Category: Member Vault

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The Tipsiest Place on Earth: The “Tradition” of Walt’s Dry Disneyland & How Alcohol Leaked into the Magic Kingdoms

“I am a big believer in tradition,” Disney’s then-CEO Bob Iger told The Hollywood Reporter in 2018. “This just seemed like one of those traditions that if we changed it the empire wasn’t going to crumble.”

As with most of Disney’s most controversial changes, it was a subtly worded post on the Disney Parks Blog that made the announcement: when Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge opened at Disneyland Park in May 2019, one of its in-universe food and drink stops adding to its “Living Land” status would be Oga’s Cantina – an alien-run watering hole servicing pilots, bounty hunters, smugglers, and galactic travelers with “choices for kids and libations for adults.”

Fans knew exactly what that meant. For the first time in its sixty-year history, alcohol would be available to the public at Disneyland. True to form, that ruffled a few fans’ feathers. Of course, the ban on booze at Disneyland and its “castle park” siblings isn’t quite as cut and “dry” as generalizations would have you believe… And the story of drinking at Disney Parks is far from finished… Let’s dive in…

This in-depth article is just one entry in Park Lore’s one-of-a-kind Special Features collection, where we explore the threads that connect between rides, parks, and pop culture! From Imagineering’s secret Society of Explorers and Adventurers, to the history of Chuck E. Cheese; from Disney and Universal’s AVENGERS: “Custody War” to the two-part tale of animation’s rebirth in the generation-defining ’90s Disney Renaissance!

Special Features are typically available exclusively for those who support this evolving theme park history project with a monthly Membership. It’s been unlocked for a limited time, but if you enjoy what you read, consider becoming a Park Lore Member for as little as $2 / month!

Continue reading “The Tipsiest Place on Earth: The “Tradition” of Walt’s Dry Disneyland & How Alcohol Leaked into the Magic Kingdoms”
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By The Numbers: The Definitive Ride-Count Countdown of Disney & Universal’s Parks’ Lineups

Theme parks are living creatures. Sure, they grow and change and “will never be complete…” But even more, they’re made of complex systems and elements all working together so effortlessly, you may not even realize they’re working at all. Berms act as skin, insulating parks from the sights of the outside world; intuitive layouts are a skeleton, giving the park structure; pathways act as veins and arteries, pulsing guests instead of blood; restrooms are… Well… 

Continue reading “By The Numbers: The Definitive Ride-Count Countdown of Disney & Universal’s Parks’ Lineups”
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WARNER BROS. WORLD: What We’re All Missing in the Middle East’s Blockbuster New Theme Park

It’s not every day that we see a major, innovative, and immersive new theme park open in the United States. That makes sense. For at least the last few decades, the American theme park market has left behind a “growth” phase and settled into a “maturing” phase. Like a sponge that can’t hold even one more drop of water, many analysts see the theme park landscape of North America as “full.” (For example, 2025’s Epic Universe will be the first major, destination park in the country since 2001’s California Adventure.)

But elsewhere, it’s a very different story. Across the world, brand new parks – many designed and built by the best in the business, rooted right here in America – are opening to brand new audiences. Today, we want to highlight one and the industry shifts that brought it to life. Join us as we set the stage for Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi and highlight some of the incredible attractions in this 21st century park!

Continue reading “WARNER BROS. WORLD: What We’re All Missing in the Middle East’s Blockbuster New Theme Park”
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Beyond Galactic Starcruiser: 4 Blue Sky Ideas for Other Immersive, Multi-Day, “Living Theater” Experiences…

You’d have to be pretty off-the-theme-park-grid to have missed the ups and downs of Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser. Just about every moment of the Starcruiser’s 18-month life has been covered online, in equal parts adoration and mockery. And it’s easy to see why…

On one hand, Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser was the kind of ambitious, forward-thinking, risky, and industry-pivoting project we just haven’t seen from a play-it-safe Disney since California Adventure’s $1.2 billion reimagining kicked off. Despite the shorthand, calling the Galactic Starcruiser a hotel was like calling Disneyland a fair. Sure, it had beds, but guests aboard the “Halcyon” didn’t just sleep. They were part of a multi-day, fully-immersive, living theater experience that cast them as real denizens of the Star Wars universe who found themselves in an all-encompassing, unfolding story…

Stories in the Extra Features and Special Features collections of Park Lore are all about connections – they’re the threads that interlace between the Lost Legends, Declassified Disasters, Modern Marvels, and Possibilitylands you’ll find in our Main Collections. In other words, these features are for people who really want to dig deep.



This article and hundreds more are available for Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum Members who help support this ad-free, clickbait-free, quality-over-quantity collection with a monthly membership. Park Lore Members can access more than a hundred Member-exclusive articles, unlock rare concept art and construction photos in every story, stream audio across the site, tune into podcast exclusives, and receive an annual member card and merch in the mail!

If you choose to join Park Lore’s community of Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum Members, you’ll instantly unlock this story (and of course, a lot more). You can learn more about joining and supporting Park Lore (and browse all the available Extras and Special Features) in the “Memberships & Perks” menu above. If you can’t afford a Pass, please contact us; we’ll make some magic happen.


