DBJ

I think that Superman could be modified into a full circuit coaster, and while rough, the video has some interesting ideas. For example, could the tower be modified to send the coaster train up 460 ft? That gives them a record for height, which is good marketing. Certainly enough dead space up on the hill to make it happen. Nothing up there past Ninja to Superman worth saving. Make you wonder if they are going to switch over to a hydraulic launch like Ka as well.

Oh that is great! thanks for all the links!

What is interesting to me is that with all the announcements about expansions at various Disney properties over the years, both Avatar and Carsland are not being cloned over into other destinations. I wonder why. It is great to see them investing heavily into improving the parks again. Can't wait to see how the various Frozen lands turn out, or Star Wars for that matter.

If the hotel is "seamless", wouldn't that mean there would be some kind of transport hub between the hotel and Star Wars Land? Like Hogwart's Express? DHS will be the park after SW land joins the line-up. From a CA perspective, I hope they blow up part of Toon Town to fit in the M&M attraction.

Love that they are investing into roller coasters! Quite a hot streak of attractions that WDW has been investing in, very impressive.

Thanks for the pics! Really like color scheme.

It definitely is random IP land. Some sections completely work, like Carsland, flawless. Most do not. For example, I think starting with Little Mermaid, every ride stretching down to Paradise Grill, should be aquatic if not nautical in theme. But here you have Goofy Sky School, Zephyr, and staging for WOC. Grizzly's area works, just needs another attraction to draw crowds. Hollywood - disaster of course, Bugs Land is passable, barely for kids. Pixar Pier, probably the least needed makeover in the resort's history.

Pretty interesting that there are survey markers by the old cruise dock. Maybe they are looking into a Fantasyland expansion? And what great ride though of Iron Man! What are the odds of Ant Man taking over Bug's life?

I agree! The concept art for this is much more exciting than Pixar Pier. It would be very good to see Slinky Dog flat ride on Maliboomer grave site. And RC racer on either side of Screamin' Incredibles.

I would think that a "massive new" attraction may follow the same pattern as Florida, Toy Story land expansion then into Star Wars Land for WDSP. They really could use TS Midway Mania and the Slinky Dog Coaster to enhance their Toy Story area. I don't think Marvel has anywhere near the long term appeal of the Star Wars franchise. Would much rather see them do a Star Wars makeover on TOT instead of GOTG. Drop out Aerosmith, replace with any number of SW themes. Same with Armageddon, if not just repurpose building into completely different attraction. The catastrophe canyon still looks cool, maybe re-use as backdrop for variation of Radiator Spring Racers.

Yeah exactly my thoughts as well. It will do little to impact the crowds. At best it might impact Sundays, if the retention rate for that AP is not 100%. If anything, it might be even more challenging crowd wise next year. I think instead of restricting pass sales, they should have pulled the trigger of the expansion of main street they rumored a long time ago, and developed a use for some of the dead venues of DL.

Some great reports and pictures! I can see the Steeplechase coming back, if for example, blended into say a theme like say Big Thunder at DL. Lot of possibilities there. Or even less extravagant installations for a family coaster for a park. The Skyline attractions are quite interesting designs, I think the three shown in the pics would all work well within the same park. Always love the water slide models! So impressive.

Is the carousel gone in the concept art? Looks like a circus tent or something. I can't imagine why that couldn't just be flipped over to Nemo/Dory. DCA certainly isn't in the position were they can keep reducing capacity by reducing the number of attractions. Not a fan of the overlay. If they wanted a Pixar neighborhood, the backlot is just as good a place with Monsters being there. With Screaming, there is more of an opportunity to do something with the brake run into the station. Nothing but a blank wall to stare at as the ride ends. A new roofline and shade structure is just not cutting it. Or even fountains timed to trigger with each launch? Paint and sound track is not a "new" attraction. On GRR, I actually ride it year round, except on cold nights. It is one of the highlights of DCA for me. I think there is an opportunity for them to maybe fit in another attraction like a mine train coaster from FL. If they used part of the Redwood Creek play area, crossed over the paths, and used part of the walking trails of GRR that no one ever seem to use. Or even a flat ride themed to mining/forestry on one of those GRR empty trails.

