SATURDAY SIX Presents: The 2025 Theme Park Turkeys, a Look Back at the CRAZIEST Theme Park Stories of the Year!

This week’s SATURDAY SIX is an annual tradition like no other, as we proudly present the 12th Annual Theme Park Turkeys of the Year. Gather ’round as we continue the time-honored tradition of awarding six Theme Park “Turkeys” to the craziest, most outrageous, or just downright weird stories of the year, concluding with the coveted Golden Turkey award. You can see all the previous Turkey inductees by CLICKING HERE.

Before we start, let’s send a special shout out to artist Brian Cooper. The headline drawing this year was crafted by Brian and features many of the memorable moments and people that have shaped our theme park experience over the last year. There are over 50 references contained in the drawing, which you can zoom in on and see in glorious hi-res by clicking the photo below. How many Easter Eggs can YOU identify? Don’t worry, we explain every single one in this year’s TURKEY ADDENDUM (available tomorrow morning.)

Okay, enough with the pomp and circumstance and on with the insanity! We’ll start everything off with…

# 6 – That Time Disney Was OK with AI Slop

This story actually began in late 2024, after the cut-off for last year’s Turkey awards. It all started right before Christmas, when Disney opened Madame Leota’s Somewhere Beyond, a gift shop for the Haunted Mansion in Disneyland. Once guests were let in and pictures circulated on social media sites, Disney began to get roasted for filling the store with items anyone could buy similar versions of at online stores such as Amazon and Target.

However, everything took a turn when a poster on Twitter pointed out that one piece was actually an AI print bought from RedBubble. For me personally, AI artwork in the Disney or Universal parks is a slap in the face to all the talented men and women who have worked for those companies over the last 65+ years. AI doesn’t *create* art, it generates art by using existing works without acknowledgement or compensation.

Overall, the reaction in the fan community was pretty brutal, as it should be. In fact, the reaction to what Disney did in this gift shop went so viral, it was brought up in an LA Times story covering the changes to the Haunted Mansion.

The following response by Imagineer Kim Irvine was – in my mind – the most tone deaf answer we had seen from Disney since former Chief Financial Officer Christine McCarthy’s comment about how charging Disney guests higher prices for lower portion sizes on food was actually a positive because it was “probably good for some people’s waistlines.”

To steal a classic moment from The Simpsons, Irvine wasn’t questioning whether or not Disney had made a mistake by using this piece of AI trash on hallowed ground. NAY NAY. It was us, the guests, who had made a mistake by focusing on that slop instead of all the other items in the store. This was the exact same Kim Irvine who was quoted in The Imagineering Story on Disney+ as saying:

You can’t fool people. [laughs] You know, they can tell when things are being shortchanged or you’re not paying attention to the details and putting the quality into something.” – Kim Irvine, The Imagineering Story

What takes this story to a level that it begins to seems like it is straight out of a badly written movie full of contrived coincidences too ridiculous to believe, Imagineer Kim Irvine is the daughter of former Disney Imagineer Leota Toombs, the very person who the character of Madame Leota in the Haunted Mansion was based on. As a reminder, the store with this AI slop in it is themed to Madame Leota.

Here’s my reaction after taking all this in…

So anyway, even though we were told the AI artwork was just a placeholder… that we as a community were making much ado about nothing… that what was coming was going to be even better… the AI artwork was just unceremoniously removed. You can’t make this stuff up.

Listen, this isn’t a big deal if your local barbershop is trying to brighten up their place without losing customers by delaying the opening of their new shop while they were waiting for something more unique to arrive. The morality of using AI art is a debate people should be having, but a lot of regular people just don’t know the difference.

However, Disney was founded and relies on the effort of artisans of all types who make their living off original and unique creative efforts. For Disney, it’s a strategic choice to use AI slop. There’s no legislation from the government or Holy Commandment from above that forces Disney to be cheap. Disney bought back $3 BILLION in company stock in Fiscal Year 2024 alone. The world wouldn’t have ended if they had bought back only $2,999,000,000 worth of stock and used that extra $1M to create items instead of buying slop online. These are voluntary choices and people need to be held accountable for making them.

