I had a chance to motor west last week and made it over to Disneyland for a behind-the-construction-walls preview of Cars Land, one of the final -- and most anticipated -- pieces of the five-year, $1.1-billion expansion of Disney California Adventure. Until I ventured behind the wall, I had only seen the huge Ornament Valley mountain range during its early construction and in Disney-provided photos and videos. I have to admit that despite all of the hype, this sometimes-jaded journalist was nonetheless wowed by the sheer scale and majesty of the nearly done land. (It opens on June 15, along with the grand reopening of the entire refreshed park.) Read more in my Cars Land preview as well as my revised Disney California Adventure expansion overview.
Photo: Disney 2012. Used with permission.
It's the most wonderful time of the year -- for park fans anyhoo. Nearly every park is now open for the season (at least on weekends), new rides are debuting, and all is once again well with the world. In celebration of the exciting 2012 season, I joined Mike Collins and E.B. on their CoasterRadio.com podcast to deconstruct many of the latest, greatest coasters and attractions rolling out at parks, including Skyrush at Hersheypark, X-Flight at Six Flags Great America, and the reconfigured Spider-Man ride at Islands of Adventure.
Fresh off their appearance on "How I Met Your Mother," featuring their close, personal friend and CoasterRadio.com announcer Neil Patrick Harris, I guess my guest slot on Mike and E.B.'s podcast grants me one degree of separation with NPH. Wow! Listen to the 2012 season preview episode of CoasterRadio.com. If you want to delve into more details about the latest park goodies, click over to my Ride Guide 2012.
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Photo: Six Flags, 2011. Used with permission.
Roller coasters, which pretty much used to simply get pulled up lift hills and careen around tracks as gravity took over, continue to evolve. Newfangled elements, effects, and features are helping to create hybrid rides that defy categorization. Case in point: Verbolten, the new coaster at Busch Gardens Williamsburg in Virginia. It will incorporate a magnetic launch system and some impressive-sounding technology to help tell a story -- actually multiple stories, a world's-first for a coaster -- as it delivers its thrills. Read more about Verbolten.
Photo: Busch Gardens. Used with permission.
Scheduled to open on May 31, Disney's Art of Animation Resort, the 25th (!) on-property hotel at Disney World, is delightful. During a recent visit to Mickey's Florida empire, I got to take a preview tour, and I was enchanted. The resort is brimming with color, whimsy, and charm, and its theme -- an ode to animation -- is engaging and something that Disney can rightfully claim as its legacy.
Like Disney World's other Value Resorts, the Art of Animation features oversized iconography throughout the courtyards of its three-story hotel buildings. Unlike its sister properties, such as the adjacent Pop Century, which offers discordant, vaguely scary statues of giant yo-yos, Rubik's cubes, and other remnants of bygone eras (and makes me feel like an extra on the set of The Incredible Shrinking Theme Park Guest), the larger-than-life figures of classic animated characters at the new hotel, such as Nemo and Doc Hudson from Cars, just feel right.
The sparse, but highly functional and impossibly cute suites, which sleep six, will surely be a big hit. In fact, I predict that Disney will change out some of its older hotels with the Art of Animation's suite configurations. Amenities such as RFID room cards, a food court with a highly eclectic and yummy-sounding menu, and Disney World's largest resort pool (with piped-in underwater dialogue from animated characters to boot) will make this one of Disney's most popular hotels. It easily outpaces all of Disney World's other Value Resorts and, in my estimation, even gives the Moderate Resorts a run for the money. See a photo tour and read more about Disney's Art of Animation Resort.
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Photo: © Arthur Levine, 2012. Licensed to About.com.
