robbalvey

it was just bad. Much like when Busch Gardens Tampa closed Gwazi, the overall quality of attractions at Epcot actually INCREASED when Ellen's closed. Yes, it was that bad.

It was a joke. You probably should leave the comedy writing to the professionals.

Yeah I still need to get out there!

You're welcome! We had a lot of fun and will be going back again on Monday!

Interesting anecdote about the turnaround because that was where Colossos started falling apart for me (the first two big hills were fine and had some nice float), and that's not even getting to the jackhammer helix of doom. I'm going to guess that the turn around is probably an area of less stress than those hills that the train FLIES over at crazy speeds trying to kill each rider launching you out of the train. So I'm going to assume those areas probably get less regular maintenance probably because it doesn't require as much? Again, these are only slightly educated guesses...

It's like an old VHS tape copy of a copy of a copy where the quality degrades each time. Using this scenario, the coaster would have been several copies down the VHS chain! Reminds of that Michael Keaton movie where he clones himself and then that clone clones himself and the next clones himself and that last clone winds up a little retarded. In the movie they use that same VHS anology You know, I have not seen that movie in YEARS, but I actually think that's probably where I got it from, although I didn't remember that until you just brought it up! lol

It's like an old VHS tape copy of a copy of a copy where the quality degrades each time. Using this scenario, the coaster would have been several copies down the VHS chain!

Yeah that sounds about right. I mean, isn't this El Toro's 12th season that it operated? You find me another wood coaster that runs that smooth and still that batshit crazy intense that has ran for 12 years and I'll bet you can't find too many.

This is why the question remains... how did you mess up an Intamin pre-fab?!?! Where are you getting this from? We had ERT on El Toro last year and on Balder the year before that and both of them ran absolutely FANTASTIC. In fact, we even rode Colossos last year and while it was most certainly the roughest of all the Intamin pre-fabs I've been on recently (you can tell it just wasn't being maintained) it will still smoother than 90% of most wood coasters out there. So I'm not really sure where this disparaging comments about the others are coming from unless they've suddenly gone to total crap in the last 16 months.

I think it's because Intamin rides require a lot more of a commitment than some parks are willing to give them. You don't buy a Ferrari and treat it like a Toyota. And I get the feeling that is what is happening in lots of cases like this. I'm going to guess that Heide Park did the bare minimum to keep that ride operating in the years that Merlin owned them. And like, if you think you can own a Ferrari and just do a basic oil change every 5,000 miles you're quickly going to discover you have a Ferrari that doesn't function like it should. It's really a shame. I feel like if a park isn't willing to put the effort into it, they should just buy from a company who makes rides that require less care. You may not get a top ten ride with that scenario, but at least you'll have one that works if you want to treat it like a Toyota.

I always feel like comments like these are made by people who don't have a single clue on how the amusement park industry operates.

Sometimes, we just post silly fun videos... This was from our day at Bayern Park...

Yeah I'm sort of the same way. And you're right, it didn't really matter much because the rides were good just on their own, and the great use of the property was awesome, too!

I don't think it felt 'dark'. Sure it wasn't bright and crazy, but nothing like depressing or off-putting. It was really nice visiting a park in the middle of the desert and not worry about sun screen, the heat, wind, etc. Yeah, I mean, I never felt like anything inside the park didn't "pop" or feel darker than it should. I mean, the park IS 'indoors' without much natural light (if any) so the park is lit basically like you're at a park at night time, which, IMO most parks look better at night anyway...

No to both, sorry. Wasn't allowed.

Interesting... I mean, we've already had more than 5,000 votes in the poll so people are certainly finding it somewhere...

Huh.... interesting. That's how I have to find it, too... digging through the channel pages. I would have at least thought YouTube would have made this more accessible to subscribers like through notifications or on their subscriber page to let people know of a new post or poll. I mean, how often do you really check a channel's main page, anyway? I know I never do...

YouTube have added some new features for us to share videos, polls, and other comments with subscribers, but I'm curious to know how you guys see them. How do they appear on your side of the screen? Curious to know how you see them and how you are notified of them. Please send us screen shots! Thank you for your help!

RCDB lists them as having two different track lengths so they are not identical. Did you actually READ the stats???!? I've been on both rides. I could be wrong, but they don't seem like clones to me. I guess I'm also not coaster dorky enough to give a crap either. Like, why does this matter?

