AdamY

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Thanks everyone, good to know people are actually reading it!So day 2 arrived, we decided to split it between Hollywood Studios and Magic Kingdom.The first attraction we headed for at DHS was Star Tours. Now, Star Tours is an interesting one. Seems to have a special place for many people, but the GP have seemed less than interested for a while now. Since the first time I rode the attraction in Paris, I never remember it having much of a queue. Now it’s walk on all day. I think the refurb it’s about to receive is desperately needed then, but I’m not sure if it will make much difference in a park where most of the target audience are too young to remember Star Wars as ‘first generation’ anyway. Time will tell. Anyway, I took a few snaps to commemorate my final tour to Endor.Next up we headed for Streets of America and the Backlot Tour. A stable enough attraction, it still holds interest because of the room for constant renewal to reflect the latest film releases. Rumour has it that if Cars Land makes the trip from the West Coast this is where it’ll end up, so we may find ourselves devoid of this attraction at some point, watching Radiator Springs Racers speed over it’s former site. Anyway, that’s far off in the future so no worries yet.Next up was a fastpass-ed ride on Rock n Rollercoaster. I still love this coaster, it all fits together so well with the fast-paced ride, the music and the bright lights of the LA street signs. A slight adjustment may be on the cards at some point – the contract is up with Aerosmith soon and with the band nearly splitting up not so long ago, people are questioning if it will be renewed or not. For now though, still a star attraction and instant crowd pleaser.And to your left…Tower of Terror! A certain contender for best ride on Disney property. I was very much looking forward to sampling the new drop cycle put in place for Summer Nightastic, and it delivered as you’d expect. Some great new audio and lighting effects improve the ride no end, plus an extra full height drop really gets the heart beating! One thing I did notice was that the CMs were slightly disappointing. Last year I remember them acting very intimidating, creepy and generally a bit crazy. They must have been told to tone down the act a bit, which is a shame as it really built tension for the ride and created a great atmosphere.Next on the agenda was another favourite, Toy Story Midway Mania! This is a fantastic attraction – great fun and very entertaining.As can be seen the queue stars everyone’s favourite, Mr Potato Head! The way he reacts to the crowd is really very clever, and adds another level to the experience. Once on the ride itself the fun continues with the various midway-style amusement games for riders to take part in. All round a great little attraction!After a spot of lunch at 50’s Prime Time Café (an excellent restaurant just oozing nostalgia and character) we did the Narnia experience, watched the Little Mermaid show and had a look through One Man’s Dream. The Little Mermaid was very sweet The age of some of the clips really shows now but mixed in with the live action on stage it doesn’t really matter. One Man’s Dream was really fascinating, telling the story of Walt’s early life and describing how he ended up designing theme parks with the mouse. There were also some very rare models from WDI on display, great for a geek like myself : PAfter that we left and headed for the Magic Kingdom.First up we went for a classic, and one of my personal favourites – Pirates Of The Caribbean. This timeless attraction just gets better with age. It’s little wonder that when the Magic Kingdom opened without PoTC in the line up, the public cried out to Imagineering to add a version of the classic attraction from Disneyland as soon as possible. The excitement and atmosphere feels just as great every time I board one of those boats as it did the first time. The humour, the music, the rich storytelling and the sheer historical value of the attraction mark it out as a favourite every time, and the now rather old-fashioned looking Animatronics and ride system don’t even come into the equation. A true classic, and it always will be.Jungle Cruise was up next, Pirates’ next door attraction. An average ride in itself, Jungle Cruise’s success really relies on the Cast Members who captain the boats. They can turn it into a star ride and make it very funny, or they can ruin it and make it rather cringy. Last year I had an excellent skipper, who made everyone laugh and the cruise was great fun. Unfortunately this year I wasn’t so lucky, the CM captaining our boat wasn’t really very funny and everyone was just kind of looking at each other thinking, “How much longer is this ride?” Although the ride is officially scripted perhaps it could be improved if the CMs were allowed slightly