Mitchada04

So the video of Jimmy Fallon announcing a Race through New York. 3/4/5/6/7/8D ride maybe (watch the video) with smoke and water and scents or something. New York itself should get a bit of loving too Comcast announced their 3rd quarterly financial results this week. And to no surprise attendance at the parks is up with their strongest summer attendance ever (not bad with no new rides in Orlando this year and only F&F in Hollywood), so Comcast will be very happy with that. Next year will only get stronger with Potter in Hollywood and Kong is Florida giving Islands a boost after it has stagnated a bit again. Then after that Stuidos gets the love and a new water park. So attendance will only continue to rise. But more what Comcast care about, the money. In this quarter, revenue is up 14% from last year to $896 million across the American parks (Comcast doesn't own Singapore and has only recently bought shares in Japan). Operating cash flow is also up 14% to $458 million. Across the first 3 quarters in total though, revenue is up 23% from last year to $2.3 billion with operating cash flow jumping 32% to $1.1 billion compared to the same period last year. Not too shabby. Nintendo: We all know its coming and all the rumours point to 2018 in Orlando. Rumours of a Test Track style ride with interactive cars that do a lot more, but something more family thrilling for a park that sort of lacks that area (especially the family/kids side). Nintendo mentioned the theme park deal in their recent strategy meeting. A new account system that uses the cloud to save data or whatever. How does this work into the theme park deal? What if you log into your device whilst at Universal and unlock special items like a Universal car in Mario Kart or a unique Pokemon. Kind of like the magic wands adding interactivity, this could give something unique to people with Nintendo devices who visit the land. Only time will tell on this one.

Just wait till Florida for fireworks

On capacity days last year all the coasters were hitting over 140 minutes, same with the mazes. This year hasn't been close to that yet, if they are going to hit it, it'll be this weekend. Them saying tickets are selling fast could be a sales tactic or to make people prebook for definite instead of just rocking up. How many times did they call capacity last FN? I think it was 3, but one or two of the 'capactiy' days they called it far too early and actually never reached capacity. By 4pm they'd reopened the gates to anyone who was turning up. Capacity park last year involved guests parking in the coach park, staff car park and on any verges and that still wasn't capacity on some days. It is a rare sight so I wouldn't be surprised if it isn't hit.

Trick or Treat woods is interesting. Good concept and fun for the kids but really needs to be spread out more so you can't hear the other scenes. Also very very short. Curse of Tomb just ends really. We were told there are 10 rooms and it'll last 12 minutes, 4 or 5 rooms in and its over in under 10 minutes. Why say something that is never going to be true? Could hear the other scenes, was just poor. And people slated Krypt... Park lacked any atmosphere really. Little theming around, no roamers, no market square show or anything! Where have the Halloween great days gone? Could they honestly not have overlaid hocus pocus with something like they used to do with bewitched, a few actors or anything. The park was just lacking which is a real shame as Howl'o'ween is usually fab.

Kidzone is next. Everything back of E.T (Fivels play area, Woody, Barney and Curious George) will close some point next year for NintendoLand in 2018 apparently. Potter expansion 3 also has to be considered which will no doubt go in the fear factor live area. And the rumoured avengers ride in MSHI replacing doctor doom and the lead up to that.

Twister has been rumoured to be closing for ages now, the fact it's out done Disaster is impressive, especially as at one point Twister staff were being trained on Disaster for when Twister closed.

Love Derren and his work. Thoroughly looking forward to what he and Thorpe have conjured up. But who cares about that... Scruffy Dog are working on a large scale Merlin investment YAY!

As you can now book tickets for 2016 online. Season starts on the 17th March, doesn't have October on the system yet. In September there are no tickets available Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday mid-end of the month. Maybe they'll be closed on these usually dead days?

