May 28, 2008

Orlando Time

Sorry for the long delay since my last entry. I have been settling back into the routine of living and working in Florida again. I am back to work at Universal, helping the Halloween Horror Nights team to dream up another awesome event.
I had a chance to park-hop at Disney last weekend. The crowds at the Magic Kingdom were pretty large, and I walked out of 3 disorganized restaurants before giving up and deciding to eat off the property. That part was not very magical.
However, the mansion was as wonderful as ever, and Pirates looked great too!

I also found the spot where the well used to be. (See the January 12, 2007 post)

We were handed a "wait card" while in line for the mansion. We were asked to give it to the cast member at the doombuggie operations board. It is one way Disney determines the queue wait times.

I also went to Disney Studios and went on my number one themed thrill ride, Tower of Terror!

I'm sorry, but I think the giant Sorcerer's Apprentice hat, blocking the beautiful Chinese Theater centerpiece, is one the biggest design blunders I've seen in a long time! What were they thinking? The fact that all it houses is a pin trading post, makes it even more ridiculous.
Give us b ack our beautiful sight lines! I think Walt would have a fit!

Epcot was very nice. I finally saw the Spaceship Earth rennovations, and thought they were fantastic! Judi Dench is a favorite actor of mine, and her narration was very soothing (Although Walter Cronkite will always be my favorite). The interactive "movie" was a little silly, but my big dumb head pasted onto a retro styled animated character was pretty darned funny!

Even though I'll be at Universal for the next 5 months, we still played in the parks on Sunday. In particular I wanted to ride the new "The Simpsons Ride"! It's a very funny, wild ride, (although I found it slightly nauseating, probably due to my age). Something I was not at liberty to tell you earlier was that Universal Creative tapped me to create some graphics for this attraction, and it was terrific seeing my work installed!

It w as also exciting to see the steel rising behind Jurassic Park at Islands of Adventure, as construction on the "The Wizarding World of Harry Potter" is underway!

I'm looking forward to doing a lot more cool things while I'm here, so stay tuned!