Wowman

More along the exit path

Cresting the top of the first lift hills and then the first dive to pick up speed.

Here is the start of the lower village area. Red dashes are the walkway down/up. Green will be shopping and maybe a new restaurant once that feature is added. Light blue are flat rides and gold will be the entrance to a water coaster that will duel with the Vikings.

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Question 21: World Geography (last one in this topic) What country consumes the most tea per person per year? A: Turkey B: India C: England D: Australia

Correct answer for Question 21: World Geography There are several lesser-known names for Area 51. Which of the following is NOT one of them? E: Space Villas Sweep for everyone!

I also believe that some of the downtime may have been scheduled to help manage staff that was on hand and also move crowds around more. With the overall crowd level being low, they may have wanted to test queue management by forcing people away from one area and to another to simulate more realistic crowds in areas...but who knows this could be a conspiracy theory by this arm chair park designer.

Yes - there are elevators, but the general crowd is assumed to have to use the stairs. Yes, this is why they have previews. To get some repetition in on operations to work out issues before the paying general public is there.

I will share a few more details later after the park is open to the public, but let me know if you have any specific questions or want more details on anything. If its something I don't want to share publicly yet, we can talk through message. Let me know.

How to Train Your Dragon - The Isle of Berk This land was really nice. Lots of kinetic energy. Coaster flying around, moving dragons everywhere, water rides, flat rides. The theme was great. Couldn't get much more accurate recreating the movie. This was the largest world as far as I can tell and had many twists and turns to make it even feel bigger than it was. I did not explore the kids play are, but it looked really nice. Lots of food options all around this land as well. Didn't try it but word on street was the mac and chees cones were really good. Saw the Toothless meet and greet from the pathway and it looked really well done. The moving dragon was very real looking from my viewpoint. I really wanted to explore and spend more time in this land, but just didn't have enough minutes in the day. The reveal of the land as you exit the portal was really nice. Hiccup's Wing Gliders This was a really fast and fun coaster. Multiple launches, lots of curves, dives and dips. No huge drops. I guess you can classify this as a family coaster, but IMO more on the high end of that label. For example, more intense than say a Slinky Dog. This coaster encircles and passes all around this world. You can see it from just about anywhere and in many cases up pretty close to the pathways and bridges. Nice queue and the load building was made mostly of real timbers and wood as far as I could tell. The Untrainable Dragon stage show Can't say much about this as we didn't have time to see it. Dragon Racer's Rally This is flat ride that towers above the land. This ride is a well known Gerstlauer Sky Fly flat ride that is in many parks around the globe with different themes. The grandstands set piece by this ride is enormous, and Hiccup's coaster actually passes under and through it for some nice head-chopper moments. Again, didn't get to ride this as every time we were in the area the ride was down. It was up most of the day, just not when I was in the area. Fyre Drill This is a calm boat ride where you fire water cannons at targets. There are a lot of colorful moving targets. Didn't get to ride this as it was cool in the morning to get wet and we never made it back later (we didn't get a lot in because the park previews were shortened hours, not a full day). We did see it in action later and it did add a lot of energy to this world. I also liked thet is was slighting below grade so you were looking down into the ride and could see what was going on very well.

Mario Cart Again, lots of stuff out there already on this one, so I can't add much. Especially, because I never got on it. We tried a few times and it kept going down. the last time was just a few minutes before the park officially closed. They let us in line, we got all the way through the pre-shows and close to loading platform....when the fire alarm sounded and we were evacuated. Like I mentioned before. If there was an award for how many stairs can you place in a ride queue....this would be the gold medal winner. Up an escalator to get to the level for the entry of the ride. Then up a large staircase right entering the queue. I think we may have even gone up more stairs...lost count. then before you get on the right, back down and down more stairs. That last stairwell going down was super high and felt like it went on forever. Yoshi Ride This was a slow dark ride like attraction. nice for the little ones. It had a game of finding eggs and pushing buttons, but honestly I couldn't figure out how to make it work. Nice view of the world from this ride. Note" again up a long spiraling stair case to get to the ride....and then back down when the ride is over. Donkey Kong Cart Coaster This was well themed coaster and the jumping illusion was very cute. the ride was actually a bit faster and rough than I expected, but overall it was lots of fun. Hard unexpected dives was the name of the game on this coaster. If the queue is long, the relentless drum beating audio starts to get to you. I would recommend some variation in the queue soundtrack.

