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Corporate doesn't hate SFSTL. They just hate you.

Also - SFStl added HitP in 2016, before the event became essentially chain-wide. For a couple years, SFGAM guests were traveling to STL to enjoy Holiday as their park did not yet have it. Therefore I would suspect if the chain is going to bring back HitP to any parks that just canceled it (and if they are going to be selective as to which park), I would expect STL to be at or near first in line. My point about turning a profit is basically HitP itself may lose money on its own, (DITTO for year-round parks in the WINTER) but if it's existence drives season pass or membership sales, then it becomes profitable looking at the big picture. Adding calendar dates, making Holiday nearly chain-wide, some parks going year-round - this was SF primary strategy for years, and it worked, although a little too well with the parks becoming impossibly crowded as season pass sales soared. SF current leadership strategy of attendance reduction has way overperformed and now it appears they are having an about-face trying to get pass numbers back up, given the backlash from the public over the increased prices and loss of Holiday and shortened hours. Given the fact SFStl did not sell off (but rather leased) their Christmas decorations syncs up with what I heard from someone other than the Dippin' Dots Guy (management at SFoG) regarding the possibility of Holiday returning to parks that lost it. But - this being Six Flags, anything could or could not happen at this point.

What?! Our park isn’t going to close? Where are you getting that? Worlds of fun hadn’t gotten a ride since 2017, and no one thought they would close. Us not getting a 2023 addition isn’t the end of the world, in those “rival years” they’d go a bit without getting a ride. Holiday in the park was simply not profitable, they had it for 6 years, it’s not like they are taking away fright fest. They replaced most roofs last year, we just got a new ride if that means anything? We are still getting investments, they just aren’t as noticeable. Sorry but I don’t think our park is going anywhere for the foreseeable future.

Yesterday I hade the time and option to make a visit to Jul på Liseberg The construction of the water park is still in full swing even that it was -7°C or lower... For the hotel, the finishing ground work outside is waiting for warmer weather, but work will continue inside instead.. /// Marcus On to the photos: Lots of people is waiting to get in to the park.. Balder against the sun.. First train of the day... Some brave riders... Brrrrrr..... The new hotel is BIG. The spaceship a.k.a Volvo experience center has landed I hope the rooms here has extra noise cancelling Weeeeeee....... Brrrrrr....... This photo has the perfect Christmas theme No river rafting today Emptying a load of Christmas wishes.. The big Christmas light tree is interfering with the tracks of Helix. Luna footer More Luna construction The Liseberg rabbits don't care about the work area fencing.... Down the escalator ride The south hemisphere have some ice build up issue... Loop de loop around the light The tugboat is now a icebreaker Weeeeee......... Liseberg Helix Can I crack your nut? 360° version

Just wanted to post a quick thank you for ayur updates! Such a great trip you had!

Lots of new water slides and a kids skyline attractions dueling single rail confirmed and shown at the event today. Adults can ride, no kid required for either. Missed the first part but I'm pretty sure new WW trains also announced.