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After Starcruiser: Lessons (Hopefully) Learned From Disney’s Immersive Star Wars Cruise & Where Its DNA Can Live On…

In January 2022 – just two months before it opened to the public – our friends at Theme Park Tourist asked their readers to “Place Your Bets” on whether Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser would be a blockbuster or a bust. No matter which side of the debate you “locked in” on, you probably didn’t expect to have an answer this soon. But it’s true: just 18 months after its debut, former CEO Bob Chapek‘s premium pet project will close forever after its last voyage returns on September 30, 2023.

The public never quite seemed to “get” the Starcruiser, whose experience (and pricing) was modeled after a cruise swirled with a low-capacity boutique theme park sprinkled with an escape room. The landlocked experience invited guests into one of 100 intentionally-compact “cabins” with screen-based “windows.” There, they set up camp for two nights’ accommodations, exploring the ship’s bridge, engine room, & chambers, engaging in app-based missions, enjoying all-inclusive dining and entertainment (including all-you-can-drink Blue Milk on tap), traveling to and from Batuu, and meeting-and-greeting Star Wars characters in the context of an immersive, multi-day story.

Stories in the Extra Features and Special Features collections of Park Lore are all about connections – they’re the threads that interlace between the Lost Legends, Declassified Disasters, Modern Marvels, and Possibilitylands you’ll find in our Main Collections. In other words, these features are for people who really want to dig deep.



This article and hundreds more are available for Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum Members who help support this ad-free, clickbait-free, quality-over-quantity collection with a monthly membership. Park Lore Members can access more than a hundred Member-exclusive articles, unlock rare concept art and construction photos in every story, stream audio across the site, tune into podcast exclusives, and receive an annual member card and merch in the mail!

If you choose to join Park Lore’s community of Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum Members, you’ll instantly unlock this story (and of course, a lot more). You can learn more about joining and supporting Park Lore (and browse all the available Extras and Special Features) in the “Memberships & Perks” menu above. If you can’t afford a Pass, please contact us; we’ll make some magic happen.


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Review: DarKoaster is a Fun & Frustrating Family Ride with Terrifying Teething Problems and a Real Lack of Ludwig

It was January 2018 when Busch Gardens Williamsburg announced that unbeknownst to fans, they’d already taken their last ride on the park’s Lost Legend: Curse of DarKastle. Originally opened in 2005, DarKastle had done the unthinkable by porting the still-coveted ride system of Universal’s The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man to a regional, seasonal park. Punching well above its weight, Busch Gardens’ DarKastle was a cult classic fusion of mythology and technology, introducing a completely original story, characters, music, and world in a ride that was funny and frightening; action-packed and adventurous. 

So when Busch Gardens re-opened for the spring season in 2018, seeing the gilded German palace on the edge of Oktoberfest roped off with its marquee removed was a heart-breaker. Even seeing the dark ride’s showbuilding hollowed out in favor of seasonal haunted houses and Santa Claus meet-and-greets felt like a gross underutilization of prime real estate… and a tragic abandonment of a genuinely-cool, original IP. 

Continue reading “Review: DarKoaster is a Fun & Frustrating Family Ride with Terrifying Teething Problems and a Real Lack of Ludwig”
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Quantum Overload: How Can Marvel Overcome Its Over-Complication and Saturation in an Expanding Multiverse?

By now, you know the story.

During a particularly rough patch in the ‘90s, longtime comic book giant Marvel Entertainment decided it needed an influx of cash. Over the course of a decade, the company licensed out the film rights to nearly all of its most well-known superheroes – Spider-Man to Sony, Hulk to Universal, X-Men, Daredevil, and Fantastic Four to Fox…

What Marvel leaders couldn’t have known then was that superheroes would explode into the cinematic landscape beginning with 1999’s X-Men and 2002’s Spider-Man, becoming big budget box office gold.

No doubt regretting its character fire sale a decade earlier, creatives at the comic book giant (led by Avi Arad and Kevin Feige) regrouped to discover that despite their most famous characters being scattered to the studio winds, Marvel had managed to retain the rights to a ragtag crew of heroes known only by the nerdiest comic book aficionados – relative nobodies like a frozen-and-thawed WWII veteran, an interstellar Norse god, and a billionaire industrialist in a metal suit who all just happened to belong to a larger comic book team called… The Avengers.

Stories in the Extra Features and Special Features collections of Park Lore are all about connections – they’re the threads that interlace between the Lost Legends, Declassified Disasters, Modern Marvels, and Possibilitylands you’ll find in our Main Collections. In other words, these features are for people who really want to dig deep.



This article and hundreds more are available for Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum Members who help support this ad-free, clickbait-free, quality-over-quantity collection with a monthly membership. Park Lore Members can access more than a hundred Member-exclusive articles, unlock rare concept art and construction photos in every story, stream audio across the site, tune into podcast exclusives, and receive an annual member card and merch in the mail!

