disneyfan1313

It was closed today as well. More water dummy testing late in the afternoon / evening.

Great video! Can't wait to buy CE13 when it comes out!

Downloaded it without any problem using Safari... Thanks Robb for this great Black Friday treat!

Received mine last night with my hoodie! This really is a great DVD - phenomenal footage that is really better than anything out there.

Just got my zip-up hoodie in the mail! Woo-hoo! Love the quality and the fit of this one. I already had the pull-over style so now I have one for every occasion Those of you who are on the fence about ordering one... DO IT! You won't regret it!

I think the trick to make this successful will be to find the balance between the old school charm with the "I feel safe to go here" which is missing today. There are a few boardwalk areas that have found this balance and have continued to be successful and hopefully Coney Island will find that!

So I feel like I just did something insane - but I just booked an inside guarantee for the inaugural voyage! Woo-Hoo! - only like 450 days until my cruise

Still enjoying this great title quite a bit - Are there any Easter Eggs you can share with us?

For those of you who are interested in seeing POV of what the AquaDuck water coaster will look like click the link below then "Video" then "AquaDuck". http://disneycruise.disney.go.com/ships-activities/ships/dream/

I honestly don't think they could - it is WAY too tight when it gets even remotely busy. So tonight we did something we had never done before - arrive at HHN at 12:30am! We decided to take advantage of the added frequent fear nights and pop in for a few minutes after work. It was DEAD. Everything had a 5 min wait except Saw which was 15-30. We walked through Leave it to Cleaver by ourselves which was actually really fun - every scare-actor gave us a tour of their room and talked to us... very surreal like we were actually touring the Meetz Meats factory! The crowds on a peak night are defiantly different... TONS more drinking and over the top behavior but still fun to attend.

As a huge DCL fan I am super excited. The watercoaster is a crazy move and really will help set this ship apart. Some other cool features that other articles mentioned is a "Turtle Talk with Crush" type theater and this subtle feature which seems to be almost like the living portraits in Hogwarts..

We went again to HHN tonight and really enjoyed the new "scare zone". I put the scare zone in quotes because it was more of a "shuffle through a large crowd in tight quarters" zone. It really was more of a tease of the various characters they could use next year - but the ambiance was perfectly done and the lighting and fog really made it. For those of you in the area with Frequent Fear Passes they also announced that they will be good this Friday and Saturday as a bonus!

From the HHN Facebook Page... How exciting is this?! Apparently it is going to be set up in "Sting Alley" (that dark Alley in the NY area). The rumors are it will feature either past icons (jack, caretaker, etc) or new creatures that are up for consideration for next year. I will be hopefully going on Thursday again - can't wait to see!

We got this game today and all I can say is WOW! What an addictive game! Really takes all that was great about the original and turns it into a great "modern" puzzler. I also love the fact that the blob makes a "nom nom nom" sound when he eats the treasure chests..

Really cool time lapse video of a day in the Magic Kingdom.

Fun to see these photos of the "other" IAAPA. Thanks!

Saw is going to have the crazy line award of the event - it was 75 minutes all night last night even with the horrible rain that we had in Orlando. Best advice = do it within the first 1/2 hour of the event or buy an express pass. For those of you who are interested in checking out the wait times for HHN even if you are not there text TONIGHT to 64646. It sends them out every hour or 1/2 hour depending on how busy it is. Interesting stuff to see it change throughout the night.

Havent they been doing that since, castle vampyr?? It is a different set up this year than in the past - they kind of follow you. Hard to explain but really cool to see.

