better_by_design

Wow! Thanks for the great TR and videos! Very different looking than the 2 Dubai waterparks - and pretty crazy with the coaster zipping between all the slides. Do the coaster targets and controls actually do anything? I saw the construction 2 years back when I visited FW and definitely need to visit again! My wife loves waterparks, so the Emirates trifecta of Wild Wadi, AquaVenture and now Yas Waterworld is probably unmatched outside of Orlando!

As someone mentioned above, when I told my wife what they're building, she asked "When does that open? We have to go see that when it opens." Why? Because she loves Avatar? Not at all. She's not a fan of the first movie, and I'd probably have to drag her to a sequel. She IS, however, a big fan of DAK, and adding some spectacular looking new rides, a whole new area, and especially a night time show is going to make her favorite park at WDW so much better that it's guaranteeing we visit when it opens. Isn't that the whole point, rather than second guessing how many fans the movies have?

Easy call - Option 1 - With Twitter, it's easy to miss things, and this nicely incorporates all the latest. The only downside is making the main image a bit smaller, and frankly, it's still plenty big enough to capture my attention.

Kicked in, and got a couple other Walt fans in on this too! Thanks for taking the time to post this, else I would never have heard about it. Fingers crossed it gets fully funded and I can go use my visit ticket soon!

This is a really awesome looking ride - Mack does a great job combining interesting, fun, and family into a complete package, and huge kudos to Sea World for using themeing to tell a story AND add to the thrill. As someone above mentioned, it's great to see a theme on this that is well executed and NOT about an animal or myth. Even though it's 'just' a disaster ride, they look like they knocked it out of the park on making this all real looking. As far as thrills go, having the splash dive into the whitewater and under that propeller is total genius - much MUCH more interesting for the rider than a big outdoor splash - I'm curious if it has a "headchopper" feel when riding. Great show!

Great report! We're going to NYC this weekend with my parents and this was a great way of getting even more excited! We took Scott's tour on a previous trip based solely on your recommendation and were NOT disappointed - great tour, great guy, great pizza! Saw Newsies in NYC last year and am extremely glad they're going to be touring the show - this is going to be a great success on tour I think - the name recognition should sell seats, and people are going to have their expectations blown away by the general awesomeness of the show! Thanks again!

This looks very cool - and definitely sets a personal goal to brainwash my soon-to-be-born son effectively enough that this becomes a must-visit destination in a few years!

My guess: Supports that are cleverly hidden under the waterfalls. I doubt there will be much to the floating mountains since you'll be looking at them from a distance and nothing will need to be up there besides some basic scenery and water pumps. What like this?

Has anyone seen a $$$ figure for this thing yet? And are we sticking with "Avatar" for the landname, or is the bet "Pandora: from James Cameron's AVATAR" or some other gobbledygook? After seeing the concept art, it's hard to be negative about this - well balanced for the audience, unique looking, and I second the folks who applaud Disney for also building out the night time spectacular at the same time... about time to get DAK onboard as a full day/night experience. And personally, my wife & I do love Animal Kingdom, I'm just glad they're rounding out it's potential with this.... not that there's other stuff they can't fix (Yeti, Train to Nowhere, the boatless river, etc) but this is a MASSIVE step in the right direction.

Re-skinning Star Tours isn't exactly super-ambitious, but it is a ride system HKDL is lacking, and at least shows some theme creativity, so alright... also glad this will help balance the park out geographically (at least a bit) and be an indoor "experience". Is it just me, or do the baddies in the concept art look a bit Ultron-ish? Possibly tied to the second Avengers movie?

Another very smart addition by HW - a classic ride, perfect for the audience, perfect name, great placement in the park. I also like that they're building it over water and with a nice lighting package - hopefully will look awesome during Holiwood Nights! And is it just me, or is anyone *almost* as excited by the every-Friday-night fireworks? Anyways, congrats, and here's hoping for a new (awesome) coaster some year soon!

I love that Into the Woods is the most commented on new project from Disney here... like everyone else, I think it's a heck of a show and am very curious how the adaptation goes - but with Rob Marshall directing, it has major potential. Plus have you seen the cast? Cannot wait to see Anna Kendrick in this. And Johnny Depp, Chris Pine, Tracy Ullman (!), Emily Blunt, Meryl Streep... I mean, murderers row stuff. Also very intrigued by Brad Bird's Tomorrowland - guy hasn't delivered anything I'd consider below very solid - but the whole "mystery" stuff is getting a little heavy. Let's just say we aren't saying anything, and wait for it to come out.

