Gazza
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Posts posted by Gazza
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In fact, 2 generators on this artwork visible, and potentially a 3rd if they do the one in the corner indicated on @Jamberoo Fans aerial image.
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2 Wave Pools
2 Lazy Rivers
2 Kids Zones
2 Tornadoes
2 Raft Slides
2 Racers
The cosmic ballet goes on.
QuoteSo quick discussion here- will this addition catapult Jamberoo into the position of best water park in Australia?
It already is very good. Definitely the best operations.
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Disney's Hollywood Studios
https://www.parkz.com.au/search/photos/location/disneys-hollywood-studios
(For more pics)
Last but not least from my November trip. I ended up here on a couple of the days through park hopping.
For the thrill seekers, the park probably has the best lineup at Walt Disney World. Plenty of new stuff to see here.
Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance
An amazing attraction.
I don't think there is much that comes close in terms of being a true start to finish immersive experience with a strong storyline.
Haunted mansion is great for instance, but they still whack you on an escalator at the end of the ride for example.
Big Thunder is pretty, but no story right?
Harry Potter is a great ride, just make sure you stay looking straight ahead!
But this, its so well thought out from start to finish.
You begin in a reistance base, carved out in some caverns on the edge of the settlement, full of supplies and munitions.
The first preshow tells you that you have to get off the planet since your current location is no longer safe.
A cute BB-8 Animatronic whirls around in a concerned manner.
You then head outside and board a transport ship.
It's like a mild simulator ride, (not too strong since everyone is standing up), anyhow your craft is intercepted by the first order in a space battle, and you are dragged into the shuttle bay of a star destroyer.
The doors open, and you are in a completely different location, the massive void of the shuttle bay!
It's real wow moment, up there with that moment on POTC where you turn the corner into that huge battle.
And you turn around and there your ship is, parked against the wall.
From there you are taken into custody hustled down into holding cells and locked inside.
Kylo Ren and General Hux try to interrogate you, but are distracted and wander off to deal with other issues.
In that moment, some unseen allies come to your rescue, and burn a hole in the wall to bust you out.
From here its into your next ride vehicle, a trackless transporter.
From then on, the fun really starts.
You start sneaking off through the corridors of the star destroyer, but within about the 30 seconds you are spotted by some storm troopers and they open fire. This is where the Disney magic really shines, with actual laser shots ricocheting around you, holes being blown in walls etc.
From then on its several minutes of running for your life through different battle scenes. At one point you are darting around like mice under the legs of an AT-AT, at another point Kylo ren sticks a lightsaber through the roof and tries to cut you up.
The only real downer was that on all my rides the last couple of scenes were running in B mode. None of the huge moving laser guns were working, so your vehicle sort of just moves back and forth erratically, seemingly dodging ghosts.
The final scene had no Kylo Ren animatronic, so you just see him hovering outside in his spaceship before getting shot down, and you head to the escape pods without the rushing air effect of being sucked out into space.
And then of course its a wild finale where your vehicle drives into a simulator pod meets freefall ride and evacuates out of the star destroyer, crash landing on the planet.
What makes this cool is the unload area is actually outdoors, so the whole thing is wrapped up in a neat little package and you are back to where you started.
Did this 3 times. Ah well, maybe when i return to one of the parks it'll all be going.
Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run
I've done this back at Disneyland when the 'soft' opened their version of Galaxy's Edge and Rise wasn't ready yet, and then Covid happened and here I am finally seeing the rest of it in 2023.
A huge recreation of the Milennium Falcon sits out front
And you make your way through a well themed, but some what lifeless workshop themed queue. IMO they should have made it more like star tours with more things moving, though the soundtrack is quite humorous in this area if you listen in.
And then after walking through a gangway, you board the faclon.
On one ride, just before closing i had the most odd experience where I had an entire pod to myself.
The ride is an on the rails shooter, with a bit of steering ability, and of course all your motion simulator fun, as you go off flying to steal some coaxium from another planet. A couple of of players shoot, a couple shoot and a couple do mostly nothing except hit one button at the right moment.
So I got to take on the pilots position, with everything else being done on auto for you.
Slinky Dog Dash
Possibly the gentlest LSM launch in existence?
The theming is quite fun, they have actually got this whole sub narrative that what you are riding on is a roller coaster kit owned by Andy, so the queue is scattered with spare bits of track and supports, as well as a lot of oversized toys.
The first launch goes into a horseshoe turn and helix. Stops at the 2nd launch, which is themed a bit like a launcher on a hotwheels set. From there is a floater hill, a bunch of very mild bunny hops that would be right at home on a Japanese jet coaster, finished off with an S bend.
When you are waiting on the brakes, squeaky penguin sings to you with his microphone, which was a nice surprise you dont see from the queue.
This thing can get painful queues, but I tended to try and ride it later in the day and waited like 30-40 mins on both rides.
Alien Swirling Saucers
This is the same ride as Maters Junkyard Jamboree, several turntables interconnected so you move in a double figure 8 pattern, with some mechanism below the floor allowing your car to move from one turntable to the next. What is also cool is that your car is connected to the turntable by a springloaded tow bar, so your car drifts and swings wildly from side to side, not unlike the classic whip rides. Good fun.
The "pizza planet" in the middle of the ride is a nice detail. Now why dont they have an ACTUAL pizza planet at Disney, it would be a license to print money
Lightning McQueen's Racing Academy
Fine for kids, but its Disney so its still decent. Imagine an animatronic Lighting mcqueen with a projection mapped eyes and mouth. Hey greets the crowd, moving about on his podium. He then demonstrates his speed, with a panoramic racing simulator on a giant screen behind.
But his arch rival hacks in to try and beat him, but of course McQueen prevails.
Tower of Terror
Still excellent.
As the prototype, this one actually has a section where your vehicle moves from one lift to another through a brief dark ride scene, with some cool optical illusions. Paris still wins out in terms of sheer intensity of the ride programme, and probably Tokyo has the best preshow.
Rock n Roller Coaster
Some embuggerance with this one, as it kept bloody breaking down.
Surprisingly, one of my favourite things about this is how the whole loading area is themed.The preshow has you watching Aerosmith recording in their studio, and they invite you to join them at their concert via stretch limousine.
When you step out the back door of the studio, you are in an alleyway, and your limousine is waiting in a multi level car park, but the theming is so immersive, eg the operators booth is inside the cashiers office, the secondary control panel is on the call box, there’s all sorts of other details like a motorbike being fixed, and even a low clearance height bar above the track where it leaves the station.
The launch is powerful, and its a smooth, frantic layout full of positive gs, with a sea serpent roll, a lot of helices, and then a surprise corkscrew at the end.
Mickey and Minnies Runaway Railway
This one is fantastic.
You head into the chinese theatre, ready to watch a short film featuring Mickey and Minnie on a road trip, (Hmm reminds me of how the gremlins ride started out). On the way, they meet goofy driving a train, and an explosion on the train in the cartoon creates a real explosion in the theatre, creating a smoking hole in the wall that leads to the cartoon realm. You are invited to pass through, and inside, everything is done in the art style of the cartoon, with scribbled details on the walls, 2d props etc.
The ride vehicles are a train of trackless pods behind a locomotive driven by goofy. Shortly into the ride your cars become detached from the loco, spinning out of control through a number of projection mapped scenes, often taking different routes. On the way you keep encountering Mickey and Minnie in peril.
One scene had you caught up in a tornado, with very strong winds. Another was in a big city, where a jackhammering worker causes everything to shake.
An impressive moment is where a room has faux rockwork and looks like a jungle, but when you return to it, it has transformed into an underwater environment.
There’s also a nice moment where you end up in a dance studio run by daisy duck, and all the vehicles waltz side to side in unison.
But, the quality of the graphics was something else, it just looks so bright and crisp, like a blacklight painting come to life, and they have managed to incorporate other moving props into it seamlessly. Did this a couple of times.
I ended up timing it to try a few of the food items at the park.
The Totchos from Woody's Lunchbox are a big ole bowl of carbs. Chilli con carne with corn chips and potato gems. But i think the 'blandness' of the corn chips overpowers everything.
