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I'm jealous of BGW...I wish SWO would have gotten this ride instead of comfortcollarcrap Icebreaker.

It looks great in the clips, with some really nice speed, especially for early tests. I'm sooooo hype for this ride, even more so than Jersey Devil which is an hour from me. I'm sure that will be great, but this just looks like a top 5'er for me. It ticks all my boxes, and that its at BGW is the cherry on top.

Pantheon is now doing full course runs. There is footage floating about if you know where to look of the train launching back and forth up the spike and over the top hat and the outerbank.

JDC update on the parks socials today. https://twitter.com/SFGrAdventure/status/1375511548622368771 Might just be the angle but wild how close to the station both of those tracks seem to be.

Not without removing something else, or putting it entirely over the lake. The park is incredibly landlocked and surrounded by residential and retail on all sides.

^That reminds me, we took your Shorty's Diner recommendation and it was a neat place. I can also vouch for that one.

Plaza Azteca is your best bet for Mexican food. Pierce's Pitt Bar-B-Que is a local institution if you like a good pulled-pork sammich and hush puppies. For Italian, Guiseppe's (on Olde Towne Road) or the Tuscany Ristorante (Olde Towne Chopping Center on Longhill) are good choices, as is Maurizio's (on Rt. 60 not far from BGW). La Piazza in Merchants Square in new, and I did a have nice lunch there a few weeks ago. You also can't go wrong with the Dog Street Pub (Merchant's Square). If you want a nice, big breakfast, try Shorty's Diner on Rt. 143 or the Five Forks Cafe on Rt. 5.

I liked the BBQ at Rocco's Smokehouse. Second St Bistro was good too.

Every time I go to Williamsburg, I make an effort to eat at Food for Thought. It’s the #1 rated restaurant on Yelp for a reason. The prices are very reasonable for the quality of the food and the service is fantastic. The pot roast melts in your mouth, the ribs are so tender that the meat falls off the bone, and they have a great take on Pad Thai. I’ve never had anything there that I didn’t absolutely love. If your family are big meat eaters, Old City BBQ is another one of our favorites. Their brisket is some of the best I’ve had outside of Texas.

The park was reportedly sold for $15 million about 10 years ago, at the time the previously owners were claiming $1 million a year in revenue. There are plenty of small parks in the New Jersey area that survive. With proper market research, a little elbow grease and smart decisions I see no reason this park can't return. There are enough families in the area that won't snub their nose at a small park. I just hope enthusiasts don't put unrealistic expectations on the park and sh!t on the park because it is not for them.. I would love to see the new owners utilize the lake like Indiana Beach does to free up some dry land.

