Yoshi

Prices have been going up everywhere in the parks, even multiple increases in not that much time. I looked at a meal I used to get at Hollywood Studios, it's increased 2 or 3 times in price since October 2021. I can avoid spending money in the parks for the most part, but for people on vacation, that is tough especially if they are in the parks during lunch and dinner times. I'm expecting at some point they will stop allowing outside food and drinks to be brought into the park. I saw the other day Rise of the Resistance Individual Lightning Lane was $22. If Genie + was $29 that day too, that's $51 a person extra and Hollywood Studios usually runs out of return times fast. It's 3:15 and looking at the app, the only ride with any return times left with over 6 hours until closing is Star Tours.

Maybe a regular game to replace the claw machines? I'm not a fan of the newer claw machines everywhere that have a payout rate. It drops the prize even if it was a perfect grab until it hits the payout rate and lets you win compared to the older ones that used to be all skill based.

Dueling tracks would have been great. With double the capacity maybe they could have used a traditional queue instead of the virtual queue.

4 years ago when I was in Florida on vacation, I saw Tron construction from the People Mover. I never thought it wouldn't be open until 2023 but after the long wait it was finally time to try the coaster. Unlike Six Flags or SEAS parks where you just show up for a preview and can ride as much as you want (I went to 6 or 7 days of Iron Gwazi previews), Disney previews take some more effort. I clicked the link to join the line 5 minutes before the e-mails were sent out and it was still a 90 minute wait to select a time. You then had an hour window to go to the ride and only 1 ride was allowed. The dome structure with the outside part of the ride looks great and it will be good to have another ride than can run in the rain. If you don't want any spoilers of the ride and queue, I suggest not reading the rest of the report or the pictures posted. The queue is not that big with a path from the entrance and a few switchbacks. After you get into the building there is a hallway with blue glowing lines on it. The pre-show is very short. You are in a room and there is an interesting effect (I won't say what it is). You then go to the locker area. Unlike any ride at Disney World, you can not take anything on the ride except your phone which has to be stored in a pouch on the ride. There were I think 7 sections of lockers with lots of cast members to help. You use your MagicBand or a card to open the lockers. The station looks cool with all the blue lights and the cycles moving into the loading area. The front row line has a slightly longer queue in the station so hopefully front row requests will be honored once the ride opens to the public. I asked for the front row and did get it. I had never ridden any motor bike type coaster before. The only park I have been to with a similar ride is Knott's and Pony Express was closed the entire day when I visited. It reminds me a little of a flying coaster but more comfortable. There are 2 sets of handle bars that you pull towards you to close the restraint. The handlebars are kind of uncomfortable to hold with no padding and metal with indentations in it. The launch was more powerful than I was expecting. It's not like Storm Runner or Kingda Ka but more forceful than Cheetah Hunt and Rock N Roller Coaster. After the outside portion with some turns, you go into the show building. There are a lot of brake sections and screens as well as blue lights all over. I have never seen either Tron film but it looked like you were competing against the other team, I think Team Orange inside the Grid. It's mostly small drops and some turns. The ride is around a minute long from the launch to the final brakes. I know some people are complaining about the ride being short but it's about the same as Rock N Rollercoaster and a longer ride time than other launched coasters. Overall I thought the ride was a lot of fun and a good addition to the Magic Kingdom but Space Mountain is still my favorite ride in the park. The exit path takes you out to Storybook Circus near Barnstormer but I'm guessing that might just be for previews. The park wasn't too crowded for Disney standards but the better rides still had longer waits so we did the attractions without much of a wait or no wait like Carousel of Progress, Philhar Magic, People Mover etc. until people started waiting for the fireworks. That is the best time to go to the rides other than rope drop and right at closing. 2nd tier rides like Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin are usually walk ons and the most popular rides are usually 10 - 15 minutes at the most except 7 Dwarfs Mine Train. Combined with a short wait and the single rider line at the end, it took less than 10 minutes to wait for Space Mountain during the fireworks. I'm looking forward to trying the coaster again once it opens to the public if it isn't impossible to get a boarding time. The characters in Carousel of Progress got new outfits for the final scene. I like the apron with the nod to Food Rocks.

