RingMaster

But then we might have more creative names than Drop Tower and Flight Deck and we wouldn't need to be kept waiting until the last minute for updates weeks or sometimes months after our sister parks receive them.

Why not call him Boo Boo amongst your family members? And I believe the main reason why a ride like Spiderman isn't so widely used is because you're talking about a rather complex ride mechanic which involves a lot, and I mean a LOT, of scheduled maintenance and the possibility of a lot of downtime should it not be handled properly by its owner. This is also coming from a market where the focus is still on massive roller coasters and record-breaking rides. Companies like Cedar Fair and Six Flags believe that enthusiasts and the general public don't care about theming or dark ride experiences; no, they want a Beemer or an Intamin.

From what I recall, the mummy animatronic in Scooby did the same thing to where it was a jumper effect, although it only "jumped" about less than a foot. Maybe this version will go farther than its original.

I'm hoping he's not the only "human" character in the whole ride. I would imagine there's a whole family of tourists in there that you have to rescue from the evil clutches of Boocifer...who I'm going to call Boo Boo. On a side note, I wasted a good two hours of today just giggling over the name Boo Blasters on Boo Hill and, in effect, Boo Boo. ....hang on. We should call That New Guy YOGI!

I would've preferred Maniac Mansion or something of that nature.

I'm calling it Boo Boo (or Boo Boo's Blasters). Because I can. The name is finally starting to stick with me. Only 'cause I find it funny to say. Which is why I wanna call it Boo Boo.

One word about this particular picture: AWESOME. This only makes the "No Photography While Riding" rule that much stricter; the denizens of Boo Hill will come after you like no other.

http://www.carowinds.com/public/park/rides/family_rides/action_theatre.cfm ^ If I'm reading this right, then SpongeBob is still at Carowinds. Can anyone confirm this at all?

*facepalm* I KNEW they were going to sell 3D glasses if they had them for the ride. I can only imagine they'll sell glasses here if our dark ride is in 3D, and then someone will get the idea to sell glasses during the Haunt for CarnEVIL (Knott's does the exact same thing for their 3D mazes, except theirs are $3).

I wonder who will be doing the ride safety spiels in Planet Snoopy; I'm gonna miss hearing Jeff Seibert's voice every time I rode Runaway Reptar.

They've been done with the ride for months now; it's just the scenic pieces that are being finished up now. I would most definitely imagine they have been testing it every waking moment they have and are just now set to soft open it with actual human participants. The only things that have been shown from the ride on the news are a few of the rooms of the queue line that guests will go through, along with two seconds of footage from one of the scenes of the ride that are projected on a screen. Everything else is still top secret until the Grand Opening...or whenever the first Soft Opening begins.

The rumor is that Soft Openings begin April 9th, so given the fact that this is new technology they're dealing with, I would imagine they need a good month or two of people, both guest and worker, testing the Forbidden Journey and allowing people to walk through Hogsmeade. Besides, the Grand Opening is mainly a media affair, one with the actors and creators of the movies (and JK Rowling), thus, I don't see park guests being anywhere close by the island until the media festivities are over with.

Which one would hope Mr. Potter and his Pals should be Universal's ticket to finally getting attendance up at the park (in Orlando, at least). Despite the lack of concrete details surrounding the actual technology behind the ride, you have to admit it sounds as if it'll be the next great leap in the dark ride experience, much like Spiderman did more than 10 years ago (even though only one knock-off was created outside Uni).

061810 Yet another date to add to your calendar of growing events in the theme park world, as today, Universal Studios unveiled the Grand Opening date for The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Islands of Adventure to be June 18th, 2010. Later today, details will emerge on their new dark ride, Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, being hailed as the most groundbreaking ride ever created since Spiderman, on the official Wizarding World website. However, a few of the HP fansites already have detailed reports on the ride, so if you want to remain surprised about it (or just wait to hear it straight from the horse's mouth) then DON'T click on these links: http://www.the-leaky...hogwarts-emerge http://www.mugglenet...pfjreview.shtml http://www.snitchsee...une-18th-71678/ 061810

Reminds me exactly of Toon Lagoon at Islands of Adventure. One can only hope that it will look just as good (hopefully better) over here come Opening Day.

