Garet

Source I heard about it because someone shared a Korean website, I haven't included their article above because they are pretty bad at being clickbaity, and inaccurate, so the article has wrong information e.g. location of the park and their pictures are of a Vekoma corkscrew and Vekoma Inverted coaster that are from random parks and nothing to do with this park, however I mention it because they have one picture to do with the article which is a more grisly picture of the aftermath that I wasn't sure I should post in the topic but click at your own discretion: Link

I think they're still hoping to host it, hence the state of emergencies being used around Japan. I also don't see it happening but with all the money already invested and jobs promised they'll try everything they can before it gets cancelled. There is insurance but there have been estimates that a cancellation could cost Japan up to $50 billion. Even taking the next slot or next open slot causes a lot of issues in terms of maintaining everything, having to redo all the logistics and planning especially since the next open slot is 2032, but it's hard to gather how much a delay would cost until a date is decided and after the games have finally happened. One of the reasons it's still called Tokyo 2020 is because of the cost of re-branding, merchandising etc.

And Bullet in Mexico which is kind of like a Shuttle Loop. I really wish I'd headed out to Flamingo Land to try it many years ago instead of deciding on going to Drayton Manor to try out a stand up coaster instead.

I found the problem, it was on my end, this browser guard (which I didn't even though I had as an extension) was taking offense to something on the site, turning it off fixed it.

I'm getting all broken images, I'm on chrome if that helps. Also the Thunderbolt clone from Robot Land South Korea and the Mack Spinner from Shinhwa World South Korea are missing on the polls.

Source In other news, I mentioned how we skipped this park on our last visit, because we couldn't justify the price or time on an all day ticket when the park had only a handful of rides. Especially when most of the island's many tourist attractions are designed to be quick visit places. Seems the park has realized this too because it's now a free entry park so if you just want the Mack spinner credit a single ride ticket is 4,000 won (around $4), 3 rides at 11,000 won ($11) or 5 rides at 18,000 ($18) but honestly at that point you might as well get the unlimited pass for 20,000 ($20) I wonder if people weren't going due to the price, we were there very close to it's opening week during Korea's busiest holiday and we decided it wasn't worth paying around 39,000 back in 2017. For the price to be cut by half is quite a big drop.

Source

^ Yes, especially Japan. I've seen people sit down ready for Fantasmic at TDS almost 4 hours before and people show up almost an hour early just to try the lottery for show tickets for night-time or theater shows at both the Japanese Disney parks.

There are videos online, I won't share them here because I remember USJ having a strict camera policy so they were most likely done without permission.

^You also get guaranteed entry to Nintendo Land and Harry Potter area as part of that price, so you don't waste the morning rushing around to get an entry ticket to those lands. I always bought a 7 pass, my wife doesn't ride much but I used to buy a 4 for her and use her tickets just so she'd be able to go in the same time as me. There was never any guarantee in the park she'd be able to get the time that matched my express pass otherwise. One good thing about the price increasing a lot is that even before corona, they weren't selling out almost a month in advance anymore. I remember one time we were planning a Japan trip and the passes were sold out so far in advance that you had to just pick a day without a weather forecast and pray to the weather gods. With there being over 12 different options of fast pass now, I kind of wish the park would either add a option like Fuji-Q/Nagashima and let you buy individual tickets for each ride to skip the line or just simplify it into 3 options of premium/7/4 and then let you pick your own rides from a list online over all these fixed options e.g. Allowed only 1 of the big 4, then pick whatever else for your other 6.

^ Just don't ever ask me to throw HHN in there, that's the expert level course and I'm not brave enough to head out then. I think Robb and Elissa did that juggling act for a TPR trip though. As far as I'm aware the Minions ticket is only for Minion Mayhem, and Ice Sliders doesn't come up for premium so I'm assuming it doesn't have an express line but I haven't been in the park since it opened so someone else will have to confirm. And yes, Spider-man seems to be exclusive to the 4 pass (and premium) and the choose Jaws/Hollywood Dream ticket for the 7 (and premium) with Jurassic Park so far the only one on the premium since Backdraft/Terminator/Shrek are closed due to corona they aren't even listed on the site yet. Also Hollywood Dream Back drop is only a choice on the 7 pass now as well. The Nintendo rides fit into the 4 set in that the choices only give you one of the two rides in there for the 4 set or none at all depending on your choice. Bare in mind every pass can have different prices form each other so I'm just going to list the rides and going from the Japanese site and the new express 4 options are.... now 7 different options... 2 fast pass options- Sing, Minions, Spider-Man then one set offers Mario Kart and the other Yoshi (this is the only 4 set to give you Yoshi) 3 fast pass options - Mario Kart, Harry Potter Forbidden Journey, Spider-Man and a choice of Flying Dinosaur, Minions or Space Fantasy (so no Backdrop in the 4 tier) 2 fast pass options with no Nintendo Land - Harry Potter Forbidden Journey, Hippogryph roller-coaster, Spider-Man and a choice of Flying Dinosaur or Minions. Tl;dr: One Premium option (Everything) Four Universal 7 options (Both Nintendo Land rides) Seven Universal 4 options (One or none Nintendo Land rides) Jurassic Park is exclusive to premium Hollywood Dream Backdrop (as an option), Jaws/Hollywood Dream is exclusive to the 7 pass (and premium) Yoshi is only on one option out of the 7 on the 4 pass, Mario Kart is on four of them (and premium) Spider-Man is exclusive to the 4 pass (and premium)

