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Excellent report! Amazing how much more ornate some of the theming is in Paris compared to the other parks. I'm surprised you skipped the Avengers coaster. Even if you've done it before I reckon the preshows Disney do make it worth a look. Did you go back for a 2nd day? Or is it possible to do both in a single day? DLP (Along with Asterix) is a park I've been wanting to get to, but I've been saving it for a longer trip so i can spend a solid 3 weeks in France.

Linnanmaki 25th July 2022 https://www.parkz.com.au/attraction/linnanmaki Linnanmaki is the #1 park in Finland, located just 2km north of the city center. And its for a good cause. The park is run by a not for profit and all proceeds support child welfare work. In fact, if you arrive in Helsinki via boat (I caught the night ferry from Stockholm) you can quite clearly see the skyline of the park in the distance. In particular, the skyloop really stands out, but you can see the white painted drop tower, and even the tophat for Taiga if you really squint to the left of the striped crane. Various tram lines serve the park from either side, so it’s easy to get to, but the park itself is located on a hill in the middle of a public park so there is a little bit of an uphill walk to the front gate. In terms of size, the park is about 250x250m, so it’s about ¼ the size of say DW, but has heaps of rides packed in. It's definitely an amusement park, though most of the kids rides have a circus sort of theme, and most of the bigger rides have vague themes/names based on Finnish mythology. Turns out I misjudged the entry time so was there an hour before rides actually started, so took the time to wander around the outside and get some photos. Linnanmaki offers wristbands for 45 EUR, or individual ride tickets at 10 EUR each or 45 EUR for a 6 pack. (So for most visitors you’d clearly get the wristband, I mean I did 16 separate rides, plus some re-rides so it’s easy to get your moneys worth) Tagia has a deal that if you use two ride tickets, you can skip the line. But if you already have a wristband, then a single additional ride ticket allows a skip. So later in the day I forked out 45 EUR for a 6 pack, reasoning that 7.5 EUR a pop was a good deal to get plenty of rides on a top roller coaster that I probably won't be back to ride for at least a decade or more. When the gates opened i made a quick beeline for Taiga. What to say? This has to be pretty close to the world's best launch coaster (Haven’t ridden Velocicoaster though) Such a varied layout, great pacing. Beats Maverick, beats Taron. From the station there’s a decent initial launch into a zero g winder, which is like this 90 turning corkscrew but it banks outwards at the top so heaps of hangtime. Then you pitch sideways into a big curved drop down a hill, and some snappy jet rescue style transitions between some turns, a good start which lines you up with the 2nd launch. Then it really kicks into gear, hitting 100km/h along a launch that dramatically crosses over a major pathway. Then into a great tophat with great views due to being at the edge of the hillside. Following that is a long zero g stall, quite unusual travelling upside down for so long but magically floating in place with the train. Floater soon becomes ejector as there is a tiny dip at the exit of the stall which doesn’t look like much in POVs but is as aggressive as some of the airtime on Skyrush. A 3rd inversion, an immelmann follows, before another big banked turn, a snappy transition then a helix above the station. A brief moment of respite as you do some s bends high in the air, but that all goes out the window with an aggressive dive back down the hill, that really catches you off guard. At full speed at the bottom of the hill is a bit of a wave turn giving some unexpected air. You finish off with a long drawn out corkscrew that dunks you out of your seat like the final inversion on ST, then you cruise around the final turn into the brakes. What an adventure. It’s a tangled mess like Taron so it’s hard to follow which way you are going to go. Switches between thrilling and outright furious, and the gentle moments in the course are set ups for quite aggressive moments. At the exit is a nice gift shop, positioned on the edge of the hill with some big windows I heard Salama can get long lines so i went there next. A custom Maurer spinning coaster. Had heard it was underwhelming but i thought it was fine. Had a suitably confusing layout, combining several high banked turns, quick drops and so forth. The track layout was good but it could have perhaps spun a bit more. Visually its not the prettiest thing since it was built above the existing rapids ride, so it has a lot of heavy supports spanning over the rapids below. The rest of the rides, in no particular order.... Tulireki Ugh, turns out Mack can occasionally have a stinker. This is like a wild mouse with banked turns and a helix, so it’s like Mack were trying to replicate a Gerstlauer bobsled. But it has the “e-motion” suspension system, which just makes it rough, and in particular at the bottom of the drop clunks down so you get a nice bit of spinal compression. One and done for me! Ukko