robbalvey

We shot some 360 footage for the park this morning and they wasted no time posting it to their Facebook page: Be sure to watch it on your phone (and click the HD button!) Please go share it on your Facebook page as well!

Went to Kentucky Kingdom today. Some things to note... - The park looks GREAT!!! So much more improved even after our last visit two years ago. - Storm Chaser is absolutely *INSANE* OMG! I don't know if this ride has picked up speed since it opened or what, but all those people that said it was "slow" - Um, it was NOT SLOW AT ALL! We are live Tweeting throughout the trip! Follow along here: Photos... We have started our morning @KentuckyKingdom deciding new future rides. What do you think it's going to be? Our morning starts off on Storm Chaser @KentuckyKingdom! I cannot put into words how insanely AWESOME this ride is! We ran into TPR fan Josh working @KentuckyKingdom! Great to meet you Josh! Thunder Run is running for some morning rides. We've had a great start to our day! The water park @KentuckyKingdom is just fantastic! Some amazing slides here! We love Deluge! Walking around @KentuckyKingdom the park looks GREAT!!! Bright, colorful! Nice comeback from the Six Flags days! You can FEEL the airtime in this photo of Storm Chaser @KentuckyKingdom by @HhappyNL! This is the FIRST DROP on Storm Chaser @KentuckyKingdom and it is unreal!!! Fun Fact! Pigtails can measure the amount of airtime you get on Storm Chaser @KentuckyKingdom! Photo: @HhappyNL While we love Storm Chaser let's not forget about Lightning Run @KentuckyKingdom! AWESOME coaster! Photos: @HhappyNL Even our rides on T3 were better than your average SLC! New restraints are an improvement! Kristen absolutely LOVED her rides on Storm Chaser! More Hanno photos of Storm Chaser! Angry Birds The Ride! "It's better than the movie!" Says @RussCeccola! Remember that @KentuckyKingdom also has a sea lion show! It's cute! Be sure to go see it! These @KentuckyKingdom group sales drink wristbands are a life saver! If youre taking a group to the park, get them! Did we mention how much we all loved Lightning Run? We understand that fans of @KentuckyKingdom should follow the instructions of the sign. Some very happy riders on T3! You can see the crazy airtime in the ridercam pics we took on Storm Chaser today! For this place is a GREAT deal! Heading out of @KentuckyKingdom! We had an AWESOME day!!! We are live Tweeting throughout the trip! Follow along here:

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I have updated this post: http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1723934#p1723934

New roller coaster coming to Kings Island MASON, Ohio – Construction is underway on a new wooden roller coaster adventure for visitors to Kings Island. Themed to an area surrounding a lumber company becoming overrun by a mysterious medusa-like overgrowth of vines as nature reclaims its land, Mystic Timbers will be 3,265 feet in length, reach 109 feet in height and weave along steep cliffs, down ravines, cross over water and go through an extreme S-turn, among a forest of trees, at speeds up to 53 mph. The ride will feature a total of 16 airtime hills, a mid-course tunnel and interact with parts of the Kings Island & Miami Valley Railroad and White Water Canyon attractions. “Mystic Timbers is naturally exciting because of its setting in a densely wooded area,” Kings Island’s vice-president and general manager Greg Scheid said. “The natural rugged terrain and tunnel ensures a unique and memorable ride experience.” Mystic Timbers is custom designed and built for the topography of Kings Island by Great Coasters International, Inc. (GCI) of Sunbury, Pennsylvania. Three trains will accommodate 24 passengers each (four riders per car and six cars per train) with a capacity of 1,200 riders per hour. Guests must be at least 48 inches tall to ride. The ride experience will last more than two minutes. “Everyone who enjoys the fun and thrills of riding a roller coaster will want to experience this attraction,” Scheid said. Mystic Timbers will debut in the spring of 2017 and become Kings Island’s 16th roller coaster and its fourth wooden. With the addition of Mystic Timbers, Kings Island’s wooden roller coasters will combine to measure 18,804 feet of track, which will be the most at any amusement or theme park in the world. Those who cannot wait until spring may take a virtual ride on Mystic Timbers at mystictimbers.visitkingsisland.com. Visitors of the website may also access exclusive updates and features, including virtual ride renderings, ride statistics, construction photos and a live Web cam.

