PeoplemoverMatt

Imagine wondering where POVs of 2020 coasters are in the midst of an ongoing global pandemic.

You're kidding me, right? COVID-19 is a respiratory disease. Kids with asthma should be taking greater measures to guard themselves against catching the virus than the average person. They certainly should not be going to an amusement park until the pandemic is under control, however long that takes. I'm sure you would agree a sad kid stuck at home is better off than a kid in the ICU struggling to breathe.

Closest thing to that in the USA that I've heard is a proposed tax credit for traveling. It's a nice idea, but the benefits would not be realized until when income taxes are filed next year (unless it's retroactively applied). It would not directly reduce the cost of taking a trip like the VAT cut does. I'm sure that will greatly help UK's hospitality industry.

Great look back at a great trip! Thanks for sharing your photos Chuck.

What's now the YOLO Bar was Mooseburger Lodge for many years, and before that it was the Timbermill Restaurant. It's one of the park's oldest buildings.

Crowds won't be your worst enemy then. Heat will most likely be your biggest problem. Expect temp's of 100+.

If a hotel doesn't measure up to the brand, the brand rips its name off the building. I'm no legal scholar about licensing deals, but if they can, Nascar should immediately remove their trademarks and images from a place like this if it's run that poorly.

Thanks! Don't get me wrong, I was disappointed and frustrated that time/effort spent to get through a challenging system in order to ride went up in smoke, but I knew exactly what I was walking into. One big advantage of being relatively local is this didn't impact any once-in-a-lifetime vacation, or possibly devastate kids' one chance of seeing this amazing ride. Had that been the case, I probably would have had a much more negative impression of the whole situation.

So this past Saturday I headed down to Disneyland to take a stab at riding the new Rise of the Resistance. While it wasn't a completely successful outing, just going through the whole process required to even have a chance was an experience itself. Managed to snag a boarding group in the few minutes they were available, was granted entry towards the evening, sat through a 1hr+ delay, and made it almost to the vehicle boarding area before the worklights came on and the ride was busted for good for the rest of the night. By then it was pushing 9:30pm, I was dead tired, and ended up going home a bit disappointed. What I did see though was absolutely incredible. Here are some photos of the morning crowds, Rise queue and pre-shows for anyone interested. Arrived at the gates a tad before 5am. The crowd started gathering shortly thereafter. At about 7am, there is quite the crowd eager to have their tickets scanned in time. Even just a momentary hiccup in the process of obtaining a boarding group kicked us back to Group 99. Fortunately the ride had a pretty good day and we were called in to ride despite being in a backup boarding group. The entrance is hidden in a forest, and so the journey through the queue begins. Then we move into a series of caves carved into the hills of Batuu. The interior should be VERY familiar to Star Wars fans who recognize the usual look of a hidden Rebel/Resistance base. Familiar looking gadgetry helps establish setting. The queue route is mostly dictated by various objects sitting around the base. Here we go around some supply lockers. Rebel/Resistance pilot uniforms. Sharp eyed fans will know what suit is for the pilot of what type of fighter. Various helmets, uniforms and supplies are here. Fans will enjoy being close to what look like the real thing, if there was a real thing. There are several of these cave rooms with stuff sitting around. If the ride happens to breakdown as you're waiting, you could be spending an hour or more in one of these rooms. More stuff... All throughout the rooms there are various conduits and wires hanging about. As the group files into the first pre-show room and our experience begins, an animatronic BB-8 peeks in and out from behind the display screen. We see you BB-8! Rey appears as a holographic communication explaining how our help is needed against the First Order. Next we go OUTSIDE, yes the real great outdoors, to board transport 28. Poe's black X-wing is also here and lifesize for anyone who wants a quick selfie. Our Mon Calamari pilot soon whisks us away from Disneyland/Batuu and out into space. In this transport, your group is freely standing, just like in a Star Wars movie. No seats or seat belts here. After capture by the First Order, the transport is taken onto this Star Destroyer. Everybody exits into this absolutely incredible life size hangar bay. First Order agents are here to shuffle us Resistance scum to where we need to go next. They are NOT AMUSED by your shenanigans! Oh, that transport you were just on? Well it's right here, because, you know, it was captured, by the First Order, along with you, in outer space... Next up, more waiting. This time in a narrow corridor of a Star Destroyer. If spending time with the First Order is a dream come true, you'll have plenty of time to soak that in. Noted! In this chamber is where groups are formed to board the ride vehicles, after we are properly interrogated of course. Keep your eyes on them. You can be sure their eyes are on you. We have located the computer outlet, sir. Sadly here, right before we were to enter another preshow, is where the long odyssey of the day came to an end. The ride broke down. Work lights came on. Suddenly hard nosed First Order agents became apologetic employees directing us through backstage areas we should not have seen back to the outside world. So that was that, but hey, I got this far. I'm sure I'll see the rest later on when everything calms down and it isn't such an ordeal to ride. Rise of the Resistance will certainly be wowing crowds for years to come!

