jedimaster1227

This is one giant frisbee! It looks much nicer than I expected.

In fairness, if they served mint juleps, I would have given it three thumbs up...

I totally forgot about Orki... Good times.

The Holy Land Experience in Orlando had its opposition when it first opened too... Now it kind of exists only in the eyes of those that care to visit. Its presence doesn't negatively impact the city or the rest of the nearby attractions. It merely exists. This is exactly how I expect Ark Encounter to end up "blending in" to Kentucky.

I really appreciate that Hansa Park continues its efforts to complete the theming for Kärnan. They could just as easily let the ride exist without any additional work and guests would be content, so the fact that they are taking the time and effort to continue even after the ride has been operating for as long as it has is a great thing.

I always wondered why they felt that building a park in Okinawa was a good idea... If anything, the park would've had to have been completely unique without any overlap in shows, attractions or IPs from Universal Studios Japan, otherwise the two parks would cannibalize each other. Like the image above suggests, there is a sizable amount of adjacent land that if they focused their capital and efforts to acquire, could serve as an adequate plot for an additional park and additional resort features.

Cobra's Curse really looks like a fun addition for Busch Gardens... It definitely feels like it will be a family friendly spinner, but I'm thinking that with the right passenger mix, you could possibly get some pretty insane twists in before the final brake run. The ride isn't far from opening, so I'll continue to wait patiently until this reason for a return to the park opens... That and the current rumor that the Crown Colony Restaurant could reopen with the opening of Cobra's Curse.

Yeah, that outward banked turn looks incredible and the wooded surroundings of this coaster really make the structure that more imposing. I can't wait to see the finished product's POV since I don't foresee myself getting out here to ride anytime in the near future.

For a Florida boy who had never been to a seaside park, Morey's Piers was one of my favorite parts of the 2006 TPR East Coast tour... The location combined with all the fried food made it such a fun experience! I'm glad to see the park is still doing well after all these years!

The grilled squid looks wonderful! Our honeymoon can't come soon enough!

It isn't. The structure is all still there as is most of the track. The wood they have stripped from it is still less than 1% of the total lumber that makes up the coasters and their supports. Gwazi isn't gone yet.

^While we appreciate the request, there is not currently enough discussion or news about Adventure Island to warrant the creation of a discussion thread at this time. Typically discussion threads are developed to consolidate multiple active threads for the same park, or to focus discussion for a park with lots of news in one thread.

