bkroz

I can't even touch that first thing you said. About the same? How old were you when you visited? How much time did you spend? Disneyland Park and Magic Kingdom are lightyears apart (and that's without calling one better or worse). And beyond those two parks, the rest of the resorts are incomparable with each other, so there's hardly any sense to calling them "about the same." To name one thing: VERSUS Besides the fact that both are called "Tomorrowland," they have little in common. Different stories, different styles, different attractions, different layouts, different moods, different music, different atmospheres... And, "wild net rumors?" Ask the Imagineers laid off when Beastly Kingdom was set aside as "phase 2" for Animal Kingdom. They happily took their services next door to Universal's Islands of Adventure. Look up the blueprints for Epcot - Project Gemini. Look at the official press releases about new countries coming to World Showcase. Look at the state of Disney's Hollywood Studios - whether or not you can find registered blueprints, you'd be kidding yourself to make the case that nothing's been considered for that park. Some may be rumors, but they're hardly wild or inconceivable!

I can only speak for the Innoventions Dream House at Disneyland, but it is very up-to-date with the newest technologies from Microsoft. Actually, that's precisely the problem. Instead of being imaginative about the future, the house displays products that are cutting-edge, but available for purchase today - tables with touch-screen tops, X-Box Kinect, etc.

It's not a matter of budgets being cut, just shifting. Significantly. When New Fantasyland was announced in 2009, fans pretty quickly realized that it was one ride (The Little Mermaid), one restaurant (Be Our Guest) and a half-dozen meet-and-greets - a separate one for Belle, Ariel, Cinderella, Aurora, and Tinkerbell. That, of course, doesn't amount to a whole lot in what was supposed to be the park's biggest expansion ever. The plan was re-evaluated and in 2011, re-announced with much less focus on the princess franchise - the woods that would've contained Cinderella's Chateau and Aurora's Cottage became the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. Mickey's Toontown Fair (which had originally been a separate land) was meant to become an entire "Fairies" sub-area of Fantasyland with oversized blades of grass, giant mushrooms, etc. along with fairy meet-and-greets. Instead, the area kept it's "circus tent" style and became Storybook Circus, which re-uses the infrastructure of Toontown Fair but with a WHOLE lot of detail added - like the best additions, its style harkens to a particular time and place, and details are everywhere. To my knowledge, Disney really followed through with New Fantasyland and there aren't many corners that were cut. That said, I can't help but notice that it's the only thing currently being done at Walt Disney World... A shame since, inarguably, all three of the other parks are in desperate need of something, and there's not even any ground broken at any of the other parks. Looks like the resort will be coasting on New Fantasyland for a few years, at least... Sigh.

A complete climate control apparatus? An oven without fire? Plastic silverware? Wireless, in-ear telephone? Closed-circuit television phones? I'd say it's equally astounding how much of the future did come to be! EDIT: Now what DIDN'T come to pass, unfortunately, is a house with that view of Sleeping Beauty Castle! I'll keep dreaming, though.

Yes, see what the Interpreter said. Walt Disney World is infamously more budget conscious with their additions. Moreso than anywhere else, plans for Walt Disney World start out grand, and are often cut to reduce the more extravagant details. "Phase II"s tend to not happen. For years and years and years, Hollywood Studios has reportedly been toying with the idea of an indoor suspended coaster based on the finale of Monsters Inc. with the warehouse of doors. Nothing's ever come of it, while at Disney California Adventure, recent rumors suggest that the coaster and an entire Monsters Inc. land will be built. Same with Cars Land, which Disney has allegedly wanted to bring to Hollywood Studios, but one cut after another after another left the project with only the Radiator Springs Racers attraction, and without its impressive outdoor setting. Disney World has also cancelled Hyperion Wharf, Beastly Kingdom, a much-needed renovation of Epcot's Future World, and more. And like the Interpreter said, when projects from California are cloned in Florida, it's usually with much less fanfare and a severely-cut budget. See also, Indiana Jones -> Dinosaur, the two Space Mountains and their respective 21st century refurbishments, animatronics maintenance at the two Splash Mountains... In other words, if Mystic Manor came to Disney World (again, don't count on it), it would likely be a version with a much smaller budget than the Hong Kong one.

Disney World? Don't hold your breath. Meanwhile, the rally has begun to bring the ride to Disney California Adventure where fans are already dreaming that it could easily fit in the Grizzly Peak area, representing an eclectic world-traveler's High Sierra manor. This alongside heavy rumors of a New Tomorrowland in Disneyland and Monstropolis coming to California Adventure... What a difference between coasts!

For those who don't know, Hong Kong Disneyland recently underwent a massive expansion to add three new lands that are original to the park, expanding outside the usual footprint of "Magic Kingdom" style parks to add Toy Story Playland, Grizzly Gulch, and Mystic Point. Mystic Point is still in soft-opening, but its highly-anticipated new ride Mystic Manor (a sort of spiritual take-off on the Haunted Mansion) opened the other day to cast members and Imagineers. It's absolutely stunning. It uses trackless, GPS-guided vehicles that can spin, back-up, and "dance" with other vehicles, taking different routes through the house all orchestrated via satellite. It's about Lord Henry Mystic and his mischievous monkey Albert, who opens a magical music box that releases a curse into the house, bringing Lord Mystic's collection of international treasures to life. It's truly one of the most impressive rides I've ever seen - hopefully an impetus to bring Disney back to non-IP property rides.

Hows about a decorative Maypole?

