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I'm curious - i'm sure this is an issue the team behind these effects are aware of, and i'm sure they've explored every possibility for having it trigger early, so i'm sure i'm missing something - but it has me wondering - couldn't there be a separate 'manual' button to trigger this particular effect? Even if it were perhaps on a timer than only allowed it to run a certain time to prevent it being set off too early, or running too long? (I ask because the show elements on space probe weren't connected to the ride system. The operator would trigger the effects by a separate button to dispatch, which is part of the reason the TV countdown was never the same spot - the computer wasn't randomising it, it was just up to when the op triggered it (along with the patch job they did on the drive module that ran slower than the others, causing the timing to be off, but that's another story told too many times already) I had heard the CO2 effect on runaway railway was costing disney a butt-tonne of money - but if it's a specific duration per dispatch, surely some way to trigger it manually isn't out of the question? I'm just curious to understand why this isn't possible - as i'm sure they would if they could?

...So for abour $108 a year, you can get behind the scenes snippets of their new attraction build and other park elements. ...For a few dollars more, you can get hours of behind the scenes at Disney, plus literal years of streaming movies and TV series as well on Disney Plus. ...Don't forget the last construction blog they had for Leviathan just randomly stopped when they topped out the ride and we didn't get any other updates from that blog for the 18+ months between that and opening day

I don’t think it affected it either, but what I think @franky might be saying is Universal wants Dreamworks exclusively at their parks, which means they want all the non-Universal parks to remove Dreamworks, including Dreamworld. Remember the deal was made before Dreamworks was bought by NBCUniversal (land opened in 2012, Dreamworks acquired in 2016). A similar thing happened with Marvel, and all parks (excl. IOA) have removed or are removing the Marvel properties because Disney wants them exclusively at their parks, as well as Simpsons rumoured to being removed in 2028 at USH/USF at the end of the 20 year deal between Universal and Fox (similar scenario here) And that is why I think Dreamworld were forced to go to non-IP/ABC Kids rides, because: Disney/Pixar/Fox rides are mostly at Disney, and will most likely not be going to third-party companies Universal/Illumination/Dreamworks rides are mostly at Universal, and are being removed from third-parties (like with DW) WB/Hanna-Barbera/Looney Tunes as well as Nickelodeon rides are at Village So if you remove them, you basically have only Sony Animation. And even then, 2/3 highest of the grossing franchises (Spider-Verse, Smurfs, Hotel Transylvania) have seperate theme park rights. Add to that Peter Rabbit, Goosebumps, Angry Birds, Emoji Movie and Aardman theme park rights most likely owned by seperate companies, you basically only have Hotel Transylvania, Open Season, Surfs Up and the Netflix films.

I agree, I actually love S&S shot towers, I don’t get that sickly feeling that I do on other towers. It’s got a nice pop of floater air time at the top, and I could honestly probably fall asleep on all of them, even combo towers! I also loved Tower of Terror at Disney World, I even found it more thrilling that any S&S drop tower i’ve been on. I’ve definitely heard of Lex Luthor being much more tame than other shorter Intamin drop towers. I may crank the nerve for a ride as it does look like it has sick views, and when I return to Florida I was going to try and get on Falcon’s Fury because I’m actually really excited for it! It went down before I was able to get on it whilst I was in line for it last time I visited. I think I would find it much less daunting by facing the ground, and not get that gross stomach feeling. Anyways, fingers crossed I have the nerve😵‍💫

