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Phantom Theater show is returning. They have also added a new webcam on International Street. You'll be able to watch the fireworks when they happen.

Yes!! A bigger and more permanent home for Tom & Chee, the greatest grilled cheese that ever was or ever will be! I 100% approve. Plus there wasn't a lot of room when a line formed, the old hate chicken spot has a permanent type of line. I was at KI a total of 4 days last year and I don't think the Coney Mall Subway was open on any of them so if they can put it to better use, more power to them.

It's a discussion forum, not a "support for the park" forum. Here's the issue, dude. You're acting like there's some small percentage of "skinny" people demographic the park's restraints are designed for. I'm "supporting" the park when I say they don't "need" to spend a lot more money redesigning a restraint system that fits the vast majority of guests. You would need entirely new trains, as I believe the seats on Banshee are wider overall. That's spending a lot of scratch on a clone over 20 years old. It's nothing against you, and on another note, it certainly doesn't mean that those of us who fit without assistance are "skinny." The ride restraint systems at the park are more than adequate for the majority of guests.

(I'm posting this here since I didn't really think it belonged in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, and Donkeys, but if I was mistaken, please move the thread.) DISCLAIMER: This post will contain political themes that are pro-LGBTQ+ rights and pro-women's bodily autonomy. If this sort of thing offends you to the level that you feel it necessary to provide non-constructive commentary, please move along. ***** As most of you who live in the US should probably be aware, many states are passing (or have introduced with good likelihood of passing) laws that take extremely harmful actions against members of the LGBTQ+ community: from effectively banning medical treatments (not just for minors), to outlawing people wearing clothes that don't match their birth gender, to preventing people from using the bathroom that matches their presentation, to eliminating any reference to LGBTQ+ people from classrooms, and the list goes on and on. This does not even begin to describe the continual attacks on women's bodily autonomy or education of black history from these same states. I'm lucky enough to live in a solidly-good-politically state, but I had planned a road trip for this summer that took me through West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, and North Carolina, including my first ever visit to Dollywood, which has been a park I've very much wanted to experience. Tennessee is, as we all know, the home to Dollywood, and also one of the states that has passed some of the worst laws, one of which could be interpreted to criminalize my existence. While I do not have much actual concern for my safety were I to travel there, I certainly would not want to give any fiscal support to a state government that enables such things. The same thought process applies to many of those states listed - Do I want to support places with my tourism dollars that are endangering women's health, supporting anti-LGBTQ+ bigotry, and actively harming people like me in their states? My question for others, especially those that do plenty of travel for parks, is how do you rectify this in your mind? Do you simply choose to not go to these parks? Do you justify it with a "well, I'm giving my business to Park X, which I know does not share the state government's views, so it's okay" - knowing that the state still gets taxes from that park/hotel and any ancillary supported businesses (food, fuel, etc)? Something else entirely? Like, I know I was never going to Dubai or Saudi Arabia for any of their parks regardless of what rides were put in, but this is right here in my own country. Perhaps I just need to get accustomed to that reality... I'm sorry if this all sounds disconnected and rant-y...but it's something I've been struggling with these past few months and would appreciate any advice that anyone might have to provide. Any thoughts on this topic (other than "it's good that states are doing these things") are extremely welcome. If anyone doesn't feel comfortable answering publicly, feel free to PM me your thoughts. Even if you don't have a response, thanks for reading my venting. (Sorry to call you out, but I'm especially looking for thoughts from @SharkTums, @bert425, @Nrthwnd, @coasterbill, @ytterbiumanalyst, and @KBrylczyk. Thanks if you can provide any insight.)

Glad your under 6ft and skinny, these rides are marketed and made for a certain demographic. I'm proud of my body and no ride will ever change that, keep being sour, I can't change that. I'm not at the best shape, but I can still fit many rides at the park, Batman is the only ride I've had any troubles on. Give a good ride op and good push and I'm good. And I'm just going to say this, this should be a form for the enthusiast, if your not enthused about this park then you should just go and find another form. I'm just telling my current struggles and what I would like to see improved, if your not happy that an enthusiast wants to see the park grow and do better for all than you shouldnt be here commenting.

Mmmmmmm, love that Tower! Every trip we've made to Paris, always included a trip up Eiffel's creation. The 'architecture' of it is always amazing to me. Thanks for all the wonderful views of it, and the surrounding area, Bert!

Is Mind Eraser not being accessible really a loss? Really?

