Rastuso

No pics of the army of guys on the roof? That would be interesting. Water mist on the track is a good sign. Intamin cable launches don't usually have it, but they may have added it in such a climate. I doubt they would turn on the water for the hell of it. We won't get any promises on Formula Rossa. Arabs don't like being wrong, so they aren't going to put their neck out on the fastest coaster in the world. It would be nice for someone to at least verify it is testing, but the water damn near does that, imho. -RO

I still dream about my trip to Japan. The place is just awesome. To me, a lot of it was that it felt like a current day version of the 80s. Arcades everywhere, so many new things, I didn't feel old with a "been there, done that" opinion of things. A lot of fashion is very 80s too. Leggings, heavily teased hair, flashy colors. The fact that I could go to a park, get in a line for something, and really have no idea what it was for, even at Disneyseas. I just can't get that in teh US, I've been to almost all the parks. THe coasters weren't that great in general, but Kawasemi is world class, as is Pooh's Honey Hunt. ANd of course, the school girls. ANd no, not the young ones, the ones in their 20s that would get with a group of friends, put on schoolgirl outfits, and go to Disneyland. God bless 'em, every one! -RO

TR: WDW 8/18/10 Our one full Disney day was up next. And by full, I still mean we slept in because we were just too exhausted. We got to the park around noon. We parked surprisingly close to the entrance. I was happy with what looked to be a small crowd. Of course, thanks to Fast Pass, riding rides was really out of the question at first. After pin trading up Main Street, I took the tickets with me and got back to Splash for some Fast Passes. I was very surprised the return time was only a little over an hour later. The park was definitely uncrowded. The plan was to meet at Pirates, one of only 2 non FP E-tickets. Of course, Pirates was DDM, so we hit the other non FP E-ticket, the Haunted Mansion. It had a posted 30 minute wait, but it was only about 20, and thankfully mostly shaded. The rest of the day was spent collecting fast passes and hitting lesser things, like Country Bear Jamboree. I went over to get Pooh FPs, and again was surprised at how little into the future they were for. And we got Surprise FPs for Philharmagic. Gee, so a very basic 4-D movie has already lost its shine, just a few years after opening. They should bring back Mickey Mouse Review, since Tokyo Disneyland is getting rid of it for Philharmagic. I was shocked at how much space there is behind the walls for the Fantasyland revamp. This is REALLY going to change this area. It’ll be great for little girls, and fairly worthless for little boys. After eating at the Harbor House, and getting a Big Thunder FP, plus getting a Citrus Swirl (yay!) my son and I went on an EO adventure. We trekked out the park, and TRONorailed over to Epcot. We got to Captain EO right after they had chained off the preshow, but the CM left his post, and we quickly jumped into the preshow area, and right into the theater. There were plenty of empty seats. I only saw Captain EO once in the mid 90s in this same theater, shortly before it was replaced by the only-need-to-see-it-once HISTA. I wasn’t expecting any 4-D effects, and was very happy that there were quite a few, and they used the motion base a lot too. I didn’t remember much of the movie, but it was gloriously cheesy 80s at its best. Michael’s non-gay rainbow shirt, horrible blue screen effects, and of course 80s pop music. I was surprised how bad most of the effects were since this was made after Jedi, and I believe was the most expensive film per-minute at the time. My son, who is a pretty big MJ fan, and wears a fedora a lot, loved it, especially the moon walking. Yeah, Michael was weird, although I don’t think he did a lot of things he was accused of, but damn he sure could entertain. I’m hardly a dance music fan, but I was really happy we made the trek over to see the movie one more time. I’m surprised they weren’t selling Furrball plush. My son is already lobbying heavily to get my wife’s duplicate one. I decided we should hit the Imagination ride real quick, since who knows how long it will be around. This ride is just awful, the epitome of stupid budget cuts. Some of the rooms are damn near barron, with really just one effect in them. We then also hit Nemo real quick. Some handicapped folks made the line REALLY slow down. This ride is cute, but hardly worth much wait. I just wish we hadn’t missed the DL one by 2 days like we did. We made the long trek back to the MK, and met back up with my wife. We then started using our FPs. Lines were pretty low in general. We finally got on Pirates, hit Mansion again, and Splash. We wanted to see the light parade, but needed to hit Space before that. Honestly, if I hadn’t known Space had underwent a huge refurbishment, I wouldn’t have really notice it. The load station was different, now missing the cool open ceiling. The ride was still fairly effect-free (I guess we just missed the new music). There were a few things here and there, but not much. It did seem smoother. My son wanted to do Buzz, but the standby line was pretty long, and frankly, the ride’s pretty outdated (hell it was outdated when it opened). Pooh’s line was very odd. Has this ride totally lost it’s appeal? The standby queue was extremely short, due to construction, but it still wasn’t even filled. And it still had FPs very late in the day. My wife had a decent spot for the parade on a wall behind a ramp that gave a good sightline, even with all the idiots insisting on standing on the wall, or ramming through the crowd with a stroller. Sadly, the bugs weren’t making their sounds very loudly, which is our favorite part. The new floats were very nice. I love the MSEP. We were pretty much exhausted, so we headed out, hoping we could beat the fireworks crowd. We saw some of it, including Tink’s flight, from Main Street USA. We got to the monorail station, and things got ugly, REAL ugly! We get up to the station, and people had come to a stop. A large black family was completely blocking the back half of monorail waiting area. The Disney folks asked them multiple times to move up, but they totally ignored them. I saw a pathway between the man and a stroller, so I headed back to the open waiting areas. Apparently, my backpack hit the stroller slightly as I walked by, which in the eyes of the man, was a fate punishable by death. He yelled at me that I had just hit his son. The kid in the stroller was oblivious to this fact. I said I was trying to get by, since they weren’t letting anyone in to the entire back half of the station. He didn’t care, I had “hit” his son. I said I didn’t mean to, but he wasn’t making it easy for the people in line to get by. Mind you, this was family of 7 or so who were taking up pretty much the entire load corral area . There was tons of empty space up by the track in their area. I walked on, even though he was still yelling. The few people that were in that section all commented how the guy was a total ass. I then heard my wife start yelling. I tell them “my wife’s taking care of it”. Well, it got a lot worse. Soon after, the guy, who was much bigger than my wife and maybe a foot taller, was screaming at her at the top of his lungs. Saying how I was a MF-er for “hitting” his son, and that there was no way she, or especially MY son, was getting by. He was in full eye for an eye mode. It almost seemed like he was ready to punch my son because my backpack hit his son’s stroller. At this point, my wife was yelling at him because he had used MFer about 5 or 6 times, loud enough that everyone even remotely close to the monorail station heard it. He didn’t care about anyone else’s kids, he said. All this went on with absolutely NO Disney intervention. By the time I had got back to them, a Disney guy told me to stand away. I yell at him for not doing anything to the huge black man yelling in my wife’s face, and my son was terrified and crying behind her. The Disney guy had the audacity to ask me “why didn’t you do anything?” At this point, he wasn’t letting me do anything. The monorail finally arrived, and the whole family quickly got on. They clearly didn’t want to stay at the scene, and Disney didn’t give a damn. They wouldn’t let us on that monorail. Of course, my son was bawling, and thought they would be waiting for us at the next station. Disney said absolutely NOTHING to my son, or my wife. They simply started letting more people up to the station, acting like absolutely nothing happened. My wife said that as soon as I went by he said some comment about how “they’re all like that”, something racial. She also said he was actually shaking, and she thought for sure he was going to punch her. The guy clearly was 100% full of racial rage, and the fact that a white guy barely hit his son’s stroller with a backpack, trying to get by him, was clearly a hate crime. And it was also clear that Disney, nor anyone in the crowd, was going to say a word to a 300 pound black man screaming MFer at the top of his lungs. Had this guy started hitting my wife, he could have killed her before anyone stopped him, since the only Disney people there were two old, five foot tall retirees. It almost seemed like his wife knew I didn’t need to be near him, because she wasn’t backing him once he hit Hulk mode, and was blocking me from getting near him. It was a horrible situation that Disney absolutely failed in handling. We were too damn tired to search out a manager and unload. From what I hear, unless you write a report right then and there, it never happened anyway. And we didn’t need any fastpasses at 11pm. So, we had this guy on this trip, and our last trip to Disneyland had an encounter with a young Latina who used the f-word multiple times to us, right in front of a CM because we wouldn’t let her friends cut in front of us in the Indy line. She wasn’t booted either. Can’t we all just get along? I thought we were going to Change all of this through Hope? -RO Can't wait for the movie. So much better than HISTA. Cool Jellyfish in Nemo area. Weird 4-wheel vehicle at the Segway area. I actually saw this movie in the theater. Obligatory parting shot.

