Hilltopper39

I was a little skeptical of using Cars as an IP to anchor an new wilderness themed area of the park initially but after seeing this concept art..... yeah it looks great and I'm sure it will be a rally good addition.

Glad you had a good time, sounds like it was a solid day. We went early in March during Spring Break, on a Tuesday the first week the park was open and man it was crowded. We still had a nice time but it was by far the worst day I've ever had at Dollywood. Lines were an hour plus for almost everything all day, and the wait times were all over the map as far as what was posted and what the wait was. I got in line for Lightning Rod when it was posted at 50 minutes, then in line it went from 50 to 90 to 220 and back down to 80 and I think I ended up waiting around 100. I also noticed that the TimeSaver lines were insanely busy all day long, even on rides like Big Bear and Lightning Rod where the premium Time Saver is only a single use, those rides still had timesaver lines out the building. At the platform for Lightning Rod they were loading an entire train from TimeSaver and like 2-4 seats from standby. I don't know if the new resort means double the people have TimeSaver included with their stay now or what but we really felt it slowing down the ques considerably more so than in years past. We didn't get a TimeSaver because we've been there a dozen times and have never ever needed it but lesson learned this trip. Big Bear was a new credit for me this trip as well and I thought that thing was great, just an awesome family coaster. We only got 1 ride but it was a night ride after the park closed so that was a nice way to end the trip. We still had a really nice day, just not as nice as previous trips. I still absolutely love this park and will visit every chance I get, but it shockingly busy for very early in the season.

I'm taking the wait times from these preview days with a grain of salt knowing that capacity is still probably fairly limited. Will be interesting to see what these wait look like in June or July after the park is fully open and there are resort guests with express passes and all that there. With that said Stardust being a super high capacity coaster that by all accounts is very very good is pretty exciting.

I've been around long enough to see some cool announcements never come to life but with Universal attached to this makes it a little bit more promising, so hopefully this thing actually gets built! Also I've been around long enough to see some cool concept art never come to life but hopefully whatever that wicked looking duel vertical spike thing is gets built as well!

We were just in Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg area for Spring Break and were interested in Skyland Ranch since it was pretty close to our cabin but we didn't end up going. We didn't even realize it was there until after we were in town and drove by it. We didn't end up going because we already had Anakeesta and Dollywood on the schedule but that mountain coater looked pretty good so might have to check it out next trip.

This is an exciting announcement. I've been to Legoland Florida a couple of times when my kids were younger. We had a lot of fun but also I don't really feel the need to go back now that my kids are a little older. My biggest gripe about the Legoland Florida was that I wish it had just a couple more bigger "family" style rides instead of everything being so focused on smaller kids. The Legoland parks over seas have the Polar Xplorer coaster and that new B&M wing coasters, I feel like rides like that would make a huge difference at the Florida park so hopefully this indoor coaster is something like that.

As soon as I saw the sideways facing seats in the concept art my first thought was about the ride system for F.L.Y. at Phantasialand. Yes I know that's a flying coaster but the seating assembly essentially just rotates 90 degrees to lock into the "flying" position when the track position changes. For the Monsters coaster it looks like they could accomplish basically the same thing but with that looks like their typical junior inverted coaster train. Load sideways, lift the train into place, then rotate to a forward position.

I don't know what Universal is cooking up as a replacement for Rockit but man something similar to Voltron sure would be an awesome addition to that park. Europa always looks amazing, cant wait to see the rest of the report.

I didn't realize they were adding that much themeing to the ride layout like the original Big Bad Wolf coaster had so that's pretty cool! Looks like a great addition, I've heard nothign but great things about Phoenix Rising at BGT so this should be a hit as well.

No I have not been to Vegas lately but that's about where I thought those attraction s would be priced, I guess the more I think about it the Universal Horror attraction isn't as expensive as it seems, especially compared to other attractions in the area, but my mindset was comparing those prices to a theme park or another stand alone haunt. I think I'd rather pay $60-$80 for Omega Mart before I'd pay $100-$150 for Horror Unleashed, and I love horror and haunted houses. Omega Mart at least has a certain uniqueness to it that you can really only get there where as Horror Unleashed might be kind of the same thing I've seen at Horror Nights and various other haunts for 20 years, but we'll see!

yeah looking at the calendar again there are some $69.00 tickets on some Mondays and Thursdays but almost every Friday, Saturday or Sunday is $89 or $99. Also something interesting that I didn't notice initially is that they're showing the attraction being closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays almost all year, even closed every Tuesday in October. I guess that could be subject to change based on popularity, or those days could be bought out for private events but kind of interesting. I'm curious to see how well staffed the attractions are with live actors. It's one thing to fully staff the houses for 30-40 days days for Horror Nights at the parks, it's another thing to fully staff them 52 weeks a year. Maybe the houses will rely more on animatronics and less on live actors but we all know the live actors are kind of what makes these things good most of the time. Should be an interesting project to follow.

So around $90-$100 for general admission and one time access to each house and about $150.00 for admission and unlimited access. I mean I love the concept, love the idea of there being some themed common areas with food and drinks around the houses themselves but man that's an expensive admission ticket to something that's not a multi experience or something that I would probably only do once every three or 4 years.

I can't wait for some review to start to leak out, Starfall Racers is a top 10 coaster/it's too rattley and the restraints are uncomfortable. Or the Wolfman Coaster is so short/it didn't spin enough/it was better than 7 dwarfs mine train. The instant knee jerk reactions from people are one of my favorite things in this fandom, can't wait lol.

