Garet

Well, there's still a massive fan-base that would visit these lands in a heartbeat even after the phantom menace/prequel trilogy so I don't think anything would change. These lands were probably drawn up a long-time ago so I'm pretty sure the focus is on the original movies to please the current fans with bits from the new movies here and there for potential new fans.

R.I.P. Wes Craven, creator of the scream and nightmare on elm street franchises: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-34104752

I'll end this thread soon since my Korean theme park news posts has turned this into a Garet talks to himself thread but an update to the above. I'll make a new thread when my next Everland TR is ready to seperate it away from the articles. They caught the person recording and sadly it turns out she targeted most of the water parks (and as you've probably seen from the TEA attendance report, these places see a lot of visitors). Source

But do you really have a reason to complain? A roller-coaster isn't the answer to everything. I know it's not America but as I've said before, Korea has two of the worlds most visited parks and the number of roller-coasters across the whole country has actually gone slowly down since 2008 (I think the only roller-coaster since 2008 was a junior vekoma suspended which replaced an old looper) and the crowds still come every year. Japan isn't quite as bad but a lot of those parks go with huge gaps between new roller-coasters and they still pull in the crowds. Ocean Park is another park that went for a long time between roller-coasters and focused on other additions that still kept the attendance the same or up.

I think if it is 3D, they might finally overtake Lotte World as the park with most 3D rides/rides with screens. Lotte World has in 3d: desperados, 4d shooting theater, dynamic theater on the 4th floor and 3d haunted house movie outside. Then you've also got the 2D shooting ride with its screens, the circle-vision Lotte's balloon ride and their version of Turtle Talk with a Beluga and now the 3 wild attraction simulators.

Yes but even if that were true and they could see the car and just assumed the staff were aware (maybe because they saw the other car had stopped on the lift?) shouldn't it be in a job like this to err on the side of caution and double check so instead of assuming something about the situation, the policy should be to report immediately and change that assumption to a fact?

In Japan, for example, Tokyo Disney closes down each of their rides, sometimes for a month or more, every year to do annual maintenance. No one complains. Why? Because they are smart enough to know that there is more than plenty at the park to enjoy your day, and without proper maintenance, rides will no longer be as good as they were when they opened. And this is exactly why that park is the best in the world, because every single ride, no matter how old, looks and feels as though it just opened yesterday. I've always loved when I've planned my Japan trips how much they advertise ahead of time what is closed so if something I like is closed I can flip my trip the best I can (When I first ever went to Japan, I flipped the start and end of my trip so Jaws was open but the night show was closed and Journey at TDS was open but Flounder's was closed). Korea does the same, Lotte World shows the whole current month or advertises ahead of time if there's a lengthy rehab like Atlantis's 6 month refreshment last year (sadly still minus the water though) and Everland always puts up online adverts when T Express and the water rides will shut for winter rehabs. It's a shame when a park like Knott's advertise ahead of time people don't just accept it and move on. I've never seen anyone complain here and with parks like USJ and TDS/TDL no matter how well you plan, when every ride is a "big ride" unless you go on packed days when the lines are 4 hours long you're almost guaranteed to have to miss one big ride or show somewhere in the park in the quieter season.

Most enthusiast's logic is "a new coaster needs to be added because one hasn't been added in x amount of years." Most forget that this is a business, and money will only be spent where it can be made. And as Coasterguy21 said; Most forget that parks invest in other things that also bring in money, flats, food, waterpark, family areas, etc. These all pull in big money, not just coasters. Again, people conveniently forget that this is a business not a charity service for coaster demanding enthusiasts, who will complain even if they do get one because it isn't an Intamin. It's just very annoying hearing all the whining about "no new coaster, we NEED one!", when people completely ignore the fact that CF/KD has invested heavily for years so that guests can have a better overall experience throughout the day, not just a 60-second rush. But when it's not what they want (family areas, general improvements that are needed), the park is somehow "neglected" because they didn't spend $25 million on there fanboy-fueled pipe dream. /rant It's interesting because here in Korean we've only had 1 family roller-coaster in almost 7 years for the whole country at the expense of an old looper. The number of coasters have gone down due to one or two becoming SBNO yet Everland and Lotte World are among the worlds most visited park and their attendance does pretty well increasing each year (this year might be the exception due to MERs)

