Garet

Wouldn't Raging Spirits at Tokyo DisneySea be one?

It wasn't a covered area but a random encounter under the trees outside tomorrowland, I meant that some of the meet and greets that were out in the sun and interchange with other characters such as the ones around main street cut-off very quickly. There's a nice mixture that I believe change so it's worth checking the website a few days before you go, the hong kong website lists characters you can meet in which areas, for the following week. I think maybe there might be some more that aren't listed that could show up around the park but it gives you a rough idea of what to expect and then you can ask around for times in the area. The fantasy garden characters (Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald & Pooh) each have their own area in the shade and have always been there pretty much all day on our visits.

We usually go out around that time during Korean Thanksgiving and it's still pretty hot, I wouldn't know about the pool though since we've never stayed in the hotel sorry. You can pretty much do Hong Kong in a day including shows and parades and some re-rides with a bit of a rush but two days give you plenty of time to enjoy things. Hong Kong is pretty quiet which is why it's my wife's favorite park, though she admits Tokyo is much much better, she loves the fact on nearly all our visits, nearly all the lines were tiny and if you spot a princess or a character you can have a photo within 10-15 minutes. Heck even the parades and fireworks shows we got there about 10 minutes before it started and got really good views. Not sure if all these tips are relevant but this is how we usually spend our two days: On the first day we usually get there just before opening (about 30 minutes before) enjoy the atmosphere and music and watch the opening ceremony up close (again we might have just been lucky but on all our weekday trips even when it is nice and sunny, we've never seen a huge opening crowd when the gates open). We have always eaten at least once at the corner street cafe so we reserve that (see TR) and then grab a fast-pass for Winnie The pooh on the off chance it will be busy (there's not much choice for fastpasses anyway) After that we make a choice, in case you are interested in trying every single ride, two of the busiest rides are Autopia and Parachute Drop... even when the roller-coasters and Mystic Manor are practically walk-on, we've seen lines up to an hour at these. Tomorrowland isn't too far so it can build up a crowd but Toy Story Land in the morning has always been completely empty. As I said grab one of those two rides on the first day and aim for the other on the second day. After that just work your way around the park, the roller-coasters aren't overly busy but if they are there are single rider lines. We also usually catch the parade somewhere near the entrance to the Golden Mickeys show that way as soon as you've seen the parade you can jump in line for the show and grab seats easily, the night parade wasn't there last time we went but probably the same, try and catch it at the top of main street so you can go get a good spot to sit for the fireworks, the show isn't anything overly special but again i'm just assuming you want to see everything. 2nd day: We usually make for the other ride that we didn't go to on the 1st day (Autopia or Parachute Drop) and grab things we missed on the first day due to time such as the English version of Stitch or the Lion King show etc (although one viewing was enough for us, we've never gone back since and my wife really likes that movie) If you caught the parades on the first day when the parades are on is a perfect time to go on the roller-coasters, the trains were cycling practically empty on Grizzly on one of our trips it was so empty. Honestly we just spend most of the second day grabbing re-rides, shopping and trying the snacks (my wife loves dark rides and small flats but won't do coasters) Some other general tips: If you like popcorn flavors there's honey mustard in the Grizzly Gulch area. Also due to the hot temperatures some of the random meet and greet times can be tiny so ask a cast-member and make sure you are there at that time. The permanent ones and the princesses haven't been too bad when we went and even Stitch had a shady spot so was out for a while but the ones that show up on Main Street can pick up a line so fast that they close within minutes. Last year my wife wanted a picture with Chip and Dale and we showed up to find the line closed. We asked for the next time and was told 11:20. We got there 11:23-24 and found the line had just been shut off because there were already enough people to fill up that 30 minutes, luckily the cast-member recognized us from asking earlier and took pity and let us be the final members of that line. Oh and the train always seems busy at Main Street, it was one of the bigger lines of the park, if you want to ride it maybe grab the train from Fantasy Land station during a parade, but again compared to most Disney Parks the lines are tiny. Here's my TR from when we went out 2 years ago: http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=66857

