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Would you believe it? After 15 years of the TPR forum being online, we finally updated it!!! We hope many of you will love the more streamlined look, improved functionality, and new features. And I'm sure some of you will hate, because... "change" but, hey... that's okay, too! This is also the thread to use to report things not working or not working correctly. With 15 years worth of content, it is impossible to check and test every little corner of the forum, so if you find something that doesn't seem right, please report it here. So why did we make the change? Mostl

Halloween Harvest, or “Howl-o-Scream Lite.” Busch Gardens is sticking with its “reservations only/limited attendance” events with Halloween Harvest during October. This is sort of “Howl-o-Scream Lite,” with kid-friendly activities during the daytime session (11:00 am-3:00 pm) and slightly scarier stuff in the evening (5:00-9:00 pm). During the day, the park offers “contactless trick-or-treating” and a scavenger hunt, in addition to a selection of rides, such as Apollo’s Chariot, Tempesto, and the attractions in the Sesame Street Forest of Fun. But in the evening, monsters also take o

I ended up visiting the Dreamworks Water Park for the second time this past Thursday. Wait, what, second time?! Believe it or not, I was one of the few people that managed to sneak a visit in during their brief soft opening preview weekend back in March. The whole family and I really loved it, although a few of their slides were non-operational at the time, and we were eagerly looking forward to returning when it was able to reopen. Please note that all of the photos in this trip report were taken during our first visit, back before social distancing measures were implemented.

This place is loaded with lurkers who don’t post (PS: You should post, only a few of us bite). I feel like the new post reactions are the moment they’ve been waiting for.

Shenanigans! Dollywood is a theme park. Do you realize how many people go to Dollywood for the shows? Or the Eagle habitat? Or the soot train? Or just to take it all in? Or the freaking cinnamon bread? I don't usually call out opinions but saying that people go to Dollywood for the rides is really out of touch with what that park and Silver Dollar City are for Herschend and the U.S. theme park scene in general.

Knoebels is absolutely one of my favorite places to visit. And it would take a lot for me to be steered away from returning (ie- ripping down Phoenix, and Twister, replacing the bumper cars with standard ones, and getting rid of all the tasty treats). I think it is an interesting thing to look at and dissect, is all. I am really a numbers guy. There's no doubt that the value of parents being able to go in and ride just a few rides is immense and can offer huge savings over most parks that require an admission. The main reason for bringing them up is moreso to just point out that I *think*

In spite of it being one of my absolute favorite parks, I usually only make the trip out to Hershey once a year. However, thanks to my 2020 plans going right into the crapper I'm working with what I've got nearby so after my visit with my buddy last month, we got a group of pals who haven't seen each each other in forever to meet up for a day of fun at The Sweetest Place on Earth once again the past weekend. I'm not doing a full on report but I figured I'd mess around with the new forum and throw up some photos we captured on Sunday and share a few thoughts about this awesome park. If you

Best part of Busch Gardens Tampa's Howl-O-Scream? Getting to ride all the coasters at night!!!

My visit this past weekend was great, even with Saturday being very busy and me missing out on FL until Sunday. I went into Orion not having followed its construction or watched a POV or even really knowing the layout. Also haven't been watching the reactions to it. I thought it was great. No surprise here that the huge new B&M is a smooth, fun, smile-inducing, infinitely-rerideable, gentle giant. I think it packs a little lighter punch overall than Fury or Leviathan, and I actually love it just like that. The setting is beautiful, especially this time of year and in particula

I went to the park last Friday and everything was a walk on. Picked up the Shredder and Sandy credits since they were both closed on my visit last December. Shredder was awesome and I would highly recommend sitting two on one side facing forward and no one on the other side for the best spins. The car would not stop spinning and seemed to spin faster when it hit the brake run. The layout is really cool and as far as I know the first two sections are unique to this spinner. Some of the other sections are similar to some of the clones. Some of the brakes hit a bit too hard but it is still a blas

I went last week and Sandy's Blasting Bronco was in fact open. The ride is fantastic. It's easily the most intense backwards launch out there and all 3 Immelmanns feel wildly different. It's probably my favorite ride in the park. It also ran consistently. The only issue it had is that the turntable would lock up if the ride wasn't running non-stop (it was an empty day). When that happened, maintenance would have to reset the ride which took just a few minutes. Security was much better this time. They were still there in large quantities, but they didn't harass anyone for taking pho

Looks really good on the computer! Love the modern look but with the same forum layout/sections we all know and love. Makes the transition easy for the user. Love the new features you shared, especially for mobile. That should make visiting the forum on my phone a lot more enjoyable. And the reactions will be fun Edit -> The notifications are sweet, like being able to log in and see who replied/reacted to my posts.

I’m so glad I don’t live in California...

