coasterdude5 Posted March 18, 2007 Posted March 18, 2007 I just got back from a week long trip to WDW. We stayed at the awesome Shades of Green resort and went to all four parks plus Busch Gardens Tampa/Africa. Day 1 - - Disney-MGM Studios We made this park last, last year, so it would be only fair to make it first this year. The crowds were moderate to heavy, with about 1,000 young cheerleaders and their moms. Since no one really reads the stuff at the top I'll just go straight to the photos. Epcot tomorrow. MGM hat at night. Night-time shot of.... The water screen effect was awesome. Stare at the lights... Fire, and explosions are cool. FANTASMIC, great show. Too many cheerleaders, it would be cool if they were closer to my age... Yeah, still looks cool. Tower at dusk... looks about the same, except for some shadows. Studio tour was top-notch. That's pretty much it. CONSTRUCTION REPORT. I'll skip that too. It's good going to Disney without kids. I'll skip it. HAT. Entrance to the studios, we skipped this part last year. I really like this ride, even though it is a vekoma, but according to Disney, it's not. I guess this is "good tower"? Correct me if I'm wrong. Infamous street to two Disney thrill rides. The sky looked cool today. CHEERLEADER SHOT #1 See if you didn't know that I was at Disney-MGM, you'd think you were in Hollywood! I guess this is like Magic Kingdom's Mainstreet USA. More building shots... Of nothing. Crowds could be worse. See how many cheerleaders you can find. Waiting in line to make sure we're not smuggling in fake fast-passes. Year of a Million Dreams logo/sign was planted here. I'm not sure what it's supposed to be. Here we are at Disney-MGM Studios. It would be cool if they went ahead and changed the name to Disney Studios, since I heard alot of people refer to it as that.
YoshiFan Posted March 18, 2007 Posted March 18, 2007 A lot of people refer to the park as Disney Studios because I think it was called that at one point. It was originally Disney MGM Studios, they dropped the name MGM and later added it back.
niiicolaaah Posted March 18, 2007 Posted March 18, 2007 ^Well, "HAT" pretty much sums it up! Side note: we did the Little Mermaid show, it was really cute. Live actors and weird puppet thingies.
robbalvey Posted March 18, 2007 Posted March 18, 2007 ^Well, "HAT" pretty much sums it up! I know!!! That's what was so damn funny about it! I was seriously LOL for like 2 minutes when I saw that.
Homer Posted March 18, 2007 Posted March 18, 2007 Awesome TR, can't wait to hear more about your trip. Also, about that comment about why the park's name hasn't been changed to "Disney Studios." Most of the locals here still refer to it as MGM Studios. Eh, just a little comment.
DerekRx Posted March 18, 2007 Posted March 18, 2007 Good stuff! I think the reason they sometimes refer to it as Disney Studios and not Disney MGM Studios is because of some ongoing lawsuit with MGM. Basically they agreed to work with Disney to build a park, then right after went and built their own amusement park in Las Vegas. Disney wasn't happy about that and plopped down the "hat" in front of the main facade of the park, MGM agreed to not make more parks and ripped out their Vegas micropark, and from now on anytime you see the park referred, it's usually just called Disney Studios. I'm not sure where I got that info from, perhaps it was a dream??
coasterdude5 Posted March 18, 2007 Author Posted March 18, 2007 Thanks for the replies, I didn't think I'd get much of a response from, HAT, but it's all I could think of. I'll have the Epcot report up tomorrow.
