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Ep 133 – Parking Fees vs Resort Fees with Kill Resort Fees Founder Lauren Wolfe

We try catching up on the latest news with this episode. News includes a billion dollar upgrade coming to Royal Caribbean, the significance to the new name at Gary Goddard Design, a mystery around a deleted article on The Dis, and the big changes coming to Lowry Park Zoo.

Kill Resort Fees Founder Lauren Wolfe calls in to talk about the new parking fees at WDW, why Disney likely won’t be adding a resort fee, and her work on bringing light to these hidden fees.

Recording Date– March 16, 2018, in Studio B at WPRK Winter Park, FL

Special GuestKill Resort Fees Founder Lauren Wolfe

Show Notes

Gary Goddard leaves, Legacy Entertainment new name

Disney restructuring

DCL changes eastern Caribbean itinerary as islands still work to recover from Maria

Tomorrowland Expo party confirmed for MK

The Dis deleted an article on a mechanics death

Food prep employees at MCO picket

Vacation homes no longer pay school impact fees

Rocket launches at KSC might soon be 3x the current rate

Shrek 4-D leaving?

Lowry Park Zoo renamed, announces major updates

Brevard Zoo announces inclusion plan for those with special needs, Jeff Corwin announces he’ll be visiting the zoo

Magic Sports and Entertainment district

Royal Caribbean’s billion-dollar expansion

Crystal Cruise update

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Ep 132 – March News Round-Up

It’s our monthly news round-up and it’s a doozy! New details on Universal’s Russian plans, the latest on the PeopleMover updates we broke 3 weeks ago, Brightline’s report card, the latest on Disney rumors, and tons of cruise news. It’s been a busy month since our last news round-up so this is a not to be missed episode!

Recording Date: March 9, 2018, in Studio B at WPRK Studios in Winter Park, Florida

Show Notes

New liquor law means more boozy cocktails for Orlando’s restaurant-goers

Brazil’s Senate Approves New Open Skies Agreement With United States

Record number of Brazilians heading to Orlando

Orlando Travel Academy gets an upgrade

NYC’s Cafe D’Avignon opening five outposts in Orlando

Orlando Starflyer to open in May

4DX Review of A Wrinkle in Time

Hard Rock HQ’s Orlando departure to result in 184 layoffs

Sands sells Pennsylvania casino

Universal moving ahead with Beijing, big projects in the works for Orlando

  • Europe park scouting continues, is this the Moscow resort in a new location?

Brightline president: ‘Train ridership is 3 times what we expected’

Queen Latifah named Carnival Horizon godmother

Norwegian Cruise Line getting showcase terminal in Miami

Norwegian rescues woman on Bahamas cruise who fell overboard

Disney releases renderings of its latest cruise ships

New Swan & Dolphin hotel renderings released

Walt Disney World Might be Developing the Old River Country Site According to Permits Just Filed

Bonnet Creek Resorts To Receive New Signs

  • New JW Marriott construction continues, should be visible from I-4 by mid to late-summer

Epcot might be getting a Mary Poppins dark ride

Illuminations update is moving forward

Epcot’s Odyssey to become flex-space

Could Black Panther be coming to Disney World after all?

Could Indiana Jones be moving to DAK?

Tower of Terror updates expected

After more than two years of documentation Google finally unveils Street view from inside Disney parks. 2016 article | 2017 article

Coco won for Best Animated Feature and “Remember Me” won for Best Song.

Susan Arnold Named Lead Independent Director of Disney

Disney shareholders vote against CEO Iger’s pay package

Unions protest outside of Shareholders meeting for better pay

$2B overhaul coming to Disneyland Paris resort

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Ep 131 – Scott Swenson talks SeaWorld Parks

It’s a SeaWorld heavy show when Scott Swenson, former Director of Creative Services at Busch Gardens Tampa, stops by the studio to discuss his more than 20 years with the company. The first hour is filled with insider stories for the past twenty years at Busch Gardens Tampa including never before shared details on the beginning of Howl-O-Scream, the background to that well known photo of the Howl-O-Scream and Halloween Horror Nights teams joining together, plus a ton of stories from the early days of Rhino Rally and Akbar’s Adventure Tours. Hour Two is focused on the current company with Swenson’s reactions to the huge leadership shake-up currently happening at SeaWorld Parks and Entertainment.

Recording Date: Friday, March 2, 2018, in WPRK’s Studio B in Winter Park, Florida

Special Guest: Scott Swenson

 

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Ep 130 – Ponte Health’s Vertical Medical City

Ed and Ken are joined by the team behind one of the most ambitious developments in the history of Central Florida. Ponte Health is looking to be a true vertical city in downtown Orlando that would become a beacon for health research and practice. Today the developers give us a deep dive into their vision. We learn about the hydroponic gardens, the retail, and the research that is being proposed for this massive new tower.

The Gossip Line is also active with Ed giving new details on a ton of summer offerings headed to Walt Disney World including updates to one of the most iconic rides at Magic Kingdom.

Recording Date – February 23, 2018

Ponte Health – Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram

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4DX Review – A Wrinkle in Time

This is a *mostly* spoiler-free review of A Wrinkle in Time in 4DX format. This isn’t designed to a be a review of the movie as much is it’s a review of the 4DX experience for this movie.

A Wrinkle in Time is Disney’s latest big-budget fantasy film.  With beautiful visuals and a wholesome good versus evil storyline, the movie will surely be in regular rotation on television, but these visuals are best seen on the big screen.

The movie opens with a cloud filled flying scene where the fans are used, but the smoke that could’ve sold the scene was missing. This seemed to be a theme throughout the film. The wind, water, and motion seats were used perfectly, but many of the other effects felt like afterthoughts if thought of at all.

The rumble effect in the seats was used with the bass of the music similar to how Black Panther did, but unlike Black Panther here the score just didn’t have enough bass to warrant such an effect. By far the best use of an effect was the motion seats. Unlike many action films here the seats weren’t rough and didn’t really move with the motion on the screen, instead, here they were used to enhance the emotional draw of the story. In more sensitive scenes the seats would tilt inward, drawing you into the scene.

Similar to Tomorrowland, another sci-fi based big-budget Disney film, A Wrinkle in Time has many scenes with wide vistas of fields. The fans in the theater made these scenes even more convincing. The smoke effects were used but not nearly enough as they could’ve been. The leg ticklers were only used a few times, but where used they were timed just right for the scene. Big storm scenes and a volcano like a scene meant the strobe lights got well used, almost to an annoyance but with so few other effects being used it feels wrong complaining about an effect being used too often.

Despite this being a sci-fi film, the genre that usually allows 4DX to shine, here the effects just weren’t enough to put this film in the upper echelon of 4DX films. It falls in the middle, not in the lower category of films where the effects distract from the viewing experience, such as with Kong, but the lack of variety in the effects mixed with the generic use of what effects, where used, make A Wrinkle in Time a less than memorable 4DX experience.

The visuals are the best part so it might be best to skip the 4DX and instead just take in this film on the big screen like IMAX.

-Review Summary-

  • Use of 4DX Effects- 2 out of 4
  • Movie Overall- 3 out of 4

Other 4DX Reviews

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