Ocean Park - 23/04/2023 https://www.parkz.com.au/attraction/ocean-park I didn’t just head to Malysia back in April, I headed to Ocean Park in Hong Kong as well. It’s a huge park split into two parts that are 1.6km apart, connected via cablecars or a funicular. Ocean Park is located on Hong Kong Island, and very easy to reach via the MTR, a single stop away from Admiralty (literally minutes from downtown). Once you are there you literally walk 50m to the front gate. First impressions as you come in are quite impressive, with whimsical ocean themed buildings around a lagoon used for fountain shows. I was advised to head to Giant Panda Adventure first thing since you get to see them feeding, and I wasn’t disappointed, with one of them right up close and munching away. The red pandas were pretty cute too. Down this end they also had Little Meerkat and Giant Tortoise Adventure, a pretty small exhibit but again offered a good up close view. Down here they had a few other smaller exhibits. And a kids area, which to be honest looked a bit underwhelming on the rides front for a park this major. Guess Disney reigns supreme for families with kids here. To their credit they did build a big indoor thing with giant interactive walls and so forth recently. The cablecars can get quite busy in the morning so I opted to head up to the summit on the Ocean Express. Probably the best themed transport ride I’ve seen. There was also a video playing in the roof of the cars, but it was nothing to write home about, just a mash of ocean related stock footage. Arriving at the top of course I headed to Hair Raiser, the parks B&M floorless coaster, which looks rather awesome perched on the edge of a cliff. The ride experience is a bit of a jackammer though, it was kind of like when you lean your head on a bus window and your head is vibrating so much your vision is blurred. Starts off with a climb up the side of a naked cliff, before a large loop and a dive loop. Next comes a high speed camel hump, a Zero g roll, and an immellmann right over the ride entrance. The ride finishes off with a twisting hill and another turn into the brakes. I still did about 7 laps given the lack of a queue, but it was with my head firmly planted against the backrest. Arctic Blast is the other coaster, a mack powered coaster which was decent, with a dive into the trench under the entrance and a few helices for good measure. Only steadily paced though, so firmly for the families. Theres also The Rapids, pretty decent with an animal exhibit in the middle full of rainforest creatures. Note: dont do artificial rock like this! Most of the wetness seemed to come from a multitude of fountains on the way. Spotted the Ocean Park Tower nearby, spectacular views. Sea Jelly Spectacular was supposedly the inspiration for Sea Jellies Illuminated at SW, and got multi hour queues once upon a time. Was expecting something huge, but in reality the one here in the GC is better imo. Ferris Wheel offered views of the SBNO Dragon coaster. Pretty bad to have so many rides in plain view but not operational. The funny thing is off by itself amongst the closed stuff they have Wild Twister, a very modern looking Top Scan. Haven't done one of these in years, and certainly not in the outside seat and they are great fun, with you tumbling about in all directions. Feels like it achieves much more randomness than say a tourbillon. I think that sums up all the proper rides I did. (not one for spin and spews) I opted to catch the Cable Car downhill to get some pics and then promptly caught it back uphill again. Really makes you appreciate how HK just clings to every flat bit of available land. Around the bottom area is a nicley themed "Old Hong Kong" themed zone. Grabbed a drink before pressing on. There are quite a significant number of other animal exhibits Pacific Point contains all the seals, I got there right on feeding time but the underwater area was under rennovation. Didn't stick around for the dolphin show. Perhaps the most significant exhibit is Polar Adventure, which is divided into both north pole and south pole themed zones. Amazing seeing a walrus up close, and they seemed to love the crowds, blowing bubbles. The smelly, but cute arctic foxes. And of course they have penguins, but the whole room was kept cold rather than an enclosed box like the ones at SW. Shark Mystique is an all indoor version of shark bay, starting above ground at the rock pools and then leading down a spiral to a huge under ground tank. The sawtooth sharks were probably the highlight. Catching the ocean express back downhill I saw the last two major exhibits. Sichuan Treasures contains some long haired monkeys. But perhaps one of the best was saved for last, the Grand Aquarium. If this existed outside the park, they'd probably charge $40 for a ticket, but here its a standalone attraction. Several quite large displays, culminating in a massive picture window (since eclipsed by SeaWorld Abu Dhabi) Could have done without the baby shark stickers getting in the way however. Overall, its a good park, though disappointing to see so many closed rides in full view. These are not even ones they have boarded up etc, you have to walk right past several to get to some of the newer stuff. You can tell they are trying to fill a niche not covered by Disney, with a renewed focus on thrill rides and animals, neither of which Disney have. The rub with the place I feel is that it seems to have way too much in terms of facilities, attractions etc for the attendance that it gets, and they have built a lot of new stuff without getting rid of the old stuff, so the result is a place that is very spread out and empty feeling in parts and needs a lot of staff to actually run it. These comments more apply to the summit area. The bit down near the entrance is absolutely fine. I do hope the parks financial woes are able to be solved because no other place in the world has a setting like Ocean Park, and their animal exhibits are excellent. More photos are here: https://www.parkz.com.au/search/photos/location/ocean-park

The effects are also cheaper imo. No strobe tunnel in Hong Kong, 2nd lift effects are just strobe lights compared to the tunnel on the California version, brake run tunnel looks worse. Load station is smaller and looks a bit odd too. With the Star Wars overlay it looks incomplete and a mish mash of Star Wars & old space mountain, you'd think if it was intended to be permanent they'd go all in on the retheme. You're right on the layout and soundtracks but look into the little details and you see it's the cheap version (their autopia version could fall under this criticism too) which explains why Hong Kong was considered bad in its opening day form. A couple of standouts and it's a good park for someone who hasn't visited a Disney park before (Like myself when I visited) however if you visited Disneyland or WDW beforehand you'd notice these things pretty quickly. As you say Mystic is a fantastic dark ride, easily the best thing there, and a great take on the haunted mansion, it doesn't depend on screens as heavily as modern trackless dark rides (compared to Ratatouille or M&M RR). Grizzly is a great ride that has a great feeling of speed but haven't ridden any of the big thunders yet so can't make a judgement on whether it's better than that. Iron Man is a good alternative to Star Tours but I wasn't particularly impressed by it and it stuck out like a sore thumb in Tomorrowland, haven't gotten to ride the Ant-man space ranger spin redo yet but based on POV's it seems to be a downgrade. Arendelle looks great and although I dislike Iger/Chapek era IP-based projects as much as the next person it has its place and is a necessary addition to drive visitors up as something different from what you can experience in the mainland. Hoping the Avengers e-ticket is eventually built to finish off the marvel corner of tomorrowland which will also give visitors a reason to come as there's nothing marvel at shanghai.

April next year? VRTP clearly trying to outdo Disney for glacial project completion.

