Tuesday, April 21, 2009

4/21 "Been To Many Parks Since Friday" Edition



Well I been doing a lot of parks lately and have seen a lot of stuff. I hit EPCOT Friday, Aquatica (full review coming soon) IOA & USF on Saturday, DHS on Sunday and DAK/MK yesterday. Got a whole bunch of pictures and thoughts so here we go.

Some Notes:

- Nothing too special to report from the Friday EPCOT trip.

- Grabbed a big 32 Oz beer at the outdoor bar at NASCAR Grill before heading into Universal on Saturday. Not a bad value at $7.50. I was first put off by the idea of the NASCAR place, because I'm not a NASCAR fan, but I didn't see anything NASCAR at the outdoor bar and they were playing NFL & NHL on TV.
- The animatronic was functioning the first time I rode, but not the second.
- Got to hang out with my Coaster Crew blogging buddy Erik Yates for the day, which was enjoyable as always.
- The Jimmy Neutron ride has cameos from Rocko's Modern Life & Ren & Stimpy, which is awesome!
- "I'm Bill Paxton"
- I had a little bone to pick with the ops at The Simpsons Ride, they moved us into the small preshow rooms before the first preshow had ended, so anyone riding for the first time wouldn't know as well just what is going on in the ride.
- I'm getting better at Men In Black got a score of 129,000 this time.
- Been a while since I've done T2:3D, that is one awesome show.
- This was the last night of Mardi Gras and the concert was Nelly. I'm a big Nelly fan and have all his albums and was very happy with the show. He went thru all his hit songs and performed for an hour and twenty minutes, which is longer then the other Mardi Gras concerts I've seen. He brought Murphy Lee & the rest of the lunatics with him, so they performed as well. Good show, I'll miss Mardi Gras.

- Crowds weren't as bad Sunday at Hollywood Studios. The easter crowds must have finally left. Tower of Terror was a walk on often. Got on Toy Story Mania during the first showing of Fantasmic in about 20 minutes which is unheard of.
- I saw the American Idol Experiance Finale Show for the first time ever and that was a pretty cool thing to see. I do like that show quite a bit, and see it pretty much every time I'm at the park.
- I saw Fantasmic for the first time since they cut down the performances. This was the most pleasent WDW Fantasmic experiance I've ever had. The park wasn't busy and for some reason there were two shows. I went to the second show which was about half filled and sat down in a good seat 2 minutes before the show. Much better then the insane crowds this show normally draws.

- Not too much out of the ordinary at DAK/MK on Monday.
- It rained which made the day less fun.
- McDonalds is completely gone from Dinosaur, no signs, no "Brought To You By A Generous Grant From The McDonalds Company" announcement.

Some Pics:


Ate at ESPN Club on the Boardwalk on Friday. Enjoying some beer & wings, while watching the Yanks in a day game. Cool place, since I'm a big sports fan I really enjoyed it. The prices were well, Disney prices.


The cool Velcro frog I made in Innoventions.


Crowds at EPCOT on Friday at 5 pm.


Guy rocking the old school Yanks shirt jersey.


You can guess which part of this sign caught my attenion.


Crowds on Saturday at 2.


Construction of Rip Ride Rockit. When I was there on Saturday they were working on the firehouse bust through and some touch up stuff in that area. Still no sign of a lift hill. The station looks better then the last time I was there.


Do they have Kingda Ka or El Toro? Cause thats how I like my Great Adventure.


Potterland construction continues.


Starburst makes ice pops?!? I wasn't in the Ice Pop mood at the time, but that sounds delicous.


Some cool plush prizes from one of the midway games at USF.


A shirt with reference to the classic "Oops I Ripped My Pants" episode of Spongebob.


I'm astonished that Universal has this big empty building right in the middle of the park.


Nelly!!!!!


Crowds at DHS on Sunday in the afternoon (sorry I didn't write down at what time).


Because other people in my group wanted to, I saw the High School Musical street show. Not my favorite.


Another new personal high score for me at Toy Story Mania!!


Signs for the new Picnic In The Park program at DAK.


Crowds on Monday at 1:20.


Crowds at MK on Monday in the afternoon.


Space Mountain refurb signage.


Stitch construction is getting there.


TTA doesn't get the fancy signage Space Mountain has.

Ride Count

Friday

The Seas With Nemo & Friends

Saturday

Mummy (2 times)
Men In Black
ET
Doctor Doom
Spiderman
Seuss Trolley Ride
Jimmy Neutron
Twister
Simpsons
T2
Disaster

Sunday

American Idol (3 times)
High School Musical
Tower Of Terror
Toy Story Mania
Rock & Roller Coaster
Fantasmic

Monday

Dinosaur
Everest
Haunted Mansion
Philharmagic
Buzz Lightyear

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