Mark9

DanH

Well a few things you've made me think.Disney as more a target. true but think of Thorpe's location. It's a few short miles from one of the leading airports in Europe (in terms of air traffic and customers), the park itself is located within a stones throw of the M4 and the M25 so if a terrorist bomb was to go off at Thorpe, it wouldn't be just to destroy Thorpe but would be to cause issues to transport.Now this is rather large scale, Thorpe wouldn't be the first place I'd target if I was a terrorist. So I believe the searches are to discourage anti-social behavior. And yes they may be an inconvenience to people but I would much rather the visual deterrent of security and searches at the entrances then to have the invisible prescence at Alton where drugs, alcohol and smoking are common place in queuelines.I am happy with the random searches though.

It's for the same reason that people buy Vauxhalls and Fords instead of BMW's and Audis. B&M's are premium range products and what you lose in money, you gain in quality. Colossus has had restraint changes, is considered rough and pops bolts left right and centre.Inferno runs and rarely has technical faults.The example you use of Maverick, that ride was so EXTREME, the inline it originally had was destroying track and train and had to be removed for an S-curve. (Colossus cost 10 million)

Oblivion :)I've been having a think about Oblivion, and you know what? It's a darn sight better themed then I ever realised. Alton Towers could have easily just built a dive machine and let the ride do the talking, but no they went for an idea that really works. Oblivion is something special.

I just thought I'd post this video of Alton. I thought it showcased Alton very well and made me think about what a special theme park that we're lucky to have in the UK. I loved the contrast between the rides and then the beauty of the gardens. I'd love to try and get down there during Scarefest.

Thanks for the comments people! It truely was a fantastic holiday and the problem is there is just so much that I will remember for the rest of my life. From being picked on in Monsters Inc laugh Floor to the interaction with the various characters. I completely missed out rides and areas in my trip reports actually such as Adventure Land and Dr Doom's freefall. Woops.I haven't completely finished though, I'd like to talk a little about the hotel we stayed in and some of the restraunts we ate in to as they were just as much part of the trip as the theme parks.So we stayed in Port Orleans: French Quarter hotel. It's a beautiful hotel actually and due to its location, you are close to three of the Disney parks and just a boat ride away from Downtown Disney. The street names were all named after coffee, such as cafe au lait. Welcome to the room. The room was small but the thing with Florida is realistically, there is so much to do that you aren't really spending much time in your room; and it has the basic necessities such as shower, bath, fridge and a safe anyway.Our hotel featured the crocodile characters from Fantasia near the swimming pool and much fun was had posing with them.So to the restraunts. We were on the dining plan which meant a snack, quick service meal and sit down for every day of our visit. Food in America is good. I'd heard lots of things about ridiculouly large portions and everything covered with melted cheese. We didn't really experience this as each place had good sized portions and the variety on offer was excellent. I daren't list everywhere we ate because honestly can't remember but some of the higlights was the restraunt at the Animal Kingdom lodge and the food at Chip N Dales woodland feast at Epcot.Some of the snacks, weren't really snacks to be honest. For instance a cake shop at Animal kingdom sold full coure meals as cakes.Just wonderful

5 times on Dragon Falls5 times on Vampire10 times on Dragons Fury3 times on Rattlesnake10 times on Black Bucaneer10 times on Rameses Revenge

5 times on Dragon Falls5 times on Vampire10 times on Dragons Fury3 times on Rattlesnake10 times on Black Bucaneer10 times on Rameses Revenge

Epcot Part two.So... The Universe of Energy. The park map warns you that this is a 37 minute attraction looking at energy and how it is created. Well we had an hour to kill between food and the fireworks so dcided to give it a go. You wait outside another oddly shaped building, let into a big black square waiting room and Ellen DeGeneres (the voice of Dory from Finding Nemo) starts talking to you about.. stuff. She's watching Jeopardy on Televeision before Bill Nye 'the Science guy' lets himself in and they start talking about stuff. Ellen falls asleep and dreams she is in Jeopardy losing against her friend because the subject is energy. So you'll let into a large room consisting of several long rows. You sit and then all the rows start turning around to face the opposite way. You're in Ellens dreams and have been transported back to witness the big bang. Bang. Suddenly without warning the rows start dividing and going off on an adventure through a dinosaur themed area. This was so unexpected for us and made the ride so memorable just because I coulnd't work out how the ride was doing it. I still can't get my head around it. The rest of the ride doesn't really match up to be honest as it doesn't teach you much about energy to be honest, not as much as I think it wanted to. It's also so so so so long. You get your ride time and more here.Right, well the world showcase. Essentially, I am told that most Americans will never see much of the world, so self contained that they are, so Disney built an area representing 12 different countries around the world. Including themselves for some reason. We went round clockwise, buying ourselves an autograph book. The idea is, you find the person in each area and get them to sign it. These are always in shops to encourage you to buy more, bless Disney. So to start off is Mexico which is essentially a Mexican marketplace selling various pieces of jewellery. There is also a dark ride hidden away called the Gran Viesta Tour featuring the three Carbrellas. Very similar to It's a Small world. Next Norway. Like Norway, very expensive area with a big cake shop and another dark ride called Maelstrom, this time spanning the Viking times to the modern day. Following Norway is China which features a small museum of Chinese statues which represent the soldiers whio died/fought in battle. Next and covered in Laidahosans is Germany. Featuring an amazing caramel shop, and a minature railway you do come away from Germany wondering whats historic in Germany. Next and with beautiful architecture is Italy. And you'll never guess what kind of restraunts and shops are in the Italy area. The American Adventure follows on. Not sure it was really necessary in America.. but you know, they are patriotic after all. Next country is Japan, another scenic area and very beautiful with authentic looking buildings, streams and paogodas. The shop features cast members getting pearls from clams, gathered quite an audience to. Morocco was next, featuring lots of silky clothing and Aladdin. Onto France and the top of the Eiffel tower. There's a bakery and a perfumery in the area as well as a shop selling wine. And subtle advertisments of Disneyland Paris, how coy.The United Kingdom follows on from France. At Europa Park, United Kingdom is represented by the public transport system. In America we are all old style buildings, fish and chips, pubs and toy shops. Suppose it's true of Caterham. The final country is Canada whichf eatures a live band all day and log cabins. I really liked the world showcase actually and can understand the inspiration behind it completely. I did like how each cast member in each area was from the right country, for instance in the UK toy shop, some of the staff were from Devon, Hackney and Northampton. And all the staff member in the United Kingdom tea shop were gay. How apt!The finale to most a Disney day out is a big firework show. Illuminations, reflections of earth takes place on the water in the middle of world showcase. It's a great viewing area actually. we always watched from the front of the park but I can imagine the view from all the way round would have been decent. I really enjoyed the music and showmanship of the show. I prefer bangs and colours in my shows so it was right up my street.So that was all the parks we visited on our trip. It was the best holiday of my entire life to be honest. Ten days of pure happiness, joy, immersion and getting on that bus to the airport was the most gaulling moment of the year. I'll definitly be going back because I feel like I've only really scratched the surface of just how wonderful it is out there. If you've been there you know how brilliant it is and if you haven't, well I hope I've given you a taste and have persuaded you to start planning your trip for 2012.

