thegajone

The only other amusement park experience that I can think of that compares to TRTR is Alien Encounter at WDW. Both attractions delivered on all phases: anticipation of not knowing what the hell it was, a well themed queue that made the wait tolerable and even enjoyable at times, and an actual ride/show experience that really delivered. It is truly impressive that a seasonal park was able to pull that off. Sadly with the way things are today with on-ride POV videos on YouTube and social media, we'll likely never again see another attraction that can pull that off, at least for me. The HP attractions in US came close but I still pretty much knew what they would be going in. TRTR the first time through was an experience I'll never forget, and I thank you for helping take me back to that day with this piece. Sent from my SM-G925V using Tapatalk

Just wanted to touch on this. I completely agree with what's written here - particularly in regards to SIX blending lines better. The vast majority of the time the Flash Pass line and the regular line don't run right next to each other. As such, Flash Pass users and those in the standby line often don't see each other until they arrive at the station. This makes for a much better experience for those on both sides as the lack of interaction between the two lines makes things a lot less uncomfortable for everyone. The other thing that SIX does better than FUN in the skip-the-line game is their ability to manage Flash Pass users electronically. This has two major benefits: Flash Pass users don't need to physically stand in a line until they're reservation is ready. Flash Pass users have a lot more freedom to do what they want when they want. SIX can better allocate manage Flash Pass users and better disperse them throughout the park. This is really critical if you have a park that has one or two really popular rides and a bunch of mediocre stuff after that. Six Flags New England is a great example. Bizarro/Superman has by far the largest Flash Pass demand there. If left unchecked you would have crazy amounts of Flash Pass users roll through and the normal line would move at a glacial pace. In reality, SIX simply adjusts the reservation time so that it spaces amount Flash Pass users much more evenly. It's much fairer for all parties. Cedar Fair hasn't gone to virtual queuing for one reason and one reason only - they see 100% of the benefit because they don't have to split the proceeds with anyone. The current Fast Lane system has positives - it's easy to understand for guests, there's no electronic device to worry about losing, and the system is cheap to operate from Cedar Fair's perspective.Fast Lane's only major flaw is its complete inability to manage the wait times for popular coasters, particularly at Cedar Point. I haven't run in to any major issues at other Cedar Fair parks with Fast Lane users, but there are simply too many Fast Lane users at Cedar Point concentrated at the popular coasters there for me to justify spending the money. Cedar Point needs to seriously re-evaluate its Fast Lane pricing structure. They're clearly not maximizing revenue because price increases haven't diminished Fast Lane demand. There has to be a point at which you can pull in maximum revenue and still keep the number of Fast Lane users down to a more manageable number. I'm betting that price is somewhere around $100 on non-peak and around $150 on peak days. Spending additional money to still physically have to wait in a half hour (or longer) line doesn't make any sense to me. Especially when you can play the Plinko-style game for 5-10 bucks that gives you a very reasonable chance to win a pair of front-of-the-line passes on the rides with traditionally the longest waits. Sent from my SM-G925V using Tapatalk

Great article. Really took me back to my first experience on the ride. Sent from my SM-G925V using Tapatalk

