According to Sally, the attraction will incorporate animatronic characters, eight large-scale 3D screens, a commissioned musical score, and laser-powered blasters. The story will focus on Superman and his tights-wearing buddies The Flash, Green Lantern, Supergirl, Batman, and Wonder Woman as they enlist riders to help them wage battle against -- well -- invading aliens.
One of Sally's notable projects was the wonderful Nights in White Satin- The Trip ride, which unfortunately lasted only one season at the shuttered Hard Rock Park. Perhaps the Myrtle Beach operators should have called on the Justice League to rescue its troubled park.
- Soarin' Over California- One of the best theme park rides.
Photo: Sally Corporation. Used with permission.
I've said it before; I'm sure I'll be saying it many times again - including right now: This is one of the most exciting times I can recall in the long, glorious history of the parks industry. There are so many exciting plans afoot, I'm fairly giddy.
It's a matter of some dispute, but the place that is generally acknowledged to be the world's first water park is Wet 'n Wild Orlando. (Among the sticking points, River Country at Disney World actually opened a few months earlier. But those in the know consider Wet 'n Wild the prototype and its founder, George Millay, the father of the water park industry.) 35 years after it opened, it still remains one of the biggest, best, and most popular parks. See why in my overview of Wet 'n Wild Orlando.
It's the most wonderful time of the year -- for park fans anyhoo. Nearly every park is now open for the season (at least on weekends), new rides are debuting, and all is once again well with the world. In celebration of the exciting 2012 season, I joined Mike Collins and E.B. on their CoasterRadio.com podcast to deconstruct many of the latest, greatest coasters and attractions rolling out at parks, including Skyrush at Hersheypark, X-Flight at Six Flags Great America, and the reconfigured Spider-Man ride at Islands of Adventure.
Throughout my crazy career as a theme park journalist, I've had the good fortune to speak with some of the industry's heaviest hitters, including Disney's Marty Sklar (who worked alongside Walt Disney), Universal's Thierry Coup (who had a major hand in designing Spider-Man and The Wizarding World of Harry Potter), and Disney Imagineer extraordinaire Tony Baxter. With all due respect to these and others whom I've interviewed, my best "get" happened recently while I was on assignment producing videos at Walt Disney World. I got to chat with (drum roll...) Crush, of Finding Nemo fame. It was quite an awesome experience talking with the famous surfer dude.
With many more visitors streaming into Islands of Adventure since the 2010 opening of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, it was probably inevitable that Universal Orlando would expand its hotel accommodations. The resort announced that it would build its fourth on-site hotel, the Cabana Bay Beach Resort. The 1,800-room property is set to open in 2014.
Legoland Florida, which opened last October on the grounds of the former Cypress Gardens, continued its expansion with the opening of its water park over the weekend. Some of the slides and attractions are holdouts from the water park that was already on site. Unlike many parks, which charge a single price for admission to both its theme park and water park, Legoland requires a separate ticket for its water park. Among the featured attractions is a build-your-own raft that guests can then try in the lazy river. Read more about Legoland Florida Water Park.
You love theme parks. (Otherwise, what the heck are you doing here?) Chances are you also love movies. Do I have that right? So, how about combining two of the things you love by coming up with a theme park attraction based on one of your favorite films?
Without their elaborate themes and inspired storytelling, Pirates of the Caribbean would be a boring boat ride and the Tower of Terror would be just another drop tower. Celebrating its 20th anniversary, the TEA (Themed Entertainment Association) represents the creative professionals who bring theme park attractions and other projects to life. To celebrate the industry's outstanding achievements, the organization will be presenting its annual Theas ceremony on March 17. The awards gala will be held at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim, and Disney will be helping to produce the event.
There is no denying that Disney is masterful at moving enormous numbers of people around its parks. But there's also no getting around the fact that lines are a necessary evil at popular attractions. There is no magical way to make the lines disappear at the Magic Kingdom, but there are ways for visitors to minimize their wait times and make them more tolerable. Lines, and strategies for dealing with them, are the focus of the latest About.com original video about the Disney parks.
I recently had the pleasure of traveling to Disney World (I know: It's a tough job, but somebody has to do it) and producing a series of videos for About.com. One of the videos focuses on the Disney characters. No matter how incredible the latest, greatest ride or attraction may be (and some of them are pretty darn incredible), nothing beats the timeless, simple pleasure of getting some face time with Mickey and his pals. Am I right, park fans? We put together a few tips in this fun video about meeting the Disney characters. Enjoy!
Bart Simpson first uttered, "Ay caramba," soon after George Bush became president -- as in George Herbert Walker Bush. As in pre-Facebook, pre-Google, and heck, pre-Internet. But not pre-donuts. Mmm, donuts.
Texans love their water parks. And with good reason. It can get brutally hot and humid in the state, even along the coast. The folks near Corpus Christi, therefore, will surely welcome Hurricane Alley, a brand new water park opening in a few weeks. Located next to Whataburger Field (how's that for quirky naming rights?), home of the baseball's minor league Hooks, the park includes The Diamond, a water spray area themed to America's national pastime. Read more about Hurricane Alley.
