Garet

Seems the Korean Water Resources Group have now given up on it being a Universal Park and are handing it off to Shinsegae Group to get their theme park off the ground. Source

I just saw Fantastic Beasts 2: crimes of Jonny Depp and it was ok... which is probably how I feel about most Harry Potter films but this one was more meh than most but I kind of realized, it's interesting this brand new ride isn't themed to this part of the franchise at all. Harry Potter isn't going anywhere, anytime soon but I find it interesting that even though this is movie 2 of 5 even this new ride is focused on a finished part of the franchise. I mean when was the last time a park ignored a currently ongoing series for an old one. The original Star Wars is huge but Galaxy's Edge is focused on the sequel trilogy, it makes me wonder how much faith there is in the Fantastic Beasts series.

I have a suspicion that most guests who are visiting the parks for all the rides will just refer to it as ‘the motorcycle coaster’ or something along those lines and even most potter fans will probably say something along the lines of ‘The Hagrid ride’ or something similar. I see hardcore theme park enthusiasts insisting on using its full name more than even Harry Potter fans actually.

Could it be the sub terra towers have been re used in this dungeon? The ride wasn’t that old to be scrapped and I think the London dungeon have the same tower for a hangman’s ride or at least one similar in that you load at the top of the tower and get dropped below.

Saw the Lion King tour here in Korea. I enjoyed it because I love the music (even if I'm one of the few who isn't the biggest fan of the story) but it was kind of weird for me. I've seen a lot of musicals here (mostly domestic productions and a few international tours) and we've never had problems getting tickets for anything but this sold out instantly and I think is breaking sales records. Every musical we've seen in Asia has been the same routine, polite clapping throughout without any cheering or standing no matter how great it was but then all hell breaks loose at the curtain call. Maybe we just got a bum day with the audience but you could feel the disconnect in the air. I would laugh at something and hear nothing and the curtain call was just polite applause. The drummer tried to get the audience to clap along after the interval and people just sat there or clapped along very half-assed. I think over-hype can be dangerous butI'm not sure if that was it or people were expecting something more special being an international tour. I've seen a lot of domestic tours, even with my Korean being passable at best, because the amount of energy Koreans put into the choreography and performance can be insane. We saw rock of ages on a whim because I thought it'd be cool to see how they fit Korean lyrics into the pop songs and the number of dancers and energy throughout was great and I don't even like the original. There were subtitles off to the side which I guess could be a big disconnect when you have to keep looking away from the stage but that didn't happen when we saw Avenue Q. Every joke got a big laugh there and you think how much that relies on language to keep the audience invested compared to something visual like the Lion King. It could be a case of puppets being dirty and foul-mouthed in English is more of a niche sale in Korea so everyone knew what they were in for and wanted to be there compared to Lion King where people came because it was THE musical that's breaking records. So yeah I enjoyed myself but felt very awkward laughing when only a few were or seeing flashes of screens as people checked their phones so I think I might carry on seeing domestic tours. There's been Korean performances of Lion King here that have come and went with little fanfare. My wife compared it to when we rode Jungle Cruise at HKDL. Chineses people getting on the English version ride without any understanding of English (even when the line was longer for that version) because they think it'll make them look more dignified somehow or that it'll be different than the one in their language (there were a couple of Korean specific jokes about Everland or Zazu singing a Korean song) and are then disappointed when they only just then realize they've just got the same they've seen before but in another language. People left happy and the performers gave it their all but like the skipper on that Jungle Cruise ride, you can feel the disconnect when it isn't landing too well and theirs that awkward silence.

I posted that in this thread a couple of years ago,They also took a ride on X2. [youtu_be] [/youtu_be] Here's one they did on T Express. Not sure if this video includes the do the make-up challenge or having to present the news on a top-spin since MBC block the videos domestically to send you to watch it on the Korean sites. [youtu_be] [/youtu_be]

Anyone remember when there was a nightclub in the village? I don't know what I was expecting, I think I pictured a Disney decorated night-club playing disco versions of Disney songs but I remember it being really generic, quite expensive for drinks and entrance and it had barely any people who went there.

I wanted to see where coasters I had ridden ended up on the last poll. For some reason I got a server error when looking through the previous poll but only on page 9: https://coasterpoll.com/results/steel?page=9 Edit: page 12 and 14 too

How many copies does a ride need before it counts as a clone? Most rides I've ridden don't make the final poll numbers due to being in Korea/Japan. Just wondering if Draken will be grouped with Griffon (I think Sheikra and Oblivion are similar in having a single clone each) or does the fact this has a different train to Griffon have an effect on it being counted as a clone? I only have about 70 coasters to my name so it sits just outside my top ten (mainly thanks to some friends who took me to Cedar Point on a visit out to them) and would look strange way above Griffon/Sheikra.

Or perhaps not so many are being built now compared to the '90s because so many parks already have one... you know when they built them in the 90's? People said dive coasters were dead after Oblivion/G9 and look how many have been built after Sheikra. One just opened in Korea. People said Flyers were dead after AIR/Superman and we've seen a few in China/Japan in recent years. Now if you'd said it's crickets for the aquatrax business (RIP Atlantis's water jets), I might have listened. The only difference between now and the 90's is if a park decides on a B&M and approaches them they have a much bigger catalog to choose from on what they want.