I went to Aquatica on Saturday and didn't spend a dime inside the park. I still love SeaWorld and my cheap pass with all the free tickets (took 4 people to Aquatica Saturday and had a real nice time) but yeah their food prices are annoying. I will say that I've been to concerts and sporting events and stuff recently that were the same if not worse, but yeah they're bad and the surcharge on top of it all is dumb. With that said, 90% of my trips to SW these days are me showing up at park open, riding a bunch of coasters then leaving around 1 or 2 without spending any money on anything inside the park. It's still worth it to me to keep my cheap pass to show up a couple times each year to ride some coasters when we're in town, but I understand the frustrations people are starting to have with those parks.

It's a shame that Night at the Museum ride was closed, I feel like I saw some videos of that one and it looked pretty good. It's really a shame that they were never able to get those two dynamic attractions rides operating, even if they had to retheme Alien vs Predator to whatever. After the SFX coaster at Ferrari World opened I thought this one had a chance but I guess not. That park as whole is a pretty interesting place, amazing it ever opened at all honestly. Not exactly somewhere I'm looking to go out of my way to visit but I guess if I was ever in the region I'd check it out. Great report as always. Interested to see what the rest of Genting Highlands was like.

FYI Dollywood just listed their ticket prices for the upcoming season, I've been checking for a spring break trip we're planning. I don't know where ticket prices have been in the past but it looks like it's $92.00 for a single day, $122 for a 2 day and $132 for a 3 day ticket. Definitely more expensive than I remember for a single day but 2 day pricing still seems pretty reasonable relative to some other parks of it's caliber.

Eh, I don't know about that, I feel like this industry as a whole is in for a tough couple of years. Events and hours being cut all over the place, ever increasing costs of admission and food and beverage, fewer new attractions than ever before it feels like, Legoland just had a massive round of layoffs. This industry is changing and I feel like for a lot of places it's going to be a struggle.

I haven't lived in Kentucky for about 16 years but I feel like completely removing the cars and all of the spokes of that ferris wheel used to happen fairly regularly for routine maintenance. Maybe my memory is bad (I've had concussions, it happens), but I feel like this has happened before.

Looking forward to your report on Skyworlds. That park has fascinated me from it's inception and through construction with the Disney/FOX IP issues and all of the changes. Feels like the park has been open for a few years now but I don't think I've seen very many reports or videos about the park itself so curious to see what you thought of the place. As always, great pictures, you always do a great job with these, and all of that food looks incredible!

Yeah I saw the little splash pad in one of the opening day videos, so there is something there. You know one other comment or maybe a slight critique of this resort is the views of the backstage areas of the park. I feel like the sight lines discussion inside of theme parks get a little blown out of context most of the time, like the discussion about the Guardians show building a few years ago, that kind of stuff who really cares? But I can't think of a an example anywhere at Disney where you have such a prominent view directly in to the backstage areas of the park like this resort has. I realize that the plots of land that had to work with here were kind of limited so there's only so much they could have done but it is a bit strange to have have a view directly into the back of the Donkey Kong coaster. I'm sure they'll eventually plant some trees at the park and the resort to clean the look up some but still. Pretty petty critique here, I'll admit that.

I mean maybe? But it's a budget friendly theme park resort in Orlando, there are always going to be kids there no matter what. Yeah I'm with you, when my kids were younger we looked for anything that had something, splash pad, slide, playground. Now it's not as big of a "requirement" but it's still nice. And again it's Orlando, there are so many resorts and just regular hotels with so many amazing amenities that to see something this bare bones on a brand new property for a brand new theme park is kind of surprising. If I remember correctly the concept art for the new "deluxe" level Grand Helios even didn't have any kind of additional water features, just a big ole regular pool. My best guess is that it's probably a staffing/cost issue, higher insurance, have to pay a life guard to be on duty and all of that. Or they simply want you in the parks and the waterparks and not hanging out at the resort pool, but regardless it's a little disappointing. It seems like the trend for the last decade was to build really cool amenities to be included at these resorts (Gaylord Palms, Omni Champions Gate's wave pool and lazy river, new slide complex at Word Center Marriot), but these new Universals/Lowes properties have none of that.

I think it looks pretty cool but I'll never understand building a brand new resort pool area without a slide/splash pad/playground of some kind. I mean there is a Holiday Inn Expresses like a mile down the road with a better looking pool than this. Just seems like such a simple thing to include that adds so much to the resort experience but instead it's just a big ole regular pool.

I always enjoyed Rockit for the uniqueness of it but it was always a pretty mediocre coaster if we're being honest. Some decent air but terrible pacing, on board audio and the lights are fun but it's just not a good as any kind of modern coaster from Intamin/Mack/B&M, pretty much anyone. Also I feel like the Studios park desperately needs some kind of major new attraction, that park kind of sucks outside of about 3-4 rides. Personally I'm hoping for a stateside version of the ne Voltron ride system at Europa but literally anything that's thrilling and high capacity will be a big time upgrade.

I'm not going to miss Nighthawk, I love a good Drop Tower but those types of rides kind of seem to not be as popular as they once were. Scream Weaver kind of stinks to lose, those are legitimately one of my favorite types of flat rides ever and seems like more and more of them are being removed lately. I doubt it gets relocated to another CF/SF park but maybe someone buys it and keeps it in service a few more years? Probably not but ya never know.

I both love and hate how you can pretty much do everything in Animal Kingdom before noon. On one hand it's nice to get on all of the major attractions and knock them out in case you want to park hop, and it's also nice to take it slower at the park and have a really relaxed day and still be able to do everything you want probably multiple times. On the other hand.... man that place needs a few more attractions, I know stuff is in the works and will be open in like 2028 or something, but yeah another coaster or a dark ride would have been wonderful there like 4 years ago.