2009 Attraction Tourney: Final Four

Tower of Terror over Curse of DarKastle












Expedition Everest over Spider-Man












Tower of Terror over Expedition Everest

2009 Quiet Pool Theme Park Attraction of the Year

Twilight Zone Tower of Terror

2009 Attraction Tourney: Six Flags Region

And now for the most controversial of my final four attractions...The Curse of DarKastle. The brother of Universal's Spider-Man ride, DarKastle has been a favorite of mine and JJ's since we first went on it two years ago. Many other people think we overrate the attraction, but it is a carbon copy of the highly toughted Spider-Man. I think the queue and theming of DarKastle are better than Spidey. The Sweet 16 in this region was incredible, with DarKastle, Splash Mt., Soarin' and Griffon. All four are unique, three of the four have great theming, and the one that doesn't, Griffon, is one of the best coasters I've been on. When it came down to it the overall experience of DarKastle barely edged out Splash Mountain to reach the Final Four.

2009 Attraction Tourney: Busch Gardens Region

It's crazy that Kingda Ka couldn't even get out of the second round, but that's what happens when you're faced with the monster that is Expedition Everest.

2009 Attraction Tourney: Universal Region

Absolutely no upsets until #3 Indiana Jones Adventure takes down #2 Incredible Hulk? Crazy bracket. In the heated play-in game The Enchanted Tiki-Room, with dancing, took out Leslie's Nielsen's Pirates 4D show of Busch Gardens fame, only to inevitably lose to Spider Man in the first round. The top half of this bracket was stacked compared to the bottom. Spider Man, Rock 'n Roller Coaster, Test Track, Nitro, Jungle Cruise, Kumba and Tiki Room...all-star cast. Nothing to talk about down bottom other than Indy Adventure, which still has one of the best queues I've even walked through. Needless to say, Spidy comes out of the region to make it to the Final Four.

2009 Attraction Tourney: Disney World Region

So today begins the 2nd Annual Quiet Pool Theme Park Attraction Tournament. Last year I was inspired by ThemeParkInsider.com who created a 64 attraction tournament to figure out the best ride in America. TPI had readers vote on the individual match-ups to decide the winner of each round and since I have no readers, I just decide which ride is better on my own.

After this year's disgrace of a result so far over at TPI, it seems that mine is the most reliable source for a subjective theme park attraction tournament on the internet. The people at Cedar Point have linked to the TPI website, so that their rides will win and it has worked like a charm. Last year's winner, Tower of Terror, was upset by the 33rd seeded Maverick of the aforementioned Cedar Point. There were 3,000 votes on Maverick's day of voting, compared to 500-600 on every other day.

To make the seedings I again used the ratings from TPI's readers.

Disney World Region

Last year's champ, Tower of Terror glided through the region with its toughest match-up in round two against Buzz Lightyear. Nice little run by Great Adventure's Superman coaster, making it to the Regional Final. Pirates and Haunted Mansion are rated highly and have great theming, but don't have the juice to get by good coasters.

What's New at Disney

There have been many updates and changes at Walt Disney World since my last visit in April of 2007, but by the time the Park Guys make their way back to Orlando in July of 2009 there will be four major additions to Walt's World that excite me.


14 out of the 18 times I've visited Disney, we've stayed at the Caribbean Beach Resort. It really can't be touched in terms of atmosphere, and if I were only allowed to be one place the rest of my life it would be CBR. There had been talk about making a change the next time the Park Guys went down to Florida, but now that is out of the question. For the past six months the Caribbean has been doing a complete renovation of their pool area. It was already a fantastic pool with a great hot tub and unbelievable at. The new pictures of the finally finished pool look even better. The pool itself is much bigger, the deck is much bigger with many more loungers (although Big Tom and Karebear will still head down early to save chairs with towels and shoes), and there is a beuatiful walk in area. This upgrade should put the Caribbean's pool into second place, behind Yacht & Beach Club, in flat pool rankings. If you take into account that Y&B Pool closes at 10 and they actual stick to those rules, then it's obviously a landslide. Because the great thing about CBR nightlife is that the pool doesn't technically close until midnight, but it never closes.


