teacherkim

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.

I think it is way too early to know how or if the merger will affect the park. I mean it hasn't even cleared all the government approval process yet. I think it easily will, but it will likely be halfway through the year before that is all done. Then in addition to ride operations and additions they have to merge season passes, and food/beverage ops, and hiring practices, etc, etc, etc. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out, not everyone will like every change, but it will be interesting to say the least. And for what it's worth I have seen a number of comments on the FB updates with people stating that they are interested in getting passes just based on what the park is posting...............and I'm an occasional check in on FB not a daily stalker.

Saw this too. I'm assuming (although I might be very wrong) that they are putting all new seating in all around the funnel cake stand? Maybe they can reconfigure it to add a few more tables, it's usually pretty filled up. Pleasantly surprised that the naysayers on FB are relatively few and fairly tame. The overall response seems to be mostly positive which reinforces that there is no negative to these updates and in fact they are generating a lot of renewed interest in the park.

And you are very unlikely to run into school groups at the start of the school year, mid-August and September, while weekdays in May (particularly Fridays) will have lots of field trips going on.

Welcome back and come on in, the water's fine! There has been some discussion of the updates over the last couple weeks! Based on what I've seen on FB it's getting a mostly positive response and I think it's a great way to engage/pump up the local GP. I assume the big billboard coming down will open up a new walkway but even if not it does at least open the sightlines. And it will be really nice if Lloyds is open again as a shopping venue. I can still remember when they had the giant pickle barrel there, lol.

I'm curious about that as well. We always stay at the Royal Pacific when we go and in my opinion it is a very good value for what you get. The new hotel will be amazing I'm sure and most likely will be a deluxe so you'll get expresspass BUT you will have to bus to the other parks and citywalk and there is the question of how many rides in Epic will start out offering expresspass access. That walking path and boat transport at the other 3 deluxes is pretty amazing. I'm more worried that all of the on site hotel prices will take a big jump, especially the deluxes, after Epic opens. The value now as compared to the mouse properties down the street is pretty amazing, but thinking they will see this as a reasonable excuse to raise lodging.

So many great pictures! On the same cruise that we were on when we went to Liseberg we were docked right across the harbor from Gronalund, but since Joel was only 9 and wouldn't have been tall enough for much AND we only had a day AND no one else wanted to spend it in a amusement park we didn't pay to go in. Walked right by it though. If anyone every gets the chance to sail into Stockhom it's really amazing. You spend about 3 hours going past a million little islands, most of which have summer cabins on them.

Hey! It's all good! Most of us are passionate about the park too or we wouldn't be on here. I (and I am sure several others) appreciate any information you feel you can pass along.

And if it had been a normal disagreement I would have found it funny and I'm extremely thick skinned after all the years of teaching middle school; so not like I can't take a joke. But frankly, you went so far beyond a reasonable disagreement, insinuating that anyone who disagreed with you was a moron simply towing the company line and was so dismissive of the reasons why some of us were ok waiting for the job to be done properly and so over the top like it was the end of the world that the carousel was non operational......................that I lost my humor on the situation a long time ago. Sorry.

So.....I see it's been forever since anyone posted. Has anyone on here actually "ridden" the new Minion Blast thing? Not sure if we are calling it a ride or an attraction. If so, thoughts? Current/new rumors regarding the Lost Continent and/or Simpsons area? We usually get here once a year but have a big trip planned to Europe so may skip it until next year when Epic opens. Unless they offer some deals to get people in that we can't pass up.

Seriously? Don't be douchey troll.

Pinball! I love Pinball and it's getting harder and harder to find machines as "the claw" is now taking over every arcade We rode that rapids ride with a mom and her kids that were visiting Liseberg from their northern village that was north of the Arctic Circle. They spoke wonderful English so we were able to have a nice conversation and they were as fascinated with us as we were with them.

