CoasterEricHP

I agree with a lot of what is being said too.. I used to get season passes every year for Hersheypark but haven't in the last few years because of the crowds and the fact that the park seems to be losing most of its traditional feel. To me a lot of it feels more like a Six Flags or a Cedar Fair park than the park I grew up with. Although I don't like it, It is great that Hershey's attendance has been exploding the last few years. Hopefully they will do some much needed expanding soon and finally get that drop tower and hyper coaster that we've all been waiting for! Historically, STITP has been overcrowded. The best time to visit is on an early weekday in June.. after that.. have fun. I don't know what it is about the Comet though! It gets insane, slow moving lines all summer.

Do you own Kevlar? JK.. this park does get a bad rap and I've had plenty of bad experiences there but I have had a few great days too. It's really up in the air! Hopefully the reports are right about the park getting better. At least it will be nice weather for a park. The area back by SROS is (or used to be.. havent been there in a few years) as desolate of a waste land I have ever seen in a park. I never understand why trees are forgot when parks develop new areas!

Where were they when they were walking up stairs? Hogwarts? I thought it looked pretty awesome! I think the kids were the boring part of the video! The only thing that worries me was what I think is the maintainance bay for HP towering in the background when they were exiting the Unicor... Hippogriff. Aside from that though.. wow!

I think it looks awesome! I know everyone always wants the best of the best but I think this ride looks solid and it is a great addition to Alton Towers. I'd take this any day of the week in Pennsylvania! Now the whole hype thing.. I think the park took that a little too far.. BUT it still did its job even if it was in a "What the hell are they talking about" sense and not "This is so scary" way!

I have no idea how I completely missed this entire slide concept for years! That sounds awesome!

Can someone explain that orange and white thing to me? thanks!

Judging by my experiences I would say that the parks up here are not as busy on weekdays in June as they get to be in July and August so you shouldn't have a problem getting everything done that you want. You might want to budget in a Flashpass for SFGadv though since there is a lot to do there and if it would be busy you could miss some things. As long as you get to SFA when it opens and assuming all of the rides open at 10:30 you won't have any problem getting all of the coasters in by the time you need to leave. I would usually go down in early June to grab a season pass and take a quick spin on everything and then get the H out of there! We'd be gone by noon. Just don't let SFA leave a bad taste in your mouth for the ride home. If you aren't spending the entire day at Knoebels I would say just use tickets. $20 will give you plenty of rides on the Phoenix and Twister and hopefully the Flying Turns! Plus I remember them on weekdays usually only running one train on the coasters. The lines aren't usually long so they just move a little slower. I would also ride the train, carousel and the bumper cars. The wristband doesn't cover the Haunted Mansion but that is also a must ride. Knoebels is going to be a really nice break from the big parks with the great atmosphere, normal priced amazing food, and free parking!

I know from working there for a few years (a few years ago) that the park would be absolutely crazy until Labor Day. Two or three days after Labor Day the parks would completely die and after a longggg summer season it was so nice to work and not have 60 minute or longer waits to deal with! So I would say because Harry Potter is opening hopefully in the Spring, I'd wait until the week after Labor Day to avoid the really nasty crowds and heat PLUS it gives Universal a few months to work all the bugs out of the new ride.

New webpage http://www.universalorlando.com/harrypotter Looking amazing! I'm thinking the "Great Feast Platter" at The Three Broomsticks will be the same smoked chicken/corn platter that the Enchanted Oak served which makes me very happy since that was some great food. I'm hoping they have a replacement for the Alchemy Bar! I want some alcoholic Butterbeer!

Wow those look great! It always amazes me how the paint fades like that.. hopefully they'll get IOA looking brand spanking new before Potter opens.

I think we're either in for a complete overhaul of the queue (mainly because Express access has always sucked) or just a few subtle changes like you said. Obviously Merlin's Spellbook will be the Goblet, that's just too perfect and easy to change. Hopefully they'll actually use the preshow room now. Just replace Merlin with Dumbledore and a new video.. (the Dragons one was one of the coolest videos at the park! I think I might still have it memorized from standing there for hours.. and hours) Also, towards the station there was "Merlins Final Warning" with the skull and the spiderwebby thing. Apparently original plans called for that to have some kind of projection system. That's why the room is circular shaped with the random empty area. So they could utilize that. I hope whatever they do they dont completely trash all of the old stuff! I miss the dragons already! My biggest question is if they are going to repaint the track.

