robbalvey

Well we did another live stream tonight if anyone cares...

Thanks. My box was really just an approximate of where it would go. And really, it does show just how much room they DO have back there! Enough room for some really awesome physical non-screen based rides!

This is a good site to check it you want to keep up to date on the status of the hurricane: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_at1+shtml/093751.shtml?gm_track#contents

Nintendo Land is going here: There is already more than enough room to work with there and T2 isn't anywhere near this area.

Oh, we've done that a few times actually at WDW! The only issue with including a coaster on a live stream is if the line is long and then you're just live streaming boring stuff from the queue. But we have FastPasses or use the single rider line we've actually live streamed Expedition Everest, Test Track, Big Thunder Mountain, etc....

We've been doing live streams around parks for YEARS now but recently people have been wanting us to do them more and more and it's not something I've really given a lot of thought to. So here is one we did tonight. We would love to get your feedback... Is this something that people like? Should we be doing more like this? We aren't really "vloggers" or "podcasters" and to be honest, it's not really something I'm that interested in, but we are happy to walk around the parks and answer questions and stuff. Any other thoughts on this? Thanks everyone!

OK, let me just clear something up here... "Long lines" is NOT synonymous for "guest satisfaction." The two are COMPLETELY DIFFERENT things. I'm so sick of people saying "oh, Dragons didn't have that long of a line anymore, that's why they took it out." Dragons didn't have a long line because it wasn't popular or people didn't like the ride, Dragons didn't have a long line because it pushes through THREE THOUSAND PEOPLE PER HOUR!!! We even just had one of the Attraction Tech Supervisors post on our social media saying how they didn't need most of the queue that was built in the beginning because the ride had a capacity of "thousands per hour!" Now, it didn't help that Universal installed the lockers and metal detectors and created a hassle to even ride the coaster. It also didn't help that they built giant walls hiding the coaster or a really lame and boring ride entrance that a lot of people completely missed. Personally I think all of this was done on purpose because it's no secret that JK Rowling never liked Dueling Dragons and I think if she had her way it would have been gone in 2010. But please stop with this fake news "Oh, people didn't like it anymore and it didn't have a long line crap" because that's not true at all. Stand by the exit of the ride and people would come off LOVING it. I just don't think Universal wanted people to even find the ride to begin with so that way it would make it easier to get rid of it later on down the road.

I would think something like Disney's Hollywood Adventure would make more sense.

Still rather be hanging out here than riding most Vekoma SLCs!

There is never a scenario where putting VR Goggles on a coaster makes it "cool."

T2:3D isn't anywhere near any of the Potter lands so I'd say it's pretty unlikely. Also, Potter isn't a "Universal franchise" which is what it said in the announcement.

Fast & The Furious is already under construction on the opposite side of the park.

Yes we saw a deer while riding the Knoebel's train once.

Man, our Twitter has been lit up with retweets all day long about this! It's crazy how much attention I'm seeing it get!

They do! They've had it for a number of years now and I'm pretty sure it's become a staple of the event. They don't because it's not like an equal amount at each place. And it's less like a "sample" and more like a "small drink" and those drink cups can come in all different shapes and sizes depending on what you get. So I think it makes more sense that way.

Yes. Now please go away and take your negativity to some other forum. Thanks.

According to Google Earth I live 1.9 miles from The Incredible Hulk.

Holy damn, Robb. Those metrics are INSANE. Is this your top FB post ever? I work for a company that has FB followers of 1.7 mil, and we'd KILL for the reach you're getting on that. Pretty much the only time we ever get anything like those numbers is, sadly, when we mention that a popular music artist has passed away. Oh, no. That's pretty common for us actually. We get probably about a dozen posts a month reach those numbers: Then about once a month we'll get a post that goes CRAZY viral: And that's still not the best post we've ever had! We've had posts with reach into 100 million! To bring this back on topic, we are STILL getting re-tweets and comments constantly about Dragons from general park fans....

Actually, you should see our social media, which actually does NOT cater to die-hard roller coaster fans. We have had hundreds of re-tweets like these: And the response on Facebook has been crazy and is STILL going strong... My take-away is that people are generally upset by this ride closing, not JUST the people on the forum or die-hard coaster fans. As I said the people we target our socials to are what I would consider "casual theme park fans" who are more like your everyday park guest. Universal certainly has some big shoes to fill. I'm not sure I've seen a reaction like this to a ride closing since maybe Big Bad Wolf where it was TRULY still a loved coaster and questionable if it's actually a good decision or not to remove it.

Quoted for truth. And even when they weren't dueling, that percentage would still be high. Non-Dueling Dragons is still a better attraction than probably 90% of all Six Flags and Cedar Fair's roller coasters.

Thanks again everyone for all the kind words. It is most certainly appreciated!

Here's an interesting data point. The level of interaction and engagement for our Facebook posts on the last day of Dragons versus the last day of Great Movie Ride and Universe of Energy. Looking at a snapshot from a social media perspective, people really didn't give a damn about Ellen or GMR, but the most certainly raised some voices about Dragons....

I agree with most of the recent posts but "by far the stupidest thing" you've seen a park do seems a bit over-exaggerated. What's even dumber is quoting something dumb and continuing to argue it. The guy wrote several other things in the same post that were more noteworthy of discussion. Why did you have to pick out the WORST thing and want to talk about that? Couldn't you have chosen something that would have created a more proactive, interesting discussion? Just trying to make our forums a slightly better place here... EDIT: Yes, making opinionated comments about something you've never experienced is probably not the smartest move. Here's an idea! There are 75 other topics on page 1 of the forums. Maybe choose one of those which you can speak intelligently about based on your past experience instead of choosing one you have zero education on? Just a thought....

My thoughts exactly.

Outside of the roller coaster world, far fewer people will know what Revolution is versus Dueling Dragons, simply because Dueling Dragons has probably given more rides in its 18 year run than Revolution has in 41 years. Universal is open 356 days a week and will see much larger attendance that Magic Mountain will.