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Another cool new-ish thing at Disney's Animal Kingdom is Winged Encounters, a brief show by the Tree of Life. 

Tarzan is back meeting guests at the Discovery Island Trail at Disney's Animal Kingdom. 

It's still great that DiVine is out meeting guests at Disney's Animal Kingdom. Such a unique hidden gem at the park. 

Thanks again to Renée for bearing the heat to bring us the latest from Disney's Animal Kingdom. I know a lot of people were against Starbucks in the park, but each one that has been added has been tremendously unique and fitting to the park it's in. And the cardboard straws at DAK are awesome. Wish more parks and Zoo's would do that. 

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Before we get to the Wizarding World Stuff, we want to send out a HUGE congrats to Universal Pictures and everybody involved with Jurassic World. We all really enjoyed the movie for what it was, a fun summer popcorn movie. It had great nods to the original that had us all smiling and the action and dino's were great. If you haven't seen it, you should go out and give Universal more $$ now. =)

It will be interesting to see what, if anything is announced as far as Jurassic World expansions in the coming months/years. I'm sure they all knew it would be a hit, but I'm not sure anybody saw it being THIS big (so far at least). 

With that said, let's head over to Wizarding World, starting off with our traditional opening shot of the Hogsmeade entry arch. 

So much detail

Hogwarts, looking great

Greenhouse 

What's that lurking through the trees? 

Flight of the Hippogriff track is going up!!! 

You can actually see the entire area MUCH better from the other side (where we entered for our Fast and Furious tour) but of course we were asked not to take pictures there, and we of course did not. 

There are actually a few other things going on around the rest of the park such as the new retail/dining location where House of Horrors used to be. It's going up very quickly. 

Believe it or not, construction is already taking place for Halloween Horror Nights!!! 

The Metro Sets were totally closed off as they were filming something. 

And finally, a jeep from Jurassic World has been added to the Universal Cars display. 

Ok, that's going to wrap it up for this update. We'll be at the park next week for the red carpet premiere of Fast and Furious: Supercharged so we'll have more updates then. 

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White, who is Co-Chairman, Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association (GLAZA), opened the brief program previewing the 45th Annual Beastly Ball on June 20, which honors Los Angeles City Council Member Tom LaBonge (District 4), 99 Cents Only Stores, and singer, dancer, actor, film and television producer, author and philanthropist Lance Bass of pop band 'NSYNC fame, who receives the Tom Mankiewicz Leadership Award. 

Also speaking were GLAZA President Connie Morgan, GLAZA Co-Chairman Richard Lichtenstein, Los Angeles Zoo Director John Lewis, Tom LaBonge, Beastly Ball honoree and Los Angeles City Councilmember, 4th District, and Mike Botterman, VP Merchandising and Buying, representing 99 Cents Only Stores, Beastly Ball honoree. Actress, animal rescue advocate and long-time GLAZA supporter Carolyn Hennesy introduced the restaurants, which were El Cholo– Los Angeles, Hard Rock Café (Hollywood), Pink's Famous Hot Dogs (LA), El Coyote Mexican Café (LA), Yummy Cupcakes (Burbank),Celestino Ristorante (Pasadena), Canele (Glendale), Jersey Mike's (Pasadena, South Pasadena and La Canada), Antonio's Pizzeria & Italian Restaurant (Sherman Oaks), Malbec Argentinean Cuisine (Toluca Lake), Ushuaia Argentinean Steakhouse (Santa Monica), Taste of the Wild Catering at the Los Angeles Zoo and Sam's By the Beach (Santa Monica).  

These same restaurants donate their cuisine for guests at the Beastly Ball, which is the main fund-raiser held by GLAZA, a private, non-profit organization that raises money for the Los Angeles Zoo and Botanical Gardens. 

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We arrived at the park around 11:30 ready to check-in for the event

After a quick ride on Ghostrider and the all new Iron Reef thanks to our Fast Lane, it was time for the ice show. 

Blockbuster Beagle!!! 

The Ice Show is always a welcome break from the summer heat. 

We decided to take a front row seat over to the side, which turned out to be a good decision as lots of action takes place on stage left. 

The dancers and skaters are, as always top notch. 

The story shouldn't be surprising based on the name, it's really a tribute to Hollywood using the Peanuts characters with a great mix of music and fun. 

All of the lead skaters get a chance to shine, sometimes multiple chances, which means the show runs about 35-40 minutes. Not sure if they'll cut some segments as the run goes on to give people a day off, but it wouldn't be the worst thing to cut it down by 5 minutes or so. 

