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the only good news I can report on today. Six Flags Fiesta Texas, has quietly dropped the height restriction on Dr. Diabolical's Cliffhanger. . . . after Park President Jeffery Siebert started teasing the other day that the Doctor was expanding her practice. the Dive coaster was minimum height 52" not anymore!

So we recently came back from two days at Hong Kong Disneyland. It was our son's first Disneyland trip and I think Hong Kong is one of the best ones to use as a beginner park, a park which opens later, you don't need to line-up hours before to get in and reserve passes, overall a pretty relaxed two days. The first visit (tier 1) was actually far busier than our second day (tier 2) but even at the busiest ride times maxed out at around 30-40 minute lines and would drop throughout the day. I want to give a big shout-out to TPR's Facebook stories, it's a shame such information disappears because Robb's comments on Momentous and the water-screen made us realize we didn't need to be super close and spend on a VIP package or grab a space hours early. The lines were walk-on so the fast track would have been wasted and with a picky eater son (and not many good reviews) so would have been the Momentous buffet deal and we (accidentally) ended up with an amazing Momentous experience due to this. A couple of points that aren't negative but to be aware of: Meet and Greets/App: Not sure if this is Disney-wide or Hong Kong-specific but we constantly saw disappointment on people's faces around this. I'll give some examples in my TR but a prime example: Moana. With Moana 2 coming out, and Moana having a stage show and segments in the Momentous show she was extremely popular. The app listed the time as 3:35-4:45 which seems good but the Moana stage show was just after 4 p.m. and you can't have two Moanas out. So Moana actually had to be gone by 3:55 so the line was cut super-early. We were the very last group let in (I'd say about 10-15 groups total) and so many frustrated people were waving the app screens in cast members faces who were turning them away. Perhaps if the app updated when lines were closed or said who was around better it wouldn't happen, the app led us often to places that turned out to be closed but as the weather in Hong Kong gets hotter I think this park in particular needs an overhaul on this with more indoor areas so characters aren't having to disappear due to clashes of also being in parades/shows or weather. People obviously don't mind lining up for them, even on the quietest days Fantasy Gardens had 40-minute lines, Iron Man 40-50, and Duffy Playhouse was 90-120 all day, but the few other characters on the app only saw a very small amount of groups for the whole day and that seemed to give people frustration. Also shade: As I said meet and greets were hugely popular. If the character meet and greet areas are all now fixed areas, hopefully, Disney can find a way to put some shade where their queue lines were set up. If you go you need to pack a parasol. For example, even when there weren't issues, Chip and Dale were always at 60 minutes waiting to meet them but the line was completely exposed to the sun, I think for timed meetings only the Marvel meet had shade. Our son is a big train fan, so of course we had to ride the Mickey Train to get to the park. Our last visit to this park was Autopia's final year so we were excited to see what had changed. Halloween was in full swing but I didn't have time to get a picture. Our son's main visit was he had been super excited to get some Disney autographs in his book and from our previous visits we knew HK could have some very quick cut offs..... we just didn't know how quick. So the park had a scheduled opening at 10:30 and we had arrived early and arrived at the first meet and greet which was Minnie by 10:33. Unfortunately that line had already been cut off. Apparently, it's easier in the summer when Pixar is the parade but on the days we visited Minnie had to be gone before the shows at the castle or Halloween parades so the windows were always too small. This one is my fault though, I foolishly thought we didn't need to buy the early entry pass since ride lines were so short but turns out people use the first 30 minutes to do rides, then they rope-drop Minnie/Chip n Dale on Main Street or the Duffy playhouse to avoid the lines. We were advised that Chip n Dale would be available at the other end of the street and the line was open! However, after 15 minutes of no-show, the staff were advising that 'They'd eaten too much Halloween candy' and would be another 20 minutes at least. With an advertised hours worth of people and no shade we had to bail. Our son wasn't happy but we couldn't risk 90 minutes under the midday sun. Lesson learned, you need to pack a parasol but I'm not sure we'd have survived that line even with one in that heat. We were advised to try Fantasy Gardens but found them empty and with the app reading no show times today, shop staff told us to try after lunch time. With frustration setting in and since he's big on super heroes, we headed off to meet Iron-Man. Even on the quiet days this line was 30-50 minutes but he did it twice, so it became our rope-drop on the 2nd day. Unfortunately, unlike some of the other parks, non-signing characters don't have any stamps to put in the books instead so he was a little sad he couldn't get Iron Man's signature Wasp suddenly passed through the area surrounded by Shield Agents. The walkthrough lasted only a few minutes and you could only take selfies. We also learnt that roaming characters don't sign books either so we decided to get some rides done to try and cool-off. I don't get the hate the rides here get, especially Ant-Man. We did the Iron Man ride twice and then headed over to Ant Man. Our son rode this 3-4 times a row and only had good things to say. Esepcially enjoying the shrinking down effect. I feel like Buzz Lightyear had to be updated, I don't think it would have worked so well in this Marvel heavy area, even Hyperspace Mountain and orbiter felt a little out of place. I'm surprised Orbiter didn't get a Guardians make over. Our son was lapping Ant-Man but he was still desperate to get some signatures. However we noticed some barriers being erected at the stage. Could a superhero rescue my son's day? An unlikely hero was about to appear.... IMG_8465.mov Finally a signature in the book. There was a heavy price to pay however, Loki announced that a signature was signing a contract to join his army of the damned. Loki repeated on both our visits due to Halloween but our son didn't care and was the only villain we managed to get (more on that later). Did we give up our son's soul to Loki's army of the damned? Yes. But signature #1 was gained. Our son is really not into roller-coasters but he tried this. He wasn't a huge fan. It was also my first time with the Star Wars overlay but I gotta say with the area so Marvel heavy (and Spider-Man ride coming soon), and so little Star Wars things in the park, I wonder if another overlay will come eventually. I love the new castle over the old one. The princess meet and greet was here with a sign who was currently there, but princesses rotated so often inside, despite cast members warning people in the line, we heard a lot of complaints from people who would line up for Rapunzel or Belle but ended up meeting Tiana or Merida. Fantasy Gardens has been downsized due to Frozen land but during the day they had one booth for Winnie the Pooh and one for a Disney friend. Since characters could rotate nearby out of sight, it was one of the only lines we didn't see being cut during the trip. These characters repeated on our visit, and meet and greets were so popular that lines were 60 minutes even on a dead day but it was two more signatures in the book. And we didn't have to sacrifice any more souls to get them. Most people rush Frozen Land in the morning so we waited for the crowds to clear before heading over after midday. Elsa and Anna roamed quite often and were a huge hit but so many people wanted photo-ops that they just couldn't get. People seemed to be grabbing standby passes for Playhouse in the Woods thinking it was a meet and greet and seemed disappointed in the show that it wasn't. Hopefully at some point in the future an indoor meeting hall could be expanded here. Another ride that gets hate but I do think the park needed a beginner roller-coaster for the very young ones to get to experience. RC Racer/Hyperspace Mountain and Grizzly all don't really fill that 'Child's first coaster' slot that this one does very nicely. With the line now walk-on we headed in, although we did stop since Anna was in the queue line greeting some guests. We haven't been on the Epcot or Japan versions to compare but on it's own, it was a very fun and enjoyable ride. The drop was steeper than I expected and it's nice that the park finally has some kind of water ride. We ate a lot of food here.... Bumped into Anna again. Sadly no signatures from a wandering character, but a nice conversation and a high five was gained. IMG_8740.MOV Back to Fantasyland since a show was starting. I did not miss the Golden Mickey's it replaced at all. The Tiana singer was fantastic. Most of the crowd spilled out here but we had to ride since my son had never experienced it and wanted to. Toy Story Land was next door but since our main purpose for visiting was signatures, we skipped over to Mystic Manor. What can I say? This ride is still one of my favorite Disney rides all these years later, and we definitely lapped it multiple times while we had time. I'm jumping ahead a little, but we rode Grizzly on our second visit. It was having some hiccups on the first day and the line was 30-40 minutes. As I said, our son's not huge on roller-coasters so I figured I'd grab my one ride on the next day. You know a roller-coaster is done right when someone who hates most of them demands re-rides. He lapped it 6 times in a row, and then went back throughout the day and is still complaining now that we didn't introduce him to the ride on the 1st day. Jungle Cruise no longer divides the queues and boats into separate languages. To be honest, I didn't miss it at all. The skippers seemed to struggle before and the line seemed slower with boats divided. With one line, it moved much faster and the skippers seemed much more at ease. Finally heading over to Toy Story Land due to a meet and greet time, RC Racer was down for scheduled maintenance at the time of our visit. So if I have one negative about the park, it would be the app. We were constantly chasing ghosts or areas that actually weren't open meet-or-greets. We figured a two-hour window would be pretty safe if we showed up a little after the time but we showed up to find an empty area and no line or cast members to ask. The shop members just told us that it was 'when a magical moment' could happen. I just wonder then instead of these 2 long posted times, having an updating app that tells people when characters are actually out. Disney has some of the best imagineers in the world, an app that can update would be nice. Since this is one of the only places to get Dole Whip, we decided to buy some slushies and hang around in case Jessie came out. Thankfully she showed up around 5:15, so perhaps 2 showings were made in that total time period. As was the standard the line hit capacity pretty quickly. Woody was around on the second day but since his window was only 45 minutes, we didn't dare attempt it when we got off a ride and realised we'd missed my alarm and was already 10 minutes into his time. Anyway signature #4 gained. So I mentioned this at the start of the TR but Moana is hugely popular. She had one viewing slot of 70 minutes. However... there was a Moana stage show at 4:10. She was great with our son but even arriving as soon as we could we were the very last in the line around 3:45 with the cast member behind us I'd be lying if I said it wasn't a bit uncomfortable as frustrated families were trying to argue and showing the app screens. If Moana came back somehow at the very end of that timeslot the CM definitely didn't say anything to anyone. But after 2 days we finally gained a 5th and final signature in the book. This was our first visit to Disney post-pandemic, so not sure if it's all parks but on our last visit we had over 20 photo meetings with characters around the park without even trying. Now we have a child into those things and even chasing the app only managed about 5. And she was gone by 3:55. The app told us that the marketplace would have Up/Stitch/Lion King/Aladdin characters rotating but it was completely abandoned during the Halloween season. It's not a huge thing but this area and the Marvel expo area don't do greets but are listed on the app as open, and I really wish they could just update when areas aren't actually in use like they do restaurants/rides. Further down, there was a villain fashion show, and a villain musical had replaced Lion King but they were packed and people were buying premier passes to both to jump the lines. The speaking characters like Evil Queen or Malificent were over here but cast members would only count in 10 groups before cutting the line so we had no luck there. Coupled with the huge lines for the villain shows in Adventure Land, people buying premier passes for those, and Halloween merchandise already being sold out (like the Nightmare Before Christmas popcorn bucket) early October, I really hope this park gets their own version of Not so Scary Party sometime in the future. Anyway that's the negative part done, back to positive. We headed back to Fantasy Gardens since according to the app suited villains would be out here.We found one pagoda had become a trick-or treat station and only one to meet a non-speaking villain. However, since villains were Halloween exclusive people were going crazy for them. We would show up to an empty pagoda before the start time and no character out yet to find the cast-members already turning people away already due to capacity, even though no-one knew which villain was coming out yet. Maybe I'm the minority but I preferred getting Disney-wrapped/Mickey-shaped jellies over brands like the other parks do. I think chocolate would never survive the climate though. Time to wrap up this TR. I'm so grateful that we saw TPR's Facebook stories about Momentous. We'd been trying to work out the best time/place to view it but the review from Robb about the water screen made us reconsider our plans. Even two hours before the performance people were getting their spaces in. We knew we'd have to pick up our son and hold him (there were a few kids on shoulders but we aren't that kind of people) but the bigger issue was the Insta360 cameras. They are really popular on the Chinese market and are way longer than any selfie stick and we saw a few people checking their angles even at this time so we knew our view would be compromised.... And then a happy accident..... We figured going off the TPR socials that we should just view the castle from the side so we decided to eat first and grab any standing space when we were done. However, the restaurant was packed inside with the air-con so we were directed outside to sit. And this was the view of the castle. We debated a compromised view since the tree to the right would block some fireworks but from memory of TPR's socials (Again why does Insta/Facebook remove these after 24 hours) we knew fireworks on the left and right were identical. The best view tables had been grabbed pretty early but we decided instead of having the best view we'd settle for a good experience. Instead of being crowded in standing for an hour and holding up a child for half of that, we'd watch the fireworks sitting down with our own space so we ordered a lot of food, beer, and dessert. We lucked out even more that a group holding one of the best tables decided they didn't actually want to watch with a blocked view and left so we quickly grabbed their seat by the railing. It's a nice touch that in the 30 minute lead up they run a bunch of short pre-shows to get the crowd ready and in the mood. With the decision made we ordered a lot of food and more beer, and settled in for the show. Watching a Disney night show comfortably with dinner was something I didn't think I'd get to experience especially when 1 hour earlier i'd been dreading having to stand around and hold my son up so thank-you TPR socials. An incredible show. Really glad we watched it. I remember seeing Robb's posts about the screen and figured that it was just blurry because it needed to be that big for people far away to also see. I was wrong. Although looking through my photos this is the only time we could see it from our view-point for almost the whole show. IMG_7882 (5).MOV This was our view from the restaurant seats. Was it perfect? No. But I think standing among the Insta360 cameras and kids on shoulders holding up a heavy child in my arms, would have been a worse end to the day than relaxing eating alright-ish burgers and delicious waffles while having beers with my wife. Goodbye Hong Kong Disney. Thanks for the memories. P.S. I know people crap on Wish a lot. The park gives away excess merchandise as free gifts with your tickets. On one day we lucked out and got the slippers, but on the other days, the park was unloading Wish merchandise for free just to get rid of it. I almost watched it on the plane to see if it was as bad as everyone says. But with a 3 hour plane journey I couldn't resist having an Inside Out marathon.

