robbalvey

Here's some retro Wild Mouse footage we shot in 2006...

They existed next to the park, but were not part of the "property" I believe.

While I do not disagree with this, my issue comes more in how it's being presented. Just like Thirteen, when you watch their preview videos this ride comes off as a BAD ASS OMFG I AM GOING DIE ride appealing to hard-core thrill seekers. Remember Thirteen when they said certain ages couldn't ride it and called it most the psychologically thrilling ride in the world or something like that? It's exactly the reason why I personally gave Thirteen such a poor review the first time we rode it. Not because it was that bad of a ride, but because it was hyped up to be the coaster that was going to fuck-you-up for life! And guess what? It was a giant Roller Skater with a drop track. Had they just come out and said "Thirteen is going to be a really awesome family coaster" then I would have been "okay" with it. But when they actually said old people can't ride it, when it turns out that it's a ride that old people SHOULD be riding with their grandkids...I dunno. Just put me in the camp that makes me think that the marketing side of things just don't line up with the actual rides they are building, and I take issue with that. Just come clean and tell people what the ride is... "A family wooden roller coaster that will be solid, fun, but not overly insane and most people will probably LIKE it, but not if they think it's going to be more insane that Nemesis, Air, Similar or Oblivion, because it's not that at all."

You're right. What he meant to say was.... If this park was right near the beach, walking distance even, it would have had a shot. People go to Myrtle Beach park their cars and don't get back in them until it's time to leave Myrtle Beach. And with no real option to get to the park other than to get in your car and drive there, it was never going to be a success.

Stats are similar to Fun Spot Orlando's White Lightning, and that ride is awesome. And besides, what Alton coaster is on the "bigger" side? It's absolutely a fair comment. IMO, a major park like Alton Towers SHOULDN'T be getting rides "with stats similar to Fun Spot" as Fun Spot is a smaller FEC, pay-per-ride type of a park. It's literally mainly a "go karts" place with some cool rides. (nothing wrong with that, I love Fun Spot!) . And while White Lightning *IS* a great ride, it's also a perfect fit for a smaller park, not a major park like Alton. And when you ask "What rides at Alton are on the bigger side?" are you actually being serious or just trolling? Because no intelligent person would make that statement. Nemesis is quite possibly STILL the best inverted coaster out there. Smiler is still a world record holder. Air a giant sprawling MAJOR ride. And even though Oblivion may be short in track length it's still in the top 50 "tallest drops" in the world, which is actually still quite significant. I'm hoping that the ride is at least somewhat decent because I feel it's been a while since either Alton or Thorpe have installed a ride that makes me overly excited about going back, which is why we haven't been since 2010. And just to be fair, you didn't see me rushing out to ride InvadR either. I'm sure it's a fun ride, but it's not major enough for me to make a trip just for that one coaster. Now that coaster going in at Blackpool this year...

Yep! In fact they even send you a Silver Play Button when you hit 100k, but it's not quite as impressive!

In August of 2017 we hit a huge milestone with our YouTube channel... ONE MILLION SUBSCRIBERS! As a "thank you" we posted this video from White Lightning here in Orlando: Today it was made "official" by YouTube as we got our "Gold Play Button" in the mail and we did an unboxing video for it! Once again, we cannot say thank you enough! Never in a million years did I think we'd hit a million subscribers! I just hope I'm not somehow going to be responsible for all the therapy that those people will be needing from watch our videos! Thanks again everyone! --Robb

Ride op staff at Universal Orlando have been on site at Fast & Furious for a least a month training now and that ride isn't even a roller coaster and doesn't open until sometime around May. That sort of training is pretty standard here in Orlando, is Alton Towers saying that's not the 'norm" for their other rides???

LOL! It's not even the first "GCI fusing wood and fire" together! So dumb...

Oh, trust me, I completely get why they did this. Had they announced it in advance, or did a "come get your last rides" type of thing, you'd have every nerdy roller coaster enthusiast angrily bad-mouthing them and harassing them to the point of making it not worth their while to allow someone to get a "last ride" in. Clearly the decision was made to close the ride a while ago, as a park doesn't just wake up one day and go "Hey, you know what? After lunch, let's go demolish that ride over there..." so this means they purposely made the choice NOT to let people know that it was going to be demolished. Honestly, I cannot blame them. Parks don't HAVE to do anything for "enthusiasts" and regardless if you are happy or not about this decision, it's not going to stop the masses from coming to the park. I've seen plenty of times parks go out of their way to allow guests a "last ride" on a classic ride at a park only to have that bite them in the ass and people moan and complain about it. If I owned a park, I would have done exactly the same thing. In fact, if it were up to me, I probably would have done a live stream of the demolition!

