DaptoFunlandGuy

I wouldn't say it's that controversial, to be honest. The removed effects were essentially 'icing'. If the ride opened day one without it, nobody would say boo. If you rode it without ever knowing the old effects, you probably don't take any notice. The lift hill, with it's anti rollback dogs (old boats) etc was a noisy bastard and you couldn't really hear anything, but the spark devices and the pepper's ghost gave you something to focus on while you were lifted up 'tin shed hill'. Without these to look at, you look elsewhere and start noticing the CCTV camera. the electrical runs. the maintenance accessways, etc. These missing items weren't much, but they were an example of putting something in, because you can that adds to the show and spectacle and distracts the rider from the obvious machinery they're sitting on top of. West is an example of an older time, when you didn't spin a wheel for the ride type, another for the theme, and call it a world class attraction - West had a lot of thought and detail put into it (that was subsequently bastardised trying to bandwagon onto the latest Will Smith hotness without really trying), and change to the ride or not, I miss it, because it was an example of what you can really accomplish, rather than slapping a logo on a plastic lunchbox and calling it a day.

*gasp* are those going to be *gasp* fountains?

Someone else on the project team probably latched onto 'Emperor' as being a really *grand* name too, just to solidify the choice.

It's very "how long is a piece of string"... The incident prompted a review and removal of effects that could cause a fire. The ride was neutered for some time as they simply removed and panelled over anything taken out instead of replacing it with a safer alternative. The thing is that health and safety is an ever-changing beast, and - if you consider everything else in the world bar that one incident continued on the same way - then you can probably guarantee it would have been identified as an unacceptable risk of fire in other risk assessments (especially post TRRR) and ultimately removed, changed or replaced. I think though the difference is that the fire forced immediate removal, which is why we saw such a neutered offering afterwards, whereas had it been flagged as part of an assessment, review or refurb, it potentially would have had something nicer replace it immediately.

They were about 3 years too late for Dick Dale. He died in 2019.

Yeah look - it's not like passholders are paying a premium - they get bargain basement prices. If they're going to do a general soft-open for any guests on the day, and choose to market this to passholders as a preview (but still allow any guests on the day to enter) then i'm all for it, as long as the usual technical rehearsal signage \ expectations are posted for all to understand (though the concept of a single rider queue seems foreign to some so not sure if that'd make any difference....)

The fact that "other folks" were saying things about it doesn't validate the complaint. Anyone complaining about the single rider queue not moving clearly doesn't understand the intent of the queue.

...if it's real, it will get better with age, but real is expensive, and this isn't real. it's paint, and paint will require upkeep. the standard of presentation is certainly a step up though and i'm keen to see the rest of the area finished off.

Arguably different, but I can't help but see the parallels. I love the copper tarnish effects!!!

My thoughts on the wall is that the entrance to New Atlantis starts of with the sandy coloured pavement, turning blue as you progress past vortex. We haven't seen the full complete picture of what lies beyond vortex, but my thinking is (since Atlantis is a sunken underwater city) that perhaps these portals take you between the water and not - the mirrored "doorways" representing a sheet of water separating the dry\wet sides (with the ride's entrance one of those) - the money spinner blue shelter in the queue line further leads me to that conclusion.. we're going underwater and entering the Leviathan's lair. The greenery (for my interpretation) isn't above the water, but is perhaps a mossy rockery?

The hedge is artificial, no? I think the logo was intentionally split across the edge of the wall, perhaps just as the coaster rises above the wall also? I like it.

err... what?

Putting it in that space would give WB Kids the weenie it needs, and would not have blocked the thoroughfare (though if it created pinch points i'm sure part of the design would have involved path widening), but I whole heartedly agree that the loss of that tree would have been devastating, so i'm glad it isn't going there... I'm glad the parks are moving away from "plain green bushes" wraps to something themed to the area - it's a really nice touch when temp fencing is used. It would be nicer if they did proper hoarding like many overseas parks do, but that takes more time and money that ultimately is only about aesthetics, so customised wraps will do just fine! (y)

That's the unfortunate side effect of repurposing an old attraction's themed area to suit a new attraction is it doesn't exactly fit well because it wasn't designed for it...

