Theme Park Insider

Theme Park History: A short history of Disneyland

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 21:52:00 GMT

By Robert Niles: Disneyland opened on July 17, 1955 with a 90-minute live broadcast on the ABC television network. Future U.S. president Ronald Reagan was one of the three hosts for the broadcast, which introduced America to what would become its most popular and influential theme park. Haven't seen that show? Take a look:

But the story of Disneyland begins before July 1955. Two years earlier, in July 1953, Walt Disney asked Harrison "Buzz" Price to calculate the optimal location for a new type of theme park, one with a single entrance, hidden from nearby streets, with custom rides that put storytelling ahead of thrills. Price analyzed 40 years of population data to determine that the best available 160-acre site in the Los Angeles metro area, with Interstate highway access, would be in Anaheim. Based in part on his success in siting Disneyland, Disney later hired Price to determine the location of Walt Disney World, which Price sited southwest of Orlando, Florida. Price, who passed away in 2010, went on to do feasibility studies that led to theme parks and new developments for Universal, Six Flags, Busch Gardens and SeaWorld.

Walt's brother and business partner, Roy Disney, hired C.V. Wood, Price's boss, to build the park. An often off-color showman who could sell a sponsorship to most anyone, Wood brought Disneyland in on time and on its $18 million budget, but Walt fired him immediately after the park opened. "There was room for only one showman," Price wrote in his memoir Walt's Revolution! By the Numbers. "Their clash of egos was oil and water and Walt was the boss." Wood went on to build Six Flags Over Texas, helping to launch a boom of theme park construction across the country in the years following Disneyland's opening.

Disney's decision to build his park around custom rides led to the development of a massive new industry in themed attraction development. Arrow Dynamics got its big break building many of the original rides in the park's Fantasyland, and in 1959, Arrow built the Matterhorn Bobsleds, the world's first tubular-tracked steel roller coaster, the innovation that sparked modern roller coaster development around the world.

In 1963, Walt Disney unveiled The Enchanted Tiki Room, the first use of Audio Animatronics in a theme park attraction. An extension of animation in film, animated mechanical characters became a staple in Disneyland and other theme parks, with Disney introducing the first animated human character in "Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln" at the 1964 New York Fair. (The attraction later moved to Disneyland, where a successor plays to this day.) Also at the New York Fair, Disney introduced It's a Small World, which also moved to Disneyland after the fair, where it stands today, having inspired additional versions at every other Disney theme park resort around the world.

Walt Disney died in December 1966, before the completion of Pirates of the Caribbean, in 1967, and the Haunted Mansion, in 1969 -- two animatronic-driven attractions that would become icons for the Walt Disney theme parks, with Pirates later inspiring a multi-billion-dollar motion picture franchise. The success of those attractions helped ensure the continued popularity of Disneyland even after Walt's death.

As Disney expanded with new theme parks on the east coast, at the Walt Disney World Resort, and internationally, with Tokyo Disneyland, Disneyland continued to add new attractions in the 1970s and 80s. Disney added two new roller coasters during this time: Space Mountain in 1977 and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad in 1979. In 1987, Disneyland launched an industry trend in developing motion-base simulator attractions with the introduction of the original Star Tours ride.

The early 1990s brought more popular expansions, including the wildly popular nighttime show Fantasmic! in 1992, and a new land, Mickey's Toontown, in 1993, inspired by the 1988 Touchstone (Disney)/Amblin movie "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" Disney then brought motion-base technology to traditional "dark rides" with the Indiana Jones Adventure in 1995.

While that technology helped inspire similar big-budget attractions at other Disney (as well as Universal and Busch Gardens) theme parks, Indiana Jones' debut in 1995 marked the high point for Disneyland before a period of decline in the late 1990s. The park's replacement for the wildly successful Main Street Electrical Parade, Light Magic, played to hostile reviews in 1997. The death of a Disneyland visitor on the Sailing Ship Columbia dock the next year, later faulted to a Disneyland manager's error, led to changes in theme park safety regulations in the state of California. The centerpiece of the 1998 Tommorowland update, Rocket Rods, failed frequently before closing for good in 2000. Disneyland's sister park, California Adventure, debuted to poor reviews and lackluster attendance in 2001. And Disneyland suffered five years of attendance declines, starting in 1996.

But Disneyland recovered in the early 2000s, in anticipation of the park's 50th anniversary in 2005. Disney invested in ride refurbishments throughout the park, replacing the failed Rocket Rods ride with Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters and completely rebuilding Space Mountain's track and interior. In 2011, Disney revamped Star Tours with a new version, Star Tours: The Adventures Continue, that includes 55 different narrative combinations. Park attendance (and prices) surged in the late 2000s and early 2010s, with attendance finally beginning to dip in 2012, as a multi-billion dollar refurbishment and expansion of California Adventure began to draw visitors to Disneyland's sister park in record numbers for the first time. Of course, many of those California Adventure visitors also find their way over to Disneyland, where the park remains popular - and crowded - throughout the year.

Please share your favorite Disneyland memories, or hopes for its future, in the comments.

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How do theme park ticket prices compare with other out-of-home entertainment?

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 03:19:00 GMT

By Robert Niles: So, just how expensive is Walt Disney World's $95-a-day ticket price for the Magic Kingdom? Let's compare the cost of one day at the world's most-attended theme park with the cost of other popular out-of-home entertainment options.