When Steve Jobs passed away, I wrote about the ties that bound the Apple visionary to the Walt Disney Company. That connection was driven home today when I had the chance to sit down with John Lasseter, who serves as both chief creative officer of the Disney company and principal creative advisor for Walt Disney Imagineering, at the event marking the opening of Cars Land at Disney California Adventure. Lasseter is also the head honcho at Pixar and was the writer, director, and chief mechanic of Cars, the charming movie upon which the new land is based.
Like many grand dames from California, the Disneyland Hotel got a facelift. Soon after Disneyland opened in 1955, the adjacent hotel welcomed its first guests. Through the years it grew and evolved, but it had recently been showing its age, especially in comparison to the resort's elegant and upscale Disney's Grand Californian. Two years ago, the Mouse began re-Imagineering the hotel and has now taken down the construction walls. In addition to renovated rooms, the made-over Disneyland Hotel features new restaurants, a new courtyard, the themed Big Thunder Suite and Fairy Tale Suite, and evocative retro touches at the new Monorail Pool, which includes a water slide tower that pays homage to the original Disneyland sign and monorail.
One of Disney World's famed "mountain range" rides isn't in the Magic Kingdom. It's Expedition Everest at Disney's Animal Kingdom. I got a chance to ride the unique and highly themed coaster a few weeks back as part of the series of About.com videos we shot at Disney World. It was an unusually cold winter morning in Florida, and it's an odd sight to see me bundled up in a coat with dragon breath punctuating my introduction. With the mercury dipping into the 30s, it was an especially brisk ride aboard the coaster. Talk about wind chill factor! Then again, the cold temperatures perfectly suited the Everest theme. See the Expedition Everest video.
Until recently, zip line attractions were more the province of adventure travel providers. But theme parks have been capitalizing on the popularity of the treetop attractions with parks such as Dollywood getting into the swing of things and offering their own extra-fee adventures. Now, the line has been blurred further with the introduction of what is being described as a zip line roller coaster.
Unlike California's Disneyland, where a lot of the guests are SoCal day-trippers, most of the mouse-eared folks roaming Disney World's parks are overnight visitors on vacation. As part of their park plans, they need to find a place to rest their mouse-eared heads at night. But with one of the largest concentrations of hotels in the world, how can they figure out where to stay? And how can they make the most of their hotel choices? Have no fear. About.com's Hotels & Resorts Guide, Charlyn Keating Chisholm and I offer some tips for staying at a Disney World hotel in About's latest original video.
This is how I want to grow old. According to the Associated Press, Thelma Gratsch celebrated her 90th birthday aboard Diamondback, a roller coaster at Kings Island -- a roller coaster that climbs 230 feet, has a woozy 74-degree first drop, and tops out at 80 mph. The coaster is so intense, its second drop is 193 feet. And get this: The birthday gal's celebratory ride wasn't a one-time feat; Gratsch is a longtime Kings Island season pass holder and has braved Diamondback about 100 times since it opened in 2009. Maybe riding coasters is the secret to her longevity. If that's the case, I may be on the, er, right track.
Towering high above Disneyland and Disney World's Magic Kingdom is Splash Mountain, one of the classic E-Ticket attractions that comprise Disney's celebrated mountain range. It's a fairly standard log flume ride (although it's quite long and has a comparatively high and steep drop), but its charming and clever incorporation of characters and scenes from the animated film, Song of the South, renders it one of Disney's most beloved attractions. Splash Mountain is profiled in the most recent About.com video. It features insight from Deb Wills of the Disney parks-loving Website, AllEars.net. Find your laughing place and take a virtual ride by enjoying the Splash Mountain video.
The first phase of the much-heralded Fantasyland expansion at Disney World's Magic Kingdom is now open -- well "soft" open anyways. Yesterday, the construction walls came down for part of the Storybook Circus area, which includes the re-themed Great Goofini Barnstormer coaster and one of the two planned Dumbo rides that have taken up residence in the former Mickey's Toontown Fair area. As is often the case with new park attractions, the new-ish rides are in preview mode and not "officially" open yet as Disney works out the kinks. The new Dumbo, which includes fountains and an impressive light display, looks stunning, especially at night. You can read more about what else is on the way to the Magic Kingdom, including the Little Mermaid ride, the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, the massive Be Our Guest restaurant, and more in my Fantasyland Expansion overview.
Sure, you're going to blast off on Space Mountain and take a ride with Mater in Cars Land. But chances are, when you visit Disneyland you're also going to be looking for something(s) delicious to eat. To conclude my series about the best dining throughout the California Resort (last week, I posted the top 10 best table-service restaurants and the top 10 best quick-service restaurants), let's take a look at the best sweets and quick bites, shall we? There are lots and lots of choices, but our esteemed panel of judges whittled down the options to come up with Disneyland's top 10 best snacks and desserts. (OK, there are actually 13 items, because we had some ties.) Curious about what was number 1? Here is a hint: You scream, I scream...