Weekly Theme Park Roundup

New news in the theme park world is very sparse this week, but we'll try to make do with what we have in this Thanksgiving edition of theme park round up.

Universal Orlando announced today that Mardi gras will take place on Saturday Nights and select Friday and Sunday nights from February 9th-April 18th 2015. No bands have yet to be announced for Mardi Gras, that news likely won't come until the calendar has flipped to January.

Possibly the biggest thing that was kept an eye on this week, and will be the biggest thing into the future is the rapid speed at which King Kong construction is progressing. Just two weeks ago it was nothing but rubble and now he have a building taking shape. Universal does not mess around when building new rides. Of course, this ride is still unannounced, but there hasn't been a single reliable source that hasn't said this will be a King Kong ride so it seems safe to assume. Actually, I can't recall another time in which there was a 100% consensus on what was being built before the announcement. When Transformers was being built some sources were trying to argue it was a Fast and Furious ride among others, and when Diagon Alley was being built, there was a number of different speculations as to what it could go. But with this everyone is in agreement this is a King Kong ride. What people cant agree on is when it will open. Some say Christmas 2015, some say Summer 2016. Anyway, here a couple pictures.

And this one is to get perspective as to where in the park this ride will be located

That should just about do it for this week. Happy Thanksgiving! 305 Days until HHN 25

Top 20 Nostalgia Songs

As you know, I love counting down some of my favorite things. As I was listening to some older songs today, I was thinking of which songs from my middle and early high school years make me feel the most nostalgic. I decided to think of all the songs and rank them, not necessarily in order of how much I like them, but in order of the memories they bring and how much of an impact those songs left on me and how much I remember them from that time. This was the time in my life when I was initially beginning to enjoy listening to music, buying CDs, in the magical days of portable CD players. This list is specifically songs from the five year period from 2003-2007. Here we go

20. It Ends Tonight - All American Rejects
19. The Reason - Hoobastank
18. Vertigo - U2
17. Holiday - Green Day
16. Beverly Hills - Weezer
15. Meant to Live - Switchfoot
14. American Idiot- Green Day
13. I don't Wanna Be - Gavin DeGraw
12. Over my Head - The Fray
11. Apologize - One Republic
10. Breakaway - Kelly Clarkson
9. Here Without you - 3 Doors Down
8. Clocks - Coldplay
7. Mr. Brightside - The Killers
6.  Dirty Little Secret - All American Rejects
5. She Will Be Loved - Maroon 5
4. Sugar, We're Going Down - Fall Out Boy
3. 1985 - Bowling For Soup
2. Ocean Avenue - Yellowcard
1. Boulevard of Broken Dreams - Green Day (What else?)

Weekly Theme Park Round up

Thanksgiving is coming up fast, how in the world is November more than halfway over already? heres a few tidbits of news

The good people behind Halloween Horror Nights have sent out e-mail surveys to everybody they have in their e-mail list AKA anyone who bought a frequent fear ticket this year AKA me. The survey was to get a feeling of what fans would really like to see at the event next year. Judging by the survey some of the ideas being thrown around for potential houses next year include:

American Horror Story
Nightmare on Elm Street
Alfred Hitchcock movies
Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Silence of the Lambs

And

Walking Dead for a fourth year (Please god no)

and others who are less likely or less worthy of mention

Also thrown around was the potential for the return of the festival of the dead parade, which hasnt been around since 2006, and the return of all the icons, not just Jack, which includes the Director, Caretaker, storyteller, and Usher.

My personal opinion? I see no way a parade could work its way through the super congested streets of HHN anymore, so thats more of a pipe dream than anything. I expect all the icons, not just Jack will in fact return, the question is in what capacity? will they all be together in one collaborative house (very likely), each get their own house (Very unlikely), or only be included in the scare zones? (Mildly likely.) Of all the above properties mentioned if I had to venture a guess as to which ones we see next year American Horror Story and Nightmare on Elm Street would be my top guesses. Silence of the Lambs and Hitchcock seem pretty unlikely to me and TCM is possible, but time will tell. I also unfortunately do expect the Walking Dead to return for a fourth year. It has increased attendance and revenue so much at HHN it would be a bad business decision not to bring it back, as much as I dont want it. \

Thats it for this week, 312 days until HHN 25

Weekly Theme Park Roundup

It was a pretty quiet week Post-HHN on the theme park front, with now major announcements, but a few events are on the horizon short term for this week

One week from today on November 17th, One Direction will perform live from Universal to debut their new album. Since they will be performing in Citywalk, a ticket to the park is not needed to see the performance, and it is open to the public. They are sure to draw a huge crowd and I plan on staying far away.

Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party began this past weekend reminding everyone that in this day and age there is literally no break from a holiday from September-April. Its goes straight from Halloween to Christmas to Valentines Day to Easter. The event sold out both nights of opening weekend.