Part 2 Next room was pretty small with only two models, Porco.... .... and his plane It did have a nice little box art here too though Prettty much the whole room One last box art Entering the final room, to on eo f the most famous Ghibli movies of them all Again using angles and making the building bend, makes the model look small but again it almost touches the ceiling This lady had a huge display, she pretty much was as tall as my wife To give you an idea of the size of the building Again trick art, this was actually a big room with all the food on the floor that went all the way back with the head sticking out but when you took a picture it almost looked 2D That famous scene.... .... was a photo op, most of my photos were carefully taken to keep people out but the place was packed, there was a lot of people waiting to take their picture here so I snapped this picture as two people (just out of frame) traded the camera There was a nice display of all the movie posters So..... much..... merchandise Korea has pretty much the complete collection to buy in comic or DVD form, finally got to see some that never made it to Western shores. A place where you could doodle and add your artwork. The path out.... Ponyo got a place outside, I guess it make sense to put this statue out in the open where it can get wet when it rains

So I had one left-over TR that I didn't post since it wasn't theme park related, but I figured some people might want to see it.... but before that, a quick news round up for the Korean parks: Lotte World A few months later and the aquarium (and worlds biggest cinema screen) has still not been allowed to re-open. Last year I mentioned Lotte Worlds water park opened with only two slides opened outdoors with the rest to be opened next season, there hasn't been much in the way of promotion but park maps that have been released indicate a June opening for the rest of the park, including a master blaster, boomerang style slide, rafting slide, 8 lane racer (one of the ones that does a turn at the start), a torrent river (lazy river), rapids attraction and a flow rider. Everland I honestly don't know where to start here, there's so much news to deal with. As you may have noticed from this topic and my previous one, I have really not enjoyed Everland experience's at all this last year or two, with the park only opening half the rides and most of the children rides shut on quiet days and even sometimes busy days as well as rides not re-opening after bad weather, it felt more like fuji-q than the Everland from when I first arrived in Korea. It's really early in the season but the trips I've made, I'm happy to report that it feels like this bad Everland has died and a new Everland is on it's way.... literally. Everland was running a $10 entry promotion in March so I popped in for a few hours early in the month before some teacher training I had in the area and there were construction walls everywhere. It seems the new mascots I mentioned a few pages back was only the start of revitalizing Everland. I mentioned last post that there was a new show but they just had banners draped over the Madagascar logos which made it look kind of cheap and tacky. Well thankfully it was a temporary show to introduce the new mascots and Madagascar is back now. The map form when I visited saying only friday-sunday for night entertainment has gone, with a new show in place for the new characters it's every night again filled with lots of fire and fireworks Lost Valley has finally reopened after being closed for a few months due to the risk of foot and mouth, the birds of prey show has also been cleared to reopen after being closed for risk of AI. Everlands weather and operating policies seems much improved as well, on a few of my trips it seemed if a ride like T Express went down to rain or wind, it would rarely re-open but on the last few trips rides that have gone down due to weather have re-opened even only for a few hours, this never happened in what my wife and I are calling the "bad years." Speaking of, the policy of only opening half the park for 4 hours in the morning then shutting those rides down to open the other half of the park for the afternoon seems to be gone. We haven't encountered it once this year, it's such a more enjoyable experience when you aren't having to race around the hillside twice to cram in 4 rides that are only open for 4 hours and then having to trek up the hill again to grab the other half. Some rides will open at 1pm on quieter days since the park is empty but nothing closes by 2pm anymore which is so much nicer. Thank you, thank you Everland T Express seems to have now become permanently fast-pass only, the English map makes it a bit confusing saying its only weekdays and a reservation system weekends but it seems you always need a queue pass or reservation every-day now so just remember my advice from my last TR: there are other ticket booths around the park (even the parks blog shows people lining up outside T Expresses ticket office, why they don't mention the other ticket boxes in more places than the park map is beyond me) and that they aren't staggered fast passes so the start of the hour will be much busier than around half past. Following the accident the fun house has been completely removed and there's just concrete where it once sat. It leaves the also closed helicycles behind it very exposed. Some people think the helicycles may reopen when the crowds come to that area for the 2015 attraction in the log flumes place, others think after they've sat closed for so long they'll be removed. I'd love to see them removed, with the fun house gone it'd open up a nice bit of space.... I'm dreaming of a S&S 4d free spin although maybe the space isn't big enough. If not a S&S screaming swing would probably fit nicely Future News I had heard from some of my younger