A Maurer skyloop just like Buzzsaw / Project Zero. Do you need me to review this again? As a bonus as soon as I joined the queue they called for a single rider so I was in and out in 5 minutes. Apparently the name is the Finnish god of the sky and thunder, but then the theming was this hippy yellow submarine type deal which made no sense but looked fun. Kirnu These free spin / Zacspin coasters can be polarising, but if you have misgivings, this ride is the one for you and is nowhere near as intense. I think what helps is that its a lot shorter and the main curved drop is much more drawn out, so you get a fun flip, but not the repeated sensation of being thrown up and down and shoved back and forth. (Now i dont mind the full sized ones of these btw ) The feeling is really like being swept around on a top spin and doing a single flip. Made sure i got 2 rides, left facing foward and right facing backwards. I think forwards leaving the station is a little scarier because you cant see the first drop. Vuoristorata Your spine can get readjusted on Scenic Railway, but this thing is brilliant. It's a classic wooden side friction coaster with a brakemaster riding onboard. The layout is a fairly standard layout, an oval with a cross over in the middle so it makes a double figure 8. The airtime is variable depending on your brakemaster. On one lap i sat at the front and we must have been going a little too fast on the double down and i was well and truly chucked out of my seat. And its just a fixed lap bar so a momentary freak out when it happened. Was running 3 trains quite efficiently so I got a few rides. Linnunrata An indoor family coaster built inside an old water tower. The queue line reminded me of those 90s lasertag places or watching escape from Jupiter. But you were made to wait outside and rushed through this part, likely 'due to covid' The ride is one of those Zierer family coasters with a very long train (like this) and it had two lift hills, so was a reasonable little journey, and was quite dark for many parts so was actually not half bad! On the way were quite a few strobes, and big foam planets hanging from the ceiling, the usual space coaster stuff. Did a couple of laps because it was good. Panoraama Rotating observation cabin. Clean the windows please! Pikajuna A powered mine train type coaster, but if was a bit naff, a fairly basic layout with a couple of helices, though they did make the effort of making the station look like a giant train (So is it meant to be like the train is giving birth to a baby train, who knows?) Hurjakuru Under Salama is this rapids ride. Normally the top of the hill would be the last place you'd build a rapids, and what was even crazier is that the high point of the ride was at the lower side of the hill, which meant the end of the course was essentially in a huge ravine. Yeah it was ok, the foggy tunnel at the start with viking theming was probably the highlight, and i guess being in more of a deep gorge for the rest of the layout made it feel like more authentic rafting. Kingi Another moser drop tower, with rotating seats. These are a little weaker than the intamin counterparts because the brakes start so high up the tower, so you dont get as much freefall, and the braking is more drawn out and less forceful. The theming was great, this curtsey medieval look. The staff had no hustle so the wait felt longer than it should have. Kammokuja This was a spooky walkthrough, but you wore a special type of chromatic 3d glasses that would make all the blacklight murals appear to 'pop' off the walls. Hocus Pocus Hall at Chessignton was like this too. No actual scare actors, though a couple of basic animatronics would jump around when you walked past the trigger. Was ok. Kyöpelinvuoren hotelli This was a ghost train/haunted hotel, but it was a bit newer than the classic ones many parks hold together with duct tape. Given it was newer, the quality of the theming was a bit better, the lighting had more polish and it had some nicey animated projected screens too. A solid B+. Rinkelli A big ferris wheel, with great views of several of the coasters. Seemed very popular so a bit of a wait. Taikasirkus This is a family dark ride through a circus, so if you have clourophobia or globophobia steer well clear. The vehicles were little 2 person 'eggs' suspended from an overhead track, and these could rotate just like the disney omnimover, so you would face certain scenes. The scenes were all quite cute and well done, basic movements in the characters brought them to life. I got a giggle from the clown sweeping up elephant dung. Maisemajuna A mini monorail that does a lap around the park, so another good opportunity to take some photos. Overall, it’s an excellent park with a lot to hold your attention. I rode heaps and heaps but still only did less than half the lineup, so it represents excellent value for money. If you are in this part of the world Helsinki is a nice city, and Linnanmaki is worth the effort. No i didn't ride this. Also, I should give a special shout out to the food, they had a proper indian restaurant. And the taco place near Kingi was decent too. Almost 300 photos here: https://www.parkz.com.au/search/photos/location/linnanmaki

