Hilltopper39

I'll be honest I love Test Track but I'm not really that interested in this renovation. I mean other than some kind of significant change to the layout/ride experience I just don't really know what they can do to this attraction for a third time to make it any better than it already is.

Yeah that's fair, I did forget about that one. That will be interesting to experience as it is a complelty new ride system,

Sorry I didn't mean to come off as being rude or cynical, but I do think there's a fair amount of recency bias with this project since there is so much information on social media with construction updates and speculation and the official press releases from Universal's official accounts. As far as the scale of the project to me it's not that much different than IOA when it opened? Both had similar number of lands and major attractions and rides. Spiderman, Hulk, Dragons, Stun Show, Poseidon Show, Popeye, Ripsaw, Jurassic Park, Camp Jurassic, Cat n Hat Ride, couple of flats and Starfall Racers, Mario Dark Ride, Donkey Kong, Monster Dark Ride, Monsters Coaster, Dragon Coaster, Dragon Show, flat ride and splash battle, whatever is in the new Potter land. Also don't get me wrong here, I am VERY excited to check this whole place out eventually, really really excited about it, but also don't know if there's anything that's goin to be truly ground breaking or revolutionary or "game changing" as so many fans keep referring to it as.

Well in my lifetime this will be about the 8th time, maybe the 10the time if you want to count MGM Studios and Universal Orlando in 1989 and 1990. I was only like 6 but I do remember visiting UO in it's opening year so I guess that counts. Now if you want to start counting non Disney and Universal Parks in China and Dubai amongst other places.......... well that number could get pretty high. I can't even keep up with what's being built in China anymore but they have built several brand new parks of this scale.

Yeah Aulani has always looked incredible, looks like an amazing trip. Aulani has also always made me wish that the Disney Beach resorts over here on the east coast (Vero Beach and Hilton Head) we just a little bit nicer and more of a true resort type destination like what Aulani is.

They still do, and always have as long as I can remember. I haven't been on it in years but the website still says it's a free for passholders and a "nominal fee" for non-passholders. Look I don't like an upcharge but this really isn't that big of a deal to me. If anything it's just another thing to incentive you to buy a pass which seems to be a big part of their business. I'm just glad the ride is open again, if it takes $5.00 to keep it open then fine. Also if I remember correctly the line for this thing used to be awful due to it's massive popularity and somewhat lower capacity, so if it takes $5.00 for them to make a little money on the thing and keep the waits down a little I'm all for it. If people are going to complain about anything complain about $40.00 to park instead of $5.00 to go on a really cool vintage skyride attraction.

I have a lot of thoughts about this project as a whole, most of them are good, there are a few things I'm a little skeptical about/curious to see how it turns out, but..... These images of the Celestial Park central hub section looks pretty amazing, way better than what I had previously envisioned for that area so that's exciting. I'm guess they're slowly going to release some more details about each of the lands and attractions in those lands over the next year, but overall pretty cool project.

Yeah we were there on Saturday and I was a bit surprised how well hidden the new coaster is behind the construction walls. We had some nice views of it from on Manta and from the walk up to the SeaLion theatre but other than that it's surprisingly well tucked away. Does looks to be a fun little coaster though, we'll definitely be making another quick trip down after it opens. On Saturday Ice Breaker had about a 45 minute line both times we walked by it, I don't know how accurate the que time boards at SeaWorld are but the covered que building was mostly full. I don't think I've ever waited more than one switchback for that thing so maybe the change to 48 inches is paying off now.

Honestly I didn't realize the place was still open. I've got a lot of memories from the music venue there, and the horse track, but I think I only ever went to Coney Island maybe like once? Hopefully the area gets some love with the new development but yeah losing Coney Island isn't much of a surprise.

Thanks! Our hotel is like a block away from Bryant Park so I'm sure we'll spend a lot of time at that Winter Village (racclette!). Ellen's Stardust looks like a perfect spot for us so thanks for that! The girls have seen touring productions of Aladdin and Lion King, but Six would be fun if we can get tickets. Since it's the week of Christmas a lot of shows appear to have low availability (and seem to be pretty expensive) so we'll see what happens with adding a show. I have a feeling after a few days of walking they're gonna be worn out so maybe trip to American Dream wouldn't be the worst thing. Thanks for the response!

We're taking the girls to NYC over Christmas for their first trip to the city and since I've followed you're adventures there over the years (decades now?) with KT thought I'd ask for a tip here. My kids are 8 and 11, we've got tickets to one show (And Juliet) and will probably try to see a second. We're going to do all the typical touristy stuff, central park, time's square, 9/11 memorial, one of the observations decks, ice skating, probably hit a museum, all of that. I've read all the travel blogs and "top 20 things to do with kids in NYC!" websites and it's kind of all the same stuff, so I was wondering if you've found anything unique and different over the years that 8 and 11 year old girls would enjoy. Any really cool kid friendly restaurants to check out? Anything to completely avoid with kids because it's just crappy over priced tourist junk? Other than tickets to And Juliet we're pretty wide open schedule wise right now with 3.5 days to fill with something to do. Also, I don't remember if you've been to American Dream yet, but if you have is it worth wasting a half a day to get there and back to shop a little and ride a couple of coasters? It's almost weird to say that my kids have never been to a real "mall" but the ones around here are kind of crappy, so we're kind of considering that.