Well, the concept art for the new hotel isn't exactly inspiring. Kind of bland and sterile, looks more like an office complex based on the preliminary art. Would have love to have seen the Star Wars hotel concept from Florida announced instead. I suppose this means monorail stops operating with a couple of years as the hotel construction swallows up the monorail stop. On positive note, at least they are finally building another garage next to Mickey.

What I would like to see Knott's do is turn Mystery Lodge in to a flying theater. Pier 39 up in San Francisco as a variation on it (Triotech ?), I think for the space that Mystery Lodge is in, it would work well. They could even rotate the films as the name Mystery Lodge can apply to quite a bit of movies. Scary Farm was good, although I think they may want to look into bringing some more interesting design elements into some of the mazes. Some of them it didn't seem like the scare actors had much room to work with. Trick or Treat with the flashlights works really, really well. Thanks for insight on Xcell. Very interesting.

On Nov 20 you are good to go! It is also Holiday In the Park. All Gold pass holders can bring a friend free those days. I am planning to do that, as the light displays are really well done. The fall is a really good time to go, only weekends have the chance of being busy. I would not buy FP in advance.

Thanks for the info on Scary Farm. Looking forward to seeing it in a couple of weeks!

I was there Friday night. I do agree with the review posted above. We only missed AHS maze, because it was not open until 7pm, and we decided not to walk back from the upper lot down to back down to the backlot again. I think it was a budget cut kind of year. There was little theme applied to the Scare Zones. I suppose they are limited by the insane amount of people that have to walk through the main funnel. We lucked out while in the park during the day briefly. Got there around 2:30 pm with our SoCal neighbor pass, took in the lack of decoration, enjoyed Potter knowing it would be closed. Made a brief stop at Walking Dead - which oddly enough, could use the strobe burst effect found in the HHN mazes. Needs a bit more impact. Our huge silver lining was that we had HHN tickets, but not the day/night combo one because we had the neighbor pass. At first, the attendant outside the gates said we would have to exit and come back in, recommending we leave the park at 4:30 to get back in line. As that time approached we headed towards the front gates and asked a staff person who was handing out wristbands if we head to exit. Luckily the answer was no! Got the wristbands and went back down to lower lot. I think that is the only reason we saw as much as we did on a sold out night. We focused on Shining first, then the long walk to "toxic tunnel" - a new low, and then onto Saw and Ash Vs. Evil Dead. All well done, and the scare actors did great. Then the long walk back, ASH still not open, so lined up for Insidious and amazingly, the time was wrong on the sign. Instead of 85 minutes, it was far less, like 45. Then the hordes descended to lower lot and we picked off JP (10 min), up to upper lot to do the Blumhouse maze, only 35 min wait. The off to tram tour, this time, wait time was off by 30 minutes. Then wrapped the night up with Titans maze (also good) and for a place to sit down, the Jabba dance show. We might have stayed later, but the line for AHS at that point was 120. I was fine skipping that. All in all, I would give it a solid B. The lack of decoration, especially with the "scare zones", and lack of Halloween specific entertainment bring it down a notch.

Thanks for the excellent pics! Look forward to checking out Carsland in a couple of weeks. Lot of new sugar treats popped up too, all look pretty good.

I hope that WOC, maybe next year, gets involved in the Halloween season if the plan is to shift the Halloween party over to DCA. Some of the decorations have gone up at DCA, and they are pretty charming. It is rather impressive that they planned for GOTG to be part of the Halloween event as well.

Those dates are actually pretty good for crowds. The 9th is likely to be busiest day. You are in between the rushes, post thanksgiving and pre christmas so it is a good window there. It is more crowded in the afternoons and early evenings. One wild card is the return of paint the night parade at dca. It will be interesting to see if it dents the fantasmic crush of humanity on the riverfront at disneyland.

That is excellent new information! Looking forward to seeing it all come together.

The ride is a good fit for SFMM. I am also glad they are continuing renovating the park section by section. Creating / developing a boardwalk style area in that dead space is a great move for them.

I think it is a good experiment to see if the market is there for them to go year round. Maybe they are inspired by Knott's Berry farm success in this regard. We might even see a festival in the spring beyond their spring break promotions.

Good to see Knott's put in a solid coaster for the thrill seekers. Hopefully the entrance gets the same retro look as the BBQ, which turned out quite nice.