Day 1 part 2: Oktoberfest at night. . after the rain has come. the downpour for a couple of hours while we were eating, really cleared out the crowds. side benefit is that it really made for some beautiful pics, with the lights from all the rides reflecting up off the wet ground. we entered not thru the main entrance (that would be tomorrow), but the group I was with, including Jon, Nick and Christopher), went in on the side closest to the restaurante we were at, on the right. near what they call: "Vomit Hill" I would have renamed it "Vomit and Piss Hill" as there were so many people doing both. . . which was a bit shocking since it's on the side of a beautiful building (a Museum?) with this incredible statue out front. but as noted. . it's on the far right side of the Oktoberfest fair - which is about as big as 3 football fields, I'd say - so I guess it really IS "off the beaten path" even tho we came in on this side tonight (for the only time) looking across. . the main corridor is up ahead and if we turned left, would see many of the HUGE beer tents that line the main corridor. the rides are all on the outlying corridors and the outside of the fair. with the "big" rides separated to help out with crowds, I'd assume. this, tho it looks like a ride, is a game booth. the rides are all independently operated, and there are multiple versions of some rides (I counted at least 4 breakdance type rides) - and they all run insane cycles to help draw crowds to them. The incredible lighting, fog, and fire effects help do that too. the giant Ferris wheel at the back of the main corridor of the fair (if you come in under the Oktoberfest sign and walk straight back, eventually you get to it). interestingly, my favorite area of the entire fair was back here BEHIND the Ferris wheel on the right - it was an "Oktoberfest Museum" of sorts, that had classic artwork, posters, haunt figures, information, food, drink, and a bunch of classic (like ancient) rides, that also ran crazy cycles - including a waltzer that the operator hand cranked to get it to go faster, and you had to fight for an open carriage when the ride stopped! NEVER in America LOL. and the rides in this section were all 1.50 Euro (much cheaper than anywhere in the fair, tho you did have to pay 4 euro to get into this section). I visited back there on day 3, so will be pics forthcoming of that. Christopher and I in front of one of the official welcome signs. pretty sure this is a different BreakDance again, this is relatively empty ! because it had rained. . can you imagine what a Friday night would have been if it had been nice? (we'd see that the next night when could barely move in the place!) tho there were several drop towers in the fair, this is actually a pic of a drop tower and a Catwoman's Whip style ride. but really, I think I was trying to get the pic of the Alpina Bahn sign along side the huge Lowenbrau tent - where we would be on Monday. this is one of the beer halls. made to look like Gingerbread and candies. Incredible that they build this up just for ~3 weeks. this amazing thing is called the Predator. imagine an Enterprise that's on a Gyroscope. and yes, I did ride it on one of the days - before eating of course - and LOVED it. but look at this crazy thing! multiple Himalayas and Music Expresses too ' more looks at what Predator does.. it really is mesmerizing. and a really long cycle too. but enough foreplay . it was time to head to the very back of the fair, for what many of us had wanted to come on this trip for: Olympia Looping. and it's jaw dropping in person snapping pics as we walked up to Olympia Looping. a variation on a Breakdance, called Parkour, and another Drop Tower this was a ghost train, but they had added VR to it. I did ride it one day, and it kinda made me nauseous. . but when it's over? you're not done. . . they make you go thru a fun house to get out! including stepping on mushrooms to find your path, and if you miss? water below it. but yeah, they really want you to get your $$ worth out of it. oh, and not everyone is seeing the same VR thing. . so you'd have to ride multiple times to make sure you get all options. (once was enough for me) the outside is very cool tho. and now a bunch of pics of Olympia Looping. . . i mean, are you really looking at Olympia Looping if you don't get pics of all 5 loops? time to ride! waited one train for front row (I discovered quickly it's much more forceful in the back, but for my 1st ride? I wanted to ride in the front) they were running 2 trains this 1st night due to the rain, but some days we were there they had 4 running. proof! as it got later the fair got a bit quieter. . but it didn't stop all the friendly (ie: drunk) folks from making our acquaintance. a pic of me in front of Looping turned into this wonderful pic with drunk revelers. and even Christopher - who had been taking the picture - got into it with a selfie. tho I did get this cute photo op they set up out front of it. other nights were so crowded, no way to get a decent pic, so I'm really happy we went and rode this 1st night. Right next to Olympia Looping is the Carousel Bar - where the center of it is actually a Carousel that spins while you drink. even on a relatively quiet night it was packed, tho I did spend quite a bit of time there during our visits to the fair. Um. . . ok? you GO, "Jumbo Flug" the famous Toboggan slide, with the Conveyor Belt lift hill. no, I didn't do it - I'm a klutz and would have broken my neck. But it was a ton of fun watching people try it, and several from TPR did really well on it. (the guys standing along the wall are to help pick up the people that fall on the conveyor belt and get them to the top) equally as well known from the fair is this. . aka: the Devil's Wheel - the spinning ride where you pay to go in and watch, and run down when they call groups to try and be the last one on the wheel. Adam from TPR won a round on this trip. probably due to the weather (it's covered inside) it was PACKED in there tonight even, so didn't go in, and just got this pic outside of it. one of three ghost trains at the fair. This one was the middle one (there's one much better and one much worse) but in this one? you ride in cages. so, of course, Jon and I wanted to ride the outside does a fantastic job making you want to go in and ride. it was just a lot of props in front of black drapes tho. meh. . .C- the Wild Mouse was fantastic. not only was it all lit up, AND they were racing it the whole time. . but I've never been on a Wild Mouse with so much airtime. it was so good. . . both sides. and I'm sure the wild mouse on ride photo was officially licensed too (didn't get one, because it was more than the one at Olympia Looping). incredibly well lit, and flashy Rotor. with a waterfall, and what looked like a funhouse prior to getting on the ride. classic looping ride. and it made me laugh that they have the Olympic rings on the front Bannister. how drunk must one be to think this is Olympia Looping? one of two massive Claw rides. . this one was Konga, and had giant fire effects too. finally made it over to my other "must do tonight" ride: Alpina Bahn the trains were lit up, and the tracks were wet from the rain, and this sucker was FLYING. I absolutely loved this, and think I may have ridden it more than Olympia Looping during my visits to the fair (tho I rode both of them 5-6 times) the bears up top are Animatronic, tho since they were speaking German, I have no idea what they were going on about even on the 1st night, I got to see the "true meaning of Oktoberfest" turns out that unless you pass out in a walkway? Security leaves you alone. . this guy was just fine on a bench, and saw many folks laying on the grass on the sides that were left undisturbed. as we were headed back to the hotel - it had been a really long day, and I had ridden all 3 of the coasters (only one side of Mouse), I was ready to sleep - we passed by the biggest of the ghost trains, and had to stop by to take a look at it. wouldn't ride it until the next day. . but ended up riding it several times, it was that good. Geister Palast (Ghost Palace) still headed towards the exit (the fair is really big!). . here's a shooting dark ride, that was Nintendo - adjacent. I think Elissa had the high score on this one for a bit (posted outside the ride) one of multiple FunHouses thruout the fair - this one with the whole lower level as a mirror maze and yet another infamous ride spotted, the Tagada. this one with a metal floor. this one was pretty violent, and was shooting people off the seats and into the center during some of the spins. very fun to watch. . . and with that, we made our way back to the hotel, and I crashed. tomorrow was the official start of the trip and we were starting out the day with Skyline Park. and a ride I was terrified of, but had promised I'd ride it (and made the statement publicly) after I chickened out and didn't ride it in Finland. but for now? sleep. . .