If you are at the announcement, please tweet us pics @themeparkreview and we will RT them!

Added a whole bunch of pictures from our second day at Dollywood & Pigeon Forge!

That's exactly what it is! lol

Part 1 - Pigeon Forge and Dollywood Part 2 - Kentucky Kingdom Part 3 - Kings Island Part 4 - Cedar Point Part 5 - Kennywood Part 7 - Knoebels Part 8 - Dorney Park Part 10 - Six Flags Great Adventure Part 11 - New York City & Scott's Pizza Tour So we've set off on another trip. Not sure why, probably because we are insane, but we're traveling around the USA doing random stuff. I'll post a few things here and there but not sure if I'll have time for a full-blown trip report while we are on the trip. We are live tweeting every day so to follow along, click: Our first stop will be Pigeon Forge & Dollywood... Our first stop in #PigeonForge? Goats on the Roof Alpine Coaster! The "Goats on the Roof" alpine coaster was awesome! One of the best I've ridden! And yes, there are actually "Goats on the Roof" at Goats on the Roof! lol An "Alpine Coaster" is a single person sled roller coaster barreling down a mountain! They're AWESOME!!! Right down the street from "Goats on the Roof" is another great alpine coaster! Hit them both up! Greetings from @Dollywood! No Lightning Rod isn't open. It won't be open for our entire visit. We're getting over it. With Lightning Rod closed, we'll go ride my favorite coaster @Dollywood... Tennessee Tornado! Fresh, Hot, Cinnamon Bread from the Grist Mill that melts orgasmically in your mouth *almost* makes up for Lightning Rod being closed! For our dinner @Dollywood they made us a cake! Yay!!! Even with the font! This is my current view @Dollywood. Yes it's dark, but soon it won't be! VIP seats for fireworks! Yesssssss! Great fireworks @Dollywood! Loved seeing them and the VIP seats were fantastic!!! Well worth it! It's a $15 upcharge for a GREAT view and it includes a soft drink and popcorn! Tonight's ERT on Wild Eagle @Dollywood will be Kristen's first B&M! More of them need to be 50" height restriction! Some great night rides on Wild Eagle tonight @Dollywood! That wraps up our first day at Dollywood! See you again tomorrow! SIDE NOTE! The Pokestop for Dollywood's entrance was kind of hilarious! lol Back @Dollywood this morning! Getting some early rides in on Wild Eagle & Firechaser Express! Early morning rides on Wild Eagle @Dollywood! Fantastic! Soaring over the Great Smoky Mountains! Left or right side? Which view do you prefer on Wild Eagle? Taking a ride on Mystery Mine @Dollywood! Well themed Euro-Fighter roller coaster! Blazing Fury... Absolutely classic dark ride/roller coaster @Dollywood! FIRE IN THE HOLE!!! You can count on @Dollywood for great food offerings! The new Mac & Cheese Kitchen fits right into the mix! Not only is the Grist Mill @Dollywood a great place for Cinnamon Bread... It's also a #PokemonGO gym! Hooray for @Dollywood! The Barnstormer @Dollywood's Owens Farm is an awesome swing ride! "Owens Farm..." Hmm... Sounds familiar... Thunderhead showing its age but still running great! We highly recommend the TimeSaver Pass @Dollywood! Great for skipping lines & reserving show seats!!! River Battle is *perfect* on a hot day! Some great expressions on those faces! @Dollywood Photo by @HhappyNL Looks like @PidgeyBirdd is hanging with some friends @Dollywood! The Country Fair area @Dollywood is a good mix of classic and newer flat rides! Mountain Slidewinder @Dollywood is an old-school "wet/dry slide" that has a homebrew kind of feel to it! Great ride! The steam trains @Dollywood are the legit real deal! Train fans need to ride it! Hot & need to cool off @Dollywood? Rapids will do the trick! You want Bald Eagles? @Dollywood's got 'em! Yes, to can go zip lining over @Dollywood and yes it's super fun! If you're a person of faith and want to spread the word, they have plenty of shirts @Dollywood to help with that! Love that @Dollywood does a great job of putting kids play areas near bigger rides! Did a good amount of coaster riding @Dollywood today. Wish we could have ridden one more but we WILL be back again! Great day @Dollywood! Although I think a visit next year is also in order! Welcome to #Pidgey Forge! Hanging out in some touristy areas today hosted by our favorite #PokemonGO bird! Let's start with some "Moonshine Tasting" in Gatlinburg! Because this seems like a good idea! lol There is no shortage of Go Karts, Arcades, Bungee Jumping and Trampoline arenas in #PigeonForge! Hitting up the Aerial Tramway at Ober Gatlinburg! [twitter] /status/758711559841603584[/twitter] I think Ceasar has become an *actual* hillbilly! lol If you're a beer fan, a visit to #PigeonForge or #Gatlinburg is not complete without the Smoky Mountain Brewery! The girls are still playing daredevil and LOVING it! And when in #PigeonForge you HAVE to do the Jurassic Jungle Boat Ride! It's so terrible that it's awesome!!! lol Would you believe that @elissaalvey ate an entire steak at the Smoky Mountain Brewery??? She's almost like real person now! If you like Alpine Coasters, between #PigeonForge and #Gatlinburg there are FOUR of them! They are all so much fun! [fbvideonew] [/fbvideonew] Here's some pics of the #Gatlinburg Mountain Coaster from @thegreatzo! Oh, Jesus.... Thanks to @thegreatzo (inspired by our good friend EB) we have some delicious treats to eat while on our drive to the next park! We are live tweeting throughout our adventures! Follow along here:

