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TPR was invited to the Grand Opening of Springfield at Universal Studios Hollywood! Springfield brings lot of new dining options to the park including Bumblebee Man's Taco Truck, Cletus' Chicken Shack, Duff Brewery, Krusty Burger, Lard Lad Donuts, Luigi's Moe's Tavern, Phineas Q. Butterfat's Ice Cream Parlour and Suds McDuff Hot Dog Stand. Got a chance to sample most of them last night and they're all excellent! Definitely a great addition to the park. Check out the photos from last night: We're at Universal for the grand opening of Springfield! This way! The "yellow carpet" was brought out tonight. Love the changing marques on the Aztec Theater! The sun sets over Springfield. The opening ceremony starts! Universal Studios Hollywood President Larry Kurzweil delivers some opening remarks. The Simpsons Executive Producer Al Jean also delivered a very funny speech. "Please don't look at Hogwarts, it's not finished yet." Bring on the citizens of Springfield! Ready to throw the switch and open Springfield! Reactor Meltdown! Luckily the Haz-mat team was on call! Springfield is officially open! Let's have some food. Cletus' Chicken Shack is first up. Chicken Shack menu Lots of options. Gotta try Krusty Burger! Krusty Burger menu. Krusty photo credit! Krusty Burger lobby. Lots of places to sit. The Krusty the Clown career room is very cool for Simpsons fans! Hi everybody! Looks great! Wouldn't be Springfield without Moe's Tavern. Cool hangout spot! The Simpsons Ride pulls this whole area together. Side-Show Bob's on the loose! Good thing I was there. Hot Dog house menu. Luigi's menu. Pasta!! Mmmm Donuts Lard Lad's donuts. Who doesn't love a giant doughnut? Lots of photo ops! Lots of cool facades Simpsons fans will love! Wannabe celebrity credit! This is where I'll be hanging out! Tacos=awesome! Side-Show Bob trying to escape from Springfield Penitentiary. Goodnight Springfield! Go check it out!! It's now officially open! The stage is all set!

TPR was invited to check out the progress on Twisted Colossus today. It's looking great so far, it looks like it's a little more than halfway done. Lots of work was being to done today on the "Top Gun" inversion, we were told that should be completed very soon! Check out the photos: Scream's new paint job's looking good. Chains and things were added to the lift hill recently. Love the design on this! Got our hard hats, let the tour begin! Lead Car! Footers!!! Looks good! Track coming very soon! Lift hill motor is in place. Noted. Lots of painting was going on as well. What's up Crane? Lots of work being done to finish the Top Gun This part looks great! california screamin.nltrack Roller coaster parts everywhere!!! There's a high five in there somewhere. Real - Hobbester - En Fuego.nlpack There it is!! HIGH FIVE!!! Money shot! Another look at the Top Gun. Can't wait till this is open! Hard hat..check! Found a new hangout spot! Blue side Green side Seriously this looks crazy! The view before going under the Batwing Obligatory roller coaster construction tour shot. Excited to ride this summer! The "Screampunk District" is coming along. No signage yet. Still some work to be done in the que. What's left of track 2. Looks like the que's almost ready to go in. Station shot. Yay! Coaster sensors! Twisted Colossus control panel. Noted. Where green meets blue. For railing enthusiasts. Can't wait till Summer! Future home of Topper Track. Topper Track waiting for installation.

We recently got a chance to check out the new "Dig: Escape the Room," a new limited run experience that traps guests in a locked room and challenges them to work together to solve riddles and puzzles in order to escape. Our group of about 10 people ALMOST made it out but ended up falling short with only one more puzzle to go. Can't say a much about specifics without giving anything away, I will say if you haven't done one of these escape rooms before go check it out, they're a lot of fun! "Dig: Escape the Room" runs now through March 5th. We also checked out construction of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and Springfield. Great day to come out to Universal! Escape the Room is located inside the globe theater, this is what awaits on the inside. Last thing you see before entering the room and that's all I can show you. You'll have to see the rest in person We didn't escape. Lunar New Year is also going on right now. Mandarin speaking Optimus Prime was really interesting! Hogsmede's coming along nicely! Most of the buildings look almost ready to go! The Castle's also taking shape. Another angle. Springfield's looking great! Can't wait till this is open! Love how this is looking! Fast and Furious is looking good! The building is HUGE! Met up with Norman Bates on the tram, I wonder what the Tripadvisor reviews are like? We'll give you a good review Norman!!!! With all the construction going on at the park, I love that they've added construction workers as street characters! Got to hang out with some hot Ancient Egyptian chicks! Fun day at the park! Lot's of cool stuff going on at Universal!

