DBJ

Done

Merry Christmas all. Gave: Kindle Touch, gift cards, insulated shirt, booze and wine accessories. Received: Gift cards going towards purchase of upcoming Canon T4i (feb/mar).

I think one of their current headaches is the timing of Beuna Vista street in relation to the opening of Carsland. They probably are trying to avoid having guest walk through a construction zone, especially the media, to get to Carsland. From what I've read so far, I would not be suprised to see a mid-summer debut of Carsland. The look of Buena Vista is turning off far better than what I remember seeing at the Blue Sky Cellar. Great to see that classic style being executed so incredibly well.

I am happy that USH is actually receiving two significant additions over the span of the next 4 years. With Transformers in 2012, and Potter sometime in 2015 (?), it's great to see that level of investment being brought into USH. I am wondering if they will have something in-between in 2013, like the Despicable Me attraction heading to USF.

Tidal Wave's removal rumor pops up every now and again. With it gone, they cut the water costs again, and have more than enough space for another coaster. The parks are looking at the operating costs of every ride at this point in order to make up for attendance decreases.

Thanks for the link! Interesting choice of location! I also kind of hope they take out Waterworld as well. So they are dropping out of the concert business as well?

It's an Orlando theme park war! Disney, Sea World, and Universal all going for big expansions. The linking of IOA to the Studios via Potter is certainly going to be one of the more interesting challenges. Can't wait to see how it is handled.

I would guess that the primary goal is to find an attraction that can sell merchandise. So I am leaning towards it being a Dreamworks based expansion, drawing upon what was built in Singapore. Maybe the land of Far Far Away or Madagascar will make an appearance. I would hope they would clone over the Sci-Fi city, and bring Transformers in along with a great coaster. Transformers has been a pretty durable franchise for decades now, and certainly can sell the merchandise.

This was the disaster they planned a few years ago. http://nbcuniversalevolution.com/ That's under old management however. Comcast is now in control, so things change. I hope that vision plan is dead.

And it's happening relatively quickly too! From Dec 2011 to late spring 2012 is not that long of a wait. Very good news.

I am 110% percent for this. Anything that can kill off that absurd "vision" plan where they planned to tear down Bates Motel / House, and sell off the backlot for condos is fantastic. Much rather to see USH expand and become a much better overall experience. The entire HP land of IOA can be built without disrupting the upper or lower lots. Going from the remnants of Whoville up through War of The Worlds to the Mummy tunnel part of the tram tour. They can easily relocate the Bates motel to another part of the tram tour if they needed too. That is more than enough space to build Hogsmeade and the FB. I would expect the west coast version to really only feature the FB, and the retail / dining, because of the noise issues with neighbors and the backlot. Be great to have two indoor attractions, but not expecting it.

I think that if the ever do change the film, and I hope they do soon, they can still use the CA theme. Just have the viewer take off from LAX to somewhere else in the world, then back to CA & Disneyland. Heck, they can even make it more thrilling by having near mid air collisions over LAX, just like real life. Or break free from the traveling concept, and have the guests accompany a Disney / Pixar character while they soar in the skies over CA & DL. Plenty of options really to refresh the film actually.

I am not too sure about Deja Vu plot of land being part of that giga. THe impact of sending a coaster all the way down throug the old metro tunnel to link up with Log Jammer is huge. It would / could possibly conflict with: Tatsu footers, Ninja, Jetstream, Goldrusher, all those stores, quite a few walkways, over / under Superman, Bear theater, and so on. That just seems crazy complicated. If Deja Vu land is used, I could see a Ka style ride running behind Apocalypse, Riddler, and Batman running right up to their border on that side. It's just my guess, but I would suspect that Log Jammer and Deja's land will be actually used for two different attractions.

I certainly would not mind if they tore down parts or all of the coaster, if that meant that the reborn ride became a much better experience.

Antartica does sound incredibly ambitious, glad to see SeaWorld going for it with this installation. I agree that it is more likely to feature the more exciting part of penguins life. The ice sliding, diving, swimming, hunting and escaping from predators all would translate to a coaster / dark ride hybrid. As opposed to say, standing in sub zero temps in a massive group keeping the eggs warm at your feet, not eating for months, while freezing winds howl away. While i don't ever expect to see the entire land of Antartica replicated outside of Orlando, I could see them taking the ride itself and cloning it over to the other parks in the chain along with a version of the 3D film in the future.

