Hilltopper39

Yeah, I mean I get how that might sound ridiculous but China is a a completely different market, especially mainland China from what I understand. I didn't realize how big of a company Wanda group is until I checked out their webpage a few minutes ago but they are involved with a ton of different types of business which I'm sure yields them significant advantages in that market, regardless of how good or bad their parks are. I'm not saying he's right and the Disney Shanghai was a mistake destined for failure but it will be interesting to see how the property performs over the next couple of years. I mean Hong Kong Disneyland hasn't exactly been setting attendance records every year or anything, so we'll see what happens.

We stopped into Disney Springs for a few hours on Saturday night, it was beautiful but man the place was a cluster. I mean I know it was Saturday of a Holiday Weekend and all but both garages were full by like 5:30 and it was incredibly crowded. We had planned to snack at some of the quick service places, stroll around for a bit then get a burger at D-Luxe. Waited 30 minutes at the Morimoto Street Food, then by the time we got to D-Luxe the line was out the building, past guest services, and back around to Zara. Cast member said it was probably close to an hour so we left and grabbed Wendy's on the way back to condo. I'm glad to see the construction all finally complete, and it's great to see the place thriving but man it was a fairly uncomfortable experience overall. On a side note the Rick Bayless restaurant in Chicago is fantastic so I'm pretty excited about what he has in store for here. I'll just be sure to make a reservation, for lunch, on a weekday haha.

So I've been to Mango's in Miami and am really excited to check out the Orlando location sometime. I totally get the 21 and up rule after 10:30 pm or whatever time it is, and understand what kind of place it is. My question is would it be weird to take kids (1,3,&4 years old) there for dinner and the show earlier in the evening at like 6:00? The website says minors of all ages are welcome before 10:30, but I don't want to be "that guy" with a whole family taking up a table at a night club if ya know what I mean. I know it's not a "kids" place honestly but the music, lights, food, show, and open dance floors to run around on while waiting on the food makes it seem like the perfect kind of place to take kids for dinner, my kids atleast (minus the t&A of course but they're only 3). Just curious if you guys have taken KT yet or if you ever see people with kids there earlier in the evening, in other words if taking the kids is a dumb idea talk me out of it, thanks!

I'm guessing that Cedar Fair includes Knotts Market Place and the Hotel into their attendance figures for the Knotts property. There is no way that the Theme Park and Water Park combined drew 5.5 million people. Where does TEA Connect and the IAPAA get their figures? They use a combination of publicly available information and their sources. So in other words not very accurate. Got it. I'll trust CF's own numbers. The figures in the TEA report and in CedarFair's 10K annual report are exactly the same. I'm not saying it's entirely accurate, only the execs at Cedar Fair really know that, but they must be comfortable enough with the figure to officially report it to their shareholders.

You leave Kanye out of this......

Probably not, Six Flags America's annual expansion budget is approximately eight dollars. If you would actually scroll back 46 pages and read something then you would know that Six Flags bought this conversion on a BOGO deal they found in the Black Friday coupon section of the newspaper at head quarters. Buy one iron horse conversion for a coaster that has an identical clone elsewhere in the chain and get the second conversion for free.

That POV was shot at kind of a funky weird off centered angle, but I kind of like it! Also, I'm just assuming that Roar East will be getting a similar conversion at some point in the very near future.

I totally understand being underwhelmed by Dollywood from a pure rides perspective, I kind of used be in that position when all I cared about was just coasters but it's hard to not at least appreciate how unique and well maintained the place is. Also you have to give them credit before Thunderhead they had basically 1 coaster and a log flume for their major attractions, but 12 years later (including Thunderhead) they've added in 5 major coasters, multiple new attractions to the water park, a screaming swing, a splash battle, a new on property resort, new shows, festivals, etc. They've been pretty aggressive with their growth and I can only imagine the next decade will be similar. I'd love to see a gigantic star flyer there or some other kind of flat, but their coaster collection now is pretty well rounded at this point. Also, $70 for a day compared to a Cedar Fair or Six Flags park, yeah I can see how that might be considered a tad expensive, but $99 for a three day 2 park ticket is pretty reasonable. Can't imagine someone not getting their money's worth out of that.

Well Valravn opened on time too. And the Joker's and Cobra's Curse are all opening this weekend. That really only leaves Mako and Monster to open after Memorial Day weekend. I forgot about Valrvn (I'm sure I'm not the only one if ya know what I mean....), but yeah seems like in the past most major new attractions are usually up and ready before Memorial Day weekend not on or after it. I thought Cobra's Curse was delayed and the opening date was still unannounced. We'll see, point was more rides this year were not ready on opening day than were which seems more like the exception than the norm and in the grand scheme of things doesn't really matter.

I know Lightning Rod was delayed a bit this season, which has been covered at length here, but isn't it kind of an odd coincidence that almost all the new major coasters opening this season won't be "officillay" opening until later into the season into early June? I mean Phobia and Storm Chaser are the only new coasters that opened with the park, but both Joker's, Lightning Rod, Monster, Mako, Cobras's Curse are all opening after memorial day weekend. Kind of an odd year, but whatever this month long delay has almost built up an additional level of excitement for LR. Can't wait to get on this thing.

I hope so. I cant remember Dollywood ever assigning seating on even the busiest of days and I've never seen parks that don't assign seating every have major issues because of it. Now if only a certain 2 parks both 4 hours away from Dollywood would take a lesson and STOP ASSIGNING SEATS ON B&M HYPER AND GIGA COASTERS COUGH COUGH CAROWINDS AND SFOG COUGH COUGH!!! Disney assigns seats on every coaster and never has an issue with it.....I don't see what the big deal is.