TR: Universal Studios and IOA 8/17 & 19 We hit the Universal parks a lot last fall when we stayed at the Hard Rock due to free Superbowl 7 day tickets, so this trip was only two days, and that was greatly because of a small land they added recently that you maybe haven’t heard about, the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. We had some old tickets still, but then I ran across some 3-day passes at Costco that didn’t expire for like 4 years, as opposed to 14 days for most 3-day passes. Hell yeah! Since we were staying at Royal Pacific, we could have entered early, but we were exhausted, and needed to sleep in. Plus, we had Express, so no need to get up early except for Potter, and we had heard that that area clears out in the evening. So, we leave for the park around noon. The walk from the RPR isn’t too bad. A bit longer than the HRH to USF was, but not much, I think the heat was making a difference. And if you ride the boat, you had to walk way back to the boat, and then a long walk from the dock to IOA. If they put a tiny 10 foot cut through from the back of the parking lot, a lot of walking would be cut out. IOA was packed. Most I’ve ever seen, by far. Now, I’m never at IOA during the Summer, but there is no question their attendance numbers have taken a healthy jump. We check some of the Potter merch in the main store. As expected, it’s pricey. My wife had said she hoped they had Crookshanks, Hermione’s cat familiar, and sure enough they did. But they didn’t have Harry’s Owl. It was about 20% higher than most other plush, which seemed to be about the same for everything. I wonder if JK is getting 20% of merch sales? Although Seawold seemed to have been in dreamland when pricing their stuff, it was insanely expensive for just normal animal plush. First check was to see if Green Eggs and Ham was open. It was!!!! Yeah! So we go there to see the menu of burgers. Booo! I do notice a small extra sign saying they did serve their namesake still, so we order up a few. They are awesome. We hadn’t had one since the preview days, I don’t think. Great to see this place reopened. We then head to Marvel, get a place in Café 4 to cool off, and drink from our refillable mug. Universal is great for having these. We drank gallons of PEAK tea, and they seem to filter the water for their drinks. My son is begging to get on Hulk, his favorite. So, we do Express. The whole inside queue was full. WOW! We pretty much walk on for a fast, intense ride. My son goes for a reride, I fell like an old fart and go sit down in the AC. I never could ride mega loopers much, although I do recall a day of riding Drachen Fire over and over. I’m definitely too old for that shit, sad to say. We then head to Spidey. The line was out the door, but even the Express line started damn near as soon as you went into the hallway from the entry room. It was about 10 minutes. Spidey still kicks all sorts of ass. I love it, always have. We then prepare to get wet. I give my wife most of our stuff, since she’s sitting out the wet rides this time. We head to Popeye, passing an hour line and get right on. I had my new Fuji underwater camera, and shot a full onride. Everyone took their shoes off in the tube. The worker said a comment about it being against the rules, but that was it. The boat wash had a big backup of boats on it, and some folks would get stopped under a constant stream of water. I love this ride. We rerode and I took pics throughout. I took full POV of Popeye. Here's part 1: Here's part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Zc8wOdiOl0 We then went to Dudley. The lines seem to change every time I ride this. Now, the Express still goes way around the mountain and in with the normal line. No one was joining the normal line. The 110 minute wait was probably scaring them off! It was probably 20 for us. We do talk to a guy behind us about Celebration the whole time. Here's the big drop: We notice as we get off that all the logs behind us are empty. We seemed to have gotten on the last log for a while. We decline to reride since even the Express was a long wait. So, we head to JP. My wife even rides with us. I take more pics and vids. This ride, while once incredible, really hasn’t aged well. Just not enough happening. We then get to Hogsmead, but decide to cut across to Lost Continent. We decide to stop at Mythos since they have a mushroom appetizer that sounded like the one we loved from years ago. We plan to get a few appetizers, but soon realize the entrees are a MUCH better deal, and I switch to the pork with a berry/nut sauce. The mushrooms appetizer wasn’t as good as the one from before. The pork tasted amazing, although was a little fatty. It came with a big chunk of baked mac and cheese. My son got a pizza that was quite good. We then head to Poseidon. My son didn’t remember going through it, but he did a few years ago. He really liked it. We got bitched at for going to the front section of the second room at the beginning. They let the last people in go to the front. That’s stupid. I guess it’s to keep the first people in the first room in the front of the second room, but it isn’t fair to those who know what’s going on. The portal opens up, and I’m amazed to see the water vortex!!! This had been shut down months ago, with no inkling that it was to reopen. I later find that this was the second day of its return. Cool! The second show room’s flames seemed awful close to us. I really like the show, especially the surprise in the final room. My son goes to the fountain where he’s called a hippie for his long hair, and gets soaked again. They cancel the Sinbad show we were planning to see. All the actors were out in front doing pictures. Must have been a technical issue. So, it is now time to head to Potterland… It really does look perfect. I can’t imagine it looking better than it does. The snow looks a little drab, but that’s very minor. And it was packed. So much for it emptying out at night. We got there about 7, and it was packed. Huge line for Olivanders. Long line at Butterbeer keg (well on one side, the other side was a walkup, wonder which side I went to) and other shops. Forbidden Journey was showing a 75 minute wait. We enjoy our very good Butterbeer (the foam is killer awesome, and the rest is a very good cream soda). Those that say it is too sweet have some sort of problem. Someone took some to a lab and it is much less sugary than Pepsi/Coke. The foam is pretty sweet, but you don’t get a whole lot of it. We didn’t buy anything. The lines in the stores were huge. But, it was very cool to be in the exact same shops as the movies. The Sirius Black sign from the movie was great. The frog choir was great. The actors were all totally in character. I really can’t imagine it being any better. It took a while to get used to where things were, realizing you were standing in front of the old Oaken Tavern, even though the paths were a LOT different. We got on the Hippogriff coaster. Buckbeak was fairly well hidden from the queue. You zip by him pretty fast, but he looked very good. The Dueling Dragons queue has been castrated. The once amazing queue is now just dark castle hallways for the most part. I’m glad I took one last journey though last year. We rode Fire together, and my son went back to ride Ice. And of course, the awesome statue of the dueling dragons is gone. I remember being in awe of it on my first visit. Just standing there looking at how if you were centered, all three dueling points of the coasters were in between the dragons. It was