We'll of course start off with Wizarding World, get used to this view because it's pretty much done at this point. Was quite surprised to see that at least one person was surprised Wizarding World is being built. I guess us nerds just take it for granted that everybody should know by now. 

But no worries, I have the feeling we'll be inundated with Wizarding World everywhere very soon. Probably around the same time we're done being inundated with Star Wars stuff. 

Speaking of Wizarding World, the park released the first Virtual Tour video last week. Be sure to check it out. 

The view from the Studio Tour Bridge. Don't think we'll ever get tired of this view. 

View from the Shrek queue ... once those trees grow in you won't be able to see the castle much. 

I see wings!!! 

Moving on, the Holiday's are taking over the park now

And of course the CityWalk Christmas Tree

And of course there are plenty of other smaller projects going on around the park to get ready for the influx of Potterheads. 

Lastly, we always like to feature a picture of one of the amazing in-park characters, but this is a new one for us. =)

Alright, that's going to wrap it up for today's update, we hope you enjoyed. Be sure to check back in a few weeks for our full coverage of Grinchmas. 

Construction at Thirsty River Bar next to Expedition Everest at Disney's Animal Kingdom ​

​Mickey & Minnie are at Adventurer's Outpost at DAK in Xmas sweaters, the only place in WDW to meet them together 

Things in Pandora are finally starting to take shape for the new Avatar Land at Disney's Animal Kingdom ​

One of the construction walls near Pizzafari at Animal Kingdom gives a glimpse into Pandora for Avatar Land ​

Elsa & friends from Frozen light up Cinderella's castle nightly with ice and snow for the holidays at Magic Kingdom ​

In 2014, Six Flags Over Georgia expanded its schedule into November, December and January with the return of Holiday In The Park. This marked the first time in nearly a quarter century that SFOG had celebrated the Christmas holidays; the previous attempts in the late 1980s and early 1990s were marked by incredibly cold weather and very little of the park to actually enjoy. The 2014 run fixed those problems both actively and passively; the former by opening up much more of the park, and the latter by having more attractions in the areas that had already been used. Guests responded very positively, so much so that Six Flags announced earlier this year that Holiday In The Park was now a permanent part of the operating schedule.

For 2015, Six Flags made relatively few changes, preferring to take an “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” approach. Despite a larger number of rides open - including five of the park’s 11 roller coasters - lines were still extensive for some of them during the 2014 edition, which prompted opening individual attractions in formerly closed areas (for example, Superman Ultimate Flight in Cotton States, or Crime Wave in Gotham City) to alleviate overcrowding. 2015 adds all of Gotham City to the roster with its five attractions - two more coasters, the park’s two new rides for the season and the aforementioned Crime Wave. Aside from that, Holiday In The Park 2015 stays the course, which is a very good thing.

Guests enter the park through Main Street Christmas (the Promenade), illuminated by a canopy of some 100,000 LED lights, to say nothing of the lights lining the windows and rooftops. At the end of the street stands the park’s main Christmas tree, which is lit nightly in a brief ceremony. From here, almost all of the park is yours to explore. To the right is S’mores Village (British), home to Georgia Cyclone and several fire pits where guests can make their own s’mores (kits are sold in the nearby Piccadilly Sweets candy store) or just get a touch of warmth if the temperature drops a bit.

Passing through a color-changing tunnel of lights brings visitors to Rejoice! (Peachtree Square). Along with a stained-glass Nativity scene, guests can enjoy the ride that finds most guests calling out to a higher power (the Acrophobia drop tower) or take one of two delightful trips through the park. The Sky Buckets will provide a more gentle overhead view of the park’s illuminations with a round-trip journey to the otherwise-closed Lickskillet section, while the North Pole Express (Six Flags Railroad) takes guests through colorfully-lit trees on the way to the North Pole (French) and a meeting with Santa Claus.