coasterdude5 Posted March 18, 2007 Author Posted March 18, 2007 Day 2 - - Epcot My family likes Epcot alot, probably because it doesn't have any coasters, go figure. It's a great park, but two days in, mainly in World Showcase, can get boring. It's still an awesome park. Magic Kingdom and Busch Gardens later. Then I went to eat at Germany, (I didn't know Soren was out of town). I don't like German food, but the hot waitresses make up for it! All the restaurants were booked for lunch. I still didn't see the movie, though. The Canadia, yeah I called it Canadia, was the only country I didn't visit last year. "It's a big blue world..." The Seas with Nemo and Friends. I didn't really get the ride, I guess it's aimed more towards 2 year olds. Spaceship Earth on the inside. It does have more than a bunch of stripes. No dancing like it's [year] Oohhh... Some drunk dude: "It looks like a cartoon dude, it looks like someone just drew it right there...." Another shot of Spaceship Earth. The monorail station, you probably didn't know that since you can't see the monorail. Waiting for the bag-checking line. It would be cool if the soccer moms would leave their house at their house and not bring it with them to the parks. Golfball.
coasterdude5 Posted March 18, 2007 Author Posted March 18, 2007 Day 3 - - Magic Kingdom This was the day that I think I forgot I had a camera, or I was having too much fun. One of the two. It was more crowded than I thought it would be, but hey, it's Magic Kingdom. I was walking down Mainstreet to get fastpasses for Pirates, which I eventually found out are not availible, when I saw Derek and Nicole following a castmember, by the time I realized who they were they were gone. That was cool. Then we rode pirates, nice ride, not worth the 45 minute wait, though. Big Thunder seemed to be better this year than last, not sure why, though. Now for the few pictures I have: Busch Gardens Africa is next. I'll probably have to divide that into two posts. Smile, you're on Splash Mountain. Now everytime I say "random", this ride is going to be the first thing that comes to mind. Splash Mountain was great, I had no idea it was as long as it was. Another shot of the castle. Castle is different from last year, I think it looks better all pimped out, though. The train station, you go under it when you enter the park.
niiicolaaah Posted March 18, 2007 Posted March 18, 2007 Great pictures of Splash Mountain! That is totally my favorite ride at Disney now. I was also surprised that Pirates and Haunted Mansion don't have fastpass, but I guess they don't need them. Did you ride Haunted Mansion? The audio in our doom buggy totally sucked. I still love that ride, but it definitely needs a bit of TLC.
coasterdude5 Posted March 18, 2007 Author Posted March 18, 2007 Thanks, no, I didn't ride Haunted Mansion this year, we rode it last year, so that was one of the ones we decided to skip this year. The line looked pretty bad. But I don't remember the audio being off, but it probably was and I didn't pick up on it.
coasterdude5 Posted March 19, 2007 Author Posted March 19, 2007 Day 4 - - Busch Gardens Africa Part 1 This park was cool, a little different than I expected (I'm not really sure what I expected), but I had a great time. I rode Sheikra (#1 on my list) 4 times, Kumba, Scorpion, and Gwazi (Lion) once. Onto the pictures: PART 2 NEXT A little shaking never hurt nobody! A bit shaky, but it still delivers. I guarantee you have of the people in this train are from Ontario. (There were tons of Ontario tags on cars in the parking lot) Ever seen this shot before? Is this coaster porn? Sha-quee-quee bout to go ride some "Shreeka" Kumba's brake run. Alright, here's some Montu for your inverted needs. You're probably getting tired of ShieKra pictures... but I'm not, haha. Oh hey, what's up, immelman? I think the larger track acts as an illusion or something, I don't know. The ride, to me, was alot bigger in person. Train LEAVING the immelman. Train riding the Immelman Immelman from underneath Speaks for itself. Down into the tunnel... it was leaking a bit (I think) so I got some soakage on one arm. Back to my Sheikra... We were then stranded at the Nairobi station for 20 minutes because the wheel chair ramp broke. Train time... we had an annoying girl as our tour guide. That chicken was top notch, not as good as Rendezvous' in Memphis though. Ahh.. the beauty.... I see SheiKra The signage is great at this park. Lots of trees, that's a good thing. Ahhh!! Don't worry man, I got some Tylenol! Haha, it would be cool if Shakira performed. The layout's not too bad, it's the trains. Hopefully this ride will meet Pysclone in wooden coaster heaven someday. Random palm tree shot. Some places to give money. To Busch. Bag check, but wait, there's no fastpass at BGA, what could they be checking for? Entrance area to the park, looked cool. I'm gonna start this trip report with the best park sign I've ever seen.