Hong Kong Disneyland https://www.parkz.com.au/attraction/hong-kong-disneyland The last park from my trip in April was Hong Kong Disneyland. Im on mobile so it's a bit harder to do my usual formatting and add many pics, but of course all 300 are already uploaded here: https://www.parkz.com.au/search/photos/location/hong-kong-disneyland Again I won't do a blow by blow of the day. Rather ill do each ride. Space Mountain Im still not big on the whole star wars overlay. The original music is much easier to follow and the theming doesn't make sense. You have classic space mountain with planets etc in the station, which is completely different to how a space ship interior looks in Star Wars. And then on the ride yeah they have a few lights that represent laser fire which looks great, but there's no hiding that a lot of it is just backdrops with a small 2d projection of a star destroyer. Just all feels forced on the wrong type of ride. That said the coaster is still great. The station is much smaller than the other ones so you lose a bit of that buzz of looking down over the station and seeing trains pump through. Iron Man Experience Pleasant surprise! I was expecting a reskinned star tours, but it felt so much more. The queue is like a tech expo with lots of cool stuff to look at. The ride film is incredibly detailed, and your usual "on a tour but stuff goes wrong" sort of storyline. My tip, have a walk around Hong Kong island and ride the tram east on a day before you visit the park. You'll get a lot more out of the ride film if you can spot real details. Ant Man Vs the Wasp - Nano Battle This was also better than expected. It was previously themed as buzz lightyear, but of course the MCU rules at Disney now. The ride was panned a bit in POVs for looking "boring" but it's fine and better than Buzz imo. Really bold visual design with you making your way through a high tech facility, before being shrunk down to fight the bad guys inside a computer. A nice touch was that the targets aren't just flat things with LEDs, instead they are actual screens built into the sets, with animations when hit. "its a small world" Yeah its fine, but probably the longest ive waited for it. It's hard to separate any of the versions of these in my mind. This was the first to integrate Disney characters into it but to be honest it was fine. It wasn't in your face at all. Winne the Pooh The scenes seemed similar to the Tokyo version, just without the trackless cars. You start in hundred acre woods in some gorgeous scenes that are all flats but have a real picture book feel. Eventually you see pooh in bed, he falls asleep, and there is a great peppers ghost effect of his soul seemingly leaving his body. You I've been transported into poohs dream, with a circus of "heffalumps" Instead these ones were tracked, but could still bounce up and down at certain points. Mickey and the Wondrous Book I made an effort do some shows since I normally don't do many at parks. Was great! There's a huge projection mapped book on stage, and as Goofy and Mickey turn through they release characters from various stories. Elaborate song and dance numbers with quite a large cast, tied together with your usual cool Disney FX. Worth a look. RC Racer So imagine Surfrider with the TOT2 car on it. Greater than the sum of its parts! It wierds you out for a moment since you keep mentally expecting to a bit of spin. But what makes it great is the multiple moments of floating airtime. Would have ridden twice but it's somewhat low capacity (was a one and done early in the day) Oh and the theming is great. I liked the plastic car model parts on a frame in the station, and the queue paths themed like a scaletrix track (complete with the metal slots and the joiner pieces between track segments) Toy Soldier Parachute Drop Eh was ok. Good if you want a view of back of house areas and very mild drops in a short ride cycle. Again has a great themed queue, with lots of props looking like green plastic parts from an army playset. Was able to bypass a 45 min wait with single rider. Mystic Manor Did not disappoint. You ride in a trackless ride vehicle through the antiques collection owned by an eccentric old man and his pet monkey (in fact 4 go at once and they dance around each other in each room) The antiques come to life as you go through each scene, and this is a ride where a few laps can help you spot all the great gags. I quite liked the room with all the Mediterranean antiques. There's a Greek vase with the print on the outside coming to life and physically popping out the neck. And the final room has a great effect of literally falling apart around you! My only critique is that the ride looks like a cool old mansion from the outside, but you don't walk in the front door. Instead you go into the "loading dock" down in the basement, which feels like a cop out. Dunno I reckon it would have been more dramatic if you went through the foyer of the house and a few rooms and THEN go downstairs to the basement with the treasures. Big Grizzly Mountain Runaway Mine Cars Great fun! A mine train coaster that wraps around a whole themed area. What i loved is the number of times goes under pathways and itself, so you can't just glance at the whole layout and map it out in your head. So it makes it feel like more of an Adventure since you don't know whats coming. Starts with a regular lift hill. At the top a grizzly bear pleasuring itself on a railway points lever causes your train go down "the wrong track" and a few turns follow. Then theres a dead end lifthill like a boomerang where you go up, then roll back down backwards The reverse section is mostly straight with Gentle turns, so no risk of feeling sick for anyone. Eventually you run backwards into a mine tunnel with a switch track. Some bears playing with dynamite cause an explosion, launching you forwards again. The remainder of the ride is several quick turns back to the station. It feels well orchestrated, with all these highlights on the way, a pace that gets faster as the ride goes on, and of course some good humour. Festival of the Lion King The other big show. Its a circular theatre and they bring in floats of African animals to the middle. There's acrobatics, fire twirling, bits of stage that rise up etc. It's done in a format where its a tribal retelling of the Lion King story, so Simba, Scar etc are guys in tribal dress, not actors in fursuits. Jungle Cruise I know its a classic but I just don't get it. Cruising past static sculpts of jungle animals just doesn't do it. Yeah there is some fire and water at the end, but not enough to warrant a repeat imo. Momentous. Really good and a genuine highlight. Recently the park renovated the castle from something that was once the size of the one in California, to one that rivals the Magic Kingdom. And after dark it becomes a giant projection mapping surface. Add some lasers, fountains and fireworks (Which HK is really good at for some reason) and of course a rousing soundtrack and the results are spectacular. The content is often a bit touchy feely, with memorable moments from Disney movies put up on the film. It was a particularly good sequence where they had all the villains and a song which I wish knew the name of. If I ever get back I'll definitely try and get there for a front row seat... I ended up sbout halfway up main Street which was decent enough view but you couldn't really see the fountains that well. Overall impressions... If nobody compared it to the other parks, it would be a fantastic place in its own right. There's always going to be certain Disney rides they could add, but as it stands now the lineup feels quite complete. I stayed from open till close and there is still stuff I could have tried (Slinky Dog, Astro Orbiter, the Teacups) Did repeat rides on Grizzly, Mystic, Iron Man, Ant Man, Space Mountain. Lines weren't that bad, maybe 30 mins at worst. Some of the rides are scaled back from the originals but it doesn't meaningfully impact the experience. Place is spotless, I loved the shady feel of Adventureland, the creative theming in Toy Story Land and the little thematic touches. There's a chance ill be back in HK next year, so I'd definitely go back again, and check out the new Frozen stuff too.