And i was sure to have booked in a drink at Oga's Cantina.
I was recommended to try a Fuzzy Tauntan, which was rum and a few other sour flavours, but the foam on top actually made your lips go numb, like as if it had Lignocaine in it or something.
The other drink i had was like a juice blend with coloured boba balls floating in it.
They had a theatre showing newer Mickey Mouse shorts. Since when did it become like Ren and Stimpy?
Overall, I think the park has one of the best ride lineups at Disney, and a mixed bag in terms of Immersive theming. Star Wars and Toy Story are great, but the rest of it is generic city streets and backlot theming, with a fair bit of the latter being under renovation.
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The Vekoma test rig was blue and dark red, not grey and orange.
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Epcot 14/11/2023
https://www.parkz.com.au/search/photos/location/epcot for heaps more pics.
Epcot is undergoing a bit of work, and they are really leaning into their retrofuturism, particularly with the renovations of some buildings in the hub, a new sculpture at the entrance and new icons for each attraction.
And you know its kinda fun. They acknowledge the place is a timewarp, much like tomorrowland, but they are leaning into it.
Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind
Woweee.
Did this twice, again by getting an early boarding group via the app by refreshing at 7am, plus forking out for a one shot lighting lane.
An amazing achievement and a massive coaster.
The queue ties into Epcot by posing as an exhibit about the planet Xandar.
Xandarians have come to earth to teach us about their planet, and are even inviting us up to their mothership via teleportation.The teleportation is done well, a similar effect I think to the old Poseidon's fury at ioa where you go into a room, the lights go out, and the walls are lifted up to reveal a bigger room surrounding you.
Of course, something goes wrong when a bad guy steals the cosmic generator from the ship, and before you know it you are loaded into trains to chase after him.
The ride uses controlled spinning, and the building is divided into two huge halls with long screens running the lengths.
The "preshow bit of the coaster" passes a few big screens, before you are rotated backwards and sent down a long launch with electrical effect's.
The track twists and turns along each room, and the battle plays out, moving along the screen with you, and even distorts away as the track turns away from the screen.
The rotation of the car keeps
you focused on the action.I got "Im gonna getcha getcha getcha" on one of my rides, I forget the other song. No miami disco for me.
Mission Space.
This one has has a slight facelift since last time, with new films for both the extreme and gentle versions.
For those who don't know, you sit in a simulator pod, suspended from a centrifuge, allowing for strong Gs during the ride.
The gentle version has the centrifuge deactivated, so is just like a normal simulator and has you doing an orbit around the world, with some of the most cliche commentary ever...."soon we will pass over Japan, the land of the rising sun....below you can see Paris, the city of light.
Things get a bit energetic towards the end where there is a storm as you come into land, throwing your space shuttle about.
The extreme version.... Damn i forgot how intense this is, or maybe Im getting older. The ride is based around a mission to Mars. The bit during take off has quite long periods of sustained Gs, like a powerful rotor type ride.
There a breather in the middle as you go into "hypersleep" for a few months to reach mars.And then an exciting sequence for Landing where you almost go off a cliff!
Skipped Soarin because they were running the darn old Californian film (I'd wanted to try the new one!)
Test TrackEhhh, I liked the old one better.
The previous version of the ride was themed like an actual crash test facility, with your car swerving around cones, over rough surfaces, through a heat chamber etc. very fun and practical feeling.
The new version tries to give the impression you are in a "sim car" , and all the interior theming of the ride is like tron.
This is tied together with a preshow where you craft a car on a touchscreen, and yeah its fun coming up with some sort of abomination.I tried to do a car like the one homer simpson designed but gave up.
But now i think the computer theme makes it too farfetched and sterile feeling imo.
Still the outdoor section at high speed is pretty exhilarating still.
Ratatouille
This one I thought was better than the one in Paris, because the cars were able to shake slightly, which was deactivated in Paris for some reason.
It made the motion on the screen have a bit more feel, kind of like the seats in a 4d cinema. The motion isn't Spiderman/Transformers level, but still pretty good.
Journey into Imagination is quite silly.
Typical Disney dark ride with rotating cars, but this one has them in trains, with a few dips in the track too.
The ride is themed like an institute for inventors. The queue passes various office doors with punny names and odd things going on inside
The ride takes you on a tour of labs, but the irritating dragon figment causes mayhem and sings a song
Frozen Ever After
The queue for this is a bit hellish, with streams of lightling lane users and then 3 or 4 people from standby, so spent about an hour stuck in this nicley themed, but crowded town square themed queue line.
I haven't seen the film so can't really comment. One thing that struck me was how dark it is inside. Its not so much a white snowy wonderland, but a lot of blacklight theming and dimly lit scenes, which to be fair give it a real nordic dark winter feel.
Journey of Water - Inspired by Moana
This is quite nice, a walkthrough with all kinds of interactive fountains, including waterfalls that shut off right as you walk through, ones that respond to your hand waving, a water harp, pop jets for little kids, and a spectacular one that simulated waves crashing against the shoreline.
My only comment would be why isn't this at Animal kingdom where it would fit in better. I guess it's supposed to be educational, but a strange fit for the future world area.
Spaceship Earth I have hazy memories of because last time I was here i was jetlagged and fell asleep on it because it was nice and dark lol.
The ride is edutainment, taking you through the history of the world and communication, so you spiral up through the spherical building, and pass through scenes of people in the ancient world keeping scrolls, through to people in the 70s using magnetic tape computers.
On reflection, its the same type of ideas as Carousel of Progress over at MK.
The final part has dated a bit. Your photo is taken, and on a touch screen you are asked questions about what you are interested in and your lifestyle, and it whips up a quick animation about what the future might be like, based on your inputs.
The food and wine festival was on when I was visting. There was a muppets food lab where you could get a pickle flavoured shake.
I opted to see what their interpretation of Australian food was.
Lamington was nice but the coconut wasn't desiccated it was big soft strands, but the wine was good :}
The weather was somewhat bad on the day so I was ducking for cover a bit when going around the world showcase.
Another thing worth checking out is Coca Cola Club cool, where you can try free soft drink samples.
The infamous Beverly is a clear but very bitter drink that tastes like drinking liquorice.
My personal favourite was Joy, a korean peach pear lychee sort of drink I could have sipped all day.
A few of them are just fizzy tropical flavours, so its a good go to if you dont want to pay Disney drink prices.
Overall, still a great park, If I had one more day I could have really spent more time in world showcase and seen a few shows.
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1 hour ago, franky said:
What about those 4 slides on the left of the park between the Aqua Racers/Constrictor? I thought they were original slides?
New versus old.
The old slides were four open air slides.
Their replacements were 2x open air and 2x enclosed slides from Whitewater West.
Originals
Originals demolished
New slides
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Correct me if im wrong but they would be the oldest fiberglass in the park, given Super 8 was rebuilt.
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Check out the way the explosion rips through the teal slide, lighting the rings up from the inside.
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18 hours ago, TomiJ said:
Or for an alternative if you are ever in NSW, Jamberoo has 2 trap door slides. Jamberoo is a much better park overall in my opinion.
The ones at Jamberoo aren't uphill looping slides, which is what this topic is about.
FWIW, if you want to ride a regular "downhill" trapdoor slide, you can also find examples at Aquatopia Prariewood NSW, Aquanation Ringwood VIC, Cockburn ARC in WA.
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21 hours ago, REGIE said:
What!! I have never had the guts to do it and now I won't ever be able too !
Go to Raging Waters.
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SeaWorld San Diego 25/11/23
( Quite a few photos here https://www.parkz.com.au/search/photos/location/seaworld-san-diego )
Sea World San Diego is a place I haven’t visited since about 2007, and back then the ride lineup then consisted of Journey to Atlantis, Shipwreck Rapids and a rubbish simulator named Wild Arctic.
But now they have COASTERS™ (Though I missed Tidal Twister by a few months, the memory lives on at one of the press a penny machines)
And I've always been intrigued by Manta….
A one day ticket doesn't come out cheap since you get hit with a high admission price and a full whack for parking, but tbh I didn't mind, it's a decently decent park.
