Jew

43 for me...time for another trip to the santa monica pier!

I feel like "regulations changing" is just the standard excuse for sky tower now... Also, the plaza area looks pretty plain if the renderings are accurate. Almost like they intend for it to be the overflow queue instead of part of a nice new area.

I actually found the Hogwarts express to be quite clever in it's execution given the fact the train travels a route that would be nothing but ugly backstage views. What's interesting about Fallon's popularity is that he actually leads in the ratings for the coveted 18-49 demographic, but that's only 1 million viewers...and he has lost the last 5 weeks of overall ratings to Colbert. I personally wish they would have expanded upon the 30 rock concept and instead of a ride, made the attraction a show/museum about the history of NBC. Could cover a whole lot between just the tonight show and SNL. There's clearly still a market for Universal Orlando, as year after year their attendance keeps going up...but that isn't an endorsement of screen based attractions.

I agree. It's pointless to complain about "sight lines" in an active construction zone. I'd take it one step further and argue that sight lines are not a huge deal no matter where you are. Sure, if you can hide something you should---but at some point the practicality and cost of hiding everything plays a role. No project director is going to say "sorry guys, had to cut this awesome animatronic to pay to hide the parking garage you can see way in the distance."

I love the concept and execution of the queue... Seems like the rides reviews are all along the same lines of yours though...

If the ride sucked, I honestly don't blame them for closing it until it's ready---working out details on who is responsible (I'm assuming SFMM's first move was to blame GCI and ask them to do the work under warranty) and finding a vendor to do it after that does take some time. But I also don't doubt SFMM shopped for the cheapest bidder---which means the ride will suck again a few months after being re-tracked.

I would guess that if you went through the warehouses of every major theme park---none keep every part they need in stock. That would cost an insane amount of money and take up an insane amount of space. What seems to be the difference between SFMM and other parks is how quickly parts not in stock get ordered when they fail. Hard to know what the reason for that actually is. Could be their vendor, could be them being cheap, could be designing an upgrade...

I would definitely give yourself more commute time for the so cal parks. Those distances are only if traffic is non-existent, which is rare. I would still also highly recommend the FOL pass for HHN---even with early access to the mazes, queue lines fill up FAST. Last year all three of the houses on the Metro sets were 45 min+ within the first hour.

I actually really enjoyed Cinemagique. It's a neat concept. Would much rather they gut Armageddon...

I will likely do the Northern California Parks, Kennywood, and SFNE (since JetBlue goes through Boston from Los Angeles to Pittsburgh).

The tram will typically close 1hr and 45 minutes before the park closing time.

45. Been awhile since I've done a big coaster trip, so not many of the newer ones.

The tram will be running.

I don't mind that rule change...it doesn't really make a difference either way. I had a lot more problems with all the changes for player safety at home plate and sliding into 2nd base that had a real impact on how the game is played.

I still don't care because I haven't seen Guardians of the Galaxy and this version of ToT is everything that was wrong with Disney under Eisner...a cheap clone.

Any chance of a late opening? The weather looks to be perfectly fine now and is looking to be fine for the rest of the day. I would imagine that it is not just current weather conditions that matter, but rather that their employees were likely impacted by all the damage the heavy rain caused. The park may have been impacted as well and just chose not to report it.

To get Umbreon after using the naming trick, you apparently have to walk 10km with evee as your buddy and then evolve it at night.

That would only slow the game down more...bunting and specialist pitchers would be the norm to advance runner/get the best pitching match up with a runner already in scoring position.

Tyranitar is apparently the king of the hill for gen2. Blissey (chansey evolution) is the new snorlax for gym defense.

I'm assuming they meant 50MPH winds.

They are now in the game and spawning quite frequently in Los Angeles! Pokedex grew by 20 in a few hours.

Probably not a coincidence Disney filed permits for work to upgrade Caribbean Beach...

You're missing the whole point of my post, dude. He said he doesn't want to go to NEW places or seek out new rides because he's already been to "the best" parks so has no need. In your anecdote, you've already been to Coney Island, so it's irrelevant to what I'm saying at all. My point was that not visiting NEW parks because the parks you already go to are "the best" is flawed. My point is to have an open mind to places you haven't visited... It's the same mentality Cedar Point fanboys who only go to Cedar Point because "it's better than everywhere else," yet haven't been to any other parks to make that judgement. Of course there's a lot of trash kiddie credits that some weirdos feel the need to seek out, but you shouldn't discredit every other theme park because your two home parks are "the best." Unless, or course, you've traveled as much as Robb/Elissa and can actually say that. EDIT: You can visit theme parks however you want, I don't care. But I'll call you out for being dismissive and close-minded when you say "the whole idea [of riding new coasters and visiting new parks] seems dumb to me because I already go to the best parks" I recently sailed on NCL Escape...and spent a lot of time at the ultimate texas holdem table with a retired guy who was on his 11th sailing of the same ship (or so he said). People do what they want with their money and time---what's wrong with familiarity? The title of best is entirely subjective. Truthfully, I'm with him---I would MUCH rather take a yearly trip to a place like Tokyo Disney over chasing a new credit somewhere in the U.S. that would cost me much less money, even if it is widely regarded as a top ride. Back to the topic at hand: 28 for me.

Gotcha. I kind of disagree with you on the fact that it's not a crazy idea to remove it though. None of us have any information about operating costs or ridership numbers but it's such an incredibly compact ride that it seems like it would be kind of nuts to remove it unless ridership is tremendously low or operating costs are tremendously high. Could they fit something like a Free Spin or Tempesto clone there? Sure, but they could easily find another spot to put one of them too that wouldn't require them removing anything. I do understand that a lot of parks like to remove costly rides when adding new ones even when it's not really in the way of the new ride to help offset the operating costs (take Space Spiral being removed for Gatekeeper at Cedar Point for example), but I feel like this park is so landlocked and compact that they wouldn't want to remove a coaster unless it's incredibly unpopular or takes up a large amount of expansion room (I'm looking at you Boomerang). Yeah, it's all speculation. My thoughts are that if you could "upgrade" (entirely subjective to us as coaster nerds---since most of us think it's still a good ride) to a newer ride that still fits within the compact footprint of Monte, why waste space elsewhere? Adding to the "we're all coaster nerds speculating" discussion: without proper manufacturer support, God forbid if something were to go wrong....Cedar Fair is on the hook. That could be one of the many determining factors.

I'm just playing devils advocate and assuming the rumor is true. I personally don't believe with Matt Ouimet in charge the ride will leave anytime soon (he's big on nostalgia being part of the KBF experience), but I also don't think it is such a crazy idea to remove it either.