Yeah I have absolutely no idea what this is going to be but my first impression was that it would be some sort of version of the Guardians ride system.

Feels like there isn't enough information yet to really have much of an opinion on this one way or the other yet, but one thought I had was how much better or worse can either of the parks really get at this point? I mean tickets and passes are relatively cheap, Fast Lane and Flash Pass are somewhat expensive, I doubt that changes that drastically. Staffing issues are still going to exist, food is still going to be expensive and mediocre. I don't know I just can't really see where either chain gets that much better or worse at this point.

I'm assuming part of this ride will be where Sand Serpent was, but if I remember correctly they also removed the Phoenix singing ship ride and maybe some of the other smaller rides in that side area of Pantopia. I was looking at a map trying to figure out how it could go over the Serengeti Plain area and directly adjacent to Pantopia is a service road and then the elephant barn/habitat directly to the east and some other animal enclosures a little more to the northwest. I don't know exactly where the layout will go but there ae some options in that area, even if it's just a nice view from the lift hill.

Wow, so not only is it a family suspended coaster, but it will have onboard audio and "swing" like an old school suspended coaster? This is pretty exciting addition, cool to see B&M doing some new stuff. Also it seems like this is a bit longer and faster than the previous 2 B&M family coasters in China so I wonder if that means a custom layout? Every time I'm at BGT the longest lines are almost always for Cheetah Hunt and Cobras Curse, and even Scorpion and the wild mouse used to pull some pretty decent lines. A reliable B&M family coaster with a decent capacity should be a great addition for this park.

I know we've been expecting this but I still think this is a really cool concept. Should be interesting to see how they re-use the exiting building/themeing from the Antarctica ride, but no matter what they do a multi launched family coaster in that section of the park should do pretty well.

New trains is an interesting wrinkle to this story, I'm assuming it's for the conversion from the LIM launch to a chain drive and the existing trains can't be salvaged or converted but should be interesting see if these are just the same RMC trains or if there's something new in the works. Isn't SFFT getting new trains for Wonder Woman? I don't remember why, but with that and the new trains for their wild mouse model maybe there will be soem changes to the "new" standard trains from RMC.

I was looking at the Howl-O-Scream event page for this year and noticed this bag policy. I *think* this is a new policy but don't really remember the past couple years as I usually don't take a bag with me. I took a quick look at the HOS pages for Busch Gardens in Tampa and Williamsburg and it looks like the Williamsburg park has a similar policy but the page for Tampa doesn't seem to mention anything out of the ordinary. Anyways just a heads up for anyone attending the HOS events this year at SWO, BGT, or BGW, may want to check out the bag policy before you go. https://seaworld.com/orlando/events/howl-o-scream/faqs/

The Erik and Smisty reports are always the highlight of my day.

Ya know with as many classic attractions that have been removed or renovated over the past couple of years it's pretty cool to see a park just completely upgrade and re-build an older classic ride. As far as the ride itself it sound like it's..... just going to be a newer better version of the old ride? I know RMC is involved but it seems like it'll be a pretty similar experience to the original ride just with better/newer/upgraded/refreshed show scenes etc. etc. I think I saw a $30 million dollar investment listed somewhere which is a lot of money, but also considering it's an entirely new coaster and a new dark ride inside of a new building $30 million maybe isn't that much money? Should interesting to see the finished product with this one but pretty cool to see a park invest in keeping a classic historical attraction alive.

All of the letters I sent to B&M demanding that they bring back the tilted loop must have finally payed off. Tilted loops are so back baby.

Those look great, did you cook those on just an elevated rack with a pizza stone in a ceramic komodo style grill? I've had a Green Egg for like 15 years probably but haven't done pizza on it in forever, I think you pies have inspired me to give that another try sometime.

I didn't realize this was going to be a B&M, I just figured since BGW, SWT, and SWSD got Intamin motorbike coasters this would be some version of that. I was kind of looking forward to that model in Orlando but it's hard to complain about capacity and reliability with a B&M. Wonder what kind of trains this thing will have, if it's a "family" coaster I'd just assume it will be some kind of sitdown with the vest restraints but maybe they've something else new in the works similar to the new Standup with Pipeline. It's kind of interesting to think of how stagnant B&M had been for a few decades as far as innovation and now all they sudden they're doing launches, and custom standup trains, and family coasters. Now none of these things are really "new" for the industry but for a company as reputable and reliable as B&M to be doing something new to them is exciting.

Two cycles through the course is a cool little touch, I kind of forgot about this project but seems like a really fun little ride.

Yeah I'll say I didn't have an issue with it, nor have I on any of the other B&M vest restraint rides I've ridden, but my daughter did mentions being slightly uncomfortable mostly when sitting on the brake run. It seems like the vest thing is hit or miss for a lot of people depending on height/shape/etc. but yeah hopefully they can adjust the tension in the future if needed.