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The Reddit source claims programming starts the first week of March and will take to months (installation’s definitely still going to be happening awhile into February regardless of how long it takes to program. My understanding is the animatronics and ride cars aren’t at the park yet, but don’t quote me on that.) If taken literally that would place the ride’s completion date at the start of May, but since the park did say it opens in April I’m now leaning towards it opening with the park (if nothing has changed it’s essentially a difference of a week, assuming there’s not a charity thing that would happen before passholder previews.) I’m also optimistic because the park said since the beginning that PT’s set to open in the spring, and Camp Snoopy/Adventure Port were always advertised as opening in Late Spring/the Summer.

It had design flaws so it was destined to fail.

I was only 12 at the time, but I really enjoyed Son of Beast’s campaign. The giant box violently shaking and growling was really cool and intimidating. Lot’s of mystery and speculation leading up to the announcement.

I agree. I took my family on a trip to Orlando last summer and spent 2 weeks between Disney and Universal. In addition to the premium ride experience (pretty much every ride is heavily themed and designed and is considered world class), the IP is really what sets them apart. I can admit we spent a lot of money in the shops for all of exclusive items. Harry Potter, Super Mario, How to Train Your Dragon… Star Wars, Stitch, Toy Story… It’s really hard to beat that. And then you toss in that these parks are in geographical locations that allow them to stay open year round…

They offer a premium experience for starters. Universal Orlando Resort is designed to make you stay multiple days. Six Flags parks are mostly regional with people visiting for a day, then going home. There’s less opportunity for Six Flags to monetize second and third days, on-site lodging and vacation package behavior. Universal excels at turning demand into high-margin upgrades, on top of tickets, food and merchandise. Six Flags is heavily dependent on season pass visitation in many of its markets, and that pressures per-cap spending. Universal also has those global, world-class IP as a repeatable content machine. They utilize it well. That’s my thoughts on it.