PeoplemoverMatt

There's no possible way Riddler's would ever run three trains all year. You'd be very lucky to see 3-train op at any point in the year.

I've never been on a cruise, mostly for fear of being trapped on a crowded ship with not enough going on to adequately pass the time. I'm also the sort of person who, if I spend more than 10 minutes waiting in line, I start wondering why I wasn't smart enough to avoid having to wait like this. I also don't drink, gamble, go to clubs, or have any interest in any of that. As a theme park enthusaist, I find myself enjoying Disney-owned parks more than any other. In that regard, I sort of figured Disney cruises would have more in it for me than most other cruise lines. So if I took a first time cruise at some point, would you recommend a Disney cruise over the others for a would-be first timer like myself? The food at least looks awesome. From the pictures, it does appear like Disney's going for more of the experience as a whole rather than this is when you eat, this is when you see and do stuff off the ship, this is when you see a show, sort of cruise routine that I've seen offered by other cruise lines. Disney has all that, but tries harder to sort of blend them altogether as one prolonged immersive experience. Am I in the ballpark of what actually goes on on a cruise like this?

Are you trying to tell us "Full Throttle" in Japanese is Fujiyama???

For all the good/fun parts of this ride, I don't really understand why the train needs to stop in the tunnel, launch back, and then launch forwards just to get over the loop. (I refuse to call this a "top hat" just because the video/PR did. It's not a top hat. Mr. Freeze, Xcelerator, TTD, Kingda Ka all have top hats. A camelback over a loop is not a top hat.) Would it not have made for more excitement/better ride/bigger airtime pop to launch the train through the tunnel building on the speed/momentum it had going into the tunnel? Stopping the train in the tunnel takes both time & energy, and I don't see the stop, go back, and second forward launch over a camelback (over the loop) and directly into brakes as enough of a payoff on the invested time/energy. Probably shouldn't mention what the additional time does to the ride's hourly capacity. Just seems like an odd design choice.

So it's basically a launched version of Scream in terms of intensity and theme, which fits the return to the "Xtreme Park" ways that has been observed over the last year or so. While it's not overly eye-popping and won't really make any inroads whatsoever in terms of SFMM's ability to compete in its market, it should make for a fun ride. Nice to see the old Tunnel Station finally used again.

Sunblock. SPF 8,429,536. That and train yourself to have the insides of a camel for purposes of water-retention. It's been 105-110 here everyday since July left.

A free ticket day on a July summer weekend would result in a much, much larger crowd than a free ticket on Mother's or Father's Day.

I think the show is fine for what it is - a show aimed at the GP, as Robb alluded to. It's engaging, great photography, some unique looks such as the view from Aftershock's catch car that I can't recall seeing in prior coaster shows. It's not meant to be a course in Advanced Coaster Enthusiast Studies with weekly vocabulary quizzes and the like. It's meant to show off how fun these rides are, and how the public gains so much from these little competitions coasters seemingly have with each other. That said, I was a bit frustrated with the editing. It felt almost like the show had ADD. It would jump from one shot to the next to the next. It was obvious that Robb and almost anyone else who spoke had the phrases that made it to the final show snipped out, and we saw maybe 10% of what they actually had to say. While I know coaster dorks don't make for exciting TV, after each episode a part of me was left wanting to see the 60min version of the episode instead of the radically condensed 30min long version. Also, were there any mentions of the companies who make these rides? I don't remember any, and coaster shows in the past have been good at at least mentioning who manufactured what ride. Was this done for a particular reason, such as trying to deflect attention away from how 1 Vekoma and 3 B&Ms were going for the G-forces vote and how that may appear unbalanced? Just curious. Overall I thought the shows were pretty good, and certainly better than no coaster show at all. Excellent job on the expert commentary Robb.

Right, once the new wears off, just look for the longest wait time and you'll find the ride with the smallest hourly capacity. What Star Tours has going for it is that, as time goes on, kids/families/the average person will be just as familiar with Episodes I-III as they are with IV-VI, or moreso with the Clone Wars cartoons. Obviously Tours desperately needed to get I-III's imagery in there somewhere. Now that it's there, Tours is in a much better place to be that old stand-by ride once again like its first version was for so many years. Familiar, but still relevant, and very much something you *want* to do at Disneyland. RSR will be a top draw for a long time. DCA had long lacked that first FP you always need to head straight for at first arrival, and then hold in your pocket for hours while the anticipation builds. For anyone who actually tries to make DCA a full-day park, RSR and Cars Land in general will be of vital importance to accomplishing that.

