Six Flags Great Adventure: Drive Thru Holiday in the Park

Hello everyone! Yesterday Six Flags Great Adventure hit us all with some exciting news. The Holiday in the Park festivities are going to be expanded to include the whole week! The park itself will be open Friday, Saturday, and Sunday for it's usual Holiday in the Park festivities. This means that you can still catch some late season rides on Nitro, Batman: The Ride, Wonder Woman: Lasso of Truth, Superman: Ultimate Flight, among others. As is always the case, Bizarro, El' Toro, and Kingda Ka are not open during Holiday in the Park (mostly for operating reasons from what I understand). So with the rides open during the weekend, you may be wondering what is new and exciting for the week. Allow me to take you back to the year 2003. Six Flags Great Adventure was host to a special holiday event called Winter Lights. This was a drive thru event where guests would drive through the parking lots where all kinds of holiday lights were displayed. While I have no pictures of it I can still remember going to this drive-thru experience. The local Jackson area even got involved if I recall correctly with the nearby Jackson Outlets and Wawa getting their own displays. There were even displays for the dolphins and sea lions that lived in the park at the time. It was a really neat experience that I always wished came back until Six Flags started the Holiday in the Park event. Winter Lights only ran for two seasons (2002-2003 and 2003-2004), but it was certainly impressive enough to still be lodged in my head from before I was even in highschool. Why am I brining up Winter Lights you may ask? Because Six Flags's big announcement is the return of a drive thru holiday light experience. Starting on November 30th, 2020 Six Flags will introduce a drive thru version of Holiday in the Park. Ever adapting to the current state of the pandemic, Six Flags in introducing a new for families to experience Holiday in the Park. Guests will (I think for the first time?) be able to drive their vehicles through the park and experience over a million holiday lights just as you would on foot if you visited during the weekend when the park is open. Six Flags posted this image on social media of what the drive will look like...

    It appears that vehicles will enter through the catering area and emerge into the park itself by Justice League: Battle for Metropolis. I do want to point out that Cyborg Cyber Spin is not on this map. Rumors have been flying about it's imminent removal, but that's for another time... From there drivers will drive over the Metropolis Bridge into the Movietown area (whose Holiday name is blurry on this for some reason) past Batman: The Ride and into the North Pole section which appears to encompass Granny's, one of the Skyway stations, and Santa's Workshop. Cars will then proceed through the path by Big Wheel and into the Main Street Christmas area. Surprisingly the cars will almost get to the regular entrance gate before snaking through the Marketplace (by Houdini's Great Escape and the Carosuel) and crossing the path along the Skyway that leads to Skull Mountain aka Poinsettia Peak. The path continues past Harley Quinn's Crazy Train and The Joker (Holly Jolly Christmas Area. Cars will then travel the lakefront (Joy to the World area) before heading down Gingerbread Junction (the Boardwalk area) and the Deck the Halls area (by the Twister, Superman: Ultimate Flight, and Green Lantern) before exiting to the right of Superman: Ultimate Flight.

    I for one am super happy to see Six Flags doing this. Given the pandemic, this is a great way to bring money into the park, but to have a way for people who are more worried about the pandemic to enioy Holiday in the Park. I know so many people who will not go into the park still due to concerns about COVID-19, but at work today this drive thru experience was a pretty hot topic. So whether you feel comfortable in going to the park for Holiday in the Park on the weekend or if not, there is at least a way for you to now enjoy the many, many lights that are sure to brighten your holiday spirit. For more information on this drive thru experience, please visit sixflags.com or check out Six Flags Great Adventure on the various social media outlets. 

    That's all I've got for today. Something exciting coming out of Six Flags at a time where nobody really knows much of anything that is going on in the day to day world. As always, thank you for reading and stay tuned for the next blog coming real soon! 