Woah! We only put this on sale about 12 hours ago and already nearly 100 tickets sold? This might go pretty fast this year! Don't waste time getting your tickets!

Let's just say that ANYTHING is possible as long as there is enough money in the world.

West Coast Bash 2016 Tickets Now on Sale! http://www.themeparkreview.com/store/index.php?categoryID=22

West Coast Bash 2016 Tickets Now on Sale! http://www.themeparkreview.com/store/index.php?categoryID=22

Get Tickets Here: http://www.themeparkreview.com/store/index.php?categoryID=22 West Coast Bash - Six Flags Magic Mountain Saturday, Sept 10th, 2016 Event Ticket Prices Six Flags Season Pass Holder - $62 Non-Season Pass Holder - $72 - TWO HOURS OF MORNING ERT! - FOUR HOUR EVENING PARK BUYOUT! - ERT on Twisted Colossus! - ERT on Full Throttle! - ERT on X2! - ERT on New Revolution! - ERT on Scream! - ERT on LOTS OF RIDES!!! - Breakfast! - Lunch! - Park Management Q&A! West Coast Bash - Knott's Berry Farm Sunday, September 11th, 2016 Event Ticket Prices Knott's Berry Farm Season Pass Holder - $43 Non-Season Pass Holder - $72 Pricing includes the Knott's WCB event T-Shirt! - FOUR Hours of Exclusive Ride Time Total!! - ERT on Ghostrider - ERT on Xcelerator - ERT on Silver Bullet - ERT on Supreme Scream - ERT on Boomerang - ERT on MORE to be announced soon! - Morning ERT! - Night ERT! - Park Management Q&A Presentation! - Lunch! - West Coast Bash Knott's T-Shirt INCLUDED! - Backstage Tours! - Halloween Haunt Presentation! - GET EXCITED!!! http://www.themeparkreview.com/store/index.php?categoryID=22

Oh, really? I guess we'll just have to wait and see (hopefully soon) if an announcement happens now won't we?

The original "California" theme went over about as well as Epcot's original "Educational" theme. When something is broken, you fix it. I will say that I feel that their keeping the name "California" Adventure was a mistake, but quite honestly, I felt like that theme was pretty much gone when they started doing the re-theme and adding it rides like Little Mermaid, Toy Story Mania and Carsland.

