Theme Park Review- Disneyland

So of course out of the three park days in California, the Disneyland trip was the best. Even though it isn't set in the wonderful Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, FL, the Disneyland Resort is definitely the second best place to go for overall experience.

It was my second time to the park and Jack's first. The most obvious (and substantial) difference between the Magic Kingdom and Disneyland is size. Everything in the California version is smaller. Sleeping Beauty's Castle is probably a third of the size of Cinderella's. It's pathetic as far as castles go. You literally cannot see it from anywhere in the park other than Fantasyland and Main Street. Just to its right, the Matterhorn Mountain towers over it.

Everything from Space Mountain, Tom Sawyer's Island, the Railroad Station, and even the buildings on Main Street USA are much smaller in stature. As far as a ride-by-ride comparison, Disneyland is right on par, if not slightly above Magic Kingdom. The atmosphere doesn't compare though, and therefore is still behind all four of the Orlando parks.

Indiana Jones Adventure was the highlight of the park. To me it is a much better Dinosaur. The theming and story is obviously better and on my second time through it seemed faster and with more movements than it's Animal Kingdom counterpart.

The big draw of Magic Kingdom is the triple mountain medley. Of the three, Thunder Mountain is the one that is almost exactly the same in both parks. Disney World definitely gets the edge for Splash Mountain, but Space Mountain was re-done and is fantastic at Disneyland. It's got music pumping in your ears, is darker and seemed faster than the Florida version.

While the theming at Disney's California Adventure is nothing to write home about, it's still a fantastic park. It has a bunch of big guns, including Soarin' and Tower of Terror, but what won the voting of all four parks of the week was the Aladdin Show. This Broadway style musical was worth the price of admission all on its own. The quality of acting and singing was fantastic, but it was the pop-culture comedy that put it over the top. When I saw the same show three years ago they were using Britney Spears and Facebook jokes. This time around it was Twilight and Hannah Montana. It's an ever-changing show.

We ended the night with the highly touted new night time spectacular, World of Color. Quick review: It's no Wishes. Longer review: A spectacle of water and color, it tried really hard but didn't succeed. They put video and picture on the water that shot up from the ground, but they were very difficult to see. Fantasmic works a lot better because they just use a sheet of water instead of spraying all over the place. Also the soundtrack left a lot to be desired. Unlike Wishes, World of Color didn't flow together well. They just went from Disney Classic to Disney Classic, and leaving out some (Monsters Inc., Lion King) was a travesty.

Theme Park Review- Universal Hollywood

First on the park slate in California was Universal Studios Hollywood. It wasn't in our original plans, but once we found out there was a new attraction opening on Thursday, July 1, they made up our minds for us.

The park as a whole is very similar to its Orlando brother. It's missing the Rip, Ride, Rocket coaster and the Men in Black shooting ride, but it stole Jurassic Park from Orlando's IOA and has its own mega-attraction in the Studio Tour. Yes you heard that right; the Studio Tour was what everyone was there to see!

To give a bit of reference to this, we should all remember that MGM's backlot tour is pretty much the last thing I would go on in the park. Never-the-less we followed the crowd heading for the Studio Tour as soon as the park opened. Oh sure it may have had a lot to do with the fact that the brand new King Kong 360/3D had its grand opening that day and was a part of the Studio Tour, but either way it was strange to see people sprinting to the Studio Tour.

On this 45 minute tour through the Universal working backlot, there was plenty exciting to see. All of the sets used for multiple movies and tv shows were interesting, as was the anticipation of seeing a celebrity walking through the area. But what everyone was there for was Kong...

In the middle of the tour, the tram takes a turn into a darkened cave representing Skull Island of King Kong fame. Once inside the attraction is like nothing else out there today. It was from the Simpsons/Soarin' but instead of a big screen right in front of your face, there were two hemispheric screens on both sides of you. So the 3D action was going on all around you and it was fantastic.

The only problems with Kong 360/3D was that 1) it was way too short and 2) it was inside of the Tour which left no room for a story line or a good theme in the queue.

Theme Park Review- Magic Mountain

I am, as most know, a huge theme park guy. Most of my experience is with the Orlando parks, but I have also experienced both Busch Gardens as well as Six Flags' Great Adventure and New England parks. I did Disneyland just over three years ago, and on my trip out to California last week, I went on a couple more theme park expeditions. Jack and I did Disney, Universal and Six Flags' Magic Mountain while in the wonderful dry heat of southern California.