The results are in.

It looks like it will be a big improvement over Caribbean Cove. It's interesting to see water slide companies release smaller versions of their popular slides like the mini tornado slide.

I forgot the park used to have Papa John's. In more recent years, this was one of the places I usually ate at when the park was crowded because it seemed to usually have a shorter line compared to Johnny Rocket's and Main Street Pub.

I went to Busch Gardens for another visit earlier in the day. As usual for this time of year, there were no lines except around 15 minutes for Iron Gwazi in the late morning and a 25 minute posted wait for Cheetah Hunt where I used my Quick Queue to wait 5 minutes. After Iron Gwazi I went to Sheikra. I usually don't ride in the front row of Sheikra since it has a longer wait than the other rows and if the station is full, the station ride operator will tell people they have to go to the 2nd and 3rd rows. I forgot how it's a little scary looking almost straight down that drop while on the holding brake. I have not ridden Kumba much since BGT has become my home park. I rode it once in 2012, once last year and that was it because the forcefulness and intensity gets to me. After reading that if you tense up your muscles, it helps the forces not feel as strong, I tried it last week and it helped and gave it another chance today. It's still really intense but a lot more tolerable. Someone on Reddit posted a rumor Sand Serpent may close this year so I got 2 rides and plan to ride it at least once a visit if the line isn't too long. I could see it happening because it's close to 30 years old, has some reliability issues and is looking a little worn with the blue paint peeling off all over the ride. I will miss the ride if it leaves since it reminds me of being back home with Great Adventure, Dorney and Hershey all having a wild mouse. Cheetah Hunt was the last ride of the day. The water section was not filled today. After seeing the water back a few visits ago, I was hoping it was here to stay. Falcon's Fury being worked on. I hope it reopens soon. Scorpion is listed as scheduled for a 5 day closure next month but has been closed for around 2 weeks unexpectedly this month. The 2nd train is on the transfer track which is rare to see.

I really like that Great Adventure (and the other Philadelphia area parks) are showing their support for the Eagles. Although I'm sure there are some Giants fans that aren't too happy about it with the park visitors probably closely split between rooting for the Philadelphia or NY sports teams.

