DBJ

I attended last night, pretty busy for a Thursday. I did do the early entry, and promptly at gate opening. 1st tip, the far right of the plaza has shortest lines. What we did was head straight to the lower lot to Stranger Things. I noticed on the app btw, which is well done and pretty accurate, that the line for that maze grew the longest over the course of the night. After Stranger Things, start the walking journey to the other 4 mazes on lower lot. We went straight towards Poltergeist. If you do Purge first however, the exit lets you out pretty closely at the entrance of Poltergeist. Then worked our way back towards Blumhouse, then journey back towards Mummy (which had problems off and on), for Trick Or Treat. Wrapped up lower lot with Transformers. That worked well for us, saw all the mazes and the tram by 8:30, and did a couple of repeats. So, basically the order was Strangers Things, Purge, Ploltergeist, Blumhouse, Trick O Treat, Terror Tram, Universal Monsters, Halloween 4. The amount of empty blank corridors was pretty irritating. So dark in the Purge, almost walked into a security guard. The Christmas scare zone was not the best, and the Toxic Tunnel is just odd, at least they varied the lighting I suppose.

Thoughts on the reconfiguring of Tomorrow Land? They have removed a bit of the seating around the supports of the defunct People Mover for crowd flow. Not sure how much on an impact that really will have in the long run. Personally, I think they should move the standby entrance of Star Tours permanently into the over flow room, open a door between the two rooms, so guests get into the a/c while waiting in line. I really like what they did with Space Mountain, using the 2nd floor of the starcade as the stand by line space. Even if the theming is light, huge improvement over standing on the deck in the heat.

That Stranger Things set design sold me on it this year. Going Oct. 4. Looking forward to that and Poltergeist mostly.

Was there yesterday, Sept. 2, to process the membership. Crazy busy, and Crazinity, ironically, was down. One thing I thought was interesting was at the time we were there, Justice League had a 20 minute wait, while Goldrusher and the bumper cars was over 40min to an hour. The Diamond Elite skip the line pass worked really well. They give you two, but we used them on FT and TC, so that saved at least 2 hours of standing in line. The shopping discount is amazing, 50% off. I will be picking up more park merchandise this year.

I think the Blue Bayou should get in on the alcoholic drinks. Same restrictions as the Cantina. After all, the pirates are drinking.

I like this addition. Very good choice for the park. Very nice it has a local California connection for the theme. Plus, a whole new themed area as well, and the continued work on Apocalypse. Nothing to complain about this year for SFMM.

Would not be surprised to see a Nun in the maze either. It does sound good, and the prior Blumhouse maze was really well done.

Really great looking dive machine! And speaking of potatoes, it would be kind of fitting if they made a special poutine dish in honor of the ride.

Poltergeist scared me badly as a kid, for it being a PG movie. So many great visual moments in that film. So glad they went with the 80's version and not the reboot! Really good to see Michael Meyers again, a true Halloween icon.

That nighttime show is pretty well done. If a park is going to knock off WOC, this is the way to do it. My only mild wish list with the show in later years is that they do seasonal overlays. I figure Grinchmas and Potter are a lock for a holiday version eventually. For a Halloween version for example a pg-13/R version would be something new for this type of show. Universal's horror movie library is pretty deep, maybe skip the latest Mummy movie however. Their horror nights announcemetns are right on target. Impressive so far, like how the carnival works with the Klowns scarezone, will make a great transition.

Thanks for the info on the ride cycle times. That is kind of slow. Might wait until it is not quite so hot out there to go up and try it.

Good to see that the flat ride is popular! Hope it inspires more rides like this in the future!

Snyder is also the reason behind Johnny Rockets being in SF parks, his equity firm owns that chain. I like the coaster though, looks really cool. The colors of the Steelers work really well for the coaster. However, the name Steel Curtain is odd choice. I know it pays tribute to the Steeler's defense. But a high speed coaster running into a steel curtain? Steel Curtain doesn't exactly imply speed. Also an excellent idea to have an area dedicated to football, adding some new experiences. Looks really good!

