teacherkim

They confirmed to me on FB that these games are indeed gone for a shaded seating area. They said that in recent years these weren't as popular. Uhhh, yeah, no kidding ? I really think they oversaturated themselves with the games and glad to see that they are toning those down. A small number of game booths are fun and create some atmosphere, too many and it gets very carnival like/cheesy looking in my opinion. And of course they are a massive rip off, as any carny will tell you. I'm assuming they were also seeing a diminished return for the cost of operating as fewer people were willing to blow extra money on games that are very difficult to near impossible to win. I do wish they would put a real arcade in somewhere and not just the claw machines and their equivalents. I'm guessing you would get traffic on those.

Eh, depends on the kid. My son even when he was little always got way more excited about Halloween than he did Christmas. Don't get me wrong I'm not pooping on their event. I hope it's successful and if that's worth it to you than by all means I hope your daughter gets great joy out of it. But clearly most people were hoping for the T4 announcement over an event ? And I can't see a lot of people traveling long distances to do a Christmas event but hopefully the locals turn out for it. They sure didn't at SFSTL even though they all say it was so great.

I really don't think it has anything to do with wokeness, but it does have a lot to do with litigiousness. Looney Tunes are aimed at a much younger demographic than FPS games, most of which I believe have a recommended age on them. If I remember correctly there was a lawsuit aimed at holding a LT cartoon responsible when some kid jumped off the roof imitating a character; and no I don't remember the outcome. However, whether that is justified or not it does mean that companies, including the media outlet airing said cartoon, will then protect themselves in the future. That all happened way before anyone used the term woke. If you want to blame anyone blame people that launch frivolous lawsuits.

Ha, ha....no worries I realize I did as well. I MEANT FTC when I was trying to remember the name of the chairwoman and tried to look up her name I inadvertently punched in FCC. Yikes. The rest about it being an independent agency with congress overseeing it still applies though

Ok, I'm glad you said that because I thought they were all in preferred too, then someone somewhere (probably FB) said they were in general and I thought maybe I was interpreting the picture incorrectly. Yes, if that is the case it will be easier to control. At SFOG last summer (and to be fair we were there on an insanely busy day) they are all in general and every single one of them was being iced. I don't think people were necessarily trying to be asses, there were just very few spots and I think they took a chance assuming the park wouldn't make it a priority. And they weren't. We didn't have to charge because we almost always stay at a hotel that has a destination charger since they are quite numerous now, but it would have been convenient.

The head of the DOJ is Merrick Garland, the U.S. Attorney General. I THINK you are talking about the head of the FCC, Jessica Rosenworcel? She is the chairwoman but the agency is overseen by congress, whereas attorney general is a cabinet position. Both agencies do get input on mergers. I too am kind of waiting to see how this plays out but will be hopeful for a good result. We have SF DE memberships so just hanging onto those at the moment and usually get CF plat passes (which I guess they are doing differently now) but since we don't have any immediate CF park plans and I can rebuy those at any time I am waiting to see what they do about passes.

I have to respectfully disagree. I really don't think the DOJ will take a merger between theme parks all the seriously and I don't think they will give it the same consideration as say merging airlines, or tech companies, or media companies. In other words they are not likely to consider the theme park industry as essential use. Also, SF/CF would have likely gotten some behind the scenes assurances that it's going to go through or they wouldn't be publicly touting it will be a done deal by summer. I could of course be totally wrong, we shall see; but I will be surprised if it is blocked.

I'm curious how/if they enforce parking for ev's only at the chargers. We have a Tesla and while we won't need the ones here since we are local, we have been to other parks where while not a necessity it would have been nice to be able to use the chargers but they were always being used by non ev cars.

You know I just really don't remember what the color scheme was on Buccaneer. Far as I know you are correct. Was the boat part wood looking? Like a real boat? Or did I just invent that? No idea what DC would do! I'm not butt hurt about some DC theming in the park but I also don't want only DC theming so hopefully I am wrong.

Looks like the SF shareholders have approved the merger overwhelmingly. Just has to pass the DOJ review, which I think will be quick. I'm fascinated/terrified/hopeful how all this works out.

Awwwww, he looks like he was having a good time. It was Steve's favorite thing he has ever done at an amusement park, lol.