I don't understand the we are good in the woodie department comments. Yes, the woodies we have are great, but we lost over a mile's worth of wood coaster several years back. It may not have been the smoothest ride ever, but I really do miss that first drop of SOB. I would love to see another woodie by a reputable company about the same length of DB, an awesome first drop, fully trim free that is non stop speed from that first drop to the station. Several 90 degree banked turns, and let's outdo Holiday World and have a quadruple down instead of a triple down using the terrain. Although the RMC track is cool, let's not jump on the Six bandwagon, I want a traditional track. I don't care if it is a hybrid as long as we have the traditional wood track. That is my wish list for KI. I am not saying this has to be our next coaster, but the installment after, yes. Let's get back to what put KI on the map!My point was KI doesn't really need another woodie. Adding a 200 foot woodie doesn't exactly add a ton of variety to the current coaster lineup. KI already has 2 legendary woodies as it is. Now adding a 300 foot coaster when there's exactly 1 coaster with a drop over 150 feet in the whole park would certainly make a splash.Plus people seem to keep ignoring my point about the GP's reaction to seeing another 200' woodie being built so soon after the previous one was a massive failure. I'd be absolutely shocked if the park went down that road with their next coaster. I'd put up any amount of money give 5 to 1 odds that it won't happen. Somewhere way down the road? Possibly, but not this soon. Sent from my SM-G925V using Tapatalk I just reread my post and nowhere does it say it had or needs to be 200'. My point was that we lost a very big woodie in our lineup and it seems like it was just forgotten. You might be right, but it could be 30 years after SOB, and someone is going to mistake a new coaster for it. I think another 5 or so years is a long enough time after SOB. That is just my opinion. Sent from my SM-G925V using Tapatalk You're focusing on the wrong parts of my posts lol. Whether a new woodie would or would not be over 200' is completely irrelevant. I threw in the 200' thing because it was mentioned before, but it really doesn't matter. What is not irrelevant is the fact that adding yet another woodie doesn't add much variety, or near the variety that adding a giga would, regardless of whether or not they lost a woodie some years back.It'd be like if they took out Invertigo. I doubt many people would say they need another invert. Would another woodie be cool? Sure. But I'd rather have a giga. We already have a couple great woodies. Same goes for the multiple posts I've seen from people who would like another option for 44" riders. It'd be nice to have another one, sure, but KI has a darn good lineup of family-type coasters as it is with WE, FAAC and AE. To add another coaster that fits that same mold and that could accompany 44" riders seems like it'd be way, way down the list of priorities. Sent from my SM-G925V using Tapatalk

I don't understand the we are good in the woodie department comments. Yes, the woodies we have are great, but we lost over a mile's worth of wood coaster several years back. It may not have been the smoothest ride ever, but I really do miss that first drop of SOB. I would love to see another woodie by a reputable company about the same length of DB, an awesome first drop, fully trim free that is non stop speed from that first drop to the station. Several 90 degree banked turns, and let's outdo Holiday World and have a quadruple down instead of a triple down using the terrain. Although the RMC track is cool, let's not jump on the Six bandwagon, I want a traditional track. I don't care if it is a hybrid as long as we have the traditional wood track. That is my wish list for KI. I am not saying this has to be our next coaster, but the installment after, yes. Let's get back to what put KI on the map!My point was KI doesn't really need another woodie. Adding a 200 foot woodie doesn't exactly add a ton of variety to the current coaster lineup. KI already has 2 legendary woodies as it is. Now adding a 300 foot coaster when there's exactly 1 coaster with a drop over 150 feet in the whole park would certainly make a splash.Plus people seem to keep ignoring my point about the GP's reaction to seeing another 200' woodie being built so soon after the previous one was a massive failure. I'd be absolutely shocked if the park went down that road with their next coaster. I'd put up any amount of money give 5 to 1 odds that it won't happen. Somewhere way down the road? Possibly, but not this soon. Sent from my SM-G925V using Tapatalk

I'm going to try to think about this as logically as possible. KI already has a solid to great lineup of inverted coasters, woodies, and family coasters, so I personally would rule all of those out. I've seen a lot of posts about a modern woodie, but I do wonder what the reaction would be from the GP. Would the after-effects of SOB still linger? Maybe not, but I'm not sure KI would take the chance. Plus like I said, KI already has a pretty good lineup of woodies so I'm not sure the park needs it. I saw one mention for a water coaster in SC which would no doubt be awesome but with a new slide tower going in there this year, I'm going to guess that'll be enough water park expansion for a few years at least. Given CF's relationship with B&M in the past decade or so, I think we can take an educated guess that the next coaster added to KI will likely be a B&M unless something in that relationship changes in the near future. I don't know all the types of coasters that B&M builds but I know they do hyper (already have one), giga, winged, dive, and floorless. As has been pointed out by some astute posters, floorless wouldn't make much sense when there are already a plethora of coasters with multiple inversions in the park. You could probably say the same about winged, though I think that concept is unique enough (and fun enough -- I absolutely love winged coasters) to stand on its own. However, there's one just a couple hours away. I have no idea how or if that would factor into a decision to build a winged coaster though. A dive coaster seems quite unlikely since CP is getting one this year, so that leaves a giga as the most likely, and really the most logical since that seems to be the one coaster type that is missing from the park the most. It'd no doubt be a massive hit here too. It almost seems like a no-brainer. Sent from my SM-G925V using Tapatalk

