The SATURDAY SIX Presents: Flights with Bioreconstruct vol 13 (Hollywood Drift Pull Test, Celestial Bodies, Tropical Americas and MORE!))

This week’s SATURDAY SIX heads back into the air with blogger-in-the-sky @bioreconstruct for another amazing bird’s eye view of the construction projects currently at Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando (along with some pretty amazing “boots on the ground” photos as well.)

As a reminder, you can select any photo for a higher resolution version that you can zoom closer into and see even more details. Let’s start off with a look above Disney’s Animal Kingdom…

# 6 – Tropical Americas

Absolutely in love with this shot of Animal Kingdom that shows where Tropical Americas is in relation to the park’s other E-Ticket attractions. At the bottom of the picture we get the rare opportunity to see the (unthemed) backside of Expedition Everest, while the top center gives us Pandora: The World of Avatar.

Let’s zoom in closer for a look at Tropical Americas itself. As a reminder, this land will have a large area dedicated to Encanto along with the Dinosaur attraction re-themed to be based around Indiana Jones. The Indy attraction is located at the bottom center of the picture while everything else will be themed to Encanto.

The front of the old Dino Institute is being converted into a Mayan pyramid. Looking fantastic so far.

This shot below shows exactly how close the elements of the land themed to Encanto will be next to the Indy ride.

Rumors and Innuendo suggest the E-Ticket ride coming for the Encanto area is going to knock our socks off. The building for it is huge, and the Casita facade out front is coming together nicely.

Low key looking forward to the upcoming Encanto-themed carousel because of how iconic all the other ones we have in Central Florida are ( Caro-Seuss-El in Islands of Adventure, Constellation Carousel in Epic Universe and Prince Charming’s Regal Carrousel in Disney’s Magic Kingdom.)

Imagineers are going to have their hands full trying to top the jam packed Restaurantosaurus, so I for one am looking forward to how the Encanto-themed quick service location turns out.

Looking like walking through Tropical Americas is going to be a rather unique experience with all the unique theming Disney is installing.

# 5 – Monsters, Inc. in DHS

High above Disney Hollywood Studios we have this stunning shot featuring the upcoming Monsters, Inc. roller coaster in the center, but in the background at top are some of the tallest features of the All Star resorts. There has been a lot of gimmick infringement recently with a whole bunch of Johnny Come Latelys chartering helicopters to try and do what Bioreconstruct does, but not a single one of them can capture a shot like this. Not one.

Zooming in to see more detail in the upcoming coaster truly puts into perspective how gigantic this building is when the construction workers look like ants. We also get detailed notes from Bio explaining exactly what we are looking at (HOW he knows all this stuff is beyond my mere mortal comprehension.)

Let’s zoom in even closer…

Directly across from the upcoming roller coaster is Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge in the top right, and the Monsters, Inc. themed Monstropolis in the bottom right.

Work is chugging along inside Monstropolis. It appears this area will all be open for next Summer while the roller coaster won’t be ready until 2028.

The upcoming Archie’s Scare Pig Pizza will be rethemed from the previous PizzeRizzo. This may be the single location in Monstropolis I’m looking forward to the most as word from Disney’s culinary team seems to be “we’re actually going to try this time!” when I’m old enough to remember how they touted a Million dollars was being put into converting the old Pizza Planet kitchen into making better food for PizzeRizzo (spoiler alert: it did not make better food.)

In the only theme park resort which has a “blessing of size,” I truly will never understand why Walt Disney World walked away from dinosaurs for Tropical Americas or converted the brilliant Muppet Courtyard into one based around Monsters, Inc., but here’s hoping they deliver on an unforgettable experience.

# 4 – Luke Combs’ Category 10

Not nearly as much attraction construction going on over at the north campus of the Universal Orlando Resort, but here’s a really neat shot from Bio showing where the new Luke Combs’ Category 10 restaurant will be going up. This was previously just unused space by Universal filled with kiosks selling the same junk you could get at any one of the dying malls in America.

This past week a retaining wall was installed in the construction area.

For those who don’t know, retaining walls are put up on construction sites to help prevent erosion and slope failure while they are creating flat land to build on.

Florida weather showed exactly why these retaining walls are needed, as the entire state has been blanketed by a ton of rain thanks to Hurricane-level storms in the Gulf of Mexico

This past week, guests at Universal saw the following signage on display on the walk from the Citywalk parking garages to Islands of Adventure. Unfortunately, Universal is not the greatest when it comes to communicating with its guests (just ask anyone who has shown up to enjoy the Dead Coconut Club only to find out its been bought out for the night for a corporate event.) Most guests on the ground had no idea why these signs were even posted.

Bio was there with an explanation and an aerial to clearly show what was going to cause the delay. “The Citywalk bypass was closed 5-ish to 6-ish today. Onsite resort guests coming to the area had bridge access only to IOA. Original plan was it would be closed until 11pm, with guests exiting (or entering) Islands of Adventure to take the long way around the lagoon.”