Awesome! Personally, I love the idea of the Friday updates and it looks like you have gotten a mostly positive response on FB. I would encourage the park to be as transparent as possible (I get there are some things you may not be able to talk about) on the status of things. People are mostly understanding if they are just filled in on the why's and what's, like what is honestly happening with the carousel..........and explain new procedures that are in place, thinking mostly the new parking toll booth procedures. And don't let the haters bother you In the end this particular park thread has a lot of traffic when compared to some others on here and that tells you something about how much people want the park to succeed in the end

My God! All this vitriol is ridiculous. I simply said that I thought it was nice that they seemed to be engaging a bit better on FB. If you aren't interested, FINE, don't spend anytime reading it. Again as previously stated there is no negative to this. The people that want to know will be happy, the people that don't care can choose to ignore. Geeez

Great report Bert! We were actually at Liseberg when Joel was only 9, I have a great pic of him and Steve on the wave swinger; as you know Steve isn't with us that often at theme parks. We did love the flume and rapids (my husband very kindly shot me right in the back with a water cannon as he "watched" us ) and loved Balder and Lisebergbanen. This was way before Helix, the dive coaster or Luna. Kanonen was there but Joel wasn't tall enough for it or the screaming swing, I know hard to believe when you see him now. And we were on a bit of a short time schedule that day because it was during a cruise ship stop. It's funny now that Kanonen is in Waterloo IA at Lost Island as Matugani and he finally got it last summer. But I remember those escalators, I think there was a theater show at the top then, and how gorgeous the park and it's landscaping and flowers were! Funny story about that Disk-O. Joel rode it, we didn't, and right away put his hands up. Well several other riders saw him and very tentatively put their hands up too. Until the ride op came on the speaker in a barrage of Swedish and everyone immediately dropped their hands looking horrified, except Joel of course who didn't understand Swedish nor read the room that he was clearly yelling at everyone for doing it. Nope. He just kept his up the whole time blissfully unaware that he was the only one, while we waited to see if we were going to get kicked out, lol.

I did. However, both things can be true.

And yet you come on here and socialize all the time with people who do actually care about those things.

This! 100% Exactly, communication is never a bad thing. My experience has been that when you communicate fully with people and are open about what is happening they tend to have a better outlook and it totally shuts down rumors, which are almost always wrong. What you might think is not post worthy is YOUR opinion. If you aren't interested that's fine, don't spend time reading about it, but there is no harm and many may like it. As pointed out one of the best loved parks in the country made information like that public, the President posted a "to do" list at the start of the year with regular updates as to where on the list they were. Many things on that list were mundane items like new benches or the start of a new show or some regular maintenance, a few were bigger. People loved it! Tons of interest. I think even the GP wants to know some sort of care is going on and it helps dispel the idea that the park is just a ghost town with tumbleweeds and a closed sign during the off season.

So, I happened to drive by the park last Friday. Had to go west on the outer road and up Allenton right past the employee entrance. There is a new sign directing people to the right for guest entry and the left for various things like employee parking, human resources, etc. I think there was new signage going toward the tollbooths too, probably directing people to the proper lanes for pre-paid versus not parking as they switch over to automated parking entry. I also think I saw something new in the parking lot up in/near the preferred parking that MIGHT have been some new EV chargers, but to be fair I only got a quick glance before the berm hid it and I was driving so couldn't get a good look. Also, while I certainly don't haunt FB, I have noticed that there have been some regular posts trying to get engage people. Things like list your favorite ride or where was your favorite place to eat or who remembers what was in Batman's location before it was Batman; that sort of thing. I do wish they would post some things about what they do during the off season so the GP understands a little better how much maintenance must be done, but at least its not just crickets or 50 posts about passes. Small things but at least something is happening that is new.

Ha! I have that exact same back scratcher, my husband got tired of me waking him up to scratch my back; bought it in Canada at Niagara Falls.

So, I assume he is a new park president for STL? When did he start? Just curious because it is my understanding that last season we shared a president with SFGAm. I know it started out that way, did that get corrected at some point during the season?

We had so much fun! On Fri night when our 9:45 pm flight got delayed and we ended up not landing in San Antonio until about 12:45 am, meaning we had 40 hours until we had to turn around and fly home again I was re-thinking the worth and wisdom of this trip; but it turned out to totally be worth it. I am not a huge seeker of character meet and greets but was excited to get Marvin the Martian, don't see him out and about very much. Of course the nice 75 degree, blue sky, and sunshine day helped a lot too! Besides we once flew to Dallas and back in one day just to go to the park there so........ And the schnitzel was legit very good, not just theme park good. And as far as why was Santa pooping. Everybody poops. I'm more curious why he was fishing while pooping. That does not seem sanitary.