You can start to see the building from all the way back by Sandblasters (that's the Bumper Cars for those unfamiliar with the park) 

They've opened up more of the Metropolis area and something appears to be missing ... 

No more rock wall!! 

Here's a good look at the rides proximity to Riddlers Revenge 

And the backside of the building, you can see that the Gazebo has been moved (we think) to where the beer garden will be (we think). 

From the back you can see just how big the building is. Lots of room for what will probably be a part of the queue (we think). 

An aerial view of the entire area, looks like some flowers have been removed from the Riddlers entry area, but some trees (and the gas station) are still there. 

Just like with every other recent attraction at the park this also includes a complete re-do of the area around the ride. 

The last ride to not come with an area re-do was Terminator/Apocalypse, and that area of the park REALLY sticks out now. Let's hope that's next. 

♫ I got my hat ... on ♫

Of course this means that all of the food locations in the area are closed

Including JB's which will obviously be renamed 

These aren't the tables that were here, they look like the ones from the eatery closer to Gold Rusher. 

This one. ;) 

Some much needed improvements to this area

A look inside the Metropolis area

Some trees have been removed near the Scrambler (insert tree falling on Scrambler joke here) 

Also near Gold Rusher

Not sure if this has ANYTHING to do with Metropolis, but because CA has been in such a drought the past few years (even with all of our recent rain) a lot of trees have died. We had to cut down a few at our house as well sadly. 

No work done yet on the future entrance for Tidal Wave. Still say it would take less work to rename this to match the Metropolis theme than to move the entrance and keep the name. 

There are some things going on elsewhere in the park. 

A fence is now up around the Sky Tower. Don't expect this to be for anything related to the Sky Tower. 

It's most likely for work going on with Tatsu which is getting it's lift hill chain replaced. And it's no small job. Expect the ride to be down for at least a few weeks, if not a month. 

For some reason even though the ride is down for weeks they have a "Temporarily Closed" sign and an Employee out front. Which probably means people are coming by all day asking if it's going to open. Would be easier to just put a wall up and free that Employee to work on an open ride. 

The Revolution is running without VR (or in "Classic Style" whatever that is) for a limited time. How limited that time? Who knows. But the ride is still incredibly popular even without the VR. 

With VR this line would have easily been over an hour. Without VR, I was on in about 25 minutes. The employees working the ride seemed to actually enjoy working the ride. 

​Let's hope the VR moves to another ride and not back on Revolution. 

A few other random park notes ... 

All of the decorations are still up in Gleampunk District as well as the music. Guessing all of the recent rain has delayed the removal of props. But it's fine, it still looks awesome. 

Not sure if this is new, but I've certainly never noticed it before. Also could be that all of our visits for the previous 4 months were all Fright Fest/Holiday In The Park related. =) 

Batman is currently running 1 train as the other is being refurbed. 

My favorite spot to get Superman/Lex Luthor pics. 

And we'll leave you with a pic of me and Sad Batman ... he said he was always lonely. Poor guy. ;) 

One other random note, noticed Apocalypse was closed but forgot to investigate if it was just down or under refurb. 

We hope you enjoyed the update, it'll probably be a couple of weeks before our next SFMM update, lots of busy stuff coming up. 

At some point this week we will be having another Facebook Live Chat to discuss 2016 attractions and giving away some IAAPA stuff, so stay tuned to our social media for details about that. You won't want to miss it!! 

If you enjoyed this update please share with your friends and make sure you "like" us on Facebook and "follow" us on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. 

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WINTER HAVEN, Fla. — Kids can “become the ninja” in their very own LEGO® NINJAGO® [NIN-JAH-GO] adventure when they enter a magical, martial arts kingdom now open at LEGOLAND® Florida Resort. 

 LEGO NINJAGO World adds an immersive land filled with several hands-on, outdoor activities where kids can sharpen their ninja skills before the ultimate showdown on LEGO NINJAGO The Ride, a dazzling new attraction that blends 3D computer animation, “4D” special effects such as heat, fog and strobe lighting, and groundbreaking interactive technology never seen outside a LEGOLAND theme park. 