I'm from Kentucky, so yeah totally sarcastic.

A full parking lot for an NRA convention in Kentucky, never thought I'd see the day.....

You've clearly never been to the Derby, I mean they do sell cheap beer "next to the track" as in a guy slangin tall boys out of a cooler from the trunk of his car, but but as far as cheap beer inside the track.....yeah no.

I saw online earlier with the opening dates for Soarin and the Frozen attraction/section, I wonder if they will open that section with the rest of the Showcase at 11 or if they will open the Frozen ride with the rest of the park at 9?

^Yeah I'm with ya there, which I why I really like what they've done in Jacksonville. They added great amenities and premium seating locations (and yes freaking swimming pools) but it still feels like a football stadium. The amenities compliment and enhance the experience rather than distracting from it. That may have just been what was most affordable at the time instead of funding an entirely new venue but I'm glad they went the route they did.

Yeah Levis Stadium has never really been that impressive to me on tv or in pictures, but I do like the "suite tower" concept. It will be interesting to see how these new wave of next generation NFL stadiums compare when finished but I got a feeling when it's all said and done S.F. is gonna rank WAY below Atlanta, Minnesota, Dallas, and LA. Is there really such a thing as great home field advantage in the NFL anymore outside of maybe Green Bay and Seattle? I feel like that's one of those things that has been diminished over the years with the in helmet radios and other aspects of the game. I mean I'm sure statistically some teams win a higher percentage of game they play at home than they lose but I bet on average that percentage is lower than you wold expect, like probably closer to a 50-60% home winning percentage than an 80%+ percentage.

I went to NCAA an regional and a concert at Amway and it's a pretty nice arena, can't imagine there is anything much nicer out there anywhere. Joey you goin to the USA/Bama game in Jerry World in September?

Yeah, RIver's of Light looks fantastic, and the tree of life castle show, all of it looks great. Animal Kingdom at night is going to be so cool, I've had night rides on Everest from my cast member days and it's blast in the dark. I just checked the schedule for the rest of the summer and it looks like they have updated the hours for Animal Kingdom. Starting memorial day weekend it looks like the park is going to be open until 11pm, 11! They must be really be expecting some major crowds with these new nighttime experience to extend the hours like that, I was expecting 9 pm or 10 pm for peak days but 11 pm wow, not sure what there is to do there after Everest and Safaris until 11 pm but I'll take it. Also I guess the rumors of multiple showing of River of Light, like 3 or 4 showings per night may be accurate with hours like that.

I still wish more water parks would install these splash boat rides, I hate these rides in the amusement park setting but would love it in waterpark where I'm already in a bathing suit ready to get wet. Don't think I ever rode the Tidal Wave at BGT but the tunnel always looked cool from the haunt que during halloweekends.

Do a full day at Magic Kingdom, a full day at Epcot, for the third day get fast passes for the major stuff at Hollywood Studios in the evening and hit Animal Kingdom in the morning. It's pretty easy to get through Animal Kingdom in 3-4 hours in the morning if you get there when the park opens and knock out Everest, Safaris and Dinosaur before the crowds get in. That would be my approach at least.

I wonder if that includes Knotts Soak City because if so that's a huge increase, like 25-35% increase over 2014. The TEA annual attendance report (which I know isn't exactly 100% correct) listed 2014 at 3.68 million, so 3.68 to 5 in one year is incredible, if it's true.

Has anyone heard anything more about the opening of Rivers of Light? I know they announced April 22nd as the opening date but looking at park hours today AK is only open until 6:30 on the 22nd, and it doesn't look like there is fastpass for Rivers of Light available for that day yet. I wonder if there will be a media only event that evening or something it's been so long since they opened a new major show like this that I don't really remember how they handled the opening. I am also curious about the whole extended park hours that they are supposedly offering after River of Light opens (and the night safaris too). Looking at the calendar as it is currently posted the parks hours look fairly normal (6pm-7pm closings) and it's not open 8pm until the beginning of June.

^I just assumed that most of the major attractions would be open, with the exceptions being stuff like Carousel of Progress and Hall of Presidents, basically everything that's open during the Halloween/Christmas parties which is pretty much everything. I was wondering if they would have a fireworks show and parade during the extra hours event.

I'm not sure how interested I would be in the event at that price point but hey if they can sell tickets for a few extra hours on Thursdays in April and May then good for them, and they will, this will completely sell out however many limited tickets they offer every night. It does seem kind of very "un-Disney" to offer a separate specially ticketed event with no special theme, or unique "extras" not offered during the day. Disney is the most creative company in the world and the best name they could come up with for this is "Disney After Hours"? I mean give the event a creative name and a special character host and a limited time meet n great or something. Let Stitch run amuck around the park and do a nightly midnight castle projection countdown or soemthing. Maybe this is a test run of sorts to see how it works. If it's as popular as I think it will be I wouldn't be surprised to see this offered throughout the year at different price points for different days/times of year. Don't forget they just rolled out the new "tiered" daily pricing, wouldn't surprise me one bit if Tuesdays and Thursdays during peak months they offer a 8am-10pm ticket for one price and a 7pm-2am ticket on the same day for an upcharge. Dangit, in three paragraphs I just went from being skeptical of the event to thinking this is potentially a brilliant way to increase capacity and revenue throughout the year. They really are one of the most creative company's in the world, just work on that name will ya....