Day 3, LegoLand Mini-Land pictures: these figures partied too hard with the sheep, and passed out after

Unless the crowd levels ever start actually dropping at Disney, hoping for a price reduction is a pipe dream.

Those animatronics look pretty amazing! Didn't it look like Frankenstein's Monster was "walking" at one point? Also, and I may be completely wrong, it seems like the Monsters land is really focused around the castle as the "HQ" for the baddies. Dracula seems to have his own restaurant, the Stakehouse, run by vampires (familiars?) Maybe something similar with Curse of the Werewolf -- it's related to the Unchained storyline perhaps? Anyway, this is by far the portal I want to explore the most.

Silver Dollar City has announced a $500 million future development plan, starting with a brand new resort! https://www.silverdollarcity.com/press/resort-announcement/ Silver Dollar City, America’s #1 Theme Park, today announced plans to invest half a billion dollars over the next decade on the construction of new family adventures, including the development of 1,200 acres adjacent to the Ozark Mountain theme park. The strategic plan represents the largest investment in the company’s 65-year history and begins with the debut of the Silver Dollar City Resort, the first theme park resort in America’s Heartland. “This is more than just growth—it’s a new era.” said Silver Dollar City Parks & Resorts President, Brad Thomas. “Over the next decade, we will mindfully transform 1,200 acres into an authentic, only-in-the-Ozarks destination starting with our first resort. The new resort will combine Silver Dollar City’s spirit of playfulness, discovery, craftsmanship and exploration with all that makes The Heart of the Ozarks so special.” Already under construction and set to open late 2026, the 262-room resort will feature never-before-seen vistas of the Ozark Mountains and Table Rock Lake, along with unparalleled access to Silver Dollar City theme park. The new resort will also be located just a stone’s throw from the company’s other family attractions, including White Water water park, Showboat dinner cruises, Pink Jeep Adventure Tours and the Silver Dollar City Campground. “This investment showcases Silver Dollar City’s commitment to tourism and economic growth in the Ozarks and for the State of Missouri.” said Missouri Governor Mike Parson. “We are excited to see this project bring thousands of new jobs and millions of new visitors to our great state.” Additional resort details will be provided in the coming months regarding guest amenities, park privileges, room types, and group meeting spaces. For more information, visit silverdollarcity.com/resort.

Nobody is forcing LLP on the guests. This is just another easy cash grab for the company. Yeah, a single day ticket is pricey, but compared to the price of other entertainment options these days it's actually quite reasonable. Would I rather spend $200 for a day at Disney or spend $200 for a 2-hour Broadway show? Disney. No question. I'm a friggin IATSE Journeyman stagehand and I'd rather go to Disney than support my industry. The last Broadway show I saw was A Strange Loop two years ago and that's only because I found a balcony seat day-of for $58. Cursed Child I spent $156 on for the second row but that was entirely funded by my per diem budget while on tour.

Ah. I had a reading fail. I missed the part where you were pregaming. Your choices make sense. I think out of all of the canned cocktails I tried I didn't mind the mules. I've seen them, but I haven't had a Beat Box. Sounds like I was way ahead of my time when I used to pour Vodka directly into the Boone's Farm bottles, at an undisclosed age.

I went to SFStL for the first time this past weekend. Um, quick question, but why so so many people whine about this park? It's GREAT! I had a blast all day long! The Boss - Holy crapola, maybe it's because I had bottom-of-the-barrel expectations from hearing nonstop bitching about how rough this ride has become, but goddamn this is one of the most balls-out coasters I've ever been on. This thing just RRRRRRRRRIPS through the course and tells the passengers to hold the hell on. I truly, 100%, unironically, LOVE this ride. Love love love. Give me more. The morning rides were exceptionally fun because they still had the sprinklers going during the post-MCBR turnaround. I was hooting, hollering, and laughing the entire ride every time. My only complaint is the queue being nothing but uphill ramps for five miles. Other than that, no notes. 10 laps. Mr Freeze - D-D-D-DAYUM!!!!! I've never been on a Freeze before (the one in Texas was dead when we visited) and holy hell what a fun ride! Surprise airtime kicks all throughout the course, the spike is wacky, the launch is punchy, and the track switch in the station is a hoot! 7 laps. American Thunder - Not great, not terrible, extremely mediocre but still cute and fun enough. 1 lap. Screamin Eagle - Classic woodie that's gotten a little worse for the wear over the years but I still had a blast flying through the woods! 3 laps. Would have been more but it's in the worst area of the park to walk back to over and over and I just wasn't feeling it. Ninja - Ow. 1 lap. Batman - Mirror clone! Still a fantastic invert, even if it has been cloned all over the world a thousand times. It's always worth the ride. 1 lap. Boomerang - Pass. Pandemonium - Zippy little spinner, fun enough but nothing amazing. We hardly spun for the first half but realllllllly got moving for the second half. We hit the brakes and kept spinning like a teacup for a while until we moved far enough ahead to catch the reset bar. 1 lap. River King Mine Train - I love me a good, classic mine train. While this one isn't big or fast it has heart. I loved the terrain style layout. 2 laps. Rookie Racer - Cute little ride for the young'ns but nothing noteworthy for adults. I really got tired of listening to the revving engine sound effect that plays near nonstop while waiting for Joker. 1 lap. Joker - Fun, but without the funhouse queue operating. The views from this ride, though, holy cow. Supergirl - I've been on a bunch of Enterprise-style flats, this is my first time in the open-air style seats. Fun, though hardly a thrill, and over-engineered compared to a classic Enterprise. Justice League - It broke as soon as we left the loading area. Sat there for about 10 minutes, then rode half of the ride with the lights on. No offer to re-ride with show lighting, no desire to try again. SkyScreamer - I love Sky Flyers. This is yet another one. Catwoman's Whip - Closed most of the day, when I saw it operating it already had a 45-minute wait and I really didn't care enough to wait. Seriously, people, this park is a lot of fun. It certainly isn't the greatest but it is FAR from the worst.

