Citrus Dreamin' - A NEW Imagineering Competition - Chat and Hype Thread

I thought the interactive elements were fantastic. I was initially concerned that the AR would be most of the effects, but it enhances the experience rather than being the full experience. I definitely didn't do much research prior so I'm sure there are elements of the attraction I missed but it is definitely an attraction that deserves multiple rides.

Will for sure have to go out for HHN and Knott's maybe this fall!
@spacemt354 hows the construction progress on Tianas Bayou Adventure? I’m wondering if it’s getting close to what Disney Worlds version looks like just when they started to decorate it.
 

cdunlap

Well-Known Member
For those wondering what my next park concept is, here are a few images to help.
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cdunlap

Well-Known Member
Due to the Team Birds Project Incident/BirdsGate/Toucan Kingdom, I have a job to fill. You see, 2 days before the Citrus Dreamin comp began, me and Disney-Universal Fanboy were working on a little project together (it was part of MonorailRed's Disneyland 1991, if you're curious) and I would really like to continue working on it with someone else whose morals are higher than his and has a higher level of creativity beyond ”[INSERT UNBUILT CONCEPT] is built”. If any of you want to work on this project in his place, just tell me and I'll start a conversation with you containing most of me and Disney-Universal Fanboy's ideas as well as some new ideas by me. This could be me and one person or me and a whole team. Disney-Universal Fanboy was an enthusiastic co-worker but he could get very, very, very annoying at times and seemed to have an inability to see value in my concepts that he didn’t like, but somehow valued concepts of mine that fit his ideal park perfectly, so I'm very glad that I don't have to work with him anymore, and that’s not something I say often!
 
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PerGron

Well-Known Member
So @TheOriginalTiki I finally did it, I booked flights for October out to San Diego to go see the zoo. I’ll be doing 2 days at the San Diego Zoo, 1 day at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, 1 day at SeaWorld San Diego and then I’ll have two bonus days to sightsee or go back to any of these spots if I want a second day.

The Birch Aquarium is also on my radar for this trip, plus seeing sea lions in the wild is very exciting. I’ve never been to the west coast or even west of Chicago, so even though I’m going for the zoos mainly, I’m excited to see another part of the country
 

TheOriginalTiki

Well-Known Member
So @TheOriginalTiki I finally did it, I booked flights for October out to San Diego to go see the zoo. I’ll be doing 2 days at the San Diego Zoo, 1 day at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, 1 day at SeaWorld San Diego and then I’ll have two bonus days to sightsee or go back to any of these spots if I want a second day.

The Birch Aquarium is also on my radar for this trip, plus seeing sea lions in the wild is very exciting. I’ve never been to the west coast or even west of Chicago, so even though I’m going for the zoos mainly, I’m excited to see another part of the country
That's awesome. Can't wait to hear your thoughts on the zoo, it's going to totally blow your mind. I'll give you a warning about Birch though. It's in a super nice location on top of a cliff overlooking La Jolla, and there's some pretty cool stuff there, but there were also some tanks that were very obviously neglected, and I'm fairly certain I saw some "floaters" among the fish. Really got the vibe that the upkeep and animal care in the place isn't really up to code. It could be totally different now and it's possible I just got unlucky and happened to go right when a few of the fish died and the staff hadn't had a chance to get them out of the tanks yet, but just thought you should know.

I'd recommend going to the Children's Pool in the same area to check out the live sea lions in a totally natural habitat. That was the very first thing I did when I got to San Diego and it definitely made a strong first impression.

Make no mistake, it's not super oppressive "get these animals the HELL out of here" stuff like at Lagoon, but it was more than a little off-putting non the less. SeaWorld San Diego on the other hand was really fantastic for the marine life stuff. The Orlando park obviously has the better coaster line up, but the San Diego park definitely has the better animal stuff.
 

