ECZenith

GHOST GALAXY and HALLOWEEN SCREAMS reviewed... *** contains spoilers *** I just got back from another exciting shift at Big Thunder, sandwiched by cast member previews of Space Mountain: Ghost Galaxy and then Halloween Screams fireworks spectacular. I arrived backstage behind Space Mountain around 1 pm and met up with some of my friends from Indiana Jones and Thunder. I entered through a backstage entrance and only waited in a small portion of the queue, but from what I can tell, there is nothing added to the queue as far as new scenery or audio, which is ok, because Ghost Galaxy fits the already well-themed interior of Space Mountain perfectly. Outside, in front of the building, projections of the ghost ripping through the roof of Space Mtn accompanied by a loud roar frequently play. My first (of 10!) rides was in the third row, and out of all the rows, rows 1 through 3 are the best for seeing the new projections. The rocket is weighed and dispatched as normal but right away we notice that the first lift is much darker than before, and the lights at the top glow green instead of the traditional blue color. The rocket turns right and heads into what would be the flashing-light approach to the second, and largest lift of the ride. This area is now completely pitch black, and this is where the great new audio really starts to effect the ride. Instead of the "spinning barrel of red lights" effect that happens on your average trip on SM, there is nothing but stars drifting alongside your ascending rocket. At the top of the lift, we see a galaxy swirling in the distance. The projection zooms out to reveal the ghost that will haunt the rest of your journey. The ghost is the same one as seen in the promotional artwork and poster for Ghost Galaxy. A massive, fiery, top-half-torso of a skeleton with the aforementioned swirling galaxy for an eyeball. As you continue to climb the lift, the ghost becomes angered at your presence, and hurls lightning bolts down the lift tunnel, as it lets out a startling roar. From here, the rockets take a left u-turn as the ghost's arm slowly reaches through a cloud of stars. As you ascend the final lift, it peers out from a nebula and then chases after you as you begin to speed up and carve through the first set of turns. For the ride itself, there are new projections of ghostly comets flying alongside you in the turns. During the coaster's "big drop", the ghost's hand reaches down for you as you fall. The ghost appears many times in pursuit of your rocket, with the new audio assisting it's "scares" very well. In the star tunnel, where your photo is taken, its face appears suddenly on the left which seems to be the most effective scare on the ride. While you're waiting in line for ghost galaxy at the end of the queue, you will hear the entire rocket screaming from inside the attraction as the rockets come into the brakes. Overall Ghost Galaxy was very impressive and exceeded my expectations. I new to only expect new audio and new projections of animations, and both were exceptional and were a perfect overlay for an already amazing classic roller coaster. Ghost Galaxy is loud, dark, and for some will be very frightening, so much so that I am surprised and pleased to see Disney offering such a "grown-up" Halloween attraction. Many of the other cast members I rode with were surprised to say the ride actually scared them. My opinion is that this is a must-see and will be a huge success. Space Mountain Ghost Galaxy opens to guests Friday, September 25th along with Haunted Mansion Holiday and the new Halloween Screams fireworks show. Speaking of fireworks, I had just learned that tonight at 9:30, there would be a full rehearsal of Halloween Screams which conveniently right when my Big Thunder Mountain Railroad shift ended. I made it over and was able to get a bench right in front of the castle for the show. The fireworks were very good, and original. It introduced a new, never before seen spiraling green shell that I thought was the coolest part of the show. These new fireworks can be seen during the 'Trust In Me' segment of the show. This show is long! It must have been about 15 minutes of solid fireworks, exploding fireballs, and lasers. The show is accompanied by songs of the Disney villains. Some of you have been asking about the music of Halloween Screams so here are at least most of the songs from the show, all of the songs are re-sung and are not actual songs from the movie/ride. This Is Halloween - Nightmare Before Christmas Grim-Grinnin' Ghosts - a new version Cruella DeVille - 101 Dalmatians Poor Unfortunate Souls - The Little Mermaid Crocodile Song -Peter Pan Trust In Me - Jungle Book Heffalumps and Woozles - Pooh Pink Elephants - Dumbo Melefecient - Sleeping Beauty Frolo's Song - Hunchback of Notre Dame Oogie Boogie Man - Nightmare Before Christmas Zero, the ghost dog from Nightmare Before Christmas starts the show by flying out above the castle before the first shell ever takes off. The music was perfect for this new show and the new effects like spark shooters, helix fireworks, and fireball guns left me very impressed. This is definitely going to be a great Halloweentime at Disneyland, I'll see you all there, thanks for reading!

