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.

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
Join the Journey

Well, all of the preliminary plans are complete and we can finally let the fans of RexandtheBeast.com know what we have been working on for the last week or two.  We are going to be participating in a special VIP event at Elitch Gardens with the ThisisaClue.com guys on Friday June 11. 

We will be setting up for a mobile live podcast that wil begin around 5:30 Friday afternoon.  We plan on being at Elitch's for at least a couple of hours.  Elitch Gardens and ThisisaClue will be running a special event for certain VIPs and we are thrilled to have an opportunity to be part of the fun.  We will be interviewing Brian and Greg from ThisisaClue.com, interviewing participants in the mystery and giving away some RexandtheBeast.com shirts--all of which should be a great time.

So, if you are in the Denver area, drop by Elitch Gardens this afternoon and see a fun, community park, ThisisaClue and Rex and the Beast!

RexandtheBeast.com
Join the Journey!

Well, yesterday (June 2) was my birthday and the Beast called me up and suggested we hit Elitch Gardens for a little evening birthday fun.

We walked over around 7:15 (after watching the depressing "perfect" game fiasco in the Detroit-Cleveland game), and immediately hit Mind Eraser.  As we have noted before, a great ride for a park of this size.  Its only drawback is it is very short.  But we had a fun ride in the front row after only having to wait for three trains for the front row seat!

We then hit the bar and grill for a little snack, where I had some seriously hot boneless wings and the Beast had nachos--dinner of champions.  There we watched some analysis of the botched call of the perfect game, which depressed us some more until we heard an interview with the pitcher when he said "I should feel worse than I do", which was pretty funny.

Off to Ghost Blasters where the Beast had never beaten me...but that changed tonight.  I did win two out of three with a great score of 1200 in one game, but the Beast came through with a score of 1320 I believe, setting the new RATB standard on that ride.  Two of the three rides on GB were walk ons and the third as a 2 minute wait...these are the kinds of lines I can get behind!

Finally, we decided to grab a quick ride on Twister II before the park closed and when we made the cool, dusk walk through the wooden coaster's footprint to the queue, it was a straight walk-on, Elitch's in the evening during the week is great.

I always enjoy parks in the evening/night and the weather was beautiful.  A nice end to a birthday day.  

Coconut Cream Pie.  I had it for my early birthday "cake" yesterday.  Solid.

Shave Ice

"I just got back from Hawaii (true by the way), where I was able to enjoy some Shave Ice at the local ice cream stand."

The rookie mistake her is to reference it as "shaved ice"...which is woefully incorrect (used quite often by mainlanders).  The better usage is Shave Ice--and now you know. 

Well, after solving the Red "Course" of "120: The Mystery of Mary Elitch's Fortune!" at Elitch Gardens on opening day (in record time, I might add!).  The Beast and I will be back at Elitch Garden's attacking the Yellow "Course" on Saturday.  As we discussed in our Trip Report and our Podcast, we loved 120: The Mystery of Mary Elitch's Fortune at Elitch Gardens, which we enjoyed on opening day.  Here is a picture of us taken by the ThisisaClue.com guys after we completed the Red Course:

Insouciant

"I noticed Rex's insouciant attitude as he moved from Dudley Do-Right's Ripsaw Falls to Popeye and Bluto's Bilge-Rat Barges for the fifth time that hot afternoon."

The Beast and I have been discussing attendance issues at Islands of Adventure ("IOA") and Universal Studios Florida ("USF") in connection with The Wizarding World of Harry Potter and wanted to pass along these thoughts.

In 2009, IOA had approximately 4,600,000 visitors and USF had approximately 5,500,000 visitors.  So, what type of bump in visitors can IOA expect to get in 2010 (we know it will get some bump or Universal execs will be committing Hari-kari)?  For that matter, can it surpass USF in total visits?  USF has historically been the "anchor" park of Universal and IOA is the "other" park, but will WWOHP change that perception?

Its an interesting question.  Will some visitors (especially from the UK) come to IOA and WWOHP instead of Disney World?  Probably not, but it is certainly possible--leisure dollars only go so far.  However, this is probably a "rising tide lifts all ships" situation, and Orlando will benefit as a whole.

So, what are your thoughts on attendance at IOA and Universal with WWOHP coming?  What kind of percentage jump is IOA going to get?  Comment or email us with your thoughts.  We will talk about your responses and more of our thoughts on an upcoming podcast.

As readers of RexandtheBeast know, we will be attending opening day at Elitch Gardens tomorrow.  We will be getting video, pics, enjoying some great rides and all of the fun that goes with opening day at a fun, local park.

I am especially looking forward to kicking the Beast's butt on Ghost Blasters again tomorrow--he has never beaten me on that ride as I'm sure all of our faithful readers know.

In effect, this is opening day for RexandtheBeast.com as well.  We hope to crank up the action from this point forward in 2010.  So, let us know your thoughts and we will give you the update from Elitch Gardens after our great opening day.