TheOriginalTiki

Well-Known Member
Alright kids, it's time to rank the stuff I did on my Vegas trip! A LOT of it was stuff on our GoCity pass that we probably wouldn't have done otherwise. There's a dinosaur exhibit at the Horseshoe for example that was so blatantly made for really little kids that I felt straight up embarrassed going through it and don't feel like I'm qualified to properly give an opinion on it without going there with a child.

Downtown Comedy Lounge/Fremont Street:
Fremont I definitely need to try again when I'm not with my grandma. It's a really frustrating place because I love the history with all the old casinos but I HATE the party atmosphere of the "Experience" part. Way, WAAAY crazier than anything I saw on the actual Strip believe it or not. I definitely want to actually explore some of the old casinos next time but I'll stick to the inside stuff and avoid the insanity happening under the roof/screen thing.

The comedy lounge was a bust though. Probably wouldn't have gone out of our way for it if it weren't on our pass, but I'm glad we didn't pay for it because the lineup was worse than free shows we get here in NorCal at bars and stuff and the vibe of the crowd was just way off. I also REALLY didn't appreciate that all the comedians were super high pressure about buying drinks and basically shaming anyone who wasn't. Like, get that the hell out of here. For all of the infamous Vegas shilling, that was probably THE most off-putting for me. The MC was trying to go for a "tough woman from the Bronx" bit but just came off as genuinely unpleasant/in a bad mood. Next time I'll actually cough up the money to go to Brad Garrett's club or something more classy like that if I'm in the mood for a comedy show.

The AdventureDome
This place honestly has so much potential that is sadly being really wasted. The one thing I really liked about it is the the rock work and the photography opportunities when it came to the coasters. You really get right next to them. Canyon Blaster is iconic, but MAN I was hyped for another really good Arrow looper after absolutely loving Tennessee Tornado at Dollywood but this just ain't it. There's a sharp turn right after the first two loops that straight up murdered my neck.

El Locco is decently fun with a little air time pop after the first drop, but not exactly a great fit for the park when it's so intimidating that the largely child clientele is too intimidated to ride it so the thing just sits there waiting for riders and maybe dispatches once every 15 minutes or so. Really bad mistake to get rid of the log ride for that.

The flat rides are all just puke machines, the Pirates mini golf was literally shuttered and in shambles, but worst of all the PINK in the dome was just genuinely awful. I really thought like I was going crazy. I straight up skipped re-riding the coasters because I absolutely needed to get out of that pink hellhole. As far as "vibes" go I've NEVER experienced a worse park hands down. It's so obviously the "Babysitter" of the Vegas attractions and while I didn't feel shame on the level of the dino attraction being there, I DEFINITELY felt out of place as a grown man without kids.

Bellagio fountains/Mirage volcano
Grouping these together because they're pretty similar iconic free shows on the strip. Bellagio is really awesome to see in person for the first time, but I'm not gonna lie spending a week right across the street from it definitely desensitized me to them a bit. By the time I actually made it across the street from Paris to see the show from the fountain side I was kind of over it and left like two minutes early to avoid the crowd rush. I think this is cooler as an iconic fixture of the strip that you pass by rather than a full scale show that you go out of your way to watch.

The volcano is obviously leaving soon and getting down to the Mirage to see it was the very last thing I did on the trip, and I'm glad I did. Contrary to the fountains, this one really impressed me on a show level. I really like the atmospheric music/sounds they play before and during the erruption, and the fire itself is a lot bigger than I was expecting. You can really feel the heat even across the street. I'm glad I saw it once, and the strip will definitely feel a little less cool in general with it gone. I don't care how tall that damn guitar high rise is going to be.

SpongeBob Dark Ride
Some of these stand alone attractions will be kind of hard to rank, but I'll try my best. The worst part of Spongebob is definitely the gameplay. You know how Midway Mania had a Wii game? Well, the Spongebob ride basically plays like THAT, not the actual Midway Mania ride. Even the "Guns" are totally shaped like Wiimotes (I wouldn't be surprised if they were using the exact technology that Wii used just on a bigger scale). The plus is pretty much everything else. There's not a ton of physical set pieces, but there's definitely more here than Midway, along with a few really solid looking AAs.