With Japan largely handling its COVID scenario better than some other countries, I was able to finally check Nagashima Spaland off my to-do list after having been on for quite some time. With my trip landing in the middle of what would ordinarily be one of Japan's busiest travel seasons, I was expecting some fairly decent crowds, but I was surprised to see just how much COVID was doing to the parks. With the crowds being extremely manageable, I was also curious to see how the park was handling operations in light of everything. Outside the sanitation procedures, rides with smaller trains had

I’m so ready for these totally arbitrary and nonsensical covid rules to be over. So a waterpark with no masks was fine all summer but they can’t run a coaster Or a Scrambler with a bunch of empty rows 5 months later with everyone wearing masks? No clue where they came up with that but I have no doubt that they claimed they were “following the science™”

TPR Update is the only thing in 2020 that is an improvement!!!

I also just want to put it out there that, at the moment, California's death rate due to COVID is .043% of the population. That's right, the state is making absolutely ridiculous decisions based on point ZERO four three percent. At this point, you still have a much much HIGHER chance of getting into TWO car accidents on the way to Disneyland than you do dying from COVID because you went to Disneyland. It makes no sense at all. And just to be clear, I am **NOT** one of those batshit crazy "Anti-Mask" "Plandemic" people. But I 100% appreciate the businesses that have opened, and

There are other jobs available. Not even close to a fair comparison. And I’m someone who is a causality of this nonsense. The rational argument you should be making is how if the goal is to keep people from congregating and spreading the virus, why isn’t everything shut down? Costco on the weekend is a madhouse. Same for malls. Even Sea World operating as a “zoo” and Knotts as “outdoor dining” being open makes no sense if the goal is to keep people from spreading the virus. What magical powers to rides have to spread the virus?

It's definitely not for this season. There are pictures of it on Reddit and it's in extremely rough condition. I don't see any way it's operating this year. Hopefully that means Knoebels is planning to properly restore it and add it to the park for good. One more amazing flat ride saved from the scrap heap. I'm particularly happy about it since according to comments I've seen elsewhere, it seems to be the old Bayern Kurve from Fun Spot Indiana...which was, I believe, purchased from Riverside Park when it became Six Flags New England...My first Bayern Kurve and among the first adult ri

S&S – Sansei Technologies has sent us a press release announcing their new Spin Shot Tower concept, which can be built new or retrofit on any existing S&S tower! S&S – Sansei Technologies is excited to announce the new Spin Shot Tower! The Spin Shot takes the thrills and excitement from our 4D Free Spin coaster seat and puts it on our world-famous tower rides. For a modest investment, the Spin Shot can be retrofit on any S&S tower. Custom ride profiles can be programmed to orient the rider, face-up, face-down or even upside down during the tower

^ That is correct and somewhat annoying. Being a web developer, I've come across this on many websites I've worked on. Long story short, within JPG files there is a EXIF data flag for "orientation" which are values 1-8, the common values being 1 (no rotation), 3 (rotated 180°), 6 (rotated 90°) and 8 (rotated -90°). Essentially your camera (and it's sensors) always take photos in one static direction, but based on the accelerometer in the device it will flag it for orientation differences. Some image programs naturally observe this and display it in it's intended orientation when view

If anyone likes park magnets. Dollywood has one that will be a collectors item. See photo for details. 🥸

Sure the rides are big attraction but there's a reason I dive 5+ hrs to DW vs 3 to SF. The shows, the festivals (food and shows), the shops, and just the scenery (in and out of the park). Most trips are 3-4 days and I catch several shows. During festivals I'll see 90% of the shows/acts and try about that many dishes. If there are special vendors I'll usually end up buying from 2 or 3. And yes, ride every coaster 2-3 times. Meanwhile SF is just a few hours to ride the coasters and go home. So, no people don't just want rides. Not all and I dare say not even most visitors to DW.

That's not really a fair assessment at a place like Dollywood. A large amount of people go there for the rides, yes, but they drive a lot of business for their non-ride offerings such as their shows, their food, the shopping, and yes, their museums. While I personally never checked out the Gospel Museum, I have checked out the Dolly Museum on previous visits and always left feeling like I could have spent a whole lot more time in there. The assumption that "people want rides, not museums" is exactly the sort of point of view that I would expect out of the average coaster enthusiast.

Great trip report! Some of your captions were hilarious as well! It's so weird to see Nagashima as empty but I had a similar experience as yours when I went in 2018. It was mid-summer and the only place where I had to really join an actual line was for their Mine train and Steel Dragon. I am glad that you had the chance to ride Hakugei, as it was under construction when I was there. It looks so majestic with the massive white structure combined with blue rails. I must agree that Arashi is completely nuts. I had ridden Joker at SFGAdv but boy does the Japanese clone ride differently!

Whoever it was asking for the Topic subtitle with the "link" feature, that feature has now been added to the new forum!

@DarWorking on this now... let's see if this new color is at least a little better?

The park reached out a second time to clarify about the Toothless water coaster. Single riders can ride, but they cannot ride alone. They will send a lifeguard around with single riders.

