Rex and I were made aware that the “Green” puzzle of ThisisaClue.com and the Mystery of Mary Elitch’s Fortune was going to be launched last weekend at Elitch Gardens. Since Rex and I hold the brutally unbeatable record for yellow (without splitting up or cheating) at 37 minutes, we were challenged by some folks to see how fast we could do Green. So, off we went last Saturday to take a look.

Brian and Greg, owners and imagineers of ThisisaClue.com spoke to us about the Green puzzle, indicating that this was the most difficult experience yet in their opinion. Rex and I did a quick interview explaining our strategy (strategy? We don’t need no stinkin strategy) and off we went to experience Green. After a disappointing beginning where Rex and I just weren’t thinking, we basically breezed through the puzzle and arrived back with a completed puzzle board in 40 minutes exactly. In fact, if Rex and I would stop thinking so intently about a few of the clues, we would probably have finished even quicker.

At any rate, the Green puzzle was a blast just like Yellow and Red and it is too bad that more folks are not experiencing the great fun that the Mystery of Mary Elitch’s Fortune has to offer. After our successful completion of the puzzle, we did some live podcasting and interviewed a host of cool folks. One cool cat in particular, Coleman, was essentially dissed by his friend and had to complete the puzzle on his own, which he did in pro fashion. Another team, however, decided it was just too difficult and was persuaded by the coolness of the water park to call it quits.

Whether or not Brian and Greg will get “Blue” up and running remains to be seen. With the closing of summer coming quickly and the unfortunate reality that $20 is hard to come by for many Elitch Gardens visitors, my hunch is that we will unfortunately not see Blue. But if we do, Rex and I will be there to take it down and solve once and for all the dilemma of Mary Elitch’s will. Only time will tell.

With the haunting season rapidly approaching, Rex and the Beast discuss in detail what elements make a haunted house truly scary and effective.

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In this podcast we interview Arthur Levine, theme park guide for the website About.com.  The discussion centers around the industry changing phenomenon of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.  Check it out!

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I (Rex) was able to attend a VIP Media event at Elitch Gardens this past Wednesday where I attended one of the new shows for this year at Elitch Gardens, Rocknation--Don't Stop Believin'.

In a park as family oriented as Elitch Gardens, it is very important to have shows that the entire family can enjoy.  I think Rocknation fits that bill.  The show is a high energy show that showcases rock music from the 70s though the current day.  After starting with Journey (Don't Stop Believin'--naturally), they moved through Bon Jovi, Guns N' Roses, Kansas, Pat Benatar, a special tribute to Michael Jackson and many others.  They even finished with one of mine and the Beast's favorites, KISS (you get one guess as to which song....that's right "Rock and Roll All Nite").  Although the Trocadero (the theater where the show plays) has seen better days in some respects, the lighting was good and the cast engaged in quite a few costume changes that added to the show.

Overall, the performers were ok, nothing spectacular, but gave it their all and brought good energy to the performance.  When they really went all out on the singing, it seemed to work well (like on the opening of "Carry on My Wayward Son") but they were tenative at times.  The choreography was a little weak, but again, the energy helped cover that up a little.

Bottom line is the show is a nice addition to Elitch Gardens and I'm sure on the hot summer days, taking in a show of Rocknation will be a family favorite.  Thanks to Elitch Gardens for inviting us out to the special showing, and we will keep you updated on other items at the home park of RexandtheBeast.com as the summer goes on.

Well, it has been 12 days since our grand opening experience at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.  We have provided podcasts, photos, and a trip video of the remarkable new island at the great Universal theme park Islands of Adventure.  What follows is a detailed trip report of the two crazy days we spent at Universal Orlando Resort.

I (The Beast) was already in Orlando for a convention I was attending that week.  Rex flew into town on Wednesday night and spent the night at one of the worst motels in the greater Orlando area.  I am surprised he made it through the night without contracting some kind of strange disease.  After Rex checked us into the Hard Rock Resort at Universal, he and I hooked up at the airport where I was returning a rental car.  From there, it was off to the Hard Rock Resort where we entered our room, dropped off our bags, and made our way to Islands of Adventure for a special VIP entrance into the WWOHP a day before it officially opened. 

As we approached the new island from the side of the Lost Continent, we could tell that Universal was taking seriously the VIP only admittance.  We were abruptly stopped and asked to see our "ticket."  This made things very nice for us because we had no idea that the next day, on the official grand opening day, that we were going to see some of the longest lines in the history of theme parks!  Yet, with our early admittance, we were able to leisurely walk through the WWOHP and even experience the Forbidden Journey ride with very little wait.  Needless to say, we were completely blown away by the new ride and both of us ranked it higher than Spiderman, which is quite a statement after only one riding.  To hear us talk in great detail about this amazing new ride, listen to this podcast.

From there, Rex and I were able to experience the amazingly incredible taste of Butterbeer.  This non-alcoholic drink is the perfect mix of a frozen desert and butterscotch candy.  You can also get it in a non-frozen, liquid form, but Rex and I agreed that the frozen Butterbeer was the way to go.  This is a must purchase when you enter the world of Harry Potter at IOA.  After snapping some pictures and looking around, we exited WWOHP and were excited about the grand opening festivities the next day.

Of course, any trip to IOA is not complete without a stop to Captain America's Diner.  I secured a seat for us while Rex waited in a fairly long line for the food.  It was great as always and we discussed the amazing adventure we had just experienced on the Forbidden Journey.  Since we knew most of our time would be spent in IOA this trip, we decided to make a quick jaunt over to Universal Studios.  Once inside the park, we quickly hit Revenge of the Mummy and MIB.  Revenge of the Mummy was a great ride, all the effects and timing were cued perfectly.  We unfortunately rode the right-hand track on MIB, which neither of us are very good at, so our scores were merely in the 200,000 range.  A far cry from the normal 800,000-999,999 we normally score.  Finally, we jumped on The Simpsons ride, which is a better ride than BTTF, but if you are in the back row, the ride is considerably less effective.

