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Anyone have pictures of construction of the Kong building recently?
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May 7, 2015 12:53
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They also just announced this morning that Nintendo is teaming up with Universal to bring the main Nintendo characters to the park! That should be pretty awesome.
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May 7, 2015 13:14
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mattfl posted:They also just announced this morning that Nintendo is teaming up with Universal to bring the main Nintendo characters to the park! That should be pretty awesome. They didn't say which park yet though. Could be the Japan and Singapore Universal resorts. I'd honestly be surprised if Hollywood or Orlando got these Nintendo experiences. I would be stoked though.
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May 7, 2015 17:12
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Skeezy posted:They didn't say which park yet though. Could be the Japan and Singapore Universal resorts. Oh weird, all the local orlando news stations are acting as if it's a done deal for the Orlando park.
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May 7, 2015 18:48
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mattfl posted:Oh weird, all the local orlando news stations are acting as if it's a done deal for the Orlando park. It pretty much is a done deal for Orlando. It was the Universal office in Orlando that did the initial press release. (Note I live literally a half mile from Universal) It's going to replace the KidZone area in the studios park and the adjacent unbuilt area to that. ET will be the only thing left, the rest of it is going to be completely redone to the level of Harry Potter. It could wind up being a bigger deal for the park than Harry Potter.
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May 8, 2015 00:44
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Atricks posted:It pretty much is a done deal for Orlando. It was the Universal office in Orlando that did the initial press release. (Note I live literally a half mile from Universal) It's going to replace the KidZone area in the studios park and the adjacent unbuilt area to that. ET will be the only thing left, the rest of it is going to be completely redone to the level of Harry Potter. It could wind up being a bigger deal for the park than Harry Potter. Oh poo poo for real? Every article I've read is like it could be whatever of the Universal parks. This is awesome. On another note I kinda feel like MagicBands are stupid and overly complicated. But then again I'm just not dealing with it and I see the merits but I don't get the deal with adding friends and having different trips or something.
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May 8, 2015 03:48
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Wednesday night marked my last night working in Fantasyland at Winnie the Pooh. It was emotional. In other news: I got part time in attractions, and I will be transferring to The Haunted Mansion. Excuse me while I die of happiness.
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May 8, 2015 14:23
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Aww I was in Adlib back in the day! There's a good bunch of cast members there. The mansion itself is kind of snooze worthy to run and the super obsessed fans are kind of creepy but it's a close knit family over there. Plus MNSSHP at mansion is great. Just remember friends don't let friends get jungle trained.
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May 8, 2015 14:52
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How far ahead of time do people plan trips usually? I turn 30 in December and was thinking about a trip to disney for it, but not sure if I'll have to be teaching then....
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May 8, 2015 17:11
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What time in Dec? The first half is nice and slow, low crowds, and great weather. Towards the holidays it gets crazy and I wouldn't recommend it.
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May 8, 2015 17:38
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Most people book at least 6 months out so they can make dining reservations. If you're going to go the first half of December, you can wait a bit longer. If you're going to book for the latter half, I'd book that yesterday.
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May 8, 2015 18:22
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Early Dec. So I assume I have some time. Im also not very big on food, so being able to make dining reservations matters much less to me. The only reservation I care about is diving the big tank at EPCOT
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May 8, 2015 19:23
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Braksgirl, and anyone else that might be affected by this, looks like a bunch more free dining rooms may be available. I just checked and there were more rooms available during the week I'm going, so I was able to get the discount. Also was able to get through right away. FYI I was on the Canadian offer, but it sounds like there's rooms available for the U.S. as well. They accidentally checked that first and said there was.
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May 9, 2015 19:34
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Thanks for this! I was out with my kids all day so I didn't have a chance to check today, then I saw this. Saved another client some money!
