Thrasher

Just voted, good luck!

Yea, Im sad to say I didnt spot any clear tubes on site. To be honest, I had forgotten about that design. I am willing to bet its going to be more like windows instead of a completely clear tube.

I took a quick run through some of the Orlando attractions today, thanks to my class being cancelled. Universal Orlando Gonna start off with a few pictures of the BMG building coming along nicely... They are getting ready to close off this area from the rest of USO, so these could be the last few pics from this angle until opening. I saw this in the ground, which I think has something to do with closing this area off and turning it into part of City Walk... They are also putting the finishing touches on the side of the building with the paint effect... Moving on, they are erecting a screen on the Twister building. I can only guess that the Mardi Gras concerts are pulling in more people and they are setting up screens for people further back in the food court area. Does anyone remember this taxi being there? All the globes are back, inflated, and in place since my last update. I think I hit the nail on the head with the cleaning, as they seemed whiter than last time. The seagulls are working on that.... Lastly, they are re-roofing Jaws... Islands of Adventure I didnt take many pictures while walking through the park. While I was watching Jurrasic Park River Adventure, I noticed a bright orange construction fence back behind the JPRA building. This is the area they used for The Skool during HHN 2005. I couldnt get any closer. Does anyone know what it is? Discovery Cove I was able to get some pictures of the prep-work being done for the rumored expansion. No real building work done yet. I think they are eventually going to have to re-work the entire parking lot for Discovery Cove, as the work being done is behind the Employee parking area... Aquatica I was able to get on the construction site of the new water park. One of the construction workers was nice enough to let me drive around the office areas to snap a few pictures, but I couldnt access the main site as it was after hours. Enjoy! Looking towards the far end of the park and the other tower... Rock work being done for the wave pool... The other tower... These next two are of the prep area where they are assembling all of the slide pieces. There were tons of em in an area roughly the sixe of 4-5 football fields... Thats it for this update. Hope you all liked it.

Yes. The Cinespheres have been up for awhile. They might be cleaning them, cause the seagulls like to sit and relieve themselves and they have gotten quite dirty.

Ran to Universal Orlando again today. Ive been watching the weather webcam they have setup and noticed on the far left Nick building blue! As many of you might have read on Screamscape, the NASCAR Sports Grill opened. The woman doing the seating allowed me upstairs to snap some pics. I never went inside before the remodel, but this all looks very nice. Upstairs is nice, with the 2 cars hanging from the ceiling and multiple projectors. Outside: Downstairs: Upstairs: Some other little things around the resort. Mardi Gras is all over USO with the stage set up. The Conespheres have been moved to the side of the lake, and one has been deflated... Finally, the red carpet was once again brought out. This time, the massive Home Builders convention is in Orlando. The rented out the entire IOA for the night, as well as pretty much the entire club area of CityWalk... And finally, as well all know.... Thanks for checking out my update.

I wish I still lived in CA. I miss being only an hour away from this great park!

Awesome, exactally what I was thinking. Thanks a lot!

I reall like the sig. Can you match the avatar to look like that. Thanks a lot for the great work! -Thrasher

So heres the deal. I used to have this really nice HHN16 set, but now the the festivities are obviously over (read: sad), I need a new set to fill in the empty space. Since im into snowboarding this time of year, I figured I would ask for someone to do a sig/avatar set of snow-covered trees. Simple, but I want something artistic, not a quick job in paint. I couldnt find any threads on it, so I open it up to any who is bored and wants to help me out. -Thrasher

Aaron. I think you remember me as an admin at CoasterForce a few years back. Cheers for the support. Thanks, the stand was really wobbly, so I wasnt sure it was gonna quite line up. I live in Orlando as well, close to the UCF campus. Ill be going more often to document the BTTF updates if it ever does decide to happen. Thanks for the support!

I asked tons of people from security guards to guest relations. The red carpet was simply something they set up if a company or group rents the park out. Tonight just happened to be rented out.

Hey guys. Havent been on here in a long time. College has been really tough lately but im glad to be finishing up in June, yay! I decided to hit the parks today because I got out of class really early, it was a beautiful day, and im an AP member (Read: bored). They rolled out the red carpet for this photo trip report! Ill start with IOA, and as everyone knows, Ripsaw Falls is down again... They had two cranes working when I was driving in, but only one by the time I actually got to the ride... I had asked around, and found out that the ride will be opening up on Jan 21st. Then I got home and checked Screamscape only to find they already knew that. I did find out that they are doing some work with the trough they didnt get to do in the huge rehab a few months back... With nothing else going on in IOA, I decided to walk over to USO. I snapped a few pics of the Nascar Cafe, which is coming along nicely... Thought id take a few pics of the work being done for the new Blue Man Group show. They havent started painting the outside of the building, but there were several paint crews in the area power-washing the building, so that should begin within the next few days... Is it October yet? I miss HHN! They seem to have some sort of cat problem in the backlots... They placed one of those false perspective image thingys where the HHN16 stage was standing. It actually looks pretty neat. I had never tried one of these before... And for the perspective... Oh, and Ill throw one more picture to show some idiot standing on a rock to take a picture of the Hulk from across the lake. I was secretly hoping he would fall in and have to swim all the way to sneetch beach to get out... Ok, that should do it for now. Please leave comments, I really do these updates so those that dont live in the central FL area can keep up on the news. -Thrasher

I think Im gonna download them to hold onto till I get my printer working, then ill set it on highest quality. Ill make a photo TR out of it .