less control over the bits they change.Undeterred, we set a course for another classic dark ride, Haunted Mansion. While usually considered a classic for the same reasons as Pirates, the experience was slightly marred this time by the ride shutting down in the graveyard scene. Unlike when we got stuck on DINOSAUR last year, the effects carried on while we just sat. It is actually quite scary having a skeleton keep bursting out at you, singing a song while the ride isn’t moving! People started to panic fairly quickly and we could hear people shouting from the doombuggies surrounding ours. After about 8 minutes a CM came over the PA and said the ride would restart shortly. Sure enough it did, but when we got off there were some very unhappy looking faces crowding the CMs on the platform. So yes, quite an unpleasant experience. Add to that the ridiculous and unsafe overcrowding in the station which happened before we boarded, and it was not a great experience on one of Disney’s star rides.Slightly shaken, we continued to Country Bear Jamboree. This is a fun little show, which had minimal wait time. We grabbed some food from Pecos Bill’s and called it a night, just as the Summer Nightastic fireworks erupted over Cinderella Castle. We’d return to Magic Kingdom a few days later.On our third day we headed back to Universal and visited the Studios. After being beaten by the ride’s horrendously late opening last year by about 2 weeks only, I was thrilled to finally get on Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit.I was a little surprised by how rough the ride is already, but it’s still good fun. Manta certainly stole it’s limelight as the new coaster of 2009 in Orlando but with the lights and the music it comes out overall as a solid attraction for Universal. They really do need to sort out the problems which are still plaguing it though. To run a coaster with a capacity for 7 trains on the track at once on just 3 is really bad. My understanding is it has been running 5 most of the time recently, so we must have caught it on a bad day. It did go down later on for an extended period. I chose MC Hammer’s U Can’t Touch This as my soundtrack.We then crossed over to Krustyland for a meeting with The Simpsons Ride!I went on this over in Hollywood when it was brand new back in 2008. Right now it’s still as hilarious and fun as it was then, and seems even more appropriate in Orlando given the vast number of jibes at a certain other theme park operator, and the industry as a whole. Jokes such as “Don’t be stupid, they won’t kill you at a theme park while you have a dime left in your pocket!” litter the commentary, as the family embark on such rides as “Captain Dino’s Pirate Rip-Off”.Next door is Men In Black: Alien Attack! so that’s where we went next. I shot a new personal best of 128,700 B)Heading on around the lake, we reached Amity – home of Jaws!We jumped aboard Amity 6, and were given a true masterclass in handling a ‘live commentary’ attraction from our skipper. I’ve never had such a great commentary on a ride like this. Our TM was enthusiastic, great at acting the ‘panic’ look when something went wrong, and still managed to keep to all the cues – including the very difficult shotgun ones – amongst the brilliant ‘organised chaos’ of repeated attacks from Jaws. A 5-star performance! Also, I got soaked!From one great Team Member to another, next up was Beetlejuice’s Rock n Roll Graveyard Revue. “Any Brits in the audience?”, he enquired as we waited outside the theatre. “Well put down your tea and scones and drink plenty of water! It’s very hot today!” He was brilliant. Once inside, he had the whole crowd singing along to various songs as we waited for the show to begin. He even played air guitar with his walking stick! Oh yeah, did I mention he was an older guy on a mobility scooter? The show itself was great too, in fact starring those cheerleaders I could have watched it all day :PAfterwards, we visited the Museum of Antiquities, to ride…Revenge of The Mummy! Whilst I prefer the ride in Hollywood (they aren’t exact clones) this version is still great fun and very thrilling, and the queue is interesting as you move from the sets to the tomb ect. I’d be interested to try the version just opened in Singapore which dispenses with the film set idea all together, and plunges you straight into ancient Egypt!We finished off with Shrek 4D and Jimmy Neutron’s Nicktoon Blast. Another excellent Team Member was to be found in Shrek, she was brilliantly in-character and threatened us with many floggings for rule breaking! She really got everyone involved. I found it surprising that so far, we’d come across far better TMs in Universal parks than we had CMs in Disney parks.I’ll leave you with a final shot of Rockit, next up will be Animal Kingdom and the rest of Magic Kingdom. After that, our final day of IOA. Thanks for reading!