I just realized I hadn't updated this in a whole year... lots to get caught up on. Let's start with, oh, say... yesterday, when I made my first trip to the lengendary EFTELING Well, first let's start with this picture from the Belgian airport: Yes, this is essentially a bar covered with giant piles of giant bricks of chocolate. Like Legoland if Lego were made from chocolate. Ahem... I was lucky enough to find a room for Friday night at the famous Efteling hotel - sadly they were fully booked for Saturday. Even better, not only was breakfast included, but so is park admission during your stay... which means I could get an hour in Friday night. Or afternoon... these guys need to stay open later than 6pm, especially when the sun doesn't go down until nearly 9! The hotel is obviously very unique, and very cool. Having free parking, and a short walk to a backdoor entrance to the park doesn't hurt either! Like a floating castle... Where's George when you need him? After getting checked in, I hightailed it straight over to the park itself... at around 5. Not much time to get started, so I headed straight to the "Rough Realm" home of all the 'big rides'. My first stop was the 'Flying Dutchman' The Flying Dutchman ride building is a true work of art. I had a pretty good idea of what to expect - dark ride beginning, small-ish watercoaster ending. The fact that you can see the whole ride essentially from the outside doesn't leave much to the imagination. BUT... I was completely blown away by this ride, mainly because of the dark ride portion. Obviously, give these guys Disney size budgets and they'd make a ride twice as long, with double the capacity, but... the Flying Dutchman's beginning is really, REALLY spectacular theme park art. The queue is immersive, the music is moodsetting and original, the ride vehicles of highest quality, and it sets up a storyline and reason for the ride to be the ride it is! The effects are good... and all working! In particular, the rain storm is a "go for broke" amount of rain, not just sprinkling. And as a first time rider, I thought we were about to get drenched. Just great stuff! Ka-sploosh! Add to all that the fact that the finale of the ride adds motion and dynamicism to a very nice corner of the park, and it's a total hit. Next up: George & the Dragon. Being a fan of woodies, I was excited. Not the biggest/fastest/etcetera, but definitely fun looking, and who doesn't like fun? Racing goodness! The queue and station decor reminded me a LOT of Wodan from my visit to Europa Park last summer... not anywhere close to the scale of it, but the whole heroic music / knight thing in the station. Friday evening I only had time for one ride on the 'Ice' side, but since there were a few stragglers still in line, they sent us through a second time. The ride is basically really fun! Not a huge drop, but the speed starts on the turnaround at the top of the lift and never lets up! The triple-up over the station is very cool, and the ride basically doesn't let up after that. Definitely achieves the aim of a racer, clearly not focused on airtime... and that's OK! It absolutely achieves the goal of a very fun woodie for the family market. Highly re-rideable, and some great speed and serious turns. Of course, the racing aspect is great, and I love the fact that they declare a winner - would we ever see that in a US park? Riders do actually cheer and boo when the announcement is made - very good show! A giant animatronic that actually works! Hey! You! Look up there! The staff take closing time VERY SERIOUSLY and actually closed queues ahead of the 6pm posted closing time... if there was a 15 minute wait, queue closed at 5:45 so you would be done at closing time. Very un-Disney! The second evening, even the bathrooms were being locked up at 6 on the nose... So, what else to do but go check out AQUANURA, Efteling's big new fountain show at 6:15. Which I didn't take any pictures of. Why not? Because it was 6:15... and the sun was still fully up. It's very clear that Efteling spent a TON of money on this show - the scale and variety of fountain effects are world-class, the music is great, the setting is great... but during daylight hours just won't impress much. I went and checked out the videos of the night shows, and was appropriately WOWed... but during daylight it's just nice, and big. Imagine seeing DCA's WoC during daylight, with no actual colors, and no projections. I'd love to see Aquanura at night. Sigh. So, Saturday morning after packing up, breakfasting, checking out, I headed out to enjoy the 30 minute early entry hotel guests get to attractions down in that corner of the park. First up: Vogel Rok. Vogel Rok? More like Vogel ROCKS! Amiright? Great entrance, and supposedly the queue is great, but I was fortunate enough to not have to experience it. Took 3 rides in a row, and I have to say (queue broken record here) that this is a well done, solid ride for the family audience. The ride is super-smooth, totally dark, gets some good intensity in the turns and helices, great onboard music, and has some cool effects. Clearly not a game-changer, but a solid part of the Efteling portfolio. See a theme here? Next I scampered past a lot of other stuff to make it up to the Spookslot castle gate with the rest of the paying public - so that I might hurry over to BOB Let's play 'spot the coaster' Behind a very pretty station is a very nice bobsled coaster... doing what bobs do, swerving around through a very thick and lush forest. It's