Garet

Updated Safety Guidelines Per LA County’s Public Health order, beginning on October 7, all persons ages 12 and older must be prepared to show proof of full COVID-19 vaccination or a negative test taken within 72 hours of visit, prior to entry to the theme park. Persons ages 18+ must also show photo ID. Full COVID-19 vaccination means that two weeks have passed since receipt of the second dose in a 2-dose series (e.g., Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna) or since receipt of a single-dose vaccine (e.g., Johnson and Johnson [J&J]/Janssen). Verification will take place when required based on theme park attendance. Regardless of vaccination status, face coverings are required to be worn at all times, both indoors and outdoors, when visiting the theme park. At Universal CityWalk, face coverings are required to be worn indoors. We encourage all guests to keep a safe distance between travel parties, and we remain focused on maintaining the highest cleanliness and sanitization standards. Here are the latest safety updates for your visit: Acceptable forms of proof of vaccination are a vaccination card or photo/digital photo of vaccination card (including name of person vaccinated, type of vaccine provided, and date last dose administered), a digital vaccination record from the California Department of Public Health or an approved company, or documentation of vaccination from a healthcare provider, in each case showing that at least two weeks have passed since receipt of the second dose in a 2-dose series (e.g., Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna) or since receipt of a single-dose vaccine (e.g., Johnson and Johnson [J&J]/Janssen). For those vaccinated outside the United States, two weeks must have passed since the last dose of a vaccine that is listed for emergency use by the World Health Organization (WHO). Acceptable forms of proof of negative test are a printed document, email or text message displayed on a phone from a test provider or laboratory. The information should include person's name, type of test performed, and negative test result (date of test must be within prior 72 hours.) A PCR or antigen test is acceptable. A COVID-19 self-test, sometimes referred to as “home test,” is not acceptable. Regardless of vaccination status, face coverings are required to be worn at all times, both indoors and outdoors, when visiting the theme park. At Universal CityWalk, face coverings are required to be worn in all indoor locations. We encourage all guests to keep a safe distance between travel parties We remain focused on maintaining the highest cleanliness and sanitization standards Guests should review and comply with all travel requirements including State Travel Advisories and Local Travel Advisories Source

^ I think due to corona a lot of people domestically haven't had a chance to try out NintendoLand and even more internationally. I think the date is timed with when they expect attendance from the hype over the existing NintendoLand area to start to tail off and being cautious over when corona dies down enough and the fall out to fade that tourism will pick up again as well.

Good. I don't want to write virtual lines off completely, but corona seems to have proved that parks haven't cracked the code yet. So far it seems you either have to try extremely early and any delay makes you miss out e.g. Resistance or reservations result in rides being sold out way before park closure e.g. when Cedar Point handed out tickets or Fallon. Due to corona, Everland has installed a tiered virtual queue system. The safari rides are virtual only until 2pm but it means on weekends, so you got to be there before opening, since they'll go as fast as Resistance boarding groups. Since the rides already sold out, that only leaves T Express, which is only a virtual line all day, so of course everyone signs up regardless of if they'll ride. Come 2pm, the safari rides open the standby lines but with T Express still the only virtual line, you have so many people signed up that the ride is declared sold out at 2pm, and you're going to have to wait until closing to ride it. I've never seen waits that high before on standby.

Even before my son was born, I would check my own harness when strapping myself into a ride, isn't that what most people do, even with a ride op also checking? The only difference now is I make sure he is fastened in before me.

To each their own, but I wouldn't let my 6 year old ride on any big ride without me. I'd rather wait longer and be able to keep a hand on his harness and check and buckle him into the ride personally and be safe than sorry. I've suffered a lot of motion sickness riding with my head sideways checking on him on some rides. Pretty sure even at 8 years old I won't be letting him go into a single-rider line and line up and ride alone either.

Wasn't the new area coming to Chessington also rumored to be Jumanji themed? Considering Gardaland and Chessington are owned by the same company, that rumor is looking a lot more true now.