students very recently telling me excitedly about what was coming to Everland for 2016 and about the log flume area (when you have 300 students and live 40-50 minutes away from the park your guaranteed to have at least 20 students visiting the park a week) but I didn't think quoting Korean kindergarten and elementary students was a good source for TPR Considering the kids knew I assumed it must be on the construction walls and I kept waiting for something in a newspaper or everlands official blog and website but nothing came up.... Thankfully a Korean blogger went out and you can see his wonderful pictures here as well as a video of all the awesome fire in the night time show: http://szsup.tistory.com/670 There's also things in the update here that I hadn't noticed so all thanks for news from this point onwards goes to him... I'm just writing a news round-up 2015 I mentioned this in previous posts that the log flume was shut down to be replaced in 2015. Nobody was sure if it was a retheme or extensive rehab and the walls were blank last time I was there but looking at this update it seems extremely likely the log flume coming for 2015 is a completely new one and not an update of the old one. The promotional pictures show a 8 car raft and looks to be themed around an outdoor camping/rafting experience in bear country. It mentions in korean a backwards drop. Looking at the pictures I picture a ride system very similar to storm force 10 at Drayton Manor. Considering the old log flume could get lines of 3-4 hours, the bigger boats are a welcome addition and will definitely be needed with this new ride. 2016 Pandas will be coming to Everland, work is already under way for a panda exhibition where the old indoor african animals were exhibited. Though not the most exciting news for theme park people, I think this will bring in a lot of visitors for Everland and will make for a very exciting addition to their little zoo. (well big zoo if you ride the safari rides to see the main animals) Eagles Fortress A fence has gone up around the track! While not the most exciting news and I wish I could tell you what is happening behind the wall at least after 8 years of the ride just sitting there and nothing happening it's something. Rumors suggest track removal but its still early days, although the wall will probably stop pictures when I go out to do the big TR in the summer i'll try and look over from the top of T Express when I ride (so no camera obviously) and see what I can see in the area and get some pictures of the old station as well. Speaking of things left for 8 years, looking back at Robb's talk of the concrete slab filled with random kids rides being a bit out of place in Everland, the area is also getting touched up a building is under construction, rumored to be used for character meet and greets, and one of the kids rides in the area has gotten a re-theme to the characters. Ok finally on to my latest TR, though not theme park related I thought people might be interested. So my wife and I had planned on going to check out the new childrens park theme park (that TR will come eventually, promise) it started to snow pretty heavily while we were on the subway. We were worried the heavy snow would shut down the rides so we decided to postpone and go check out a Studio Ghibli exhibit. There's been quite a few exhibitions and concerts in Korea but normally due to them showing off actually layouts from the films have been secret, this one actually allowed pictures to be taken so here it is.... We were greeted by this poster as we got off the subway, there were a few themed to different movies scattered around the mall. The layout of the exhibition The dog from Howls Moving Castle waits in the queue line This was the first thing you see in the exhibition, the exhibitions uses a lot of angles to make things look smaller or for trick art. Although it looks small, this thing was massive and almost touched the ceiling. Sadly only photos were allowed and not video because this massive thing actually moved The detail that went into the model was amazing. Entering the next room, your greeted by the famous fireplace One of the first "box arts" to be encountered, there was a switch to pull forward the curtains Turnip Head I'll be honest the dressed up mannequins were the weakest part of the exhibit for me, thankfully there were very few of them..... .... and most were sculpted like this one of Sophie and Markl Remember I mentioned trick angles and curves were used for a lot of the exhibits, this was another one that used mirrors to make the meadow go on forever, although my camera ruined the effect Mononoke was the next room This was a massive screen that hit another model, it was also one of the only rooms that played the movies theme in it Behind the screen one more projection on the massive screen Onto the next room How many people have seen this movie? I'll be honest, this room was a little out of place. It felt like some-one realized that all the other exhibitions were Miyazaki movies and they felt they needed to throw something in from another director. Don't get me wrong a few of my very favorite Ghibli movies aren't by Miyazaki but only having one room dedicated to a different director seemed out of place. They either needed another room for something like Arietty or just went all out and made it all Miyazaki and put a Ponyo, Laputa or Kiki etc. room here. I really did enjoy these box art pictures A nice little effect having the forest change to the city Another room using angles to give a very neat effect (and again my camera ruining it) I wonder what could be in the tree Lots of little movie screens showing you the clips of what you would see I saw a lot of people in the line bringing umbrellas in the queue for this photo op, sadly I didn't plan ahead This was a small picture but I really liked it.

