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I seem to remember an interview somewhere with the guy that runs the show at RMC and he said they didn't have the manufacturing capacity or technology for the T-Rex yet, and were focusing on the Raptor's while they worked on getting that technology up to scale.

First test run from the official twitter! Looks more sanely paced overall than the original raptors, but the first drop looks like it could fire the back row into space if the restraints weren't there! I wonder how different the front and back rows will be with 10 cars? It's no comparison, but adding two cars to Olympia Looping drastically changes the ride, so this is similar.

First POV has been released: Looks super fun and like it could be intense! I wonder how nemesis-like the helix feels, given that it's fairly flat and exits downhill? I'm also SUPER into the downhill final brakes!

Some testing of Mystery Mine's new drop into the turn from Great Ohio Coaster Club's facebook: https://www.facebook.com/115430945186216/videos/125098112884343

I have no horse in this, I'm probably never going to get over to ride it, I just thought it was an interesting comparison! I originally tried it with the first POVs with the original front car and it was a massive difference in speed, so that would have been even less fair If you line up the big drops, the old one gains speed faster and hits the brakes before the new one reaches the bottom of the big final turn, so it's going to be fun watching it regain that speed as it warms up!

I made a side-by-side comparison of the new POV with a previous one filmed in the same position by the same team. http://www.youtubemultiplier.com/604a8689ebd50-lightning-rod-comparison.php New on the left, old on the right. New one seems a lot slower over the top and first drop, and generally through the layout? Obviously some of that is gonna be because it's new and cold, but it's still a fair difference to make up! The old video is 30 seconds shorter, and some of that will be fluff like station and credits faff, but it's still big gap?

For sure, I was trying to avoid making any judgements about the experience as whole and just focus on what's there and what you can see in the POV. I just mentioned dividing opinions because I know some people were expecting a coaster of some kind rather than a tracked dark ride, and they're probably gonna be a bit miffed

The mario kart ride is certainly going to divide opinions! SPOILERS BELOW ==================================== From watching the POV it's certainly less coaster and more physical sets than I was expecting! I was surprised at how much stuff they'd actually made real, I was assuming the AR would be carrying a lot and leaning more towards VR but it's really well integrated with the sets. You could easily ride this without the glasses and still have a passable experience no worse than some regional dark rides The Magikoopa corridor is a favourite, although the AR kinda masks a lot of it! It's slower than I thought, but the projections and AR will certainly make it seem a lot faster than it really is. The projections are well done and, aside from the obvious screens, fairly subtle. The rainbow road floor looks particularly swish and I adore the way the winner glides almost seamlessly between the AR glasses and the projection screen beyond at the end of the ride. Got to say that going for a tracked ride based on mario kart seems an odd choice given the trackless masterpieces we've seen elsewhere? ==================================== SPOILERS ABOVE Overall the area looks really nice, the powerbands are a really interesting idea especially with locations all round the area to collect points.

Yep, that's loads better! It looks good with the dark theme too

Is there a way to make mentions lighter and easier to read? Am I just being dense and not seeing an option?

Sounds like a good deal to me. Cost? I know my Euros. Yours for the bargain basement price of €400 during the week, €449 at the weekend! I've seen on a German fan forum that these packages are only temporary and you'll be able to just book a room and tickets in the near future

It only has 3 fewer rooms than Matamba! There are rooms on both sides of both pieces of track in that picture, and more on the back side of the right tower! There's a bar that's exclusively for guests of that hotel plus there's an exclusive entrance to the ride attached to the hotel, so they've really gone all out to tie the whole area together. You can see how big the rooms are in this picture from the website:

The new shaping probably reduces stresses on the structure and trains, making maintenance cheaper and increasing lifespan.

I'd guess that they mean you still have to wait in the virtual queue, but when your time comes round, you can be first in queue for that slot, rather than the usual fastpass skip the whole waiting period idea

These pictures of the boats show they've just got side and bottom rollers, and no way to mount a track, or receive power for the rocking. Source: Michael Mack's twitter And this picture of Roland in the empty trough, without track Also Herr Mack's twitter I can't wait to see what they finally do with the concept though!

All the pictures they've posted, their blogs, and the making of series? They've been clear that they're sticking as close to the old ride as possible except updating the story and the animatronics.

This is pretty much a straight rebuild, so just a regular free flowing boat ride. I think the track in that tweet is for some scenery. I really hoped they were going to pull the ol' switcheroo and use this as showcase for the new tech, but alas!

POV! Posted on the blog: http://​www.visitkingsisland.com/blog/2020/june/official-orion-pov-video-released (For some reason the link won't link ) Looks fun, seems to carry some nice speed throughout. The final brakes still look ridiculous though! I certainly wouldn't be upset if this opened somewhere over here, even if it isn't a giga

Here's the height permit they filed in February: It seems a raptor is on the way, or at least *was* on the way in Feb! Full permit here: https://oeaaa.faa.gov/oeaaa/external/searchAction.jsp?action=displayOECase&oeCaseID=430142564&row=326

Also, the African characters aren't literally monkeys anymore, which is good

They do mention that you're supposed to come with your own household, but then they turn it around and say "no composite families". To me, that comes across that a traditional family unit is okay, but several unrelated roommates living in the same house or apartment is not. I read it as the people that normally live in the same house are fine, but meeting up with your aunts or cousins from the next town over isn't OK.

Energylandia are selling branded masks in their shop for 36 złoty (£6.95/$8.60), not sure what Poland's plan is for theme parks but it could be a small, but not insignificant, fund to keep things ticking over.

Somebody filed a permits request and got the permits for Magic mountain's 2021 addition: A slightly extended Jersey Devil clone. Potentially leading to Tidal Waves removal. Hopefully corona doesn't derail this too much, though it's probably too far through the process to cancel now anyway [youtu_be]https://youtu.be/WYYJQOaZHIo[/youtu_be]

Unless you've scrimped and saved to be able to afford a special getaway. Even then, $50 is a 12% loss on $400; that should annoy anybody!

Very odd about Chessington opening. I read a lot of British news sites to try and avoid all my info coming from US media and it seems like you guys are about to get pretty bad over there! I've seen that it could be an insurance thing because the Government hasn't explicitly said places need to close, so if they close unilaterally they might not be covered by their insurance for losses. Blackpool Pleasure Beach also opened this last weekend and Flamingo Land's zoo has been open this whole time and they are re-assuring people that when the main park re-opens they will disinfecting all rides between cycles.