And more hot, humid, and probably rainy weather. The overcast was nice, and the rain held off until evening, and then cleared out pretty quickly. The forecast calls for pretty much the same today.
Epic Universal is a new park. It’s only been open to the public for about a week, with soft open for friends and family before that. There are a lot of “tweaks” being made, as you’d expect. There are a lot of unfinished things too. Masking tape still in place, missing electrical covers, building supplies or trash out where they can be seen… The funniest was the rain water dripping out of ceiling mounted smoke detectors in the Carousel attraction. There must be a big leak in that roof, and probably more than one based on the number of places there were drips.
There were a lot of broken things too. 10% of the Carousel was tagged out. I suspect the lap belt system is at fault, based on what I saw them trying to fix. Mandatory lap belts for a carousel, even for adults! Several places already had significant wear, or intentional damage. There were a lot of props and stage dressings that were too close to audience or guests. That stuff will vanish quickly. Sound levels throughout the park were off, mainly too loud, but still unintelligible.
On the other hand, the level of design and detailing was very high. I was using google translate on the signs and waybills in the France area, and they all translated and most were funny as well as being ‘in world’.
I wouldn’t recommend Epic at this time. Let them work out operational issues and do the shake down cruise fixes. Let them figure out how to get wait times down. Nothing there is worth the waits that we saw yesterday.
Today we’re on another Universal property, although I’m not sure what and when. Should be fun if the waits aren’t as bad as Epic. If it rains, all bets are off, as all the outdoor rides shut down. Then the indoor ride wait times skyrocket. It’s always something.
Flexibility and patience will be key- as they are with prepping. Stack stuff, work on flexibility and patience.
nick
@Nick: I admire you for visiting a park like that for your kids. You couldn’t pay me enough money to go there. Too many people. Kill me now…
What I don’t understand, though, are the waiting times. An hour-long line is apparently normal. If the demand is that high, why don’t they expand and offer more attractions?
I was to guess, I’d guess that the wait times, like everything else, have been psychologized and MBAd to a fare-thee-well, just like every other aspect of the parks. Having some lines be an hour long somehow helps to maximize profit or customer satisfaction. I have no idea how; I certainly wouldn’t tolerate it, but I’m about as far as you get from the typical theme park visitor, so I don’t count.
(Though note that I don’t have a whole lot of faith in the disciplines of Psychology or Business Administration. Their surveys or quarterly numbers may well tell them something that just ain’t so.)
This is Gay Days week in Orlando, but, yeah, Adult Nintendo fans can be as weird as Adult Disney.
Ink is the new midlife crisis statement purchase, particularly among females of my generation.
Some of the IP used was surprising, particularly the Monsters franchise which is pushing 100 years old.
Not that I’m complaining. I like the movies. Obviously, I’m not the only one with Svengoolie drawing decent audiences every Saturday. And now this …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x–N03NO130
Guillermo, that needs to be on a big screen.
Hagrid’s motorcycle ride should be the priority.
And the train illusion justifies the upcharge to park hop.
I’ll bet Rowling has all of the kids replaced in the intro videos on the Harry Potter rides once HBO runs the first episodes of the new series. Enjoy the Traitorous Three while they are there.
I’d hate to see the Robbie Coltrane as Hagrid animatronic go away, however.
Robbie Coltrane was Hagrid long before Rowling wrote any of the books.
Have you caught on about the interactive elements in the Harry Potter areas, activated by the wands?
At least do the Gringott’s money exchange. I never spent the money.
Oh, you have no idea how psychologized and MBA-ed they are. Much worse than Twitter.
I suspect Disney now tracks where every single person goes in the park down to the second.
If you can survey an area down to the cm, stereoscopic cameras feeding the right software can give you an effective 4D model which will track all moving items in the visible field with size/velocity stats.
This is how all of the streets in Manhattan south of 60th St. (think Central Park) will be tolled eventually.
The current equipment at the entrances and exits of the zone generated several hundred million dollars for NYC in the first year of operation.
Only the stupidity and sex drives of the staff at the systems integrators like my former employer limit the possibilities.