Yesterday I had the chance to stop in to Busch Gardens Tampa Bay to check out this year's Busch Gardens Food & Wine Festival, and in the process I was able to see just how good Cobra's Curse is looking as it nears its opening for later this year! The Food & Wine Festival has improved leaps and bounds from last year with tons of new items, several new booths and even the returning dishes being significantly better than I remembered them previously. As for Cobra's Curse, the ride is fully built out at this point but work continues on the ride's station and surrounding areas. The ride stands out in the Egypt section of the park, but also blends in organically with its close calls to existing structures of the land and Montu. The ride is visible from throughout the park and it looks like it could be the sleeper hit of 2016's new coaster list! Cobra's Curse has taken its place on the skyline of Busch Gardens Tampa Bay. How about this paparazzi topiary? The real reason I came to Busch Gardens Tampa Bay... FOOD! It makes quite a statement from the outside of the park. Busch Gardens uses this even as another opportunity to show just how talented their horticulture department is, with larger than life topiaries like this located throughout the park. Similar to Epcot's setup, you order outside of the event booths and pickup your food with your receipt. This year there are 11 food booths and 16 beverage booths to choose from. Outside of the Garden Gate Cafe is this awesome octopus topiary! One of the new "food booths" this year was actually hosted in the Garden Gate Cafe... The Coconut Shrimp Cigars over a Jicama Slaw with a Horseradish Marmalade were a wonderful start to this year's tastings (and significantly tastier than they were last year)! New to this year's menu was the Goat Cheese Polenta Cake. It is a good thing I love goat cheese AND polenta, because this was wonderfully executed! The former Hospitality House for Busch Gardens Tampa Bay serves normal food items alongside several special dishes for the Food and Wine Festival. The Tuna Poke from the Garden Gate Cafe was fantastic! A surprise win for the event was the Pheasant Sausage Flatbread. A significant portion of the Food and Wine Festival takes place along the path to Gwazi Park, where the events' concert series is also hosted each day of the festival (which is run on weekends only). It is certainly strange walking in the shadow of Gwazi without seeing trains rush by. The Pan-Fried Cod Provencal atop Fennel Risotto was nice and light. The Bison Slider was served on a brioche bun with cartelized onions, sriracha ketchup and a thick strip of bacon. The combination? YUM!!! The Roasted Pork Belly was wonderfully cooked and required no knife to cut. The Potato and Goat Cheese Tart was a returning dish from last year and it did not disappoint. The Cheese Plate from the Lighter Fare Canteen featured Port Salute, Cabot Cheddar, Bel Paese and Buttermilk Blue Cheese. I could eat tons of that blue cheese without pause if given the chance! Cigar City was one of the featured breweries at the Food and Wine Festival, and the Strawberry Shortcake Strawberry Lager caught my eye... It was DELICIOUS! The Duck Taco was a solid addition to the year's lineup. The Pan-Seared Salmon Cake was one of my favorites from last year's inaugural season and I was thrilled to hear it was returning. This thing was ridiculously tasty! The Beef Short Rib had an OK flavor with its Strawberry Wine Habanero BBQ sauce but I found it to be a little less tender than I would expect for short rib. The Lobster Ravioli was a hit for our group. The only item we wouldn't recommend out of all that we tried was the Buffalo Chicken & Blue Mac & Cheese. It didn't really have a cheese taste--more like blue cheese dressing in which the pasta was tossed, and then drizzled with buffalo sauce and chicken. This was the only item that was sampled that was intentionally not finished. The Bacon Mac & Cheese on the other hand was a much dish to be sampled. A look at the main stretch of the event. Throughout the event set up, themed shops and games are also available for you to enjoy. Busch Gardens' sister park SeaWorld was represented at the event with this topiary. Alcoholic Frozen Cherry Lemondade? Yes, please! Even the topiaries have improved when compared to how they were last year. The Green Peppercorn-Seared Hangar Steak had a great spice to it. The Bacon Wrapped Prawns were arguably the least Kosher item on the event's menu, but it was worth the sin! Founders Brewing Company's Rubaeus caught my eye, and it was well worth the sampling! Signs are placed next to each topiary with a list of "ingredients" that make up the art, in case you decide to make one at home. Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street? The enchanted fountain statue has returned as well, and she has a newer, more open location to host all of those that stop and stare (she had quite the crowd both times I saw her). More great topiaries throughout the park! Oh right... They have crazy fun rides here too! That snake is just massive! Taking the train throughout the park, you get an up-close look at the progress over at Cobra's Curse. Look at that turn! The ride interacts heavily with the layout of the train. This is going to be such a fun coaster! Some of these track maneuvers will make riding a spinning coaster so much more fun. The spinning coaster car our front is still in place. Cobra's Curse can be seen on the train from as far back at the Edge of Africa section of the park. We can't forget about Montu! The future entrance of Cobra's Curse is still being worked on. This ride looks fantastic! The old King Tut's Tomb walkthrough attraction has been repurposed to serve as the entrance to the new ride, as well as to play host to a small display of snakes while queuing for the ride. I love how the ride interacts with the normal Busc h G Looks great! The top of the elevator lift is ready to go... And can be seen from anywhere within the Egypt section of the park. The ride's lift hill comes very close to Montu's immelman loop and crosses over one of the stone archways of Egypt.

That's such a cool way to mask the track for that Disk'O!