Re: the giga rumor. If they combine the area of Flashback's grave, the old monorail station, Palace games, and log jammer's section of the hill, easily enough space for a larger coaster. My personal preference would be a coaster with some decent air time. My roller tycoon side would lean towards them doing them someting like Cheetah Hunt, a 4D theater, and something like Pharaoh's Revenge for the family kid demo.

Well, at least the water bill for SFMM should drop considerably / possibly. I am hoping that the replacment is a coaster of some size. After what they pulled off with Tatsu being built into the hillside, looking forward to what can be achieved.

And yet, the ghost of the monorail still stands. Instead of removing existing rides, how about the SBNO one? At least remove the station by Bugs, and there is some good working space there for a decent family attraction.

Imo, the tilt coaster would be great in for a dark / indoor coaster concept. Make a great suprise element in the overall experience. Maybe use smaller trains so the moving track doesn't have to support so much weight. Great seeing those pics, thanks.

One of the rolling improvements I would like to see SFMM take on, and indeed the whole chain, is to do something with the "parking lot" coasters visually. At the least, a concrete stain in a color other than black. And dare I dream, a fence in a style other than a simple chain link? The prison camp look, while functional as far as safety, really is a case of doing the absolute bare minimum. While sad to see Deja Vu go, it will be good to see what the park can now place there that is more reliable and higher capacity. The clever use of space for Green Lantern and now Lex in 12, gives me hope.

Referring to the main chicken restaraunt in the marketplace, Mrs. Knotts Chicken. For our seating, we were directed to that place, pre-scare sat in the back. To reach the bathrooms, you had to squeeze past a rolling cart between excess chairs and folded banquet table. The part where it's supposed to look vaguely like the outdoors with the concrete floors and white walls. Other folk were seated at Spurs. They really had quite the capacity crowd for the pre-scare boofet.

Mini-TPR. I attended last night, Oct. 15. Wow, crazy busy. Did the pre-scare dinner. I recommend that for anyone attending the Haunt on a busy night. The food is decent. But, what made it amazing this year, they started running Ghost Rider for pre-scare guests at 6pm! Huge treat. Able to get 3 rides in before dropping the rope at 6:30 for entry into rest of the park. Noticed that general admission folks were actually let in at 6:40, not 7. So I would recommend doing an earlier seating at the boofet. One thing Knotts might look at is a refurb of that restaraunt. It is showing it's age rapidly. Delirium was quite good, some good fresh ideas in that one. And along with Slaughterhouse, the one that felt the most like actual horror. Log flume, as noted above, is closed, so no Sleepy Hollow. Invasion Beneath is completely bland. The actual pre-show on the monitors is well done.Skipped Cornstalkers, Doll House, and the Latin one because of crazy lines, and having experienced those in years past. All in all, it's a solid collection of mazes, although i do feel there are several that need to be refreshed. By Ghostrider, there is actually a decent animatronic of a werewolf on the way down to Lockdown, I recommend pausing to watch it. Ed, as always, a good show. A tad imbalanced with the 2nd half of the show being heavy on the dancing, but hey, at least they are not rying to sing anymore. I like the concept of a psycho circus, would not mind seeing that expanded with them adding another circus act, along with Ed and the fire performance artist. Putz is quite funny. Hanging is also a highlight of the experience.

The concept art is so incredible! Easily could be used in any current or future theme park being designed, quite timeless designs.

Looks like a good start for a park! However, the sizzle real of Paramount ip properties show's just how thin that catalogue is for adaptation into a theme park setting. Godfather, Forest Gump? Titanic? Saturday Night Fever?I think the problem is in general that most of Paramounts big pop culture movies they can't exploit for the theme park. Marvel comics, Transformers, Indianna Jones, Dreamworks, etc. Kind of shows when they choose Rango as a headline character. In future presentations, I would leave the films out of the presentation, as the park design itself is quite nice and compares quite favorably to Universal's parks.

I agree with above. The use of misdirection is the most effective element. Say, if guests looking forward at other actor, come up from behind, walk quietly, then scare. One of the best ones I ever saw (universal) was an actor with a severed head costume on slumped against the wall. He was motionless, and the eyes focused on more of the gore in the room. At the last second, he would burst out from the wall towards the feet of the guests. Everyone jumped like crazy to get out of the room. I suppose the other thing is to be aware of how far back in the line they can see you. In some of the conga lines for the mazes, if many people see what is coming, then the scare is less effective. Pacing between scares is a good thing.