Here is the replicated entry that was added to the side of the building to better connect to the other areas of the zoo. Scenery and details still need to be added.

Waterfall along the exit path.

Here are the two lifts.

Back to Mt Olympus for a bit. The blue areas show where I'm adding stonework to make the cliff more defined. The red area is the queue and load station for the Zeus coaster. The yellow area is where guests can grab a bite to eat, view the coaster, and go down to the lower Greek village area.

Question 21: World Geography There are several lesser-known names for Area 51. Which of the following is NOT one of them? A: Dreamland B: Paradise Ranch C: Groom Lake D: Watertown E: Space Villas

Correct answer for Question 20: World Geography The oldest zoo in the world is located in… B: Vienna Tiergarten Schnbrunn which opened in 1752

Great coaster. Giant loops and very smooth.

nice

Super Mario World This world has had a lot of press, social media, etc. already as its pretty much a duplicate of what is already in Japan and Universal Hollywood. Overall, this is my lease favorite land. Mostly because its so loud and there are stairs everywhere. As I walked out of Peach's castle the view is very cool, but within a second I found myself yelling to the rest of my party to be heard. I can only imagine that it will be worse when the land is packed with people. Beep! Burp! Bop, bop bop! and very loud music. Lots and lots of connectic energy in this land. You take an escalator up through the portal/pipe to the second level. Mario Cart Racers ride is on this level as well a few other things (like maybe shops and places to eat?). Then you have to go back down 2 flights of stairs to get to the rest of the land. This level has the entrance to Yoshi ride and the walkway through another portal to Donkey Kong World. Also places to eat and shop on this level. This is also the level you use to exit the world. More on the attractions later

I hope

Potter - Ministry of Magic First, something weird I want to point out about the portal entry. All the other land's portals are visible from the central park, but this land....you can see the wizard's hand high above the top of the portal post, but the actual portal is 'hidden' behind a standard looking brick and restaurant. I don't believe this is by design, but maybe a design flaw in the park. The building looks like it was added after the fact in a large open space in the park and thus blocked the sightline to the portal. You literally have to go behind the restaurant to find the portal. Just seemed really off to me. So, the land. Old 1920s Paris and looks really good...like you have been transported to the past. Buildings are high (way higher than other Potter lands) and totally removes any views to outside real world. Places to eat and shop and the standard wand interactions are all about. While there is a stage show and a big ticket ride in this land...it still felt like it was lacking attractions and more needs to be added to boost it. The Battle at the Ministry ride This ride is still under construction, so we couldn't ride it...but the queue was open and we were allowed to walk through the entire queue. Took about 10-15 to just walk through at normal speed. Wow. this queue is something else and almost an attraction in itself. The ride is rumored to be an elevator type ride that travels up, down, sideways, etc. to replicate those scenes in the Fantastic Beat series. Back to the queue. You actually walk through the fire place flues to enter the Ministry. As you approach the flue blasts with a lot of green smoke as you pass through, totally blinded for a few seconds. The Ministry room is amazing. But to scale and is at least 4-5 stories high in real life with mirror illusions to make it appear even higher. Large statues and everything. It was amazing. Le Cirque ArcausThis is a stage show that has the feel of a 1920 circus with sideshow, magic, dancing, acrobatics, etc. We did try to see the show. The preshow was really nice and the beginning of the show looked very promising, but seeing they were still in technical rehearsals, they did have technical issues and our show had to cancel part way through. It was running earlier in the day, but not for me and we just didn't have time to try and see a show later in the day. Again, looks like it will be really cool.