^^^I don't begin to defend Antarctica but the same creative team is behind Falcon's Fury, Cobra's Curse, Mako and Blue World... While Blue World won't be built, you have to admit that had it been, the concept would likely have been a creative pinnacle for SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment. I truly don't believe SeaWorld Parks' creative is at fault here for the brands' struggles. It isn't like the creative regime had changed in the past decade to recognize a difference in concept quality between the two. Clyde and Seamore take Pirate Island was no better than Clyde and Seamore High. Mako will likely be on par with Apollo's Chariot. I don't know that, besides embracing emerging amusement park trends like new ride systems and construction capabilities, the caliber of attractions produced has really changed. ^It is hard to gauge true results of the impact of things like Antarctica and TurtleTrek given the time and PR climate the parks were in when they debuted. Manta significantly drove noticeable results as it was one of the first major Orlando investments post-economic downturn leading into the recovery period. Again, factors that wouldn't likely be blamed on the creative and entertainment teams, but on the human factors that prevent a guest from spending/considering to spend money at these parks.

^Like Robb, I've not heard of anyone besides Scott Swenson being let go from SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment on the creative side. Mark Rose and Brian Morrow are both still very active in the company--Brian was interviewed by TPR at the last Cobra's Curse construction event. The problem SeaWorld Parks are having isn't with creative... It is with their public image (which is already expected to recover).

While a new coaster is great for the park, I'm disappointed that they went with GCI... I always hope that the SeaWorld parks make the effort to push for unique coasters with first of its kind elements or forceful layouts, but I'm sure this will still end up being fun. I just don't see this ride being anything unique enough to make me rush back out for the ride alone.

https://seaworldcares.com/future?utm_source=Silverpop&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=SEA.Announcement.Email1.Parks.&utm_content=DIGITAL [youtu_be] [/youtu_be]

Today I had the chance to stop in for a quick visit to see the latest progress on Mako, which if you haven't heard just completed installation of the last track segment! Work continues on installing the ride's brakes, nets and theming the surrounding areas. The ride station is gaining new detail by the day and it looks like the ride could start testing within the next few weeks. I see you Mako! The turnaround is now visible from the entrance of the Kraken plaza. These hills look like they will provide some great floater air. The ride's final turnaround was successfully installed at the end of last week. Looks fantastic! The colors really stand out when lined up next to Kraken. Installation of the Sharks Realm marquee is nearly complete. Another look at the shipwreck-inspired sign. Another shark in the pavement has appeared near the Sharks Realm sign. Mako now towers within view of Shark Encounter. The last portion of the ride swoops over the guest pathway with some really gorgeous looking maneuvers. Installation of the ride's netting over all guest areas continues now that track installation is complete. The turn towards the water's edge looks like there will be plenty of landscaping work to do. This will be a great view for non-riders. Beautiful! Quite the difference in size... I can't wait to see trains flying through this turn. The ride looks really incredible with the netting supports. I love this angle! The building flyby looks great too. The path crossover near the Nautilus Theater... Close calls at the end of the ride. In other news, Antarctica: Empire of the Penguin will soon debut a non-rider ride line for guests that want to bypass the ride experience and go straight to the animal exhibit at the end.

That layout looks incredible! Have we gotten any word on what the train will be like yet?

^It is relatively easy to hop the monorail to one of the three monorail resorts to go get dinner and drinks outside of the Magic Kingdom and come back when you're done. I highly recommend The Wave... Of American Flavor at the Contemporary Resort for both. Once you're done, head back to Magic Kingdom to hang out for the rest of the evening.

Driving around the park yesterday night gave me a great view of the completed ride... Mako is one gorgeous coaster--one that I'm hoping will deliver as much for the ride experience as it does for the visual experience.

This thing is looking really sleek!

Uniquely themed... Distinctly Japanese. Yomiuriland continues to come up with some of the wackiest ideas in the amusement industry, even after all these years. I remember seeing the strange elements of this park during the Coaster Expedition segments, so it is great to see this park continue with their wacky ideas.

I'm surprised they're dismantling the dome, but not unhappy about it. The thing sticks out like a sore thumb against the rest of the park band based on the park's most recent expansions, there is plenty of high quality work that can be done to replace this lemon.