jedimaster1227

Acrophobia is good unless: 1.) You're a man 2.) You hit the sudden stop at the bottom of the ride Then you will wonder if you'll ever have children. Is it any worse for a guy than a stand up coaster?

Wow! I am going to SFOG this week and was considering renting the Gold Qbot, but I had some reservations (considering it would be $81 for my brother and I). But, since the system has been getting such great reviews, I think I will fork over the money. I really want to try my first Deja Vu, my first drop tower (like Acrophobia), and all else that the park has to offer. With the Qbot, I think I will have enough time to cover the park and even ride some things more than once! Thanks for the report!

Looks interesting! What did you think of Kingda Ka? I definitely agreed with you when you said that Six Flags Great Adventure is very different from La Ronde!

Love the Vekomart, the grown up Pillowtums and everything else in the video! Another great installment! Keep up the great work Tomi!

I'm watching the Europe trip carefully, but now that there is the 18 year old rule (I will be 17 by the time we go, closer to 18, but not there yet), I have to see if my brother can go and beyond that, if we have enough money to cover the both of us...

^We didn't talk anyone into anything. In fact, I only found out about this re-dedication when the Sr. Manager of Epcot Special Events called me about our event and she told me that there would be a ceremony taking place that morning. She told me that Marty Sklar and other Disney Imagineers are planning on being there. As far as our event group was concerned, we were only going to be at the park celebrating the event on our own. When I was given news of the ceremony, we tweaked our plans so that we could be there. We haven't done anything planning-wise for the event. It isn't our job, nor were we offered the opportunity. We are just taking part in the ceremony with a small possible blurb that one of us may read (or give a gift to management).

^^We will definitely take plenty of photos and video of the event. I will post it here afterwards. ^We have to "close up shop" so that we have enough time to get to the fountain stage where the re-dedication will be taking place.

^Actually, we have already planned the dessert party. The further arrangements to be made deal with the re-dedication that is being run by management that morning. We are taking part in this ceremony. This is the reason why our sign in table is going to close down 15 minutes before the park opens- so that we can be inside of the park by the fountain of nations for the ceremony.

It seems you had a good time at La Ronde. I went there last Summer and Super Manege and that 40 year old coaster weren't open. I didn't end up riding Le Vampire or Toboggan Nordique because of long lines (I only had half a day at the park). I was next in line for my first Boomerang credit, and sure enough, the ride broke down. I was fortunate enough to ride Goliath, my first Hyper (or mini-Hyper [referring to my La Ronde thread]) and unfortunate enough to ride Cobra. I did get to try one side of Le Monstre (after waiting nearly an hour and 15 minutes) and it was seemingly slow. The oddest thing about my visit was that I didn't even see the Dragon coaster that you rode. Anyways, my rant is over. Great TR! Hope you two are having a great time in the North!

by Scott Powers Orlando Sentinel blogs.orlandosentinel.com/business_tourism_aviation/2007/07/epcot-rededicat.html Until now, it was looking like the most ambitious Epcot 25th anniversary public event was being produced by Adam Roth, a remarkable 16-year-old fan from Celebration, with the help of some other Disney World fans. But now it looks as if Walt Disney World and Walt Disney Imagineering are stepping up, and will be offering some sort of "rededication ceremony" to mark the park's 25th on Oct. 1. Word has it that Epcot's planning to have dignitaries such as Imagineering legend Marty Sklar come in for the fun. When Disney officials announced in January that they were planning nothing public for the anniversary, Adam and some others, including Jenn Waitt, began organizing a privately-sponsored public celebration called Celebration 25, spelled out on Adam's website Dreamfinder Forever. They've been working with Epcot's special events office, and Adam advises now that they've gotten word from that office about the Disney-produced public celebration. Adam said Celebration 25 has 240 participants registered thusfar. Details of their celebration will be coming. The only things wrong with this article are that I don't live in Celebration, and we now have over 260 registered attendees. Just thought I would share this news with those who care to hear it.

Yesterday I went back to Epcot to see the Wand's destruction for myself... Others are still in the station, waiting to be stripped. Spaceship Earth's vehicles have been slowly removed... Amazing to see the wand fall to pieces over the course of a few weeks... The old Millenium Village building has finally recieved a new cover, finally removing its ties from its former purpose. Japan is still under wraps, but the formerly covered areas look brand new! We are also having a private Illuminations Dessert Party setup here at the Italy pavilion. Our group photo for Celebration 25 will be nice, considering that it will be without a wand. Inside of Project Tomorrow, the exit platform is closed off. The side of Spaceship Earth closest to Guest Relations is walled off along with the entrance to the ride itself. Leave a Legacy is completely gone. There are no traces to be found... Odd seeing the Wand half gone huh? Group services has given our Celebration 25 group confirmation that we will have our registration tables here.