There's also one game I dare not spoil but is PERFECTLY in line with classic Spongebob humor and made me actively start cracking up when I saw it. The only downside with this is that you have to go to Circus Circus to do it and unless you're a serious coaster head I really wouldn't recommend going into the AdventureDome. I think Circus Circus would be really smart to just include this with AdventureDome admission. Frankly they're doing a terrible job with even letting people know that the ride actually exists. It's a solid little ride that's definitely worth doing if you're in the area, but I wouldn't say it's worth a trip to that end of the trip specifically for that by itself.

Manhattan Express (Or whatever it's called now haha)
Let me just say the restraints are going a LONG way towards making this ride not just tolerable, but straight up enjoyable. Obviously the visuals are going to be top notch here, and I really need a night ride on it. It's not really worth the money,but I would say if you don't mind shelling out almost 30$ for one coaster ride it's far, FAAAR better than the trash at AdventureDome. I actually really liked the vibes of New York New York as well and would very much consider staying there in the future. (especially with a coaster-view room) Again kind of hard to rank stand-alone attractions, but this is one that exceeded my (very low :p ) expectations.

The Strat
The area around the Strat is freaking AWFUL. Hands down walking there from the Sahara was the single most sketchy thing I did the whole trip. That being said, the Strat actually really surprised me. Beyond the rides, the big thing I really liked about it was how cozy it was in the observation tower. There's a ton of super comfy coaches overlooking the view. I'm not a big drinker, but I imagine just hanging out on one of those couches and having a couple drinks would be just a complete and total VIBE. The rides weren't slouches either. Insanity was down (for good I'm guessing? Since it wasn't even listed on the website...) but XScream was really fun without being overly sketchy like I thought it would be and Big Shot was a straight up adrenaline rush. I was also lucky enough to get a Strip view when I did that which definitely added to the experience. Honestly Big Shot was a pretty major highlight for me in general just because of me growing up watching all those different specials about it on History/Discovery.

I have no idea what to do about the biggest con of the place being the location besides STRONGLY suggesting you get a ride there and back and don't even attempt to walk to it from the nearest casino like I did. I also found the elevator situation at the top to be really confusing. All in all though, another one that exceeded my low expectations.

The Eiffel Tower
Go up here at night to see the Bellagio fountains from 400 feet in the air. Enough said. As an "attraction" it literally is just the view, but it was the single best view of the strip I experienced during the strip and yea...being right across the street from those fountains makes for a SUPER memorable experience. It felt like I was on top of the Fun Wheel during World of Color or something. There's not a lot to this, but THAT view is enough to put it this high on the list. I'd say it's the first thing on my list that's a straight up "must do".

More to come in part two.
 
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PerGron

Well-Known Member
That's awesome. Can't wait to hear your thoughts on the zoo, it's going to totally blow your mind. I'll give you a warning about Birch though. It's in a super nice location on top of a cliff overlooking La Jolla, and there's some pretty cool stuff there, but there were also some tanks that were very obviously neglected, and I'm fairly certain I saw some "floaters" among the fish. Really got the vibe that the upkeep and animal care in the place isn't really up to code. It could be totally different now and it's possible I just got unlucky and happened to go right when a few of the fish died and the staff hadn't had a chance to get them out of the tanks yet, but just thought you should know.

I'd recommend going to the Children's Pool in the same area to check out the live sea lions in a totally natural habitat. That was the very first thing I did when I got to San Diego and it definitely made a strong first impression.

Make no mistake, it's not super oppressive "get these animals the HELL out of here" stuff like at Lagoon, but it was more than a little off-putting non the less. SeaWorld San Diego on the other hand was really fantastic for the marine life stuff. The Orlando park obviously has the better coaster line up, but the San Diego park definitely has the better animal stuff.
Good to know about Birch. It’s gonna be an “if I have time” stop more than on the itinerary specifically. I imagine I’ll end up coughing up the money to do a third day at the zoo and maybe a second at the safari park anyway, maybe see if I can get in contact with any keepers for a tour of one of them.