If you choose to join Park Lore’s community of Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum Members, you’ll instantly unlock this story (and of course, a lot more). You can learn more about joining and supporting Park Lore (and browse all the available Extras and Special Features) in the “Memberships & Perks” menu above. If you can’t afford a Pass, please contact us; we’ll make some magic happen.


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Adrenaline Bucket List: 10 Industry-Changing Thrill Rides Born of the Highs and Lows of the “Coaster Wars”

During the ’90s, one of the most enduring battles of all time was waged right before our eyes: the Coaster Wars. As ride manufacturers and the most daring theme park operators raced to build taller, faster, and more extreme rides, thrill-seekers found themselves surrounded in new record-breakers year after year. With unthinkable innovations, new ride technologies, and cutting edge coasters debuting, it seemed that the Coaster Wars Crown could be anyone’s…

Stories in the Extra Features and Special Features collections of Park Lore are all about connections – they’re the threads that interlace between the Lost Legends, Declassified Disasters, Modern Marvels, and Possibilitylands you’ll find in our Main Collections. In other words, these features are for people who really want to dig deep.



This article and hundreds more are available for Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum Members who help support this ad-free, clickbait-free, quality-over-quantity collection with a monthly membership. Park Lore Members can access more than a hundred Member-exclusive articles, unlock rare concept art and construction photos in every story, stream audio across the site, tune into podcast exclusives, and receive an annual member card and merch in the mail!

If you choose to join Park Lore’s community of Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum Members, you’ll instantly unlock this story (and of course, a lot more). You can learn more about joining and supporting Park Lore (and browse all the available Extras and Special Features) in the “Memberships & Perks” menu above. If you can’t afford a Pass, please contact us; we’ll make some magic happen.


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Starfall Racers: A Glimpse Into the Stellar Dueling and Dancing Coaster Coming to Universal Epic Universe

When Universal Epic Universe opens by Summer 2025, the first fans through the turnstiles will sure have a lot of bucket list items to check off. Without a doubt, many will race to Super Nintendo World – the next “Living Land” in Disney and Universal’s back-and-forth theme park battles. Fans of the classics might make a beeline to the Dark Universe – a village populated by Universal’s monsters of the ’30s and ’40s. Families will no doubt race to the Isle of Berk to learn how to train a dragon. Potterheads will instead head for Place Cachée – a 1920s Paris drawn from the Wizarding World.

But like Islands of Adventure before it, the immersive worlds of Epic Universe will also be accentuated by something a little louder: a cutting edge, iconic set of roller coasters. While Universal has barely acknowledged that Epic Universe is happening at all, they haven’t been able to hide their newest thrill ride – a pair of intertwined racing coasters that will dominate the new park’s celestial hub.

Stories in the Extra Features and Special Features collections of Park Lore are all about connections – they’re the threads that interlace between the Lost Legends, Declassified Disasters, Modern Marvels, and Possibilitylands you’ll find in our Main Collections. In other words, these features are for people who really want to dig deep.



This article and hundreds more are available for Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum Members who help support this ad-free, clickbait-free, quality-over-quantity collection with a monthly membership. Park Lore Members can access more than a hundred Member-exclusive articles, unlock rare concept art and construction photos in every story, stream audio across the site, tune into podcast exclusives, and receive an annual member card and merch in the mail!

If you choose to join Park Lore’s community of Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum Members, you’ll instantly unlock this story (and of course, a lot more). You can learn more about joining and supporting Park Lore (and browse all the available Extras and Special Features) in the “Memberships & Perks” menu above. If you can’t afford a Pass, please contact us; we’ll make some magic happen.


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TRON’s Construction Will Have Taken 1,875 Days… But It’s Not the ONLY Long-Delayed Theme Park Ride Out There…

Five years. 1,875 days. That’s how much time will have passed between the first signs of construction for TRON Lightcycle Run on February 14, 2018 and its official opening on April 4, 2023.

For those of us who’ve seen TRON’s construction start and stop, ebb and flow, speed up and slow down, every day of the last five years has felt something like a big joke with us as the punchline… Why can’t Disney just open its cloned copy of an already existing off-the-shelf roller coaster in a box? It’s understandable to feel that TRON Lightcycle Run represents an agonizing new low when it comes to the time it takes to build a theme park attraction.

Stories in the Extra Features and Special Features collections of Park Lore are all about connections – they’re the threads that interlace between the Lost Legends, Declassified Disasters, Modern Marvels, and Possibilitylands you’ll find in our Main Collections. In other words, these features are for people who really want to dig deep.



This article and hundreds more are available for Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum Members who help support this ad-free, clickbait-free, quality-over-quantity collection with a monthly membership. Park Lore Members can access more than a hundred Member-exclusive articles, unlock rare concept art and construction photos in every story, stream audio across the site, tune into podcast exclusives, and receive an annual member card and merch in the mail!

If you choose to join Park Lore’s community of Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum Members, you’ll instantly unlock this story (and of course, a lot more). You can learn more about joining and supporting Park Lore (and browse all the available Extras and Special Features) in the “Memberships & Perks” menu above. If you can’t afford a Pass, please contact us; we’ll make some magic happen.


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