Wild West World in Kansas

My Park Hopping Podcast sign-off was usually some variation of this…

“So the next time you’re there, be sure to take an extra picture and shoot some extra video because you never know when something you like, love or hate will go away and never be around again…”

Over the decades, there have been many things I decided to skip during a visit that ended up being shut down or removed by the time I made a return visit.

But I never expected it would be an entire amusement park.

In May 2007, we make a road trip to visit the Oklahoma Renaissance Festival. On Sunday afternoon, we headed back on the eight hour drive home. I was aware of the new Wild West World amusement park opening in Kansas, and we considered making a detour to go see it. Due to the long drive home, it would have had to be a short visit so we decided to skip it this time and come back to see it later.

Later never happened. Wild West World closed less than two months after it opened. Here is the Wikipedia entry for the park:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_West_World

This has been one of my regrets. It would have been a visit to an amusement park that few people know about, and even fewer people ever got to see.

Here is the flyer for the park:

If you have ever been to Iowa’s Aventureland, you may spot something familiar. Wild West World used a photo of Adventureland’s River Rapids log flume ride (with the logo replaced) and a photo of Adventureland’s Sidewinder ride. I think the tea cups ride may even be from Adventureland.

When I first picked up this flyer, I recall contacting Adventureland to ask about it. They were aware, and had given permission for this new park to use some photos from Adventureland. Nice.

I am posting this for the search engines… Did you get to visit Will West Park during the two months it was open? Leave a comment and let us know.

Until next time…

Did Disney’s The Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights end up at Silver Dollar City?

During a visit to the Orlando area, we were chatting with a server at a restaurant and mentioned we had been to Silver Dollar City in Missouri. Across the room, a bartender perked up and ran over to join in to the conversation. He had grown up in Arkansas, and had visited Silver Dollar City many times growing up in the area.

One of the things he mentioned was that the Disney World The Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights had moved to Silver Dollar City after it was shut down at Disney’s Hollywood Studios (formerly known as Disney/MGM Studios). He said there were photos online showing displays installed at Disney, then later at Silver Dollar City, matching up.

Could this be true? Casual searching does not reveal any confirmation of this, but Disney usually ensures that anything they once had (such as the MaliBoomer drop tower in California) is not to be promoted as an “ex-Disney” attraction when it is installed elsewhere. I would assume the same would go for a light display.

Silver Dollar City began their Old Time Christmas event in 1988. If A.I. results are to be believed (ahem), it was in the 2010s that the park added 1.5 million lights to the event:

2010s: Introduction of the massive five-story special effects Christmas tree and the Christmas in Midtown expansion, which alone added 1.5 million lights.

Bing Copilot

Today, they boast over 6.5 million lights.

So when did they jump to that number?

Silver Dollar City’s “An Old Time Christmas” festival expanded from 1.5 million lights to 6.5 million lights in 2017 with the debut of the Christmas in Midtown Light Spectacular. This was the park’s largest single lighting expansion in two decades, adding 1.5 million new lights to towering structures and tunnels, which brought the total across the park to 6.5 million.

Bing Copilot, reference Missouri Magazine

2017 is an interesting year. The last year the Osbourne lights were on display at Walt Disney World was … 2015 (though, they run Christmas through early January, so technically 2016 for you nitpickers).

So after the 2015 season, Disney took the lights down and prepared for construction of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.

Two years later, in 2017, Silver Dollar City added millions of lights to their display.

And this, my friends, is how rumors get started.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Osborne_Family_Spectacle_of_Dancing_Lights

For those of you too FULL OF FEAR, one last chance to EXIT HERE.

Is this door still labeled as such inside Walt Disney World’s Haunted Mansion? I just read a reference that said “it used to be” labeled like this.

I believe this exists outside to this door:

…but in all my years visiting the park and riding Haunted Mansion (starting as a tot around 1974 or so), I have never taken the chicken exit to see it for myself 😉

My 2002 Haunted Mansion adventure game returns!

