Once we got into the park at 10:20 our first stop (as always) was to Red Eye's Kitchen to get our refill bracelet for our 2014 Souvenir Bottles. Again, another GREAT incentive to get the bottles as you need them on hot days. 
Sadly, as guests were entering the park, there were no food places open. Employees were inside, waiting to open, but they couldn't process any transactions at the time. Again, if you are going to have guests in your park at 10:20 for early entry, and it's already 90 degrees outside, and you can't bring in your own water ... then you need to have places open to get something to drink. 

After getting our spot, we decided to ride the family raft ride (fun as always) and spend some time in the wave pool. Last time we were at the park we were VERY pleased to see cartoons playing on the big screen for the Dive In Movies as well as music in this area of the park. Yesterday, no such luck. 

Not sure if this was due to Lifeguard's being unable to hear but it was a great idea that we hope comes back. Consistency is key!! 

This was probably my favorite picture of the day, taken from under the water in the wave pool looking up at the sky. 

Next up ... this was the line for the all new Bonzai Pipelines and Black Snake Summit as of about 12:30 in the afternoon. they hold the line down here due to FlashPass ... which I have NO problem with. 

I also want to give them credit for getting one of the Black Snake Summit slides open for now as they work on their water pressure issues. 

The problem here, and it's not a new one, is that as I was watching people on the slides, the ratio of people riding the yellow slide (twisty) and the blue slide (Straight down) was about 3-1. Meaning that if you want to ride the blue slide, you must still wait in this long line and then once you get to the top they ask for people who want to ride the Blue slide. 
What is needed here is a separate line for the blue slide so that they can keep the line for that particular slide down and make sure they are getting maximum capacity. 
The same issue used to happen on Venom Drop as well. This would take little to no effort on the parks end. I'm hoping they just aren't aware of this discrepancy and it will be an easy fix. 

And lastly, a pretty glaring problem. Below is the Crow's Nest, which is the closest food/drink location to the wave pool ... the most popular part of any water park. 

This particular location has two walk-up windows and usually has 3-4 employees working inside and one specifically for drinks. What usually happens though is only 1 side is open for both food and drinks which means that even if you just want a drink or a refill, you are typically waiting 5-10 minutes as somebody waits for their food order. 
Easy fix, open the other window only for drinks. It's 95 degrees outside, refills are quick (no more than 30 seconds each transaction). As you can see from the line below (sorry for the water spot) is that most of the people in this line have a souvenir bottle and a couple have the wrist bands. But yet they have to wait in the line. 

Overall I know that this may sound like I'm being nit-picky or just trying to find something wrong. I assure you that this isn't the point of this. We love Hurricane Harbor, we go there more during the summer than Magic Mountain. It's basically our pool since we don't have one. And we ALWAYS have a great time and this visit was no exception. These are just small things I think they can do to make the park even better. 

One thing I didn't notice last time were some new table's near the Crow's Nest for people to use. Didn't look like many people were taking advantage of them (Maybe because of no shade?) but more seating is a good thing. 

What do you think? Have you visited Hurricane Harbor this year? Have you experienced any similar issues? Do you have any other suggestions that can make this fun park even better? 

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The first pictures we received from the incident courtesy of KTLA Los Angeles. 

This picture from our May update shows the ride just before it enters this area. 

Park staff and the Los Angeles Fire Department securing the ride. 

Some on-ride pictures taken from somebody who was on the train. I'm not sure where these originally came from, if these are your pictures please email us so we can give you full credit!! 

What was first reported as a branch looks more like a "Tree", courtesy of KCAL Los Angeles. 

This is a look at the Ninja wheel assembly taken a few years ago. As you can see, it's very beefy. The fact that a tree fell on the ride and it didn't fall from the track says a LOT at how these rides are made and maintained. 

Our hats are off to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, Los Angeles County Fire Department and the Six Flags Magic Mountain staff who worked quickly to insure that this incident wasn't worse. 

Ninja will obviously be closed while an investigation is held. We'll try and get up to the park in a few days for an update, but as you can imagine, the area is going to be blocked off for awhile. 

Unfortunately Ninja isn't the only ride that had to be unexpectedly shut down yesterday at the park. Sadly a teenager was thrown from the Intamin Zac Spin Coaster "Hell" at Terra Mitica in Spain and later passed away from his injuries. This is the same coaster design as Green Lantern First Flight at Magic Mountain. 
You can read the full story here: Teenager killed after being thrown from roller-coaster called Hell at Benidorm theme park

Statement from the park regarding the incident: 
We are saddened to hear of the accident in Spain. The safety of our guests and employees is our number one priority and as a precaution we have temporarily closed a similar ride for a thorough inspection

Our thoughts are with the teens family. .