To the uninitiated, yes, I’ll take a 6 day trip and just do zoo
 

TheOriginalTiki

Well-Known Member
Don't forget to explore the greater Balboa Park area as well. There's a ton of cool museums there as well as some very historic buildings, most notably the filming location for Xanadu (you can actually get a really dramatic view of that by riding the Skyway at the zoo around sunset, just a helpful hint!)

Back to my rankings, I don't have these numbered since inevitably I'd remember a couple things that weren't on my initial list, but generally speaking they're ranked in order of how much I enjoyed the experience.

Real Bodies/King Tut's Tomb
This is a really solid one-two punch at the Luxor, and it's definitely appropriate for the Luxor to have one of the best themed museums. Bodies is definitely a personal taste thing. If you're into anatomy and science it'd be totally up your alley. While the exhibits were visually kind of neat, some of the stuff is definitely not for the faint of heart. They mercifully have an option to skip the fetus room which I was incredibly grateful for.

King Tut's on the other hand was honestly one of the biggest surprises of the trip and would probably be worth a trip to the Luxor for assuming that you're also wanting to see the interior of the pyramid which is also very much worth a trip down the strip. The best way I can describe King Tut's Tomb is that they basically made a whole museum out of the vibes of the Indiana Jones queue, and it's remarkably well done. It being open air with the pyramid exterior over you really sells the effect that you're actually traveling deeper and deeper into the catacombs. There's also some really solid video narration and info that presented the story in a really entertaining way. We only did this and Bodies because it was on our pass, but I might consider doing this again if I'm back at the Luxor.

Twilight Zone Mini Golf
Definitely a big hit of the trip and I really want to rank this higher, there's just not really a ton to it. The visuals are obviously top notch. As far as black light mini golf goes this is by far the most disorientating one I experienced. The lighting mixed with a strategic placement of mirrors and the holes all blending into each other in a really open way definitely starts to mess with your head after a while.

Lots of awesome Twilight Zone iconography here. Pretty much all the most famous episodes are accounted for. The set piece for the final hole in particular was especially cool to see. This place also had a very "80s arcade vibe" to it complete with a live DJ stationed in the middle of the course spinning old-timey songs to go with the Twilight Zone mood. If you're at all a fan of Twilight Zone or the Tower of Terror, this is an absolute must do.

Flyover
With the obvious exception of Flight of Passage, this is far and away the best "flying theater" attraction I've ever done and it blows both Soarin' versions out of the water. It basically feels like what an upgraded Soarin' should have been instead of Over the World which while I'll defend definitely has way too much CGI. This is all super modern, vibrant footage of the Nevada/Arizona/Utah desert areas. The preshow was also really well done using some cool projection mapping to showcase the gradual transformation of the area over time. A big return to the original Soarin' that wasn't so much in the "World" version is the use of human actors put into dramatic scenarios on the landscape. One sequence in particular where you do an "inversion" with a jet plane was by far the most thrilled and immersed I've ever been with this technology. Soarin' could definitely use a more thrilling "WOW" moment like that!

Fantasy: The Strip's Biggest Tease
This was happening in the same theater as Carrot Top later on in the night, so my grandma and I decided to spring for it since we were already in the area and tickets were pretty reasonable. As someone who identifies as asexual I was really depending on the actual personality and talent of the performers and not just the "oggling the bodies" factor and I gotta say from that regard the show was super well produced. All the women have incredible individual talents, all of them are super skilled dancers, and the MC was straight up hilarious and knew exactly who to pick on in the audience for the biggest laughs. A kid who had just turned 21 and went with his parents was easily the big highlight of the whole thing, as the MC loved the whole "parents taking the kid" angle and made a meal out of him throughout the show. While I didn't participate in it, there's also a free meet n greet in the lobby after the show which very much raises the ticket value.

More to come
 

spacemt354

Chili's
A little something here on behalf of @TheOriginalTiki and myself

 

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