You've hit the nail on the head perfectly. If i'd done a TR of the park travelling solo, it'd probably have been identical. HKDL is a great park - and a great "first" Disney park for Aussies looking to head abroad. Those who have been able to visit other Disney parks are likely going to make comparisons, and many come away saying "it wasn't as good as ...." but the park stands on it's own, has a few unique elements that are absolutely excellent and worth a trip in their own right.

I was there and I would disagree. I disagree about this. There's a lot of things that parks are blind to, mainly because they see them on the daily, and don't notice. The font thing is one thing - because it doesn't change - but many other things do. Its the boiled frog analogy. It's the rotting speakers in the garden beds around movie world. The dust-encrusted air vents in Sky Voyager. Heck - even Disney has things pointed out to them by guests that they immediately take action on, but hadn't noticed until it was mentioned on some forum. There's a reason many parks review their fan sites and forums worldwide - and that's because enthusiasts have far more eyes in park that are critical for detail, it does their job for them.

Genting Skyworlds - 16 April 2023 https://www.parkz.com.au/attraction/genting-skyworlds I went to Malaysia for a couple of weeks in April and had the opportunity to visit Genting Skyworlds, a park which finally opened back in Feb 2022 after countless delays. This park was originally going to be Fox Studios World until Disney bought Fox. Coupled with the park continually missing deadlines, it was all fuel on a fire, causingthat licensing deal being dropped. Eventually the park opened, with some of the themes scrubbed out, but it still has plenty of other IPs like Ice Age, Night at the Museum, Planet of the Apes etc. Genting Group are also the ones who run Resorts World Sentosa and Universal Singapore, so in a way this feels like the long lost brother of Universal Singapore. It’s a compact, yet highly themed park, with a good mix of dark rides and flat rides, though only 2 of the 4 coasters are operating due to Dynamic Attractions basically running out of money to finish them (though to be fair, one of them has been testing and reportedly wont take as much to finish). (see https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolinereid/2023/03/22/leading-disney-ride-manufacturer-puts-itself-up-for-sale/ ) The huge orange SFX coaster still has half the track sitting in a lot behind the park you can see when riding Acorn Adventure. The whole Genting Highlands complex is immense. Imagine you took somewhere like Mt Tamborine or Katoomba up in the rainforest, and just chucked in huge high rise developments, malls etc at the top of the mountain. Locals love it because its a bit cooler and less humid at that elevation Theres also a temple you can stop at on the Skyway for free, which had bizzare business going on. Getting to the park is easy enough. You can get a coach for like $5 AUD up from KL Sentral Station. This coach takes about 90 mins and drops you at the Awana Bus Station up at Genting, and from there you catch a cableway up to the top, where there is a huge mall, casino and hotel complex, and of course the park. Theres a whole indoor park inside the mall too with a Zamperla Volare (More on that later) and some other touristy stuff like VR attractions, a Ripleys etc. It’s quite cool coming in and seeing the whole park below you. The entrance is well done, and they do a nice little 5 min dance routine as an opening ceremony. With the app you are entitled to 3 Virtual Queue booking, no paid option as of yet. You pick from the available time slots and come back at that time, which is nice bit of flexibility since you dont have to rush back to whatever the first slot availble is. Started off on Samba Gliders since I figured it would be low capacity. A continuous belt loading system in the station helps, but there still were a few stoppages. Ended up with a backwards facing ride. Nice and nippy, especially after a bigger drop halfway through which leads into a highly banked helix. Though this was better than Canopy Flyer at USS. Next up i headed to Ice Age Expedition Thin Ice, a trackless “Hockey Puck” dark ride just like the Antarctica one at SW Orlando (Which I followed being built, but never got to ride) Impressively, the whole ride is underground below the main park level (or IDK i think the park is basically just one huge elevated slab) so you head down into a cave to reach ride level. The theming in the queue ranges between “awesome” and “why did they bother”, but the ride is good fun. The story centers around Syd losing track of the kids at his summer camp, and you having to go around and round them up, and of course in the process getting caught in dangerous situations like an eruption, avalanche etc. A few ride vehicles are sent out at once, and they follow and interact with each other in each scene, and then all typically stop in front of a big screen where the action happens. A great family ride. I had snagged an early VQ slot for Acorn Adventure so headed to that. The story centers around scrat trying to find his acorn, so you see him throughout the ride chasing after it. This is my first experience with a chinese built coaster, and it actually was quite good! Was seated in the back, and the best way to describe the ride is that it picks up speed but the turns dont get any bigger, so by the end you are just hauling through the turns and transitions. It’s a bit like the ending of Phantoms Revenge where the train feels like its going a bit too fast for the layout. And the theming is top noch too, like this full sized 3d dino trapped in ice. My next priority was Invasion of Planet of the Apes, another trackless dark ride using exactly the same hardware as Acorn adventure, though this one has you wearing 3D glasses. The queue had a bit of a post apocalypic theme. You are led into a preshow where you discover a virus has wiped out most of humanity, but made the apes super intelligent, and now everyone is at war. You are a friend of the apes and need to find one of them before the anti ape league does. The ride vehicles move really well and do shake you around a bit, which was quite cool. The first part has you scooting around inside a warehouse as various teams of soliders try to shoot at you. 3D wasn’t always synced well with the vehicles, so you'd see some weird stretching of the graphics since the vehicle wasnt quite programmed to be at the correct vantage point. SFX were ok, but there was one bit that seemed a bit crap where it was just static soldier mannequin props shooting at you from