So the reason for the delay Universal warned guests about was that guests wouldn’t be able to walk from IOA to the Citywalk parking garages in the most direct route. Instead they would have to pass Toothsome, Hard Rock, and Universal Studios Florida and make their way to the garages that way. However, the constant rain storms we mentioned above cancelled whatever plans Universal had for that particular night and the walkway ended up being open after a brief closure.

# 3 – Islands of Adventure Entrance

Speaking of Islands of Adventure, earlier this week construction walls were put outside the tree that sits at the front entrance.

This particular tree has an interesting story, and to tell it let’s head on over to Universal Studios Florida and look at the iconic globe that sits in front of the entrance to that park.

This aerial photo by Bio gives us a better look at how the globe is displayed. Make note of that blue path that seems to start at the right hand side of the globe and expands.

Using Google Earth, we can see that Islands of Adventure has a similar set up outside its front entrance, and the two areas are actually connected via that blue line.

So, let’s head back on over to IOA and see what they normally have displayed outside their front entrance. That’s right, the front entrance to both parks are essential mirrors to each other, except one has the iconic Universal globe and the other has a plain old tree.

For whatever reason, IOA has a tree planted in the area similar to what USF has set up for their iconic globe.

Time for a history lesson. Back in the 1990s, Universal Studios Florida was home to the Islands of Adventure Preview Center. This allowed guests the opportunity to look at concept art and even small scale miniatures of what was coming to IOA. In some of the concept art we can see that in the spot where the tree currently sits outside the park there is a stylized globe.

Here’s a different piece of concept art featuring the front of IOA, and it also features a stylized globe outside the front of the park.

The SATURDAY SIX’s own Digital Maestro, Scott Walker, created a globe that could sit in front of the unique park that IOA is.

The day before publishing, Universal showed what the walls were for. They replaced the former tree. However, the brand new tree is not looking good and knowing how much it costs to remove a tree at my house it looks like Universal better have another $10,000 ready to go to replace this tree in the near future.

The day after this SAT SIX originally went up, the construction walls were removed and we got a chance to see look at the most Charlie Brown-iest tree Universal has ever had. Incredible. If this was the BEST option, what did the others look like?!

# 2 – M-O-O-N, that spells Moon

Bio’s shots of celestial bodies are always fantastic, and he points out that this terrific shots of the Moon features Antares and Al Niyat. I’m not even sure what those two things are outside of sounding like characters from Star Wars.

Look at the detail in this shot. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!!!!

Bio of course takes the next step and perfectly frames his great shots with a theme park element, in this case Fast and Furious – Hollywood Drift.

# 1 – Fast & Furious – Hollywood Drift Pull Test

When it comes to “how the sausage is made,” one of the only things us theme park fans get to see when it comes to testing for safety in theme parks is a roller coaster pull test. This is when a ride vehicle is slowly dragged through every inch of the track to check for obstructions along with clearance for riders.

For the pull test for Fast and Furious – Hollywood Drift, Bio was along to capture seemingly every inch of the test, along with explaining what was going on.

The details Bio was able to capture was nothing short of amazing. This may be too “Inside Baseball” for the average theme park fan, but for the true sickos this is just pure gold.

Imagine Bio taking the time out of his day to mark up these photos just so we know the direction that the pull test is going on the track. Just an unbelievable level of committment.

Here’s a look at a Hollywood Drift ride vehicle equipped for the pull test. This is what ensures that guests of any size or shape can not actually touch anything while on the ride.

As he does, Bio always looking for a unique way to frame his shots.

Universal’s new crew of safety monitors keeping an eye on things…

Let’s check out some really cool shots Bio was able to get during the pull test this month.

Just brilliant composition.

Just how thorough is Bio is getting us ALL the relevant shots related to this pull test? Let’s tell a story in the following three photos…

 

Bio isn’t the theme park photographer we deserve, but he’s the one we need.

So there you have it: Flights with Bio vol 13! See you next weekend for the latest installment of the SATURDAY SIX, where we’ll look at something fun from the world of Disney and Universal. If you enjoyed yourself, be sure to check out the THEME PARK ENJOYMENT INDEX, giving a monthly recap of all the theme park news you need to know (and a lot more you don’t need to know, but we’re gonna tell you anyway). You can also follow Your Humble Author on Twitter (@derekburgan).

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Special Thanks to The Elite Brandon Glover, Digital Maestro Scott Walker, the bio-est of all reconstructs @bioreconstruct, Captain Cruiseline Scott Sanders of the world famous Disney Cruise Line Blog, my personal protege Hunter “Elvey” Underwood, artist @SonderQuest, the mighty maven of merchandise Hedgehog’s Corner, the SAT SIX Fun Squad of Parkscope Joe and “the Dadalorian” Nick, hot shot Michael Carelli, charter member of the Universal Four @Nitro230, the permit princess Alicia Stella, master cartographer Tommy Hawkins, and Hermione Granger’s tutor Megan Stump for their invaluable assistance with this article. Absolutely no help was added by SeaWorld Influencer @SuperWeenieHtJr. The SAT SIX is inspired each week by goofballs Aengus Mackenzie and LitemAndHyde and you Potterheads will  enjoy Meg’s other blog work over at the Central Florida Slug Club.