I started off one with I was low key excited for…Arctic Rescue.
Aside from one of them, all of these Intamin straddle coasters are all pretty decent. And the one in San Diego has three launches.
The station was shoehorned into a bit of the building that previously held the simulators, and they have just installed platforms etc straight in. Thought it looked a little rough. The trains totally aren't Jet Skis that have had little wheels added to make them look like snowmobiles.
But the coaster, pretty good! It's not the outright intensity of Juvelen/Yukon Quad, its perhaps more on par with Namazu, but still enjoyable quick transitions and pops of airtime...Imagine a longer version of Jet Rescue with a few more elevated hills.
There is some Arctic base theming scattered around the ride, like a helicopter, a few dome roofed buildings, rocks, and patches of grey and white gravel on the ground to give the impression of snow.
The ride itself is all in its own compound so non riders basically can't watch it. I got the following pics from the skytower and from out the opening of the load station.
Nearby is Emperor , a B&M Dive Coaster.
There's really no theming to speak of on here. Just truckloads of gravel under the ride, and even things like the pathway fences and the station platform look like it was all just 'hardware store' type construction rather than something themed around diving penguins. They were only running a single 18 person train too.
But with the bad out of the way lets get to the good. It's a solid layout up there with the best, and seems a lot more inversion focused than the other ones, and no slow points breaking up the ride...3 inversions, almost 4 actually. The vertical first drop leads into your standard Immelmann, then a tall overbanked turn that borderlines on a cutback.
From there is an unusual element that is sort of like a roll meets incline loop. The closest comparison I can think of is the knot element on Flug der Damonen. From there its one last corkscrew and into the brakes. Action packed from start to finish, with that tall first drop with the holding break providing enough intimidation factor.
The park also has Electric Eel...Another Premier Skyrocket. You can go read my Busch Gardens trip report for my thoughts on this.
Great coaster, and at least this one had some effort put into the presentation.
It was on the way to I took a ride on Sky Tower. These things never seem to be open at the SeaWorld parks, and they charge extra for some reason🤑. It was a good overlook over the park, but who thought it was a good idea to put contravision film on the windows. It was like being on a bus, and it meant your photos come out really murky (and it disrupts the view in general), kind of defeating the purpose.
And finally Manta. You can tell this was more of an old school Busch attraction, because the theming was very detailed, and a lot of effort was put into the landscaping, with a large area of the ride actually sunken into the ground. The coaster more or less plays out like the middle bit of DC Rivals, with small hills, quick twists and helices, so firmly a family thrill coaster.
The first launch is interesting. The ride pulls out of the station into a darkened room, with a tube of scrim surrounding the track, with projections of manta rays swimming around and dramatic music. The train actually rolls back and forth a couple of meters each way a few times, in sync with the screens, creating a sort of sensation that ocean currents are moving you about. Doors open, and it actually accelerates with a bit of a jerk down the first launch.
The first bit of the ride dives and weaves around the queue area, with a good head chopper under the bridge too.
At this point, I dont think Mack had perfected the rolling launch, so halfway through the ride you slow for a MCBR, only to get launched back to full speed again, which certainly felt awkward.
The final half had more twists and hills, and was out in the open, surrounded by the flamingo exhibit.
The other ride I was interested in was Bayside Skyride , another upcharge. This one actually just runs outside of the park, giving you views of the marina and Fiesta Island.
Most of the other rides are for kids, and they are all pretty cute, though how many rides need to have "rescue" in the name lol?
In particular I thought the teacups looked pretty well done.
And a Jellyfish themed wave swinger! It seems so obvious yet nobody has done one before to my knowledge.
I did check out some of the animal exhibits too, and they are well done, but didn't devote a whole lot of time to them given I had other plans for the evening I was there. As is it was, doing a couple of laps on each coaster took me through to late afternoon.
In particular I liked the Sea Turtles.
And I thought the entrance area was well done too with elaborate giant coral structures, and touch pools.
But what is wild is that literally in the past few weeks they have demolished all that, even though it only went in a few years ago!
(Reddit)
Overall thoughts on the park, still pretty good, but I think the two newest coasters could have had more effort put into the presentation. The ride lineup is well balanced, maybe a dark ride. I'd also say they should round out the kids area with a proper kids coaster, but in park they were heavily promoting Sesame Place, so it seems like they are encouraging families with young kids to go there for that.
Put this park on your Californian itinerary if you like launch coasters or want to try a dive coaster!
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Busch Gardens Tampa - 12/11/23
https://www.parkz.com.au/search/photos/location/busch-gardens-tampa
(Plenty of photos)
3rd time back to this park, which remains one of the best rounded in the US, with pretty decent theming, impressive coasters and a good collection of Animal exhibits too. Perhaps the one thing that has gone backwards is the operations. Previously Busch parks were usually pretty rock solid with operations, but this time around you'd encounter one train ops and sluggish speeds which kind of surprised me!
Arriving at the Moroccan themed entrance:
Its right there next to the entrance, so of course I started off with Iron Gwazi
Wow, what to say, this ride is crazy. More intense than my previous favourite, Hakugei, but IMO more imaginative than Steel Vengeance.
Pretty wild how they have made a hypercoaster out of what was once a pair of 28m high dueling coasters, and it almost looks bodgy how they have added extra steel tubes to hold up the ride.
Once the muck around of the loading is done, a steel drop and turn out of the station leads to the huge lift. The first drop is out of control, being slightly steeper than vertical, a true freefall. From there you come up and up onto a huge outward banked hill, down and around an up to another apex, followed by a roll that spirals towards the ground. The pace continues with a quick flick into an overbanked turn, and then an element I wasn't really aware of, a drawn wave turn that crosses over the front of the station.
The rest of the ride is a bit lower (relatively), banking and dipping around, really throwing you out of your seat. Frequently you look at the messed up looking track ahead and wonder how on earth the train is going to get through it with the speed it is carrying, but somehow does.
The finale really shines, with a zero g stall, and then an airtime hill where it has double humps at the top, perhaps the most agressive airtime in the ride. A couple of turns later and you hit the brakes with plenty of speed.
So there you have it, its neck and neck between this and Velocicoaster.
Continuing around the park, I grabbed a ride on Tigris, another one of those Premier SkyRocket coasters.
Turns out I've been on half of the ones operating worldwide, Ill recycle my review from the one at Sarkanniemi:
A punchy launch, really fast vertical twist, good pop of airtime as you transition at the top, then a fun heartline roll. The 2nd half rapidly picks up speed as you dive down again, with more air in the non inverted loop. So despite looking quite simplistic from the outside, it's quite forceful and varied. I disagree that it is anything like Buzzsaw.
Continuing around, it was time for Falcons Fury
Along with Ikaros, would be my favourite dark ride. There's nothing like being slowly rotated to face the ground, and then freefalling, seeing it rush up towards you.
It was telling though that it was virtually a walk on all day. They probably overbuilt the thing, with capacity for 32 people, so would take time to actually get enough passengers to cycle it.
I had hoped to ride the new Serengeti Flyer, but every time I went by it was closed, and I don't recall seeing it operate all day.
The other new coaster I had to ride was Cobras Curse, a unique Mack Spinning coaster with short little 2 car trains where everyone faces the same way. Also had a nifty conveyor belt loading system (Wouldn't it be great if Scooby got this!)
The queue goes through a well themed queue with an archeological exploration theme.
The ride has a vertical lift like scooby in front of a giant cobra statue, with some cringe audio, but what was interesting was they figured out a way to keep the platform level as it ascends (though it does shake a bit as a result).
It's a ride of 3 parts. The first third is forwards with a first drop and couple of quick turns. The next third is backwards around a couple of helices, and the final 3rd has actual spinning, through 3 horseshoe turns in a row.
I think it must have the energy efficiency of a brick though, its a large drop, but it seems to run out of momentum after a few turns. There's a 2nd lift to give it a bit more height, but even after that its slowing down by the end.
The ride does look great, and integrates well with the theming, but perhaps a bit mid overall.
