Hilltopper39

Love love love everything about this project, looks amazing!

I didn't notice it in the ticket pricing but does anyone know if they will be offering the ticket option for early entrance to the Studios park that allows you to stay in the park during the change over (then as a result semi-early admission to the event)? I know they've offered this option the past few years but seems like it's never listed on the web site until closer to the event.

Dead exposure was one of my favorite houses in recent years so this is exciting.

^Yeah, and I kind of liked what BGT did, should be interesting to see how Universal applies the same concept. I would imagine they will still have several "themed" set pieces located through out the park with different "hordes" dedicated to a specific section. Should be fun though. I'm glad they've added a second show, I liked the Brian Brushwood magic show a few years ago (even though it was really just kinda average) and I've always felt that a second show really gives the event a nice balance. Should be an exciting event, and hopefully Bill and Ted won't suck this year!

Great addition, I love star flyers and this one should fit in nicely at SFOG. Any mention of what section of the park it is going into? For what it's worth I feel like the star flyer is a ride that every park in America should have, a modern day tilt-a-whirl or ferris wheel if you will.

I always loved Rattler, even though it was just an average coaster it was so funky and the first 30 seconds were intense and amazing. I'm really excited to see this thing completely re-invented, should be awesome.

What is wrong with the world these days? The backwards launch seems kind of weird in the middle of the circuit, but interesting. Looks like a solid ride, glad to see Premier regularly building major coasters again, hopefully there are back to stay.

^I think the layout looks pretty cool considering they had to shoe horn it into a small section of the park, look like it has a lot of "classic" little GCI elements mixed in through out which is a good thing. I love the first drop and how it snakes around the sky tower, should be a great addition to a park that seems like it really needed it.

While I kind of enjoyed this report, I now feel like I need a shower, so thanks for that I guess? Just kidding, looks like a cool event if your really REALLY into Star Wars.

It's a shame to hear such negative reports on Oz Iris. While some of the newer B&M's are forceless and somewhat underwhelming I've never found a B&M anywhere that I found to be painful or un-rideable by any means. Even some of their older stand ups like Vortex and Iron Wolf seem to still be in decent shape. B&M, in my opinion, is one of the most consistent coaster companies around as far as smoothness and over all quality, so a review this bad of a brand new coaster is really odd. Hope they get it figured out, whatever it is, because it looks like a fantastic attraction.

I never got around to seeing this while I was living in Orlando (and working for SeaWorld) but always heard fairly decent things about it. Can't wait to see what they replace it with, if anything.

FINALLY someone built a coaster themed to a TOOL record, bout dang time! That logo is obviously just an artists rendering, ^this will be the actual logo on opening day. But seriously, looks like a great addition to the Boardwalk. I wonder if it will be a standard or custom layout.

^I don't particularly like Lane Kiffin as a coach but I don't really have a problem with him either. I mean who wouldn't want to leave Tennessee for USC? Or anywhere for USC for that matter. After a long off season the first week of the season is finally here! What matchups are everyone looking forward to in week 1? Obviously Bama vs Michigan will be a huge game, but I'm pretty excited about South Carolina at Vanderbilt on Thursday. Vandy seem to be making steps in the right direction under James Franklin and a Thursday night road game in the SEC is no easy way to start the season for top 10 team like South Carolina. Should be a good match up. Also my official pre-season national championship prediction is Alabama vs USC with Alabama winning in a close game. What's everyone else's pick?

Is anyone interested in doing some type of TPR College Football pick'em challenge here on the forums? Just an idea I had but since it seems like since we have several regular posters in this particular thread it might be fun for everyone to post their picks here every week and keep a running score thought the season. It will also be fun to make dispariging comments abiut everyone's picks and talk trash about the weekly results. I've participated in different pick'em leagues over the years and am open to any format that people like but was thinking we could post the USA Today point spreads every Monday, and everyone picks like 5 or 6 games each week against the spread Maybe each pick is weighted on confidence (one game worth 6 points, one game forth 5 points and so on) or something as well. Anyone interested?

^fixed! But seriously this is a game that might look closer that it really is because Alabama might beat the crap out of them but only win by 10 or so, they're good enough to do that to people.

I saw Jim Gaffigan a few weeks ago and was pretty underwhelmed by him live. I mean it was a good show and he was funny, but he didn't seem to have the audience as into it as some other performers of his Caliber that I've seen live.

This is probably something that you can't talk about in to much detail but I'd be interested to hear what GCI's opinion of the new topper track and iron horse style wooden coaster track is. Do they like it, hate it, are they developing any type of their own version of it, do they think the technology will somehow revolutionize wooden coasters or do they think it is just a fad that will be gone in a couple of year? Also if a park wanted to re-track a GCI with topper-track to reduce maintenance costs, would the millennium flyers be compatible and would GCI allow it? Congrats on the gig by the way, and good luck with everything.

For whatever reason there are a LOT of really good little hole in the wall BBQ joints in the western part of Kentucky. I went to school in Bowling Green and there were probably 7 or 8 really good spots in that little town alone.

Except for all of the teams that I hate.....

Looks like the standard offering for this event, which is usually very well done and nice for the kids. I've always though that if done properly some type of fun and lighthearted, spooky (not scary) walk through featuring Sesame Street characters in Halloween costumes would be a lot of fun for kids at an event like this. At Manta it seems like they used to take singles through the quick que line, but maybe not on a regular basis? At Kraken logistically a single rider line would be tough, it would probably have to go through the exit platform which would be a nightmare for the operations teams. In my experience Kraken is rarely crowded enough the really need a single rider line, even on a crowded day with multiple trains running I can't remember that line ever being longer than about 45 minutes. Maybe Antarctica will draw more crowds back to that section, but until that happens a single rider line at kraken is probably the least of SeaWorld's worries.

Even though it looks really good I'm still having a hard time getting excited about this project. I hope the 7 Dwarfs coaster is s really unique one of a kind attraction attraction but is it's not I won't be surprised. The whole thing just seems kinda meh.

Yeah I've seen pictures of that place and it looks like the coolest baseball stadium ever. If you could only access the load station from the outfield bleachers that place would be perfect .

Great pictures as always Hanno, I know Black Mamba gets pretty average reviews as a coaster from people around but man that thing look like a champ in pictures. Winjas is probably one of my top 10 "Want to Ride" coasters in the world simply because I have absolutely no idea what the heck the thing does. I know it's a spinning coaster, and it's indoors, but other than that I have no clue which is rather rare in the coaster world these days.

^Haha, you got me there, I forgot all about that one. Point being is that Oregon has to compete for recruits in parts of the country outside of their state which isn't always easy to do, and having huge a backing by Nike and ridiculous uniform selection certainly helps make them more visible to potential recruits on the national stage and has arguably helped turn them into a top 10 program over the last decade. That and the fact that they can buy recruits.