Were they held accountable? Probably not, judging by some of the stuff we saw in 2025. Anything about this hat look particularly out of place to you?

I’m betting there’s a good chance that a human artist wouldn’t have put an extra flag floating in space.

The mega popular YouTube channel Dude Perfect did a gimmick over this past summer where they promoted the fact that they went to every Disney park around the globe in under 75 hours. This is important because the previous record was held by Lindsay Nemeth, who back in 2017 visited all 12 parks around the world in 75 hours and 6 minutes. As theme park fans, if you watch Dude Perfect’s video and do the math in your head, there’s no way they did what they said unless Disney helped along the way (which has been confirmed) and maybe fudged their timeline a bit as well. You can see a thread that debunks the timeline of their video by CLICKING HERE.

That’s not even why we are bringing the story up though. Dude Perfect made the Turkeys by the AI generated image they used to promote their video on YouTube and across social media platforms.

The post above was shared by Disney themselves and features a member of Dude Perfect and Mickey Mouse on a roller coaster (that doesn’t exist in a Disney park) and Mickey is showing TEETH. It’s bad enough that the multi-million dollar enterprise that is Dude Perfect relied on AI slop for this image, BUT DISNEY SHARING IT?!!

I mentioned earlier that – unfortunately – many people can’t tell the difference between AI slop and reality, but plenty could actually tell with this one and the response was so overwhelmingly negative that Dude Perfect themselves changed their artwork within 48 hours.

Universal doesn’t have clean hands in this either, as once again they got their hands caught into the cookie jar “decorating” the recent Green & Red Coconut Club makeover in Citywalk with several pieces of AI slop meant to evoke thoughts of their Earl the Squirrel character.

Reaction online was swift and nearly 100% negative, with many calling Universal out directly. Less than a week later, the AI slop was removed.

So what’s next? It’s most likely going to get worse before it gets better, especially given the news that Disney CEO Bob Iger said during a quarterly earnings call that the company is going to allow Disney+ users to create their own AI generated content on the streaming service, and those who went to last week’s IAAPA convention in Orlando say that many companies in the industry are going all in with this AI slop.

I actually have no problem with the Disney+ AI nonsense because that is so clearly going to end up being a complete and utter disaster that it’s going to be pretty fun watching the company head straight first into it knowingly. As for Universal, what’s going to stop them from continuing with this garbage will be a combination of public ridicule and the fact that they can’t copyright – and more importantly – monetize – a single one of these AI pieces they are foisting upon an unsuspecting public.

As for the rest? Well, to quote the late, great Roddy Piper, I have come here to shame everyone who uses AI Slop and to chew bubblegum…and I’m all out of bubblegum.

# 5 – That Time a Pizza Box Dominated DisTwitter

It seems every year there is a story involving theme park food that is so over-the-top ridiculous that looking back it seems like a fever dream. Last year we had the Ghost of Gideons. In years before that we had insanity such as a self proclaimed Disney “expert” that stiffed a Via Napoli server because she didn’t understand why her bill was so high and let’s not forget a guest getting off their Living with the Land boat to grab vegetables.

This year’s entry may top them all because – as hard as it is to believe – the story of a PIZZA BOX was the daily discussion on theme park social media for weeks and it spawned multiple blog posts and videos.

So here’s how it started…when Epic Universe opened in May, one of the biggest consensus hits of the entire park was the quick service restaurant Pizza Moon. Right out of the gate, Pizza Moon became one of the best pound-for-pound pizza places in any theme park with an incredible décor inside (that is just bonkers) along with some great tasting pizzas including The Giant Mushroom, which became an immediate fan favorite.

Here’s a look at the original Pizza Moon menu, which has some really interesting options including Space Cowboy, a pizza that had BBQ chips as one of its toppings.

However, by June – the very next month – the Pizza Moon menu was noticeably different. Baked pastas were added into the mix, but several of the pizza options were removed. These included Hala Kahiki Mahina, Space Cowboy, Harvest Moon, and The Giant Mushroom.

