Hilltopper39

Has anyone been to Aquatica yet? I don't recall anyone posting pictures or tweeting from Aquatica (or BGT's water park), so was just curious how things went there after the reopening.

That's a pretty disappointing report but unfortunately I have a feeling that when more parks across the country start to open up we're going to see some similar situations. I hope that Disney is the exception but I've seen enough comments from people who are pissed about having to wear masks that it won't surprise me a bit if a lot of people go through security wearing them then take them off until someone makes them put it back on. The operations are probably the most disappointing part to me, I was looking forward to a visit going in knowing that people will probably ignore the rules and I'll just have to have patience and deal with the stupidity, but I'm not even gonna try if they're dispatching 5 trains an hour.

I'm looking forward to going back especially to Busch Gardens and SeaWorld but I am going to wait til their new attractions open. If they open in week 2 or in August that'll probably be when I go. I'm more torn on whether or not to take my kids back anytime soon. Personally I know I can deal with wearing a mask and the distancing precautions and have patience when things aren't entirely normal, but with two little ones I don't really know how they'd handle it or if they'd even enjoy it. Also just out consideration for others haha, I mean they're 4 and 7 and don't really understand all of what's going on anyways so they might have to wait til later in the fall.

King you dropped your crown around here somewhere

Promise to bring back Phantom Theater and you can re-open immediately, seems like a fair compromise.......

The South Carolina side of the park is gonna open today at 3pm, North Carolina side will remain closed until late August. Intimadator, Afterburn, and Copperhead Strike are all a go but for Fury you have to board the train while it's moving after the first turn then get off before it crosses back over the entry plaza.....

The Tomb Raider ride was so much fun when it first opened, it was well themed, had a pre-show, it really felt like a major attraction. I still think a modern (and working) version of that ride could go into a Universal park tomorrow and totally work, it was that well done. Speaking of paramount era attractions, anyone remember the Days of Thunder and James Bond simulator rides? Looking back on it they were probably pretty terrible as far as modern simulators go but in 1994 the technology was pretty new to me and they were always a lot of fun.

I've only been to Mt. Olympus once but honestly had a pretty good time there. My visit was pre-Hades 360, probably around 2006 or 2007 when it was still fairly new and it was pretty incredible. I remember enjoying all of the wooden coasters as they were all pretty smooth and ride able at the time. If i recall we stayed in their resort for the night and the indoor/outdoor water park was pretty decent. I'd love to go back some day with my kids, feel like they'd love it. Nice report, always nice to see a positive experience from a place that seems to get mostly negative reviews.

Same, probably a week or two after the initial opening for me. We'll know how good the prospects are once random internet people start posting photos / video of Iron Gwazi testing again. Here's hoping! Yeah, my initial thought with going to parks after they re-open was to either wait a little while maybe a month or two, or go ASAP while the capacity is still being limited and people are, you would hope atleast, still being a little more cautions. I'll be keeping an eye on how things go the first couple days then figure it out from there. I still hope they do something for passholders maybe, I wonder if that's maybe why both SeaWorld properties are staying closed a few days a week. Not days specifically for pass holders only, but I wonder if they're maybe planning on using those days to do something different operationally, private tours, private events, limited capacity special events or something.

Looks like Busch Gardens has their calendar updated, June 11th opening. Ironically it looks like they're going to be closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays instead of Tuesday Thursday like SeaWorld. If Iron Gwazi opens with the park on the 11th I'll probably try to get down there shortly after. Busch Gardens Tampa Theme Park Hours

These are the kind of parks I wish America had more of, if there was one of these close to my city I'd probably go there 20 times a year. Great pictures as always, really enjoyed following along with this so far.

Like because it sucks? I said a variety of reasons, but yes that is one of them

I forgot about Ice breaker, but again there seems like one group of 4 or less per 6 person vehicle is pretty reasonable. Also speaking of Ice Breaker has anyone heard if that's going to be ready to open with the park? I'm pretty sure track was completed before the shut down but I don't recall any testing or SeaWorld showing it off on social media through the closure like Iron Gwazi.

