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I didn't get an ask NOT to say anything, so I will share. I spoke with Jeffrey Siebert multiple times during Roller Coaster Rodeo this weekend, and at one point I was teasing him how I hope the new coaster at SFOT is named "El Toro" , as it's in the Spain section of the park. Name it that just to watch enthusiasts heads' explode. he laughed and told me that in all seriousness, they *were* planning on using a name from elsewhere, but he insisted (and won that battle) for a unique name. --> so the new dive coaster will have a unique name in the chain. (similar to the way they went with Chubacabra for the Goliath rename at SFFT). I followed up asking if it's themed to bull fighting as it's in the Spain area, and they aren't planning on changing that. and the response was "you'll just have to wait and see" but yeah.. unique name for this new coaster.

fantastic weekend at RCR, and I'll get a trip report up in the near future. Rattler mentioned Jeffrey's tease about 2027 - and I'm assuming that means really nothing will be added in 2026 (unless they put in a new ride onto the Kid Flash pad, once it gets demolished - as of right now, the ride entrance is totally walled off, which is a shame as the whole rest of the ride IS visible thru the chain link around the rest of the ride. So gotta wonder if they will eventually just wall it all off). but expecting something big to be announced for the 35th anniversary in 2027. Perhaps that wood "out and back" on the boardwalk, that would fit perfectly in that area (and that side of the park could use another coaster). I asked that in private to someone and got a raised eyebrow. . . so who knows that that means in other news, tho Jeffrey was at the park during Fri/Sat for Rodeo (he had to go to Houston on Sun, and Jeff F. from SFOT (who used to be at SFFT) came down to represent). . . the new park GM, Robert, really ran RCR, and it was so smooth. He was out and about, and I interacted with him several times - got a pic with him, so I'll post that in my report. So while the individual parks might not have Park Presidents any longer? they will have General Managers dealing with the day to day stuff.

Visited Gyeongju World on Saturday. We had been in the city to visit the historical sites and stay at a pool villa. We went to Gyeongju World in the middle of a three-day weekend, and although the crowd didn't look too bad, lines were very long so mostly just took pictures. Opening crowds didn't look too bad but by the time we were in the park. Draken, Valkyrie, and the new RMC Raptor lines were already spilling out of their areas. Most of the new rides are all located in the same area so all the crowds surged to the right so we went to the left and grabbed a few smaller or older rides. The place still looks as well kept asmy visit when Draken first opened. Time Rider, the new Intamin hotness sadly didn't open in May, but it's opening will be late June. Early bird tickets will be on sale soon but when the Raptor had that sale they sold out in 30 seconds. It was already 33C when we visited so I'll wait for the new hotness and literal hotness to disappear before I head out to try it. Heading into Draken Valley to check out where all the new rides are. Valkyrie is a new family shuttle coaster. It starts with a backwards climb, two forward loops and then a backwards loop. With one train only and 3 laps the line was 80 minutes but the children wanted to ride it. I think even on quieter days line can still be long due to capacity but thankfully like many new rides.... ... Gyeongju World have benches installed in all their new ride lines. A great addition I wish more parks had. This was Wizard's Race to replace the old double helix power coaster. I don't know how Zamperla did it but somehow they made this new replacement rough in 6 months and a slam into the brakes that made me think it was the same as the 30 year old one it replaced. The park like all Korean parks sells fold out stools for people. Some people made sure to get their money's worth even when benches were available. Draken line was spilling out but out of all 5 coasters is the only one that can really people eat and keep the crowds moving. I didn't ride this time, I've done plenty in the past and was with a family group. Was tempted to ride Klake but line was also a minimum wait of 90 minutes. Some photos of the new RMC Raptor, Skoll & Hati. Really torn on missing this credit and my first ever RMC but the line never dropped below at least 120 minutes and it didn't feel fair to leave all the family behind. I also figured I'll be back late fall/early winter or sometime soon since I really want to try out a Coaster Wheel and the coaster will hopefully be around for a long time to get that ride in.

This blows. I'm visiting next week and I'm missing Siren's Curse by that much and now TT2 looks like it'll be down, as well. Ah, well, at least maybe crowds will be lighter and I can ride Gemini all day.