It was either JJ or T-time that said MGM (or now Hollywood Studios) is the worst of the four parks at WDW now that Millionaire-Play It! has left the building. Although I never agreed, because Tower of Terror and Rock 'n Roller Coaster will always keep it above water, two major additions hopefully will change their minds. Toy Story Midway Mania opened at the Studios on May 31st. It is a ride on the same level as Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, in that you load a two person cart and shoot at targets throughout your dark ride. What I'm assuming will make a step up is that you wear 3-D glasses, you actually shoot things out of your gun (not just a laser) and supposedly the levels change depending on how good you are. I've always been a huge fan of Buzz Lightyear, even though I always get beat by JJ. It doesn't hurt him that he went to college in Orlando and found out where all of the high point targets are.


The next major addition to Hollywood Studios, coming in early 2009, is the American Idol Experience. Now although I don't see this as being up to par with Millionaire, it definitely has potential. I'm a big Idol fan in general and this show/attraction could be a great place to cause a raucus. So apparently Disney guests appear on each show during the day, but you have to pass two auditions before getting to go on stage before the live audience. The guests perform and the audience votes on who was the best, and then the winner from each show face off in the finale each night. The winner of the finale show each day gets a ticket to an audition for the real American Idol show with judges that may or may not be Simon, Paula and Randy. Speaking of these judges, this attraction could be made or broken by the judges that have at each show. P.S. this attraction being invented shot David Gearey to the top of the list for next year's trip.


So on all three of the Park Guys' trips we've engaged in two 'class it up' restaurant dinners. The first two years we went to Margaritaville and ESPN Club and the third year we got tired of ESPN Club so it was Margarita-
ville and Rain Forest Cafe. There is a new restaurant being built as we speak in Downtown Disney that will definitely replace Rain Forest Cafe and it is called T-Rex Cafe. It is a prehistoric family adventure. I'm not saying it's going to be amazing, but I'm gonna vote to give it a shot come July 2009.

Kingda Ka was a Great Adventure

I just got back from an all day excursion to Six Flags Great Adventure. First off, it was a great time. As I thought, the park itself was not up to par with the Disney's, Universals, and Busch Gardens' of the world. There were a lot of coasters and many of them were fantastic. As per the usual, on one of my trips to a theme park, we voted on what the best rides were. The results are below...

Check out the spite voting by Larry....what a jerk.

Final Four

Final Four rides...

2. Splash Mountain- Magic Kingdom

1. Tower of Terror- Hollywood Studios

1. Spider Man- Islands of Adventure

6. DarKastle- Busch Gardens Europe


In the first matchup we have Splash Mt. and Tower of Terror. These are the two most extravagantly themed rides in existence. TOT gets the advantage for having a slight better ride experience.
On the other side we have Spider Man and DarKastle. After riding DarKastle for the first time, my friends and I had an argument on which was better out of these two, because they are almost identical. I think the theming to DarKastle blew Spider Man out of the water so it heads to the final.

TOT takes the championship home. Bracket is here...

Six Flags Region

The final region of the theme park attraction tourny...

1. Adventures of Spider Man- Islands of Adventure
16. Enchanted Tiki Room- Magic Kingdom
8. Men In Black Alien Attack- Universal Studios
9. Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin- Magic Kingdom
5. Jurassic River Adventure- Islands of Adventure
12. E.T.- Universal Studios
4. Popeye & Bluto's- Islands Of Adventure
13. Carousel of Progress- Hollywood Studios
3. Mickey's PhilharMagic- Magic Kingdom
14. Disaster!- Universal Studios
6. California Sreamin'- California Adventure
11. Poseidon's Adventure- Islands of Adventure
7. Space Mountain- Magic Kingdom
10. Cat in the Hat- Islands of Adventure
2. Alpengeist- Busch Gardens Europe
15. Jungle Cruise- Magic Kingdom

The six flags region had the best first round matchup with Buzz Lightyear and Men In Black facing off. They are the only two of this type of ride that I know of but Buzz Lightyear gets the edge and ends up losing to perennial favorite Spider Man. It was pretty sad that Jurassic River made it to the semi final but it had two extremely challenges in ET and Carousel of Progress. Space Mountain had a nice upset over Alpengeist, but I do not see how Alpengeist got such a high rating from TPI when they had Griffon much lower.

Full bracket is here...

