Jump to content
  TPR Home | Parks | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube | Instagram 

Leaderboard

Popular Content

Showing content with the highest reputation on 06/07/2021 in Posts

  1. That's the shit I deal with on a daily basis. Welcome to my world. Damned good turkey legs, though.
    4 points
  2. Avengers Campus is a brand new land at Disney California Adventure (DCA) that brings the greatest Marvel super heroes to life! An all-new ride: “Web Slingers: A Spider-Man Adventure,” joins fan favorite: “Guardians of the Galaxy - Mission: Breakout,” immersing guests in their favorite Marvel stories. There are new shows and character interactions, delicious themed foods and drinks, and tons of fun and unique merchandise offerings. Last week TPR was invited to preview the new land, so check out our report below to join us on the adventure! We’re at DCA for a preview of the brand new Avenger’s Campus! First up, let’s head straight to the new ride - Web Slingers: A Spider-Man Adventure! Here’s the entrance area. WEB (aka The Worldwide Engineering Brigade) is a new organization that sets the stage for this attraction. We’re invited to the WEB Open House where they’re showcasing super-powered technology created by the world’s brightest young inventors. Web fluid is SUPER sticky, VERY strong, and has REALLY long range. Noted! Some web fluid sprayers sit in the queue, with webs sprayed on the building behind. There’s lots of signage throughout the queue that invites guests into the story line. Here, we learn about the ride vehicle: the web slinger superpowered autonomous vehicle. The vehicle allows anyone to sling webs like Spider Man! Here’s the entrance to the WEB Open House. Similar to Haunted Mansion, there are 2 pre-show rooms to help with capacity. You’ll be guided into either the right or left room to experience the pre-show. Here’s the pre-show room, one of the labs at WEB. There’s lots of inventions and fun stuff sitting around. Roar! Billboards with all sorts of science line the walls. We spoke with Casey Ging, the Art Director for the attraction, and he said these billboards were his favorite thing he worked on. You can learn the actual real science of spider bots and web flinging! Peter Parker welcomes us and introduces the web slinger vehicle that we’re here to help test. He also shows off the spider bots they’ve invented, with a neat self-replicating feature. Unfortunately the spider bots get stuck in self-replication mode and keep self-replicating. Again, and again, and again. This might end badly! As the spider bots keep replicating they begin taking over everything. This sounds like a job for Spider Man! But he needs our help! He asks us to head to the web slinger vehicles - together we’ll team up to stop the spider bots and help save Avenger’s Campus! The doors open and we head past these lockers towards the slinger vehicles. Here are the web slingers! Ooooh, ahhhh. Bonus points to Disney for making the vehicles 2-sided, which should double the capacity of the attraction and make wait times shorter (yay!) Once inside, we pull down the lap bar and we’re off! Time to sling some webs! There are several scenes, all bursting with spider bots to shoot! Eat my webs, spider bots! Spider Man swings through the scenes as well, helping us get all the spider bots! Thanks Spider Man! Great work! There are lots of fun scenes from around Avenger’s Campus. If you look just over the quinjet you can see the top of "Guardians of the Galaxy - Mission: Breakout" in the background. In-between game scenes there are some web covered sets. Spider Man swings down at the end to congratulate us on a job well done! Strike a manly pose! We did it! The scoreboard displays all the stats, including your individual total and the vehicle total. This is the exit hallway as you leave the attraction. The scoreboards display the top scores of the hour and the day, and highlight the most recent additions to the board so you can easily see if you made it to the leaderboard. We got 2nd place for the hour! We’ll have to try again for #1! A few spider bots may have escaped our webs. This one waves bye as you leave the attraction. Thanks for visiting WEB Open House! Next up we’ll check out Pym Test Kitchen, the main restaurant at Avengers Campus. At PYM Test Kitchen, they utilize the revolutionary shrink-and-grow technology of Pym Particles to shrink and grow foods. In the main entrance area you can see pretzels being shrunk and grown before your very eyes! There’s signage on the wall explaining the concepts behind the restaurant. The