perfectly lined up. Now, a very non-descript castle wall is the entrance façade. For shame, Universal. By this time it was getting dark, and the Forbidden Journey ride was at 45 minutes. We fight the crowds for a locker, and see the droves of people in Filches. Just horribly crowded, and I don’t see this section ever changing. The ride will always be spitting out this many people all day. We choose the regular queue for the first experience. By the time we finally make it through the greenhouse, I’ve got to pee pretty bad, and am getting nervous. Luckily, the inside wasn’t all that long, and I did make it without a bladder bursting. You first pass a few statues and artifacts, and then through Dumbledor’s office, the common room, a classroom and then the load. Only about 15 minutes in the themed section.There’s a weird setup where the single riders cross the normal crowd in the final room. I did witness some people waiting in the single, then just going in the normal line after the hold point. The effects in the line are very unique, and continue the very good work of making the ride perfectly match the movies. Once the sorting hat greets you, you get on the magic bench. The audio mentions a spot for carryons, but I didn’t see one, and none were allowed. The load station is very loooooong, which is a smart thing. It always seem parks skimp on the stations, making everything clustered. You sit for about 15 seconds with the Potter music playing before seeing Hermione cast her spell. I won’t go through the ride again, but will make my opinion comments. The practical effects are kickass. The fact that you are only a few feet away from them is really cool. I do wish the dragon breath effect was working when we were there. I wonder if they turned it off due to complaints. I’m sure it really sprays into your face. Some wuss probably said it hurt them or something. The animation was surprisingly fairly minimal. You moved, but the props didn’t that much. The dementors looked fine to me. People complain about them being basic, but they aren’t going to have CG robes and faces in the ride, so what do you want? The film sections (there are three, plus two moving projections on walls at the beginning and end) aren’t the greatest. They tried to do too much, and the camera is moving like crazy, and I did get some motion sickness, enough that two rides was enough for me. The frenetic camera also made the film look blurry, which is wasn’t. When you slowed down and see Hagrid, he was crystal clear. The projections seemed too dark also. The ride is purposefully dark, but the projections need to be amped up a bit. The colors seemed really muted too. The Quidditch section was awesome, if it had only been longer, and little less crazy. The final walls closing in section was totally unnecessary, and did nothing but add more motion sickness. All in all, the ride is extremely unique, and is a really great ride, but there are a few headscratcher decisions, like the frenetic camera, and the lack of animation to some objects. The ride was designed for one ride, not multiple ones where you start really looking at things. The transition from film to practical was seamless. Getting flipped onto your back got old, but is necessary to change scenes in the practical areas. I’d love to see a layout of the ride, and pictures showing how the practical scenes are with respect to each other. It’s better than any ride Disney has done in the last decade. Mickey seems to have no interest in pushing boundaries anymore. I still think Spidey may be the king, and I have extremely high hopes for Transformers. However, Forbidden Journey is a totally unique, very high tech experience that I really enjoy. If the motion sickness hadn’t gotten me, I’d love the ride a whole lot more. On our return to IOA Thursday, we just hit Spidey, Harry, Cat, and my son hit Hulk for a night ride. Cat in the Hat had the spins toned down some. We did single rider both times for Harry on our return. The first time we just stood there for quite some time. I think the grouper just quit using singles for a while, because if the grouper does a good job, the single rider line should move VERY quickly. The dragon breath still didn’t work. People gripe about being able to see the Dementors before you get to them, but I think that’s no big deal. There are lots of Dementors. They could maybe put in a black wall here or there to help hide them, but I like that scene. If only the fog screen effect worked consistently. We had frozen Butterbeer this time, getting a mug for a friend of my son’s. It was better, in our opinion. Pumpkin juice was decent, but didn’t taste enough different from hot cider, and was ridiculously expensive. The big question is how long will the Potter-effect keep helping Universal. I see it for at least 2 years, since not everyone can afford to just jump down to Orlando because a new ride opened. It will be interesting to see how Pottermania continues after the last movie next Summer. Will it truly be a Star Wars level phenomena. Only time will tell. We hit the Hard Rock after leaving the park on Thursday. Damn near left my mug on the table. They have some cool touch screen archive computers on the wall with tons of pictures. The burger was awesome as usual, but sadly no real hot waitresses. We hit the Studios park for a while Thursday. Really just did the rounds. Express didn’t help worth squat for Shrek. We should have been able to avoid the wait for the next movie. That movie still just blows away all other 3-D movies in clarity. It surprises me every time. T2 still looks great, but not as good as Shrek. We did Mummy 3 times. I notice one time someone going into the normal queue boarded before we did. After hitting a few queues, it was obvious that IOA was MUCH more crowded than usual and USF was about what it is when we visit in October. This made the Potter-effect much more clear. The first Imotep was working, although he looked cheaper, basically just a rubbery skin over a skeleton. I recall him being a more complex animatron, but maybe I’m wrong. The girl in the fake unload wasn’t working at all, but you spend much more time there in the fire, which is a good change, imho. Rip Roarin’ Rocket SUCKED! It was shakey as all hell, and just not fun. Even my son didn’t like it. As soon as we hit the bottom of the first drop, I wished I never got on it. Something horrible has happened since last October. I’m done with this ride. Nothing else of note really. A great two days at Universal. Disney just can’t hold a candle, on a park to park comparison. We are definitely now in the mode that we go to Orlando for Uni (usually including HHN), and hit Disney for a day. And with absolutely nothing on the horizon, except the Mermaid ride, I don’t see that changing anytime soon. And, we love the Uni hotels. True resorts at resort prices, as opposed to Disney's normal hotels at resort prices. -RO Yep, it's open! OF course, it may be closed again, since Summer is over. My new waterproof camera cam in handy. No worries about it getting ruined. Best river rapids ride ever. Us, riding Popeye. We got quite wet, and it was nice in the heat. I think Dudley is cool, but it does need some sprucing up. This prop looks good. Great food at very reasonable prices are always awaiting at Mythos. Obligatory shot. Shot from the Hippogrif lift. We lost the kickass statue for THIS? ONe of Hogwarts castle towers looming at night. Hogwarts, lit up all purdy. Random skeleton in Potter queue. Hulk at night, not an easily attainable ride.