Trying to contact Universal directly about the new and improved Pizza Moon menu was fruitless, with a generic answer such as “our food menus are subject to change.” No reason was given for the change, nor a timeline if the other options would come back. We had heard some Rumors and Innuendo that these pizzas were taken off the menu because the restaurant was having a hard time keeping up with demand. I do understand that, but I also know that its not like Pizza Moon’s menu was as large as The Cheesecake Factory. Let’s be real. Pizza Moon was offering less than 10 pizza options, and because everyone is pretty much forced to mobile order on a system that offers extremely limited options for changing anything, its not like the kitchen was being overwhelmed with substitutions.

Regardless, the pizzas came back onto the menu almost as fast as they disappeared, thus ending our Nation Wide Week of Mourning.

However, the drama at Pizza Moon didn’t end there. On June 17th, Universal Parks News Today posted the following tweet:

This led to a lot of reaction on social media, much of which was pointing out the fact that pretty much none of Universal Orlando’s quick service restaurants offer “To Go” containers, especially when it comes to pizza. I found this out the hard way myself a couple years back. I was sitting in the Bourne Stuntactular theater and noticed that Louie’s Pizza would be closing in a half hour. So I mobile ordered a large pizza with the plan that I would just take it back to the Royal Pacific Resort and eat it in my hotel room. I got to the restaurant and was told “we don’t have boxes.”

Now, I had never actually seen a pizza box at Louie’s before, but it had also never crossed my mind that they wouldn’t have them. Thankfully a manager went somewhere and ended up bringing back a pizza box. However, while I was in the restaurant waiting to see if they could find anything, I realized that none of the places I went to at Universal offered traditional To Go containers. This is probably for a couple reasons. First, it’s not like quick service locations at any theme park are known for being overly generous with their portion sizes. Meaning: there’s not much food to start, so there’s definitely not going to be much “left over.”

Secondly, its not like the average person is going straight home after a meal inside a theme park. Most are going back on rides. In case you didn’t know, or happen to be our current Secretary of Health and Human Services, it is not a good idea to travel around a Florida theme park with food considering our average daily weather. Especially during the Summer when this story took place. Food spoils quickly and you’ll get sick when you finally eat it later.

Anyway, the reaction to UniNewsToday’s tweet sparked a surprising amount of controversy online and the story went viral. There was even a pizza box parody video made by WDW News Tonight.

A week later, the next shoe dropped when the following tweet posted by Orlando Informer had a little fun with the story that had been taking over theme park social media.

Pizza Moon to-go boxes, manufactured prior to the park opening, are a very functional way to transport your pizza throughout your celestial travels! ” – Orlando Informer, June 24th

UniNewsToday was not laughing. In fact, they dug their heels in even deeper and posted an article which revealed that boxes had only recently been available to guests, and even then the boxes reportedly came with restrictions such as customers having to eat at least once slice of the pizza to count as “left overs.”

Seeing all this drama unfold, I immediately sent an under-cover member of the SAT SIX Special Investigation Squad into the restaurant to see what’s what. We were able to confirm that Pizza Moon did indeed offer pizza boxes and that they were straight up E-Ticket.

We did *not* have to eat a slice to be able to use the box.

We then took it up a notch by also ordering the Brownie Eclipse dessert. The Pizza Moon menu describes this item as a “warm gooey brownie, Nutella, toasted marshmallows, crushed Oreo.” You had me at crushed Oreo, Universal. You had me at crushed Oreo.

Turns out, Pizza Moon also offers a smaller themed box for their desserts!

HOW GREAT IS THIS BOX?!

Somehow, this wasn’t the end of PizzaBoxGate, as people on social media asked AI programs like Grok to summarize the ridiculous story. Grok’s interpretation is lengthy, full of inaccuracies, and makes you ask the obvious questions like, “if Grok can get so many basic facts wrong on an absurd story like this, how much is it getting wrong on the important stuff that people ask it?” Probably best not to think about that considering how much of America’s youth is becoming 100% reliant on AI (at least if you want to sleep without the constant night terrors like I get.)

One user even asked Grok to summarize the story in picture form, which we can see  in all its glory – and typos – below.

