Sorry about the one-week hiatus- I just had to get some schoolwork done, still being a senior in high school and not just yet in college. Big announcement as we move the forums to forum-notion.com. Our forum is called “The Mobile Theme Park Talkcase (http://mtpt.forum-motion.com/index.htm) or MTPT”! On this forum, you can discuss with theme park fans all over the world about every piece of theme park news but also any discussion involving the parks. Besides news, you could talk about absolutely ANYTHING you would like to as long as it has to do with what topic it is in. As of right now, we just have topics for all the Disney and Universal parks, but there are more parks and resorts to be added. Anyone can feel free to join and discuss!
A Look at IOA’s Wizarding World of Harry Potter
January 30, 2010As most of us now know, Universal’s Island’s of Adventure in Orlando, FL is getting a brand new whimsical land for this Spring, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. This land will include replicas of Hogsmeade Village, the Forbiden Forest, and Hogwarts from the movies, and will include attractions based off the hit Harry Potter movies and books by JK. Rowling. This was announced in 2007 and from 2009 on, more information about the land has been uncovered. Universal took part of their Lost Continent Land (including Dueling Dragons and the Enchanted Oak Restaurant) to build this land in 2008. Construction was completed last month with their new tall Hogwarts castle standing proudly and their snow-covered Hogsmeade Village visible.
In Case You have not known, the attractions for this land are:
- Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey- the park’s signature attraction in the Hogwarts Castle- this is a dark ride using the new “robo-arm” technology
- Dragon Challenge- a retheme of the Lost Continent’s Dueling Dragon’s coaster based off the famous Tri-Wizard Tournament scene in the “Goblet of Fire” movie
- Flight of the Hippogriff- a new junior coaster that replaced the Lost Continent’s, “Flying Unicorn” attraction
- Ollivander’s- an attraction in the Hogsmeade Village with an interactive experience where the “wand chooses the wizard”
video- there is a computer Hedwig “fly-through” of the land’s concept art and all the actors from the movies discuss the Wizarding World of Harry Potter
video- details and concept art about the Wizarding World of Harry Potter
Videos Copyright Universal and Attractions Magazine
Source for Info: Wikipedia- the Wizarding World of Harry Potter
Update on Universal Studios Singapore and Universal Studios Korea
January 26, 2010As Universal Studios Singapore nears its opening date, there are now several videos of the finished park on the Disney and More Blog. According to Disney and More, the park’s grand opening will possible be as soon as February 3rd (far ahead from the Spring expected date)! The soft opening might be January 28th for “families” of the construction workers who worked very hard for about 2 to 3 years to build this massive park! Disney and more says that the park should be open “before the Chinese New Year on February 14th”. The videos posted on the Disney and More blog include construction videos of the park’s areas, various ride testings, and a testing of the Jurassic Park River Rapids adventure. Before we post our themed banner for the park’s opening, we have to find out the park’s confirmed opening date.
Besides the hype about this massive park opening in about a week to three weeks from now, they recently announced that Universal Studios Korea will most likely be open by 2014. Disney and More blog has a basic map on there site for the upcoming Korea Park.
Legoland Florida to open 2011
January 23, 2010Screamscape brought out news yesterday that Legoland confirmed a Florida theme park for late 2011. Recently, Legoland bought out the bankrupt Cypress Gardens, one of the many theme parks struggling during this recession. Good news is that Legoland confirmed that they would keep the Cypress Gardens’ old Starliner wooden coaster and Water Ski Show in the park. As Screamscape points out, it is a fortunate thing that Legoland bought out Cypress Gardens or else they would have had to start from scratch, build the park for five years, and spend more to build this Legoland Florida park.
Johnny Depp Interview about playing the Mad Hatter in "Alice in Wonderland"
January 23, 2010Disney just released a new promotional video for the upcoming “Alice in Wonderland” (coming to theaters March 5th) of a short interview with Johnny Depp about his role as the new crazy Mad Hatter. Depp talks about how he liked playing the Mad Hatter and how he felt the Mad Hatter was the perfect role for him. Depp said that the Mad Hatter was a “dream come true” and that he played his character like a “mood ring”. You can watch the video on IMDB- the link to it is http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi3569878041/.
Rumors for Disneyland Park and Attraction Opinions
January 22, 2010The Disney and more blog had something interesting to write about… the future of Disneyland Paris. You can check that out to see what rumors are out for Disneyland Paris- a Ratatouille dark ride, Toy Story Mania!, Star Tours 2, World of Color, and Soarin’.