My former employer did the bridges and tunnels. I was fired after my f-bombs expressing frustration over co-worker stupidity allowing an important demo of the new plate camera tech to blow up in front of the people sent by the city to watch the demo.
No, the customers did not hear the f-bombs.
@brad, I agree with SteveF about lines in general. It hit me while we were in line for Space Mountain at WDW that people expect a certain wait. Part of that builds anticipation, part implies value. If it wasn’t worth waiting for, why do it at all? Right?
They can add ride vehicles, open second tracks, etc to manage wait times, and they do. There are costs in staff and power for that, but they have the option. At a certain point it saturates which you can only control by limiting admission, which takes a guess about how many are doing what.
The problem with long waits, for corporate, is that if you are in line, you aren’t spending money. One hour is about right. 40 minutes is better. You do one ride an hour. Park has 15 rides. Fill the queues and fill the open spaces. Sell beverages and small souvenirs to the people walking from one area to the next.
———–
coffee is mostly in me. Eggs are in the people. Some ham joined the eggs.
———-
Partly cloudy with dark clouds in the distance. Light intermittent rain.
I put my synthetic, wicking underwear on today, because we’ll either be in the rain, or in the water rides at Universal, and the one at IOA dunks you under the water from the waist down.
Time to get some kids moving.
n
Oops…
The whole HP experience is great.
I need your prayers.
Pray that a chip off an asteroid hits SCOTUS and takes them all out. Give tRump a 9fer. How they can pass on anything directly in the Constitution (2d) is beyond me. They want to consider non-Citizens rights instead.
Geez.
Rowling’s contract with Universal allows her to nitpick everything down to the last detail.
With Marvel, Universal only has to demonstrate good stewardship of the brand, but, at this point, I’d say they do a better job of that than Disney.
BTW, @Nick, don’t forget Spiderman.
Today’s Tyler Durden cowardice protects a mainstream source on news implying that the monkey trick may indeed be just that.
I’m shocked. Shocked!
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/bankrupt-microsoft-backed-ai-company-was-using-indian-engineers-fake-it-report
700 Indians. An infinite number of monkeys.
Tough call.
Nonsense. The Indians smell worse.
(Not as much of a gratuitous slur as I wish it was.)
The red ones or the brown ones?
Of all the countries I have seen The Amazing Race visit, India is the one country I never want to visit. My impression was the country was crowded, dirty, and hot.
Like the USA, India is a very large country, so don’t write it off. I don’t like US cities, but enjoy exploring the emptier and prettier parts of the country (last visit was New Mexico). I have only briefly visited Mumbai, which is busy, but spent time in Goa, which is very pleasant to visit. Areas such as the northern hill stations are commonly recommended.
I pre-ordered the newest Mission Impossible film on Apple TV. I will pay about what I would have at the theatre, I can display closed captions, pause the movie, rewind the movie, watch it more than once, avoid idiots using cell phones, get cheaper snacks and watch it in my undies (theatre frowns on that). All important for a 2:45:00 run time movie.
True. Chicago and New York are on my DNV (do not visit) list. But The Amazing Race should show the better view of a country. They have failed to do so, twice.
We went to see “Mission Impossible” in IMAX, but I’ll never do that again in the same venue. Despite the theater being in an extremely high dollar part of town at a Mall with one of two Austin Apple Stores, the entire complex was poorly maintained and the crowd obnoxious/talkative.
Same demo as Mr. Steve desparages above.
I don’t know if they’re locals or drove down from North Austin/Georgetown where most of them buy big, new houses with the wife’s dowry money.
Just like it ain’t boasting if you can do it, accurate reporting of observed facts is not disparagement.
Suggestion: If you don’t want to be unfavorably compared to a sewer vent port, try bathing more often. Pro tip: use soap.
A lot of severance agreements with tech companies these days include non-disparagement clauses which are designed to create a problem for an employee commenting on an employer even if the reporting is honest.
The high profile cases where the agreements get enforced are former employees writing books, most recently at Facebook, but the agreement could be used to sue an employee posting on places such as Glassdoor or Indeed.
Oh, you still think a comment on Glassdoor or Indeed is anonymous for the employer?
As SteveF himself is fond of saying, “Sweet Summer Child…”
Read your severance agreements kids.