When I was at Busch Gardens last week and printing out my rewards at the kiosk, I saw there was an offer for $20 in Beach Bucks at Aquatica. I have been wanting to get there but never got around to it and $20 of free merchandise convinced me to finally go. The entrance was themed well and there were a lot of kiosks to print rewards/tickets. The 2 stores I went to were mostly beach related items like water shoes, sandals, bathing suits and towels. There wasn't a lot of souvenir type merchandise other than magnets and keychains. I ended up getting 2 t-shirts from last year and a pen for just over $3 after the annual pass discount and Beach Bucks. The first slides Whanau Way. These are 4 inner tube slides. The only have double rafts but allow single riders. They were a lot of fun and the drops at the end with 2 having a double down and 2 having a single drop reminded me of Patriot's Plunge at Dorney but with smaller drops. I then went to Roa's Rapids. It was a river but not at all like a lazy river. There are no tubes and the current is really fast and it pushed you along the path of the river. I had never seen anything like it before and thought it was a lot of fun. Taumata Racer is much better than Aqua Racer at Dorney or Toboggan Racers at Blizzard Beach that are some smaller drops with no turns. Reef Plunge was another slide I was looking forward to trying. It's the first slides you see when you enter the park. It has an interesting queue with a suspension bridge in the middle. I liked how there were outlines of sea animals and blue rings that looked to light up from the sun. The part where you go into the aquarium tank was a little disappointing. You are moving so fast and combined with water hitting your face, you don't really have much of a chance to see anything. The slides were still fun. I was surprised to see they ended in a run out as I had thought they ended in a pool and looking at the original Dolphin Plunge, I saw they must have changed it since that did have a pool. Because the park was so empty with nothing having a wait, some of the rides closed at 1 and others opened for the day then. I didn't realize they did that so I missed some slides I wanted to try like Tassie's Twisters (bowl slides). I rode 9 slides and Roa's Rapids. Overall I liked Aquatica a lot more than Adventure Island and look forward to returning soon. I didn't take any photos as I kept my phone in the car to avoid the $20 locker charge.I ran into SeaWorld for around 90 minutes just to ride some coasters. Ice Breaker and Mako were only running 1 train but Ice Breaker was a walk on and Mako was a walk on to a 4 - 5 train wait (I rode 3 times). Ice Breaker has become a once a visit ride for me with the backwards section and uncomfortable trains and restraints. Mako was excellent as always. With it being the only hyper coaster in Florida, I'm glad it's a great coaster. Journey To Atlantis showed a 30 minute wait in the app but was a 5 minute wait. I tried the front row for the first time because it was so hot out. That was a mistake since the smaller drop after the big drop before the second lift gets you soaked. The app then showed a 40 minute wait but it was still only 5 minutes. This time I took the last row and didn't get soaked. Epcot was the third and final park of the day. Test Track had a 60 minute standby wait and the Lightning Lane line looked like it was at least 30 minutes. I rode 3 times and waited 5 - 10 minutes each time using single rider. I miss the original version (and World of Motion before that) but this is my favorite ride at Epcot. I like that other than the standby line at Test Track and sometimes Soarin', nothing really has much of a line in Future World. I also rode Living With the Land, The Seas With Nemo, Journey Into Imagination and Spaceship Earth. As much as I would have liked to have gone to the Magic Kingdom for 2 hours after Epcot closed, it was already a long day and decided to go home. It was a fun but tiring day. Pipeline really stands out from the main entrance. The section after the corkscrew looks like it is going to be a lot of fun. Something related to the 2024 project Screamscape posted about a few weeks ago?

If that is what it ends up being, that is a good addition. There are so many rides at Dorney that I feel like Hershey or Great Adventure have better versions of. When I ride Hydra, I'd rather be riding Bizarro, or when riding Steel Force I'd rather be riding Candymonium or Nitro, Comet instead of Thunderhawk. It will give something unique (for the area) to Dorney. Dive Machine coasters seem to be a hit with most parks too. When I ride Sheikra, I always hear comments about how much people liked it and see a lot of people go right back for another lap.

It will be interesting to see if is a coaster or something else. Dorney is long overdue for a new coaster or anything on the ride side of the park.

Kings Island, Kings Dominion and Dorney Park have removed Fast Lane Plus as an option and now there is just regular Fast Lane with the Plus rides now included. https://www.dorneypark.com/fast-lane-passes I would have expected Dorney would have kept the water park attractions as Fast Lane Plus to encourage people to spend the extra $10 upgrading to Plus. On the ride side, regular Fast Lane didn't help much except at Wild Mouse and Thunder Canyon except on the few very crowded days of the year compared to the water park where even on a weekday Aquablast could have a 45 minutes - 1 hour wait.

The Whip is being removed. It was least favorite version compared to Knoebels and Dorney but I still liked it and rode it almost every trip. It vibrated a lot with the caster type wheels on the metal floor compared to the classic Mangels versions. I would like to see another company try a modern version.

https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2023/01/top-4-things-to-know-before-tron-lightcycle-run-opens-on-4-4/?CMP=SOC-DPFY23Q2wo0126230001H As expected Tron will use a virtual queue system. There are mandatory lockers similar to VelociCoaster at Universal but small items like phones, glasses and wallets can still be taken on the train and stored in a pouch on the ride.

I'm looking forward to seeing if there are any working coaster models in Coasters and Coffee like the Mako and Kraken models at SeaWorld.