You can't identify a paradigm shift while the presence of "NEW" is still a very significant one. Right now everything you said can be explained simply by the presence of "NEW" as in DCA is the new thing, and people will flock to it, and away from the traditionally crowded not new stuff. Same goes for the Matterhorn being 60mins. People just want to ride on the new trains, and afterwards will care as little or as much as they used to. Once the "NEW" has gone away, then we'll be able to identify shifts in crowd patterns, if there are any. I figure the overall crowds will be greater than they have been in years past, but they'll still follow the same pattern we've observed for decades as has happened with every large scale opening up to and including this one.

100% agree. This is why I much prefer seeing the new stuff on preview days/soft open/Media Day. Failing those, I have no problem waiting a few weeks or longer. I visited Harry Potter at IOA in Feb '12 and Jan '11, and had a much better experience the second time because there weren't hoards of people shoulder-to-shoulder everywhere, including inside the gift shops. I don't really understand why people consider that having a good time.

^ Not just that, but SFMM's ability to spend money is so squeezed that nearly all capital expenditures need to be planned out years in advance. Whatever you see today, if it's not already in the plans, it's 2-3 years away at best.

You know, I didn't think it was possible to make a coaster worse than Flashback. Green Lantern is seriously testing that theory, especially under those operations.

I ran into some of those fanboys myself recently. Found them complaining about how the faux power lines that are being installed as a touch of realism for the new Red Car Trolleys looked 'ugly'. I turned and said, "Yeah, but if they weren't there, you'd complain about how unrealistic that looked." They were real quiet and just slowly lowered their gaze because they knew I was right. If TDS was built here, these people would complain about how Mt. Prometheus' eruptions lacked realism because they didn't come with an earthquake. It's really amazing. I say they should live in a place where they have to look at SFMM on a daily basis. That'd teach 'em to not sweat the small stuff pretty quick.

^ Won't hear any complaints from here if that were to happen.

^ It sure seemed busier. There probably weren't as many people as there are on NYE but people were out in the queues and midways rather than crammed in the hub staking out spots for midnight. It was like NYE without any midnight celebration or general party atmosphere to look forward to. Pot smokers and pot smoke. EVERYWHERE. Even saw some nutcase doing the Ariel dance routine from Fantasmic! on top of a moving SUV going into the Mickey & Friends structure. Did not see one human outside the ages of 17-30 between 10pm and 3am.

^ Even if he wasn't at the event per se, the author does know what he's talking about & has more things right than he does wrong in his commentary.

It's the principle behind the wave-motion that I question here- not the wind vs. airfoil dynamic. Tacoma Narrows proved one thing: The longer the unstructured span, the greater the waveform dynamics will be applied force-wise to the structure. Adding six extra tons to the top of the tower, then letting Superman off will push the oscillations quite a bit more. Considering the profile of the span (From top to bottom, not front to back) you're looking at a 400 foot long span that will be only structured on one end. Add that weight, and without a counterbalance, you're going to see some movement. That's where I'm raising the question long-term. I'm pretty sure Intamin would not be doing this project if they didn't forecast stress & waveform dynamics over the long term.

They implemented the whole 'we don't care about the ending time' policy because it was viewed as not possible/worth it to actively codify a system of exceptions to the ending time. It was far too subjective & dependent on what greeter you got at what ride. 10 years later, they can try taking another stab at doing that, but I won't be surprised if they wind up simply realizing why the call to drop the enforcement was made then, and go right back to that policy.

That land will shortly not be so empty. Check out the notice of intent sign at the current end of Magic Mountain Parkway, just past the entrance to the parking lot, and the new traffic signal that's recently been installed after the intersection at The Old Road.

Amazes me how people wig out about this given how many fatalities happen every day on freeways. Granted, a messed up car is not a huge cruise ship sitting half in the water. But really, for people to be too scared to cruise after this, yet fearless about the ride on the freeway to the airport for the flight to the port location, and then the ride from the airport to the port is really something.

You mean we won't be able to experience the the wonders of anti-lock brakes anymore???

Here's a better comparison...how long did it take for Dreamworld to build The Giant Drop? It's not a great comparison but it's the closest one out there.

Amazing! I'm definitely going to have to go one or twice this week while I'm still on Winter Break. Does anyone knows if the park even makes money on these types of days? I'm sure this has been discussed before in the past... It makes more money than it would if it had been closed...

^ Scream was running all day today.