tmhuber

They are a Hospitality company. Hospitality companies have been doing this for years. I'm surprised the all year round parks have not done this before. What better way to move demand from one part of the week to another. From one part of the year to another. This is why I fly mid week and go on vacation when kids are in school. It is cheeper and less crowded. All parks should do this.

I am just saying it. The elephant apples have dicks for noses. Hilarious!

So true. I feel when I ride The Voyage, I pray it to end the last 1/3 of the ride.

Nice photos of the whales leaping out of the water! Kinda looks like they put the All-Star whale team at San Diego. I remember Ohio Seaworld, but never saw the whales jump that high.

Has anyone thought about this, or is it just me. Do the human girls of Frozen kinda make you think about the Ginger vs Maryann paradox? Who would you like to bang? Elsa or Anna? I'm an Elsa man.

Disney. Hands down, no competition. I kinda wonder where people would want to get married? Disney or Cedar Point?

The funny thing is that i have only been to 3 sf parks, 2 of them are no longer (SFWoA and Astroworld). I have been to both companies flagship parks. And one park that was controlled by both companies (Geauga Lake). It is hard to judge a company from their past experiences. Plus I am tainted being from Cleveland, OH. When you have Cedar Point in your backyard, kinda tough not being biased. I see good stuff happening by both companies. I hope SF operations have gotten better since my last visit to SFMM 6 years ago. Truthfully, I need to do a coaster trip next year to give my opinion. But right now, I lean Cedar Fair.

These photos are sick. A barrel roll over the track?! Too sick.

right now i am calculating the milage from my house to outlaw run. it will take 12 hours and 30 minutes by car. are there anymore spots left on the texas/midwest trip?

This coaster looks amazing. makes me want to do a europe coaster trip. too cool.

I love robb's quote at the end of the video ... "And there it goes." Very nonchalant, very cool.

Just decided to join Coasting for Kids at Cedar Point. I want to put that cool link on the signature line of all my posts. How do I do that?

I have a question: Does the re-tracking from wood to steel (and the creation of the barrel rolls) constitute this ride as a "new ride" and possibly win the 2013 Golden Ticket for Best New Ride?

Best picture is Robb drinking on Aerosmith. I'm surprised how that picture did not get censored. And someone please answer the question about the number at Test Track.

Then I would be fine with Apollo buying it. They are just interested in making money. When they bought Harrah's (which became Caesars) they didn't change anything. I can see SF changing things and F-ing everything up. But it would be cool for SF to acquire more parks. Makes it more economical for us Theme Park junkies.

This coaster is SEXY!! I love my B&M just like my women: curves in the right places. Super stoked for this ride, but I don't know where I will be come opening day. Capacity is high for this ride. The website is saying 1700, which puts it in the ballpark as Raptor and Millenium. But truthfully, it is all up to the crew and how well they work. Management always has their eyes on the latest attraction to monitor their efficiency. When I worked Raptor, we had competitions with Magnum's crew to see who had more riders. We usually did them on Saturdays because that's when we had the longest lines. It would suck if we lost because we had no line and we sent half trains. I see Gatekeeper's line full all day long, which would lower MF, Maverick, and Dragster lines. Which they might run 2 train ops on MF more often. I hope they don't do that. I hope to see attendance increases, and park being full, and 3 train ops on everything. Gatekeeper will do its job. "If you build it, they will come." Golden Ticket Prediction for Best New Ride 2013: Gatekeeper, with Outlaw Run a close 2nd.

Being a part of the the SFO to SFWOA team, I witnessed and heard the night and day observations of the SeaWorld cast turned to SF members. They hated it. And I agreed. Service and Quality tanked. This was 2000. I became a victim in the 2001 season when they cut staff and I lost my costumed character job. I then went to CP to be a ride host. At CP, i learned efficiency, quality and cleanliness. At Disney, I learned greatness. It has been 6 years since I have been to a SF park (SFMM), so I personally don't know what they are doing now. What I have been reading is that they have gotten better since 2007. Now lets talk business. If SF were to purchase SeaWorld, THEY WOULD BE STUPID TO REBRAND THE SEAWORLD PARKS!! I think we are all in agreeance with that. I can see Apollo coming into the picture with SF on a deal. Apollo is the money and SF is the management team, just like how the hotel chains work. It can work. But I agree with everyone: For Heaven Sake, God, do not let SF and Apollo buy SeaWorld!!!!! I will make sure that makes the petitions during mass tomorrow. The rumor about this story leaking to drive a higher price for the IPO makes sense. I guess we will wait and see.