Went to the Foo Fighters surprise show for Dave Grohl's birthday at the Forum last night. The show was incredible, they played for over 3 and a half hours and had Paul Stanley, Tenacious D, Slash, Alice Cooper, Zakk Wylde, Perry Ferrel, Trombone Shorty, Nick Oliveri, David Lee Roth, and Lemmy from Motorhead there as guests. Their setlist gives you an idea of how crazy the show was! http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/foo-fighters/2015/the-forum-inglewood-ca-5bcab724.html Foo Fighters with Tenacious D and Slash.

TPR recently had the opportunity to check out the Three Kings Day Celebration and Frozen Fun at California Adventure! Three Kings Day features arts and crafts, live music and traditional food. It runs now though January 6th. Check out the photos: Checking in at the Disneyland Hotel! Gingerbread house in the lobby was very cool! Got our badges and we're ready to go! What's there to do at Three Kings Day? Here's your answer. One of the activity stations. I interviewed Carlos Martinez about story of the Three Kings and what you can see at the park! Also got a preview of some of the music you can hear at the event! We also got a chance to try the Three Kings Bread! Then it's off to check out Frozen Fun! Wandering Oakens has set up shop. Olaf's Snow Fest has taken up one of the sound stages. It looks fairly popular! Let's check it out! It's honestly pretty impressive! Sledding!!! Looked great in here! Good job Disney! Olaf was also rather popular! Got our fastpasses! Drawing Olaf is over in the Animation Academy. Time to check the Frozen Sing Along Celebration in the re-named "Crown Jewel Theatre." The lobby features posters of other shows performed by the "Royal Historians of Arendelle." Last one! For the first time in forever the Muppets 4D theater is filled to capacity! The show begins with Anna and the Royal Historian. The show features all of biggest songs from the movie. The transitions between songs are described the Royal Historians. This song has been stuck in my head ever since I saw this show! Safe to say this was the crowd's favorite song! Some great effects in the theater during this one too! Kristoff, Anna and Elsa join the historians at the end of the show. The show concludes with one more epic singing of Let it Go! Go check out Three Kings Day and Frozen Fun!

Theme Park Review was invited to the grand opening of Grinchmas tonight! This year's Grinchmas "Whobilation" takes place at the Universal Plaza and on the Studio Tour. The Universal Plaza is home to the Grinchmas Tree, which is lit nightly by the citizens of Who-ville, the Who-ville Post Office, the Grinchmas tree lot, cookie "Dec-who rating" and photo ops with the Grinch and Max the Dog. A brief re-telling of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" can be seen on the Studio Tour featuring the original Who-ville sets from the movie. Video of the Grinchmas Tree Lighting: Photos from the event: We're at Universal tonight to kick off Grinchms! What's up Christmas King Kong? The Citywalk is also fairly festive. But we're here for this guy! House of Horrors demo is coming along. The Grinchmas tree! Wizarding World in the background is starting to look a bit more Potterish. Looks like the tops of the chimneys have been installed. The event begins! The citizens of Who-ville take the stage! Projection effects were pretty cool. Who-ville dancers The Grinch interrupts things! Cindy Lou-Who makes an appearance. The Who-ville mayor welcomes Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti to the stage. Mayor Garcetti gave a brief speech about tourism in LA. Yvette Nicole Brown from Community is introduced. Alexa (The Spy Kids) and Carlos PenaVega (Big Time Rush) were also on hand. Mayor Garcetti reads the first ever "Grinchmas Mayoral Proclamation" and officially kicks off Grinchmas. Time to light the tree! (see video above) Fireworks!! Looks great! The Grinch is very popular. The Grinch and Max The Grinch answering all the hard questions. I would be he's currently mobbed. Mt. Crumpit is the Grinch and Max's usual photo op spot. One of the activities this year. The kids and Whos seem to be enjoying it. Kids can write letters to the Grinch and mail them through the Who-ville Post Office. Lots of interaction with the Whos which was cool. Kids are busy with their letter writing. Who selfie!! You can make your own ornament and hang it on mini Grinchmas trees. More character interaction. Grinchy ornaments Lots of photo ops with the Whos Baker Street has gone from Dark Christmas to Happy Christmas. Later Grinch! Entrance Plaza looks good at night! Grinchmas starts this Saturday, go check it out!!