Since they're painting it red, I'm assuming Flash themed, so....eh. But maybe I'll be surprised. I mean they did open RR without theming it to anything DC so there's always a chance.

Looks like you had a really great time! If you liked the giraffes and haven't done it at BGT, you must do the giraffe excursion there. They take you out on the savanna in an open air truck and you get to feed the giraffes, no fence between you! They just stick their heads in the truck and you get to pet on them while feeding.

I believe that building is the new administration headquarters. Unless they have popped something up since last summer. In June we did a behind the scenes for LR and that was under construction right in that location. I get that everyone is a bummed about the non-launch lift hill; but I totally get the park's perspective. They needed a much more reliable ride and were just done messing with the launch. Most GP won't care.

I saw the same thing on the app and good for our membership too. Is it already being used at SFFT? Interested to see how it works at SFSTL because last fall before they closed for the season the signage was going up but it hadn't been implemented yet. We get free preferred parking, which I only mention because I noticed on the visit last October that they were routing all the pp people to the left lane and I think/hope that means they are making that a direct lane to pp instead of having everyone drive all the way around and through the whole lot. It just would make traffic flow a lot better.

On this particular issue I am pretty sure you are correct. But, I haven't gotten any of the update emails, or any communication for years now. For some reason despite many attempts to update my email I cannot get my old email off as the default and that was my school email and it is not operational anymore. I hang on to the memberships because they really are a good deal for what you get, at least for us.

Hmmmm, I did not get the email. But we are the Diamond Elite VIP super high priority yada, yada whatever it's called at $24 a month so I'm not sure if we aren't being raised due to that tier doesn't seem to be mentioned or I am still just not getting the emails. I've been trying to update my email address for about 3 years now ? At this point I am just waiting to see what, if anything, happens with passes due to the merger. I've held off renewing our CF passes because we don't have any near future trips planned at the moment and I know I can just renew those anytime and I'm not getting rid of the SF legacy memberships because of course then I won't get them back.

Yeah, that makes total sense, you are probably right on the mark with that one. So.........a good move and in addition to bees it will cut down on flies and mosquitos.

I don't think I really care one way or the other but I am curious as to why they are enclosing the picnic pavilions. Bugs? Gonna have heat/air? Spiffing them up to market them and try to increase the private party rentals? Yes to all?

More great updates. That will be a perfect redo for the themed queue, if you've done the one at SFFT you'll know that the queue is as much of an attraction as the ride. Kind of a permanent fun/haunted house. And as far as I am concerned they can retire the haunt that was there and have a new one for FF. While I am not one to usually wine about things being better in the "good old days" I do wish they would bring back a REAL arcade.......not just a room with claw machines.

Looks like there is going to be an announcement from the park on March 7.

I don't necessarily disagree with you. Like I said that is the "official" reason given for the big 3 at IOA at the OI meetups, I've always assumed that was more the park not wanting those lines still full an hour after the event ends which is 1:30 am, and of course HHN only affects USO most of which are indoor rides. Plus RRR has cool optics from City walk ? I was more just trying to be informative to the actualities of the late night events.

I agree that the earlier closures can be annoying. That being said, I've never gone to Universal and been bored, so I guess it's what you make of it. And we can usually get a hell of a lot more done at Universal than Disney in the same time frame, for less money, so on that front it evens out. If I'm being really optimistic I would like to think they are choosing less hours for a better experience without having to close things down for staffing and/or maintenance; if I'm being cynical I would think perhaps they are just trying to shuttle everyone over to City Walk to spend money there. The truth is probably somewhere in between ? I will say having done one OI meetup and one HHN visit it was super cool to be in the parks super late night with almost no crowds. However, in both cases rides are not necessarily open all the way until 1:30 am. At HHN you are only in USO and there are limited rides to begin with and at OI the big guns like Hagrids, Hulk, VC all close their lines about 11:30 or so to satisfy both local noise ordinances and enough time for maintenance (or at least that's the official explanation)

Aah, gotcha, miscommunication on my part. I was thinking more about the tables out front, not the ones to the side. Just wondering if they would reconfigure those and the path differently at all. In the end not at all a big deal one way or the other.

Oh I didn't think the wall would go as it is basically holding up the hillside where the train tracks are.......just wondering out loud if there was a way to add more tables in the area since they were often all filled up. They were the immovable kind imbedded into the concrete so they all had to get torn out anyway.