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theme parks

Not all that glitters is gold

You Might Be Able To Play A Hobbit Slot Machine At The Newly Trademarked Middle-Earth Theme Park

by Jill Pantozzi | 11:01 am, February 4th, 2013

Two Tolkien estate stories in one day? Are they trying to steal Beyonce’s thunder or something? 

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My Precious!

Rumored Tolkien Theme Park: The Hobbitest Place On Earth

by Jill Pantozzi | 11:45 am, January 4th, 2013

Look, New Zealand, you’re really far away from us and it’s really expensive to get to you. Odds are, most of us won’t ever be able to experience your beauty, never mind Hobbiton. So it’s with a great amount of glee we report a theme park may be in the works as a joint venture between Universal, Warner Bros., and the Tolkien estate. Get ready for Mr. Frodo’s Wild Ride! 

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Highly Successful Marketing Strategies

Be Our Guest! Magic Kingdom To Start Serving Wine and Beer

by Zoe Chevat | 11:46 am, September 14th, 2012

Aww yeah, brah

(EDITORIAL CORRECTION: Though our original source said Disneyland, we did a bit of confused post-pub checking, and it turns out the expansion is coming to DisneyWorld, not Disneyland. Sorry, California.)

Fantasyland is about to get wilder…in the most mild of ways.

When Disneyland sees an expansion in the Fantasyland section of their park this fall, a new Beauty & The Beast-themed restaurant (titled, what else, Be Our Guest) will have beer and wine offered on their dinner menu. The licensing of the restaurant will be a big break with longstanding tradition upheld by the late Walt Disney himself. Broken long ago elsewhere in the park, the Magic Kingdom area has been a holdout that harks back to a time when Walt moved his DisneyWorld plans from St. Louis to Orlando because the city insisted on serving beer. According to the Disney blog, there’s a concern that opening a new section of the park to alcohol could result in cases of obvious drunkenness, and lead to bad word of mouth due to the presence of “drunken louts”.

Hey! As a lout, I take offense to that!

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Cautiously Optimistic

Northeasterners Rejoice: DreamWorks To Open Theme Park In New Jersey

by Kellie Foxx-Gonzalez | 2:01 pm, July 12th, 2012

For those of us in the Northeast, our fandom-based pleasures are often woefully far away — Comic-Con is in San Diego, Disney is based in both California and smack dab in the middle of Florida, with Universal’s Marvel Island right along side it. But now, with any luck, DreamWorks animation may answer our prayers for a closer source of franchise-based amusement  with their plans to build a new theme park in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Who’s ready for a Puss In Boots ride?

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Excelsior!

Avengers to Officially Reassemble, Surprising No One; Marvel Stuff in Disney Parks is Go

by Susana Polo | 11:10 am, May 9th, 2012

Look. We live in a day and age where sequels are greenlit before their preceding films have even hit theaters, and whether or not a movie is critically acclaimed doesn’t necessarily have anything to say about whether it gets a follow up (see persistant rumblings of a Tron 3). So, yeah, nobody should really be surprised that a movie that has made $702 million dollars globally by the end of its first opening weekend in America, a movie whose merchandise Disney itself is reportedly having difficulty keeping in stock, a movie that set up for its own sequel in its post credits sequence, a movie that studio executives were saying was getting a sequel last October… is getting a sequel.

It is.

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And All Was Right With the World

Jaws Re-imagined As a Heartwarming Family Tale [Video]

by Jamie Frevele | 5:43 pm, December 12th, 2011

In case you happen to follow me — or The Mary Sue — on Twitter, you might know that I was on vacation in Orlando last week. But the day I left for said vacation, I was really disheartened to find out that the Jaws ride, one of the original attractions at Universal Studios when it opened in 1990, will be closing! So, I rode it one more time, and it was a truly sentimental experience. (Eh, not really.) In fact, the video above — by Caleb Hepler — echoes my feelings almost exactly. (Again, not really.) I’ll miss that curious shark! (Ehhhhhh … maybe a little.)

(via Laughing Squid)

Things We Saw Today

Things We Saw Today: Luke and Han Are the Hosts With the Most(s)

by Jamie Frevele | 5:00 pm, August 22nd, 2011

Luke: Han wants to do a souffle … I don’t trust him.
Han: I can do a damn souffle. Trust me.

But speaking of guests, we’ll just round out our day with a reminder of our intern search. We can’t guarantee that you’ll see Han and Luke in our kitchen making snacks, but you’ll sure get to imagine it out loud! (at Ginger Haze)

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We Can Be Heroes

Universal Orlando Surprises Guests With Free Access to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter

by Jamie Frevele | 4:15 pm, July 15th, 2011

Well, this is the best thing ever. After hosting a midnight screening of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, the Universal Orlando Resort surprised everyone at the screening with free access to its Potter theme park, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. And instantly, they endeared themselves to the world. Because who doesn’t want to ride a hippogriff after everyone else has left the premises? You know Hagrid’s got your back.

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