Is there a back to back option for this ride? I think the IAAPA pictures only showed facing each other or both facing forwards option. I've always enjoyed the version of rides that face outward as opposed to inwards personally, thinking of frisbees and spinning coasters, I prefer the view than looking at my friends but with a ride like this it won't matter since the configuration will change everytime you go go through a turn and you'll be too busy spinning anyway.

Granted this was the summer it opened and they may have cleaned up the area but the pooping seagulls on the top of the stadium near windseekers queue was the best interactive queue line i've ever been in . You stand in line laughing and watching as people nervously approach an empty straight of the queue where the floor is covered in seagull poop and you look up and see 2-3 seagull butts just waiting at the top of the stadium. Then you get to watch people run screaming as fast as they can through that straight when a gap opens up on the other side. Then before you know it, it's your turn to run the gauntlet. And after your through you can go back to watching other people go through it again. I had more fun in the line than on the actual ride. Those seagulls had really good aim, they always hit the same spots.

It was Neil Patrick Harris in a box.

Umm hopefully not de-railing this thread too much but why are cameras with interchangeable lenses banned from the park? Did I miss read that? The camera i've been using for all my trips and TR's across Asia (and Cedar Point during a visit to some friends) came with a zoom lens and a normal lens and is almost the same size as a point and click. I brought it from a friend and it's a few years old, pretty battered and probably takes crappier pictures than most modern normal digital cameras but because I need to press a button and choose a lens it's banned? But then it also says zoom lenses are banned so if I want to take a closer picture of a coaster train as it goes by I couldn't. My zoom lens that can be detached isn't that much bigger than a lot more of the permanently attached versions, I mean if I can use it in a packed crowd for a Disney parade without disturbing anyone, why is it a bother to use in the general park area?

I'm going to say 7.5/10 off the top of my head so far, although admittedly some of these are common to a few parks: Inside looks very similar with the roof shape and the oval layout. Indoor themeing seems similar Outside is an island. Pirate ship tucked up in corner of inside part with similar placements. Both have triotech theaters. Outdoor castle with monorail to the side that goes from the inside to the outside. The log with mushroom kind of reminds me of the entrance to lotte worlds Underland area. outdoor island consists of frisbee ride, tower ride, launched coaster and top spin (although Lotte World just removed wakiki wave) egyptian themed area both have indoor bumper cars adult version and kid version monorail stations that start on the 3rd floor inside and go to the back outside Indoor merry-go-rounds (starting to stretch) indoor foam ball shooting areas (stretching) Both have a kiddy suspended whip (again stretching) Indoor looping coasters (Although Romon World wins that one on improvements both in theming and better roller coaster by the look of it) Mr and Mrs mascots with top hat and bow (again stretching since thats most parks) Indoor boat rides Lotte World has Sinbad and Romon has Poseidon (Now i'm Mr Fantastic since Poseidon might be different from a boat ride, i'm just guessing based on its location on the Romon World website compared to where Sinbad is at Lotte World. And Sinbad is kind of Lotte World's version of Pirates anyway but if Everland has a small world knock-off....) roof and oval shaped inside Monorail is just off to the right indoor theming Taken from www.detravelocity.com so you can compare to the island picture two pages back: frisbee, tower, spinning and launched coaster islands

From the latest update on the facebook page:

Well I remember them using the wands at the entrance of Universal Singapore's dueling coaster, but I don't remember seeing it for the mommy coaster. They made me use the lockers for both although they were free, I think you only had to pay for lockers where you wanted to store stuff for convenience or not getting wet, not necessity, like the jurassic park rapids. But then again it was the same at USJ for both roller-coasters although I didn't see any metal wands.