Removing Dream works is a good start imo. time less classic themes like what dreamworld was born on never get out dated. That’s why Disney still looks good despite the buildings and the steam trains looking like they are from 90 years ago. And why 50 plus year old cars just keep growing in value. Sky voyagers futuristic facade is only futuristic till its out dated (which happened basically instantly). But Main Street style still looks good

Hi all, Been quite a while since I posted here - but after any tips/tricks/advice for visiting Disneyland and DCA in current times. Husband and I are travelling just after Christmas, and have four days at Disneyland/DCA and two day at Universal. We have pre-booked Genie+, as well as a few dining options (Goofy's Kitchen, World Of Colour Dessert Party, etc). I have NEVER been the American Disney parks (only HK as a kid), but I have done A LOT of research into Disney parks and would like to say I'm fairly comfortable in planning our days. That being set, both of us have never been to the US, and especially after changes to the parks with covid, we would love to hear any tips, tricks, suggestions or advice. Or just general advice for being in California in general is welcome! We are both plus size as well - I'm around a 90kg and 163cm - I have had no problem fitting on any gold coast rides. My husband did struggle, he is about 180cm and around 140kg (or thereabouts) - he hold most of his weight in his belly. He struggled at our recent trip to movie world/sea world - I think the only ride he got on was wild west falls. For any fellow larger size people, I would welcome your advice on disney/universal rides - i would rather go with my expectations low than be disappointed there. Thank you everyone for your help

@DaptoFunlandGuy@rappanobody cares about that system anymore because it doesn't exist anymore. @Jessicajealousyif you have a problem, it's best to do the application online and you will have to also do an online video chat/interview. If you try and do it in Disney, you will have to supply proof and it will take hours.

I mean, Rappa and I usually butt heads on most things but there's nothing but truth to what he says. The DAS system is the most abused thing in the park. That doesn't mean that legitimate folks in need are abusing it (although some were profiting from it as i've discussed below), just that others are taking advantage, which is entirely true. When I visited in 2013, my wife had injured her leg at SFMM the day before, so we rented a wheelchair at guest services so she could stay off her ankle. The park helpfully provided us with a disability access guide and we were able to use the wheelchair entrances to most attractions (there was just the two of us). This helped a lot as moving through the park was a lot slower going pushing the chair through the crowds. In the following years, we heard reports of people hiring wheelchairs to skip the queues, with people taking it in turns in the chair throughout the day. We also heard reports of legitimately wheelchair bound guests who would 'hire out' their services, taking whole families (8-12 people) with them through the wheelchair entrances for a fee. This lead to Disney changing the accessibility options, requiring guests with disabilities to 'virtually queue'. It's entirely fair to do it that way but it is saddening that the system was abused so much they had to step in in the first place.

