coasterlvr

Last Sunday I did the Taste of Universal at Universal Studio Hollywood. For $54 you get admission to the upper lot and 5 food items. They started charging $10 for parking two days before I went. Thanks Obama. We got there at opening and it looked like a ghost town. Was it going to open today? LOL They were already letting people in pretty early before the noon opening. Park hours were 12pm-7pm this sunny Sunday. Walked around a bit to see what was new since I hadn't been in a while. Secret Life of Pets is ready to go, so hopefully it opens when the park decides to fully open to guests. Nintendo World is coming along nicely. The food I ate was very good. Normal Universal park food. I really like the chili dog from Krusty Burger so that's what I ate first. Full size foot long, so for one item, it's a good amount of food. Had some butter beer, shephed's pie from Harry Potter. Added some tacos later, and took home the big donut and huge pretzel. All in all a fun day with friends. But far behind Disneyland and Knott's for food events. On to some pictures!

I went to "Touch of Disney" on Monday. It's Disneyland's version of a food event. The food is a bit different with them bringing over some favorites from Disneyland instead of all unique items sold during the Food & Wine festival. Tickets went on sale a few weeks ago and as usual, jammed up the servers and caused errors. You were put into a virtual queue and waited, and waited. I believe it took me checking from 7am until the queue actually opened at 10am? I forget, but it wasn't until probably until after noon or later that I finally had my tickets. Before the day was over, Disneyland extended the event a couple weekends because of the demand. This was before they knew they would be able to open soon, so they are probably pissed they extended it. LOL Anyway, the ticket price is steep. $75. That gets you parking, photopass for the day, and $25 gift card good for food only, no alcohol. When the price was announced, of course so many groaned and tried to laugh that they charged too much. Then the ticket day came, and it was a disaster because of the demand. Never underestimate the price people will pay for some Disney. LOL Most food places were open with limited or unique menu items. I had some spicy chicken wings, carbonara mac n cheese with bacon bits, a bengal bbq beef skewer and a monte crisco sandwich. I planned to get a hot fudge sunday from Ghirardelli but it got a little cold and windy so I passed. All the items were fantastic. Since there are no rides, we did a lot of circling the park multiple times. Some characters were out in odd places, and FAR away. Chip n Dale were in the bushes were you normally might see a cat, Donald on a balcony of a room at the Grand Californian, Mickey, Minnie, Daisy and Pluto on the Symphony Swings platform up high, Goofy and Max up high at the warf fishing across the body of water. I watched as Minnie was taking a break coming down the elevator from the swings, and kids just lost it, going running after her. So, I can understand why they kept them so far. Kids aren't running after a minion like they would Mickey and Minnie. Disney did an awesome job with the event and I wasn't upset at paying $75. On to some pictures I took throughout the day. The best was being able to get great views of Pixar Pier at night without people in the way!

i don't see the infrastructure ready for parks to reopen that fast. the only thing i see happening for sure is they can start recalling employees, training, and making sure everything is in place.

that's pretty fair, i guess. lol

I'd be fairly pissed if I paid and went before they offered this. But glad they are offering this to Members and Pass Holders.

I did pay $65 to do Stranger Things. That was pretty excellent, IMO. A car show? I just don't get it. I'm a car guy, and I don't go to car shows to drive by cars. I want to look and see what's been done to them. The cars in Holiday in the Park were the weakest part. But, I can't fault SFMM for coming up with something to bring in some money.

I was pretty shocked at the price of this car show. Curious to see how it does since members/pass holders are only getting a small discount. Better that they are doing, per car, instead of per person like Holiday in the Park though. So up to eight is the same price. Load up a suburban. But then they also request that you only come with people in the same household, which no one except me did for HitP. LOL

I remember when Superman was announced for 1996, West Coast Racers was going to open in 2019, and be the park's 20th Roller Coaster. LOL Well, Spring 2021 ends June 20th, so who knows what can possibly happen by then.

