bkroz

Come about 2 PM at Disney's Hollywood Studios, you may be willing to give it a try just to fill up the afternoon. Weird that, according to the release, last season alone 3 of the 13 finalists were "discovered" at the park.

God willing, this is a start of a much-needed foundational renovation for the park. The era of the "studio" park is over. In a post-Animal-Kingdom world, people are not impressed by boxy showbuildings and facade cutouts, especially not in a premium park. Compounded with Hollywood Studios's lack of attractions, the park really does need a change. Not just new rides, but an identity shift like Universal Studios Florida / Hollywood, which are building hub-and-spoke layouts and themed lands where previously there were none. They're retroactively turning their amusement parks into theme parks. Disney's Hollywood Studios needs the same. A big tan showbuilding with American Idol next to big tan showbuilding with Toy Story next to a big tan showbuilding with The Little Mermaid... the time for that is passed. I doodled up a complete renovation of Hollywood Studios that I'll upload here later. I'm pretty proud of it.

It's his friend's photo. Wonder how they're crediting that... Or IF.

My understanding was that last time the smoke was contained in the launch track and sort of filled the ride building. This time, it's rising up above it. That could mean the smoke is no different from last time, but it's being ventilated... Or something's different. The humor won't be fondly recalled if the ride is damaged or - God forbid - someone is hurt.

The launch tunnel is also back there... Difficult to tell where the smoke is rising from.

Once in a while, Kings Island or Cedar Fair does something to remind us that it is - primarily - a business, which must answer to its shareholders and make money. Most of us feel a very personal connection with the park and forget (unintentionally or otherwise) that it needs to make money and react emotionally or feel personally hurt by something like parking prices going up or a ride closing. The case with Disney is a hundred times worse. Or more. It's not only a business, but a massive one. It needs a businessman at the helm, not someone with the last name "Disney." I think that's more understood now than it used to be, but it's still not great.

Also if anyone (like me) has been searching rabidly for FireFall's soundtrack for years, even going so far as to email Kings Dominion to inquire about it, good news. Mr. Cobb has sent it to me with permission to share. (My favorite part of the track is the odd, bubbling, hissing noise built right into the score at :57 that signals the fire igniting on the water... Whenever I heard it at the park, I wondered if it was part of the soundtrack, or the sincere sound of gas escaping. Great detail! You can also hear the "sound" of the gondola creaking and whining throughout, including the awesome sound of chains pulling it up to its high position. It all builds the story Mr. Cobb discussed of the ride being a stone and steel altar meant to test the faith of followers.) https://www.dropbox.com/sm/create/TOMB%20RAIDER%20FIREFALL%20Attraction%20Soundtrack%20(1).mp3 Credit goes to the composer Andy Garfield, whose work will also be heard at the new Paramount Park in Spain. Mr. Garfield also scored Men In Black: Alien Attack and Survivor: The Ride. As well, he provided sound services for Frozen. See his LinkedIn page here.

Exactly. Even tiny family parks have HUSS Top Spins as a sort of "staple" of their thrill rides. Cedar Fair has shown an interest in not only having Top Spins, but theming them. For one, they've maintained the theming on Kings Dominion's Crypt very well. Even greater evidence: when they relocated Geauga Lake's Top Spin to California's Great America, they went out of their way to add a pool, flames, waterfalls, fountains, lighting, etc. Even though the ride operated at Geauga Lake as just a typical carnival Top Spin, when relocating it they went out of their way to model it off of Kings Dominion's and include those details. Last I heard, the Great America Top Spin was even using Tomb Raider: FireFall's synchronized musical score by Andy Garfield (VERIFIED, though it's not synchronized to the ride cycle there). The point is, Top Spins are just such a standard and inexpensive line-up at amusement parks. Sure, Cedar Fair inherited a few well-themed ones, but they have since relocated and themed their own from scratch. It just seems such a no-brainer that such a thrilling ride fits at the park, and if they're going to get one (which most of us agree they should), it makes a lot of sense to use... oh, I don't know... the big empty building at the back of the park? Top Spins are fun rides anyway, but given the theming Cedar Fair inherited and then expanded upon, PLUS our theatrical show building that has Hollywood quality theming already built-in, it seems a fairly obvious fit! Ah well. Maybe some day.

