Hilltopper39

Again this just screams B&M Wingrider to me, tons of jungle themeing, flying through narrow tunnels and under waterfalls just like the scene where Sam is riding his banshee in the movie. A more themed version of X-Raptor at Gardaland. From all the reports I've seen the wingriders aren't really that intense and could fit in the Disney perfectly.

That was my exact thought initially but the more I think about it Animal Kingdom is perfect. I guess it makes as much sense in Animal Kingdom as The Wizzarding Wold does in IOA?

Very interesting news, I was a bit puzzled by the Animal Kingdom location for the area initially but the more I think about it that might be perfect. Animal Kingdom is badly in need of some new E-Ticket attractions and this is perfect for that even though it ultimately is movie based. I can't wait to see what WDI has in store for this, let the speculation begin.... I guess this is going to go where Beastly Kingdom was originally designed to be, I wonder if they will re-use any of those attraction concepts or go in a completely new direction? I could see a B&M wing coaster being PERFECT for this, but I don't know if B&M would agree to let Disney do their thing.

Dueling? no, Challenging? every day!

Great report Chuck, I've always enjoyed reading your reports and it was nice to finally meet you.

Deep South bash in 2012? With Wild Eagle opening jut a few hours up the road might have to turn next years into a nice long weekend!

LSU@ WVU should be an interesting game even though LSU might destroy them and only win by 12. Florida State at Clemson should be good as well one team coming off a huge win one coming off a disappointing loss both with a lot to play for.

^It's an amazing deal, last year I got 2 rides on Rockit, Mummy, and Men in Black in before they closed down to change the park over for the event. Think I might have even squeezed in Terminator or Twister or something else. When the park closes they corner you off in a fenced in section by the Blues Brother Stage and that Irish pub remains open. Last year they had a band playing live music in there as well. I got through 2 of the sound stage houses last year before the main gates were open.

Magnum is still in my top 10 for personal reasons more than anything else, but I haven't been on a lot of the new major steel coasters around. This coaster portion of this poll has always been a bit laughable to me, but does anyone really take it seriously? Does anyone really take any coaster poll seriously? The world needs TPR coaster ranking, then I might take a poll seriously.

So I was looking at tickets again today for HHN and I'm not crazy! It must not have been available a few weeks ago but they are offering the early access ticket to the Studios again this year and it is called Scream Early. An additional $15 for access to The Studios from 2pm-5 then you will be allowed to stay in the park and be one of the first to have access to the houses when the event opens. Early admission is also available for IOA from 4pm-7 and is $30 (you can enter the HHN event from the gate between the studios and IOA). I would highly recommend the early access to the Studios for anyone who has never done HHN and doesn't want to pony up for the Express Pass, you can see most of the event in a single night this way. http://www.halloweenhorrornights.com/orlando/florida_residents_tickets.html

I was a little surprised by the top 5 in the Halloween event category. I've never been to the event at Kennywood or Knobles but I've also heard almost nothing about either of those events before. Horror Nights Orlando and Haunt at Knotts seem to be very popular are high quality events but the absence of Halloscreams at either Busch Gardens or Horror Nights Hollywood seems a bit off.

I've just gotten up to speed with this announcement and think it sounds great. I think Busch Gardens Wiliamsburg is one of the few seasonal parks that can successfully pull off a well themed interactive coaster. Really excited to see this thing develop.

I still call shenanigans on the winning group on the Water Challenge, anyone with anything left in their cup at the end had to have cheated somehow. Great pictures, it was an awesome event. I was really impressed with Dare Devil Dive. It was somewhat tame but overall was a lot of fun. I heard someone compare it to Cheetah Hunt which was an interesting comparison, both were very similar larger family style coasters that were fun but not that intense. I would probably give the edge to Dare Devil. I was also surprised by the two woodies at SFOG. Scream Machine was running really well and looked great during the back stage tour. Georgia Cyclone was the surprise of the day for me, a little rough but really a fun ride. The back car was full of ejector air and was the perfect mix of fun old school rough and not painful rough, I loved it.