Disneyland has announced Disneyland Forward, a large-scale master planning effort for the resort! https://disneylandforward.com/ "Thinking big and leading the way is both our legacy and our best path forward. Now is the time to be bold, to dream, to believe, and to lead! The world-renowned Disneyland Resort is poised to bring back jobs to our community as well as new entertainment and experiences to loyal fans and new audiences for generations to come." -- Ken Potrock, President, Disneyland Resort We want to bring more Disney investment to Anaheim. However, this simply isn’t possible under current inflexible planning restrictions unless we remove and replace treasured rides and attractions in our Parks today. Without updates, new Disney experiences and placemaking, created from our beloved stories, will likely never find their way to the Disneyland Resort as they have to other parks throughout the world. With DisneylandForward and more flexibility within our existing properties, new lands and adventures like those underway at Tokyo DisneySea and Shanghai Disneyland could inspire new experiences here. With DisneylandForward and an updated approach, these exciting new lands and attractions coming to Tokyo DisneySea could be the perfect inspiration for the future of Disneyland Park. Frozen - Guests visit Arendelle, the home of Elsa and Anna, and explore this 'Frozen' land filled with a thrilling boat adventure as well as a restaurant set inside a castle. Tangled - Rapunzel’s tower overlooks a charming forest where guests board gondolas to the lantern festival to live Rapunzel’s “best day ever” with Flynn. A restaurant where she befriended a band of thieves in the film is also featured. Peter Pan - The Neverland area features two attractions: one that, with the help of Tinker Bell, takes guests on a boat ride following the Lost Boys down a river; and the other taking guests on a journey to the middle of Pixie Hollow, where Tinker Bell and her fairy friends live. The area also includes a restaurant with spectacular views inspired by the Lost Boys’ iconic hideout. With updated approvals, Disney California Adventure Park could be home to some of Disney’s most technologically advanced, immersive and cutting-edge entertainment, taking cues from these exciting lands and attractions around the globe for inspiration: Zootopia - Currently under construction at Shanghai Disneyland, guests will be invited to experience the mammalian metropolis of Zootopia “where anyone can be anything,” with a new major attraction that will seamlessly blend Disney storytelling and state-of-the-art technology to bring this fan-favorite movie and its characters to life. Toy Story Land - As part of Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Florida, guests “shrink” to the size of a toy and join in the fun in this toy-filled land inspired by the “Toy Story” films. Guests can take a ride on Slinky Dog Dash, a roller coaster Andy assembled from his Mega Coaster Toy Kit. They can also join the little green aliens as they swirl about in their rocket ship toys in the Alien Swirling Saucers. The land also includes carnival games and a restaurant, Woody’s Lunch Box. Tron - Currently open in Shanghai Disneyland and under construction at the Magic Kingdom Park in Florida, the TRON Lightcycle Run roller coaster invites guests to sync the pedal to the moto-metal while twisting and turning in the cyber-fi world in a high-speed race for survival. This property could be the perfect location to cater to locals, conventioneers, hotel and Disneyland Resort guests with restaurants, hotels, live music, shopping, ticketed shows and theme park experiences modeled after the popular Disney Springs at Walt Disney World Resort.

Totally agree about cleaning up the Old Chicago area. With the two restaurants closed, Superman closed, the games closed, and the Eagle queue looking like a run down alley, it's time for a total rework. Maybe Catwoman will force that, but won't happen until next year. Glad to hear about the carousel! That almost makes up for everything else they are pulling out. Now if I could just hear about the pre covid plans for the park anniversary to dream of what could have been. Oh well. They still have one of the best 3 woodie combos anywhere! I'll just continue to enjoy that bonus anytime I get back to St. Louis.

This is very surprising, I wish this company all the best, I hope they didn't take on too much with both of these parks!

Thoughts and prayers to the people who were tasked with marking this floor for Social Distancing. When nobody follows this I can't even be mad at them. Facebook

I went to the park Sunday, we got there a little after 12pm, and it was very crowded for opening weekend. Their was little to no social distancing in lines, every food place had a line extending into the walkways with some like the Turkey Leg stand near Pandemonium and by Colonnades was almost near impossible to pass with the amount of people over there. Mr Freeze was running in reduced capacity with lines extending well outside of the building, River King Mine Train and Sky Screamer was well outside of the entrance. I did not pay attention to all the coasters, but I know for sure American Thunder and Screaming Eagle was running two train ops with no cleaning of the train or stations observed. The Grand Carousel is starting to look great, and I saw some work being done by Catwomans former(?) spot. The now former Moon Cars has all signage removed with the cars still sitting on the rails behind Thunder, nothing done around Superman which makes me wonder when they are going to start demo of the area since Catwomans whip is to open next year in that spot. Also someone pointed out while standing in Screaming Eagles line, that there looked to be like one of Ninjas trains sitting behind Boomerang. Another observance that the Go Fresh Cafe by the Looney Tunes section has all of its signage removed, not sure when that happened; and also there is now a snazzy new deck by Fireball looks really nice. One last thought, with Catwomans Whip now moving by Eagle, I kinda wish that the Arcade there would be removed and open that section up and give Screaming Eagle a new (better) queue with the possibility of another flat squeezing next to Catwoman down the line. That area looks so worn and dated, no matter how much paint they apply, again I just wish that area would be cleared of that ugly building and opened up. Also with the old Pizzeria now a Employees Diner, I hope that they will redo the facade and blend it more with the surroundings, instead of shouting former restaurant.

