disneyfan1313 Posted August 12, 2006 Share Posted August 12, 2006 Stacey and I decided to take a little random day trip yesterday and visit one of the last remaining brass ring carousels in the USA. We had heard about this carousel in a thread about them a while back and since Stacey has never been on a Brass Ring Carousel before and it is only about 30 minutes away from Orlando we decided - What the heck! This Carousel is in a *seriously* redneck and scary fleamarket in the middle of the drive between Orlando and Tampa. Unfortunately it had already stopped running for the day once we got there but we hope to try again (TPR Side Trip?!?). And try out the newest video game technology. Before we left we had to get some credits! You grab the Brass Ring from the Gators Mouth - ROCK ON! Here is the informational plaque. It looks like it had been in Old Town before this.. what a step down! (and that is hard to do coming from Old Town!) It appeared to have real horse hair tails and lots of great detail Until we stumbled upon this beautifully restored carousel. Damn.. it had just closed a half-hour before we got there and crap like this... It took *forever* to find the carousel. Pictures miles upon miles (ok..probably more like feet upon feet) of crap like this.. Here we are in the Beautiful and Scenic "International Market World" in Auburndale, FL.. WTF - DOES THAT SAY WACO GUN SHOP?! Should we turn around now? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
disneyfan1313 Posted August 12, 2006 Author Share Posted August 12, 2006 We had decided to also go to Universal Orlando during the day (and not during a HHN) for the first time since ...oh... 2000 since it was one of the last days of Universal 360, we had not been on the High in the Sky Trolly Train and we also wanted to do BTTF before it closes. Universal 360.. It wasn't bad.. it just felt kinda half-a$$d.. It felt hastily edited together, cheesy and somewhat dated. Its better than the old lagoon show by far but when compared to WDW's and even Sea World's offerings it falls pretty flat. Oh Wel While BTTF it rough and cheesy - I am going to miss it. I *heart* those movies. I ate your brother for dinner!!! HAHAHA!! We then headed over to the Studios and had a *great* dinner at Lombardi's Landing (under the false assumption it would get us priority viewing for Universal 360). What a nice restaurant - it looks like it should be in TDS! I miss the T-Rex encounter! You can kinda still see where the path was. This is the *Ultimate* roller coaster T-Shirt! We walked by the "OMG WE ARE THE BEST RESTAURANT EVER!!!!!111!!" place long enough to snap a picture of their menu for interested parties. You do have some pretty good views of IOA. This is pretty much the only theming you see on the one track..and you go by it so quickly I have no idea what it is.. There are warning signs *everywhere*.. why? The top speed of about 3MPH is pretty scary. Oh..and did I mention - THEY STAPLE YOU ON THIS RIDE MORE THAN KNOTTS! Pleeeeeeease?!?! I mean it has wheels and stuff! Can we at least count this as a credit?!?! The queue looks nice.. Oh wait..that is because it has BEEN SITTING AROUND SINCE THE LATE 90's! First stop the "It's more boring than if you had the TTA and a parking lot tram have sex" ride! Stacey looks a little too happy to be riding the panther... I have never noticed these large plasma screens before in front of all of the ticket booths..nice touch! First stop IOA (with a huge line to get through the turnstiles with 3 running... WTF?!?!?) Bubba Gumps is now open and *very* busy. We have been to the one in Miami so we decided to skip this one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PKIDelirium Posted August 12, 2006 Share Posted August 12, 2006 lol, nice photo of the no cameras sign, followed by onride photos. Â Then again, it's just a monorail kiddie thing. Who gives a crap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gatorchomp83 Posted August 12, 2006 Share Posted August 12, 2006 I live in Florida and haven't been to Orlando (where I'm from) in almost four years.... I really need to get back there before BTTF closes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
obeygiant Posted August 12, 2006 Share Posted August 12, 2006 Nice pics....I really need to get back to Orlando to get one more ride on BTTF and my Trolley credit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