I think, in general, a Top Spin is just a classic flat ride that strengthens any park's lineup. I still have this incredibly dumb optimism that one will return to Kings Island, and that it'll be impeccably themed when it does. An outdoor clone of Kings Dominion's Crypt would be absolutely fine. I'd applaud it, if it came with the rocks, fountains, waterfalls, flames, etc. Seems like it would be an inexpensive and unique addition. My absolutely ideal would be that same clone of Kings Dominion's Crypt (including waterfalls, torches, fountains, etc) placed inside of our existing Crypt building. I know it wouldn't reach to the height of the building and that it wouldn't necessarily "sync" with the goddess or anything, but it makes too much sense. Why waste that incredible building? By plopping down a clone of KD's Crypt you'd have the thrill, the music, the water, and a STELLAR flat ride, and you'd ALSO have our goddess, theatrical lighting, mystery, suspense, and themed queue. It's just ripe for an out-of-this-world flat ride in an unbeatable location. Mr. Cobb himself said that converting the building to being safe for fire effects was deemed too expensive, but this is a new era. Buy a standard suspended HUSS top spin, build it out with pools and fountains, etc., and fireproof the building. What an incredible dark ride / thrill ride we'd have, and I'm CERTAIN it would still cost significantly less than even a family coaster. The foundation is all there for it. Seems so ridiculous to waste a well-themed building built to Disney-esque standards... We need a flat ride anyway!

You guys might've read the article I wrote and posted in another thread about flubbed and failed attractions. The list included TOMB RAIDER: The Ride (naturally). I'm pleased to say that the article attracted the attention of Dave Cobb, a well-respected creative mind who's worked with movie studios, entertainment companies, and theme parks to develop some really cool rides. Mr. Cobb was the creative director and show writer for Universal's Men In Black: Alien Attack. Closer to home, he was the creative director and show producer for Italian Job: Stunt Track and Tomb Raider: FireFall. While not a formal interview or anything, I did have the chance to direct message with him on Twitter, and he's given me permission to share a few things about Tomb Raider: Firefall as it relates to our original Tomb Raider: The Ride. I said to him, "I wish KI would've just placed a clone of KD's in the show building. I don't know the logistics, but to have the running water, flames, music, etc. paired with the goddess, theatrical lighting, etc. Wow." To which he replied: "And I did a whole concept pass and budget analysis to do exactly what [you] described --- adding fire to the old one. Just a fire gag on the ceiling -- a ceiling burn like Backdraft -- but adding fire protection in the building was too expensive." I mentioned how Tomb Raider: Firefall is a "great compromise" between a typical Top Spin and the lavish and outrageous version Kings Island had. He continued: "Yeah and that's what it was intended to be: we loved the concept and the brand and PKD couldn't afford the building (or the Giant ride). The big thing we did better, IMHO, was "casting" the machine as an ancient "thing", used in ancient times for true believers to be strapped to in order to test their faith. Whereas the original never really made the machine anything other than the "emotion" of being Lara. We had a series of Lara's diary entries as signage planned for the queue, never happened." He also uploaded a video of FireFall I'd never seen. Such an impressive ride in so many ways. Just some cool thoughts from a guy on the inside. To be clear, in 2008 both TOMB RAIDER: The Ride at Kings Island and TOMB RAIDER: FireFall at Kings Dominion were renamed The Crypt. Obviously our Crypt closed. However, The Crypt continues to operate at Kings Dominion today, and (usually) features fire, water, synchronized music, and even replica film props from the Lara Croft: Tomb Raider film series, all of which Mr. Cobb oversaw. Check out his website for more.

Eisner did wonders for Disney early on, and made a lot of mistakes near the end of his time with the company. He helped breathe new life into the company's studio division (coming to Disney from being chairman of Paramount) and greenlit many of the "Renaissance" Disney films we know and love, rebooting the fairy tale films. He also set up a lot of strategic alliances. It was Eisner's idea - against the insistence of many - to reach outside Disney's catalogue and bring in George Lucas for Alien Encounter, Captain EO, Star Tours, and Indiana Jones Adventure. He aggressively expanded the parks early on and spared no expense for star-power to back his attractions. He also commissioned the building of Disney's Hollywood Studios (which many industry insiders claimed was a very purposeful jab at Universal, whose upcoming Florida project he would've known about as head of Paramount). The turning point seemed to be the Disney Decade. Most of the plans for that era fell through, and what actually got built backfired. He built up a team around him who leaned heavily toward finances. Eisner's original plan was for Disney's California Adventure to not be built by Imagineers AT ALL, but by the division who built Downtown Disney shopping, dining, and retail areas. Imagineers snuck into the project and got a few things done, but that's why Disney's California Adventure, Walt Disney Studios Park, and Disney's Animal Kingdom were big on restaurants, short on attractions and have all suffered for it since. Eisner had a very public feud with the last Disney family member left on the company's board. He also built up such tensions with Pixar, that the studio planned to separate from Disney and distribute its films elsewhere, with Disney very antagonistically sort of saying "I dare you" to Pixar and committing to Pixar-free sequels of Monsters Inc. and Toy Story. He eventually left the company a year before his contract expired and willingly gave up the perks he was allowed, like a corporate jet and a cushy office at Disney's headquarters in Burbank. His COO, Bob Iger, took over as CEO and managed tidy up. Obviously he reversed the huge budget cuts in the parks division, got some entertainment-minded folks into lofty positions, bought Pixar outright, and acquired LucasFilm and Marvel, which will go down in history as some of the smartest acquisitions in the entertainment industry, I bet.