BTW, a huge red flag is when you’re over 50 and the HR droid says that you can withdraw acceptance of the agreement within X number of days but the offer is only on the table until the end of the meeting.
I always read employment or consulting contracts word by word and line out objectionable clauses. Sometimes that means I don’t get the contract because “policy” but usually the manager initials the changes and it’s no problem.
As for severance agreements, I’ve only ever gotten one, in decades of work. That’s likely because most of my work has been as a consultant and even when I was technically the employee of a consulting company, all they cared about was my billable hours and non-disparagement of the client kind of fell into the gaps.
So…. Express Flooring visited today. Measuring and sales pitch and all. Laminate flooring. White quarter round around the edges attached to the existing baseboard. Some kind of molding to transition from new floor to the parquet and to the tile.
I had eyeballed it running almost three grand from Home Depot. So, $3200 inclusive, installed on Friday.
“When would you like to schedule installation?” How about tomorrow? Friday works. Get it done before change my mind.
I’m not looking forward to taking the stereo system apart. Good chance to sort out the rat’s nest tangle of wiring though.
There are those in every theatre. They have to maintain a running dialog or are talking about the latest zit explosions on their butts.
Plus I find the sound mixing somewhat poor in the recent releases of movies. Or my hearing is worse than I think. I think it is more of the mixing being done in a small room, with many speakers, or headphones, by some zit-faced nerd with a tattoo on his dick that lives on hot pockets who last saw the light of day sometimes around Valentine’s Day.
Then after the vocal audio is mixed the producers add the background sound track with underlying music. Coupled with the 0.1 second delay between the lips movement and the actual words, the theatre experience is just not there anymore.
And make a new, organized, rat’s nest.
“’A disgusting abomination’: Elon Musk doubles down on his criticism of Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’”
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/a-disgusting-abomination-elon-musk-doubles-down-on-his-criticism-of-trumps-big-beautiful-bill-181953569.html
“”Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong,” he added in one of multiple posts.”
Yup.
The bill does not even get rid of Carried Interest that all of the 1% are using to cut their tax rate from 41% to 24%.
I pre-ordered the newest Mission Impossible film on Apple TV. I will pay about what I would have at the theatre, I can display closed captions, pause the movie, rewind the movie, watch it more than once, avoid idiots using cell phones, get cheaper snacks and watch it in my undies (theatre frowns on that). All important for a 2:45:00 run time movie.
My 86 year old father had to run XXX shamble to the men’s room twice during the movie. We now sit on the front row of the theatre crosswalk.
He is taking Lasix again because he is retaining fluids in his legs and feet. It is working for one leg but not so well for the other.
Dad is probably down to 180 lbs now. He was 250 when he turned 80. He is fading away.
“Waiting for Faster Starlink? Musk Shares Ambitious Timeline for Next-Gen Satellites”
https://www.pcmag.com/news/elon-musk-next-gen-v3-starlink-satellites-six-to-nine-months
“Elon Musk’s predictions don’t always age well, but that isn’t stopping him from claiming that SpaceX will launch the first next-generation “V3” Starlink satellites within six to nine months.”
“Musk posted the timeline when talking about his ongoing effort to reduce Starlink latency to under 20 milliseconds. “With the version 3 Starlink satellites, which start launching on Starship in 6 to 9 months, we should be able to get latency below 20ms,” Musk tweeted.”
“That’s an ambitious timeline since SpaceX plans on launching the V3 satellites using its Starship vehicle. It remains in the testing phases and has yet to complete a successful space mission.”
The new v3 satellites are the size of Boeing 737 when unfurled. I suspect that they take hundreds of kilowatts of power so there are huge solar panels. We may be able to see them since they will be at 350 km instead of 550 km to drop the latency from 22 ms to 5 ms.
Lynn, I feel for you, and him. Cherish him while you can. Let him do whatever he wants to.
W1 and her sibling are currently organising palliative care for their father. Carpe Diem.
That is handsome. Treat yourself, and well wear! If you’re going to carry it, perhaps investigate whether a ramp front sight might be better to avoid hanging up on a holster.
