Hilltopper39

I get where you're coming from but this is an entirely new product from Zamperla and I was under the impression that they have a new emphasis on retooling their coaster offerings. I believe there were even some new people hired within their organization to work on new coaster products, so this new generation of rides from them might be completely different. Kind of like Vekoma now vs 15 years ago. One of these launched family coasters from Zamperla would honestly make a lot of sense in that part of the park, as long as it's high capacity and reliable what ever it is will probably be a hit.

I wonder what's going on with that Axis coaster, it's such a cool concept that you'd think that someone would have bought one by now? I feel like it's been maybe 3 years or so since we had footage of that prototype at S&S's facility but there still isn't a physical installation of that thing anywhere. Maybe Covid put a hold on a lot of plans while parks figure out what their future is going to be like, but hopefully one will get sold and installed somewhere soon. I will say those new trains "look" really cool, but man do they look tight. maybe it's just the perspective of the pictures but it sure looks like a tight squeeze.

Yeah I didn't realize there was any kind of amusement park on site here but the Circuit of the America's is pretty massive place that does fairly well as far as I know. The race track there has some huge races, and there's an amphitheater on site that has some pretty big concerts throughout the year (I'm pretty sure the Rolling Stones have a tour date there this weekend). There's also kart racing on site, like the fast kind on a real out door track, a big observation tower, I think there's some ziplines maybe? Adding a coaster like this is kind of random but seems like this place has a lot of potential in a rapidly growing market so why not?

Ride looks great, name is ridiculous, que theming is always appreciated but I mean has anyone ever waited more than 1 train for a coaster at a Fun Spot Park? lol I'll probably stop by sometime and ride it a couple of times one of these days, and regardless what you think about Fun Spot and their owners it's cool to see a glorified FEC get something major like this.

I mean a ride like Cheetah Hunt is pretty family friendly with it's 40 In height requirement, and consistently has the longest line at that park. I wouldn't mind something like that, a little more aggressive than Firechaser but still "family friendly".

Well if there's a weight limit involved might as well forget about it for Gatlinburg.......

It was on sale for like $150 just last week, so I'd expect it to go on sale again at some point. SeaWorld has typically offered Black Friday sales in the past on tickets and passes, I've never bought the 11 park platinum pass but I'm assuming the deal would be valid on that. In the past one year they did BOGO passes then the next it was Buy One Get one half off. I'm sure there will offers this year but so it seems like the deals have decreased slightly year to year, and post pandemic with parks back in full swing I'm not sure what to expect. Does anyone know if the extra perks you get with a platinum pass, like free tickets/tours/etc., are only valid at the home park? That's the impression I was under but curious if anyone knew definitively.

That Luge Attraction looks kind of awesome, and I'm surprised there's not one of those in Gatlinburg by now lol.

I agree with ya Bill, but they pretty much operate year round now except for January, February, and a few week days here and there in September & October. Believe me I'd love a good dark ride at Dollywood but for a dark ride of the quality and capacity that the park needs it would probably be a pretty significant investment, possibly more expensive than a new coaster. When you're spending that kind of money feels like a coaster is way more marketable with a higher return than a dark ride so in the end I'm sure it really comes down to that.

Nice report Bert, the Monster Stomp show looks like the same on SeaWorld Orlando had this year and I also really enjoyed it. Like you I don't really know what the plot was but it was well done with really good voice talent, super fun show. That's awesome that the carousel was open lol, in Orlando there was a que for a haunt maze right next to the carousel and I wish they would have had it open, throw on some fog and let some monsters ride or something, that would have been really fun. Looked like a good time!

I mean Firechaser consistently has one of the longest waits in the park. I was just looking at past wait times the other day for an upcoming trip and Dragonflier consistently pulls 40-60 minute waits on busy days so another family coaster is probably a good fit.

I mean a dark ride would be great but if I'm picking between a dark ride and a decent coaster I'd take the coaster every time. I mean I get it, dark rides are fun and gives an option for an indoor attraction that can operated year round, makes the park more well rounded compared to places like Disney or Universal, but this isn't Disney or Universal. How many shows does Dollywood have? I honestly don't know the answer to that but I know it's a lot, and a lot of different types during different seasons, and every time I've been the shows are always packed. I feel like Dollywood knows it's audience, and the audience is people that come for the shows and the food or for the coasters. A dark ride would be awesome, but I feel like most visitors to that park would rather have a new coaster, especially if it's an awesome family coaster with a lower height limit.

Yeah we didn't eat in the park during the event but all of the bars and drink stands were really efficient. The Poision Grotto with the aerial dancers had a line to the door just about all night long but never took more than 10 minutes or so get a drink in there, and the same for the other themed bars. The whole night felt smoother operationally than just about any other day I've had at a park this year.