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JACKSON, NJ―July 2, 2014―The press preview of Six Flags Great Adventure’s Zumanjaro: Drop of Doom has been delayed. The New Jersey Department of Community Affairs’ Carnival-Amusement Ride Safety Unit has not yet granted the operating permit. Zumanjaro: Drop of Doom is a very complex, innovative ride, and the state’s review of documentation is still underway.

All testing and inspection by Six Flags engineers, maintenance and operations teams have been completed. The ride is fully operational and in compliance with the manufacturer’s specifications.

Six Flags respects the function and responsibility of the Carnival-Amusement Ride Safety Unit of the DCA and looks forward to their completed inspection soon.

Zumanjaro: Drop of Doom stands a staggering 41 stories tall. Connected to the iconic Kingda Ka roller coaster—the 45-story monster that ranks as the world’s tallest and fastest coaster—Zumanjaro hoists riders 415 feet into the sky and plummets them back to Earth at speeds of up to 90 miles per hour.

Three soaring Zumanjaro towers stand on the face of the massive Kingda Ka coaster. The trio of gondolas rises to the top of the tower in approximately 30 seconds. Riders pause for a few terrifying moments 41 stories in the air—even higher than London’s Big Ben and twice as tall as Lady Liberty—allowing them to catch a glimpse of the skyscrapers in Philadelphia 52 miles to the southwest before gravity plunges them back to ground level in less than 10 seconds.

Zumanjaro: Drop of Doom was recently named the No. 3 most thrilling ride in the U.S. according to USA Today.

Let's get to the pictures and Chris' review media day.  

Chris: After we got your call this morning we were already there. We spent an hour or so nerding out with me talking to the production team. We were pretty much the first media people there except for a couple satellite trucks. We followed signs to the media stuff, went through security..

After we were the only people inside the gates the made an internal announcement about it being canceled.

So once they did that.. we left and just left that area and rode stuff for a few hours since we were already in the park.

Heading into the Press Preview entrance. 

A plethora of satellite trucks were on site

The rides entry area, looks like it's pretty close to that awesome coaster. 

Chris: The queue has no theming and barely any shade.

A comment from our Facebook page that probably fits pretty good here: 
"You know what would have provided a lot of shade for the queue ... Rolling Thunder"

Heading into the loading area

Chris: They legally couldn't allow anyone to ride.

Chris: Even though we couldn't ride, they were really cool with letting me take photos and videos and selphies (blah) on the ride

Picture of the selfie thanks to Bill. 

Some pictures for all you camera rigging nerds. You know who you are. =)

Doing some filming 

Caution: Intamin Nerd Porn Ahead!!! 

A look at the rest of the queue

Hopefully something will be added here

Walking back towards the park

I only got to ride Rolling Thunder once, but I think this was part of it? Forgive me if I'm wrong. (Gregg)

A few shots of the ride provided by the park as well as some great B-Roll footage.  

That's going to wrap it up for our "Media Day" coverage. If/When the park ever sets up another Media Day we'll try to be there so we can get some reverse POV and our review of the ride. 

Thanks again to Chris, Bill, Nicole and Jeff for going to the park to cover this. I'm glad that you managed to still have a great day. And thanks again to the park for doing everything they could. We really do appreciate it. 

And because we didn't get to ride Zumanjaro today, we made up for it by riding the ride pictured below. So look for more on that early next week. 

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If you have any comments, please share them below.

My family and I traveled to Orlando for a Disney vacation between May 28th and June 7th.  Although we visited all 4 Disney parks, this review is only about the Star Wars Weekend (SWW) part of the trip.  Maybe I’ll review the rest of the vacation separately! 

For those who don’t know, Hollywood Studios runs Star Wars Weekends for 4 weekends in May and June every year.  It doesn’t cost anything extra and everything else in the park operates as normal so non Star Wars fans can go to the park while these weekends are running and still have a great time.  This definitely applied to us as I haven’t yet been able to convert my wife to the Jedi ways!

We went to the park on multiple days across two weekends because different stars of the franchise show up on different weekends and I wanted to see as many as possible.  These stars take part in a parade, autograph sessions and various shows.  It’s my understanding that some of the shows occur each year, but others will vary depending on the celebrities that are there and what is going on in the franchise.  There are also additional character spots around the park where you can get photos and autographs from Star Wars characters.

But first, let’s start at the beginning - the entrance.  If you get to the park before official opening time you will get through the gates but then stopped at Hollywood Boulevard by Stormtroopers searching for rebel spies. They chat to each other and make comments about the crowd, then let everyone into the park.  It’s cute, it’s funny, but it’s by no means a must-see.  Keep walking up the Boulevard and you’ll see the Star Wars stage in front of the giant Mickey hat.  This is where multiple events occur throughout the day and where Han Solo can be seen encased in carbonite and guarded by Boba Fett at other times.