If it was run by Six Flags that probably would be the tag on most promotional materials.

With Volcano, Flight of Fear, and Stunt Coaster, this may already be true. Do any other parks have more than three launched coasters? (I can't think of one offhand, but I might be mistaken.) Ferrari World will have 4 (if you count GT challenge Jeff Johnson style) or also match for 3 when their newest coaster opens. I think that means all their coasters are launched so wouldn't it be the launch capital? Universal Singapore also has 3 launched coasters and soon 2 normal coasters.

After seeing so many responses complaining about it being closed all summer, asking when it would come back or comments about how they shouldn't close it forever even with it stating "early summer re-opening" in the description of the photo, this comment made me laugh, too bad Busch Gardens missed the sarcasm or the social media team deliberately ignored it. Edit: I also see someone quoting wikipedia and it's 2017 listing of Iron Gwazi.

Welcome to Disney's stuff that wouldn't really fit in the other parks.

This thread was created roughly 7 years ago, at least 50% of the posts are there to comment on the stupid posts, so there are roughly 70 posts per year that get recognised and appeared here. That's quite good for such a big website! Plus this thread pretty much subscribed to DarienLaker's posts lately. It could probably gain a spin-off as it's own thread at this point if things posted to other forums were included.

R.I.P. Terry Pratchett, thanks for taking the time to talk to all of us personally instead of just signing and carrying on to the next people even when the lines were hours long.... It was an unforgettable day

Does anyone remember when a worker died on Atlantis back in 2006 and the park offered free tickets to try and counter the negative press which resulted in a stampede and more negative press? A korean facebook page was talking about free events and openings in korea (you ought to have seen the crowds when Korea's first Ikea opened recently or when some Pikachus had a parade in Seoul) and had some pictures from that day, I found an old topic and one or two mentions of the accident/stampede but I think this is the first time there's been pictures on this board. Cosmos Apps facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cosmosapps?fref=photo Taken from Cosmos Apps: https://www.facebook.com/cosmosapps?fref=photo Taken from Cosmos Apps: https://www.facebook.com/cosmosapps?fref=photo Taken from Cosmos Apps: https://www.facebook.com/cosmosapps?fref=photo

We'll all miss Eric Idle face when he is inevitably replaced replaced by Neil Patrick Harris.

I heard the line reached 10 hours long. I find this amusing because we have white castle restaurants all over the place out my way. Is there any white castle restaurant locations in Florida? Is there a white castle within a 4 and a half hour drive from fun spot? People could have saved some time

