I mean visit Shanghai. It's just that one park with a small Disney Springs area.
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Theme Parks & Roller Coasters |OT| Imagineering 101
- Thread starter 7threst
- Start date
I mean visit Shanghai. It's just that one park with a small Disney Springs area.
as cool as this is I kinda miss the randomization. Because of the annual Star Wars releases the ride is usually locked into one set
I stopped going on Star Tours because it was salt planet EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.
and now it's gonna be ocean planet until the hype dies down. At the very least, because this is the last main series entry for a while it might switch back to random at some point
Yeah I noticed this during my trip to Florida this summer. It was almost always the Salt Planet.
Only got my favourite, Coruscant, once.
The Star Tours in Paris seemed to keep things switched up way more frequently when I was there in March though.
Looks like during an investor call today a Comcast exec let slip that Epic Universe is going to open in 2023.
From what I understand they are closed to facilitate some construction of the Velocicoaster, and they're using the time for maintainence as well. Some of the footings come very very close to the ride.
Yup, plus the whole area near the water there needs additional sound ground for the coaster. Hell even Camp Jurassic is closing for a day for construction.
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So I forgot to post some of the thoughts from my 10 day trip a few weeks ago. Some thoughts:
- SWGE has good "bones" but is deeply flawed land. Feels like it's designed only for people who want to drop a lot of money AND everything there is very expensive. Seriously needs some major fixes.
- Ate at Takumi-Tei, the new signature dining at Epcot. It was a fantastic experience and worth every penny I spend... and I spent a lot of pennies.
- Stayed at Endless Summer Resort. This is a GREAT choice if one only wants a nice place to sleep, some coffee in the morning, and a cocktail at night. Food court was ok to meh, breakfast sandwich was ok but burger I had was pretty bad. Pool bar drinks are all under $10, most at $9. This is insane. Only problem with rooms is the towels are very small and low thread count, other wise the room is great. I've already booked a room my next trip to UOR.
- Hagrid is my new favorite ride in Orlando. Got on seven times, simply the best.
- HHN didn't live up to the expectations this year, especially after 27 and 28 being very strong. Most houses were good but nothing that stood out.
- Bigfire is a home run with delicious food.
Tell me more about this Takumi-Tei.
My friends and I are big foodies, so would like to know of good places to eat.
Oh man, so it is expensive. While there are appetizers and entrees my date and i went for the five course meal with alcohol pairings which cost around $205 per person not including tax and gratuity. Obv you can walk away spending less.
As for food we had Japanese A5 Waygu beef, amazing delicate sushi, brased short rib with bone marrow, and a traditional Japanese tea ceremony. It's probably the best meal I've ever had.
Touring Plans had a great review up.
Oh my that does sound expensive, I'm not sure that's in our budget haha, ah well!
Sounds like a delicious meal though, you're lucky!
I had a great time there in March. My only disappointment was that Big Thunder Mountain and Haunted Mansion were both closed, but I believe they've re-opened now.
Gonna be in WDW for a single day with a friend next week. Haven't been since like middle school, so this should be fun. Planning to hop around the parks sans AK and any recommendations would be appreciated.
Why are you skipping AK? It has some excellent rides in there.
As for recommendations...make sure you hit up Galaxy's Edge and Toy Story Land. Magic Kingdom is a must and then take the monorail to Epcot.
Just seemed like it'd be hard to hit all four in one day. AK just kind of ended up getting the short end of the stick in that regard. The other three just had more stuff we were interested in seeing, and I don't super care about Avatar in general so while the rides are probably fine enough we're kinda prioritizing stuff elsewhere. If I had an extra day I probably would have done two per day to fit it in though.
Yeah you're going to waste a lot of time doing the park hopping, maybe consider a morning park and an afternoon/evening park? Also make sure to be there before rope drop to get the most done.
If you only do one park your best bet is probably MK. Honestly a DAK/DHS combo day wouldn't be bad either.
Hit Volcano Bay today, it's a pretty impressive place overall, and I loved the water coaster, but I'm torn as to whether or not I like the virtual queuing system they have.
There were two slides I never got a chance to go on cos I simply ran out of time (mainly because I had to wait 80 minutes before getting on the coaster) and I saw a lot of pissed off looking people standing at the entrance of the water coaster cos the "ride was full".
There were two slides I never got a chance to go on cos I simply ran out of time (mainly because I had to wait 80 minutes before getting on the coaster) and I saw a lot of pissed off looking people standing at the entrance of the water coaster cos the "ride was full".
Reason why everyone who says they should get rid of standby is a joke.
Back from Disneyland Paris- I was amazed how much smaller it is than any of the Florida parks, and it's overall not as slick an operation as any American Disney park, but I still had a great time- I was blown away by the Ratatouille ride, and it was nice to revisit dearly departed things like Motors Action and the Backlot Tour (albeit heavily truncated in that particular case). Their version of Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters and Space Mountain are straight-up better, too- loved Discoveryland's Jules Verne vibes.
Also, their version of the Haunted Mansion (Phantom Manor) is the best version out of all current Disney Parks worldwide. I also liked the dragon under the castle
Today's visit was to Animal Kingdom.
It was a fair bit busier than I expected it to be, but we still managed to have a pretty successful day due to having our three fast passes booked in for the rapids, Everest and Safari.
Rapids = 5/10 a bit tame and boring. I think I've been spoiled by Infinity Falls now when it comes to rapid rides.
