StuckInSD

No prob! Also, I totally forgot about that option so good on ya. Disneyland's Fastpass is like the wristbands, only instead of a wristband you have a piece of paper. You slide in your ticket at a Fastpass machine and it prints out a voucher (your "Fastpass"). The voucher tells you what time you need to return in order to redeem it. You could hop around the park and get all your Fastpasses out of the way, but if it's a 10-15 minute wait, then I'd just go wait in line. Some Fastpasses (Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Indiana Jones) will run out early if there's a good crowd, so unless you manage to find short lines, makes those a priority. However, Matterhorn and every Fantasyland ride (besides Peter Pan's Flight... through the cardboard city of London that someone dropped their burrito on) does not have any sort of Fastpass system in place, so if you plan on riding any of those rides, get in line before it gets crowded (and Fantasyland gets CROWDED, like a midnight launch for a new Apple product crowded). And again, you're going on a Monday, so that shouldn't be too much of a problem. The park is open until 11 when you're going to be there, but the park actually closes around midnight; they tend to use the last hour to round up stragglers and make sure shoppers have ample time to buy souvenirs. People (especially locals) tend to leave after fireworks, which is around 9:00 PM, so some lines for rides will thin out (especially Fantasyland) and should give you opportunities to get some last rides in. Disneyland and California Adventure get more crowded in the afternoon/evening, so plan accordingly. As for single-rider lines (which Matterhorn and most big California Adventure rides do have), if you can't get a Fastpass, I say go for it. But that's also where I find the worst line-jumping, especially on extremely crowded rides like Racers and Splash Mountain. Locals tend to enter the "single-rider" line in groups, which gets really annoying if you see an 8-12 person group file in all at once. Racers is extremely notorious for having blind spots and, on a busy day, brings out the worst in people. So use with caution. Hope that helps!

Getting a park hopper for one day would be cheaper, but both parks are easily multi-day visits, so I think you got the right idea. If you're part of any civil service or in the armed forces, ticket prices drop a bit. Otherwise, your only options are ordering online or straight from the booths. It is Halloween season, but I wouldn't expect it to get too crowded on a Monday and Tuesday. Disneyland will definitely be more packed due to the Halloween-related alterations they've done to their rides (Haunted Mansion Holiday, Ghost Galaxy, etc.) plus Mickey's Halloween Party. I'd hit both Space Mountain and Haunted Mansion first before the lines get too ridiculous, then Big Thunder/Splash Mountain/Indiana Jones/Pirates in any order (I'd personally hit Big Thunder first since it just got renovated), then whatever other rides you wanna go on. Finding Nemo just reopened, but heed this warning: it can get tight, so if you're claustrophobic, don't ride; also, beware of vomit. You'll be going on a Monday, so you should have some options when hopping from ride to ride. Unfortunately, they haven't figured out a way to get FP+ into the already-cramped Disneyland, so grab those FP papers ASAP; they tend to run out fast on the more popular rides. Disney's California Adventure gets a lot more crowded in the afternoon, so hitting Tower of Terror, Radiator Springs Racers and California Screamin' first should be a must. From my experience, Racers gets the worst lines (puts Space Mountain to shame), while Tower of Terror has decent waits; Screamin' can get bad if you wait too long. After that, hit any other ride you want. Cars Land still gets crowds and Soarin's lines can be pretty bad (if you rode the one in Epcot, then skip it; literally the same thing, only this one is actually IN California ). It's Tough To Be A Bug! closes early, and the lines Grizzly River Run are entirely dependent on the weather: if it's cold, walk-on. if it's hot, hour-long waits. There's not that many rides compared to Disneyland, so it's quite possible you'll be able to ride everything before the day is done. There's a ton of good snacks and small meals around DLR, so pick your poison. I personally love the hand-dipped corn dogs on Main Street and Dole whip in Adventureland, but again, there's lots of options; you could literally spend a whole day hopping around on a food adventure. Blue Bayou is easily the go-to for dining experiences at Disneyland, so book in advance. As long as you make a reservation a couple days before, you should be good; can get pricey, however. If you ain't full quite yet, I totally recommend Big Thunder Ranch and their all-you-can-eat BBQ. I BBQ all the time, and their's is pretty good. As for California Adventure, Carthay Circle is supposed to be really good. Again, also can get a bit pricey, but apparently the food and service is top-notch. Also, lots of alcohol floating around California Adventure, so have fun. Make sure you got comfy shoes and at least one bottle of water, because you'll be walking around a LOT. Don't be afraid of using the train/trolley at both parks to get around; they're actually quite efficient on a crowded day. Enchanted Tiki Room and Hall of Presidents have great air conditioning, so if you need to take a break, I'd totally recommend those options. Parades grab attention, but they split the park in half for a while, so if you must get to the other end of the park, get across before it's too late. In all of my experiences, staff have been great; it's the other tourists you really need worry about. I've been to Disneyland all my life, and while it may not have the glitz and glamour of WDW or the admiration of Tokyo, it's always been my personal favorite. It's a shame that people always bash it, because it really is a great park with an awesome ride selection and good staff. Disneyland is the granddaddy of all Disney parks, and deservedly so. Hope you have fun!

That they do, but it wouldn't surprise me if Epcot got one. Park-goers over there wanted Soarin' (God knows why), and they got it. Although, after seeing videos of it, I'm kinda disappointed with how it turned out. Definitely could have been better, IMO. Then again, I've never ridden it, so who knows. Speaking of Soarin', maybe they could replace that O (Crap), Canada! movie with some flying Smell-O-Vision seats, replacing the smells of golf and El Centro with the lovely fragrances of poutine and lumberjacks.