Magic Mountain was the third park in the rotation, and thankfully it was only 32 dollars for an online ticket, because it was definitely not up to par with anything I've experienced. Maybe it was because we had gone to Disney the day before, but Magic Mountain felt like the oldest, dirtiest, most run down park I have ever been to.

It started right as we walked out of the parking lot and boarded the tram to the entrance...the tram that felt like it was going to break every chug along the way. Once we got to the entrance, it got better. It was where we passed through the metal detectors. Definitely a catch-22 type moment. I felt completely unsafe that I was in a theme park that needed metal detectors to keep out guns and knives, but then again those same detectors should have kept that stuff out so there should be nothing to worry about. Moral of the story is that I was very scared while waiting to get into the park.

Once in things brightened up as there was ample room to walk through the park and we head right for Magic Mountain's biggest draw, X2. The only coaster in the park that had more than a ten minute wait on this Tuesday, X2 was unlike anything I had been on before. It's a coaster in which you sit on the side of the track, rotating forward and backward in your seat while the car goes along an equally scary track. Take a look...

In the end it's ability to scare me was greater than it's level of enjoyment. That's why it wasn't as good as Tatsu. Tatsu is the world's tallest and fastest flying coaster. I thought Superman at Great Adventure was good. This thing put it to shame. No feeling on a coaster can top the lying down loop feeling of Tatsu.

Other highlights from the park were Riddler's Revenge (a standing up coaster), Goliath (from the Apollo's Chariot family, but not nearly as good) and Ninja (a Big Bad Wolf type swinging coaster through the trees).

The low-light of the whole experience was how absolutely run-down and un-themed this whole place was. I couldn't stop commenting on how awful the queue lines were, as we walked through chain link fence areas with signs of High Voltage. The absolute worst was while riding the Scream coaster. As you made your way up the first hill, you realized this coaster was built on an actual part of the parking lot. Obviously they used to have more guests and had a bigger parking lot. This coaster was built on an extra lot and they didn't even bother getting rid of the white parking space lines. Just complete lack of effort.

Magic Mountain had a few awesome coasters, and some types I had never been on before, so it was definitely worth the trip (especially for 32 bucks). Having said that, I will never make another trip to this park. Even though its rides were at the same level, if not a bit better than Great Adventure, its upkeep was way worse and I was afraid for my life at times. I don't recommend a trip to Valencia, CA for this park, unless you feel the need to check out X2.

Florida Trip- Park Voting

8. Downtown Disney (34 points)
--Ok so we only went to DisneyQuest for less than an hour, but getting kicked out of Virtual Jungle Cruise after 45 seconds was classic enough to get a 3rd place vote from Bonz.

7. Blizzard Beach (33 points)
--Blizzard Beach just edged out Downtown Disney even though we had one of the best Teamboat Springs runs in a while. Nothing like jumping around in the raft during the slide and then pretending to sleep at the end. The Kid also made his first run down Summit Plummet and it was not all it's cracked up to be.

6. Islands of Adventure (29 points)
--The rides at IoA just don't stand the test of time like Disney does. The long walk through the queue of Dueling Dragons was tough to take and Spider Man was (as JJ and I said all along) not as good as Busch Gardens' DarKastle.

5. Universal Studios (27 points)
--JJ was the only one who had been to Universal in a long time, so I was happy to have a bunch of new things on my plate. The atmosphere still couldn't hold a candle to any of the Disneys but between Mummy, Simpsons and Shrek it was a good big three.

4. Animal Kingdom (25 points)
--Maybe the best top four (everest, dinosaur, festival, safari) of any of the parks. Hit Everest twice and Festival was fantastic this year (mostly thank to Lion King Enthusiast sitting next to me during the show. She was going nuts through the entire thing).

3. Epcot (15 points)
--How did Epcot make it this high? Jonny didn't even go. Soarin' is great and the ambiance is always nice, but Test Track and Living with the Land as your two and three? Interesting.

2. Magic Kingdom (11 points)
--Ok so we didn't get on a lot of the big guns this year (splash, thunder, jungle), but it didn't matter because the Brazilians made up for it. Can't get much better than foreigners thinking the Bonz is a celebrity and demanding pictures with him for a good 15 minutes straight.

