Hilltopper39

Does anyone know if they plan to use Magic Bands and the My Disney Experience at Shanghai Disneyland when it opens? If they do plan to expand that service to other parks eventually (which I'm sure they do) it seems like it would be a lot easier to open Shanghai with the system from day one instead of trying to introduce it at some time in the future.

A RMC refurb of Twisted Twins would be interesting. That would be the smallest coaster they have worked on to date so it would be interesting to see what kind of transformation they could provide for a ride that size. Twisted Twins only had like a 70 foot drop and honestly wasn't a very exciting ride when it was new, i'm sure RMC could breathe some life into it but I'm not sure there is enough there to turn it into a major thrill ride. Then again, a really fun smooth dueling family coaster with some air time and over-banks might be a great option for that park.

^Haha, that's awesome. Seems like if I remember correctly you can get a decent view of that section from the cast member parking lot which is just at the edge of the regular parking lot. I bet if you did little snooping around the edges of the parking lot (all still guest areas) you could get a decent glimpse of whats going on. I was there earlier this summer and remember seeing a crane and some fairly visible land clearing.

They could announce a closure to everything at that park except Sunset Strip and it wouldn't disappoint me. Just scrap half of the park and start from scratch! They could rip out Indy and create a whole Star Wars land, rip out the back lot tours and create a whole Pixar land. Maybe leave and update the Great Movie ride and they've got an awesome new property. It will be interesting to see what they do with Lights Motors Action show. Whatever is coming to the back lot area that attraction is in kind of an akaward place. I'm not sure if they will keep it, scrap it, or re-theme but it will be an interesting development. Personally I love the show but I wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't fit into the long term plan for the park as a whole, whatever that might be.

Yeah the videos were great! Did you take these as part of a media day activity or are they letting guest take cameras through the mazes now?

Wow, seems like there is some pretty amazing "scenery" in the Dust Til Dawn House. I can't remember that much Themeing in a haunt Attraction in recent years, if you know what I mean...... Reviews of this year's event so far have been overwhelmingly positive. Seems like every year the reviews are all over the board from good to bad to the best thing ever to the worst HHN in 20 years or whatever, but this years event sounds like a pretty solid offering overall. I really hadn't planned on going this year ( was only planning on going to HalloScreams at Busch Gardens) but I might have to reconsider it!

Looks like a great addition, the floorless trains should make the ride interesting and breathe some new life back into the attraction. Now the only question is which park out there has the guts to retrofit a floorless coaster into a standup? Come on Dorney, no one likes Hydra anyways, the people want a stand up Jo-Jo roll. Give the people what they want!

I've only been to Indiana Beach once but I didn't like the park as much as I was expecting. It was nice, had a solid collection of coasters but the feel of place was just kind of weird to me. Almost like they had too much going on in too small of a space. Cornball Express was a fun little coasters, and I'd love to go back and try Steel Hawg, but hopefully the management will get the place turned around in the near future.

I spent the majority of the day at Epcot Saturday for the first time forever and had a great day except for my meal in Japan. I used to love the quick server there when it was still the Yakatori house but for whatever reason it seemed like the new Katsura Grill was just awful. It doesn't seem like the menu changed that drastically but the meal I got was terrible. On the plus side the quick serve in Morocco and the new location in France were amazing. I also finally got to fully experience the new Test Track. I did single rider a few times previously but this time we waited through the normal stand by line to check out the whole design studio which was really impressive. It was a lot fun building our own car and seeing it's "results" throughout the ride experience. I still wish they would have done something to the outside section but overall that refurbishment was really solid and Test Track is still one of the best attractions at WDW. Also, being at Epcot 5 days before the start of Food and Wine was a real punch in the gut. I could see all of the booths blocked off by giant planters but couldn't sample anything but oh well, just gives me an excuse to go back!

I hope they introduce a new ride system or find a way to increase capacity if the existing one. If they just re-do the ride as is that thing will be a capacity nightmare with gigantic lines. I'm glad to see some new attractions coming to the world schowacse. I love EPCOT, my favorite park in orlando, but the showcase could uses something new and hopefully this is just the start of great things to come for that park.

Yeah, great article, I really enjoyed reading this. I love d the vintage picture of Wet N Wild and really had no idea of the history of this portion of the industry. I remember before this thing opened that some people on these boards mentioned that they didn't anticipate the ride itself actually being all that "thrilling" since it's more or less a glorified roller coaster (which I kind of agree with) but it was interesting to hear the man behind the ride itself say it's anticlimactic and was more of a culmination than a breakthrough. Still a cool concept and it seems like the "arms race" in the world of water parks is just beginning.