Good luck getting any park built in San Diego. The hippies are going bonkers over Sea World as is and the San Diego Zoo would do everything they can to keep their zoo monopoly in SoCal. If they really wanted to make a new Busch Gardens, they could try and buy out SFDK up north. It's already halfway there and it looks like Six Flags doesn't really care for it!

I know Disneyland over here has their fireworks set up in a few different spots (with some smaller ones dispersed around the perimeter of the park) even though they literally has no room left, so it's totally doable for Magic Kingdom to move the fireworks around with the space they have. Heck, they probably have something planned already once they get around to it (you know... once Avatar land, the Hollywood Studios expansion and Frozen Norway are done). Also, just realized today that you should never trust Google Earth with anything relating to theme park updates; they're embarrassingly outdated.

They also consider a wave swinger a thrill ride, so yay, logic. They'll probably get some flying scooters and a Battle for Metropolis if it proves to be successful. Can't really imagine too much after Wicked Cyclone debuts.

^ Maybe setting Colossus on fire was Magic Mountain's attempt at assuring a late opening. But even that isn't slowing RMC down. They already got replacement wood on site and are doing business as usual. And when construction slows down on Wildfire once winter hits, Colossus may get even more manpower working on it.

^But Vancouver has a pretty good park, and they seem to do fine. Washington has a few coasters here and there, even a pretty decent woodie, it's just that they don't have a "big" park. Maybe Mt. Rainier's eventual eruption is scaring companies away...

So, like this?

Disney is, for the most part, pretty good at keeping incidents on the down-low. It's when people get badly injured (or some kid burning his tongue on nacho cheese) that it worms its way through to the public.

^Ooh, that red is lookin' good. Me likey.

I thought they were teal or blue. Also, I mistook the unpainted track in the middle as a crappy MS Paint trace. Now I see why they're repainting it.

Ah, okay, makes sense now. Expanding the kid's area would be a good balance with Gold Striker.

There would be an odd segment in the middle that RMC would have to deal with (I'd imagine it being like Colossus' 2nd lift hill), but that would be awesome to see (and another slap to the face of Six Flags). If they keep on drumming up good crowds during season, and RMC isn't slammed with tons of projects in 2015, a conversion could totally be done by 2016.

^^ And by add do you mean the rides that were removed/replaced during the renovation or the rides that are currently there at Camp Snoopy? Sorta would make the renovation pointless if it's the latter of the two.

Maybe they can make Catastrophe Canyon part of a pod race ride. But seriously, if anyone needed proof as to why this is getting torn down, just look at the tram.

I remember a walk of shame from one of those horsey rides at Legoland when I was 12. But I don't really run into that issue on coasters. The closest I've got to walking off one was on Pony Express, and that was because of the way my crotch sat in the seat more than anything else.

I'm a sucker, so I white-knuckle it. Unless its a rickety old woodie, then I throw my hands in the air.

Hmm... a dash of Xcelerator... A pinch of Thunderhead... Some retro with Loch Ness Monster... Add some Behemoth... And a dash of Kumba. Mix it all together, bulldoze a giant hole into Chula Vista, and call it Six Flags Over the Border.

Ghostrider getting topper track would be a godsend. It has a good layout already, and they could do something really cool with the boring turnaround over the lift. That, and given Magic Mountain's upcoming RMC, it'll give Knott's even more reason to give Ghostrider the RMC treatment. In fact, I would go as far as to say that it could get the I-Box treatment as well if Knott's really wants to go all-out. Can't really think of a better name than Ghostrider, though.

Wait, so are they blasting off the black paint to restore it to red or are they prepping to repaint it a different color?

Before I knew better, I actually mistook Himalayas as roller coasters. To me, if there were "cars" and they were on a "track", it was a roller coaster. So if it sorta looks like a roller coaster why not call it one? To a GP, a roller coaster definitely sounds more interesting than a stationary looping flat ride.

If you really want to draw attention to your park, a few million LEDs or other bright lights will do the trick. It works in Las Vegas, so why not an amusement park? I mean, look at Cars Land: Ok, not exactly LED lighting, but still incredibly bright lights nonetheless. In that pic, there's a lot of lighting in a relatively small area. Yet, it draws your attention, just like a moth to a lightbulb, and in turn draws in more visitors. Granted, in that pic, the lighting looks really good, but the same idea applies to any other park. If I had an establishment with no flashy lighting and some bub across the street put up a giant, flashy sign on his joint, that jerk's gonna steal my customers and, more importantly, my profit! And when it comes to amusement parks, one of their strongest assets at night IS their ability to draw in crowds with their flashy lighting. Some places will mess up or get it wrong, but that's inevitable when there's so many parks floating around now. These kind of flashy, attention-stealing antics have been around since the turn of last century, and I don't see them dying off anytime soon.

When bringing small children to a crowded park, absolutely do not lose track of where they are. Much like that of the puppet Pinocchio, they will absolutely wander off if you don't have a set of eyes or a hand on them. Like, seriously, you could look over your shoulder for a second and then- bam. Gone. Vanished. Your parenting/babysitting stats have just taken a nose-dive, good luck getting those points back. Always have a plan for the park when with the kiddos in mind; take snack/water breaks, give them time to explore things, utilize any available playgrounds or services so that not only are your younglings satisfied, but you yourself are left off in a better state of mind. For the more rowdy or wandering ones, if need be, a monkey leash is acceptable.