1. Hollywood Studios (6 points)
--Well it does get better and it's the one-two punch of American Idol and Great Movie Ride. When Tower of Terror and Rock 'n Roller Coaster are your fourth and fifth best rides, you got something going on.

Individual Votes Here at Google Docs

2009 Attraction Tourney: Final Four

Tower of Terror over Curse of DarKastle














Expedition Everest over Spider-Man














Tower of Terror over Expedition Everest

2009 Quiet Pool Theme Park Attraction of the Year

Twilight Zone Tower of Terror

2009 Attraction Tourney: Six Flags Region

And now for the most controversial of my final four attractions...The Curse of DarKastle. The brother of Universal's Spider-Man ride, DarKastle has been a favorite of mine and JJ's since we first went on it two years ago. Many other people think we overrate the attraction, but it is a carbon copy of the highly toughted Spider-Man. I think the queue and theming of DarKastle are better than Spidey. The Sweet 16 in this region was incredible, with DarKastle, Splash Mt., Soarin' and Griffon. All four are unique, three of the four have great theming, and the one that doesn't, Griffon, is one of the best coasters I've been on. When it came down to it the overall experience of DarKastle barely edged out Splash Mountain to reach the Final Four.

2009 Attraction Tourney: Busch Gardens Region

It's crazy that Kingda Ka couldn't even get out of the second round, but that's what happens when you're faced with the monster that is Expedition Everest.

2009 Attraction Tourney: Universal Region

Absolutely no upsets until #3 Indiana Jones Adventure takes down #2 Incredible Hulk? Crazy bracket. In the heated play-in game The Enchanted Tiki-Room, with dancing, took out Leslie's Nielsen's Pirates 4D show of Busch Gardens fame, only to inevitably lose to Spider Man in the first round. The top half of this bracket was stacked compared to the bottom. Spider Man, Rock 'n Roller Coaster, Test Track, Nitro, Jungle Cruise, Kumba and Tiki Room...all-star cast. Nothing to talk about down bottom other than Indy Adventure, which still has one of the best queues I've even walked through. Needless to say, Spidy comes out of the region to make it to the Final Four.

2009 Attraction Tourney: Disney World Region

So today begins the 2nd Annual Quiet Pool Theme Park Attraction Tournament. Last year I was inspired by ThemeParkInsider.com who created a 64 attraction tournament to figure out the best ride in America. TPI had readers vote on the individual match-ups to decide the winner of each round and since I have no readers, I just decide which ride is better on my own.

After this year's disgrace of a result so far over at TPI, it seems that mine is the most reliable source for a subjective theme park attraction tournament on the internet. The people at Cedar Point have linked to the TPI website, so that their rides will win and it has worked like a charm. Last year's winner, Tower of Terror, was upset by the 33rd seeded Maverick of the aforementioned Cedar Point. There were 3,000 votes on Maverick's day of voting, compared to 500-600 on every other day.

To make the seedings I again used the ratings from TPI's readers.

Disney World Region

Last year's champ, Tower of Terror glided through the region with its toughest match-up in round two against Buzz Lightyear. Nice little run by Great Adventure's Superman coaster, making it to the Regional Final. Pirates and Haunted Mansion are rated highly and have great theming, but don't have the juice to get by good coasters.

What's New at Disney

There have been many updates and changes at Walt Disney World since my last visit in April of 2007, but by the time the Park Guys make their way back to Orlando in July of 2009 there will be four major additions to Walt's World that excite me.


14 out of the 18 times I've visited Disney, we've stayed at the Caribbean Beach Resort. It really can't be touched in terms of atmosphere, and if I were only allowed to be one place the rest of my life it would be CBR. There had been talk about making a change the next time the Park Guys went down to Florida, but now that is out of the question. For the past six months the Caribbean has been doing a complete renovation of their pool area. It was already a fantastic pool with a great hot tub and unbelievable at. The new pictures of the finally finished pool look even better. The pool itself is much bigger, the deck is much bigger with many more loungers (although Big Tom and Karebear will still head down early to save chairs with towels and shoes), and there is a beuatiful walk in area. This upgrade should put the Caribbean's pool into second place, behind Yacht & Beach Club, in flat pool rankings. If you take into account that Y&B Pool closes at 10 and they actual stick to those rules, then it's obviously a landslide. Because the great thing about CBR nightlife is that the pool doesn't technically close until midnight, but it never closes.