Here are some of my ideas for Disneyland attraction possibilities (more will be added to this list eventually):
- Mission: SPACE- this motion-simulator attraction is very popular at Epcot and you can easily feel the gravitational effects of launching on a rocket into space- guests control the ship by controlling the steering wheel or pressing buttons as an interactive experience, learning about what astronauts do to control a spaceship
- DINOSAUR- this Indiana-Jones like thrill ride at Animal Kingdom is the experience where you feel you go back in time to the Dinosaurs and experience asteroids- the effects and animatronics all make you feel like you are actually in the disaster of a Dinosaur habitat, rather than a “Small World” or “Snow White” feeling of being in a stage- this was rumored to replace Honey, I Shrunk the Audience and possibly Starcade back when the New 1998 Tomorrowland opened and Disney realized that this was really a failure
- some Wall-E or UP dark ride- the Pixar movies “Wall-E” and “UP” were all mostly critically praised and were hugely successful in the box office that so many people might want to see a new ride based off one of these Pixar films that could be well-suited for Tomorrowland
- Mickey’s Philharmagic- this building could also be part of Fantasyland, knowing that it’s also nearby “it’s a small world”, Toontown, and the Princess Fantasy Faire- this is the one Disney Parks 3-D movie that Disneyland is missing, but is a hit attraction at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom- this film is highly technologically advanced with the screen becoming wider during the show, eye-popping 3-D effects, with a “scent” of cherry thrown at you, and some water sprayed at you- in this film, you go through Donald’s journey to find Mickey while going into other Disney movies such as Peter Pan, the Lion King, Alladin, Beauty and the Beast, and the Little Mermaid
- Maelstrom- this is a popular attraction at Epcot’s Norway Pavilion in the World Showcase- you go on a flume journey through Norway’s mythical past- at one point, trolls scare you, causing you to go backwards, and you go on a backwards drop into Norway’s cold areas with fierce Polar Bears- this could be a part of Fantasyland as well
Disney’s Upcoming Hawaiian Hotel Gets A New Name
January 20, 2010Disney is building a massive Disney Vacation Club hotel/resort in Hawaii in the Ko’Olina District of Oahu that will open Fall 2011. They have just renamed this property the “Aulani Resort and Spa” and have just launched the official website for it. They announced this around Winter or Spring 2008 and started construction that summer. It will offer a typical Hawaiian hotel experience with snorkeling, sitting on one of Hawaii’s beautiful beaches, and swimming in the ocean, but will also have very unusual features as well. One of these features is a unique pool area with a lazy river raft ride, large pools, a river, waterslides a lagoon, and a river that winds throughout the hotel. This hotel will also have fish ponds, tide pools, a water playground for younger kids, and supposedly “mehuenes (Hawaiian mythical elf-like creatures) hidden around the hotel”.
A Look at Disney’s "NextGen" project
January 19, 2010We have recently found out news that Disney is quietly spending $1-1.5 billion on their new “NexGen” project for the Disney Parks and Resorts, meaning “next generation” to give theme park guests a “21st century experience” throughout the parks. Nobody actually knows what this project will be, but former Disney executives and bloggers believe that Disney will use this for many wireless communication systems including keyless hotel room doors to rides in which the experience will vary based on the guest. Supposedly Disney is spending the same amount of money used for this project to make their new pair of Disney-Cruise ships, the Disney Dream and Disney Fantasy ships (to open 2011 and 2012 respectively). I wonder if they will use the current theme park attractions to install these “NextGen”additions or if they will use this in new attractions.
Disney Movies coming this year
January 17, 2010

Disney Galaxy Blog
January 17, 2010Yes, I know that this site has introduced many new blogs that we have stopped doing, but this blog is not just temporary, it’s official! This is our new Disney Galaxy Blog, which is a blogger blog for Disney fans and includes theme parks, theme park construction updates, theme park announcements, and the corporation behind the theme parks. There will also be Disney movie and entertainment news including that of the movies- Pixar, Disney Digital 3-D movies, and other live action and animated movies from Disney. We may include some news about the Disney Channel and Radio Disney, but we figured, most people may not want to hear so much about that but more about the Disney movies and parks. There is a link in our navbar to the new site.
Also, if you were wondering how I made the logo for this site, it was not simply hand-drawing or generating it through a website. I actually made it using Flash- I found a couple of galactic images on the web (for the site’s Tomorrowland and Epcot related theme- the logo letters are from the Mission: SPACE font) and I put them together, formed a Mickey out of them, typed using my “Mission: SPACE” themed font, and customized it in various ways.
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