On a whim, I decided to see if one of the A.I.s could resurrect my 2002 Haunted Mansion adventure game. Back then, Java was all the rage. My game was a Java applet that ran in a web browser. Fast forward some years and Java is no longer a standard feature in web browsers…

My original work-in-progress has been translated (bugs and all) to Javascript so it can now play in a modern web browser. Check it out:

https://www.disneyfans.com/adventure/index.html

Or, if you want to see the new version I am working on now, try here:

https://www.disneyfans.com/adventure-new

I have been working on it tonight adding new commands and things that will let me build an actual game with puzzles to solve. There may be a door to unlock, and a secret to find, already… (But no “game” to win yet.)

I hope to resume work on it (many new features have already been added, thanks to partnering with a robot).

There’s no turning back now…

Wizard of Oz at The Sphere is Las Vegas

Wizard of Oz at The Sphere in Las Vegas is an interesting attraction. It would fit right at home with classic Disneyland/World, though on a scale you could never do inside a theme park. It was very much like one of the Disney 4-D theater attractions, except instead of a 3-D movie, you see a huge surrounding dome image and “real” theater effects. There is wind, blowing “leaves” (paper), falling (foam) apples, flying monkeys (yep, a really cool drone thing) as well as some huge butterflies that fly around during one of the sequences. Add to that fog and fire and lighting effects and you have something far beyond just seeing an old movie upscaled and “special edition-ed” to fit a dome screen.

And, the seats also vibrate.

One real clever thing they do is project this on the dome as you are entering the theater:

The Sphere – Las Vegas

I wish I had not already know about this. The transition from what appears to be a stage with a curtain and speakers hanging around to this…

The Sphere – Las Vegas

…us truly a “wow” moment.

When I get some time, I will write up some thoughts about it from a theme park perspective. It was quite the unique experience.

More to come…

Discovery Cove photos added…and more.

A batch of photos from Discovery Cove have been sorted and added to the Universal/SeaWorld gallery:

https://us-sw.disneyfans.com

While I was there, I found some Disney Skyliner photos I never added to the Walt Disney World gallery:

https://wdw.disneyfans.com

I had completely forgot that while we were in town last year, we took a ride share over to one of the resorts and then explored the Skyliner routes. (Probably the “cheapest” day to spend in Orlando, if you don’t stop and buy food and drink while visiting them 😉

I am still going through the VR360 footage and uploading it to my Park Hopping in VR YouTube Channel as time permits:

https://www.youtube.com/@ParkHoppingInVR

There are a few nighttime ones taken at Universal Epic Universe in the Dark Universe area of the park. They are pretty cool to watch, even if the low-light quality is pretty poor. It is a much more accurate way to “see” what it is like in that immersive area compared to photos.

I also have a similar on walking through the portal (green pipe) to Super Nintendo World all the way to the entrance to Donkey Kong Country. These, and more, will be showing up soon-ish.

Meanwhile, my submission to Google Street View of the walking path from Stella Nova Resort to the entrance of Universal Epic Universe has been processing for 11 days so far. While it is promising that it did not get rejected the first day, as often is the case (gaps in the GPS signal being the usual suspect), it is bothersome that it is taking this long. I am now bracing for some new error telling me to try again.

More to come, I am sure.

Universal Horror Unleashed and selfie sticks. And cameras.

Before visiting a new theme park or such, I like to verify what they do or do not allow to be brought in. While Universal Orlando allows selfie sticks, Universal Horror Unleashed Las Vegas does not. This makes me wonder if Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights even allows them. I’ve had mine with me the times I have gone, but we were already in the park. The park may allow them in, but perhaps they stop allowing once they are letting in HHN guests. Does anyone here know?

I reached out to UHU Vegas to clarify something about camera equipment after seeing someone sharing their point and shoot was not allowed in. While no photography is allowed inside the haunted houses at Universal, I saw plenty of cameras and YouTubers there with their cameras.

