Garet

I'm wondering the same thing. I visited a few months back and found it to be super shaky and one of the roughest B&M's I have been on. I rode in the front the first time and it shook the hell out of me. I figured I just had a bad ride or something so I rode in the back the next time and it was the same. I was done after two rides as it gave me a terrible headache. Still loved the park, though. Funny you both had that same experience in the front. The grouper also put me in the front on both rides, since it was assigned seating, and I also had a rough experience, not mean streak bad or enough to completely ruin the ride but enough to be noticeable and make me decide to skip another re-ride later in the day, whereas a friend of mine who'd been maybe 3-4 months before hadn't noticed anything.

Debbie Reynolds has died a day after her daughter did: http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-38455777

I think I brought this up in my own TR or the discussion thread but it must be really hard for them to try and land those jokes in something that isn't their native language. I remember I did the night version at Tokyo and due to heavy snow the park was dead so it was just me and one Japanese couple. The skipper kept trying to apologize that she didn't know English while waiting for more guests even though I generally wanted to see the Japanese version after I'd tried Japanese Jaws the week before (that bubblegum high pitched skipper who sounded straight out of an anime until the shark showed up and she became a deep voiced batman/terminator hybrid will never be beaten for entertainment). I was amazed enough when people at both Tokyo Disney parks kept bringing me these subtitled boxes for some attractions. I bring this up because we've always avoided the English version after our first trip and it's fine without it. The skippers are more at ease and the atmosphere on the boat is much more pleasant. Maybe we've just been unlucky but we always find with the English version it's full of people who don't speak it but thought the line would be shorter or some mainland Chinese who speak well enough but want to show off how much they know. Heck, I remember one group who almost tried to use it for English practice for their child even when it was obvious he was shy, and kept pushing him to speak to the foreigners on the boat and skipper which you could see made people uncomfy.

^ Good catch, just guessing but I think probably not for Everland since the main focus there is the 2017 hotel on Eagle's Fortress's old site. Although there has been surprisingly little news and progress for it when I last visited so who knows, I'd definitely love a new coaster there. The Pororo theater is located on main street between buildings so I'm not sure how much space there is there, I think they'd probably just put in a new movie. It could honestly go anywhere in Korea but if i were to guess for the Thunderbolt, i'd say E-Land since they just brought 2 thrill rides from Zamperla and seem to be one of the only parks expanding. There's also Gyeongju World who have a construction site and station for a "2016 dive coaster" with drawings of a B&M ski lodge type ride that's on the construction walls for their snow park.The snow park just opened this week but the new site shows the park having a more Mystical theme and now mentions a diving coaster coaster for 2018 called Dragon: http://www.gjw.co.kr/amusements/information/04_noticeVw.asp?pMode=A&pMenu=6&pTab=4&idx=1368 I was excited for a potential Sheikra/Griffin clone and the site does still say diving coaster but it could just be marketing speak for a Thunderbolt's first drop.

Pororo 3D has closed down, that's not really a surprise since it hasn't run in a while, at least from my trips and looking at the app periodically and needed quite a few staff to run. Considering the other building involving Korean children's tv shows, the charactorium, also a staff heavy ride closed earlier in the year it's not a surprise. The notice mentions something new but the same thing happened when Global Village (small world boat ride) closed down and that was replaced by a garden. Considering the new mascots, and the pandas close by who just had mascots made, I wonder if they could have a film made involving them, there was a mini cartoon I posted a few pages back with them. The last time Pororo closed was for a new Pororo movie but this time it's been removed completely from the app and a notice posted on the site about it closing. Source

http://www.interlink-lg.com/form/uploads/occasion/pdf/103_rc78.pdf http://www.interlink-lg.com/form/uploads/occasion/pdf/102_rc77.pdf

I really want to ride that new Pirates, it looks amazing, but not sure I can coax my wife away from HKDL for our bi-annual trip. I feel like the only two rides I really want to travel for are Pirates and Tron (and now the ropes thanks to this TR), but she's madly in love with HKDL and it's grown on me over the years ever since Grizzly and Mystic Manor I've enjoyed the line-up a lot more and with the additions coming soon I'm more excited for those than Shanghai's Toy Story Land. She likes HKDL because now we have a very young son we won't get pushed and shoved since it always seems empty. Guessing crowded days at Shanghai are bad, did your Chinese friends say if it's normally more empty like your second day or was that just luck and normally the first day is the normal?

Flying theater will open 23rd December. I've never been on one before but I always thought flying theaters lifted more than this impression when raising the seats. Could just be the artist's impression is different from the ride, but considering it opens in 3 days i'm not so sure. Gyro Drop is closed for rehab in it's conversion to Gyro Drop II VR and the rehab should end 30/31st December so the last of the 3 rides will open then. Source

Asia is awesome. And part of that awesomeness is how many parks here run 365 days a year, even smaller parks. Some rides, especially water rides, will go down for yearly rehabs when the temperatures mean they can't run, but in 6 years of living in Asia I'm still amazed how much is open during freezing cold months. I went to Tokyo Disney once when a snowstorm passed through, and they had almost 90% of the rides running by 3 P.M. Even better is most people left in the morning due to said storm and lack of rides and it was the best day ever! Walk-ons and no crowds for the shows.

