/universal-orlando-announces-daily-parade-night-show-will-be-new-2012-attractions/2012/01/25/gIQAaqRKQQ_story.html

 

 

I'm personally excited to see their night show!

 

-Dainan

Oh. My. God!

Working at the park was a lot of fun. I do miss it quite often. But I prefer the park I work at now.

 

Side note, Batman the Ride was my first ever roller coaster with inversions when I was 8 years old =)

 

"When the floor goes down, don't you frown. Batman's gonna turn your world upside down"

 

-Dainan

Just don't let go of your enable too soon or you'll cause a setup