This last rumor about Comcast and WB big wigs roaming Toon Lagoon makes sense. The whole revamp of JP for 2014 in align with the release of JP4 makes sense. The only time I was at IOA, i wanted to ride Duddley-do-right falls, but it was too cold. But I think that was the only thing I wanted to do in that section. I think I ate a burger in the QSR Toon Lagoon section, but only because I was hungry by the time I walked by it. GG indoor mine coaster would be cool since I never rode a woody indoors, and there are no wooden coasters in central florida. I really liked the boat ride at JP island, maybe the best boat ride I ever road. I think this move by Universal is smart. -Tim "I think Robb is a genius" Huber. I really do think this.

The only thing that scares me about the wide usage of RFID bands with credit card information stored on them is skimming. But I bet Disney already thought about this, i hope. I wonder if they created their system where each rfid chip has a unique Disney code that can only be interpreted by Disney software system that is linked to individual profiles. And if you were to skim the rfid code from the bands, it would mean nothing to skimmers. But I wonder if you can copy the code, transfer it to another rfid chip, and then use it in the Disney parks. But what kind of criminal would do that? Seems like to much work for a small gain. I wonder what the cost differential between writeable and re-writeable bands are. I bet their IT people make bank from this project. I'm also wondering how many people enjoy wearing wristbands. Not many people from what I have seen. I think it would be interesting to see what people would do when it rolls out. Here is my prediction. People would put them on for a day, maybe 2. Then they would get sick of wearing them. Then they would carry them in their pocket and eventually lose them. Like I said before, it would be interesting to see the number of people needing replacement bands. But this could be easily solved by issuing a paper ticket, or charging for a replacement band.

This is what I think Universal is doing. They went to this website: http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/07/the-greatest-movie-franchises-of-all-time/260257/#slide12 and saw which ones they have and others that they can't do. Truthfully, i think they can take any IP and create an attraction out of it. The question is will anyone come? Here is the list: 1. Indiana Jones - Disney 2. Toy Story - Disney 3. Star Wars - Disney 4. Spiderman - Universal 5. Lord of the Rings - No One They took the highest one available and they are testing the waters to see if anyone is biting. And I think it is working. We are talking about it. But there are a few other IPs that are interesting: 6. Godfather 10. The Avengers - I don't know if Universal can do anything with this one in Florida. 12. Bourne Identity 14. Mission Impossible 16. The Matrix 21. James Bond 34. Star Trek 37. Twilight 48. Fast and Furious If Universal is trying to maximize the liscensing of an IP, then I would agree that Lord of the Rings has the most content. But I would also like to see something from any (maybe not Twilight) from the above list. I see Star Trek in the near future. JJ Abrams is doing some great things with that franchise.

If I get a job at Hershey Park, then it would probably be Fahrenheit. If not, maybe Ravine Flyer II (i never rode it and I live only an hour away from it) or Gatekeeper.

It is simply business. Seaworld is offering stock to raise capital. What they do with that capital is up to the board. It maybe to pay Blackstone part of their investment back. More likely it would be money to fund business expenses. I'm pretty sure they will invest the money in the parks in the hopes to attract more attendance thus more revenue. Blackstone is in the business of entertainment, I don't see them dumping off their investment. The reason Disney decided to invest in the parks in these huge expansions because that is what you do during down economies. The interests in borrowing money are low, so you take advantage of the market and borrow as much money is needed to invest in your product. When the economy becomes better, people will come and spend money. And if you built something cool, millions upon millions of people will come. This is what Disney is doing.

Here is my idea. Build a dueling Snow Coaster next to it and add a high-five element. That would be truly epic.

During my CP experience, I partook in the Marketing Lecture Series course. I remember a member of the CRM team mentioning something like the tracking system you mentioned the Vail resorts having. The CRM member said that he eventually would like to be able to know what guests expectations are, what they are planning to do in the parks, and finding out if they have accomplished them. He said he wishes there was a way to know if someone planned on riding Space Mountain, and they couldn't because the ride was down. Then he would find out that information, and then send the guest a FastPass. Disney would eventually get there, but it all depends if they want to. I'm wondering if I would want to be tracked all the time. Being scanned at every location just like in the movie The Minority Report. Kinda scary. But in the hands of a company that is trying to create a place "where dreams come true," maybe not a bad idea.