robbalvey

So you're blaming the app for your friends sketchy ticket purchase??? Yep, most certainly category A!

Again, more complaining. And to those who are constantly looking for things to bitch about, here's an idea... Instead of complaining, how about being at least somewhat THANKFUL that Walt Disney World was one of the *LAST* big corporate resort destinations to charge for parking. Seriously people, where was all the complaining about Universal charging for hotel parking for *YEARS*? or how about Las Vegas? or basically any larger corporate hotel in any big city or resort destination? Where is all the complaining for spending $20 on parking to see an Orlando Magic game or $25 for a Lakers game? And you're only parking there for a FEW HOURS!!! Or how about the $10 - $15 parking I pay for seeing a show at any performing arts center? Do the people complaining not realize that EVERY OTHER DISNEY RESORT charges for overnight parking??? Disneyland in California, Disneyland Paris, Tokyo Disney Resort, Aulani in Hawaii, etc, etc, etc... CHARGING FOR PARKING IS NOT UNCOMMON, PEOPLE!!! GET OVER IT!!! I mean, FFS, Gaylord Palms here in Orlando charges $22 if you just want to go in and walk around for an hour!!! They will only validate your parking there if you spent $50 at one of the restaurants. At the Disney resorts, you can still park for free if you want to just go check out the resort, visit the shops, or eat at a restaurant. Oh, and another Fun Fact! Swan & Dolphin (not Disney owned, but on Disney property) have charged for overnight parking for DECADES and let me share with you now how many complaints I've heard about that over the years. Ready? Here goes... ZERO! Seriously, people... If an average of $18 for parking is going to be a dealbreaker on your Walt Disney World vacation then you know what? You probably aren't going to be the target demographic for staying on property anyway so do the rest of us a favor and shut up and stop complaining!!! We are sick of hearing it.

Got this photo today out of the 360 camera. I thought it was pretty cool...

Just curious, does "later" mean in the next few hours, days, weeks, some other value, or do you not know yet? Good things come to those who are patient.

It may not be processed yet. Sometimes YouTube can take a loooooong time to process the 4K version. I just double checked with the video upload and the format IS 4K60 so give it some time...

I will have a lot more to say later, but for right now, here's the video we put together! The ride was GREAT!

Thankfully, this wasn't my first time in that room! When I used to work over on that side of the Disney company, I have spent quite a bit of time in there! Interestingly enough (and thankfully) that room has changed very little in the last 20 years! The history in that room is just incredible.

We never mentioned exactly which tube all that theming was going into... or if the tubes are going to be changed, expanded, etc...

To be fair, it's not open yet. We got to "virtually" ride it, and I can tell you I much prefer the theming and the experience on this new version. The rest of the ride is the same, though.

Part One - Behind the Scenes at Toy Story Land & Pixar Pier Part Two - The Amazing food of Pixar Fest! Part Three - Closer look at Pixar Pier & Toy Story Land --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Last week TPR was invited on a whirlwind trip of amazing Disney magic! The overall theme of this media event was "Pixar in the Parks" celebrating the upcoming opening of Toy Story Land at Walt Disney World Hollywood Studios, Pixar Pier at Disney California Adventure, and Toy Story Land at Shanghai Disneyland. Our journey would take us to the Disney resorts in both California & Florida along with a super amazing visit to Walt Disney Imagineering in Glendale, California! This is going to be very much a "visual" report, so let's jump right in with photos & video from our visit to Walt Disney Imagineering... First a video showcasing some of the design processes that Disney Imagineers go through to develop new attractions: For those of you who may not be aware "WDI" has been the creative backbone for the Disney Parks & Resorts since the very beginning. Located in Glendale, California in a completely nondescript building (actually an entire campus made up of many nondescript buildings) you will find some of the most amazing creative talent working today in the theme park business. Not only is the building on the outside completely plain and lack of any hint that anything creative at all may be going on inside that building, even the lobby area has a fairly "professional" vibe to it, not much different than your typical office building. But once you are granted "clearance" to proceed... ...immediately the magic begins! Most office buildings have "hallways" with doors leading to offices. But WDI has a "monorail" hallway that you go through, complete with flat panel screens showing off some of the amazing work that has come out of this building over the many decades! And this is just the start of our magical tour! Our first stop was the model sculpting area where we stopped by their "warehouse" for lack of a better term filled with models, maquettes, and animatronic busts from decades of Disney attractions! This one room was an amazing display of theme park history! Everywhere you look there are loads of characters from attractions you grew up with! These are the actual original statues from Disneyland's Snow White Grotto! I could easily spend a whole day in here looking around! Next up we took a look at the giant model for the upcoming transformation of Paradise Pier which will become Pixar Pier at Disney California Adventure! The model had some incredible detail to it. Here is a close up of some of that work being put into the model While we were visit, they were working on installing the roller coaster train for the "Incredicoaster!" The trains will all have a new "Incredibles" look to them. Here's another look at the model. Again, I could spend all day here! And there were certain sections that had larger sections built so that Imagineers could get a better look at different perspectives of the upcoming attractions. And here's a little idea of something you will see inside one of the tunnels on Incredicoaster! Our next stop was a look at maquette modeling. There is where small models are made of each ride vehicle so that Imagineers can get an idea of what the design looks like in a full 3D tangible model. Again the attention to detail is just incredible! (Pixar pun intended!) These figures are all for Jessie's Critter Carousel which will replace King Triton's Carousel in Pixar Pier. There was also a model of this new attraction also! I love the backwards skunk character! lol There a better look at him! And then after all those steps in the creative process: concept art, modeling, maquettes, etc, those dreams become a reality when the actual characters are installed. Here's Wheezy who was just recently installed in Toy Story Land at Walt Disney World Hollywood Studios! Our final and probably the most amazing stop (and trust me, it was ALL amazing!) was The "DISH!" The best way to describe The DISH was like the "Disney Holodeck" (Yes, that is a Star Trek: TNG reference!) as it allows you to step into a virtual design of a ride or an area and move around that environment just as though you were really there. If you wear that hat you see in the middle of the room, the entire room moves with you, like being inside of a VR headset! But in The DISH, many people can be inside, discuss ideas with each other, view reactions, etc. It truly is an amazing creative tool! Pull up a chair and you can even "ride" and test out the concept of a new attraction. You can look around and see the perspective from what the rider will see. We got to "virtually ride" the Incredicoaster (I won't give away spoilers) and it was amazing! So much more interesting than any VR headset I've looked into! OK, maybe I'll give away one little spoiler! We also got to take a virtual walk through Toy Story Land at Walt Disney World Hollywood Studios and it was amazing experiencing it this way! It was amazing getting to experience this new land virtually... And then two days later actually see it in person! That wraps up this first part of the report! Thank you everyone for reading! Pixar Pier opens June 23rd at Disney California Adventure & Toy Story Land opens June 30th at Walt Disney World Hollywood Studios! More to come soon... Now POST YOUR COMMENTS!!! Inertiatic.nltrack

