CoasterFEV

^ That "monorail" looks suspiciously like a "High in the Sky Seuss Trolley Train Ride" Chinese knock-off! (alright...it's not so suspicious...it's pretty damn blatant!) Lots of color and RV details ripped off from someone at Dasin's Galaxy Land's trip to Orlando. Fun stuff!!! "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery" -Charles Caleb Colton

Track and columns are rising fast at Ferrari World Swung through Yas Island today (Friday, 31st July) and grabbed these shots for the TPR boards - enjoy the pics!

VERY happy to hear that, Neil - and those were GREAT pictures of the park! Plus - is it any surprise that the "technologically-advanced" Treasure Hunters is TOTALLY the most amazing attraction in the park???? And is it any surprise that the Treasure Hunters wait time is always longer then Revenge of the Mummy? (well...yes...we were totally surprised too!)

Revenge of the Mummy in Singapore is an improved-version of its Orlando counterpart. The overall layout in Singapore is exactly the same as Orlando - but there are some slight differences that were made. For example, the transitions in Singapore were engineered MUCH much smoother and the turntable (thanks to Nolan) spins the other direction. The biggest difference is the overall storyline and showsets - MUCH improved in the Singapore version. Beautiful queue - fully themed inside and out to an Egyptian temple/dig site. Very clear storyline. Very little use of video on the ride itself - for example, the turntable and launch are all full-size physical sets (rather then the video used on the Orlando version). Biggest improvement? No Brendan Frasier!!!

Bill: Your statement really doesn't make sense. It's commonly known that taking a shower uses less water than a bath. So - if a hotel builds rooms that only have a shower rather than a bathtub - the hotel is, in fact, helping to save water.

^^ This is the equivalent of asking an automobile manufacturer to design a car that can absorb all of the impact of a front-end or rear collision and sustain no damage.

Loved that ride! It was just SO bad! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Announced today by Ferrari World (notes courtesy of their Twitter feed): New roller coaster, Flying Aces, will have the world's largest loop (sounds like they are going for YOLO's record)

AUGH!!! (tries hard to NOT make a seat joke) (tries hard to NOT make a seat joke) (tries hard to NOT make a seat joke) (tries hard to NOT make a seat joke) (tries hard to NOT make a seat joke) As a serious note: BSG Human opened with lap restraint only trains - which were later modified with OTSR

Great to hear you'll be visiting the UAE soon! Couple of my own notes on each of the three major water parks: (Side note: there are actually a total of six water parks in the Dubai/Abu Dhabi area, in addition to Wadi Adventure out in Al Ain that features incredible white water rafting/kayaking, an aerial park, + a crazy big man-made surfing lagoon with 3m tall waves) All the parks chill their water most of the year and provide cooling solutions (including keeping walkways wet) throughout the park - providing great relief from the heat during our Summer months. Yas Water World: Best water park of the three for families with kids. Their three children's areas really can't be beat - better even then what the Disney parks offer for the small kids. Pretty crazy theming around the park - plus this is the park with a coaster credit inside. All slides are more "traditional" - meaning that you are walking up stairs to get to the top, typically carrying a tube with you. The park has two family hydromatic slides accessed from the top of the mountain. Atlantis Aquaventure: Best "overall experience" for those looking for a relaxing full day. Good collection of Master Blaster slides and their new slide tower offers some fun thrills. You'll walk up to the top of the new slide tower - but most all of their other slides are accessed via riding a Master Blaster up. Absolutely beautiful park and their rapids river is a great take on the traditional lazy river. This park will get crowded mid-day as it is free for all Atlantis hotel guests. Wild Wadi: Smallest of the parks - so will fill-up the first as this park is free for all guests of Jumeirah Hotels (the park's owners). Great collection of Master Blasters which are used to access a majority of their slides - and truly amazing just HOW many slides have been jammed into this park. Their two new(er) slide towers offer great thrills, accessed via stairs, which are fantastic options I agree with Elissa that, from your description, Wild Wadi would be your best choice. My big recommendation is to get there a few minutes before the park opens and get as much done as you can before 12noon/1pm when the park really starts filling up.