Stormtrooper guarding the entrance

Boba Fett patrols the Star Wars stage

Now you’ve seen the stage, what to do next depends on your priorities.  There aren’t really any events running at the start of the day, characters aren’t out for the first hour or so and all of the Star Wars shows are in the afternoon (with the exception of the parade), so if you show up for opening then you need something else to do.  We had the advantage of going on multiple days and so we did different things but you really want to run to Toy Story Midway Mania.  Even during SWW, this ride is still insanely busy as with all other times of the year.  Get there fast to avoid the line unless you’re going to book a fast pass for it (or maybe you already booked it online).  If you’d rather do the Rock n Roller Coaster or Tower of Terror then head that way and ride those.  

Then there’s Darth’s Maul!  This was located next to Toy Story Midway Mania and contains Star Wars clothing, toys and other merchandise for the franchise.  It gets very busy so you’ll want to get there early if you’re going to the park specifically for Star Wars.  

Darth’s Maul

You can grab something to eat or drink in Darth’s Maul at the Ackbar Snack Bar

You can even get a figurine with your likeness

It’s also the home of Jedi Mickey, Minnie (dressed as Princess Leia), Darth Goofy and Stormtrooper Donald.  2 characters will be in the character area at any one time and they rotate every 30 minutes.  We showed up to the Mall later in the day on the first day and the line for the characters was crazy.  We therefore made it the first place we went to on another day.  We got on a very short line and saw Goofy and Donald first, then looped back around and got in line again.  By the time we got to the front of the line the second time, Mickey and Minnie had taken their place.  We probably ended up spending about 40 minutes standing in line and had then seen all 4 characters and could get on with the rest of our day.

Darth Goofy and Stormtrooper Donald

Jedi Mickey and Princess Minnie

On one day we did a Star Wars “Galactic breakfast” at the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater.  This was actually a low point of our time at the park.  They were running behind schedule, so we had to wait outside a long time.  We were then rushed through the entrance where you meet Darth Vader and Boba Fett.  We got a quick photo with them but neither of them signs autographs; they hand you a piece of paper with their autographs on that doesn’t fit into autograph book we bought.  The characters in the restaurant are jawas, stormtroopers and Greedo.  They aren’t bad but it’s not as good as any of the other character breakfasts we have done.  The food is way worse though.  
In fairness, it’s the first time they’ve done this breakfast at Hollywood Studios, but that didn’t really make us feel any better at the time!  At $50 per person, we felt the money would have been better spent elsewhere.

Jack in a stare off with Greedo…Jack won!

The first big Star Wars event of the day is the parade.  This starts at 11:30, but to get a good position you need to get in place early.  The parade route starts at the park entrance and moves toward the Star Wars stage.  It includes stormtroopers, imperial officers and rebel fighters as well as characters such as Chewbacca, R2-D2 and Darth Vader.  It then ends with the celebrities riding on the back of cars.  This is key: the star power of the celebrities determines how early you need to get in position for the parade.  The first weekend we were there, the celebrities included James Arnold Taylor (voice of Obi-Wan in The Clone Wars), Ashley Eckstein (voice of Ahsoka Tano in The Clone Wars) and Ray Park (Darth Maul).  

The parade route started getting busy at 11am.  The following weekend included Billy Dee Williams (Lando Calrissian) and Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker) who was also making his first ever appearance at SWW.  It was so much busier.  We noticed people sitting down on the parade route when we walked into the park at 8am!  By 10:30 it was getting busy, so that’s when I got into position while my wife and son went elsewhere in the park.  Waiting in place for an hour was worth it for how close I got and the photos I was able to take.

Ashley Eckstein

It’s not Jason Sudeikis, it’s Ray Park

James Arnold Taylor

Billy Dee Williams

Mark Hamill 
(Just judging by this picture, it's obvious Luke Skywalker got the biggest reaction out of the crowd - Gregg)

The shows are also fantastic.  They take place in the Premier Theater, located in the Streets of America area of the park and seating is limited to fast passes only.  They get booked quickly but we were able to reserve them online in advance.  I saw 2 shows on one weekend and another the following weekend.  “Behind the Force” gave a sneak peak of the new Star Wars: Rebels show that begins on Disney XD later this year.  Ashley Eckstein interviewed Taylor Gray who is the voice of Ezra Bridger in the new show.  Several exclusive clips of the show were shown.  “Obi-Wan & Beyond” is hosted by James Arnold Taylor.  