Hey everyone! Now that we have the forum moved over to the new server and that project is out of the way, we can focus on finishing up the beta test for the TPR Coaster Poll! Here is where thing are at... - We need EVERYONE to go to https://coasterpoll.com/ and finalize your ballot! - You will see a "Save" or "Done Ranking" button (depending on which ordering format you choose) for when you are done finalizing your ballot. - Deadline for submitting your final ballot will be March 31st. - While this is a "beta test" of the Coaster Poll we WILL have real results! And those results will be based on this beta test! So please, if everyone could go ASAP and finish their ballot we would greatly appreciate it! Thank you!

We are looking for someone to attend the "Batman Backwards" media event for TPR on Thursday, March 22, from 9:00 a.m. to 12 noon. If you are interested please email robbalvey@themeparkreview.com ASAP with the following information: - Your full Name - Your age - Email Address - TPR Screen Name - Links to your socials (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc) We will need someone to take photos & video and post a trip report to the forum. This should be a really fun, exciting opportunity! Again, please email ASAP if you'd like to attend.

Good. That ride was trash.

Wow. Yeah. Agreed. At one point I was thinking we should maybe go here in June, but now after seeing that video, maybe not so much.

Florida resident rates are for Florida residents. You can take your chances and hope they don't ask for your ID, but in many cases they will. And if they do, and you aren't from Florida, you will have to go to Guest Relations and upgrade your ticket. This can be time consuming especially when just getting to the park. So really it's up to you how much the difference is and how much frustration you may or may not want to have to put with if they check your ID and there is a long line at GR in the morning.

I guess I don't understand why people are being so "doom & gloom" about this. It's not like it's Conneaut where the park is barely holding on and everything you see about that place it's some lawsuit or crazy legal thing happening. This seems to that there is activity going on, there is an update on their website that, while gives no real information, at least shows someone is there creating new content for it, and a news article that says things are moving forward, just slowly. I've seen parks in FAR WORSE shape over the years! And sure, maybe they will knock down one of the two woodies, maybe even both (but I doubt it) and yes, maybe the park will never re-open, but at the moment it sounds as though the park has a future, it's just taking longer than they wanted for it to get there. And that's not unusual in this business.

I don't even notice much of a difference.

FYI - Clubtpr.com is not up yet which is why those banners are not showing up.

The forum is in the final stages of being moved over to the new server. As the new server details propagate across the internet, more people will be able to see the new server. Please respond below if you can see this message! Thank you!

Remember guys, this is the Universal Orlando thread... Just a reminder before this strays way off track...

Also, I love all the people trying to get around the word censor because it just makes us add more variations to our word censor! Lockers will always be lockers. Deal with it, fuckers!

Shut up. Going to a theme park is expensive to begin with. Who are you to decide that everyone should have to pay for freaking lokcers? I'm not going to tolerate someone telling another one of our members to "shut up." Banned from our page forever. Oh, and yeah, if you're going to bring a load of crap into the park and complain about having to store it, you're an idiot. The parks aren't there to hang on to your crap while you go have fun. And if that's the kind of service you need to have fun at a park, you can PAY for that service!!!

Um, you go and see shows like World of Color a dozen times. I think you can probably skip a few of those viewings and go to Knott's.

I don't. I hope it fails miserably and gives us yet ANOTHER Geauga Lake story we can laugh our asses off at!

What? We are talking about SeaWorld. Can you please try.... TRY to be less stupid on our forums? PLEASE??!?!? I’m guessing he thought it was relevant because they’re all under the same company, but I digress. Please don't try to defend the dumb. Thanks.