Added some vids inside T-Rex Cafe: First, the meteor shower: And, the arrival of the Chocolate Extinction: -RO

^ You are so right about the smell. It was an instant time-machine back to the 70s for me. ^^ The figures were $3 each, and a bit fragile, so you do have to deal with that. The T-Rex line was a pain, but if you get your number, then go to the LEGO store, or something, at least that will make that time go by. And of course, we were there on a Summer weekend, so during the off season, I doubt they do that. They have some very cheap ($2) figures of their characters for a nice cheap memento.

TR: Busch Gardens Tampa We got BGT tickets as a special deal for a third park with our Discovery Cove packages, so me and the boy were planning on going on Sunday. My headache stopped those plans, so we hit Downtown Disney and the main Disney outlet store. Scored a nice SW weekend throw for about $10, God knows how much it was to begin with. The shirts are never great there, unless you wear a small. My son looked at every lanyard on every CM at DTD, I think. We didn’t buy much, that’s the upside of visiting only 9 months after the last trip. We decided to go for a big meal, and I had heard good things about the T-Rex café. So, as soon as we go to DTD, I went there and asked them about the wait. They said there was none, but they couldn’t take a ressie for later. So we did our shopping. We found one small outlet area there selling a lot of the same stuff they had at the outlet, including the Haunted Mansion figures that apparently really flopped. We bought a grab bag that contained a That's So Raven button that said “Oh snap” when pushed. My son threw it away quickly, but we did regret that, as that became our saying of the week. Once we were ready to eat, we head back to find a big line, make that three lines. T-Rex does a bit of a bait and switch. They say the line is only 20 minutes. But, you have to wait in the first list 5-10 minutes to get a reservation number. Then you wait the quoted minutes to be seated. But, really when your time is up you simply get into another line. At the front of that, you go to the final line at the receptionist. Our number never did come up, and I kept checking. The guy eventually just approved us and sent us to the front of the lines. But be warned, they definitely underestimate the time it will take for you to be seated. The restaurant looks cool on the outside, with a big dino skeleton, but no animation. It is shaped like a big rock and the entrance is a wide entryway with no doors. The air curtain worked well, though, so even though it was damned hot outside, the inside was fine. There were 4 or 5 sections, including a cool ice room. We were in the jungle room I believe. The place was full of animatronics, and every 15 minutes, a meteor shower hit, and the whole restaurant got dark, the animals freaked out, and there were loud rumbling sounds. Very good effects. The ice even switched from blue to red. The food was very good, equal to a normal Landry’s restaurant, but quite expensive. We joined their Jungle club that gave us a free appetizer, which we got the nachos. It supposedly gives us coupons and such for Saltgras, which is our favorite place back home. The entrees were quite good. My shrimp was great. We splurged and go the chocolate extinction dessert. It comes out with a dry ice volcano coming from a container, and has 4 big scoops of ice cream and 4 big pieces of chocolate cake. We ate the ice cream there and had cake for the rest of the vacation in the fridge. We ended up going to Busch the next day. First, we had to change hotels from the Hampton to the Royal Pacific Resort. Upgrade!!! The RPR was much cheaper than the HRH on this trip, at about $160 a night (although after parking and insane taxes, it was $200). A bit more than we usually do, but we knew we’d get FOTL for our two Universal days, and early HP access, although we didn’t plan on using that. The hotel is very nice, with a tropical theme similar to the Polynesian. Our room was already available at 1 pm (yay!), and we scored a room very easily accessible from the lobby, so no need to get hit with their damn double bag handling like we did at HRH. I even asked the guy if they would take the bags straight to my room and he admitted they would just take it to bell services. Quite the scam. Bell services should be at the cars, not 100 feet away, waiting for someone else to load the carts first. The room was a bit smaller than HRH, but did have e Keurig coffee maker, so I scored LOTS of k-cups over 5 days. Very comfy bed, but the pillows sucked. My son and I headed out to Tampa. We got there around 3, and damn was it hot. We had brought out refillable cup from Seaworld, and some water, but it was going to be a scorcher. We park pretty close to the tram spot, and I see large empty parking lots, so I’m pretty sure the crowds are going to be decent. I choose not to buy the quick queue, and we head in. I haven’t been here since Montu opened, and my son is a first timer. I decide we should use the Gwazi line to assess if we need to rethink the QQ. Only Tiger was open, probably due to lack of crowds. I prepared for the worst for the operations, and was not let down. One train, but only a few minutes in the station. We pick the front row to wait, since its line was pretty short, and get to jump ahead of people wanting to ride together, and are suddenly on the next train. We get on, only to be told to get off because some restraint was wonky. Luckily, maintenance arrives fast, and the delay is only about 15 minutes. But, it seemed like essentially nothing was wrong, just EXTREMELY overcautious operations. We get our front seat ride, which was not smooth, but not horrible either. A mediocre coaster, especially without the dueling aspect. Since the wait was pretty minimal, I decide against QQ, and we head on around the park. This park is the