DBJ

The Front Gate project is quite nice. Hope the new owners will go in that direction!

This is one article on the partial ban on Avatar, and the reasoning behind it. http://www.hollyscoop.com/avatar/avatar-banned-in-china.html

It also seems like a natural fit for Shanghai Disneyland as well. I would suspect that the main Avatar ride experience would be a film based ride. There is just no physical way to recreate Pandora. Imo, it will be like an evolution of T2 / Soarin / Potter / Spidey. A debrief in a room with a live host. Enter into the science center. Load into the ride vehicle. The ride guest will be transferred into his/her avatar. Then the main ride / flight time begins. Given Cameron's enthusiasm with Soarin, I could see him taking that concept and pushing it with Disney to the next level. Like an inverted coaster version of Spiderman / Harry Potter / Mummy, with a few physical sets on the scale of POTC. I agree it would be great to see a wingrider in an everest style setting!

This is fantastic news. The IP is flexible enough to adapt into many different attractions. With AK having a dedicated land to Avatar, the potential is pretty high. Given the time frame mentioned, the "ballpark" of Avatar 3 release, that would put it out 4-5 years from now? Quite a wait! I am not sure Disney would ever pay Lucas more money to expand the Star Wars presence in the parks. I totally agree a well-executed Star Wars land in Florida would be amazing. Heck, they even have one ride already built.

Knotts for sure. Other potentials: Six Flags, Universal, Queen May, Haunted Hayride (Griffith park), Disneyland - just to check out the Space Mt. Ghost Galaxy thing.

I am impressed with what has been revealed. Seems like a good improvement. Curious about how some of the coaster tweaks to the environments are going to be executed. Very promising.

It certainly is a poor reaction to the competition from Harry Potter over at IOA. It's taking the word magic way too literally. I think it comes across as a slightly desparate. The work they are doing with interactive lines like Haunted Mansion is a far better use of resources.

A great use of the available space. Nice to see them "go big" once again for next year. I will be interested to see where they put the station and queque line, perhaps using the former monorail tunnel.

I remember when i first saw Alien Encounter years ago, there was a CM standing out in front of the attraction telling everyone that it was not a ride. So when they closed it, I thought maybe they would take the time to go in, tear it out, and put a ride/movement in it. I thought that was a missed opportunity. Generally, didn't really care for the toon overaly on T-Land. Especially since all the characters used have stories taking place in present day, not the future. One general mistake is that some parks run the same 3D/4D movies for decades. I feel that these theaters should refresh these movies every few years.

That is quite cool looking!

Was the one at SFKK actually demolished in 2008 or was it taken apart and put into storage? Since SF seems to be on a recycling kick recently, just wondering if anyone knows what happened to it? It would be my hope that SF buys new, and gets the 305 version. Also wondering if the location of Freefall's former spot might work better? Love that spot by Ninja though, that is a specatcular idea. If they can keep DC characters in one general area it would be nice, might want to change that name from Movie District to something else. The only ride there that even vaguely references a movie is Riddler, from the campy era of ill-conceived Batman movies. Once Deja Vu is gone, very dissapointed in SF for that move, but at least they could work on that general area as the next large location for redevelopment along the lines of Gotham. Bring in something all ages appropiate, or mid-level like SFDK's Pandemonium, etc. Plenty of space there to configure that part of the park into a new standout area. They also still need to tackle some of the lack of shade issues in several of the lines.

I would hope at the least that SF takes a look at what has been connecting with the gp, not only at their parks, but at their competition. What has worked to increase attendance, and what has not. Did the refurb of Monster Plantation help? Do 4D movies work at the SF parks? Did drop towers and star flyers pay off? In SFMM's case, was the coaster record helping the park's attendance or did the gp not really care? Also, I think the marketing in general is way off. In SFMM's case, it is beyond rare to see them do an advertising campaign focused on the family side of the park. This year, it has been 100 MPH backwards for Superman, the Go Big logo, and GL. I don't think i've seen a single shot of BBW in a commercial in a decade, despite it being one of the better looking areas of the park. RRE squeaked into one set of commercials briefly. If they don't advertise that aspect of the park ever, why would families show up?

Entering a new crazy era for SF again. Along the lines of coasters that appear twice in the same park, take SFNE for example. Pandemonium and Gotham.., was the park really dying for a second wild mouse style coaster? Really weird that the height is so different though isn't it? I can understand being a couple of feet off, but 70? Also nice to see SF going for worst coaster name ever with Giant Inverted Boomerang.

No doubt! It's just crazy busy when you least expect it. I read a rumor that they are looking at changing the AP system for the parks because of what you described. Agree 100% it's sad.

That's good news for Vegas! I do get a sense from the sketches that it is a modest proposal, at least compared to that indoor ski resort / waterpark that never happened. Looks like a lazy river, a slide tower, kid's area, wave pool. With their experience with the other water parks, pretty sure they would be able to give out a semi-accurate timeline for completion of phase 1 of the park.