The songs I heard for sure were... This is Halloween - Nightmare Before Christmas Grim Grinnin' Ghosts - Haunted Mansion Cruella DeVille - 101 Dalmatians Poor Unfortunate Souls - The Little Mermaid Captain Hook's Crocodile Song - Peter Pan Heffalumps and Woozles - Winnie The Pooh As I was leaving there were several other songs but I'm not sure what they were.

I just finished working an after-hours EMV cycling shift at Indy and as me and several other CMs were heading back to our cast shuttle stop, we were surprised to see that the new Halloween Screams fireworks show was testing! The fireworks themselves weren't going off but all of the spotlights, projections, music, and of course, ZERO the flying ghost dog all looked AMAZING! I was extremely impressed with the scale of the show and I haven't even seen the fireworks to go along with it. Zero is very cool (and huge!) and all of the music goes along with the villains theme perfectly. The show also features segments based on DL's "haunted" attractions such as Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean. This is going to be a great Halloween at DLR, don't miss this show, it's starting real soon! I will let you know how Ghost Galaxy as soon as the opportunity becomes available, shouldn't be too long now!

I hate when a child doesn't meet a ride's height requirement and insist,complain, and often yell at operators to try to get their kid on the ride. Or worse yet, when parents' kids fail to meet the requirement and they slip them in through the side of the queue, only to inevitably be checked again (sometimes a third time) before boarding. I've also seen parents attempt to sneak infants onto rides as "cargo", covering them up with a blanket or hiding them under the seats of their electric wheelchairs just because they can't be inconvenienced with taking turns watching said child. SAFETY FIRST people...

RSR will definately be bigger than Indy. The show buildings will be nearly the same size but Cars has those additional outdoor high speed sections. In total RSR will take up an astounding 6 acres! I believe (at least in Paris) they are building tandem halfpipes to make up for the low capacity.

Grizzly Mountain Coaster is confirmed as a Vekoma reversing coaster, much like Everest but the ride will have launches rather than traditional lifts. There may be a small lift at some point in the ride. As far as HKDL is confirmed, that is in fact an Intamin halfpipe, themed to the RC Racecar from the Toy Story films. They are also building a land with the same rides at Walt Disney Studios in Paris.

I had the day off today and was able to make it to the D23 Expo, which was conveniently located halfway between Disneyland and my home at the Anaheim Convention Center. I wasn't able to visit the Dream Store but I was sure to visit many of the convention's offerings. John Lasseter spoke today about seeing his Pixar creations coming to life at resorts worldwide, and also talked about the upcoming Cars Land. Overall it was a great day and I can't wait to check it out again next year. Lots of new vinyls coming out in 2010! Thanks for checking out the pictures! New Vinylmation figures! I was able to pick up the D23 exclusive figure, very nice looking. John Lasseter (center) speaking to fans and cast members along with WDI and Pixar staff. A light bike from Tron Legacy A Chinese Dragon from Disney's upcoming The Sorcerer's Apprentice Jake's costume from the Prince of Persia Props from Lost Lost cast member signing an autograph Lost exhibit Speaking of Toy Story, the Wii game was released early for the expo, but quickly sold out Cool new lego Toy Story kits will be coming out in January Herbie the love bug! There were these great stitch-inspired vinyl figures, check out the hatbox ghost Turtle float from Disneyland's Electrical Parade Just amazing. Each of the 30+ vehicles will be characters themselves, alive with their own personalities. Airtime? WDI describing the layout of Radiator Springs Racers The east high-speed turn will be taken at nearly 40 mph according to Imagineers Just 3 more years till Carsland Lightning McQueen's facial expressions were impressive A look at a BGC train car, can we get these at BTMRR please? ...before vanishing into a mine shaft, and blasting out forwards from the adjacent tunnel Big Grizzly Coaster, at the peak of the mountain the 4 car trains will fall backwards... Trackless ride vehicles will wind through the new Mystic Manor Mystic Point will feature Hong Kong's take on Haunted Mansion Let's begin with Hong Kong Disneyland Very cool wall made up of Disney attraction posters The entrance to the parks and resorts area

Thanks for posting the video Dragster, great to see a bit of POV for Radiator Springs Racers.

Love the new paint job on the cabins! Can't wait to see this project develop.

