Hard Rock Park 2.0

Hard Rawk ParkWhile it was expected, it’s now become official; Hard Rock Park has been sold to FPI MB Entertainment. Just some updates as to what’s going on with HRP, or whatever the new name will be.

First off, they’ve slashed their season pass cost from $150 (holy crap!!) to a much more appropriate $75. They’re also going to cut the entrance cost from $50 to around $35. Ok, seriously, I had no idea that Hard Rock Park was that stupid expensive to go to. Fifty bucks just wasn’t worth it for what was there. Dropping $50 dollars for admission to a Disney park, okay, I can see that, but HRP wasn’t even close to Disney standards from what I’ve seen. As for the season pass, well, I can’t believe people actually bought it. The new owners apparently feel the same way and will allow 08 season pass holders to use the same pass in 2009.

The new owners have also lowered their hopeful attendance outlook for 2009; they hope to attract around 800,000 guests this season. That’s down from the, oh about 3,000,000 that the original owners thought! Jeez, wishful thinking much? How did they really expect three million visitors? It reminds me of when I launched the first version of this site on AOL Hometown in like 2001; I was expecting hundreds of visitors a day! I managed to get 50 visitors…IN ONE YEAR.

Finally, the new owners are going to hire 750 employees to staff the park; that’s down from 2,000 that originally worked there. Why they needed two thousand employees completely escapes me. I mean did they have 15 people running the rides at one time; one employee for each row of the coaster train maybe? While yes, this would mean that there are 1,250 less job openings in these economic times when finding a job is almost a crap shoot, it would also mean that the park could possibly stay open for more than two seasons.

Hard Rock Park…looking at how the place was run, it’s almost no wonder they closed up. Their expectations were so high that they dug themselves into a hole before the first guest stepped through the doors. Maybe with the new owners at the helm, this park could be more than two-hit wonder!

Sources: The Sun News, Orlando Sentinel

It’s been a pretty slow week around here at the DoD3. I’ve been busy with other obligations and focusing more on this site’s search engine visibility, plus a bit of writers block! But alas, the weekend is here and so is another installment of the Theme Park Crapstravaganza! To make up for the lack of articles this past week, I’ll pull out arguably the best park map I have, a vintage 1983 Epcot Center park map. Unlike the previous Epcot park map, this one  is lovingly kept in a plastic bag and put in a place where it won’t get crushed or ripped.


Epcot Center 1983 1
First let me say that this map is from the 1983 season which is one year after the park opened. I wasn’t even a thought yet in 1983 so I don’t have any stories to share from this trip!

The cover, which is made from cardboard, features an awesomely 80s design with bright retro-tastic colors. The cover simply proclaims “Walt Disney World Epcot Center.” Back then the name was EPCOT Center, with EPCOT being an acronym for “Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow.” Today, the park is simply known as ‘Epcot’ with the acronym notation as well as ‘Center’ being dropped.


Epcot Center 1983 2The park map resides on the second page for easy viewing. The map is fairly utilitatian, simply showing the locations of the pavilions. Some things to notice in this map:

  • Two Future World pavilions, Living Seas and Wonders of Life, were not around in 83.
  • Horizons was there but still under construction.
  • In World Showcase, the Norway and Morocco pavilions have not been built yet.

Epcot Center 1983 3Here’s a nifty little feature; it’s a cardboard wheel that can be spun to show what every pavilion has to offer. I have it stopped on World of Motion among other things.

Let’s check out the attraction pages next…

Crapstravaganza Week 16: Epcot Center 1983

Jimmy Want’s the Truth!

Jimmy OlsonI’m a little late to this one but it looks like a website named Jimmy’s Truth 2 Power was launched back in January by proprietor Jimmy Olson (pictured), photographer for the Daily Planet newspaper. Wait, what? Daily Planet? Hmm…let’s inspect here. The blog starts off innocently enough, the first post is ‘Jimmy’ simply photographing scenes around Metropolis and expressing his desire to write for the Daily Planet, just like his friends Clark Kent and Louis Lane. Well you always need a goal in life to move towards and…wait a minute! This is obviously part of the viral stunt launched by Six Flags to promote their Medusa/Superman: Ride of Steel renovations.

In Jimmy’s latest video blog post, he drops a bombshell that many of you probably figured out already, Clawshun Industries, the company allegedly responsible for transforming Superman:  Ride of Steel at Six Flags New England and Medusa at Six Flags Great Adventure, is actually LexCorp. Of course, LexCorp is owned by the evil villain of Superman fame, Lex Luthor! Jimmy says he’ll do some investigative reporting and get back to us.

