BlahBlahson

Oh god, please no app Fastpass at TDL before I can get there. Just looking at the App right now for WDW for tomorrow at Hollywood Studios, there are no available fast passes for Aliens Swirling Saucers, TSM, Slinky, Tower or Rockin' Rollercoaster for a party of 2 all day. I would have to refresh for 30 minutes or more to find good times for those rides, and If I couldn't find Slinky my options would be 1. Arrive 70 minutes before opening and do Slinky First. 2. Wait 60-90 minutes while the park is open. 3. Keep staring at and refreshing the app tomorrow until some time that may or may not work with my plans becomes available 4. Potentially miss both fireworks shows and wait about 20-30 minutes when the park closes. At Epcot: Frozen, Mission Space and Test Track are gone. At MK: Big Thunder, Space, Enchanted Tales, Meet Mickey, Seven Dwarves are all out. At DAK: No Pandora, Dinosaur, Kilamanjaro listed as available MLK weekend obviously, but it's still just Friday. At every other Disney park worldwide, I could show up at 8 or 8:30 tomorrow and get a fast-pass for anything I want, and probably get 4 other fast passes for the most popular attractions with the longest waits. I certainly have the option to keep refreshing the app and it's nice to get the fast-passes in the comfort on my chair at home, but gambling that the rides will become available is just such a grind, I'd much rather use phone time to play Pokemon Go or PlayDisney than stare at the app refreshing on every visit.

Resent sorry. Another Animal Experience that I didn't see already mentioned but is also super worth it is the Kangaroos at Busch Gardens. They've been doing a walkabout in the middle of the day for most of the last year where you can go inside the Kangaroo pen, feed the animals, pet the roos, and like, literally hug them if you want. And I think it was $7 dollars when I did it last June. The Serengeti Safari is also excellent. The train ride around the Savannah accomplishes most of the same thing though, but if you're splurging you get to hand-feed giraffes and the guides will take extra time to find and stop near every animal they can on the savannah for photos. I do think All-Day Dining is a better value for "things to spend extra on".

Hey! Check your PM. Lots of great advice already on this thread.

This is the worst news of 2019 so far. City Museum going Corporate is already bad enough, but it also had to be Premier Parks. Oof.

So this is like all the other attraction replacements in Orlando. Take out the old busted tech and bring in the new IP. This sounds like BasketballQuest lol. If there's a flat admission fee, it would be really cool if this gets added to the Parkhopper plus option like Quest used to be.

Definitely: Cheap Beer and Fish Park Seaworld's Waterpark Park not associated with Blackfish Busch Garden's Waterpark Pandora Place Star Wars Land Food and Wine Logistical Nightmare Kingdom Parkhopper Plus Add on #1 Parkhopper Plus Add on #2 Harry Potter World Hollywood Studios Moana's Happy Interstate Waterpark Kids School Group Florida Resort Likely Fun Spot Disneyland Calfornia Adventure Knott's Six Flags Magic Mountain (Queen Mary's Dark Harbour) Wild Adventures Six Flags over Georgia Hopefully depending on work and cheap flights (*new to me) *Six Flags over Texas *Six Flags Fiesta Texas *Seaworld San Antonio *Schlitterbahn *Kemah/Galveston *Six Flags Great America *Little Americka *Mt Olympus Carowinds Cedar Point

THIS is the "Wide Awake " Disney I've been wanting for since the World kind of stagnated around 2007. I'd strongly prefer not to have every single thing be based on existing characters, especially in regards to all of the night-time spectaculars, but the additions of Guardians of the Galaxy, Star Wars, Ratatouille, Space Restuarant, Star Wars Hotel, Runaway Railway, even the new surprise offerings just announced in France and Canada pavillions...just a crazy amount of expansion at once and super exciting to re-visit the parks and spend money there for this stuff. Two interesting notes though...No information on Tron Coaster, and still no new parades at Disney World. I don't know the significance of either of those things but hopefully something will come .