^ Which is what some of us here believed what would happen if the Apollo deal went through and they got their hands on both Cedar Fair and Six Flags... *cough*Kings Island*cough*. . .

The more they keep saying that, the less I become interested in what all they're going to do to the ride. This stalling won't mean anything if the only thing that's changed is the removal of the Scooby props and a simple rename. Even adding 3D to the title isn't going to do the trick, in my opinion. It just means more fluorescent paint and annoying paper glasses.

And you think Apollo won't do the same? Remember, this is the same company that is rumored to merge both Six Flags and Cedar Fair together should they acquire SF. That's 35 parks to govern; I can already see that number cut in half within two to three years should Apollo be given the green light.

If, by some odd chance, they gave the ride a massive overhaul by adding Disney-quality sets and animatronics and fixing the guns so they actually work, and kept it a secret all this time, then I will be amazed. However, if they wait until the last minute just to say they just renamed the ride like "Boo Blasters on Boo Hill" and did nothing to enhance the ride (minus taking out anything having to do with Scooby-Doo), then I will be livid.

IceCream329, huh? Are you the new Dippin' Dots guy?

I am by no means an expert on this, so this is pure speculation/guesswork. Anyway, I see two reasons why the water park can't be used as a Haunting ground: The water park 'footprint', so to speak. Boomerang Bay is built as one giant S-curve. This causes a bottleneck effect, as hordes of crowds will go down one direction, reach a dead end, and in order to reach an attraction on the opposite side, they have to fight their way through another horde (X-Base during the Haunt is the perfect example of this). Most, if not all, parks utilize an oval or wheel design to create a connected path for easy, regulated guest flow. The wheel design is the better option of the two as a central hub makes traveling from one end to the other much easier than walking in circles, no pun intended; Kings Island has the wheel design with the Eiffel Tower as the central hub. The reason why I explained this is because crowds double (and in some cases, triple) during the Haunt, the last thing you would want is X-Base magnified to an entire park. A literal nightmare. Lack of available space for mazes. Out of the 11 mazes last year, only three of them were completely outdoors (Cut-Throat and Urgent Scare's half-in, half-out doesn't count). Boomerang Bay has maybe one or two locations to add an indoor maze. Seaside Shack by the Season Pass entrance is the only one I can come up at the moment. Sure, the Bathhouses are fairly large, but do you REALLY want a maze stationed in a bathroom? Also, most of the spots that would seem perfect for an outdoor attraction aren't made for regular foot traffic. Unless Boomerang Bay suddenly became one giant scare zone, the water park haunt, I believe, is dead in the water. No pun intended.

Very true! Ironically, that's exactly how I feel about Cedar Fair... It seems as if every park they come into contact with switches its entire marketing and promotional scheme to "We're a family park now / again!" And then they come along with Halloween Haunt, where no one and nothing is off limits... Doesn't really match their nearly universal claim of "we're not thrill parks, we're family amusement parks!" and it certainly doesn't match their often-toted promise that the park is back to the way it used to be before Paramount came along... As always, just sayin'! Of which it also goes against the original Haunt's background at Knott's Berry Farm which doesn't rely on the "edgier, more mature themes" that Kings Island seems so intent on shoving down peoples' throats; they just let their creativity and massive roster of monsters do the talking. Seeing as how, you know, Cedar Fair renamed everyone else's Halloween event (minus Cedar Point, go figure) to the Haunt.

The fact that the ride had physical breakdowns during most of its inaugural season notwithstanding... From what I can recall, THIRT3EN is also rumored to have a dropping mechanism at some point on the ride, much like what the Tower of Terror has, to simulate plummeting into a catacomb, or something of that nature.

http://screamscape.c...ws.htm#SixFlags ^ The Six Flags rumor is old news, but Lance at Screamscape summed up what could be the Doomsday scenario for the regional theme park industry should Apollo acquire Cedar Fair and Six Flags.

Best. Answer. EVER. Makes you wonder if they're going to wait until the day before the park opens to announce Scooby's replacement is, even if it's only Boo Blasters on Boo Hill or something of that nature.