For a sneak peek at Beastly Kingdom, just hop a taxi over to Universal's Islands of Adventure - a park largely designed by former Disney Imagineering staff who were fed up with Disney's cost-cutting maneuvers of the era (the cancellation of Port Disney / WestCot / Beastly Kingdom, the downsizing of California Adventure, and Tomorrowland '98)... The concept behind Beastly Kingdom's dark, medieval sub-area became the Merlinwood portion of Islands of Adventure's Lost Continent. The suspended Dragon Tower coaster evolved into Dueling Dragons, now Dragon Challenge in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

They say good ideas never die at Disney... Plenty of times now, a project that never came to be popped up elsewhere. Tokyo DisneySea, for one thing. Countless rides and attractions across their parks began in concept years or decades ago and were revived later and elsewhere.

So they (including I) said about the Cavern of Terror...

CoastersRZ, you hit the nail on the head: This DOES impact the regular guest. It just does, period. Without a specific computing system behind it and a particular percentage of seats set aside and reserved return times or virtual queueing, YES, it DOES affect the normal guest. I think their point is for it to work seamlessly and be more or less unnoticeable i.e. not having the lines merge at an unattended location causing strife for both parties and starting fights, not handing entire trains over to Fast Lane, etc. And just like you said, as much as you may cringe at the idea of it being at your "home park," the fact of the matter is, you utilize it when you've only got one day somewhere. If we could look at this WITHOUT the lens of it being a place near and dear to our hearts, we'd see the ways it makes sense more, and see the ways that it doesn't make sense more clearly. Son of Beast 2.0, I agree completely. Fast Lane is an elite service since it offers UNLIMITED rides. I would've expected that we'd see a DOWNGRADED option (one time per ride) before I would've expected that we'd see this. In other words, I thought Fast Lane would remain the premium option and that a lower-priced option would also appear. Instead, we get a premium version of a premium product - that's why this feels a little weird. But again I say, Cedar Fair is left a few steps behind competitors in terms of technology thanks to our former-CEO, so it's difficult to institute a system like Universal's where a computer can track and only allow one access. Because our system is wristbands, it's difficult to limit to one-time-per-ride.

I wondered if this would happen, only because of Gatekeeper. Despite all the assertions that the general public were somehow going to revolt and purposefully clog queue lines all day long just to be destructive, nothing bad ever happened. However, imagining Cedar Point during the middle of the summer when you will face 2, 3, 4 hour lines for Millennium, Maverick, Dragster, and probably Gatekeeper, I think people really would flock to Fast Lane and then marathon Gatekeeper. I think particularly of fans. Can't you imagine people from PointBuzz getting together and thinking, "Hey, free parking, free admission, might as well all get $50 each Fast Lanes and marathon Gatekeeper!" This is a little incentive against that. Now, I do think that the "regular" Fast Lane should include ONE front-of-the-line pass on Gatekeeper, but that's a difficult system to enforce given Cedar Fair's few-steps-behind-ness in technology where they only have the wristband to go by. Hadn't most people here decided that this was elitist and evil and wrong anyway? All that this "PLUS" feature has done is to even further remove it from most people's financial capability, thus meaning less people are using it. That is a good thing, yes? Besides, if you were in one of those Satuday in July lines for Gatekeeper and watched people with the $50 Fast Lane pass you over and over and over, you'd be miffed. Now, that won't happen.

A lot of us here thought Kings Island would make the change when Diamondback came around, but it didn't happen then, either. Weird!

At 5:55, don't miss the famous "Russian Hill" ride at "New Jersey."

I just thought this was too funny to not share. Look for badly translated references to a Kings Island ride, a New Jersey ride, and Six Flags Las Vegas.

I saw that a few days ago and was... disappointed. Who started the rumor that they were getting redesigned maps? Check out all the muddled offerings at Planet Snoopy! Looks like a lot of fun with absolutely no rides visible under the ride names! And the map does a spectacular job of showcasing the natural, evergreen, forested splendor of one of the most beautifully-located parks this side of the Mississippi! Frolicking through the not-so-verdant grey-green open fields of Virginia, I guess? In such a convoluted and organic park with crazy paths and wildly dense areas, this map is doing no favors for anyone. Meanwhile, the "Cedar Fair" design style maps did find a bit of improvement at Worlds of Fun this year, where they at last recognize and proudly display different themed areas. Here's hoping more Cedar Fair maps at least make that change. EDIT: Also, I'm not sure if this is new this year or if it happened last year, but Carowinds' map is now Cedar Fair style too, leaving Great America the last holdout, with its 2013 map already released and in CitiGraph style.

A distinctly Disney decision! I imagine my six year old cousin being absolutely in love with this.

Supposedly the old policy had been that children aged 8 and above were allowed in the park without a guardian. That, to me, is ridiculous. An eight, nine, ten-year-old alone in the park, dropped off for the day? No thank you. Not in this day and age. Even a roving gang of twelve or thirteen-year-olds can be an issue...

Hollywood's opened nearly a month in advance if I remember correctly... At least a few weeks. You just may find yourself on it! And it's an incredible ride, so you'll love it!

Send an email requesting those maps. One little spark, they say...

The date for MyMagic+ keeps getting pushed back. Your Fastpasses would be stored on an RFID bracelet. You'd just be able to see them in the app. Crazy stuff, really.

Really? I hadn't heard that about Kings Dominion. Great news, though. Of all the Cedar Fair parks with that comic-book style map, Kings Dominion's is by FAR the worst. That park is way too convoluted and concentrated with shops, attractions, and stores to have that tacky style and huge labeling. And in such a forested park to have no trees... Well, ya'll know how I feel about Cedar Fair maps and trees / three-pronged bushes.

Worse, the new map revealed JUST how long and tediously un-enchanting the walk to Festival of the Lion King really is!

Magic Kingdom Epcot Disney's Animal Kingdom Typhoon Lagoon Blizzard Beach Downtown Disney EDIT: You can explore the interactive mega-sized map either on the My Disney Experience app or at https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/maps/ with the whole website recently having been given a streamlined, app-style layout.