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Not going to lie I like that rides are trending more towards 'Live automated magic shows telling a story' away from 'Watch this screen while we rock your seat'

My sister lives in Illinois, about 7 hours from Minneapolis. But it was only about 40 miles longer to go via Des Moines, Iowa and check out Adventureland. https://www.parkz.com.au/parks/US/Altoona/Adventureland_Park/ Start the gallery here to see all 200 pics: https://www.parkz.com.au/photo/20956-Adventureland_Park/gallery/sort/newest/location/park-289-Adventureland_Park/offset/0 I ended up doing an evening at a park on the same day I went to Valleyfair, and then a few hours the following morning because it worked out best for my schedule (Though not so great for my wallet because their 2 day pass isn’t that great a deal and no options in terms of after 3pm entry) The main street is a middle America knock off of Main Street USA at Disneyland. Condition of the park was mixed / okay, not as good as Cedar Fair, but nice garden The signage was ample fodder for Graphics Design is my Passion. The park itself is quite pleasantly landscaped when you move further in, albeit with some interesting design choices. The newest ride is Phoenix, a standard model Maurer spinning coaster, the 4th time ive done one. I think the station was themed like a chinese takeaway. Heading around I saw that Underground had no queue. This thing is stretching the definition of a roller coaster, but at a couple of points it has drops equivalent to what you’d find on a wacky worm. The ride is like Blazing Fury at Dollywood, or Black Diamond at Knoebels with mannequins in mining related scenes. Pretty bleh, and once was enough. The highlight of the park is Monster, a huge Gerstualer Infinity coaster. As I have come discover, this coaster type comes into its own once you get past the 40m mark. The eurofighters etc around the 30m mark lack pacing, and feel a bit wild mouse-ish or skateboard-ish, but the big ones really get some momentum going, and the Gerstlauer layouts are full of dramatic elevation changes, with multiple steep dives. There's a good mix of inversion and non inverting style elements, plus an okay airtime hill. The most interesting element is the Finnish Loop, which is like a loop that flattens off at the top, so you get extended hangtime. There is a skyride which runs right through the middle of the loops. Of course i did a couple of laps on the skyride for pics. At the other end of the spectrum is Dragon, which is now holds the title of the worst coaster i have ever ridden. Rock hard harnesses, with padding made out of car dashboard material, and it heavily bangs through the course. The layout has a few small RMC style bumps before the lift hill, before a shallow drop, a couple of loops, and two helices you just want to end. The park also has two wooden coasters. Tornado is the older one, basic out and back style one, like as if its one half of Racer at Kings Island or something. Does the job, The more interesting one is Outlaw, a CCI wooden coaster that is sort of done in the twister style of the GCIs, just a bit less flowing and twisty. Low to the ground means it's fast paced. Down this end of the park is Saw mill Splash, a spinning raft water slide you can ride in your street gear. Foams pads placed off center snag on the underside of the raft, making it spin very fast. Down this end is also a water park that I stuck my head into when it was empty. All proslide stuff we have ridden before, brightly coloured. The place did feel like a bit of a frying pan with the amount of concrete, but hey, if you live through an Iowa winter, maybe they want all the sun they can get? The park also had a regular river rapids, which were marred a bit this system they have installed with handrail gate things that spin around and lower at the station, except they move at a snails pace, so the capacity of the ride is quite low, and there is a bank up permanently at the bottom conveyor. Ended up wating over an hour for it! The park had heaps of flat rides too. I took a ride on Storm Chaster, which is a slightly smaller version of a Windseeker. Overall, a fairly middle of the road park, had a bit of a home cooked feel like Holiday World, but perhaps lacking some consistency in the amount of polish. As always, if you're in the area, have a look!

