HHN21

Have you heard? Lady Luck is seeking you out to try your luck at Halloween Horror Nights 21 at Universal Studios Orlando. “Try your luck” is this year’s coined phrase to go along with HHN21 blackjack themed event with Lady Luck being your host. Be advised when testing your luck, Lady Luck has some tricks. She can turn into a bloodthirsty beast at the blink of the eye. 

            Tuesday at midnight, Universal Orlando announced the house themes, shows, and scare zones for this year’s Halloween Event. Bill and Ted’s Excellent Halloween Adventure will continue this year and will be joined by a new show called Death Drums. A new addition to the haunted house experience, Universal Orlando will be a featuring a three-dimensional house called The In-Between. You can see Patrick Braillard, the show director for HHN, tell about this new addition on the HHN website. Some historical figures will be hosting their own house this year, which includes Edgar Allen Poe and Christopher Columbus. Universal announced earlier this month a house based on the upcoming film The Thing.  The other 4 houses include: Saws n’ Steam: Into the Machine, Winter’s Night: the Haunting of Hawthorn Cemetery; H.R. Bloodengutz Presents: Holidays of Horrors; Nightingales: Blood Prey.

            HHN has been one of the most successful Halloween Events in theme park history. In 2004, Universal Studios flexed their muscles and showed their teeth at the IAAPA demonstrating why they have been so successful over the last few years. This year Universal is bringing their Halloween Event to Universal Singapore to try their luck in Asia.  Universal is expecting for HHN Singapore to become the largest Halloween event in Southeast Asia.

            "Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Singapore will build on Universal’s decades of experience in creating entertaining, intense and fun Halloween events.  Halloween Horror Nights began 21 years ago at Universal Studios Florida and is now a global sensation, with spectacular events at Universal Orlando Resort, Universal Studios Hollywood and Universal Studios Singapore.”   etravelblackboardasia

           The host of this event will be the Filmmaker who truly brings the movies to life. Universal has pride itself on this concept of bringing the movies from the silver screen to the streets of their theme parks. Now they are bringing a different type of movie experience to Southeast Asia- horror film. As you may recall, the Filmmaker was the host of Universal Orlando's HHN13 back in 2003 and is my personal favorite. 

            What I found interesting about bringing HHN to Asia is there was not a large discussion about the differences in culture? I know many other events at theme parks, like at Disney Tokyo, have translated from the American culture to Asian culture; but I feel like when speaking of ghosts, ghouls, vampires, taboo, and scary tales some themes may be lost in translation. I would be interested to find out more about the details of the differences in the houses and themes between HHN Orlando and HHN Singapore. Is there differences on association regulation, like from the IAAPA, on how intense this Halloween experience can be? Will HHN be more thrilling in Singapore?

Reference:

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/features_orlando/2011/08/universal-studios-halloween-horror-nights-haunted-houses-revealed.html/comment-page-1#comment-5447

All four Disney Parks. One Day.

Can you really do all 4 parks in one day? Realistically, it’s not possible to do everything; however, you can do the Disney Park Hopper option to do the specific events that you or the people in your group want to do. The key is to plan, plan, plan. 

            The place to start your day is Animal Kingdom. One of the most popular attractions is the Kilimanjaro Safaris, which is an open-air safari ride that takes you through the jungles of Africa. The key to this ride to go first thing in the morning when the park opens at 8am so that you have the opportunity to see the animals. If you wait and go later in the day, the lions and elephants will be sleeping in the shade where they can’t be seen. The other attraction in this park that is critical to do in the morning is the Maharajah Jungle Trek where you can see giant fruit bats and tigers up close. If it is important to your group to be able to see all the exotic animals that Animal Kingdom has to show, this is the place to start your day.

            The next park to head towards is Hollywood Studios. The best way to travel to this park is by bus from Animal Kingdom. You want to be in this park in the afternoon to catch the new Star War Tours show and new ride attraction. For all of your Star Wars fans, this ride changes every time you ride it so feel free to stay all day if that is what your heart desires. If Star Wars is not your thing, another reason to be in this park in the afternoon is to see one of the last live theater shows in Disney, Beauty and the Beast. This show plays through the afternoon until about 5:45 everyday. Make sure you check out Tower of Terror before you leave. A true Disney classic.