By that point I was just about around the park so it was time for a few re-rides on some old favourites, starting with Montu
Get out there and ride some of these older B&Ms, they really keep their pace up, and alternate between hard pulling inversion and hard pulling turns. Montu is extra interesting, with a few elements sunk into trenches, themed like Egyptian ruins.
Cheetah Hunt
So it wasn't until it was pointed out to me that the first element is supposed to be like a giant tree that a cheetah is jumping in and out of. I think maybe at the early stages it was meant to be an actual themed tree, but of course the reality of budgets means it is what it is.
A decent launch coaster, but perhaps a bit more drawn out and less intense than the others, since a lot of the ride is this big long run with shallow drops in and out of trenches, though there is a slalom, barrell roll and airtime hill towards the back of the layout that amp it up a bit.. I think the likes of Taiga, Toutatis, and even our Superman Escape eclipse it.
SheiKra
Was my favourite in the park last time, and probably still is, with its huge scale, hang time through the elements, and just the sense of fun with such a large group of riders screaming together in the front row, with kids on the ground being soaked by the water splash.
Kumba
Still holds up, with its non stop elements perfectly sequenced to flow into each other, and runs pretty well still.
Scorpion
Another ride type you should get out and see while you can are these old schwarzkopf looping coasters. They were ahead of their time, with fun well designed layout and lots of intensity. Always wondered why Arrow sold more rides than these guys. There are plenty of bad arrows, but no bad Schwarzkopfs.
Serengeti Express Train
One thing I have never done until now. It's quite a long ride, and the only way to really see the animals on the open range section up close (Rhino Rally is long gone, and I wasn't gonna fork out for one of the safari tour feeding experiences)
As the day wound to a close I checked out a few of the Animal exhibits, wish I had allowed more time for them, since they are genuinely excellent, and typically slightly off the main paths which makes them a quiet escape.
And a couple of night rides on Iron Gwazi, fully warmed up. Wahooo!
And a few more photos....
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Yeah but there's heaps of rides people also love IMHO.
And you know how the public were like "Vortex is the same as Wipeout"...yeah, that again.
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Doomsday should be replaced with a gyro swing and Intamin should give MW a huge discount on one because the last ride Intamin sold to MW doesn't work.
Australia literally doesn't need any more of these style of spin and swing rides.
I can ride one at AW, I can ride one at LPS, I can ride one at DW, I can ride a lil one at Funfields.
I can go to a show and ride 3 or 4 other variants too.
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With Volcano Bay and Islands of Aventure out of the way its time to take a look at Universal Studios Florida
https://www.parkz.com.au/search/photos/location/universal-studios-florida
(For all the pics)
Again, I spread out my entries over about 3 days. I made it there one evening when it was an absolute downpour. This meant the crowds were light, and outdoor rides were closed, so a good excuse to knock out indoor stuff with minimal wait to start with.
Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts
Wow, this one really impressed me. Universal have copped some flak for doing a lot of screen based attractions, but this one did the 'ride' part well too, and the theming was fully immersive right from start to finish.
In short You are on a tour of the bank vaults but are caught in a battle between Harry and Voldemort.
After making your way through some well themed bank corridors, you catch a lift down to the underground vaults, which used a cool vibrating floor to give the sense of the lift shuddering and siezing up on the way down.
Eventually you end up in a grimy underground tunnel system with stalectites hanging from the ceiling, where you find the load area.The ride is a roller coaster system, but the cars can rotate to any position, and there are some pretty nifty special track sections used throughout.
Right at the start of the ride, the evil Belatrix attacks you, and the whole track tilts like a Vekoma Tilt coaster, but only to about 45 degrees.
From here you are released down a first drop, theres a brief s bend (a very minimal amount of coaster!). The next couple of scenes are in front of screens, with the ride vehicles actually rotating quite powerfully in time with the on screen action. I recommend back seat on this ride since both the tilt track and the rotations feel more intense up there.
Another section has the train actually stop on a section of track with a full motion base underneath it (must have to be as strong as anything!), and again the ride vehicles jostle a fair bit.
The final showdown takes place in front of a wraparound screen, with you being hooked up behind a dragon to escape the vaults. There's a small launch and turn (another brief bit of coastering) and you are back at the station.
I think it did all the dark ride and screen based bits perfectly, and the motions are really good, I just think the coaster bits at the start and end could have been just a teensy bit more fleshed out . Obviously doesn't have to be as substantial as revenge of the mummy, but it should be more than 1 turn!
Hogwarts Express
Did this in both directions on my first night. It's a train ride connecting both parks, but it does have limited capacity (only 2 trains, operating like a shuttle), so during the day I saw waits of 40 mins or more, at which point its quicker to walk between the parks.
The stations at each end are well themed, particularly the whole Kings Cross complex at the USO end.
There's a neat feature where guests appear to pass into a solid brick wall to access platform 9&3/4, done by having a well positioned mirror and a wall you walk around. In practice, it means you watch the people ahead of you walk through the wall, but when its your turn, all you end up seeing is a black painted opening in the wall on the other side of the mirror. Cool that they at least managed to fake the effect though!
Onboard the train, you are locked into a well themed carriage, with a screen showing the outside world (no real windows, since the track has to travel through all the back of house areas between both parks...the commitment to immersion is impressive!)
There's a different film depending on which direction you are travelling. Personally I thought the USO>IOA direction one was better and more dramatic.
Diagon Alley
Should touch on this, much of the same ideas seen in the original Wizarding World of Harry Potter....A pub selling british food, quirky shopfronts with animatroinic displays, a bit of a 1910s look to everything. Just substitute the village for laneways of London.
It all does look superb, with plenty of details, and all buildings having this slight wonkiness to it.
And they did nail the whole instagram moment, with the dragon wrapped around the rooftop that regularly spits fire.
I did stop in at Florean Fortescues ice cream parlour. Wouldn't have minded trying a few flavours, but at about $8 usd a serve, I limited myself to the pleasant tasting "butterbeer ice cream", which tasted caramelly.
Fast & Furious Supercharged
Much like Kong, this is just a clone of immersive tunnel part of the Studio Tour in Hollywood. The queue line is well themed, through some car workshops, but the preshows were kind of lost on me. Apparently we are going to a party on a bus, but now some bad guys are closing in on us? The lady presenting the preshow was taking the piss a bit, repeating "Family" every time it was said on the video.
Guess you'd have to watch the films to really get it?
The buses you ride depart from a back alley themed loading dock, and go around a corner into a warehouse, where a large transparent screen shows crowds of people partying. A CIA agent turns up and shuts the party down (?), some words are said, and then all of a sudden you roll out of the party and are in the middle of a high speed car chase with various guys in cars and helicopters shooting at you. (Achieve by having two long screens either side of the bus, with a motion base underneath) They get around the fact a bus is slow by having two allies turn up with supercharged tow trucks that you are attached to with cables, allowing you to escape at high speed. The visuals here are good, racing through an arid LA themed environment with freeways and oil refineries. Of course, one of them is blown up, with you feeling the splash of fuel onto you.
It's still worth a ride for that simulator sequence, just dont expect to understand anything else prior unless you have seen the films.
Race through New York Starring Jimmy Fallon
Better than expected. It's a simulator with a large curved screen like Sky Voyager, but you sit on a more conventional motion base in front of it rather than the whole multi level, leg dangling arrangement seen on an actual flying theatre.
The queue is quite attractive, themed like NBC studios, and the preshows are done as if you are going on set for a real tv production.
The ride is imagined like a zany challenge on the show where the audience races against Jimmy Fallon. Its zany and unrealistic though, as in you end up going to the moon, underwater, through subway tunnels (and of course familiar sights like Times Square, Statue of Liberty and so on). Good motion and animation, but the park already had 2 standalone simulators anyway....
Villain Con - Minion Blast
Shooting dark ride, but instead of riding in cars with guns attached to the seat with a cord (Like JL), you are given a handheld laser tag type gun, and you stand on a moving conveyor belt that travels through scenes. For those of you who get intrusive thoughts about jumping on the baggage carousel at the airport, your dream just came true here!
The queue theming is a lot of fun, imagined like a trade show for villains, with various booths selling products geared towards villains, like weapons, underground lairs, dangerous animals and getaway vehicles.