as soon as i can get that shot in my arm, i'm going somewhere. lol

Here's some random night shots from Taste of Merry Farm. Camp Snoopy looked the best at night, imo. I guess I like the lights up the trees thing the best. The Bear-Y Tales sign looks great lit up. Baby Yoda being carved out. Required Catawampus picture. The big tree. Happy 60th Birthday to the Calico Mine Train! The stage looked great! They had live entertainment this time around. This was soft serve on top of a chocolate chip cookie. The warm cookie made quick work of the soft serve. Is this the equivalent of kids jumping into the fountain? This is the shirt and pin combo that you can buy for $16.99.

i'm going to do it just because i think it's cool to drive your car through the park. oh, and free for pass holders and members. lol

they've had some video of an old guys band on the big screen at the stage. does that count? LOL

Knott's added Thursdays if you missed out and want to go.

over the last day or so the tickets have gone FAST. now just Nov 1st is available and i'd expect it to be gone by the end of the day.

Here's the next Knott's foodie event. $5 more dollars to get in, so $35.

i went to the last day of Taste of Calico. maybe because it was the last day, it was fairly crowded. i'm glad they made it bigger. it wasn't nearly as easy to find tables the day i went.

there is a job listing. so i guess from anywhere as long as you're what they're looking for. https://recruiting2.ultipro.com/SIX1001SIX/JobBoard/b54520f9-d278-4363-939a-3f42461e3e25/OpportunityDetail?opportunityId=297508da-2d82-4027-9f26-e932e45aea22

This sounds like a cool event for the foodies. https://www.knotts.com/play/events/taste-of-calico

I decided today was going to be my day to try Mrs.Knott's Chicken Dinner again. I'm not really a fan to be honest, and the last time I had it was during a West Coast Bash a number of years ago. But, since the vloggers have been going, and giving their two cents, i figured it was about that time to try it again. Well, actually, it was better than i remembered. I feel it is better than Hometown Buffet which i compared it to before. it's good, but not my favorite. anyway, the whole marketplace is open now. TGiFridays, and Mrs. Knott's have inside seating available, as well as outside. no longer just take out. all the shops are open as well. i just did a quick walkthrough virginia's so i can't say much about anything. there was a decent amount of people around, so it wasn't empty like i've seen on many videos, so that's good. hopefully, knott's opens up fairly soon and we can all enjoy some coasters on the west coast again. The new K installed. Basic, enter at your own risk sign. The bag. The bucket. The sides. The biscuits The chicken and sides.

while watching the video what stood out most, very few strollers. she kept commenting how the kids wore masks. the ones i remember seeing in the video were all calm, not running around wild or anything. but of course, it was just her perspective.

so i ended up watching 6 plus hours of a girl's live stream from her day at the park. i only wish the parks in America are going to be the same. incredibly low attendance because of the cap, crazy friendly cast members, and totally respectful guests.

i've wasted about two hours of my life watching this girl enjoy her day around the park. she actually got lucky and got her reservations for 10:30 yesterday. she assumed someone must have cancelled. she also said you had to use the first one before getting another. there was basically no lines. she walked in to qr code check, security, and main gate. waked on Tron. mask stayed on fine. watched the short two float character parade. anyway, i'd have no issue going to the park the way it's being shown on her video. but, i assume the guest are not going to behave anywhere near like they are in Shanghai.

Just replace platinum with whatever the next tier in the program is for you. The exception is regular members who do not have gold yet, and that is a permanent upgrade. Obviously this is subject to change, but at least right now do not expect your keeping that upgrade. I have the cheapest Six Flags Gold Membership. The upgrade for this membership to Gold + is said to be lifetime. Some have called and supposedly verified this to be true. All other memberships yes, just for 2020. I pay $6.10 a month, so I haven't paused my payments.

i'm curious how this is going to be handled, and if indeed a theme park is the same as concerts or sports. real sports with bryant gumbel on hbo had a segment talking about the outbreak in italy and focused on one soccer game. as well as the golden state warriors games played after the recommendations to halt mass gatherings. i believe theme parks can control close contact much better than concerts or sporting events. so i won't be surprised if theme parks actually open before sporting events. but we can only wait and see what happens.

there is this line... "2020 Season Passes and purchased 2020 Season Pass Add-On Products (if applicable) will be valid for the remainder of 2020 when our park is able to reopen" the "if applicable" isn't clearly defined. but my guess is, food would be included. i guess we'll see.