I finally found one of my bucket-list revolvers last week. A 4″ stainless S&W model 624 in .44 Special. It groups like a target piece, but with a pleasant lot of oomph. Happy, happy. Now I have to find some matching reloading dies…
The demographic in question likes to WhatsApp during films and discuss the messages with those present in the theater.
Mixing is done on headphones by the zit-faced nerd.
The nerds used to take films the big room Skywalker Ranch just for the experience, even comedies without a hint of action.
Kevin Smith got married at Skywalker Ranch.
Beyond Skywalker Ranch, there was what is now known as the Eastwood Stage at Warner.
Hollywood is broke and broken.
No one cares except Tom Cruise.
Okay, Wes Anderson.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEuMnPl2WI4
And Benicio’s brother, Guillermo. Go watch the trailer linked above in my earlier post.
“According To Study, Young Men Are Not Mentally Ill Enough To Vote Democrat”
https://www.outkick.com/analysis/according-study-young-men-not-mentally-ill-enough-vote-democrat
“One of the biggest stories in Washington over the next four years is whether Democrats can wrest back support among young men before the 2028 election.”
“But to do that, the party must first understand why young male voters have flocked so heavily to the opposition party. American statistician Nate Silver dove into that question on Tuesday, finding that the mental health gap between men and women could be the crux of the divide.”
Wow. Does not bode well for new babies in the USA.
Hat tip to:
https://thelibertydaily.com/
I am on a water pill for blood pressure. The last hour of “Mission Impossible” nearly killed me.
I am on a water pill for blood pressure. The last hour of “Mission Impossible” nearly killed me.
Don’t do that. Apparently a split bladder can be fatal. It is just a bag of skin, not a high tensile material.
“Bill Gates Says Most of His $200 Billion Fortune Will Go to Africa”
https://discernreport.com/bill-gates-says-most-of-his-200-billion-fortune-will-go-to-africa/
“(The Epoch Times)—Bill Gates said Monday that Africa will receive the lion’s share of the $200 billion that his charitable foundation plans to distribute over the next two decades, with the announcement shedding fresh light on the philanthropic goals of one of the world’s wealthiest men, who last month said he would give away the vast majority of his fortune.”
This makes no sense to me. But it is his money.
Here’s one for the hive mind. My pal, who is a lefty, needs a holster for his Browning Hi-Power / GP35 to take part in some ISPC / IDPA-ish activities. Not being a southpaw, I don’t have much (anything, really…) in the way of recommendations. Suggestions?
What, you didn’t have a soda cup which could be repurposed?
Let’s not forget to factor in the 98% that will go to “overhead” (see: Haiti.)
“lion’s share”: I see what the author did there. Cute.
BillG wants to be Feynman famous. He’ll settle for Bob Metcalf fame, but he has to do something as important as invent Ethernet, as Metcalf did.
Bondi will hold the Epstein stories about Gates unless he dies before Jan. 20, 2029.
Looking at him lately, my wife suspects Gates has something bad. She’s rarely wrong.
Before I left the Death Star 15 years ago, we went to a group party, and after meeting my manager she asked me as he walked away, “Three heart attacks?”
“Only two that I know of.”
“He’s had another. Recently. Or one is coming. Wait.”
Looking at him lately, my wife suspects Gates has something bad. She’s rarely wrong.
Before I left the Death Star 15 years ago, we went to a group party, and after meeting my manager she asked me as he walked away, “Three heart attacks?”
“Only two that I know of.”
“He’s had another. Recently. Or one is coming. Wait.”
Sorry but I do not want to meet your wife. I am 12 years out since my last heart attack and 7 years out since my last heart surgery.
“NEW: State & DHS Revoke Visas for Boulder Terrorist Family, Detained for Deportation”
https://hotair.com/ed-morrissey/2025/06/03/new-rubio-revokes-visas-for-boulder-terrorist-family-detained-for-deportation-n3803425
“That was not a bluff or an academic statement. Earlier today, the Department of Homeland Security detained the family of the Boulder “Free Palestine” terrorists after the State Department revoked the visas for his wife and children. DHS now has the Solimans on the fast track to get booted out of the country, according to ABC News:”
It is too bad that no one was carrying and shot the deranged Egyptian Terrorist illegal alien in Boulder on Sunday.