Except that's not entirely true at all. Yes, they perform a "lot" of maintenance, as shown when their internal team replaces or re-tracks a section of the ride, that part is usually smooth for a limited period of time, but performing "plenty" of maintenance would actually be re-tracking the ride every few years, which is what the ride needs. I might be mistaken, but in the 17 years the ride has been open, has it ever received a complete re-tracking? I don't think so. And we see a lot of other parks actually do this to their wood coasters. So when you have a ride that operates year-round that has been allowed to get as rough as it has to the point where it needs a restoration after less than 20 years, I would argue that they haven't done "PLENTY" of maintenance. If anything, they'd done the required amount to keep the ride running. Case in point: Tonerre De Zeus - Another CCI woodie that's a year older than GhostRider. Last time I was on that coaster a couple of years ago, while it wan't as smooth as opening day, it wasn't anywhere NEAR as rough as GhostRider. That coaster has a similar track length and aggressive layout and also runs 7-car PTC trains. BUT, the park only has a 7-month operating season. I know that every off-season they do a lot of work re-tracking and repairing a good portion of that coaster. Perhaps if you're going to run a wooden roller coaster in an environment where you have a year-round park, you need to dedicate a few months instead of a few weeks to refurbishing that coaster? And maybe not every single year. But you know, I would most certainly sacrifice GhostRider being closed Jan-March to really work on the ride every couple of years than to have it operate in the condition it does now. Even a plug and play style woodie like T-Express that runs all year round has a scheduled closed month and a bit every year. Although it's also stupidly cold in the winter months when the ride quite often can't run so it works in the parks favor, they advertise ahead of time when the ride will close for maintenance and get all their rehab work done and less guests are disappointed when they get to the park and find it closed due to weather since they knew ahead of time. It does leave the park a bit short in the coaster department when it's closed though.

I noticed she said it's themed to Andy's Bedroom and then mentioned Trixie being there. How long before some purists complain?

Is this also Sea Paradise? Did they get new trains?

^ You are correct. It's got a backwards drop and turntables after both lifts for the drops instead of turns. As Tim said lines are 40-60 minutes but that's actually better than the old flumes line, the bigger boats are really helping. Although summer is when the park is actually at it's most quiet, the hot weather and the water-park being in full swing pulls most of the crowds. It'll be interesting to see how popular this is at Halloween & next spring when the park gets really busy (the old flume used to get 3 hour lines then) Tim, did you get a look at any of the other construction sites? I know the one near the entrance is for the 2016 attraction (Pandas) and there's a new fun house going where Oz was but I'm curious about the hillside where Eagles Fortress was. I was excited since it was a big area they were digging out but other people who have been more recently than me told me that it was going to become an Everland hotel, but I haven't been able to go see yet.

More Korean theme-park news although sadly not for good reasons. I should stress that Everland's water-park isn't confirmed as where the incident took place, only that they were the ones who filed the complaint. Some sites are claiming where it was but I'm not sure if there has been any official confirmation. Source

Oh Japan and your weird ways presenting curry. Although also Asia and it's weird random places themed around poop (ice-cream themed to poop, modern toilet restaurants in Taiwan, poop coffee shop here in South Korea etc.) http://nlab.itmedia.co.jp/nl/articles/1508/15/news026.html

It's okay, one of my friend's found some "cylon sunglasses" so I had borrowed them to take a picture with it. That's probably what stopped them letting me in for my picture, no crazies allowed.

