CedarFlags

Yes and no. They were the last one do to a true "pay to skip", but... I'm also considering the decision to let resort hotel guests book their FastPasses before other guests as a type of monetizing. Original FP was truly free and equally available to everyone who paid for a park entry. That also started the snowball effect of FP being a de facto requirement when visiting WDW because they had to add so many things to FP in order to even have enough reservations to give out.

This was written years before the Orlando accident. And also the author was in Hollywood, not Orlando. I think there's a reasonable conversation to be had that "the size of an average person is not the same as it was 50 years ago, so designers of public accommodations should be considering this as part of their designs." But this was not that conversation. She's talking about the issue as some vast societal force to exclude fat people from public life and it's beyond hyperbole.

^^ Ignoring the HUGE cultural conversation of capitalism, the politics of class, who *deserves* to have recreation, and the implications of importing real world class divisions into recreational entertainment... the upcharge priority programs at theme parks are a business decision that comes with pros and cons. When you created a two-tiered guest experience with these priority passes, you have to do a careful balancing act. They can generate a good amount of extra revenue, and they're super valuable for guests who are on once-in-a-lifetime trips and trying to maximize how much they can do. But... If higher tier guests get SO much priority that it detracts from the experience of the lower tier guests, the lower tier guests will eventually stop coming. Disney (particularly Orlando) has been dealing with this problem for years. The original FastPass™ was brilliant because it gave you the chance to skip lines, but it was equally available to all guests so nobody really felt like they were being cheated. The problems started when Disney tried to monetize the program in various ways and now it's this whole monster.

I'm kind of obsessed with this one aspect of the Disney v DeSantis lawsuit... Disney never expressed concern over 1st Amendment protection, so DeSantis and his collaborators never thought to censor themselves. Normally in this kind of case, the Plaintiff would have the difficult task of proving to the court what the motive behind the Governor's actions was. And it would be easy for the Governor to say that it was purely financial and administrative. But because Disney stayed quiet, the prosecution now has dozens of pieces of evidence of defendants very explicitly saying: "the government of Florida is retaliating against The Walt Disney Company for engaging in political speech."

15 is such a weird cutoff age. In my experience, 13/14 year olds are rarely the problem. 16/17 year olds (sometimes even 18/19) are the REAL problem demographic.

Has anyone made it to see Renfield with Nicholas Cage yet? Seems like it could be amazing or terrible.

Poseidon's Fury was one of those experiences that you can really only get at a theme park. I remember wandering into it on my first visit and being totally blown away, and the cheesy story line not even mattering. It was so grand, so unique, and so unexpected. As much as I love rides and coasters, I'm a firm believer that theme parks need to include these kind of alternative attractions to give guests a more complete experience.

to be fair, Magic Flyer was closed so I didn't check. I went on the Speedy Gonzalez and Roadrunner Express.

TC may just be seasonal maintenance. Batman was running 2 trains so the wait was 5 mins max. Full Throttle and Apocalypse were running 1 train, lines looked like about 30 mins. WCR had all 3 trains running, but it didn't appear to be cycling very fast.

Been seeing chatter on Instagram / Twitter about Knott's making some huge cuts to their Entertainment. Such a bummer, especially for Boysenberry Festival where there's always been so much to see. It's nice to sit and watch a show while working my way through the tasting card and avoiding the crazy lines on the rides during the midday. It seems like the Camp Snoopy Peanuts show and the outdoor Calico Stage are pretty much the only things to see now. I just went to Magic Mountain yesterday and one thing that always strikes me when thinking about these two parks is... Magic Mountain has nothing to do except stand in line for rides all day long. Knott's always has some little extra something to break up the day a little, or keep me amused while I rest my feet.

Quick visit to the park yesterday. Some stuff was closed because of off season (Riddler, Twisted Colossus, Scream, Superman, Goliath). Tatsu and X2 both running 1 train right now, which should be illegal considering how long their cycle times are. I visited on a Monday in March to AVOID the 45 minute waits. Wonder Woman running 2 trains, which was fine. Line stayed around 20 minutes for most of the day. The pathway down the hill between Ninja & Gold Rusher was closed. Guessing it'll stay closed as long as Superman is. Lex Luthor got stuck at the top THREE times in under an hour (once while I was riding) and they continued to operate. Thought that eventually Maintenance would tell them to just stop. So, if anybody's extra nervous about drop rides, now might not be a great time to try this one out. Happy note: I'm a taller guy and I never bothered to stop and check if the kiddie coasters had maximum height limits. Just kinda assumed they did. But actually they don't, so I ended up with 2 new credits at a park I've been to like 50 times, lol.

The preshow for Bourne is SO long that I made a joke that "Julia Stiles should add this to her IMDB". then, lo and behold...

Early reports from cast previews have some news about Tron being very size restrictive, even more than FoP in some people's opinions. There are non-cycle seats at the back of the train for handicapped guests, but apparently that line is getting severely impacted by able-bodied folks who just don't fit. And not every train has these alternate seats, so it can cause a significant extra wait. Just something to be aware of if you're planning a visit.

And the both boats will have plenty of open seats since there's no grouper and the ROs are only allowed to open the gates for 3 seconds.

That makes A LOT of sense now.

Was no shade on Zadra at all. My point was: a MUCH larger scale project was completed, even with a major set back, in less than half the time that this glorified shoot-the-chutes ride has taken.

Zadra was built in 9 months and half of the ride fell over halfway thru.

Wait wait wait... the Gold pass is now only good for 8 months? What fresh hell is this?

Retracking? That's unusual.

They give you a snack to eat on the ride to get your 5th sense activated?

I would be THRILLED if that happened. It's incredible. My favorite non-coaster attraction at the whole UOR.

Also, personal note... from talking to folks I know, SO many stunt performers in LA have come and gone through SES and been able to pay their bills with it between other gigs. So a bunch of good dudes are going to be losing another job opportunity in a field that's already very tough. Universal Hollywood is weirdly very light on entertainment, considering it's whole concept is showbiz.

El Toro Ryan has a length video on Hagrid's the mentioned the multiple track switches and stuff. Pretty interesting if you are into the nitty gritty of how attractions work.

Friendly reminder, folks... there has been been, and will never be, a CEO of the Walt Disney Company who cares more about anything than he cares about money.

I'm really excited about this rumored new churro stand coming to USH. I visited the churro stand at IOA last month and it was amazing.