^They're ordered by 2019 attendance numbers. If you rearrange them by 2020 attendance, Magic Kingdom still comes out on top, but Shanghai Disney would then be the 2nd most attended park followed by Universal Japan which overtook both the Tokyo Disney parks this year. Like I said previously, I can believe those numbers. Korean parks were some of the only ones in the world to not close for a single day, Everland which didn't have any closures or corona scares dropped 58% and Lotte World which only closed a handful of times but did have publicized visits from corona patients in the early days when track and trace was able to follow where the cases were coming from had a much bigger drop of 74%. And these are parks that rely on mostly domestic or Chinese tourists, so I can definitely believe some of the Florida parks dropped that much with big closures, especially with the loss of international visitors. It also blows my mind that Woongjin Playdoci Waterdoci, always makes it so high on water park lists for Asia. All the other big Korean parks are huge indoor/outdoor areas with some big raft slides and water coasters etc but Woongjin is almost like a small local indoor park, it has 3 body slides and a body water bowl slide. I don't think I ever want to visit that on any non-pandemic years.

SUPER NINTENDO WORLD™ EXPANSION WORLD’S FIRST DONKEY KONG THEMED AREA SET TO OPEN IN 2024 https://www.usj.co.jp/company/company_e/2021/0928.html?fbclid=IwAR1wtzmcFpXMoLM272yXhOCbnB-wozG0xRysHRpRF1wWoyjcRB8_Ue9JKWc Since its opening, SUPER NINTENDO WORLD at Universal Studios Japan has gained worldwide attention from fans and guests who continue to level up with excitement while experiencing the land’s rides, interactive themed entertainment and game play featuring iconic Nintendo characters. To further immerse guests into Nintendo’s well-known series of games, Universal Studios Japan will expand the land to include a new area themed after Donkey Kong. The new area will bring to life the world of one of Nintendo’s most beloved games and feature a roller coaster, interactive experiences, themed merchandise and food – and all the fun and excitement of SUPER NINTENDO WORLD. Guests will feel like they are playing inside the world of Donkey Kong as they take a walk on the wild side through the lush jungles where Donkey Kong and his friends live. The new area is set to open in 2024. Nintendo’s Donkey Kong franchise started with an arcade game in 1981 and quickly captured the hearts of fans around the world. Since then, the Donkey Kong game series has continually delivered more games on Nintendo video game systems, such as the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Wii, and Nintendo Switch. The series has sold over 65 million units (as of March 2021) worldwide to generations of fans. The Universal creative team and the Nintendo creative team — including Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of Super Mario — will bring the new Donkey Kong themed area to life. The area will be a gamechanger that combines the innovative technology and globally popular approach to theme park entertainment of Universal with the creativity of Nintendo. With the addition of the Donkey Kong area, SUPER NINTENDO WORLD at Universal Studios Japan will increase in size by approximately 70%. J.L. Bonnier, President & CEO, Universal Studios Japan: SUPER NINTENDO WORLD creates a whole new level of theme park entertainment and has quickly become an exciting, must-do experience for our guests. We are thrilled to continue working with Nintendo as we fulfill our vision to bring their characters and stories to life. Our new Donkey Kong themed area will bring even more excitement and fun to the SUPER NINTENDO WORLD experience. Shigeru Miyamoto, Representative Director, Fellow of Nintendo: I am very happy to be able to make the world of Donkey Kong a reality following the world of Mario. I am looking forward to creating a thrilling Donkey Kong experience with the amazing team at Universal. It will take some time until it is completed, but it will be a unique area for not only people who are familiar with Donkey Kong games, but for all guests. -- I got excited that this picture shows a nice patch to the right of Donkey Kong for a future (Zelda?) 3rd expansion, but looking at pictures above it seems that's actually where the Mario Kart building is.

I stand corrected, it was finally released: https://www.teaconnect.org/images/files/TEA_408_342874_210923.pdf and the drops are pretty grim. I can only really comment on the Korean side but Everland was the only park I think on the top 20 list that never closed for a single day in 2020 and it still saw almost a 60% drop in attendance. Lotte World only closed for 3-5 days only but some much publicized reports of corona positive people being the reason for closures led to an 74% drop.

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Wasn't it the owners of this park that also rented Magic Kingdom for a night for their employees and did something similar at the castle?