It was either JJ or T-time that said MGM (or now Hollywood Studios) is the worst of the four parks at WDW now that Millionaire-Play It! has left the building. Although I never agreed, because Tower of Terror and Rock 'n Roller Coaster will always keep it above water, two major additions hopefully will change their minds. Toy Story Midway Mania opened at the Studios on May 31st. It is a ride on the same level as Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, in that you load a two person cart and shoot at targets throughout your dark ride. What I'm assuming will make a step up is that you wear 3-D glasses, you actually shoot things out of your gun (not just a laser) and supposedly the levels change depending on how good you are. I've always been a huge fan of Buzz Lightyear, even though I always get beat by JJ. It doesn't hurt him that he went to college in Orlando and found out where all of the high point targets are.


The next major addition to Hollywood Studios, coming in early 2009, is the American Idol Experience. Now although I don't see this as being up to par with Millionaire, it definitely has potential. I'm a big Idol fan in general and this show/attraction could be a great place to cause a raucus. So apparently Disney guests appear on each show during the day, but you have to pass two auditions before getting to go on stage before the live audience. The guests perform and the audience votes on who was the best, and then the winner from each show face off in the finale each night. The winner of the finale show each day gets a ticket to an audition for the real American Idol show with judges that may or may not be Simon, Paula and Randy. Speaking of these judges, this attraction could be made or broken by the judges that have at each show. P.S. this attraction being invented shot David Gearey to the top of the list for next year's trip.


So on all three of the Park Guys' trips we've engaged in two 'class it up' restaurant dinners. The first two years we went to Margaritaville and ESPN Club and the third year we got tired of ESPN Club so it was Margarita-
ville and Rain Forest Cafe. There is a new restaurant being built as we speak in Downtown Disney that will definitely replace Rain Forest Cafe and it is called T-Rex Cafe. It is a prehistoric family adventure. I'm not saying it's going to be amazing, but I'm gonna vote to give it a shot come July 2009.

Kingda Ka was a Great Adventure

I just got back from an all day excursion to Six Flags Great Adventure. First off, it was a great time. As I thought, the park itself was not up to par with the Disney's, Universals, and Busch Gardens' of the world. There were a lot of coasters and many of them were fantastic. As per the usual, on one of my trips to a theme park, we voted on what the best rides were. The results are below...

Check out the spite voting by Larry....what a jerk.

Final Four

Final Four rides...

2. Splash Mountain- Magic Kingdom

1. Tower of Terror- Hollywood Studios

1. Spider Man- Islands of Adventure

6. DarKastle- Busch Gardens Europe


In the first matchup we have Splash Mt. and Tower of Terror. These are the two most extravagantly themed rides in existence. TOT gets the advantage for having a slight better ride experience.
On the other side we have Spider Man and DarKastle. After riding DarKastle for the first time, my friends and I had an argument on which was better out of these two, because they are almost identical. I think the theming to DarKastle blew Spider Man out of the water so it heads to the final.

TOT takes the championship home. Bracket is here...

Six Flags Region

The final region of the theme park attraction tourny...

1. Adventures of Spider Man- Islands of Adventure
16. Enchanted Tiki Room- Magic Kingdom
8. Men In Black Alien Attack- Universal Studios
9. Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin- Magic Kingdom
5. Jurassic River Adventure- Islands of Adventure
12. E.T.- Universal Studios
4. Popeye & Bluto's- Islands Of Adventure
13. Carousel of Progress- Hollywood Studios
3. Mickey's PhilharMagic- Magic Kingdom
14. Disaster!- Universal Studios
6. California Sreamin'- California Adventure
11. Poseidon's Adventure- Islands of Adventure
7. Space Mountain- Magic Kingdom
10. Cat in the Hat- Islands of Adventure
2. Alpengeist- Busch Gardens Europe
15. Jungle Cruise- Magic Kingdom

The six flags region had the best first round matchup with Buzz Lightyear and Men In Black facing off. They are the only two of this type of ride that I know of but Buzz Lightyear gets the edge and ends up losing to perennial favorite Spider Man. It was pretty sad that Jurassic River made it to the semi final but it had two extremely challenges in ET and Carousel of Progress. Space Mountain had a nice upset over Alpengeist, but I do not see how Alpengeist got such a high rating from TPI when they had Griffon much lower.