Hmm... Maybe I'm thinking too big here, but one of my favorite of Universal's Halloween Horror Nights events was in 2002, when the event took over Universal's Islands of Adventure. Basically, as night fell, each Island became a "twisted" version of its daytime self. They embraced the park's daytime theme and flipped it. In Marvel Super Hero Island, dead heroes lay in the streets and the Marvel villains had won. In Jurassic Park, the dinosaurs were loose. In Toon Lagoon, the characters had been frightened away by "Treaks and Foons" who were disfigured, playful cartoon characters, etc. It would be kind of cool if each park's Halloween Haunt took advantage of the park's theming and stories. I mean, we've got a roller coaster called The Beast. Couldn't hurt to expand on that mythology and create a haunted house for it (though, at least PART of that haunted house would need to be in the woods, where you could hear the coaster roaring by...). It would be cool to have The Worksite back around Backlot with the police lights and traffic cones and cars, an Irish cemetery maze near / around Banshee, a dinosaur maze through part of Dinosaurs Alive, an "Adventure Express" style ancient tribal house in Oktoberfest, etc. In other words, embrace what the park already has an expand on it. Makes more sense than creating these unrelated haunted houses from scratch, right? Don't be surprised if I get myself hooked on this idea and start a new thread about it.

Shhh, don't tell the park that!

If I were to guess, the uncharacteristic lack of a Marvel logo or the mention of Marvel on Disney's exclusive sneak preview poster would be thanks to the contract's Part IV: Exclusivity > B. Other Theme Parks > a. > iii But I don't have a clue. Legal agreements. Leave those to the professionals. EDIT: IV.B.a.1.i also looks important: Makes you wonder what we'd do without the Mississippi, don't it?

Guardians of the Galaxy will get a "sneak preview" video at Walt Disney World, which baffled many fans who were sure Marvel could never be in any Walt Disney World park in any way whatsoever. http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2014/06/guardians-of-the-galaxy-sneak-peek-landing-in-disney-parks-july-4/ Notice what's said and not said in the Disney blog post. "From the studio that brought you “The Avengers” comes a new team..." and a particular logo is missing from the movie poster... With the Marvel / Disney thing, it's more of which particular things CAN'T be shown than the idea that Marvel can't even be mentioned on Walt Disney World property.

Could maybe help, but if someone walks up to the keypad, enters the correct code, opens a locker, and leaves with its contents, why would an employee being there stop them? How would an employee have any indication that the person getting into the locker is or is not the original owner?

They treat it the same as they treat a parking spot. Your $15, $20, or $25 grants you use of a spot, but no insurance. Same with a locker, I guess. Doing so would be a lot like admitting guilt, wouldn't it?

If Kings Island were trying to incentivize 3, 4, and 5 day stays (with extra special incentives for staying at conveniently located on-site resort hotels) I'm sure a single day admission to Kings Island would be $96.

And guess how much money it makes them?

Wow really?! Watch the videos provided in the article too!

The ride program for Tomb Raider was essentially a moving theatre meant to tell a story. Given that The Crypt took place with no synchronized music or special effects, keeping the Tomb Raider cycle wouldn't make much sense. Slowly lift up to where the goddess was and stare at a black wall... Stop facing up at a bare ceiling... Hang over blank lava pits. There was no longer a story to tell, so the theatrical cycle was useless. They compensated for that loss with the ultra-intense 9-flip cycle...

Well *I'M* definitely not sure. Observationally and anecdotally, it seems that the ride just blasted right through it's shelf life by running such an intense program. I have no doubt that HUSS oversaw and approved the removal of the front row, but doing that HAD to affect the ride, right? And that cycle was brought on by a need to exchange theme for thrill. Just because B happens after A doesn't mean A caused B, but it seems to me that the more intense program took its toll (back then it was said that the ride was "tearing itself apart") to such an extent that it had to operate that lame, 45 second, 2 flip cycle there at the end. It's popularity definitely decreased and that's a nice excuse for removal, but that's definitely not the whole reason or even most of it. Compared Tomb Raider to The Crypt 2012 and it's obvious the ride was on its last leg in terms of hardware, and I doubt it's re-ride numbers were up there. EDIT: Notice no one ever again bought a HUSS Giant Top Spin. In fact, they don't offer it anymore on their website.

^ Correct. Great ride, ended up quite a flub. - The author. Hahah!

I used search by image, too. You're just a better sleuth than I am.