really important to mention at some point (and probably repeat this): Efteling is CRAZY PRETTY. You can tell this was a nature park before they put in 'real rides'. There's SO MUCH landscaping, massive trees, flowers, ponds, and even LAWNS. Pretty much everywhere you go, there's honest-to-goodness giant swathes of grass with for-real local Nederlanders sprawled out on blankets with their families enjoying a beautiful day. There aren't many theme parks (let alone zoos, etc) in the US that have this sort of feel, and it's awesome. If you lived nearby I really believe it would be worth having an annual pass just to enjoy the park, maybe take a train ride, etc in the summer. Good stuff. The sign warns that this is 20 minute ride! I headed back over to the "Rough Realm" to get some rides on George's 'fire' side, and then took in Python. Upside down! I'd talk more about Python, but... why? OK, so the trains are new... ish? And have a fancy python paint job, plus the Vekoma wide-OTSR bars with soft restraints, all the better to reduce headbanging. So now, it isn't a painful ride, just a 'meh' one. (Of course, that's probably good the family audie... ahem). Then I doubled back to Piranha, the rapids ride. After the Flying Dutchman, the massive themed building exterior over-sold this... solid rapids ride, but nothing amazing. Ah well. We've got traffic on the 405... On a positive note - Mexican food, and more importantly, cerveza to be had waterside. Thence, on to FATA MORGANA Not actually EPCOT - you can tell, because here they've got a ride. Definitely a signature ride. I'd go so far as to say the best non-Pirates boat ride in the world? Anyone agree/disagree? Why? Great music. Definite storyline. Good animatronics. Atmospheric special effects. Original story. Efficient high capacity ride system. Fits park thematically. Risk taking in ending with an UNHAPPY ending. Really impressed. Doubling back to Spookslot - interesting. I can see why, historically, this must have been important to the park as it began to move away from the 'life size diorama' to the 'modern theme park attraction' and I'm guessing is liked because of that history. As a theme park nerd, I liked it, but I can't see this wowing teenagers... and maybe that's OK. Next door is PANDADROOM. Which I orginally thought sounded like PANDA APOCALYPSE but turns out means "Panda Vision". Oh well. So, yeah, really well done for a 4D movie.... it's fair to say the post-show & food location is 80% as cool as a Rainforest Cafe, so that's pretty impressive, when you think about it. Prettiest pizza cafeteria in the world? After this, it was time to wander around and enjoy a lot of the smaller, more classic attractions... mainly because the lines were pretty ridiculous for the big stuff. I'm pretty sure this is the same size as the one in Anaheim The many, MANY fairy tale displays were very cool. They need to get a smartphone app that reads them in other languages though... this would be mega-cool. Of course, I'm sure 95%+ of visitors aren't as linguistically challenged as I am. How long is my neck? One that deserves special note - the Indian Water Lillies. Apparently, a very ugly witch could sing really well, but got jealous of the fairies beauty, so turned them into water lillies, and they only turn back to fairies in the light of the full moon to join her in song... along with a frog/troll band? It also has a very catchy tune. I guarantee you that if this was longer and had seating, there would be a LOT of recreational drug use in the cave that houses it. Don't question, just enjoy the show. The Carousel Palace has what is probably the most beautiful carousel installation in the world - partly because of aesthetics, but also because of the amazing band organ, and the fact that the horses gallop (not just go up & down) and the sleighs rock side to side - gorgeous stuff. Most beautiful carousel in the world? The final major area I hadn't done yet hosts two of the most popular attractions - Dreamgflight and Raveljin. I didn't think to snag tickets to Ravelijin (they have kiosks that give out free seating assignments) but did manage to get on Dreamflight - and it's a doozy. Hard to compare - some folks compare it to Peter Pan (because of the overhead ride system) but... it's basically amazing, another classic ride that needs more press outside the local area. Like Fata Morgana, one of the best dark rides out there, beautiful, unique, and just amazing stuff. Also nearby - who doesn't like a good train ride? And I always love parks that celebrate their history, so having a small museum of their 6- years in business is great. Also - Villa Volta. My, what a lovely home! I'm pretty sure the magic in this attraction is lost because of my 0% knowledge of Dutch. The home is beautiful, the animatronic giving the introduction is INCREDIBLE - especially in that you're a foot away from him. The main chamber is utterly gorgeous - and the music and programming are very good - but that was where it ended for me. Cool, but not amazing. Unlike the other major Efteling attractions, not knowing the full story limits the drama of Villa Volta. Welcome! Final thoughts - basically, a completely outstanding theme park. Maybe not a complete coaster-lovers dream, but it should be a dream destination for theme park lovers. Not the ride horsepower of Europa Park, but incredibly beautiful and unique park & attractions. A definite wow! Entrance building - the House of the Five Senses Seriously? How pretty is this park?