You are then invited to take on the "Vicious 6" , and board the 'ride'
One of the coolest things i saw was you grab a gun off a rack that works like a dry cleaning carousel, synced to the boarding speed of the conveyor, so as you pass, a gun is right there ready for you to grab.
Each scene has a bit of theming, and one large screen, so you are shooting at animated targets on screen...Kinda felt like every Triotech thing ever, though a bit hard because theres 20 other people shooting, so you really have to concentrate to note lose sight of your icon amongst everyone elses. Was OK.
Transformers
Always a solid attraction, but perhaps feels less unique in Orlando with Spiderman next door.
Still one of my favourite dark rides, with very well integrated 3D screens and set designs.
For those of you unfamiliar, you are on a mission to protect the Allspark and chaperone it out of the city, but are intercepted by Decepticons. The ride vehicle spends brief periods parked in front of 3D screens, with the areas in betweeen done as real life sets and walls. The screens are positioned to work into the environment, for example you might be looking down a corridor, and the screen at the end appears to carry the perspective off into the distance.A few of the screens are full 180 degree curved screens too, and these are used for sequences where you are being chased, or flying.
Some really ways to tie this all together, for example at one point you are racing along a street and pass under a bridge, your vehicle spins out and is thrown into reverse, and you transition into the next scene, but in the transition space they have built a recreation of the bridge you just saw on screen, and before you know it, you are now in front of a different screen.
The Bourne Stuntacular
More screens, this one is actually a pretty innovative use of them though.
Imagine a stunt show, where the entire backdrop is a screen, and its all indoors.
In a normal stunt show you would have people running or driving around in a set area, eg like what happens on HSD.
But here, the screen is used for beautiful panoramic shots and moving backgrounds, and they bring physical things in front of it.
For example at one point there is a car chase, the cars are sitting static on the stage, but the background is moving behind them, giving the illusion they are racing along at high speed.
One of the most impressive things is where they somehow get a whole facade of an apartment building about 3 stories high to slide in from one side of the stage, a guy jumps off the balcony, and grabs onto a cable hanging from a helicopter. As the helicopter starts moving, that whole apartment building moves away into the distance.
Pretty full on, I'd like to see shows like this at other Universal parks.
Springfield USA
Around the simpsons ride, they have built a whole food court with places from the show like Krustyburger, Moe's, The Frying Dutchman, Luigis Pizza and so on.
Tried a couple of items but found them both to be a bit of a miss.
The Flaming Moe is pretty much just fanta with some dry ice in it to make it bubble. I was hoping for some sort of faux cough syrup flavour as in the show, but this is what we get.
They also had the Ribwich at Krustyburger. Though it wasn't really like a mcrib, but rather a few big chunks of marinated pork on a bun.F Flith.
Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem
I'll just copypaste my previous review of the Hollywood one.
"I was expecting to be meh about this one because Facebook ruined minions (apparently adding a picture of a minion to a meme makes it relatable) But it was actually funny! Basically you are shrunk to minion size and sent on a training course, so it feels like you are in a computer game level, with minions falling over a d being knocked over by obstacles."
I think that's all the new stuff since last time I was there, so onto the rerides.
Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit
All the music has changed since last time. I did Darude: Sandstorm, which really worked well in terms of reaching a crescendo before the first drop. The ride still shakes and bangs around waaaay too much, so it was 1 and done for me.
ET Adventure
Hehe this one is fun. The queue is themed like a forest, and you ride on flying bicycles back to ETs planet, which is dying. ET uses his healing touch to bring it back to life, so most of the ride is pretty trippy, with alien flowers blooming aroud you, fountains spouting and so on.
Revenge of the Mummy
Still holds up well, with some good fire effects, animatronics, and a forceful indoor coaster sequence.
Has a great gag where you believe the ride has come to an end, but this is followed by even more coaster!
MIB Alien Attack
Justice League style dark ride, with you shooting at aliens.
This one has some extra spice, with two tracks. at one point you are shooting at the other vehicle, which makes them spin out of control, making it harder for them to get points.
***********
Final Thoughts.
I think the Diagon Alley area, and Bourne Stuntacular are excellent, as is the port of Transformer but in some way it feels like the park has had a bit less love compared to the calibre of attractions they have opened next door at IOA.
Do they really need to have added so many simulators?
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Will be cool having FWW and WWF.
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Yeah I had heard about G-force, but apparently it only lasted 2 years in the park.
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2 for 1 deal in this trip report.
For photos of both parks, see:
Fun Spot Orlando
https://www.parkz.com.au/search/photos/location/fun-spot-orlando
Fun Spot Kissimmee
https://www.parkz.com.au/attraction/fun-spot-kissimmee
Both of these parks are quite "amusement parky", with travelling flat rides, multi level go kar tracks buildings that are mostly sheds, and a couple of worthwhile coasters that make it worth a stop. The Orlando branch is right near Universal, and the Kissimmee branch is not far from the entrance to Walt Disney World, they both are open till midnight, so I guess they tend capture a bit of business from their proximity to the majors. They are both also a fair bit cheaper, in a way catering to a secondary locals market who might be outpriced by the majors.
They also offer a deal where you can visit both parks in one day, but my schedule didn't really permit that.
Interestingly, both parks had some of the same rides, for example both had a screamin swing, both had a kiddy coaster named Sea Serpent. Interesting that they didn't try to give each park more of its own identity.
You can buy wristbands or pay by the ride. I was dog tired when I went to each (On separate nights), so just did individual rides, even though it would have only been a few dollars more to upgrade to a wristband.
Orlando:
The Vekoma SFC Freedom Flyer was HNFT, so clearly no rides to be had on this one:
They've also got a Sea Serpent kiddy coaster from Miler. Basic turns and dips.
But the star of the show (And actually one of the best coasters in Orlando!) is White Lightning
The perfect compact wooden coaster. Runs very smooth, a decent first drop leads into much smaller hills and turns, keeping the pacing strong.
There's also a nice high banked turn at one end, reminiscent of what you see on Thunderhead at Dollywood.
Also a cool double up and double down for the airtime fanatics.
Interesting how they proudly promote it's a GCI
Kissimmee
They have the worlds tallest skycoaster, and some interesting looking go kart tracks with multiple levels, but with jetlag biting i elected to just stay for an hour or so and do the coasters.
Galaxy Spin is a standard Zamperla spinning coaster (Near identical to the Reverchon ones)
Another Sea Serpent kiddy coaster, though with a different layout to the others.
(If you are wondering about the photos, I happened to grab brekky next door before heading to Disney one of the days, so went for a wander around. The whole place is open air.
Hurricane is a type of coaster I've never encountered before, like a really bizzare travelling layout that feels like a mix between a Galaxi and a wild mouse, but a lot more interesting. Up this end of the park at that hour it was dead, there was just one operator floating around between 4 or so rides, so he just powered it up for my cycle.
Looked janky as hell.
But pretty good actually.
Interesting to think that the likes of Space Mountain are actually pretty similar to this in terms of elements. What a difference some theming makes.
This brings us to Mine Blower, probably the best worst wooden coaster in the world.
The ride has had a reputation for being rough, even from the day it first opened.
In some sections they have replaced the wooden track with a type of steel track from RMC.
All I can say is thank heavens for that, I can only imagine how bad it would have been without this retracking.
The ride shakes like hell on the wooden bits, and clatters around the track and when you see a particularly tight set of turns or hills coming up you feel like you're about to get brutalised, but like magic, it's those parts where it transitions onto steel tracks. These parts run very loudly. but at the same time makes those bits bearable.
It's probably one of the craziest wooden coaster layouts out there, with a steep first drop, an actual zero g roll over the station, then heaps of dives, s bends, and little hills, and even an overbank turn at some point, so its a bit of a blur and when you hit the final brakes you wonder what the hell happened.
I gave it a couple of rides. Totally worth a stop to experience because its so unhinged, but be prepared!
In conclusion, yeah if you've got the time and energy, its worth dropping in for a lap on the wooden coasters, I'd even say White Lightning is somewhat of a must do when in Orlando.