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May 10, 2015 00:36
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Is there really no Donald MagicBand? Is Donald once again given no dang respect 
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May 10, 2015 18:49
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Atricks posted:It pretty much is a done deal for Orlando. It was the Universal office in Orlando that did the initial press release. (Note I live literally a half mile from Universal) It's going to replace the KidZone area in the studios park and the adjacent unbuilt area to that. ET will be the only thing left, the rest of it is going to be completely redone to the level of Harry Potter. It could wind up being a bigger deal for the park than Harry Potter. This is disappointing only because I could easily make an entire Nintendo theme park in my head. Maybe I'll shoot them some proposals while I'm here. A Mario-themed Spidey-style ride that goes from 8-bit to Galaxy, Pikmin-themed kids area, Animal Crossing restaurant/shopping zone, and of course a Star Fox coaster complete with barrel rolls. Add in some Mario Kart Astroblasters, Harry Potter-esque metroid thing, and the third E-ticket attraction, a Legend of Zelda dark ride made by whatever genius made Revenge of the Mummy. They're really under shooting this whole thing, they could make an Islands of Adventure-sized thing solely themed off of Nintendo games. Then again, if they didn't give Potter a full world (though if the whole Ministry of Magic expansion is for real, it sounds like it's basically there), why would they give Nintendo one? (Aside from it being better than Harry Potter?) Oh yeah, I'm back in Orlando again. We (my family plus my sister's boyfriend, so five total) are at Universal for the first two days, and we leave to check in to Bay Lake tomorrow night. My first time at Universal since they redid the Spider-Man animation, and that ride looks good. As cool as all the HP stuff is, especially where theming is concerned, Spider-Man is the best attraction in the world. Maybe it's because I've probably been on it 100 times since I was ten, but it's perfect, and the inevitable transfer of Marvel's theme park rights to Disney will crush me if it means that's the end. (Also, Forbidden Journey murders my stomach in a way that no other ride does. I had to cool off for a few minutes after getting off today, and I probably would have thrown up if it had been even 30 seconds longer) I still have yet to hit Transformers or the Diagon Alley half of the HP experience, but that will come soon enough. Transformers is gonna be super dope. I'm also excited to be staying on the Monorail for the first time since our last non-DVC trip. We've stayed at the Epcot resorts so much since then that having easy access to the Kingdom will be a welcome change. It helps that Trader Sam's will be close too, because I'm in the mood for rum. Edit: Ooh, and the Kong stuff that they're building by Jurassic Park is looking super good. I feel like it's crowding Toon Lagoon even more, and I kinda wish they'd just give up on that area, considering how outdated it is compared to the other lands, which are either timeless (Seuss, though the area is really looking worse for wear, lots of boarded up stands and the rides starting to falter) or still extremely popular (Marvel, JP and Potter). If this Kong thing goes well I'd love to see them do a whole "Monster Island" thing, with Godzilla, Kong, maybe something Pacific Rim related. Godzilla water ride would be a slam dunk. Yoshifan823 fucked around with this message at 20:15 on May 10, 2015 |
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May 10, 2015 20:06
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Skeezy posted:Is there really no Donald MagicBand? Is Donald once again given no dang respect I don't think so, but you can get a Donald cover. MyFantasyBands.com has them. I order from there a lot and give them away as client gifts.
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May 11, 2015 03:44
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Skeezy posted:Is there really no Donald MagicBand? Is Donald once again given no dang respect 
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May 11, 2015 14:45
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Random, but I have an extra room at Coronado reserved. It's reserved until this Thursday and has free dining, which is currently not available for my dates. 9/17-9/25. You're not obligated to hang out with me but if anybody is looking to go with dining around that time, I'll get my agent to put it in your name instead. Let me know.
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May 11, 2015 14:56
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Well poo poo. I never saw his in the parks. Maybe he's extra popular 
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May 11, 2015 14:58
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They were released on May 1. I can try finding one for you and buy it next time I am out at the park.
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May 11, 2015 15:08
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demonR6 posted:They were released on May 1. I can try finding one for you and buy it next time I am out at the park. I'm going back up this Friday actually so I'll keep an eye out. Not really interested in getting the Donald one now just wanted to see if one existed. I'm happy with the HM one I got. E. I do appreciate it however.
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May 11, 2015 18:55
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I need another MagicBand like a need an rear end in a top hat on my elbow but GODDAMN do I want that Donald one.
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May 11, 2015 22:10
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Oh btw are Vinylmation not a thing anymore? I didn't see any in the parks.
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May 11, 2015 22:55
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They're still at Downtown, but definitely not as big as they used to be.
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May 11, 2015 23:03
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Kinda tempted to get a star wars magic band in anticipation of a trip in Dec magic bands are cool
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May 11, 2015 23:08
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TheBigBudgetSequel posted:I need another MagicBand like a need an rear end in a top hat on my elbow but GODDAMN do I want that Donald one. Seconded. The girl will go insane if she gets one of those Donald ones. If someone finds one in the parks, I'm all in to buy it. Tim Whatley fucked around with this message at 23:23 on May 11, 2015 |
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May 11, 2015 23:21
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BlueBayou posted:Kinda tempted to get a star wars magic band in anticipation of a trip in Dec I'm getting the hell out of the Jedi Donald Star Wars Weekends one.