My thoughts on this years HHN.... Keep this in mind while reading - I attend every year so these opinions might be a bit biased - and if it is your fist experience at the event you are bound to have a drastically different experience. It is also the first night and things change and the scaractors get more practice. With that being said - here are a few of my thoughts.... First of all - as always - GET AN EXPRESS PASS. Even if you are going on an off night you will not be able to get through all the houses and see all the shows without one. If you chose not to do that route than get a frequent fear pass and attend a couple of off-peak nights in order to see everything. If you go on a peak night without an express pass you deserve the 2+ hour waits for the houses that you are going to get. SPOILERS Overall Theme The movie theme worked well - although the icon was not very well integrated into the event. I think they wanted to promo the licensed movies a bit more and that kept them from using the Usher character that much in the park. Scare Zones Lights Camera Haction - Located in Hollywood in front of T2-3D, this had the chainsaw guys hacking up some of the production people on a film set. Simple yet it was funny and had some great scares. The best scare zone in the park that I experienced. Horrorwood Drive In - Right in front of Mels drive in - very effective use of cars and distractions on the screen. Well themed and very compact. Cirque Du Freak - Feels like an afterthought. Located in a very small circular area in front of the Animal Actors Stage it basically is a meet and greet with the characters where they try and scare you. Pretty poorly conceived. Containment - OMG. Worst. Scarezone. EVER. Like - I can't think of a worse one in the last 10 years bad. Basically inflatable "things" that make an arch over the walkway and there are a few scaractors and smoke machines.... wow. Unfortunatly the first scarezone most folks in the park walk through and not a good first impression. Apocolypse and War of the Living Dead - Didn't really walk through them enough to give an accurate opinion. Houses Silver Screams - This is the icons house and he takes you though some of his favorite movies. This one is located in the "shed" type building behind barney that was built a few years ago. Fun concept that was OK in execution. It didn't really give you enough time to enjoy any of the scenes so it felt a bit disjointed. Chucky - Not bad..the full size chuckys were a bit impressive but the house lacked any real scares since it was SO bright inside. Saw - By far one of the best houses of the night. VERY true to the movies, great FX and a few good scares. Wait is out of control since it is in the Jaws queue which is a low capacity house anyways. Hit this one early in the night unless you want a 75 minute wait. Leave it to Cleaver - Surprisingly pretty friggin cool! I love how deep the backstory is on this (the queue film sets it up perfectly) and it is just creepy enough with the masks to be perfect without being overly distracting. The only bad part - Earthquake Queue = No A/C Frankenstein - VERY cool and pretty inside this soundstage house. This is a much darker version of Frankenstein than we are used to. Lots of scares and some tight quarters - very steampunk looking. Dracula - Probably the best house of the night - even though I think we missed some of the scares due to a set change out. Perfectly gothic with perfectly timed scares throughout. Jumped quite a few times! The Wolfman - UGH. What a waste! Perhaps it would make sense if the movie had come out and folks had seen it. Right now it seems like a very confusing mix of rooms and stories with no apparent thing to tie them together besides an occasional wolf jumping out. No real scares... lame lame lame. Bill and Ted It starts of a bit slow with an oddly chosen land of the lost theme but it picks up steam pretty rapidly and the star trek segment near the end is one of the best the show has ever had. Overall You can tell they cut some corners this year - only 3 rides open (mib, mummy and simpsons) and not many scareactors on the streets. Overall though the houses were quite fun and continued the great tradition of detailed set design, amazing costumes and great lighting and f/x. It really is the best Halloween event in the country. Except no RRR... LAME. Chainsaws vs. Production Assistants = Fun! Lights, Camera, Haction was pretty fun. This is Containment.. the WORST SCAREZONE EVER! Entrance is kind of "meh" this year. It's John C. Riley and some random emo teens! They had a special appearance by some of the actors from Cirque Du Freak Oddly shaped slice of pizza... hmm... The merchandise this year leans heavily to Saw and Chucky. Welcome to Universal Orlando - Please grab a shard of glass after you park your car.

Thanks for taking the time to put all of these little attractions in one update - it really has been fun to read and to see all the randomness that the Pigeon Forge / Gatlenburg area has to offer!

This is friggin awesome! What other websites offer something like this?!?! Thanks Robb!!!!!

Whats bizarre about all of this is it is being "re-done" by a group of people that should have known better! This really, really is a horrible name - not just because it sounds awkward and weird, but more because there is really not a viable way to brand it and sell it in multiple markets. The average consumer (who they need to attract to make this park successful will not *get* the name. So really there are three possible theories - - Placeholder name with no intent of making it to opening day. Perhaps from a legal standpoint they had to come up with a name and "marketing" once they lost the HRP name. - Those damn russians! Perhaps the pressure was so great from the russian group that even those on the team with years of theme park and marketing experience turned a blind eye and realized if it fails again they can blame it on the location, not the name. - Pure and utter stupidity. Someone loved the name and everyone else was afraid to say no. hmmmm..

Which is even more reason to avoid the midwest except the greater chicagoland area

More photos?!!?? Sure! This alone is worth the 45 minute drive and scary rednecks.. yum! The real reason we are here - make your own strawberry shortcake! Reason # 194 why you know you are at a redneck fair - the baking contest features a camo hummer cake! Fried Pepsi?!!? When science has gone wrong! LOG ROLLING AGAINST A DOG?!?! They have gone too far!!!! It did include log rolling on a fake log in a kiddie pool! They also had a "lumberjack" competition which was really just redneck olympics. Heck - they were from kissimee! Racing and Swimming pigs? We got em! This guy was flipping fudge all over the place! They actually have a very good midway at this fair - but almost no wristband specials Obligatory coaster photo! Two cocks at a time!?!? Woah! Thats a big cock! It is BUNNYZILLA! It's dinner time boys! Look Pa! I can shoot me a moo-cow! Is that woman sleeping?!?! AHHHH!!! SCARY LIVESTOCK TIME!! You know its a "Baked" potato when he has a gold tooth!

Half way between Tampa and Orlando there is a little bit of redneck heaven called Plant City. This area is one of the largest producers of Strawberries in the country so they have the Strawberry festival each year where they have some pretty major concerts, normal fair stuff and loads of things involving strawberries. It is a lot of fun, although a bit scary if you don't own a John Deere hat! Anyways.. on to the photos! They have large concerts every night - the night we were there was Kelly Pickler! Needless to say we didn't stay... I've seen some wacked out midway food before...but WTF?!?!? There are also some old-tyme exhibits like this heavy metal dude! Stacey is getting her redneck on! They have chocolate covered strawberries, frozen strawberries and even my favorite.. dirt berries! New for this year... the strawberry farm exhibit! It teaches you all about the different kinds of berries.. These are the worlds largest strawberries - you can even ride in them! Kinda sticky though... OMG! Its like heaven! There are tons of different groups selling strawberry shortcakes all around the festival. We go for the one that does make your own.. Look at the scary woman on the left... NO! Not Stacey!!! It actually has a permanent entrance that they built a few years ago... Admission is only 10 bucks! Uh - isn't that illegal?!?! There are tons of roadside stands all around the fairgrounds selling really cheap strawberries. You could never eat an entire flat before they go bad...we made the mistake of trying one year.