Sunday, May 20, 2007

North Shore, Oahu

Today I visited Sunset Beach on the North Shore of Oahu. This is easily the most beautiful beach I have ever visited. The sand was pristine and the collage of bright blue ocean colors made it an unbelievable visit.


Sunset Beach is approximately two miles long with a summer average width of over 200 feet, making it the widest white sand beach on Oahu. During the summer months, Sunset Beach is a popular roadside swimming stop for visitors circling the island, but its major attraction is its surfing waves during the winter months. Sunset Beach is one of the best surfing sites in the world, especially for big waves over ten feet high. It is the home of the Triple Crown of Surfing, one of the premier events on the professional surfing tour, and is the preferred site for many other surfing contests. Surfers the world over consider Sunset's waves to be among the most dangerous and challenging they have ever ridden.



Saturday, May 12, 2007

Disneyland Submarine Ride

The Disneyland "Finding Nemo" Submarine Ride is just days away from opening (one month). This is the most recent picture I've found of the attraction.

History

Originally, the attraction closed in 1998, and was promised to be reopened by 2003 by then-resort president Pressler, known among many for his mismanagement at Disney and later said that when the attraction would reopen in 2003, it might be themed to the 2001 animated film Atlantis: The Lost Empire, but that was decided against when the film was released and flopped at the box office. Later, the entire lagoon was forgotten about and became a scenic viewpoint. Pressler later left, and fans of the park were upset at the broken promise of the attraction's return in 2003, which came and went.

Guests will board one of eight research submarines to set out in search of an active undersea volcano. As the captain gives the order to dive, the subs depart from the loading station and enter the lagoon. Through their portholes, guests view a spectacular underwater environment like never seen before. On the surface the subs cruise past a buoy where three seagulls sit atop bellowing "Mine! Mine!" Below the surface, guests view giant sea bass swimming amongst the unusual coral formations. Soon after, the subs enter the ruins of the ancient civilization from Easter Island that are being explored by the subs exploration divers.. Amongst the stone ruins lay gigantic tiki heads embedded in the sea floor. The scene soon changes as the subs are immersed in the setting of a brightly colored coral reef. Bright colors of orange, aqua, green, crimson, maize, and more are displayed throughout the show scene. In the reef are monstrous giant clams that slowly open and close their giant mandibles as the subs pass. As the subs pass into the caverns, the guests soon discover Marlin, Dory, and the other characters swimming right outside their subs in the undersea world searching for Nemo who has gotten lost again. Some of the following scenes the guests view are a sunken war submarine immersed in a deadly minefield, a school of jellyfish, and more. Soon the subs approach the now erupting undersea volcano. After they safely escape, the subs dive along a breathtaking coral reef where the fish celebrate finding Nemo again. As the subs begin to surface they near the loading station. Before surfacing, the subs enter the harbor and come across a pair of crabs fighting atop a sewage pipe. The subs then surface and the guests return to the outside world.

The Submarines

The attraction will use the same submarines used on the old Submarine Voyage. The story of the ride starts before the guests board the subs. The load/unload areas will be themed as an Australian Harbour just like the movie. The ride's submarines do not actually submerge; they are boats in which the passenger seating area is below the water level. The submarines will now hold 40 Guests. The subs have been repainted a new flashy yellow above the water, with a light blue strip dividing a dark blue/black hull below the water. The diesel fuel that powered the original subs has been scrapped and replaced with environmentally friendly electric power. The new sub names have been painted on the side of the subs in red. They are the Argonaut, Nautilus, Neptune, Scout, Voyager, Mariner, Seafarer, and Explorer. The new captain of each submarine will have an Australian accent due to the movie's setting in the Australian Great Barrier Reef.

Each submarine is painted with a wavy blue stripe across the ceiling. The interior also contains a dark blue color lining the portholes.

Confirmed Show Scenes

  • Kelp Forest/reef (giant sea bass)
  • Atlantean Ruins (tikis and exploration divers)
  • Great Barrier Reef (giant clams)
  • Graveyard of Ships (wrecked submarine: Bruce, Anchor, and Chum)
  • Turtle Surfing (East Australian Current): Crush, Squirt
  • Jellyfish Scene
  • The Erupting Volcano
  • Sydney Harbor Scene (Fighting Crabs)

New Exploration Sub Names

  • 107 - Nautilus
  • 207 - Scout, formerly Neptune, before that Seawolf
  • 307 - Voyager, formerly Sea Star, before that Skate
  • 407 - Mariner, formerly Explorer, before that Skipjack
  • 507 - Seafarer, formerly Seeker, before that Triton
  • 607 - Explorer, formerly Argonaut, before that George Washington
  • 707 - Neptune, formerly Triton, before that Patrick Henry
  • 807 - Argonaut, formerly Seawolf, before that Ethan Allen


Friday, May 11, 2007

More Celebrity Sightings


Today, at USC, it was Commencement. At a very great distance, I saw Clint Eastwood and Ted Koppel.