robbalvey

Yes, but no where near the issues we've seen during our average visits at just about every Chinese park we've been to.

Oh, China.... http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-3572803/Disney-resort-Shanghai-vandalised-badly-behaved-tourists.html The Disney dump: New $5.5billion Shanghai theme park is trashed by visitors dumping rubbish, trampling flowers and letting children urinate in public (and it's not even open yet) - Crowds gather daily at the theme park, which doesn't open until June 16 - Visitors were condemned after photos showed 'uncivilised' behaviour - One image showed a woman allowing a child to urinate in a flower bed - Others showed a vandalised lamp post and rubbish all over the ground Badly-behaved tourists have already left their mark at Disney’s new $5.5bn (£3.8bn) theme park in Shanghai, even though it doesn’t officially open for another six weeks. Visitors have trampled plants, picked flowers, carved graffiti into freshly-painted lamp posts and left bags of rubbish on the grounds. One woman was photographed allowing a child to urinate in a flower bed in full view of other visitors, who travelled to the park just to hang out around its locked gates and peer into buildings that aren’t open yet. Photos posted on the social-networking website Weibo show rubbish on the floor of a bathroom Someone carved graffiti into a freshly-painted lamp post to notify others that he 'was here' One photo posted on social media shows a Disney Shanghai visitor allowing a young girl to urinate in public Visitors have even knocked over signs warning them to stay on the path With hundreds or even thousands of eager visitors arriving daily, flowers and plants have been trampled Visitors were condemned on social media after rubbish was strewn over the grounds at the weekend

We'll get a fruit basket right out to you for your outstanding achievement.

Here's a shot of the lift and sign - Night vs Day!

Official POV from Cedar Point! Enjoy everyone!

Why would you go and ask a ride op if the park has already stated "no filming." Sounds to me like you're just trying to get away with something you know you're not supposed to by hoping a ride op will not be totally in the know and tell you "yes." That doesn't make you any more in the right.

Here's some video on their new Reverse Time flat ride. What a cool, fun way to update the old Trabant classic spinning ride!

First off it's Shanghai. Secondly, yes while there have been *some* cuts it's nowhere near as bad as people are making it out to be and many people that don't know what they are talking about are just exaggerating the facts.

Wow! Jack Crouse was doing amazing today. His feeding tube is out, he passed his swallow test, and he's able to eat and drink again! He's able to talk much better and his whole demeanor is back to the Jack we know & love! I cannot believe how far he's come in the last couple of weeks! He still has lots of physical therapy ahead of him as he still cannot walk and doing things like holding his phone is still limited, but he's getting there! We are still posting daily updates to his GoFundMe! Please check them out: www.gofundme.com/jackcrouse Great to see you smiling and laughing again, Jack! ps. You can still buy his photo trips here: http://www.themeparkreview.com/store/index.php?categoryID=4

Other than maybe Rivers of Light.