At first I thought "opening act" meant when I was at USJ and all the staff lined the street to wave, from street cleaners to cooks and kiosk staff, which was nice they get a moment to be part of that, and Woody Woodpecker ran out and tapped an invisible watch and ran around sending them on their way. I was kind of confused how many people would be close enough to the gates for something like that (I've only seen HKDL's opening ceremony for Disney) Then after reading this thread I got it..... I don't think I've ever appreciated the "opening act" ever when first going in a Disney park. Bare with me, but at both Tokyo Parks and Hong Kong we always go ahead as fast as we can to make restaurant reservations and to get fast passes and a quick ride before queues build up. Yet I have a picture of "opening act" for those parks for each visit. Why? Because I walk back later to look around and take in the view. Does the GP really stop to let it in? I feel like a lot of people will want to hit a ride first or get a fast pass reserved and appreciate scenery a little later. In that respect would taking a side entrance make any difference? tl;dr Even if you don't go through the main entrance, people can walk that way later and appreciate the view. It's not a big deal.

If we do a park we think we think we can't do often or once in a lifetime we always try and spring for a fast-pass to get the most out of the day. Take out the buses and give me quick check-in only and I'd still be extremely happy to save that time for $3. I only have Tokyo to go off of for this (since Hong Kong has always been dead when we visit) but that line can take up time we'd rather not lose even with Japanese efficiency. We normally get there early by an hour but now we have a very young son, I'd pay to avoid that hour at the gate. Orlando is a once in a life-time for us and we would definitely pay for this to avoid.... not sure how long people wait on peak days. (we can only travel Christmas week or first week of august). That 7 day pass is only $3.50 a day as Robb said. I'd pay way more than that for TDS to get a chance of making it to Toy Story Mania (the only ride I still haven't done) without needing to be at the park super early and dodging the masses.

I spit out my drink when I read this. Why on earth does that franchise get two sequels before the Incredibles even get one sequel? Especially when the first sequel is the single black mark on Pixar. I'm sorry, I love Pixar films and will happily acknowledge Cars 2 is the worst movie by far but I feel like there's been a few duds lately. I think after Toy Story 3, the only one I loved since then was Inside Out. Nearly all the others were meh at best I enjoyed Finding Dory but it definitely felt unnecessary and really didn't like Monsters University or Good Dinosaur (outside of beautiful effects if we ignore the dinosaurs). I didn't really like Brave as much as I thought I would either. I've never re-watched it whereas nearly all pre Cars 2 I've seen multiple times.

Sorry if this is too off-topic but looking at your Chinese POV at the top of the page and now this one, it always amazes me how consistently good the quality is even when it's different people doing the filming for you guys. Like if you didn't mention it, I wouldn't even realize. Do you require them all to use certain quality cameras or just careful vetting of people who you know can shoot good videos?

Wouldn't surprise me if it's an annual thing. Everland just shut both it's water rides for the winter season at almost the same time and the weather and temperature here isn't overly different.

I know people like to make fun of your posts and quote them to the dumbest things thread, and I'm not going to act like there isn't a good reason for that, but I've enjoyed a few of your TR's you've posted lately. You always cover most of the rides at the place you visit and there's a lot of great pictures and information in there too without being overly lengthy. I feel like the saying quality over quantity applies here. I don't mean to sound condensing with that, just it's obvious you really enjoy doing these TR's and posting on TPR and I feel like more great TR's like these go a long way.

^ Good to know, I loved the Grand Prix when I was young. I could see it in the overhead picture but for some reason I thought I'd read it was also going to be removed around the time the monorail closed and just assumed it would go later when construction got heavier.

Hasn't that car been there for years? I haven't been since Bling's opening year so I could be wrong and the new coaster would be a nice homage to the ride it replaced but I wonder if the cars there as a memorial almost. Didn't they also put a F1 driver in a real car (minus engine) that was bolted and sent it around on the Big One a while ago around that time because Grand Prix had a refresh/retheme?

I was wrong, seems they are two new additions elsewhere on top of the VR adventure next to T Express and the VR area of Pride in Korea. Source

Does this mean that you were the last one to the car and they all forced you to go on your own since there was no room? "Sorry Garet, no more seats, you'll have to take the Everline! See you there!" I know you were joking but the public transportation is really good here that it's not that often I drive unless we are going with the baby. Back home I loved driving but here it's ummm... more difficult to put it politely, you really have to be on your toes when out and about. If i'm at the park for a long time and therefore tired, I don't mind grabbing the express bus and just snoozing for 40 minutes, that bus is really comfy!

No, not yet.

[fbvideonew] [/fbvideonew] 180-200 minute lines on a weekday. Granted it's newly opened but I really hope it isn't still 1 train operations like it was on my last few trips, the video makes it look that way since there's no second train when it stops on the brake run. I dread to think of christmas holiday lines when the park is packed

Source This article mentions a VR of the SBNO ferris wheel and Thomas Train opening at Everland. Looking at the height restriction (and the fact that the ferris wheel doesn't turn) I'd assume these are movie additions to the new VR Attraction I mentioned in my TR which already includes T Express, Mega Storm, Safari World and Horror Maze: Shameless plug to my latest TR here but there's always a slight chance it could be a VR add-on to the train and an experience outside of the SBNO ferris wheel, the publicity pictures here are confusing me a little.

Yea, I always wondered why HKDL didn't have a water ride like Splash Mountain or a rapids clone when it first opened.

Didn't another article mention that Buzz would also be going for the Marvel area? Maybe i'm reading too much into the last concept art with the shooting ant man ride but I wonder if they would just retheme Buzz for a Marvel ride than remove it. Would mean an easy conversion for some of the other parks down the line if the reaction goes well. ^ The concept art does give off a Aquatopia vibe almost but I wouldn't be too surprised if it was artistic liberties and turned out to be similar to Mater's Junkyard Jamboree, but it could go either way. Edit: It was in the article linked under the concept art:

^Sorry, normally I try and pop into new areas and get pictures just to keep all the info up to date but I had guests who will probably never be in Korea again so it wasn't quite fair on them. Just looked at my TR and I completely missed putting in about it being replaced by a garden. That's what I get for trying to write a TR at 2AM when the baby has woken me up.