imagineers played with scale throughout the whole restaurant. These giant ketchup and mustard bottles are from “Bountiful Valley Farm,” a nice nod to the original farm area that occupied this space when DCA first opened. The soda comes from giant cans overhead. Everywhere you look there’s oversized theming. Adjacent to Pym Test Kitchen is Pym Tasting Lab, featuring an oversized beer can, where you can order some delicious adult beverages. Even the bar taps are fully themed! But let’s get to what you’re really here for: the food! The “Not so Little Chicken Sandwich” would qualify as a great “Meat Monday” item. But for those who celebrate “Meatless Monday,” they’ve got you covered as well. The “Impossible Spoonful” is a vegan meatball and pasta dish that’s every bit as filling and delicious as the real thing! The Atomic Fusion Pretzel takes the standard amusement park pretzel to a whole new level. It’s loaded with buffalo chicken, hot sauce, ranch dressing, blue cheese crumbles, celery, and dill-pickled carrots. A cast member I spoke with said the “PB3 Superb Sandwich” was their personal favorite item. It’s a warm PB&J with banana and candied bacon on Pym Particle bread, served with a micro banana smoothie and crispy potato bites. For those who want a more traditionally flavored pretzel, the “Quantum Pretzel” weighs in at 453.8 grams and comes with a cheese-beer sauce for dipping. Wash it all down with some Pingo Doce! Or if you want to avoid the calories, you can even get Pingo Doce Zero Sugar! I tried both variations, and both were superb! The “Pint-Sized Pints Mini Beer Flight” from Pym Tasting Lab features four mini beer steins served on an enlarged ruler that can be kept as a souvenir. There are also several beer cocktails served at Pym Tasting Lab that looked delicious, and the beer cocktails are poured using a reverse draft system that fills the glasses up from the bottom! How cool! The Shawarma Palace cart is another great food option that offers hand-held savory wraps. From Disney: “Fans may recall that after the Battle of New York, the exhausted Avengers took Tony Stark up on his offer to try the food at the “shawarma joint” about two blocks from the battle zone. There at Shawarma Palace, the Avengers discovered their new favorite food. The Avengers loved the food so much that they invited the Shawarma Palace crew to open a food cart at Avengers Campus.” Shawarma Palace offers “New York’s Tastiest,” filled with chicken shawarma and garlic spread, and served with coconut yogurt-tahini sauce and pickled vegetables. The “Impossible Victory Falafel” is a plant-based falafel and cauliflower wrap with garlic spread and hummus, also served with coconut yoghurt-tahini sauce and pickled vegetables. I tried this one and it was great! The yoghurt-tahini sauce is fantastic, and it can be drizzled on the wrap or eaten as a side! Defeat your thirst with “Iron Man’s Infinity Gauntlet!” This awesome souvenir can be purchased at Shawarma Palace and comes with your favorite Coca-Cola beverage! After all the food, you may or may not have room for dessert. But if you do have room, you’re in luck, because there are several great desserts available at Avengers Campus. This is the “Choco Smash” candy bar from Pym Test Kitchen. It’s a giant candy bar consisting of peanuts, nougat, caramel, and chocolate brownie covered in dark chocolate. It’s huge, and could easily be shared by several people. The “Cosmic Cream Orb” is a crispy cream puff with whipped raspberry cheesecake mousse - available at Terran Treats, a food cart near Guardians of the Galaxy - Mission: Breakout! Also at Terran Treats is the “Sweet Spiral Ration.” This is a spiral churro with unique colors and flavors that will change seasonally. Now that we’re stuffed, let’s check out the merchandise! The “Web Tech Power Band” with various attachments is the star of the show because it changes your abilities on the Web Slingers attraction. It’s so cool that you can buy a toy that actually changes how you’re able to experience a ride! You get different powers depending on which attachment you purchase. Additionally, the attachments have fun playability features in the real world - they either sling string webs or float balls in mid-air. I love that these are fun in both the real world and the virtual world of the ride! This is WEB Suppliers, the main merchandise location for Avengers Campus. Let’s check out the inside! This is the best place to get Spider Bots and other WEB merchandise! The walls are themed with science drawings just like the ride! There are also lots