2010 Best Theme Park Attraction schedule: Round two

March 23, 2010 at 5:03 PM · My guesses?

(5) Pirates of the Caribbean ravages(13) Curse of DarKastle
(2) Apollo's Chariot smashed by (7) Incredible Hulk Coaster
(3) Terminator 2: 3D eliminates (6) MuppetVision 3D in a SUPER fashion
(1) Fantasmic! squeaks by... j/k... makes (9) Clyde and Seamore Take Pirate Island disappear.

March 23, 2010 at 5:25 PM · A little easier to predict than Round 1.

DarKastle won its previous match because Everest had one broken animatronic. Now it's up against at least 40 or so working animatronics that have stood the test of time. DarKastle's curse is no match for a pirate's.

Hulk took out X2 because far more people have experienced Hulk and, let's face it, there aren't that many Six Flags fanboys to come to the rescue. Apollo, conversely, absolutely swept Kraken, which has a very strong fan base. The Hulk may be able to take out mortals by the hundreds, but he won't last against a Greek god.

Can the technological innovations of Cyberdyne Systems match the wacky creations of Muppet Labs? The toughest call in this bracket, but I think Arnold's accent resonates stronger than the Swedish Chef's.

Interesting note: Both Muppet*Vision and T2: 3D won with 65-35 ratios.

Fantasmic. It's just gonna be a blowout. It's not even fair, really. I don't even have a pun. That's how bad this will be.

March 23, 2010 at 5:46 PM · LoL Joshua about the accents.

Totally agree about Fantasmic!... it's like betting that the Lions, the Clippers, or the Coyotes will win the big dance.

March 23, 2010 at 5:59 PM · If Busch Gardens fans get involved again and vote for their home park instead of the better attraction, DarKastle could pull another upset. And while I enjoy DarKastle, my protest days are now over, and I will be pulling mightily for Disneyland's Pirates - the quintessential dark ride.

Apollo's Chariot is the better coaster, but if Universal starts tweeting and sending out messages to their Facebook fans, this contest is over and Hulk will move on to the next round - regardless of what Busch does.

I'll take Terminators over Muppets any day of the week. In fact, I wish there was a Terminator VS Muppets movie so I could watch all those stupid talking socks get mercilessly eradicated. However, Muppetvision is a fine attraction, and could pull the upset if Universal stays out of the fray. We know Disney will. Getting Disney involved in a vote like this one is like trying to get a Yeti to move its arm. ;)

If Fantasmic loses... well, I'll turn in my Official TPI Badge and Revolver and go back to doing work at work!

March 23, 2010 at 7:35 PM · Does anybody wish to join me in voting for DarKastle as a protest to the obnoxious movie tie-in version of Pirates that shoves Jack Sparrow down your throat and destroys the ending of the ride?

March 23, 2010 at 7:43 PM · GOTV (get out the vote) can swing any match-up.

That said, Universal does not have a Twitter feed, and there's been a change in management of the Facebook page, so they don't link out to other sites anymore. So Universal, like Disney, will not be doing its own GOTV. It'll be up to its fans, and fan sites, to do that work.

So that leaves:

Busch Gardens - Best GOTV effort so far.

Holiday World - Solid GOTV, but only one ride in the show.

Six Flags, Cedar Point, Kings Island - No GOTV effort so far.

Dollywood - No social media presence for this park, so no GOTV. Which is too bad, because Dollywood's passionate fan base remind me a lot of Holiday World's, which has perhaps the best social media presence (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and blogging) for a small park in the business. Dollywood could do well to embrace social media and use it to rally its fan base to win the park some publicity in tournaments such as this.

March 23, 2010 at 8:14 PM · And for the rest....

Thursday: Potential for Tiki Room and LMA upsets exist, and like it or not, Griffon will most likely topple El Toro. Six Flags fans just are not involved thus far, and Busch fans are showing up in numbers. Spider-Man/Splash is the most interesting matchup of the day, but the Web-head should pull out a decisive victory.

Friday: All the favorites will and should advance. Go Voyage!

Monday: Nemo should pull the upset, imho, and TTBAB will win handily. Mummy VS Haunted Mansion will be a battle, unless Universal gets involved through Twitter and Facebook. The most interesting matchup looks to be Beast VS MF. Two very active fanbases and two very polarizing parks. Could be a huge battle.

Robert, isn't UniversalParks the Twitter feed for USO?

March 23, 2010 at 8:40 PM · I agree Dollywood does need to use social media more. They do have an official Facebook fan page http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dollywood/239284692239 but it was just recently started in the last month or so.

Dollywood won't do well at all on the coaster vote this Friday because it will be running while a significantly large portion of their fan base is at the park. Season passholder sneak preview day with Dolly is this Friday from 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.

March 23, 2010 at 11:43 PM · Its gonna be interesting to see how the DarKastle-Pirates match-up turns out. Pirates should win, but hey so should have Everest. My projected sweet sixteen are:

Movie
1. Mickey's philharmagic(blowout over epcot china film)
12. Tiki Room

3. T2:3-D
7. its tough to be a bug

Roller coaster
1.Millenium force
5. the voyage

6. griffon
7. incredible hulk(in an upset!)

themed ride
1. Spider-man
5. Pirates

3. revenge of the mummy(tricky match-up against HM)
2. Tower of Terror

live show
1. Fantasmic
5. sea lions tonight(tough one here, lots of nemo fans)

3. festival of Lion King
10. Water World(still cant believe LMA knocked out Aladdin)

March 24, 2010 at 7:19 AM · It's nice to see that Dollywood's started with social media. I'll take a look at the Universal Twitter account. There's no mention of it that I've found on any Universal website, nor have they sent any press releases or notes about it, which makes me wonder about its authenticity. If it is really Universal's PR crew, they're being awfully quiet about it.

March 24, 2010 at 8:33 AM · The coaster round kills me. First I'm forced to choose between Millennium Force and The Beast, and then the winner of that one likely will face The Voyage, which will be another tough choice. All the while, the other side of the bracket (Hulk, Griffon, Apollos Chariot) is full of overrated coasters that either aren't even the best in their class, have no substance, or aren't really unique. Apollos Chariot is the best out of that side, but after riding the front seat of Diamondback, I conclude that Apollo's Chariot has lost it's crown as the best B&M hyper.