Well that's because you're a reasonable, mature person. On this forum there are many tweens, teens and even older folks that get excited about seeing even the most minor construction and immediately jump into giga speculation, or at least ride speculation of some kind. As we all know, sometimes things can be razed and/or built just to improve the logistics of the park.But I don't even mind the excited posters. Sometimes it's fun just to speculate what you could fit in where even if you know it'll never happen. Sent from my SM-G925V using Tapatalk

That reminds me...People tend to either forget or not realize that the first year of something begins on year 0 and ends on year 1. Like the Super Bowl this year, people keep saying "it's the 50th anniversary"...well, not exactly. It's the 50th Super Bowl, yes, but it's really the 49th anniversary of the first Super Bowl, if you're talking in terms of "anniversaries". Just semantics, but people often use the word "anniversary" incorrectly. Sent from my SM-G925V using Tapatalk

Ah, thanks! I kind of like what they're doing with the queue then. You still get to walk through the woods, plus you get up close views of DB. And it's a shorter walk from queue entrance to ride station. Now if they can just add a couple benches in the observation area, I'll be thrilled! Sent from my SM-G925V using Tapatalk

I'm having real trouble visualizing where that is and how walking towards DB gets you to WWC.Sent from my SM-G925V using Tapatalk

Plus I don't like the restrains on CCMR, I don't ride it because of them. I enjoy AE at KI and will ride it anytime.Ditto. I'm not a huge guy -- about 6' 190 lbs. -- yet CCMR is wildly uncomfortable for me, but I fit in AE's seats just fine.Sent from my SM-G925V using Tapatalk

Sure, in the same way that Pirates of the Caribbean and "it's a small world" are basically the same ride due to their identical ride systems. Or Jungle Cruise and Jaws; Peter Pan's Flight and ET Adventure; Cat and the Hat and Men In Black (yes, same ride system). The point is that even if guests look at Transformers' vehicles and say, "Hey, this ride must work just like the Spider-Man one!" it's hardly a problem. Eh those are kind of stretches. Pirates is a different ride experience that IASW; Jungle Cruise and Jaws, and Peter Pan and ET might be pretty similar experiences but they are (were) in different parks; Cat & the Hate and MIB definitely have the same vehicles and ride systems, but offer pretty different experiences.Spider-Man and Transformers, though, are the same exact ride with slightly different skins, each of which are a super hero-type action movie. The ride experience on those 2 rides is more similar than the other ones you mentioned. When did Dr. Seuss starting teaching hate?Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk Lollll didn't even notice that until now! Sent from my SM-G925V using Tapatalk

I can't wait for the new hippo exhibit. I already got season passes for the first time ever in anticipation. I don't know why but they are so fascinating to me, and I'm looking forward to seeing one in person. They're extremely aggressive, territorial animals so seeing them in captivity should be interesting. Sent from my SM-G925V using Tapatalk

Good start, can't wait to read more Sent from my SM-G925V using Tapatalk

I think our best chance of seeing a JP expansion has likely come and gone with the release of Jurassic World over the summer. If they didn't do anything major then, then I doubt we see anything else down the line which is certainly a bummer. I'm not sure that the JP franchise is iconic enough to get people excited about an expansion 10 or 20 or however many years from now. It is to me, but I doubt it is to the GP like Star Wars and Harry Potter are. At least River Adventure is a decent consolation -- when it's working properly. Sent from my SM-G925V using Tapatalk

Sure, in the same way that Pirates of the Caribbean and "it's a small world" are basically the same ride due to their identical ride systems. Or Jungle Cruise and Jaws; Peter Pan's Flight and ET Adventure; Cat and the Hat and Men In Black (yes, same ride system). The point is that even if guests look at Transformers' vehicles and say, "Hey, this ride must work just like the Spider-Man one!" it's hardly a problem. Eh those are kind of stretches. Pirates is a different ride experience that IASW; Jungle Cruise and Jaws, and Peter Pan and ET might be pretty similar experiences but they are (were) in different parks; Cat & the Hat and MIB definitely have the same vehicles and ride systems, but offer pretty different experiences.Spider-Man and Transformers, though, are the same exact ride with slightly different skins, each of which are a super hero-type action movie. The ride experience on those 2 rides is more similar than the other ones you mentioned.

