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Stopped by the park last week and finally rode the Safari upgrade to do a mini-TR. My son had a great time and that's the main thing for us and why we will keep showing up to the park and he's been asking for us to get annual passes so we'll probably end up getting them now he's over 110cm but there were a few dampeners behind the scenes. Reservations are required for the 3 big rides on weekdays (T Express and the 2 Safaris) and 10 rides on weekends until 2pm. You have to be scanned into the park to use the reservation system but even on the Friday we visited, the safari ride sold out in 10 minutes and T Express shortly after. That doesn't sound too bad but we were at the park 9am and maybe 7th in line at one of the many many scanners which opened 10am exactly. We were scanned in around 10:05 and grabbed some of the last reservations. The English announcement said 'Mobile phone app isn't just recommended, it's essential'. We stopped near the entrance as soon as we entered to grab reservations and my wife said some family who were 2 behind us missed out because the people in front of them were in the middle of updating their app. Weekends, the park gets around this by opening the scanners earlier and letting people wait on main street but it means most rides are sold out 10am exactly. It was a corona thing but I'm not sure how it helps when being locked out of 10 rides drives up lines considerably elsewhere, both of people with nowhere else to go and people with time to kill with virtual passes who would usually be in the other lines. I think also people tend to grab reservations just because they can. The indoor kids area was sold out instantly but when we went in there with our tickets we saw only one other mom and child. Capacity with the system seemed to be an issue as well. T Express was running one train the whole reservation time, but once it ended they added a second train and I waited only 25 minutes. I don't have many pictures this time, people who've seen my TR's over the last decade plus know the park hasn't really changed in 15 years or so but more rides have disappeared since Corona hit or have been downgraded (The Vekoma Mad House has become a shooting ride with some light rocking back and forth next to the horror house which also became a screened shooting ride) so we didn't spend that much time doing things outside of the children's area. So here are the 10 rides that are reservation until 2PM on weekends. Weekdays are only the A-tier rides. You can grab one ride from each tier but A tier will sell out 10am as soon as reservations open. But at least the train is available... And gone 10 seconds later so now most of the crowds are locked out of 10 rides for the morning. Indoor areas or rides are also reservation only from the app. As are shows. Here's the train waiting time for the rest of the day once the reservations ended. We usually go to the park at 2PM when all rides are open and reservations have finished but since we were at the park at opening for a change I snagged some panda passes. A depressing indicator of how long Corona has been around. The baby panda was born just as Corona hit. I figured when Corona finally ran its course, I'd trek out to see the baby panda. Now we're seeing record numbers of cases and that baby panda is now just a panda. A second red panda has joined the exhibit. Onto the main reason we came to the park early... To see the filming of Back to the Future 4. Not sure if it is just a weekday thing or a problem with the cars but despite the press photos showing two car trams, all of them were only pulling one the day we rode. All of them have the vents but also the trunks were open on all the cars as well, it was only 20 degrees when we rode but summer heat can hit 37C. The new trams are very nice and open though. You can see how much vision you have when riding. Approaching the first gate. The view wouldn't have been this clear from the old buses. Apparently the new low to the ground trams make for good scratching posts. More views from the new trams. I can't show you what happened next since TPR is PG-13 but there was quite a lot of it happening on this tour in the lion area. Unlike the bears who were all passed out. So that's the new Safari World Tram. I'm not sure if they run two trams on weekends or there's maybe a design or overheat issue but it does mean this is the hardest ride to snag reservations for and even on a quiet weekday lines were over two hours all day. And the park was quite quiet on the day we visited as well. On our way out I grabbed a snack. Seemed kind of funny to put cute faces on something you're about to rip apart. The reservation system is really hard to deal with, there's a lot more SBNO rides covered up, and the ride part of the park is unchanged so there isn't too much to do. I've written most of this TR as an enthusiast. However as a father, I'll always have a great time. My son doesn't care if the park is a time capsule. He loves it there, and it's still his favorite park so the park will keep getting my money. When we are there early, there's always also the zoo and multiple gardens (that replaced Eagle's Fortress and another that replace the Small World boat ride) to walk around in until the reservation times have finished and queues can spread out again.

Holy Toledo this looks awesome! Seeing everything up close and realizing that it is actually happening is awesome! The themeing in the Mura fire section looks absolutely incredible! Plus that Yuta section looks amazing, especially the rockwork going on around the super flume! I think a July 4th opening is a lot more achievable than a June 3rd. I'm going to go out on a limb and say the first season will probably be... rocky. Probably about on par with Six Flags Magic Mountain with the common complaints being a lack of shade and a lack of marquee attractions. However, for a brand-new park opening up, their lineup of flagship attractions is impressive: a massive dark ride, a massive super flume, an Intamin Accelerator, a Vekoma SLC, an S&S Space Shot, and a splash battle! This is awesome! I think the park will find massive success once it builds its river rapids rides as well as those two other planned coasters.

Hey now, give'em a break... they are probably just now learning what it means to own an SLC and an Intamin launch coaster...they got bigger problems to worry about... Besides, it's an island theme, it's not like they promised a "Wildwood Grove" or anything...

Went to opening day last Saturday. Weather was all over the place from sunny to thunder & lightning with hail during the day. Had a great time and did see several improvements with landscaping, fresh paint and a great looking new large sign out front. They have selfie spots throughout the park, a backdrop for pics on Main Street and other general improvements. Macho Nacho is gone and replaced with Hot Head Burritos. Fireballs sign is still there but walled off and other than the station Goliath is completely gone. Overall operations were pretty smooth and it was one of the better opening days that I can remember. New Sign By Entrance. New Photo Spot On Main Street. Currently What’s Left Of Fireball. Former Location Of Goliath. When The Weather Was Good!

^ While I'd miss the Jaguar interaction, I gotta say the one in Belgium is easily the most disorienting shuttle loops I've ever ridden. Since it is 100% enclosed my brain couldn't compute when we were done with the loop in either direction. I loved it, just a launch into a spinny world of darkness with a blacklight ghost (I think?) at some point.

^ Hey for us 'owned' owners, EVERY DAY is National Pet Cat Day EDIT: Felt immediately guilty, seeing you and yours, but we haven't taken any shots of Her since the year began! And so, here's a couple of Her, taken a few minutes ago. I begged for a face shot, but She was bored, and didn't want to bother. Cats Rule. First spotted, "sunning" in Her Own Way. Face Time? Uh .... no, not now. And Her Word Rules. I'll get Stella in a better mood, another day.

^ THAT _ IS _ SOMETHING!!! <HOWL> at the color scheme there.

And we have a train reveal!!

Here today for an event and got an amazing behind the scenes tour of Dr Ds Cliffhanger way more pics later. But sharing a couple now

There is still a big giant gap that he obviously slipped through. The operator has some responsibility to know that it was unsafe whether his company trained him/her correctly or not. It sounds like the design, training and operator were all deficient. This is coming a 25 year claims adjuster.

Pretty excited to finally get to visit next month after putting it off for year after year. There's obviously a load of +1s which bump up the cred count if nothing more, but Zadra & Hyperion look like top tier coasters, and the most recent themed areas look decent as well.

I was seriously concerned that the boat was sinking.

Gilbert Gottfried has died at 67.

The last couple of times I was at the park, it doesn't look like they were working on the ride. If they are waiting on a part from Europe, in the past it has taken 6 to 9 months approximately to have the part manufactured and shipped here if that is any indicator.