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Universals Islands of Adventure
https://www.parkz.com.au/search/photos/location/islands-of-adventure
(For all the pics)
Ah, nice to be back at one of my favourite parks. Well themed, good mix of dark rides, water rides and thrills, and pretty well considered in terms of having plenty of things for kids scattered throughout.
I've been here before, so less urgency to see everything (I skipped over the water rides), that will make this trip report a bit shorter.
For those unfamilar with the park, it has a few themed lands:
Port of Entry. The "main street" of the park, with a bit of exotic explorers theme, with plenty of gags.
Marvel Super Hero Island: Built before the whole MCU thing / Disney, its a real animated looking area with oversized cutouts and stylised buildings. And because of the terms of the licensing agreement, Disney cant use these characters in their parks lol.
Toon Lagoon: Errr, more comics I guess, but these are the ones you'd see in newspapers, like the Phantom, Popeye (But no Garfield or Peanuts it seems!)
Jurrassic Park, needs no introduction,
The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Islands of Adventure was a good park, but just didn't get the attendances it needed. Potter turned all this around.
Lost Continent. The only non IP zone in the park, but part of it was swallowed up by Potter, and the two attractions it DID have are now closed. Hopefully this gets redeveloped.
Seuss Landing. The most kid friendly area of the park, wonky and full of colour.
But lets cut to the chase, everyone probably wants to know about Jurrasic World Velocicoaster
Yep it lives up to the hype, a highly themed, properly intense launch coaster from Intamin that is just a polished experience from start to finish.
The story goes that in their quest to further thrill guests, Jurrasic World have decided to build a roller coaster in a raptor pen, where you can see them up close. The queue is well themed, a highlight being the medical room where a couple of raptors are in a crush getting their daily check up, and the room actually smells like antiseptic.
There's also windows onto the launch track, with transparent screens showing raptors chasing each launching train.
Just before the station you have to put your stuff in a locker, activated with your park ticket (and if your ticket is on your phone, they give you a card with a barcode to use instead.
The final bit of the preshow is hilarious, with Owen the raptor trainer ranting about how the whole concept of a coaster in a raptor pen is a terrible idea and you should all leave, and Claire the manager saying it will all be fine and perfectly safe.
There's a separate queue for the front row in the station, with not too much extra wait due to the speed they dispatch, so its worth doing once or twice. My tip, front right is the best seat, because on a few of the elements that side seems to get banked up more.
As for the coaster.
Before the launch is section with raptor pens either side of you, with screens showing them thrashing around inside, bumping the cage walls etc and workers keeping them at bay with cattle prods.
A good launch leads into an Immelmann with strong airtime at the top (think DC rivals loop), dive down steeply into a rocky tunnel (and the rockwork on this ride is really good, with sharp spiky bits that you feel like you're going to hit.
Next comes a dive loop, followed by a bunch of quick twisted turns, transitions, and a couple of airtime hills all crammed in. You are constantly rising and falling and avoiding rocks, so there's a real element of surprise as you work through this section. There are a few raptor statues perched on the rocks, but they sort of blend in, so you really have to look for them.
Eventually you hit the 2nd launch, which really spices things up. A top hat with ejector leads to a steep drop, a high speed S bend at ground level, and then a very long zero g stall which has you hanging upside down for a few seconds.
Next comes a 720 degree helix, but the 'helix' is interruped with elements, so theres this fake out reversed banked turn, then a wave turn (imagine a sideways airtime hill)
And then for the wild finale, a speed hill over a lake, followed by the "mosasaurus roll", which is like a more agressive version of the roll on ST, really dunking you down and throwing you to the side, so you cant help but grab the bar. A quick couple of turns and you hit the brakes.
I think the name of the element is a gimmick though. I get the feeling the intent was that there was supposed to be a jaws style animatronic jumping out of the water when the train goes past. They totally should do that.
Pretty awesome overall, the two halves have their own character. Fast transitions and confusion on the first half, big grand elements on the 2nd half.
Hagrids Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure
A real 1-2 punch with the park having this as well. Imagine the fun of Jet Rescue spread out over 1.5km of track.
The park is onto a winner, with it consistently having a a posted wait of 60-90 mins. Again though they tend to overstate, i saw a wait of 70 min but it was more like 45.
The first bit of the queue is themed well too, full of magical creature classroom stuff.
By magic they have duplicated flying motorbikes for everyone to join hagrid on for a lesson on magical creatures in the forbidden forest.
The final room in the queue I thought was clever, Imagine standing under a deck, with people riding motorbikes and doing doughies above you. They used some form of projection to simulate this. Ocassionally too you'd see silhouettes other creatures like giant spiders appearing to walk above you.
Loading is done by a moving conveyor, so this ride really does have huge capacity, its just that demand is high too because its a good ride.
The first bit has a short launch then a drop down then a bigger launch, and a few quick turns at ground level.
Eventually the track enters hagrid's hut, when a blast ended skrewt (imagine a giant double ended scoption shooting fire out of its ass) shoots smoke at you.
With that you launch again, up into an airtime hill through a castle ruin, down a curved drop into a tunnel, more ground level turns, another launch, and even more turns. Already at this point the coaster part has been pretty substantial but there is more to come.
The track continues into a short foggy tunnel through a rocky outcrop, with a crashed car on it, surrounded by cornish pixies. Well they have designed the sightlines well here, because the shape of the outcrop is good enough to disguise a vertical reverse stall, like a little baby tower of terror. Obviously you get to go up higher in the front seat, but i never got that sadly.
You travel backwards, with a high speed track switch sending you up into a helix, and by the time you have had a moment to process all that you have reversed into a show building.
In the show building, the walls and ceiling appear to be writhing with devils snare vines all around you. Great concept, but you can see the shed roof and trees ''cutting off" at the ceiling line quite clearly here, which undoes some of the immersion despite the money they would have spent.
But a couple of seconds later, the whole track drops a few meters (Much like Thirteen at Alton or Namazu at Vulcania), and you exit the darkness into the open air.
Then one last launch, the most powerful of all. The coolest feature is a trail of light and smoke along the side of the launch, giving the impression of rocket fuel (or in this case "dragons breath" giving you the power needed to accelerate.
A couple of final high speed turns and you hit the brakes, and join a conga line of 3 or 4 trains rolling into the unload station, also with a conveyor belt.
Overall this ride is excellent. Good level of intensity on the coaster bit, and the way it hides both the reverse stall and the drop tracks as suprises on the way, integrated seamlessly into the pacing works really well.
The level of theming is high for the most part, aside from perhaps the indoor show building (from the outside it looks like a shed too, guess it needs more trees to cover it?)
As a final note, I saw perhaps the most chaotic good, but non condonable behaviour ever at a park. On one of my rides i was in the singles queue, but it was moving slow. You get most people in even groups, which can make this line crawl.
A group of people ahead of me decided to cut into the main queue sneakily. I was thinking they were just line jumping, but of course, I was not going to cause a scene and complain.
But, the plot twist came when they were at the front. When the grouper asked them how many, each of them said one, one, one, one.
Net result, was that 8 people got cleared from the singles queue in the space of a minute lol.
Skull Island: Reing of Kong
This is the only other 'new' ride for me was this. It's an immersive tunnel attraction, or rather a few of immersive tunnels in sequence. You ride in a tour bus that stops in long cylindrical rooms with screens either side. There's also a motion base, so at each of these points stuff happens on screen, before you drive off into the next.
The studio tour at Hollywood has an abridged version of this (Where the tour shuttle will drive into a building shake table with screens either side)
The queue is well themed, through a dark temple.
A highlight is this giant worm in a glass cabinet moving about, a taste of all the other mutant things you'll see on Skull Island.
You board your tour bus and from there set out on your jungle expedition.
The next few minutes can be described as various battles and attacks from giant creatures, with a liberal amount of water being squirted at you every time something gets decapitated or shot, ugh.
Overall, decent I thought, but I think the limitations of the bigger vehicles and the longer time spent at each screen makes it feel a bit less frantic than other screen based dark rides like Spiderman or Transformers.