We wanted to go the other way and get a human artist to summarize everything. So we reached out to Dan Shull, and he came back with what may just be the perfect way to describe the entire Pizza Moon story…

# 4 – That Time SeaWorld Became an Industry Leader…For the Wrong Reason

The last couple years have been an interesting one for SeaWorld. For a while now I have been telling visiting friends and family not to sleep on SeaWorld when they come to Florida for a Disney or Universal vacation. The rides are fun, the commitment to sea life conservation is very similar to what people love about Disney’s Animal Kingdom, Sesame Street is a true delight, and their festivals/events throughout the year have some pretty neat offerings.

However, sometime post pandemic SeaWorld decided to take a page out of the WDW playbook and have begun nickel and diming their guests. Last Summer they made the controversial move to implement a new tipping system at every single concession stand in the park. Whether you were buying food or merchandise, you were being asked to tip at the end of each and every transaction.

Fast forward to this year. Everyone reading this knows there was a time not that long ago when many restaurants placed a temporary surcharge on all orders to help make up for rising costs during a completely bonkers time in this country. With the world getting more “back to normal” (and can you imagine me writing that sentence after the last year we just experienced?) most of these surcharges have disappeared.

Not at SeaWorld though. NAY NAY. SeaWorld doubled down. Where they once had a 5% surcharge added to all orders, earlier this year they went UP to a 9% added surcharge during their annual Seven Seas Food Festival.

 

We can only speculate what SeaWorld could be doing with all this extra money…

Later in the same month SeaWorld went back down to “just” a 5% surcharge, but it’s an important reminder that by this point, no other theme park in Florida had these added surcharges and most restaurants in America had removed them as well.

Turns out that SeaWorld should have used that extra money on the construction of their newest attraction Expedition Odyssey.

Back on May 1st, the Passholder Preview day for Expedition Odyssey, the large “O” in the marquee signage fell off and struck a guest below.

A closer look at the letter when being carried away by a SeaWorld Team Member shows that it seems a bit flimsy and appeared to be made out of foam. The opening of Odyssey was already delayed from April, so there’s a good chance that this signage was a rush job just to get something up on the marquee.

It’s extremely rare for SeaWorld to be the dominant topic of discussion on theme park social media, but the falling “O” did lead to a lot of fun memes, including this one from Scott Walker…

It wasn’t long before all the letters in the original signage were taken down.

In July, the “new and improved” signage was installed at Expedition Odyssey and it actually was a huge improvement.

A look from a different angle shows how much more substantial the new letters are.

SeaWorld wasn’t the only theme park to have signage issues this year, so let’s take a moment to welcome the newest entrants into the Theme Park Signage Hall of Shame.

First we’ll head over to Universal’s Epic  Universe, which used an unnecessary apostrophe in its signage for Stardust Racers.

Speaking of Epic Universe signage, during early previews of the park, its parking lot contained four sections; named Viking, Monster, Dragon and Gamer.

In May, the Gamer section was renamed to HERO. Why? Who knows.

Over at the main campus of the Universal Orlando Resort, signage couldn’t be more clear at the security hub in CityWalk.

Now, it’s extremely rare for something to be nominated for two separate Theme Park Turkey of the Year awards, but Disney’s ambitious Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser interactive “experience” did just that. In 2023 it won the coveted Golden Turkey award for being shuttered less than two years after opening and introducing the term accelerated depreciation into the theme park lexicon. Then, in a historic Theme Park Turkey first, the Starcruiser defended its Golden Turkey crown as Jenny Nicholson’s video explaining its spectacular failure garnered millions of views (which currently has a staggering 14 Million views.)

In a shocking development, The Starcruiser makes its triumphant return to the Turkeys for the third year in a row as its closure forced Disney* to change several major pieces of road signage across Walt Disney World. Let’s take a look at how one sign appeared in January 2022. This particular sign directed guests to an exit for Disney Springs, EPCOT, Magic Kingdom and the Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser.

At the very end of July 2025, the Galactic Starcruiser was finally removed from the sign…in the cheapest way possible.