I’ll admit, this isn’t a bad viral marketing campaign; considering that little is really known about the transformations, it’ll be fun to see what’s revealed over the coming weeks. However one has to wonder why the heck Medusa, a ride in a wild west themed area,  would be transformed to a Superman theme? Perhaps Six Flags Great Adventure has some plans for Frontier Adventures?

*2/19 Update*

There’s a new post over at Jimmy’s Truth 2 Power including video. Apparently Jimmy contacted an informant inside LexCorp about the projects. There’s also a new site available, LexCorp International. Jimmy also asks us for some help in trying to decode a lead. You can check out Truth2Power to watch the video and figure out the puzzle for yourself…or you can see the spoiler.

*3/2 Update*

I received a package from ‘Jimmy Olson!‘ What the heck?!

*3/4 UPDATE!*

Yet another update to Truth 2 Power; actually another three updates! The first update basically recaps the 2/19 update with the security monitors and such. The second explains the meeting Jimmy had with the informant from LexCorp and how we need to help build an “anti-brainwashing beam;” well Jim, I do have an old laser pointer laying around somewhere 😉 . The final post features audio from a mole whose on the inside; she instructs us on how to find the blueprints for the said anti-brainwashing beam. Hop on over to Truth2Power and see if you can figure out this latest puzzle!

3/11: Yep, another update to Truth 2 Power with another decode the code game to find out the find out-able.

Hop over to the Truth2Power Webiste!

Crapstravaganza Week 15: EPCOT 1998

Epcot logo in 1998Fifteen weeks…fifteen! I can’t believe it’s been fifteen damn weeks since I’ve started the Crapstravaganza series! As we enter the final 1/3 of the off season, I can’t help but to notice that I haven’t posted much Disney stuff aside from the Winter Waterpark Crapstravaganza which featured Disney’s waterparks. I guess the crapstravaganza is past due for a full fledged Disney map, so this week we have a 1998 map from one of my personal favorite Walt Disney World parks, Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, better known as EPCOT!

Before I start, let me just warn that the following linked images are much larger than normal, so 56k’ers beware!

Crapstravaganza Week 15: EPCOT 1998

Jersey Shore Excursion pt.2

North Shore pointsAfter attending the Golden Nugget event the day before and going on a little self guided sightseeing tour, I left the house in Brick at around 10 am. I picked up a breakfast sandwich and coffee at a Dunkin Doughnuts and ate while driving to Seaside Heights, NJ. I took route 35, a scenic north/south highway to get to Seaside, and was met by only a few cars traveling around as I coasted through the shore towns of Ortley Beach and Lavalette among others. I arrived in Seaside within 15-20 minutes; during the summer, this same trip would have taken a good 45 minutes do to the explosion in seasonal population.

For anyone who doesn’t know, Seaside, NJ (which actually consists of two towns, Seaside Park and Seaside Heights) is a very popular shore point in New Jersey. If I had to name three big shore locales where Jerseans typically vacation, Seaside would probably rank at #3 with the Wildwoods and Long Beach Island as 1 and 2 respectfully. Seaside Heights is packed full of motels and typically caters to a younger crowd with an abundance of bars and clubs.

I parked in a large parking lot in Seaside Park and was flagged down by a dude just leaving his spot who had about 40 minutes left on the meter (yes you still have to feed the meter here in the winter!) I put in a quarter to make it 55 minutes (15 minutes per quarter too! I’m still young but I remember when a quarter would get you an hour!) It was about 50 degrees out, so there were quite a few people on the boardwalk; as opposed to Saturday when only a few crazies (like myself) braved the boardwalk. Here’s the first set of photos from around Funtown Pier.

Aside from more people on the boards, everything else was about what you’d expect from a winter day ‘down the shore;’ most of the boardwalk stores were closed (except for one or two) many of the arcades were open, and barely anything was going on off the boardwalk. I ended up walking from the parking lot, to the very north end of the boardwalk and back. Along the way I stopped in both of the pier owned arcades, Funtown Arcade and Casino Arcade. Here’s the photos from the end of the boardwalk to Casino Arcade.

Casino Pier arcade had a decent amount of people in there, and they actually had their indoor carousel running with someone behind the controls, but I didn’t see anyone get on…then again I was only there for like five minutes. Funtown Arcade also had a good amount of people around, and their carousel was also running but with no takers. Something I like about Funtown Arcade is that it has an entire section devoted to 80s arcade games. Some of the games included Super Mario Bros, Kung Fu, Pole Position, Pac Man, like 12 pinball machines including one called ‘Hercules’ which is about twice the size of a normal one! This next set of photos are from the arcades…

Jersey Shore Excursion pt.2