On the positive side, the new Lounge does look great. The menu looks really good, prices are similar to what they had before, so no shock there. Had no idea about the secret room, which is brilliant. The Snowman treats went over really well, always a line it seems. I think design wise, a couple of areas to improve on. One is Incredicoaster. I am not sure the static Jackjack on a stick décor works in real life as it probably did in the drawings. Very odd looking. Maybe if on hydraulic pistons where he was on a box jumping up and down? Just so weird as it is. Looks really unfinished, as compared to the rooms with Edna. The murals are great, great design. The shade structures don't seem to do much for the heat. Carsland has brilliant misters in it's line, so kind of surprised they couldn't do the same here. With the band, I like they have music venue in the area, but in full sun, it is a tad toasty to watch them. On less hot days, not going to be an issue of course. But the sightlines might be. I think an slightly elevated stage, (although maybe then it is a trip hazard?), could have helped. Pal Around, is just an unfortunate name. I think doing tarps over the line is way to close to a Six Flag level of solution. I am glad they did it of course, doesn't look so amazing, but it is functional. I find it very curious that they couldn't finish a carousel in under 6 months, Seems like a budget decision. As last part of the critique, even now after Pixar Pier has opened, DCA as a whole offers less rides than before with the shuttering of the carousel and Bugs Land. Good thing they brought Paint The Night over! I think maybe when Marvel Land is done in a couple of years, the park will finally increase it's ride count for the first time since Carsland?

One of the themes of the franchise is class warfare. The rich "purge" out the lower classes. So I guess that is the Gate A and VIP guests vs. the guests standing in the huge lines?

Honestly, the purge does nothing for me visually when it comes to HHN. It just slightly modified street clothes in the end.

Once the landscaping comes in, will be an improvement for the area. Big surprise was funnel cake burger! I can start diet next year, that looked really good. SFMM really did need a ride on like this for a long time. I think the new area could support quite a few interesting options and may be developed for a few years. If it is the mack spinning coaster, time traveler, hope they don't go just 5 feet higher and say world's tallest.

The Peter Pan one is interesting because of the line "3D imagery". Sets + screens? Their take on Universal's screen rides? Pixie Hollow sounds like a walk thought / meet and greet. Frozen is interesting, maybe the thrill aspect of it is more in line with Splash Mt. than say POTC? One can hope. And there is no doubt it will be physically stunning. That hotel though, pretty amazing exterior. Next level design there.

It is quite the area they are working on back there, lot of space for something potentially very impressive. Although with Green Lantern SBNO, 2019 should also be the year where they either sell it to another park, or get it working. Having 20 coasters in park is not much of a record with a SBNO coaster. My wish list for cycone bay, would be 1.) let RMC take a crack at Apocalypse 2.) New coaster that works 3.) flat ride - doesn't have to be on scale of Crazy 4.) continued infrastructure improvements / theme to the areas, 5.) X2 restraints are looking kind of chewed up, time to refurb them.

South of Ghostrider makes the most I think though. The station - if themed like a old west façade (unlike Silver Bullet), could fit into Ghost town, and if doing something like Nitro/Gatekeeper, head into the parking lots past the hotel. I think it is an interesting idea though for them (or their hotel partner) to rebuild and relocate the hotel, maybe like to southeast corner of their parking lot. Certainly would free up a lot of space.

So they may have been "inspired" by POTC in Shanghai? While I like the fact they are upgrading the rides (make Mummy next!), was kind of hoping for some news on Nintendo World. Would be nice to have a completely new experience in the park.

Now that is interesting development with them shopping for parks. I like the concepts they are doing for China, the Six Flags Adventure park in particular. I could see them acquiring whitewater rafting parks, like the US National Whitewater Center, and then adding in other attractions, like motorbike coasters, etc. With the US parks with the available land, imo they should relocate the upcharge low capacity attractions like Skycoasters/Go Karts, into an "adventure" park. I also agree they have some work to do on their current US parks to say the least.

At some point, the coaster closes again for Flik's Flyers to make the journey over. Maybe they can paint the coaster then? That is a good observation that I had not thought of before, the drab paint in some sections. It will stand out a bit next to the scream tubes.

Wow, great photos and reporting! The only downside is, kiss the diet goodbye! It all looks pretty good.

I was there Easter Sunday and saw it testing, looks fun. Quite a bit of work on the exterior of the station and groundwork to be done. I would rather have them take the time to make the area look nice and not bare bones. The lighting on the ride works really well with the colors. Sol Spin was also not working, still haven't been there when it was working. Well, hopefully, next time.