It had been years since I was last there and there were maybe only a few new experiences. Disney needs to get their butts in gear and build something new quick. Hopefully the rumblings of Avatar for Animal Kingdom, Star Wars Land, and Cars for Hollywood Studios come to fruition. Avatar, for all its thematic inappropriateness of being in a Disney park, is now desperately needed. The makeover of the Hollywood Studios has me the most excited. Meanwhile Epcot just sits there. A giant mall with some decades old attractions that need some love. It’s weird but I found myself most of the time wondering if Transformers at Universal Studios was having technical rehearsals on the days I visited and how I might have been able to sneak away for a day. It’s not a good thing for a theme park when a guest is thinking about shaving off a day to visit a competitor.
That’s all the ranting I can handle for one day.
Thanks for reading and I hope to contribute more in the future.
-Brian
Tuesday, July 2, 2013
New Fantasyland at Magic Kingdom Review
Before I go too much into New Fantasyland, let me say that the Magic Kingdom has not looked this polished and nice in a very long time. I frequented this park most during my visits. After the requisite rides on The Carousel of Progress and the TTA Peoplemover, my all-time favorites at the Magic Kingdom, our group sauntered over to New Fantasyland and Storybook Circus to check out the new stuff. Let’s go through the positives first.
The area looks very nice and very picturesque. Some of the finest theming since The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. The train station, Carolwood Park, in Storybook Circus is a great homage to Walt’s love of the railroad. I also appreciate the way Disney opened up the space behind the carousel. There was never a huge backup of foot traffic like there used to be.
Even though Butterbeer is certainly the better drink, Le Fou’s Brew from Gaston’s Tavern is still very good and refreshing on a hot day. And finally, my lunch at Be Our Guest was quite spectacular, even if I had to contend with a tropical storm.
For the attractions, I rode Dumbo and The Little Mermaid. Didn’t bother with Enchanted Tales with Belle because I am not a 9-year-old girl. I have always had a soft spot for Dumbo and riding it at night is just a delight.
The Little Mermaid is certainly a ride. It just sort of ends, doesn’t it? I found more entertainment in the queue to be honest.
Like cotton candy, I found most of New Fantasyland to be pretty but hollow. An excuse to install more shops and eateries without putting much thought into the attractions themselves. When your anchor for an entire new land is a restaurant, there’s an issue. I know that Seven Dwarfs Mine Train is set to be open sometime this decade and that was a big mistake on Disney not to fast track that thing. Maybe my opinion of this new area would be different had it been open, but it wasn’t.
I can’t go on without mentioning the new Tangled “E-ticket toilets”. Once again, a very pretty area, but it’s a place to drop a deuce, nothing more. The charging station area will come in handy for those “iPad photographers”.
I did really enjoy my time in Disney but I can’t see myself going there any time in the near future.
Thanks for reading,
- Brian
Test Track 2.0
The first visit I had to the parks in quite some time, occurred over the past month. My dad and I visited for a couple of days as part of a graduation gift and some friends from school and I visited for about five days a couple of weeks later. This roundup/review/recollection thing will pull from both experiences. This first post will discuss some of the new and refurbished attractions.
Firstly, Test Track in Epcot has always been very enjoyable for me. The experience itself is fun and I have always appreciated riding with people who have never experienced it before. In the past year, it went under a sorely needed refurbishment and redesign. As much as I had liked the ride, crash test dummy warehouse is not futurey(?) enough for Future World.
The new look of Test Track definitely fits well within that future theme. The music is much better and no longer gives me a pounding headache. Everything is much cleaner, as in no thematic clutter, than what it used to be.
The best addition, I believe, is the design room where you and your party can custom build a car to then “take” with you during the attraction. A cast member hands your party a card implanted with an RFID chip and you take it to a station where you can customize the look and elements of your digital vehicle, which affect capability, efficiency, responsiveness, and power. I want to emphasize digital because the ride experience is the same every time no matter what alterations you make to your design. The design process is very fun and there seem to be limitless ways you can design the perfect automobile.
The ride experience itself may look different, think Tron, but feels the same as Test Track 1.0. This is because the track layout did not change at all which I feel is a missed opportunity. I could still predict every ride beat due to my experiences.
Overall, Test Track 2.0 is a solid upgrade. Pre and post show areas are fun and engaging, but I wish they did more with the ride experience itself. The addition of a model of Progress City during the ride does get a nod of approval from me.
Thanks for reading,
-Brian
Meet Brian
Hello there! I’m Brian. I’m from Virginia. I love theme parks. Parker was kind enough to ask me to write a blog post for Theme Park Nerds, so here I am. Let me give you bit of background on myself in the industry so that you can get a better picture of where I’m coming from with this, and also to feed my ego monster. I’m kidding, I’m the most modest person I know that’s ever existed for all time. Anyway. As said earlier, I’m Brian from Virginia. A place that is not without access to some pretty spectacular theme parks. Going to school in Norfolk for my undergrad and graduate degrees allowed me to visit my favorite park, Busch Gardens Williamsburg, the Most Beautiful Theme Park in the World, on a regular basis. My working experiences in the theme park industry include two stints in Walt Disney World’s College Program. In the spring of 2006, I worked Quick Service at Walt Disney’s All-Star Movies Resort in the food court. Two years later, I wanted to do the program again and was placed this time in Merchandise at Mouse Gear in Epcot. I met Parker when I transferred to Attractions during the summer and worked arguably the best attraction on property, Splash Mountain. Enough about me though, you want to hear about theme parks, right? This first post will be mostly a review of the new stuff I had yet to do at the resort and some thoughts on the parks in general. I may ramble. You have been warned.
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