KBrylczyk

DisneySea. Because, among literally every other thing about the park, this -

Dude this thing looks like the anti-B&M flyer model. It's ripping through those turns! Not even Tatsu carries that much speed through the turns.

For everyone's sake I sure hope it can measure up to IOA's premier. If they can pull off a huge, industry-changing attraction like they did with Spider-Man I will be very happy. I'm not going to hold my breath, though, as back then the Universal parks invested in large-scale, innovative, practical attractions for practically everything, as opposed to the previous decade-plus trend of glorified simulators with the oddball traditional ride (albeit heavily-themed) every now and then. My first visit to IOA was that opening year in October. Every single thing was brand spankin' new (except Dr. Doom, really), immersive as hell, spectacularly themed, and essentially stood for everything a teenager wanted that Disney didn't offer. As a 15 year old at the time, I loved the hell out of it. I still do, though I've not visited since 2012. Other parks, namely Disney, have stepped up their game dramatically in response and have since outdone Universal at their own game multiple times in both new lands and entire new theme parks. I really hope Universal can come out swinging and hit a homer. I really do, but I'm honestly not sure.

Interesting bit of news regarding financials and all the fun stock market madness - https://investors.sixflags.com/news-and-events/press-releases/2020/03-31-2020-213020263 Thanks to all this virus silliness many companies are being tested financially, some moreso than others. Six Flags, in particular, seems terrified that they'll be gobbled up by another entity or entities as their share value continues to go down faster than a Thai hooker. According to this Rights Plan, if any one person, or group of people acting as one, purchase 10% or more of the company's stock (percentage of ownership for the layman) then it will trigger an immediate 50% discount on the remaining shares to be purchased by existing stock holders. The idea being that current stockholders will act in good faith to buy more stock in order to dilute the 10% buyer away from controlling amount of shares. Hypothetical example - Bill Gates wants to dive into the amusement park industry. Disney and Universal are too strong to compete with directly and too expensive to bother buying out. Cedar Fair and Six Flags, however, are much more approachable to a man of his background. Six Flags ($11.41) is trading at about 65% the value that Cedar Fair ($17.05) currently is, making it the more attractive of the two options. He purchases 15% of the company stock at $11.00 (rounded down from the current price for the sake of argument) which then allows any and all existing shareholders to purchase more shares at $5.50. Because of this, on paper Bill Gates' stock is essentially worth 7.5% (theoretically) if this triggers a surge in buyers. Because of this, Bill Gates will have second thoughts about buying Six Flags and might instead look at Cedar Fair because he'll get more bang for his buck. This is an extremely simplified example of what could happen, but this is essentially Six Flags throwing out a lifeline to themselves. It will be very interesting to see what happens a few months down the line. With the current economic climate I wouldn't expect any kind of buyout or hostile takeover but I am fully expecting Six Flags to unload a bunch of their underperforming parks and standalone water parks.

In my lockdown Youtube-ing I came across a video of the Lights, Motor, Action stunt show's interior POV (linky link) I recalled how Mirabilandia had one insane car stunt show, as well, back in 2012 (before the Hot Wheels update) that Robb and Elissa became part of during the TPR trip! Here's all of the videos I have of that show, complete with Robb in a semi and Elissa in a cop car doing all kinds of wacky crap - Robb and Elissa get taken in for questioning, forced into a game of Follow The Leader by a corrupt police force, thrown in a cop car, and drift all over the damn place - [youtu_be] [/youtu_be]timestamp 1:24 Robb's grand entrance in a semi - [youtu_be] [/youtu_be]timestamp 2:04 Elissa coming in on a 'Murica-mobile, followed by ridiculous car stunts in the passenger seat - [youtu_be] [/youtu_be] And more general insanity from everyone involved - [youtu_be] [/youtu_be]

I just came across this video of an inside POV of the Lights, Camera, Action stunt show. Pretty intense stuff! [youtu_be] [/youtu_be] Robb, Elissa, does it remind you of anything? [youtu_be] [/youtu_be]timestamp 5:20 Head over to the Mirabilandia thread for all of my videos of that show, including far more hijinks from Robb and Elissa. Edit - And we're good, all vids uploaded! Enjoy!

I mean, I worked for Carnival for 4 years and I only ever saw 5-10 Americans working on the ships, all of which were in the entertainment department. Technicians mostly, sometimes hosts, occasionally dancers. Hosts and dancers were primarily British or Australian. Spa attendants were generally Australian and European. Camp Carnival staff was 99% Eastern European. Deck staff was 100% southeast asian and Pacific Islanders, same for custodial staff. Food service was a mix of everyone except english-speaking countries. Officers were all Italian. You mentioned the corporate and call centers. Corporate employees were, shockingly, rarely American, as well. Tons of Canadians, British, and Mexicans. I'd say out of all of the shoreside corporate people I interacted with about 10% were born and raised American. All of them LIVE in the country but not all are naturalized citizens. Call centers were mostly outsourced except for high call volume times, as well. All that being said, I left Carnival back in earl 2013 and never looked back. Things may have changed, but in my experience they certainly don't deserve to be bailed out by our government. Edit - Also, before things get too political, why don't we all agree that this entire thing is a huge mess that none of us have any way of influencing. Meanwhile Carnival is adding a powered coaster, so let's go back to the ageless debate of "does it count or not?" I say it doesn't, because Carnival can't do anything right.

Saw this coming, also looks like Shanghai and Hong Kong are the same. I can't find any hard dates on their sites. I won't be surprised if Shanghai goes back to fully closed after they've partially reopened non-park areas of the resort. China ordered all movie theaters to close down immediately today, two days after they (movie theaters) reopened. Obviously they're not in the clear.

The motor is gonna die in the first year and then it'll be SBNO for five years before they hire some poor schmuck to turn a hand crank all day like Kimmy Schmidt.

Man, I miss Hammerhead at Knott's. Same ride. That late-90s and early-00s surge of flat ride insanity was bonkers. I hope more flat ride manufacturers get an upcoming surge. There's been too many Larson Loops and not enough Downdrafts (yeah i know it's much older than the late-90s).

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^

I've been lucky enough to ride with a working Yeti once, multiple times with disco Yeti. You're dead on the money, it's a stupid animatronic to bother fixing. It's a blink and you miss it moment, the strobe works just fine. When it worked it was cool and all, but it didn't add or detract from the ride.

You OK, bud?

Knott's should sell all of their Boysenberry Festival baked goods online for now since everything is shut down.

I'm calling shenanigans on this one. Newark airport looks like a crowded post-apocalyptic shanty town, not a successful American Dream. FTFY

Could you imagine them running RotR at maximum overdrive nonstop right now to hunt down every bug? That's gotta be something else, man.

My online rank in Mario Kart has never been higher, haha. Also with Doom Eternal releasing in 5 days I'm all set for any lockdowns!

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Please shut up unless you can provide sources for these false claims. Spreading misinformation is one of the worst things you can do and judging by your post history you're not exactly qualified to be making such claims.

^ They have the power of Joseph Smith to save them! [youtu_be] [/youtu_be]

Seriously, it isn't the danger of the virus once infected, it's about keeping the hospitals below the threshold so we can alleviate the death count. Yeah, if you're old you have a higher chance of dying on a ventilator, but what if you're 20-something and have pneumonia caused by the virus and because the hospital is full you can't get breathing support? You drown in your own bodily fluids slowly and painfully. Because you're stupid.

Looks like we know when the next ticket price increase is coming.