As the Halloween Horror Nights season approaches, Universal Destinations and Experiences has started to release news on some of the offerings which will be found at this year's event... https://www.ign.com/articles/universal-studios-halloween-horror-nights-2025-to-feature-the-first-ever-fallout-haunted-house IGN can exclusively reveal that Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights in both Orlando and Hollywood will be getting a new haunted house based on Prime Video’s Fallout series and that HHN’s Five Night’s at Freddy’s experience will be based on the movie, the latter of which will be brought to life with the help of the legendary Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, who also did the animatronics for the film. While we don’t know much more about the Five Nights at Freddy’s experience, Fallout’s haunted house will open on August 29 at Universal Orlando Resort and on September 4 at Universal Studios Hollywood, and it will allow fans to relive the greatest moments from Fallout’s first season and more. Guests will first enter Vault 33 and follow Lucy LacLean as she tries to escape a bloody massacre while also learning of an “evil hidden secret.” The journey will then take guests outside the vault and into the Wasteland, where they will need to dodge attacks from both Scavengers, Raiders, and even mutated cockroaches known as RAD Roaches. Throughout the trek through the Wasteland, guests will visit the Super Duper Mart, encounter the Ghoul, and even meet Maximus and his massive T-60 armor. To learn more about this exciting and terrifying trip to the nuclear wasteland, we had the chance to speak to John Murdy, Creative Director / Executive Producer at Universal Studios Hollywood, and Matthew Flood, Senior Show Director at Universal Orlando Resort, for IGN Live. Among other things, these big fans of Fallout shared how they and the team are doing all they can to make this the best Fallout experience ever. “As you go through these environments, we want fans to say, ‘I recognize this, I'm in a Fallout vault. How cool is that?!’ Flood said. “Where else are you going to get to say that you walked through a Fallout vault and then into the Wasteland and saw ghouls? “And you can see and understand what the world is just by what you pass, including the bodies when Lucy first exits the vault. That type of thing is really good for us in Halloween Horror Nights and… yes, it’s gruesome, which is what our fans want at Halloween Horror Nights. It’s also scary and provides great characters, good monsters, all the mutated creatures, and the ghouls. That’s ripe for the picking when it comes to Halloween Horror Nights.” Fallout also offers the team a chance to do something they’ve never done before. “Fallout is kind of retro futuristic, and a lot of the aesthetics of it are very 1950s,” Murdy said. “The fact that we get to deal with the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust is very exciting for us since we've never done anything like that at HHN before. It’s like tapping into a whole different realm of horror.” What’s also interesting is that Hollywood and Orlando will each have unique aspects to their Fallout experience, including for the T-60 armor. “It's massive,” Murdy said of the T-60 Armor. “We work really closely with the people who are producing Fallout, and they've shared an incredible number of assets with us. We've done a lot of really big stuff over the years with Horror Nights, but this has got to be, I think, one of the biggest things we've ever had to do. We also thought it’d be cool if each park had a lot in common but also some differences. So, for Hollywood, the Power Armor is a full animatronic; we’re doing it as a fully animated figure.” “In Orlando, we do have kind of a final battle moment,” Flood added. “I’m not going to reveal too much, but yes, T-60s will be part of that battle. We also got a chance to fit in Filly, and I think having a moment to get a real-life Fallout battle happening there is pretty cool.” Murdy also teased that each Fallout house will have its own “creature takes,” and Hollywood’s will be the horrifying Yao Guai Bear. With ghouls and mutated bears and murderous scavengers abound, this haunted house is meant to be a chaotic thing, but Flood, Murdy, and the team have taken great care to have it be more than just non-stop terror. Murdy told us that his writing treatments for this Fallout experience averaged 100 pages, which feature both a narrative guide and a technical breakdown from start to finish. “It's that detailed because we need to spell it all out for our team so they know exactly what to create,” Murdy said. “And what Horror Nights is known for is our attention to detail. And what we're aiming for alongside the casual guest is the uber fan. We want to have so many different Easter Eggs that certain people won't particularly notice, but that the real hardcore fans of the video game and the series will.” Flood teased that there is a Pip-Boy they’ve been working on that will be a treat to find, and he teased that guests should look in all the windows of the storefronts or sides of buildings, as there will be “little things scattered around.” “If you're here for a second or third time through the house, and you get a chance to glance down when you're not totally terrified, you can see a lot of those Easter eggs existing throughout the house,” Flood said. Lastly, we asked what the pair what they were most excited about bringing to life for Hollywood Horror Nights. “For me, it was obviously the Wasteland,” Murdy said. “It is fun to go from the vaults where you're in a claustrophobic environment to then kind of open it up into the Wasteland. However, when I think of it purely from what Horror Nights delivers, it’s Super Duper Mart.” Speaking of exciting fictional businesses, we were able to get one more exciting quote for the Five Nights at Freddy’s experience at this year’s Hollywood Horror Nights, and it’s making the wait for more details even worse! “When you experience this, it is literally like living in the movie,” Murdy said. https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/universal-halloween-horror-nights-five-nights-at-freddys-2025 Every year, horror fans from around the world flock to Hollywood and Orlando for Universal's Halloween Horror Nights, a fall festival of fear that always features some of your favorite monsters from across pop culture. Every year the attractions pack in tons of new horror fun, and every year fans have their own special wish list of which properties will get haunted houses this time around. Well, Five Nights at Freddy's fans, this one's for you. Universal announced over the weekend, via the official Halloween Horror Nights account on X (formerly Twitter), that FNaF will get its own haunted house during this year's festivities, and the attraction will be coming to both Hollywood and Orlando versions of the Horror Nights experience. So whichever coast you visit, Freddy Fazbear and all his friends will be waiting. Sadly, we don't have any more details yet, but the post does promise that Five Nights at Freddy's will be presented in "a whole new way" at this year's Halloween Horror Nights, so fans of the franchise will definitely want to keep their eyes out for more news, especially since there's a new movie on the horizon. Beginning with the original video game from Scott Cawthon, which released in the summer of 2014, Five Nights at Freddy's has spent the last decade expanding into a mega-popular horror brand that features everything from numerous video game sequels and spinoffs to a series of books to loads of merch. In 2023, the franchise reached a whole new fandom when the first Five Nights at Freddy's movie, starring Josh Hutcherson and Matthew Lillard, landed in theaters and on Peacock. And the mayhem continues in 2025. Universal and Blumhouse Productions announced last year that Five Nights at Freddy's 2 would hit theaters December 5, just weeks after Halloween, and back in April we got a first look at the teaser trailer for the new film, which features returning cast members Hutcherson, Lillard, Elizabeth Lail, and Piper Rubio, along with new cast members like Skeet Ulrich, Wayne Knight, and Mckenna Grace. Halloween Horror Nights returns to Universal Parks this fall.