He tells the story of how he became a voice actor and the work he does for movies, TV shows, video games, commercials and voicing Hollywood stars that aren’t available for projects.  At one stage he moves through 200 different voices.  Perfectly.  It was absolutely incredible to watch (or should I say listen to) and I’d recommend anyone see it, not just Star Wars fans.  Finally, “Stars of the Saga” sees James Arnold Taylor interview stars of the movies.  I saw him interview Ray Park and Billy Dee Williams on my second weekend there.  Before the show actually started there was a comedy bit by 4 stormtroopers (that included them singing a small part of “Let It Go”) and then the show begins and the stars are interviewed for about 15 minutes each.   

Ashley Eckstein interviews Taylor Gray for Star Wars: Rebels

James Arnold Taylor proving that you really can read anything in the voice of Ian McKellen and have it sound awesome.  These were instructions for a setting up a stereo.

Stormtroopers having fun before Stars of the Saga

Ray Park discussing his acting career in Stars of the Saga

Billy Dee Williams sharing a joke in Stars of the Saga

As well as taking part in the shows, the celebrities are available for photos and autographs at certain points of the day.  They may do 1, 2 or 3 sessions but all require a special fastpass that you can get at the entrance to the park.  The problem is that these are very exclusive and the die-hard fans get to the park very early to wait in line for them.  I spoke to someone who comes to SWW every year.  For the big stars (such as Billy Dee Williams) he has to get in line at midnight.  Other stars like James Arnold Taylor (who has been there every year for the past 5 years) have lines that start around 6am.  I didn’t get to the park that early on any day and therefore I didn’t get any celebrity autographs.  We were able to get various character photos/autographs though.  My wife actually got some of them while I did the shows, but the best was probably Chewbacca.  It was towards the end of the day and the line to see him had actually closed.  I played the cute baby card to try to get in line and was backed up by my 1 year old son flirting with the castmembers.  We got in the line and got the photo!

Each day ends with fireworks set to Star Wars music.  In my opinion they are the best fireworks at any of the parks.

Thanks so much to Scott for sharing his adventure with us!!! Please let Scott know how much we appreciated this and maybe he'll share more WDW pictures with us!!!

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On Wednesday, August 6, at 7 PM, Knott's Berry Farm Season Passholders are invited to an exclusive preview of this year's Knott's Scary Farm line-up. The spectacular surprise-filled unveiling will take place in the Charles M. Schulz Theatre and is one of the most popular Passholder events of the year

Important instructions: On Wednesday, August 6, beginning at 8:00 AM, until wristbands run out, show your valid 2014 Knott's Berry Farm Season Pass at the North side of the Main Gate near the Group Sales window to receive a wristband. Wristbands will be distributed on a first come, first served basis. One non-transferable wristband per 2014 Knott's Berry Farm Passholder. Passholder must be present to receive wristband. Not recommended for guests under 13 years old.

Whatever you're imagining... it's here.

BUENA PARK, Calif. (June, 2014) – Knott’s Scary Farm, the largest, most haunted experience in Southern California, returns for 24 horrifying nights September 25 – November 1 and features the return of Elvira, the legendary Mistress of the Dark, endless horrifying mazes, and a thousand monsters lurking in the fog.  

Event dates are: September 25, 26, 27, October 2, 3, 4, 5, 9, 10, 11, 12, 16, 17, 18, 19, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 29, 30, 31 & Nov. 1.  Knott’s Scary Farm is open from 7pm until 1am Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays, and until 2am Fridays and Saturdays.  Killer deals will be available later this summer when tickets go on-sale.

Back by overwhelming demand, Elvira, the legendary Mistress of the Dark, will headline the 1,800 seat Ghoul Time Theater twice nightly through the entire run of Scary Farm.  Elvira’s all-new show will feature her signature blend of comedy and sass, along with singing, dancing, and explosive special effects!

Elvira’s reign as the “Queen of Halloween” began in 1981 when she became the hostess of the local Southern California television show “Movie Macabre,” and went on to become the most widely recognized horror host in history.  In 1982 she became the Knott’s Scary Farm headliner, following in the footsteps of Sinister Seymour and Wolfman Jack.  Elvira again returned to Knott’s Scary Farm in 2013 to overwhelming demand for her smash show, Elvira’s Sinema Séance.

Also returning in 2014 are the terrifying secrets behind the locked doors in Skeleton Key Rooms.  First introduced in 2013, Fright Lane with Skeleton Key offers front-of-line access to all mazes and unlocks unnerving terrors in exclusive scenes in select mazes.  This year, Knott’s Scary Farm Skeleton Key rooms will be entirely new and more frighteningly interactive than ever.  Also new this year is the collectible keychain that commemorates your harrowing journey through the Skeleton Key rooms (while supplies last).  Fright Lane with Skeleton Key will go on sale with Knott’s Scary Farm tickets later this summer, and join the conversation using #ScaryFarm.

For more hair-raising information on the 2014 Knott’s Scary Farm terrifying event visit the website or stay tuned to the Knott’s Scary Farm Facebook page.

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