Incredible Hulk Coaster
Tell a lie, technically this is 'new' since they replaced all the track since I last visited. The queue has been totally refreshed and looks great, with lots of neon scientific equipment, too bad you cant take pics, since the lockers are before you enter the queue, so no phones.
Onboard, the launch tunnel has been fitted out with LED screens, showing energy pulsating around the train before you launch.
Forgot how darn intense this ride is, with positive G forces that dont let up, and huge elements. And of course that zero g roll straight out of the launch tunnel is a great start to the ride.
Cat in the Hat
A bit of a sleeper hit. This ride goes through the story of Cat in the Hat, with the words being recited, with each scene being an animated version of a page of the book. A real delight actually.
****
A note on food. I had the "Green eggs and ham". Basically potato gems, with scrambled eggs (with chives to make it green) and diced ham and some cheese. Actually a filling breakfast option.
Amazing Adventures of Spiderman
Always a favourite, and now in 4K (I've done the 4K version in Japan, good to experience it in English)
Still holds up well, and the re animated sections have more background gags to spot.
Harry Potter & the Forbidden Journey
A great ride from a physical standpoint, after all, being flung around on a robotic arm whilst following a track is real technical achievement. But since then, the newer Harry Potter rides have done a bit better in terms of storytelling, leaving this one feeling a bit chaotic.
I guess you cant blame them, this was the first HP ride ever built, so it seemed like they were trying to fit as many things in there as possible. Quiddich? Dragons? Dementors?
Still a great ride, just wish more parks would do them, and with more themes (At this point, I think its only WB World Abu Dhabi that has done one)
****
These days you can now get 'warm butter beer' in the area, but I thought it tasted like white hot chocolate mostly.
I had a laugh that Heathcliff was mentioned....Heathcliff comics are absurd:
And thats IOA for another decade likey.
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For Disney and are a thrill seeker, probably EPCOT and Disney Hollywood Studios (Since you have Rise of the Resistance, TOT, Rock n Roller Coaster). Magic Kingdom is good if you like the classics. Animal Kingdom is nice but probably has the weakest attraction lineup (Which isn't saying much because all the parks are good)
I found on Tron it definitely pulls some strong positive Gs, since a lot of it is large dipping turns on the indoor part. The launch is pretty reasonable too.
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Magic Kingdom - Walt Disney World
https://www.parkz.com.au/attraction/magic-kingdom
I actually kicked off my 3 days at WDW at Magic Kingdom. Plenty of new stuff to see.
Things are a bit more high tech at Disney these days, you can load your ticket into google wallet and tap in at the entrances, entering Lightning Lanes (the new name for fast pass) , and the app is pretty comprehensive in terms of being able to check wait times and order food, and credit to them this aspect is all very tight.
The more recent points of contention is Genie Plus and Lightning Lanes and Boarding Groups for certain attractions.
Basically, fast pass is no longer free, that's an extra cost to use per day, and the service is branded through the app "Genie Plus" I did without it on 2 of my 3 days since crowds seemed light enough and I could game single rider a bit. I swear though they inflate wait times to encourage people to use it.
On certain rides you can also pay to skip the line on a one shot basis and enter via the Lighting Lane, and well, I ended up doing this for Tron and 7 Dwarves mine train, more on them later.
And finally, boarding groups. At the time of my visit, due to their newness and popularity, Tron and Guardians (At EPCOT) both require you to go into a ballot for a time to board the ride. They do one drop at 7am, and another at 1pm. It does make it a little stressful because who wants to come all that way to ride the new stuff and have it come down to luck. Personally I think they should still offer standby. If someone wants to wait 2-3 hours to ride the new thing, more power to em! I did witness a couple of people at the entrance who were not familiar with the system a bit annoyed about being unable to ride and the complexity of it.
But it turned out not to be a worry. If you are on the app at 7am and refresh as soon as the clock ticks over, you can pretty easily end up with a timeslot to ride in the morning. Despite this, I still also bought a one shot lighting lane for tron just because I wanted a guaranteed re-ride.
I rocked up early:
I had a plan to rope drop Seven Dwarves Mine Train, but it was broken down so I started on Goofys Barnstormer
Standard vekoma roller skater but the theming is really really well done. In fact, I had never ventured into the whole circus area before, but I loved it.
Under the Sea - Journey of The Little Mermaid
Also new to me. An omnimover dark ride with some really detailed theming right from the start.
The beginning is pretty cool, with Scuttle the seagull trying to explain Airels story in a confused manner, before your ride vehicle goes downhill and 'under the sea', with projectors used on the walls to create a sense of dropping below the waterline.
The ride is fun and colourful, with a huge scene of fishes dancing to "Under the Sea". The ride kind of skips over the whole epic battle with Ursula and just has Ariel transitioning to human and getting married to Prince Eric. Very well done, and I can imagine kids would find it magical.
A certain foodstuff I had wanted to try was LeFous brew from Gastons Tavern.
It's basically frozen apple juice, topped with passionfruit foam, which was the most tart thing ever, it was like straight passionfruit cordial mixed with wizzfiz or something.
With some time to kill until my TRON timeslot I reacquainted myself with Space Mountain.
I still reckon the HK/DL/DLP versions are better, just lacks something without the music IMHO. The layout is a little tighter on the MK version and feels like a wild mouse.
The exit route has way more theming than my last visit, with various cheesy displays of futurism.
Finally it was time for TRON Lightcycle Run.
The scale of this ride is enormous, with a huge canopy and broad elevated walkways leading to the entrance, with trains thundering overhead regularly.
Once you get inside its a whole bunch of black corridors with neons and backlit graphics.
The coolest feature however is a little preshow room with switchable glass with a projection. After a bit of fluff about being "scanned into the world of Tron", the glass turns transparent, revealing the trains launching below and some seriously cool looking theming.
The double sided locker system works well, and has hundreds of bays.
The trains have you hunkering down a lot more compared to your average straddle coaster, it's practically like being on a flying coaster.
Some people have commented the ride is 'short' but its 1km long. I think what happens is people mentally dont count the outdoor section, and focus only on the indoor part. The indoor part is pretty cool, with you racing through glowing checkpoints, plus the occasional wall projection of other lightcycles racing against you.
One thing that sets it apart from other indoor coasters is the turns are a lot larger and more sweeping. It's not like they have tried to cram a spaghetti of track into a box, its more like a full sized launch coaster that happens to be in a building.
Impressive ride!
No sign of Seven Dwarves being open on the app so I decided to try a few other tomorrowland attractions I've never done.
First Astro Orbiter, which offers some great elevated views over the land.
Then Peoplemover, which also offers moderately elevated views, interspersed with a few little dark ride scenes with a bit of a silly space age feel to them all.
I had never done Carousel of Progress so gave this one a spin too. It's a rotating theatre, and during the show you stop in front of animatronic dioramas of a family in the 1900s, the 1920s, 1940s and so on, with the patriarch of the family talking all about all the latest and greatest developments in the world, eg the 1920s talked about how you could travel coast to coast by train, and how Babe Ruth was hitting home runs, and how their house now had brand new electric lights.
And then you get to the 2000s bit and it was like 1990s mixed with back to the future.
At that point it was time for my paid re-ride on Tron. First ride was in the back, so I took the front this time (It's never a long wait to request a front seat at Disney I find) Back is better if you want to see all the projections on the wall and more of the theming, but front is better if you want to stick your hands out and pretend to fly and feel the wind.
What other new stuff was there for me to see.
Never had done Country Bear Jamboree so that was a must.
Loved this detail on the floor of the foyer.
The show takes the piss out of rednecks, with the bears in the show singing drunkenly, having buck teeth, and even alluding to dressing in morally questionable (For the 1900s) mannee. Entertaining, I imagine the local audience would probably get more out of the stereotypes.
When It came time to ride Big Thunder Mountain it started raining heavily.
Fortunately the queue is all undercover, and they have added various themed interactive things in the queue, like Zeotropes, and fresh air monitors with displeased canaires inside.
And yeah, Big Thunder running in the wet rocks!
Swung by the conversion of Splash Mountain into Tianas Bayou Adventure.