There's an aquarium here in Korea that keeps white tigers, white lions, bears, hyenas, arctic foxes, and a bunch of smaller animals at the end and charge the kids to put meat on a stick through a hole to feed them.... Makes a fortune for them I'm sure but seems pretty grim that they live permanently indoors.

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So because of Corona is there no 2020 report? I was curious on how much of a drop there had been due to the pandemic and some parks closing.

^Agreed, every child is different but I can't even imagine convincing our almost 6 year old son to ride this. Not saying it's this incident, but with a ride like this where you drop from the top and the drop is hidden, I can see parents for this kind of ride not telling their children how deep it drops or how fast because I always see it on other rides, where parent's don't tell the children about drops in tunnels on water rides or give the children time to observe how a ride really works because they think the reactions are "cute" or just to trick them into riding so the parents can do it. And will put off a lot of children. My son insisted on riding one of those dragon double helix coasters and wouldn't hear otherwise because he'd seen children riding it on Youtube and after watching it together, explaining it together, him refusing to move on until he tried it... he hated it, and refused anything with a lap bar after that experience for a couple of months afterwards. It's also worth noting even if your child does like a different ride like a drop tower or even has done it before doesn't mean they'll like it at a different park or on a different day. We used up some ride tickets because our son's favorite ride, apart from bumper cars that he is allowed to drive and bump, is any ride that he can manually spin, and he suddenly changed his mind just as he got in the car on this one just because they were suspended from above and wobbled as he got in. But I'd rather waste the $10 than force him to do it just because we already paid, and have a situation of him panicking while it is in motion. It wouldn't be a pleasant memory for either of us so of course I'm not going to scold him for lost tickets over showing him making a choice of saying no is OK.

Judging by TPR's previous social feeds, something for Elissa:

Source Well, seems I called it correctly in the post above when I said I couldn't see them leaving just the mine train if all the other rides in that area were being removed. In addition to the 5 I found in the article in the previous post, the mine train coaster also closed so I'm assuming it was one of the two that weren't listed. Edit: The map is a good indicator of what's gone. Although some rides are shown on the map, they just aren't listed or numbered anymore. So only 4 rides left at the marine world area: The chairswings, pirate ship, Ferris wheel and the new Top Scan (the observation tower is technically part of the summit but without the big looped path now the mine train area is gone, it's basically in it's own separate area of the park). 2 of which according to my last posts article are going to be removed: The chairswings and ferris wheel. I'm very curious now if the super sized Top Scan is on its way out too. It's brand new, but with the log flume, drop towers, and mine train gone it's basically sitting down a dead-end. Unlike the pirate ship, that's super old, I can see them trying to sell it on to another park.

Due to corona still spreading Everland has closed the water park already for the season. Typically they would run the smaller indoor section in the winter months but the whole park will be shut from tomorrow.

Corona is the highest it's ever been in Japan, but unlike last year when numbers were much lower the parks are running, albeit, with limited capacity and lottery based ticket reservations. If even super safety conscious Japan is trying to now adjust into a 'living with corona' type situation of balancing the economy vs infection rate, I really hope travel can resume in 2022.

^ I had a small crumbled tissue in my pocket, that I had forgotten was there, but they spotted the tiny pocket bulge and was told to go put it in a locker. I didn't spot the trash can nearby and had to locker it in exchange for a wristband locker key much bigger than a tissue.

I've never really paid attention to Disney passes, not being local, but out of curiosity, why are almost all of them locked to Florida residents only? Was it that way previously?

Ed Asner passed away peacefully last night.

Yep, my introduction to big rides was on a trip to Florida. Some height differences aren't much between Europe and America, I think a lot worked out around 3cm difference but that's a lot to a kid. I know people talk about states requirements and manufacturer requirements etc but at least in the case of us international traveler for Europe being higher I think it's the Metric system. Montu for example is 54inches = 137cm. European parks use centimetres but nearly always round it up to the nearest 10cm eg. 110cm requirement, 140cm requirement etc. I got turned away for riding Ripsaw, a Huss Top spin at Alton Towers, (at 140cm) being just under the line but could ride Montu, on a family vacation I think 2 weeks later. 3-5cm isn't a big difference to us adults but to a child just hitting the lines, it makes all the difference.

Granted it's Vice and AV Club, but it's crazy to me that this story is showing up in articles internationally.