“Taking a life is a terrible thing. Sometimes not taking a life is far, far worse.”
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2025/06/taking-life-is-terrible-thing-sometimes.html
https://thelawdogfiles.substack.com/p/when-dogs-go-rabid
To do what? Make the country whiter? 98% will go to the top 2% and not make a dent in any of the problems.
And when it is all said and done, Africa will still be in the same position it has been for the last 10,000 years. A backwoods, primitive, society that works well for the people involved. Sometimes people do not need such help and are better off being left alone.
The VA has added to my health record that I was examined on April 8, 2025 and found to have a severe heart problem. The problem is I was never at the VA on April 8, 2025 and do not have any diagnosed heart problems. They have added someone else’s issues to my record. That will not bode well for me or the person they skipped.
That is not much better than my urologist (not the VA) who confused my records with someone else and was going to prescribe some medication that would have been bad for me. I had to stand my ground and tell the nurse practitioner that she had the wrong online records. Which she staunchly denied twice until I told her to check the birthdate. Oops.
“Getting out from under our national debt?”
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2025/06/getting-out-from-under-our-national-debt.html
“All that funnels back into our crushing, unsustainable national debt, which we’ve discussed at length over the past few days. Paying down that debt requires massive economic growth. Economic growth requires not only hard-working, intelligent leadership, but also a willing workforce that is (or is willing to be) trained in the complex skills required for a modern production environment. Leadership alone won’t do it, just as a workforce alone won’t do it.”
“Can MAGA bring the two elements together, to make it happen? We’re going to find out, over the next year or two.”
Willing workforce. Americans don’t even open the shipping containers from China anymore.
Thirty years ago, running a circuit board assembly line involved immigrant labor. In Tampa, the workforce was mostly Vietnamese.
And that was when we still had ITT Tech to train the higher skilled US-born techs and management refugees from the shuttered Philips Circuit Assemblies plant which made most of IBM’s monitor boards in the 80s.
Canceling the study, deleting the samples, sequestering the remaining records … what else other than COVID-19?
https://slaynews.com/news/australia-abruptly-shuts-down-covid-vaccine-safety-study-destroys-all-data/
gotta check and see if he has a safe seat…
https://pjmedia.com/matt-margolis/2025/06/03/sen-kennedy-humiliates-democrat-witness-on-nationwide-injunctions-n4940413
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2025/06/mass-murder-at-usaid.php
Now take the same model and plug in the billions of dollars that have been siphoned off fom aid programs by the leftist conspiracy.
Bozo is an idiot wanker.
Boulder suspect’s family detained by ICE, set for expedited removal, Kristi Noem says
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/boulder-suspects-family-detained-ice-expedited-removal-kristi-noem-says/
There has been no reporting as to how such an illegal alien has a wife and family who are also aliens.
this just showed up:
https://hotair.com/ed-morrissey/2025/06/03/new-rubio-revokes-visas-for-boulder-terrorist-family-detained-for-deportation-n3803425
Kennedy is fairly safe, but he isn’t running again until 2028.
Louisiana hasn’t had a Dem Senator since voters finally wised up to Mary Landrieu.
The proper way to phrase that question is “Dot, or feather?”
Home from the Universals…
Long day. Rained several times, but it didn’t really affect us much. Didn’t do the Hagrid motorcycle coaster as the wait was more than 2 hours.
After the second rain, the park emptied out and we rode a bunch of stuff. Finished with the water rides at IOA. Well, we did Spiderman on the way out, even dripping wet.
Some observations.
About 5 rides had mechanical issues while we were on them. One crew member said they tend to cluster, and they are coming off a tough Spring Break season. They are doing upgrades and replacements, but have to go slow and do them a little at a time to avoid shutting down rides.
I saw more wear and tear issues than at Epic or WDW, but the tough Spring Break explains that too.