Broadway show
The cost of a ticket to last year's Tony Award-winner for Best Musical, "Once": $142

Music concert
The average cost of a ticket to last year's high-grossing concert tour, Madonna's MDNA Tour: $138

Skiing
The cost of a single-day, walk-up lift ticket to Vail Mountain, the nation's most popular ski resort last season: $129

NFL game
The average cost of a ticket to see the Dallas Cowboys, who led the NFL in attendance last year: $110.70

Baseball game
The average cost of a ticket to see the Philadelphia Phillies, who led Major League Baseball in attendance last year: $37.42

Museum
The suggested admission fee to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the nation's most popular museum that requests an admission fee: $25

Since we considered average ticket prices for some of those options, let's acknowledge that the large majority of visitors to Walt Disney World do not buy single-day admission tickets, but instead purchase multi-day tickets that allow them to see all four of the resort's theme parks.

A four-day, one-park-per-day ticket to Walt Disney World costs $279 for adults, working out to an average ticket cost of $69.70 per day in a park. Let's compare that with the two other multi-park theme park resorts in America, whose parks represent the other four of the nation's top eight most-attended theme parks. Again, these prices assume a visit of one park per day, with no park-hopping.

At the Disneyland Resort in California, a two-day ticket costs $175, working out to an average ticket price of $87.50 per day to see its two theme parks.

At the Universal Orlando Resort, a two-day ticket costs $125.99, working out to an average ticket price of $63 per day to see its two parks.

Computed this way, a visit to the Disneyland Resort in California is quite a bit more expensive per day than a visit to either of the top Orlando theme park resorts: Walt Disney World or Universal Orlando. However, even the Disneyland Resort tickets cost less than seeing a top NFL game, a day on the slopes skiing, going to a popular concert, or seeing a top Broadway show.

Of course, one can find cheaper football, skiing, concert and theater tickets out there. But you can find cheaper theme and amusement park tickets across the nation, too. The question for consumers, as always, remains: Are you getting appropriate value in return for the money you're spending on out-of-home entertainment?

This article originally appeared at http://www.themeparkinsider.com/flume/201306/3529/. All rights reserved. If you are not reading this on a personal RSS reader (such as Feedburner) or on http://www.themeparkinsider.com, you are reading a scraper website that has illegally copied and stolen http://www.themeparkinsider.com's content. Please visit http://www.themeparkinsider.com/flume/201306/3529/ for the original version, along with all its comments.

Plan your day at Disney California Adventure

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 21:01:00 GMT

By Robert Niles: Once the target of jokes about building a theme park on the cheap, Disney California Adventure in Anaheim today stands an example of how luxuriant investment can attract millions of new visitors to a park.

Disney California Adventure opened in 2001, then "reopened" in 2012 following a billion-dollar investment in new rides and shows including the centerpiece "Cars Land," based on the Disney-Pixar animated films. That's made California Adventure a much more popular park, one that demands some advance planning in order to get the most value from your day.

What to do before you go

Please read our guide to planning a day at Disneyland for information on scheduling your trip, booking a hotel, buying theme park tickets and arranging transportation to the Disneyland Resort. Disneyland and California Adventure are located within a few yards of each other, on either side of a football-field-sized esplanade, so many visitors choose "park hopper" tickets and treat the two parks as one during their multi-day visit.

California Adventure's new icon is the Carthay Circle theater, a replica of the movie house where Walt Disney premiered his first animated feature, "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs." This Carthay Circle isn't a movie theater -- it's a restaurant, and if you'd like to dine there, advance reservations are highly recommended. Call 714-781-DINE before you visit. Also note that with your reservation, if you choose at least two courses during your meal (entree and either appetizer or dessert), you'll get a Fastpass viewing location reservation for that night's World of Color show, saving you to have to pick up one of those reserved places on the morning of your visit. You can also get World of Color Fastpasses by booking World of Color dining packages at the Wine Country Trattoria or Ariel's Grotto restaurants.

Disney offers Extra Magic Hours in the mornings on selected days to its hotel guests, as well to Annual Passholders and holders of certain multi-day tickets. If you've got an Extra Magic early admission, use it on a day when you can get into California Adventure early, to secure a Fastpass or ride on the highly popular Radiator Springs Racers before it opens to the rest of the park's visitors. If you don't have Extra Magic Hour access, avoid California Adventure on an Extra Magic early opening day, as you'll find Cars Land filled with other visitors and many of the Fastpasses gone by the time you enter the park. Check Disneyland's online calendar to see which days have Extra Magic Hour early admission to California Adventure. (You'll have to look at each day's schedule -- it's not listed on the monthly view.)

When you get to Disney California Adventure

Please note that since we published our post on visiting the Disneyland Resort, Disney's raised the daily parking fee to $16. Plan to arrive at the parking structure at least one hour before park opening to allow time to park your car, ride the tram to the parks and go through the bag check in order to queue up at the park entrance early enough to be among the first in when the park opens. Pick up a show schedule as you enter the turnstiles -- you'll want it to find when the Aladdin show is playing, later in the day.