Enchanted Tiki Room was up next (Geez Im having a passive day!), a colourful animatronic show with four main singing birds, each with a stereotypical accent (French, German, Spanish, Irish), plus hordes of other birds that are lowered up and down from the ceiling for duets and choral sets. Its funny how times change, at the time it opened people were mesmerised by singing birds, but I guess today it feels like a room full of those novelty singing birds you get a tobacconist/gift shop. The sets are beautiful though, and the actual lyrics and storyline are entertaining.
Swiss Family Treehouse is always worth a stroll through.
And I couldn't pass up a ride on Pirates of the Caribbean, still the benchmark in terms of being the most immersive classic Disney ride IMHO.
At this point, Seven Dwarves was still not open, and they had even put out a push notification to everyone apologising for the extended downtime.
Another food I wanted to try was in Adventureland, Cheeseburger and Pizza Spring rolls (You get one of each). Still wish our parks had more gimmicky snacks like this on rotation.
A total surprise to me was discovering they had a Christmas overlay of Jungle Cruise called Jingle Cruise.
Most of the fun of it seems to come in the form of extra christmas theming in the queue with a tropical twist.
During the ride itself, the jokes are just as corny, but of course with Christmas related puns. Further Christmas decorations on the way too
At that point in the day I realised there was one other attraction on my hit list I had wanted to check out, Enchanted Tales with Belle.
I was thinking it was more of a walkthrough, and it has a little bit of that, but by and large its a kids meet n greet that has a fancy beginning and some cool animatronics. The main thing I wanted to see was the magic mirror effect they have, which appears to magically grow larger on the wall in front of you and open up to reveal a direct portal into the Beauty and the Beast castle that you walk through. It's a pretty cool trick how they achieve it, and there are YT videos showing how they do it, so I wont spoil it. Surprised this hasn't been used on other attractions.
Once you get inside they have a talking wardrobe, and most impresive, lumiere the candle, with actual moving flames on his 'arms', which fully move and gesture as he talks.
But yeah other than that they get the kids up front and give them cardboard cut outs to 'act out' a scene from Beauty and the Beast, and then Belle turns up and meets the kids, so yeah not really worth it unless you have young kids.
But, finally, Seven Dwarves Mine Train opened...And I was still stuck in this thing! The wait times were already building up, so I bit the bullet and paid for another lighting lane to get on it.
Good Thing I did when I arrived at the entrance, the standby wait time had blown out past 90 mins, and even the lightning lane entrance was backed up.
This ride has intrigued me since it has swinging cars just like Orphan Rocker at Scenic World, so it was good to get a glimpse at what it would have been like.
Actually great fun, and the theming is really detailed, particularly halfway through where you go into the gem mine and all the dwarves are singing 'hi ho hi ho its off to work we go', with full projection mapped faces on each one of them, and lighting effects from all the glowing gems.
The cars do actually get a a decent swing going 2 or 3 times during the run. I was expecting Disneyfied toned down intensity, but nah this was good!
And I think that's all I did. I was still a bit jetlagged so felt there was a high risk of falling asleep If i did something like Small World, so park hopped to somewhere a little more energetic.....
Did you know the streak down the middle of the street Liberty Square is meant to represent raw sewage of the olden days.
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I thought it was fun. Seemed popular too.
Yes its just a wave swinger, but I think just adding the fountains and music give it a bit more love than a standard one and a touch of whimsy.
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Disney's Animal Kingdom
https://www.parkz.com.au/attraction/disneys-animal-kingdom
Back to Disney, this time Disney's Animal Kingdom.
I ended up heading here in the late afternoon on a couple of my days at WDW. I've been here before and it doesn't necessarily take a huge amount of time to see the park regardless. For the time that I had I didn't really take an issue with skipping over Kilimanjaro Safaris and Kali River Rapids for example.
Of course, my main target was Pandora - The World of Avatar.
You can spend ages wandering around and admiring the detailed theming.
Here is when it really pays to visit in the evening, since you can enjoy the land after dark where it really puts it's lippy on.
Satu'li Canteen probably has the best food in the parks too:
I started off with Flight of Passage, a ride known for its huge queues, but somehow I was through in 30 mins!
The queue is well themed from start to finish.
In particular the avatar research lab has a massive amount of detail, right down to seemingly living blobs that move around inside their containers.
And of course an avatar in a tank that is kicking and moving as it floats in its sleep.
A long preshow explains the whole concept for those who don't know much about the Avatar universe. Basically Pandora is an alien planet inhabitied by the Na'vi. They have bred clones of the Na'vi called "avatars" that humans can control via a neural link, allowing humans to better explore Pandora....
...and even take part in riding on Banshees, a flying creature that Na'vi ride for fun.
The ride is like a much more intense version of a flying theatre. There's no gentle soaring over landscapes here. You are wearing 3D glasses, and diving, twisting and moving quite aggressively the whole time, apart from a brief breather halfway through where you stop in a cave and those little flying jellyfish spore things land on you. Felt on par to me to those simulated flying sequences on Harry Potter and the forbidden journey. The rows of seats are even able to drop a few meters, allowing for actual freefall moments during the ride! And the graphics are spectacular, and very colourful.
The seat looks a bit like a Zamperla Disko seat, with some extra vibrating seat pads, and even some inflating air bags to give the feeling the banshee you are riding is breathing.
A great trick is done to transition you into the ride film. Your seat has tiny little led strobes that flicker right in your eyes, and as they do this they quickly open the door in front of your seats, play some more flickering lights on the dome screen and then wham, you 'wake up' in the world of Pandora.
Na'vi River Cruise is the other attraction. Suprisingly this thing had a longer wait whenever I looked. It's a pleasant well themed dark boat ride through scenes from Pandora. But I guess the thing for me was, the ride scenes and theming are just like what you have already seen out in the main park, with the difference of a few screens showing animals scurrying around and some additional moving things overhead.
Though it does come good in the end with a dancing singing Na'vi priest lady.
And the queue is quite beautiful, seemingly built by the Na'vi, and full of artefacts.
As for the rest of the park.
Harambe Marketplace is food district the park opened. Again, the food here is great if you actually want something proper with a bit of flavour. I think i had some Chicken flatbread thing with tahini.
They certainly got the developing country vibe right, love the meta copyright infringement.
Expedition Everest is fun as always, and quite pleasant at sunset.
Dinosaur is a motion based dark ride with exactly the same layout as Indiana Jones, but something about it doesn't click for me.
I think it's because is so homogenous from start to finish. You are riding around in a jeep in a dark jungle looking for a particular dinosaur just before the asteroid wipes out the dinosaurs. But it's the same thing the whole way through. Twist and turn then stop, the onboard computer IDs a dinosaur next to the track, nope its not that one, twist and turn some more, another dinosaur, nope not that one either, etc etc repeat that for most of the ride. It eventually reaches a crescendo at the end. You know how on Indinana jones you dive underneath a boulder. On this one you dive under a giant T-Rex head that lunges at you (Clearly inspired by the ending of Jurrassic Park River Adventure!)
They took out the Spinning Coasters, but they still have that Dinorama area. The gift shop is worth a look for how zany it is inside.
Tough to Be a Bug I did for old times sake, and because the posters in the waiting area is funny.
The show is presented like a cabaret of different bugs on stage. Creative use of 4D effects in the cinema, with stink bugs and poisonous bugs shooting at you, and even ones that sting.
The other ride I had wanted to do (I've managed to miss on previous visits) is the wildlife express train, but it closes quite early in the afternoon. Ah well, guess I'll ride it in a few years time.
And thats Animal Kingdom.
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On 21/12/2023 at 5:25 PM, themagician said:
I believe as part of the proposed light rail extension, anything land that is within x distance of the line does not have a height limitation anymore. And because there’s a proposed route to Sea World, that height limit no longer applies to them (they still of course need approval and can be rejected)
There are light rail renewal zones, but its not a blanket x distance = unlimited, that's why for example its not unlimited building heights at Parkwood station.
And it doesn't apply where light rail doesn't exist yet.
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When I rode DW Flyer yesterday they played this:
Thredbo Alpine Coaster
in Theme Park Discussion
Posted
Guess nobody goes to Thredbo every weekend for updates?