Epcot Part two.So... The Universe of Energy. The park map warns you that this is a 37 minute attraction looking at energy and how it is created. Well we had an hour to kill between food and the fireworks so dcided to give it a go. You wait outside another oddly shaped building, let into a big black square waiting room and Ellen DeGeneres (the voice of Dory from Finding Nemo) starts talking to you about.. stuff. She's watching Jeopardy on Televeision before Bill Nye 'the Science guy' lets himself in and they start talking about stuff. Ellen falls asleep and dreams she is in Jeopardy losing against her friend because the subject is energy. So you'll let into a large room consisting of several long rows. You sit and then all the rows start turning around to face the opposite way. You're in Ellens dreams and have been transported back to witness the big bang. Bang. Suddenly without warning the rows start dividing and going off on an adventure through a dinosaur themed area. This was so unexpected for us and made the ride so memorable just because I coulnd't work out how the ride was doing it. I still can't get my head around it. The rest of the ride doesn't really match up to be honest as it doesn't teach you much about energy to be honest, not as much as I think it wanted to. It's also so so so so long. You get your ride time and more here.Right, well the world showcase. Essentially, I am told that most Americans will never see much of the world, so self contained that they are, so Disney built an area representing 12 different countries around the world. Including themselves for some reason. We went round clockwise, buying ourselves an autograph book. The idea is, you find the person in each area and get them to sign it. These are always in shops to encourage you to buy more, bless Disney. So to start off is Mexico which is essentially a Mexican marketplace selling various pieces of jewellery. There is also a dark ride hidden away called the Gran Viesta Tour featuring the three Carbrellas. Very similar to It's a Small world. Next Norway. Like Norway, very expensive area with a big cake shop and another dark ride called Maelstrom, this time spanning the Viking times to the modern day. Following Norway is China which features a small museum of Chinese statues which represent the soldiers whio died/fought in battle. Next and covered in Laidahosans is Germany. Featuring an amazing caramel shop, and a minature railway you do come away from Germany wondering whats historic in Germany. Next and with beautiful architecture is Italy. And you'll never guess what kind of restraunts and shops are in the Italy area. The American Adventure follows on. Not sure it was really necessary in America.. but you know, they are patriotic after all. Next country is Japan, another scenic area and very beautiful with authentic looking buildings, streams and paogodas. The shop features cast members getting pearls from clams, gathered quite an audience to. Morocco was next, featuring lots of silky clothing and Aladdin. Onto France and the top of the Eiffel tower. There's a bakery and a perfumery in the area as well as a shop selling wine. And subtle advertisments of Disneyland Paris, how coy.The United Kingdom follows on from France. At Europa Park, United Kingdom is represented by the public transport system. In America we are all old style buildings, fish and chips, pubs and toy shops. Suppose it's true of Caterham. The final country is Canada whichf eatures a live band all day and log cabins. I really liked the world showcase actually and can understand the inspiration behind it completely. I did like how each cast member in each area was from the right country, for instance in the UK toy shop, some of the staff were from Devon, Hackney and Northampton. And all the staff member in the United Kingdom tea shop were gay. How apt!The finale to most a Disney day out is a big firework show. Illuminations, reflections of earth takes place on the water in the middle of world showcase. It's a great viewing area actually. we always watched from the front of the park but I can imagine the view from all the way round would have been decent. I really enjoyed the music and showmanship of the show. I prefer bangs and colours in my shows so it was right up my street.So that was all the parks we visited on our trip. It was the best holiday of my entire life to be honest. Ten days of pure happiness, joy, immersion and getting on that bus to the airport was the most gaulling moment of the year. I'll definitly be going back because I feel like I've only really scratched the surface of just how wonderful it is out there. If you've been there you know how brilliant it is and if you haven't, well I hope I've given you a taste and have persuaded you to start planning your trip for 2012.

Nice report, oh it takes me back. A very weird and wonderful place. And I spy a hidden Mickey in your photos! Yay!!

Finally, Epcot. Standing for the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, it stands as the vision of Walt Disneys utopian vision of the future. Well it's certainly not a conventional theme park by any stretch of the imagination. The rides there aren't rides by normal conventions. One thing that struck me immediately about Epcot is the size of everything. The ball is massive, the buildings are massive, the scenery is massive. Everything is large scale. So as we entered, we headed (as with everyone else) over to Soarin'. Whereas the Californian version is about flying over California, the Florida one is going to California. This was another popular attraction and luckily Disney built two. You're split off and assigned loading areas. A cheesy pre-show is shown telling you where to stow loose belongings and to do your seatbelt up (with that most satisfying click). You enter onto a vehicle that actually closely resembles a flying coaster train. Everything is checked, a screen loweres and the whole thing rises up. What follows is two and a half minutes of wonder. Americans adore this ride. Out of any ride at Disney, this is the ride that most encapulates its audience in the experience. Every swooping moment caused rounds of applauses and sheer delight from people around us. It was rather nice actually. The soundtrack is also gorgeous and fit's the attraction beautifully. It was Chris's favourite thing at Epcot. We picked up a fastpass and continued onto Living with the land. I found this bizarre but amazingly interesting actually. You board a large boat and essentially go off through a short dark ride section and then out into Epcot's greenhouses and past it's scientific houses. All around you are vegetables and fruits that the resort grows itself. Very intriguing and an odd ride to recommend.. but I will anyway. So we left the Tardis like building and headed to The Seas with Nemo and Friends. Now I understand why they threw Nemo at the aquarium but it does seem very empty in there with not much attempt to incorporate the ride and characters with the aquarium. Compared to other Disney attractions it seemed to lack an atmopshere. But anywho, loved the dolphins in there who seemed to be having an underwater chat and for a large sea-life (essentially) it does its job well.By this point my camera had finally given up the ghost, so having grabbed a sugar pretzel, we now switch to Chris's camera. off to Mission Space we went. Chose the INTENSE ORANGE SIDE, where we were queued-jumped by a never ending group of Mexicans and into the pre-show. The guy from CSi New York is dressed as a spaceship commander and tells you some bits of the mission. You're all assigned jobs for the flight and you are warned to always look ahead on the attraction and to keep your head against the headrest at all times. Sound advice. So we entered our space shuttle and BANG OFF WE GO. The sensation is.. interesting and I have to admit to feeling that sugar pretzel wanting to re-emerge. I like hyper-sleep, shame it didn't cure my jet-lag. Definitly an experience kind of attraction and I honestly have no idea how I feel about it. Maybe we should have done green side first?NEXT! Testrack. Now I really liked this ride because it attempts something completely different. I'm not sure how percieved wisdom views it but I personally found it very enjoyable. Every 5/10 seconds a car flies past the main building so that gives you an idea of how fast the queue will move. The queue itself is a General Motors showroom showing the different car testing procedures they put their cars through. I really wish I'd been able to queue the whole thing because there's so much to look at and read.You're batched into the briefing room where you are shown what the car is about to go through. I liked this pre-show video, very tounge in cheek, You then go out and see the cars coming in and out. Interesting the cars have three in each row, perfect for the single rider queue. The cars are very comfy, a simple seat belt is the only restraint you need. The tests include a hill, belgium and german blocks, a break test, break test with ABS, putting the car through elements, cornering (avoiding a close collision with a lorry) and then the surprise test. Instead of smacking dead into a wall you emerge outside where the car quickly accelerates. What I really found interesting is that even though it isn't as fast as Stealth or Rita, I preferred the build up to 60 miles per hour, rather then the quick launch of the Intamin accelerators. Right, onto Epcot's quirky attractions, of which there are many. First, Journey into your imagination. Blimey, I mean I can take singing on attractions but the song was slightly cheesy and over the top. I'm not even quite sure what the ride was attempting to do actually. Something to do with looking beyond normal conventions maybe? Captain EO, aww bless it. Showing its age slightly but it's always nice to see Micheal jackson before his controversial days. Interesting film to. Loved the little puppets. Into Spaceship Earth which is in the Epcot ball, was one of my favourite Epcot attractions. I like having Judi Dench telling me about how far we've come and where we are heading. It's a very long dark ride but worth seeing. Wish we'd ridden it more actually.Right, so in my final trip report of the parks I'll cover World Showcase and the excellent Universe of Energy. See yas.

