Hilltopper39

My goodness, all of this talk of bugs, major rides with significant downtime, staffing issues, huge crowds all the sudden late in the season, ridiculous waits for food and beverage, and absurd loose article policies is kinda making me not look as forward to my trip. (just kidding, I'm totally excited to get back up there.)

My goodness I didn't realize how mus have missed the Oddventures, great report. Of all the fast food chains in the world to be popular in Western Canada I did not see A&W coming, but I do now want a root beer float.

There's a livestream of the announcement up on their Youtube page (probably on Facebook and various other social media outlets as well). [youtu_be] [/youtu_be]

^I believe there was an access road there during construction, seems like I remember that section of track not being completed until the rest of the layout after the drop and before the return past the drop was completed. Edit: I was wrong, that track from the drop into the wave turn was completed before the rest of the layout but there is a some kind of construction access road there. [youtu_be] [/youtu_be]

For some reason I've always loved the look of the 6 across dive machine trains. Not sure how the ride experience compares to the 8 or 10 seats/row trains but this layout looks like one of the better dive machine layouts B&M has produced.

I'm from Kentucky and have probably been to all of these Distillery's individually but have never taken an "official" bourbon trail tour but I've heard great things about them so it's cool to see some people from outside the area enjoy them. I don't really know much about the tours but looks like since yours was based out of Louisville you hit Beam, Barton and Makers, but I think the tours based out of Lexington hit Town branch, Four Roses, Wild Turkey, and Woodford Reserve and some of those more on the east-central side of the region. And I agree, Louisville is kind of a cool city that's really changed a lot for the better over the years. Seems like every time I'm back there I'm more impressed with it.

Man, I didn't realize there was such a limited lineup of rides on Friday Nights, I mean I guess Wicked Twister, Iron Dragon, Gemini and Rogarou are the only "major" coasters not operating but still a bit surprising. Also, just generally speaking how are the lines for houses during the event on Fridays/Saturdays? I'm planning to get a Fastlane for the rides and don't really care about hitting every single house but it would be nice to check out a few if the waits are reasonable.

I kind of forgot how much I liked Dare Devil Dive, and I agree those Eurofighter trains are the best.

I usually do day trips to the parks in Orlando or stay overnight with family in the area but I've got a couple nights at Caribbean Beach planned in September for our own version of a staycation weekend for my kids' birthdays. Been a while since I've stayed on property at Disney so we're really looking forward to just relaxing and hang out. We've got a lunch reservation in EPCOT but that's about it, just gonna show up hang at the resort and see what happens.

The difference in loose article policies from one park to another never cease to amaze me. I mean at Magic Kingdom I once rode Space Mountain holding a bag of merchandise between my feet, a bag a bag of candy in one hand and my phone out in the other hand while eating candy on the ride, but I can't have a cell phone in a secured pocket at Cedar Point? Okay..... Also, I mean isn't it a little strange to have this policy for 1 ride at the park but not the other 16 roller coasters?

I can't wait for my trip in September so I can reaffirm my opinion that Millennium Force is a really fun ride but does nothing but go fast and straight, 5th or 6th best ride in the park.

I'm trying to think of how many direct tie-ins to local sports teams there have been at theme parks in the past, not counting one-off bets. I can't think of any other rides, and the Reds Hall of Fame Grill at Kings Island (a restaurant) is the only other thing that comes to mind. Intimidator? LOL I know some people don't consider stock car racing a sport, but as a non-sporty person I feel like this is similar to that. Don't forget about the short lived Michael Vick Experience, so short it never really opened to the public...... (boy how time has changed the perception of that one ) [youtu_be] [/youtu_be]

Also, just a thought but this thing is gonna get a ton of press opening year outside of the normal media cycle for new rides. This time of year the sports world news cycle (in America atleast) is super slow and it will be slow again when this thing opens late next spring, perfect for every sports talk radio show/website/twitter blogger in the industry to fill some dead air. I bet this story ends up on ESPN in the next 48 hours or so, something different for an amusement park attraction.

