matt_g

All interesting stuff to know, and from what you say I think you might be right about cultural differences - but I've probably also been relatively lucky to have worked in places with guaranteed work. I'm sure there are some people over here in a similar position. I'm not sure we necessarily have quite such a distinction between hourly and salaried workers - I've had jobs (and I mean part time in shops or summer work as a student, definitely not anything professional) that were paid hourly but with standard hours written in my contract (with overtime sometimes available, and with no union involved) and I don't think that's especially unusual. Anyway, this has got horribly off topic so I will go and eat some cheese or something. Squeak.

Well, I've never worked in a theme park but it doesn't happen in any job. I've had jobs that were paid hourly where staff would just get a bit of an easier time on quiet days to make up for the busy periods. If you want committed staff then you need to offer them job security. That's the reason that more valuable staff have salaries and notice periods. (Don't get me wrong, I understand that that has to be weighed up against cost - but I would personally only choose to work for someone who might send me home at any time if I didn't have any alternative) In terms of annoying customers though, I don't think it's hard to understand why they would close when the costs of staying open for a small number of people would be very high. "The customer is always right" is all very well as a nice phrase but in practice buisness decisions do sometimes need to about saving money, especially if the company's struggling. It would have been much friendlier of them to have someone stnading by the entrance apologising and handing out free tickets and parking refunds though. That wouldn't have been expensive and gives a much better impression than waiting for people to ask. Cheese is tasty.

So they can just close the park without paying their staff, even if they were expecting to get paid for a day's work and have potentially paid to travel to work, etc? No wonder the staff don't have the best reputation in the world if that's what happens routinely.

Hi everyone, just thought I would introduce myself here! I've been reading for a little while and joined the forums recently. My name's Matt (in case you hadn't guessed that!), and I'm from Essex, England. I'm currently a student (studying Computer Science in Cambridge), but I'm graduating in June and as of the end of August I'll be starting work as a software developer in London. I've been a bit of a disney nut since going to Florida a couple of times when I was younger - more recently I've been to Disneyland Paris every now and again and in the last few years I've also gotten more into other theme parks and rollercoasters! My favourite at the moment, based on pretty limited experience, is probably either Nemesis or Air at Alton Towers. In fact, I'm going for Air right now because of the "sunbathing on your back" moments which are oddly relaxing. Maybe that's not technically the idea. (Yes, it was actually sunny last time I went there!) I've become quite addicted to looking through the trip reports on TPR - absolutely love the site - lots of you look like you have loads of fun and I definitely hope to come on a TPR trip at some point. Anyway, that's enough from me! Take care, -Matt

I think the logo is slightly better than the name. Mostly because "freestyle" is in smaller letters so from a distance you could feasibly believe it's just called "Music Park". Which would be a (slightly) better name.

At first I thought it reminded me of an RCT scenario name - but then I found a list of scenarios and I think every single one of them is a million times better than "freestyle music park". It doesn't sound like a theme park, it's a weird expression (does the phrase "freestyle music" really bring anything at all to mind?) and it makes it completely impossible to forget that it's "the park that used to be called Hard Rock Park".

I've just started reading Birdsong and so far it's fantastic - definitely want to keep reading. My praise might be slightly based on having just finished Twilight, which I didn't enjoy at all.

What construction do you mean? I can't see anything under construction in the pictures - although the "beach theming" in the queue for Crush's Coaster looks a lot like it should be!

Is this a realistic possibility for some point in the next couple of years? Sounds like an amazing idea!

^ I thought I was going mad there for a moment but I've realised that I'm talking about "Chester and Hester's Dino-Rama", which is just a part of Dinoland and was added in 2002 rather than the whole of Dinoland! My mistake. I can't really remember the Dinoland theming from the time to be honest.

Are budget-conscious Europeans allowed to post here? My list is just "Florida", and that was on a family holiday a very long time ago! I really hope to be back fairly soon though. When I get one of those job things.

I went to Animal Kingdom years ago - and my first (and only!) impression of Dinosaur was that it was about the best ride I'd ever been on. I absolutely loved it for having a really clever mix of thrills, theming and pretty animatronics. It was about the only ride I've ever remembered getting a spontaneous round of applause from people who didn't know each other at the end of the ride! Alas I haven't been back and no doubt Indiana Jones is better, but it still has a soft spot in my heart! Fortunately it wasn't there all those years ago, but from the photos I think this pretty much goes without saying. They can say it's themed around the story they gave it - but in reality it has to be about finding an excuse to build some very cheaply themed attractions.

The Disney resort in Tokyo looks amazing in general, but the castle looks absolutely beautiful! Without making any rash judgement I think that might be my favourite of the Disney castles.