            Next up is to take the boat to Epcot just in time to have dinner in Morocco, Italy, or maybe even France. This is the location of the seasonal Food and Wine Festival where you can eat around the world. Every country has merchandise, food, and alcohol from its native land. Disney also has an international internship program where they bring international students in to work in Epcot in the country they are from. For example, when we ate in Germany, our waitress was from Berlin and the man who creates Venetian masks in Italy is from Venice.

            From Epcot, hop onto the monorail heading towards Magic Kingdom. You want to do this park last because it is open the latest. Also, you do not want to miss the Mainstreet Electrical Parade that goes on at 9pm and then again at 11pm every night keeping the park open until midnight. There is also an excellent firework display called the Wishes Nighttime Spectacular that goes at 10pm. While in Magic Kingdom you want to fit in the three mountains: Space Mountain, Thunder Mountain, & Splash Mountain.

            When you are done with your long Disney fun filled adventure, you can take the bus back to wherever you started your day.  The key to make the Park Hopper option worth the extra money is to plan out what is most important to you to do in each park and what times they happen. I strongly suggest using Disney transportation. It is the easiest way to get around. 

To get your vacation planning started http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/planning-dvd/

Fantasy Land Expansions

So when I was visiting Walt Disney World a couple of weeks ago, I noticed lots of construction. Not to mention the Belle and the Beast taking photographs with guest members in front of a sign that looks similar to the one above. And I thought what is this all about?
Changes have been made since the first announcement of the new Fantasy Land Expansion in September 2009. There have been concerns that some of the new additions may be too girly to the point were boys would be embarrassed to participate; however, Disney presses on with their plans to expand the area with Princess related attractions. The new expansion will almost double of the size of Fantasy Land. You can see aerial photos of the construction underway.

The first announcement of expansion included continuing to market classic Princesses through new attractions. The Princesses include: Ariel, Snow White, and Belle. There will a new attraction added to Cinderella’s castle where your little princess can interact with her favorite Princess.

Rides that will be no longer: Mickey's Toontown Fair & Snow White's Scary Adventures 

New and Up-coming rides:

 Coming all the way from Disney’s California Adventure, is the new ride Under the Sea-the Journey of the Little Mermaid featuring the characters from the movie like Ariel, Sebastian, and more. This ride will resemble the clamshell you sit in the The Seas with Nemo and Friends ride at Epcot.

 The Seven Dwarf’s Mine Train ride will be a roller costar through the dwarf’s mine where the train will feel as if it is coming off the track while making sharp twist and turns. What I like about this ride is it takes a classic scene from the movie and brings it to life for the viewer. I can sit in the theater watching movies like Monster’s Inc. or Snow White imaging scenes becoming roller coasters. I think this one will be a good one.

 But what I am most excited about is new themed restaurant Be Our Guest from Beauty and Beast. I have always watched this “Be our Guest” scene preformed live at Hollywood Studios, at the time it was MGM Studios, amazed by the dancing utensils.  This will be a quick place to eat during the day, but will become a full table service dinning experience at night. It will hold 550-guests in the new and magnificent dining hall inside of the Beast’s Castle. 

This is not the only Beauty and the Beast themed addition, there will also be a reenactment of “the tale as old as time” with Belle and friends. “In Enchanted Tales with Belle, the adventure begins at Maurice’s cottage, where you’ll step through an enchanted mirror that magically transports you to Beast’s library for an interactive storytelling session with Belle.” There will also be Gaston’s Tavern and Bonjour! Village Gifts added to this area.

There are more additions and changes being made which will be announced in more detail hopefully soon. 

To find out more:

http://themeparks.about.com/od/disneyparks/a/MKFantasylan

http://themeparks.about.com/od/disneyparks/a/MKFantasylandExp.htm