Simpsons Ride and Krustyland at Universal Studios

This post has nothing to do with Shanghai or China...


I have no idea how I got on Fox's mailing list but anyway, I was just notified that a new Simpsons ride is due to open soon in Hollywood and Orlando, Florida.

I checked it out and it really looks like my type of thing - so much fun!

Pictures from here.






The LA Times has a couple of articles here, here, here and here.

According to sources, the new Simpsons Ride/Krustyland is taking over the Back to the Future ride, and is due to open on May 17 or 24 in Hollywood, Los Angeles. Simpsons ride creators even added a hommage to “Back to the Future” with a brief appearance by an animated Doc Brown, the mad inventor from the movie.

Visitors to the $40-million attraction enter through Krusty’s gaping mouth, walking along his unfurled squishy red tongue and swatting at a uvula punching bag hanging at the back of his throat. In the queue, posters advertise many of the Krustyland rides and attractions.

Once through the queue, visitors wait in Funhouse loading rooms before boarding the Simpsons simulator ride. An Itchy & Scratchy safety video vividly warns riders what can happen if they don’t follow the rules.

Riders climb aboard the Krustymobile via a gull wing-style door — a nod to Doc Brown’s DeLorean time machine. The ride vehicle glows with garish LED lights in the blacklight-lit room.

The six-minute motion simulator ride follows the Simpsons clan as they are plucked from the crowd at the Krustiest Place on Earth to be the first family to tackle the “upsy-downsy, spins-aroundsy, teen-operated ride thrilltacular.”

Krustyland Rides

* Traumanator Roller Coaster
* Tooth Chipper Roller Coaster
* The Sea Captain’s Queasy Time Lagoon Adventure
* Radioactive Man – the Ride
* Captain Dinosaur’s Pirate Rip Off
* Screamatorium of Dr. Frightmarestein (starring Milhouse, Ralph and Cletus)
* Happy Little Elves in Panda Land
* Krusty’s Balloon Parade
* Death Drop
* Yard Work Simulator

Krustyland Shows

* Krusty’s Wet & Smokey Stunt Show
* The Isotop-ettes Musical Spectacular (starring twin sisters Patty and Selma)
* Sideshow Mel & Mr. Teeny’s Musical revue
* Impervo the Painless (starring Groundskeeper Willie)
* Madame Manjuala: The Future Looker-Atter (starring Apu’s wife)


Looks awesome. I loved Universal Studios in Japan and the Back to the Future ride but this sounds even better! I'm not a fan of those upside-down spinning twirling rides that leave me feeling very dizzy and nauseous, but Universal Studios' ride are just the best - I loved all of them!

Cheap Flights! March-April

I just got this email. Let me know if you want further details...

All prices are return economy, including tax.
Shanghai Pudong to:

City	Airline	Fare (RMB)	Dates	Note:
Singapore	Singapore Airlines	2850	Mar.30th--Apr.25th	7 days
Osaka	China Eastern (MU)	2895	Mar.5th--Mar.27th	30 days
Sydney	Air China (CA)	6460	Mar.3th--Apr.30th	6 mth
Sydney	China Eastern(MU)	6480	Mar.4th--Apr.21st	6 mth
Melbourne	Air China (CA)	6320	Mar.3th--Apr.30th	6 mth
Melbourne	China Eastern (MU)	6580	Mar.4th--Apr.21st	6 mth
San Francisco	United Airlines	5890	Mar.1st--Mar.31st	30 days
Los Angeles	United Airlines	4990	Mar.1st--Mar.31st	30 days
Los Angeles	Air China (CA)	4850	Feb.19th--Mar.31st	30 days
Paris	China Eastern (MU)	6850	Apr.1st--Jun.30th	45 days
London	China Eastern (MU)	6280	Apr.1st--Jun.30th	1 year
Frankfurt	China Eastern (MU)	6750	Apr.1st--Jun.30th	45 days

Note:
Valid days means that the duration in the travelled city from departure time on. For example, if the valid day is 7days, and your departure time is April.1st, that means you must return before Apr.8th with this ticket.