Well, it had been a long while since I had been at Seaworld, so I figured I would journey over there, ride some rides and check up on the progress of Aquatica... I believe that they have constructed some of this slide already... An overview of the rest of the park... I'm guessing that these will be the family raft rides... And twin bowl-slides! The all too essential lazy river in the park... Though hard to see, this racing slide is looking like it will be fun! Lots of interesting slide designs to look at. Over at the Anheiser Busch building, they have a preview model for Aquatica. This new ride is very much like the Kid Hacker that I saw in Japan. I gave it a try and it was suprisingly fun! Too bad it was closed (apparantly due to the heat- at least thats what the ride op told me). Ocean Commotion has been installed in Shamu's Happy Harbor. Kraken in all of its greatness! It looks more wet than it really is... Don't you just love how our version has so much theming? Journey to Atlantis was fun, as always. While my friend Mike got his free ticket for being a Universal employee, I found this poster hanging on the wall. Landscaping work on the park's borders is going in conjunction with the park's construction. Aquatica is rising on the skyline...

I figure there may be an extra DVD because of all of the footage Robb and Elissa may have collected by the end of this year's touring season. So my guess would be Discs 1 and 2: Park Videos, Disc 3: Coaster Footage, Disc 4: Contest Entries. Speaking of the contest, when is the next one going to be? I have my entry ready and waiting!

Here are my entries (though only the first is the official entry)... My final non-official entry... My fourth non-official entry... My third non-official entry... My second non-official entry... My first non-official entry... My official entry...

This thread truly makes waiting for the Mainland Europe trip even more difficult, but at the same time, more to look forward to! I am glad you all had such a great time!

^^ and ^ It was a pleasure meeting you both, and I hope to see you both again (maybe when you aren't working we can enjoy some of the parks, since we all have some form of admission coverage). It truly was a pleasure and I hope we can do it again sometime! And specifically for Coastermaniac, thank you again for that favor you did Andrew and I! We really appreciated it, but I knew he was taken aback at how friendly someone I just met could be, just because I mentioned that I knew him from an online community! So again, I want to thank you for that! Anyways, I went back to Universal today with my friend so that he could pick up a package, but I figured I could take a few photos in the mean time... I caught up with another Doc Brown on my way out and couldn't resist... I have been informed that the walk around characters that I saw during my last few visits will be moving over towards the building soon. Some of the walls around the old Back to the Future building have come down. I've never seen this before. The Nascar Sports Grille has added several Fast and Furious Tokyo Drift arcade machines under its covered area... I forgot to add this in my last Universal update, but I had never seen this character walking outside of Mythos before...

It was a nice little tribute (probably unintentional) that I found randomly leaving the park... For never getting your Python credit, you never experienced the weird after effects of the twin corkscrews, so I guess you really don't have to worry about missing much. As for the Flyer's credit, I'm working on it!

So now onto my day at Disney, which came with a few good suprises... Rock n' Rollercoaster was running well as always, but the launch seemed to catch me off gaurd this time... Toy Story Mania's building is taking shape... I also met another TPR member, John (aka Coastermaniac) working over at Star Tours! The Jedi Training Academy is now a permanent show in front of Star Tours. This stage is only temporary as a new Endor Bunker will be built in the coming months. The ABC Theater is getting a new show within the next year and prep work inside of the building has already begun. A crane has gone up next to Tower of Terror, probably for some external refurbishment work. At MGM, the queue for Tower of Terror has been given a misting system that makes the line look even eerier, especially during the day. Today, I met another TPR member, Joel (mmousefan) over at the Mexico pavilion! After months of work on the Japan pavilion, the top of the main building is visible again and looking near brand new! Japan's new building peeks out from behind the trees. In this view, the wand doesn't look too bad, but I will be happier when it is down. Anyone remember these? Another look at the soon-to-be-gone-wand. In fact, the entire stand has been taken down... Leave a Legacy is no longer in business... Spaceship Earth will once again be free of the wand soon.