Hey everyone! This past week we attended the annual 3-day media event at Walt Disney World this time around promoting their "Awaken Summer" campaign with all the new things that are happening on property. Let's re-cap a few of the highlights.... - New Frozen Ever After ride opening in June at Epcot. - New Soarin' Around The World movie debuting at Epcot in June. - New Rivers of Light night time show debuting later this summer at Animal Kingdom. - New "Nighttime Safaris" coming Memorial Day Weekend at Animal Kingdom. - New "Tree of Life Awakens" projection show coming Memorial Day Weekend at Animal Kingdom. - New Mickey Castle Stage Show coming to Magic Kingdom this summer. - New "Town Center" of Disney Springs opening in phases starting mid-May. And I'm sure there will be a lot more that we will mention in the report below. Anyway, we'll let more of the photos & video do the talking! First off...THE VIDEOS!!! Having time spend at the parks I was able to get a few different videos, some new stuff, some old stuff, but all super fun! Here goes... Tree of Life Projection Show. These will be short 4-5 minute segments on the Tree of Life as Animal Kingdom "awakens" at night! The park will be open until 11pm during the summer to feature it's new night time shows, night time safari, Expedition Everest in the dark, and this new show on the Tree of Life: Rivers of Light preview - This is the show that will be opening in August (from what we understand.) We were given a short presentation of some of the technology being used. This segment comes during the middle of the show: Big Thunder Mountain in 4K! Who doesn't love Big Thunder? Since we've shot this ride a few other times before, we figured we'd shoot it in a higher HD format this time around! If you have a 4K TV, go watch it directly from our YouTube channel. It looks amazing! And now some photos... Going to be at Walt Disney World for the next three days! Who wishes they could join us? Good morning from the Magic Kingdom! Time for some Big Thunder. Might as well use my FastPass+ and skip the line! So great to see the Zootopia characters in the parks! Yay! I'm official! Picked up my event packet and now it's off to media day land! First stop! Hangar bar for a pre-dinner drink! Hanging out with friends from Attractions Magazine! At Hangar Bar we recommend the Tanis Tacos! Would you believe they are even "Elissa Friendly?" Gonna check out the two new acts from Cirque! Here is the live stream we did from La Nouba! [fbvideonew] [/fbvideonew] They were pretty impressive! Having dinner at one of my top favorite restaurants in Orlando! The spare ribs and Peking Duck. Seriously amazing. Freaking AWESOME! The spare ribs are Banks Lee approved! (And he's a very picky eater!) Sake Sangria & Crooked Can beer Morimoto Asia! Gonna be a VERY happy rest of the night! This right here can simply be described as a "plate of awesome!" Dessert Party tonight right on the Indiana Jones Stunt Show Stage! So, yeah... Disney knows how to throw a great party! We've got our spot in front of the Chinese Theater for Star Wars Fireworks! Here's some highlights from the show. It really is one of the best fireworks show Disney has ever done! And it's going to get BETTER later this summer! They are adding some amazing projection mapping and re-vamping the entire fireworks show! At Star Wars Launch bay you can meet some of your favorite characters from the movies! Yes, there I am always getting in trouble! lol Best part about Walt Disney World is hanging out with friends! Good night Disney's Hollywood Studios! I think we were the last ones out of the park! What an awesome day! And we still have more tomorrow to look forward to! This morning the Awaken Summer media event continues at Boardwalk... This has always been my favorite resort on WDW property! And from Boardwalk they took us over to Epcot to have breakfast with two of my favorite girls! Ahh, breakfast in Norway! Anna approves of my "Mickey Mouse Waffles & Diet Coke" breakfast! Photo with the girls! Objective complete! I can go home now! Oooh! We get to go "Behind the Wall" at the new additions to Norway! Some of the details from the new Frozen Meet & Greet area. We got a sneak peek at making of Soarin' Around the World opening at Epcot this summer! This will be opening at both Epcot in Orlando and Disney California Adventure this summer. And of course while at Epcot we had to take a ride on Test Track and design some new cars! I wonder whose car is going to win? Next up... A presentation by Disney Cruise Lines & Adventures by Disney! More "Star Wars at Sea" coming to 15 Disney Fantasy sailings starting in January. Two new Disney Cruise ships coming in future years along with enhancements to the Disney Wonder later this year! Adventures by Disney creating new excursions to Hong Kong & Shanghai Disney properties. Next they have taken us to Animal Kingdom for some night time adventures! Tonight the party at Animal Kingdom starts in Harambe! About to check out the new "nighttime" version of Kilimanjaro Safaris! Kilimanjaro Safaris at night was super cool! Most animals I've ever seen!!! Rivers of Light theater with Expedition Everest in the background! WOW!!! Another view of the Rivers of Light show with the Tree of Life in the background! In the theater for Rivers of Light! Some cool technology going to be used in this show! It opens (we think) around August, but in the meantime there will be a Jungle Book themed show playing in this theater this evening during summer. The projection show on the Tree of Life was fantastic! Watch the video above to check that one out! The next morning we had a presentation about things upcoming at WDW... "Slinky Dog Dash" is the official name of the new roller coaster coming Hollywood Studios Toy Story Land! One of two new Star Wars rides will put you in the middle of an action packed adventure! An additional Toy Story Mania track will open Memorial Day weekend 2016. Soarin' Around The World opens at Epcot on June 17th, 2016. New Magic Kingdom Castle Show opens this summer. Princess Elena from a new Disney Junior show will be making her way to the parks. New friends from Finding Dory will be added to Turtle Talk with Crush. Pandora's 2017 opening at Animal Kingdom was confirmed. And finally, two new attractions will be coming to Animal Kingdom in 2017 in the new Avatar themed land. What a great few days! Lots of new stuff coming to the parks this summer and in the next few years! Should be some exciting times at Walt Disney World!

Seriously, what did you expect??!?!

Also, an update on Jack Crouse prints! Since no one seems to like "the hat" we have lowered the price to $40: http://www.themeparkreview.com/store/index.php?productID=218 We still think it's a GREAT photo: And for those of you who want a keepsake of Epcot's Maelstrom, we've added this photo here: http://www.themeparkreview.com/store/index.php?productID=220 All of Jack's other photos are still available here: http://www.themeparkreview.com/store/index.php?categoryID=4

Also, an update on Jack Crouse prints! Since no one seems to like "the hat" we have lowered the price to $40: http://www.themeparkreview.com/store/index.php?productID=218 We still think it's a GREAT photo: And for those of you who want a keepsake of Epcot's Maelstrom, we've added this photo here: http://www.themeparkreview.com/store/index.php?productID=220 All of Jack's other photos are still available here: http://www.themeparkreview.com/store/index.php?categoryID=4

So a couple of quick updates on Jack which you can read in full on his GoFundMe page: https://www.gofundme.com/jackcrouse Jack has now been able to start using his hands a bit more and has enough strength to hold his phone and scroll through updates! I even got a text from him today! That being said, there is still a long road of physical therapy recovery ahead of him. Here's a video from a few hours ago where he is trying to stand up: If you haven't donated yet, please consider doing so. He will still be out of work for quite some time.