Fast Tracking Projects Pandemic Style

    Hello everyone! I hope all is well with all of you. Today we will be revisiting the upcoming reimagining of the fan favorite attraction, Splash Mountain. Earlier this year Disney announced that they will be reimagining Splash Mountain, which is currently based off the movie Song of the South, into an attraction based on The Princess and the Frog. Fans had and continue to have all kinds of mixed feelings on this reimagining. On one side of the fence you have those who believe that the ride should be changed due to the racist nature of Song of the South. On the other you have fans who believe that Splash Mountain, while using characters and songs from Song of the South, is a totally innocent ride that should be left alone as the characters and songs have appeared in quite a few other forms of Disney entertainment around the parks. 

    Since the announcement of the reimagining, Disney has been pretty well, confusing, about their stand in regards to the controversy surrounding the ride. On one hand they have acknowledged the issues with Song of the South and label the movie a product of it's time and have done their best to bury it. Recently Disney has gone as far as removing the popular Song of the South songs from the parks (outside of inside Splash Mountain itself). Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah in particular had become almost the theme of the Disney parks, but now it has all but vanished. While continuing to remove references to the movie from the parks, Disney has also come out with nothing short of a ton of new merchandise for the ride that has been deemed offensive by many people. It's strange to me to see that happening. It's not really as strange to me to see that Splash Mountain is seeing a massive surge in popularity as people try to get one last ride in despite the apparent offensive nature by some to the ride. Still, even more confusing to me is the statement that the reimagining of Splash Mountain will now be fast tracked.

    Here's what I do not understand, but have an idea on. In a time where so many project have been put on hold, where so many projects have been cancelled or altered, in a time where resources are being shifted all over the place, and most importantly, in a time where cast member layoffs are all over the place, why is this attraction being fast tracked? Why is Disney suddenly making the retheming of Splash Mountain a priority as opposed to it being an idea in the pipeline? I have a couple ideas as to why, but admittingly they could be completely off base.

    My biggest theory and honestly my most feared is that this is going to end up being a cheaply done retheming. The ride itself is going to remain the same, that much we know. Disney is not going to be leveling the mountain and remaking the ride. So what needs to be paid for is the removal of the Splash Mountain theme and adding in of whatever The Princess and the Frog theme they are going with. My feelings are that this is going to be done in a cheap way. Splash Mountain is home to a lot of animatronics. If you take a real good look on that ride you may be surprised as to just how many there are, especially in a water ride. My thoughts are the number of those that you will see on the new ride will be very few and far between. Those little and big robots are expensive after-all. So what will replace them? The answer is something that is now being used more and more in the new Disney park attractions, screens. Screens that may be initially expensive to install, but then will not require maintenance. Will we see animatronics at all? Yes I think we will. I think we'll get a Tiana and a Louis. Beyond that though, I'm not really sure. Compared to other projects going on right now, this makes the retheming of Splash Mountain very cheap and easy to do.

    My other theory is that Disney is trying to gauge what people want and what is going to keep them looking better during this pandemic. This kind of ties into the divide between fans regarding the retheming as a whole. On one side, you have a large number of fans that want to see this attraction closed down asap and rethemed to a more inclusive one. On the other, you have a large number of fans that want to see the attraction stick around for as long as possible. Jammed in the middle are people like myself that would rather see projects already underway that have been delayed (Tron, Guardians of the Galaxy, EPCOT as a whole) realized and at least have an end in sight. These people would also like to see Disney start bringing back cast members that have been let go sooner rather than later. Right now, the loudest crowd is the crowd that wants Splash Mountain changed, therefore it becomes more of a priority because the last thing that Disney wants right now is for them to be seen as racist for keeping the ride for a longer period of time (though it could be argued that the company is just that for even having the ride open at this point and cranking out new merchandise for it). 

    So this where we are apparently at. At a time where other theme parks around the country, big or small, are fighting to keep staff and make it through, Disney is aiming at fast tracking a new attraction while putting other projects on hold. Really I think it does come down to the cheapest options. Disney World's 50th anniversary is fast approaching and the pandemic has certainly thrown a wrench in those plans. Whether or not Splash Mountain is a part of the festivities remains to be seen, but one thing is perfectly clear. It is not going to be around as long as we originally thought and one would think we will start getting more information soon. What will happen to the divide then? Who knows, but all I know is that both sides agree on one thing. The Princess and the Frog is certainly deserving of an attraction in the Disney Parks and either way I am excited, yet nervous to see what we end up getting. 