Your first destination should be to get a Fastpass ride reservation time for Radiator Springs Racers, which are distributed just past the Carthay Circle Restaurant, on the pathway next to A Bug's Land, before you get to Cars Land. Your "must see" rides at Disney California Adventure, according to Theme Park Insider reader ratings, are:

And your "must-see" shows are:

If you've been to Walt Disney World, you should note that Toy Story Midway Mania here does not offer Fastpass, and has much shorter waits than the same ride at Disney's Hollywood Studios in Florida. Soarin' Over California also offers shorter waits here than at its Epcot sibling.

World of Color has several reserved viewing areas for the night's shows (you'll be standing to watch the show), which are assigned by Fastpasses you can obtain in the morning. You also can get World of Color Fastpasses by dining at one of the park's table service restaurants (see above).

Disney California Adventure also offers a Twilight Zone Tower of Terror ride, but readers rate it inferior to the Hollywood Studios version in Florida, so if you're pressed for time, feel free to skip it. But if you want to pick up a Fastpass while you're waiting for the Aladdin show next door, it's a nice way to cap off your day in the park before heading over to World of Color in the evening.

If you're not using one of the World of Color dining packages, go ahead and walk over to the Grizzly River Run queue in the Grizzly Peak section of the park, where the World of Color Fastpasses are distributed, to get one after getting your Radiator Springs Racers Fastpass. Don't worry about Disney's traditional two-hour waiting period between getting Fastpasses. World of Color Fastpasses aren't counted against your "One Fastpass at a Time" limit.

From there, head back down to Condor Flats to ride Soarin' Over California, then cut back behind Grizzly Peak to Paradise Pier to ride Toy Story Midway Mania and California Screamin'. Don't forget your Radiator Springs Racers return time! Disneyland Resort is now enforcing return-time windows, just like Disney World, so don't be late and miss your return time.

We recommend seeing the Aladdin show later in the day, after you've hit the "must see" attractions on the other side of the park. Arrive at the theater 30-60 minutes before show time (depending upon the size of the crowd in the park), to ensure you get seats. If you're planning to ride Tower of Terror, get a Fastpass for it before queueing for the Aladdin show. Don't just walk into the standby queue after the show. The Aladdin crowd floods that ride after each show, leading to its longest waits of the day.

Other notable attractions: If it's a hot day and you're looking to cool down, try the white-water rapids ride Grizzly River Run in the afternoon, or, if you don't want to get wet or wait as long, choose the indoor, air-conditioned Little Mermaid ride in Paradise Pier. The Animation Academy in the Disney Animation building in Hollywood Land offers free classes where you can learn how to draw a Disney character, and take your work home for a free souvenir. Finally, locals flock to the nightly Mad T outdoor dance party in Hollywood Land, where the White Rabbit DJ spins dance tunes while street vendors sell a variety of alcoholic beverages.

Where to eat

Theme Park Insider readers highly recommend the Carthay Circle restaurant, especially its signature fried biscuits and Fire Cracker Duck Wings. If you don't have reservations and are looking for counter service options, try the Fiddler, Fifer and Practical Cafe in the mornings for Starbucks coffee and pastries (have one person in your party get the coffees while another gets the Radiator Springs Fastpasses), or Flo's V8 Cafe in Cars Land for a lunch or dinner of diner-style roast pork, turkey or beef platters, served with two sides. Over in Paradise Pier, readers also give high marks to Boardwalk Pizza and Pasta and the Paradise Garden Grill, which serves a variety of meat and veggie skewers.

What's next?

The year since Cars Land opened has provided a welcome break from the non-stop construction this park saw for years during its refurbishment. But rumors are flying that Disney's going to make changes to the Hollywood Land section of the park, perhaps retheming the area around the current Monsters Inc. ride as Monstropolis, adding another Monsters Inc ride in one of the sound stages next to the current ride.

Next week: Universal Studios Florida

Previously:

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The new Safari Off Road Adventure opens at Six Flags Great Adventure

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 17:39:00 GMT

By Bobbie Butterfield: Historically, Six Flags Great Adventure featured a drive-through safari with an entrance separate from the main entrance to the theme park. This was closed late last year in order to pave the way for a new Safari Off Road Adventure with vehicles and tour guides provided by the park.

The Safari Off Road Adventure officially opened on May 25, 2013 and is accessed from the Frontier Adventures section of the park, near Runaway Mine Train and Saw Mill Log Flume. Riders board one of 18 safari-style open-air vehicles seating 30 people. These trucks are painted with zebra stripes and topped with a canopy. To add to the air of authenticity, drivers are outfitted in safari gear. (The promotional literature hypes onboard videos depicting a fictitious conservationist family but I paid no attention to this so will cut to the chase.)

Prior to entering the boarding area, park guests are required to have their photographs taken against a backdrop depicting a safari vehicle and giraffe. From the boarding area, the truck makes a turn and follows a winding gravel path before entering the animal preserve. It negotiates varying and sometimes hilly terrain, from gravel to dirt to grass to asphalt. At one point it traverses a pond. The ride was so bumpy that I found it difficult to hold my camera steady or jot down notes. Where appropriate, the driver pulled off the path to get closer to the animals.

According to the park, there are more than 1,200 animals inhabiting this preserve. I don't know how many actual species are represented but saw a wide range of animals including, but by no means limited to, white rhinos, bison, giraffes, elephants, bears, ostriches, lions and tigers. Although the safari is divided into sections, zebra seemed to be almost everywhere. Appropriately, the didgeridoo section near the end of the journey contains kangaroos and emus. Our tour guide was extremely knowledgeable about the animals and I picked up tidbits of information here and there, such as the fact that the way to determine the gender of an ostrich is that males have black feathers. Tigers, unlike most felines, like the water, are good swimmers, often entice their prey into the water and kill them while their victims are drowning.