And Peanut Butter!

^Yeah I had a somewhat similar experience at the Mystery Mansion thing at Gatlinburg. It was an off season week day and there were basically 2 actors that worked in tandem with each other and followed you through the entire house. You never knew where they were going to come from but the sheer anticipation of knowing they were there was enough to make it the scariest walk through I've ever done. Unfortunately I don't think the mazes at HHN or HOS can ever be at that level of intensity because of the way everyone walks through the house in a constantly moving non interrupted single file line. I guess the Alone house at HOS last year was an exception, but it was also an upcharge to the regular event.

Yeah, Thursday nighters are always pretty exciting games but can get weird. I know the one Thursday night game I played in we were at home and your entire game day routine is screwed up because we still had to go to class in the morning. On a normal game day, depending on game time, there is a late morning wake up call and breakfast then meetings and a walk through then time to hang out get off your feet and relax before reporting to pregame meal which was always 4 hours before kickoff. On the Thursday night game it was 7am breakfast, 8am-3pm class then a rushed pre game routine. I felt like as the home team we were slightly disadvantaged from a preparation standpoint when that shouldn't be the case.

^^Yeah two houses with almost the exact same theme at both events is very strange but it should be fun to compare the two (and by compare I mean make fun of which ever house sucks the most haha). I'm really looking forward to The Forsaken, the picture of that house they released to Facebook a few days ago looked amazing. It looked like there were some great lighting effects and more light overall in the house. It may just be the picture, but I've thought that a lot of the HHN houses in the past were almost too dark, so dark that I couldn't really appreciate the incredible detail in the themeing. On a side note, what is the correct term for a haunted walk through attraction at a Halloween event, a House or a Maze?

That Ghost Ship walk through looks amazing, I've always wondered why more parks didn't have a permanent walk through haunt attraction like this that they could operate on a regular day to day basis then really plus for the Halloween event.

^ I had the EXACT same thing happen to me at Wolfman, I missed all of the really cool set-up scare effects at the end of the maze by having bad timing. That maze looked AMZING, but I was kind of bitter because I missed out on the really cool stuff. A couple of the HOS mazes in recent years have really improved their overall quality and I thought were almost on par with some of the weaker HHN houses. The comparisons between the 2 events seem to pop up every year, and even though they are basically the same type of event they are really different. I love the sets, atmosphere, and shows at HHN but I also really like night rides Kumba, so it's a toss up to me.

^ Yeah I agree, for whatever it's worth I've always thought the houses at Busch Garden's Halloscreams for the past few years have been much more intense and scarier than the HHN houses. Last year at HHN it didn't feel like the actors were putting any effort into their scares at all, and to me it wasn't just a couple of actors in a few isolated houses it seemed to be that way across the entire event almost like that was how everyone had been coached to perform. It's still an amazing event and the sets in the houses are worth the price of admission alone but the scares could definitely be better.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for foggy Batman rides during night ERT like SFMM pulled out for West Coast Bash, that looked awesome!

^yeah, I was planning on finding somewhere to watch it. I think it's an 8 pm eastern kick off so I'll probably just watch the second half at the hotel after ERT is over. I'm probably going to leave the park sometime after lunch and relax somewhere and watch some games in the middle of the day. But yeah that FSU Oklahoma game should be a great game, I'm also looking forward to LSU at Miss. State on Thursday night. I think LSU is the better team but Thursday Night games can get weird, especially on the road in the SEC.

^Great news! I've never used a Lo-Q-flash-pass-Bot (whatever they're called) at a park before and was considering getting one for the day. Really looking forward to this event, thanks for putting it together for everyone Robb and Elissa, you guys rock no matter what the facebook says !

Just in case anyone didn't know already, Tom Brady is really good.

yeah I guess they had been there a little long, but they were cool! hope the Bill and Ted doesn't suck this year, thought last years was one of the weakest I'd seen.