epitome (or really anti-epitome) of a Duell loop park. There ain’t no backtracking. The park has changed dramatically since my last visit . Many animal attractions seem to be gone, with really just the right side of the park, the large open space, has any unusual animals. I’m upset that I missed out on the Rhino Rally with cool ending, but it seems BGT is giving up on animals for the most part, especially with the new coaster going in next year. They do have lots of upcharge animal encounters, though. Next in the loop, after LOTS of walking, is the Sesame Street area, and Grover’s coaster, a very uneventful kiddie coaster. After LOTS more walking, and over a large bridge, we finally get to Shiekra. It is well themed, and has a scary long queue that is thankfully mostly empty. I can’t imagine waiting through that queue in the Summer heat. The wait was only a few cycles for my(and my son’s) first Dive Coaster. It was neat, but really a gimmick coaster. Going vertically down (or close enough like MilF) isn’t all that unique anymore. My son wanted to hit the new kids area, Jungula, which looked good, but was pretty sparse on thrills. And what they did have had horrible throughput. I was too hot to walk up to the glider ride. He did. There’s not much to it. You ride in a swing, similar to Pteranadon Flyers. The cable is lifted up, and you roll forwards. It lowers down, and you roll back. You are about 30 feet up, and the cable is maybe 200 hundred feet long. Unique, but certainly not worth a long wait. My head wasn’t feeling the greatest at this point, from the heat most likely. But we soldiered on. I was looking forward to the upwards section in their log ride, but it was clear the unique section was gone. I remember my family being surprised at the upwards section waaaaay back in the 70s. I guess Kennywood is the only remaining one now. Next up was Kumba. I figured this ride could be rough, seeing as how it’s the original B&M. But, it’s still quite smooth, and posseses the king of the B&M Roars. No wait really. We need a break, so we get some ice cream and sit down in a large restaurant that looks like a Fest Haus in Timbuktu. The place is empty, yet a group of older folks comes down, and one woman sits down right next to my son, I mean touching him, next to him. There are literally hundreds of open “seats”, and she squeezes up next to my son. WTF?!? My son chooses to not ride the Scorpion due to one train ops and a long line. I have the credit, so I was passing anyway. We both choose to skip the wild mouse that was running TWO FREAKING CARS!!!! REALLY!??! TWO cars is all you could put on there? At a park that charges like $70 for a day? WOW! The line wasn’t all that long, but would have been a lot of time due to TWO FREAKING CARS! Alright, we now have the long walk to Montu to finish our loop. Clouds are coming in, so I’m getting a bit nervous. It has cooled off considerably, though, thank God. We get one of the wax figues, an elephant. I’m pretty sure I have the same one somewhere in my mom’s house still. It’s very cool they brought back these vintage-type machines. We get in line and I decide we should do front row, since it only had a few extra trains wait. I start worrying about the weather, and how I’d never live it down if my son missed the ride due to a front line wait he was against. I get real nervous when I start hearing thunder, and it starts sprinkling. Thankfully, the thunder was the floor dropping down. And they let a lot of QQers into the second row, even though it wasn’t a QQ row. Very odd. We finally get on. This ride is still awesome. Smooth, great trenches, the first Immelman. Yeah, it’s a lot slower in the second half, but still a top notch ride.I do think it’ll drop in my list, due to the ending though. I recall just screaming through those corkscrews. We decide to get a drink. One guy is in front of us. He procedes to buy almost $40 worth of drinks and food for his family, at a simple drink stand. I get a 99 cent refill. Something about a fool and his money comes to mind as we walk around the construction walls to the exit. Then, I laugh when I see a sign saying last chance for food/drinks at a stand by the tram station, and the stand is all BOGO. A pretty good idea to get some last minute sales, but also a slap in your customer's faces saying “we screwed you all day by double charging”. A hot day at Busch, but their B&Ms are all very high quality. I have high hopes for their new ride too. Hopefully I’ll be back sooner than 14 years. We get some Steak and Shake on the way back. We decide to go around the hotel some, and take a dip in the pool. We end up in the hot tub, talking about Harry Potter with other guests. We're quite excited to finally ride it tomorrow. -RO Even the facade is cooler than the Rainforest Cafe. Cool fossil in the ice. Cool octopus over the bar. Huge dessert. You don't get to keep the lava container though. You go over a bridge to get into the main building. Vintage wax figure machines. No awesome slide, like the Hard Rock, just a simple water playground.

Yeah, it's just coloring. The sandwiches are quite good, my whole family loved them. We hadn't had one in many years, the stand has been closed for quite some time, which was a shame. You don't get the kid's meal box anymore, that came with a sticker too. -RO From the sneak preview days.

Does this answer your question (well, you have to know it was taken with my new camera): Yummy.

I can verify that the North and South bound Zax were indeed placed before the Island was built. THere was an IOA exhibit at the SPace Center years back that showed some construction footage, and they were there, with lots of dirt around them. -RO

Fat one does a lot of Robot CHicken stuff, plus he lives in Orlando. Plus, he seems pretty cool. ANd not afraid to destroy his old image by jamming with the mighty Steel Panther: WARNING: NOT FOR KIDS!!!!! -RO