Gotta get power to the new ride somehow! Are they... are they doing a photo op with that rotting monstrosity as the background?

I looked at this and thought 'right, that's cheaper again for a multi-day' and then i realised that that was CHRISTMAS DAY at Tokyo Disneyland and now i'm just like - wow.

Your point is absolutely valid - Disney are stupid money right now, but it's worth mentioning that uniquely, the only privately owned Disney park - Tokyo Disneyland - currently sells single adult day tickets for an undiscounted 7900 JPY (about $85.76 AUD according to Google) compared to Movie World's day ticket of $109 at the gate or $99 online. Obviously the value is made in multi day ticketing but it still gobsmacks me that tokyo is comparably so cheap...

The Fox Studios move is a rebrand. They bought Fox a few years back and have been slowly but systematically bringing the Fox products under their umbrella - introducing the titles into Disney+ etc. Putting the D on the studios is just another step in the process of Mousification. As for the cruises - have they brought two ships? I thought it was just the Wonder coming next year, splitting it's shuttle cruises between the east coast ports? The cruises really were a no brainer - we're an island and cruising is a big part of our holiday culture (and a mega industry to boot) so with more ships coming on line, it was a no brainer to branch out and take their older ships to other markets. And finally, for park rumours - i've lost count of the number of times this has been discussed on these boards. A Disney park, even one the size of Universal Singapore, is out of reach of 'current Australia'. We don't have the population, and our tourism draw isn't enough to support a park of that size and scale. Our parks build a flagship rollercoaster for $30 Million, whereas the upcoming Tron at WDW is reportedly budgeted around $450 Million. Just because Disney has the money, doesn't mean they'll spend it building expensive attractions where they won't get a return on investment.

That's optimistic...

I had heard this was happening a bit this week. As long as people keep paying, I can't see much changing. This is pretty much the same narrative we heard for the easter holidays 6 months ago... people need to vote with their wallets. I do think part of the issue is most people view MW by it's prior reputation, and nobody is checking reviews on the current park operations prior to planning a trip. I recently returned from Singapore (i'll post a TR when I get around to it) and had big expectations from USS, but I was quite disappointed at a lot of aspects of the park - and i'll admit I made the same mistake - I expected it to be just as it was on my last visit and I was quite shocked to say the least.

It'd be nice if they kept the attraction current with what is in the park. Young Einstein's gravity homestead certainly wouldn't make sense today. But boot hill is still IN the park, and the JDS layout isn't park-accurate, so as long as it's in the park, it isn't as big of an issue as now defunct and demolished attractions. Which was the point of the OP's original comment.

FWIW, Bush Beast and Beastie were both built in ~6 months, and many seasonal parks that have built woodies have done so in their 6 month operating shutdown. They don't really take any longer to build, although the super big out and back layouts obviously do take longer (and so do steel coasters of the same vein). As for fix\maintenance, it depends on what breaks. The carpenters at wonderland would be hammering things in daily, and daily inspections identified things to fix up which in many cases was a board here \ stringer there. Retracking is obviously a much more onerous task, but the thing to consider here is - you can... If a steel coaster's track is rough (hello Arkham), there isn't much you can do to fix it.

Does he discuss how block zones work? I am a person who is unfamiliar.

I would suggest, after the past couple of years, that they appear to have learned their lesson now about announcing stuff until they know for sure. which is probably really good given the multiple reschedules they've already had. Any momentum they would have gained from a teaser campaign has been shattered by the missed deadlines so once they know when they'll be ready and start training crew \ knocking out 1000 cycles or whatever, they can then start shouting from the rooftops a firm date (and soft open when ready to do so.)

After missing the early september date, the next logical date is Boxing day. I'd like to see them do a soft open pre-christmas, but with all the issues we've had to this point - i'll wait until I see firm operations before I make plans.