robbalvey

^ Where is this going???? The only new builds happening on the West Side right now is the NBA Experience in the old DisneyQuest spot and Jaleo across from Splitsville.

Some Stand-Up Drop Tower Fun!

We need to discuss it. I would think "soon" would be the correct answer though...

The catwalks where there to make it easier for maintenance to do work on the ride, or in the off-chance if they had to evac the ride since those parts of the coaster sat over wet, swampy, disgusting areas.

Yeah, that absoultely does. For some reason I have noticed that ride to have some pretty jarring roughness when the train is empty to half-empty. It's much better if you get the train at least 3/4 to full.

That ride desperately needs a re-theme and overhaul. How full was the train? I've had some really hit and miss rides on it lately and I've found that it is far more shaky when the train is more empty.

Here's a nice overview photo of SeaWorld that I shot this morning while taking some rides on Infinity Falls...

This looks nothing like an amusement park anymore. You can't even recognize it that it used to be a park. They might as well just build houses or a shopping mall on top of it.

Went to the Infinity Falls media event this morning. Here's the video we produced.... SeaWorld also announced a new for 2019 slide at Aquatica: KareKare Curl Here's the list of rides in the new Sesame Street area coming in 2019: And a brand new Annual Pass program that seems similar to what other chains like Six Flags is doing: Should be interesting to see how that new annual pass program works out for them!

Thank you. That's what I had thought. While I love the whole idea of this new entrance area as I absoultely HATE what is currently there now, I think people are seeing this announcement and going "Oh, man... it will be GREAT that Hersheypark will now have restaurants, shops, and snack locations OUTSIDE of the park! WOW! What a great idea!!!" But these things have ALWAYS been there. At least in the 20-something years I've been going to the park. They aren't new, they are just getting a much, MUCH needed rebuild & update!

I highly doubt they would do that. Agreed, Bobby. This felt largely like a way to counter the fact that the Chocolate World experience is outside of the park. It always felt like a huge loss on the concession-side for the park the the most immersive part of the Hershey chocolate experience was outside of the park AND there was nothing really inside the park that was as comparable. I don't understand. People keep saying things like this as though there never was a restaurant, snack locations, or a shop outside the park, but hasn't there ALWAYS been a restaurant, snack locations, and a shop in that front area entrance that you have to pass by on the way to Chocolate World? I swear I thought I remembered going into a shop or two there and I'm SURE there is at least one restaurant. Isn't this stuff already outside of the park and part of "Hersheypark" and not "Chocolate World?" It's not as though this new front entrance area is going to introduce things like a restaurant, shops and snack locations that are a new concept for Hersheypark, these things have ALWAYS been there, right?

I've actually been to that park many times. Loved the log flume and the backwards seat on the looper. It was also one of the first Sky Coasters I've ridden. I know I have some old photos around somewhere of my visits, but it was before I started taking a lot of video or blogging so I don't have that much.

Oh, of course they will!

Agreed. The current front entrance is horrible and is a compete nightmare bottleneck every time we are there. In fact, I'd go as far as to say that part of the reason why we haven't gone to Hersheypark as much is because the front entrance is just a cluster of annoyance that we have ONLY been lately if we can get into the park early and we will skip the park as a "casual stop" when we are nearby. Bulldozing the current front entrance into something far more usable may actually make me want to go to the park more often! I agree with this 100% - And yes, while I wouldn't "complain" about a big, new, fast, high capacity, B&M being built, it also doesn't make me want to go out of the way to make a special visit to the park.

That's kind of a stretch as a comparison, even using the word "mini." Disney Springs is a full blown "Entertaining & Dining" complex that is the size of some of the theme parks at Walt Disney World. There may be HUNDREDS of total shops & dining experiences at Disney Springs. This will be a really nice "entrance plaza" with 1 full-service restaurant, a few quick service "snack" locations, and a store. And to be fair, wasn't there ALREADY a full-service restaurant, snack locations, and a shop in their current entrance plaza area? I'm not meaning to sound negative, but I'm not sure you can really compare this to Disney Springs in any way at all. it doesn't even compare to Disneyland's Downtown Disney which is a quarter of the size of Disney Springs!

Since they probably still want us all to focus on their 2019 new ride, I'm assuming the coaster info will probably come sometime next year.

No, they are re-doing that front entrance area of the park where all the shops are just before you go through the turnstiles. You can see Chocolate World is still a fair bit of distance away from the front entrance. Closer look at the area being re-developed. This area here will be a much wider plaza area leading up to the park including some new shops and a new front entrance:

Yes, that was my thought exactly. The coaster side of me is totally "okay" with that poster and I'm happy they are confirming it, but the "theme park" person in me just found it really, really odd that they would use the "ride system" and not the "ride theme" to be the very first official image they release for the new attraction. I'm not complaining about it.. I just thought it was an odd choice given the property.

Next time you post here try actually READING THE POST YOU ARE RESPONDING TO before you respond as it will make you sound less stupid to those who are reading your posts. And that being said, if you knew nothing about this attraction, you wouldn't look at this poster here and think "screen ride" Or what about this piece of concept art... So to your comment, just showing a piece of "roller coaster track" doesn't always mean it WILL be a roller coaster!

I'm curious, how did the ride experience change since opening? Did they actually change the ride, or is it just how they handle the queue? The ride itself hasn't changed at all. I don't know what that person is talking about. They made some changes to the queue so now you can actually go visit the penguins without having to suffer through the attraction, which is good because you can get to the best part of the attraction by skipping the worst. As far as people who like the ride, well, even the worst attractions has it's fans... I mean, look at Maelstrom!

Does anyone else find this poster to be "thematically" a little odd? Hear me out... Putting aside that the whole point of this image was to send the message of "we are building a ROLLER COASTER in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter... yes a ROLLER COASTER is what our next attraction will be..." Put that aside for a moment.... Does this poster seem a little odd "thematically?" As far as I am aware, there weren't any roller coasters in the Harry Potter universe so seeing an image of roller coaster track with nothing else taking center of attention in this image is really strange to me. The roller coaster track represents the "technology" and the ride system in which the new attraction will be built on, not the actual theme of the ride vehicle itself. Unless of course the theme of this ride is going in the direction of "Harry Potter built a roller coaster in his backyard," seeing an image of what is obviously roller coaster track seems to completely break the theming that Universal and JK Rowling have been so strict about. For example, when Disney released concept images for Flight of Passage, they showed this: They didn't show the ride vehicle or the screen or anything "behind the scenes" of what the attraction or ride system is because that would break the theming of the world it is set in. So why do we have a picture of roller coaster track for this new Harry Potter attraction? Unless it literally is a roller coaster themed to a roller coaster in the Harry Potter land! Do you see why I think this is. "thematically" a little strange?

Oh. That makes more sense.

I agree 100%. It never made sense to me why a park like SeaWorld, which is really geared towards children and families ended up with three coasters that are 54" which Busch Gardens got rides like Cheetah Hunt and Cobra's Curse which have more "SeaWorld Demographic-Friendly" height restrictions. IMHO, the only thing missing from SeaWorld's coaster lineup is a Wave Breaker-style launched coaster Wait... what? That doesn't even make any sense. So you're saying that if they had a "Wave Breaker-style" coaster, they'd be done. They don't need any more roller coasters?

I agree 100%. It never made sense to me why a park like SeaWorld, which is really geared towards children and families ended up with three coasters that are 54" which Busch Gardens got rides like Cheetah Hunt and Cobra's Curse which have more "SeaWorld Demographic-Friendly" height restrictions.