Finally, Epcot. Standing for the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, it stands as the vision of Walt Disneys utopian vision of the future. Well it's certainly not a conventional theme park by any stretch of the imagination. The rides there aren't rides by normal conventions. One thing that struck me immediately about Epcot is the size of everything. The ball is massive, the buildings are massive, the scenery is massive. Everything is large scale. So as we entered, we headed (as with everyone else) over to Soarin'. Whereas the Californian version is about flying over California, the Florida one is going to California. This was another popular attraction and luckily Disney built two. You're split off and assigned loading areas. A cheesy pre-show is shown telling you where to stow loose belongings and to do your seatbelt up (with that most satisfying click). You enter onto a vehicle that actually closely resembles a flying coaster train. Everything is checked, a screen loweres and the whole thing rises up. What follows is two and a half minutes of wonder. Americans adore this ride. Out of any ride at Disney, this is the ride that most encapulates its audience in the experience. Every swooping moment caused rounds of applauses and sheer delight from people around us. It was rather nice actually. The soundtrack is also gorgeous and fit's the attraction beautifully. It was Chris's favourite thing at Epcot. We picked up a fastpass and continued onto Living with the land. I found this bizarre but amazingly interesting actually. You board a large boat and essentially go off through a short dark ride section and then out into Epcot's greenhouses and past it's scientific houses. All around you are vegetables and fruits that the resort grows itself. Very intriguing and an odd ride to recommend.. but I will anyway. So we left the Tardis like building and headed to The Seas with Nemo and Friends. Now I understand why they threw Nemo at the aquarium but it does seem very empty in there with not much attempt to incorporate the ride and characters with the aquarium. Compared to other Disney attractions it seemed to lack an atmopshere. But anywho, loved the dolphins in there who seemed to be having an underwater chat and for a large sea-life (essentially) it does its job well.By this point my camera had finally given up the ghost, so having grabbed a sugar pretzel, we now switch to Chris's camera. off to Mission Space we went. Chose the INTENSE ORANGE SIDE, where we were queued-jumped by a never ending group of Mexicans and into the pre-show. The guy from CSi New York is dressed as a spaceship commander and tells you some bits of the mission. You're all assigned jobs for the flight and you are warned to always look ahead on the attraction and to keep your head against the headrest at all times. Sound advice. So we entered our space shuttle and BANG OFF WE GO. The sensation is.. interesting and I have to admit to feeling that sugar pretzel wanting to re-emerge. I like hyper-sleep, shame it didn't cure my jet-lag. Definitly an experience kind of attraction and I honestly have no idea how I feel about it. Maybe we should have done green side first?NEXT! Testrack. Now I really liked this ride because it attempts something completely different. I'm not sure how percieved wisdom views it but I personally found it very enjoyable. Every 5/10 seconds a car flies past the main building so that gives you an idea of how fast the queue will move. The queue itself is a General Motors showroom showing the different car testing procedures they put their cars through. I really wish I'd been able to queue the whole thing because there's so much to look at and read.You're batched into the briefing room where you are shown what the car is about to go through. I liked this pre-show video, very tounge in cheek, You then go out and see the cars coming in and out. Interesting the cars have three in each row, perfect for the single rider queue. The cars are very comfy, a simple seat belt is the only restraint you need. The tests include a hill, belgium and german blocks, a break test, break test with ABS, putting the car through elements, cornering (avoiding a close collision with a lorry) and then the surprise test. Instead of smacking dead into a wall you emerge outside where the car quickly accelerates. What I really found interesting is that even though it isn't as fast as Stealth or Rita, I preferred the build up to 60 miles per hour, rather then the quick launch of the Intamin accelerators. Right, onto Epcot's quirky attractions, of which there are many. First, Journey into your imagination. Blimey, I mean I can take singing on attractions but the song was slightly cheesy and over the top. I'm not even quite sure what the ride was attempting to do actually. Something to do with looking beyond normal conventions maybe? Captain EO, aww bless it. Showing its age slightly but it's always nice to see Micheal jackson before his controversial days. Interesting film to. Loved the little puppets. Into Spaceship Earth which is in the Epcot ball, was one of my favourite Epcot attractions. I like having Judi Dench telling me about how far we've come and where we are heading. It's a very long dark ride but worth seeing. Wish we'd ridden it more actually.Right, so in my final trip report of the parks I'll cover World Showcase and the excellent Universe of Energy. See yas.