Inspired by the popular LEGO building sets and the “LEGO NINJAGO: Masters of Spinjitzu” TV show, LEGO NINJAGO World puts guests at the center of the action in lots of fun ways: 

 • LEGO NINJAGO The Ride – A state-of-the-art “dark ride” where guests score points using ninja hand moves to blast animated fireballs, lightning and more at waves of 3D villains. Children under 48 inches tall must ride with a responsible person 48 inches or taller who can ensure their safety.
• Zane’s Temple Build – A LEGO building experience where kids can contribute to a giant model of the mountaintop NINJAGO monastery with bins of loose LEGO bricks.
• Kai’s Spinners – Master the ancient art of Spinjitzu at these twirling, whirling, singlechild platforms; recommended for ages 5-12.
• Cole’s Rock Climb – A horizontal, right-to-left climbing wall to test kids’ strength and endurance; recommended for ages 2-12.
• Jay’s Lightning Drill – Practice precision and reflexes by pressing as many light-up targets as possible in 30-second sessions; recommended for ages 2-12. 

The lushly landscaped area also features large LEGO models of LEGO NINJAGO heroes, Kai, Jay, Cole, Zane, Lloyd, Nya [NEE-AH] and Master Wu, daily meet-and-greet opportunities with sibling ninja Kai and Nya, and Wu’s Warehouse, a themed retail shop filled with LEGO NINJAGO building sets, children’s apparel, costumes, books, souvenirs and more. 

KIDZ BOP, the No. 1 music brand for kids, recently joined with LEGOLAND Florida Resort to create an exclusive music video for the high-energy “LEGO NINJAGO: Masters of Spinjitzu”  theme song, “The Weekend Whip". 

 In the video, The KIDZ BOP Kids are joined by Kai and Nya while demonstrating five signature ninja hand moves kids can use to defeat villains and capture a high score on LEGO NINJAGO The Ride: 

 • The Cobra: Hold your fingers like a snake’s head, then strike your arm forward.
• Chops of Fury: Hold both hands in front of you, palms facing, and do quick karate chops.
• The Fireball Flinger: Clench your hand into a fist, then thrust your arm forward while opening your fingers. • The Lightning Strike: Hold your arm at a slant and chop.
• The Shuriken [SHUR-IH-KEN] Shuffle: Hold both hands in front of you, palms down, with your arms bent so they touch your chest. Chop outwards repeatedly. 
 
The adventure continues Sept. 22, when Warner Bros. Pictures releases “The LEGO NINJAGO Movie,” a full-length motion picture from the same producers behind 2014’s smash hit “The LEGO Movie™” and featuring the voices of Jackie Chan, Michael Peña, Dave Franco, Abbi Jacobson and Olivia Munn. 
 
Announced in March 2016, LEGO NINJAGO World continues the largest period of growth and expansion in the five-year history of LEGOLAND Florida Resort. 

Since opening Oct. 15, 2011, the multi-day vacation destination has added LEGOLAND Water Park (May 2012), LEGO® Star Wars™ Miniland Model Display (November 2012), LEGO World of Chima™ (July 2013), DUPLO® Valley (May 2014), LEGOLAND Hotel (May 2015), Heartlake City (June 2015), “The LEGO Movie 4D A New Adventure” (January 2016), Creative Cove/Build-A-Boat (March 2016) and a life-size LEGO replica of the very first Ford Mustang model (October 2016).  
​
 Construction continues on LEGOLAND Beach Retreat, which will more than double the resort’s on-site accommodations when its whimsically themed bungalows open April 7, 2017. Reservations are available for stays through Nov. 30, 2017. To book, visit www.LEGOLAND.com/beachretreat or call (877) 350-5346 daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern. Nightly room rates start at $135 (plus tax and resort fee) and vary by season, date and availability. 
 