Super quick trip report for a super quick trip. After spending Saturday at Hershey and with an 8:30 pm flight out of Philly Sunday evening we drove an hour and a half out of the way to spend about 3 and a half hours at Knoebels. Yes, we have been there before so were prepared to just hit our favorites and do an abbreviated trip. Park was open 12-5, we were there about 12:15-3:45. Parking lot was packed, but we were able to get fairly close by virtue of needing to use the EV chargers (in PA they charge by the hour fyi) We walked past the one price, one pass giant ticket booth and the line looked to easily be 45-60 min. Time we didn't have and we didn't feel was necessary. Walked up to a regular ticket booth with no line, bought $40 worth of tickets and that worked out just about perfect. Weirdly, for as packed as the parking lot was and for as long as the one pass line was.........ride lines were not as horrible as I thought they would be, not short but not ridiculous. Although even if you were able to stay all 5 hours of opening you probably would not have gotten on everything you wanted to. Longest we waited was Phoenix but it was running only one train. In the end we got on Impulse, Phoenix, Flying Turns 2x, Haunted Manison, and Flyers. Sure it was hard to not get to stay and do more but it was expected going in and it was nice to see Flying Turns running without issues. FYI - the main ride operator on Flyers was being pretty strict about snapping. That's info from my son, frankly I could care less,

Stopped in for closing day last night. Park was surprisingly busy considering the temperatures. Rode Wicked Cyclone in row 2 and in back. I'm fairly certain that these were my first ever pure "steel wheel" rides. The feel of the ride and the sound it made were unlike anything I've ever experienced before on it, and it literally felt like the train had rocket boosters attached. It almost gave the AF1 airtime a run for its money. Skyscreamer still running backwards which was nice with the cold weather. Such a beautiful view this time of year with the leaves down and the picnic grove all lit up. Batman a hoot in the back row as always. Bit of a headbang in the last corkscrew but that's nothing new. I went down to lap Superman for the last hour but they kind of just roped it off shortly before 8 and closed the ride by 8:20 so for the second year in a row I got shut out on some Superman rides to end the year. Some folks were commenting that they've heard once it dips below 40 the cycle times become concerning and they don't want it to valley. Would be a shame if that was true as I've ridden it well down into the 20s. Finished up with Supergirl and Thunderbolt but definitely disappointed to leave with no Superman. If 40 degrees is the new limit (and there was absolutely no wind last night) then I can't help but think there's some Cedar Fair influence going on there. But the rest of the coasters were still running so who knows. They better not pull this BS with Nitro in December!

Thank God. We were getting spoiled.

back on the bus, we headed towards Swansea. . we were gonna be spending the next day at Oakwood (home of Megafobia!) but for the rest of the day, was gonna be travel, and check into the hotel. Then later tonight was the Snack Exchange - where everyone brings a treat they enjoy to share with everyone else, and we do a lobby takeover to share. some pics from the bus: and then once checked in, any of us hit the closeby Grocery Store to stock up on any needed things, as well as grab some food for dinner. in the store, I noticed this and snapped a picture. a decision was made as to what was most important here, methinks. back at the hotel, some pics of the snack exchange. . . .most everything was very good, or at least "interesting" - yes, I'm talking about your Vegemite, Nick! and seems that I didn't take separate pics of the swag. . so here's some pics of swag that cover most of what I've covered so far anyways. . . including that Lego figure from Legoland! hopefully another update coming not too far off. . . but first, to get started on my Oktoberfest report!

Floorless trains cost more money. They’d totally not do that

If it contains the letters P A N T H E and N and it's located in Virginia, then it's only right to make damn sure you know you're on a random coaster in a field. As long as it's the same great ride they can theme it to Hefty and have it race around a landfill for all I care.

Some notes from a fun week at Universal! Sunday night we rushed over from the airport in order to ride Spiderman before it closes for refurb. Love that ride. Luckily we still had time for one more ride before closing and decided it was as good of a time as any to finally get a night ride on Hagrid! A posted 90 minute line ended up being closer to 50 which was nice. This ride is amazing at night. It almost should've been built as an indoor coaster because I feel like the darkness really accentuates a lot of aspects of the theming. Monday was a pretty typical IOA day for me. It's probably my favorite park I've ever been to and other than Velocicoaster, my other favorite activity is watching people get destroyed by that high pressure waterfall on Popeyes right by the footbridge down to the lagoon. I could stand there for hours. Tuesday at Studios I don't have much to report other than I had a really weird ride on ET. The cars started stacking right at the "Welcome Home You Have Arrived" dude. And the rest of the way the cars would pull forward like 30 feet at a time and then come to a jarring stop. Very strange. Thursday night we had a fun night with @coasterbill at HHN (preceded by a great Velocicoaster night ride). This was the first time I've ever done Halloween mazes outside of SFNE or Lake Compounce, and what a difference. The level of detail put into the sets was just incredible. The thing I didn't like is that they just conga-line everyone through each maze. I can see why, as the lines are insane and I can't imagine how long they would be if everyone went through in small groups. In 5 hours we were able to do 3 houses plus Gringotts, Mummy, and Rockit from the singles lines. Very busy, but overall a really fun event. Also on Thursday I snagged tickets for Epic Universe on my birthday (which will be the 2nd week the park is open). Really excited to see it for the first time.

This past Wednesday I did a massive 14-hour park hopper marathon across 3 parks, hitting pretty much everything new to Disney since 2012 (except Magic Kingdom since I was just there in February). I started the day at Animal Kingdom right at 8am and marched right over to Navi River Journey since it was still a walk-on at that point (I had a Lightning Lane for Flight of Passage at 10:45). First off, Pandora looks absolutely amazing and I see what all the commotion is about. I only wish I could have seen it at night. Anyway, Navi is a really well done boat ride with amazing visuals. To quote my wife, it is probably now the best of the Disney boat rides. I wouldn't necessarily jump into a 60+ min wait that this sometimes gets, but otherwise I would easily ride this over and over if I had the time just to try to take it all in. Heading back into the center of the park, I noted that Kilimanjaro Safaris still had a 10 minute line. My only must-dos left were Dinosaur and Tough to Be a Bug, however I only had a limited amount of time in this park as we had to be at DHS for a lunch reservation at 12:05. I knew heading over to Safaris would probably remove the chance of trekking up a particular mountain in this park, but I've made that trek several times before and decided we should see animals while we were at Animal Kingdom. The safari ride was amazing as usual, and on a decently cool morning the animals were very active. When it was over I was happy to have chosen this over Everest. I had never ridden Dinosaur before, so we headed there next and walked right on. I don't know why I haven't heard more positive remarks about this ride in the past (honestly I had no idea what to expect) because this thing blew me away. The vehicle's movements are way more out of control than I expected, the darkness of the ride is pretty crazy, and overall I loved this thing. I hope they do it justice when they retheme it with the new area in a couple years. On the way back over to Pandora, there was a major nostalgia trip that I needed to make before it goes away this winter. I loved It's Tough to be a Bug when I was a kid and I just had to see it one more time. Unfortunately I did not get the full experience, as the water effects did not work in my seat nor did the "bugs leaving the theatre before you" effect. I guess they've already given up maintaining the ride. But it's still a fun show and I'm glad I got to see it one more time. Back into Pandora, I had a few minutes until my Flight of Passage reservation and spent that time at Satu'li Canteen chowing on Burger Pods. These things tasted amazing and that whole restaurant had a really nice atmosphere to it. Absolutely stop here if you're in Pandora. Anyway, 10:45 came up and we headed to Flight of Passage which I'm sure everyone else on this board has probably ridden already, but this thing was amazing in every way possible. The theming both outside and inside the ride, the presentation, and the ride itself. Incredible. After getting off Flight of Passage it was already 11:15 and we had to book it out to the car and head over to Hollywood Studios. I was sad to have had to rush Animal Kingdom, I love the park and definitely look forward to getting more of a full and more relaxed day next time I go. And I absolutely have to see Pandora at night. Sad to see Dinoland USA have to be killed off, but I'm sure they'll do a great job with its replacement.