I do not think those two rides are clones at all. They seem very VERY different to me.

Yes there was just so much to see and do at IMG Worlds of Adventure that it was impossible to cover in one trip report! So here is part two! We covered a lot of the Cartoon Network stuff already, a bit of the Marvel area, but now we'll get into a bit of the park's back history and of course the rest of the Marvel Comics section! The owners of the park have a background in restaurant and hospitality and one area they are particularly proud of in the park is the higher end food offerings (we'll get to Tony Stark's restaurant in a moment) and they took us on a behind the scenes tour of the kitchen facility, which is nothing like I've ever seen at any park in the world! It was absolutely impressive... We took a path around to the back of IMG Worlds to get to the main kitchen area. Upon arrival you have to go through a "cleaning" process (and trust me, some of our people needed it more than others!) where our shoes had to be washed and we had to wear hair nets throughout the tour. The first thing we noticed is that all the kitchens were immaculately clean! There are many different stations for different food items, much like you'd find in most other kitchens, but many of them were separated as to not cross-contaminate. Here we are hanging out with the head chef! You can see here that we are in the "Vegetable room" and the staff can see into the other rooms, but they are separate based on what type of food they are working on. You can get a better idea of it here. This is the "delicious steak" room. It all looks soooo good! Yes, they made Kristen a muffin right out of the oven, and yes it is burning her hand off! lol All of the bakery items were fantastic! Yes, this is a thing! It's like being in a mini Willy Wonka factory! There were quite a few of these machines making lots of chocolate stuff! Another favorite room of ours! Yes, all the ice cream at IMG is made on-site FRESH every day! And yes we ate a LOT of samples! Of course after visiting the kitchen, they wanted us to sample some of the food, so they took us to their Indian restaurant... Wonderful... Wonderful... WONDERFUL!!! I think you can say we really enjoyed ALL of the food we have been eating at this park! With all this food excitement...we need a roller coaster! How about a ride on Velociraptor? Next up with the "Iron Man Experience" This was a cool upcharge experience where you get facial scanned in to BECOME Iron Man! "Stand still...this won't hurt a bit!" Yes! You are now Iron Man and you can play as him in this game... Whatever motions and actions you do... ...is translated to the screen. Some people probably just shouldn't become Iron Man! lol And look! You can even get a full Iron Man figure... ...and your face is 3D mapped under the mask! Who needs Tony Stark? So speaking about Marvel stuff, let's talk about the Hulk ride... First of all, we really enjoyed the queue. Well themed and looked great! When you get inside the theater, it looks a bit unassuming. Almost something out of the old "Mission to Mars" circular theaters. You sit down, put on your glasses, and you're not too sure what to expect... There are people across from you, and big empty screen...what is going to happen next? WOW! When the ride starts, it MOVES....and moves FAST! This ride spins, jolts, twists, etc... and the media visuals look GREAT! What sets this apart from other "simulator" attractions is that it actually *feels* like a ride. If you turned off the media, you'd still have a good time riding it! (but of course it's MUCH better with the movie playing!) We were given a behind the scenes, or more like "under the theater" tour of the attraction and it IS impressive! Here is one of many projectors that blast the film scenes onto the dome theater above and around you. It's sort of hard to describe what you are looking at here, but we are under the theater looking at the giant, and I mean this is *MASSIVE* engineering work that sits right under you. These help the theater spin and move. Large motors that do the things that large motors do. Everything we were looking at was, as the Backstreet Boys would say, Larger Than Life! I always find it fascinating to look at all this stuff. You forget that, as a rider being entertaining by all the visuals and the fun elements, that behind all that magic are giant machines that make it all happen. And it's great to be able to see it up close like this! The other star attraction of the Marvel area was the Avengers: Battle of Ultron ride! Once again, the queue was very well done with many elements you'd recognize from the Marvel Cinematic Universe films. You get to see costumes of all the superheroes from the second Avengers movie. The ride itself is much like Spider-Man or Transformers and it is **VERY** well done! In fact, the best ride of it's kind I've been on since those two, in fact, I actually liked it more than Transformers. The scenes in the ride were great! Although these will be a bit blurry, because... 3D so watch the video to get a better idea! Thank you for saving the world once again Avengers...I mean... Tony! There is also Thor: Thunder Spin... And yes, Thor and Loki are both here as well! A fun take on a classic Top Spin ride... We took a spin on the Amazing Ride of Gumball... ...and if you're a fan of the show, you'll noticed you are instantly transported into the school where Gumball and friends hang out. Kristen thought this was amazing! Lots of things from the show are also transported here. Yes, it's an Alterface shooting dark ride and we thought it was great! Fans of the show will love this! Watch the whole video below... The Haunted Hotel was the park's year-round haunt walk through and it was really well done! Monsters and zombies and lots of crazy stuff! Yep, we all enjoyed it! No, no...they weren't going for a "Tower of Terror" look...I mean, that's what all bellhops wear, right? We ended our night with dinner at Tony's Skydeck. The restaurant is themed to having a fancy meal at Tony Stark's penthouse suite at the top of Stark Tower. The restaurant looked and felt amazing! It's great having a "high end" restaurant at a theme park! Here is tonight's line-up. Loved the soup! Loved the "mocktails".. Iron Man's suit was hanging out with us. Really, the place looked fantastic! Absolutely loved the "comic book...yet high end" feel to the place. And this was quite possibly one of the best steaks I've ever had! Elissa & Kristen LOVED it! We can't wait to come back! And the desserts were amazing, too! We had such a wonderful trip to IMG Worlds of Adventure! Our hosts and tour guides were fantastic! We are already planning our next trip back to visit again! Thanks for reading! We will have more Dubai updates soon! Oh yes, be sure to POST YOUR COMMENTS!!! (we took the time to write the report, the least you could do is say something nice about it!) Yes, they even have one of these Vekoma torture machnies for the kiddies! So we decide to take one of those "Rides Short Cuts" back to the rides area. Outlaw_[R]_(Real).nlpack