You only waited 2 hours for front row? I assume you had Jedi badges? -RO

Part 1 at Celebration V: http://themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=56606 Part 2 at Seaworld : http://themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=56648 TR: Last Tour to Endor 8/14/10 Since Celebration V was being held in Orlando, of course Mickey wasn’t going to miss the opportunity to make money. So, they held a night event at the Studios park. It was a $75 hard ticket event. A bit steep, even for Mickey. It was a master stroke, imho, since Disney had a big merch area at the convention selling event merch as well as general Disney/Star Wars stuff. We got there around 5, knowing that the good rides would have ridiculous waits. Since I had already gotten the event stuff at the con, I didn’t bother with buying stuff. We went to Muppets first. We still love it, but they really need to replace the glasses. They were all warped like crazy. My son continued his pin trading obsession from last year’s trip. We purchased a big lot off ebay. Most were probably fake pins, but I’d guess most on the CM lanyards were fake too. He did score a few really nice pins. And I got a few Star Wars ones. We decided that there wasn’t much else to do, so we waited around a bit and then got in line for the first showing of the Raiders of the Lost Jedi Temple of Doom. This was the premier of a Star Wars/Indy mashup show in the Indy stunt arena. We got third row seats, and I immediately notice that instead of a golden idol, a light saber was floating above the rock pedestal. This is going to be awesome! My son spoke to the people next to him nonstop (he got that from his grandfather), who were huge Little Mermaid fans form LA. A bit before the show, the celebrities came in, including Jeremy Bullock (Boba Fett), and Warwick Davis. They chose some folks from the audience, the celebrities, and the “biggest Star Wars fan” who was a plant, to be part of the show. It started just like the normal Indy show, but a huge roar came from the audience when Jar Jar’s head was on the end of the final spike. Just a bit after, sparks shoot from the hole in the ceiling, and Boba Fett drops down. COOL! He yells “Solo!”, and starts after Indy. They battle a bit, and Boba fall down a pit screaming “not again” to huge applause and laughter. Indy makes it to the saber just as Obi-Wan pops up. The boulder rolls down, past Indy, and smashing Obi-Wan. CUT!!! It was an awesome beginning. They then brought out the extras, doing short interviews with the celebrities. Warwick made a weird “I am not an extra” comment that came off a bit pompous, imho. They had some Clone Wars voice actors, and another guy who does a lot of Nick voices apparently. My son’s day was made when he did Perry the Platapus’s noise. The second scene began, and Indy was saving Leia from a bunch of Tusken Raiders. This scene was full of gags. Indy shot Greedo first, now and forever. Darth Maul came out to his music, did a bunch of saber twirling, and was shot by Indy. Leia got hot in her white outfit, and stripped down to the metal bikini (this shocked me at a Disney park) to enormous approval from the crowd. Boba Fett showed up again too. The third scene had stormtroopers stationed at the guns, and Darth Vader chasing Indy, and getting chopped up by the propellers, letting out his “Nooooooo!” from ROTS. Then, an X-Wing came out and blew up the whole set. The only thing I can’t believe they didn’t do was incorporate “I love you”, “I know”. BEST THEME PARK SHOW EVER!!!!! We did find out later that Lucas of course showed at the SECOND show, although he just quietly came in right before the start, and didn’t even wave to the crowd. Seth Green was on stage then. Mark Hammil came to the third showing, and was even in the X-Wing! So, we saw the worst of the three shows, but had good seats without a ridiculous wait, so it was still good. Lucas posed with Jedi Mickey for a few minutes too, apparently. The line in the Star Tours shop got so bad they started letting people off the ride into the backstage area, instead of the shop. It was pure insanity in there. The line wrapped all around the store. We got 3 Toy Story Mania rides in about an hour. I got over 200,000 one game, but never got the cat prize. My son and I did get the tank to appear in the military game, and the volcanic eruption, and space ship. We checked out the Death Star Disco, which was a kiddie dance party. We hit Star Tours one last time (even though it doesn’t close for a few weeks). The fireworks were to Star Wars music and sound bytes. Nothing super special, but cool none the less. We wanted to get a LTTE popcorn container, but the lines were long. I don’t know where I’d put another one anyway. We all hit tower, and did not think the 4D room is as cool. The picture effect was so poor resolution, you really couldn’t tell it was you. We then did Aerosmith twice. My son is a HUGE looping coaster fan now. I couldn’t keep up with him all week. But at least they had the preshow open, and it was really cold in the building. All in all, a good night, even without a Lucas sighting. A bit steep, especially with no Fantasmic. But the Indy show was incredible. I wonder if it will be at Star Wars Weekends now. I don’t see why not, and the crowd will love it. It's party time, Disney style Getting ready for the main attraction Give me the Idol, I mean saber! The celebrities and "celebrities" Hell yeah! Cairo meets Mos Eisley Not many costumes that night, it was too damn hot, but this was great. Nerds!!!! Finale

The event was definitely short on structure. I didn't even know Jedi Mickey was anywhere. Until I saw a pic of The Maker dueling with him online. At least you saw teh INdy show. That was easily the saving grace of the event. I'll be posting a report soon. -RO

For part one of the trip at Star Wars Celebration V, go here: http://themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=56606 TR: Seaworld 8/13/10 As part of a great deal we got for going to Discovery Cove, we got entry to Seaworld (and we chose Busch Gardens as our bonus park). I don’t know how much it was when it opened, but it was not bad at all. I paid $150 as a non-swimmer with dolphins. It is essentially a 15 second pull form the dolphin, and a few brief pettings. Not worth essentially the $80 upcharge. So, for $150 I got a DC day, and two weeks of Seaworld and Busch. This was our first day in the sun, and I was a bit concerned. It was brutal before the rope drop even. Of course, we headed straight to Manta. A nice cool queue with fish led to an open station. We hopped right on for my son’s first flying coaster. He loved it. It is good, but nothing great. The water flyover is cool, and I did get splashed on the second ride. The pretzel is still mega forceful, but the ride as a whole was less so. It seemed short and slow. We then quickly ran back to Journey to Atlantis. I was afraid there would be long lines for the last Friday of Summer season, but they weren’t bad. JtA was a walkon, so we did it twice. I don’t recall the ride much, but it seemed to have been rethemed quite a bit. A bit hokey, but a decent dark ride section. On our second ride in the front row we got SOAKED. Water just poured in. I was afraid my phone was damaged, but luckily it wasn’t. We hit Kraken for one credit run for my son. Just another basic B&M sitdown looper. We saw the manatees, and then went to the sharks. Some incredibly annoying Brazilians were on the conveyor next to us damn near yelling at each other. I hate people. We were already almost through our water supply. It was hot, and our frozen water was almost totally thawed already. Our Hampton room had a kickass extra freezer section, so we had plenty of totally frozen water. That's my #1 tip for Orlando trips, stop at Walmart right after the airport and buy tons of bottles of Zepher Hills spring water. Freeze a bunch each night to take with you to the parks. We then went to the sealion show. The clown mime that was showing people to their seats was a hell of a lot funnier than the show was. The show was clearly aimed at small kids, with no crossover to adults. We fed the sealions. They reminded us of our fat cat. They were grunting constantly, and seem to never stop eating. They would flip the fish around in their mouths a few time before eating. Seemingly to get it head first. You had to watchout, though, or a bird, with an impossibly scrawny neck would fly up and grab the fish. We decided to hit the next Shamu show. It was pretty lame. I don’t know if they tamed it after the death or what, but San Antonio’s was much better as I recall, including one of them jumping WAY up out of the water to hit a ball. We then wanted to eat, as did everyone leaving the Shamu show, making the line super long. So we hit the Shamu coaster real quick that had a one train wait, surprisingly. Nothing special at all. We then got some decent chicken fingers, but there was no dipping sauce?!? We got a refillable cup good for here and Busch Gardens. At about the 4th refill, it would pay off, so I figured it was a good investment. We decided to hit the Arctic, but skipped the simulator. They show the simulator film in a stationary theater to everyone anyway. I recall it was a poor simulator. Thankfully, the arctic area was very cold. We saw the walruses get fed, and enjoyed to chill. The building was pretty vacant. The crowds were very light all day. My wife wanted to see the acrobat show, so we headed there and ended up with front row center seats. The show was pretty good. And a lot cheaper than a Cirque show (it was free afterall) without the creepy clowns. It had very good production values. It was a little mermaid type story with guy commiting to beastiality at the end. The cast posed for pictures after the show. We decided to call it a day. We got some tea in our refill cup, but it was just vile. It seems like lots of places filter the nasty Orlando water now, but they didn’t for the tea. It was vile with sulfur. I was too tired to walk back to get a Manta penny I forgot about earlier. Only two days in, and I was already pretty tired. Time to crash at the Hampton. -RO Just go here, watch the people coming in get abused by the mime, and leave. Watch it birds, this isn't for you. Penguins, in arctic winter I guess I need to do a coaster shot. The totally average Kraken.