disneyfan1313 Posted August 14, 2006 Author Share Posted August 14, 2006 lol, nice photo of the no cameras sign, followed by onride photos. Â Then again, it's just a monorail kiddie thing. Who gives a crap. Â Whoops! I did not even notice the "no photo" rule and tons of folks on my train were video taping... odd.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeemerBoy Posted August 14, 2006 Share Posted August 14, 2006 Classic stuff! Market World.....Go to church, get a haircut, and buy a firearm....all before noon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erik Johnson Posted August 14, 2006 Share Posted August 14, 2006 Yeah I thought the Universal 360 was rather lackluster as well. Oh well, at least I can say I saw it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bgwfreak Posted August 14, 2006 Share Posted August 14, 2006 Uh oh. South of the Border better look out for that "park". They might take their title of worst US park away! Â Â WHY CAN'T YOU TAKE PICTURES? You're going 3 mph!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack57 Posted August 14, 2006 Share Posted August 14, 2006 Nice TR, the gun shop sign was funny! Â Â Â *YAY! 90th POST!* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
munkyknum Posted August 14, 2006 Share Posted August 14, 2006 What's wrong with Waco's Guns? They're nice people. Â Props to you for braving the Flea Market, or as I call it Mexico City #2. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
disneyfan1313 Posted August 14, 2006 Author Share Posted August 14, 2006 What's wrong with Waco's Guns? They're nice people. Â Props to you for braving the Flea Market, or as I call it Mexico City #2. Â Heh.. Nothing is wrong with them - I just did not know if it was "Waco" as in crazy or "Waco" as in Texas... either one is just as disturbing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robbalvey Posted August 21, 2006 Share Posted August 21, 2006 Great TR! You told me about this on the phone, but I had totally missed the Photo TR until now. See you in a few weeks! Â --Robb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
morbid_riddler Posted August 21, 2006 Share Posted August 21, 2006 I think the no camera rule is "for your safety" since you are up 15 feet above everyone else's heads and "what if" you happen to drop that out of your hands as you take pictures? Same reason you can't take pictures on the teacups. I had a waterbottle in my cup last time I went and it slipped out of the cup through the crack at the bottom and crashed into the perimeter railing and not into someone's shins luckily. "For your safety" is the main reason for no cameras on the attractions. If not, I don't think they'd mind you taking pictures. Just remember to ask first before sneaking an on ride of the trolley ride, or else they'll send the shrek goons to flog you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schmoofy Posted August 21, 2006 Share Posted August 21, 2006 That's neat, the carousel was located at Harvey's Lake at one point. We usually go there for potato pancakes once a week. Neat to see something from close to home. Nice report! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoasterJunkie Posted August 21, 2006 Share Posted August 21, 2006 You visited the Auburndale Dirt Mart!!... Â I go by this all the time on my way to work...Across the street for the Dirt Mart is a sign for Mud-Bogging!! Enter at your own risk though as they dont have insurance!! Â Nice pics...The dirt mart is a RPTR all in its own! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr_teisco_delrey Posted August 21, 2006 Share Posted August 21, 2006 Forget the gun shop, I want to see what kind of haircuts yout for 9 bucks from Elois'. I am sure they are rather mulletine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Volcano Posted August 21, 2006 Share Posted August 21, 2006 Hey Reed! Thanks for the update, those were very interesting pictures... You know that flea market "Market World" is like 10minutes from me, WTF! its seriously a very scary flea market, the only times that I've been there I wasn't sure if I would escape alive...  Anyways, I didn't realize their carousel was a brass ring carousel, I've never been on it, the only times that I HAVE been there, its been closed, and its in a very very very ghetto section of the flea market... (well thats not hard to imagine I guess)  Which side of the Suess Train ride did you get on? I guess the track ends up turning into a Gemini but we rode on the right side (cant remember what color it was really) and I didn't see much theming except for some stuff at the end... it gave some pretty neat views of Suess Landing and even IOA though, and the whole onride speakers talking about the alphabet was pretty crazy weird... haha  Glad you had fun at Universal Orlando, I really miss going there since I dont get to go as much, my friend and I went a couple of weeks ago and got to see the Universal 360' (but not all the way through) and I actually quite enjoyed it.  -Justin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