as part of Fright Bash, we had reserved seating for several shows - and although Fiesta is well known for their shows, I had seen versions of the evening ones, and so was most excited about "Haunted Hollywood" - a Halloween version of the excellent Hollywood thru the years show the park had new for 2024. it's mostly the same cast (a few new faces) performing "spooky" or "scary" songs. . .y'all. .it's SO good. highly, highly recommended: wish I could remember all the songs. . but they were mostly of the Halloween variety. . . really talented cast tho. (the only one I didn't care for was "Feed My Frankenstein" - as the guy was way out of key (and that's hard to do on an Alice Cooper song). . but huge props to him for making it down all those stairs in the giant Frankenstein boots). the Count with the puppet Dracula was hysterical. . and the song was so good too (even if I can't recall it right now) this one I remember, as it truly is a show standout: "Psycho Killer". . featuring little Vignettes of each victim being chased by their killer. . . before all joining up in the center stage for some great choreography. and HUGE points to the park for staying in true character - the "bad guys" all run. . . except for Michael Myers. . he just slowly walks after his victim. perfection! the Addams Family theme song a kinda cringy "dancing pillowcases" number for Casper the Friendly ghost. but I mean. . it was amusing. and of course, the show ender/ show stopper, is a full performance of "Thriller" after the show, the organizers asked all attendees on the stage for a group picture (I kept my hat on, so a bit noticeable) and then we got a meet and greet with the cast. . these 3 are among my favorite performers at SFFT, and any show they are in? I'll be there! back out into the heat, we had a couple of hours until dinner. . so it was time to ride some stuff! pic by my friend Belinda - who's in the very front. SO many characters out during the day (I would guess many of them change outfits to be ghouls at night). . but so many photo ops, and this is a lovely park anyways! Supergirl retheme completely done, and the Starflyer looks great. after a bunch of riding (I had my camera put away, so not many pics) it was time for dinner, and some Q&A with park folks. I didn't take a pic of my dinner, but did bump into the Quirky Coaster Couple (who had changed from Luigi/Mario for a "nighttime" look). Glad I snapped this pic, as you can get a look at the food. the chicken schnitzel on a stick was incredible, as were the ribs, and the german potato salad (and potato pancakes with applesauce). as a group of 17 strong (!) we decided to hit some of the houses that opened at 6.. as most folks were heading over to the Crackaxle train station for the Arrival (where the scarezone actors arrive by train and pour out into their own scare zones thruout the park). it was SO crowded that day, that I didn't want to be anywhere near Crackaxle - so instead we hit the Stranger Things House (yawn), the Conjuring House (excellent!!), Slaughterhouse (very good), the Voodoo House (which during the day is a kid friendly "tour of the collector's store" walkthru, but at night is filled with scare actors and low lights), Trapped (way better than in previous years, as they took some of the props from the discontinued Buried Alive house). the Voodoo house let us out right into the scare zone in Spassburg, so we decided it was close enough to the Arrival, that we would wait for the characters to arrive in the Scarezone before continuing onto the boardwalk - as the big outdoor maze (Hell Cemetery) is staffed by some of the ghouls on the train. it was a perfect spot to get some pics as they slowly made their way into the park, from a PACKED (so I was told) Crackaxle train stop. once they scare actors were out and about in the park, we headed to the boardwalk for the last House, Twisted, and the large (free) outdoor maze Hell Acres: the clown zone had filled up with scare actors from the Arrival. I think people don't realize this is a house here, and they think it's a queue for Pandemonium. but it never really has a line, even without the skip the line, we wouldn't have had to wait very long in the regular pass line. but it's a great house, with some really good animatronics in it. it had gotten a bit too stuffy, so had put the hat in the car after dinner. . . loved Twisted, but then down the steps to the Cemetery. Excellent. Large. and Free (as it's considered a Scare Zone, not a house) SUCH atmosphere down here. and some wonderfully spooky pics of the boardwalk due to the lights and fog. this one also benefited from reuse of props from the closed Buried Alive and Rockkill High houses. after this, we walked across the park to the other outdoor walkthru "Scarezone" - "Fear Acres" - which takes over a pretty good chunk of the waterpark, and has historically been SO packed, that I've never even gone thru the whole thing. Surprisingly as packed as the park was? "Fear Acres" had no line to get in, and the crowds were moving pretty well thru this large, and very well staffed haunt zone. crazy farmers, scarecrows, pig masks, machetes and chainsaws. . . check. very good, and for free too. . even if the makeups were mainly greasepaint and not as intricate as in the houses. we had reserved seating for two more shows, and the fireworkds "Frightful Finale" - followed by an hour + ERT on Dr. Diabolical and Iron Rattler. . . . but doing the math in my head, I said to my friend (who had driven). . if we stay for the fireworks, we're not getting home until 2am. as even if we dont' stay for ERT, we'll be stuck in the parking lot. I was exhausted - having been to a late concert the night before, and still not recovered from Germany late nights. . . so I told him I'm ok with whatever he wants to do. His son had come with us and he also works nights and he had gotten off work and immediately got in the car with us to San Antonio. . so I know he was tired too. so Russell asked him, and he was ok with leaving, so we called it a night, and left before the fireworks. . but it got me home by 11:45, so that was nice - even if I did need to stop and get a slurpee so the sugar would keep me up on my drive home. all in all? a great event, and FrightFest at SFFT is highly recommended.

I agree with this to an extent. Even with ticket prices being as high as Snoop Dogg on April 20th in a White Castle parking lot, the parks get a metric assload of visitors per day. So it's no question that a corporation would rather price some people out than lower ticket costs and cap attendance.

I'm so glad you enjoyed the park! I'm constantly telling the local gp that bitch on FB about it being the "WoRsT pArK eVer" that they are completely off base. Lol, there are far worst parks. If you loved the Boss as it is now you would have adored it when it still had the helix in place. Completely neutered it by taking that out as far as I'm concerned; but, yes you do need a mountain sherpa to guide you to the ride station

I think the industry is trending more towards "what the f*** is going to happen in the next 6 to 18 months? We better stop spending money now and do everything we can to cut costs just incase because it aint looking good", and sprucing up a previously existing family area is just a convenient low cost maintenance project that they can market as a new addition. Also I loved Jungala so any signs of life back in that area of the park are welcome.

at first, when I heard that TPR was doing an Oktoberfest trip in 2024, I thought there was no way I'd be able to participate - I mean, I'm not a big drinker, and the trips are really limited space wise. but after talking it over with Elissa and being assured I wasn't the only non-drinker that would be on the trip, and besides, imagine getting to experience the Halloween event at Europa Park (180,000 pumpkins! and the Traumatica night time offering), I was all in, and luckily was invited to join along. so yes, I'll have two TPR trip reports running at the same time, since I'm still nowhere near finished on the UK Trip I did in June/July it was an AMAZING trip, with multiple bucket list things checked off (Olympia Looping, Voltron, Alpina Bahn) and even things I didn't know should have been on my bucket list (experiencing a Halloween Haunt in Germany - holy crap were these amazing) . .and hopefully these pics capture that. Starting off, I was flying the day before the trip officially started, and was arriving in Munich the morning of the trip. I would have preferred to have a little more time (especially between flights, since I had to sprint thru the DC airport to make my flight to Germany due to flight delay out of Ausatin), but I knew there was some sightseeing time on this trip, so I did my best to make use of my available vacation and headed to the Austin airport. starting off smiling and perky at the Austin airport. barely made my flight to Munich. . and then we sat on the tarmac for about an hour + as they dealt with one mechanical issue after another. Not exactly what you want to hear before a trans-atlantic flight. but at least I wasnt' alone on this flight, as CFC was also on this flight and we had said hello as I rushed thru boarding. eventually we got on our way, and enjoyed a nice dinner: and breakfast, before landing in Munich. because we arrived so late, there was no gate available for us at the Munich airport, so we parked on the tarmac, took the stairs down, and then took busses to the side Customs entrance - which worked out wonderfully. Customs was a breeze, as it was only OUR plane using this side. Soon enough was down in Baggage claim, where I met up with CFC, and also Nathan. . and we all hopped into a taxi and made our way to the 1st hotel of the trip (a close, 15 minute walk to the Oktoberfest grounds). several folks were around this morning who didn't have enough time to do outside of the city sightseeing, but had a few hours before the welcome dinner. So several of us teamed up, and hopped on the train, and went to the City Center to see the famous clock tower: the Rathaus-Glockenspiel. I was impressed by the train - one long, open train. . . . . it was surprising not to see it separated by subway cars as they do here in the USA. lots of folks on this train headed to Oktoberfest too, even tho it was a Friday, and the skies had been threatening rain. coming off the train and looking at the amazing architecture in the City Central plaza and here's the famous Rathaus-Glockenspiel it goes off at Noon and has several tiers of moving characters that enact a joust (complete with riders falling from horses) and a complex dance recital. we were still a bit early for that, so the square hadn't quite filled up, but it DID get pretty crowded as it got closer to noon. better shot of the tiered levels of the clock. . and you can see we still had about 25 minutes till noon. the group I went with: Myself, Bob, Erik, Nathan, and Chuck (CFC) a photo op? don't mind if I do! the clock in action during it's 10 minute or so performance (interestingly, this clock runs about 4 minutes behind. . so all the other clock towers in the area finish chiming Noon before this one starts up). I angled the pic upwards to go over the crowd, but the square is PACKED now. afterwards, we went into the actual tower (tho didn't pay for the tour. . it's free to just go in tho to look around) Munich has a bunch of sister-cities, and they're represented here in the entrance arch. Cincinnati? really? gorgeous stained glass windows in here. some pics from the interior square of the clock tower building the gargoyles in here were a ton of fun. . and many of them were of the "drainage" variety after wandering around for a bit, and buying some souvenirs (the Oktoberfest fair has a store here in the Central square, so could buy stuff here without the crowd), we stopped for a light snack. we were gonna eat in a few hours, so i stuck with an apple fritter desert only, and it was fantastic. (there are 3 here, and I shared with the table) we made it back to the hotel, and our rooms were now ready, so was able to relax for a bit (and shower) before it was time to head to the lobby and meet up with everyone to walk over to the restaurant for the official welcome dinner. i remembered to snap a pic with Elissa - proof of life to send home - and got to say hello to more friends I hadn't seen in a bit. Nick had been on the UK tour a couple of months prior, but it had been a year or so since I'd gotten to see Jon. it was great to hang out with them again. as well as see folks I hadn't see in years, and meet some folks for the first time whom I've interacted with online for a long time, but had never met in person. we all followed Robb & Elissa to the restaurant for the "welcome dinner", and just outside - for some reason - was this giant snail. so we stopped and posed for a pic! (photo courtesy of Robb) here's the restaurant we went to - a traditional German beerhouse, that was packed (as it was very close by to the Oktoberfest fair) we had 3 full tables in one part of the restaurant. . so it was a mini-TPR takeover. (oh, and it started pouring literally moments after we sat down, so no rush to finish off anything as the food started coming out. . and coming, and coming!) Prost! LtR: Barry, Andy, Colin, Hawk, Doug, and I think John's arm, and Eric's coke? yup. .a Beer as big as Eric's head! these gluttonous masses were . . . . something. I think they were supposed to be the potato dumplings. . but they were a very strange texture, and had a flavor like . . . air. yeah. .they were something. I wasn't really all that hungry, the problem was the food was all HUGE! So even trying to eat small meant taking big pieces. felt guilty for wasting food, but not gonna lie, the chicken was the best I've ever had. I mean ever. the braise on the crispy skin was so damn good.. ate way more than I should have. my plate, with TRYING to eat small.. . tiny scoops of the sides, so i DID try. (that's the smallest pork knuckle that was available on the tray!) the texture of a breast implant, and the shape of a ball. . . yay! tho good for a picture, it was really the only thing (besides the liverwurst - but I don't like liver) that I didn't care for. Everything else was excellent. Official pic of our table from the waitress *or maybe it's Colin doing a selfie? LtR: Hawk, Doug, Eric, Jonathan, Jere, Hanno (hiding behind Jere), Jon, me, Barry, Andy, Colin with the meal winding down, and the rain slowing to a really light drizzle. . . several of us decided to check out the Oktoberfest Fair, figuring (correctly) that the rain probably drove a lot of folks out. and some, like myself and Christopher, really wanted to get rides on Alpina Bahn and Olympia Looping. . . why wait? do it now. it made for some great pictures. that's the next post in part II of day 1