spaceace12 Posted March 19, 2007 Posted March 19, 2007 Nice pics of sheikra, I wish I could have stayed longer in the park so I could got more pics of everything and got to ride scorpion. Was your train person named brandy? if so, she was on the train I was on the day I was there and she was annoying.
coasterdude5 Posted March 19, 2007 Author Posted March 19, 2007 Yeah, I'm pretty sure her name was Brandy.
crazydaveh Posted March 20, 2007 Posted March 20, 2007 How come no one posts pictures of the Beer House? It's the best part of the SeaWorld and Busch Gardens parks!!! Nice report. I can never get enough pics of Sheikra!
dwerling Posted March 20, 2007 Posted March 20, 2007 I'm possibly going to BGA in two weeks. Got a few ?'s 1. How are the lines (Average Wait Time) 2. Any food places to recommend? 3. Should I go here (BGA) or Sea World ? I havent made up my mind yet.
CP_RULES Posted March 20, 2007 Posted March 20, 2007 This shot really puts into perspective how GIANT the track is for me. Great pictures, cant wait to see the next update.
RCTfan Posted March 20, 2007 Posted March 20, 2007 You've got some great pictures there. I don't see why people don't like Gwazi. I think I enjoyed that ride more than I did Sheikra. I remember going sometime in July and re-rode Gwazi quite a few times without getting off. It was just way too much fun. I love the ride. You people are nuts. Haha. I need to get back to Busch Gardens because I miss that place. Their rides are fantastic! Great TR! I look forward to some more photos.
coasterdude5 Posted March 20, 2007 Author Posted March 20, 2007 1. How are the lines (Average Wait Time) 2. Any food places to recommend? 3. Should I go here (BGA) or Sea World ? I havent made up my mind yet 1. I went on a Wednesday, all the schools were in so the lines weren't bad. The longest wait was 10-15 minutes. 2. Zambia Smokehouse all the way! 3. For coaster lovers, I'd say BGA, but I've never been to Seaworld (at least since they added coasters) More BGA pics later
jackskellington101 Posted March 20, 2007 Posted March 20, 2007 I don't see why people don't like Gwazi. I think I enjoyed that ride more than I did Sheikra. I remember going sometime in July and re-rode Gwazi quite a few times without getting off. It was just way too much fun. I love the ride. You people are nuts. Haha. Then call me nuts. I really don't like Qwazi at all for two specific words. It hurts. Add two more words. A lot. When I went on it during my first trip to Busch Africa, it wasn't too bad. I ranked it somewhere around Roar at SFA in terms of a ride, not the smoothest in the world but bearable. When I rode it again more recently, it felt like I was going to need a spinal transfusion by the end. It was not enjoyable. You could feel the whole thing rattle, the bad kind of rattle, as the ride went on. So my personal ranking is not too high. My personal ranking on this TR is pretty high though. Very nice work.
I:RoE Posted March 20, 2007 Posted March 20, 2007 Awesome TR. Did you see the fireworks show, IllumiNations? It's my personal favorite.
Bubba Z Posted March 21, 2007 Posted March 21, 2007 Today was my first time on Gwazi and I found Lion to be actually good. While Tiger was very rough and painful as everyone else told me it was going to be. I was just happy they were running BOTH sides today!! It was a one train wait for both sides. Sheikra, good, but too short. I enjoyed watching it more than riding. 3 train wait front . Walk on back. Kumba was just as good as I remembered from opening day. 2 train wait for last row. Cheetah Chase is the slowest mouse I've been on. Overall wait time 20-25 Min's. Finally, Montu! The best ride in the park and overall the best Blue B&M coaster out there. It really was the Bomb! Longest wait of the day being around 30 Min's.
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