Finishing up Eiffel Tower pics: I touched the tower, and I liked it. wonder if I made that woman who is married to it Jealous? Albert & April posing for a pic for me, before we started the trek down the steps. . the level the main elevators bring you to, and where you can take the stairs from. shops and stores here too. . with less pricey macrons. . oh, still expensive, but not "in a fancy box bought from the top of the tower" expensive. the best part of taking the stairs down, is how you can get some interesting views and pics of the structure of the tower. and while we were going down the stairs, we had the elevator going up passing us. what's cool about the elevator is that they have a mannequin sitting outside the lower level pretending to manually operate it - as they did in the "olden" days. see? cool at the lowest level (that the public has free access to, I believe), there are shops, a restaurant, and the tower store. oh, and a clear floor you can walk on that freaked a lot of people out while I was there. and then it was back to ground level. excursion over, and tho we had been gone for at least 4-5 hours, there was still plenty of time to do things at DLP (open till 11). so we headed back to the train station. here's that carousel I had spotted from the top. confusing (to me) train map. . I was glad I had gone with the Alveys instead of trying to go myself. at least the ride back is mostly in the nicer double deck trains and that was my excursion to the Eiffel tower. we got back, and I headed into Disney to meet up with James for the rest of the afternoon. . that report coming in the next few days. hope you've enjoyed the pics!

again. .apologies it's taken me this long to get the next update up. it's been a combination of two things: 1) I have well over 300 pics just from the Eiffel Tower proper - not to mention the trip there, surrounding area, etc 2) this set of pics as I saved them started with a pic Nick texted me from the hospital telling me he'd been released. He looks AWFUL in it, and I'm not going to share that. . but my response to him was, "they're releasing you? you look terrible, why would they release you?" I do believe the reason they released him was the upcoming July 4th holiday weekend, and they didn't want to deal with patients that weren't critical over that weekend. So yeah. . "good" news he was being released, but how he looked worried me. . . . and seeing that "blocked" me a bit from proceeding with the updates. but. . got thru it, so here are pics from leaving Disneyland Paris, and the Eiffel Tower. not expecting a whole lot of commentary, as the pics speak for themselves.. but lots of pics. hope you enjoy! it was a pleasant afternoon away from what was a SUPER crowded Saturday at the parks. here's the map of the Trains from the Disneyland Paris station. we'd have to take one train into Central Paris, then switch to head to the tower. the trains from Disneyland into central Paris were really nice double decker ones. (I took the mask off for the pic) gorgeous day. . .and lovely countryside. the train we just got off of, to change lines once in Paris proper and shortly.. we were pulling into the Tower station. . . wowza yeah. . these are the trains for inside the city. . . LOL. . SLIGHT step down from the one we rode on from DLP. but walking from the station to the tower itself was fully immersive, and lovely. didn't feel unsafe, even in this touristy area (tho for sure watch your pockets!) stopped to get a quick drink from the many food carts, and street vendors that are all around the outside block of the Eiffel Tower. it runs on farts! stunning when standing right underneath it. and surrounded on 3 sides by lovely parks/greenery. We were a little early for our prebought tickets to the top, so walked around the outside of the tower to take in the scenery. oh look! "Mickey" is here. . . gimme money kid, you posed for a picture! (just like Times Square, or Vegas) it really is such a lovely space around the area. . and the beautiful day made it even better. Clear skies. one of the many vendors surrounding the tower selling souvenirs (official ones, I'm sure. . :P) another quick stop for a snack, and then it was almost time for our tickets. . . follow the signs! so cool! Ryan and I in line (with the Alveys). . .yup, even with the prebought tix, there was quite a line! but it is absolutely imperative that you pre-buy, as they had signs up saying tickets to the top were sold out, so they were only selling tix to the level below that. here's the line! but eventually, you get thru the security checks, and get loaded into the elevators (there is no longer an option to climb the steps up to the 2nd platform as they had to rescue too many people. .. going down the steps from the top is still allowed tho). the elevators get packed (mask back on for me!). . but very cool the elevators bring you to the platform 2/3ds of the way out, where there are some gorgeous views: but we had tix to go to the top.. so around the corner, and into another elevator - which has a cool window you can look up to watch as you climb up the tower all the way at the top! and wow, the beautiful day really helps with the view up here at the top, there's a little window that sells Macrons (in a collectible tin), and champagne & caviar. expensive, but you know what? once in a lifetime, so I did the Macrons. ooo.. is that a Carousel I see down there? also up here, one staircase down, is a little museum about the Tower, who built it and with some neat little models: zooming in on the Louvre from the top of the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame ok. . time to head down. Kristen wanted to take the stairs.. so most of us went with her that way. But first we had to go down a level to catch the elevator back down to the lower level that we had taken the main elevator from. to be continued with a more pics. .

Arie Force One at Fun Spot Atlanta, Saturday the 1st of April! What an absolutely fantastic RMC, and coaster in general!

