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SFFT is such a good park.. and I haven't been since 2009!! Great report, I need to get back!

I went to the park yesterday for my only visit of the year. I had a great time and the only coaster I didn't ride was Invertigo. I would have liked to, but I skipped the hour wait for a second ride on the Beast. I got to the park early to make sure I got on Orion before the line got long. I got 3 laps in before 11:30 and it slightly surpassed my expectations. It's fun, smooth, and re-rideable. I like the first drop and the wave turn like element, but the rest is forgettable. I'll probably ride Orion once during future visits and It feels weird to say that about a giga coaster. Diamondback outshines it and I much prefer Millennium Force, which is the only other giga I've been on. Like I said it's fun, so I don't want it to sound like I'm trashing it. All the coasters were running great and I was so happy that Racer got the much needed track work. I would have ridden it a few more times if the park was open longer. The last few years it was one and done. Mystic Timbers felt more out of control than usual and I wish I could have gotten a night ride. I saved my one night ride for the Beast and it was awesome as usual. It was weird seeing a big empty space where Vortex was. I know I'm in the minority, but I miss it. Vortex was one of my favorite coasters at KI. It will be interesting to see what happens with that space in the future. There's a lot of potential for something really cool. Side note, I'm also in the Skyline Chili sucks camp.

Indoor shows return this Christmas along with fireworks on Fri/Sat. https://www.dollywood.com/themepark/Festivals/Smoky-Mountain-Christmas

Great report! I agree that SFFT is the best ran out of all of the SF parks IMO.

It's a weird thing to break down because Disney is so wildly inconsistent with their theme park show quality. Some are incredible, some are good, and some downright suck, and what's funnier is that budget doesn't seem to come into effect for any of it. I honestly think they just throw everything at a wall and rather than seeing what sticks they just blindly grab at whatever is leftover and implement that. Now, I worked as Production Manager and Tech Director for a 500-seat professional theatre outside Philly a few years ago and we operated on very tight budgets as we were non-profit. We still put on Beauty & The Beast, Newsies, and other large-scale shows to rave reviews. Most of the time my set budget was $5K, sometimes it was only $2K, but I never had more than $5,500 to play with for the set. Costumes, lighting, and audio all had less budgeted per show, so you can imagine the kind of money we were working with. I designed a three-story set for Newsies, a 40-foot by 20-foot rolling house (with a second floor!) for A Christmas Story, a multi-level MC Escher-inspired set for Next To Normal, etc, all on less than $5,000. The $5,500 came when we said screw it and rented the castle set for Beauty & The Beast, haha. My point is people can make excellent, fun, compelling entertainment for very little money. Disney, on the other hand, has money to burn and they still manage to be all over the place in terms of quality. The Lion King show at Animal Kingdom was fun because it was trying to be fun. The Little Mermaid I can't give an honest take on because I've not seen it since I was maybe 12 years old back in the mid-90s. Beauty & The Beast's show next to Tower of Terror was middle of the road but still definitely on par for a theme park revue. Frozen failed, IMO, because it tried to tell the exact story from the movie in 2/3's of the time (60 vs 90 minutes) rather than truncate it to a manageable narrative. Aladdin did it wonderfully. They still had all of the hits, all of the humor, but it was 45 minutes and the audience was satisfied. Frozen is 60 minutes long and sucks because it's too confused for its own good.

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 I follow the rules, wear my mask everywhere I go, and I keep my distance from people. (I mean, i can't stand people anyway so why would i want to be anywhere near them???). I don't understand why this is so damn difficult for many people. Actually, I do know the answer, 51% of Americans are stupid. And that is just the sad reality of where we are at. Also, have you seen this? It's perfect!

Cooolll, happiness pie thread...Hmmm what made me happy today? well, satisfied my craving of eating a XXL Bacon Cheeseburger Pizza. #heavenfeel