Aaronupsidasium

I've never understood the appeal of MK's Space Mountain. i've always found it to be a rickety wild mouse indoors. From what I've seen on youTube DL's Space Mountain looks to have more of the dips of the classic wood coasters with some pretty cool projections and an amazing Michael Giacchino soundtrack.

I'm gonna use this forum to eulogize the great Jungle Jim's that used to be at the Crossroads (at the West entrance to Disney World). We would go there every Orlando trip for their amazing burgers. The jungle themeing was well done and loved it as a kid. Sadly closed down before I turned 21. There's still some good chains (Perkins, Steak & Shake, Miller's Ale House) around the Crossroads if you want some food outside the parks and resorts.

Favorite Park Adult Beverage Stands: Beste Brezeln und Bier (Oktoberfest) at BGW: nice German and local draught beer that pairs well with the pretzels along with the Oktoberfest feel. Minetown Restaurant (Minetown) at HP: I think PA laws don't allow you to carry your adult beverage around but this is a nice area in the counter service food court to grab a Yuengling and hang out on the shady porch which is nicely right in front of the amphitheater. Watering Hole (Jurassic Park) at IOA: All I got to say is their Top Shelf Margarita really hits the spot. Three shots of top shelf tequila! La Cava De Tequila (Mexico) at Epcot: Yeah their tequila is amazing and love chasing it with pico de gallo.

My guess is that the new theme of the parade will start with an S and end with Tar Wars.

I went to both HHN and HOS this year, while I generally go to Orlando parks I wanted to see what they've done to BGT. So basically I had a great time (Cheetah Hunt+Crown Colony+kangaroos+ice skating show=winning) during the day at Busch. But basically I thought the roaming hoards were pretty mediocre at both parks which was my first experience with this concept. I thought the actors got into it as much between both parks. Universal had more detail and staging while Busch had some good skate punk and carnie gags (the fake baby carriage) that freaked me out. While I thought HHN had a lot of dead zones, BGT is a way larger park which made for more dead zones and made me confused over which groups I would see. I guess it was an anniversary year so I might be in the dark being my first year but I didn't see that much fanfare in the park for any returning characters.

I think the theme of last year was "No Escape" since it was the first time scare actors were supposed to go into gift shops, queues and restaurants. The Walking Dead basically the main Icon (a term officially used by the marketing department) and the commercials were effective at having the zombies chasing people to locked gates. The No Escape theme would have worked better if they could figure out the roaming hoards and if the traffic around the lake didn't cancel the cast of The Walking Dead to change out at the San Fransisco street.

I went to HHN the same Halloween week in 2011 and 12, so I can say there was a HUGE crowd surge this year. I think this is good news for HHN fans. Even though I thought this year was kind of a bomb in terms of organization and crowd control, hopefully the higher ups will realize that they should add one or two cheap repeat houses (which every other park does) to dilute long lines. Remember the reason Disney created Fast Pass was that long lines were cutting into their FOOD/SOUVENIR/BEVERAGE/ALCOHOL!!! sales. The Walking Dead craze at Universal is the same as the Potter craze: even if you don't like that the parks are only using only IP's, the insane money they are getting from fans of the IP's will only give better guest experiences.,

A&D hasn't created all of the icons. The Director, The Storyteller and Lady Luck were created by marketing. I haven't been to any of the "ICONic" years but it seems that they were able to change parks and locations every year to suit their themes and ideas. Blue Man Group and Hollywood RRR removed a lot of access to guests to the soundstages and Ben & Jerry's/Starbucks took out the Alley as a house. I think this has stifled the creativity of A&D and made the event more routine. Now with Superstar Parade, Transformers and Gringotts the HHN designers are just throwing up their hands. So basically if there's more awesome construction at Universal, it's going to piss HHN fans off more.

Not to get off topic but I think it was the Superstar Parade that had HHN them get rid of the scare zones. The park has to leave the most of the street sets up during the day which would have disrupted the daily parade and its spectators. Now before you remind me that there was a parade in HHN 2004, that was a two-park event and the scare zones were in the old bone yard and studio backlot. I did think HHN was pretty weak this year but the active construction sites are more distracting at night since they are full of white light. I thought it distracted from the immersive atmosphere that I like.

