Mark9
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Everything posted by Mark9
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Didn't miss Tram Tour one little bit and on my visit the Animation place was still open, hence why I was able to meet Beymax. Hollywood Studios is an odd park, it really doesn't fit in with the other three hence why it's going through a massive change at the moment. On paper with Tower, Star Tours and Fantasmic it should be well up there but for some reason the park doesn't gel with me.
Which Disney parks toofpikk?
Ah man thats a shame, I really liked the re-tracked Roar. Completely unnecessary ride to redo too.
Initially I was against writing a trip report on Disney World. I've done two previously and sparked the odd debate on the quality of Disney and Universal. Nonetheless, with a month now passed, I think I can be objective on the trip enough to do a write-up. So here goes. Since my last trip in 2012 a lot has changed. Not only has WDW seen a lot removed ( and a few things added), I've also been to many other parks including four trips to Paris and a trip to California. I think it's fair to say that Chris and I were both a tad concerned that the amazing memories we'd gathered of our previous visits would be dashed. Suffice to say, thankfully that wasn't the case. So firstly.... The New Seven Drawfs Mine Train The big new (D ticket) ride and has taken the crown for busiest attraction on property. I've some mixed views on this. Although it is unquestionably a decent ride, it has a few issues that stop it being a stand out. Firstly it's way too short. It's a ride of three parts, the first and third being ride sections and the middle being a dark ride section. I have to say I love the middle of this ride. The Drawfs working around you, the great animatronics and the singing is really immersive and fun to be in. This bit rides ironically rides pretty well in the dark. The only problem is it's way too short and could have done with 10/20 seconds more ride time. It doesn't help that the rollercoaster parts are too short as well with nothing really standing out. Oh and the rocking barrels barely registers. I'm a big fan of the queue line games and a huge fan of some of the old props from Snow Whites Scary Adventure used in a house near the break run. The biggest positive is that it fits the bill of a stop gap ride between The Great Goofini and Big Thunder. Festival of Fantasy Parade New parade, it's got some pretty awesome floats. I'd forgotten just how much of the Magic Kingdom gets cut off during the parade, particularly when her Haunted Mansion. Big Thumbs up for the great music in this new parade. Harambe Village Extension/ Lion King theatre With Avatar land at full throttle, a lot of changes have occurred to Animal Kingdom and it very much looks like a building site. With preparation, a new Lion King theatre has been built as well as a new eating area around Kilimanjaro Safari. Both areas look outstanding and you'd hardly belief that they were recent additions as fit into the surrounding themed areas perfectly. Chris announced during the trip that Animal Kingdom was now his favourite Disney park. Quite a claim. I've always been very fond of the place as I love Everest, Dinosaur and Kilimanjaro. I'm not so much concerned about Avatar as other enthusiasts, Cars was hardly and excelling franchise and yet the quality of Radiator Springs in California more then met my expectations. Oh and Starbucks opened. It has my favourite cupcakes so I approve. Star Wars Weekender One of the big reasons for this trip was this weekender. Here was a chance to meet rare characters and to Star Wars it out with parades, shows and special talks with legendary Star Wars characters. Expect to see more Star Wars everywhere else from this year on. And finally... MAGICBANDS So the big new investment, the one thing that saw refurbishments cut in California and seen as more important then more e-tickets in Florida, is the magic wristband. Very simple to use if you have a shred of common sense (Oh dear), this is used as your park entry, it stores your fastpass times, your disney dining plan credits and can be used to pay for anything around the parks. If you savvy you can really make it work to your advantage and without it we wouldn't have bothered with Rock N Rollercoaster for example. The main issue we found is that everyone around us just didn't have common sense in either making it work or using it properly. A lot of fastpass queues had people struggling to tap their bands to the pads or just getting in the way. It's evened queues around the parks down too so no more 5 minute queues for Haunted Mansion or Small World. In theory, it has bought down the queues for the coasters but some rides such as Jungle Cruise have seen massive increases. For some reason it had a 120 minute queue on our first day at Magic Kingdom. So I think it was a worthwhile addition but I'm not particularly sure it was necessary. Everything else in the parks were awesome. I reignited my love with the best tower, found my love for rides again on things like Thunder, Space and Splash mountain. And finally met Beymax! Thanks for reading see you next time in Hong Kong.
Only about 2 million times. Joke got old real fast.
What the hell are these people doing with their days to only do two things?!
I like it, particularly the Adventure Isle rapids ride. Will be interesting to see if a Mystic Manor/ Big Grizzly ride are in the pipeline or whether Disney go more traditional with Thunder or something completely different.
Another meet I can't attend. Thanks Peaj
BROKEN BRITAIN or IT'S HEALTH AND SAFETY GONE MAD. Whatever buzz phrase you prefer
Seeing Dan9 next to Star Tours may be my moment of the year. My hero
Uh.. Matt we are, Paultons is one of 'our' parks. I do feel like Paultons is our saving grace in the UK. It seems to be the only park where anything could happen and with any installation you can tell they care.
Understandable. I love Black Mamba though, I think it's a cracking ride. Agreed. I think Winjas just seems unfinished for some reason, like it was meant to be so much more. Disagree on pacing, the trick track completely kills it for me.
It's official, Britains most dangerous criminal is better then Alton Towers. Thats it, I'm emigrating to Denmark.
I was waiting for someone to come at it from a 'but the locals will love it' angle because its something that does make me chuckle. As if my opinion that it's just a well dressed dive machine gives any detriment to the ride or the Dutch who will enjoy it. As if someone from the Netherlands is going to pay £3000 to go and solely ride Sheikra or Griffon too. Still I'll remember this next time you give Colossus or Saw a good bashing, the locals love them after all
Should have listened to me Peaj
Wouldn't back up generators be essential in a power cut to keep people alive. A back up generator to get a Colossus train back to the break run doesn't seem nearly as essential or important as the reason the NHS has them.
Congrats on surviving Coasterdude, could you send this trip report to the national media. =)
It would make things worse. I'm so tempted to post about the Big Thunder Mountain derailment from a few years back in reply to these comments but it would do more harm then good. So far, Towers twitter and Facebook has been spot on with their replies.
The problem isn't so much the print newspaper, it's the online pages where the paper organisations are 'thriving'. Its the race to get a story up first with the most sensational hook to get people clicking. With this, sources and facts come later, I was reading the Independent story yesterday and it was crammed full of wrong information, with parts that contradicted itself and a tweet from 2013 used as a source for the Air story. The worse part of me is the obvious glee from the articles about the injuries sustained. Notice how their recovery and their positivity in the tweets from the victims isn't being reported at all.
Precisely, they did exactly the same with Thirteen five years ago.
This is going to roll on for the rest of the season. We all need to decide whether reading the clickbait is worth it or not. I'm choosing not to read because I don't like feeling the mob mentality from keyboard warriors, saying the park should close forever.