Well, Rex and I decided to call it a day from our park adventures and move on to where the real excitement is in the greater Orlando area.  Fun Spot.  After spending a grand total of about 4 minutes in Fun Spot, we moved on to bigger and better things.  Namely, Red Lobster.

The alarm clock, which was my Ipod busting out Kiss' "Modern Day Delilah", rang out early and we crawled out of bed on Friday, June 18th, to make our way to the grand opening event.  We had no idea what was in store for us.  Even though we had early access to the park, the lines were already massive.  Non-resort guests were already waiting to get in with lines backed all the way through CityPark.  You can hear us describe the chaos on our podcast, but to make a long story short, it was going to take 3-4 hours to get into IOA, another 6-8 hours to get into WWOHP, and then another 2-3 hours to ride the Forbidden Journey or enter Ollivander's Wand Shop.  That, my friends, is a lot of waiting.  However, if there was ever an attraction to wait that long for, the WWOHP is the one.  It truly does deliver and does not disappoint.  Before the ceremonies began, Rex and I decided to torture ourselves and ride a completely empty Storm Force Accelatron.  We were going to be the only riders on the attraction, which would have been pretty much unprecedented, until an 8 year old boy jumped in right at the last minute.  That ride is brutal.  From there, Rex and I viewed the dropping of the "envelope" led by Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) himself.  It was a short and fairly unimpressive curtain drop, yet probably a good idea to keep it low key considering the thousands of people waiting to get in.  The entire day was spent being amazed over the lines, interviewing folks, capturing video, and just having fun.  In the middle of everything, we managed to enjoy a ride on Dudley and Popeye, always a good time!

The day went by quickly.  Yet, Rex and I discovered that we had one more treat in store for us the next day.  Resort guests, because of the lines during grand opening day, were going to get into the park and experience WWOHP at 6 am.  Yep, 6 am.  That is incredibly early to get out of bed when on RATB adventure, but we decided we had to try it.  So we did.  The process went remarkably smooth.  We waited for about 1 1/2 hours before once again stepping foot inside the new island.  We went straight to Forbidden Journey, which to our amazement was even better the second time than the first.  We then rode Flight of the Hippogriff and Dragon Challenge.  It was a nice surprise to be able to check out everything once again without all the crazy crowds around us.  I made sure to purchase a chocolate frog, which was very good, and we took our time capturing all the amazement of the island.  It was a wonderful day.

After offering our thoughts, concerns, and expectation about WWOHP for over a year, I am please to say that Rex and the Beast give it a big thumbs up and we highly recommend it to anyone who is a theme park lover.  Check it out!

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You can now view our video highlighting the grand opening of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter on June 18th at Islands of Adventure in Orlando, FL.  Click the link below to view the video!

http://www.rexandthebeast.com/wwohp-grand-opening-video

Take a look at our photo collection from the grand opening of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.  As wonderful as the photos are, they pale in comparison to the grandeur of the land itself. 

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Our trip to the grand opening of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter was unreal.  In this podcast we discuss all things concerning that grand opening, including the amazing crowds, the attractions, and the overall quality of the new area.

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I have just split up from the Beast in the Orlando Airport as we both are heading back to Denver via different airlines (due to some scheduling issues not relevant here), and thought I would take a moment to give you a few more thoughts on the past few days here in Orlando at Islands of Adventure and the Grand Opening of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

As great as WWOHP and HP and the Forbidden Journey are, as will be discussed in great length in podcast(s) to come, the overriding issue to come out of these past couple of days is the crowds.  These are crowds and queues the like of which the Beast and I have never seen.  Yesterday at the Grand Opening, the wait was 6-8 hours to get into WWOHP, then you would have had to wait up to 2 more hours for Forbidden Journey or (amazingly) to get into Ollivander's to have a magic wand "pick you."  The wait to order Butterbeer was anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour and a half.  Let that sink in a little.  People were waiting hours to get into an area of a theme park so they could wait longer for the "privilege" of buying more stuff.  Incredible.  I say this not as a criticism but as an observation that I think Universal has hit an amazing home run.  I'm sure many of you have seen some of the overhead pictures of the lines and they are simply amazing.  For those of you familar with IOA, once you got into IOA (which took a while itself) the line started on the Jurassic Park side of WWOHP, went through JP, then through Toon Lagoon, then through Marvel Superhero Island, then through the Port of Entry and then through Suess Landing (in effect the entire park except a small piece of the Lost Continent).  Anyway...Wow.

As we briefly commented earlier, Forbidden Journey is just great.  The interactive nature between the 3-D filmed scenes and the set pieces raises the bar to a fantastic new level.  We rode Spiderman again immediately after FJ and, although Spidey's greatness is clear, FJ blows it away in nearly all aspects of the ride experience...again, more to come...but big, big thumbs up.

The re-theme of Dueling Dragons to Dragon Challenge was a bit disappointing since the themeing of Dueling Dragons was one of our favorites, but I think we can live with it (although the Beast and I were wondering where all of those skulls went!).

We bowed to the Hippogriff and enjoyed the quick, kids ride on Flight of the Hippogriff, although I'm not sure everyone on our ride bowed appropriately because it seemed a little ticked off as we went by!

Anyway, a great trip, video, pics and podcasts to come...but for now, I have a plane to catch.  See you soon

Rex
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