Guess we have to go sometime and find out.

Stella Nova Resort walk to Universal Epic Universe

NOTE: This page is a work-in-progress and will be updated in the next few weeks with videos and more details.

Much like the Garden Walk (see my maps for them here) that connects Universal resort hotels to CityWalk and the theme parks, there is also a walking path from the new Universal Stella Nova Resort to the entrance of the new Universal Epic Universe theme park.

Depending on how fast you walk and whether or not you have to wait for a traffic light, the walk can take about 5 minutes from where you board the bus at the hotel to where the bus drops you off at Epic. The total walk from hotel lobby entrance to park entrance is about 8-10 minutes (again, depending on if you have to wait for the light to change and how fast you walk).

I will have a VR video of the walk available on my Park Hopping in VR YouTube channel soon. (The screenshot above is from the Street View submission.)

I have also uploaded this VR video to Google Street View. If they approve it, it will be live on Google Maps soon, as well. (Currently, Google’s satellite imagery of the area is from during construction but this Street View will still work.)

Photos of the walk

If you want to see it in photo form, I have images in my Universal/SeaWorld photo gallery. They start at the bus pickup spot at the hotel. This may help you see how far the walk is from where you’d get on the bus to where the bus would drop you off:

https://us-sw.disneyfans.com/UniversalStudiosFL/Resorts/StellaNova2025/WalkToEpic/index.html

Walk details

The walking path follows the road the bus drives on. Both walking pedestrians and the bus have to stop at the same traffic light. The hotel informed us that the walk was quicker than taking the bus, but if you get to the bus stop right when the bus is about to leave, the bus ride could be faster. From what we saw, unless you walk slow, that is really the only case when the bus is faster.

Since the bus will wait for awhile before departing, walking could also let you get to the light and cross the street before the bus even leaves, making the walk considerably faster that the bus.

I just wanted to post this now to get it in the search engines. Check back for more details.

Upcoming Epic Universe VR videos

I have a few VR photos and videos taken at Universal Orlando Resort’s Universal Epic Universe. (Yeah, that full description is a mouthful full, innit?)

Many of the photos have already been shared in the Park Hopping in VR Facebook Group in albums:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/parkhoppinginvr/media/albums

The videos are being uploaded to the Park Hopping in VR YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/@parkhoppinginvr

These videos always take a long time to process, with some reports saying it can take about a week for an “8K” 360 video to be completed. We shall see how it goes this time. Right now, I am just seeing “Video processing is taking longer…” and “Checks still running” messages.

While we wait, here is a boring 30 second reel looking out the Helios Grand Hotel top floor where Bar Helios is located. At least during our visit, anyone was allowed to enter the hotel and go to the lobby level bar as well as the rooftop bar. This view is away from the theme park. Turning around is a short hallway where the elevators are, then it opens into the hosts are to sit you at a table (if you choose) or just let you go sit at the bar or patio.

That video is posted to my non-VR Park Hopping YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/@parkhopping

And if you think that one is boring, wait until you see my extended video looking around the top floor of Bar 17 Bistro at Aventura hotel 😉 Michael Bay has nothing to worry about!

More to come…

Universal Epic Universe (and more) photos being added…

Thousands of photos taken last week at Universal Epic Universe have been sorted, and are currently being generated into a gallery. It will take a day or so to get it all complete and uploaded, but they will be in the Universal-SeaWorld gallery:

https://us-sw.disneyfans.com

I have also fixed some mistakes (misspelling of “Sapphire Falls”, having the wrong Water Taxi destination, moving some files to where they need to be), but nothing significant.

There are also new photos from Universal Studios Florida, CityWalk, Islands of Adventure, and resorts such as the new Stella Nova, and visits to Aventura, Hard Rock Hotel, and even Grand Helios Hotel (with its downstairs bar, and upstairs bar). Lots of new stuff in this one.

And Discovery Cove still needs to be sorted, including underwater photos from the SeaVenture uncharge experience.

More to come…