Pac-Man Cafe

I don't think I need to tell you this, but if you put a giant statue of Pac-Man on the side of the road, I'm stopping and taking a picture. And so it was that I discovered Pac-Man Cafe, a charming little bistro that briefly appeared among the other tourist traps of Orlando, FL. Pac-Man Cafe offered families a chance to dine with Pac-Man and dozens of ghost-monsters surrounding them. The walls of this place were covered in dots and power pellets and the likeness of Inky, Blinky, Clyde, Pinky and Sue. They served Pac-Man pizza, which was just a regular pizza with one slice missing to make the whole thing look like Pac-Man. Sure, you weren't getting a whole pizza...but who cares. You gotta admit, it was a pretty darn good idea! The Pac-Man Cafe also featured the Galaxian Bar which featured imagery from another classic Namco game. The upstairs was home to video games as far as the eye could see. And the real attraction, in my book, was the Pac-Man museum: a free exhibit featuring all the great Pac-Man merchandise from the early 80's. This place was awesome!

We discovered the place as we were getting ready to head out of Florida and head home. We had just eaten lunch, so we paid a quick visit to the museum and vowed to come back for the full experience the next time we were in sunny Orlando. "The next time" turned out to be 7 months later, but when we went to dine with Pac-Man we were met with a boarded up restaurant and no sign of Mr. or Mrs. Pac-Man anywhere. The place had gone out of business already! No Pac-Man shaped pizza for us! We would have to go home and order a pizza and take out the slice ourselves and pretend it was Pac-Man...but we weren't fooling anyone. We drowned our sorrows in a meal at the nearby Race Rock, a car racing themed restaurant. We couldn't care less about car racing but they made some wings that would knock the bow out of Mrs. Pac-Man's hair! (Race Rock is gone now too!)

Anywho....Pac-Man Cafe. How awesome did this place look!?

I Miss Cinema 180

One of my favorite amusement park attractions growing up was the Cinema 180, a movie projected onto a huge, round 180 degree screen. The image was so large and surrounding that it completely gave you the feeling of movement even though you weren't moving at all. In fact, these theatres never even had seats - everyone just sat on the floor. The theatres itself was actually a big dome tent-like structure that housed nothing more than a screen and a projector. But I used to love those things! The movies never had any point to them what-so-ever! They would be a collection of images such as driving real fast through traffic, flying in all sorts of airborne contraptions, and the very popular front seat of the roller coaster shot. All these movies had at least one trip on a roller coaster which the audiences loved, which looking back on it is kind of silly because these theatres were in amusement parks where an honest to goodness REAL roller coaster experience was just a few footsteps away. I remember one of the more creative Cinema 180 films features larger than life footage of a circus and another scene where a man opened a jar and tarantulas came crawling out toward the audience.

My most vivid memories of Cinema 180 come from (of course) Kings Dominion. Their theatre used to be slightly off International Street on the right hand side. It's not there anymore, however over at Hersheypark the Cinema 180 tent still stands but it's used as an arcade. I suspect most parks got rid of their theatre when the technologies of motion-simulators became popular at amusement parks. These rides offer a similar sensation except your seats actually move.

The image above is from a brochure for a long-gone Orlando, Florida attraction called Adventure Dome. This Cinema 180 theatre wasn't part of an amusement park, it just sat by itself on the side of the road and you paid for just the movie. It didn't last too long.

Let's Not Forget Universal

We talk alot about Walt Disney World here at WWoB, but Disney's neighbor, Universal Studios, is also a resort filled with great experiences. News today from the Orlando Sentinel announces that The Simpsons will be joining the Universal family sometime next year. The new ride will be a motion simulator ride and will replace their 15 year old Back to the Future ride. The new Simpsons ride will use the same movie screen and ride vehicles as the Back to the Future ride did, but new technology will be used to control the ride. The ride will take guests (along with the Simpsons) to the grand opening of "Krusty Land Amusement Park". Sounds like it's going to be a fun ride!

Universal Studios Florida is made up of two parks: Universal Studios Orlando and Islands of Adventure. Both parks pretty much take non-Disney owned properties and build Disney-style rides based on them. Some of their other great rides that I love are The Cat in the Hat, where you ride a sofa through the original Dr. Seuss story; Popeye's BilgeRats, the best white-water-rafting ride at any park and Jaws, a boat ride where you come face to face with the great white. They also have an Amazing Spider-Man ride which is simply the coolest ride operating at any theme park (sorry, Disney!)