Given a significant number of the other park's major rides don't have much life left in them (HWSW and debatably GD) or have already been ripped out (TOT, Wipeout, TRRR), you may have to take direct replacements of all those attractions into consideration (given the plan for the old boneyard previously cleared for the lazy river will still be for WWW expansion). A large chunk of what Ardent is investing right now is directed towards replacing the old rides that arent in DW's best interest to maintain any longer. Assume the coaster will trade with TOT (an investment probably targeted as such). A potential thrill ride would trade with Wipeout, and a potential family ride of reasonable size could be a direct replacement for TRRR. Then you would have to consider replacements for the inevitably retired HWSW (new coaster or another WWW tower) and GD (new drop tower or a Sky Jump conversion). This current $50+ million investment package I expect to last until at least the end of next year, given there are still a number of announcements to be made. Regardless of time frames it should be made loud and clear to Ardent that this investment isn't a one off thing, it needs to be made on a consistent basis over time, otherwise the park will return to a situation which it was in only a year ago. So basically, what I am saying is that management need to think ahead and realise that they will soon have to invest in replacements for two of their major thrill rides that won't be around in 5 years' time.

... so all this plussing makes me wonder how many more ex MW peeps migrated to DW joining Greg Yong? (A lot of the good ones it seems!) The Park has not looked this good in years and with what 2020 has in store, dare I say probably not since decades ago when Longhurst walked.. Impressive stuff!

I got my passport in case I was to ever win a radio competition (not that I entered any). It was then one less hurdle to overseas travel. Then Scoot launched Gold Coast to Singapore and you could get return trips for $350. I did exactly that and visited Universal Studios Singapore.

Here is a POV of the ride portion. I have no words. I am just blown away.

For those fortunate enough to have already experienced it, all indications are Disney has pulled off something truly ground breaking that will leave People's heads spinning and wanting to get back in line. Register the link below to watch it's official opening tomorrow.. After wild speculation, 15 minutes should be the total duration - that's assuming no down time, which no doubt can and will be caused by the ride's multi-experience nature and unpredictability of Guest's speed of safe transition point to point. With so many transition points, I envisage likely stoppage areas will be mainly the Initial ship launch, departure from the Holding Cells aboard the Trackless portion, the base of vertical accents from ATT fighters and awaiting entry to drop shaft back to Batuu. All possible delays of being caused (potentially) by unfreed blocks to the next section and of course proximity sensor failure (which the ride will no doubt have shit loads of). Sooooooo many blocks, and 'trim station' like hold up points, this thing will be every true Theme Park Lover's wet dream come true... I'm going to hold off for May to visit Disneyland and give em time to iron out the bumps myself. Who else is excited? Personally I Can't f*cking WAIT!!!!

Can't believe this is an actual ride it looks incredible hat's of to Disney for pulling this off looking forward to seeing an epsiode of this on the imagineering story on Disney Plus. But like how good has been it been the last few weeks to be a star wars fanatic "jedi fallen order, the Mandalorian, rise of Skywalker in 15 days and now this. 🤙🏼🤩

Oooooh.... I see a snowball... it's here... next to my desk...

I tell you what'd be better - a view of the top platform to understand how the queue will work...

i still cant figure out how they get the blast holes to work so well. Particularly in the walls where it buckles out...is it made out of rubber or something?

The coaster will definitely will a gap the park has had for a very long time, but I agree and think another thrill ride and another family attraction will complete their current line up. With the ABC refurb next year too, that will take their good line up of kids attractions even further. But new rides cost money and I would expect it to be another couple years before another major investment. Another new tower of slides and/or lazy river for WWW will complete that park

The walkway alongside GD looks good. Still has me wondering if they will relocate GD's queue, Arch and exit paths, so the whole elevated walkway complex can be removed. (And who as a kid doesn't like a boom gated train crossing?)

I am also pretty impressed with how this seating area has turned out. I had very low expectations for that area, but it’s pretty decent for what it is. @Gold Coast Amusement Force were the videos on SV an improvement, informative and rewatchable?

That poor jpeg never even had a chance

For me it was Blackpool Pleasure Beach in 2004 opening weekend in March. When the park still had huge historic value. At this time they still had the Tumblebug, the Whip, the amazing Log Flume ( now taken over by the SLC Infusion) and of course the brilliant and unique layout that was the wooden Wild Mouse. Awesome day/night, lots of cool historic coasters and other great one off rides. Followed BPB on this trip a few weeks later with a tripe to Disneyland Paris- first Disney experience for me. Loved it- the Space Mountain there is brilliant. Love the Big Thunder Mountain - Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril is possibly one of the most UN-Disney rides I have ever been on- pretty underwhelming for this attraction!

For me, pacific park at Santa Monica Pier in 2009.