If you or your partner have medical issues that make it hard or extra painful to stand in queues, Disney has a free virtual queue system, you can apply for. It's called DAS. People think the program is only for people with major disabilities, but it isn't.

I DO know the Disney/Fox buyout, I just forgot it at that moment. And I could realistically see the new Funfields slide open on the same day/week as the Gumbuya World coasters. I am not "trolling" I could see it happen.

Either that or they're like 12. Only way they couldn't know about the Disney/Fox buyout too.

What I am trying to say is not a full blown Ten retheme, but just maybe a test at newsreading or maybe a Ten themed ride (like SP7 at Wonderland) The rest would be Paramount themed rides. Yes that would be great, get rights off Universal to rename it to "Universal Studios Gold Coast" Universal Studios Singapore's main street looks similar to Movie World so why not make MW look like that? RE: JL being removed, why not replace it with a Simspons ride clone? The Simpsons is one of the most popular shows on the planet, and Disney have been willing to give other parks use of The Simpsons, like USF/USH. But in all cases, the most likely option is for MW to remain with WB.

I dunno, I'd be all about Cricket Rivals HyperCoaster. To be honest though pretty much every idea in this thread is kind of horrendous in it's own way. The only half thought out idea was to lean into Village Roadshow's catalogue, and aside from that do a few one off agreements. All this stuff about buying theme park rights off of Sony for Spiderman and going with Marvel but not Disney and all the rest was so out of touch with reality that I had a panic attack 😂

Not sure Disney would be happy with that. Nah, all the parts you'd need to change are 'bolt on' pieces to base cars. The trains don't need replacing, just the shells.

Yes, this was just recently announced live on stage at Disney's D23 expo, so there won't be much information online just yet.

This would not happen. Sony don't own the theme-park rights to Spiderman, just the film rights. Marvel still owns the theme-park rights. Marvel is owned by Disney and Disney is already using Spiderman in their own parks. Also, Universal already have the Marvel theme-park rights for the comic book versions of the characters - including Spiderman. You're more likely to see them partner with Paramount and access all of the Paramount IP - including Star Trek, Top Gun, Mission Impossible, Transformers and Paranormal Activity. This would be a stronger suite of possible IP to license than Sony which really only has The Karate Kid, Ghostbusters, Jumanji, Men in Black and Underworld - all of which are effectively dead with no theatrical releases or only box-office failures for many years. They'd be more likely to leverage some of the IP from their own VREG (co)productions - like The Matrix, Happy Feet, Sherlock Holmes, Mad Max and Gatsby, than to work with Sony.

Yes Paramount and Sony would be a good option. Highly doubt Disney/Fox or Universal would partner for obvious reasons. If they go with Sony, they could do a deal with Marvel (as SpiderMan/Venom is released by Sony not Disney) and try to include other Marvel properties. The rides could be: Spiderman Escape (retheme of Superman) Marvel Rivals Hypercoaster (retheme of DC Rivals) Doctor Doom (retheme of Green Lantern) IronMan SpaceShot (retheme of Batman Spaceshot) Loki's Time Spinner (retheme of Doomsday) Wild West Falls (no retheme, just the logo replaced on the cars) Hotel Transylvania Spooky Coaster (retheme of Scooby) The Avengers: Alien Invasion (retheme of JL Alien Invasion) Sony Studio Showcase (retheme of WB Studio Showcase) Hollywood Stunt Driver (no retheme) Roxy Theater (no retheme, shows changed to Marvel/Sony Pictures Animation) Street Stars Parade (characters changed to Marvel/SPA) New York Film Academy (no retheme) Spider-Man Meet and Greet (retheme of Tom and Jerry) Not sure about Looney Tunes/WoO).

I wish somebody told me not to ask for carrot at subway.🤷‍♀️ Trying to explain yourself at 1am after 16hrs in Disney is not an easy task.

48hrs in 3 days at Disney is enough fill for me.😂 And if you're grabbing a subway on the walk back to your hotel at 1am. Don't ask for carrot on you sub.