I assume that when Potterverse hits capacity they use it so people can still get to Jurassic Park from Lost Continent.

The ride system sounds high tech but not as much as however they're going to get the penguin poop smell out of this area.

I wish Knott's would build an OMG THRILLZ ride sometime. So far in the last decade they built a B&M invert and some EH family coasters. If they got some love like the east coast parks (Diamondback, Intimidator, Gatekeeper) and brought back some of the quality family attractions, they would have a winning park.

What real information are you talking about? Anything officially released by Disney is logically spinned in their favor. Unless anybody knows how Fast Pass actually works and can reveal it on the internet, I think there should be a dichotomy between the Disney company and the theme park fans I think they should include the fanatics into the fast pass plus since they've already spent the time to learn how to manipulate the system.

The MagicBands have been the only RFID device mentioned ever since Jim Hill broke this program last year when it was called X-Pass. He brought up concerns about how a wearing a wristband for a week in humid Florida weather would feel. I do really like being able to have your own personalized MagicBand especially after buying all the Star Wars characters.

Do the wristbands explode when you try to go to Universal or Sea World?

I wish you could have the option of using a lanyard or a wristband. As an adult I find the wristband too much like being like the monitored prisoner in The Running Man or THX 1138. Granted I think the kids should wear the wristbands because it will be harder for them to lose it.

Harry Potter is as popular with adults as Lord of the Rings. HP came out 15 years ago so children that came of age with the books and movies are starting to gain disposable income, go on vacations and start families which will help make the Wizarding World stay popular.

Magic Mountain and BGW's Christmas Town. Riding Tatsu above a bunch of Xmas trees on the side of the mountain. In general, Magic Mountain would be great if it were ran by SW/Busch instead of Six Flags (good food, atmosphere, shows, open rides)

The interactive elements looks fun and very promising. Hopefully they will let you design the car on your phone before or while in the queue since I hear that you can create a ton of different designs that you may need more than 5 minutes to make. As for what I've seen of the interior, the effects look really cool if I can be convinced what they have to do with automobiles. Some people have been saying Tron-inspired, I would say direct re-creation of scenes from Tron Legacy. Even though I think the movies mostly suck, I still hope they put this stuff in a Tron roller coaster somewhere.

The operations on Fahrenheit at Hershey were brilliant. The coaster has short trains with very low capacity (3 car train) but the line moved very fast. They actually had a ride host directing people to seats (very rare for a non-Disney/Universal park) and putting all odd numbered parties in the in middle car which insured all trains went out full despite not having a single rider line. The ride host was stern and authoritative without being rude which made the line move very fast.

I was in a slow line for Gwazi (they were only running Lion side with two trains, probably 30-45 minute wait in a moderate day) and when I got to the station I noticed that checking all of the seat belts before lowering the lap bars and then checking them. That made dispatches twice as long as that I'm used to since ops usually check both at the same time. Is this a GCI policy (I don't remember dispatches being so slow at Hershey GCIs) or just inefficacy Busch training?

I think that video was the lunch/counter service (hopefully). Still not crazy about Wawa screens and still hate RFID.

Anybody find this video both disappointing and unsettling? I mean i was expecting a magical, immersive fine dining restaurant and the first thing we are greeted with are the same touch screens I use to order subs at Wawa and Royal Farms? Aaron "I hate RFID" McMahon ADMIN EDIT: Fixed Youtube link - Joey

So does USF set the record for most 3D attractions in one park,T2, Shrek, Despicable Me, Transformers and possibly The Gringotts coaster if the rumors turn out true. From what I've seen online, Transformers has less practical sets and feels more like a motion simulator than Spider-Man. Am I correct?

I think Knott's is waiting for 2015 to open the west coast's 1st Giga Coaster to piggy back off Universal opening Harry Potter. There's going to be a lot of tourists from the West coast and Asia in LA specifically for Potter.