Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA Yes - guests at Disney-MGM would board trams - with a guide and ride around the backlot with stops at sound stages and other 'how movies are made' shows and exhibits. 'Catastrophe Canyon' was also on the tram tour.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip Yes, I remembered the Tram Tour at MGM back when it was an actual tour. I just didn't remember the one at Universal Florida.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros >>Also, didn't MGM Studios actually open before Universal Orlando opened?<< Yes, MGM opened in May 1989, and Universal opened in 1990 (June, I think). Disney won the race to get their park open first, but ended up with somewhat of a half-baked product. It seemed to work for the first few years, when everything in the park was still new to most visitors, and Typhoon Lagoon and Pleasure Island were able to occupy the other half of people's days, but as people became more familiar with the material in the park, the informational aspects seemed to lose their draw. Universal also seemed to have some problems drawing guests in, and only really seemed to have turned the corner in the last few years with huge redevelopment projects (spurred by IOA's HP). At the moment, Universal is probably a better park than WDW's Studios (I haven't been to USO in many years), so I guess there's some value to opening later; also to heavily reinvesting in the park
Originally Posted By FerretAfros >>Yeah, it used the full name at opening. Here's the ad for the grand opening TV special:<< But even in that same ad, it uses both names; it says "Disney-MGM Studios Theme Park" in the text near the top of the page, but the logo just says "Disney-MGM Studios". I've also seen a version of the logo that says "Theme Park" in a thin line across the bottom (about a third or half the height of the Studios line in the logo). I would assume that colloquially people have always dropped the "Theme Park" from the name, like how most people just call it California Adventure, but it's interesting to see that even the official documentation varies on this one. Given how much they follow naming protocol in everything they do these days, it's funny to think that relatively recently they were so lax about it. But a lot has changed with Disney in the intervening years, and branding is now more important than ever, so I guess the new focus makes some sense
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt I went the year after it opened and followed the development pretty closely and I'm pretty sure that the full name was the official title.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip I really enjoyed the park in it's early years... my ranking of the Florida Disney parks during those years was: 1) Epcot, 2) MGM Studios, 3) Magic Kingdom.
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt Does DHS still have a fireworks show? I can't recall the name of the show they used to do back in the park's early days.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip The MGM Studios Fireworks show was "Sorcery in the Sky". They no longer have a fireworks show, except (I think) for one on the 4th of July.
Originally Posted By mrkthompsn "Just to play devil's advocate for a moment, should Universal Studios Orlando change their name?" Well... It WAS Universal Studios Florida. Maybe they should move the park to Atlanta. It's nothing but Hollywood up here.
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt "The MGM Studios Fireworks show was "Sorcery in the Sky"." That's the name! I was trying to remember what it was called.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros They stopped having regular performances of Sorcery in the Sky after Fantasmic! opened, since the fireworks required shutting down the back half of the park for fall-out. They continued to occasionally perform the show for private events, but it was pretty rare The last couple years they've included a fireworks show for Star Wars Weekends, and this year they also did one for Frozen Summer (which I believe had its last show this weekend). Because they all use low-level launches off the tops of the buildings (the launch sites on The Great Movie Ride can easily be seen on Google Earth), they have to close most of the park early, including TSMM. They also ran F! on some of the fireworks nights this summer, so they must have figured out a decent system, despite the lack of places for crowds to go
Originally Posted By Captain Neo Wait it's going to be called Hollywood Adventure but the entire park is dominated by Lucasfilm and Pixar properties. Shouldn't it be called NorCal Adventure or something? Why not just call it Lucas Land since by the end of decade the park will be 90% based off of things he created.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros For what it's worth, I just watched a video of the USF tram tour, and I can see why they closed it so early on. The first few minutes of the tour took guests between sound stages, most of which were closed off and didn't have anything noteworthy to see. One had an open door, and the tour also went past a small boneyard with a couple props in it. It then continued on into the guest walkways of the park, pointing out a handful of tricks that are used in movies but mostly just describing the scenery along the way that was inspired by moments in films. While pleasant enough, it didn't really serve any purpose to show anything about movies. It seems relatively labor intensive (small-ish trams with a driver and a tour guide), and must have been difficult to operate through the same streets that guests were walking along en route to other attractions. They didn't really do anything to mislead guests about things actually being made there (as was done to a certain extent in WDW), but it also didn't really add anything that you couldn't see as a pedestrian; it was sort of like an overblown version of the Main Street Vehicles <a target="blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HJD3gvadUA">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...D3gvadUA</a>
Originally Posted By DDMAN26 I can't say this will be missed. And it's about time this park got some attention.
Originally Posted By mrkthompsn Catastrophe Canyon: the first reason producers abandoned the original sound stages.
Originally Posted By leemac <<the TDL version is very different from that at DCA. I don't know that it is necessarily much better. I suppose the whole flashlight thing gives it interactivity, but I found it rather pointless and to some extent annoying.>> Oy - seriously?!?! Ride & Go Seek is infinitely better. Close proximity to three dimensional sets of Monstropolis and fully functioning AAs. The end scene of Randall in the trash compactor is an incredibly complicated set piece that works on every level. I'm bias but I can't think of a single element of Mike & Sulley to the Rescue! that compares to anything in Ride & Go Seek. It may not be as popular as Hunny Hunt but it is a delightful attraction.
Originally Posted By leemac Put me in the camp that D-MGM is a mess from a master planning perspective. The hub and spoke approach is the best design flow and it makes little sense to mess with that format. DAK has an expanded version of hub and spoke that works well. Epcot also works on a similar level in Future World (obviously World Showcase is different). Bob Weis knows different it seems. He ignored all convention and logic for D-MGM (and the input of seasoned master planners like Wing Chao) in the development of that park. He is doing exactly the same thing in Shanghai. Bob knows best so there is little point in arguing with him.
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA <Put me in the camp that D-MGM is a mess from a master planning perspective. The hub and spoke approach is the best design flow and it makes little sense to mess with that format.> Thanks leemac - I think so too <Bob Weis knows different it seems. He ignored all convention and logic for D-MGM (and the input of seasoned master planners like Wing Chao) in the development of that park. He is doing exactly the same thing in Shanghai. Bob knows best so there is little point in arguing with him.> Ha! True too. Bob was at Imagineering when I was there in the early 90s. Overall, Disney-MGM Studios seemed rushed to market - with a key factor being that Disney wanted to be first with a studio-based theme park. The main entrance is nicely done, and Hollywoid Blvd. and the Streetmosphere characters downright brilliant. Using the Chinese theater as the parks icon was an odd choice given thet it is still in Hollywood. In hindsight, the Carthay Circle would have been more Disney. Always felt the Indiana Jones stunt show was in an odd place. Toward the back of the park made/makes more sense to me. Plus, plopping the park so close to an intersection of two main Disney roadways was really strange. I was there opening day (working at WDW Disney University) and the reaction from cast members and guests was not great. Guests were not happy about paying full price for a half-day experience. Seems Disney learned very little as they did it again with DCA -- with much of the same reaction.
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt To be fair DCA was a much more complete experience on opening day than DHS was.