I've found all of the seat belts always seem short at the start of the season. Not sure if they just have to stretch out from usage or if we're all a bit bigger from winter (ever notice the coldest holidays all have eating food at their cores?).

Haven't been on here for a while but wanted to send a quick update from KCCI. When they said Flying Viking would be the park's seventh coaster I had to double check... I remember growing up in Iowa when this place only had four! A lot has happened to Adventureland since I moved but it will be a good day when I'm finally able to visit again. Hoping for a successful opening day and 2023 season!

So excited to ride this in two weeks. The zero-g roll over the building is giving big mosasaurus roll vibes, which can only be a good thing. I'm still shocked this tiny park added this thing.

There is one thing the park could have done to get this done faster while still doing it the 'right' way - send everything to PTC for a refurb by them. I'm not sure why they didn't go that route but what they decided on was a full true refurb done in-house and with a small team - and that leads to a couple of years of downtime. Even a PTC rehab would have it down at least a year.

To everyone that thinks this is a waste of time, as usual we will have to agree to disagree, I have equal conviction doing it slow but well is best. Unless something has changed the artist was hired just for this job so she wouldn't be doing other things at the park anyway. You think no one will care, I know some non theme park people that are interested in it just for the historical/artistic component. A scientific survey has not been conducted so no one knows the true numbers on each side and likely never will. When Michelangelo painted the Sistine chapel hardly anyone alive at the time got to go in and see it, and most of the populace at the time probably would have preferred the money be spent on providing food and shelter; but that doesn't make it any less magnificent or worthwhile. Just saying. (And don't everyone jump on me for comparing a carousel to the Sistine chapel......I'm not, just making a point and you all know that)

^ not if they were lovingly, and accurately, "restoring" it. Otherwise they would have just purchased plastic horses and put the damn thing back. i'm surprised they didn't' drop a cheapie carousel into one of the many open spaces in the park just to HAVE ONE while they did the extended restoration. but yeah, a true restoration can take years. I'm a Carousel fan (my favorite flat), if you don't recall. I don't care how long it takes, as long as they do it correctly. but yeah, they should have temporarily brought in a carnival version to give the smaller kids something to ride for a few seasons.

^Yep--seriously, how many American Disney fans are going to visit Shanghai Disney?

The percentage of the population that plans to travel to more than one Disney resort is miniscule. I don't care.

That's it. That's my answer.

^ My favorite is how long the lawyers have managed to put the restrictions in place Source The king has 7 descendants right now, 2 sons and 5 grandchildren and his current youngest descendant is Prince Harry's kid at around 2 years old... plus 21 years after that.

This is something I've thought a lot about, especially with the shenanigans in Florida and Tennessee. Back when Mike Pence was governor of Indiana, he did some pretty awful stuff that caused a bit of an uproar. Holiday World was pretty quick to say "They don't speak for us" and still support basic human decency, and though some of that is obviously out of not wanting to lose your customer base, I think it was genuine. There are a lot of good people in Tennessee and Florida. Disney has been done wrong by DeSantis, and I don't really quite understand what he's going for there. Just really seems like he thinks hating vulnerable people will win him votes, and he's willing to harm his state's biggest source of income to do it. Just bonkers. But DeSantis is not Florida, and from what I understand, he's not actually very popular there. As for us, we've spent a lot of time and money and effort getting ourselves to a safer place to raise a family, and a lot of it had to do with the political climate in Missouri becoming more hostile to folks like us. I think the next few vacations will probably be around the Great Lakes area, but that's more because things up here are easier to get to than they used to be than it is out of a desire to spend money in states that are aligned with our politics. Minnesota is a good place full of good people, but it's got its wackos too. Everywhere does. We'll probably get to Florida eventually. We were going to in 2020, canceled it for obvious reasons, and really haven't seen a good opportunity to reschedule yet. It'll happen when the time is right. I guess that's my long winded way of saying do what you feel is best. Whatever you decide, if you decided with good intentions, then you did all right.

Honestly Amy, I won't be much help here. All my parks travel for a good ten years was done through TPR and Elissa and Robb's planning and scheduling. I think they would be better at commenting and advising. Along with pretty much everybody else you mentioned here. And "all of the above" looks pretty good, from what I'm seeing, so far. Hope any or all of this helps you.