This year also will feature an unparalleled lineup of special events: 
 • The LEGO® Batman™ Movie Days – March 4-5 & 11-12; new this year!
• KIDZ BOP Weekend – April 28-30; new this year!  
• LEGO® Star Wars™ Days – May 6-7 & 13-14; two weekends this year!
• LEGOLAND Knight Lights – Select dates in July, including Tuesday, July 4
• Brick or Treat – Select dates in October
​• Christmas Bricktacular – Select dates in December • Kids’ New Year’s Eve – Sunday, Dec. 31 only 
 
All events are full-day experiences included with all forms of park admission and offer incredible entertainment and great value. No extra ticket required! 
 
Guests can enjoy more than 50 rides, shows and attractions inspired by the LEGO and DUPLO brands at the place where #AwesomeAwaits, including experiences based on “The LEGO Movie,” LEGO NINJAGO, LEGO NEXO KNIGHTS™, LEGO City, LEGO Technic and LEGO Friends. 
 
The best way to enjoy this incredible collection of entertainment #BuiltForKids is with the Awesome Annual Pass, which offers unlimited admission for a whole year to both LEGOLAND Florida theme park and LEGOLAND Water Park, along with many other great benefits. It’s a terrific value at just $99 plus tax for Florida residents. Annual passholders, as well as all guests of LEGOLAND Hotel and LEGOLAND Beach Retreat, enjoy early access to select attractions daily, including LEGO NINJAGO The Ride. 
 
For more information about visiting LEGOLAND Florida Resort, including savings on advance purchase of admission tickets, multi-tier annual passes, educational programs, services for guests with disabilities, VIP Experiences, Premium Upgrades, military discounts, on-site accommodations and much more, visit www.LEGOLAND.com/florida, or call (877) 350-5346. 

​Here is the food offered at Painter's Palate, including the detail on the Mary Blair chocolate. ​

​I completed the Figment scavenger hunt and claimed my prize, one of four different magnets. ​

​Really loved Festival of the Arts at Epcot! Great addition to the park. We'll definitely be back, especially for the concerts! ​

If you haven't used Metro to the park yet, it's really easy and the new pedestrian bridge makes it super easy to do. 

Wizarding World always looks great, but I think we can all admit there's something special about seeing it in the rain. Maybe because this is really the first time we've been able to see it in the rain was just within the last few weeks? 

The 5 minute waits for Forbidden Journey don't hurt either. 

The employees in this shot almost equal the amount of guests. 

Krusty's mouth ... the ride. 

A new Starway is being added to bring guests up and down the hill. For future capacity or something or other. ;) 

Imagine that, a park taking advanced steps and improving their infrastructure before crowds show up. 

Of course, any time you have construction and rain you get mud. Wheeeee!!! 

Everything is so green in CA right now, it's so nice for a change. 

Down at the bottom you can see all of the work being done to add more Starway capacity. 

I mean, it's already raining, might as well. =) 

Seriously, even cell phone pics of Wizarding World look amazing in the rain. 

The cold and rain make cool effects on the CityWalk fountain 

Speaking of CityWalk, these pics are a few days old but we figured we'd include them here. 

Work is FINALLY being done on Voodoo Donuts. 

Margaritaville is also looking great, they've been hiring so if you're looking for a job at CityWalk be sure to follow @ushjobs on Twitter. 

Alrighty, that's going to wrap it up for this update. We should hopefully be back at the park soon for the Lunar New Year which is beginning soon. We'll be sure to get more pics of the park projects when we do. 

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First and foremost, here is the link to the full description of the changes. 

Parts of it are kind of vague but here it is in a nutshell: 

• Fastpass is being added to Toy Story Midway Mania at DCA and Matterhorn Bobsleds at Disneyland
• A new MaxPass system is being implemented for $10 a day which allows you to get fastpasses on the Disneyland app and also includes Photopass for the day
• The current paper fastpass system is NOT going away
• Unlike the WDW system, this will not allow advanced reservations, you will not be able to use the MaxPass system unless you are in the park

Ok, so let's break this down piece by piece. 

Fastpass being added to Toy Story Midway Mania and Matterhorn: 

Not sure why. Neither one of these attractions has the capacity to support Fastpass. If they want to add Fastpass to TSMM they need to add a third track like they did in FL. Matterhorn has two separate tracks and not a whole lot of queue space. Just doesn't make sense to us. 

