Hilltopper39

Yeah I hope so, I know I read somewhere that the event won't use the main entrance but will use a separate entrance somewhere over by the pavilions so maybe it's an issue with keeping the Halloween event area secure while they're clearing the rest of the park. If that's the case surely they could find a way to stagger the opening of Manta after the event starts or something? I also wonder if the sharks pavilion will be open during the event. I mean it's right there so hopefully it is, but I have a feeling it won't be. Yeah same boat here.

I'm still excited about this event but man only having Mako and Infinity Falls open is a little disappointing. It feels like the majority of this event will be in the far side of the park around those attractions, I'm guessing the shows will be in the Nautilus theatre and Bayside Stadium, so I'm assuming that's why Kraken and Manta aren't included but it's still a little disappointing.

Yeah I'm really looking forward to seeing how this turns out, everything about it so far looks spectacular. Also curious to see what other attractions the park ends up having. I'm sure the one coaster pictured won't be the only "ride" but interested to see if they have some unique dark rides, or rides incorporating animal exhibits, maybe some kind of a flying theatre? As many models of Flying theatres as there are these days I'm kind of surprised that one of the SeaWorld parks in America hasn't gotten one yet.

I'm anxious to see a map get posted for this event eventually to see where all of these haunts are going to be located. I was at the park this weekend and there was pretty much no visible construction within the park, or in the backstage areas that are visible from inside the park. The only thing that even looked like progress was side of the Nautilus theatre next to the que for Mako had some temporary railings like an entrance, not really set up but just sitting there, and the curtain at the exit to the simulator ride in Wild Artic near the entrance to the exhibit was pulled back a little and there were some spare lumber lying around so who knows. I know there's a lot of space back in the ports of call area and the sea harbor pavilions that I'm sure will get used some how, but I'm interested to see where all these houses and themed bars end up being located.

Pretty cool layout for being a shorter ride, really cool addition to this park. I'm probably not going to make a trip to CO specifically for this or anything but if I were in the area this place would be on the top of my list to check out.

A chain and a combination lock should work well if you can get it through security, but if not a nice wide base and sound defensive technique should be sufficient.....

I wonder if this happens more often than you realize if you're not checking the FT+ pricing regularly. When we went to Carowinds earlier this year about a month before our trip FL+ was around $70~ then a few weeks later it went up to like $100~.

I immediately thought of Wild Arctic because they show a monster inside some of those caves that's in the walk through, I realize that the haunt itself probably won't be inside of that area but one can dream right? I hadn't thought about the Antarctica ride path until you mentioned it, and the fact that SeaWorld used the old Darkastle ride path has me intrigued by that idea. I'm not super familiar with they layout of that area anymore but I'm sure there's a way to bypass the animal exhibit if they wanted to. I'm pretty excited for this event honestly, something new so it should be fun!

There better a Walrus in that house or this whole thing is a bust.

I mean if you go back to like 2017 and were to compile a list of park related incidents similar to these I'm sure the list was be nearly identical. Minus the tragic accident on the rapids ride (which unfortunately is also something that has happened on other rides before) everything listed here has happened before and will happen again, pretty much ever year. There will be guest related incidents in the parks, attractions will have unexpected closures, new rides will have issues and delays, sketchy carnival rides will still be sketchy carnival rides. 2021 feels like a weird year mostly because of staffing issues and massive crowds returning to the parks, but most of the incidents listed here aint nothing new.

It's probably just gonna be called California Devil Coaster lol.

Great report as always Adam, nice to see a review of the Snake River Expedition ride. Seems like I'd heard very little since that opened and most of it was somewhat negative, so nice to something positive about it for what's it is. My only wish is that it was a little bit higher capacity, I love these type of attractions at thrill ride heavy parks but I'm not going to wait as long for that as I could for a major coaster. Looking forward to Kennywood.

Did anyone see a date mentioned when this will be available? I've got some friends going to the park in a few weeks and I was wanted to give them a headsup but wasn't sure if this would be available by then or not.

I mean said it's not gonna happen but it would be cool if it did, that was the very first line?