Full bracket is here...

Busch Region

Here we have the Busch Region...

1. Incredible Hulk- Islands of Adventure
16. Great Movie Ride- Hollywood Studios
8. Soarin'- Epcot
9. MuppetVision 3D- Hollywood Studios
5. Dudley Do Right's Ripsaw Falls- Islands of Adventure
12. Mr. Toad's Wild Ride- Disneyland
4. Rock 'n Roller Coaster- Hollywood Studios
13. Cheetah Chase- Busch Gardens Africa
3. Haunted Mansion- Magic Kingdom
14. Living w/ the Land- Epcot
6. Curse of DarKastle- Busch Gardens Europe
11. Roger Rabbit's Cartoon Spin- Disneyland
7. One Man's Dream- Hollywood Studios
10. Lochness Monster- Busch Gardens Europe
2. Expedition Everest- Animal Kingdom
15. It's Tough to be a Bug- Animal Kingdom

Plenty of upsets to go around in the Busch bracket. Living with the land, and its mickey shaped pumpkins got the better of the Haunted Mansion. Although the Lochness monster is getting old, it still brings more fun than walking around and looking at memorabilia, so One Man's Dream went down early. Obviously Incredible Hulk went down early....an always over-rated speed coaster isn't even the best coaster at islands of adventure (which makes it the worst). 8 seeded Soarin' made a good run all the way to the regional final but ran into an unstoppable rebel force in Curse of DarKastle. I recently experienced this ride this past summer and fell in love with it. It is modeled after the Spider Man ride, but in a much scarier atmosphere.

Full bracket is here...

Universal Region

Today we'll look at the Universal Region.

1. Tower of Terror- Hollywood Studios
16. Rhino Rally- Busch Gardens Africa
8. Terminator 2: 3D- Universal Studios
9. Dinosaur- Animal Kingdom
5. Aladdin Stage Show- California Adventure
12. Phoenix- Busch Gardens Africa
4. Apollo's Chariot- Busch Gardens Europe
13. Big Bad Wolf- Busch Gardens Europe
3. Festival of the Lion King- Animal Kingdom
14. Corkscrew Hill- Busch Gardens Europe
6. Kumba- Busch Gardens Africa
11. Lights, Motors, Action- Hollywood Studios
7. Thunder Mountain- Magic Kingdom
10. Spaceship Earth- Epcot
2. Griffon- Busch Gardens Europe
15. Star Tours- Hollywood Studios

Surprisingly, there were hardly any upsets in this bracket. My favorite matchup was in the regional semi-final where the fantastic Lion King stage show inched by the 90 drop roller coaster, Griffon. The Tower of Terror breezed through the region where its toughest competition might have been in the second round against the fast motion moving Dinosaur ride.

Full bracket is here...

Theme Park Tourney- Disney Region

Inspired by the recent knowledge that had a 64 team tournament of amusement and theme park rides I decided to create my own. They had their readers voting on which ride should win in each round but for my I will decide which one I like better. I will use their rankings so there will be surprise in which attraction wins because I have many different opinion than these fools. In today's post I will go over the rides in the Disney Region and how things played out.

1. Indiana Jones Adventure- Disneyland
16. Tomorrowland Transit Authority- Magic Kingdom
8. Test Track- Epcot
9. Mission: Space- Epcot
5. Matterhorn Bobsleds- Disneyland
12. Jaws- Universal Studios
4. Deuling Dragons- Islands of Adventure
13. Beauty and the Beast- Hollywood Studios
3. Kilamanjaro Safari- Animal Kingdom
14. Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor- Magic Kingdom
6. Montu- Busch Gardens Africa
11. Alice in Wonderland- Disneyland
7. Pirates of the Caribbean- Disneyland/Magic Kingdom
10. KaTonga- Busch Gardens Africa
2. Splash Mountain- Magic Kingdom/Disneyland
15. Tom Sawyer's Island- Magic Kingdom/Disneyland

Only one upset in the first round as the new Monsters Inc. interactive comedy show upset Kilamanjaro that can tend to get boring if the animals aren't out and about. All of the top seeds held serve the rest of the way until Splash Mountain, which is still the most amazing at getting something great out of not much, got the better of the top seeded Indiana Jones Adventure.

The full bracket is here....