Nope, no relaxing those rules. fluffy, fluffy bunnies filled with medicine and goo were mandatory for BSG and Mummy. I was allowed to wear glasses on Mummy but not BSG. Wavy metal detectors were in use at BSG for both sides. I got the photos of the stations first thing in the day but didn't use the real queueline for that! That's why I couldn't grab anymore photos later in the day. I envy you then. I asked the staff where the cylon I'd seen outside the entrance in old pictures was, and they told me it had gone into the queue line. Since the ride was walk-on, I asked if it was possible to go through the single-rider take a picture and come back but they, understandably, were uneasy and said no. I still want to go back to the park but I still have gravity max and a good B&M Flyer to find in China to splash out on going to before I re-visit. That and being a 2 hour plane ride from Tokyo Disney (and with a wife who really likes Hong Kong Disney) means our vacation days get eaten up by other places.

I will say, even though it's the same, I thought the rides fit in well in Hong Kong where the land is in its own corner without tower or anything looming over it. It never really felt "un-Disney" to me. But when you have Space Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain practically walk-on and the parachute ride at 60 minutes (autopia was the only other ride in the park not almost walk-on at 60 mins) I get your point. I liked the little area in Hong Kong but this looks so much better.

Did they relax the rules at USS? When I went a few years ago everything went into a locker before riding mummy or the Battlestar rides and they had wavy metal detectors at Battlestar so I missed out on a lot of things I wanted to snap in the line. Judging by your pictures I might need to make a trip back to finally get my cylon picture.

Why would some-one getting hit by a coaster train in Ohio cancel a Halloween event in Florida?

I think it's a good discussion to have, because it could be implemented at other parks. For me, what Universal is communicating is "all our guests are idiots" and while I fully agree there are probably quite a few that are, I personally take offense to that. Why am *I* getting punished because of someone else's stupidity? I also don't agree with having to put *EVERY DAMN THING* in a fluffy, fluffy bunny filled with medicine and goo. I saw someone padded down last time at Rip Ride Rockit and they made them put their lap balm in a fluffy, fluffy bunny filled with medicine and goo. REALLY!?!?!? C'mon. This is why I prefer to do my riding on the other side of I-4. When I can go on rides like Tower of Terror or Rock N' Roller Coaster and they tell you "Take all your loose items with you" and I'm holding a backpack on a launching, looping roller coaster, that tells me that either Disney is just getting a much, MUCH better clientele than Universal, or something is seriously wrong with their operations. I like Universal, don't get me wrong, but I'm not an idiot, and I don't like being treated like one at their parks. And if parks like Cedar Point started to enforce these same kinds of rules, too, and added metal detectors, I'd stop riding their coasters also. I don't mind putting a bag or something in a fluffy, fluffy bunny filled with medicine and goo, but having to empty my pockets, be padded down, and go through a metal detector to go on a roller coaster? Nope. I draw the line right there. I was thinking would it be better to do the pat-down and metal detectors at the end of the line if they really have to do it so people could have their phones in the queue...... but then I remembered my trips to Fuji-Q and the whole of Dodonpa being unlocked and re-checked because of a tissue in some-ones pocket. I think they also have this policy for battlestar at USS with the handheld metal detectors but that was a few years ago and thankfully the line was empty so it was a non-issue about getting bored in a queue. It was a shame though since half the good stuff like the cylon was in the queue-line and I had really wanted a picture of it.

Pixels already hit the Korean TV VOD, that left the cinemas fast.

I knew I shouldn't have clicked some of those youtube links.... let alone read the comments. The Jurassic park video lead me to this: [youtu_be] [/youtu_be] and the comments:

I feel like the people saying the park is partially to blame is like blaming the train driver/railway company for not making it clear enough a train is coming when a car gets hit because some-one ignored the flashing lights/beeping sounds/barriers coming down and tried to outrun it.

I managed to ride one when it was in blackpool pleasure beach for a few years, they didn't have an overly thrilling ride cycle so I'd love to try a carnival version some day. I brought it up because the original post said top scan but it's now been edited.

Not sure if that is actually a top-scan, with the arm attached like that. With Giovanola coasters and the unicycle it could be that they are putting in rarer rides that haven't been seen in roller-coaster games as often in which case it could be a zierer star shape.