CoasterEricHP

I haven't been there for almost two years now! Time flies.. I used to be a lead at Dueling Dragons/Unicorn so I'm really interested to see everything since the Lost Continent was like my home for two years! Even though I know the area like the back of my hand its still hard to get a grasp on how big it is. There was always the rumor that a new land was going to be built when I was there and one night the whole park cycled empty rides for a super secret VIP walk through.. I wonder if that was JK Rowling.. Plus, one day before I left I was talking to one of the big wigs about the rocks that people would sit on in front of Unicorn and how they were always in bad shape. He said that in a few years.. the entrance is going to be right here and there will be so many people on this path there wont be room for rocks. He didnt say what the entrance was for but.. sure enough, a few months later here comes Hogwarts! Those are some of my random IOA stories! Personally, I'm deeply saddened by the loss of the alchemy bar

Great Pictures! You had some great seats for the O's game! I've been an Oriole's fan forever.. (yes.. its rough) and OPACY is a great ballpark! It's finally getting some nice upgrades too. But still, Oriole Park has nothing on PNC Park! Except maybe a better baseball team... (but not by much) And even though the I love Baltimore or baseball.. the Steelers rock!

Looking good! I love when I see HatetoFLY as the last person to post.. It usually means awesome pictures!! I'll be down in a little over a week! I cant wait to see the progress for myself. I'm glad the now neutered Lost Continent is getting some TLC though.. sigh..

I think going over in front of the Blue Man Group soundstage is what they consider going out over Citywalk. But I do think it's a great idea that they are going to have an entrance FROM Citywalk to ride it after park hours. I wonder how much they plan on charging..

I personally think this ride looks sick! Seriously.. who thinks up these concepts?! lol. It looks like a lot of fun! And way to go Holiday World for not being afraid to add something completely new!! If I ever get out to HW again.. I'll thank them for the acceptable amount of wetness! Sadly.. I have no reason to go to Indiana!

Great TR and Photo's so far!! It's pretty crazy how similar Dorney Park and Worlds of Fun seem! Is Patriot a clone of Talon? I haven't been on Timberwolf but I automatically hate it now because of all the anger you caused by not liking it! Way to already ruin the ride for me people!! Looking forward to the next stop!

I would say we're a few weeks away from testing. The trains are still not on site right? Plus there's some landscaping and theming to be added yet like the circles on the lift hill and the huge sign for the lift.. that sadly used to look a lot cooler on the first rendition! It's great to see the track actually DONE.. I wonder what the issue was..

Also.. I cant personally confirm this but I've heard that somewhere near Hogwarts (between Dragons, Unicorn, and the access road) they set up a temporary maintanance bay and have been assembling the ride vehicles. That was probably 8 months ago when I was told about it. Again.. I dont know if thats true or not but its coming from people I used to work with at Dragons. That's also where I heard that the track is actually above the riders.. but I dont think that's true so who really knows what to believe! I agree though.. Hogsmeade is going to shoot up really quickly.

I think your white balance was set to indoors or something.. because the inside shot was ok! Great pictures though. I really want to get to this park sometime. I just have no reason to head over that direction! Someday!

^^ Yeahhh.. I know... sigh... I'm more of a traditionalist. I would've rather seen Midway America become more like the front of the park.. or similar to Lost Kennywood.. but who can argue with the 9% attendance boost The Boardwalk gave Hershey the first year it opened? Not I! Luckily Hersheypark has some good ticket deals (see your local Giant grocery store) this year because free parking and discounted tickets is what families need this year. I can't believe parking is $10 now and tickets are $52!! Thats $8 more than Cedar Point! (or $7.. something like that..) Crazzzzyyy! Are there any non CA or FL parks that cost more aside from Busch Gardens? I'll spend an extra hour and a few gallons of gas to park in my favorite free grass field, buy a $20 book of ride tickets, eat cheap and great food, and enjoy the awesomeness that is the Phoenix this summer! Thank god for Knoebels and Sunset plans for the poor college student. Eric

^ Me too.. I know Hershey is getting a huge attendance boost from the waterpark stuff, but I think that whole area of the park lost its charm with all of the trees they took out and all of the concrete they put in.. Plus.. as much as I love Fahrenheit, it's too similar to Storm Runner IMO to really add much to the park. Definately not as much as a mini hyper would have! I think the wavepool area looks nice.. but it needs some more trees!!

When driving on the PA turnpike... some of the new sign posts look EXACTLY like rollercoaster supports!

^ There had to be a large convention of masochists at the park that day for lines at Ninja to be THAT long... Great TR! I went to SFOG two years ago and was really impressed, the park was beautiful and the rides were mostly great! I'm still wondering why the mine train felt like it CRASHED in one of the tunnels! I guess living 90 minutes away from Six Flags America, I'm impressed whenever I go to a Six Flags park with decent operations and.. trees!

