Theme Park Outsider

Disney announces opening dates

labman — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 22:00:06 +0000

Disney has announced some of the opening dates for sections of the new fantasyland. Unfortunately, only one is a true date. The others are vague ‘in the season’ type dates.

The second half of Dumbo and Casey’s Splash and Soak station will open July 2012
Under the Sea ~ Journey of The Little Mermaid, Enchanted Tales with Belle, Be Our Guest Restaurant, Gaston’s Tavern, and Ariel’s Grotto will open this ‘Holiday Season” whenever that is. Presumably Christmas, but maybe Thanksgiving.
The seven Dwarves mine ride will open in 2014

The making of Transformers 3D at Universal Hollywood

labman — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 02:21:26 +0000

Universal released the following short video about the making of the soon to be opening transformers ride. Per usual, it looks really good. I just wish it were coming to Orlando.

Legoland California to expand Star Wars mini land

labman — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 00:31:16 +0000

Legoland california released a short video of some of the new star wars themed lego models they will be adding to their park.

Drunk man pepper sprayed at California Adventure

labman — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 18:46:22 +0000

Park employees ended up pepper spraying a drunk man in the park over the weekend. Unfortunately, the video didn’t catch what was happening before the guy was pepper sprayed. What surprises me is that the video is 4 minutes long and obviously there was something brewing before filming started and security wasn’t there. I would have thought they would have been right on top of that one.

Discovery Cove construction update

labman — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 18:32:34 +0000

Discovery cove has released a short construction update video of the new freshwater oasis attraction that will be opening spring 2012. It’s going to add an area to view marmosets and river otters.

Busch Gardens Williamsburg Verbolten Update

labman — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 14:00:01 +0000

Busch Gardens Williamsburg has reached a milestone for their new Verbolten coaster. They have released some footage today because they have finished the track on the new coaster. They have a few previews of the indoor section of the ride in the video below. It’s in the space that was vacated by Big Bad Wolf. I’m not sure I like all the concrete bases that are in the river at the bottom of the big drop, though. BBW was a suspended coaster, so it was like you were flying over the water. This one, while I’m sure it will be fun just won’t quite be the same.

Busch Gardens Tampa Animal Care Center Opens

labman — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 12:00:46 +0000

Busch Gardens Tampa opened their new Animal Care Center on Monday. I haven’t made it to Florida yet to have a look at it, but what I saw under construction on my last trip looked really interesting. I think it’s a great concept to see the care that goes into taking care of the animals. In a way, it’s like going on the backstage tours they offer without the price of the backstage tour.

Manta construction update at Seaworld san diego

labman — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 17:35:13 +0000

Seaworld released a construction update video on the new Manta coaster at Seaworld San Diego last week. It’s a shame it’s not a flying coaster like Manta in Orlando, but it does look like it’s got the great queue line aquarium which makes the one in orlando so much better than your average coaster. I just hope it’s better than Cheetah Hunt at Busch Gardens. That one was positively lame for what they were promising.

Thorpe park claims new coaster so extreme dummies are losing their limbs

labman — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 01:13:32 +0000

I call BS on this story. First off, those are mannequins, not water dummies like they use to test coasters. Second, the dummies on both sides are damaged in exactly the same way with limbs cleanly cut. If they were ripped off by forces of the ride, it wouldn’t be a smooth cut. Lastly, this is the park that banned lifting your arms on rides to protect others from the smell and asked for visitors urine to come up with the right smell for one of their horror mazes.

This smells like just another cheap publicity ploy.

Turtle Trek Webisode 1

labman — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 01:26:41 +0000

Seaworld Orlando has released a short webisode with some concept drawings and background information on the new exhibit. It really looks like they’re doing a good job on it, and I look forward to it’s opening.

New website for Busch Gardens Tampa

labman — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 20:38:56 +0000

Busch Gardens Tampa has a preview of their new web site available for you too look at and comment on. It looks good to me. they’ve really cleaned it up. I’ll have to try it on a mobile device to see how it does on those because the old site was unusable on iPhones/iPads/iPods.

Carowinds is getting a Windseeker

labman — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 22:00:28 +0000

I can’t say that this is really a surprise. They’ve put a windseeker in just about every other Cedar Fair park. I’ve never been on one, but personally I think it looks like fun. I would love another coaster, but they can’t do a big coaster every year.

More info is at the carowinds site.

Technology in the new Fantasyland addition

labman — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 00:00:28 +0000

Disney has released a short video highlighting some of the advanced technology that is going into the design of the new fantasyland section of the Magic Kingdom. It’s really quite interesting.

Darth Vader visits Disneyland

labman — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 13:22:10 +0000

I laughed at some of the scenes in this, so I had to share.

Cinderella Castle Fire

labman — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 21:31:45 +0000

Cinderella’s castle had a small fire break out on July 19th. Below is a youtube video as it was happening. Needless to say, it was put out quickly.

Cheetah Hunt Point of View Video

labman — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 16:43:09 +0000

Busch Gardens Tampa has released on ride footage from Cheetah Hunt, and it is spectacular to see.

Cheetah Hunt Soft Opening

labman — Mon, 16 May 2011 14:30:46 +0000

Cheetah Hunt has started operations for Employees. Hopfully this means that there will soon be a soft opening for the general public. With the 27th right around the corner, I’m really looking forward to my next trip to Florida. BGTNation has posted a short video of it running with employees, which I am embedding below. Be sure to visit BGTNation.com to see the many other pictures they have of the ride and it’s surroundings.

Little Mermaid preview

labman — Mon, 16 May 2011 12:48:09 +0000

Disney has released a short video interview with the imagineers behind the new Little Mermaid ride. The behind the scenes stuff is always interesting.

Cheetah Hunt Exclusive Ride Time

labman — Tue, 10 May 2011 19:15:27 +0000

Busch Gardens Tampa has announced exclusive ride time for season passholders during the month of june. From what I can find on the web, there is no mention of a soft opening and it doesn’t look like it’s going to be finished in time for a soft opening. My next trip is scheduled there right before it opens, so we’ll find out. I just wish I lived closer to Florida. The drive from SC just takes too long.

Passholder Mailer

Busch Gardens Tampa Clinic announced

labman — Tue, 10 May 2011 17:21:44 +0000

Busch Gardens Tampa has announced a new animal clinic where park guests can watch as the various animals are treated. I think it sounds like a great idea and am really looking forward to this.