I know it's not going to happen but how cool would it be if they found a way to open Iron Gwazi for "limited previews" or whatever exclusively during Howloscream. Open it up at night during the event for one month only, then close it down and open it to the public next spring or whenever. Come on BGT, do it you cowards, I promise I'll buy a ticket .

Wow those pictures really take me back, lots of memories at that place during that era. I always kind of wondered what would have happened to Kentucky Kingdom is they'd of made slightly different choices with their new additions back in those days. Chang was cool at the time since it was a new concept with the standup and all, but then and now it's a style that isn't anyone's favorite. The coaster lineup there back in the Six Flags days was always kind mediocre, but I wonder if things might have turned out differently if they had built say a B&M invert instead of a standup, and a solid GCI coaster instead of Twisted Twins (which was really never any good). Obviously there's a lot of other factors involved but I just wonder if you switch two mediocre coasters out for two world class fan favorites if that place might have been more successful to the point that it wouldn't have sat dormant for as many years as it did.

This thing looks amazing, I really hope some more of these Mack spinners get built! I rode Copperhead Strike a few weeks ago and really liked it, but didn't "love" it. The pacing on it with the hangtime and the slower launches wasn't my favorite (it's still like a top 20-30 kind of ride just not top 10). With that being said I can see how that kind of pacing with spinning trains would be really fun, so this type of ride looks awesome.

Jeeze where's all this Yuengling disrespect coming from all the sudden? I mean I know it's not top tier beer or anything but come on for widely distributed cheap commercial beer it's about the best there is. If a concert/theme park/sporting etc. event has Coors, Bud, Miller and Yuengling I'm taking the Yuengling every day and twice on Sunday's (where available, after 1 pm).

This looks great, I was really surprised by how much fun the Premier Skyrocket coaster was so I'm sure a bigger/faster/longer version by another manufacturer will be really fun. Interesting that Intamin (Sandy's Bronco) and now Zamperla are getting into the compact launched shuttle coaster game. Didn't Mack show off a version with their spinning trains a few years ago? Seems like we're going to see a lot of these in the future. I love the idea of the turntable station to increase capacity, but good luck with that 40-47 second loading/unloading lol.

Last time I was at Dollywood Firechaser had about the longest line in the park so maybe that's not a bad thing. That line might have a mixture of capacity and popularity but people seem to love that ride, so a "bigger" and "better" version of that might be a solid addition. If Dollywood had ride like Cheetah Hunt or Copperhead Strike in the back of Wildwood Grove that would be amazing.

This looks awesome, glad that more of these next gen Vekoma's are getting built as they all look excellent. Also, I can't help but think how similar this looks to the concept art that was released in the Grona Lund expansion story. Obviously not exactly the same model or anything since it's just concept art, but some similarities there for sure.

The Drop Tower was actually open Saturday for a very short period of time, it was kind strange. Park closed at 7 pm (which is insane but that's another topic), and drop tower started testing at like around 4:30 or 5, riders were on it shortly after, but by around 6:30 or so it was closed again. Not sure what's going on with that thing but it did open briefly.

Glad you ended up having a decent visit. It's really a great park that can just be very frustrating at times with their operations. Pretty much been like that as long as I can remember visiting. Unexpected ride closures can happen especially considering the park is open year round so that's understandable, but to be fair their ride operations are usually pretty decent to make up for everything else so the coasters alone keep me coming back.

Yeah I was initially surprised by how reasonable the wait times have been but then if you think about it, at every park in Orlando the most popular attraction is never the most "thrilling" ride there, so really it's kind of normal. Families are still the majority of the business of these parks, and big intimidating roller coasters with vertical drops and barrel rolls over the water (no matter how good they are) still aint for everybody.

Thanks for the feedback, I don't particularly care about Nighthawk but might try to hit it early just to try it out. I remember Firehawk at KI being decent so why not. Thanks for that, I didn't realize Ricochet wasn't on Fast Lane. My youngest is still a little under the 50" mark so I'm just getting Fast Lane for myself and my oldest so we'll have hit Ricochet together early since it's something everyone can ride, and enjoy.