Tanna

Have you been to Disney California Adventure? In 2012, the park got a billion dollars infused into it to turn its modern spoof of California into a storied recreation of the Golden Age of California. Its themed lands are a 1910s Pacific boardwalk, a 1950s National Park, a 1920s Los Angeles, a 1940s Hollywood. Tower of Terror was a linchpin of that narrative and continuity that bound the whole park together. The 190-foot tall 1920s Art Deco hotel sincerely looms over the park. It's gorgeous and it's a piece of the larger storyline of the park. That this Golden Age Californian park will now be lorded over by a (and I'm quoting the Imagineer responsible here) "warehouse power plant fortress" covered in pipes and tubes and satellite dishes and glowing neon emblems.... it's absolutely laughable. Sure, tuck a Marvel land away inside Disney California Adventure (or, y'know, put it in Disneyland's desolate and empty Tomorrowland.) As it is, this is your literal view upon entering Disney California Adventure. How do you suppose the Hollywood Tower Hotel becoming this... ...might change the larger feel of the park? A different discussion entirely, but evidence of the odd track Disney's on. To my estimation, the tables have turned radically... Disney is chasing Universal by doing what Universal does – cannibalizing its classics to insert flavor-of-the-month stories and IPs. They've seen how much success Universal has had with refreshing their entire ride lineup every decade or so. Tower of Terror is the biggest culprit. Also consider: Disneyland's famous Space Mountain became the Star Wars themed "Hyperspace Mountain" as part of a temporary Season of the Force Star Wars promotion. Problem is, the "Season" lasted for a year. Hyperspace Mountain finally closed, but only because the Halloween-themed Space Mountain: Ghost Galaxy took its place last week. The Disney Parks fan community awoke this morning to the news that after Halloween, regular Space Mountain won't be restored... It'll be Hyperspace Mountain again. See also, the delightful Aladdin: A Musical Specular being replaced by Frozen despite tremendous outcry and overwhelming negative reception not from fans, but from the public. Or World of Color: Celebrate. Frozen Ever After at EPCOT I get, because Maelstrom was a tired attraction, even if it was a fan favorite. But Disney's new course is set. And it looks eerily like Disney's chasing Universal. Are they going to yellow up the sky to look like Knowhere? GotG has two more movies to go, and are highly rumored to be in Avengers: Infinity War. We don't know if the warehouse is going to be dwarfed by a gigantic Stark/Avengers tower in the future. What ride is going to be switched out so you can go through giant blades of grass on the back of a hornet? Disney was a complex man, but I'll be honest, I was floored when I learned here he saved aside so much of the park for conservation, or else we wouldn't be talking about changing out rides like this. He had good vision, but there was no way he could've seen the park as it is today. He only planned for cartoons, not eveybody else and their mother being part of the company. I'm going to have to look up an HD video of Frozen Ever After to look at the animatronics faces.

Actually, yes, I agree. I like that the articles are well written and informative.

Elizabeth 19, I completely understand; some years are better than others.

Oh thank you- I'll pass on the pressure cooker.I prefer the electric skillet because I control the heat, and yes, have fresh cooking oil. I so much missed the crispness of where the chicken is resting on the skillet bottom, as opposed to free floating in a deep fryer, that as soon as I recalled my aunt's method of frying chicken, I rushed out to buy the Presto. Since I can use it on the back porch, I avoid the grease smell in the house.

Well, that says a lot about my chicken, then. Seems the guest liked it well enough to clean the bones. Never thought of frying in a pressure cooker, though. I'll have to look that method up, but I like the crunchies that I get with the Presto electric skillet.

I woke up one morning and remembered how my aunt in Kentucky fried chicken, in one of those Presto electric skillets. There is no big secret to the recipe, except for soaking the chicken in water with a tablespoon of sea salt. We had a guest over one night, I made fried chicken, and the guest said it was 'real Knott's Berry Farm Fried Chicken." Which, of course, it is not. For those of you who have gone to Knott's, what does the fried chicken taste like? Is it really just hillbilly chicken?

But each ride has such a huge amount of variables involved in each accident, to pin down the exact cause of each of the numbered accidents would be an astronomical feat, unless all the accidents happened in the same park, the same ride, the same operator, and Egad- the same rider. Accidents do happen, but it happens more often when there is less oversight and regulation. I don't like regulation in my life, but when a park inspects it's own rides, there's a lot more "Eh, it'll do." Than I'd like.

Instant fried squirrel on our street- good eatin'

King Dong, this would be my local mom and pop kennel. I'm not that far away from KI, but on a hot day, I'd rather my Scottie not be alone in a neighborhood where squirrels trip out the breakers on a regular basis. If the AC goes out at the kennel, at least humans would know about it and rectify the situation.

Thank you! I used to visit my dog at the Petcenter also. The indoor/outdoor cage sounds right up alley. She's older, but likes play, and of course, snacks. I feel better about using those facilities. I loved the one at KI, but life goes on.

"Do not pee or poop in the water." For those who thought this was acceptable. Sigh. You would be surprised. The last time I went there. And I do mean the Last Time, the second to last kicker was watching a girl pull off her Bandaid, and letting the puss of a sore wash off in the low ebb of the tidal pool.

I went with my cousin and their nieces to the Daytime Haunt. Snoopy in a vampire cape is about scary as it gets, it's more like Autumn theming during the day. I do recall the big rides were open, the youngest niece reached coaster height and went riding. Maybe that would be fun time for you to go.

