Erik Johnson

I have had a solo ride on The Incredible Hulk in the back row. The ride runs really horrible with light trains. I also had a solo night ride on Jaws at Universal Florida. That was quite strange as the ship captain does the whole spiel even for just one person. I also had fireworks as well during the ride.

I am usually quite positive with most of my reviews. But, if I find if they change something to make it worse I will speak up about it. I really like the Matterhorn, I just find the backs of the new trains to be quite uncomfortable. The same goes with the newish lap bars on SFNE's Bizzaro. I simply can not ride that more than a couple of times without it simply killing my legs. The old trains were simply better IMO.

The hard molded plastic had very little give, so to me it felt like you were riding with wood planks behind my lower back. I assume they store them in some kind of covered station somewhere, since the old trains had quite a bit of padding on them.

I'm 6'3" and I really did not have much of an issue with leg room. I think I may be just used to the trains due to they are very similar to the ones at MK's Space Mountain. However, unlike those Space Mountain trains, the new Matterhorn trains lack padding which honestly made my ride quite uncomfortable when compared to the old trains.

They really need to add padding to the new Matterhorn trains. The ride always has been bumpy, but the old trains had padding. The new trains have none, so your back feels everything.

^ Yeah, that website is really awesome.

My first visit to the park was May 1991 (I had just turned 18). I remember being really disappointed with the Ghostbusters show back then. If I remember correctly the set was very similiar to the final scene of the Ghostbusters movie. I also remember that most of the speical effects were not very good. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOQuitks90g

I am pretty sure the ride system is still the same since the Hanna Barbara Ride.

You asked, you shall receive.

The next day I finally had the opportunity to visit Universal Studios: Hollywood. I was never able to fit this park into my schedule until this visit, plus I was waiting for them to build the Transformers ride. Yes, the main draw for me was the brand new Transformers: The Ride. I thought it was really great, easily the best dark ride in southern California next to a working Indiana Jones. Yes, Transformers is very similar to Spiderman, but there are certainly differences between the two (I loved the driving and flying sequences). I ended up riding it four times that day. Anyways, onward to more photos. Good morning, Universal Studios Hollywood! You have to get a photo in front of the globe, right? They must have known that I was coming today. One of these are real. Transformers: The Ride. This is why we are here. While the front entrance is certainly lacking, everything else is really awesome! Go ride it, if you have not. The All-Spark. The plot of the ride (and the first movie) is focused on this. Good to know! The queue's theme. I love how fast they load people into the vehicle. It is actually part of the theming. Retro-Bumblebee pillow. Yes, they are pretty cool. It was pretty good, until the ending. I really liked this version of Jurassic Park. Though 75% of the summer mode was running on our ride. Sploosh! Never heard of him. You have to do this. I see another studio way off in the distance. I get to see this one a week from Saturday. Buildings. Tram! As seen in Back to the Future....and many other movies. Oooo...Kong. It actually was quite neat. I want the Deathmobile. Boom! Kinda silly. Here it comes! Sploosh! I like trains. I also like westerns. Just like Disaster! Sploosh! I am sure I have seen this before somewhere. Can't see this in Florida anymore. Snicker.... Shark...Shark...Shark. One of many houses we saw today. A Grinch set. I wonder what is around this corner. Ack! Why did they build that stupid Grinch set right behind this??? Yep! Norman, is that you? Such an iconic scene, too bad those trees are blocking the house. You drive right in front of the Bates home. War of the Worlds set. It is pretty large. Green screen and water. This is going to be T2's final summer. It would be the perfect place to build the Potter area I think. One final look. Yahoooo! Hit or Miss? It looks so far away from up here. Studios and offices. Cool looking theater. This was pretty cool. Basically a year long HHN maze. The Waterworld stunt show was GREAT! This is the only photo I have of the show due to some issues with my camera. LAME!!! I had a great time at Universal! Meanwhile, back to Disney's California Adventure. The walls are all down!!! People have already started camping for the grand opening the next day. Do you think I should wear this for opening day?