Keep in mind, the Starcruiser had officially closed its doors on Sept 30th, 2023, a full 22 MONTHS before they got around to changing the sign. Important to keep in mind that the road signage across Walt Disney World used to fall under the purview of the Reedy Creek Improvement District, which was run by Disney, but in February 2025, the Governor of Florida took over the RCID, filled it with a hand picked staff, and renamed it the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District.

Imagine taking almost two years to do something and this is how you did it…

I feel like there was once a time at Walt Disney World where “everything mattered.” Now we are unfortunately at a point where nothing matters, and a simple update to resort signage can be completely inconsistent.

Typos were rampant this year, including this one for Hydrolics in Disney Hollywood Studios (instead of Hydraulics.)

Most recently we had a typo in the park maps for the Jollywood Nights after hours event at Disney Hollywood Studios.

Inside the park map it lists all the activities held during the event.

In the character greeting section, we see “Baloo or King Louie from Tailspin.”

Those of us of a certain age know exactly how Tale Spin is supposed to be spelled…

 

Imagine the joy on our face when we saw the long awaited return of EPOCT. That’s right, the same EPOCT whose very existence created Signage Hall of Shame in the first place. EPOCT was gone, but never forgotten, and our hearts grew three sizes in October when we saw it reappear during a runDisney race…

# 3 – That Time The Turkeys Continued A Story…

So last year one of our main stories was the end of our long national nightmare with the opening of the overhauled central hub of EPCOT. The last piece of the puzzle to be completed was CommuniCore Hall, and it was something that definitely arrived with a whimper rather than a bang. Tharin White‘s t-shirt below pretty much says how we all were feeling…

Now, one of the neat things we did get with the EPCOT overhaul was a lighting package on the ground that is designed to resemble the classic 5 ring EPCOT Center logo. This looked spectacular from the air. These lights made their official debut in December, 2023.

The lights also popped to guests inside the park and were synchronized to the lighting package on Spaceship Earth.

However, this didn’t last long. By early July the lights started having some significant issues.

A closer look reveals that there were some major problems with these strips installed onto the EPCOT pavement.

Nothing a little tape can’t fix though, right?

AFTER the Turkeys went to print last year, we had our first ever BREAKING NEWS update. It appeared that the in-ground lighting strips had been repaired to their former state.

However, that feeling of contentment didn’t last long, as @fibellefi and Ivonne Ramos – theme park’s Woodward and Bernstein – reported that the in-ground lights working may have been Limited Time Magic.

Ace photographer Blog Mickey also confirmed that because of the lighting strip issues, the in-ground lighting effect did, in fact, look awful.

So that leads us to June of this year. The in-ground lighting strips continued to have issues with staying in place, causing the terrible lighting issues but also becoming a tripping hazard for any guests walking by.

Ropes were put up to prevent guests from walking in the area, but theme park fans being theme park fans, some would just go past the ropes to get a picture with the planter in the middle

Finally a more permanent solution was used. The lighting strips were screwed into the pavement.

Now, over at Jurassic Park they “spared no expense,” but it looks like Disney might have saved a couple bucks during this installation.

 # 2 – That Time Everyone Announced a New Theme Park

I’m out of it for a little while, and everybody gets delusions of grandeur.” – Han Solo, Return of the Jedi

There’s a popular GIF on social media that is a clip of Oprah Winfrey excitedly exclaiming “You get a car! You get a car! You get a car!” and it references an iconic moment from her television show (albeit one that didn’t end on a happy note.) We had that very same type of thing this year except it was “You get a theme park! You get a theme park! You get a theme park!” as a whole bunch of theme parks were announced and surely almost none of them will actually get built.

We may not get physical rides, restaurants, or gift shops, but one thing we do get is concept art.

The concept art gives no actual reason for anyone to actually want to go to any of these theme parks, and much of it seems to be AI generated because it has no basis in reality. Look at the “roller coaster” in the top right of the concept art below. There’s multiple issues with it, but are we to believe guests will be riding upside down on long straight sections of the track?

Imagine saying that you worked seven years on something, and the most concrete plan you have involves AI generated artwork promoting “Pect & Duuucks” along with “PEVA TASO.”