The safari adventure includes a stop at Camp Aventura, where adventurers can purchase refreshments, use the rest rooms and get closer to some of the animals. All passengers must disembark at this point; those who wish to continue the journey without further interruption have to line up for the next available truck whereas those who wish to hang out at Camp Aventura may do so for as long as they please and pick up another truck later. For an additional charge not specified in the literature, park guests can feed the animals. In hindsight I'm sorry that I elected not to spend time at the camp, as a tour guide later told me that giraffe feeding typically takes place between 2:30 and 4:30pm.

Having had to get off the truck on which I began the journey, I continued on a different truck with a new tour guide equally knowledgeable as the first. Our journey was somewhat delayed by the fact that bears were too close to the fenced gate separating the bears from the lions, so that we had to wait until the coast was clear before the gate could be opened to allow our vehicle to proceed.

I thought that the new safari adventure was a great way to see the animals while sitting back, relaxing and actually learning something. Because the park incorporated the terrain used for the old drive-through safari into the main theme park, Six Flags Great Adventure is now the largest theme park in the world, with 510 acres. The safari is included in the price of admission to the park. And now that the Safari Off Road Adventure has been open for a couple of weeks, the wait time to get on has decreased, unless I just happened to pick a good day on the second go-round. It was my intention to do the safari as soon as it opened but there was a three-hour wait; this past Saturday, the wait was just over an hour. I would recommend this attraction to anyone visiting the park. It's a great addition to Six Flags Great Adventure and something that can be enjoyed by families and people of all ages.

This article originally appeared at http://www.themeparkinsider.com/flume/201306/3527/. All rights reserved. If you are not reading this on a personal RSS reader (such as Feedburner) or on http://www.themeparkinsider.com, you are reading a scraper website that has illegally copied and stolen http://www.themeparkinsider.com's content. Please visit http://www.themeparkinsider.com/flume/201306/3527/ for the original version, along with all its comments.

Vote of the week: The setting of Star Wars Land?

Fri, 14 Jun 2013 17:31:00 GMT

By Robert Niles: We know that Star Wars Land is happening at Disney's Hollywood Studios. But what we don't know yet is exactly where the new land will be set.

Both literally and figuratively.

Of course, if someone associated with the project would like to leak us a copy or description of the plans, we're at themeparkinsider@gmail.com. Until that happens, though, let's talk about the setting of Star Wars Land. Not the physical setting: where the land will be built in the park. Let's talk about the thematic setting, because Star Wars Land provides what might be the greatest placemaking challenge in recent theme park history.

One of many Star Wars settings: Mos Espa (Image from Wookieepedia)

Harry Potter was easy. Build Hogwarts Castle in the town of Hogsmeade -- almost all of the action in the seven books and eight movies takes place there. Star Wars plays across an entire universe, however. How do you decide which of the multiple planets that have hosted Star Wars stories should provide the setting for Disney's Star Wars Land? And if one were to choose to place the land on multiple planets, how would one logically explain guest movement between the different planetary settings?

Disney's current Star Tours ride never addresses the location of its Star Tours terminal. But the ride makes clear that there are multiple planetary destinations in the Star Wars universe beyond its setting. Given that Star Tours ought to be part of Star Tours Land, how would the ride's inclusion affect a decision about the land's setting?

Of course, given that Star Wars Land will be built in a movie studio-themed park, Disney could punt and theme Star Wars Land as a Star Wars movie set, avoiding the issue of deciding on which planet the land's action takes place. But we've described the challenges facing movie set-themed parks and attractions. Given the passionate desire that so many Star Wars fans have to immerse themselves in this universe, Disney might be blowing an opportunity to win multiple future visits from these fans by taking a cheaper and easier choice to go with a movie set-themed land. (But you can tell us below if you think that's the best option.)

Let's assume that the setting will be a planet, and not on a Death Star or other spaceship, which would necessitate building a much more-expensive all-indoor land. The top two choices, given the action of the first six films, would appear to be the Skywalkers' home planet of Tatooine, or the Republic/Imperial Capital of Coruscant. Yet, other planets surely will appear in the new Star Wars movies Disney is beginning to produce and will be eager to promote to its millions of theme park visitors. Perhaps the land's setting should be one of them?

It's vote of the week time.

If you voted for another planet, please use the comments to tell us your specific suggestion. If you voted for multiple planets, we'd love to hear your suggestions on how Disney could handle the transition between those settings.

Finally, welcome to all our new readers this week, and thank you to all of our readers for being part of Theme Park Insider. Our reporting on Disney's Star Wars Land really heated up as a result of conversations on our Twitter feed. If you're not already following Theme Park Insider on Twitter, please consider this your invitation to join us over there, too!

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Cars Land, one year later: It's getting a little rusty in here

Fri, 14 Jun 2013 15:57:00 GMT

By Robert Niles: So how is Cars Land holding up, one year after its wildly popular debut at Disney California Adventure theme park?