I agree with the main review. While it was an awesome show, its not something to repeat. I saw it the first time by myself, then when I attended this past Sunday, I saw it with some friends because I wanted them to see everything. IMO it would actually be better if it was a shorter show. Robosaurus spent too much time just spitting fire, and many people actually started leaving. I did notice though that between the first and second times I saw it, they made it shorter as it seemed like it picked up the car almost immediatly after the zombies cleared out. Overall, Id say that it was a great addition that shouldve been located in another area of Deadtropolis to cut down on crowd issues. (Also Screamhouse was swamped immediatly following the shows as its entrance was right there).

IMO, USO shouldnt limit the drinking or cut down the number of alcohol sales. This type of activity lets the rowdy few ruin it for the majority that have the sense to just have fun, and walk away from a confrontation. Instead, and I know im going to get hated on for this, USO should make it an 18+ event. This is not a childrens event. This would cut down on the number of families sure, but it would also cut out the number of younger kids (which ive seen tons of this year). The second and more sensible plan, which was stated a few pages back, is that the event should be sold out long before 50,000 people. Its just too many people, especially in the studios. This year, I almost had a confrontation with someone in the RoTM queue line. There was an older guy and his girlfriend I assume, and my friend pushed me and I ran into her, completely by accident. This guy instantly went crazy and was yelling and swinging at me. Luckily his girlfriend held him back and was telling him it was an accident. I wouldnt want to get kicked out of the park from defending myself.

Sucks that I missed you guys. I think I was in the same show of Bill and Ted as you were if it was the 7:30 show. Looking forward to more pics!

Both times I've gone this year so far, PUTS and PsychoPath have had long waits early on. I think this is because as soon as the Arrival show is over, people progress through HoS, past BTTF, and right into those two houses. This is why they are the two houses I still havent gone through. Im going to be watching the first show of Bill and Ted tonight, then make my way to the houses in the soudnstages so that once we get to PUTS and PsychoPath, it will be dark.

I noticed that ET wasnt open as well. Maybe they thought the drunk people would go crazy with all the colors and aliens in the ride! Im only going two more nights this year. Thurs the 19th and Sun the 29th. Express passes for both. I MIGHT try next week, but I have a final project due and so it depends on how much I complete before hand.

I wouldnt even step foot at HHN on a Fri or Sat. Ill stick to my off peak nights with the el-cheapo express passes.

I actually like those shirts way better than the ones they offer the guests. Im gonna keep my eye on ebay for them. Im not gonna write a whole long review of my night because everyone has alreayd summed up what I want to say. Overall I think the quality fo this event was a step down from last years. Granted with IOA's rich themeing, its hard to come up with new themes, last years event just had more, and the entire park seemed to be participating. This year there are huge sections of the park with absolutly no themeing at all. The chainsaw guys were doing their best to make sure nobody was able to get by unscared. These guys are very good at what they do. The houses were great, and I think each year makes it so much more difficult for the next years houses to live up to their predecesors. So many people this year are comparing them to previous years(including myself) and not seeing this years event for how great it really is. One last note about robosaurus. They placed this in a horrible position crowd wise. I can understand that they put it there for backstage access, but that hub gets really packed in and the tress around it dont allow for good viewing unless you are in the front. Aaron "going again next thursday" Thrasher

Im really mad as due to some scheduling issues, I wasnt able to go this past week. Im making up for it this coming week. I plan on hitting the event wed, thur, and fri. Im gonna take my time and hit only a few parts per night. This may have already been answered, but where do the stay and screamers enter from IOA, and are annual pass holders automatically part of the stay and scream? I didnt have an AP this time last year, so I dont know.

They shouldve upped the ante a little more. Thirteen hours is a long time. At least throw in some free stuff from the park like swag, food, etc.

Damn, I was hoping to meet up with you guys again. I have classes during the day, so I will see what happens. When I first heard about the tours being available this year, I wanted to go on one, but its too pricey. Hopefully you guys will get some awesome pictures.

If you are standing in front facing the building, the right side was closed when I visited last week. The TV's were gone and those metal detector looking things were also removed. Nothing else was out of place though.

The problem is that rides that arent based off of something already tend to have a weak story. Granted you get the exceptions like Haunted Mansion, but most rides only need to have a story as long as the ride. This will prolly be a rental for me.