Just seeing this post, but I attended New Year's Eve at Epcot last year, so if I can offer some advice. #1. It's the busiest day of the year, so go in expecting that! Test Track through fastpass around 9PM last year was a 30 minute wait for us, and it was 240!!! Minutes posted for Standby. We asked the cast member at merge what the ratio was for guests and she said 1 (single) person from standby per vehicle-design room. Spaceship Earth standby was over 2 hours with all queue completely full. Any rides you want to do you will have to have fastpass for. Also there are huge waits for food parkwide (Electric Umbrella queue was snaking outside near mousegears), and some of the bathrooms as well. I think we ate in Japan which wasn't too bad of a line. However, I've never had more fun at Epcot. They set up a Silent Disco in the plaza behind Spaceship Earth's exit and you could choose between two different DJs. In China, there was literally a fire-breathing dragon above the crowd, playing modern EDM. In Italy they had a phenomenal house DJ who I think was on-set for at least 6 hours. The park was also well-managed, they had cast members arm-to-arm around the entire world showcase who were directing traffic flow in two lanes, and there was tape marking the areas you could stand in for fireworks. We got our spot about 45 minutes before midnight and had a good view from Mexico pavillion area, I'd plan 15 minutes earlier next time. For the midnight fireworks they play normal Illuminations (which they ALSO played at like 8PM I think), followed by a much more interesting NYE segment with a gigantic finale. They also opened up backstage areas to walk from the world showcase to the front areas, such as from Canada to the Land pavillion which were open the whole day. They give out noisemakers (and fun hats) also which were really annoying at first, but quieted down as people got bored of them.

This is much more than I was expecting! It looks like they decided to make a whole festival out of revamped bar foods. I need those Chorizo Potato Skins!

I had a question, do you know if the Buses were running from the TTC to the park and back during your visit? I'm wondering if they do them daily now, as the monorail has become unreliable.

Those crowds are CRAZY! If I had bought a ticket for that night I honestly would just leave if I had to wait to get in all the way from NBC Sports Grille. I'm happy that I got Rush of Fear this year, without Bill and Ted I don't need to go on the last night of the event anymore, and these October crowds are varying from "workable" to "sold out and insane" on random nights, whereas September is still reasonable and even pleasant on some nights. I really wish they would add more shows back, 1 main show and Vamp 85's mini dance off are probably the least they've had in that department since the event's inception.

^Ooooh I wasn't aware that they had built more of that ride type. Those look a little too big for a "kiddie" coaster but definitely more fun and probably faster than your average rollerskater. Good find. Now if only they can build them in the states.

Just now seeing this news, definitely saddened. I wish some manufacturer would make a Kiddie Coaster series in the vein of the Flitzer. The individual cars are much more conducive to smaller hills and drops than the long-ass train you find on all of them. And it had a lengthier ride-experience without being too tall for the young ones. In my make-believe amusement park that I run in my head, we've already contracted Wiegen or Zeirer to help us build a modern version of one of these, and the height requirement is 36 inches.

Personally, I like the Antarctica ride, it has improved since opening in both ride experience and ops. Could it have been way more though? Absolutely. One more room added to the ride would do a lot for it, it's pretty short and the story is not fleshed out enough. Infinity falls is a fantastic addition to this park . While the spot was the prettiest place at Seaworld, there was nothing except a lesser-used restaurant and some common animals in that location before. In recent years almost everything in town has been an replacement attraction. Seaworld's last three additions were a big improvement to their former Penguin exhibit, a completely new Hypercoaster that replaced nothing, and this sure-to-be popular family ride that also replaced empty space. Next year they are indeed replacing, but massively improving their kids area and adding a new parade, the year after they are getting a new coaster apparently (I'm hopeful they could build onto the seldom-used lowest section of their parking lot for it). And their festival lineup improves every year! This year they've had free beer and happy hour all summer, an Improved Food and Wine festival, more Spooktacular weekends...etc. Of all the parks in Central Florida, Seaworld is the one I consistently enjoy each visit and like the direction they are going in the most. I'm hopeful that they can start making it in the press for good reasons and gain back public opinion too.

Damn, thanks for the Honest opinions on Universal HHN. I am planning a 30th birthday trip to California next year for Halloween-time, and was already kind of looking for a reason to not do HHN/USH. There's just...very little that we don't already have in Orlando there. And the house mazes in Orlando have upped the detail higher this year so any downgrade would be felt. I'm thinking Dark Harbour, Scary Farm, and SFMM Fright Fest(because I have season pass) would be the musts.

Drones would be fantastic in a new "Illuminations". The big flaw in the current show is that the globe comes out in the middle and the space for the show is so big that you can't f*ing see the thing (and not much really happens during that whole bit anyway). With movable, non-exploding Drones you could go wide enough around the area that everyone can see something up close. My biggest hope for a new show is that it's not littered with IP. I know that this is the direction that Disney and Universal have been charging into, which is both good and bad. The problem is that with Fantasmic and Happily Ever After (or Star Wars Fireworks), you already have two major night shows that are extremely character heavy. If this one became a pure "movie moments" style show, that's too far a departure from the "togetherness and world culture" themes of the current performance and would make the night-time spectaculars redundant.