It was re-purposed, but I'm not exactly sure which buildings it was exactly because the entire complex there with Maria & Enzo's, Edison, Pizza Ponte, and the underground bar is pretty gigantic! To be honest, I don't think the goal here is to be an overly-themed "character" dining experience (character meaning the servers being in character) like Skipper's Canteen, I just think it's supposed to be a nicely themed, high-end restaurant with great food. Personally, I'm not that big of fan of when your servers try to "be a character" so I'm just fine with it being a normal restaurant with some amazing theming. That being said, there are some other "themed" elements throughout the dining room, like the first class lounge, etc...

Today we were invited to attend the grand opening of "Maria & Enzo's Ristorante" a new Italian restaurant at Disney Springs. The restaurant is owner and operated by Patina which are also responsible for some of our favorite restaurants on Walt Disney World property such a Via Napoli and Morimoto Asia so we had very high expectations going in! I'm happy to report that not only were our high expectations met, but also exceeded! The food we sampled was absolutely fantastic! We are very much looking forward to going back and trying a full meal, and I have a feeling this location will also be joining several of the other Patina Group restaurants as some of our favorites at the resort! The interior and theme of the restaurant is also VERY impressive! From their website, they describe it as: "Open and airy with 50-foot high ceilings, a grand staircase and floor-to-ceiling views of Lake Buena Vista, Maria & Enzo’s serves authentic Italian cuisine amidst a stunning design and décor celebrating the golden age of travel." There is a wonderful "reveal" of the giant open room as you come through the "passenger check-in" area. Anyway, let's have some photos tell the rest of the story... Today was the grand opening for Maria & Enzo's at Disney Springs! Management from Patina & Disney were here to kick off the celebration, but the real bosses of course are Mickey & Minnie! And what would be better for the grand opening of a new Italian restaurant on "National Spaghetti Day" but a giant bowl of Spaghetti & Meatballs? As the restaurant is "travel themed" you enter through the passenger checkin before going into the lounge. Here is the main room! It's wonderful looking! I took a couple of panoramic photos (vertical & horizontal) to give you a better idea of the scale of it. And here is the horizontal view. Any good party will always have plenty of wine being served! But we were here for the food...and what we sampled was fantastic! These cheese & veggie skewers... YUM! The Arancini rice & meat balls were wonderful! Loved them! Some meat on a bread stick? Yes, please! Of course the real question is... "how was the pasta?" The answer? PERFECT! Having been to Italy many times, I can tell you that this is legit! How does Jeremiah like his meatballs? "Heavy, black, and pendulous!" (+10 points if you get that reference!) They kept bringing us more food! These was some sort of fried cheese.... Needless to say, Elissa had many, many of these... and continued to have many more after this photo was taken! Elissa is also a fan of the meatballs... As we were saying...everything we had WAS JUST "PERFECT!" Let's take a look at the menu, shall we? Here's the full menu... A little bit closer up... For a higher-end Italian restaurant, which is something that Disney Springs was very much in need of, I find the prices to be very reasonable, and if I are to assume portion sizes are similar to the other Patina group restaurants, I think everyone will be very pleased! Look at those amazing views! Again, another look at the main dining room area. The management came over to say hello to us, but what is that I see they have? Oh, hello! Are you a "Cheesecake pop?" Yes, you are! Yum! OMG! A whole plate of Cannolis? Just for ME?!?!? THANK YOU!!! Please do not make me choose between the Cheesecake pops and the Cannolis! They were both AWESOME! Right next door to Maria & Enzo's is Pizza Ponte, a quick-service pizza place. Here's a quick look at the menu, again very reasonable pricing for the portions you get. The slices look AMAZING! Some are thick squares, others are thin... But OMG! This round cheese pie!!! It's awesome to have these two new locations open at Disney Springs! We will be back soon for a full meal! Can't wait! For more information, or to book reservations, please check out their website: https://www.patinagroup.com/maria-enzos/

The back seat of Canyon Blaster is actually a super awesome ride!