It's my favorite area as well. I just prefer to walk because you get to see more and the walk really isn't that bad. I'm always a person that prefers efficiency and the boat most certainly isn't!

Here's my thoughts on this... This is not a bad idea, especially if you are doing an open to close Epcot day. But... There is no reason to get a FP for Rock N Roller Coaster since it has a single rider line that, even though is probably the worst single rider line on property, is still better than waiting in the standby line, and you can get an FP for Toy Story Mania, which still gets crazy lines. You cannot do the "short line at the end of the night ride" on Frozen and Illuminations together. You have to choose one or the other. Unless you just want to suck it up and get in line for Frozen at about 7:30, assuming it will take an hour-ish, and then you can be done with the ride and quickly find a spot for Illuminations. But really, if you are rope dropping the park, assuming there is no early EMH, just go right to Frozen. It shouldn't be that bad even with the character dining breakfast people they let in early. Then do single rider on Test Track, suck it up and wait in line for Soarin (which with the third theater now isn't as bad as it has been in the past) and get on a few other things. Another ProTip: Soarin in the evening has had much lower waits. In fact, we just rode it about a month ago without a Fast Pass around 7:30pm and we waited 20 minutes. I am personally not a fan of the boat. You can actually WALK much faster, even by taking a relaxed pace walking, from Epcot to Studios and back. The boat (which you have to wait for) also has to make stops at Boardwalk, Yacht Club/Beach Club, Swan/Dolphin and THEN goes to Studios. I probably do this walk at least 2-3 times a month (just did it the other night) and I'm always impressed how quickly we can get from International gateway at Epcot to the turnstiles of Studios. And if you walk back, you can always stop into Big River Brewing for a beer since you have to walk right past it! It's even good by Italy standards!

I can relate to this, actually. While Nemo probably is the better show (arguably) I too like the Lion King show better just because it's a property that I like more. Nemo didn't really have any "music" in the movie so it was weird IMO they made a "musical" out of it. And while I do like the new songs that the Lopez's wrote for it, none of the music will be familiar to you the first time you see it, while Lion King on the other hand is very relatable.

January is pretty tough. Many parks stay open for Christmas events but then close in Jan/Feb and re-open in March/April. I know that Disney is open. Not sure about parks like Phantasialand or Europa. My guess is they may be closed for those Jan/Feb months but it may be worth checking their operating schedule.