    Thank you all so much for reading and stay tuned for the next blog coming real soon!

Personal Update Blog

    Hello everyone. I guess I should start this blog off by saying welcome, or welcome back to anyone who may be reading this. I started this blog back in March of 2019 as a way to get my love of  the Disney parks out into space. Since then the blog grew into other medias of Disney such as video games and I also added my home park of Six Flags Great Adventure to the mix as well. I was having a really fun time typing these up regardless of number of page views. After all a lot of people treat blogs like a journal. Somewhere to simply type up thoughts. Whether or not people read it at the end of the day is irrelevant as monetization, popularity within the Disney community, etc is not even close to the reason I'm doing this. That said I cannot say how much I appreciate everyone who reads these crazy thoughts and things I put out there. 

    Back in mid August I ran into a really dark time. I walked away from virtually everything. Eventually I walked away from this blog as well. When I typed that blog I mentioned that it wouldn't be a permanent departure, but for a while I honestly had no intention on returning. I knew I had to do something to try to get some joy back into my life so I actually started streaming video games on Twitch with the same philosophy as I have here. Just put it out there. If someone watches, comments, etc., great! If not that's okay too since I started doing it because it is something I always wanted to do more regularly. I've been streaming stuff mostly on the Nintendo Switch, but have the ability to stream all kinds of consoles which is where my gaming life has largely always been so I've been very excited about that. Then something else happened. 

    When news broke of all the entertainment layoffs at Walt Disney World something kicked back on inside me. Like many, many other Disney fans my heart broke and continues to hurt for all of those entertainers whom had brought just an untold number of smiles to people's faces both young and old. I was angered that the company had restored the salaries of it's executives yet more and more people are being let go by the company in a time where not only is a pandemic gripping the world, but a time where many other smaller companies are doing all they can to protect their employees livelihoods. I get it's older news now, but for the first time in months I had the urge to jump on and just type. I didn't act on it though.

    Since then I've kept thinking and realized how much I had fallen off the train with all the things I really enjoy in life and really how lucky I am to have them. Yes, I found a new way to enjoy gaming, but the rest remained out to lunch as we like to say in the vet world. Several Disney movies remain wrapped and on a shelf. My Disney Parks playlist sat with no plays since early September and outside of Hamilton, I couldn't remember the last time I even listened to Disney music. I didn't visit Hallowfest at Six Flags once (partially due to where I was, but also it was basically sold out) either. I basically lost most of my identity. I also started to really look at how fortunate I am.

    With all of this realized I am now here. The term on the mental mend is probably the best way I can describe myself right now. As I type this I have the Disney Hits Spotify channel playing in the background and I cant help but feel comfortable (outside of When She Loved Me from Toy Story 2... Auto-skip). I guess the whole point of this blog is that I am coming back. It's probably safe to say that I will not be doing a ton of blogs to "catch up". I probably wont be diving right back in to any big projects either, but just starting out small and building back to those projects. 

    To close this out I just want to say if you are going through a really tough time in your life... a time where you feel just completely alone with no one to turn to, or that no one would care just reach out. Reach out to a friend, a family member, or a group on the internet. You never know where you will find someone who will just listen and offer an encouraging word. It doesn't sound like much, but over time those words begin to take a hold and the world slowly becomes less dark. It may not happen fast. It may take weeks, months, who knows (months admittingly for me). I'm not trying to say what has been said a million times over by experts or anything like that. I'm typing this because I am living it right here and now. So hold on. Go the distance. Let your life begin (again) cause at the end of that day no one, not even yourself knows how far you'll go. On that same page, if you think a friend is not doing well, say something. Not everyone is able to bring themselves to be that person to reach out (me) and may need that hand extended first. You never know what you can save by doing that, and if you are a friend of a Disney cast member who has been recently let go, I implore you to reach out. 

    Thank you so much for reading and for the first time in a while, stay tuned for the next blog coming real soon!