Some don’t even bother giving us the AI generated artwork. They just say “trust us, bro.”

The “Nateland Experiences” division is focused on bringing Nateland to its fans, be it in cruise form (see 2026’s Nateland voyage with Norwegian Cruise Line) or theme parks. Yes, plural. Nashville will be the first and primary location — rides and studio included — but smaller parks in other states could be next. ” – The Hollywood Reporter

I love comedian Nate Bartgatze as much as anyone and his skit playing George Washington on SNL was one of the funniest things I’ve seen this decade (and the follow-up skit was also hilarious.) But a Nate Bargatze theme park? MULTIPLE parks across the country? Seeing stuff like that makes a siren go off, and no, it’s not a good siren.

Here’s what could be the biggest problem of all this nonsense… for most of these parks they are being announced before even the most minor of due diligence for an actual business plan has been done. The retro-park in Vegas that they’ve been “working on” for 7 years? They don’t have the land to put it on or even the rights to the intellectual property they want to use. Nateland is only now just starting a feasibility study, let alone actually having the land for a park or the Billions of dollars needed to build the attractions.

Compare this to Universal, which had the land for Epic Universe for 5 years before they even announced a park was coming. Universal also didn’t fall into the trap of what I like to call this “putting the concept art before the horse.” What happens when you put out concept art too early is that you inevitably change during the process. This usually ends up letting down the theme park fans because the changes are usually made because of budget cuts to a project.

For example, take the concept art for Toy Story Land at Disney’s Hollywood Studios that was originally announced.

The concept art shows buildings – like Al’s Toy Barn – that were never built along with other art showing elements in attractions such as Slinky Dog Dash that were eliminated along the way as well.

Below is the final concept art of Toy Story Land showing what we actually got at DHS. If this would have been the only concept art shown, fans wouldn’t have felt let down by the parts of the project which were never made.

There’s something to be said about whetting the fan’s appetites, and Disney has a monster to feed with it’s money making D23 Expos, but ultimately the theme parks might be better served by taking a page out of Universal’s playbook, and going way into the development and construction process before releasing concept art. In the case of Epic Universe, the concept art they first revealed in January 2024 was pretty close to exactly what we got in a fully realized version during its grand opening this Summer.

 

In May of this year we did get vague details of a theme park that does has a solid chance of being built (even though it probably shouldn’t be.)

Dubai is currently a hot bed for theme parks, and the boys at Attractions 360 are a great follow to see some incredible stuff in Abu Dhabi and surrounding areas, like the SeaWorld indoor park, Warner Brothers theme park, and Yas Waterworld. However the name DISNEY means something different than all the rest and it will certainly be something seeing the company sacrifice a key tenet in the way they run their business just to be a part of the gold rush in the Middle East.

IT MUST BE SAID…there is a silver lining to all these “theme parks” being announced. Many of these projects are using furloughed or otherwise out of work theme park developers to create these plans. In the world of professional wrestling we call this practice “working the money marks,” and who are we to stop these people from throwing away their cash? I’m always going to land on the side of creators getting paid, so even if we don’t end up seeing a single one of the parks listed in this section actually getting built, at least we know some very talented creative people got some work helping dream them up.

# 1- That Time A Scuba Diver Robbed Paddlefish

I know a story involving the theme park world has gone viral and escaped our little bubble when I start getting texts from my non-theme park obsessed friends and family members. In any given year it’s usually only about one or two stories that break free from the pack and get noticed by the Real World, and this year one of those stories involved Paddlefish, a lake side restaurant in Disney Springs.

On September 15th, a man wearing scuba gear stole between $10,000 – $20,000 after the restaurant had closed for the evening. While Disney itself is – as always – tightlipped on the robbery, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office released a 911 call from that evening which shed some light on what happened.

A female employee of Paddlefish called police shortly after midnight, with the restaurant already closed to guests for the evening. The 911 operator asked the caller, “Can you describe the person who took the items?”

“No idea, he was fully masked,” replied the employee.

The operator continued, “Did he have a weapon with him?”

“Some sort of spray, and he put trash bags over us and took us to the ground,” the employee replied.

