PeoplemoverMatt

I would just like to point out that this guy does not represent all Californians. There is a small minority of us who have been around, who get it, and who couldn't care less about which one is "better" because they're too busy having a great time no matter if they're in CA, FL, or Japan. There's sooooo much more to life than examining which Transformers exterior is "better" than the other. Spend less time caring about trivialities and more time having fun in the parks. You'll be a far more happier person!

The part I missed in the rant is exactly how a change of color to blue is automatically a drop in show quality. Is it lit any worse simply because it's a different color, or is it because that guy thinks the old color was better that the new one is automatically declared worse? There is a vast difference between an actual rise/fall in show quality and simple subjectiveness regarding aesthetics. Sounds to me like this is a case of the latter.

However it's measured, what does it matter who has the higher attendance? Operations at both parks suck. What more do you need to consider? Trying to determine who sucks slightly less between the two is about as productive as debating if Del Taco has better food than Taco Bell. They're both nearly non-edible. You can like going to one or the other or both, but no one's going to argue that you're better off going to a higher quality establishment. Why does it need to get more complicated than that? SFMM makes an active decision to operate under minimum capacity, and also actively chooses to not have hardly any resources on hand that can be used in a decision to pivot towards increasing that capacity when/if it unexpectedly needs to. That is how the park brass has demonstrated that the park will be run. The only way you're going to see increased capacity in anything is if the brass believes attendance is going to be higher than they currently think it will be.

Yeah the "OMG AP's EXPENSIVE!!!" argument is completely shut down when you compare it to other year-round ticket options. Try finding decent Dodger season tickets, Laker season tickets, theatre tickets, concert tickets, etc etc for the same price as these "incredibly expensive" Disneyland AP's, including the Premium. If that's too expensive, or doesn't seem like a good enough value, don't buy it. What really smokes my salmon is when I hear complaints about how expensive Disneyland is, and then these same people complaining are going to the movies every week, buying a $6 Starbucks every day, spending $12/day on their lunch at work after drinking the Starbucks, buying the new release Blu-ray movie the day it comes out when it's the most expensive, etc. Do they not realize how much those habits add up?

Actually, it can/does get below freezing in Valencia. We've had a pretty warm winter thus far, actually. It's normal for the temperature to drop into the mid-high 20s overnight and into the morning during the winter months. The worst that usually happens, though, is the morning dew becomes the morning frost/ice. No biggie. However there was that time 2 years ago when it was that cold but then a winter storm came through on top of it and it actually snowed here. You'll all remember Robb's photos of that since the Alveys still lived here at the time. While snow might be rare, at or below freezing temp's in the overnight/morning hours are common. However it still warms up into the 60s during the day. We have nothing to complain about compared to most all points northeast of here.

As an Annual Passholder, I stand firm on my being entitled to an RFID enabled penis.

That's what she said.

They're putting that stuff on the land that didn't fall into the river so there's obviously nothing at all to be concerned about!

If Scream! ever does get landscaping underneath it, expect to see a paved road in that landscaping. One of the park's major backstage access roads goes directly underneath the corkscrew area.

Yes. Epcot has much better food than most non-theme park restaurants. Places like Sizzler and Golden Corral have worse food than I've seen in many theme parks. You should branch out from just Great Adventure, arguably Six Flags' flagship park, to see how other parks in the chain are run, and how their operations are run. Then you'll understand more about what others, who have gone to these other parks all over the country and have seen it for themselves, are talking about with their respective beefs towards Six Flags. If I can try to summarize it all, it's not just because Six Flags focuses on roller coasters. It's because Six Flags focuses on roller coasters at the expense of just about all the other aspects of the guest experience. Theming, food service, customer service, cleanliness, maintenance and upkeep, hiring standards, etc all suffer because so much of the capital budget, and general budget, is sucked up building roller coaster after roller coaster after roller coaster leaving little to spend on the smaller details that go a long way.

I'm sure the 5 people the park would have all year at those prices would enjoy the short wait times for rides and food.

They'll incorporate a high-five element in the design, but then never run trains on both sides at the same time after the first month or so.

Why aren't people throwing stuff into show scenes taken aside after unload, and escorted from the property by Disneyland Security?

It's not exactly the Pebble Beach Country Club, but it's worth it for a day's visit. It shouldn't be the focal point of an entire trip though. Take a day out of your trip, head up north, visit the park, head back south in the evening. Easy.

This park just finished replacing their 486 IBM cash registers about a year ago.

They know it's a BS reason. That's why you won't read that reason in any PR. Problem is conditions like construction are too good for them to willingly pass up the chance to cut that particular cost, and they know people (GP) will believe them without question. For those interested, while I used to work for SFMM, I'm now working for a local aerospace corporation. You could say my career has really taken off.

There always seems to be a reason why Superman needs to be completely closed during the off season. Oddly enough, nobody ever brings up how it's the most expensive ride, short of water rides (pumps), to have operating on any given day. Granted all the work that's been done on it since 2010 has helped a bit with that, but it's still in a league of its own amongest non-aquatic rides.