Busch Region

Here we have the Busch Region...

1. Incredible Hulk- Islands of Adventure
16. Great Movie Ride- Hollywood Studios
8. Soarin'- Epcot
9. MuppetVision 3D- Hollywood Studios
5. Dudley Do Right's Ripsaw Falls- Islands of Adventure
12. Mr. Toad's Wild Ride- Disneyland
4. Rock 'n Roller Coaster- Hollywood Studios
13. Cheetah Chase- Busch Gardens Africa
3. Haunted Mansion- Magic Kingdom
14. Living w/ the Land- Epcot
6. Curse of DarKastle- Busch Gardens Europe
11. Roger Rabbit's Cartoon Spin- Disneyland
7. One Man's Dream- Hollywood Studios
10. Lochness Monster- Busch Gardens Europe
2. Expedition Everest- Animal Kingdom
15. It's Tough to be a Bug- Animal Kingdom

Plenty of upsets to go around in the Busch bracket. Living with the land, and its mickey shaped pumpkins got the better of the Haunted Mansion. Although the Lochness monster is getting old, it still brings more fun than walking around and looking at memorabilia, so One Man's Dream went down early. Obviously Incredible Hulk went down early....an always over-rated speed coaster isn't even the best coaster at islands of adventure (which makes it the worst). 8 seeded Soarin' made a good run all the way to the regional final but ran into an unstoppable rebel force in Curse of DarKastle. I recently experienced this ride this past summer and fell in love with it. It is modeled after the Spider Man ride, but in a much scarier atmosphere.

Full bracket is here...

Universal Region

Today we'll look at the Universal Region.

1. Tower of Terror- Hollywood Studios
16. Rhino Rally- Busch Gardens Africa
8. Terminator 2: 3D- Universal Studios
9. Dinosaur- Animal Kingdom
5. Aladdin Stage Show- California Adventure
12. Phoenix- Busch Gardens Africa
4. Apollo's Chariot- Busch Gardens Europe
13. Big Bad Wolf- Busch Gardens Europe
3. Festival of the Lion King- Animal Kingdom
14. Corkscrew Hill- Busch Gardens Europe
6. Kumba- Busch Gardens Africa
11. Lights, Motors, Action- Hollywood Studios
7. Thunder Mountain- Magic Kingdom
10. Spaceship Earth- Epcot
2. Griffon- Busch Gardens Europe
15. Star Tours- Hollywood Studios

Surprisingly, there were hardly any upsets in this bracket. My favorite matchup was in the regional semi-final where the fantastic Lion King stage show inched by the 90 drop roller coaster, Griffon. The Tower of Terror breezed through the region where its toughest competition might have been in the second round against the fast motion moving Dinosaur ride.

Full bracket is here...

Theme Park Tourney- Disney Region

Inspired by the recent knowledge that had a 64 team tournament of amusement and theme park rides I decided to create my own. They had their readers voting on which ride should win in each round but for my I will decide which one I like better. I will use their rankings so there will be surprise in which attraction wins because I have many different opinion than these fools. In today's post I will go over the rides in the Disney Region and how things played out.

1. Indiana Jones Adventure- Disneyland
16. Tomorrowland Transit Authority- Magic Kingdom
8. Test Track- Epcot
9. Mission: Space- Epcot
5. Matterhorn Bobsleds- Disneyland
12. Jaws- Universal Studios
4. Deuling Dragons- Islands of Adventure
13. Beauty and the Beast- Hollywood Studios
3. Kilamanjaro Safari- Animal Kingdom
14. Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor- Magic Kingdom
6. Montu- Busch Gardens Africa
11. Alice in Wonderland- Disneyland
7. Pirates of the Caribbean- Disneyland/Magic Kingdom
10. KaTonga- Busch Gardens Africa
2. Splash Mountain- Magic Kingdom/Disneyland
15. Tom Sawyer's Island- Magic Kingdom/Disneyland

Only one upset in the first round as the new Monsters Inc. interactive comedy show upset Kilamanjaro that can tend to get boring if the animals aren't out and about. All of the top seeds held serve the rest of the way until Splash Mountain, which is still the most amazing at getting something great out of not much, got the better of the top seeded Indiana Jones Adventure.

The full bracket is here....