Garet

^ The original one or two that popped up were constantly busy and since they're relatively cheap to run and upkeep there seem to be quite a few popping up or under construction around the country. The ski/countryside resorts especially have been jumping on the bandwagon and building them.

I'll try not to post too often unless there is significant progress but posting these because better quality pictures were posted today on the message board today compared to the ones I found on another site yesterday. Source

Track work is moving along on the Blue Fire clone. The first spike of the Power Splash has also been installed which you can see in the corner of the next door's Luge Park construction picture below which interestingly lists Lotte World for an August opening.... Not sure if they're just confusing that opening with the Luge Park because it seems there's still a lot of work to be done. Source Source

I'm impressed by the amount of people wearing masks properly though compared to how the news used to report on America here. My son wanted the bumper cars here in Korea and the queue social distanced about as well as your picture but everyone seemed to be hitting the snack lines and coffee carts and using the queue time to pull their masks now and munch away with their masks on their chins.

I kind of wish they'd kept the original gates swinging open with the 'Welcome to Jurassic Park/World' moment and the original score kicking in, and put the aquarium as the middle part but I seem to be the only one missing the welcome moment.

I feel like most locals with at least half a brain and most enthusiasts would avoid the park during that grand opening rush. The majority of those that day will be the 'Firsties!' crowd and I'm alright skipping a few weeks rather than them desperately posting their queue updates every 10 minutes on Instagram for bragging rights.

^ You and I have very different definitions of fun.

People will throw the words 'casualty of corona,' if this places ends up closing down but I think stubbornness is a major factor here. When you see even Six Flags adapting to the pandemic and finding new ways to bring in money there is no reason for this park to experiment and trial new things. It just seems with the shops, ski-slope and water park they could really try and entice people to come in and drop some money on individual rides but they've stubbornly stuck to their pricing the whole time even when it doesn't seem to work. For example, a new park in Korea that is also struggling, Shinhwa World, completely reinvented it's pricing. We drove past a new credit on the Korean island of Jeju because we couldn't justify the cost of a full day ticket around ($35-40) for a couple of rides and potentially using up a whole day to justify the cost. Especially because the island is filled to the brim with cheap drop in tourist sites that only take an hour or two. The park realized this and now you can purchase individual tickets for just $4 a ride. An all-day ticket has now been cut to $20 to try and entice the domestic tourists who are now showing up to the island to pop in rather than drive by because of the price. Just feels like this park could do well to entice people to 'drop-in' from all the other attractions or shops rather than trying to force people to give up their time at the other places. $75 dollars per person for half a day is just ridiculous.

Source Disney definitely takes breaking the covid rules seriously. There's body cam footage in the link.

Source I really like this idea. My wife and I have always wanted to try a cruise mainly to relax and for the food. Feels almost like a starter pack for people who aren't too sure about the cost of doing a cruise would be a great cheap alternative for us to do a very short 2 days before deciding if we really want to experience one of the longer packages once corona is over.

My hotel in Tokyo did the same thing, I had to return the key to the desk whenever I went out out every day.

I think what they're referring to was that all 3 new areas for the Disneyland side expansion were boat rides.

Jessica Walter passed away in her sleep. Source

This sounds great. This park really seems to bend over backwards more than any other park in the world to make sure things don't get removed. Is it just because it's the original park? Seems like other parks aren't afraid to update or remove in the name of progress. Only thing I'm surprised about is that all the copies of the Tokyo Disneysea rides are boat rides, I would have thought that they'd have gone for a copy of TDL's Beauty and The Beast ride in place of Peter Pan or Rapunzel (Frozen was always going to happen.)

Found a link to a shop design that shows some concept art for the Mack roller coaster. Source This site shows construction progress on the park currently: and of the Luge park next door. Source

Source

Everland have announced the retirement of the Safari World Buses. The announcement ends with New Safari World coming soon. The fact it mentions goodbye to the buses after 45 years makes me think it will become an extension of the zoo area but some other channels seem to think it means new buses are coming.

Everland's being using codes for it's lottery/points based fast pass which is only available if you use the official Everland App for years, and this year, due to corona, for its virtual lines, and I don't recall there ever being a case of it being abused.

^Maybe they've seen Coasterbill's posts on Cedar Fair lately (for good reasons) and are trying to make it up to him?

How can you even pretend that it doesn't? Even my 5 year old knows putting racing stripes on things makes them go faster. I mean sure his paint of choice is somehow play-dough but....but... SCIENCE!

Looks like my missed opportunities thread could have some new visitors.

Super Nintendo World will now officially open on March 18: "WE ARE MARIO!" Guests will Unleash their Passion to Play at the World’s First New Expansive Nintendo Theme Park Area "SUPER NINTENDO WORLD" GRAND OPENING MARCH 18, 2021! https://www.usj.co.jp/company/company_e/2021/0308.html Universal Studios Japan will hold its grand opening of the world’s first SUPER NINTENDO WORLD on March 18, 2021*2 – bringing to life a highly themed and immersive land featuring Nintendo’s legendary worlds, characters and adventures where guests will be able to play inside their favorite Nintendo games. The grand opening of SUPER NINTENDO WORLD will kick off the park’s year-long 20th Anniversary Celebration. SUPER NINTENDO WORLD will make its debut as the first multi-level land at Universal Studios Japan where Peach’s Castle and Bowser’s Castle tower over the area. It will feature Mario Kart- and Yoshi-themed rides and attractions, as well as restaurants, shops and other experiences that can only be found at Universal Studios Japan. It also provides guests with an all-new type of "Asobi" play experience where they will jump, punch ? Blocks and collect virtual coins. Guests can purchase a Power-Up Band in the land and sync it to their smartphones to keep track of their score and compete with other park guests. At Key Challenge attractions around the land, guests can collect keys, gather character stamps and more using their entire bodies in dynamic activities. Families and friends will unleash their passion to play in the new SUPER NINTENDO WORLD.

^Just because it opens doesn't mean the losses become less massive. There are a lot of operating and running costs, staff wages, getting the park ready to open etc involved and if the park isn't confident that an open park with only 15% of attendance is going to have a big impact they might hesitate. Or they'll look at ways to run the park that are less costly. Everland is one of the world's top 20 visited parks and for years now they've run a split shift system in the park on weekdays. One ride in each zone running all day, then each zone has one ride open for a morning shift (10-2), a one hour 'break' then the other ride will open for the evening shift (3-8).

So many years I'd pop up to the station and see this sign was still there and hope... Even though the all Korean sign confirmed it was gone for a 'new attraction' which turned out to be a garden (after a cancelled on-site hotel project). The Small World knock-off had a similar sign of a 'new attraction' and became a garden. My favorite rumor that I hear over the years and pops up now and again on some websites is the pandas are to blame for being too expensive for the lack of new attractions.

They could throw out some random obscure character that no-one has ever heard of and claim it'll be the only ever appearance, and the usual clientele would be tripping over each other to get tickets and bragging rights. I can't talk though because I really wanted to meet Oswald last time I was in Japan even though we were only doing a weekend in Osaka and had no time to get across to Tokyo, although at least that was for myself.