There are so many realms and possibilities that I don't see it working too well as anything but it's own ACTUAL park, rather than one land in an existing park like Potter in IOA. At least that way the guests themselves could be walking between the various realms such as the Shire, Rohan, Gondor, Mordor, Moria, Lonely Mountain, etc and the rides/attractions/shows/restaurants/gift shops could all be easily familiar places in those realms. Could it work? Sure, at an estimated initial cost of about $26 Trillion...

If Six Flags would just move their Fiscal Year-End back a few months, these problems of construction timing would be far less frequent. If they don't want to build their 2013 ride with their 2012 capital budget, they should move the Fiscal Year-end back a few months in the calendar like many other companies. Had they done that this year, Full Throttle could be being built with the 2013 capital budget right now, and be much more on track to a Memorial Day weekend opening. Why haven't they done this already? It's a choice they've made to keep Fiscal Year-end at calendar year-end. This creates a situation where they usually wait until after New Year's to start hardcore construction since they can then start using the new year's budget. But, that then forces them to either pay extra for expedited construction, or not have their ride open until 6 months or so into the year. We know which one of those alternatives Six Flags usually chooses.

I vote for Coaster Expedition. I want to see more moments like when dancing Robb tripped and nearly fell on the Escalator Ride at Parque Espana.

That's exactly what you're seeing. People see lines and instantly think "popularity" when they're really seeing the result of the ride's capacity, or lack thereof. In this case, only using one loading area, two trains, and an absurdly long load/unload time, leads to an extremely low capacity and very long wait times.

No park besides SFMM is as intent on opening something new every single year as SFMM is. Not Universal, not Disneyland, not Knott's, not Legoland, not Sea World. Nobody. The idea that they have to do this to keep up with competition is sort of silly when the competition is not opening new stuff each & every year. The idea that doing this does keep up with competition is also rather silly. Who in their right mind would choose Drop of Doom over Transformers, Green Lantern over Manta, or Full Throttle over Cars Land? Nobody. Therein lies the problem. Perhaps if the capital budget was saved for a few years, then invested in something worthwhile and special that would open in competition with the other major projects at other parks, SFMM would compete a lot better.

Superman up at SFDK? SFMM obviously had a limited budget for this coaster. The company just isn't building massive, expensive coasters like Premier used to. Not doing exactly what Premier did to send the chain straight into insolvency and bankruptcy isn't a bad thing. It's just sad that Six Flags, SFMM in particular, doesn't buy into the idea that building one really great ride every 2-3 years is a better long-term strategy than building mediocore rides every year. After 3 years the park is much better off with the one fantastic ride over three gimmicky rides weak in substance, and even weaker in their ability to draw people north to the park, for the same amount of money.

THANK YOU for confirming that I'm not completely insane by disputing DTD's Earl claim of being "The first Earl of Sandwich in CA" that they're touting. I don't know if the Earl we briefly had here was the first or not, but I know it was there long before this one at Downtown Disney was ever dreamed of. It's weird that they're making this "We're the first!" claim when it's not true on it's face, but maybe they're just thinking nobody remembers there was at least one that was open years ago because nobody ever went to it? The biggest problem for the Valencia Earl was location. That's probably the worst corner in the entire city to try to start an unknown (to us) franchise on. It's near a school, but far enough away from the school to end up being completely avoided by any students unless they have a car. That, and it's right on the border between the "pretty nice" part of Valencia, and the "Wow this has gone downhill" part of Newhall. It's exact location began life as a Fatburger, and quickly died. If Fatburger can't survive, how did anyone think the unknown Earl of Sandwich was going to make it? Right now the former Earl is a local business called "Sam's Flaming Grill" and doesn't seem to be doing any better than Earl or Fatburger before it did. But, as a local small business, the owner doesn't have franchise standards to meet or fees to pay, and doesn't need as much business in order to keep the doors open. Fortunately Downtown Disney is a much more visible location than Orchard & Lyons, and the outside looks very inviting. It'll get a ton of business from Hotel guests, Downtown Disney shoppers, and Disneylanders who hopped the monorail for a break. Downtown Disney, especially that end of it, has needed a quick service place like this for a long time. Earl ought to do quite well. I wouldn't be surprised if another quick service place of some sort showed up in the not too distant future out to take a slice of Earl's success.

This is going to sound weird coming from someone who grew up 10 minutes away from SFMM of all places, but I know I'm #3. That's why I keep going to Disneyland way more often than SFMM. That's why I had such a jaw-dropping experience at Tokyo Disney when they don't have the coasters that a Fuji-Q has, and just had an 'OK' time at Fuji-Q. When you think about it, in any given theme park day, you spend more time gazing at and experiencing the artsy side of the park than anything else. If all you're at the park for is coasters, I figure you're spending most of your day bored/not getting very much out of your experience. Sure you'll have a couple moments of thrill, and maybe that's enough, but just on an overall basis you're spending most of your day not getting too much out of it. I know that's not me. When I go to a park, I'm getting the full experience every second. If I'm between rides, I'm enjoying the scenic aspects of the park. If there aren't any, I feel disappointed as if something's missing. While nobody has ever built the thrill ride that I'm too scared to go on, those kinds of rides aren't the *sole* focus of a park trip for me. That's why I've always thought of myself as a Theme Park Enthusiast, not a Coaster Enthusiast. There's far more to it than just coasters. (Now if only that park 10 minutes away from me could ever figure that out! )