behind a plastic curtain with flashing lights. Did i mention the ride is set in San Francisco, so there is an unintentionally hilarious sequence where you smash out of the warehouse and your ride vehicle is then running downhill along a stereotypical SF street. And of course you are being shot at by some bad guys in cable car tram, also skidding downhill. Felt like something out of an 80s cop show lol. Not too far away is Night at the Museum, another trackless dark ride, but this time using the Toy Story Mania type system where you pull a cord to shoot at a screen. The queue theming is great. Taking you from the museum halls to the Back of House area, where they need new night time security guards. The actual ride area was very plain. Just totally black apart from the screens, with each screen being themed around a museum exhibit coming to life. My favourite was the neanderthal one, where they learn how to make fire, proceed to set their rags on fire, and its up to you to shoot to extinguish the flames. Another sequence has you being chased by hordes of terracotta warriors, and you shoot lollypops at them, which causes them to pause and be placated by the sweets. Great concept, but i just wish the bits between the screens had been properly themed like the galleries of the museum to match the standard seen in the queue. The other “Good” ride available was Epic: Voyage to Moonhaven. It’s a film i hadnt even heard of, but its by the same studio that did Rio and and Ice Age, but in summary it's one of those movies where tiny leafmen creatures live at the bottom of your garden and war with each other. The theming was well executed, and actually spoke to me because I immediately recognised the house was based on Olana house in upstate NY (A place ive been to) The house is themed around a professor who tries to spy on these leafmen. You board a boat for a garden tour, and go down a drop, which causes you to shrink to bug size. A warning, this drop is WET. Like ice age, the main dark ride is below ground level. Lots of colourful garden scenes, leading into darker more ominous scenes inhabited by the bad guys. Eventually you escape, up a lift hill and into a short outdoor section where you are welcomed back and congratulated for helping beat the bad guys by sitting on your arse on and riding. My other VQ slot was for Boot Camp Training, a combined ropes course / climbing wall / zipcoaster complex. You HAVE to use VQ on this attraction, so if you wish to experience keep one of your slots spare. Right on cue the Malaysian afternoon rain storm rolled through, so after getting to do the ropes course I took cover until the zip coaster opened again. Was reasonably fun, good amount of swinging on the turns, and the finale was interesting because instead of a brake run the track turns uphill sharply and anti rollbacks catch you. The clip n climb walls had you climbing to the top, where you then had to jump off and let the belay system take over as you lowered back to ground, which is admittedly somewhat nerve racking. Was funny though seeing ,multiple people coming back to earth but not having their legs ready and kind of just butt planting on the ground, It reminded me of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKpitX0k4Nc Of course, I knew already Mad Ramp Peak, the motorbike version of Radiator Springs Racers wasn't going to be ready, and as for the SFX coaster, who knows. But it was a bit disappointing the Independence Day Defiance flying theatre was also closed, as was the Terraform Tower Challenge space shot ride. As the day wore on, breakdowns seemed to become more frequent and it took a few attempts to ride some stuff. Both of these rides have been open for a while so was hoping the soft opening jitters were long gone. The flying theatre i've been told has quite a good film, and the ride system looks interesting because it actually lifts you up from the floor (a bit like how the bonnet on a car opens) And the space shot too I was curious to try because spoilers (there is a trap door below the load area, so you drop down into a show scene before being launched up) There was also supposed to be a fountain show at 4.30. Turned up at the lake where it was supposed to be on. Nothing. Not even a message on the screen to say it was being cancelled. So, the rest of the day I spent trying most of the smaller attractions. In no particular order. ESD Global Defender. Aerobat ride Just like Apocalypseburg Sky Battle at Legoland Billund. This was part of the Independence Day area, so had a cool little ultra modern queue building. Tilt the wings to make your seat flip but you do have to work at it, and it was easy to get stuck upside down and end up with blood rushing to your head. PS anyone else think its odd the original park was supposed to have Alien Vs Predator AND Independence Day? Epic Hummingbird Flyers Dumbo type ride with a lever to move your bird up and down. Gorgeous theming on this, and there was a sound track with the good guys instructing you to avoid the water squirts from the bad guys by flying up or down at the right time. (so potential to get wet on this) Bigwelds Zeppelins Turns out Disney is not the only place to have more than one dumbo ride in the same park. This one was more gentle, but the whole robot town area also had a great aesthetic. Rivet Town Roller Took a few attempts to get on this since it seemed to go down a lot. I actually could have ridden this at Nick Universe in 2019 but was a bit jet lagged back on that day so skipped it. Its like a matterhorn ride crossed with a 4D coaster. Your seat has a joystick and a motor, so you can make your seat flip forwards or backwards. Whatever direction you tilt the joystick the seat will continuously flip in that direction. If you let go, the seat will reset to upright. I worked out you could emulate a flying coaster by tilting the stick till you were face down, and then repeatedly tilting and correcting it slightly back and forth to remain horizontal. Good interactive ride. Blue Sky carousel Double deck carousel with some really creative things to ride on, eg a Rio moped, a mammoth, a baby T rex, slugs etc. Clearly the brief was “imagination” and being whimsical and they pulled that off well. Did re rides on Acorn Adventure, Planet of the Apes and night at the museum. Overall, its a good park with great theming and plenty of details to spot if you look. The rides they have open are pretty good. If they had the other two coasters open it would totally be A-league and really balanced. If you are in KL definitely head up and check it out, but I probably wouldn’t make a dedicated trip just yet until they get those two flagship coasters sorted.