I think this is a great, valid, and topical question. I have many of the same feelings as posters above but will add something else that we've done in the past and will continue to do. OFFSET! You know when you buy airfare and they tell you that if you pay a little more you can offset your carbon emissions for the flight? I do that for some of the places we visit! In the past I have donated to Women's and Gay Rights organizations when visiting the Middle East. The LDF, ACLU, and NAACP when in certain US States. And now will probably add Abortion Rights and LGBTQ+ orgs in our US Visits as well. Like others have said, I will not let stupid laws and rules that most of the public doesn't even support stop me from doing something I love and making me happy, but I absolutely can choose to spend the bare minimum in certain places or with certain brands. Everyone who does our trips know that I will go out of my way to avoid Chick Fil A and try to stop the bus at food stops where that's not even an option but I'm not going to ban someone from eating there, I'll just try to educate them on either better options or the offset theory that I use! We have been very vocal since before it was a thing that we don't support JK Rowling but Kristen loves Harry Potter and I'm not going to deny her something she loves because of that horrible bitch! I'll just continue to be vocal about it so people can at least know that she's terrible! Hope this helps and makes sense!

That is certainly a good way of looking at it! It does help, Bert. You're one of the people I was looking forward to hearing from the most, given your residence in one of the states-with-unfriendly-governments. I get what you're saying, which was my gut original reaction. And that's exactly how I would have done a Dollywood trip given the current circumstances (staying on property and not patronizing neighboring businesses), but I guess I was still concerned that Dollywood pays taxes and those go to support their bigoted government. I guess that's not that much in the grand scheme of things, is it? Thanks for the reply!

Vote with your wallet, and do NOT feel guilty about it. but it's going to come down to your decision. *if* I were to ever go back to Dollywood - and I'd very much like to. I'd spend a lot of $$ there because Dolly is and always has been an ally, therefore I would support something she's involved with, even tangentially. But I would not spend $$ elsewhere in the area (ie: I'd stay at Dreammore, wouldn't eat downtown in Gaitlinburg, etc) unless I was certain I would feel comfortable supporting the individual business. it's basically the "rules" I follow myself now..I choose to never eat Chick-Fil-A, or Cracker Barrel. ultimately, you do what you want to do, and if you want to justify it, you can justify just about anything. but don't ever feel "guilty" about your support of something when you agree with what they do. (another perfect example: SeaWorld I really don't give a shit about what the Blackfish activists, or PETA activists try to tell me about the park. I've seen the good they do for the animals they rescue, and I'm just fine giving them my support and money). hope that input helps?

Here we justify things of that nature as "We don't allow bad people to take away what we love". A big example is we are fans of Harry Potter and our family is full of every letter of LGBTQ. So despite JK not wanting my nephew to exist, we still went to Universal Orlando and enjoyed those sections of the park, because we weren't going to let her shittiness take that away from us.

This will make London's West End Theatre District more interesting. Opening on May 10th. And it's a "Play With Music.".... Hmmm. More info. on the play can be found here: https://ca.yahoo.com/news/brokeback-mountain-stage-adaptation-open-164552382.html

So after going 3 days this week I have to say they don't seem to have the staffing issues they had the past 2 years. More restaurants are open, all rides were running except ones down for maintenance. Even the kiddie areas the rides were all up where in the past some were down due to low staff. Even barnstormer was running both sides which I haven't seen in awhile. Lots of trams running all day long. Overall the staffing levels seemed pre-pandemic. Also, Lightning Rod was up all day today.

Lightning Rod was open for part of the day on Passholder preview and same with Sunday. Got to rid it twice on Sunday as it was a walk on. Everything was a walk on on Sunday. We weren't planning to go but when I saw waits of 5 minutes for Firechaser we decided to head out. It was 0 by the time we got there and twice firechaser went out with just my family on it. It was a great day. Doubt any other day will be that empty this week. Passholder wasn't bad either. The parking lot was FULL when we arrived at 3 PM, but lines were fine.

Happy Academy Awards Day every body! The show starts at 5pm PST on ABC. Our bet (and hope) is that EverythingEverywhereAllAtOnce will win big. We've enjoyed the movie so much, we've watched it at least three times, already! Sadly, we never got to see the film on a BIG GI-NORMOUS SCREEN. And ...... Michelle Yeoh ROCKS! (literally, lol) 03/13 EDIT TO AD: Woo hoo! EEAAO won 7 out of 10 (2 noms for one category) possible wins! And the Amazon copy of it went "out of stock" immediately, LOL! And I wish I had bets on the other stuff too. I.E. CONGRATS to (Cdn) Sarah Polley for "Women Talking" Adapted Screenplay Win. Glad she's finally won something big, like this is. She's a very talented actor, director, writer.

Krazy City, a now defunct indoor park at New York's Palisades Mall, used to have something called the Monster Roll Cage. Riders would board a capsule similar to those used on Cyber Space Mountain, except on the Roll Cage, you had a steering wheel. The ride was a racing simulator and you could control the car fully. Each crash, flip, and turn was experienced by the rider. I loved that attraction, but this looks like a much more futuristic and cooler version.

The grilled cheese joint just got replaced with a frozen cocktail stand.