Not sure where to post this but there was a great article posted on a national Sports and Pop Culture Website, Grantland.com, about Jeff Henry (Schlitterbahn,and inventor of the the Master Blaster), George Millay (founder of Wet N Wild), and some history of the American Water Park Industry. Most articles about amusement parks posted on national publications are difficult to read for enthusiasts but this had some great information that I never knew. Take a look! The Wet Stuff: Jeff Henry, Veruckt, And the Men WHo Built The Great American Water Park Feel free to move this to he appropriate thread ,I couldn't find a general water park thread but I seem to remember one existing.

The Hoop De Doo Review is one of things I've always regretted no having a chance to see yet at Disney, always seems like a fun show.

This might be a dumb question but the event opens September 19th but are some of the booths set up and open now? Seems like in the past I remember some of the booths being open before the "official" start of the event? I'm going next Saturday and want me some food and wine dang it!

Great report, Spaland looks awesome. When I put together my "bucket list" of Japanese parks to hit one of these days this place never really comes to mind first but that might have to change! I got a chance to ride the Ultra Twister that was previously at Astroworld on my only visit to that park and thought that little ride was the coolest thing ever. So much fun, it's a shame there aren't many more of them left but going strong.

They offer a lot of early admission options that have "skip the line passes" included for pretty reasonable prices. The Fright Feast buffet meal before the event starts was pretty good and gives you front of the line access to all of the houses for a few hours when the event opens for like $25 or so, pretty good deal.

So a laser tag haunt? I like it! I wonder if this thing will be an upcharge or not. For whatever it's worth I've always loved Howl-O-screams, it's not the same level of quality as Horror Nights but it seems like I always have more fun at Howl-O-Screams for some reason. Maybe it's the night rides on Kumba.

Yeah, I've always been a big fan of the 1st and second generation towers, the newer ones with the giant rings don't feel nearly as intense. I'm no engineer but I feel like it has to do with the inertia involved with getting such a large ride vehicle in motion, the smaller vehicles just feel like they drop quicker and it's a more intense feeling. I've never been on Blue Fall but from the size of it with the 2nd generation cars I guessing it's pretty much the best drop tower in the world. Acrophobia is another favorite of mine, it's kinda of a smaller version of the new style with the giant ring but it feel similar to the 2nd generations, and the tilt factor is insane. Also, the smaller trailer mounted versions from ARM are surprisingly awesome, those things always catch me off guard.

The first thing that came to my mind when reading this announcement was "I hope this means they'll get an S&S tower for Dollywood sometime soon as well!" Looks like an awesome addition though, I really gotta get to this park soon.

Speaking of Pandora and Avatar, when I saw Holiday World announced the launched Wing Rider last week I couldn't help but think how awesome an attraction like that themed to Avatar would be. The dragon thingy's from the movie are a natural theme for the wing rider trains, and the ability for the ride to be launched seems like you could incorporate it into a show building for some interactive scenes, maybe have the ride inside and outside. The 52" height restriction is a bit much for Disney but maybe B&M could incorporate their new family coaster seats into the wing rider train (I don't know what the height restriction on the new B&M family invert is but I can't imagine they would market it as a family coaster unless it had a lower height restriction) I've heard rumors in the past that B&M and Disney won't work together but I still can't help but think how awesome an attraction like this could be.

Maverick is such an awesome little coaster, still my #1 steel. I'm surprised more parks haven't built a ride like this, fairly compact layout with multiple launches, great airtime, themeing, inversions, just an awesome ride!

You mean Parks&Rec right? Yeah I meant Parks and Rec haha, I had Community on my mind this morning after reading Comic Con news about Donald Glover possibly returning to the show. With that being said I'm all for Chris Pratt joining Community if your reading this movies thread on a theme park fan forum Dan Harmon, make it happen!

I haven;t really kept up with the whole Avengers universe but I really want to see this movie! I love Chris Pratt on Community so it's awesome to see him in some major leading roles. Looks like a fun Summer movie.

Nice report man, glad to see Kentucky Kingdom open and thriving again. Being from Kentucky that and Kings Island were always my "home parks" so it's nice to see this place having some success. Between Lightning Run, Banshee, and Thunderbird there are some pretty significant major new attractions in that area that I'm excited about make a trip to sometime soon!

I take back everything I said about the name, the backstory you created for Thunderbird is amazing!