So one of the biggest things that always put me off revisiting USJ when we visited Osaka was how you couldn't do all the rides on one fast-pass set, even on the universal 7 you had to choose one of the 3-4 sets available with a headline ride, and even then the other tickets also made you choose between rides. Well good news,now USJ finally has a premium tier which will give you one go on each ride. It will just cost you up to $355 on a March weekend per person and that's before you factor in admission tickets. Anyone want to guess how much the actual maximum will turn out to be in the summer months? With Nintendo Land, there has been a shake-up on most of the other passes. The 7 guarantees one headliner that you choose (Sing,Backdrop, Space Fantasy, or Flying Dinosaur), one Minion ride, the two Harry Potter rides and now the two Nintendo Land rides. That means now only one ticket is left which is now (Jaws/Hollywood Dream). Jurassic Park (and potentially Shrek4D/Backdraft/Terminator when they reopen) have been bumped to only the premium tier except Spider-man which is now a 4/premium ride pass exclusive. Although I think the only reason Spider-man's there is to try and make people buy multiple passes as well as split up Nintendo Land and since it means there are no cheap options that include both Nintendo Land rides because the 4 passes all include one headliner, one Spider-Man, and then only one or none of the Nintendo rides.

Not sure how many people ever saw him play but e-sports is huge in Korea so discussions come up a lot in my class especially since so many kids want to be pro-gamers. Whenever they ask me if I followed or watched any, the way this guy graciously accepted losing his title and supported the 16-year old kid who beat him comes to mind.

Even if word got out do people really expect the place to say more than a little PR statement along the lines of "During our pre-opening testing, we found a slight technical problem on one of the ride vehicles and we are investigating. Your safety is our priority."

Source Government have requested the park shorten their hours from tomorrow, but it's only an hour less. I've noticed this in Korea too, that a lot of Asian countries are trying to have a lot of people home by 9PM to try and reduce the corona numbers, trying to find a balance between an acceptable number of corona cases without the economic consequences being too devastating from full closures. Of course slightly less time in Tokyo Disney is better than no hours at all. The website also reports that restaurants in the park will close even earlier and firework shows will be suspended from tomorrow as well.

I mean a whole seat apparently flew off the Battlestar Galactica coaster in Singapore during morning testing in March 2010 and the only public statement then was I don't think it was until August there were finally details:

I think some still run but didn't Blackpool Pleasure Beach used to have 3 different arenas running full on 90 minute-2-hour shows that had quiet expensive tickets but you could get a cheap seat for free with your wristband? I think there was an acrobatic show set to music, an ice skating show and a magician show.

^I've seen English article refer to her as both Fu Bao and Pu Bao from where they've romanized the Korean alphabet. Personally, I think it sounds more like Pu(Poo) Bao. It's one of the penguin teddy bears from the gift shop. Edit: The weekend was fully booked to see the panda so quickly so think I've missed my chance.

Everland's baby panda will go on display from 4th January. Panda World will become reservation only with only 20 people allowed in every 20 minutes. People have already started booking their spaces here

Tokyo Disney seems to be also switching some rides to reservation only for the busy Christmas season. Source The English website also seems to make it that you can't queue up again for the same ride Source At least it says if there is a wait-time at the attraction, you won't need a standby pass so potentially you could try and get a ride you missed out on or get another ride in the evening. Everland has been making people use the virtual queue line even when the wait time was listed at 0 minutes and trains were empty.

I'm predicting that Dollywood's next coaster will be a (hopefully) more reliable Lightning Rod. You heard it hear first... or second.... or fourteenth, I've lost count after pages on the prices of fudge and the ratio of wood:steel for what can be called a wooden roller-coaster.

Best - T-Express. It wants to be El Toro until it hits the MCBR then decides it's going to turn into Balder. Worst - Can't remember too many rides where I felt it being too long killed too much of the momentum but as a kid I remember the Pepsi Max Big One getting pretty slow near the end, having a very slow force less helix and a little tunnel back to the station.

Everland's parades always ends in a mini arena with a stage and they have a sort of show/story. This was filmed on a very quiet weekday but it's packed on weekends and I think they used to have a story behind why you had to help in the water fight. I've skipped most of the story to the moment all hell breaks loose. Speaking of Everland and shows I miss, I miss when the park used to run jukebox fireworks in the summer. I managed to see both of these. One year the fireworks show was set to musicals: And another year set to instrumentals where they decided Chariots of Fire should live up to the fire part: That site in the last two videos also has the Boo parade Elissa was talking about but it seems to be just the parade and not the show part.

With Corona hitting 1,000 a day, the government announcing popular tourist winter spots, such as mountains to watch the January 1st sunrise (a Korean new years tradition), ski resorts and sledding slopes must now close, and Everland being so devoid of crowds that every ride, even T Express and the safari rides are running mostly empty trains, Everland is now closing..... their rubber tube snow slope in the corner of the park to comply with government regulations. I think at this point Everland is determined to be (probably) the only park in the world to have been open 365 days in the year 2020. At least out of the worlds most visited parks, I think they're the only one to go without closing.