Oh, and we mentioned restaurants? The Orange County Health Care Agency closed Mrs. Knott's Chicken Dinner Restaurant today, citing "cockroach infestation." Talk about Knott's Scary Farm. (Sorry. Couldn't resist.) The chicken restaurant not only predates the theme park, it provided the whole reason for the park. Walter Knott built Ghost Town to entertain people waiting to be served at the family chicken restaurant, then eventually expanded the park into a business of its own. Personally, given Knott's recent efforts to improve the park with the refurbished Log Ride and Mine Train, I'd love to see Cedar Fair tear down the whole California Marketplace outside the entrance and rebuild it, creating a more thematically appropriate shopping zone with a more visually attractive chicken restaurant, including cleaner, more modern and expanded kitchen facilities, as well.
On the topic of restaurants closing, the NASCAR Sports Grille at Universal Orlando's CityWalk is closing November 1. Speculation on a replacement seems to be divided between a NBC Sports-themed sports bar and grill to compete with Walt Disney World's ESPN SportsZone, or a WWE pro-wrestling-themed restaurant. Maybe the Cowfish restaurant will be done by the time the NASCAR Grille closes?
Keeping with Universal Orlando for a moment, One Direction is giving away trips to see the boy band perform at the resort next month. You can find out how to compete to win one of the trips at 1dorlando.com.
In case you haven't heard it again, again, again, and again, Sunday's the final day for Maelstrom at Epcot before fans have to "let it go" and Disney converts the attraction into a Frozen ride. Expect a long line of Disney fans wailing and tearing their garments for the local TV crews. Then be sure to record those news reports so you can check to see how many of these same fans show up in Frozen cosplay for the opening of the new ride in 2016.
Back the west coast, the hot new rumor is that Luigi's Flying Tires is on its way to join Maelstrom as a future Werner Weiss post. I might have been the only person on Earth who actually enjoyed Disney's attempt to recreate its once-iconic flying saucer ride. But when even Tony Baxter trashes a Disney attraction, it ain't long for this world.
Finally, Disneyland Paris has uploaded a video with some Imagineers talking about the development of the new Ratatouille ride and mini-land at Walt Disney Studios Paris. (Our Ben Mills covered the opening of the ride and of the restaurant this summer.) The video's got some nice footage of several other Disneyland Paris Resort attractions, too.
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I will miss Pink's. I ate there several times. Great food, but I can't help wondering what went wrong.
People in California should go to the Hollywood location, and I highly recommend those who sample Pinks around the country to try the original out when they take a trip to L.A.
BTW: Costco serves wonderfully large 1/4 lb hot dogs for $1.50 with drink. It is my new destination for hot dogs. An extra plus, there are many original locations. They all taste the same and all have the same barebones decor.
And Knott's executives breathe a sigh of relief that Universal Studios Hollywood isn't running a Bill and Ted's show this year, because you'd better believe that they would have written a bit about this.
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