Roadtripping

Countdown to Legoland's "Star Wars" installation

Models that will be used in Legoland’s newest attraction — a Miniland section based on the Star Wars movie series — have arrived from model shops in Germany and California. Now, model builders at the Winter Haven park (including Jason Miller, master model builder, pictured above) are putting the parts together. The new display will officially open to guests on Nov. 9.

The exhibition will consist of a scene from each of the six Star Wars movies plus the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars, built in 1:20 scale. Above: The cantina from Episode VI: Return of the Jedi.

The scenes will include more than 1.5 million Lego bricks and 2,000 Lego models, some of them more than six feet tall. As with the other Miniland displays, some of the scenes will have moving parts that can be animated with the push of a button.

Here is a photo of the Darth Maul character that will go in the Episode I: The Phanton Menace scene.

Click here for info on Legoland.

Photo credit: Legoland Florida

Biggest phase of Fantasyland expansion to open Dec. 6.

Several of the largest elements in the Fantasyland expansion at Magic Kingdom will have their grand opening Dec. 6, Disney World has announced, although they'll have a soft opening Nov. 19 -- meaning that if you're in the park, you'll probably be able to ride Under the Sea: Journey of the Little Mermaid, and visit the other new attractions before their official debut.

This phase of the Fantasyland expansion includes:

*The Little Mermaid, a dark but non-scary ride through scenes from the film, with a meet-and-greet with the starring mermaid at Ariel's Grotto.

* Belle’s cottage and Enchanted Tales with Belle. Here, Disney's classic meet-and-greet with the princesses and other characters is enhanced to include interactive storytelling with Belle and Lumiere.

* The Be Our Guest Restaurant in the castle of the Beast (with table service at night), Gaston’s Tavern (despite the name, it won't serve alcohol) and Bonjour! Village Gifts.

The remaining elements of the expansion are Princess Fairytale Hall, an elaborate setting for meet-and-greets with Disney princesses, which is scheduled for completion in 2013, and The Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, a roller coaster, which will open in 2014.

(Disney rendering of Belle's cottage)

 

Newborns at the theme parks

Everybody loves baby pictures, so today we have a round-up of animals born recently at Florida’s theme parks.

Busch Gardens Tampa Bay has three new babies, all still too young to be put on public view yet:

This baby kangaroo is named Louis.

 

A squirrel monkey, born in June, spends most of its time riding on its mother’s back, but here it is with both parents.

This baby anteater, also born in June, apparently likes the same thing. Five pounds now, it (gender still undetermined) probably will grow to more than 100 pounds.

SeaWorld Orlando has a more exotic creature: a Weedy Sea Dragon, related to a sea horse. Mom laid close to 100 eggs in June, but Dad carried them to term, and the first ones have hatched. This is the first time that sea dragon eggs have successfully hatched at a SeaWorld park.

 

Disney's Animal Kingdom has a female baby okapi — related to the giraffe — named Nafuna. Born in June and weighing 35 pounds, she’s native to the Central Africa rain forest, and will eventually live in the Ituri Forest at Animal Kingdom.

Photos courtesy of the parks.

 

Theme park round-up

Updates on what’s happening at Florida's theme parks:

Disney World: The 17th annual Epcot International Food & Wine Festival opens Sept. 28 and runs through Nov. 12, at 46 days, its longest ever. Reservations open August 14 for special events like Party for the Senses, Food & Wine Pairings, Signature Dinners and the popular 3-D Dessert Discovery.

New this year are two additions to the World Showcase: vegan and Florida marketplaces, tasting tours led by festival chefs, and entertaining seminars led by HGTV hosts. Eat to the Beat! concerts return, with performers including Smash Mouth, Javier Colon (winner of “The Voice”), Blues Traveler, Night Ranger and The Pointer Sisters. Click here for information.

Universal Orlando:  Alice Cooper will create one of Universal Orlando's haunted attractions for Halloween Horror Nights.What Universal calls Alice Cooper’s version of a demented and dark subconscious come to life in the haunted maze, “Alice Cooper – Welcome to My Nightmare.”  The maze will put guests inside the haunted dreams of “Steven,” a recurring character on Cooper’s first solo album.

Halloween Horror Nights will open Sept. 21. Click here for information.

Kennedy Space Center: Visitors can participate in Mars-themed activities as the Mars Science Laboratory prepares to land on the red planet on Aug. 6. Activities will include the Lego Build the Future play area and two Mars-related exhibits and are scheduled to begin Aug. 3. Click here for information. 

 

Rescued manatee gives birth at SeaWorld

Here’s a piece of good news. A rescued manatee has given birth at SeaWorld Orlando while recovering from a severe injury caused by a crab pot line and fishing line. The healthy manatee calf was born last week and has been nursing and bonding with mom in a back area pool at the park.

The adult manatee was rescued about six weeks ago from Sykes Creek in Merritt Island (next to the Kennedy Space Center) with severe injuries to her front right flipper caused by a crab pot line. Fishing line was also wrapped around both of her front flippers. A photo of her rescue is below. Her front right flipper was amputated and bandaged; she is now receiving antibiotics and her health is improving.

The 10-foot manatee weighed nearly 1,380 pounds when she was rescued. Because of her size, SeaWorld’s veterinary team thought she might be pregnant and gave her a sonogram, which confirmed their suspicions.

Mother and baby are doing well.

Photo credit: SeaWorld Orlando

 

'Walking Dead' comes to Halloween Horror Nights

With the opening of Halloween Horror Nights just two months away, Universal Orlando announced Thursday that for the first time, it will partner with a television show — AMC’s The Walking Dead —to create one of its haunted mazes.