One final look at the "Old" Disney's California Adventure! June 13th was the final day of the "Old" Disney's California Adventure. Which means today is the last day of the Walls of Adventure attraction. It is pretty insane what you have to go through to see some colored water. You have to get to DCA early just to get a fast pass for a good viewing area of the show. Can't wait to get an awesome lunch...um oh crap! Nooooooooooooooooooo! Oh, what is this? Looks like they are getting ready for the big event. Cars Land!! Still my favorite ride in the park. Much better not in a big orange. They do run it at a pretty good speed. Nothing beats the wave swinger at Lake Compounce. Same ride, with some new plywood. Theming. More theming. Ride. I understand that this just opened up. This is what it looks like inside. The animated backgrounds are pretty cool. Here is another one. Do you see the hidden Mickey? Larry the Cable Guy riding his own ride. OMG! The walls are down! The walls are down: Part 2! Let us check out and see if anything else has been done for the big day. Wow, all the trains are now out and testing. Look at all of them. The walls are down! And if you look closely, you can see that Matterhorn now has a single rider line! More people at work. Work: Part 2 You know, I do not think I ever rode this before here. No Neil Peart! Looks like they are getting ready for the show. One hour before showtime. Almost showtime. Yay! Colored water. I guess I sort of liked the show. But it certainly is an ordeal to get a good spot to watch it. Fire is always good. More fire? Yes, please. End of show. Final look at Walls of Adventure. One final look at the "old" version of DCA. Another new attraction poster.

Ok, onto Disney's California Adventure and Disneyland. This section will focus on these two parks before the big day of June 15. Albertson's my old employeer. Anyone else see anything wrong with this truck? Ahhh, my old friend, Howard Johnson's. I can imagine that this tour would be amazing. Indiana Jones!! Not Indiana Jones! The entrance, um now looks like Florida. Which means that Disneyland will be super slammed packed that day. I see that the blue walls are still here. Just in a different location when compared to my last two visits in 2009 and 2010. Blue Walls in 2009. Drained lagoon in 2009. This was the plan for the park 3 years ago. Ok, this is new since my last visit. He is lame, because he spells his name funny. Most amazing hair ever! I thought the ride was pretty good, but I do not think it was built for me. Probably the most famous scene from the movie. I still think the ride really needed one more scene to make the story feel more complete. Maybe the Florida version will be better. People taking photos through a shrub. They were holding a preview for some lucky group of people. Cool poster, I think it would make a great T-shirt. The Cathay Circle building looks pretty cool, I think that I will try to eat there on Wednesday. More walls!! A better look at the same wall. Oh, so that is where all of this stuff is located. I honestly wish that I could have seen this area a few months ago because I am a bit of a Tron Fanboy. I am sure it would look better at night. The Orlando version of Tower is my all time favorite Disney ride. This would be the uber super secret exit out Disney's Walls of Adventure. These look yummy. It is probably kind of sad that I traveled all the way across the country to finally ride Star Tours 2 when I have the other version 2 hours away from my house. I am not much of a fan of simulator rides, but I thought they did a pretty good job updating this one. I ended up riding it four times, I have seen every scene except the one on Coruscant. So the random scenes really worked well for me. Space Mountain is always a better ride at night. They decided to referb Matterhorn into an exploding volcano. Yay....Space Mountain. Woooot! It does not look any bigger at night. Good morning Disneyland, this day is special! This is my parents first visit to Disneyland! My dad's favorite ride at the Magic Kingdom is Pirates, I can't wait to get him on the better version. First things first, get them on the low capacity Fantasyland rides. Mr. Toad's Wild Ride will always be my favorite. My mother lived in Long Beach in 1955. She moved away two months before Disneyland opened. She finally made it. I think that they did a good job incorporating the new characters in the ride. Want to ride again? I do have a fun family. I spy a new train!! Matterhorn does look spruced up! I finally got a good photo of this. iPhone > My Old Camera. Ahhhhhh........A misty Al Swearengen! An old boat. Native American! Ben Hur: The Ride. My folks were really surprised with the train ride. Haunted Mansion. I really want to experience the Holiday version sometime. Again, better at night. Big Thunder Mountain Railroad honestly is better at night. I have never seen these fireworks before. Yep....Fantasmic. The dragon is pretty cool. This one does not look like some kid's wood shop project. Space Mountain was my alarm clock the next morning. Hooray for Space Mountain! The old Cars Land. I drive for a living, so this should be a piece of cake! A nice drive through the park. Off road....ack! Indiana Jones is my favorite dark ride. Too bad that the ride really needs some work. Too many broken effects during my visit.

What was wrong with your review Jeff? It was fine, plus since I was with you that day I know that it was honest.

