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If you are going during Fright Fest you should buy the fast pass. The lines are long during the day, but in the afternoon it just get's insane, even with the maze's open.

Huge splash bucket in place! Source

Yeah, it won't.

Well, they did get a very good (within ship building market) deal, but the EU rules would not allow any more, since a lot of the money also was a grant. That's why the deal with the French shipyard is a bit suspect, because they are within the same concern (Korean) as the one in Turku, and in just as bad financial state. There is reason to believe that the French government is involved with more financing than allowed by the EU, but since the contract is already signed, theres really no point in investigating it. I just feel as RCCL sacrificed a very sure thing in terms of quality, to save some (all in all very little) money. But as you said, it's good that the ship is not built in Italy! Hopefully RCCL has learned from the mistakes that Cunard and Norwegian did with their flagship being built at this shipyard, and have a much more supervising staff on location to make sure the mistakes from Epic and Queen Mary 2 does not repeat themselves, and to get the ship built the way it's suppose to. Edit: I also wonder if with this new ship, along with the plans for Oasis 4 and 5, we will see some Oasis ship here in Europe over the summer. It would be strange to have all 5 of them, when the time comes, over in the Caribbean.

I love that they're building another Oasis Class ship, they're just awesome! I'll be on this in either 2016 or early 2017 for sure! Curious to see if we can see the difference 2000 tons makes or if it's just a tiny drop in the bucket. I just hate RCCL for not ordering them from the Turku STX shipyard, Finland. They built both current ships in the Oasis class, and they are, along with Meyer Werft in Germany, the highest quality and most experienced cruise ship builder in the world (screw Fincantieri!). The shipyard in Finland did everything in their power to get the order, even getting the government of the country involved in order to secure financing for the ship at very good conditions, but it was still not enough for RCCL. Oh well, hopefully the ships will be okay from the STX France, just look at Norwegian Epic, thats a nice ship, isn't it? (The outcome of Norwegian Epic mad the cruise line cancel her sister, and eventually order the next ships from the German shipyard).

To me it looks like the park lacks a decent family coaster. Something like this would probably be very popular. They are some of the most fun rides out there.

Good catch, I didn't notice that!

Looks like they had to modify a footer to make the clearance big enough for the train. Source

Great pictures!

Anyone heard anything lately?

This is not about the coaster in this park, but the clone of it opening soon in China has made it's first test runs. It looks really good.

That looks awesome, yet so weird.

The new ride won't go in Chang's spot, the new water park is going there. The new ride will go where the Schwarzkopf, that is now removed, stood. Rumour says that the Twisted Twins will be getting a makeover by RMC, so they will probably have nothing to do with the new for 2014 coaster. Personally I hope for Intamin here. It would be nice for them to build a smaller coaster in the states, it's been a while now. A standard Megalite will not fit the space given, but I know that they can custom the crap out of those things!

The white/green painting of the coasters in that area are du to some regulations, but I can't remember exactly what.

Okay, that was funny!

We don't even know if Time Machine is for sale, it's been sitting there for a few years now, why all of a sudden would they want to sell it? But as you said, it would fit the bill perfect.

If this really turns out to be a giga, and also from B&M, I would hope for a huge dive machine. That at least would make the ride interesting, different and maybe even awesome. The dive machines are some of the very few modern B&M's i really enjoy.

Well they are not a family ride, but at the same time they are not to thrilling either, and families where the kids met the height limit will enjoy it. It's a perfect ride for the park IMO. Let's hope those rumors are true.

Yeah, but they have placed the last car of the train right after the first car (see the themed wheels) which is something they don't usually do.

The kiddie coaster Ronde des Rondins is being scrapped (or maybe sold), and will be replaced by a new area for children. The new area will feature 3 new rides, including a mini flume. Source

Okay, the ride is done,and it is simply stunning! I think this is the first Intamin Top Hat to use triangle track instead of the square one, but I'm not 100% sure. And the absolute best part is lap bars only! (the train does look odd with only 2 cars). The ride will have a rolling launch, and ejector is promised on the hill after the top hat. Source

Same state now as before, testing. www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTp8fP2VlGE#t=21

It would have been just as expensive to do that. Not to mention extremely dangerous for the people involved. The ship has been lying on a few cliffs, and other than those it has been nothing that held the ship in place. The water around it is very deep, and starting to cut it apart would have changed the balance of the weight distribution, and with a ship this size it would be very easy to loose it down into ocean. The way they are doing it now is the only realistic and safe way to do it. And I'm actually very pleased that it cost this kind of money for Costa. As the huge ship enthusiast I am I have never seen this kind of incompetence before.

It's a brad new tower. They still sell this generation for customers who would like to offer different experiences on the different vehicles. For an example: regular sit down, stand up, stand up tilt and sit down tilt. Here's the difference on this particular tower. Source

The track is also 90 cm wide, compared to 75 cm on the old 8 and 10 inversion coasters. This should also help to make the coaster ride smoother.