I went to Busch Gardens Tampa yesterday again for my 4th trip this month. Besides rides, I also spent some time at the animal exhibits and took the train ride. From the train, you can get a closer look at Serengeti Flyer including seeing the entrance to the queue with the sign up. The Congo train station had been closed for over a year and then reopened around 6 months ago. It was not in use on Tuesday but with the park so empty, it wasn't really needed. I was going to start with Iron Gwazi as usual but it broke down right when I entered the station. It did reopen later in the day and I rode once before closing with about a 15 minute wait. Cobra's Curse has been closed since Monday. Even though the elevator lift is a cool feature compared to a traditional lift, I would have preferred to see them use a traditional lift hill since the elevator lift seems to be the cause of extended closures. Sheikra reopened around a week and a half ago. With construction going on around the park, the normal path to Stanleyville is closed off past the Sesame Street area and you have to walk through Pantopia, Congo and Jungala to get to the coaster. The light tunnel used for Christmas Town is still open as a bypass that saves a few minutes. Since I walked all the way there, I rode twice walking onto the last row each time. I also rode Cheetah Hunt, Montu and Sand Serpent once each waiting 3 trains for the front row Cheetah Hunt, walking onto the other 2 rides.

That’s true. Even the smaller Six Flags parks like Great Escape seem to get some kind of new ride every few years. Besides Dorney, Valleyfair and Michigan’s Adventure also don’t get too many new rides. They posted about renovated restrooms and a new group pavilion as improvements for the season 2 years ago, which is good but not in place of new rides. https://www.valleyfair.com/blog/2021/march/whats-new-in-2021

Another kiddie coaster should be a good addition for SFOG. Joker's Funhouse Coaster seems to get a long line compared to kiddie coasters at other parks.

Looks interesting, if it is successful I wonder if it is something that they would try to add to multiple spots all over the US.

It's one of the only coasters that I don't know the layout of after many rides. I guess with the layout so unique compared to something like a B&M where you kind of know the order of elements after a few rides, Iron Gwazi will take a while to remember everything.

With local schools back in session and Christmas Town over, I went to Busch Gardens today for a short visit. Crowds were back to their normal levels with everything a walk on - 5 minute wait. Iron Gwazi was first. My original goal last year was to get 100 rides, I finished at 51. 50+ rides later and I still don't have the layout memorized yet with the track going in what seems like a new direction every few seconds. Cheetah Hunt had a completely empty station and took advantage of that to get a front row ride. Last month the water was back in the old Rhino Rally section but today there was no water. I walked around for a 2nd ride. Cobra's Curse and then Montu were next. Montu is probably the most forceful B&M invert I have ridden, even more than Batman The Ride. Scorpion is another forceful coaster at the park. Schwarzkopf loops are my favorite inversion. The last ride of the day was Sand Serpent. I had some recent bad luck with the ride. Last month I had just gotten in the car in the station and it broke down. Today the car got to the final brake run and the ride broke down. Around 7 minutes later, a mechanic was there to get the car back into the station. They apologized and gave me a 1 use Quick Queue pass good until November. I didn't wait to see how long it took for the car stuck at the upper portion of the ride to get to the unload area. With it being a slow time of the year, the park closes at 5:00 which is understandable considering how empty it is on weekdays. I'll take 7 rides in around 90 minutes any time. Serengeti Flyer looks ready to open soon. Phoenix is completely gone.

If Dorney was still my home park, I’d be kind of frustrated that they haven’t really added anything since 2017 except the water park play structure in 2021 that replaced Island Water Works.

Tron opening April 4th https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2023/01/tron-lightcycle-run-opens-april-4-at-magic-kingdom-park/?CMP=SOC-DPFY23Q2wo0105230024H

Kings Dominion posted a list of what is going to be open in the winter for their new year round operations. https://www.kingsdominion.com/blog/2023/kings-dominion-year-round-operations The list looks similar to Winterfest with 1 more coaster open in addition to Twisted Timbers and Dominator, Apple Zapple and 10 rides total that aren’t kids rides.