That helix has been terrible and boring for a long, LONG time. I can't believe anyone would be complaining that they would be doing anything to improve the ride. Seriously, people are bitching about this??? Get a new hobby...

To be honest, we haven't lived in California since 2011 and other than doing our annual West Coast Bash event, we don't do many SoCal parks outside of that. So we are probably not the best people to answer. I'll move this to the main forum to see if others can help out...

We keep getting more and more requests for dark rides, so here's a kind of obscure one based on the Italian Winx Club cartoon series at Rainbow Magicland:

Those simulators are not difficult to move. They could just move them over to DCA and there you have your Iron Man ride!

I can't decide if this thread is incredibly fascinating or horribly awkward...

Absolutely not! We try to keep stupidity off our forums!

I have always said that BGT's collection is "Quality over Quantity" as they don't have a bad ride in the mix! In fact closing Gwazi actually IMPROVED their overall quality of coasters!

Still one of the best ones out there... Montu, Pyrenees, Katun, Raptor, Batman, Dueling Dragons, Nemesis... Those earlier ones still have an intensity that the later ones don't have.

Here's some kick-ass Montu footage... Enjoy!

I admit that I'm a bit of a "musical snob" when it comes shows I choose to see, so it's rare that I end up going into a show that I know nothing about (and honestly didn't have a lot of interest in) but come away from it absolutely LOVING the show! And this was the case with School of Rock which I saw last night on tour at the Dr. Phillips Center here in Orlando. I'll be honest, I'm not much of a Jack Black fan so I never saw the movie and when the show was announced it didn't really peak my interest that much and we skipped it during our Broadway trips the past few times. On top of that, Andrew Lloyd Webber shows have been really hit and miss for me (love Evita, hated Cats, love Phantom, hated Sunset Blvd, etc, etc...) but this show.... OMG! I really loved it! It was described to me as "Matilda with Rock n Roll" and that's fairly close to how I would describe it as well. It was DAMN IMPRESSIVE that the kids *ACTUALLY PLAY* the instruments on stage! They aren't just faking it with the orchestra playing the real music, they are actually playing with the orchestra serving as a "backup band." The "kid members" of the band: Bass, Guitar, Drums, Keyboard, backup singers, etc were all amazing. Standing ovations were had even before the curtain call! And while I would say that the show is sort of like "Matilda with Rock N Roll" (maybe slightly less sophisticated, however) it also has the high energy of Kinky Boots, another show that I adore! While the first half of Act I I felt it was a little hard to get into the characters as you're really meant to dislike Dewey at the start of the show, the whole point of that is to that he will have a greater redemption by the end of it, and it really does pull on your heart strings throughout Act 2. While the story is not complex and very predictable at times, I don't think that distracts from the overall enjoyment of the show. In short, don't miss this show! It was wonderful! School of Rock plays through Dec 31st at Dr. Phillips Center as part of their Fairways Broadway season and you can get tickets and information about season passes here: https://www.drphillipscenter.org/ If you are an Orlando local, or someone who visits frequently, we HIGHLY recommend checking out the season tickets or at least becoming a "member" of the theater which gives you pre-sale ticket options which we take advantage of quite frequently! It really is a fantastic venue! Here's some video and photos from the show: Kristen LOVES Matilda, so she was super excited to see this as well! We have our seats in this BEAUTIFUL theater, and we both LOVED the show! Dr. Phillips Center is still fairly "new" for Orlando and it's a wonderful venue! We are "members" of the theater and we love taking advantage of their pre-sale ticket options before the tickets go on sale to the public.

I drove past the park on our way to my family in Illinois and I didn't see barley any cars in the parking lot. Wait, I'm confused. You "didn't see barely any cars?" So that means you saw lots of cars? What did you actually see? Because your sentence reads that there were lots of cars there.

I demand gluten free and vegan meal options. I'll be the guy wearing cat tee shirts who only talks when it's inappropriate, when I'm interrupting, or if I'm bitching, which will be frequently. Don't worry, just because you won't always hear me as I creep over your shoulder you will definitely be able to smell me. Now pardon me while I ask where to sign up, despite the information already being provided. Your post would be HILARIOUS if so much of it wasn't actual reality!