Guests proceeding on foot will enter Georgia Christmas, covered almost completely in peach-colored lights. The Crystal Pistol Music Hall, already dressed to the 9s in holiday splendor, hosts a worthy detour, the charming musical show “Because It’s Christmas”. The plot revolves around two kids who want to send a letter to Santa Claus on Christmas Eve asking him to bring home their military father for the holidays. A chance encounter with one Jack Frost and some industrious elves attracts the Big Guy’s attention. The ending is rather predictable, but like “It’s a Wonderful Life” and “Miracle on 34th Street”, everyone knows the ending to those classic holiday films yet watches them every year, just the same. If someone’s heart is two sizes too small, the cast of this show, performed multiple times each night, will work wonders for them.

Now fully in the holiday mood, it’s time to continue exploring the park. Monster Mansion, the park’s venerable dark ride, received a decor upgrade that saw last year’s unusual glow-sticks in the attraction’s front yard (dubbed by some wags as the “Jedi graveyard”) relocated and replaced by giant sprigs of mistletoe, complete with a new nickname, Mistletoe Mansion. The ride itself has again been given a modest Christmas overlay, with some of the monsters wearing their holiday best. From here, it’s a short walk toward Carousel Hill, passing over a tree-lined bridge en route to the Candlelight Carousel, surrounded by dozens of illuminated trees. Continuing around the park’s main loop brings guests to the North Pole, where every tree (and the Rabun Gap station) is covered in beautiful ice-blue lighting.

Just ahead is Retro Christmas USA, where the 50s theme of the area has been enhanced with 50s-style holiday decor, from oversized ornaments and picture postcards to a blow-up snow globe where you can get a fun photograph taken. Thrill-seekers will be glad to know that Goliath and Dare Devil Dive stand ready to welcome visitors; Dare Devil Dive is the more festive of the two, with a garland Christmas Tree extending down from the top of its vertical lift hill. The adjacent Dare Devil Dive Stage hosts musical performances throughout the day.

Last year, guests had to look longingly into the darkened Gotham City, but this year their path is lit by GloHill (the new home of the glow-sticks) on the way into the new Holiday City. Befitting the residents of the area, the decorations here are purple and green, with garland along the supports and a string-light tree atop the Gotham City Eatery. In place of the Batmobile stands a purple and green Christmas tree festooned with Batman ornaments. Another group of fire pits provide warmth when needed, and after a trip through the chilly air aboard Batman The Ride or the Mind Bender, it will be needed.

Returning back to Retro Christmas USA, it’s only a short walk to the long Georgia Arbor, which heads toward the front of the park. For 2015, the arbor has been decorated with nearly 10,000 dancing lights. Dubbed “Magic of the Season”, the lights perform continually to both classic holiday tunes and arrangements made specially for the show. The sequence restarts roughly every 30 minutes. After enjoying the show for a bit, you can head into Peppermint Plaza (Georgia), whose trees have been transformed into candy canes and where the Georgia Scorcher stand-up coaster continues to put its riders’ feet to the fire.

As if the decorations weren’t enough, the park is filled with live entertainment, including carolers complete in Victorian attire, stilt-walking toy soldiers and, from time to time, Bugs Bunny and his Looney Tunes friends. Holiday music is played throughout the park, with many tunes fitting the traditional themes of their areas (classic rock in Retro Christmas USA, country/Georgia bands in Georgia Christmas). Apple cider and hot cocoa are available at many restaurants and snack stands; a souvenir mug is available that can be refilled at no charge on the night of purchase and for about $2 afterwards. One restaurant is even offering a holiday dinner option with turkey, dressing and veggies, making it a far cry from traditional park fare. Guests looking for unusual holiday gifts (tacky Christmas sweater with the Superfriends, anyone?) will find plenty of options all over the park.