Nope, no kids, just the two of us. A massive Disney and HP fans, I wanted 4 days at disney purely so we didn't feel rushed, since it's not an affordable place to come back to regularly and universal seems to have 2 days passes, even if we did a day and a half

As much as I love Disney, I only ever do 3 days and Universal I tend to do in a day. If you haven't got kids, it shouldn't be too hard.

As much as I was desperate for Knotts, we only have 10 days and some of that includes seeing LA/catching up with friends - so we prioritised Disney/Universal Thank you! We have both been walking everyday, to lose some weight but also just build up our fitness. Though I've heard Disney is more forgiving walking-wise than Magic Kingdom Thank you! Hope your trip goes well Thank you! Sadly no time for Knotts or other parks (only 10 days total) but love the tips on LA, I'll add Icons of Darkness - that's the kinda cool stuff we want to see!

I concur on Knott's, it's fun and near Disney, and Magic Mountain if you love coasters (might work well if you are staying in the Universal area) - you probably haven't allocated time, but if you have time to spare I recommend. I did a park trip after Christmas in 2017 in the LA area, and the parks were packed, but I see you've given yourself plenty of time to do them. In Hollywood, a local mate took to this exhibition on Hollywood Blvd just down from the Chinese theatre called Icons of Darkness in September, if you love actual props from movies (incl full sized Dino animatronics from Jurassic Park), your mind will be blown. Also, Runyon Canyon accessible from the Hollywood strip is a cool hike to get some great views of LA, and a lot of stars walk their dogs there too lol.

At the start of June this year I was around your Husband's size. Not an #Ad but I got on some meal replacements before I went to Singapore in September and dropped over 20kg in under 4 months. I know you don't have that much time, but some short term effort could pay off in spades (I know there are more forgiving restraints in places like Disney but other places (I found Knott's was a little restrictive in some places last time I visited). (I haven't been to California in about a decade, and literally booked our next LA trip this morning, so i'm keen to follow this thread for hints and tips from other recent travellers too) I would repeat the above comment - you shouldn't miss Knotts at the very least, and if coaster, then Six Flags. I am keen to hit up California's Great America after recent announcements, so that might be worth a look in too.

This is super easy to fix. We just de-regulate working conditions to be like America, bringing down the price of labour to a point of parity, thereby reducing the single largest cost-base for the company which they can then reflect in their pricing. Also, the majority of Disney's guests aren't annual pass-holders, whereas it's the opposite in SEQ. Therefore, most single-day admissions are artificially inflated to make the cheaper-than-industry-average annual passes look far more lucrative. Changing gears, are people just mad there's not an A-frame out the front communicating it's a new ride and to be patient?

Every ride has to be tested & looked over a certain amount of times before opening, Levi has been opening late (assumedly) because of issues arising in that pre-opening period, and closing early because of the issues compounding once guests are boarding. Also, ⬇️ We know about as much as you do about how opening schedules are managed, they managed it wrong and other examples already given have managed it right. The only ‘example given on why things are like that’ that you’ve given pulling from a highly technical, innovative ride from Disney that goes down a lot, trying to say that it’s not right to complain about Levi going down as that ride does too. When, in actual fact, the main discussion about that ride is that it goes down a lot, because people inevitably get annoyed when that happens. And, with the other actual examples given for better managed opening schedules, a lot of Levi’s issues could’ve been smoothened out by opening with a soft opening/passholder preview, possibly negating most of the complaints entirely.

To be fair, though, Levi’s technology is new to its current staff members. With that being said, that is one of the many benefits of a soft opening/passholder preview, to get staff accustomed to the ride and its technology before the grand opening, and work out any kinks the programming may have. Also, despite the difference in technological advancement, people continuously complain if RotR goes down at Disney, like they are with Levi. It’s just the reasons that each ride goes down that is drastically incomparable.