I still miss Tot's single rider line. I only ever saw it on the park map once and that was back in Feb 2012. It was one less fast-pass to plan for back then.

Kingdom Heart themed hotel rooms will be available in the Disney Ambassador Hotel from January-June: https://kotaku.com/japan-getting-kingdom-hearts-themed-hotel-rooms-1831797106

Gotta love TPR. Sometimes when I get an email notification about a new post, in this case, one of A.J.'s posts, not even having hit the debate/argument yet I'll scroll down and suddenly see I've got 4 pages of reading on what is usually a dead thread in the space of a few hours and I already know what I'm in for before I even have clicked to view the next page.

Ha I'm guessing you didn't check out the Jeju aquarium on your visit to Jeju? They have a big whale shark statue out front, use it as their logo for that aquarium sell plushies of it and pictures on the site when the only clue it isn't in the park anymore is a little note buried on a picture of their site. http://www.aquaplanet.co.kr/jeju/eng/01aqua/gallery_info3.jsp

Interesting location, although not much seems to have changed from the previous times it's been announced (i think even that promo picture is still the same one) There are not any parks in that area so it will have very little competition and the area is really popular in the late spring-early fall. I visited Nami Island which isn't too far from here. A lot of K-drama fans go out there for the island and it's well known for being able to zip-line to get to the island (a small bungee jump tower was there too.) Around Chuncheon there are those inflatable water playgrounds on the lakes all too or water sports on powerboats too. Lots of people do weekends and stay in the pensions so I can easily see people turning their second day in the countryside into a Legoland trip.

^Everland does that to make snow slides for the guests and uses the freezing weather and them to manipulate and transform the panda area and safari rides: http://news.samsungcnt.com/everlands-snow-safari-welcomes-winter-fauna/ [fbvideonew] [/fbvideonew] On my last winter visit to Fuji-Q they transformed the paddleboat area into an ice rink, not sure if they still do since it's been a long time since my last visit.

This one comes up more as theme parks in the snow than rollercoasters but here's Everland's pictures they put up in the snow from their Facebook page

^Did you get your ride in? The park was pretty busy on the 31st but rides were open until 1 am and the heavy crowds may have worked in your favor since T Express opened, the other days during the cold snap here it was closed on weather standby.

Ride Sims 2 will go live tomorrow at midday GMT time at http://www.ridesims.com Looks like there will be 3 new sims: Baron, Taron and the WDW Monorail with 5 returning sims: Splash Mountain, Space Mountain Mission 2, Rock N Rollercoaster, Ripsaw and Helix. Presumably, we shall see some more of the older sims return as the year goes on, I do hope so, Tower of Terror, Radiator Springs Racers and Mystic Manor ended up being some of my biggest time sinks on the original site.

I wonder if the Hunger Games or Twilight ride will show up at the Lionsgate park in Jeju Korea considering those announced franchises line up with the Jeju announcement.

A new ride will be coming to Lotte World in 2019 called Across Dark. It's being advertised as an XR adventure on the walls of the 4th floor. I believe it's where the Dynamic Theater was, which was a 3d simulator theater before. I say I believe because I don't think I ever actually rode in the theater after my very first visit almost 10 years ago. Though the site says 2018, the construction walls say 2019. Although it's replacing another screen ride so not increasing the count I think Lotte World might be competing with Universal for most screen rides: This new ride, 3 Wild simulators: valley, wings and jungle, dragon shooting, desperados, 4d shooting theater, beluga talk show, flying theater, ghost house 3D, Lotte's Air balloon, not to mention the pay and play VR zone in the basement and VR on Gyro Drop and French Revolution. It seems to be by the same company responsible for Lotty's Balloon Ride, the 360 degree screen on the 1st floor and their flying theater: http://www.4thparty.co.kr/portfolio/new-cinematic-vr/

It’ll be down for it’s yearly rehab the month of January so go before the second. They normally do it then since it can be too cold to operate. I’d have to check the weather limits on the korean site when I’m home.

Seems even Japan/Tokyo Disney is sadly not as immune from stupid people as we all hoped: https://kotaku.com/instagram-manners-and-tokyo-disneyland-1830978962

^I had no idea that was a way to do it, when i re-evaluate and add the couple of new coasters I think i'd like to group them. On that note, i'm surprised people really want to rank pinifaris, and things like boomerang clones and slcs and put them in there. I have a fairly small amount of coaster ridden, I think around 80-90 and apart from maybe 15 at the top and 10 at the bottom, and even then it was fairly hard with forgettable or even good coasters to try and sort them into order. I had a bunch of coasters that all were just fun but nothing special that I had no idea which order i'd put those 20-30, I didn't know I could just group them so that will make it much easier this time.

All around the world they laugh at us and our lack of amusement parks in cold weather! I have ridden Splash Mountain in the snow in Tokyo! (Along with a BUNCH of roller coasters) The German's are strong too! Europe in general...I mean the amount of speedos we saw in water parks in 65 degrees always amazes me! Even on a 'dead day' because a powerful snowstorm caused severe disruption of the subways and most rides closed in the morning (even a parade cancellation) during it making most of the guests leave, this thing still had a 40 min line on a cold night in February once people started re-entering the park in the evening.