Halloween Horror Nights gets new maze
A maze based off the cult Halloween film “Trick ’r Treat” is coming to Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights, the theme park said last week.
Last year, Universal used the 2007 film — which takes place in a surburbia Ohio — as a theme for one of its scare zones.
In the maze, visitors can expect “some of the film’s most [grisly] scenes” as they walk through “Mr. Kreeg’s infamous house, watch as college students viciously transform into bloodthirsty werewolves and dismember the town, as well as come face-toface with Sam — the spirit of Halloween — who readies to punish those who break the holiday’s tradition,” a Universal press release.
In recent weeks, Universal has begun releasing some details about what to expect this Halloween.
The first house announced was one based on the first season of “Stranger Things,” the 1980s-era Netflix drama. Universal also said another haunted house, Dead Exposure — Patient Zero, is returning this year since it was used in 2008.
Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights, which features nine haunted houses and five scare zones, runs on select nights between Sept. 14 and Nov. 3.
“Universal Studios’ ‘Halloween Horror Nights’ is the ultimate Halloween event,” the theme park said in a press release. with storytelling as they whisk passengers around Walt Disney World in what are known as “Minnie Vans,” named after Minnie Mouse. And now these drivers can be represented by a union, The Associated Press reported last week.
A regional director of the National Labor Relations Board ruled about 60 drivers who pick up Disney World guests using the Lyft app can be represented by the Teamsters in Orlando. The Lyft drivers are Disney World employees who earn extra money by driving guests around the resort that is roughly the size of the city of San Francisco.
Disney had argued that the Lyft driver jobs couldn’t be covered by a union since the Teamsters waived their right to represent any workers not mentioned in its five-year contract. The Teamsters negotiated the contract in 2014 along with five other unions that form a coalition called the Service Trades Council. The council already represents about half of the 77,000 employees at Disney World.
But regional NLRB director David Cohen wrote in his decision last week that the waiver doesn’t apply to the “Minnie Van” drivers since the Lyft job didn’t exist when the contract was negotiated. Cohen also said that the job the “Minnie Van” drivers do is hardly any different than bus drivers and other transportation workers already represented by the Teamsters.
Disney World and Lyft reached an agreement last year to start the new service limited to guests at the theme park resort. For $20 per trip, guests can get the private rides using the Lyft app on their phones instead of having to wait for Disney buses to drive them from resorts to parks to Disney’s entertainment complex.
The “Minnie Van” drivers are paid anywhere from $13 to $21 an hour and have a uniform of black denims and a gray shirt. They get two weeks of training in which they are instructed to tell stories to their passengers, advise them about things to do at Walt Disney World and help resolve any problems the Disney guests may encounter.
A dolphin that was found covered in shark bites is healing and one step closer to being returned back into the wild, SeaWorld Orlando said.
The Atlantic bottlenose dolphin — bitten by a shark and also sick with pneumonia — was found washed up on the beach in March near Jacksonville.
Since then, she has been rescued and under care at SeaWorld Orlando, which has a team that rehabilitates sick and injured manatees, dolphins and other animals.
The company announced last week that the dolphin passed a hearing test — an important step in her recovery since she relies on listening to echos to find food, avoid predators and navigate the ocean.
“The next milestones for this dolphin’s rehabilitation will be for her pneumonia to clear and for her to gain additional weight and strength,” a company news release said.