Okay this is just great, the ride looks complete wonky and crazy fun, the theme, the accompanying section all of it is just really cool. There are a lot of cities that love their teams but man I don't think anywhere compares to Pittsburgh and The Steelers so I'm sure this whole thing will be a massive hit. Also how long until rival teams/parks want to get in on this and build their own ride? The Big Red Machine at Kings Island? (a ride that used to be great but kinda stinks now...) Brown Streak for Cedar Point? (Huge drop to represent the massive let down every year) The Buffalo Express for Darien Lake (5 hills that come super close to air time but fall short and never really get there) The Warrior at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom (every year they just build a new ride that's so good nobody else can eve compete)

I'm as ignorant as anyone about the industry but I would guess that the initial cost of the attraction was considerably less than Mako or another full size coaster. Concrete is a lot cheaper than steel so maybe the costs of the project off set the long term operations expense. I mean realistically would anything SeaWorld built attract people over Universal or Disney? I feel like generally speaking people come to Orlando for multi day trips to Disney and Universal, then maybe add on some other parks/attractions here and there in between so similar rides at other parks maybe isn't that big of a deal. If it does matter then maybe this will tick of Universal enough to build a Flying Dinosaur Coaster in Jurassic Park haha. "Oh you wanna build a rapids ride huh, two can play this game, get B&M on the phone! stick to you're fish shows and Sesame Street....." -Some Universal Executive (probably not)

I'm hoping for the first RMC full T-Rex track or whatever it's called, the larger version of the single rail. From the reviews of RailBlazer and Wonder Woman a bigger, taller, longer version of that with a higher capacity might end up being on of the best rides coasters in the world.

Hopefully it opens while we're still in one of those 11 months where it's hot.

Same, as much as I like rapids rides I like not being totally soaked more. (I still want one of these in a waterpark, then I'd ride it all day)

That structure around the vertical lift looks amazing but .........man those stairs around the thing are a bit of an eye sore. Hopefully they landscape it out of a view a bit or something.

In defense of the Peter Pan, I love that ride but yeah I'm not waiting more than like 20 minutes standby for it if I can't get a fastpass for it. I mean I know it's short but come on that model of London you fly over is pretty cool...... Also there might be a large percentage in there somewhere for "it has no height restriction, is accessible for anyone and everyone, and is based on a popular IP that's been around for like 100 years". Seriosuly kids and old people love that ride. Also, I've always wondered how accurate the standby times for that ride really are. I mean I know there is internal system for measuring and reporting wait times at Disney, but given the capacity of that attraction and the limited space in the que area if the line was really 50 minutes but they posted it at 100 to maybe encourage quests to seek out another attraction would it really surprise you? Maybe they distribute a ton a fastpasses for it but the number if people standing in the line compared to the posted wait time always seems a bit off to me.

I totally agree and have to explain this to people all the time. Is it more expensive than McDonalds? Yes....... is it considerably different than any other park/movie theater/concert/sporting event out there? Not really, and for the most part the food is really pretty good! The beef bowls in the Satuli Canteen, or some of the options in the Harambe Market are seriously really good for like $12-$15, I would go there for lunch once a month if it were down the street. Hell a burger, fries and a drink at 5 Guys will cost ya $15 these days. Complaining about food/drinks being expensive at Disney is just kind of a lazy/ignorant take (especially considering they let you bring in outside food and beverage).

I was initially a bit skeptical of this event given the price point it's at for just 3 hours of park time but it really does look like a unique experience (and the 3 hours is really 6). You can get a lot done in 6 hours especially when the place is completely empty for 3 of them.

I said the exact same thing about the soccer bucket racing seats during the World Cup, it makes no sense and I don't think anyone could possibly give an explanation for it. That bench area in particular there's like 3 feet between each seat, the heck is that? hahaha It's good to see other stadiums getting adopting the "value" item concept. I read somewhere that it was massively successful in Atlanta last season at the new Falcon's stadium so hopefully more places get on board with it.

Space Mountain, way better at night........... Serious answer though, way back when in the day when Hades was still good night rides on that thing were wild. The tunnel is dark during the day, but an night it was on another level. Raven and Voyage are also good answers, I particularly remember Raven being really fun at night.