TR: Star Wars Celebration V 8/12 & 8/14/10 We went to Celebration IV in LA back in 07 and really had a fun time. Since this one was in Orlando, and with the new Potter ride, it was a no brainer. We weren’t real thrilled with the thought of the August heat while at Disney, but heck, last October welcomed us with a full week of days with highs in the mid 90s. So, we bit the bullet, scored some $250 plane tickets, and some other good ticket deals. We got to the convention center before the con officially opened, but there was no cool 501st happening. Instead, there was a ginormous line that they led us into a big room to contain it. Apparently, lots of the groups of people (various levels of VIPS, hyperspace, etc) were let in late, so the normals were let in 40 minutes late. We were amazed at all the gladiator scene Padmes. And no Lando! We finally go in the main room about one hour late and headed to the LEGO booth. I was amazed that they still had some Cube Dudes left. They were limited to 500 per day, but were a bit steep. We got some, and headed to the other LEGO area where they were building a huge mural of 10x10 LEGO sections. If you built one, you got a free white Boba Fett minifig. There was also an enormous LEGO diorama. We looked around at all the various stores, getting free Hasbro card backs, Cartamundi Aces, and other swag. This day I also premiered my Jedi costume. I got a middle quality outfit on eBay for a great price. I got my picture in the giant action figure card, and a few action photos with various Sith, including a Sith Ewok. I also finally got a pic in one of the life size action figure cards. Both modern and vintage figure poses!. And it’s a rare mistake with an Anakin figure on a Boba Fett card! We were there right when this awesome steam punk Fett got in the card. The flashes were going like crazy. Of course, the highlight was my slave Leia threesome on the lifesize Jabba. They had a ton of large scenes and props you could pose with, including a life size tie fighter! I got some good pics kickin back with Han and did I mention the slave Leia threesome? Other characters were pimp Fett and Vader, an old lady in a scooter dressed as Salacious Crumb, a sith Ewok, Stormtrooper Elvis, and a weird swamp creater 3P0. My son couldn’t go into the Hoth Ice bar, which wasn’t much. It had a few ice sculptures, fog, and a Wampa. While I was there this hot babe I’d seen earlier dressed as a female Wampa (Wampette?) came in for a great photo op. We decided to hit the Steve Sansweet opening show which was a bit disappointing. He came out in a Star Wars bedsheet suit that was awesome. I still have my sheets exactly like it. No huge surprise guests, just a short video snippet from Harrison Ford. While we sat down, my son complained about the smell and wanted to move from the Mexican guy who sat next to him. I said that would be rude, but then got a whiff and quickly let him move. WOW, and it was only day one. The Force Unleashed II trailer was awesome. I was a bit underwhelmed with the costumes on Thursday, but our Saturday return did better. Tons of original costumes. A few General Grievouses, Jedi Mario, Luigi, and Toad, and a humorous cardboard stormtrooper. There were lots of extended universe folks that I just don’t follow. And of course lots of slave Leias, since the Leiasmetalbikini.com photo was taken Saturday afternoon. I met the webmaster and thanked him for his great contribution to society. But all weekend we saw NO Landos!!!! WTF? And no ice cream maker guy. I guess there just aren’t many black Star Wars fans. We also did two collectors forums. We did the prototype one that was interesting, and a sorta boring one about displays. This time, instead of free coins given at random forums, they gave out cereal boxes at each one. We got Hothsted Flakes and Troop Loops. I wish we could have gotten the Admiral Ackbar Cereal (yes they really made it). We didn’t do any other panels. I would have liked to have done the Mark Hamill one, or Robot Chicken. But we just didn’t have the time. We only hit for a few hours on Saturday, since Disney Studios’ Last Tour to Endor event was that night. We skipped the Lucas show, since it was so limited. We found out that you need to have been in the line by 3-4 am to actually be in the room with him. He did briefly walk around the show floor on Friday. He did a decent job at being at the show at least. IT was a real fun time, and we’ll be at Celebration VI in 3 years. Hopefully in a better climate so I can wear my costume more. It was just too damn hot to wear it, especially the robe. Although I saw plenty of guys in heavier costumes than mine. They had to be miserable. The queue room you went through to get in on opening day. THis year had some great props, including this life size Tie Fighter ANd this snow speeder, since this celebration was for Empire I always love all the custom costumes people wear at Celebration. Grievous is one of the harder ones, imho Another great Grievous There are always cool mashup characters too, like the Jedi Mario Bros. Or fresh takes on existing characters, like a Sith Ewok. Or just down right weird ones, like this Salacious Crumb THis steampunk Boba Fett was one of my faves Jedi O'Ginga figure (rare mistake variant on Boba Fett cardback.) Steve Sansweet at the opening show in a custom Star Wars bedsheet suit Pimp Vader and Fett trying to bring my son to the dark side Me, relaxing on the Falcon with Han Me battling Darth Maul And now, what you've been waiting for, BABES! This is the God of all SW fanboys, the creator of Leiasmetalbikini.com, with the official slave Leia My dream come true, a Slave Leia threesome! Surprisingly, the hottest chick there was NOT a Leia, but a Wampette. And her backside was amazing (photo withheld for now)