Running out of time to get these trip reports done so I'll do a rushed dot point one for Sunway Lagoon with some general points on the park. https://www.parkz.com.au/attraction/sunway-lagoon It's a park ive been interested in for years...I guess seeing it on Getaway / The Great Outdoors regularly sparked my interest in the place, but of course as I got older, certain bigger and better parks took priority. As many of you would already be aware, Sunway was the company that owned Wonderland Sydney. A small piece lives on with Bountys Revenge having been relocated here as Pirates Revenge. Fun to relive some memories from when I was 14, but the ride seems so much smaller than I remember. I had no idea until somone told me a couple of days before my visit, but the park is built in an old Quarry, so you have all these natural cliff faces, all planted with tropical vegetation, or used for waterfalls, or stepped temple theming, and of course used to run slides down, so its quite a dramatic setting and more parks could try converting old quarries IMO. The hotels, malls etc are around the edge, providing a natural view. The only drawback is having to install escalators to get people down. -The park says it's "6 theme parks in 1" but in reality these are just themed lands. They try and say one of them is "Sunway Scream Park" and this consisted of a single sharknado themed maze shoehorned into a corner. -Sharknado, haven't seen the film. just "okay", the highlight was a flooded room, achieved by using haze and a flat scanning laser, much like what was on the last drop on scooby years ago. -The rides area only opens at 6, with some rides opening earlier. A bit of a pain because it means the Lost City of Gold opens late in the day, right when the afternoon storms roll in, and it takes ages to re open after rain, so its a major pain to get a ride. First time on a Soquet coaster, was a bit bumpy in spots but had insane air on the 2nd hill. Reminded me of a mini Intimidator 305. -Rest of the rides are ok, but not too many of them. Suprised they had a river rapids shoe horned in, which was quite wet. -The main water park had the star attraction, the Surf Beach closed. Theres a 2nd wave pool, and a deceent selection of AWL built slides, including something like speed coaster, a super 6 racer called Congo Challenge, and some raft slides called African Pythons. Dont know if anyone remembers the old old original Terror Canyon/River Rapids from WnW where they had foam brake strips glued to the slide to slow you down, and the raft would just bump across them like the lines on the road at the end of the Sydney to Newcastle Freeway. Anyway, Sunway does, so again childhood memories of being shaken to bits by the slide came flooding back (excuse the pun) -Vuvuzela is Whitewater Wests copy of a Tornado. Despite a different shape, it felt literally no different to the original. -Waterplexx 5D was another novel attraction for me. It's a 4D cinema (but only 2d was working) where you sit in a tiled room in fibreglass seats. The movie went for a few minutes and was a first person perspective a guy flying over the jungle, crash landing, and then being hunted by tribesman, and running for his life. Throughout the show, random water jets would erupt next to your seat, rain would come from above etc. It's a bit of a laugh being randomly doused for a few minutes, but didnt really bear any resemblance to the on screen action, it was more like "hey something dramatic is happening, lets crank the water!" (so not like at MW where spiders = leg ticklers, or sneeze = mist) -Sunway Wildlife Park was better than i expected, with very nice looking exhibits, everything from Racoon to Tigers. -Theres another water park zone called Lost Lagoon. Jungle Fury was a family raft slide with heaps of wall to wall action on the turns. They also had an aqualoop and flatline loop called Monsoon 360, but only the flatline loop was open. Kids stuff looked superb! -Aside from the Wave Pool the other hero is the suspension bridge streching across the quarry. Great views, and there is a random spinning tunnel at the start. -Overall impressions. The original 1994 vision is great and the theming is still impressive. But over time bits and pieces have been added and the integrity has been lost, so some areas look cluttered. Was a bit frustrating that they promote 90 attractions, but large numbers just aren't open. There's even that wild chase coaster that has never operated, yet it's still marked on the park map! They also do a bit of the old HK disney approach of counting things like fountains as separate attractions, like theres a separate set of tipping buckets, and a waterfall along the lazy river, and the buckets and waterfall are listed separately. Much like Wonderland, new additions are sporadic, and they rely a bit on temporary events, but the water park expansion at the back by Whitewater was decent. More pics https://www.parkz.com.au/search/photos/location/sunway-lagoon

The same layout, and same soundtracks? Major difference in the two is that the load station is downsized - though the Hyperspace Mountain overlay has now been made permanent so the addition of star wars elements makes up for this IMO. Yeah, 2012 you're probably right, the park was a flop at opening and the expansions you mention is Disney's recognition of this. Mystic, in my opinion, is possibly one of the best dark rides Disney has ever done. Though M&M RR is newer, having experienced both, I think I enjoyed Mystic far more with much more practical sets and less reliance on projection. Grizzly has it's own place too as a 'different' option to big thunder. Throw in Toy Story and the park is more fully fleshed out. Now with Iron Man, and soon to be Arendelle - it's definitely punching above its weight and is being underestimated (even given the loss of Autopia). I saw the park in 2010 and 2015, so saw the before and after. 2010 was still enjoyable, but 2015 it was beating OP hands down. I think @Gazza would have made it to HKDL while he was there, so no doubt another TR is coming and we'll find out what he thought of it in its current state of comparison.

To be fair it wasn’t very good in 2012, no mystic manor, no iron man and probably no big grizzly mountain. Basically in its opening day state with the expansions they put in. Without those big majors to set it apart from the rest of the Disney parks it’s literally just a Disneyland clone with half the budget and effort (compare Hong Kong space mountain to California)

We were there in 2012 and enjoyed our day, Hellraiser was new but closed the day we went which was disappointing other wise it was a good park and much better than Disney HK.