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May 11, 2015 23:32
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Skeezy posted:I'm getting the hell out of the Jedi Donald Star Wars Weekends one. Holy gently caress. I just saw a photo of it online. I need that.
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May 11, 2015 23:44
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In case anyone wants to see them. 
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May 11, 2015 23:46
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I need one of those so bad.
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May 11, 2015 23:53
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Skeezy posted:Oh btw are Vinylmation not a thing anymore? I didn't see any in the parks. I haven't been to the gift shops at the parks in a while, but you can still purchase them at Downtown (as Bottom Liner said). Although they completely removed all the trading boxes from the parks and Downtown back in February. The no-trading thing sucks, but it is what it is. It also looks like they've really, really scaled back Vinylmation releases. For about 3 years, they were announcing new series every 1-2 weeks. Now, they're only announcing a new series every couple of months.
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May 12, 2015 17:38
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Doronin posted:I haven't been to the gift shops at the parks in a while, but you can still purchase them at Downtown (as Bottom Liner said). Although they completely removed all the trading boxes from the parks and Downtown back in February. The no-trading thing sucks, but it is what it is. That's a huge bummer. I always thought Vinylmation did really good for Disney.
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May 12, 2015 17:43
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They also removed the trading boxes they had in merchandise locations. It's still a thing, but Disney isn't pushing it like pins anymore.
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May 13, 2015 03:03
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TheBigBudgetSequel posted:They also removed the trading boxes they had in merchandise locations. It's still a thing, but Disney isn't pushing it like pins anymore. As long as Disney is a thing, there will be some collectable thing that people want all of. Pins, Vinyl figures, Magic Bands, when one starts to falter, another will take its place. That's called "Eisner's Rule of Merchandising". I thought those little stackable plush animals would be the big thing here right now, but they haven't really caught on yet I guess.
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May 13, 2015 14:45
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Tsum Tsums are definitely big. I've seen the displays empty a few times, and saw two girls all but fight over some when the employee was restocking them once. I think when the production ramps up they're going to push them hard.
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May 13, 2015 17:05
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Bottom Liner posted:Tsum Tsums are definitely big. I've seen the displays empty a few times, and saw two girls all but fight over some when the employee was restocking them once. I think when the production ramps up they're going to push them hard. Those things are loving insane. My girlfriend loves them and the closest Disney Store to me is actually an outlet in Merrimack NH, and I guess the first Tuesday of every month they get a new set. The lady working told me on the first day people come and just individually buy five entire sets of them to sell on eBay.
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May 14, 2015 00:32
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The decline of Vinylmation was more due to internal politics and bad marketing decisions than people getting sick of it. I know someone who's friends with a former designer, and apparently at the high point in 2011 and 2012, there were two different design teams, one for the Disney Stores and one for the Disney Parks, but both were basically being run by the Disney Parks team. The Store team were way more interesting artists, which drew the ire of the lead designer of the Parks team, who then proceeded to give the Store team a bunch of non-Disney themed sets like super hero animals and professional wrestlers that were all but destined to fail. No one bought them, they went on clearance, and eventually all but 2 people on the Store team were let go. All of the series that were guaranteed to be popular, like Marvel, Star Wars, Haunted Mansion, were all snatched up by the Park team, even though most felt that they were the inferior design team. That's why you get every human character looking like weird frog people. Here's the Store vs. Parks team designing the same character, Store is on the left. Way more style, personality, detail, which is at least what I want in a faux-urban vinyl collectible.  In terms of bad decisions, right at the peak of popularity, they decided to go crazy releasing series. During 2012 and 2013, there were literally new series every other week, which for the completist collectors was becoming pretty expensive. As a result of over-saturation, the shelves became flooded and a bunch of series were sent to the outlet stores to be clearanced because they didn't sell out immediately and they had to make room for even more new product. As a result, the collectible nature went downhill, because why buy something for full price when it will be 1/3 of that in 2 months? Around this time they also raised the price from $10 a box to $13 a box, which edged it out of the range of "impulse buy" for many casual collectors or people just looking for a souvenir. They stopped producing 9" figures all together, and upped the runs of Limited Edition stuff. Instead of 1000 of one figure, causing a big collector frenzy with people lining up at 6 am, they would produce 3000 instead, and it would eventually be clearanced. They accidentally killed their own collectible. I used to be super into Vinylmation, but Disney blew it so badly.
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May 14, 2015 01:21
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The Wrestler Vinylmation are loving awesome and I want them all.
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May 14, 2015 01:31
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I saw Tsum Tsums at Target yesterday. $5 a pop for tiny stuffed animals? Yeah, I'll take a pass.
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May 14, 2015 13:23
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