Yesterday I went back to Disney to take some final photos of Epcot's wand before the cranes come on Monday to start deconstruction. I ended up making a quick detour when I saw that the new Kwik E-Mart opened up! This Kwik E-Mart definitely looks legit! Another sign that made me laugh. Apu is behind the service counter greeting incoming customers. They were also selling squishees at a reasonable price. I was suprised to see Homer eating a hot dog in the back of the store... One of Apu's famous policies... I laughed when I saw this! They also sell Krusty O's! The shelves are loaded with Buzz Cola, though I didn't try any... Cool!

^^I didn't go backstage (as I don't attempt to get myself in trouble in the parks). This is the backstage junction between Citywalk and Islands of Adventure. The gates on the Citywalk side (where I was) were partially open, and the fireworks went off, so I zoomed my camera in through the opening of the gate (the gate was more than partially open). I try not go into guest-restricted areas, in fear of my annual pass being taken away... ^Thank you for the advice! Next time I go, I will try that out to see if I can get my credit (and hopefully film it too)! As for more of the Simpsons photos, ask and you shall recieve... A huge line formed near the productions facility where guests were anxiously waiting to get into the live taping of TNA wrestling- not my thing, so I passed... Not much work has gone on here since the ride closed... A look at the new hint of the Simpsons on the wall around the former Back to the Future building... A better view of the new queue television (with Simpsons videos playing). Doc is still roaming the Studios grounds, acting more strangely than ever. This one had an odd accent too... At the end of the day, I found Bubba Gump's shrimp mascot bouncing around outside... After eating in Finnegan's, I found this sign, pointing to the city I stayed in for a week (without any theme park visits) in Ireland.

^I'm sorry it has taken me so long to upload the latest photos (of my post-Blue Man Group visit to Universal) but here they are... It was two and a half hours of extreme cinematic excellence! We finished off the day by seeing Live Free or Die Hard... The first time I had ever seen this- it looked fake anyways... I attempted to get my Flyer's credit, but due to a combination of rain, heat and an hour wait, I didn't get it... I decided to watch the show near the main broadcasting station in Marvel Superhero Island. New designated viewing areas for the show are set up, including an exclusive Wolkswagon owner's location. The (pointless) fireworks from the new show can be seen (and heard) throughout Citywalk. The new ski show is getting a fair amount of advertisement. I had forgotten how fun T2:3D really was, so I took a friend with me to see it again... A great man's tribute... The Delorean is now gone... They have already added new screens in the queue that appear to be showing the trailer for the Simpsons movie. It seems odd, considering no one would be using the queue yet. Back to the Future's building has been stripped of nearly all hints of its former theme. This reminded me of last year's Halloween visit from the TPR crew... A new [gigantic] advertisement within the park= love. The Simpsons have begun to make live appearances at the main entrance to the Studios. A nice find on the Coke machine at IOA- you can see the villain from the original version of Poseidon's Fury.

Would you rather I talk like this: "I thought it was rad! The show was krazy and all around wicked!" I like the show. Simple enough.

Are you referring to the Blue Man Group? The show is based on the actual band's most famous skit's and acts using unique instruments along with a comical overtone. The show is a spectacle for the eyes, the ears and the mind. If you have a show location near you, I would highly recommend getting yourself some tickets!

Great photos! Glad you are enjoying Orlando and all that Disney has to offer! Its been on that path for the last few years unfortunately. My friends and I normally visit the park at least twice a year, normally on rainy days (or hurricane-induced school vacations). The last time I was there was on my birthday and the Pinball Spin along with Ride the Comics were broken. Cyberspace Mountain had at least 3 consoles not functioning. Aladdin's Magic Carpets seems to be running alright, though some of the controllers have developed a tilting problem (towards one side or the other). Battle for Buccaneer Gold is the newest attraction and for some reason, our cannons didn't fully react to our firing... The only "fully-functioning" attraction we ended up experiencing was Invasion (we did it a couple of times, just so we could see the Alien Encounter tributes). Despite all of the neglect DisneyQuest has been getting over the years, it still holds my occasional interest, just not something I would purchase an annual pass for... I just remember getting frustrated that my jeep would either hit a wall or get jammed between another car, taking up my entire turn. I am much happier with Jambo Safari (my favorite arcade game within the complex) setup in the Lost Treasure of the Incas' place...

^Oops! I forgot about the minor thing I noticed about Montu during my visit... Here you go! Here are the old style covers... Montu is running trains with the new and old style covers... These are the new ones with a less complicated design... Montu is a nice greeting at the entrance of the park...