of fun items sitting around the store. Here’s a potato gun that’s a reference to Harley’s invention in Iron Man 3! Snacks for Tippy Toe, the squirrel companion of Doreen Green. They had a table set up outside to show off more of the awesome merchandise. The spider bots come in different variants, and if your friends or family get one too you can battle with each other! There are lights on the controllers that indicate how many lives you have left. This attraction vehicle toy was pretty neat! There are lots of new pins and patches. Use the Gamma Goo kit to make your own glow-in-the-dark slime! Avengers Headquarters is where you’ll see live shows starring your favorite super heroes! This will also be the site of a future E-ticket attraction where you will board a Quinjet and head to Wakanda, fighting alongside the Avengers. I can’t wait for that! There’s a full-size Quinjet sitting on the roof! This is the only place in the world you can see a real, full-size Quinjet! There are lots of photo ops throughout the land as well! Next we’ll check out the Ancient Sanctum. Here you can see Doctor Strange in a show with some magic and mystery! They say this area comes to life with magical energy at night. I imagine it’s beautiful after dark when everything lights up! There’s another great photo op in this area that’s a neat illusion! Over at Guardians of the Galaxy - Mission: Breakout, a cosmic disruption has caused splashes of space remnants to warp the ground around the attraction! There’s lots of colorful space goop all over! It’s a fun new addition to the otherwise boring pavement. If you look closely you may even find some hidden mickeys! I was able to spot 3 of them, but I heard there may be even more! Guardians isn’t brand new, but since it’s also part of Avengers Campus (and an amazing attraction), let’s take a ride! Just inside, the Collector’s prized possessions are on display. Cosmo is always our favorite! A portrait of The Collector hangs in the entrance. Due to Covid, the pre-show with Rocket isn’t running right now, so you just walk through this room. But we took a few moments to admire some of The Collector’s artifacts on our way through. We're almost there! We always say “Hi!” to Harold, the old yeti from The Matterhorn that The Collector has snapped up for his collection. New plexiglass has been installed in the ride vehicles to allow for higher capacity. Here we go! Guardians is always so much fun! It’s a musical, special-effects-filled free-fall ride with unpredictable drop sequences that change depending on which song you get! And of course, all your favorite characters from the Guardians of the Galaxy movies are there! After the ride you exit through The Collector’s Warehouse, where lots more Marvel merchandise is available. This is a great place to get Marvel clothing items. Pin collectors should check this store out too! Groot fans will be in heaven here. This Groot attaches to cords, cables, or wires, such as your headphone wires! We love the Guardians themed plush toys! And the Groot Loungefly backpack may just be a “must have” item. That concludes our first look at Avengers Campus! This was a small media preview that showed some aspects of the land, but we weren’t able to see many of the characters and shows during our visit, so know that there’s MUCH more to see and experience when you visit. We hope you enjoyed this taste of Avengers Campus as much as we did! We’ll end with this final image of the entrance area - which is no longer closed off because the land is now OPEN! Be sure to check it out for yourself! Thanks to Disney for inviting us to check out Avengers Campus, and thanks to you for checking out our report!
    3 points
  3. You couldn't pay me to stand in that watching them dispatch 1 train every 10 minutes.
    2 points
  4. Storm Runner testing has started today.
    2 points
  5. Oh for f**k's sake. I am so sorry I asked. Guess this is my punishment for being nosy in the first place. How embarrassing. She reminds me of my students who will exchange answers right in front of me and then assure me it isn't cheating because it's not a test.
    2 points
  6. Great report! Can't wait to visit. Will be interesting to compare the version at Paris next year, and what they do with the Iron Man coaster.
    1 point
  7. I just think they are setting themselves up to fail especially when there is another Howl-O-Scream just down the road (well, an hour or so!) that people will compare Sea World's event to. And the cheapest ticket is $19.99 with a season pass. I guess we will have to wait and see!