Finally, Epcot. Standing for the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, it stands as the vision of Walt Disneys utopian vision of the future. Well it's certainly not a conventional theme park by any stretch of the imagination. The rides there aren't rides by normal conventions. One thing that struck me immediately about Epcot is the size of everything. The ball is massive, the buildings are massive, the scenery is massive. Everything is large scale. So as we entered, we headed (as with everyone else) over to Soarin'. Whereas the Californian version is about flying over California, the Florida one is going to California. This was another popular attraction and luckily Disney built two. You're split off and assigned loading areas. A cheesy pre-show is shown telling you where to stow loose belongings and to do your seatbelt up (with that most satisfying click). You enter onto a vehicle that actually closely resembles a flying coaster train. Everything is checked, a screen loweres and the whole thing rises up. What follows is two and a half minutes of wonder. Americans adore this ride. Out of any ride at Disney, this is the ride that most encapulates its audience in the experience. Every swooping moment caused rounds of applauses and sheer delight from people around us. It was rather nice actually. The soundtrack is also gorgeous and fit's the attraction beautifully. It was Chris's favourite thing at Epcot. We picked up a fastpass and continued onto Living with the land. I found this bizarre but amazingly interesting actually. You board a large boat and essentially go off through a short dark ride section and then out into Epcot's greenhouses and past it's scientific houses. All around you are vegetables and fruits that the resort grows itself. Very intriguing and an odd ride to recommend.. but I will anyway. So we left the Tardis like building and headed to The Seas with Nemo and Friends. Now I understand why they threw Nemo at the aquarium but it does seem very empty in there with not much attempt to incorporate the ride and characters with the aquarium. Compared to other Disney attractions it seemed to lack an atmopshere. But anywho, loved the dolphins in there who seemed to be having an underwater chat and for a large sea-life (essentially) it does its job well.By this point my camera had finally given up the ghost, so having grabbed a sugar pretzel, we now switch to Chris's camera. off to Mission Space we went. Chose the INTENSE ORANGE SIDE, where we were queued-jumped by a never ending group of Mexicans and into the pre-show. The guy from CSi New York is dressed as a spaceship commander and tells you some bits of the mission. You're all assigned jobs for the flight and you are warned to always look ahead on the attraction and to keep your head against the headrest at all times. Sound advice. So we entered our space shuttle and BANG OFF WE GO. The sensation is.. interesting and I have to admit to feeling that sugar pretzel wanting to re-emerge. I like hyper-sleep, shame it didn't cure my jet-lag. Definitly an experience kind of attraction and I honestly have no idea how I feel about it. Maybe we should have done green side first?NEXT! Testrack. Now I really liked this ride because it attempts something completely different. I'm not sure how percieved wisdom views it but I personally found it very enjoyable. Every 5/10 seconds a car flies past the main building so that gives you an idea of how fast the queue will move. The queue itself is a General Motors showroom showing the different car testing procedures they put their cars through. I really wish I'd been able to queue the whole thing because there's so much to look at and read.You're batched into the briefing room where you are shown what the car is about to go through. I liked this pre-show video, very tounge in cheek, You then go out and see the cars coming in and out. Interesting the cars have three in each row, perfect for the single rider queue. The cars are very comfy, a simple seat belt is the only restraint you need. The tests include a hill, belgium and german blocks, a break test, break test with ABS, putting the car through elements, cornering (avoiding a close collision with a lorry) and then the surprise test. Instead of smacking dead into a wall you emerge outside where the car quickly accelerates. What I really found interesting is that even though it isn't as fast as Stealth or Rita, I preferred the build up to 60 miles per hour, rather then the quick launch of the Intamin accelerators. Right, onto Epcot's quirky attractions, of which there are many. First, Journey into your imagination. Blimey, I mean I can take singing on attractions but the song was slightly cheesy and over the top. I'm not even quite sure what the ride was attempting to do actually. Something to do with looking beyond normal conventions maybe? Captain EO, aww bless it. Showing its age slightly but it's always nice to see Micheal jackson before his controversial days. Interesting film to. Loved the little puppets. Into Spaceship Earth which is in the Epcot ball, was one of my favourite Epcot attractions. I like having Judi Dench telling me about how far we've come and where we are heading. It's a very long dark ride but worth seeing. Wish we'd ridden it more actually.Right, so in my final trip report of the parks I'll cover World Showcase and the excellent Universe of Energy. See yas.

My first ever trip report…. A Bit lot heavy on text and light on pics as I forgot to charge my camera (idiot), but I’ll give it a go.Decided to go to Chessington for the first time in 6 years. I hadn’t realised it had been that long but they’ve given me no reason to go in that time, what with it being aimed at young families (I don’t have one) and there being a grand total of one ride introduced in that time (which I’ve been on elsewhere anyway), but me and wife thought we’d give it a go anyway.Arrived bang on opening and joined the first and only queue of the day. As it was quiet the little huts with a sensible queue line were not in use so instead it was a bundle at what I presume are usually the pre book windows. The hard of understanding kept trying to queue at the sides for the edge windows, what they thought the rest of us were doing queuing in the middle I don’t know, so they had to be re-educated. Only took 15 mins or so, but they should have separate windows for coach load ticket pickups as it kept grinding to a halt.The place was basically empty. The only other people that seemed to be there were every single 10 year old with a skull cap from the south of England, with about 1 adult per 50 children. More on them later. Every ride was walk on, even Vampire front row.Into the park it immediately felt so green, clean, well-kept and just a nice place to be compared to the grey and run down feeling of Thorpe. Straight to Transylvania of course, to relive my childhood on what is one of my fondest memories, and Vampire when it was in its original state. I had forgotten just how beautifully themed the area is, it looks and feels the same as it did all those years ago. Loved the little touches added, like the headstones of past characters and the ghost of Rodeo (shame he is hidden behind caricature man). But then the ride itself just seemed to hit me with waves of disappointment. The horrible bright purple metal queue line, the over lit tunnel into the station (I used to have to feel my way along the walls, now I could safely navigate it in sunglasses), the lifeless organist, the wonderful theme being played too quietly peppered with a shouting ride op so loud it actually hurt and I had to cover my ears, the shiny metal barrier splitting the exit line and worst of all the crazy amount of light coming into the building washing out any possibility of atmosphere. How hard can it be to hang up some light blocking sheeting or something? We took a seat in the middle of the train for what was an uncomfortable jerky flight, it felt like we were constantly shunting back and forth into the surrounding carriages, nothing like the smooth and exciting rides I remember. I got off thinking the trip was a bad idea where I would slowly spoil all my fond memories. Oh my gosh, I've only covered the first 10 minutes in the park and just realised how much I’ve written. It feels like some sort of therapy. Keeping it brief from now. Promise. Then on to bubbleworks. I don’t need to go through all the problems that make this a travesty of its former self, just a soulless, humourless mainly statically themed bore but if they could do one thing just sort out the ‘finale’. The new lights are so bright and constant, and just make the whole thing look cheap and dull. How much did they cost compared to a couple of strobe lights? Without strobes this ride is nothing.To break this up here is an unflattering picture of me taking more pleasure from the bubbleworks than it was ever trying to give me.From then on, though, I pretty much loved everything else. Fury is amazing, so much better than Spinball. Dragon river, with the exception of the horrible cheap great wall thing, was very pleasant and as I remember it. New sponsorship not too bad or intrusive, we’ll never get the full rocks back and the ones that are there have worn down to show the wire mesh underneath. It does need a bit of TLC and was probably the most run down looking of the attractions.Theming in wild Asia is stunning. Kobra is not the best example I’ve ridden by a long way, it’s so jerky and feels like it has some weird vibration issues but a bit of fun none the less.Mine train is what it is, I still like it. Had forgotten how nice the theming on Rattlesnake is, and it’s a whole bunch of fun to ride. Ramesis feels like it is trying to shake itself to bits and I can’t believe it has much life left in it.Big surprise of the day was Tomb Blaster, so much better than I remember it. All the theming seemed fresh and interesting (still strikes me that with the laser guns the fifth dimension would fit a whole lot better), the only thing missing was dry ice which I think would give it a lot more atmosphere.Loved the zoo, seems a lot of effort has been put in to these areas and it shows. Impressed with sealife too, which does not feel temporary on the inside like it looks on the outside.Rode Vampire again later at the front and back which proved much smoother and more enjoyable rides, but it is still a long way from where it should be.So, the kids. It was empty but still the new restrictions on buccaneer and Dragon River were causing chaos, I dread to think what it’ll be like when it’s busy. A lot more effort needs to be put into communicating the adult to child ratios required at the queue line entrance. We even took two boatloads of children round to try and help out. Probably need to increase the adult to child ratios on the school coach trips too.Overall the place is looks stunning in most places, all the staff were great and we loved it. But at some point they need to invest in something new and substantial to make it worth our while to revisit.Sorry for the rambling and length, I’ll get better at this at some point!!EDIT - can one of you clever people tell me how I get pics to show in the text, instead of as a link? Thanks.