This is my favorite Announcement for 2020 by far! Can't wait to go back and forth between Kumba and RMC Gwazi all day! Oh and yay Tigris. With the addition of both of these coasters I can really see Busch Gardens making a push to be KNOWN as the park with the major thrills in Florida amongst the public, which is a title that Universal still holds for some reason.

Oooooh I love the opportunity to pile on to the group by adding that The Smiler is far and away the best coaster at Alton, and Nemesis is way overhyped. It has its intense moments, but its really short. Batman is a Superior attraction, as is Black Mamba. And almost all of the bigger inverts. But all Inverts are fudging great! It's the best multi-looper product line out there IMO.

This is the weirdest announcement I have ever seen. The layout is just insane. I was trying to think of a comparison, maybe the first big element of Schwur des Kärnan? Or a GIANT El Loco, or like...nope, this thing just looks to be its own crazy thing. Second of all, S&S. Did anyone expect that? I'm really really hoping that this ride just works, it seems half of S&S projects have difficulties. Third, this is the most genius marketing. EVERYONE in America will know this thing exists by the time it opens next year, and I again don't think anyone could have seen THAT coming. Those mockups, the "Terrible Tower". I just didn't know this was possible. Fourth, It seriously doesn't look real. I know that the animation is No Limits, but this looks like No Limits Youtube ride, not something that is actually being built. Fifth, this is the most interesting and exciting and somewhat WTF announcement for me since Lightning Rod. I have no idea whether to or .

Your Report made me check RCDB to find the location of this park, those dark rides are very intriguing. Sadly it looks a bit further south than the trip I would want to do but I guess that's the benefit of doing Japan with TPR, you get to do it all!

I did this exact trip late last summer and let me say it was wonderful to revisit in this form! I'm glad you got such great weather overall and low crowds at Blackpool. I echo your sentiments exactly on Smiler and Nemesis, Smiler is totally the better coaster, Nemesis is super-short AND less intense than Batman the Ride. Also it's crazy that they are doing 4PM closes. There can't be another park in the world that is doing a 4PM close in late June...cost-cutting gone mad! Between the huge layout of the park and the queue times Fast Track is a necessity on literally any day. Valhalla is the star of Blackpool. I have a soft spot for Boat rides, and my favorite two Disney attractions are Splash Mountain at WDW and Pirates at DLP. I would ride Valhalla over BOTH of those. If Maelstrom at Norway had been that good then it would have been worth saving!

^It's up to 180 at Midday now so I'd expect it to be crazy high like that each day until September. I think Slinky will settle into waits of about 60 most days once Star Wars and Mickey open. I'm imagining it will regularly look like this for the first year: Battle Escape: 2-2.5 Hours Millenium Falcon: 2-3 Hours Slinky Dog: 60-90 Minutes ASS: 30 Mickey Railway: About 90 Minutes TSM: 40 Rockin: 30-45 Tower: 30 to 1 Hour Star Tours: 20-35 I think DHS Attendance in 2020 will also be second at Disney World, and potentially get near Universal Studios Japan/Disney Sea closer to the top 5 in the world. People are going to visit there in droves. I also wouldn't be surprised at all if TLM, Beauty and the Beast, Indiana Jones, or Rockin' get a refresh or replacement.

^It runs 4 18 seat trains continuously, and it's impressive! There are Two block brakes at the end of the ride. So 1 train loading (no seatbelts), 1 unloading, and 2 that are either out on the course or finishing the ride/waiting on the brake run. I thought it was really cool that even if a train is "stacked" (loose term because it's intended and there is great theming on the brake run), the train out on the course can safely go through with the second launch. Despite the above average capacity, it's almost assured it will still have 2+ hour standby queues daily. Lol.

^Definitely! As bad as Thunderbolt at Coney Island was, I have to see if they've made improvements to the design. Plus Panama City has a Hurricane model that was closed on my last visit, and Pensacola added a Galaxi to their park this year. I was planning a Texas roadtrip for next year that would include these things on the way but this pushes up the timeline and honestly makes that trip a bit easier.

Road Trip Time! I could make a few days out of Wild Adventures, Panama City, and Gulf Shores.