The zombie-themed TV show, which opens its third season Oct. 14, follows a group of people who survived a zombie apocalypse. The maze will feature movie-quality sets that include some of the show’s most iconic scenes and vicious “walkers,” Universal said.

“We want people to experience the same terror of the walker-filled reality our characters faced in seasons one and two — and will continue to face in our third season,” Greg Nicotero, co-executive producer of the series, said in a press release.

Earlier, Universal said it also would collaborate with a video game franchise, Silent Hill, on another maze. “Guests will be tormented by horrifying creatures from an alternate dimension, including the iconic deformed nurses and the executioner,” Universal said.

Universal’s 22nd Halloween Horror Nights will open Sept. 21 and run on 25 nights.

New 'Despicable Me' ride opens Monday at Universal Studios

Universal Studios opens its newest ride today: Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem, a motion simulator ride that, like the Simpsons ride at the same park, doesn’t go anywhere but might make you feel like you did.

Although the ride doesn’t officially open until today, it’s been operating for a couple weeks in a “technical rehearsal” and was often open to park visitors during that time. I got to ride it over the weekend. The whole experience, not including time waiting in line, takes about 12 minutes with a pre-ride video and post-ride dance party; the ride itself is four to five minutes.

The storyline picks up where the 2010 movie leaves off, with the same actors voicing the same characters. Gru is seeking to claim credentials as the world’s greatest criminal. For his latest evil deed, however, he needs more minions, and the human riders are recruited. We don goggles for the 3-D animation, get scanned for germs, and take our seats on benches with lap bars.

From there, it’s a wild ride to nowhere, the seats shaking and jerking in sync with the animation that shows a lot of ups and downs. Signs at the entrance warn that people prone to motion sickness shouldn’t take the ride, and the combination of movement and the 3-D pictures could indeed induce nausea. There are some stationary benches for people who have disabilities or who want to see the animation without the motion.

The ride has a warm and fuzzy ending, with Gru recreating the movie’s theme park, Super Silly Fun Land (and it feels like we’re zooming along its roller coaster) to celebrate the anniversary of the day he adopted his daughters, Margo, Agnes and Edith; he is a better person now.

The ride is cute – cute minions, cute daughters, cute concept. The attraction uses the new Infitec 3-D projection system, which produces excellent animation. It’s a little less jerky and a little less sophisticated than Disney’s Star Tours but along the same lines. It’s also aimed at a younger audience.

Then we walk into the next room for a short disco dance party with a couple minions, and from there into the gift shop, with minions, fluffy unicorns and all manner of minion paraphernalia.

Photo credits: Universal Orlando

Freshwater Oasis opens at Discovery Cove in Orlando

A new swimming and wading area called Freshwater Oasis, populated by Asian otters and marmosets native to South America, opened this week at Discovery Cove, a small, boutique park associated with (and across the street from) SeaWorld Orlando. Designed as a freshwater spring under a rainforest canopy, the oasis is where Tropical Reef used to be. Water in Freshwater Oasis is only waist deep, and in the center is an island where the tiny marmosets live.

Summer admission to Discovery Cove, which includes parking, food, beverages, floating on a lazy river, snorkeling on the Grand Reef  and a dolphin encounter, plus admission to SeaWorld and the Aquatica water park, starts at $229 ($149 without the dolphin experience). Information: 877-434-7268 or click here.

Photo credits: Discovery Cove

Nocturnal animals promote Summer Nights at Busch Gardens

Meet Darwin. He’s an echidna. He looks like a hedgehog, but he’s not. That's his snout you see. He’s only recently been introduced to his mate-to-be, named Adelaide. Like the cities they’re named for, they are from Australia. And they are nocturnal, which is why Darwin came to the Miami Herald newsroom Wednesday, promoting Busch Gardens’ Summer Nights.

Darwin allowed himself to be petted — front to back only, unless you want to get stuck on one of those spines. But as a photo model, Darwin was uncooperative, burying his face in his blanket when he could. The rest of the time, he scooted around on the floor, poking his snout into corners where he hoped to find bugs. He had no comment on whether he succeeded.

Darwin was accompanied by Emmett, an eastern screech owl. Emmett, who is also nocturnal, was hand-raised by people, so as far as he’s concerned, humans are the source of food. Let him loose in the wild and he’d be in trouble at dinner time. Which is why he’s a permanent resident of Busch Gardens and one of the park’s animal ambassadors. 

Emmett is something of a ham, turning his head this way and that — and we’re talking turns of up to 270 degrees — for the camera.

Here’s their news: Busch Gardens Tampa Bay is now on summer hours, staying open until 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. For the first time, there are fireworks every night. The park has “Let’s Get Loud,” a Latin-infused Miami-style dance party, with a dance competition on Fridays and Saturdays; and the Kinetix show, with music and acrobatics.

Across the street, Adventure Island, Busch Gardens’ water park, has extended its hours to 9 p.m. every night until mid-August, with a DJ, steel drum band, stiltwalkers, magicians, jugglers and fire performers.

 

Legoland: Beach balls in the air

Celebrating the opening of its water park last month, Legoland Florida gathered people and beach balls in an attempt to set a Guinness World Record for the most people keeping beach balls in the air.  Thursday, Legoland announced that Guinness had made it official: There were 1,294 bouncing beach balls at the May 24 event, far surpassing the previous record of 401. The refurbished water park, which existed as Splash Island at Cypress Gardens in Winter Haven, opened on May 26.

Photo credit: Chip Litherland/Legoland