This past Thursday Theme Park Review was invited to special lighting ceremony of It's a Small World Holiday and had an opportunity see A Christmas Fantasy Parade! Which are all part of the Holidays at the Disneyland Resort which officially began on Thursday. Here's some photos from the event: Ready to go! The view down Main Street during the holidays. The Castle looks great! The stage is set the tonight's ceremony! The event is kicked off with Disneyland Vice President Mary Niven presenting the various Holiday offering around the Disneyland Resort. Mickey, Pluto, Goofy and Company then took the stage to flip the switch and officially kick off the 2014 Holiday Season! It's a Small World Holiday is now officially open for 2014! Looks Great! The night was capped off with "a Christmas Fantasy" Parade. These guys are always a hit. Mickey and Minnie make an appearance. Snowmen! The Winnie the Pooh characters sled through the parade route. Anna and Olaf are in the parade this year! As was Elsa...this float was definitely the crowd favorite. With that the holiday season has officially began at the Disneyland Resort!

Saw Grouplove at the Observatory in Orange County last Friday. Amazing show!! It was my third seeing them this year and it just gets better every time. They're a great live band lots of energy!! During their encore they came out and got the whole audience to be quiet and did a complete acoustic song without mics or anything very cool!

Nova Baby-The Black Keys This is actually my favorite track off El Camino and the highlight of the show when I saw them live!

When I saw the show there was actually one group a couple rows in front of us that walked out during this part looking all offended.

Went to HHN last night and it was great!! Texas Chainsaw was probably the best maze there this year! The sets were great looking as always and the talent really on their game scaring the hell out of people. Silent Hill was cool although I haven't played the games or scene the movies so I was a little lost on what was going on the maze was still really cool and had some great scares. Walking Dead was great, we waited about an hour and a half and it was well worth it! The entrance to the maze was incredible, lots of detail and there was a subtle creepiness with all the "bodies" that were laid out in front of the maze. The talent was awesome, they were really energetic and were some of the best zombies I've ever seen at a Halloween event. Terror Tram like it has been for the last couple years was just ok. It's always really cool to be able to walk through the sets on the backlot but for the last couple years it's really just been the same recycled thing over and over. Still a fun attraction but I'd love to see them add some variety to it. Alice Cooper had some really cool looking sets and probably the best 3D I've ever seen in a maze. Bill and Ted was good this year, it was funny as always and the effects were amazing! Seriously one of the best theme park shows ever! In my opinion USH puts on the best Halloween event around and if you've never been your missing out!

Saw the Red Hot Chili Peppers at Staples Center last night! Great show!!! They played close to a two hour set although I have to say they had by far the worst opening acts I've ever seen! They were actually laughable.

Awesome! It was one of, if not the best maze from last year's event. Can't wait to see the new version!

I went to the "KJEE Summer Round Up" last month at the Santa Barbara Bowl. It was one of those summer radio show there were a lot of notable bands playing like Grouplove, the Naked and Famous, Garbage, and Silversun Pickups. It was the second time I saw Grouplove this year, saw them at Coachella a couple months ago, they're a really cool live band by far one of the most energetic. Garbage seriously rocked and it was great seeing Silversun again, they're one of my all time favorite bands.

I was at the park last Friday and Ghostrider was closed for most of the morning then at about 2 they opened it. Which I thought was really weird because I knew it was suppose to be closed. Unfortunetly for me I was with a friend who doesn't go the park that often and I had to suffer through it.

Not to mention people living the area, like me in Hemet, don't have much else to do nearby.

98.7 FM in LA, I won Red Hot Chili Peppers tickets from them back in December.

I saw Travis Barker at Disneyland about a month or so ago. It was pretty cool, I saw him in the Haunted Mansion right after the elevator and he's not hard to miss, a tall guy covered in tattoos and wearing a Famous Stars and Straps tank top. I ended up riding a couple cars over from him, definitely was the highlight of the day!

I went to Coachella weekend 1 last week. It was the festival I ever went and It was completely awesome!! Loved seeing The Black Keys, Grouplove and Florence and the Machine all in one weekend.

I saw Angels and Airwaves at the Glass House last week. Awesome show!! I'm surprised at how tiny the venue was, we got to be about 10-15 feet from the stage which was great!

Saw this on the SFMM facebook page about their commercial shoot There's about a hundred comments like that. Do these people really not realize that it's over 18 for legal reasons that are out of Magic's control?? Apparently a 19 year old is an old person according to this guy!

^^ Ya... I here stuff like that a lot. Theming is a concept the GP doesn't get.

^ I'm pretty sure that he's not serious.

I was at the DisneyLAND Resort yesterday and I heard this guest ask a cast member what time Illuminations started.

Looks like the official website just launched: http://www.prepareforbattle.com/ I really can't wait for this ride!