This matches up to the solitary photo that was released concerning the robbery, showing the robber in black clothing and swim goggles about to spray something onto the lens of a security camera.

The thief – dressed fully like a Dollar Store Superhero Villain -allegedly placed trash bags over heads of two employees, taped their hands, and then ordered them to get on the ground and close their eyes. Initial reports claimed that the suspect swam up to Paddlefish, stole the cash, and then swam away. However, the police report of the incident does not mention this.

The SAT SIX WDW Restaurant Special Investigation Team has brainstormed how the suspect could have gotten away so fast and are pretty sure we have the answer…

HONORABLE MENTION – That Time Universal Sold Out of Grand Opening Medallions BEFORE The Grand Opening

When Epic Universe opened in May, it made its debut with a whole bunch of great merchandise. Among the items included a rather sharp looking Grand Opening Medallion that included the date of the park’s official opening to every guest: May 22, 2025.

Here’s the problem, Universal hosted a media event to promote Epic Universe several days before the official grand opening, and they allowed the people at the event to purchase the Grand Opening Medallion. They also did not limit how many medallions could be purchased, so some were buying up to 20 medallions. This led to every single medallion being sold before the park’s official grand opening, leading to many unhappy people who had paid for their opening day tickets months earlier.

To rub salt in the wound, many Grand Opening Medallions quickly found their way to eBay – meaning hosted media who did not pay to get into Epic Universe were using their status to gouge people who wanted the medallion.

Universal did have a “make good” of sorts, offering opening day guests an Grand Opening Day Digital Medallion…

Lo and behold, in early June, the Grand Opening Medallion became available to order on Universal’s website.

Of course it didn’t take all that long for this medallion to sell out as well.

The medallion then arrived to everyone who ordered it in early November.

Like many, we were at the Grand Opening of Epic Universe and were shut out of the medallions. However we did order one in June and it looked gorgeous when it arrived.

The capper to this bonkers story? In November, Epic Universe just began selling the Grand Opening pins in the park again. You can’t make that up.

Digital Maestro Scott Walker did come up with this image for those who bought the coin but didn’t go to the Grand Opening…

DOUBLE SECRET HONORABLE MENTION – That Time Everyone Credited Bioreconstruct Except WonderCon

It was another HUGE year for blogger-in-the-sky Bioreconstruct with his amazing photos being used by media outlets across the world. These include the UK’s Daily Star newspaper…

…the Orlando Sentinel…

…and The Weather Channel!

Every single outlet using Bio’s fantastic photos was sure to properly credit him. This wasn’t always the case though, and one high profile example was seen at WonderCon back back in March.

WonderCon is an annual convention targeting fans of comic books, science fiction, movies and other forms of pop culture. WonderCon features an Artist Alley, tons of cosplayers, and a huge space of various vendors selling their wares. WonderCon is also where you find various panels featuring a wide variety of subjects. One of these subjects would directly appeal to theme park fans, and it was the Science of Disneyland panel.

Disneyland is just down the road, so let’s take a virtual field trip to explore the parks from a different point of view. There’s something to discover in every land—life on other planets in Galaxy’s Edge, dinosaurs roaming the railroad, and majestic rock formations in Cars Land, just to name a few. There’s also robotics everywhere, from the original audio-animatronics to the advanced Spider-Man that swings across Avengers Campus. Panelists include astrophysicist Lisa Will, geologist Garrett Vice, paleontologist Stuart Sumida (who worked on the Matterhorn animations), and biologist Elizabeth Rega (who consulted on the Hall of Presidents). All are huge Disney fans who can’t wait to geek out and help you experience Disneyland from a whole new angle.

The website LaughingPlace covered the panel, and noticed that when the group was discussing using forced perspective at Disneyland they were actually looking at a picture taken at Walt Disney World.

That wasn’t the only thing wrong in the presentation. The panel presented the Cinderella Castle photo with no credit.

That’s right, back in 2020 when the Disney theme parks were shut down due to Covid 19, Bio was up in the air taking this incredible photo.