As far as the crowds go, I think Seoul Park was built when they hosted the Olympics. So, it is probably government owned. I didn't make it there during my trip, but I knew I wasn't missing anything. A bunch of 80s vintage loopers. No thanks. -RO

A business trip got me to Bartlesville, OK (what other reason would get you there?) My last visit was in the off season,so I missed the coaster. I arrive this time and head there immediately after checking into the brand new Hilton. Well, in this metropolis, even in the Summer, the kiddie park is only open for a couple of hours in the evening. So, I go back to the hotel and twiddle my thumbs. After dinner, I head back over real quick for a visit. The place is pretty full. Lots of families were enjoying a sort of dilapidated looking park that was very clean, and full of classic rides. This park is one of the many Kiddie Parks that appeared back in the 50s and 60s. The star attraction, of course, is the Herschell kiddie oval Little Dipper roller coaster. This is supposedly the oldest coaster in North America. There is an older one in the Netherlands, called Rodelbaan, and then the coaster at Memphis Kiddie Park. Many media outlets claim that the one at MKP is the oldest, but I believe the correct thing is it is the oldest operating in its original location. ACE lists the BKP coaster as being made in 1947, but it was moved before making it to its current location. I really don't know for sure. I've ridden both. The coaster here delivered as expected, and you get three circuits for 50 cents!! The park is also full of some very old kiddie spinners and a small guage train that makes a large loop around the entire, city owned, park. THere is an antique carousel that looked unusual too. Tickets are 25 cents each, amazingly, and many rides only take one ticket. It's like stepping back in time. -RO The sign is made from a sacrificed train, to honor the pagan God, Frank Phillips. The massive first drop About half of the park The locomotive The classic train cars The antique carousel Parting shot of coaster Ghetto skate park near the parking lot Redneck air conditioning

You are right in some ways, Robb, but not in all. Yes, amusement parks are very safe, and present no larger risk than driving to them, and usually less risk. BUt when disigns show flaws, you should avoid them. DC-10s, Deloreans, Pintos, FIrst generation brake designs on Intamin Mega-coasters. Some rides are unsafe, or have design flaws. Spinning rides are the most common source of fatalties that are not user related. Most coaster deaths are from the rider being an idiot (HW anyone?). Spinning rides are different. There is a long line of ride failures of spinning rides. It's a simple mechanical truism that rotating equipment has a high failure rate. Even the big coaster crashes usually boil down to wheels or axels, like the one in Germany this year. I'm not a fan of spinning rides in general, but I still think they are a much higher risk ride than coasters. And this ride just doesn't "look" right. It looks under-supported, and the pictures of bent steel pipes are very troubling, and to me shows that this ride design ISN'T safe, and I would tell friends/co-workers that. Sure it isn't a true spinning ride, but it's main ride function is from rotating around a point. And in this case, a very long rotational axis on a non-counterbalanced arm from a straight support base with no triangular support strengthening. A HORRIBLE design, mechanically. This ride has been around a few years, but hasn't had that many ride cycles, in comparison. Sounds to me like it was showing signs of problems, and the maintenance department failed to find it, and started it back up. If those reports are true, in the US this would be a massive, automatic-win, lawsuit. -RO

True, this rarely happens. But, it does show that not all rides are built equally. I would guess the ride in England is history, and I would be leary of all Fabri rides. If a ride just doesn't look structurally sound, skip it. If I get a trip to China with work, which looks pretty likely, I will skip many of the Chinese coasters for that reason. Remember, we had another failure in China just a few weeks ago. -RO

I agree about the counterweight. THis ride just doesn't look totally engineered. A very long, fragile looking arm swinging from an equally fragile looking "tower". Do any more exist? This absolutely looks like structural failure from excess strain. It simply wasn't built to be able to withstand that super long arm swinging around. -RO

I got some more videos posted... Thunder Run: Space Rapids: RipQurl: -RO

Thanks to Hurricane Alex, we skipped the first two days of the ACE Southcentral Triple Crown event at Kemah and Schlitterbahn Galveston. We did make it to the Splashtown day. First up was a decent breakfast, and ERT on their RipCurl toilet bowl and the brand new Stingray Racers, which is a six-lane mat slide with the beginning tube section. We got 2 ripcurl rides and 4 stingrays. All I could handle, really. That's the bad thing about waterpark ERT, it's too damn tiring. BUT, I had a new toy today, a waterproof camera!!! So, I got pics and vids of lots of stuff. As the park opened to a pretty light crown, we headed over to the Tornado funnel slide. These are fun, but not when you have to lug the humongous tube up yourself. I then hit the space slide, since I'd never ridden it before,so I think I've finally ridden everything at the park. The lines never did get very long, until about 2 or so, but even then, it didn't seem as bad as the Six Flags days. The park was a bit cleaner, and they have rebuilt some stairs and such. I wasn't happy that they have SERIOUSLY slowed down their once great lazy river. Now it is REAL lazy. Surprisingly, my son was ready to brave his first straight drop waterslide, so we went and did that once. We spent some time in the wavepool and other pool area watching people fail to make it across the rings. All in all, a decent day at a decent park. Here are some unique pics and videos... -RO Testing out the underwater abilities

I don't know. Each year these numbers come out, I feel they are very misleading. How do they count park hoppers? I mean, I would think half of the people, or more, that visit Epcot, the Studios, and AK, visit another park that day. Are both entries counted? My family visited 3 parks in one day, were all three counted? Does MNSSHP attendance count? Hell, that's a lot of people right there. Do idiots staying in Disney resorts with LOS passes, that don't even visit a park one day still count as an entry? I just don't buy that Epcot out performs Universal that much on paid entries. After visiting the Tokyo Disney parks, I find it hard to beleive that they are #3. And the tickets are such that I doubt many folks park hop at TDR. And seeing the crowds in TDL, there is no way the MK draws more folks. -RO

Hmmm, the one hour does seem to be boulder of salt worthy. HOWEVER, I wonder if this is a way to try and control the massive crowds. Perhaps this experience will bring new meaning to "pre-show". Perhaps there are mulitple, long preshow's similar to Pseidon, and perhaps even more. You could have long interactions with Dumbledore, and nice slow walk through the common room, with some interaction, etc. If they make it a long experience, it will keep folks from re-riding tons of times, since you aren't getting in line for a 5 minute coaster ride, you're getting in line for a very long "experience". And Rowling seems to be pretty set on giving a good HP experience to the masses, and not just a kick-ass ride. I think it could work, and may just well be what they are doing. The info is still pretty vague, and obivously full of PR-spin, but I still can't wait to go there. -RO