I already got you covered

So I was going to mention these when I started my TR's for 2015 but I figured since nearly all of these bits of news tie into the updates I made in this thread, I thought it'd serve as a nice epilogue to theose. Lost Valley, one of Everland's newest rides, second safari ride and one of the biggest crowd eaters has been closed for the last 3-4 months and still has no re-opening date. I'd assumed it had gone down for annual work due to the cold temperatures for the animals (the lion, tiger and bear safari ride is open all year round) but it now turns out it's been closed due to the risk of foot and mouth, the indoor zoo exhibition area has also had to be closed and the bird show has vanished from the schedule due to the risk of bird flu. It came at a pretty bad time for Everland, T Express and the rapids were closed for its winter rehab and the log flume is being replaced/upgraded behind construction walls for the 2015 attraction, combined with the half day schedules meaning capacity was severely down over the winter months. Due to the above, the fast passes Everland promoted that I mentioned in my TR have also been suspended. I thought they might have come back when T Express opened and just allowed people to substitute for the closed Lost Valley but for now the passes are suspended. It seems after the accident the fun house will be permanently closed. Nothing official has come from the park but after months of saying closed on the app and map, all mention has been removed from the app, website and park map and we all know how well that worked out for Eagles Fortress. I mentioned earlier that the helicycles that sit behind the funhouse literally open for only a few days a year on the busiest days, maybe now with the funhouse closed they could do something with the area. I hope it isn't just left to sit there and rot like Eagles Fortress and the big wheel already are (and the helicycles for 360 days) Everland also seem to have currently changed the night time entertainment schedule to fridays-sundays only so if you want to see the lights parade and the fireworks/laser show time your day trip accordingly. The Top Scan, Let's Twist, has had a lot of closed days this year compared to the other rides, so if you're interested on riding it check the Everland app before you go. In news of things that have come to Everland: Kfc has taken over the diner in the middle of the American area. Though there are franchises in the park for attractions (Thomas, Rio, Pororo etc) I think this may be the only franchise restaurant that has been at Everland since I started visiting. There's a new show replacing the Madagascar show with Everlands own new mascots that were unveiled this year. Hopefully it will change soon but right now, the Madagascar characters and signs still sit both outside and inside the theater with new banners draped over some madagascar parts or to the side on other parts. Everland has set up a glamorous campsite in the middle of the park, it's located just under the american section of the park near the dragon coaster, prices vary due to events and season but it seems to be the Everland equivalent to renting a Cabana at a waterpark, it gives you a lace to return to and rest in during your day at Everland: http://www.everland.com/web/everland/favorite/glamping/index.html That's it for my 2014 updates, when I do return to Everland to do a full TR by myself and see what happened in the log flumes area, i'll try out some of Everland's single rider passes and trek up the hill to grab some updates on Eagles Fortress. I know Robb asked earlier in the thread and honestly I always forget to go look, since the big wheel became SBNO it's very hard to get pictures with it all hidden in the trees, the only way to look is from T Expresses lift hill and i'll obviously never take a camera on there and break the park rules, perhaps everyone will have to wait until Robb comes back one day to shoot a new POV video. Honestly as you've probably seen from this thread 2014 I really haven't enjoyed my times to Everland with the closed kids rides and half day policies resulting in the quiter the park being, the less rides are open (heck one quiet Monday I went I missed out on the top scan because they only opened it for 2 hours) meaning even on quieter days lines can be impossible to pick (yesterday with Chinese tourists still over from New Year lines but a yellow dust health warning telling people not to go outside, lines were hitting 2 hours but rides still alternated times) but don't let that put you off going. I've honestly found Sundays to be the magic day for me this year, yes the park is a lot busier but you'll probably find more rides open, if you read the map and know you don't need to run to T Express (where the ticket line can be huge) and can go to other ticket booths to reserve you'll probably find if you time it right at T Expresses entrance (around 35 minutes past the hour) that you'll wait less time than you would on a weekday (I've seen 40-80 minutes on weekdays when entering the line with my ticket late in the hour on sundays i wait 20-30). The only thing I will say about weekdays is if you want to do the safari rides, each one lasts around 15 minute and are walk-ons on weekday mornings and pick up in the afternoon but on weekends they'll be hit by familys for most of the day (Lost Valley seems to get quietest at lunch and Safari World around late afternoon). The other option is to take a gamble and go on a Friday. Some weekdays the park is completely empty and some days its packed, it can just be blind luck but friday is a day where you're less likely to hit half day ride openings, can be empty until lunch-time and is the only day outside the weekends where you can still see all the night entertainment shows.

Or 20 minutes of him singing: Check out the color the water please no selfie sticks or twitter and no ones drunk or bitter without an annual pass! World of color water and light like a magic trick done in plain sight why do people love it when it's really meh? when it's just some projections that aren't really there? But then i think of Simba and Elsa and Ariel and Tarzan or when Scar made his brother take that nasty fall *Spoiler alert* Or something along those lines

I think some-one said better quality projectors, it's still 2D though. It also has a fast-pass line, but i've heard of them selling out an hour before the park opens since the fast-pass was the only way to avoid having to queue up for a timed entry ticket to the Harry Potter part, although that might have calmed down now Harry Potter land has been open a while.