We ended up going to Howl-O-Screams at Seaworld this past Saturday and had a pretty great time, I was honestly kind of impressed with the event. All of the houses were pretty good, none of them were "great" but I thought they were all really fun. Decent length and full of actors. The pirate house and Beneath the Ice were our favorites, Deadwater Inn was probably the weakest just because it felt the shortest but again was still fun. The scare zones didn't really have a ton of "scares" but the atmosphere in them was great. Tons of actors all over the place doing a nice job of interacting with people, hiding in the bushes and behind walls and stuff, very fun to walk through. The highlight of the event for us was the entertainment. Monster Stomp was a lot of fun, I don't really know what the plot was supposed to be but there was spooky singing and dancing and stuff that all looked very cool. The Sirens Call show was also a lot of fun. Again I don't know what the plot really was but there were spooky sexy men and women with fire and stuff. The way they used that open plaza and the show was all around you was really neat. We also watched the Long Shoreman for about 30 minutes in the themed bar at Sharks and they were awesome. It was kind of an improve comedy type show but the performers were very talented and funny, super fun little show. And the drinks in all of the specialty bars were great, at the Longshoremans Tavern we had a candy corn old fashioned with a HEAVY pour of bourbon that was great, and the specialty drinks at the other bars were all pretty good. There was a pretty good crowd there on Saturday but all of the lines moved well and it didn't feel overly crowded. The lines for a few of the houses were long and wrapped around backstage areas similar to horror nights but I don't think we waited more than 30 minutes max? Didn't feel like very many people had express pass so the lines moved consistently. We walked onto Mako twice, once around 9 then again at 12:20 or so. Around 10:30 the wait was posted around 40 minutes and the que was pretty full but earlier and later in the evening it was 10 minutes or less. It was nice just being able to decide to go to the event last minute, buy a ticket with no express pass, show up an hour after the event started and still be able to see and do everything we wanted. I was glad I got a chance to check out the event and I'm excited to see how it evolves next year. It'll be nice to have Ice Breaker open as another ride option. As much as I'd like to see Manta and Kraken open for the event it really did work pretty well just in the back half of the park so I don't expect that to change for now atleast.

Didn't that coaster for Glenwood have a custom layout with some pretty significant elevation changes? Like a 70 Ft lift with a 120 foot drop into a valley? I'm sure that ride could be installed somewhere else but it might be challenging or need to be modified a bit.

Does anyone know if Dollywood season passes for 2022 will be valid for admission for the rest of 2021? If so will the complimentary guest tickets be good for use in 2021 or will those have to wait until 2022? Also does Dollywood ever run ticket specials around Thanksgiving/Black Friday? We're planning a trip around Christmas and between the operating hours and ticket prices we're still evaluating one day/two day options, or just getting a pass and coming back again sometime in 2022.

So just to clarify this is essentially a clone of Jersey Devil just maybe a little bit taller and with a different turn at the end into a station that's oriented slightly differently? Seems like *most* people liked Jersey Devil just fine (besides the obvious enthusiast grumblings) so this should be a solid addition. I like the mention of a new restaurant and bar location being added with it too!

I have no reason to second guess these number but some of them are still kind of hard to believe. I don't really remember how long the Florida parks were closed, I think it was 3-4 months, but every time I visited late summer and in to the fall of 2020 attendance felt pretty healthy. I know there were attendance limits in place and all but it "felt" like a park like MK would have done more than 7 million being open most of the summer and the holiday season but I guess not. Will be interesting to compare next year's report to this year to see how the recovery is going but like Joey said we're likely looking at a decade long recovery process to get close to the 2019 attendance levels. My guess is next year's numbers will be back up quite a bit with domestic travel being more normal, but the lack of international travel will be very apparent. Also I had laugh a little bit at the waterpark attendance list where Typhoon Lagoon is still listed as #1 even though it was closed all of 2020.

Yeah I'll take that, be interesting to see what it looks like on a weekend closer to the holidays. I like knowing that I can now go to the park now and just get in line for the ride whenever I want to instead of having to show up early and play the reservation lottery game.

Very very cool, this is one of those additions that's been open for a day and already feels like it's been there for decades. Such a perfect concept and fit for the park that I'm kind of surprised Epcot didn't have something like it previously. We don't really do full service meals at the parks very often aside from an occasional character dining, but my kids would absolutely love this so might have to check it out soon.

That seems to be pretty close to the same price as the passholder discount but still a pretty good deal, especially for the two park option. I was looking at some local haunts around here and they can get up close to $40 with various skip the line options, so compared to that 4 houses and scare zones with Mako seems like a pretty good deal. Might end up checking this out after all.

Anyone make it out to Howloscream at SeaWorld last weekend? Seems like everything I read online about the event was overwhelmingly positive in general. With it being opening weekend it's hard to tell if those reviews are legitimate or maybe slightly biased for being the first weekend (especially from people at the media preview), but it looks like a pretty good time.

I don't think that it is this year, the calendar doesn't have any days listed and if they haven't announced a Halloween event by now pretty sure they aren't doing one. I'm going to be in that area first weekend in October, we're even staying in a hotel right next to KK for a night so being next door to a closed park is gonna be a real bummer, but oh well.

If anyone is interested AEW Wrestling recently announced that they were going to start taping some episodes of their Dark and Elevation shows (both on Youtube currently) at the Universal Orlando Resort and the first event is this Saturday. Looks like this one sold out pretty quick (I think tickets were free but they're already gone), but if you're into this kinda thing it's something to keep an eye out for in the future as this should be a fairly regular, possibly weekly.

Oh yea, I'm mostly joking about a Billie Eillish retheme just because of the timing of that special and the rumor. I'm a fan of hers and she is massively popular, but still not sure that translates to a Disney ride makeover. There is some stuff on her first album (I like that album A LOT more than the second one that was featured in the Disney+ special) that might work for a ride, much more up beat a "club" vibe, but even then it's probably a stretch.