Yesterday, I took my wife to the Disneyland Resort, to see Cars Land for the first time. I've been in the parks multiple times since Cars Land opened last June, but hadn't really lingered in the new land, or ridden its centerpiece attraction, Radiator Springs Racers, since last summer. So I was looking forward to revisiting the area, too.

Cars Land, as well as the rest of the Disneyland Resort, remains wildly popular. We arrived at the Mickey and Friends parking garage at 10am to find every toll plaza entry lane filled, all the way back out of the structure. We would need another 45 minutes to get in, park, ride the tram over to the parks and go through the bag check, before getting into California Adventure.

This is why we tell people to get an early start on their theme park days!

Cars Land looks as good as ever, and my wife kept talking about the impressive setting, from the massive rock work surrounding Radiator Springs to the seemingly minor details that enliven the queues. We found the food at Flo's V8 Cafe as tasty as I remembered it from last year, making quick work of the roasted turkey and pork platters. We both especially liked the roasted corn, though we agreed that the turkey gravy was a bit on the salty side. (My wife wondered if she could just order it on the side next time.)

The roast pork loin plate, with Coca-Cola barbecue sauce, mashed potatoes with gravy, and roasted corn. ($11.49)

One thing I hadn't tried last summer was one of Flo's pies, so we decided to take care of that oversight by ordering the blueberry and peach pie ($4.99).

Yes, that's a real plate and cutlery. Take that, Orlando theme parks! This is how you're supposed to serve food.

Delicious! The pies are supposed to be an individual serving, but we shared, as we didn't have much space left after each finishing an entree platter. The pie offered more peach than blueberry, but that helped keep the sweetness reasonable, providing a nice final note to the meal, rather than overwhelming it with an explosion of sugar.

As for the attractions, we started with Luigi's Flying Tires, which posted a 40-minute wait. The removal of the giant beach balls has helped the attraction in multiple ways. Operators are loading this ride much faster -- we were on and riding within 20 minutes, with the queue starting inside the Luigi's tire showroom. And with the beach balls no longer distracting riders, I see more people paying attention to learning how to "fly" the tires themselves, instead of just batting balls around the platform. That made for a much more enjoyable ride, as people start working together to get the tires to move around.

I love this attraction, despite the hate it elicits from so many visitors. And my wife enjoyed it, too, as we turned several high-speed laps around the platform on this unique "flying saucer"-style ride.

With our late start, all the day's Fastpasses for Radiator Springs Racers were gone by the time we entered California Adventure at 10:45am. With a posted 135-minute stand-by queue wait, we opted for the single rider line, which posted a blank wait time. With the single rider queue backed up just past the bridge, we ended up waiting about 45 minutes to get on the ride. We were making the same pace through the queue as people in the stand-by line, but, of course, we didn't have to go through those three hidden rooms of queue that await stand-by visitors at the attraction.

So what about the ride? I'd heard from many visitors over the past months that the tractor-tipping scene didn't work. But that was just one of the many effects that no longer function properly on this once wild and exciting ride.

Here's a POV video I recorded, so you can see for yourself:

Let's recap: No tipping tractors. No Frank. No Mater sailing over the moon. No dialogue in the Radiator Springs town scene. No conversation between Lightning McQueen and Sally. Basically, between Mater and the track split between the Luigi's tires and Ramone's paint shop options, there's no audio at all in the heart of the ride, save for snoring cars and light background music.

And I thought Disco Yeti was bad. That's a fully functioning attraction compared with this.

Of course, the race itself remains great fun. And the animatronics that still work continue to impress -- Sheriff, Mater, Doc Hudson, and Luigi and Guido. Many of the first-time riders around me exclaimed how much they'd loved it, upon exiting the ride. But knowing what was once in this attraction, I was just stunned as I walked away.

When Radiator Springs Racers first opened, it suffered frequent downtimes, which are now pretty much nonexistent. I think I know why, now: Disney's just given up on maintaining the show elements inside the ride. If the cars run, you ride. And if any of the animatronics, work� hey, bonus.

And visitor reaction justifies that decision. People who don't know what this ride once offered love it. And people continue to pack the queue to see it. Which is great for tourism and for Disneyland. But I wish that, for a few months at least, people would love this ride a little less so that Disney could have the time to go in and fix it with a much-needed refurbishment.

This article originally appeared at http://www.themeparkinsider.com/flume/201306/3525/. All rights reserved. If you are not reading this on a personal RSS reader (such as Feedburner) or on http://www.themeparkinsider.com, you are reading a scraper website that has illegally copied and stolen http://www.themeparkinsider.com's content. Please visit http://www.themeparkinsider.com/flume/201306/3525/ for the original version, along with all its comments.

The empire strikes back: Disney readies a major Hollywood Studios expansion at Walt Disney World

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 22:43:00 GMT

By Robert Niles: The Walt Disney Company invested a reported $1 billion remaking its under-performing California Adventure theme park, and was rewarded with an attendance surge of 23% last year, following the debut of the remake's centerpiece Cars Land. After that, the president of the Disneyland Resort, George Kalogridis, was reassigned to Florida, where he's now overseeing the Walt Disney World Resort.

Get ready for history to repeat itself. It looks as though Kalogridis and his team have gotten the green light for a project to remake the Disney's Hollywood Studios park on a scale similar to what Disney just finished at California Adventure.