Universal StudiosOriginally, depending on business we weren't going to do Studios, purely as we wanted to do islands of Adventure justice. When we had done IOA by 1pm, we decided to park hop via Starbucks and try out Studios. Unlike Disney, parkhop is literally true here. The two parks are 5 minutes walking distance seperated by Universal Citywalk, an entertainment area. So in we went and, first ride you really come across is Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit. When it comes to a Maurer, you always know to brace yourself accordingly for the best ride experience ever or the worst thing since the extinction of the dinosaurs. Luckily HRRR is good! So.. we queued 5 minutes, clearly Studios is suffering the effect of Harry Potter as everything at Studios was walk on or less then 5 minute wait. So into the queue we go, kind of a weird queue, a lot is cattle pen with various music posters around on the walls. A staff member tells of some guests for going under the fences insteading of walking round. He then makes them go back and do it again. Interesting...Getting onto the ride is quite akin to Dragons Fury actually. The trains continually move through the station and the two sides of the platform are both treadmills so the ride really encourages you to get on with haste. We got front row (woo), pulled down the restraint and both decided to go for Gloria Haynor's, 'I will Survive'. Always seems rather apt on a Maurer. Up you go, dropping and then into that crazily weird inversion thing. According to RCDB it isn't an inversion. What I like about most Maurer's is that they always open their rides with some kind of element that takes your breathe away. Fury does it with that drop into immelman, Winjas do it with there lift sections and HRRR does it with style. The rest of the ride is actually the same thing pretty much, helixes and drops but theres an amazing amount of air time everytime you fly upwards into a MCBR. I'm not sure how Maurer have managed such manic, impossible turns but they've done it in style. Chris found these bits slightly lacking but I liked them. Off we popped into Twister Aftermath. The queue shows you some of the devastating effects of a Tornado. Seemed rather apt and sad considering at the time of our visit, a series of tornados had just devastated and killed 300 people in the mid US. The attraction is rather comical to be honest, with Helen Hunt telling you this is the most extreme thing you will ever do and her co-actor forcing tears out through sheer determination. The room in which all the effects occur is really cool actually. The heat from the fire was also appreciated after our soaking on IOA's water rides. And the poor flying cow.Next! Revenge of the Mummy. I think this suffered from dark ride overload actually. Having been on so many dark rides after 6 days (all in varying degrees), Revenge of the Mummy probably didn't impress as much as it should have done. The theming was excellent and some of the effects going on in there such as all the various flames and animatronics were top notch for instance. The coaster part, didn't really enjoy. It was slightly bashy, you'd go round corners or drops and it didn't feel like it flowed. I think this ride would have been better if we'd all got our sandwiches to be honest!Next, off to Amity with the dreaded JAWS RIDE. I don't quite know what was going on to be honest. The actress we got was slightly baffling. One moment she'd be shreiking her face off and a second later she'd turn round and say no photographs please. Why can't we photo the shark. Anyway, again a lot of effects going off such as fire on both sides of the boat, destroyed boats, a shark that just won't bugger off. Slightly better then Jungle Cruise at Magic Kingdom but still just as corny.Time for a proper ride we thought, off to Men in Black ride. I liked this, so did Chris and so did the OVER ENTHUSIASTIC AMERICANS we shared our car with. I've never seen a group of people take a shooting ride so seriously and with so much oomph. They'd constantly shout at us to shoot the aliens eyes or TO PRESS THE BONUS BUTTON. I felt exhausted just listening to them. Turns out they had been riding all day and were addicted. The ride itself is a lot of fun, I particularly liked the spinning out of control parts as you went round. Next, was The Simpsons Ride. Now this was weird but the favourite in the park because it was very tounge and cheek and reminicsent of early Simpsons episodes. You are grouped into several rooms and then into a ride car. Homer talks you through the ride restrictions with real humour such as stopping Maggie and Grampa Simpsons from riding because of their heights/heart conditions and you then sit back. The ride car then rises out of its station along with all the other cars in front of a giant screen. Sideshow Bob wants to kill the Simpsons at Krustyland and what follows is 2 and a half minutes of frantic motions and laughter. Some of the tounge in joke truths realy bought a smile such as "Of course the ride hasn't finished, we haven't been forced through a gift shop yet". So the ride was a bit like a 4D ride except without the glasses. Very like Soarin' except the ride makes it obvious you aren't flying..Next ET! basically a high capacity Peter Pan's Flight, you fly around scenes from ET to his home planet. You're asked to give your name and take a passport to his planet. You board the cars and fly around and above police cars and uniformed people who want to capture ET. Luckily you escape and fly over the city and off to ET's home. Lots of crazy stuff happens (which embarressingly I can't remember) and then ET says goodbye to everyone on the ride. Bye ET. Finally we went to watch Terminator 2 3D. Sometimes words fail me. This was either shockigly amazing or just naff. A long narrative follows where a cheery, skynet woman shows you a video of how good skynet is. This gets hacked by John Connor, cheeseface comes out and says to ignore it. You go into the cinema to watch the presentation. John Connor and his mum(?) come out and ruin the presentation. A liquid terminator comes to kill them and then Arnie's Terminator comes out and goes roar. They then go to the future and blow up Skynet. I'm sure there was more to it then that, but I'm just not sure I can remember it. So to conclude on Universal Studios, it's essentially a park of dark rides and indoor attractions which gets you out of the Floridian sun. If it's fast thrills you want then Islands of Adventures is next door, but if you want immersion in the dark then Universal Studios is your bag.

And after today... Nemesis Nemesis Nemesis Nemesis Nemesis!After all these years it keeps offering intense, fast rides with great, terrain hugs. Awesome coaster!