Back in the late 1980s, the park encountered problems when the limited rides in the park were not capable of running as temperatures dipped. Even in recent seasons during Fright Fest, when October got cooler than normal, attractions like Goliath and Dare Devil Dive started misbehaving. For Holiday, many of the rides have been properly winterized, allowing for successful operations at lower temperatures. Needless to say, Goliath’s 70mph wind chill can be a bit much when temps enter the 40s, as they did in 2014, but the ride itself was still performing admirably. Speaking of temperatures, the park had gas heaters at various locations in 2014, and appear to have installed them in more locations for this coming year, and the Crystal Pistol still offers a huge heated space, perfect for warming up.

As good as Holiday In The Park is, there is room for improvement. The decor can be exceptional in some areas, but sparse in others, notably the overlay for Monster Mansion. The 2014 run started light, but more decorations were added as the holiday season continued. 2015, as seen during a media preview prior to the grand opening for the general public, may be starting on the same foot, with very little actually overlaid. Hopefully future viewings will be more festive, but that raises the question as to why they aren’t starting with it more fully prepared. Even in their new location, the glow-sticks still don’t make much sense (who decorates like this in real life?), but it’s not as jarring as it was when they were in front of Monster Mansion. One area with a bit less going on this year is Bugs Bunny World, although its transformation into Bugs Bunny Boomtown for 2016 is the main culprit here.

On the plus side, the park employees are very friendly and keep attractions moving at a good pace. The decor that is in place is beautiful, and gives the park a very unique look that is perfect for photography. The teams running the rides appear to have learned from last year’s mistakes and already have the more popular coasters running at greater capacities, but since maintenance still has to be done, don’t be surprised if certain rides still just have a single train on the track. Therefore, if riding attractions is a primary goal, be sure to arrive at the start of the event and ride first, then enjoy the festivities after sundown. Hours have been modified for 2015, with post-Christmas hours from 2pm-10pm instead of last year’s noon-8pm (pre-Christmas continues 4pm-10pm). If it were me, I’d love to see a 12:30am closing on December 31 become a thing, especially with the Peach Drop potentially entering its final year (if it runs for 2015/16 at all). Imagine the Acrophobia Drop instead …

Just as Six Flags’ Fright Fest finds itself being compared against SCarowinds, Holiday In The Park invariably finds itself compared against a similar park with a well-regarded holiday event, Dollywood’s Smoky Mountain Christmas. In both cases, Six Flags is still the underdog, but with Fright Fest continuing to improve and Holiday In The Park off to a very good start, the future is beginning to look brighter as Six Flags prepares to enter its second half-century of operation. Hopefully its popularity will increase, benefitting Corporate’s 4th Quarter reporting and maybe prompting the park to add either Cotton States or Lickskillet to the available roster for 2016.

UPDATE: Universal Studios Hollywood has releases pricing for the 2016 prices, see below. 
http://www.universalstudioshollywood.com/annual-pass/ 
​
Note: All of these passes contain blackout days, which isn't a surprise. Considering we'd heard rumors of there possibly being NO Annual Passes for 2016 (or the first half of 2016) this is likely the best we were going to get. 

Also, none of these passes contain parking, so prepare to have to pay or use Metro. 

Before we get started, I'm not sure if most people even realize USH has a France section of the park. We didn't notice any kind of tribute or anything to the events going on in Paris but we did notice the music a lot more than on previous visits. And it seemed a lot more people were spending time in this area of the park than usual. 

Our thoughts are with all those impacted by the senseless violence. 

Moving on to Wizarding World, not really a whole lot of change from last week as at this point most of the changes are going on inside and to show elements outside. 

Speaking of show elements, some of the window animation is working now and they are testing pretty much everything that needs to be tested. 

They've also been lighting Hogwarts at night. We'll be sure to get some pics of it when we go for Grinchmas in a few weeks. 

Flight of the Hippogriff was testing. We saw about 4 or 5 trains go in the few minutes we were getting pics.

The greenhouse appears to be done, or very close to being done. 