The projects will share one very large component -- Cars Land, the highlight of the California Adventure makeover, will come to Florida as part of the Hollywood Studios revamp, according to multiple insider sources. But it won't necessarily be the highlight of the changes coming to the park.

That's because Disney's Hollywood Studios is also getting�

Star Wars Land.

Yep. Multiple sources have told me the long-awaited dream of theme park geeks everywhere is actually happening. Disney's moving ahead with both Cars Land and Star Wars Land at the Disney's Hollywood Studios in Walt Disney World.

From what I'm hearing, Cars Land will replace the Lights, Motors, Action auto stunt show as well as Catastrophe Canyon on the southern edge of the park, providing a logical extension to the existing Pixar Place. The demise of the Backstage Tour also would free up space for an additional attraction in Pixar Place (Monsters Inc? Incredibles?), but I've not yet heard any chatter about that happening in this phase of the park remake.

So what about Star Wars Land? The logical places for that expansion would be on either side of the existing Star Tours ride. From what I've heard, it appears that the expansion would take out the area between Star Tours and the auto stunt show stadium, including the Muppet theater and Honey, I Shrunk the Kids play area. But I've also heard of consideration of going in the opposite direction, which would place the new land on the site of the Backlot Express restaurant and Indiana Jones stunt show theater. Given that the Indy theater's used for several other events throughout the year, and that both the Muppets and Honey I Shrunk the Kids attractions long ago passed the height of their popularity, I'm hearing more forceful arguments for the first option.

This appears to be a five-year project, putting completion in 2018, though Disney could choose to throw money at it and accelerate it by a year.

Imagine a future Disney's Hollywood Studios with Star Wars Land, Cars Land and Pixar Place anchoring the southern half of the park, with Sunset Boulevard, featuring Tower of Terror and Rock 'n Roller Coaster, anchoring the north end. After many months of Universal Orlando pummeling Disney with one popular new expansion after another -- Harry Potter, Transformers, Springfield, and more Harry Potter -- it appears that Disney might, finally, be ready to strike back.

This article originally appeared at http://www.themeparkinsider.com/flume/201306/3524/. All rights reserved. If you are not reading this on a personal RSS reader (such as Feedburner) or on http://www.themeparkinsider.com, you are reading a scraper website that has illegally copied and stolen http://www.themeparkinsider.com's content. Please visit http://www.themeparkinsider.com/flume/201306/3524/ for the original version, along with all its comments.

Plan your day at Universal Orlando's Islands of Adventure

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 21:39:00 GMT

By Robert Niles: The Universal Orlando Resort expanded to two theme parks in 1999 with the addition of Universal's Islands of Adventure, the first park built by Universal that wasn't themed to a movie studio. Today, Islands of Adventure is best known as the home of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, the 2010 addition to the park that's helped make this park the most popular non-Disney theme park in America.

What to do before you go

Universal Orlando offers what might be the best deal in the theme park industry, one you should consider as it makes planning a visit to this and sister park Universal Studios Florida ridiculously simple. Anyone who books a stay at one of Universal's three on-site hotels gets front-of-the-line access to almost all attractions at the two parks for the duration of his or her stay, at no additional charge. With unlimited front of line access, you don't need to worry about itineraries or strategies -- just do what you want, when you want to, with no more than a five-to-10-minute wait for each ride.

This "Universal Express Unlimited" begins on your check-in day and ends on your check-out day, so a single night's stay at one of these hotels can get you two days of front-of-line access, for up to five people in one room. Universal hotel guests also get one hour of early admission to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, before it opens to "regular" park visitors. Since the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride (the one located in Hogwarts Castle) is the only major ride in the two Universal Orlando parks that's not covered under the Universal Express Unlimited front-of-line access, using this extra hour is essential for getting the most value from your stay at the resort.

Loews Royal Pacific Hotel, on-site at Universal Orlando Resort

You will need to buy theme park admission in order to use this perk, of course. And Universal charges the same rate for parking overnight at its hotels as it charges day guests for its parking garages, so don't forget that cost when pricing a trip. However, Universal's two theme parks are located within easy parking distance of one another, and a reasonable walk from each of the three hotels, so you might not need a car when you visit the resort. Along with the Disneyland Resort in California, Universal Orlando is a very walkable theme park vacation destination.

You can price on-site hotel rooms and packages at Universal Orlando's website, and check out its special offers page while you're there. (Rates start at around $225 a night at the Royal Pacific, which tends to be the lowest-priced of the three.) Make sure that you book an "on-site" hotel, and not an off-site "partner" hotel, for the front-of-line access. And also note that the on-site Cabana Bay Beach Resort that opens in 2014 will not offer the front-of-line access to its guests.

If your budget leads you to stay off-site, price Universal Orlando tickets on the Universal website, then ask if your human resources department, student union or credit union offers discounted tickets to the parks. Despite the two parks' close proximity, you shouldn't pay extra for the "park-to-park" ticket unless you're planning to spend at least two days at the resort. There's just too much to see at these parks to do them both in one day (unless you're staying on-site and have that unlimited front-of-line access.) Universal Orlando does not offer a "no expire" option on theme park tickets, so there's no point in trying to get a better deal by buying extra days for future trips, as you can at Walt Disney World. Buy tickets just for the days you'll be visiting the park on this trip. If you'll be visiting SeaWorld during your trip, look into an Orlando FlexTicket (available on the Universal Orlando website), which covers Universal Orlando and SeaWorld with one ticket, with an option to add SeaWorld's Busch Gardens Tampa park as well.