    1 point
  8. a new coaster coming in 2022
    1 point
  9. Just booked my second vaccine appointment, to happen in less than a couple of weeks. Woo hoo!
    1 point
  10. I hear what you're saying and don't entirely disagree, but they really seem to be positioning themselves as the cheaper option based on the price point and are more focused on competing on that front than on quality alone.
    1 point
  11. Knowing how long it takes to put on an event of this magnitude and knowing that NOTHING has been done behind the scenes yet (I know people who work in the park), I am REALLY skeptical that this event will exceed expectations. And if it doesn't compare to HHN or Busch's event, it will always be viewed as a monumental failure. I just don't see how they can realistically pull this off ESP when Universal is now paying $15/hour. Why would anyone work for Sea World when they can make MORE money down the road AND be guaranteed to be part of a successful Halloween event? Think about it: Universal plans their HHN events YEAR round. So unless all of the houses and actors and everything are being hired third party, I just don't see how they can pull this off. Reminds me of that event 2 years ago near Gaylord Palms. It was OK but nothing like HHN.
    1 point
  12. 1 point
  13. It includes all rides that do Timesaver (coasters, etc). LR is included. Blazing Fury is not.
    1 point
  14. I finally checked out the new camp snoopy. Looks very good. All 7 coasters were running. They were short staffed like every other park but the employees generally seemed very happy. The new snoopy area looks very good and fits in well!
    1 point
  15. I spent the afternoon at the park with FL+. Rode "the circle" complete layout with just about all the coasters from 4-7ish, though I had to double back over to mystic timbers at the end of the loop since it was down on the first go around. Some thoughts: - The BEAST was absolutely brutal. Easily the worst ride I've ever had on it. I did not enjoy it one bit and I got shook to death. I got a bad headache immediately and my back physically hurt after it. Note that I was directed to a wheel seat, but it shouldn't matter THAT much. No thank you. - DIAMONDBACK I got second row and really enjoyed it up front. I'm usually a back row guy, but it really impressed me at the top of the hills. Protip: don't smoke on the lifthill as they will stop the ride and escort you out of the park. Why are people so dumb. Saw someone do the same thing on the swings at Cedar Point.... like... what!? - ORION was a really good ride, especially for all the flack it gets for length. I thought it felt longer/better then LEVIATHAN, but not quite up to FURY. I liked it a lot! - MYSTIC TIMBERS: absolutely my favorite ride in the park. Easy. Love love love it. Rode it a few times and had a blast. Only complaint is the SHED is hot as balls. Ugh. Not a good way to end the ride. - FLIGHT OF FEAR was a ton of fun. The MCBR is a bit of a buzzkill but I still enjoyed it a lot. - RACER ran decently well but it wasn't all that exciting. At least it didn't hurt. - Coney BBQ had no line for food or drinks. Hell yeah. - BANSHEE was running shakey, probably the most "wooden" steel coaster I've been on, if that makes sense. I believe I was row 2. Only rode it once. Still fun though, but a lot different than what I remembered. - ADVENTURE EXPRESS was ok. All the effects on the tunnel appeared to be working. Everything is blue lightning now? Not sure how long it's been like that. - Skipped the BAT and STUNT COASTER, I know BAT is an awesome ride but I was in a time crunch and I'm still hurting from Holiwood Nights lol to do that walk and not know the line without fast lane. I have their clones if Wonderland decides to open again as I only have a short drive with our (now extended!) platinum and FL+ passes. I feel like I'm forgetting some things, but there you go. FASTLANE THOUGHTS: As everyone has said over and over, the FASTLANE here is fantastic. Notable exception was Flight of Fear which took I would guess about 20-25 min if I had to guess. But compared to the regular line I know it was a saver. Orion was a 5 min wait, Diamondback was about 5 minutes (minus the smoking mishap while I was in the station waiting to board, that took a good 10-15 min to clear up). adventure express, mystic timbers, banshee, racer, and beast were all walk-on for me. The regular lines were pretty significant, but not out of control, for comparison sake. Would have loved to stay longer to re ride more but for reasons out of my control I couldn't. Overall this experience was 8 million times better than Cedar Point opening weekend, and I really feel Kings Island is really far up there with overall experience. The Beast really did taint my experience a bit though, my head took a while to recover. I've always thought the ride was "meh" even when not running so horribly, I will continue to say that Mystic is the superior ride. Fight me.