Iron Rattler perhaps, but I really thought NTAG and Wicked Cyclone were awesome up until the brake run!

On a somewhat related topic, please go give this page a like: https://www.facebook.com/ownthethrill/

Here is our POV from today: We are also giving away some cool stuff if you go Re-Tweet this tweet on Twitter:

I hate you.

If anyone is interested in covering the media event for us on May 4th, please email me at robbalvey@themeparkreview.com

Here's the off-ride and on-ride POV they sent us today:

You would be correct!

Light crowds are one thing, but this is literally NO CROWDS! There was only about 15 of us in the park and like I said, they even held back service vehicles and after hours team members for this event so there wouldn't be anyone at all in the photos! It was just amazing!

Last Friday we were invited out to a Universal Orlando "Instameet" which is a group of Instagramers chosen by @Igers_Orlando on Instagram. Please take a moment to go follow these accounts: https://www.instagram.com/igers_orlando/ https://www.instagram.com/universalorlando/ And also be sure to search hashtag: #uoinstameet Anyway... what was super cool about this meet up is that is all took place after the parks closed so we were able to get these super-cool and rare shots of locations in the park with NOBODY in them! And usually after a park does their sweep of guests, the service vehicles and other after-hours team members will come out to do their work, but for this event, almost all service units were held until after we were done! Now I will say that I am not your traditional "photographer" by any means. I took all of the photos below with my iPhone SE and being that they are for social media, they really are meant to be viewed on a phone. I don't have the photo editing skills as someone like Jack Crouse has, but I think for being taken on a mobile device (no SLR or anything used here) and then run through some basic adjustments in Photoshop, some of them turned out quite good! I guess you can say I'm sort of an Instagram "purist" in the sense that I always felt that Instagram, like SnapChat was more of a platform for people to feature pictures they've taken with their phone on the go. So that's exactly what I did! Enjoy the pics! Here we are at Universal Studios Florida ready to take some pics! Our adventure begins at Islands of Adventure! So great to see Hulk back together again! It rained for about 30 minutes, which actually did some AMAZING things for us! Not only was it super cool to get a photo of the bridge with NOBODY on it, but the rain gave us an awesome reflection as well! I'm sure many of you know what this place is! How about an angle of Hogwart's you normally can't get? Still love this coaster, even if it doesn't duel anymore. So awesome being the ONLY ones in the park!!! Hogwart's with NOBODY else around is not a shot you can get very easily! The rooftops of Hogsmeade! A lonely Butterbeer cart. Just in case you forgot what ride you were at! Was cool being allowed to walk around and find interesting and different shots to get. NOTED! Trying to get some "detail" shots! More rooftops... I love this creepy guy who appears to be up to no good! More details. Alone in the park! "Can we please get a ride to Diagon?" "Please respect the spell limits." Checking out what's left of Lost Continent. Who can tell me what this kiosk was when the park first opened? (Hint: it was NOT an ATM!) Across the lagoon trying to make some colors pop! Welcome... Never quite noticed how colorful Dudley Do-Right's is at night! Of course the rest of Toon Lagoon looks great! Gang of Instagramers taking over their turf at Universal Orlando! Purple towers...for Prince? Done with IOA, let's head over to Universal Studios. Some details in the NYC streets area. More signage. Anyplace with a Starbucks logo is instantly one of my favorite spots! A very quiet Kings Cross. Somewhere in this picture is the entrance to someplace cool. I wonder what could be through there? Diagon Alley! Details of Diagon! Another look at that bad-ass dragon! Inside the queue for Gringott's. I love my "vertical pan" shot of the inside of the bank! The stuff nightmares are made of! This creepy guy absolutely makes me want some ice cream! lol It is not possible to have "too many" pics of the dragon! London sleeps for the night... Men in Black is still one of my all-time favorite dark rides! Let's play "Spot the Difference" between these two photos! Do you see it? It's kind of subtle. Krustyland from across the bay! Surly is my favorite of the "7 Duffs!" lol And we'll end this update with an appropriate photo of "The Darkroom!" Hope you enjoyed this update! Please go follow us on Instagram along with the Igers_Orlando and the Universal Orlando account! Thanks everyone! In case you get lost wandering through the gardens, just look for one of these signs!

You seem to wander a lot...