There's definately some signs of hope! Maybe there was never a major problem to begin with! Maybe there are only 5 construction guys working on the coaster to save money! haha. Well, if they can somehow get the lift up in the next week or two and assuming the trains are on site somewhere or are delivered shortly.. we could see this testing by early May!

^ Just ignore the last few pages! People are turning to humor to deal with the possibly tragic state of this coaster!

Sweet! At least work is getting done in one of the parks! I love how cheap the entrance archway looks right now! The Three Broomsticks or whatever part of Hogsmeade that is looks really great. Thanks for keeping us all updated with the pictures! From both parks! (I'm too depressed about HRRR to comment on that thread...)

Great photos! I definately agree with the good comments! Normally you just see the "standard" SFMM pictures and you really captured a lot of the less seen parts of the park! I've never been there so I always wonder about all the nooks and crannys you never see! The park looks really nice!

I doubt we'll hear anything from Universal about the status because they never set an opening date aside from Spring '09! Mid to late June is still in Spring. We're all just greedy and want the ride open as soon as possible! I dont think this ride will in any way be considered a mistake in a few months from now once they get the bugs worked out. I am kind of amazed though at the amount of engineering problems that have come up on coasters the last couple of years! Aren't there hundreds of hours of computer simulations and math related stuff and engineering and everything else before they build something? Hopefully it's a quick fix that wont effect the ride! I wonder if Intamin is laughing...

I just see a blue cherry picker like thing. No big crane! Plus the webcam is all distorted so that's no help! You can see a crane in it but it's not the big one. Maybe they dont need the big one to finish up the coaster, I highly doubt that though! I'll be down during the second week of May as well. If this delay turns out to be nothing (and it very well could) and they wrap up the trackwork in the next week then it COULD soft open around then, but with each day that looks more and more unlikely. There still seems to be a lot of groundwork to be done and fixing the clearance issue crashing through the building (and the top of the loop.. ) PLUS they are missing the most important part of the track.. the lift! Wasn't there something that needed to be welded or a part of support they took off a few weeks ago? Maybe they are just waiting for that to be welded back together.. My friend who works at Universal said that they've been hearing there's a money issue.. but that doesnt make sense. Sure Universal is hurting right now but you don't spend $20 million (or whatever) on a coaster and then not pay the workers or the crane! Unless there are other money related problems.

Great pictures! There seems to be a ton of progress going on over here! Assuming most of the facades are already done this place is going to shoot up really quick! At least I hope.

How can the "reach envelope" not clear the top of the loop? Is the sky too low? If you look here.. http://zeitcam.com/showcam.php?cam=orlando&day=20090319 a crane was on site yesterday doing work. But then it disappears and then today the webcam is now pointed towards IOA. I dont know if that means anything.. but at least the timelapse stuff is cool! Edit- Ok.. nevermind. the BIG crane has been gone since 3/17 it looks like.

I'm not catching on to this problem.. How exactly is the reach envelope not clearing the top of the non-inverting loop? The crash through the building isn't a huge problem... but if the track design is faulty.. BIG oops. However, This isn't the first time that work has slowed down on this so I'm not overly concerned. By the way.. there are some AMAZING hotel deals online in early/mid May if anyone is considering going to Orlando anytime soon. Happy Spring! Edit-- Oh, and where did this "shortening the lift hill" talk come in at?! lol.. I stop looking at this thread for a few days because of stupid arguing and now nothing makes sense to me! Another Edit-- Weak! When did WESH move the webcam to face IOA and not USF?

Aww man!! They changed the lift decor?! It looked like a giant video screen before with that cool looking chunk taken out of it. Now its just a giant.. poster.. sigh.. Well since the economy is bad and Universal is most likely hurting a little bit this year. If that's the only cost saving measure made on this coaster.. that's more than ok with me! It already REALLY exceeds my expectations! It's shaping up to be a great looking ride!

Not too surprising.. as much as they want Fahrenheit to valley again! I remember being at STITP on some really cold.. crappy days in the past! It always seems to be pretty nasty out that weekend.

That thing is HUGE!! The crazy thing is it's probably not quite at the halfway point! It's kind of hard to judge by the pictures but the final height is 190 feet! So Hogwarts will tower over Cinderella's castle.. and be roughly the same height as the Tower of Terror and Everest. That's insane! It looks like Hogwarts is actually set up on a "hill" or something.. so I have to think that the current "box" is actually going to be "underground" maybe? I wish Virtual Earth or Google Earth would update the IOA map so we could see an aerial view of the whole construction zone! Thanks for the pictures!