There were 7 rooms. The seventh was called the actor's changing room

It was with great excitement that I set off with my mum and sister on the 25th July for our long-awaited summer holiday to New York, Washington DC and most of interest to me, Orlando! After going to Orlando last year I was very excited to return this year, and of course one significant addition is now present which wasn’t there last year…WARNING: I will be posting spoilers without any further warning. If you don’t want to see, skip my writing on that attraction.I doubt many are interested in the details of the first part of the trip, so on to Orlando! On the 30th we were off to Newark airport for the flight to Florida. We stayed in the same place as last year, so we jumped off the plane, dropped our bags at the apartment and headed straight out to the parks at what was now about 4pm. Somewhat unsurprisingly, our first port of call… Was Islands of Adventure As can be seen, quite a few people were already leaving despite the 10 pm closing time. This was encouraging, given the expected throngs in WWHP!^ Port of Entry is my favourite ‘main street’ style area in any theme park.So we headed through Seuss Landing and Lost Continent, and soon enough, there it was…The Wizarding World Of Harry Potter! Words cannot describe the feeling of stepping under the arch and into Hogsmede for the first time – it’s totally awe inspiring! I won’t show that many outside pictures now because the twilight made it difficult to get any decent ones. They’ll follow from our other day at IOA. So we started a clockwise sweep around the shops and sights of the village, and I have to say the detail is astounding. I’ll review the shops in detail later but for now I’ll just say the entire feel is just ‘right’.When we reached the Hog’s Head we decided it was time to try some Butterbeer – debate has been raging for weeks on which version is better – regular or frozen – so I decided to try regular first. I got the souvenir stein too The drink itself – very nice! It’s very sweet – I think if the serving was any bigger I’d struggle to finish it – but it’s great. The taste is hard to describe, the best I can place it is cream soda with butterscotch and treacle mixed in. It’s very smooth and goes down very nicely at any rate. The separately added ‘head’ is delicious, I hate to think of the calorific content!Afterwards, it was time to sample the crowning glory of the Wizarding World – Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey.So much was expected of this ride. Will it live up to the hype? Will it be the new world’s best dark ride? In order to claim that title from most people’s current holder – will it beat Spiderman? First off though, let’s talk queue. I’ll go ahead and leave it to the pictures for a while.So yeah, pretty amazing detail. You start off in the dungeons, passing the Mirror of Erized among other things. There is a door to the potions room, from behind which voices emanate. This is the kind of thing which makes the WWHP seem so ‘alive’ and less staged – the tiny touches of life, like voices in the corridors. Coming outside, you emerge in the main cattle pen area of the queue – the greenhouse. This area is brilliantly done for what is essentially a people eating area. Mandrakes in cages are just one of the things to grab your interest. The ride ops constantly have to do announcements asking people to stay off the walls and railings out here, but even these are fantastic and in-character. The say things along the lines of, “Attention muggles! Please do not sit on the railings or walls! Also, please stow any magical artefacts in the lockers provided to avoid having them confiscated. Enjoy your tour of Hogwarts!” Just brilliant. Back inside and through the portrait hall – the effect of them talking to each other and moving in their frames is fantastic. Next up you’re in Dumbledore’s office. The musion effect of him standing on the balcony is very well done, and it’s great to have him standing there talking to you. His books, dusty desk, pensieve and cupboards of magical odds and ends are all present, correct and beautifully realized as well. Onwards, and we meet Harry, Hermione and Ron in the Defence Against the Dark Arts room. More exquisite details accompany this pre-show video, of which there are two versions. In the first, some thunder and lightning happen and some great light effects go off. In the second, Ron accidently makes it snow – and you actually get snowed on. The ride shut down for about 15 mins when we were in here, and consequently we got snowed on 6 times. After this you’re past the Fat Lady, through the Gryffindor common room and past the sorting hat into the Room of Requirement. After all, where else would you put a massive dark ride in the middle of Hogwarts?So finally, the ride. Firstly let me say – if you think you’ve seen it on a POV, they do not do it justice in any way. I was glad I managed to avoid any spoilers and videos, if I’d seen them beforehand I wouldn’t have expected much. So anyway, the soaring, swooping, dragon-evading, willow-whopmed ride is absolutely brilliant. Does it beat Spiderman? Resounding yes. For many people, that makes it the new holder of the best dark ride award. I agree. It’s utterly sensational. The motion of the Kuka arms is perfect for recreating the floating, bouncing style of movement we’ve all seen so many times when Hermione enchants something in the films.The ride scenes take the form of a mixture of screen-based film clips and real 3D props, all narrated by the trio of Harry, Hermione and Ron, which blend together seamlessly. Appearances by other characters such as Hagrid, Draco and Dumbledore are also included. The way you move from screens to real props is amazing, you literally get flung from a screen into the middle of the action – for example the scene where you end up on the bridge being attacked by the Hungarian Horntail is a seamless blend of animatronics, film and effects – all combining to give you a relentless ride experience from start to finish. The dementor-filled finale is also brilliant, combining animatronic dementors on their own Kuka arms with film clips and projections in smoke. You exit the ride utterly amazed at what you’ve just experienced, and my heart was racing. 10/10 doesn’t congratulate it enough.You exit though Filch’s Emporium of Confiscated Goods – a great idea for post-ride gift shop. I bought some stuff in here.So, any criticisms? A few. The first is that the ride system is very noisy. The effects are turned up very loud anyway so for the most part it doesn’t matter, but in some of the more extravagant manoeuvres you can hear the Kuka arm straining a bit. Second, the slight oversight in the design of the attraction which enables you to skip the entire outside queue which regularly stretches down into Hogsmede. If you walk into Filch’s from the outside, you can go through to the locker room and dump your stuff, then cut straight into the dungeons because the TM in the area has no way of knowing that you haven’t just come from the queue into the lockers. I usually don’t do this kind of thing on principal, but so many people were doing it that it makes queuing outside pretty pointless. Lastly, the one everyone complained about from the get-go: the show building. Obviously it was hard to hide from all angles, but it is very visible in many places such as the back of Jurassic Park, Hogsmede itself and the greenhouse area of the queue. Such is life I guess. These small niggles do nothing much to detract from what is a mind-blowing attraction.Next up – the ruination of Duelling Dragons? I thought it might have been – I was wrong.Dragon Challenge is the re-imagining of DD as part of the Triwizard Tournament. Many thought it would destroy one of the best-themed coasters in the world, but I was pleasantly surprised. The queue remains mostly dark tunnels and castle-dungeon type rooms, with the obvious addition of the outside section and the Champion’s Tent. I was wearing my DD top, and the TM outside the queue said to me “I see someone’s already a fan!” I had my first ride on what was formerly known as the Ice side, now Hungarian Horntail. It’s a fun coaster, but I think Fire (now Chinese Fireball) is better.A bit more exploring around the village, like I said I’ll review the shops in my next WWHP part but I snapped a few pictures – it’s so atmospheric at night.We queued again for FJ, but it went down. After about 30 mins we decided to leave the queue – it was about 9:45. As we walked out of the gate between the gargoyles, we heard the announcement which just felt like a knife straight though me – it was back up. I couldn’t believe it. I’ve never felt so annoyed in my life.We finished up for the night with a walk-on ride on The Cat In The Hat. A very different kind of dark ride to FJ, but I love it! The narration is great and the Cat says some very funny things! Shame that after the incident earlier this year the ride doesn’t spin as much any more.I’ll leave it there for now… Still to come: Hollywood Studios, Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Uni Studios and the rest of IOA and WWHP. I’ll get it posted soon. Hope you’re enjoying it! The rest won’t be as long and boring as this part, I just had a lot to talk about