The old forum software had that weird thing where the body of the post and the photo section were kind of separate entities, and arranging the post exactly the way you wanted it was awkward, especially if you wanted a few photos mixed in throughout the post. That is all much easier with the update -- just put the pictures and text wherever you want them. The old software also resized photos down to a width of 1200 pixels, and the new software keeps the dimensions larger. Just testing this out with a picture from an upcoming TR, totally unedited -- and the forum kept it a at 2400 width. No

Big Mike looks even better on the new updated forum!!!

This is 100% correct!

Thanks Robb! After a bit of exploring, I was also able to find all the topics I have responded to by selecting 'My Activity Streams' followed by 'Content Posted In' under the Activity tab on the menu bar of the forums. It's nice to see there are two ways to find the topics I am most active in on the forums.

OMG it feels so good to be back!

Oh, I did forget to mention... one thing that did not make the cut are avatars. You may find your avatar missing or outdated. Please just upload a new one if yours is missing. Thank you! (oh yeah, you can now add gifs to your posts right from the posting toolbar!)

I really feel for the California parks and people. Trust me, I'm the first to admit that our Florida governor is an idiot and slightly terrifying in his loyalty to Trump but even our very democratic county and democratic county/city leaders looked at the science, listened to the health department and found a safe way to open up the parks. The parks are also being very responsible (well, the large ones!) and going above and beyond the governors loose guidelines. It's ridiculous and just completely asinine to keep some of the California parks closed while allowing some to operate under w

They should sue. Cali needs a wake up call. I was hoping they were going to follow Florida's lead

Similar topic, but out of sheer curiosity looked into Dollywood one day ticket and season pass prices since 2005 via Wayback Machine, inclusive of tax. I think they're a pretty affordable park overall. 2005: $43.50/$72 2008: $50.20/$83 2012: $60.60/$96.50 2016: $73/$122.35 2020: $88.70/$150.4 Price increases seem to be relatively consistent from 2005-2021. 2005-2012, prices went up 40% on tickets and 35% on season passes. Over a similar period from 2012-2021, we have increased 45% on tickets and 55% on season passes. Considerable investments have been made in the

I'm here for Wu-Tang World.

I’m not here to discuss the intricacies of what type of bluegrass / country / backwoods whatever-the-f*ck music is what... most people know what I mean. I guess I’ll amend that to “redneck music that I don’t care about” if it makes you feel better.

We spent at least an hour just in Dolly's museum on my first and so far only trip. I could've spent all DAY. Shoot, I told my mom that I wanna plan a trip to stay in Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge for a whole two weeks so I could spend an entire day just sitting in front of the eagle habitat at Dollywood.

For my trip reports (since I tend to type a lot), I almost always created them in Word, and then copied over. The only time I ever used the "save draft" was because it took so long to upload pics on the old version - 20 at a time. So would save in between to make sure "internet Gremlins" didn't eat my post. As you said, with the excellent new Drag/Drop option? that's no longer going to be an issue. So yeah, big thumbs up on the improvement.

I actually thought the food at the brewhouse was legitimately really good.

Friendly reminder to passholders to make sure you stop at guest services before the end of the year (On the left near the entrance)... as they’re giving out $50 in in-park credits and free drink vouchers which can be used on select beer due to covid. I didn’t even know this was a thing but Brit did and I got a lot of beer This even works with those old busted paper passes (and ours are from Williamsburg).

Yes, exactly. I think mainly because the photo section of the old forum was a mod that we later added and then had re-written. This one is fully integrated. Also, as far as photo size goes, I chose 2,400 on purpose. Figured that would be a good size. But your original photo should be uploaded to an unlimited size if you click on it. I thought that would be super handy for people uploading higher res pictures.

This.

Yomiuriland is really trying hard to stay relevant during the pandemic. They're offering a work from the park plan! I really like this idea! https://soranews24.com/2020/10/12/telecommute-from-a-ferris-wheel-at-this-japanese-amusement-park/ Theme park adapts to the new normal with special remote work plans for visitors. Ever since the pandemic turned everyone’s everyday lives upside down, businesses have been looking for ways to stay afloat while workers have been looking for quiet places to telecommute outside the office. This perfect storm has led to karaoke

Really like the updates that I've played around with thus far, Robb. I don't really do much on my phone, and tend to mainly come to TPR on my Desktop, but the changes look great on that system. A little bit of learning curve for me (I be dum with the computery stuff ) but hell, if I can figure out how to quote and insert stuff? Then pretty much anyone should be able to. The only thing that's been "hinky" for me that I've noticed thus far? When quoting a post that contains a quoted post? I seem to lose the original post that was included and only see the response from the 2

Well, that's what happens if your name is Jizzman... I've seen friends on FB riding it this week, so safe to say it is open. However, there is just something about this place that makes me feel uneasy about visiting, and I think i'll hold off until this pandemic dies down a little bit.

Fun fact: "stanky tunnel" is a hip new synonym for "budget"