Demographics- there is a big age gap in attendees between high school and young parenthood. Mid 20s to mid 30s were almost absent. Not too many seniors either unless there with grandkids. There were far fewer power chairs than any previous trip to theme parks. Nobody was speaking english except us and a few other white families. Mostly spanish, but I also heard portugese. The US obsession with tats has spread to the hispanics and even the japanese youngsters. There were a ton of people wearing harry potter merch. Tons. Lots of the interactive wands too. Didn’t notice many black families until late in the day. Either they came late, or stayed late and even then there weren’t a lot of them. No groups of feral youths, maybe the locals are still in school? just a few subcontinent. Man those ladies are not pretty. They weren’t the only ones with a permanent scowl, but they were consistent about it.
Livestreamers are annoying.
Security outside Citywalk found the tiny Gerber Leaf I keep in my altoids tin first aid kit with the xray. I surrendered it. I’ve got a bag of them from TSA confiscations in Austin and I paid about $3 each. Disney either didn’t care or the walk thru system didn’t see it. They are using good high end metal detectors but not the mystery walk thru system that WDW uses. Most of the coasters have a very strict no bags, empty pockets, empty hands policy and you WILL go thru a metal detector before boarding the ride. It felt like there were fewer this trip than the last, but I could be mistaken. They often had people cover their wristwatches or hold them above head level when passing thru the detector. They must be set pretty sensitive.
The serious coasters are serious. I rode once, then not again. Kid rode several multiple times. They are fast, bumpy, have brutal g forces and not much head support. Having to empty pockets into (free) storage lockers every ride got old really quickly.
There is one coffee store in each park. ONE. There are a couple of restaurants where you can buy horrible coffee, with minimal condiments, but they are few and far between. Starbucks is the one store. Exclusivity doesn’t benefit the customer. And not being able to buy decent coffee lost mgmt $50 that I would have spent over the course of the day. Ditto for not having NA beer, or any choice besides the huge jug of “make your own flavor” coke. Most places you couldn’t get iced tea either. See my previous rant…
We are heading home tomorrow. Late wake up and straight to the airport. It’s been a very wearing trip. I can’t imagine it as a grandparent.
Might be a wakeup call for W as she’s been letting fitness slide. We’ll see.
Time for a tiny little fire outdoors away from the other people.
n
Past time for bed.
n
Security outside Citywalk found the tiny Gerber Leaf I keep in my altoids tin first aid kit with the xray. I surrendered it.
I did not see a Gerber Leaf knife for sale on Big River. Did you mean the compact Swiss Army knife ?
https://www.amazon.com/Victorinox-Swiss-Rally-Pocket-Knife/dp/B000FNI1V2?tag=ttgnet-20
People use to brand these and give them away to prospects for $3 each. Costs have really gone up.
My granddaughter has a Dodge Sprint that she is converting for off road use. The previous owner installed several solar panels on the roof and they were tied to a small 12-volt battery pack. She has switched to a larger battery pack. I asked me to wire a 1000 watt sine wave inverter which I did using 4 gauge wire, a 100 amp circuit breaker and a 100 amp switch is to be closed only when the engine is running. When I was finished with the installation today, she plugged in a 12 volt AC to DC converter to charge the battery pack. I was stunned.
I tried to explain to her that all of the work I had done and all of the costs were unnecessary. She had 12volts at the vans battery; converting it to 120 volts AC, and then converting it to 12 volts DC was not necessary. She assured me I was wrong; the two conversion steps are necessary to protect the battery pack which has another inverter that gives her 120 volts AC when she is camping at remote sites.
I again tried to explain that we only needed a relay that sensed when the alternator was running and would then connect the alternator to her auxiliary battery for charging. She thinks I’m wrong and I think she has been misled.
I exhausted I can’t think of a good search phrase for what I need. Suggestions please.
Whoa, I wrote some C++ code today. It was a good day.
I have been writing a lot of Fortran lately. Old, archaic, stodgy Fortran.
My granddaughter has a Dodge Sprint that she is converting for off road use
Dodge Sprinter ???
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercedes-Benz_Sprinter
Cool vehicle with a Mercedes turbo diesel four cylinder.
Sorry, I have no idea about the charger rig that you are building. I just hope that there are fuses and/or breakers to protect against fire.
I do know that the conversion from DC to AC to DC will lose quite a bit of the electricity. Maybe 30%.