Awesome.. I lived a few miles away from where Boardwalk and Baseball once stood a few years ago and didn't even know it! It was just an empty plot of land now. Kinda sad! It doesnt look all that bad!

Wow.. those are amazing!

Wow.. where in the world did THAT thing come from?! haha.. Thats massive!! It'll look great once it gets past the giant water tower look!

Now that I think about it.. unless they are planning on repainting the track (and I hope they do) they may not have to close Dragons at all. There is pretty much a way to route the queue line to let them rework the castle one or two rooms at a time... the station all they would need to do is hang some banners.

Anyone who is following the announcement, this guy/girl on Twitter has a pretty good rundown of whats going on. Edit-- annddd it just ended. Nothing too unexpected aside from Hogwarts having a retail shop inside, the names, and Forbidden Journey couldnt be further from a roller coaster. Plus apparently a ton of new pictures are about to be put on the website.

Great TR! I feel the same way as you do on just about everything... especially the main midway feeling kind of off and Raptors last break neck transition into the brakes. I'm headed to Cedar Point on Sunday for a couple of days. It'll be my girlfriend's first time! I love seeing how people react to their first rides on MF and Dragster. Looking forward to some pictures!

Dragons has to close sometime for the retheme and if they are painting the track, redoing the queue, trains, and whatever else it could be down for a few months. They'll probably do whatever work needs done on the Unicorn during that time also. I would say that the opening of HP is probably looking like next Spring/Summer. It wouldn't make a whole lot of sense to close down dragons, retheme it, and then reopen it BEFORE the rest of the land is done. So I'm going to go out on a limb here and say (contrary to screamscape and everything else) that Dragons will be closed from early Jan'10 to May'10 and reopen with the rest of The Wizarding World.

I agree with just about everyone.. I think Legoland would bring in more people than Cypress Gardens just because its Legoland. But, if you build it around 192 or somewhere close to I-4 towards Tampa (prob before Lakeland though) a TON of people would go because it'd be a straight shot. So even though it would be more expensive to build initially the payoff would come a lot quicker. Legoland in FL would be.. AWESOME!

I used to work at Dragons and I dont understand how this happened. People in the control booth SHOULD have gotten over the ride track speakers and warned more than once that trains were going to be moving.. plus whoever was out there should have locked out the ride just like we would do anytime we had to enter the ride track. Also.. you can hear the lift.. train.. and everything else really easily in the morning. I hope whoever it was recovers but I think people (maybe the engineers AND control booth op's) were both taking short cuts..

No Friggin' Way... I would have thought a giga would be the LAST thing any park would get right now! But that's awesome! I hope its true. With the new track type and the fact that MF will be a decade old.. I doubt it'll be a clone! Why would they spend that much and build a clone..? So personally I'd say there's more of a chance of this being a 300 foot clone of a Vekoma Rollerskater than a MF clone. Not sure if this has been answered yet but does the term "giga" mean that its def. a lift hill?

Hmmm.. A Flying Coaster would be awesome if Manta didn't beat them to the punch! I think either a mini hyper in Marvel.. (could be like the one in Tobu Zoo(?) that goes out over the lagoon a little bit. Or something that winds around JP where Triceratops Encounter and back behind River Adventure.. It's not IOA but I'll always pray for the 88mph Back to the Future Rocket Coaster

Holy.. Lord... Insane detail..

Yeah, I just thought it would have been cool to have something more than only a ride in Hogwarts. Something that everyone (riders and non riders) could walk through and see some different parts of the castle. Plus a "great hall" full service place would have been great! But looking at the model (currently on Screamscape I think) it looks like there's an attraction entrance.. and exit.. and thats it. I'm not knocking anything about what they've done so far. I think its great! But you have this concept that COULD have more fanfare and worldwide interest than the opening of the actual Islands of Adventure park itself, and I'm just starting to wonder if one new ride, a few rethemed rides, a few new stores, and a quick service food place is going to do the Harry Potter insanity justice. Again.. I'm not hating! Just raising a point. I guess my main point is I hope they leave some room for the future.. Edit- http://www.wizardingworldharrypotter.com/?page_id=8 has some awesome pictures of some Hogsmeade facades and Hogwarts stuff! Looks sweet!

Nice pics! I'm also a little bummed that Hogwarts looks to only be a very glorified ride building. But at the same time I have no doubt that whatever is in that building is going to totally rock