Hilltopper39

Yeah, and for $170 you can get admission to SeaWorld, Aquatica, Busch Gardens, and Adventure Island for 14 days with parking included, which is really a great value. Might not fit into everyone's trip schedule but Aquatica is worth a solid half day, and the ability to come and go as you please to any park over 2 weeks could really be put to some good use, especially in the summer when hours are longer.

It's kind of a bummer to see parks lose their older unique water slides but with replacements like this I doubt they'll be missed for long. The live video feed on the ride sign is a really cool touch!

If I recall correctly the original concept art for new Fantasyland didn't include Seven Dwarves Mine Train and instead had some sort of Cinderella attraction/meet n greet, maybe even a Pixie Hollow attraction in there somewhere. I don't think 7 Dwarves was even announced until after construction on the the rest of new Fantasyland had started, so yeah things can always change.

I agree, my thought process was that if they're re-configuring the existing park with the expansion they could probably find way to incorporate a show building into the existing land, tuck it away behind the Ratatouille section perhaps. Yeah, it's an expensive attraction but hey with a 2.5 Billion Euro expansion what's another 70 or 80 million (I don't really know how much it costs)?

As popular as Toy Story Midway Mania seems to be in Orlando/Cali/Tokyo I'm kind of surprised that attraction hasn't been built at the other properties, especially considering Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Paris are all now building/have Toy Story themed sections. I wouldn't be surprised if Midway Mania ended up being added to the Paris Studios park addition since we know these concept arts are always subject to change.

I live 2 hours away from the park and people are still oblivious to it existing. I can't tell you how many people over the years I've told about Discovery Cove, the experience, the perks (food and beer included), and the free admission to SeaWorld/Aquatica, but most people have never heard of the place and even after praising it I don't think anyone I've told about it has ever gone.

This seems more promising than any other VR attraction to date, I really hope it's successful because I could see a similar concept taking over for the Wild Arctic attractions at SeaWorld parks (which desperately need an update).

With Infinity Falls my only thought is that it's still far enough away from opening that maybe they're saving their marketing efforts until closer to that date. Seems like I saw a construction update somewhere recently and the site was still basically nothing but concrete forms and dirt piles, nothing that resembled a water ride so I get not pushing those kinds of updates. Then again something, anything, promoting the new ride would be nice, but if they have a marketing strategy based around a timeline for the opening or something I get that. Promote the conservation during slower months, push the rides and theme park aspect closer to the busier spring/summer/christmas seasons, then again whatever they've been doing has'n't really been working so maybe I need to stop giving them the benefit of the doubt.

I was just reading through this thread and thinking it would be great timing if SeaWorld had a great new attraction to open this year... I honestly forgot they're in the process of building a rapids ride opening this summer, one that actually looks kinds cool! That might be part of the problem.....

Great report man, I used to make quite a few solo trips to parks and it was always kind of fun, go at your pace (usually WAY faster than most people's) ride just what you want, I need to make another trip soon haha. Not to get off topic but how do you like those Snapglasses? I've seen those things floating around for a while online but still haven't seen/known anyone who uses them personally so just curious.

It is interesting to me that Busch Gardens Tampa's attendance has stayed pretty much flat for the last 10 or so years. 2006: 4.36 million, 2016: 4.17 million, and every year in between was give or take that +/- a 100K or so. Doesn't seem to matter what they do their attendance never really changes. (sorry wrong thread, didn't realize until after I posted.)

Some of us "not so skinny but I'm workin on it" boys like off-the wall airtime too .

I was just expecting this to be a ship sailing out of Florida, was pretty surprised to see it wasn't haha.

