Jew

I wouldn't exactly refer to SFMM as a beautiful setting. Nor is the view of the Santa Clarita & San Fernando Valleys all that awe inspiring.

Only at a Disney park would a Starbucks warrant a photo update!

To be honest, I think forwards batman is much more intense! Backwards batman was actually smooth and didn't even make me feel dizzy like I thought it would

^I don't think the sensor we are discussing functions as you think it does. My guess is that the sensor merely tells the PLC the train is a safe enough distance away from the station that even if it were to rollback, it would not make it back to the station. The ride would still be down if a failure of the magnitude you are suggesting actually occurred, which is why I think you are reading too far into it. To me it's just par for the course, an unfortunate quirk that will probably happen again but not actually be a safety concern. Every single ride has some sort of "awkward" (for lack of a better term) downtime that appears worse than it really is, because that is just how rides are designed---you can only write so many lines of "if this happens, then do that (which is the basic logic of how rides are programmed)".

^SFMM's marketing implies it is a limited time event. The banners in the parking lot say "spring break exclusive." See that's the thing, ride systems are so sophisticated now that it SHOULD have known. Bottom line is there was no accident, just an inconvenience but it's too bad this system allows for such an inconvenience. By your standard, every single ride on the planet is dumb. Anyone who has ever worked on a ride in any capacity will tell you that they ALL have weird quirks. That's the nature of the beast. PLC's are NOT supercomputers. You can only write so many lines of code that will obviously not account for every possible situation. The ride system did exactly what it was designed to do. It allowed for the train to advance into the station as soon as it knew it was safe to do so. No one is sitting in meetings going "hey, lets cut down the theoretical capacity to avoid the very slim possibility of a downtime that requires manually moving trains!"

^That would depend how you look at it. Without Shamu shows to capture the hearts and imagine of guests, it is fair to reason that funding for research would drop. Without the shows to draw attention to the plight of killer whales, you could also argue that people would just forget about the issue in the first place… But without turning this into a huge debate, regardless of your stance, it's just stupid (and most likely illegal) to have a bill that targets one business in the entire state.

B&M builds what the client wants. If someone hands them a check and says "I want that (Vekoma junior coaster)," if they can do it, why not?

^ This is totally my point. Train #1 should release AFTER train #2 is THROUGH the loop. That would've avoided the manual push back of train #1. That would limit capacity even further. Every second that train isn't in the station is a lost second loading. The reality is that there is not a ride in the world without some sort of weird quirk. Just from my time at Magic Mountain way back when I know B&M's can get stuck in their pre-lift areas and S:TE requires winching more often than not to get back to the station when it is down. The trains didn't collide. The ride did it's job. There is no way to account for every possible scenario, so to me I don't see why this is a big deal.

The Kings essentially gave up nothing for him, so why not?

That doesn't sound like a mistake. I'm by no means an electrical engineer, but to me it sounds like the ride did exactly what it was supposed to do. My educated guess is that the train flagged the sensor that indicates it's far enough over the loop to advance the next train in, so they did just that…and the ride e-stopped as soon as it rolled back to avoid a collision. If it was really an engineering flaw/safety concern, even for as much crap as we give SFMM, there's no way the ride is open after only an hour.

Two months is pretty good timing for building new structures, getting the custom games installed (they're standard games but custom fabricated for Simpsons themeing---NOT just the old games recycled), getting all the infrastructure in place, and getting all the permits/approvals...

The games are now open!

Grabbed a few pictures this afternoon…the building is growing very fast! And Super Silly Fun Land is getting its archway installed. Looks really good!

Another 24hr event where the parks are sure be filled beyond capacity? No thanks!

Happy kings traded one high upside guy for another more proven high upside guy!

^Mindbender backwards at Edmonton Mall was definitely the most intense coaster experience I have been on thus far, so I am excited to try B:TR backwards.

Nothing official has been announced.

Looked like a neat little attraction. Bummed I never got to check it out.

http://www.reviewjournal.com/business/wet-n-wild-introducing-new-funnel-water-slide

Guess I'll actually have to ride something when I do my update lap this Sunday.

^2016. ^^I don't know where you have heard that, but I wouldn't believe anything until we at least hear rumblings of when an employee preview is scheduled...

Lots of walls down at USH! And...vertical construction at Harry Potter! Two of the games at the front of the queue the three games to the side of the building where the balloon pop game used to be The construction wall has come down in front of Minion Mayhem ...and for all you construction/harry potter geeks out there...you can see some steel up in the back of this photo (sorry it's so far away, the tram was already closed when I took it from the Bridge) The other side...Miss Hattie's and Super Silly Fun Land remained walled off. Check out Gru's neighborhood! Front lawns and everything...looks just like the movie. The VIP dining building (Moulin Rouge) got a fresh coat of paint. Two more of the games in front of the building

I wish I could do the same thing to my credit cards…just dump them off with accounting tricks!

If you have any questions regarding the site, there is the Ask Alvey forum. If you have a great idea for a trip report, go ahead and post it!

Mummy. Great combination of dark ride and coaster.