That said, the talent on display is tremendous and as always, the show is a lot of fun. 

After the show it was time to head over to one of the picnic area's for a great lunch provided by the park. If you've never had one of Knott's picnic area buffet's, you are totally missing out. 

Then it was back into the park to put our Fast Lane to use. The longest wait we had all day was probably GhostRider at about 10 minutes but only because we waited for the front row. 

From about 3:00 to 5:30 we rode the following rides with minimal wait. This also included doing some shopping and refilling our souvenir bottle with boysenberry punch a few times. =)

Overall we had an amazing day at the park, we missed a few of the shows we wanted to see due to just having fun so we'll have to be sure to head back soon to check them out. 

But if you are planning on going to the park on a weekend during the summer, you can't go wrong with the Fast Lane. It really does make you able to enjoy all the great stuff at Knott's with no stress. 

Be sure to get to Knott's this summer for the extended hours, new shows and apparently there are some new nighttime effects on Montezooma's Revenge. Unfortunately we didn't hear about them until we left the park for the day. But we definitely want to check that out. 

The park will also most likely be doing their 4th of July event this year, so we'll certainly share that information with you when the park sends it to us. 

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The first change we saw was one of the Fast and Furious Cars outside of Wisteria Lane and then a report to park security and eventually featuring The Rock. 

As we got closer to the show building the pre-show continued, basically the plot line is that Vin Diesels character is loose on the lot, and then because apparently in the last movie he was a good guy The Rock comes in to explain things. 

The outside of the show building. 

Once inside, the first pre-show building is in a garage setting. 

This pre-show features some stars from the movie series and more explanation of the events going on and how we're now involved. 

Unfortunately we were unable to take any additional pictures or videos in the attraction but below we'll give you a run-down of the attraction as well as my review: (Does contain some minor spoilers)

Once past the garage pre-show you enter another pre-show that is at a post street race after-party. I've gotta be honest, this is the first part that made me scratch my head a bit, as the scene is filled with scantily clad women that you'd see at a street race after-party. 

While I personally have no problem with this, being that Universal Studios is a family theme park I can see quite a few comments coming into guest relations regarding this particular scene. 

Beyond that, this scene is basically the rest of the cast explaining to the FBI that Vin Diesel's character is on their side and The Rock in a "my gun is bigger than your gun" scene. 

Once that is done we go into the actual attraction: 

Ok, so let's cut right to the chase on this one. Despite advertisements telling you this is a Ride, it's not. While sure, it's technically considered a ride and they are more than able to advertise it as such, this is a tram experience like King Kong. Although I will say that Kong has a bit more motion than the overall experience here. 

That said, I do think they've managed to pull off the sensation of driving fast through the effects on the ride, so that's a good thing. 

Unfortunately the people who decided to call this a "ride" aren't going to be the ones who are hearing the complaints about this being a ride. Had the experience been advertised properly as a "Tram Experience" I don't think there'd be any issue. 

I'll be honest, I've only seen the first two Fast and Furious movies, so I'm guessing as far as the "Story" is concerned being familiar with recent developments in the franchise would help. And yes, I put story in quotations for a reason, as there's not really one that makes a whole lot of sense and it's kind of shoehorned into the tram experience. 

But the experience is fun. Lots of fast cars, explosions, the 3D effects aren't over the top and I personally didn't notice anything being "in your face" like many 3D attractions do, which is fine. Kong doesn't have that either and it works. 

Apparently they've toned down the water effects which are absolutely not needed on this experience but instead use a mist to simulate tires creating smoke.

This experience is definitely "360" as there is a screen at the front of the tram as well, which does help the effect of driving. 

The animation if I'm being honest looked a bit blurry to me, it was hard to see details in the characters faces, but the actors are secondary to the cars and the action they are doing. And that animation aspect is well done. 

Overall I think this is a fun addition to the tram, it's certainly better than The Mummy or the nothing that's been there awhile. While personally I think this particular location would have been better served for Theme Park expansion (Diagon Alley anybody) it is still fun and if people go in with the right expectations they will have a good time. 

They are still tweaking the experience so it will be interesting to see what changes are made prior to the official opening on the 25th. Technical Rehearsals have already begun and Season Passholder previews begin today so it will be interesting to start hearing reviews from the General Public and if they see it differently than I do. 

Thanks for reading, we'll be back a little later this week with a full park update and we'll be back at the park next week for the red carpet event. 

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