The Ford Anglia is back and outside the Wizarding World store. 

A view from CityWalk 

Now that Halloween Horror Nights is over, Christmas has definitely come to Universal Studios Hollywood

The Grinchmas Tree is being constructed

Last week this was all ExterminatorZ and now it's Candy CaneZ ... ;)

On the studio tour they are getting ready for the Whovilation show

It's always so interesting to see the contrast between Whoville and Bates Motel

Even CityWalk is getting ready for the holidays

There are still a LOT of construction projects going on both inside and outside the parks. 

The retail dining location is starting to get a LOT more detail. 

All of the work going on is creating some VERY narrow walkways

Some nice details seen through the scrim

The Special Effects Stage is closed as they prepare for a new show in the theater next year

Outside the park, the re-design of the front entry of the park is underway. Everything on the right side of the entry is closed, making for a VERY narrow walkway between CityWalk and the park. 

Walls, Walls, Walls ... everywhere walls. 

Even walls around Saddle Ranch, which is still open BTW. 

As you can see, it gets quite crowded in a narrow walkway. 

Back inside the park, a few remnants of Halloween Horror Nights remains, mostly on the Studio Tour. 

They were filming on the backlot with a huge US Airways plane set, which led us to the conclusion that it's for the Sully Sullenberger movie starring Tom Hanks. No, we didn't see Tom on set. =(

And lastly, Jaws recently came back from a refurb and it looks great!! 

Thanks for reading, we weren't expecting the update to be too big this week but there turned out to be more going on at the park than we figured. 

Our next update for USH will likely be for the opening of Grinchmas as we've got Holiday events starting up this weekend with Chill at Queen Mary and Knott's Merry Farm this weekend. 

And don't forget, we'll be at IAAPA all week, so be sure you are following us on all of our social media to get up to the minute updates. Team Park Journey will be working hard to bring you all the latest cool stuff from this years event. 

Below some additional information from Sea World regarding the Orca experience in San Diego. We're still working on our recap of all of the Sea World announcements made on Monday, look for it early next week. - Gregg 

SeaWorld Friends and Supporters,
 
On Monday, as part of a larger strategy to transform the guest experience in our park, we announced some exciting plans for SeaWorld San Diego.
 
While it was reported by some media outlets that we are phasing out our orca shows, we are sure you will be pleased to know that this is not the case!  Instead we are evolving – as we have done many times over the years – based on feedback from guests. 
 
Our new killer whale experience will:

• Engage and inform guests by highlighting more of our orcas’ natural behaviors
• Include conservation messaging and tips that guests can take home, so they can join SeaWorld’s efforts to make a difference for orcas in the wild.

This revised orca experience is just one of many exciting plans we have in store for SeaWorld San Diego. We also announced:

• A partnership with Evans Hotels to explore development of a resort hotel near our San Diego Park.
• Plans to renew our award-winning and Emmy-nominated Saturday morning family television programs, Sea Rescue and The Wildlife Docs which showcase our rescue efforts and veterinary care on ABC.

We are excited about the coming year and expanding opportunities for guests to develop and enhance their passion for animals in our parks and in the wild.
 
We also continue to pursue legal action against the California Coastal Commission for its overreach on our Blue World project. The legal process takes time, though, so we will continue to move forward with the initiatives above and others to continuously improve our guests’ experience.
 
As always, thanks for your support. We look forward to seeing you at the Park soon!

There are tons of hidden Mickeys in the lights, but we also spotted some new touches, like this hidden Kermit! ​

There is even a nod to Star Wars fans in a window, perhaps a glimpse of the future at DHS ​

When visiting the Osborne Lights at DHS, don't forget to hunt for the hidden purple cat! ​

There are many photo ops perfect for your Christmas cards. We'll be sure to return again before the lights are gone! ​

Thanks again to Renée for tweeting out these pictures for us last week. It's great to see this event one last time before it "glows away". =