TRIPLE THREAT HONORABLE MENTION – That Time Schmoofy Finally Got His “Boneless” Waffles into the Turkeys

For those unaware, in September of this year my friend Bret Taggart (AKA Schmoofy) lost his battle with cancer. You can read our tribute to Schmoofy by CLICKING HERE. I highly recommend checking it out because it covers the antics of one of the theme park community’s most colorful characters.

Schmoofy was a long time supporter of the Theme Park Turkeys of the Year Awards, and over the years would alert me to subjects that should possibly be covered in the article.

Dare I say that Schmoofy might have been the most passionate of ALL the great people who look forward to this annual tradition.

In 2020, Schmoofy became part of the Turkeys lore when we covered his legendary trip up to a store in Alabama in search of an entire pallet of deeply discounted Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge Coke bottles. You can read the entire story by CLICKING HERE, but spoiler alert: by the time Schmoofy had got to the store the pallet was empty as the entire stock had been purchased by eBay resellers.

Time for a little Inside Baseball… Schmoofy was part of a team I like to call the SATURDAY SIX Fun Squad. This exclusive group includes people from the TouringPlans team (including Joseph Matt and Len Testa) along with other friends that I share articles with early to get their thoughts, criticisms, and typo/grammar fixes. We’ll get back to this group later in the story.

In early 2021, Schmoofy posted online that Disney had advertised a Boneless Fresh Fruit Waffle Sandwich for Sleepy Hollow in the Magic Kingdom. This was the exact type of item that gets immediately inducted into the Theme Park Food Hall of Shame and I earmarked the story for the end of year Turkey Awards as well.

I actually start writing the Turkeys in October of each year. Planning what stories will make the cut, moving around the order so that things segue into others, etc. In early November, the real work begins and by the middle of the month I start emailing early copies of the Turkeys to get thoughts and corrections from the Fun Squad. The “Boneless Waffle” was in the 2021 Turkeys from the very first email I sent.

Much to the Fun Squad member’s chagrin, they get deluged with versions of the Turkey Awards for the last week leading up to release date because I want to make sure I can do every single thing possible to make this article the best it can possibly be for you, Dear Reader. The Squad wrote back with a myriad of suggestions, comments, and corrections, but at no point did a single person comment on the “Boneless Waffle.”

The night before the 2021 Turkeys went to print, I got a message from an anonymous source who informed me that “Boneless Waffle” was not real. It was something that Schmoofy had created earlier in the year in some sort of Long Con to slip something into the Turkeys.

I immediately took the “Boneless Waffle” out of the Turkeys before it went to print in the morning. My immediate reaction was pure disbelief. Schmoofy was the biggest supporter of the Turkey Awards for almost a decade, why would he do this?!

But it reminded me of something. It reminded me of my friend Josh easyWDW. In my tribute to Josh, I tell of how – early in our friendship – I needed to get his full name for a Universal Express card. He wrote back “Josh Africa.” Internally I thought that was a bit odd, but who am I to judge. Much later I found out his name was actually Josh Humphrey. Maybe I’m the most naïve person in the world. Maybe I’m actually a member of that alien species from Galaxy Quest that doesn’t understand the concept of lying. Whatever the reason, I didn’t think for a second I was getting “worked.”

Josh and Schmoofy were two peas in a pod. Both in spirit and in real life. Schmoofy had definitely got me with the “Boneless Waffle” story, but if I learned anything from working for years in the world of professional wrestling it’s that you never sell the rib, ever. What that means is, I didn’t get mad at Schmoofy. I now understood that he was just like Josh easyWDW. I always told the both of them that I describe the pair as scorpions in The Scorpion and The Frog parable. Us mere frogs cannot – and will not ever – comprehend the “why” of what they do, it’s just in their nature.

Looking back, I have to truly respect the hard work and the level of creativity. Schmoofy knew what would get me, executed it brilliantly, and had the patience to let it all play out without spoiling it. Wherever they are, I’m sure both Schmoofy and Josh right now are having a laugh that the “Boneless Waffle” finally got into the Turkeys and probably concocting their next rib to play on me when I see them.

Thanksgiving Leftovers: AKA Previous Editions of The Turkeys…