LOL that's exactly the area I drive through at lunch time. CFA's are busier than other fast foot places. Maybe you just need to pay closer attention?

Forbidden journey is phenomenal, except for the motion sickness. But even with keeping my eyes closed through the screen parts of the 2nd half of the ride, I still thought it was outstanding. It probably helped not knowing what to expect going in. I had never read or heard anything about it prior to riding. If things like the plot of a ride matter to you (they mostly don't for me), you might actually like Gringotts more. FJ is pretty much just chaos; if there was a plot to that ride, it was certainly lost on me. Gringotts however had a plot that made sense and was easy to follow, and really fit the ride well. But keep in mind it is more screen-dependent than FJ, although the screens on Gringotts didn't give me motion sickness like the ones on FJ did.

Ah that sucks about River Adventure. Even though I was 15 the last time I rode it and knew it was just a ride, that T Rex still scared the crap out of me the last time I rode it! I did not try the Hogshead Brew but would love to. I also want to try Pumpkin Juice next time.

Alright, time to pick up from where I left off. After Dragon Challenge (which was only a 5 minute wait, forgot to mention that) it was time for Forbidden Journey. Once again the queue was awesome and helped the 1.25 hour wait seem not so bad. I will say though that the wait started taking its toll on me. I still haven't even come close to gaining all my strength back since surgery and I really started to wear down while waiting for this ride. However, the ride itself helped give me a 2nd wind because it is AWESOME. My only complaint is that I definitely felt motion sickness bigtime on this one. Not from the movements of it, but from the screen. The screen just seemed a lot closer on this ride than the others. I couldn't watch the screen parts most of the time. But the rest of the ride blew me away. Loved it. Like I said, it gave me a 2nd wind and I was ready to finish out the rest of the day. So we headed to Hogwarts Express to ride back over to the other park... ...and waited close to an hour for it. Major buzzkill. Just as I thought I was gaining steam for the rest of the day, this wait really took a lot out of me. We pushed onward though and went to Transformers 3D next. It was similar to Spider-Man 3D I thought; another nice queue, and another nice ride. Unlike FJ, the screens are far enough away from the vehicles to not cause me any motion sickness My wife disagreed though. She couldn't take anymore. The screens took their toll on her and finally pushed her to her breaking point. She tapped out on screen rides at that point. No mas. And honestly I was right there with her, not from motion sickness but from exhaustion. It was dusk at this point and I actually made it longer than I thought I would anyway. I wanted her to end on a better note though, so I offered up Rip Ride Rockit. She said "sure, but after that I'm finished". Fair enough. Easy Pass really paid off on this one as the 1 hour estimated wait per the sign in front ended up being about 10 minutes for us (I should also mention that EP saved us a good 30 minutes on Transformers as well). I thought one of the draws of this ride was supposed to be the fact that you could pick a song to listen to while riding, but there was no music. It's pretty odd to get on a ride with speakers right by your head and there not be any music. Anyway, I liked this coaster more than I ever thought I would. Not sure if it's because I was sick of screens at that point or what, but I found it to be quite enjoyable in spite of the 4 or so MCBRs. My wife actually loved it. It was her favorite ride at the park. I was glad she got to end on a good one. She said I could keep going and ride whatever else I wanted to, but I had hit my limit also. I would have tried the Mummy ride if we passed by it on our way out, but I didn't see it; saw Minion Mayhem and Shrek 4D, but no Mummy. Oh well. Maybe next time. It's a loooooong walk back to the car when you're exhausted. But we made it! Overall I enjoyed the experience. I was glad I chose US over Disney; we got a lot of rides in and there were quite a few new ones that I got to try. I'd like to come back for a Disney + US vacation once Disney gets their Star Wars area finished (whenever that will be....). Next time I'll come with my brother, who has the same enthusiasm for theme parks as I do (and who is a huge HP fan). There were a few things I disliked about it but overall I had fun. As for my wife, it didn't do anything for her. She'll never go back, lol. But she was a trooper and I'm glad she sacrificed a day of our vacation so that I could do something that I've wanted to do for about 15 years.