Wow I said something nice about Cedar Fair. Feels weird... Then again I guess the most important difference between a Six Flags soda and a Cedar Fair soda is that you can get a Six Flags soda before f*cking Memorial Day. Is that better? Lol

Launch tunnel lighting is back on Mr Freeze. I repeat. LAUNCH LIGHTING IS BACK!!! RGB light strips now fire during launch and braking.

Some chains do things better than others. For Six Flags, it's operating calendars, disregarding manufacturer operating temperature recommendations, and staffing each ride with as few people as possible to maximize amount of rides open. For Cedar Fair, it's maintaining rides, offering a drink plan that doesn't mandate comically sized bottles, a vastly superior skip-the-line program that is available on an all-park basis, and arguably water parks.

Most Six Flags parks have never done that. It's cool that St. Louis ever did, As soon as we got those cups we threw them in the trash. I'd rather occasionally pay a few bucks than carry those stupid things around all day at parks. I don't know why they don't just do what Cedar Fair does.

Last Sunday I did the Taste of Universal at Universal Studio Hollywood. For $54 you get admission to the upper lot and 5 food items. They started charging $10 for parking two days before I went. Thanks Obama. We got there at opening and it looked like a ghost town. Was it going to open today? LOL They were already letting people in pretty early before the noon opening. Park hours were 12pm-7pm this sunny Sunday. Walked around a bit to see what was new since I hadn't been in a while. Secret Life of Pets is ready to go, so hopefully it opens when the park decides to fully open to guests. Nintendo World is coming along nicely. The food I ate was very good. Normal Universal park food. I really like the chili dog from Krusty Burger so that's what I ate first. Full size foot long, so for one item, it's a good amount of food. Had some butter beer, shephed's pie from Harry Potter. Added some tacos later, and took home the big donut and huge pretzel. All in all a fun day with friends. But far behind Disneyland and Knott's for food events. On to some pictures!

I went to "Touch of Disney" on Monday. It's Disneyland's version of a food event. The food is a bit different with them bringing over some favorites from Disneyland instead of all unique items sold during the Food & Wine festival. Tickets went on sale a few weeks ago and as usual, jammed up the servers and caused errors. You were put into a virtual queue and waited, and waited. I believe it took me checking from 7am until the queue actually opened at 10am? I forget, but it wasn't until probably until after noon or later that I finally had my tickets. Before the day was over, Disneyland extended the event a couple weekends because of the demand. This was before they knew they would be able to open soon, so they are probably pissed they extended it. LOL Anyway, the ticket price is steep. $75. That gets you parking, photopass for the day, and $25 gift card good for food only, no alcohol. When the price was announced, of course so many groaned and tried to laugh that they charged too much. Then the ticket day came, and it was a disaster because of the demand. Never underestimate the price people will pay for some Disney. LOL Most food places were open with limited or unique menu items. I had some spicy chicken wings, carbonara mac n cheese with bacon bits, a bengal bbq beef skewer and a monte crisco sandwich. I planned to get a hot fudge sunday from Ghirardelli but it got a little cold and windy so I passed. All the items were fantastic. Since there are no rides, we did a lot of circling the park multiple times. Some characters were out in odd places, and FAR away. Chip n Dale were in the bushes were you normally might see a cat, Donald on a balcony of a room at the Grand Californian, Mickey, Minnie, Daisy and Pluto on the Symphony Swings platform up high, Goofy and Max up high at the warf fishing across the body of water. I watched as Minnie was taking a break coming down the elevator from the swings, and kids just lost it, going running after her. So, I can understand why they kept them so far. Kids aren't running after a minion like they would Mickey and Minnie. Disney did an awesome job with the event and I wasn't upset at paying $75. On to some pictures I took throughout the day. The best was being able to get great views of Pixar Pier at night without people in the way!

Because that was the problem... the logo.

Great video on the 100th anniversary of Lagoon's Roller Coaster:

I finished my Master of Arts in Professional Creative Writing with a concentration in Professional Dramatic Writing from the University of Denver. Started in summer 2019 and finished mid March 2021. Most of the work was done during the pandemic! And I did this a full 34 YEARS after getting my B.A. Anything is possible! Now (fingers crossed) waiting for my return to work call from Disney....