    1 point
  16. Yup, starting the 9th we're open daily!
    1 point
  17. Just read back through the past few pages. Things are busy, but running spectacularly. As with any park, weekdays would be better than weekends....just common sense stuff. I would wait until after June 26th, when 10PM closings resume, so you can get some awesome night rides on Beast (or Mystic, or Orion, or Adventure Express....) EDIT: In fact, @Carrie, here is a link to my report from my trip there last Tuesday.
    1 point
  18. So what you're saying is they have nothing on our rides.
    1 point
  19. If you can't think or say this, is it even really a French film?
    1 point
  20. Sad to hear about the news on the Voyage yesterday. Cool music video by Fozzy on the ride though. It is but The Voyage is aggressive so the song and video fits the ride well.
    1 point
  21. Air Crow literally has a sign saying not to lol so not sure if it should go on the list.
    1 point
  22. Not sure if it has been mentioned, but reservations are no longer required at either Six Flags park in Texas... might be chainwide, but I only know about Texas. ^Thanks for the update, sorry to hear about your experience with NTG! We will have to consider Terry Black's, we were looking for places to visit while in town! Speaking of food in Texas, where is the best place to get actual good food at SFoT? The barbeque place by the Oil Rig looks to have good google reviews....
    1 point
  23. My flight arrives at 6pm local and I'm hoping to get to the park at around 7. So I'll probably just be doing Joker and NTAG (new credits to me). Tomorrow I begin a death drive to Magic Springs and then Oklahoma City for Frontier City on Sunday (both new parks to me). I'll be back at SFOT on Monday from open until about 3pm. Might get a flash pass. Thought about going south for Wonder Woman, Iron Rattler, and Texas Stingray but kind of wanted to knock Magic Springs and Frontier City off my list of parks never visited.
    1 point
  24. 1 point
  25. Looks like Ride Entertainment has a used skywarp available for sale for immediate delivery from California. I'm almost certain this is Harley Quinn. I'm surprised they went with an animation over actual ride footage, but I'm guessing footage of the ride operating was rare. And the video is quieter with that background music than it would be if the ride were actually running. The one weird thing with the animation is that it shows the ride operating with just one half of the train. Maybe that's just an accidental omission in the animation?
    1 point
  26. Grona Lund has just announced a major new expansion, anticipated to open in 2024! https://www.gronalund.com/2024 The press release is only available in Swedish, but here are the highlights: New amusement area with 25 percent of land and roof surfaces designed with trees and vegetation and a park-like character Potential new attraction with an overall height of 45 meters "Classic amusement romance" with new attractions at ground level Public bridge / beach promenade Architecture borrowing from historic buildings around the area This post will be updated if and when an English press release is published.
    1 point
  27. I saw it operate for one hour during a visit late in 2018. And the whole park knew it was operating between the ride's loud scream and the screams of pain from riders.
    1 point
  28. Was it ever really an “operating” attraction? That seems a bit generous.
    1 point
  29. it got posted to Youtube: basically, there was a fight over someone jumping the line, and in the ensuing fight, the cart went over the embankment and landed on it's side. and, OF COURSE, the people that were lined up? hopped over the fence and started stealing the spilled contents - which is what all the security was about. I couldn't watch the whole thing, as it's goddamned embarrassing. really? and the woman filming keeps saying: "you're gonna arrest her over a Turkey leg??" Yes. . it's STEALING. just some shameful behavior.
    0 points
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Terms of Use https://themeparkreview.com/forum/topic/116-terms-of-service-please-read/