PS:
When I first published this post there was a huge gap above my HTML table. I used this site to rectify the situation.

I'm in Okinawa! Yay!

Loving it here. The weather is perfect. Approx 23-27 degrees all day and the water is even warmer. The sky is always blue and the water a gorgeous aqua colour (my favourite). It is so different to China. Geez - where do I start?

For one thing, hubby and I had forgotten all about wearing seatbelts! We never wear them in Shanghai and realised that people here wear them (like back home in Australia) - haha.

Secondly, the people are mega polite and helpful, cheerful and friendly. If they don't know something they:ll ask someone else and find out for you.

Everything is so clean, orderly, efficient, user-friendly, yadda yadda yadda.. need I go on?

Right now we are staying at the Renaissance Beach resort on the main island of Okinawa, about an hour:s drive from Naha, the capital and the airport.

Yesterday we drove up but it took longer than expected because

1) We had to stop for lunch (in KFC where we had chicken wraps with bits of seaweed in it)
2) We passed a 100 yen shop and spent ages there. Well I spent ages there, Mike had to practically drag me out. Here they sold so many cool things ALL for 100 yen. I don:t know how they do it. I am not talking crap either, but quality goods. Some things I had looked for in China and could not find easily, or found and they were bad quality. eg
a) toe nail clippers where the cutter bit is straight and not curved
b) tongs for when I cook pasta (could not find in any supermarket in Shanghai)
3) plastic shield to prevent scratches on LCD screens on mobile phones, cameras, etc (yes I know they are common in Shanghai but I don't trust the quality and they are not THAT cheap)
4) hair collector for the shower so it doesn:t plug the drain and I don:t get told off by the plumber
and more..

All these niggly little things that only I would be searching high and low for, and wanting to buy.. such a chore to find in Shanghai at a good price and know it is good quality - it was ALL there in the 100 yen shop! They sold ordinary stuff too like bowls and cutlery, cosmetics, underwear, stationery, DIY supplies (hardware and crafts) etc ... Amazing!

I didn:t just get ordinary tongs either, they actually sold "spaghetti" tongs, I couldn:t believe it!!

Then, Mike and I have never actually used GPS in a car before. Imagine our accelerated learning curve when we had to use one in Japanese!! Hahaha. We were like two crazy contestents in the Amazing Race show - scolding each other when one of us pressed the wrong button and didn:t know how to get back to the previous screen! However, eventually, we figured the thing out. We ended up accidently setting a new destination which was rather frustrating but thanks to my very forward planning and actually printing out a good map of Okinawa before we left with our hotel:s location marked on it, as well as trying to read a map in Japanese we figured out the location on the GPS and pressed that spot on the screen. I thank my lucky stars I can still read some Japanese from studying it in high school 12 years ago!!

So, 3.5 hours after landing at the airport we finally arrived at our hotel! What an achievement.

The only bummer here is that noone really speaks English so there is a lot of miming, smiling, nodding, etc, involved. I can understand some but not confident enough to make out full sentences. A sumimasen, arigato, ohayo, konnichwa, hai, iie is all about I can manage at the moment!

This morning (our second day) I went on a 'helmet dive' which is where you put on a big white heavy plastic helmet with glass window and walk on the ocean floor (3m deep). It is for people who can:t or don:t want to scuba dive or snorkel. I can:t manage scuba (asthmatic who can't swim 200m!) so thought it was perfect for me. In fact, one of the reasons we chose this hotel! It was so much fun. I can:t even begin to explain what it felt like. It was seriously like walking on the moon. The deep heavy breathing that you can hear inside the mask (where your face is completely dry), the bouncy, slow steps that you take.. all really surreal! And I saw two Nemo fishes!

This afternoon Mike and I watched dolphins. Our hotel is the location of a dolphin research centre and there around five of these beautiful creatures living here. They swim, and jump and do tricks in the air - totally awesome stuff.

Tomorrow we are going to Churaumi aquarium, the second largest aquarium in the world to see whale sharks!