Just got back from holiday... PTR to follow when I get some energy back

Oranges all the way! Mars or Jupiter?

We No Speak Americano

Damn, thought I was going to be the first! I'll be going in the day after you get back

That's fantastic! I'd love it. I must admit I've often thought that a Maverick - esque Intamin Blitz would be pure awesome and we could actually get one - Maverick is only 105 ft and is one of the best coasters in America of recent years.

That concept art looks very pretty!I want one.

I just got tickets for Avenged Sevenfold and Stone Sour in October! I can't wait

Those pics are a bit old, on a later page there are some from late June though. Heide have long been rumoured to be getting a B&M Diving Machine, not the new prototype. People as far as Screamscape seem to be almost certain of that.

^ Granted, but you can't start it again! You're stuck in limbo forever!I wish for world peace! Too late

Fun game, which most people already know how to play... For those of you who don't, welcome to Corrupt a Wish! It works like this:One person posts a wish... Then the next person corrupts it! That person then posts their own wish... And so we continue! Try to be imaginative I'll start us off!I wish I lived in a mansion!

4D The Simpsons or Futurama?

Ke$ha :DRCT3 or Nolimits?

That is pretty shocking!!Oh and Outfit, the whole point of this thread is for people to let off steam. If you don't want to see that, don't read a thread dedicated to it.

Gaga! :DFacebook or Twitter?

Tangfastics!! Nom :DSweet or Salted (popcorn)?

So you've never heard of Superman, Batman, The Riddler... MJ.Peach or Mango?

I was thinking, are there not any plans knocking about for Gardaland's 2011 coaster yet? Surely by now there must be some somewhere... The plans for Busch Gardens Tampa's 2011 coaster were found months ago!

Can we pretend that airplanes in the night sky are like shooting stars?

If there is another, Teeth. Love that song

Just had another thought - while I still think it will be B&M, it could be S&S' newer take on the 4D, the concept art which they showcased at Knotts Berry Farm during West Coast Bash this year. It was essentially a cross between their free fly and 4D designs - I'll try and find the pictures again.Edit: Free Fly X-Treme, that was it.Thanks to Westcoaster for the pics.

Those supports do look very B&M, and it would all fit with the rumours which have been doing the rounds for months now. At least this puts to bed the 2-coaster deal rumour with Gerstlauer which went around for a while after Saw -_-I'm very excited!