It's been over a week but I'm finally getting around to writing this up. I want to start by giving a little bit of background on me and my wife, who accompanied me on this trip. I am 31 and she is 29. My wife likes amusement parks in very small doses; she enjoys a Kings Island trip once every 3 years or so, but even on those trips she's ready to call it a day after a few hours. The excitement wears off quickly for her. She likes thrill rides but any attractions that aren't big, fast or intense are lost on her. She's been to Disney a few times, most recently about 10 years ago, and she's just simply not the target consumer. Things like theming and details, she couldn't care less about. She's never been to US so this was a first for her. I'll try to remember to include her thoughts and experiences in this review since she is pretty much a token example of the "general public", and sometimes we forget that park goers like her are far more common than enthusiasts like us. This was my 2nd trip to US, but first since 2000 when I was 15 years old. I remember loving both parks and almost all the attractions. Our family visited all 4 Disney Parks that trip also, and that was easily my favorite family vacation ever. While I wish I could tell you how this trip to US compares to Disney, I really can't do that since I don't remember a lot of details from my last Disney trip 15 and a half years ago. I personally am a moderate theme park enthusiast; I'm not one to visit various parks around the country (in fact the only big parks I've ever been to are KI, CP, the 4 Disney Parks and the 2 Universal parks), but I have a great appreciation for rides and theming. Pretty much the opposite of my wife! For those that pay close attention, I mentioned in my "One day only - Disney or US" thread that I wouldn't be able to ride the intense rides on this trip since I had a pretty major surgery a few months ago, but I called my surgeon and got the OK to ride so I was pretty happy about that. Sorry for the long intro, but I think it's important to understand the background of someone giving a review because their experience might vary drastically from yours based on their age, personality, number of parks they've been to, number of times they've been to those parks, and about a hundred other factors. You might really enjoy something that I don't because there are certain things you appreciate that I don't, or vice versa. Anyway, on to it... We got to the park about 20 minutes after it opened. I did not remember them having a parking garage but that's a great idea to not only maximize the limited space you have, but to keep vehicles cool in the Florida heat. Unfortunately it was only about 45 degrees with a forecast high of 60, so that was not an issue for us! Instead I was worried about the possibility of doing the water rides -- more on that later. On the way in you go through a metal detector (which took forever and was quite hectic) and have a decent hike before you get to City Walk, which is then a decent hike to the front gates. Since I'm still recovering from a surgery where 2/3 of my right lung was removed, I knew I'd be walking a lot and that that would be my biggest hurdle for the day, but I didn't expect to walk that far just to get to the front gate! Anyway, I was surprised at the variety that City Walk has as far as food and entertainment options go. I wouldn't hesitate to stay at the resort if I go back. The mini golf course looked legit! Our plan was to start on the Universal side, make our way around the right side to the first Harry Potter area, ride the train over, do a full loop around IOA, then ride the train back to US and finish out the rest of the rides there. We bought the one-time-use-per-ride Express Passes when we bought our tickets because we only had one day to do both parks and we thought "better safe than sorry". We thought the crowd might be light since it was mid-January, but at the same time it was a holiday (MLK Day) so we didn't want to take any chances. I'll just go ahead and give you the verdict on that now: altogether the EP might have saved us about 2 hours on the day. So it was worth it for us because we needed those 2 hours, but not sure how valuable that would have been to the average person at $80 each. It was certainly disappointing to see that the passes either couldn't be used on rides where the wait was long (Forbidden Journey, Gringotts, train), or that the lines were so short that it gave you no advantage (most rides). There were only a select few rides where the EP actually helped, but on those few rides it did save A LOT of time. First up was T2:3D, but the first show wasn't until 11. Bummer. On to ET. We only waited about 5 minutes which was actually a letdown because the queue seemed nice! The ride was pretty much what I remember: a solid dark ride that was a little creepy, but enjoyable. I really like the pacing of this ride. You don't blow through each scene too fast which gives you a chance to see everything. My wife couldn't have been less interested, and to make matters worse, the alien at the end said her name wrong ("Jessica" shouldn't be that hard; they at least nailed Ryan though). While it's a neat dark ride, I would appreciate it more if it had a nostalgia factor for me. Like if Phantom Theater was still around at KI I'd still love it because of the nostalgia, but if I was 31 and riding it for the 2nd time, I'd probably think it was kind of lame. Simpsons 3D was next. First time for me so I didn't actually know what it was going in. For those who also don't know, it's a 3D motion simulator with a bunch of different pods all staring at one huge screen. We were bottom right which I will say did affect the experience a little, but overall was not a huge deal. I enjoyed it, but my wife had to close her eyes halfway through so she wouldn't throw up. I gave her some Dramamine afterwards which helped a little, but I had a feeling she'd be in real trouble