I mean, semi-spoiler not really, but in the movie there is a VR "simulator" to remote pilot a vehicle from a lab, which in a way is almost EXACTLY like the Flight of passage ride system, and the que line might as well be an entrance to the Vibranium mine and Shuri's lab hahaha. Not that they're gonna scrap that section anytime soon but it's fun to think about what else that ride system could be used for in the future at another site. The Dinosaur ride was just the first thing to come to mind, it's kind of a weird ride to me in that it's is good but was never really great but has the potential to be overhauled into something else. I'm not sure how they could thematically "fit" a Black panther attraction into Dinoland but that kind of thing might not matter as much anymore and the Imagineers are smart enough to make it work. I'm not sure where Disney stands legally with using which characters form the MCU in what parks etc. but it sure looks like Black Panther is gonna make a boatload of money and spawn multiple sequels (can we get a Rogue One style origin story about Ulysses Klaue stealing Vibranium from Wakanda please?) so hopefully that might justify developing some sort of attraction in the future. In the mean time a meet n greet would be awesome.

I saw Black Panther this weekend and man I hope there's a way to work that film into an attraction at some point, I could totally see a Guardians style overhaul of Dinosaur re-themed to Black Panther working really well and being massively successful. Also, I absolutely LOVE Pandora, everything about it, the rides, the themeing, the impressiveness of the entire land, it's absolutely amazing........ but I can't help but think what Wakanda would have looked like instead if the movie had released a few years earlier. Oh well, fun to think about, maybe that will be the in the next phase of Animal Kingdom.

I had the same thing happen a few years ago when my mother in law found tickets from sometime in the late 80s! Don't know specifically when but it was before MGM Studios opened because the tickets were only valid for Epcot and magic Kingdom and were the old style paper tickets that actually had a perforated tabs that tore off to give at entry for each day. There were 3 day kids tickets, one with 2 days left and one with 1 but guest services gave me adult park hoppers of the same length, so that was a pretty good investment after all these years haha. I asked if they could somehow invalidate the ticket so I could keep it as a souvenir but they wouldn't let me, oh well I've got pictures somewhere.

Great pictures, I've always loved shots like this in the early evening where it is still light out but the area show lighting is on, really cool perspective.

You had me at conch fritters.

These Disney Parks Blog "news updates" are kind of hilarious to me, have any of the ones released today provided anything truly new or insightful? I mean this Guardians one looks like the exact same art/announcement from D23 last year, the only difference is they added the phrase "yes it is a coaster" hahaha. It all kind of reminds me of the way movies are promoted these days, here's a teaser for the upcoming teaser, then there is the teaser trailer, then the preview of the official preview, and the official announcement of the official trailer release date, then the official release of the official trailer

I hope Florida's version of Tower stays as is but a re-theme of Rock n Roller Coaster wouldn't break my heart. Avengers, Iron man, Star Wars, whatever.

Pretty decent concert lineup for the most part. I've always thought SeaWorld and Busch Gardens both did a really nice job with their special events so I'm sure this will be on par.

It's going to be removed, along with the boat and water play area when it transforms into Sesame Street. The rest of the rides will be staying and at least one new flat ride added. Dead inside. Yeah I mean that net structure at SeaWorld is kind of crazy, there are some steep sections that are kind of hard to navigate for kids and overall it is kind of dated but the trails at Busch Gardens are so simple and fun that I don't really get why they're being closed.

Yeah this stinks, I was planning a trip there later this spring with my kids (their first trip) and I knew they would absolutely love that section of the park. Kinda disappointing that they won't be able to see that, those nets way up in the air on the tree top trails were so much fun. Should we just assume that the playground section of Happy Harbor at Sea World's time is limited at this point?

He won't arrive until around 4pm and (let's be real), everything at Aquatica will be closed for lightning at that point. It's July. If you get the 14 day pass, SeaWorld isn't a bad option that afternoon. SeaWorld is never a bad option. Ever... Yeah, arrive at 4, slide into Aquatica during the lightning storm when everyone else is leaving, then when it passes 15 minutes later have the park to your self until close I didn't see arrival times mentioned anywhere but if it were my trip the first day I'd just check in and relax, maybe hit Fun Spot for a few hours in the evening cause that's about all you need anyways.