After a long construction time, the new Cabana Bay Bridge finally opened at Universal this week. Guests staying at the Cabana Bay Hotel will now be able to walk to the Universal Parks rather than having to wait for a bus.

And finally, this mans account of what it is like working at Disney World has gone somewhat viral among theme park fans. Although this account is hardly breaking news and there are a ton of grammatical errors, it is still worth a read.

http://fyeahjonathanlewis.tumblr.com/post/101770982830/what-it-was-really-like-working-at-walt-disney-world

Also, a little more HHN. While a full video of this years Bill and Ted has not found the light of day, a short one minute montage of the show did make it was to YouTube. Even though its just one minute long, I feel the video does a really good job of capturing the spirit of the show

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oASD7RMg3lc

That's it for this week, 319 days until HHN 25

Weekly Theme Park roundup

Now that HHN is over, I need to find something to write about for this blog, so starting today, and every Monday through the end of July (When HHN season officially kicks back into full gear)  will just do a weekly roundup of the latest theme park news and rumors, with an emphasis on any HHN news that will pop up sporadically for the next few months.

To start, another bit of news for HHN 25 has quietly circulated among the die hards Well the news of Jack returning was huge news that not only resonated with the die-hard fans of the event, but also the casual goers, this news has flown under the radar the past couple days among the hardcore fans. That news is that the actor who played Bill in Bill and Ted will not be returning next year and he will be passing the torch onto a new actor to take his place. This is really said news for me and many others. Well the same two people have obviously not played Bill and Ted since the beginning (I believe there has been 3 separate Bills and 4 teds in 24 years) it has been the same pair since I have been going in 2010 and its brutally hard to imagine watching someone else play the part when I have connected so much with the current two actors. This is not a confirmed thing, just a circulating rumor for the time being, hopefully he will end up coming back.

The final part of the major citywalk expansion, Cowfish, finally opened to the public yesterday, to huge fanfare. This was definitely the most anticipated of all the new restaurants, but I am not as pumped for it. Its a burgers and sushi place, and since I like neither, I probably will not eat there. The inside decor looks pretty amazing though, so its worth a look anyway.

Finally, the Nascar Grille Restaurant at citywalk officially closed its doors forever Sunday. No replacement has been announced but the hot rumor is a NBC themed sports bar, which would be pretty cool.

That's all for this week. 326 days until HHN 25

Final HHN House Count

Its over. 28 night, 26 of which I attended, and its all over. I can honestly say this year will forever stand as being super special to me. I dont want to say I was falling out of love for the event the past two years, but I certainly didnt have the strong emotions toward it that I did this year. 2012s legacy will forever be remembered by me as a not very good year with a couple great houses that saved it from being a disastrous year. 2013 will be remembered as a year with 3 incredible houses and a bunch of average ones, and also for the year where the Red Sox won the world series which ate away at a lot of my usual HHN time. 2014 will always be remembered as a special year to me. I sit here at 3:00 AM, (thank god for the time change or it would be 4:00) and still cant sleep because of the emotional high and excitement of how amazing the last Bill and Ted was, mixed at the same time with depression that its actually over, and I am just not ready for it to be. Tomorrow will be tough as I will feel the need out of habit around 5:00 to get ready for HHN and instead will have to sit bored at home the whole night. There are a few reaosns for why this year will forever be rememered as special to me

1. The fact I had my liscense and a car this year, rather than having to bike or walk every night. This made me feel like I had more freedom and also driving around town at 3:00 am every night became very fun, relaxing, and therapeutic. Those 3Am car rides will now be no more.

2. Having my brother working HHN meant going to visit him at work every night, which was always a nice mid-night break to visit him for a bit.

3. The explosion of twitter and the event taking over twitter. Meeting new people and interacting with people that love the event as much as I do was a blast.

4. Halloween and Dollhouse of the Damned. Seriously two incredible houses that will forever be missed.

5. Bill and Ted: Every year I love Bill and Ted but this years show was special. It was by far the best one of the five years I attended, no contest.

Theres so much more that made this year special that I cant put into words. This year did not have the most incredible houses, aside from the top two, or scarezones, but it was just special. Thanks for the memories.

Finally, onto the final house counts. I finished this year at 180, much higher than 131 in 2012 and 141 last year. I was able to go through my beloved Dollhouse twice tonight, putting it at 35, which is a new record for me for a single house, surpassing Saws N Steams 34 in 2011. Honestly a record I thought would never be broken.

Roanoke: 21
Dollhouse: 35
Halloween: 25
Giggle and Gore: 31
Dracula Untold: 20
Alien Vs Predator: 19
Walking Dead: 12
From Dusk Till Dawn: 17

Bill and Ted 17

327 days until HHN 25. Jack is back.