the Safari can take up a lot of time too. . . depending on what time of day you hit it.

If that everything is standing in an unmoving line in Pandora, sure! You're right, though. Without the Avatar waits padding your day there's really not much at the park outside of enjoying the atmosphere and the shows. We finished our trip with an AK day and managed to fill it between shows and multiple laps on Everest and Kilimanjaro. If I were still a teen or 20-something, though, I'd have been aching for an excuse to leave. Now that I'm almost 40 with a toddler, well, the day was fan-friggin-tastic and I wouldn't change a thing.

So happy to see some movement on the dinorama area. Good riddance. Seems like there’s a good 3 months or longer to ride Dinosaur. I still need to get on Bugs Life for the first time since 2002 ha.. Sure you can speed run the rides since there are so few of them, but the wildlife walks, theater shows, character interactions, and animal shows are really what makes the park an all or most of the day visit. Not to mention the amazing restaurants like Yak n Yeti and Nomad and Harambe market! I may be in the minority that I wish there was more to do in Pandora. Like Hogsmeade / you have one star attraction with an instant and all day massive line. River Journey is usually too long to justify and is just okay to me as the #2 attraction there. Great for families and people of all ages and heights but… at times boat rides at WDW have a long stack at the end of the ride that is as long as the ride itself or longer kills the buzz a bit. This has happened every River Journey ride for me.

At the start of the season they had said it would by ready by summer. That never happened. What are we going on, 5-6 years now? Laughable at this point. The Zoo just started to redo their carousel.

A B&M dive, even a small one, costs considerably more than an RMC Iron Horse.

I went to the park friday and someone on the team was out answering questions. From what I heard from sources over the past season I have put together to my understanding- the parks plan as of now. To get things out of the way, there will be no new attraction for next season. As of now nothing is planned or being relocated. This is in anticipation for the park to finally get "A big investment" in 26 or possibly the year after. I dont see this being RMC boss, the park had previously talked with RMC and with the parks budget it would cut down the layout of the attraction so much so that it wouldnt be the show stopping coaster everyone thought it would be. Then Covid came along and it got the Axe, it likely would never see the light of day. IMO Id expect something more along the lines of a B&M dive. The park should receive its own park president soon, my choice for it would be Ron Mckenzie. Previously the President at Over texas, He worked with St louis for many years, knows and loves our park and I believe if given the chance, he would return. I sometimes see him post things about our park on social media and make jokes about returning on his old coworkers posts. In the meantime, the focus for next year is really just looking at what the park has done right the past couple seasons and continue with it. A return back to entertainment, how large scale the shows would be, im not sure. But also continuing to focus on events and looking at guest feedback. I believe a return of Holiday in the park has been thrown around but Id doubt it would be for next season.

And now that Hallowe'en is done... the PNE is now selling tickets for their annual Winter Fair. The Fair runs from beginning of December, to the 23rd. Lots of stuff to do, see, eat, drink! https://www.pne.ca/winter-fair/

Exactly. No one would be truly surprised, especially if they threw some floorless trains on it to make it slightly less painful.

Back to ME for a second (sorry I'm all over the place lol)...1 or both of the trains are either on the way or have been delivered. Nice to see them taking care of this early

Given the legacy CF leadership team seems to have the upper hand at SF now, I could see Green Lantern potentially getting converted to a floorless and moved to SFDL. I don’t think it’s incredibly likely and I don’t know the dimensions off the top of my head without going to google maps to see if it would fit. But, I could see them placing this at about a 45 degree angle in place of the go-carts, between Viper and Skyscreamer. The lift hill could easily go over the campground, which is oversized to begin with. They really need a higher capacity ride to rebuild their somewhat tainted reputation from surrounding areas the past 2 decades. I was a rides supervisor/manager from 2009-2012 so I’ve always had a tendency to discuss “what-ifs” to turn the park around, and as this thread seems to continually illustrate, the improvements come in small, gradual doses. On a separate and personal note, the removal of Grizz, Giant Wheel and Thunder Rapids was inevitable but quite a blow to the lineup, especially with the 1-train ops since my departure years ago.

It might work. There are plenty of other parks that might need it too though. The parking lot is flat too ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Continuing on from my Animal Kingdom report... We arrived at Hollywood Studios right at noon with a reservation at 50s Primetime Cafe at 12:05. I also came armed with an 11:30 Star Tours reservation (which I made so that I could hit it ASAP to open up the rest of the A tier rides), 3:30 Tower, 5:10 Rise, and 6:45 Slinky Dog (which I snagged a couple days before after initially being unavailable). We went over and scanned in at Star Tours, but it took a while to get into the ride and we ended up just running across to the exit to make our lunch reservation. However, I was now able to reserve Smugglers Run at 1:15. Lunch at Primetime was delicious and the atmosphere was fun. There were so many things about the rooms that reminded me of how my parents and grandparents would have decorated their kitchens when I was a kid. After lunch we stopped at Star Tours (which was a walk on) to actually ride it and this is still a really fun attraction. Obviously it has been well eclipsed by many newer rides but it is still worth checking out for sure. Continued down into Galaxy's Edge which was my first time there. This area is absolutely massive and it took a while to actually find Smugglers Run but eventually we were in. My wife and I ended up being pilots and were pretty f*cking terrible at our jobs. We loved the ride though and the theming is obviously incredible. After this ride we managed to snag a Toy Story Mania lightning lane at 2:30 despite it not having great times available earlier in the day (I have to say this system sucks in some ways but also was surprising in how much stuff would pop up out of nowhere unexpectedly). We ended up waiting standby for Runaway Railway which was posted at an hour but barely took 30 minutes. My wife was a big Great Movie Ride fan and thought this did not do it justice, but I thought it was cute and fun. Headed back over to Mania which I love. One of my favorite shooting rides (probably because I used to really enjoy Toy Story when I was younger) and it's just a great looking ride. I ended up snagging a Rock 'n Roller Coaster LL that overlapped my Tower LL which was perfect. Speaking of which, Tower of Terror is just a f*cking masterpiece. Despite the insane attractions Disney has built in the past couple decades, this is still my favorite on the property and everything about it has stood the test of time. Unbelievable theming and the ride itself is somehow way more thrilling than most modern freefall towers to me. I wish I had time to lap it over and over. On the opposite end of the spectrum, its neighbor just kinda sucks and I still can't figure out how this fits in a Disney park. There's some intensity, a lot of roughness, and I just think the premise of the ride is meh. I would rate this the worst indoor coaster at Disney by far, and I don't think that is a controversial take. Headed back down to the Galaxy to check out Oga's Cantina. Look, I know that it's a very cozy spot in the movies and they really wanted to go with the "exclusive club" feel and I get it. But having to cram into a booth with 2 other families, one of which had 3 screaming young children (one of which proceeded to dump an entire drink all over a bag of merchandise I had under my seat) kind of ruined the experience. It looks terrific and all, and I get that they want to take in as many people as possible, but that was a miserable experience. The drink was great however. Next was Rise and the theming on this was out of this world. I thought the ride might be a bit over hyped though. After experiencing Flight of Passage a few hours earlier and being blown away, I kind of walked away from this one expecting more. Not sure what else to say. I'm not a huge Star Wars fan and maybe that had something to do with it, but I liked everything else here so I'm not sure why Rise didn't do it for me. I had some time to kill before Slinky, so I reserved Alien Swirling Saucers which I then felt bad walking past a line full of 5 year olds just because I was bored. The ride is not great. We went over and saw the Muppets show afterwards which was a much better way of killing time. That show is adorable. Finally our Slinky Dog time came up and we even scored front row. Admittedly, as a coaster this thing has no forces whatsoever and it really doesn't need them. For the kids it's a home run of a ride and we loved it. After this we had one more park to check off, and hopped on the Skyliner to Epcot. Arrived shortly after 7:30 and headed over for my first Guardians ride. Upon reaching the first room at the top of the line, the thing broke down for probably 30 minutes which became a bit frightening, but thankfully it finally reopened with just one side. An hour later we were zooming around space to the beats of Conga. My thoughts? Don't get me wrong, I loved it. But I think I expected more. The top speed is 60 and it's 5500 feet long yet if you told me Space Mountain was longer and faster I would almost believe it. The visuals are incredible, absolutely amazing. I think I just expected a bit more from the coaster. Unfortunately due to the breakdown it was after 9 when we got off so we were not able to get on Remy or take in some of the amazing Epcot atmosphere and food. Next time. I love this park and only popping in for an hour killed me as much as rushing through Animal Kingdom. It was a long and tiring (and expensive) 14 hour extravaganza of a day, but we had a blast. Once we financially recover from the tickets, lightning lanes, food, and merchandise that we went a little too crazy with, maybe we'll be back sooner than later!