obeygiant Posted August 22, 2006 Share Posted August 22, 2006 ^Oh so you like watching video montages with occasionally a few fireworks? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Volcano Posted August 22, 2006 Share Posted August 22, 2006 ^Oh so you like watching video montages with occasionally a few fireworks? Â I guess so! But I didn't even really see it all the way through, so the amount of critiscm that it recieves from alot of people may be that they saw the whole thing and I didn't... but I mean what I saw I liked, I liked how the music and stuff matched the movies and stuff, but I guess for a "firework show" it really isn't that much. Â Its definately not as good as the original Firework show at IOA for sure, and I dont remember the original Universal one that much honestly... Universal is kindof a debateable park to me to have a huge firework show off of anyways, the only time I did see the original show, firework shells were falling all over the ground everywhere because they're so close from the sidewalks to the water. Â -Justin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
morbid_riddler Posted August 22, 2006 Share Posted August 22, 2006 Let me set things straight with the 360, this has grown to be a big pet peeve of mine: Â Universal 360 is a night time show, not a "fireworks show", period. The fireworks and lasers are additional cool visuals to the show, not the show itself. I don't know if I should blame universal for marketing what appears to be a fireworks show, or blame everyone else for thinking that it's just about the fireworks. The show was well put together and people seemed to love it every time I've went (has seen it 5 times) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Volcano Posted August 22, 2006 Share Posted August 22, 2006 I don't know if I should blame universal for marketing what appears to be a fireworks show, or blame everyone else for thinking that it's just about the fireworks. Â Well one thing, Universal DID market it as a Firework and Laser show at first when they sent out the cards in the mail from it, I remember reading "New Laser & Firework show coming, Universal 360'". Â I mean as I see it, I really did enjoy Universal 360', but alot of people that come and might expect to see a Firework show would probably clearly be dissapointed (Like I mentioned... for a firework show it really is nothing) but I get where your going with it. Â Sometimes the cool visuals are a good thing and sometimes they're not, I think Universal did pretty good with it in speculation of having a good show to put on. I wasn't even sure if I would enjoy it at first, being that I hate the little part in Epcot's Illuminations when the globe comes out onto the lake and shows the pictures with the water effects (I mean not that its necessarily bad looking) but I do feel like it was dragged out too long... and maybe I thought that if an entire show was put on like this (Universal 360') that I would be bored. Â -Justin (I DID like Universal 360', or what I saw of it anyways...) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimmy Yoshi Posted August 23, 2006 Share Posted August 23, 2006 WHY CAN'T YOU TAKE PICTURES? You're going 3 mph!!! Â They let me take pics on the ride, but I was the only one on the train. Â Nice TR btw. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
disneyfan1313 Posted August 23, 2006 Author Share Posted August 23, 2006 Let me set things straight with the 360, this has grown to be a big pet peeve of mine:Â Universal 360 is a night time show, not a "fireworks show", period. The fireworks and lasers are additional cool visuals to the show, not the show itself. I don't know if I should blame universal for marketing what appears to be a fireworks show, or blame everyone else for thinking that it's just about the fireworks. The show was well put together and people seemed to love it every time I've went (has seen it 5 times) Â Hmm. I went into it thinking there would be less fireworks than there were. Being a local I had read all the articles in the paper about the neighbors complaining and how much they had to cut down the pyro..etc. I was expecting a few low level shells and nothing else.. it was the rest of the show that was kinda....."Meh?" Â It would be an *great* show at any regional theme park around the country - but when you have the competition you do in Orlando you can't help comparing it to what else is out there. IMHO even Sea Worlds night time show is a bit better.. But it is all opinion and what makes some happy does not make others. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeemerBoy Posted August 23, 2006 Share Posted August 23, 2006 It would be an *great* show at any regional theme park around the country - but when you have the competition you do in Orlando you can't help comparing it to what else is out there. IMHO even Sea Worlds night time show is a bit better.. But it is all opinion and what makes some happy does not make others. Â Spot on with that. In that particular market, you've gotta bring your "A game." Anything less gets lost in the shuffle. I haven't seen the show yet, but from all the reports thus far, it doesn't leave me feeling I'd be missing out on anything more spectacular than Fantasmic, Illuminations, or Wishes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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