Even if you're not staying on-site, you still have opportunities to skip the park's queues. Universal offers paid front-of-line passes for visitors not staying at its resorts. An unlimited front of line pass will cost between $51-$102/day per person over the cost of a daily admission ticket, depending upon the day you visit. A "one-skip-per attraction" basic Universal Express pass costs between $25-$61/day per person, over the cost of park admission. When you consider the cost of an unlimited Universal Express pass for a family of four on summer vacation, you're essentially getting a four-star hotel room for free if you book a night at one of the Universal hotels, when you compare the hotel room cost to the price of the Express passes bought separately.

If skipping lines isn't exclusive enough for you, Universal will hook you up with a VIP tour guide, for the right price, of course. Prices start at $229 per person, on top of park admission, to join a scheduled VIP group. You can book a private tour for up to 10 people, starting at $2,750 for eight hours. (Again, that's on top of the admission tickets for everyone in the group.)

Inside Mythos Restaurant

Whether you get front-of-line access for attractions or not, you'll need to call in advance to secure reservations at either of Islands of Adventure's two table-service restaurants, Confisco Grille and former Theme Park Insider Award winner Mythos Restaurant. Call 407-224-4012 in advance of your visit. Reservations are not difficult on most days, so you don't need to call weeks in advance. A few days should suffice.

Universal Orlando's parks do experience significantly smaller crowds during the school year, with the exception of September and October, when the popular Halloween Horror Nights after-hours event runs over at Universal Studios Florida. If you can plan your visit during weekdays during other months of the school year, avoiding popular vacation weeks around spring break, you might be able to avoid significant waits on most attractions without needing to pay extra for a Universal Express pass or on-site hotel room.

When you get to Universal Orlando

Parking costs $16 per vehicle ($5 after 6pm) and you'll park in the same parking garage whether you're visiting IOA or Universal Studios Florida. From the garage, it's a bit of a haul across several moving sidewalks into Universal Orlando's CityWalk shopping and dining district, on your way to the parks. Bear left for Islands of Adventure and right for the Studios, when you get through CityWalk.

Plan to arrive at least an hour in advance of the park opening during the summer and holiday seasons, to give yourself time to park and walk to the front gate to queue to be among the first in the park, if you don't have front of line access. (Otherwise, show up whenever you want.) Remember that Universal hotel guests already will be inside the Wizarding World of Harry Potter when the park opens, so you might spend this time better visiting other attractions in the park that don't have people in their queues yet, and saving Harry Potter for later in the day. (Many fans think the atmosphere in that land is best at night, anyway.)

Theme Park Insider readers' top four attractions in Islands of Adventure, outside Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, are:

The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man
Incredible Hulk Coaster
Popeye and Bluto's Bilge-Rat Barges
Dudley Do-Right's Ripsaw Falls

All four are located to the left when you enter the park and walk through the Port of Entry area to the park's central lagoon. Start with Spider-Man, then move on to Hulk, Dudley Do-Right and Popeye. Note that the last two are water rides that will soak you, so if it's a cool or overcast day -- when the Orlando sun won't dry you immediately -- you might choose to leave those until just before you head back to the hotel. Fortunately, cool and overcast days tend to be those school-year off-season days when waits are short enough that you don't need to worry about visiting strategies.

Families with young children might choose instead to start their day by walking to the right and spending the morning in Seuss Landing enjoying the multiple Dr. Seuss-inspired attractions there. Start with the High In The Sky Seuss Trolley Train Ride then return to One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish and The Cat in the Hat rides to minimize wait times.

There's one more way to minimize your waits, even if you didn't spring for the Universal Express pass. Six of Islands of Adventure's attractions have single-rider lines, though they might not be marked and you'll have to ask a ride attendant at the attraction's entrance for directions to the single-rider queue:

The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man
Doctor Doom's Fearfall
Dudley Do-Right's Ripsaw Falls
Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey
Incredible Hulk Coaster
Jurassic Park River Adventure

You will miss some of the Hogwarts walk-through if you use the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey single-rider line, but you still will see the Gryffindor common room, Dumbledore's office, and an alternate version of the portrait gallery. On busy days, small groups can see more of the park in less time by splitting up and using the single-rider lines than they would be staying together and going through the regular queues.

Where to eat

Drinking a Butterbeer in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter might be one of the park's most popular attractions, even more than some of the park's highly lauded rides. But don't queue up for the big Butterbeer cart parked in the middle of the land. Instead, duck inside the Hog's Head Pub to order your (nonalcoholic and very sweet) Butterbeer -- there's a much shorter, and often non-existent, wait there.

Fish and Chips and Butterbeer at the Three Broomsticks

The Hog's Head shares its space with the Three Broomsticks restaurant in the Wizarding World, which offers another popular option for breakfast, lunch or dinner in the park. It's counter service and takes no reservation, so arrive outside of traditional meal times to avoid a wait.

Outside of Three Broomsticks, Mythos and Confisco Grille, Islands of Adventure offers a fairly standard selection of counter-service theme park fare, mostly burgers and pizza, with ribs available over in Jurassic Park (natch).

What's next?