MaxPass system (and Photopass) for mobile fastpasses for $10 per day: 

If I was a frequent visitor/AP I'd for sure have concerns about this. They are giving the option to add this to your AP price so you can use it on every visit (no price given) or you can use the $10 a day option. 

As an infrequent visitor (our last visit to DL was in November 2015) I'm all in on this. On our last visit we rode about 5 attractions due to the crowds and FP's being gone. 

Disneyland is called the "Disneyland Resort". But it's not a Resort. It's a locals park. There are over 1 million Annual Passholders right now. If Disneyland wants to reach that resort level they need to start catering more to tourists who make periodic visits and make sure that they are able to experience attractions while they are at the park. Period.

The current paper fastpass system is NOT going away

Obviously with this new system there is the possiblity of paper fastpasses being reduced by a certain amount. Because if somebody is paying $10 to get Fastpasses they need to be able to actually get them. There will probably be some kind of trial and error period but it's possible that the amount of paper fastpasses will depend on how many people use MaxPass on any given day. But again, details are vague. 

Unlike the WDW system, this will not allow advanced reservations, you will not be able to use the MaxPass system unless you are in the park

Right now, Disneyland has over 1 MILLION annual passholders. The week leading up to Christmas this year with all APs blocked out except the very top tier had ride lines that averaged about 30 minutes each day. This was less crowds than a Tuesday in September or October. And once AP blockout days were lifted on January 4 the park reached capacity. Something that hadn't happened through the entire holiday season (including New Years Eve). 

So to say that APs are greatly influencing the historcal "off season" structure of the park is an extreme understatement. 

But let's say that this new MaxPass system allowed reservations, and was free. And like WDW you were able to go on say 30 days before a visit and make a FastPass reservation. They would be gone within SECONDS. People would be getting Fastpasses "just in case" they were going to visit that day. It would be chaos. It would insure that anybody who is a "day" visitor or "vacationer" would have zero ability to get fastpasses. 

The announcement definitely presents more questions that answers, but of course that doens't stop people from freaking out about it. This change has been inevitable for years, and with Star Wars Land coming in a few years the time to make this change is now. 

Couple this with the rumored changes to the AP Program coming next month (including elimination of the payment plan) and it seems Disney is trying to reduce the number of APs but also increase revenue.

​It's something that worked for Universal Studios Hollywood where they reduced APs, had moderate attendance over the summer but had the HIGHEST guest spending and guest satisfaction in the history of that park. So you can bet Disney has been paying attention to that. 

As more news comes out about these changes we'll keep you updated of course. 

​So what do you think? Is this something you are going to use when you make visits to Disneyland? Are you able to at least see the AP/Non-AP side of it? We are interested to hear your thoughts, be sure you share them below. 

Welcome to Knott's on the last day of 2016! 

Before we head into the park, let's take a look at the Knott's Marketplace. 

We were asked by CA Great America to send them some pictures of Knott's Marketplace for a recent planning commission meeting. Would be awesome to see a similar Marketplace come to that park. It would be a great hit. 

Amazing sandwiches and then Cinnamon Rolls!! 

Remember when people used to debate online if this was an inversion or not? Good times, good times. 

The Sky Cabin was still closed on NYE. 

Lots of special lighting and entertainment

75 Seconds until 2017!! 

Awesome fireworks show

What better way to kick off the New Year than with a Funnel Cake!! 

Alright, that's gonna wrap it up for this Knott's update. We will be back at the park soon for the Knott's Pink event, be sure you check out all of that info here. 

Also, the Active Fire and Police Personell free entry is back and you can find all of that info here. ​

​Related Updates: 

• Merry Farm 2016 at Knott's Berry Farm 
• Carowinds County Fair Construction Update
• Knott's announces new additions and events for 2017 
• Opening Night of Halloween Haunt at California's Great America 
• ​Kings Island announces Mystic Timbers for 2017

​If you enjoyed this update please share with your friends and make sure you "like" us on Facebook and "follow" us on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. 

If you have any comments, please share them below