We can compare it to say, Disneyland. Even them, with their huge resources that dwarf SFMM, take rides/attractions down for refurb during the summer. It's just the reality of parks with a year long operating schedule.

But if a park like Silverwood can operate a GIB, surely SFMM can? Maybe it's time Deja got an X2 makeover. Make the trains lighter if cables, engines, and parts are being burned through that fast. Instead of 4 across, do two across seating. Cuts capacity, but maybe it would load faster thereby making it a wash? I hope SFMM / SF pursues all possible options to keep the ride in the park.

Look at Intamin's Spinner Coaster, now that would be a good fit. I hope that SF doesn't move Deja Vu, it would make zero sense for them to remove it. Would they change their marketing slogan to "once had the most coasters on earth" ? And I do remember after Silverwood bought the other GIB, that SFMM's was also rumored to be going. If anything, remove the go-karts as a location for the next coaster. Or at least, build over them. Wouldn't be too hard to design a track to drive around a few footers.

I have had extremely bad meals at Disneyland. In particular, The Hungry Bear. Bland, overpriced, and just a terrible choice. Village Haus is average fast food. The burgers and pizza found within DL are not remarkable by any stretch of the imagination. Any mexican place hosted by La Victoria means "must avoid." Have yet to try Bengal BBQ, sounds decent. I really only go for the French Market when I visit at this point for a meal in the park, otherwise, it's Downtown Disney. For fast casual, I actually think DCA has just as good, if not better, options. SFMM does have a way to go in the food dept., to be sure. But, they certainly did improve over the years by bringing in outside vendors like Johnny Rockets, Cold Stone, Panda, and Papa Johns at one point. The BBQ place by Riddler's is ok. There is room for improvement in tacos, poultry, cold sandwhiches, and quality of meat used in the burgers. I would definately saw that it's now more possible than ever to find something ok to decent to eat at SFMM than ever before. Pricing has always been, and always will be an issue. But I guess when most of the park guest come in on some form of discounted admission, they have to make up the difference somewhere.

Several pages back, there is a listing of other projects post-Carsland that are all in the rumor stage at this point. I don't think DCA will be without some level on attraction construction for at least another several years. I am really interested to see how much of the DL crowd will convert over into regular DCA customers once Carsland is finished.

Wasn't Tidal Wave also considered to be on the chopping block as well at one point? An Aquatrax using the theme of Aquaman would fit in quite nicely between Riddler and GL. I hope they don't lose Log Jammer. I would rather seen them rebrand that entire area from High Sierra Territory over to Goliath a Bugs Bunny National Park. Theme out Log Jammer, Whistlestop park - maybe as a family dark ride of the area, Mooseburger to Bugs, Country Bear Theater, etc. Make that huge 1/4 of the park a complete destination for kids/families with a diversity of experiences (coaster, flats - that adults can sit in comfortably with their children, live entertainment, film, interactivity, dining, retail) all tied together with the concept of touring a "national park."

With the 405 shut down, the freeways will be a disaster around LA. I would not even attempt to head south down the 5 or 405, or PCH. Santa Barbara is a good option. Or, one thought would be on the drive over from AZ, to detour during the day over to one of the beach communities on the way to LA. Maybe have lunch by the ocean?The weekend you are arriving is the same weekend as the OC fair in Costa Mesa, so there might be a traffic impact from that as well.

That does sound amazing. Can't wait to ride the current model. Just looking at it, there is quite a bit of potential for future designs. I wouldn't mind seeing it go higher of course, but also expand on the horizontal, incorporating a tad of traditional wild mouse switchbacks between drops to the lower levels. For the moment , i can see this model being placed into the other parks in the chain.

I am confident that Ouimet will be able to guide Knott's and the other CF parks into a great new direction. His Disney/Disneyland track record is quite impressive. The lack of charm imo comes down to how the coaster installations have been worked into the park. Under prior management, the Knott's coasters just kind of wiped out the charm, and replaced it with nothing. Silver Bullet I think is the most glaring example. The color scheme, q and the station have literally nothing to do with the old west. Yet it is called Silver Bullet. And the impact it had on the outdoor theater? Surely there must have been a better way to intergrate a coaster like SB into the area. I remember Knott's from back in the day and for the most part, the park's attraction roster has made it a much better park. The loss of character, charm, and theme in parts of the park are unfortunate. However, I have to give Knott's / CF credit for restoring the peak-in's, and the intergration of some of the park's eateries (Panda, Rockets) into their locations. So I am hoping Ouimet guides CF into the practice of improving on pre-existing charm, and not just turning the parks into a series of basic steel sheds/stations and concrete. My hopes are high.

I'm blown away by the effort they took into making the area come alive with the DC universe theme. A huge step up for SFMM. Hope the trend continues as they work their way across the park over the next few years. REally, really appreiate the effort for guest comfort while in line. Although I am glad i did not do July 1 in the heat and with some of the operational bugs. It's quite a comment on the park's recent history that people / journos are amazed at the theming efforts of both RRE and now DCU (to be fair - Terminator was a huge step up). Hope they trend continues as they look at way to plus the other existing attractions.