Those monorails look incredible. I'm so glad I found TPR just for the monorail porn! I actually spent about 10 minutes reading this thread with the Simpsons "Monorail" song on loop. More places should have monorails!

I love rides with narration! I might have to go to Chessington just for that - the last time was when I was about 12 and I don't remember much.

Disappointing. There's supposed to be smoke everywhere*. Given the amount of effort that goes into theming their new attractions, I wish Disney would spend a bit more on keeping special features running! *edit: Everywhere on the ride. Not everywhere in the world, that would just be silly. And smokey.

Agreed. That sort of thing is just silly. A lot of the quotes in this thread really aren't particularly bad - after all, a dad telling a son about how a LIM coaster works is no bad thing, even if they got the wrong ride, and the GP doesn't know or care about ride statistics - but the random stories about accidents are generally just made up and spread around by people who want to sound impressive and should know better. I think it might just be bad journalism in general that annoys me - e.g. articles that really don't make it clear whether someone died / was injured because of: 1) A ride failure 2) They climbed over a fence and stood in front of something that was moving fast 3) They had an existing medical condition which was made worse by getting on a rough ride. In case 2) that's their own problem, and unless the ride is a 12G neck-snapping monster then case 3) really needn't be much of a consideration for parks - people make their own choices about doing exercise, going on rollercoasters, and other rigorous activities!

I'm straight but seem to find myself with gay people surprisingly often! I don't have a problem with that at all and they're (mostly) great guys, but I've had a couple of terrifying conversations with my dad about it. He likes to tell a completely homophobic story about someone he knows who lived in a house with 3 gay people, which finishes with "I wonder if he'd be gay himself after a year of that". At which point I decide it's best to avoid pointing out that I lived last year with 3 gay people, and, amazingly enough, me is still straight. What a shocker. (/sarcasm)

If you're me, "bee and em" works best.

I personally like my meat and I can understand the complaints about some vegetarians and vegans - some people really do behave as if people who eat meat are "worse than them". I don't mean to generalise and I know this doesn't apply to everyone though! In particular I don't understand people who are vegetarian, supposedly because they don't approve of cruelty to animals, but still eat dairy products or fish. If you're a vegan then I at least respect you for standing up for what you believe in. As I see it, people (and animals) have always eaten meat. I don't think we should be unnecessarily cruel, and no doubt there is room for improvement in the way that animals are slaughtered, but I don't think that animals are equal to humans and I don't have a problem with eating them. In fact, they taste yummy, so I tend to eat quite a lot of them. In the long run I think going vegetarian could certainly help out the world - environmentally, eating meat is really wasteful (it takes far more water, for example, to feed a cow and then eat it than just to eat the vegetables ourselves) and no doubt people often eat too much of it and it ends up being bad for their health - but lets face it, few people in the western world are exactly great for the environment. If we drive, get on planes, travel the world to ride coasters, etc, then the environment's already suffering because of us. Eating meat is just yet another thing that we might be better off without. I have to be honest, I'm not sure I'm close friends with anyone who's vegan or vegetarian. I can't imagine, for instance, being in a relationship with someone who didn't eat meat - I just like it too much for that! The same applies for friends that you want to cook for - if you have a largish group of meat-eaters and a vegan, how do you deal with that? I would also really struggle if my (future and theoretical!) children decided to be vegetarian / vegan while I was still cooking for them. How would I deal with that and keep everyone happy?

That sounds horrible! They're really great photos and I'm sure they make the park look better than it actually did when I went! What were the smoke and lighting effects like when you went on R'n'R? I get the impression from some Disney forums that they can be pretty erratic.

Are you really going to enjoy doing quite so much at once? I can't really imagine doing parks non-stop for a full month. If you've done this sort of thing before then that's one thing but it sounds like you might not have done. I would seriously consider having a (cheaper) 2 week slower-paced "cut down" version, even if you might not be able to come back.

I went to Disneyland Paris in September - I wore a rucksack which had my camera and other odds and ends in it, and I think I kept it with me (which is what I was told to do) on every ride. I remember thinking it was about to fall out on Rock 'n' Roller Coaster (it didn't!) but otherwise it wasn't really an issue. I can't remember exactly where I sat for Space Mountain - it wasn't the front - and it was really only a little bit rough. I don't have all that many rides to compare it to, but there wasn't any pain for me!

I'm a massive Harry Potter fan and have just spent quite a while going through this thread, and it really does look like it could be pretty incredibly themed if it's done properly! I need to start working out ways to end up in Florida in the next couple of years...