Not sure if you are being sarcastic, but this isn't a Joker retheme. They've been working on theming at the park over the last few years and hired an outside company to help with color schemes for most, if not all of the park. The bulk of that work has been on buildings, etc. Mamba's repaint has been in the plans for a bit with some different color samples appearing on the track and structure in the last two seasons. It appears they may be only painting the track at this point and maybe the structure will come in the next season or so. The theming/refresh work isn't finished, and they can and have continued to work on it as budget allows.

Odd for TN Tornado to be closed. Mystery Mine and Dragonflier as well? Dang that a bummer. Wild Eagle is one of my (now 20) daughters favorites. Fits the theme well, a gentle soaring flight. No scare elements like head choppers or key holes. Just an fun ride with great scenery. LR is 3800 ft, Steel Vengeance is 5740, not double the length (that'd be 7600). LR comes at you so fast that you don't get to reflect on the elements as they happen because the next one is starting. Granted the new track sections and loss of the LSM launch change it a bit, but the elements are all still great and the integration with the landscape is unique. I've ridden ArieForce One and the quad down on it is not as fun as LR. And the wave turn has a lot more hang time than others RMC has done Guess it depends on what you are looking for. It's a theme park, if you don't like the theme it won't do a lot for you. It not an amusement park like SF. As for why people like it, it's a different experience than amusement parks like SF. At SF it's just getting from one ride to the next and waiting in line. DW, take your time and enjoy the journey. Stop at a show or demonstration. Look around a shop. DW has 9 coasters now, though 4 are family rides not thrill rides. But those are only part of the experience. There's a lot more to DW than just the rides. I spend as much time at shows as I do riding rides. While it's been a while (2022) since I was there the food used to be much better then other parks (I think even better than SDC). Guess it depends on where you went. I tend to visit the restaurants like Aunt Granny's, Ham 'n Beans, Front Porch (though I liked more when it was Backstage), and Miss Lillian's (again, liked the Chicken House better). Also like when Aunt Granny's and Miss Lillian's were buffets and you served yourself. Not sure what you mean by healthy stuff. Aunt Granny's and Ham 'n Beans are basically home-style meals similar to what I eat most nights. Pot roast, meatloaf, catfish, fried/baked chicken, chicken pot pie, pinto beans, mashed potatoes, creamed corn, roasted potatoes, carrots, green beans, turnip greens, cabbage. And the Front porch has fried cauliflower, fried green tomatoes, fried chicken (w/ mashed potatoes, gravy, pickled tomato & collard greens), shrimp and grits with sausage, pork loin chop (with potatoes, gravy, and collard greens), even a past dish (rigatoni, basil oil, tomato sauce, parmesan)

Universal has announced that Epic Universe will be opening on May 22nd, 2025! https://media.universalparksusa.com/press-releases/universal-epic-universe-officially-opens-on-may-22-2025/ The countdown to Epic has officially begun! Universal Orlando Resort’s highly anticipated fourth theme park – Universal Epic Universe – will officially open on May 22, 2025, unlocking the portals to five astounding worlds that will bring to life extraordinary adventures that go beyond guests’ wildest imaginations. Universal Epic Universe is the most ambitious theme park Universal Destinations and Experiences has ever created and will be the next gamechanger for theme park entertainment. With a total of more than 50 incredible experiences that range from groundbreaking attractions to breathtaking entertainment to incredibly themed dining and shopping and so much more, Epic Universe will present a level of theme park immersion and innovation that is unmatched across five themed worlds: Celestial Park, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Ministry of Magic, SUPER NINTENDO WORLD, How to Train Your Dragon – Isle of Berk and Dark Universe. And anchoring the park is Universal Helios Grand Hotel, a Loews Hotel – a majestic 500-room property that will offer one-of-a-kind views of the park and feature its very own dedicated entrance into Epic Universe for hotel guests (valid theme park admission required). The opening of Epic Universe will transform Universal Orlando Resort into a weeklong vacation destination comprised of four theme parks that are home to the most innovative theme park experiences ever created, 11 spectacular hotels that are destinations unto themselves, and more – forever changing the landscape of the award-winning destination. “This is such a pivotal moment for our destination, and we’re thrilled to welcome guests to Epic Universe next year,” said Karen Irwin, President and COO of Universal Orlando Resort. “With the addition of this spectacular new theme park, our guests will embark on an unforgettable vacation experience with a week’s worth of thrills that will be nothing short of epic! Our Universe will never be the same.” SELECT MULTI-DAY TICKETS AND PACKAGES GO ON SALE NEXT WEEK, WITH MORE ON THE WAY SOON Next week, guests can begin planning an epic 2025 vacation to Universal Orlando to experience the entire destination as the first phase of ticket products and packages that include access to Universal Epic Universe will go on sale. Specific products launching in this first phase include: A variety of multi-day tickets and vacation packages that include three, four or five days of admission to Universal’s theme parks – including one day admission to Epic Universe. These products will go on sale on Tuesday, October 22. Reservations for Universal Helios Grand Hotel will open on Tuesday, October 22 for stays beginning May 22, 2025. Annual Passholders have the exclusive opportunity to purchase single-day tickets to Universal Epic Universe before they go on sale to the general public. Passholders can take advantage of this priority opportunity beginning Thursday, October 24.