I got to ride it. The coolest and best addition to the Matterhorn is that they added single rider line for both sides!! As for the ride itself, it is pretty much exactly the same. Everything has been super cleaned up, and the Yeti's roar is certainly a lot louder. I honestly do not care much for the new trains as there is not any padding. Matterhorn is certainly a bumpy ride, and now that the padding is gone, with these new trains, you feel every bump. My back did not appreciate it much.

Transformers and Spiderman are almost identical. It really would be baffling if they decided to do an East Coast version. I too would vote for a Game of Thrones land, that would be awesome.

I just got back from a 10 day vacation out to southern California. The reason I went out was to attend my cousin's wedding in Santa Barbara. His timing was perfect as Disney's California Adventure was going to have its grand opening several days later which included the opening of Cars Land. My parents have never been to Disneyland before, and my mother had not been to southern California since 1955 (She was born there). So we made a pretty epic trip out of it. Let us start, shall we? It only takes 4 1/2 hours to fly coast to coast! I finally made it to the Santa Monica Pier, it really is not to far from LAX. See anything interesting off in the background? According to this plaque, it is a local landmark. The main reason for my visit was to check out the Merry-Go-Round. It is one of the famous locations that was used for one of my favorite movies, "The Sting". Robert Redford met Eileen Brennan right here. Here are a few photos of the carousel. Let us head on into Pacific Park! Credit #419, West Roller Coaster. I think the top speed is 35mph. Wheeee! Station photo. Next ride, The Pacific Wheel. The world's only solar power ferris wheel. I am not sure if you can make it out, but all of those little black dots are swarming bees. They ended up closing off this section of the park, due to swarming bees. Yep, I did not get on The Pacific Wheel. Pacific Park main entrance. The Pier was the western end of Route 66, which ties in nicely with the rest of this trip report. The final shop of Route 66, tribute. It certainly turned out to be a nice day. The end of the pier. I wonder if Kayne West is still swimming out there. This is what it looks like 180 degrees from the last photo. I-10 now ends at the Santa Monica Pier. If you took this highway, you would end up in Jacksonville, Florida. We had a nice drive up the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) on our way up to Santa Barbara. Look, it is another pier......with dolphins! If I had more time, I would have loved to see a movie at this place. You really can find a lot of neat places along State Street. Santa Barbara Pier. If you lived on the east coast back in the 70's and 80's, you may remember this place. It has well over 1,000 locations in it's heyday. Now there is only the original one left. Santa Barbara Botanic Gardens. Lots of pretty wild flowers. The stairs down to the redwood grove was pretty cool. Redwood Trees! Boy, they sure are tall. Watch Your Step! That maybe the largest pine cone I have ever seen. Next Stop, Santa Barbara Zoo. This explains a lot. Does anyone think the layout of the zoo looks like a dinosaur head? Awesome! These condors were huge. Probably the greatest name for a zoo exhibit.

Amazing photos!!

They did a good job hiding the mountain range from other sections of the park.

^ Um, the ride is really good. The money is there. It is easily the best ride Disney has put in any of the US parks in years. While I do prefer the speed section of Test Track, Racers has everything else in spades. I can't wait to finally take a trip to Japan sometime in the future so I can experience the Lava Monster. A slightly more expensive Toad, this is not. I easily give the attraction an A- or B+.

California Sreamin' which is always good.

Awesome! Thank you for all of your and Brittany's hard work. Cars Land simply is amazing. DCA now feels likes a complete park with this addition.

Night rides are the best!

I understand that a full queue is 3 hours. Today to queue spilled way out to Paradise Pier (5 hours plus) but this is opening weekend. Just get to the park before opening and head right to ride and I bet that you will not have to wait very long.

I loved the new ride. Yes I did camp out starting at 3am. Yes, the ride broke down for 90min before we got on. It was still worth it. I did get to ride Matterhorn as well today. The new trains do not have any padding on them, so I felt that the ride was a bit harder on the back. The mountain looks really cleaned up now. The special effects and Yetis have not changed other than they too have been really cleaned up. The Yeti's roar is certainly a lot louder.

^ Tower in Orlando has the whole 4th dimension sequence when your car moves forward into the drop tower shaft. Plus it has random drop sequences. I myself like both Disneyland the same as I do Magic Kingdom. I like how most of the attractions are not exact clones of one another.