Universal's building a Diagon Alley-themed Harry Potter land over in Universal Studios Florida, which will connect to Islands of Adventure's Hogsmeade-themed Wizarding World through a Hogwarts Express train ride which will open in summer 2014.

Beyond that, there's nothing in development for Islands of Adventure that's been either announced or confirmed through our unofficial sources. Sharp observers might note that Islands of Adventure features an entire land devoted to characters from Marvel Comics, a franchise now owned by arch-rival Disney. Rumors have been flying for years that Disney's trying to buy back the Orlando-area theme park rights to Marvel from Universal, which would force Universal to redevelop that entire section of the park. But Disney's not yet made a offer that Universal couldn't refuse.

Perhaps not unrelated, it's also known from unofficial sources that Universal's been pursuing the rights to develop a theme park land based on The Lord of the Rings. Nothing's been signed, though.

Next week: Disney California Adventure

Previously:

This article originally appeared at http://www.themeparkinsider.com/flume/201306/3522/. All rights reserved. If you are not reading this on a personal RSS reader (such as Feedburner) or on http://www.themeparkinsider.com, you are reading a scraper website that has illegally copied and stolen http://www.themeparkinsider.com's content. Please visit http://www.themeparkinsider.com/flume/201306/3522/ for the original version, along with all its comments.

Where to eat? Lunch at Cookes of Dublin in Walt Disney World's Downtown Disney

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 17:42:00 GMT

By Robert Niles: Located in Downtown Disney, Cookes of Dublin offers counter-service "pub food" for Walt Disney World visitors craving a taste of Ireland, without the fuss or wait of an actual pub or full-service restaurant.

Cookes' self-proclaimed speciality is fish & chips, which it declares the "Finest" on its menu and signage. But that's not what I ordered when I visited Orlando last month.

I have a confession: I love pies. Not American-style sweet pies (though I do enjoy a slice of blueberry or apple now and then). It's English-style savory pies that I adore. My favorite pies are from a UK company called Pieminister, which makes the single greatest pie I've ever enjoyed: the "Pietanic," a seafood pie with haddock, salmon and prawns. It kills me that I can't get these pies in America, so I never pass up a chance to try a good savory pie when I see one on a menu.

When I walked past Cookes and saw "Dublin Style Pies" offered on its menu board, I knew where I'd be having lunch. I opted for the Chicken and Field Mushroom Pie, with chicken breast, mushrooms, leeks and potatoes, served with chips, which Americans will recognize as French fries. ($11.95)

This isn't your typical American-diner chicken pot pie, drowning in pasty gravy and salt. Packed with shredded chicken breast and leeks, Cookes' pie offered a clean balance of meat and vegetables, under a delightful flaky crust. I finished every bite, and would be happy to return for a second helping upon a future visit to Downtown Disney.

At nearly $12, it's not a cheap counter-service meal, but Cookes' chicken pie delivered enough white meat chicken in its serving to provide good value for the price. I only wish that more counter service restaurants at Walt Disney World would follow the lead of their siblings at the Disneyland Resort and serve with real plates and cutlery, instead of the ubiquitous plastic, paper and foil found at WDW. A real fork would have allowed me to enjoy this pie even more than I did.

Cookes also offers a ground beef and lamb pie, in addition to a selection of fried fish, shrimp, scallops and sausages, as well as wraps, salads and burgers (including a battered and fried burger!) Alas, there's no seafood pie on the menu.

Have you eaten at Cookes? If so, please share your experience with a comment.

This article originally appeared at http://www.themeparkinsider.com/flume/201306/3521/. All rights reserved. If you are not reading this on a personal RSS reader (such as Feedburner) or on http://www.themeparkinsider.com, you are reading a scraper website that has illegally copied and stolen http://www.themeparkinsider.com's content. Please visit http://www.themeparkinsider.com/flume/201306/3521/ for the original version, along with all its comments.

Falcon's Fury to drop in Spring 2014 at Busch Gardens Tampa, as SeaWorld announces 50th anniversary celebrations

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 15:44:00 GMT

By Robert Niles: Busch Gardens Tampa this morning announced its new attraction for Spring 2014: Falcon's Fury, a 335-foot drop ride with a unique element -- you'll drop face-first, instead of in a traditional seated position.

Concept art from Busch Gardens. And, no, falcons won't be flying around you as you drop.

The idea is that you're diving toward the Earth like a bird of prey. Here's a promotional video from the park, with more details about the ride:

In addition, Busch Gardens' sister parks over at SeaWorld today announced a "Sea of Surprises" promotion for the chain's 50th anniversary. (SeaWorld's original park, SeaWorld San Diego, opened in 1964.) The promotion starts in March 2014 and will run for 18 months, through the end of summer 2015.

From SeaWorld:

Starting March 21, 2014, we invite guests to join us as we celebrate with new interactive experiences, new shows and daily entertainment, more up-close animal encounters throughout the park, and a Surprise Squad treating guests with prizes every day.

The promotions will run at all three SeaWorld parks -- San Diego, Orlando and San Antonio.

This article originally appeared at http://www.themeparkinsider.com/flume/201306/3520/. All rights reserved. If you are not reading this on a personal RSS reader (such as Feedburner) or on http://www.themeparkinsider.com, you are reading a scraper website that has illegally copied and stolen http://www.themeparkinsider.com's content. Please visit http://www.themeparkinsider.com/flume/201306/3520/ for the original version, along with all its comments.