Top flat rides... 1) Mondial Top Scan (in particular the one that was at Adventureland, NY) 2) KMG Experience 3) KMG Tango 4) Evolution

The yogi ride is an interactive "Splash Battle" attraction. I love the shots of Superman, it's one of the coasters I want to go on more than any other. A B&M floorless with a huge airtime hill... Mui Beuno...

I too saw the program on tv showing Ring Racer operating and I had no idea it was even ready to run. I am only a little surprised that it is experiencing difficulties, S&S is one of the few attraction-building companies that has some cohones to build something this fast and it seems like every time someone goes for a speed record there's hell to pay... TTD, KK... I at least give S&S credit for making insane designs like the El Loco, even if they take a while to work the bugs out.

Great to see track up already, I would imagine the rest of the structure will go up quickly.

Did anyone attend the expo today and hear any word on Captain EO? There are also rumors that Star Tours 2 and the return of the hatbox ghost to the haunted mansion may be announced. I'm going on the 13th, and will have lots of photos and a nice report.

I have yet to experience a bad dinosaur attraction so I'm really looking forward to seeing this develop. Can't go wrong with Dinosaur themed coasters.

I like J Man's the best so far, very clever.

Natomic, you bring up a good point. I have noticed that most log flume type rides do not have a lap restraint system but many of the new water rides being made have some kind of restraint system. I know Grizlly River Run uses a buckling seat belt and that's it. Many of the large shoot-the-chutes rides have a single lap bar for a row of 4 or 5 and the more extreme rides like Knott's Perilous Plunge have the vest-style restraint. I would expect almost any new log type ride to sport some kind of restraint. Pilgrim's Plunge and Shoot The Rapids at CP (2010) use a new lap bar system and I would expect any new Intamin water ride to have the same.

The model has 4 across seating because they used the Coasterdynamix model system. It only has B&M style track and trains. I love the layout of Intimidator, it's like the Millennium Force I always wanted. Can't wait to ride it, whenever that may be.

From what I understand the movie would focus more on the story of Rainbow Ridge and Big Thunder Mesa itself rather than the railroad/roller coaster. I'm not saying don't expect to see a mine train but I'm thinking the story will be more about the cursed mines being rediscovered. Also, I doubt the dinosaur skeleton will play into the story but I would be very surpised if the dynamite chewing goat (Billy) wasn't in the film. This will definately be interesting to watch develop.

Wildebeest looks great! The water-LIM technology is fascinating, I hope to see others like this spring up on the west coast as well! It seems that HW is ALWAYS adding something and just when you expect to have the year that they add a just kind of "meh" ride, they surprise you with something like Pilgrim's Plunge, or in next year's case Wildebeest. Well done Holiday World!

Paris' versions of Haunted Mansion (known here as Phantom Manor) and Big Thunder Mountain are (dare I say it...) superior to the ones in my backyard. Be sure to spend lots of time in Frontierland as it has an entirely different feel to it then it's California cousin. Paris has LOTS of coasters, I have never been to the Studios park but it looks quite nice, and I have heard the Crush Coaster is great, have fun, take lots of photos!

Howdy partners... Well I've been hearing this rumor all over the mountain for the last few weeks now but now that I see domain names are being purchased I guess this project is gaining some momentum. It seems that Disney is planning on making a "Big Thunder Mountain" movie in the way that they have made movies based on Pirates of the Carribean and Haunted Mansion. No word yet on a release date or who might be in it, but this Jim Jill Media article explains it a bit, as well as some information on the next "National Treasure" movies. http://jimhillmedia.com/blogs/jim_hill/archive/2008/02/01/national-treasure-3-4-big-thunder-mountain-the-movie.aspx Please be true... Yeehaw! I could see the backstory of BTMRR becoming a great movie

Coastakid, CM stands for "Cast Member" , TM stands for "Team Member" Cast Members in this instance meaning the staff that will be operating a Universal attraction. I'm not sure if Universal officially calls their crew team members or cast members (We call them CMs at Disney) but I'm sure someone here could clear that up.

It can be fun when you're on a ride but hearing it all day for 9 hours can get old fast!

I agree with Knott's Disney Farm in that Indiana Jones Adventure has a great loading area. Show-wise this particular area is called the Motor Pool, the entry to the Hall of Promise and the Chamber of Destiny. The theming is wall to wall and the flickering lights and roars of the engines really sets the mood for the ride ahead. I'm so looking forward to my shifts there next week. After 2 years of working at Indy the mood of the ride really makes me love working there. Working at Thunder can be quite hot at times so the AC is also nice at Indy.