Hilltopper39

^I love the IHG card but mostly because they have some properties in great locations and usually at great rates in Orlando where I probably stay 90% of the time on Disney trips. Shout out to the Lake Buena Vista Staybridge Suites and the Orange lakes Resort, I'll see you next weekend.

Their per guest spending was up which has to be encouraging despite the attendance and subsequent revenue decreases. While I love the idea of SeaWorld branded hotels that's probably a decision that has to be made very carefully in the Orlando market for the reasons you stated, although based on my little to no knowledge of the resort hotel business as a whole I do think on site hotels at other properties could be very successful (Tampa specifically comes to mind). I still think SeaWorld has a solid strategic plan for the future, it's not bulletproof by any means and obviously can be effected by various economic factors but I've got a feeling 5 years from now there will be several great new attractions with the same fantastic animal environments that has made the brand successful for years and they will be fine.

Yeah I agree with that, although with Universal expanding as much as they have been lately with new attractions and resorts and Volcano Bay it will be interesting to see how much of an impact it has on Disney's overall attendance. I suspect it won't be much cause like you said "rising tides raises all ships" but once Volcano Bay opens UO is easily a 3-5 day resort instead of the 1-2 like it is now which creates a completely different competitive dynamic. At that point it might become more of choice between a few days at Universal along with Disney or just 5 days at Universal only. Either way it's defiantly a good time to be an amusement park fan living in Florida!

Yeah exactly, when I was thinking about Awaken Summer before my last post I completely forgot about Soarin. I haven't even been on the new Soarin yet and already forgot that it was technically a "new" attraction. That's kind of my point, that whole Awaken Summer campaign feels like they're saying "Come back and experience more of the same stuff you've already seen and done" instead of "Come check out these all new awesome experiences". I'm sure their attendance won't take that big of a hit because that ship is pretty hard to sink, but if Universal performs a bit better on the average for this summer season and into next year on the back of Volcano Bay and Fast n Furious it wouldn't surprise me.

It will be interesting to see some official numbers for the year for all of the parks, it seems like in the past Disney usually has been more resistant to fluctuations in attendance where there are external economic factors in play but as aggressive as Universal has been with building new attractions lately that may not be the case anymore. Other than the new Frozen ride tho whole "Awaken Summer" campaign has been kinda dull and the attendance resulting from it may have been as well.

I guess keeping Animal Kingdom open until 11 pm all summer without a new night time spectacular probably didn't help any either....

^ I mean Guardians of the Tower wasn't that bad of an idea was it?....

Sapphire Falls looks awesome it would be my absolute first choice if it included the express pass like the other "Deluxe" resorts.

It's been a while since I've been to a Disney waterpark but all of the water parks in Orlando (Aquatica, Wet n Wild, Blizzard Beach, Typhoon Lagoon) tend to get insanely crowded during the summer. I have been to Aquatica and Wet n Wild in the last year and both times we got there at opening and by like 11 or 12 the place was slammed with 30+ minute waits (or longer) for most of the slides.

Sounds like an awesome new slide, and I'm glad to see Disney investing in their water parks, thanks Volcano Bay! I've always really like Typhoon Lagoon, almost prefer it to Blizzard Beach. This attraction might finally push that park over the edge.

This should be a pretty interesting project to follow. If they do completely RMC the existing layout it could potentially be the longest RMC to date, which would be pretty costly refurbishment, then again Cedar Fair appears to have saved some coin with Mystic Timbers maybe so they can afford to buy 5400 feet of iron horse track. I wouldn't be surprised if they found a way to keep the lift and drop structure up the the first turn, then somehow reversed the direction with some crazy inversion turnaround thingy and eliminated the rest of the existing structure south of the lift hill. They could probably still create a crazy ride just with a shorter length and open up that old infield area to expand that section of the park in the future. That's all purley speculation at this point so who knows, but should be fun to follow regardless.

My only tip is ride Kumba as many times as possible.

The funny thing about Antartica is that even though I'm not a huge fan of it it always seems to have a decent line even 3 years after opening. We usually skip it only because the wait is usually 45 minutes plus so hey glad someone is riding it.

Sounds like a pretty fun overlay to me, I'm excited to see what the re-theme of the exterior looks like when it's all complete.

I don't care what you say I still love Vortex.

I'm usually not a fan of high end steak houses (unless I've got a gift card) but I've heard good things about STk, may have to give it shot sometime.

Wow, I never head anything bad about Lagoon but certainly have never heard anyone speak this highly of it. It is kind of an out of the way park that doesn't get as much exposure but that's great to hear.

Then you're doing it all wrong......... To be fair the last time I made a full day visit to Epcot was back in 2003 when I was like eight. Last time I went to Epcot (and WDW as a whole) at all was during Extra Magic Hours in 2009 so I could check off Soarin', Spaceship Earth and Test Track. I was mostly just joking, but I do know a lot of people who treat Epcot as a half day park to just ride Soarin, Test Track, and some stuff in Future World then move onto another park and completely skip the Showcase because it doesn't have any "rides".

Then you're doing it all wrong.........

There is kidna of this misconception of EPCOT being more of an adult park, I've heard that from a lot of friends who go to WDW and plan to skip EPCOT in favor of a second day at Magic Kingdom or something, but I love taking my younger kids there. I mean obviously it's not the Magic Kingdom but with Nemo, Journey into Imagination, The Three Caballeros, Spaceship Earth, tons of Princess and Character meet n greets (with short lines!) and now Frozen there is way more for little kids to do at Epcot than HS or AK. Even Soarin and test Track have 40" height requirements and are much less "intimidating" for younger kids than Dinosaur and Tower of Terror. EPCOT is just the best.

^That's pretty interesting, I never would have imagined that a movie based in a fictional land would increase tourism in the country it is based on, then again it worked for New Zealand/ Lord of the Rings so I guess it shouldn't be a surprise.

I'm more upset about EPCOT removing the Margarita Stand than Maelstrom, where were the protests for that! Now i have to walk all the way inside the Pyramid to get a Margarita to drink while I wait for Frozen instead of just stopping off on my way. And don't tell me it's about the money or being replaced by a more profitable IP based adult beverage stand, that thing had a line all the way to China all the time! Epcot's outdoor frozen drink offerings is declining by degrees.....

^^I get your opinion, I don't agree with it, but I do see where people are coming from but lets be honest Epcot just isn't the same park it once was. At one time it was a really unique model built around educational experiences and sponsored pavilions/attractions but that model kinda failed and they've moved on. The attendance growth at that park compared to others has been kinda stagnant (at least compared to MK) over the last decade or so but I would expect to see a significant increase after this year thanks to Frozen. I'm all for mixing in IP based attractions, and you know they'll find way to make them fit and work. Now can we just get a Big Hero 6 make over at the Wonders of Life Pavilion?

There are pockets for your phone on the trains of the new texas giant that face the riders so you open pokemon go and put the phone in the pocket facing towards you. Then, since you are traveling a lot, you will see a lot of pokemon. I guess people are so crazy about the game they will do anything to get a rare PKMN. These phone pouches have been there since before the game right? They weren't added just for people to play. I don't know much about the game, only played it once for a few minutes but people aren't on their phones catching Pokemon while on the ride though right ? I think it's a cool game and if parks can leverage it's popularity to their benefit good for them, just stay safe.

Wait, what? Catching Pokemon while on the ride? That doesn't make any sense.