I don't know about cheap overlays with their superhero division. These are the people that design movies by storyboard a year before camera one gets warmed up. They pore and peruse over James Gunn's post-its (available online) to get a load of what yhe heck he was thinking before the dust of his first GOTG movie was settled, then have a comic book artist redo it to make sense of it.

What sort of things do they sell in the International Street Shops? I saw the 'unlimited visits' blueb and thought about people being able to return to purchase that gift they weren't sure about at the time, but decided later it was right.

Don't apologize, it makes sense. I wouldn't like a Coney Island ride, with all of it's bright colors and lights, to be smack dab in Rivertown. I don't understand the ambiance of EPCOT, never went there, but I had always had the notion that it was a child's introduction to the culrutes of the world. Not worlds, where things from space land and and talk and make like hooligans. When I saw the POV for the Frozen ride, I'll admit it was confusing to me, also. I recall the Peter Pan ride went through the synopsis of the movie, and didn't just show random characters doing random things. There's really not a place in Tomorrowland for the Guardians, either, because they are present day. All the spaceships and stuff aren't the future, it's what alien races have now. It's just going to have to evolve where superheroes get corralled into one area of the park.

The security gates always remind me of a Halloween incident a few years ago that occurred at the gates when I was being checked in. A few rows over, some guy had baggies of booze strapped to his leg. The officer took them, and bringing them to the officer that was checking me, threw them down among my stuff, and started explaining what he found. They are discussing this, but people around me thought I was the one that brought them in. I was getting dirty looks, for being the skizz thst brought in booze, and for for the officers slowing down the line by talking about it. When I finally got through, people were rude enough to say something about it must be nice to not get kicked out of the park, and what a crap person I was to bring in liquor in baggies. That wasn't mine and it wasn't me, but at the time, it sure made me look bad.

I suspect hands up on Diamondback are different than hands up on The Beast. There's a definite chance of an "ouch" factor on the helix tunnel, but if you do get smacked on The Beast, you can't say they didn't warn you.

Thanks for that information. I had always thought it was an outside decision, like communities pressuring Disney against infringing on their community.At least now I can see why the refurbishments insread of new building. I guess we all remember the cartoons and forget the nature specials, and the fact that Walt Disney learned from drawing wildlfe. We forget that a stodgy fifties-style guy that promoted "family values" can think green.

Thanks for the post, it was good to see the announcement. I'm glad they used Snoopy as Santa Claus, but it reminded me of how much the Peanuts are intertwined with Christmas. I'd only gone to Winterfest once, and that was corral cousins, so my memories are vague as to what it actually looks like. The charactor walks are going to be cute, since they put different outfits on the Peanuts for Halloween, I suspect they will also be dressed for winter. I'd think it would be better than being crowded in the backseat of a car to go look at the ridiculous expenditure of some middle class neighborhood done up with more lights and decoration than sense. I'd like to see it unencumbered.

The law in Ohio is that parks are required to follow the guidelines of the ride manufacturer. My understanding is that without approval from PTC the park is not allowed to turn the trains around. The other option is to get new trains that the park can get approval to run backwards. Yeh, but he was on topic, and I'm stealing the phrase "foxed up."

Thanks- that's exactly my point. I'm not saying IBEW is either all good or all evil, but that I see attributes in IBEW I have witnessed in those that are successful at working in electricity. Just as creative types are drawn to art, there are types of personalities drawn into the profession of working electricity.I'm not making sweeping generalizations about anyone. We choose our names as we initially logged on. That tells me something about you. I chose my name from "Plan 9 from Outer Space" ... I might watch MST3K, yathink? That's an attribute Of myself I want to reveal.. I might laugh at camp things. IBEW_Sparky chose his name for the same reasons we all did. That tells me something about him. When you are failing at an argument, Don'tWant, you seem to go after the individual. I was defending an individual that I've posted back and forth in both agreement and diagreement, who argues logically, and honestly, doesn't suffer fools gladly. Lord knows how many times I'd been photographed with a gun. And the quote? That's not Helter skelter, that's The Temptations, a soul song that was popular when I was young. If a poster finds himself being churlish and sour mannered, and finds himself confronted about his sour churlishness, perhaps it would be better for his mental health to take a break from posting on forums and contemplate his place in the world.

Kind of alienates the other people that have already posted in this thread. What I don't "get" is your avatar of what I believe to be you getting ready to pull a gun out of a holster. Compound that with your rather odd signature and you come off rather intimidating and possibly even deranged. What message are you trying to convey exactly? I don't see IBEW as coming off as either intimidating nor deranged. He and I don't always agree, but he's never come off as either of those attributes that he's being assigned. His name pretty much tells me he's going to look at things in a logical, calm manner. He has worked or does work with electricity, same as my dad. When a pinhole in a glove can kill you, or a slight misjudgement can throw you across the room, it becomes second nature to keep one's head. He just doesn't take to flights of fancy is all.

I loved the KI Petcare, and am wondering about dog owners' experiences, if they had any, of the Red Dog Spa, the new place for KI's petsitting? If next summer is anything like this summer, I won't be leaving my dog alone in the house where electricity can go out and knock out the AC.

I was 18 when had my first drink. legal age in Ohio was 18. Yes, and when they changed it to 21, the 19 and olders got grandfathered in to the 6% alchohol. I suddenly had a lot of friends I didn't want.

Oh. It looked like a friendly little roller jaunt to me. That man I married spoke of going down a mountain side in a concrete gutter while riding a kiddy scooter. He said it was fun until you got scraped up- there are times when his sense of fun and mine differ.