Everest = 7/10 still good fun, especially the backwards section
Safari = 9/10 loved it, we got stuck for ages cos a giraffe stood right in front of us on the road and refused to move
Dinosaur = 7/10 Not bad at all, although the violent jerking-around hurt my back
Then we moved onto Avatar land, and although it only said 70 minutes at the entrance, we ended up waiting around 90. The queue seemed to slow to a complete crawl as it got towards the end, anyway, the ride itself was pretty decent, I enjoyed it a lot more than Soarin which is the obvious comparison.
We didn't bother waiting for the river ride cos it said 65 minutes and our feet were killing so we just wanted to go home.
The piece of corn I got from a truck near the safari covered in butter and some kind of fancy salt 10/10!
The pain you get in your feet from a holiday to Orlando is certainly something.
It was a fair bit busier than I expected it to be, but we still managed to have a pretty successful day due to having our three fast passes booked in for the rapids, Everest and Safari.
Rapids = 5/10 a bit tame and boring. I think I've been spoiled by Infinity Falls now when it comes to rapid rides.
Everest = 7/10 still good fun, especially the backwards section
Safari = 9/10 loved it, we got stuck for ages cos a giraffe stood right in front of us on the road and refused to move
Dinosaur = 7/10 Not bad at all, although the violent jerking-around hurt my back
Then we moved onto Avatar land, and although it only said 70 minutes at the entrance, we ended up waiting around 90. The queue seemed to slow to a complete crawl as it got towards the end, anyway, the ride itself was pretty decent, I enjoyed it a lot more than Soarin which is the obvious comparison.
We didn't bother waiting for the river ride cos it said 65 minutes and our feet were killing so we just wanted to go home.
The piece of corn I got from a truck near the safari covered in butter and some kind of fancy salt 10/10!
The pain you get in your feet from a holiday to Orlando is certainly something.
The Na'Vi River Journey ride is a -87/10. It is one of the worst attractions inside Disney.
So I've heard. As technically impressive as the animatronics are, it seems incredibly boring and short from the videos I've seen
Any tips? Might be going next year. Only been to the Tokyo parks before, none of the US ones either.
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Hot take: River Journey is underrated because disney fans have an abundance of slow boat rides. In the general amusement industry it is still a novelty and something different. Compare that to FoP which is another simulator that Disney fans freak out over because they're so far behind in technology and the industry.
You're probably right. Between Small World, PotC, and Frozen we didn't really need another. The long wait times probably leant themselves to it as well
I rode Ratatouille in Disneyland Paris, and it was the first time I got to experience that sort of trackless technology in person.
When my car shuffled off to the side to "hide" in the food store and the car that was previously behind me moved ahead of us, I became a believer.
When my car shuffled off to the side to "hide" in the food store and the car that was previously behind me moved ahead of us, I became a believer.
It is however the only slow boat ride at Animal Kingdom. It is not worth to wait an hour for though.
It's good, but the best trackless ride I've been on is Symbolica at Efteling. It is really nice with lots of animatronics instead of screens and uses the track less technology in an even better way imo.
Went to Hollywood Studios today. Probably the busiest I've ever seen the park, I had to actually queue 50 minutes for Terror of Tower, I've always walked straight onto that everytime I've visited Florida.
Toy Story Mania is still superb, not sure why I queued an hour for the Slinky Ride, but I did, it was ok.
I was pretty impressed with Galaxy's Landing overall, the theming is insane, and I really appreciated the characters they had walking around on a regular basis. The area is absolutely gorgeous in the dark. Smuggler's Run was good fun, took us around 50 minutes. I think our group did ok? I've read comments on here that it's possible to have a 'bad' experience on that ride depending on what people do? I'd be intrigued to see what would happen if they put two young kids up front as pilots 😆
Anyway, Islands of Adventure tomorrow, can't wait for that 2 hour Hagrid queue :/
Toy Story Mania is still superb, not sure why I queued an hour for the Slinky Ride, but I did, it was ok.
I was pretty impressed with Galaxy's Landing overall, the theming is insane, and I really appreciated the characters they had walking around on a regular basis. The area is absolutely gorgeous in the dark. Smuggler's Run was good fun, took us around 50 minutes. I think our group did ok? I've read comments on here that it's possible to have a 'bad' experience on that ride depending on what people do? I'd be intrigued to see what would happen if they put two young kids up front as pilots 😆
Anyway, Islands of Adventure tomorrow, can't wait for that 2 hour Hagrid queue :/
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It can be rough if your pilots are scraping against every single surface and colliding with everything
Haha that happened to us today, my two friends were the pilots and needless to say one of them in particular caused us a lot of bumps from crashing into something every few seconds.
Another observation from Islands of Adventure yesterday was how insanely good the theming is for the King Kong ride, just a shame the ride itself is a bit meh.
Anyway, I've a question about the food and wine festival at Epcot. Is it a separate ticketed event, or do you just turn up and start eating/drinking?
Anyway, I've a question about the food and wine festival at Epcot. Is it a separate ticketed event, or do you just turn up and start eating/drinking?
How long is the entire ride? The video is 5 minutes but said you finished in 50 minutes. Sorry, just confused. Is the ride doable for a disabled person?
They were talking about the wait being 50 minutes. The ride itself is about 4 or 5, yeah. From what I can tell, the ride does have disability access.