the rest of the day. I also enjoyed the Simpsons area. I thought the theming was nice, and the music really added to that. In fact, US did a great job with their music throughout the park. Each area played music that really made me feel like I was in that world, whether it be The Simpsons, HP, JP, or whatever else. Even MIB played music not only from the movie, but from the time period when the movie came out which really fit well with the experience. Speaking of MIB, that was next. After a short wait with another nice queue (common theme throughout the day), we got on but got stuck about halfway through for 5 minutes or so. This allowed my wife and I to accumulate a ridiculous score, but the problem was that for the rest of the ride, none of the animatronics worked, nor did the screen thing towards the end. Pretty disappointing because before that we actually both enjoyed this one other than the random spin-outs. Why does darn near every ride in this park have a part of the ride with a spin-out element? From there it was onto Diagon Alley. Having only seen 3 HP movies, I'm not the biggest HP fan but I could certainly appreciate how cool this area is. If I had more time and didn't have someone with me who just wanted to get the day over with, I'd love to spend some time in there and check out all the little details. The first thing I noticed in DA was how it really feels like you're in the world of HP. The second thing I noticed was the crowd. My goodness, there were a ton of people there. I can't even begin to imagine how crowded this area gets during peak season. Not only were there a ton of people, but there were countless groups of people who thought it was a great idea to just stop in the middle of the walkway, creating ridiculous bottlenecks all over the place. There were also a ton of people with cameras bumping into others as they foolishly tried to walk while looking through their camera lens and snapping photos instead of briefly stopping to do so. I very much wanted to fall in love with DA and Hogsmeade, but the crowds made it really difficult to do so. Anyway... Before riding Escape from Gringotts I had to try a Butter Beer. If you've never had it, it's cream soda that tastes like butterscotch...which is actually quite good and different. I'd definitely try it again. Afterwards we hopped in line for the ride. We waited about an hour but most of that was inside where we experienced what is possibly the most impressive queue I've ever been in. Being in that queue made me wish I had seen all the movies so I could appreciate it even more. The kids in line next to me were excited almost to tears just from the queue. That's how impressive it is. The ride itself? Yeah it's neat, but I don't know, it just didn't really wow me or anything. For those who have never ridden it, it's more or less a mine train-type coaster that comes to several stops and interacts with different 3D screens. At the conclusion of this ride I came to a realization about my own amusement park preferences. I'm more like my wife than I thought. I love real thrills far more than simulated ones. Give me the 300 foot, $25M coaster over the interactive, $100M dark ride. That's not to say I don't still love dark rides; I just like them in moderation. A park with a bunch of coasters and a couple dark rides with excellent theming (especially in the queues) is what matches my interests most. After FJ we wanted to hop on the train over to Hogsmeade, but I couldn't find the darn thing. When we entered the park I never saw where I could grab a park map, and I didn't see any once in the park. Turns out you have to actually LEAVE DA in order to ride the train. Once again the queue was enjoyable as you had to find and enter platform 9 3/4, with a cool visual from a certain position showing people disappearing through the wall a la the movie. We only waited one cycle which wasn't too bad (foreshadowing....). Once on the train I was surprised and disappointed that you actually ride in cabins and stare at a screen. I'd much rather ride a train where you're exposed to the elements and can see other areas of the park, but I assume there's a good reason why it is the way it is (i.e. there's gotta be something you can see from that train that they don't want you to see). To add further to the disappointment, the dad in the family that we rode in the cabin with sat right next to the screen with his head leaned forward the whole time so that I could only see about 30% of the screen. Between him and the groups of people causing bottlenecks in DA, do people have no respect for anyone else these days? Furthermore I found it very difficult to decipher what the characters outside the cabin were saying despite silence from everyone that was in my cabin. Overall I was not a big fan of the experience. Hopping off the train, we discovered Hogsmeade was even MORE crowded somehow than DA. Also the Dragon Challenge coasters weren't running so we just decided to leave Hogsmeade and try the rides here later. Exiting Hogsmeade meant entering Jurassic Park -- my favorite area of either park. Once again the scenery and music made me feel like I was there. Before we did anything it was time for lunch. My wife, being a picky eater, opted for the pizza place in this area. It was pleasantly above average for amusement park pizza. I wanted to wait and try Mythos but this was a decent consolation. Not sure that we would have had time anyway. After lunch I was thrilled to see that the Raptor Encounter was still there despite not being able to find anything about it on their website (though I didn't look that hard, I at least clicked around for a little while and didn't see anything). Speaking of their website, unless I missed it, it makes absolutely no mention of The Hulk being down. It is still listed under the rides section and is still there on their online park map. I didn't know it was being re-tracked until I read it on here the day before our