this new Hogwarts castle that will be the center of the Wizarding World- image copyright blogs.orlandosentinel.com

Screamscape confirmed that on March 25, big news will be revealed about Universal Studios’ Island’s of Adventure’s Wizarding World of Harry Potter.  On March 25, the opening date for the Potter-Verse will be confirmed and more details will be revealed about the dark ride in the Hogwarts Castle, Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey.

Besides my life, here is our first update to our new “Golden Progress” for the $1 billion dollar construction project for Disney’s California Adventure.  Unfortunately, I haven’t gone to DCA recently so I don’t have any good pictures to show you.  However, many sites, including DisneyGeek have shown pictures of significant progress to the construction.  Here are the updates:

Golden Progress Logo- Copyright MTPN

Paradise Pier:

• World of Color- Construction was completed last month and now they are testing it nightly for its late April opening.  If you are there at night, you may see huge fountain screens rising out of the lagoon, although they usually test it after the park’s closing.  Yep, that’s the World of Color testing.  They have also played around to test the colored lights, other water jets, and fire effects that will be open to the public next month.
• Paradise Park- This is where a 9,000 person standing area for World of Color viewing will be.  In the center will be fountains where people, especially younger ones, can run through and play in them.  For the last two months, it still looked like a messy construction site with trucks and cement just being spread out.  It was supposed to open in February and then got delayed.  Now, the cement spreading is complete and the dirt areas are filled with greenery including hedges, flowers, and small trees, like an old Victorian standing area.
• Mickey’s Silly Swings- This is the replacement for the former Orange Stinger.  This is a re-theme to it with a new theme based on the 1935 Disney short, “Mickey and the Band.”  It is now covered with murals on the body, on the top, it is decorated to look like an old zoetrope of Mickey from those cartoons with a statue of Mickey on top of the ride.  This will open next month, around the same time as the World of Color show.
• The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Adventure- This is the upcoming and premier Little Mermaid Dark ride that will take place in the former “Golden Dreams” building, with the Palace of Fine Arts structure to become part of the ride’s queue, and some of the former car themed Paradise Pier shops by Mulholland Madness.  Construction is progressing a little more slowly for this attraction than others, but it is surely making progress.  They are laying cement, digging holes in the ground to incorporate basement ride scenes, and the framework of the ride’s building is starting to come up.
• Goofy’s Sky School- This will be the new retheme for the wild mouse coaster, “Mulholland Madness.”  Construction has not started yet like it was supposed to in around January or February, in preparation for its September opening date, but I guess opening will be pushed back to December or so.

Carsland

• Radiator Springs Racers- The biggest part of this new expansion, Carsland and its main thrill ride, Radiator Springs Racers, that will open behind the Tower of Terror and a Bug’s Land.  Here is the moment you have all been waiting for- the track for the first bunny hill and sharp turn of the ride has been layed out!  There is also visible progress of the ride’s canyon structure, just like the Radiator Springs from the 2006 Pixar movie, “Cars,” that this new land will be based on.

Hollywood Pictures Backlot/Buena Vista Street

• Red Car Trolleys- The red car trolleys will take people through the Hollywood Pictures backlot from the rethemed park’s entrance (to become Buena Vista Street, a 1920’s LA when Walt Disney first arrived) all the way to the Tower of Terror attraction.  Since the beginning of the year, the “street” of Hollywood Boulevard has been closed off from the land’s entrance to the Tower of Terror plaza.  Because of that, they have opened up a path that connects the Tower of Terror Plaza to a Bug’s Land, so that guests would not crowd the sidewalk as easily if they wanted to get to Tower of Terror from the land’s entrance.

Get an account on myMTPN!

Universal Studios Singapore "Mummy" Construction- image copyright 4.bp.blogspot.com

Breaking news! The latest Universal Studios park in Universal officially confirmed its soft opening date! Screamscape confirmed that on March 18th at 8:28 am (I don’t know why they set an exact time- it may have just been some lucky number or what not).  In earlier posts, we said that some rides would not be complete until the park’s grand opening including the new (premier) Madagascar dark ride that will be in the park’s “Madagascar” area.

In an earlier post from Theme Park Insider, the site’s author took a tour of the park.  He said that all of the park’s themed “zones” were “richly detailed” and “that there is no pretense of being in a movie studio in this park” unlike many other parks, which points in the positive direction of critical response.

Tron Legacy Movie Poster- image src: therealmtoys.com

Blue Sky Disney tells us that Disney has something interesting being talked about for Disneyland’s Tomorrowland.  Rumor has it that there could be some small Tron overlay of Starcade, or as a rumor mentioned in the past, the return of the extinct PeopleMover attraction with a new Tron theme.  This December, the new “Tron Legacy” movie will come out as a sequel to the 1982 movie, “Tron,” which could possibly create a new trilogy like the Star Wars franchise.  In the early 80’s, Disney originally wanted this movie to be like Star Wars but it ended up being a huge disaster.  Anyway, don’t expect some Tron attraction in Tomorrowland until they officially announce it and once they do, expect it to be open by 2012 at the earliest.

Update 3/5:

Screamscape again reported that this rumored attraction, which is still a “Blue Sky” concept (term for a rumored attraction in planning) could be a Tron Lightcycle themed version of the Vekoma company’s “booster bike” coaster.  If this happens, it would most likely be in Tomorrowland, possibly replacing the PeopleMover/Rocket Rods track.

shamu show at seaworld orlando- image src:farm3.static.flickr.com

Around 2pm Wednesday afternoon, Dawn Brancheau, 40, a veteran animal trainer at SeaWorld Orlando was killed by Tilikum, one of the killer whales at the whale show, Shamu’s Stadium.  The Orlando Sentinel said that the 12,000 pound whale grabbed Brancheau by her upper arm, threw her into his mouth, and dragged her beneath the show’s water.  Soon after, the alarm sounded and security came to export tourists out.  Many guests watched this in horror seeing Brancheau’s body in the whale’s jaws and then her bloody face underwater- children were crying and parents looked in horror.  Some of the spectators noticed that some of the animals were fighting and playing around 12:30 pm and would not follow obeys by the trainer.

Brancheau, who has worked at SeaWorld for over 15 years, had a dream to one day become a whale trainer ever since she went to SeaWorld with her family around 30 years ago.  The staff at SeaWorld loved her and in response to this fatal incident, her supervisor, Chuck Tompkins said, “She loved what she did, and she loved being with the animal. And she understood the risk.”

This is not the first life claimed by the whale, Tilikum.  He was one of the three killer whales blamed for the death of another trainer back in 1991, and in 1999, there was another body of a naked man found lying on Tilikum’s back.  Because of this incident, the Shamu shows in Orlando and San Diego had been cancelled for the day.

Src: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/tourism/os-seaworld-orlando-shamu-injury-20100224,0,6076530.story