You're not the only one. And anyone who claims to be a "fan" of the DCA Tower I would gladly call their bluff. I can't think of any other "major" E-Ticket attraction at the Disneyland Resort that has been talked about less or gets such little support from the "fans" as ToT has since it has opened. I still hear people talk about Indy, Carsland, even California Screamin', Space Mountain, Matterhorn, etc. But where is the love for DCA's Tower of Terror? There isn't any. And I guarantee you that if the Californians had embraced the ride like they do many other attractions, this might not have happened, but the reality is there is very little love for ToT at that park, and result is that it will be easy for the Imagineers to change it, because other than a handful of loud, obnoxious fly-by-night die hard fans, no one is really going to miss it THAT much. It will still be a heavily themed drop ride. And beyond that, I don't think most people are going to care.

So here's my thoughts on this... Knowing that this ride will also be a centerpiece for a new Marvel themed area at DCA, and also knowing that California's Tower of Terror is nowhere near as good as the Florida version, and thus it never seemed to reach the same kind of popularity as it did in Florida, I don't see this as being that terrible. Yes, I would *prefer* to see this ride stay the Twilight Zone theme, but given that it doesn't really hold a candle to the original version, perhaps disassociating it from the original and giving the ride it's own identity is not a bad idea. In short, I'm "ok" with this. If you want to go on the REAL Tower of Terror... go to Walt Disney World Now, that being said, I just want to put it out there than anyone who bitched about Maelstrom closing and getting a "Frozen overlay" should be LIVID about this. Because with the new Frozen ride, you walk into it and the whole thing feels like a brand new attraction. With a ride like Tower, this is NO WAY to hide the fact that building used to be Tower of Terror. While I personally don't give a crap one way or the other about the ride being an "overlay" or not, I'm just saying that all those hypocritical Disney bastards better be giving this one as much crap as they gave Frozen! (And I personally LOVE the Frozen ride, much MUCH more than the terrible Maelstrom ride that it replaced!)

For me the ride was a major letdown. When it was being built it was being hyped as the next generation of dark rides and the concept art really sold you on a ride that was going to be traveling through a penguin themed world... It's a super elaborate trackless dark ride system that it's potential is completely wasted by using it as a "motion simulator" vehicle watching a fairly uninteresting movie for a good 2/3 of the attraction. For many of us locals we really thought this ride was going to be something to give Disney & Universal a run for their money and it could have been "Orlando's Winnie the Pooh" (referencing the Tokyo Disneyland ride) but really the whole thing was just sort of a mess. The park played it off by saying "Well, the ride is aimed at a VERY young audience" which I interpret that to mean "A young audience that has never ridden any other ride before and therefore wouldn't notice the amount of wasted potential with this attraction" because at no point before the ride opened was this even mentioned until it started getting negative reviews. Seriously, it's really bad. That being said, once you get off the ride the penguin enclosure is REALLY NICE! And the actual ride system is very cool. That very first room you're in when you board the vehicles makes you think you're in for a high-tech amazing experience...but then you just watch a movie.

Am I not a big enough coaster dork to understand why this is "hilarious?"

Yeah, I have to be honest, the ride was "dead to me" after they re-themed removing all the "Professor Burp's" stuff. It went from being a really fun & unique dark ride to just an "ok" dark ride.

Pacing for sure is better. My biggest issue with Verbolten is that I feel like it spends most of its time meandering around getting to the next cool part of the ride. Thirteen sort of does the same thing. I'd say Darkmare was the first coaster with the drop-track section that *really* impressed me!

Last I checked no one is playing PokemonGO with their phones on their head. Seriously, this is such an absurd post. I don't even want to get into it.... Seriously...this is such an absurd reaction, that I don`t even want to start explaning. Oh wait...I just forgot that the microwaves coming from our phones stopp 5 centimeters away from the phone and it does not matter at all how many people surrounding you are "radiating" at the same time But honestly...I shouldn`t be surprised about those reactions as I always got the impression that very little people here on the forum (is there one or two?) care about health subjects... Dumb... Dumb... Dumb... Dumb... Dumb... Can we please focus this thread on actually discussing "Pokemon at theme parks" rather than completely stupid crap? Thanks...

Last I checked no one is playing PokemonGO with their phones on their head. Seriously, this is such an absurd post. I don't even want to get into it....