teacherkim

You didn't, no worries. And you made a valid point......................I just don't remember the others being such a big deal, anticipation wise. BUT as you point out there wasn't the daily social media/drone footage blitz going on AND to be fair some of those were at a time in my life when I wasn't focusing that much on theme parks. IOA for example, truly one of my favorite parks now, opened when I was about 30...........establishing a career and heavily involved in a completely different hobby that took a huge time and money commitment. About ten years later I had stopped such a huge commitment to the other thing and was introducing my son to theme parks and rediscovering in myself a long lost love for them. So all of that played a part in my probably not well thought out comment

Looks like a super fun, unique experience! We had a couple tiny airports like that in Peru, lol.

Quick jump in because I'm going out of town tomorrow. We were there on Easter, agree with most of what Dan said although the GP on FB were all thrilled that Buccaneer had gone back to it's original theme and no one at the park seemed to care that it looked Carnival like, just saying. FYI-Easter crowds were very manageable so a good day to go while all the pious are in church. Agree there is no way Joker will be ready until later in the season, but I didn't expect it to be. One thing to note on parking. We used the speedy pass thing. The lanes that were labeled speedy pass were closed but another lane opened up for us automatically anyway So, we went to preferred because we get it on our pass. The security guard checked my pass level and let me in, but I did notice some people still had cards they had gotten at the tollbooth. I was chatting to him while my son was putting the chargers on plugshare and he told me that there would be days when reservations would be required but only on days they anticipated it to be really busy and he thought it would be on the website. He did not seem very sure and I'm thinking there are still some operational kinks to work out on this one. Speaking of the chargers, we saw at least 4 getting used, mostly by plug in hybrids which have less charging opportunities than Teslas or full electric for example. There were 8 in preferred and 12 in regular. I asked the parking lot guard about non electric vehicles using them and he said it hadn't been a problem the first few days but that there was nothing they could do about it anyway since they didn't own the chargers. Ok, but they are on your property? I take that more to mean, we don't have the manpower or will to deal with it and don't want to start a fight. I get it, but irritating just the same. Hopefully, their proximity to the parking guard will discourage most. Overall though, it was obvious that work had been going on and hopefully now that we have a dedicated park president once again the effort will continue which will result in better environment for the employees and better guest experience; the FB updates are a good start. OK, I'm outta here for a couple weeks.

I get that, I'm much older than you and was around for all that plus Epcot and Animal Kingdom...........but, my point is that this is going to be on such a grander scale on both the rides and how grandiose it will be than those were when they opened, or at least it seems that way to me. Maybe I'm just not remembering the hype or maybe I'm just legit way more excited about a Universal park than Disney And to be fair I wasn't really thinking along the lines of China or Dubai, since those are not easily accessible for most people from the USA

I'm soooo excited about this park! Universal Orlando is already my favorite park and to have a brand new park of this scale and quality; whoop, whoop!! I mean how often does that happen in a lifetime?!

I don't usually care that much about mascots but I sure got super excited when I saw Marvin!

FYI - not my pic, that is from the FB post, thought I should clarify. Meant to post it the other day. Instead of going to church we are going to the park with the other sinners on Sunday, so I'll post a quick trip report afterwards. First time my son is going back as a civilian, lol.

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They just posted on FB a few hours ago. Going back to the original name The Buccaneer!!!!

They confirmed to me on FB that these games are indeed gone for a shaded seating area. They said that in recent years these weren't as popular. Uhhh, yeah, no kidding I really think they oversaturated themselves with the games and glad to see that they are toning those down. A small number of game booths are fun and create some atmosphere, too many and it gets very carnival like/cheesy looking in my opinion. And of course they are a massive rip off, as any carny will tell you. I'm assuming they were also seeing a diminished return for the cost of operating as fewer people were willing to blow extra money on games that are very difficult to near impossible to win. I do wish they would put a real arcade in somewhere and not just the claw machines and their equivalents. I'm guessing you would get traffic on those.

Eh, depends on the kid. My son even when he was little always got way more excited about Halloween than he did Christmas. Don't get me wrong I'm not pooping on their event. I hope it's successful and if that's worth it to you than by all means I hope your daughter gets great joy out of it. But clearly most people were hoping for the T4 announcement over an event And I can't see a lot of people traveling long distances to do a Christmas event but hopefully the locals turn out for it. They sure didn't at SFSTL even though they all say it was so great.

I really don't think it has anything to do with wokeness, but it does have a lot to do with litigiousness. Looney Tunes are aimed at a much younger demographic than FPS games, most of which I believe have a recommended age on them. If I remember correctly there was a lawsuit aimed at holding a LT cartoon responsible when some kid jumped off the roof imitating a character; and no I don't remember the outcome. However, whether that is justified or not it does mean that companies, including the media outlet airing said cartoon, will then protect themselves in the future. That all happened way before anyone used the term woke. If you want to blame anyone blame people that launch frivolous lawsuits.

Ha, ha....no worries I realize I did as well. I MEANT FTC when I was trying to remember the name of the chairwoman and tried to look up her name I inadvertently punched in FCC. Yikes. The rest about it being an independent agency with congress overseeing it still applies though

Ok, I'm glad you said that because I thought they were all in preferred too, then someone somewhere (probably FB) said they were in general and I thought maybe I was interpreting the picture incorrectly. Yes, if that is the case it will be easier to control. At SFOG last summer (and to be fair we were there on an insanely busy day) they are all in general and every single one of them was being iced. I don't think people were necessarily trying to be asses, there were just very few spots and I think they took a chance assuming the park wouldn't make it a priority. And they weren't. We didn't have to charge because we almost always stay at a hotel that has a destination charger since they are quite numerous now, but it would have been convenient.

The head of the DOJ is Merrick Garland, the U.S. Attorney General. I THINK you are talking about the head of the FCC, Jessica Rosenworcel? She is the chairwoman but the agency is overseen by congress, whereas attorney general is a cabinet position. Both agencies do get input on mergers. I too am kind of waiting to see how this plays out but will be hopeful for a good result. We have SF DE memberships so just hanging onto those at the moment and usually get CF plat passes (which I guess they are doing differently now) but since we don't have any immediate CF park plans and I can rebuy those at any time I am waiting to see what they do about passes.