My old man used to live in Hong Kong for a decade so went to this park every time I went over there to visit before he moved back home so I've followed this park pretty closely over the years. The animal exhibits are as you say great and more than adequate. The presentation is excellent, but I think it's degraded quite a bit since it was all new. The park was basically rebuilt a decade ago to compete with Disney and I remember when it was all new and fresh. The fact that Ocean Park is very cash-strapped is very telling through the photos. I don't think its particularly well looked after at all especially compared to how it looked when it won an award usually reserved for Disney, Universal or big European parks. Hair Raiser started out very smooth when it was new but it definitely developed a nasty rattle over time. I think it's a great ride and has a decent layout with a combination of different forces but unfortunately it operates in the wrong climate - I think it's pretty similar to Abyss in that respect. It can get very hot in Hong Kong during peak summer and it's easily worse than the coast thanks to the humidity. The mine train was awesome, truly a fantastic experience and one of my favourite coasters despite being a Zamperla with crappy transitions, no other coaster in the world has the setting quite like what that did. Dragon had an awesome setting too but it was a terrible Arrow looper which says a lot considering I have a bit of a soft spot for them. Some of those transitions were just wrong, you can see them in POV's. Particularly in the helix after the sidewinder. It's a shame they're all still sitting there unused, but it doesn't at all surprise me - I don't think this park has the cash to remove them - there's heaps of rides and buildings down there sitting closed left to rot away including a few flats and a massive log flume. The park is huge so even on a relatively busy day it looked dead on each visit. It's unfortunate because Ocean Park had a huge master plan a few years ago that looked awesome (with a lot of new rides themed to the standard of what's at the top of the peak including a dive coaster and a family launch coaster) which was supposed to replace all those closed rides but they have since been shelved as a result of Covid, the protests that occurred before driving down attendance from the mainland (last time I visited was right before Covid started and the park was nearly empty). From what I hear also the government chose not to give the park money to invest in the expansion. To my understanding they are changing the park's operations to contract out zones to different operators - I think they're quite desperate and the future of at least the amusement side of the park is not looking particularly bright.

Shame to hear Hair Raiser runs so rough. Glossy smooth when I rode back in 2014. As for the state of the park - Its quite sad. The Arrow looper was 37 years old so had lived its life, but the other rides in the summit were perfectly operable when closed. Ocean park had been crippled pre-covid by the Hong Kong riots and the downturn in tourism from mainland china that it caused, as well as the genuine competition that was starting to pop up from the mainland. I believe they are planning on selling off the summit and the area near the old Mine train to a private developer/operator who are then going to operate certain attractions on a pay per ride basis, and this company had no interest in operating larger rides - or those similar to the Disney style of ride - so Ocean park just shut them down. P.S that mine train was just as beautiful as it looks.

this is over the steps - but what is the rest of the hoarding? just plain white wall? wayfinding signage? a giant QR code? fair enough they've provided a 'best attempt' photo opportunity (disney castle renovactions get similar substitutes) - but is the rest of the wall plain white?

In regards to the wall, I think it’s great the park has actually gone to the effort of constructing something while the works happen, rather than just putting up the standard construction fencing we’ve been seeing for many many years. I’ve always wanted our parks to follow in Disney and Universals footsteps when it came to construction site walls, so well done to the park for actually investing in this. It would be great to see the parks do this more often where viable. For example, I could give DW a pass for the Dreamland works because it’s a phased process and the walls are being moved around every few weeks/months depending on the attraction. But the fact they’ve gone to the effort of designing and putting up a wrap advertising whats to come is great to see. While at MW with the construction of Wizard of Oz, they should be constructing a wall at the start of the site and promoting the precinct because that wall will be there for a couple of years (from when it first went up). And while the stickers at DW do seem a last minute addition, I do think a more prominent wrap/signage advertising the attraction or creating a photo opportunity would’ve been a much better option to see

You're not wrong there. Disney Corporate resents Imagineering. They're constantly making moves to limit their control over the parks because excellence is expensive. They'd prefer an okay product with amazing profits than vice versa.

Wow! And this is what happens when you slowly water down the clout imagineering has in the parks, you end up with 'GC Style' in Disney parks 😛

Black walls are theatres version of go away green. I remember decrying the green masking tape on the ground at movie world - and I was promptly shouted down by everyone - with photos of the same tape in use at Disney as evidence that it was perfectly acceptable industry practice. I'm sorry but blank walls are a thing at disney and so this should be accepted as the gold standard. Maybe the sign printers producing the artwork were delayed due to covid supply chain issues? (For me personally i'd love to see Dreamworld get a bunch of local spraycan artists to do a mural type thing over it - perhaps they're doing a special 'paint and sip' session at the night markets? This is all very 'judging a book by its cover' here. I'm sorry Dreamworld. You should aspire to be better - like the park down the road. I'm sure most annual passholders are going for the rides, rather than the photo opportunity. The current construction is literally to bring the entrance plaza back to life as it is presently only used to get from Ocean Parade to Taipan. You first discovered these walls had gone up and posted on Saturday. The thread itself only started friday afternoon. It's fucking 9am monday and you've already lynched them. Your bias is showing.... I'm keen to see what they do this week, especially in light of all this one-man-community-outcry. Heres the 411 though: The industry uses blank construction walls a lot. A lot of the time (and especially when there is a big IP involved) the parks will stick some chracters on the wall, or some artist impressions to build excitement. Hell - in some cases disney only puts some contrasting lattice work in small frames to break it up. But there are so many examples of blank walls out there at all the big parks that I think this is being blown up a tad more than is appropriate to the circumstances. It's a construction wall, not a turn-of-the-century cinema facade. Calm the fuck down.

