JT3000

Discovery Cove is technically a water park. The thing that makes me suspicious about this is the fact that it says they plan to build an entirely new park on only 50 acres. I can't think of any other parks here that small.

I don't know if anyone has mentioned this yet, but I found something of interest in the June issue of Williamsburg's neighborhood paper. It's not exactly a rock solid confirmation, but still worth a look: "Recently, I learned that Sea World will be expanding our way with the addition of a new theme park that is slated to open in the Spring of 2007. This park will be located on 50 acres on the east side of International Drive between Sea Harbor Blvd and the Journey to Atlantis attraction. This places the new park less than 2,000 feet from homes in the Montpelier section, which raises noise and traffic concerns. We at WHOA will be working closely with Sea World and Orange County Government to ensure that there are no adverse impacts on Williamsburg from this expansion."

USF seems to be losing it's original attractions at a rapid pace, but this really was just a waste of space in the last few years. It was completely abandoned. Which is sad, since the golden years of the network were taped there. I still remember seeing the graphic of the studio at the end of practically every show. I know I'm not the intended audience anymore, but I think their current programming sucks quiet frankly, from what I've seen while channel surfing. Hopefully this is turned into an attraction. There's actually room for several in there. Hell, they could even have a Nick theme, since it's just the studio that's leaving.

Well, doesn't this just suck. Earth to Disney, Earth to Disney. Universal can give this perk to it's hotel guests because there's only 3 of them. You have more than I care to count. Sometimes, other people's ideas don't translate well to your own operations. I am now going to have to wait 5 hours to get into the freaking Tiki Room from now on. Thank you, Disney. The willingness to spend money on a hotel point is pretty moot for those of us who don't even need a hotel. But since when did Disney care about locals?

Well, the article was wrong.

Spider-Man

No it isn't. That's the Hulk. Mummy's airtime is evil. I wouldn't have a problem with it if the ride didn't have such painful restraints. Those things were created by the devil himself. They aren't a good combination with jolting, sharply turning drops that give you that much airtime. And there's nothing to hold onto. Would it kill them to add a bar onto the back of the seat in front of you?

Those are probably the best you'll find, since the ride is so dark. The DD ones are also really good.

When I was there on the final day of Mardi Gras, it looked like the entire ride could use a paint job. One of the Things was missing (the one doing cartwheels), the piano didn't fall, and for whatever reason, there were actually visible wires popping out of the left hand of the Cat that's trying to balance a bunch of stuff on his hands. The steam was the only improvement I noticed. The doors have been getting left open periodically for a while now. If you're lucky, they're working on a every-other-boat basis, because there's a reset issue. Oh, and I'm aware of what Jurassic Park is. I probably have one of the highest visit counts to IOA of anyone here. I refer to the Jurassic Park River Adventure as JP because it's easy to type, it's the only major ride on the island so far, the USH version is "Jurassic Park: The Ride", and I simply expect people to know what I'm talking about since I mentioned it in the context of a ride.

There will never be another island at IOA. They have enough land for new rides and small expansions of the current islands, but not enough for entirely new islands, unless you want them to turn out like Toon Town at MK. I don't see a woodie going into JP, but if it did, they could theme it to an amber mine (like at the beginning of the first movie). Most of the ride would be out of view from the rest of the park, and it would help with the noise issue. It certainly shouldn't go out over the water. I'd rather see an indoor jeep ride than anything else. Maybe give it some coaster elements ala Mummy. I don't think this will happen either though because of Dinosaur, which is a shame, because this would more than likely be better. Marvel doesn't need anymore attractions. The only open room in Marvel is behind the building facades. They aren't going to put an outdoor attraction of any kind back there, it would be bad show. The only thing they could do is remove Storm Force to make way for another small dark ride. I personally think they made Marvel way too small. I wouldn't mind seeing them close the ampitheater and extend Marvel's theming up to there. They'd have to move Bill & Ted, but it doesn't belong there anyway. Put the lame midway games in Amity where they belong. There's an open area behind Suess that doesn't seem to be used for anything, except for storing that dumb Mt. Crumpet thing. They could use this area to extend Suess. Lost Continent could really use another ride. For those of us that don't like coasters, there's basically nothing there except Posiedon, which they've completely bastardized. It almost makes you want to cry. The room inbetween JP and LC, behind the Unicorn, should be used for an LC attraction, since JP already has an open area to work with. Then there's Toon, which doesn't really need anything at the moment. Besides expansion, I think two rides that need a serious rehab are JP and Cat in the Hat. Cat has seen better days, and JP's worn out animatronics are well documented. And while it's down, they could possibly improve JP to make it more comparable to the other versions.