Day 7, evening. . . so we loaded up the bus, in the rain, and waved goodbye to Hotel Charles Lindbergh (and Phantasialand), and headed out towards Wavre, Belgium. that would be where our hotel for the night would be - only 1 night, as we were loading up the bus in the morning to spend the whole day at Walibi Belgium. Scenery as we were driving, it's always comforting to see a Nuclear Power plant. . . James and I mostly sat in row 3, so we got a nice view of the road - and this little guy (who's name I can't recall) that Robb purchased at Europa Parc where he's part of the Pirates ride. lovely countryside, as we moved from Germany into Belgium. And the sky had completely cleared up too. as we exited off the main road, into Wavre, the bus made some tight turns down some narrow (and jungle covered) roads towards our hotel for the night. excellent driving by our bus driver another really tight turn - the entrance gate at our hotel seemed REALLY surprised at the size of the bus about to attempt this turn in. but we made it in, and started unloading. our hotel for the night was another Ibis (same brand as the 1st hotel at the airport) with very similar looking rooms. we put our bags up in the room, and made plans to meet some folks down in the lobby. We had left Phantasialand before dinner, but were getting to Wavre by 8pm or so, so many in the group planned on heading out to grab some food and do some exploring in the charming smallish town. while waiting for the group I was going to grab food with, I snapped some pics of the lobby area and the breakfast area of the hotel. the hotel was pretty full - a football (soccer) team, that was passing thru, if I recall - tho we didn't really see any of them tonight. in the morning at breakfast we interacted with them quite a bit tho. Nice guys. and then once we had everyone who wanted to go check out the local fast food place - the Belgium version of McDonalds. . we headed out for the short walk into town. and here it is. . . not sure if it's specific to Beligum, or a European chain. Tho I can't recall if I ever saw another one on the trip, so maybe it *is* Belgium specific? basically a McDonalds: "Quick" for what it's worth? the name LIES. there are no counter folks to take orders. . all orders are placed at the touchscreens by the entrance doors. then you stand and wait until they call your number to go pick up your food from the counter. yeah. .it's *exactly* as much of a clusterfuck as one would think it was. Especially when busy at dinner time (which I guess this time of night was dinner time). it was absolute chaos. . . and, if I'm being honest, I loved every moment of it . . . LOL. . . . Eventually we got our food, and headed upstairs to a "quieter" area to eat. I don't really recall what I got, tho it looks like cheese balls, a poutine of some kind, and a burger that looked like this. it was ok, I suppose. But really no lasting memory of it, so i guess it was just a standard burger from a fast food place? we had planned to walk over to the Supermarket in the parking lot there and get some bottled water, but by the time we finished eating, the market had just closed for the evening. (I think they closed at 9 perhaps?). . . but as we slowly made our way back towards the hotel, someone in the group that had gone towards the city center (in search of nightlife/bars I believe) had posted to the TPR trip group chat that they had stumbled across a random Breakdance in the downtown area. even tho we had just spent a full day at Phantasialand. . . c'mon, I'm on a trip with TPR folks. . of COURSE we immediately detoured towards the center of town to see if we could find said breakdance. I double-taked on this sign at least 3 times, before I decided I just had to take a picture. "Immotheker finotheker". . . .has made it into my cursing lexicon we had passed a parking lot full of what looked like "Carny" vehicles. . and we started to hear music, so we continued heading that way, and finally came across this. (insert angelic singing here) wasn't super busy - but again, it was a Monday night, but it appeared an entire funfair had been plopped down over two city blocks in the center of Wavre. we weren't gonna cross illegally - gotta follow traffic rules in other Countries - so we headed down to the crosswalk. only to be pleasantly surprised that they were Rainbow Crosswalks. yay! Belgian Pride! while most of the games and rides, seemed targeted towards the way younger crowd. . there were a few "big" rides mixed in. (the stuff on the next street over seemed to be mostly closed this night tho, including a small kiddie coaster. . so we stuck to this main intersection for our exploring) Kiddie Bumper Cars - and no, I still didn't ride them. I was mesmerized by the floating kid's heads on the sign for this one (but I believe everything is independently owned, so it must be the owner's kids?). certainly didn't attract me to the place to purchase anything - tho I was full as I had just eaten a lot of fast food. that spotted donut doesn't look too happy tho! a funfair street cart selling Escargot? how intriguing (and a big ol HELL NO from me). . . but Smisty wanted to try them, so she and Erik got some. and to be fair? they SMELLED amazing. . . but . . . nope for me. the guys at the funfair (James, Erik, Andrew and me), waiting for Smisty to finish her snails some pics of the games. . lots and lots of stuffed animals to (attempt) to win. tho some booths had lots of typical American carnival crap on offer (this Duck Game) seemed to offer prizes as one would find at a ticket redemption counter in a Dave & Busters, or Pinballz arcade oooo. . very tempted. A Frozen Mirror Maze! . . I'm sure 100% officially licensed Disneyland Belgium! If I didn't think my fat ass would break it? I would have ridden on Aladdin's carpet. (tho the Woody Woodpecker confused me. maybe Donald broke and they needed a quick replacement?) it really is a Small World after all. ohhh. . . a big Adult ride. I love the Mexican Hat Dance. should we ride? YES! Funfairs tend to run insane cycles. . but this one ran rather lame. but I'm kind of glad it did, because as we were starting to go, Smisty noticed that the "arms" weren't bolted shut. yup.. they were all held together by color - coordinated bungee cords, not bolts! Really. . .. so I was pretty glad it didn't run a good cycle, as I didn't wanna die at a Belgian Fun-fair. but it was pleasant, if not exactly extreme. (pic courtesy of Erik) so why did I want to ride? (and convince others to ride with me?). this was the ride operator. . .. who spent a LOT of time making eye contact with me before we bought tickets. yeah. . sex sells it was starting to get a little darker, and the Breakdance that had originally attracted us was right around the corner. . so we went to take a look at it. yeah. . THIS one was running a super EXTREME "carnival" program. So intense that Andrew begged off and only Smisty and I rode. SO intense (and such a long cycle) there were periods where we could NOT lean forward in the seats. it was awesome. . all the while, the operator was yelling things out to us in Dutch (I think that's what it was). Could not understand him at all, but I imagine it was something along the lines of "Do you want to go faster??? make some noise!!!" because when we screamed, he sped it up. (pics courtesy of either Andrew or Erik) eventually the ride stopped, and dizzy as hell, I was ready to head back to the hotel and crash. as was everyone else. . . so we made our way back - I think we came this way? grabbed some water from the bartender on the way up to the room, and crashed for the night. Think it was around 10:45 pm at this point. Tomorrow we were headed out at 8:15 sharp for Walibi Belgium for day 8 of the trip. but this had been a fantastic day 7, and it's always fun to spend so much time with great people.

I wonder if Legoland Korea hasn't been hitting the attendance they were hoping for with their Christmas event. Despite only a few weeks left until the park closes in March they've suddenly updated the map for a 3rd time with more parts of the park open. Although, it looks like they are just adding the small Duplo area, Ninjago button basher and spinners, a playground, and one indoor digital sand area. No actual rides have joined this expansion. I thought the Ninjago ride would be added to boost the indoor avaliablity now the temperature is low, but the actual ride line-up hasn't changed at all. The map on our visit, although the Duplo train was removed from the line-up before the Christmas event had begun. The new map that now boasts of 24 attractions while still keeping the ride count at 7 (counting the 4D cinema) Like I said in my previous post, they're competing against other theme parks that not only run almost all their rides 365 days a year but most open rubber tube snow slopes to entice people to visit in the Winter as well as the ski slopes now being operational not too far away.

Kirstie Alley, From "Cheers" to the "Look Who's Talking?" franchise. And no one should forget, she was in the second "Star Trek" film, "The Wrath of Khan,"yes? A small part, yes, but hey who can put that on their resume'? She passed away, at age 71. "Wrath of Khan" playing Saavic to Nimoy's Spock.