Neither did I! And it doesn't look at all like a "normal" ropes course. Looks a lot like the "challenge" activities that Elissa had us doing at the ultra-crazy ropes course on last year's Scandi Trip. Check the right-side of the tower in the photo - looks just like an activity we did in Scandi where a challenger stands on the platform and has to jump out to grab onto the trapeze-style handles. Fun stuff! Might need to make it over there this Summer to try it!

That's the Aldar Properties headquarters. They are the development arm of the Abu Dhabi government (and, coincidentally, owners of Ferrari World, Yas Waterworld, and the new Yas Mall)

1. Do you have your videos set to auto-play on your: a. desktop computer and/or b. mobile device? (or if you don't know, just tell us if the videos auto-play or not in your newsfeed.) Videos are set for auto-play on my mobile devices and not on my laptop. Are people even still buying desktop computers? 2. Do you regularly "share" content from Facebook "page" (like the TPR page) to your own personal Facebook page? And have you shared something from the TPR page? Definitely shared content from the TPR Facebook page - especially on stuff related to my local park(s) and projects I've been involved with 3. What kind of content are you most likely to share? (Videos, Photos, News Stories, etc?) Most likely to share videos and industry-related news 4. How long on average do you watch a video posted to Facebook for? Do you watch the entire video? First 30 seconds? Until you get bored? I watch the entire POV-segment of the videos. I tend to skip through a lot of off-ride footage 5. How important are "video thumbnails" to you? (the image you see with the > Play icon before you click to watch a video) Very important. That thumbnail is the "teaser" A good video thumbnail significantly increases the likelihood of clicking that play icon! 6. What do you like/dislike about Facebook? What features do you use the most and which ones annoy you? Seriously dislike Game, Like, and Ap requests. And there is no better way to convince me to drop someone as a friend is a creepy person who uses the "poke" function! 7. Is there anything that TPR does or doesn't do on Facebook that you think we should be doing more/less of? The random TPR videos are fantastic. More industry news would be appreciated. Less Disney stuff and more news on parks around the US and around the world. I know WDW is TPR's "local" park, but need to even-out the coverage with all the other parks. For example, did you know there is a park in the Netherlands building the most incredible drop coaster ever created?

Still better than Manchester. Your airport there in Manchester actually makes CDG look GOOD!

Thanks for the bonus video, Robb! Absolutely great stuff as always - would love to see more of these for us TPR Members!

I'm amused that the official groundbreaking ceremony was completely staged - or maybe I'm just reminiscing when a groundbreaking ceremony was actually...well....an actual groundbreaking of the site Either that - or the new Disney Explorer's Lodge is, unfortunately, just going to built in a random banquet room of the Disneyland Hotel!

Absolutely agree! Except for the whole standing/surfboard thing (weird...seems to overcomplicate the ride system), it is really similar - if not darn close to the same thing - as the Zipcoaster that's been open for awhile down in Kissimmee just outside of Orlando at the Forever Florida Zipline Adventure Park. http://foreverflorida.com/adventure-options/zipline-thrill-park-adventure/#rattlesnake

Sorry to admit, Divv - But after a recent trip to the Brit Crew's home country - I gotta say that airport of yours in Manchester definitely gives CDG a run for my least favorite airport in Europe!

Sadly, I'm pretty sure Elissa is referring to these "authentic" Chinese theme park (ummm....) "experiences" near Beijing:

^ Could not agree with that post more! Way to go Caesar! We've been following your progress for all 36 hours! - SO MUCH respect coming to you from all of us here in Dubai!

^^ Huh? I rode X2 last Saturday (May 10th) - they were only running one train, but the audio on that train was working great!

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Looking forward to seeing your report on Mack's newly-developed competition to the Mega-Lite!

...or visit the park on a TPR trip I've been fortunate to be on the last two trips that TPR has made to Fuji-Q and, amazingly enough, they both turned out to be fantastic days with everyone on the tour(s) getting all the available credits at the park - plus having plenty of time to spare! No ERTS - just Robb & Elissa surrendering massive amounts of time (and money) for the group, plus good timing, and I assume some sort of animal sacrifice

Remember gang: Just because guests can't see work going on at BSG - doesn't mean that there isn't a LOT of work happening on the attraction