as mentioned above, I was at the park this past Saturday to participate in the annual "Fright Bash" - which is put on by ACE, but the park tends to go all out, so I always attend. (not only does your lanyard count as Flash Pass, but also gives VIP lounge access, park admission (if you don't have a pass), skip the line Haunted House fast pass, reserved seating for shows, behind the scenes tours, and a great dinner (that this year featured all the Oktoberfest food from the festival also going on at the park - it was fantastic, and I say that after eating German food with TPR for the past 2 weeks while at Oktoberfest in Munich). I'd even go as far to say as this event and being able to purchase a ticket to attend (*way* more value than just the cost of Flash Pass), is worth it to maintain my ACE membership. anyways, there was another large group there, and it was a Saturday/Fright Fest night, so it was PACKED. . but I still had a wonderful day. Even if Jefferey Siebert wasn't around (I hear he had taken his family to check out Halloween Horror Nights in Orlando). . . but still, it was wonderful to see all my friends who work at the park, and Jeff F. and Jorge took great care of us. on to pics! I'm here! and forgot to take a pic of the front gate entrance (oops). but I DID remember to bring my "Helga" hat, bought at Europa Park from the Snorri ride exit shop! - hey, it's Fright Fest (and I got lots and lots of compliments on my hat) it's the wonderful Jeff Filicko from SFFT, and the wonderful "OMG, I'm blanking on her name, and i can't recall it event tho we're facebook friends, and I've known her for a while. first ride of the day was on Wonder Woman - which is riding fantastic! (and yes, the hat stayed on). absolutely LOVE what they have done in Rockville - the home of the "Stranger Things" house, in the High School. really retro decorations, and the freestanding doorways all up and down the street, where kids can "knock" on the doors during the day and be answered by 60's themed park reps who hand out candy. (and at night the area is flooded with fog, and the porches are filled with creatures) My friends the Quirky Coaster Couple were here too - they came out looking amazing - as they always do. we had a bit of time before the the 1st official back stage tour (lights on tours of the two new IP houses). . so we headed over to Sangerfest Halle to grab a bite to eat, as dinner wasn't until 5pm. . . we ended up with a gang of friends going. seems since I was last here, the store that used to sell (I think) candles, has been repurposed as an indoor Looney Tunes meet and greet! Great Job by the park, moving the meet and greets inside in the A/C. I'm sure those in the costumes really appreciate it in the Texas heat. anyways as we were walking in, there was Vampire Bugs, and Scarecrow Taz out, so we hopped in line for a pic. (and Bugs took a bite of my neck) then it was across into Sangerfest for food, tho it's not a trip to SFFT without a visit to "Sweet Connie" - whom I've been told personally by Jefferey Siebert that they saved her when they re-did Sangerfest Halle a few years back mainly because I made her into an icon in the park from all my posts about her. . LOL while eating, a few more characters came out from backstage and walked over to the meet and greet - including the rarely seen Speedy Gonzales. . so I went back across to get a pic with Luchiador Speedy, Devil Sylvester and Frankenstein Yosemite Sam Sylvester loved my "hair". . but Sam pointed out it matched his Moustache. . so of course! by the time we were done eating, it was time to head over to Rockville for our lights on tour of "Stranger Things" - one of the two new IP houses this year at the park. and hey. . Jorge was waiting to guide us on this tour! (along with the head Lights/effects guy who sets up the houses, who hosted a short Q&A after our walk thru) normally no photography is allowed in the houses, but we were told it was ok to take pics, and/or record, as long as we did not stop, as we were "conga-lining" thru the house. I didn't mind at all - if there's one thing I'm good at? taking pics while walking and having them come out decent it really didn't look that much different at night, only darker, and harder to see some of the really nice details they put into it. there was a huge lack of scare actors in here, tho - they were only allowed to do certain things, so other than the stuff you're seeing in these pics (several of which ARE animatronic and moved at night), other than one or two actors on stages away from the attendees - this house really has no scare actors in it. they are going for atmosphere. it looked great, but was really rather dull, and ranked lowest on my list of the 6 houses - even below all the on property houses such as Slaughterhouse & the Puppet Theater (which both were great). I'd even rank this as below the two outdoor mazes (think they are called scare zones) - but which are long, and were stuffed with scare actors. anyways, here's the "Stranger Things" house: just look at that silly hat! (I'm still waiting for one of my friends to photoshop a butcher knife into Jorge's hand) after an interesting Q&A, we were led thru the park to the other new house for a walk thru: the Conjuring House. It's in Crackaxle - in the location where the old "Buried Alive" house was, so they had a lot of space to work with. we passed by the recently opened, brand new, Daily Planet store - which now serves as not only a gift shop (with A/C !), but also the ride entrance to Superman Krypton Coaster, and the ride Exit for Supergirl skyflight (the starflyer). yeah. . it made traffic in the store a bit nuts when we rode a little later. . so they might need to work on the register layout a bit to tweak traffic flow. under the awning - which is one of my favorite parts of Frightfest at SFFT - many of the pumpkins light up. and these pumpkin towers are amazing. there are several of them thruout the Crackaxle section. yay! Iron Rattler is back up and running (but sadly Roadrunner was down for scheduled maintenance). the DC Universe section is looking fantastic, even if much of it is not back open yet. . but at least Green Lantern (the old Zoom Jets) is now back open outside of the construction walls. I seem to have snapped no pics as we went by - probably out of sadness of the giant paper-weight that is Kid Flash (many of the light panels seem to be missing now too, and they aren't even running the lights. I'll be shocked if it's still there in 2025 season). on to the other new IP house - and 100% the BEST house in the park: The Conjuring Universe. seriously, this house is fantastic, and absolutely worth the cost of admission. I walked thru during the day (as seen in these pics) and they STILL got me with some excellent jump scares, and over a dozen scare actors in multiple rooms. so, so good, and I'd say the gold standard. if you want no spoilers, skip to the next post, as the rest of these are pics from the Conjuring House. and with that. . (I was impressed), we moved on to our first reserved show seating. . . next post.

^ Makes me sad that many families will put themself into that position of income (i.e. poor house), once they start planning and paying for their WDW trips.

you can use the Golden cake with no issue at all. the difference is that Yellow Cake uses the entire egg (including yolk). . while a Golden Cake tends to just use the egg whites. but they are both vanilla flavor . . so no biggie to mix and match.

Thanks for sharing the food options, especially when it comes to the healthier options. I hear you on needing more, sometimes. When we eat clean on vacations and keep working out every morning, we actually find ourselves losing weight despite having a few drinks during the evening. We always eat really clean throughout day and cheat a little at dinner. I can't eat like crap during the day anymore, anyway. But... When we go to Kings Island Haunt this Saturday, it's going to be a free for all. It's like our one day a year where we intentionally drink a lot and don't care what we eat starting from late afternoon until we tap out at night. A workout before the park and the next morning before we drive home are crucial to make us not feel like total garbage. Cardio, cold shower, coffee, eggs, and a small bowl of fruit in that order. That puts me right back to about 75-80% after our annual Haunt binge nights.

Rando park - Halloween photos

We did a whirlwind trip last Saturday (literally flew into Philly Fri night, showed up at hotel near Hershey at 2:30 am and had just Sat at the park) It was absolutely PACKED. In anticipation of this I had just bucked it up and bought the unlimited fast lanes for both rides and haunts online ahead of time. Still took us a good half hour to redeem our wristbands when we got to the park. To minimize wasted time since the park didn't open until noon, we stopped and grabbed lunch at Subway and did our Chocolate world shopping before park open. There still would have been no way to get on everything and do all the haunts, even with the fastpasses and 10-11 hours. It did allow us to do all the rides we wanted to and get all 5 haunts in with about 45-60 min for grabbing some dinner, most of that dinner time was standing in line. Wildcat's revenge being the only coaster we didn't have, we did focus on that, got 3 rides including 1 night ride on it. Definitely a top 5 RMC. Loved it. The new restraints on Skyrush are a huge improvement. We both thought it made the coaster much more fun now and you still get the oddly satisfying "pop" on the break run. One funny note on Skyrush; we were lined up for front row after the line closed at 10 (haunts were open until 11) wondering if they would honor that when to no one's suprise they announced last train, get on or get out. This resulted in about 10 seconds of a complete keystone cops free for all with everyone scrambling to get on. We ended up in the last row in both outside seats. Definitely more intense but not uncomfortably so. As far as Dark Nights; atmosphere/decorations were very good, scare zones ok but nothing special, unfortunately we really didn't have time for the shows, haunts were mostly very very good. They were well stocked with scare actors and nice and long. I thought Descent and Haunted Coal Mine had the best scares and Estate of Evil probably the best set pieces. Part of the problem with the scare zones is that it was just so crowded that the scare actors couldn't move around quite as freely as what would make better scares.

May the odds ever be in your favor!

I'd rather they get another flat or two. Sounds like you had a great trip.

My brother and I went this past Monday, 9/30, as we were down there for the weekend for a golf trip and decided to hit up SDC before headed back home to STL. When I tell you we had the place to ourselves, I'm not exaggerating at all! If it weren't for the ride ops making us go around, we would've had even more rides on all the coasters. The most we waited was 1 train for front row of Wildfire, which was running 1 train. I think we totaled 9ish laps on Time Traveler (all back and front rows), 2 laps on Mystic River and they let us stay on (got way soaked both times early in the day), 7 laps on Outlaw Run (first drop in the back seat should be illegal) 6 laps on Powder Keg (all in front and back - that back row on the first launch SLAPS and awesome airtime hill), 5 laps on Wildfire- (front edges and back edges) and 4 laps on TNT (back seat is ROUGH). Haven't been to the park since 2002 or so...? I was REALLY impressed. Back in High School, I wasn't a dad of 3 and paid close attention to cleanliness, theming, staff friendliness and such. SDC really has it together. We had no idea how crowds would be, but to not have to use Trailblazer and spur the extra cash and literally lap coasters and explore every avenue and non-coaster ride multiple times within a 5 hour window was a DREAM. I wanted to call out FITH separate. We only rode twice, despite not having a wait. I thought it was great and a well done tribute to the original. However, neither of us were longing to go back and do it more times. It's a great family ride and impressive presentation. Seems like a lot comes at you in a short amount of time. Found it hard to "follow", but I was also familiar with it. The new sets and blends of screens are great. It makes me think they're probably doing this over in Dollywood, given the recent plans leaked for a building 3x the size of FITH. You'd assume a similar ride, on a bigger scale in Wildwood. Not sure what the theme would be, but hopefully it's RMC. Only downside is we saw the ride go down 3-4 times in the day. So hopefully it's reliable enough. If you're looking to go on a day where you can rip thru the park and enjoy everything with no waits, fall time on a Monday is the way to go! I guess kids are in school and people come more on Thursday/Friday for long weekends. EDIT* - What's everyone think for their next addition? They spent a lot of money on the past 2 investments for families (FITH, Mystic River Falls). Seems they're due for a major thrill coaster in the next couple years. With them having a couple launch coasters already, wonder if they'll look to do something like a suspended thrill coaster from Vekoma since they got in with them for BBM at DW....?

This is a great replacement to what was there. I wonder if Williamsburg adds one of these now to replace Battle of Eire.

Busch Gardens Tampa Bay has announced "Wild Oasis" coming to Jungala in 2025. This updated corner of the land will feature a refurbished and updated family drop tower (formerly known as "Wild Surge"), a new climbing structure, new water play areas and added animal exhibits. https://buschgardens.com/tampa/kid-friendly/wild-oasis/ Wild Oasis Opening Spring 2025 to Entertain, Educate and Inspire Busch Gardens Tampa Bay invites explorers of all ages to "Wild Oasis", an interactive, re-imagined realm designed to entertain, educate and inspire. Guests will be immersed in the sounds and sights of the rainforest and engage in activities that touch on its many elements, including a newly themed drop-tower ride with engaging special effects, a high-energy climbing canopy, a new multi-species habitat and interactive water play areas. Guests are challenged to explore even further by engaging in a scavenger hunt highlighting the connections and relationships between different species in the rainforest.

Love that they are actually fixing up a few needed rides as opposed to just removing them. I wonder if EPR is trying to sell to SF?