Here we go then. Long post time Scarefest is simply great. Other than Smiler sitting in X-Sector like an elephant would, the park was alive. There was so much atmosphere, it was buzzing with people. It was a great sight. Quite simply don't know where to begin as it was all so good. Alton Ancestors: This group of 10 actors is great. They do a flash mob on TowersStreet at 10:15, 11:15 and 12:15 before heading to Gloomy Wood between 2 and 5pm. The dance routine is good, some odd mixes of music... never knew Gangnam Style and Ghostbusters would blend together so well. Was concerning. Whilst in Gloomy Wood they continued to be entertaining, taking peoples phones and taking selfies on them or posting Snapchat stories. They were just great to go up to and talk to. They basically had free roam, not an ents person was in sight around them unlike Thorpe's roamers. Just made it so much more relaxed. True entertainment! Flash mobbing on the greatly decorated TowersStreet. The kids stuff: Didn't really cater to us obviously, but from what we saw it looked great for the audience. Phil (I think that's the one that did this) stood behind me and Celia Mae whilst waiting for a coffee and imitated us by linking arms with Skelvin (?) but either way it was great, and the ents staff with them were dressed up to! Also I can finally say I've seen the Scarefest Hearse, and this groovy sign Scare zones: I'd heard decent things about the previous ones in past years, but this year they were literally just a section of path. So the Nemesis area one (Dark Apocalypse) ran from Sub Terra down to the main Nemesis sign. Wasn't expecting much, first time found it very meh but second time it was actually quite good! We got singled out and preyed on almost. Plus, this less than 100metre stretch of path had more actors than MBV often has, more of a story than any Thorpe maze. So it was basically a Thorpe maze condensed into a small path. Not bad when you don't have to queue at all. Nox Infernus was bit less good. But the wraiths around 13 and the girl were groovy. Plus the mist spilling out of the scaffolding tunnel onto Rita was great when riding Rita. So it wasn't very scary, but still a good 9/10 actors in the area and lots of mist. Not bad for a free extra on park. Scare Mazes: Don't hate here. Molly Crowe didn't interest me, I despise Hellements and the idea of wearing a blindfold, just means they can go cheap on the inside surely? So I passed on that. Terror of the Towers is vintage and again didn't interest me too much as that seemed like a standard (not saying bad) scare maze. But Sub Species interested me a lot, with its different routes and separation. HUGE SPOILERS IN THE SPOILER TAG. Great thing with Sub Species was its length, I got in just after 2. I met up with Celia by the chicken place in X-Sector at 2:25. So that's what, 15 minutes at least! So good!!!! Note- I don't know any actors at Towers, I did the maze once, I got that treatment. If dear old Joe Bloggs can only go to both Thorpe and Towers once and do each maze once, he would prefer the Towers ones because they are that level of extreme to everyone on all runs, irrespective of knowing an actor. Rides: 13 is quite cool in the dark, the forest isn't lit at all! Rita is better and not too rough, Oblivion has a pitch black hole, Spinball was lit too much. RMT was cool in the rave tunnel, Air is superb in the dark with a great mix of force, light, darkness, and fun! Nemesis is top dog. It is sublime at night, it looks great, rides great. Just great! So glad I finally got to experience it and the whole of Scarefest. Can't wait to return next year <3

Thorpe have always touched. And not very extremely. This is the first year towers are doing touching and they are doing it extremely. I'm sorry, it just does not compare to Thorpe. I go to Thorpe a fair amount and know a few actors but even then it isn't that extreme. Maybe some people should stop visiting almost every single night of FN and try out some other attractions so you know what else is on offer, you might be pleasantly surprised. Thorpe's mazes feel cheap, short and just simple. Hardly any story (or none if you've never seen the films). I'd much rather pay £20 for 3 quality mazes of over 10 minutes than queue ages for a 3 minute walk of some people lunging at me.

I'll post a review tomorrow but Sub Species is in its own league. Nothing Thorpe has done can compare. It's not cheap, every room is fully themed, music, story. It's complete. It's not just cheap jump scares that Thorpe abuse, there is so much more.

Either date is fine, both are on my weekends off! would prefer the 5th as I'm out with work on the 19th getting very tipsy, but Peaj knows that doesn't affect me the next day :') so yeah either is good!

So it doesn't look like it'll be long before one of the iconic theme park views in the world is removed. The water has been drained, cranes are in place. I just can't imagine this park without that view. Guess we'll have pictures of it soon enough. Au revoir. So does this mean the experiment has finally worked? Or just until summer 2016. In other news, bit more general Orlando this, the Skyplex tower seems to have hit a snag. Already being pushed back to 2018, the project is put towards the council end of the year for approval but currently the recommendation is 4-3 against the project (but that's only a recommendation). But, the biggest objection comes from Universal. Universal were happy with 300ft, but are not happy with the 500ft proposal. Many arguments they put out such as it being an eyesore (its I-Drive, get used to it) and light pollution. It all seems a bit strange, but the Skyplex would be quite close to the old Wet'n'Wild site which is rumoured to become a CityWalk.2 and with this project so close that might kill that. All strange, especially as it is competition that got Universal to where it is today. It's okay though, Universal are helping with all the light pollution

So because you haven't heard about this one means it isn't happening? Lots of people know about and knew about Air very early on this year. I'm still waiting for the maze to open in the WC16 building like you said and for Inferno to have opened in Feb half term as it was signed off with scaffolding around it obviously We all have people in the know, and most of us know you can't take everything for certain from these people. Plans change. Instead of posting here and bragging when right we prefer to discuss possibilities. No one was crying you were wrong with the mazes, logically speaking the new maze with tents was going on the beach most assumed that. Or in the marquee (again, a logical assumption). MBV was supposed to be on the island behind Swarm last year so to assume so this year was a sensible assumption as previous intention had been there. So if I say it's going to be a Derren Brown themed ride I'm wrong because you haven't heard it. The posters aren't really clues, half of them are themed and named on people who worked on the attraction or in ents. And the Jack in the box that hardly anyone knows exists because it doesn't work and is covered by a black drape now? From someone I have in the know who knows a guy who is friends with Geoff who works for Disney so is king of the world because Disney actually own everything he said there will be a tube train. Whitechapel tube station perhaps. Derren Brown lives in the sewers after a failing show and is now a dead IP so Merlin have bought him with the budget Disney set. A.I.V.R. What is actually is is, Air is being moved into the WC16 building with VR to make it seem like you're at Towers and Hulk is going to replace Air. Fun times. Cheers Geoff for the info!