If you've only got one spare day, do Lotte World. You can get to JAMSIL station on the Green (Line 2) or the Red (Line 😎 Subway. You'll want to head in early, it's a bit of a walk through the shopping mall to the entrance of Lotte World. Also, have breakfast before you go. There's not a lot open at that time of the morning between the station and the entrance. Get there before opening and go straight for ATLANTIS on rope drop. This ride attracts the biggest queue and will be over an hour wait by the time you get off the ride if it is the first thing you do. The park stays open until quite late and the rides are open until closing. You can pretty much spend 11-12 hours there and ride everything a couple times. The lunch time parade is usually fairly average, but the night time parade is absolutely amazing and should not be missed. It's genuinely better than the Disney parades I've seen. You'll want to get a good spot somewhere in front of the castle which sits above the Ice Rink (up the Pirate Ship End). Get there a little early, because people often get 4pm-close tickets just to see the parade. Don't be deceived by the short line for Comet Express - the line outside is just the overflow for the very long line underground, so hit that one up right after Atlantis. There are a lot of smaller hidden attractions (simulators, shooting theatres, shooting simulators) scattered around the place, and the kids area is also incredibly themed, again, Disney quality. If you want to go ice skating (I recommend doing this on a different day possibly in the evening if you have one spare), they typically do 30% off for Foreigners if you have your passport with you. This is roughly the equivalent of free skate hire. You need to wear gloves while skating, but they sell knitted ones for really cheap at vending machines. If you have friends in Seoul, have them try to find discounts. Samsung often offer 40% off entry with their credit cards. I once got $15 all-day entry with a free Pizza slice. Good Times. Also, TAKE CASH. Lotte know that foreigners travel to their shopping centres and theme parks, and they will try to get you to say 'yes' to a 5% currency conversion fee on every transaction - even if you have a fee free travel credit card like the 28Degrees Mastercard. The message will often be in Korean, so if you can't read it, you won't know what you're agreeing to. Sometimes the staff will just hit 'yes' for you. But it will show up on the digital signature pad. Everland: It's a pain in the ass to get to, and there is a lot of walking, but T-Express is amazing. If you've only got one day, I'd recommend skipping this one and heading back to Korea for a holiday. Seoul Land: This really is a beautiful park. You don't go here for the thrills, it's more for a chilled day with some old-school rides. You can often find discounts for entry after 12pm if you look online. The coasters are pretty old and difficult to fit into if you're taller than 6ft. But there are some great attractions and really good, cheap food. There is a really great western themed shooting dark ride that is possibly one of the best I've ever experienced. No screens, just physical targets. It's a lot of fun. But if you're into the rides and only have a day, Lotte World is your best bet.

I went back in January - bad timing because of a number of coaster closures, but here are the parks I went to. - Lotte World: probably the park I'd recommend the most. This place is jaw-dropping. As Ogre already mentioned, it's Disney-esque in its level of detail and theming. Features Atlantis Adventure, which is a great coaster and really well-themed; French Revolution, possibly the best-themed Vekoma MK-1200 in the world; and don't sleep on Comet Express, one of the world's only Intamin Twist and Turns and actually a fun little coaster. This place had me dazzled all day, it's breathtaking in its scale and brilliance. It's very accessible from the Seoul Metro. - Everland: the obvious drawcard here is T Express, but this park is quite large and very beautiful with a good selection of rides. Also, don't miss the zoo and gardens, which are changed to a different theme every season. But of course, T Express is one of the most sought-after credits in the world, so it's worth the trip for that alone. About a 30-40 minute bus ride from Seoul. - Gyeongju World: a bit of a trek from anywhere you're likely to be visiting for any other reason, but it features a B&M Invert and a Dive Coaster. A pretty good-looking park as well, although I found it was by far the worst in Korea for its operations and upkeep. Gyeongju has a high-speed rail station, but it's another half hour or so by bus from the station to the park. Still, Phaethon and Draken would be worth the trip from Busan. - Lotte World Adventure Busan: a brand spanking new park by Lotte, opened in 2022. It features a Blue Fire clone and a PowerSplash. The park looks fantastic and definitely has the potential to live up to its sister park in Seoul, but it's a little sparse for the time being, which is forgivable since it only just opened. I'm sure it will expand gradually. Busan is a great city, and the park is a train ride from the city, so worth a stopover if you're there. - Seoul Land: the coasters here are awful (a couple of head-banging loopers, an abomination of a Wild Mouse that is baffling in its very existence, a Zamperla twin helix and a wacky worm), but the park itself is really very beautiful and has a large collection of rides and attractions. Entry is cheap and it's accessible from Seoul Metro, plus the location around it is absolutely picturesque, so it's worth a visit if you're looking for things to do. I also went to Grand Children's Park for the Vekoma SFC credit, but I would not recommend that for anything more than the credit. It's poorly maintained and runs rough.

I've never been myself, but the three that come to mind are: Lotte World in Seoul. Big indoor / outdoor park and very Disney-esc. Atlantis Adventure is a fun looking and unique Intamin coaster. Everland. Main reason for going would be T Express, one of only 4 Intamin pre fab Woodies in the world, but the rest of the ride selection also looks pretty good. Gyeongju World: Another good looking park with a couple of big B&M's. There's some detailed vlogs from all 3 parks on this YT channel : https://www.youtube.com/@ThemeParkBlitz/