Universal StudiosOriginally, depending on business we weren't going to do Studios, purely as we wanted to do islands of Adventure justice. When we had done IOA by 1pm, we decided to park hop via Starbucks and try out Studios. Unlike Disney, parkhop is literally true here. The two parks are 5 minutes walking distance seperated by Universal Citywalk, an entertainment area. So in we went and, first ride you really come across is Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit. When it comes to a Maurer, you always know to brace yourself accordingly for the best ride experience ever or the worst thing since the extinction of the dinosaurs. Luckily HRRR is good! So.. we queued 5 minutes, clearly Studios is suffering the effect of Harry Potter as everything at Studios was walk on or less then 5 minute wait. So into the queue we go, kind of a weird queue, a lot is cattle pen with various music posters around on the walls. A staff member tells of some guests for going under the fences insteading of walking round. He then makes them go back and do it again. Interesting...Getting onto the ride is quite akin to Dragons Fury actually. The trains continually move through the station and the two sides of the platform are both treadmills so the ride really encourages you to get on with haste. We got front row (woo), pulled down the restraint and both decided to go for Gloria Haynor's, 'I will Survive'. Always seems rather apt on a Maurer. Up you go, dropping and then into that crazily weird inversion thing. According to RCDB it isn't an inversion. What I like about most Maurer's is that they always open their rides with some kind of element that takes your breathe away. Fury does it with that drop into immelman, Winjas do it with there lift sections and HRRR does it with style. The rest of the ride is actually the same thing pretty much, helixes and drops but theres an amazing amount of air time everytime you fly upwards into a MCBR. I'm not sure how Maurer have managed such manic, impossible turns but they've done it in style. Chris found these bits slightly lacking but I liked them. Off we popped into Twister Aftermath. The queue shows you some of the devastating effects of a Tornado. Seemed rather apt and sad considering at the time of our visit, a series of tornados had just devastated and killed 300 people in the mid US. The attraction is rather comical to be honest, with Helen Hunt telling you this is the most extreme thing you will ever do and her co-actor forcing tears out through sheer determination. The room in which all the effects occur is really cool actually. The heat from the fire was also appreciated after our soaking on IOA's water rides. And the poor flying cow.Next! Revenge of the Mummy. I think this suffered from dark ride overload actually. Having been on so many dark rides after 6 days (all in varying degrees), Revenge of the Mummy probably didn't impress as much as it should have done. The theming was excellent and some of the effects going on in there such as all the various flames and animatronics were top notch for instance. The coaster part, didn't really enjoy. It was slightly bashy, you'd go round corners or drops and it didn't feel like it flowed. I think this ride would have been better if we'd all got our sandwiches to be honest!Next, off to Amity with the dreaded JAWS RIDE. I don't quite know what was going on to be honest. The actress we got was slightly baffling. One moment she'd be shreiking her face off and a second later she'd turn round and say no photographs please. Why can't we photo the shark. Anyway, again a lot of effects going off such as fire on both sides of the boat, destroyed boats, a shark that just won't bugger off. Slightly better then Jungle Cruise at Magic Kingdom but still just as corny.Time for a proper ride we thought, off to Men in Black ride. I liked this, so did Chris and so did the OVER ENTHUSIASTIC AMERICANS we shared our car with. I've never seen a group of people take a shooting ride so seriously and with so much oomph. They'd constantly shout at us to shoot the aliens eyes or TO PRESS THE BONUS BUTTON. I felt exhausted just listening to them. Turns out they had been riding all day and were addicted. The ride itself is a lot of fun, I particularly liked the spinning out of control parts as you went round. Next, was The Simpsons Ride. Now this was weird but the favourite in the park because it was very tounge and cheek and reminicsent of early Simpsons episodes. You are grouped into several rooms and then into a ride car. Homer talks you through the ride restrictions with real humour such as stopping Maggie and Grampa Simpsons from riding because of their heights/heart conditions and you then sit back. The ride car then rises out of its station along with all the other cars in front of a giant screen. Sideshow Bob wants to kill the Simpsons at Krustyland and what follows is 2 and a half minutes of frantic motions and laughter. Some of the tounge in joke truths realy bought a smile such as "Of course the ride hasn't finished, we haven't been forced through a gift shop yet". So the ride was a bit like a 4D ride except without the glasses. Very like Soarin' except the ride makes it obvious you aren't flying..Next ET! basically a high capacity Peter Pan's Flight, you fly around scenes from ET to his home planet. You're asked to give your name and take a passport to his planet. You board the cars and fly around and above police cars and uniformed people who want to capture ET. Luckily you escape and fly over the city and off to ET's home. Lots of crazy stuff happens (which embarressingly I can't remember) and then ET says goodbye to everyone on the ride. Bye ET. Finally we went to watch Terminator 2 3D. Sometimes words fail me. This was either shockigly amazing or just naff. A long narrative follows where a cheery, skynet woman shows you a video of how good skynet is. This gets hacked by John Connor, cheeseface comes out and says to ignore it. You go into the cinema to watch the presentation. John Connor and his mum(?) come out and ruin the presentation. A liquid terminator comes to kill them and then Arnie's Terminator comes out and goes roar. They then go to the future and blow up Skynet. I'm sure there was more to it then that, but I'm just not sure I can remember it. So to conclude on Universal Studios, it's essentially a park of dark rides and indoor attractions which gets you out of the Floridian sun. If it's fast thrills you want then Islands of Adventures is next door, but if you want immersion in the dark then Universal Studios is your bag.