Dark Universe: WOW. This land is beautiful, as far as look and feel. The old world Europe classic monster village feel is right on. I could only imagine how much better this will look like at night. Dark and foggy with awesome lighting effects. Character actors walking about the village were right on. A big nod to the casting team. they did a great job finding the right actors. We encountered a gypsy playing the violin, the invisible man (yes we can see him), and Igor (the main host for the main monsters ride). This guy was spot on, looked great and was great with interacting with us. The village is very maze like, meaning you can't see the entire land, but have to explore all the twists and turns to see everything. I'm not even sure I hit every pathway. The castle looming over the main part of the land is intimidating, dark, and very detailed. One of the best show buildings I have ever seen. The windmill pub looks great, but we were not able to see the flame effect as it was not in action that day. Monsters Unchained Ride - Spoiler free High level rating: A very good ride overall. For those that don't know, this is a KUKA robotic arm ride system. Same as the Potter ride in the other Universal parks. Honestly, this ride is the Potter ride, only with a monster theme and no 3D screens. Yes, the themes is awesome, the action is awesome, the scare factor is strong for many, and the animatronic monsters are spot on some of the best out there. In my opinion the Phantom of the Opera scene is the best on the ride. While all this is great stuff, much of the ride is screen based...meaning there are screen with clips playing embedded into the real sets to tell the story. There is an overall good mix of real sets/animatronics/screens, but me personally would have liked less screens and more real action, but I totally get that budgets and maintenance would never allow that. Werewolf Coaster This ride is a Mack Rides Spinning Multi-Launch Coaster. The theme is a gypsy camp and werewolf encounter on the ride. Typical spinning coaster type ride, but no lifts or drops. The track has several high banked turns and wavy track sections. Overall a fun coaster that was not that intense. The spinning aspect was also not that bad. I had never been on a coaster like this as was a bit concerned about the spinning part of it, but I actually enjoyed the ride a lot. It a short ride, but really fun. Forgot to mention that the queue for the monsters ride is unbelievable as you traverse through the castle.

Dark Universe: WOW. This land is beautiful, as far as look and feel. The old world Europe classic monster village feel is right on. I could only imagine how much better this will look like at night. Dark and foggy with awesome lighting effects. Character actors walking about the village were right on. A big nod to the casting team. they did a great job finding the right actors. We encountered a gypsy playing the violin, the invisible man (yes we can see him), and Igor (the main host for the main monsters ride). This guy was spot on, looked great and was great with interacting with us. The village is very maze like, meaning you can't see the entire land, but have to explore all the twists and turns to see everything. I'm not even sure I hit every pathway. The castle looming over the main part of the land is intimidating, dark, and very detailed. One of the best show buildings I have ever seen. The windmill pub looks great, but we were not able to see the flame effect as it was not in action that day. Monsters Unchained Ride - Spoiler free High level rating: A very good ride overall. For those that don't know, this is a KUKA robotic arm ride system. Same as the Potter ride in the other Universal parks. Honestly, this ride is the Potter ride, only with a monster theme and no 3D screens. Yes, the themes is awesome, the action is awesome, the scare factor is strong for many, and the animatronic monsters are spot on some of the best out there. In my opinion the Phantom of the Opera scene is the best on the ride. While all this is great stuff, much of the ride is screen based...meaning there are screen with clips playing embedded into the real sets to tell the story. There is an overall good mix of real sets/animatronics/screens, but me personally would have liked less screens and more real action, but I totally get that budgets and maintenance would never allow that. Werewolf Coaster This ride is a Mack Rides Spinning Multi-Launch Coaster. The theme is a gypsy camp and werewolf encounter on the ride. Typical spinning coaster type ride, but no lifts or drops. The track has several high banked turns and wavy track sections. Overall a fun coaster that was not that intense. The spinning aspect was also not that bad. I had never been on a coaster like this as was a bit concerned about the spinning part of it, but I actually enjoyed the ride a lot. It a short ride, but really fun.

actually more like a carousel. the rotation is very slow and flowing.