Garet

Gyeongju World, Korea is year round and their B&M's have the same limit and the park warns you on the site that they won't run if you visit on too cold a day since temperatures can hit up to -4 degrees here. However nearly all the year round parks like Everland and Gyeongju run multiple snow slides to entice people in and offset the water ride/coaster closure. Even smaller parks that run year round like the Folk Village or Seoul Land set up one slope in the winter.

^My Uncle's always talked fondly of the one at Flamingo Land as well.

^ Honestly, I don't think any of Ocean Parks coasters are very good and only have the views going for them, even the new B&M which is maybe one of my least favorite B&M's I've ever ridden (I'd heard people complain but on my first visit it just seemed to have typical B&M rattle, however on my last visit it was really bad.) Screamscape is reporting the Arrow coaster is going to get the cut for certain but 1) it's Screamscape and 2) their source is just another blog site called Coaster Kings who credit Hong Kong news without linking to the article but after some searching I found it Here. The article mentions 7 but I could only match up 5 using the Chinese since the translation really made the names different but the 5 listed in the article turned out to be: The Ferris Wheel, Dragon Coaster (Arrow Looper), Abyss Drop Towers, Chairswings, and Log Flume. Saying that however if I were to take a guess, I would also think that the whole back-end of the park would be the first to be phased out. So one of the other of the 7 could be the swinging ship since all the rides around it are being removed. Even on packed days whenever I have been people show up for the dolphin show and then return to the summit area near the train and cable car, the only ride that ever had a line was the observation tower. The place is a ghost town and I don't think I've ever waited for any ride there including the Arrow coaster. The Condor ride was already removed from there a while ago. Considering the main entrance of the park is mostly devoid of rides and probably going to be the area for dining/entertainment, and most of the rides in that article marked as being removed are in the same area in the back of the park I can see them turning that area into the rentable area for '3rd party operators' since it isn't too far from the funicular and cable car stations. The only wild cards are 1) there's a brand new 6 seater version top-scan there which if this article is true it will be completely on it's own which is a bit weird and 2) I'm curious how they will entice people to go there if the park is now a pay to ride park. It might be a hard-sell to 3rd operators to move in all the way up there since that area isn't accessible without taking the train/cable-car. When people had already paid to go through the gate, of course they went up, but I feel like under the new model more people just going to look around will end up down in the entrance/aquarium/panda area. Perhaps the funicular will become free to get more people up to the summit and the cable-car will be paid? Will be interesting to see how the animal exhibits spread throughout the park will factor into the new paying model as well. The other area is the flume/mine-train area. It's far away and another area that people never wanted to make the trek to. The Huss Enterprise was already removed and this article lists the log flume. I just don't see the mine train being kept open if it's the only ride in that far off corner. They added VR to it to revitalize it but they did the same to The Abyss drop tower and that's apparently being cut. Honestly I'm basing it off that newspaper article, so don't take it as confirmed until the park or government says something. I haven't heard anything official yet but the park and government is supposed to release details at the earliest next Monday so maybe confirmation could come then. I've attached pictures of one of our trips on a hot sunny September of the crowds entering and the rides at the back-end. Full disclaimer that it seemed a lot of the crowds that day were there for the aquarium, dolphin show and the animal exhibits around the rides at the top because that's where we kept hitting crowds.

I really hope I'm wrong but when I hear '3rd party operators installing rides and collecting revenue' all I think of is 'carnival'

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