Hollywood StudiosTwo visits.Hollywood Studios for us, was a tale of two very different parks. And it all depends on whether Fantasmic is on, but more on that later. Our first visit was very very very very busy. Echoing what Nicky said, Toy Story Mania is easily the busiest ride of the Disney parks. So it's where we headed first on our visit.When we had arrived there were two very long queues. One to go on the ride and the other to collect a fastpass. Fastpass had run out within an hour of park opening. Which says it all really. The queueline for the ride is very impressive and beautifully themed to the Toy Story rides. It gets a Mark thumbs up.A very impressive bit of theming was mr Potato Head. He sings, he dances, he tells the queue to move along when they try and take pictures and he even takes his ear out.So the ride. Well its very impressive and very fast moving. The spinning of the car is disorientating and then as you stop in front of the queues you don't have much time to adjust. It's very well designed though, with a variety of things to do like smashing plates or shooting balloons. I never won though, Chris was just to good at it. But I beat him by about 300,000 on Space Ranger Spin so I don't feel to bad.So leaving the attractrion we decided to head over to Hollywood hotel and Rock 'N' Rollercoaster. With the hotel displaying a 50 minute queue we headed for the 30 minute Rock N Roller. The queue is kind of themed to a hall of fame and with 'Don't Want to miss a thing' Seemingly on repeat I enjoyed the waiting experience.. Chris liked the marble door.For some reason there's a pre-show. You get invited backstage by Aerosmith in a super stretch limit, you go out and theres a Rita-esque limo waiting to drive you off. It made me miss Corkscrew which is my main compliment. Off you go launching for what seems forever into the rides various elements. It's very well themed and DUDE LOOKS LIKE A LADY is a perfect choice of song for this crazy ride. We didn't get a chance to ride again just because of the parks business that day.We next headed to the immaculate, the beautiful, the stunning, the fantastic Hollywood Hotel: Tower of Terror. MAJOR SPOILERS COMING UP.This thing is an utter joy. My main point of sadness was that day for the majority, it was only running one side of the tower. Thats my only criticism. The theming is just so perfect and beautiful. You really feel like you're in the reception of a hotel and it's the touches such as the calming music played or the staff that play the part of sinister hotel personell that really sell this experience. You are prebatched into my favourite pre-show.Imagine if you will! I adore it and if you look closely, a hidden Mickey!. Having about to enter the Twilight Zone, you depart into the basement of the hotel. Beautiful. The little touches continue such as the arrow that moves above the lift door indicating what floor the lift is on. and then when it comes down and the door opens to let you on. Sublime. It's these little touches that tell you Disney is the best at creating these immersive experiences. You ARE part of the movie. So you sit down and as you only held in by a seatbelt, the adrenaline really starts to kick in. And off you go up to the first floor. The story of the five on the lift is shown on a screen and it is here you have entered.... the twilight zone. the doors close, you go up another floor and with the ding of the lift you stop and leave the lift shaft. Several symbols appear, an eye, a glass frame that shatters, an equation. And without a second thought the lift does different things. it will either drop you shortly before throwing you upwards to the top of the tower. It may throw you straight upwards, drop a bit then whoosh back to the top. It's this variety, it's the unknowing that make the ride such an addictive, enriching experience. And then you leave, warned that next time you check into a deserted hotel onto the dark side of Hollywood, make sure you know what kind of vacany you're filling.Or you could make yourself a permanent resident of.. the twilight zone.After the three main rides we had lunch, it started to rain and we started to venture onto other attractions. We tried out the world of Walt disney. Wonderful little attraction about Walt's life. We watched the stunt show which puts similar shows to shame. We love fire.We watched Beauty and the Beast and the Little Mermaid attration which both suffer from the problem that you can't fit a 72 minute film into a 10/15 minute show. Little Mermaid missed out 'Kiss the Girl', pretty much the whole point of the film!The Hollywood Tour was a big hit for me, really liked the pre-show.Now you see herNow you don'tAnd of course the effects driven bit where a tidal wave kind of thing hits a big tanker. This got kids screaming and crying, adults panicking. Loved it though.Disney plane!And now... Fantasmic. Now this is a show that isn't on every day at the resort, so days it is on are incredibly busy for the park. Due to the 5000 capacity, people start waiting for it 90 minutes before it starts. Luckily we had reserved seating but yeah, incredibly packed attraction. And 100% wonderful. The use of water effects, fire, actors, props, vehicles, fireworks is so impressive, so wonderful that it was instantly the best show at Disney. Disney have such a rich tapestry of characters and villains in the film and to use them in this way is fantastic, especially when it's the older films such as Snow White and Sleeping Beauty. The story of the show is about dreams and how the villains try and use dreams against Mickey.And the finale, with Steamboat mickey driving hos boat round the lake, all the Disney characters dancing and waving and singing from it.My first word after the show... orgasmic. Now the emptier day... well we queued 5 minutes for most attractions. Because there was no fantasmic. And it shows that the performances of Fantasmic, Wishes and Illuminations are just as important as Space Mountain, Expedition Everest and Soarin' when it comes to guests visiting Disney. At first, Hollywood Studios wasn't my favourite park. But after Hollywood Tower of Terror and Fantasmic... it easily came up in my estimations.Thanks for reading.

Oh electricbill, your cynicism really depresses me. Especially as you hate online communities anyway, and now you piss on people getting excited over something. So what if it's fake, the fact people are excited is good. And if it turns out to be real then woah, well done Thorpe. Good effort in using technology to build your new attraction up.

Hollywood StudiosTwo visits.Hollywood Studios for us, was a tale of two very different parks. And it all depends on whether Fantasmic is on, but more on that later. Our first visit was very very very very busy. Echoing what Nicky said, Toy Story Mania is easily the busiest ride of the Disney parks. So it's where we headed first on our visit.When we had arrived there were two very long queues. One to go on the ride and the other to collect a fastpass. Fastpass had run out within an hour of park opening. Which says it all really. The queueline for the ride is very impressive and beautifully themed to the Toy Story rides. It gets a Mark thumbs up.A very impressive bit of theming was mr Potato Head. He sings, he dances, he tells the queue to move along when they try and take pictures and he even takes his ear out.So the ride. Well its very impressive and very fast moving. The spinning of the car is disorientating and then as you stop in front of the queues you don't have much time to adjust. It's very well designed though, with a variety of things to do like smashing plates or shooting balloons. I never won though, Chris was just to good at it. But I beat him by about 300,000 on Space Ranger Spin so I don't feel to bad.So leaving the attractrion we decided to head over to Hollywood hotel and Rock 'N' Rollercoaster. With the hotel displaying a 50 minute queue we headed for the 30 minute Rock N Roller. The queue is kind of themed to a hall of fame and with 'Don't Want to miss a thing' Seemingly on repeat I enjoyed the waiting experience.. Chris liked the marble door.For some reason there's a pre-show. You get invited backstage by Aerosmith in a super stretch limit, you go out and theres a Rita-esque limo waiting to drive you off. It made me miss Corkscrew which is my main compliment. Off you go launching for what seems forever into the rides various elements. It's very well themed and DUDE LOOKS LIKE A LADY is a perfect choice of song for this crazy ride. We didn't get a chance to ride again just because of the parks business that day.We next headed to the immaculate, the beautiful, the stunning, the fantastic Hollywood Hotel: Tower of Terror. MAJOR SPOILERS COMING UP.This thing is an utter joy. My main point of sadness was that day for the majority, it was only running one side of the tower. Thats my only criticism. The theming is just so perfect and beautiful. You really feel like you're in the reception of a hotel and it's the touches such as the calming music played or the staff that play the part of sinister hotel personell that really sell this experience. You are prebatched into my favourite pre-show.Imagine if you will! I adore it and if you look closely, a hidden Mickey!. Having about to enter the Twilight Zone, you depart into the basement of the hotel. Beautiful. The little touches continue such as the arrow that moves above the lift door indicating what floor the lift is on. and then when it comes down and the door opens to let you on. Sublime. It's these little touches that tell you Disney is the best at creating these immersive experiences. You ARE part of the movie. So you sit down and as you only held in by a seatbelt, the adrenaline really starts to kick in. And off you go up to the first floor. The story of the five on the lift is shown on a screen and it is here you have entered.... the twilight zone. the doors close, you go up another floor and with the ding of the lift you stop and leave the lift shaft. Several symbols appear, an eye, a glass frame that shatters, an equation. And without a second thought the lift does different things. it will either drop you shortly before throwing you upwards to the top of the tower. It may throw you straight upwards, drop a bit then whoosh back to the top. It's this variety, it's the unknowing that make the ride such an addictive, enriching experience. And then you leave, warned that next time you check into a deserted hotel onto the dark side of Hollywood, make sure you know what kind of vacany you're filling.Or you could make yourself a permanent resident of.. the twilight zone.After the three main rides we had lunch, it started to rain and we started to venture onto other attractions. We tried out the world of Walt disney. Wonderful little attraction about Walt's life. We watched the stunt show which puts similar shows to shame. We love fire.We watched Beauty and the Beast and the Little Mermaid attration which both suffer from the problem that you can't fit a 72 minute film into a 10/15 minute show. Little Mermaid missed out 'Kiss the Girl', pretty much the whole point of the film!The Hollywood Tour was a big hit for me, really liked the pre-show.Now you see herNow you don'tAnd of course the effects driven bit where a tidal wave kind of thing hits a big tanker. This got kids screaming and crying, adults panicking. Loved it though.Disney plane!And now... Fantasmic. Now this is a show that isn't on every day at the resort, so days it is on are incredibly busy for the park. Due to the 5000 capacity, people start waiting for it 90 minutes before it starts. Luckily we had reserved seating but yeah, incredibly packed attraction. And 100% wonderful. The use of water effects, fire, actors, props, vehicles, fireworks is so impressive, so wonderful that it was instantly the best show at Disney. Disney have such a rich tapestry of characters and villains in the film and to use them in this way is fantastic, especially when it's the older films such as Snow White and Sleeping Beauty. The story of the show is about dreams and how the villains try and use dreams against Mickey.And the finale, with Steamboat mickey driving hos boat round the lake, all the Disney characters dancing and waving and singing from it.My first word after the show... orgasmic. Now the emptier day... well we queued 5 minutes for most attractions. Because there was no fantasmic. And it shows that the performances of Fantasmic, Wishes and Illuminations are just as important as Space Mountain, Expedition Everest and Soarin' when it comes to guests visiting Disney. At first, Hollywood Studios wasn't my favourite park. But after Hollywood Tower of Terror and Fantasmic... it easily came up in my estimations.Thanks for reading.