Anyone heard about the paper boarding group assignments that were supposedly available at the Star Tours FP machines, and GR kiosks for those unable or unwilling to use the phone app? Curious how fast those went, or if anyone even had a chance of success through that route.

Those are some great photos of Superman's construction.

Disneyland Hotel has a monorail station in easy walking distance of the hotel towers. You need admission to Disneyland in order to board, but it lets you off in Tomorrowland. For some, this alone justifies the higher price.

Great report! If I ever did make it out to Germany, Movie World is definitely a park I'd want to visit. Operation Enterprise looks mandatory for any Star Trek fan. It's a teensy bit further away than Star Trek: The Experience was in Vegas, but that didn't have a coaster either. Then... is it bad that I kinda want to ride MP-Xpress now just to see how bad it really is?

After the amazing Dubai trip you guys did a couple years ago, I'd be very much in for this trip. You nailed it. Nobody has to like or agree with their culture or laws, but pretending to be OK with it for a few days is a small price to pay for all the awesome stuff that's been announced (assuming it's actually built). In any case, this is a great announcement for the area and those who live there. I hope many locals are aware and excited for this park!

LOL at Fast & Furious being a "virtual reality experience."

I'm holding out hope this wasn't the real announcement and Universal goes "Oh, haha sorry we accidentally released the draft from our Creative meeting six months ago. Our bad!"

When the earthquake is 100+ miles away, like these two were, parks like SFMM aren't going to have much of any problem. Would I want to be on or near a coaster when a quake hits? Of course not. Nothing would save you from falling debris. But, coasters built here in CA, as opposed to a place like Ohio, are built to withstand even a strong earthquake that strikes nearby. The Sky Tower is another matter entirely. That's a whole mess of a legal circus just waiting to happen. The park should have a controlled demolition before an uncontrolled one happens.

There's a lot of factors in play right now. Increased AP blackouts, CM sign-in's restricted to almost nothing, and what may have had the most effect was the reservation period itself. That seems to have allowed the locals to get in, get their fix, and not need to all descend on the park at the same time with that urge to be first in the new land.

Are people really trying to make excuses for what Universal has done and is still doing right now??

The fire burned along the path of both the main entrance and what would be the alternate route (out the back where employees usually enter). Yep, and they certainly couldn't block the backstage roads with exiting cars in case emergency medical personnel needed to get through. Keep in mind it was only a year or two ago where a fire broke out on I-15 in the Cajon Pass and people were ordered to abandon their cars that later burned on the freeway as the fire came through. The Fire Dept has every right to block vehicle access whereever they need to as long as people have a safe evacuation route. That was provided in a couple of different places. Jumping fences was never necessary.

Well, they broke out a Brother Bear song for Disneyland's big 50th anniversary parade. How many people realized that at the time? Not very many. Like with that, I doubt very many people would even realize the song came from a cruddy DTV sequel especially if it was pulled off decently.

Eventually you leave 1 person in line, and a family of 6 will "come back from the bathroom" 45 mins later after riding the Matterhorn. Leave it to people in California to take advantage of a system that's designed to make *everyone's* experience (most especially those 1 time visitors) more enjoyable, and they'll exploit it. I don't know why some people think they're "better" than everyone else waiting their turn in line, and why it's so hard to just play by the rules. I do however think it is great that Disnelyland is attempting to make this policy available. I don't think they should, because it just opens up a can of worms, but I gotta hand it to them for trying. There's your answer. There's a few of them in every area, but SoCal is jam packed with me first @$$holes. If following the rules requires even the slightest bit of effort, the rules are ignored. That attitude does not stop at Disneyland's entrance gates.

Disney's primary mission isn't to make sure you can leisurely stroll through an empty Star Wars land. It's to maximize the wealth of their shareholders. That's accomplished by building this sort of thing, thereby sending the value of the brand as well as ticket sales, merch sales, hotel occupancy and more through the roof. The rest is little more than adhering to various building and safety codes, demands of scary lawyers, and the terms of very expensive insurance policies.

Well someone at SFMM still remembers when they used to open their new coasters in March. They made mention of Batman's recent birthday on their social media. Batman, of course, came along in the pre-Xtreme park years when SFMM still cared about theming and having a new coaster open for the busy Spring Break season.

Of course, the only ones who have a problem with these policies are the smokers who don't care about anyone else breathing their disgusting smoke and the obnoxious a-holes that have no qualms about blocking pathways with their double-wide strollers.