trip. I'm not saying it would have been a deal-breaker or anything, but it still annoyed me. Anyway, Raptor Encounter IS SO FREAKING COOL. I've seen videos of it before, but in person it is even more impressive. And when you stand next to that thing you know it's fake, but part of you is still a little jumpy. The look of it might be a little off compared to the movies, but all the sounds and mannerisms match the movies exactly. This honestly might have been the highlight of the whole day for me. Following Raptor Encounter we continued our way down the path and saw the construction for the new King Kong ride. Holy moly, that building is HUGE. I really can't wait for that one. Following that it was time for River Adventure, which I remember being my favorite ride in the park. No chance 60 degree weather was going to stop me. I'm not THAT tough though so I did buy a poncho. My wife was kind enough to give me permission to marathon it for 1 hour since she was ready for a break anyway. So I took off my shoes, put on my flip flops, threw on the poncho and was off. I wasn't the only one who refused to be slowed down by the cool temps; there was actually about a 5 minute wait. Coming into the day I was worried that this ride wouldn't be as fun for me as it was as a 15-year old, but I was wrong. I loved every second of it....until we got to the top, that is. The freaking T Rex at the end wasn't working. He just sat there behind the fog, and his audio was off as well. I seriously wanted to cry. I know that during non-peak times, the year-round parks do maintenance and rides tend to be down more, but this was a big letdown. I got soaked too, even with the poncho on (just caught a flood of water right to the face), but it ended up not bothering me at all. But there was no point in marathoning it at this point, so I grabbed my wife and headed towards Ripsaw Falls. Ok, time to go off on a little tangent here. I know I just said that the JP area is my favorite area in the park, and that RA is my favorite ride, but at the end of the day I'm still a bit disappointed. In my humble opinion, Jurassic Park is the 2nd most valuable amusement park intellectual property behind only Star Wars (and yeah, I'd even put it ahead of HP though I'm sure I'd get a huge disagreement on that). I mean it's a movie about an amusement park with dinosaurs. JP deserves to have an UNREAL amusement park area, or even it's own park, but instead we get this. It's ok, sure, but it should be amazing, and it simply isn't. But I digress... Like I started to say before my tangent, it was time for Ripsaw Falls. Wifey once again sat out as I got in line. Right before it was my turn to hop on, the ride went down for about 15 minutes. Not sure what happened but everything seemed fine when I rode. This is a fantastic flume ride that almost gives Splash Mountain a run for its money. The one and only one negative is that I found the seating and restraint situation to be pretty uncomfortable. Outside of that I would have ridden it a few more times if we had the time. I considered trying Bluto's Barges since the poncho was working out pretty well but it was closed. So it was on to Super Hero Island. Once again I loved the theming. Our first stop was getting a Ben & Jerry's soft serve cone, which was well worth the investment. Then it was time for Spider-Man 3D. The first time I rode this ride I thought it was amazing. There was nothing like it at the time and it was one of the coolest rides ever. I was worried though that it wouldn't hold up after all these years, and after riding a few similar rides earlier in the day. Well there was nothing to be worried about. It's still awesome. The queue, as had been the case most of the day, made the wait go by quickly and for the first time all day the Express Pass paid off as we skipped by most of what was a decent line. Neither one of us had any interest in the Dr. Doom Freefall ride so we headed towards the Dr. Seuss area. I know, you'd never guess this, but I thought the theming was great yet again. Despite not planning on it, we jumped on the Cat in the Hat ride since there was virtually no wait. I'd basically equate this experience to ET: a nice long, well-paced dark ride that unfortunately doesn't hold any nostalgia for me. It gave us a nice break from screens though at least. I was kind of curious about Poseidon's Fury since I did not remember it from my last trip and I have no idea what the heck it is, but ultimately we passed since...well, I have no idea what the heck it is. So it was back to Hogsmeade. We were hoping the crowds would have thinned a little bit by now, but it was certainly not the case. But the good news was Dragon Challenge was up and running again. So we dropped off our stuff at the chaotic locker area (every locker area in the park was chaotic by the way) and headed over towards the entrance. Someone at the entrance was warning people to make sure they have absolutely nothing on them or in their pockets whatsoever, and I was surprised yet pleased to see how heavily this was enforced when we actually had to walk through a metal detector. You'd be amazed at how many people didn't listen to the person giving the warning and turned to head back out the entrance with cell phone in hand. I wish every coaster had the same procedures! The ride itself was fine; a little short but still enjoyable. My wife really liked it but she has never been on a full circuit inverted coaster before. I told her she'll love Banshee then! The only problem here was the rides didn't race. I really can't fathom why this is the case. From what I remember, half the appeal of the ride was all the elements where it looked like you were about to collide with the other train before avoiding it and entering the next element. Why take this away from the experience? Man, this is taking longer than I thought. Time really got away from me there and I have somewhere to be now, but I'll try to finish up soon.