Figaro brothers. Madame Mephisto. Hello Derren Brown's parrots. Not too difficult to find with a bit of research. The box with the mime guy in it is also to represent an Automaton. Hello again Mr Brown. http://derrenbrown.co.uk/about/ That is all.

Minus the mess with Saw Alive and its horrid queue (Big Top had a big queue but the batching was actually in a good balance to Fastrack) and the overestimating maze queues (sometimes not due to Fastrack but just because they're impossible to guess) the park was fine all day. I didn't see a single ride close (not saying they didn't but there wasn't anything major) and the longest ride queue being 45 minutes on a relatively busy FN is pretty good I'd say. Okay you couldn't reride, so? The park isn't meant to be dead enough for you to reride, and I tell you now even if they weren't stacking at the times you said Jamie you wouldn't have been able to reride as there was a constant flow of people. Inferno at 9pm on two trains, little stacking there was still someone waiting for each row. Roaming actors were great, security was doing a great job at dealing with the crowd that FN sundays draw and so on. Was one of the better visits of the year that's for sure.

The Big Top has some great tricks in it. Not necessarily very scary but different to all other mazes they've done and a lot more entertaining. The mirror maze, fun house etc. A lot more entertaining than some of their previous attempts at mazes. BWP will be easy to replace with their own walk in the woods. Maybe then the shed can make a bit more sense than it currently does. They'll probably reuse the shipping containers and just retheme them again, the fact Ex 10 was great shows they have potential. Cabin I guess they could just make a multi route maze (that's if they still can use that space...) and Saw Alive could be rethemed. Though I'd guess if Saw The Ride is still Saw themed then the maze might stay? I don't want them to bring back previously done mazes. Move onwards, not backwards. Yes Asylum was well established, but it was time to move on. Next year, Big Top will be well established and they'll know what they're doing with it so it'll open on time. Thorpe have shown that they can create some great mazes without IP's and I'm sure they'll succeed again. Plus, 3-4 new mazes for next year is brilliant! Towers got a hefty budget this year it seems with 2 new mazes and one properly rerouted and Chessie has 2 new mazes so I think it's safe to say they won't see huge changes next year so it suits Thorpe.

I always thought Towers had more quality mazes (from what I'd heard). Very much looking forward to my first Scarefest visit next weekend and hopefully try out the mazes!

The whole track is being replaced. There are cranes over the Lake as you can see in Ricky's pictures ready to remove the cobra roll and loop.

It is clear they have intention to open it this year. The fact they say Sub Terra and Flume are definitely closed for the rest of the season but Smiler doesn't get such a statement, it is only scheduled to be closed (and schedules change) show this. Plus putting crates of stock back in the shop after it was removed from Park, putting fresh bin bags in the bins and working on the effects. Yeah testing the ride might not have been a sign of anything but all the other little things show they want to be ready in case they can open it this year.

Saw is always busier than the other coasters at Fright Nights. Because it has the Saw name. Nothing new there.

Nom nom Very nice. http://www.buschgardenstampablog.com/cobras-curse-construction-update-3 Construction blog too

SeaWorld San Diego is to be banned from breeding Orcas. The Blue World project was "under a condition that would prohibit captive breeding, artificial insemination, and the sale, trade or transfer of any animal in captivity." So if SeaWorld build a nice new tank in San Diego at $100 million then in a few decades it'll be empty which is making them reconsider. And obviously this basically rules out the project in Orlando which was likely to be the case anyway. Not only can they not breed or buy in, they can't trade or transfer, not even to another SeaWorld site. This would mean that once the 11 orcas currently at San Diego passed away Shamu would no longer have a show at the park. Okay, this might be the best way for the park to go anyway and the new CEO and head of developments is apparently holding a conference about the parks and their futures in a month or two, it is a huge twist for SeaWorld. It's nice to know though that the government and PEETA will damage a huge corporation who put a HUGE amount of their money towards conservation and their save the seas programme by rehabilitating injured animals but little zoos and marine parks can get away with treating animals even worse. SeaWorld is not the biggest monster in all of this.

Cabin and Saw are basically ready all year. BWP is hardly touched as it's an unused path and MBV is just lifted into place from the staff car park. I can't remember how The Curse and Se7en faired at the beginning but they've had to build the whole maze from scratch in one month with new props etc. Scruffy Dog is a relatively small company and do a lot of work for their size. Lego Friends City Area thing was unfinished when it opened as Scruffy were still working (lots of talk Merlin order too late or leave it fine). I can assure you they were working flat out from the day they started to put up the tents, there is a Fastrack sign we saw last week that will be added to the entrance structure. There is a lot more to go on, Scruffy are perfectionists and don't often get enough time. Taking it they've had to do Containment as well and no doubt worked on the other 4 again it's no real surprise that the 2 brand new from scratch attractions weren't fully ready at the start. No it's not good enough and the person behind the scheduling should have to relook at how they worked this project but that's the reason pretty much.