Feels like most of the "rides" at SeaWorld are fairly well set up for allowing families or groups to ride together. One group per boat on Atlantis and the rapids, full rows for groups of 4 or less on the B&Ms, one group per vehicle on Antarctica. Most of the rides in the Sesame Street area can be accommodated fairly easily. I'm interested to see if there are any attractions that stay closed after parks everywhere re-open. I could see Wild Arctic staying closed for a variety of reasons.

It will be interesting to see how operation go after the parks open. I could realistically see every other row getting loaded ever other cycle, then having the previously occupied row being sprayed and wiped down in between cycles while the empty row (which was cleaned on the previous cycle) is being loaded. I would also imagine that families will be able to sit in rows together but we'll see.

I know this is the non-parks thread but since this seems to be where the discussion is right now I'd love to see Disney offer a ton of expanded after hours events similar to the Halloween party and After hours events when they re-open even if it's just until the allowed capacity gets back to normal. Jack up the ticket prices, I don't care, I'd be more than willing to pay $200 a day to get into the Studios for 4-5 hours with a limited crowd knowing I can see Galaxy's Edge, Runaway Railway and get a couple rides on Tower and Rockin Roller Coaster. Same goes for Animal Kingdom, Epcot, and the water parks really. $120 to have Blizzard Beach to myself for a few hours? Done. Very interested to see what Disney's plan is once they announce it, as I'm sure everyone else is.

Yeah I did to, between that, the Penguin river rapids ride, and the restaurant near the bridge there was a solid 3 or 4 year streak where the park had some really decent themeing installed.

It sure did feel special , I remember just getting into the coaster world world around 4th grade or so, then 5th grade I made my first trip to Cedar Point and rode Raptor and Mantis, then in 6th grade pretty much the only park in Kentucky and the closest to me was getting a B&M, and the tallest fastest standup in world. It felt like a really big deal at that time. I don't have as many memories of Kentucky Kingdom as I do of Kings Island or Holiday World but I had some great times there. Hellavator felt like the scariest ride in the world when I was all of 11 year old or whatever. I haven't been back to the park in several years but really want to someday, these pics brought back some memories for sure.

Alright now that Great Adventure is doing it.... ball's in your court Disney...... Open up Kilimanjaro Safaris for guests to drive through in their own car you cowards......

I'm guessing if you don't have a pass and reserve a day you'll have to pre-purchase your ticket and the penalty for not showing up will be that the tickets aren't refundable.

I can't really argue with that but I sure did enjoy the 'Paramount" era at Kings Island, and Carowinds too I guess since it was the only other park I made it to while it was still Paramount. Sure it had some cheesy themeing but even just slapping "Paramount" and some movie references up here and there made the park feel bigger on national scale than the place i grew up going to as a kid, even if in reality it didn't. And Paramount gave us Top Gun The ride which is still the best movie/coaster crossover ever, Cedar Fair may have removed the themeing but they can never take my memories .

Yeah it's going to be very interesting. I'm interested to see how Disney (and others) handle passholders, I mean even if passholders have unlimited access but have to have a reservation, and the reservation are all gone in minutes after they're released however far in advance they're available it's realistic that you can have an annual pass and not really be able to use it. Especially if the only time you can go is on weekends. I know a lot of the seasonal parks have already validated passes through 2021 so it's not as big of an issue, but for the operators that haven't, lets say they re-open in June and extend everyone's passes 3 or 4 months but if you can't hardly get a reservation for the next 5 months because of the capacity restrictions the extension doesn't really help much. Going to be very interesting.

The one at Legoland never seemed to have much of a que but the area always felt pretty busy with people interacting with the boats and water cannons and such. Then again not much at Legoland has lines typically anyways.

This might just be me being a little greedy but man it would be awesome if SeaWorld parks were able to arrange for some kind of passholder preview for the new attractions, even if it was by reservation only for a specific time slot with limited capacity. Again I don't mean to sound greedy here, I don't want anything to open before the time is right, but when it is right that might be a nice way to ease back into operations and give some of their most loyal customers a little peace of mind as to how they're going to be handling things moving forward.

Just got the email from SeaWorld and they're offering one free animal encounter.