I've been slacking big time on my TR from last Monday as well. Maybe I'll get around to it this week but we'll see. Edit: decided just to do it today while I was thinking of it! Sent from my SM-G925V using Tapatalk

And I stated that CFA is busier than most places during lunch rush and went into detail -- all of which you ignored and continue to do so.Sent from my SM-G925V using Tapatalk

Read Gabe's post. CFA's appear to get more business than other fast food places during peak times. I see it every day at lunch time. Chipotle is right up there for sure, I'll give you that. They're nowhere near as quick though and don't have a drive thru.As for bringing up Chili's, I don't quite understand their relevance to this discussion? Sent from my SM-G925V using Tapatalk

And that's exactly why I like CFA. I don't even agree with most (maybe even all?) of their values that are unrelated to fast food that have been made public, but I respect the fact that they don't try to "avoid circumstances" as you say in an attempt to not offend the pansies who can't handle views that differ from their own. As for you to question their intelligence to choose to go that route ("most companies are at least smart enough...")? Uh...yeah, have you ever driven past a CFA during peak lunch or dinner times? All the ones near me are crazy busy, more than other fast food places nearby, and those lines MOVE. They are as fast or faster than any other fast food place I've ever been to. CFA is killing it despite not being "smart enough" to please the PC crowd. Pretty impressive for a place that, like you said, serves an average at best food product. Sent from my SM-G925V using Tapatalk