Garet

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.

No. Since it's always set to the day you ride, I can just imagine the Japanese version jumping 0 days into the future. I wonder if since it's dubbed if they can just redub the audio or change the future date so it isn't going back in the time when they say going to the future.

Or a Korean/Asian water-park. Those 180-210 minute wait signs have stopped me from going back to a water park for the last 4 years. If you aren't practically in your swim-suit at the entrance ready to sprint around a park, grab a reservation or 2 and then marathon everything else at 8 in the morning during opening hour, you're not going to have a good day unless you like lining up in 30-36C heat.

I very much regret choosing Chappie over Shawn the Sheep on my British Airways flight last week. It came down to Big Eyes, Chappie & Shawn the Sheep in the final two hours and knowing nothing of the 3 made a very bad decision based on I'd just watched Ex Machina and thought I'd keep up the AI theme. I didn't regret choosing Ex Machina though, I thought it was quite an interesting film. Although the censorship of films on the plane was a bit weird, my wife watched Fast & Furious 7 and every-time anyone in a bikini showed up, they got censored whereas I was watching Ex Machina which suddenly sprung into a lot of full frontal nudity at the end which was a bit awkward since I found out afterwards anyone going to the bathroom could see all the screens when they walked down the aisle (I realized this when I went to the back bathroom and counted how many people were watching Avengers 2 in economy while waiting for a Korean lady to brush her teeth.) It probably didn't help that was only 1 row away from the front bathroom and next to the aisle. Thankfully Gone Girl only flashed it on-screen as opposed to 5 straight minutes.

I realize it's probably not a new ride but after watching the para-scrambler video on facebook, am I the only one who wishes there were more random fusions of rides outside of Japan (was thinking of that weird paratrooper/enterprise thing as well.) I remember Alton Towers had a weird troika style ride on a paratrooper arm (and I think Pleasurewood hills now has one of those) And wasn't there a random starflyer in France where they used sky-swing style restraints instead of chairs? I guess a few rides could already be considered fusions e.g. somebody told me they went on a chair-swing ride attached to a tower (starflyer) and I think I saw somewhere Zamperla are making a tower version of an air-race but that para-scrambler looks like a lot of fun. Maybe it's just all this talk of VR being attached to rides that could be coming in the future but I would much rather prefer cool fusions like that one as a way to update old concepts over VR.

So reporting on Sea World and Blackfish is still a thing: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/aug/06/seaworld-profits-plunge-customers