Minas Elendúr/Delotham

One chapter in Volume III Book 2 in the upcoming LOTRO content release takes place in the sprawling maze instances Minas Elendúr and Delotham. Now anyone who knows me (in real life or in game) will know that I have terrible direction sense. So I didn't get very far into Minas Elendúr before I realised a map. And this being beta, there weren't any maps readily available. So I made my own. But it quickly became clear from GLFF that even people who don't normally have a problem navigating in LOTRO were having trouble with this one. I hope that my maps will be able to help someone.

For those who aren't familiar with these instances, there are two separate instances, Minas Elendúr and Delotham. However, they are connected by 17 doors. Delotham can only be accessed by going through Minas Elendúr, and parts of Minas Elendúr can only be accessed by going through Delotham. The epic quest primarily takes place in Minas Elendúr, but there is also a deed that requires exploring both instances.

I've posted two sets of pictures below. The first is in-game screenshots of the maps; the second is my hand-drawn maps. The hand-drawn maps aren't exactly to scale but it should be pretty easy to match the shapes up (especially with all those Hidden Mickeys...).

Welcome to Enedwaith

With LOTRO's Free to Play launch in a couple of weeks, I'm going to start posting some of my maps from beta. These are mainly intended for my kinnies in Eventide Revelry, but I'm posting them here so that they are accessible to anyone who might be interested. First up is a map of the new region, Enedwaith and the coordinates of all the POIs I've found. It should be fairly complete but if you find something missing or incorrect let me know. Apologies for any typos; I can't always read my own writing when it's not in English.

Disney's Hollywood Studios

Since our last visit, Disney's MGM Studios has been renamed to Disney's Hollywood Studios. While it makes sense in that the park doesn't have anything to do with MGM and at the moment I don't think it's a good thing to be associated with MGM, it makes it kind of hard to know what to call it for short. We used to call it MGM. "Hollywood" is confusing and "DHS" is pretty opaque. I guess the most appropriate name is "Studios" but even that isn't completely clear to someone who's used to it being MGM. I suppose we'll all get used to it eventually.

Epcot

To be honest, I don't feel like I have a great deal to say about Epcot. To me, it feels like it's now the weakest of the parks. I suspect it's because there's not a great deal of new stuff since our last visit. The biggest difference is that Wonders of Life has closed. I liked Wonders of Life.

Magic Kingdom

I suspect that the wonder of Magic Kingdom can only truly be appreciated if you are travelling with kids.  But it still holds a special place in my heart. There's something really magical about walking under the train station and seeing Cinderella Castle towering over you. My only complaint about Cinderella Castle is that the painting seems kind of inconsistent. The bottom half has an awesome stone effect going on, but the top half is kind of meh. And then the top tower is gold instead of blue? They were painting the castle during our 2006 visit and I assumed they were halfway through changing the colour scheme. But it still has the same half-done look to it. I'm not really sure what look they were going for.

Port Orleans French Quarter

On this trip to Disney World we stayed in a Moderate resort for the first time -- Port Orleans French Quarter. One of my primary motivations for this decisions was that French Quarter is a small resort so we were guaranteed a short walk to the food court and buses, which I knew I'd need if my CFS got bad. But it also meant a bunch of other improvements over a Value resort which I appreciated.

Firstly, the theming was a little bit more sophisticated. Still a definite Disney feel about the whole thing, but more of an immersive theme like in World Showcase or Animal Kingdom rather than a bright and cheerful kid-friendly theming. It's themed to the French Quarter of New Orleans (from what I've read, the main difference is it's a lot cleaner :) during Mardi Gras.

Boston

Our first stop in America was in Boston to visit James. We got to see his apartment and his regular haunts, do some shopping (Gap clothes for me and cheap Clinique for Mum), and recuperate from the trip over. James drove us up to Portsmouth to reminisce and Mum and I went into Boston itself where we walked most of the Freedom Trail. We also took the opportunity to send in our spit to 23 and Me for DNA analysis.

It was awesome to see James, of course, and great to see where he lives so that we can imagine what it's like for him now that we're all the way back home. I also enjoyed the scenery (it's so green!) and enjoyed learning about Boston's history.