This looks to be an awesome and major addition - the re-launched Funspot is now officially on the top of my list the next time I visit Orlando. Although SWO's Antarctica does have penguins. Hmmm... Penguins > Woodie? Woodie > Penguins? Either way, it's a win-win! Although I didn't know that they moved SFOG's Wheelie there... unheralded Schwartzkopf-rescuing WIN! Seriously, very excited for the Fun Spot folks - I've always been impressed with how well run & staffed they are, especially compared to a lot of mediocre/scary operators around in the whole go-kart racket... they're clearly one of the classier operations, and I sincerely hope the paying public supports them with their business - and allows them more $$$ for even further expansion, because clearly they're making great choices!

Weekends are much better for me (especially if traveling to an event) - though Monday/Friday bashes could work.

I went to HKDL few years ago, when the "big new thing" was IASW, so the whole "West Bank" of the Jungle Cruise is all new area to me. (OK, technically it's the south bank in Hong Kong, but I like the allusion of "West Bank" a lot better) It's the same with Ocean Park - when I last went (2 years ago?), Hair Raiser was finished, but it and the arctic themed coaster weren't actually open yet. This will teach me to visit Asia in the fall and not pre-summer. I may have to choose between the two... realistically of course, it'll be my wife's call, as she's traveling with me that weekend.

Has anyone heard if Mystic Manor is opening before May? I'm going to be passing through Hong Kong next weekend on a business trip and am debating whether it's worth visiting HKDL and trying to catch it...

I'm completely fascinated by taking the Splash Battle ride to this level of themeing. Obviously they're great rides, fun for a wide audience, and especially in Florida... why hasn't someone built one in Orlando before? I've really thought some of the themeing on Splash Battles has been fun (Europa Park and Dollywood are both really fun) but has anyone built one with an indoor portion at all before? What about the idea of making it interactive? This sounds more like a shooting gallery setup than just "shoot water cuz it's fun". Very, very interesting! I also love that Legoland is making a whole coherent land out of it.

Thanks for the memories! I was fortunate to visit Ocean Park and HKDL a few years ago, and this rekindled my hopes of getting to both again soon to visit the (many) new attractions they've both built since then. Gotta love some competition resulting in major investments between two beautiful parks!

Has anyone ever done NYE at BGT? I will be in the area with family this year and was wondering how nuts it could be crowdwise, and whether the park makes any serious efforts beyond the late hours. I was a little dismayed that Christmas Town apparently ends before Christmas instead of pushing through Jan 1 like the Disney holiday offerings, or we'd definitely make a point of visiting around those dates.

I imagine they could do it with a decent high-end 3D printer setup. Totally! They HAVE to have at least considered this as an option. Isn't Disney already piloting a 3D printed toy somewhere on property already?

I was lucky enough to ride it the first month it was open and was blown away. I think I still have the "I rode it first t-shirt" that I was seduced into buying. Fast forward to 2011 and my next visit to KBF and the sad, sad realization that time had moved on.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

Exactly. Practically off the shelf... one hopes they'll theme it out the wazoo, but I'm betting not. Sigh. Happy with the concept (family focused, bring something balance & activity to the Boardwalk) but... but... Sigh. Kudos to the elevator-inside-a-lighthouse idea.

They aren't...which really surprised me. In fact, I didn't feel like I was being "upcharged" at all on this ship. On most cruise lines I'm used to having to say "no" to the drink people, "no" to all the random photographers, etc, and on Disney they really didn't seem to push much of anything. I guess it's because the ship already gets a premium? I was also very surprised that not only did they allow you to use your own camera when taking pictures of the characters along side their photographers, they actually ENCOURAGED it! Beyond all the obvious "Disney stuff" that happens on the Disney Cruises, this is BY FAR the biggest difference - no one is shoving drink trays at you, whining about you going to the art auction, and basically trying to upsell you every 5 minutes. Combine this with no bingo, casinos, etc. and Disney is much more "all in" than most cruises. I mean sure, they still have an awesome spa and sell you photos and stuff, but it just doesn't feel like you're being nickled and dimed constantly. Undoubtedly this is primarily because they are very expensive upfront, but it really does pay off (to at least some degree) during the cruise, making it a MUCH nicer experience overall. We went on the Dream last year and loved it. Really a very premium experience from the ship to the food to the entertainment. Great report and glad you guys had great time!