BGT is in the middle of the ghetto. You don't wanna stay anywhere near it. I stayed at the Hard Rock last time I was down there. As for your mother, there really isn't much to the park besides it's coasters. All the other attractions are pretty crappy. Seeing as I'm not a coaster person, I don't intend to go back anytime soon. You might as well try BGT since you've been to UO so much. But don't actually expect it to even be anywhere near UO's league or you'll be disappointed.

It's also 1/3rd the size! 2 is not 1/3rd of 4. Your math needs serious work. (It's 1/2, btw) Disney does need more E-tickets, but not coasters. Nobody goes to Disney for coasters, and they never will. Creating crap like M:S isn't a good start though. Even Universal doesn't need anymore coasters. Of course, this is coming from a person who doesn't like looping coasters anyway, so...

IOA wins easily for me. As for Disney vs. everything else, I'd rather spend a day at Uni than Disney. The parks are right next to each other, and I just enjoy them more. Add SeaWorld and Discovery Cove, and it's an easy decision for me. Of course, I don't like I-Drive itself though. I try to avoid that hellhole at all costs. The only nice section is near SeaWorld.

You've been watching too much Star Wars. I've been to Disney about fifty billion times. Is not. And their HHN site pwns.

Didn't you see the commercial? Mickey and Goofy and Donald were wishing for attractions from other parks... I really don't like that they presented it that way in a national advertising campaign. How many people would honestly know that the new rides were just copies from other parks? I haven't seen those commercials being aired here, actually.

Universal, definitely. Nothing Disney has done here in FL over the past decade has really impressed me, not nearly as much as IOA. Plus you could literally hop from one park to the other if you wanted to. But you'd look kinda strange.

Creepy religious theme parks. Jesus wants your admission fee.

You know, my group used Express Passes this year, and it was great to be able to walk right into the houses and not have to worry about whether or not you'll get everything done, but as strange as this may sound, it felt like something was missing. Yes, I actually missed waiting in line. Maybe because it's what I was accustomed to, and I think queueing up for a haunted house builds more anticipation than simply walking right into it the moment the entrance is in view. Plus, this was the first year that each house had it's own queue video, and I didn't really get to watch much of them. And of course, if you're waiting in lines, you obviously won't be able to go right from one house to the next, which was the case this year. Non-stop scaring sorta takes the edge away, and causes the houses to blend together by the end of the night. We were done every night in about 3 hours, with 2 left to spare.

I'd like to see the event in both parks again, but only if they are prepared to go all out. Every area except the Kids Zone should be open, and more themed than not. We'd probably be talking around 10 separate scarezones, each island included. The problem last year was the fact that there were only 2 major scarezones and they were both in-between the parks. Once you got to the Studios, there was nothing in the way of scarezones. The Midway was a pathetic excuse to bring it back in name only. It was just wasted space. The real Midway can only truly exist in it's rightful place, Amity, which should be open anyway. It's where HHN was born (The first ever HHN house was in the Jaws queue). If the current trend continues, there'd probably be 8 houses. This probably sounds like a lot, but I think the 2 park thing should either be done this way or not at all. It should truly use both parks to their fullest. The question is whether they are prepared to make that leap or not. They'd probably turn them into two separate events, and charge admission for both. :?

I'm not sure what to think of the new Land. It's sort of a mish-mash of styles. Especially the ceiling compared to everything else. Those hard red things in the Soarin' seats are really uncomfortable.

You don't seem to be impressed by many things at all.

Like every other park on Earth?

^ Spam spam spam spam spam.

That thing was outdated the minute it opened. The movements don't seem to match up very well with the movie at all. I get sick everytime. I wouldn't be opposed to giving it a prequel theme along with a new movie & better programming. I wouldn't expect any major changes to the ride's dynamics though, like a completely new type of simulator vehicle. That's probably hoping for too much.

ROFL Oh God. Need air. And Splash Mountain has the best theming for a flume ride. I don't care what you thought of the movie. Most people have never seen it anyway. Is it the most thrilling flume? Not even close. For pure thrills, I'd take Ripsaw anyday. But Splash's theming is far from "lame". About the only thing I agree with you on is M:S. And even that makes me feel icky.