Hollywood StudiosTwo visits.Hollywood Studios for us, was a tale of two very different parks. And it all depends on whether Fantasmic is on, but more on that later. Our first visit was very very very very busy. Echoing what Nicky said, Toy Story Mania is easily the busiest ride of the Disney parks. So it's where we headed first on our visit.When we had arrived there were two very long queues. One to go on the ride and the other to collect a fastpass. Fastpass had run out within an hour of park opening. Which says it all really. The queueline for the ride is very impressive and beautifully themed to the Toy Story rides. It gets a Mark thumbs up.A very impressive bit of theming was mr Potato Head. He sings, he dances, he tells the queue to move along when they try and take pictures and he even takes his ear out.So the ride. Well its very impressive and very fast moving. The spinning of the car is disorientating and then as you stop in front of the queues you don't have much time to adjust. It's very well designed though, with a variety of things to do like smashing plates or shooting balloons. I never won though, Chris was just to good at it. But I beat him by about 300,000 on Space Ranger Spin so I don't feel to bad.So leaving the attractrion we decided to head over to Hollywood hotel and Rock 'N' Rollercoaster. With the hotel displaying a 50 minute queue we headed for the 30 minute Rock N Roller. The queue is kind of themed to a hall of fame and with 'Don't Want to miss a thing' Seemingly on repeat I enjoyed the waiting experience.. Chris liked the marble door.For some reason there's a pre-show. You get invited backstage by Aerosmith in a super stretch limit, you go out and theres a Rita-esque limo waiting to drive you off. It made me miss Corkscrew which is my main compliment. Off you go launching for what seems forever into the rides various elements. It's very well themed and DUDE LOOKS LIKE A LADY is a perfect choice of song for this crazy ride. We didn't get a chance to ride again just because of the parks business that day.We next headed to the immaculate, the beautiful, the stunning, the fantastic Hollywood Hotel: Tower of Terror. MAJOR SPOILERS COMING UP.This thing is an utter joy. My main point of sadness was that day for the majority, it was only running one side of the tower. Thats my only criticism. The theming is just so perfect and beautiful. You really feel like you're in the reception of a hotel and it's the touches such as the calming music played or the staff that play the part of sinister hotel personell that really sell this experience. You are prebatched into my favourite pre-show.Imagine if you will! I adore it and if you look closely, a hidden Mickey!. Having about to enter the Twilight Zone, you depart into the basement of the hotel. Beautiful. The little touches continue such as the arrow that moves above the lift door indicating what floor the lift is on. and then when it comes down and the door opens to let you on. Sublime. It's these little touches that tell you Disney is the best at creating these immersive experiences. You ARE part of the movie. So you sit down and as you only held in by a seatbelt, the adrenaline really starts to kick in. And off you go up to the first floor. The story of the five on the lift is shown on a screen and it is here you have entered.... the twilight zone. the doors close, you go up another floor and with the ding of the lift you stop and leave the lift shaft. Several symbols appear, an eye, a glass frame that shatters, an equation. And without a second thought the lift does different things. it will either drop you shortly before throwing you upwards to the top of the tower. It may throw you straight upwards, drop a bit then whoosh back to the top. It's this variety, it's the unknowing that make the ride such an addictive, enriching experience. And then you leave, warned that next time you check into a deserted hotel onto the dark side of Hollywood, make sure you know what kind of vacany you're filling.Or you could make yourself a permanent resident of.. the twilight zone.After the three main rides we had lunch, it started to rain and we started to venture onto other attractions. We tried out the world of Walt disney. Wonderful little attraction about Walt's life. We watched the stunt show which puts similar shows to shame. We love fire.We watched Beauty and the Beast and the Little Mermaid attration which both suffer from the problem that you can't fit a 72 minute film into a 10/15 minute show. Little Mermaid missed out 'Kiss the Girl', pretty much the whole point of the film!The Hollywood Tour was a big hit for me, really liked the pre-show.Now you see herNow you don'tAnd of course the effects driven bit where a tidal wave kind of thing hits a big tanker. This got kids screaming and crying, adults panicking. Loved it though.Disney plane!And now... Fantasmic. Now this is a show that isn't on every day at the resort, so days it is on are incredibly busy for the park. Due to the 5000 capacity, people start waiting for it 90 minutes before it starts. Luckily we had reserved seating but yeah, incredibly packed attraction. And 100% wonderful. The use of water effects, fire, actors, props, vehicles, fireworks is so impressive, so wonderful that it was instantly the best show at Disney. Disney have such a rich tapestry of characters and villains in the film and to use them in this way is fantastic, especially when it's the older films such as Snow White and Sleeping Beauty. The story of the show is about dreams and how the villains try and use dreams against Mickey.And the finale, with Steamboat mickey driving hos boat round the lake, all the Disney characters dancing and waving and singing from it.My first word after the show... orgasmic. Now the emptier day... well we queued 5 minutes for most attractions. Because there was no fantasmic. And it shows that the performances of Fantasmic, Wishes and Illuminations are just as important as Space Mountain, Expedition Everest and Soarin' when it comes to guests visiting Disney. At first, Hollywood Studios wasn't my favourite park. But after Hollywood Tower of Terror and Fantasmic... it easily came up in my estimations.Thanks for reading.