The supports on the lift are complete and as of today the lift has been topped off. 

Lots of work being done in the lower portions of the ride. 

A couple of closer shots of all the supports that are on the lift and drop. 

More supports ready to go up on the structure. 

Expect this area to close after Holiday In The Park for it's transition into "Screampunk District". 

Say goodbye to the Lemonade stand. Not sure if this is going to be demo'd or moved. 

One thing is for sure, you can see the ride a lot better now. 

Nothing really new going on in the station

Have to admit, one of the things I'm most looking forward to is Scream getting some love. These banners are long due to be replaced. 

And of course, a paint job. 

You can really see Goliath a lot more now. 

That's going to wrap it up for this update. We'll try and get up to the park for an update this week and some pictures of the topped off lift hill, but we'll have to see how the weekend goes. 

We'll also have a Holiday In The Park update for you later today. 

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The front of the park, welcoming us to Merry Farm

Lets check out Ghost Town and the Christmas Craft Fair

Very understated and pleasant. Perfect for Ghost Town. 

The Blacksmith, one of the classic buildings in Ghost Town

Looks beautiful

Snow in Ghost Town

Jingle Moo ... 

Looking down on Calico Square

Calico Courthouse is very Christmassy 

I still see Bacon spelled out here. 

Ta Daaaaaa!!! 

SANTAAAAAA!!!! 

A quick look at Camp Snoopy

Santa's Christmas Cabin looks very cool

And just because ... 

That's going to wrap it up for our look at Merry Farm. The event runs through January 4th and you can find more information at the Knott's Berry Farm website. 

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For years now, Intamin has been losing ground in an ever changing battle of scale in the amusement industry. It hasn't always been the case. However, their decline is entirely on their shoulders, and for good reason. 

Let's take a look at the rise & fall of Intamin's history. 

For those who don't already know, Intamin actually stands for INTernational AMusement INstallation. They were originally created as a way of marketing new rides all over the world at the dawn of the theme park explosion. 

Companies such as Haefma (River rapids & log rides), Giovanola (Coasters & ride technology) and the great Schwarzkopf (Coasters & flat rides) used Intamin as a way of selling their rides overseas. This was a very successful venture, filling parks with the latest in rides and manufacturers with an ever growing business. 

As Intamin grew, their desires to enter the ride building business grew as well. As Intamin began to work on their own rides, Giovanola was their primary contractor, developing & building their version of the Standup coaster as well as the fabled Space Diver coasters. 

Intamin's first coasters were mostly smaller rides & spinning coasters. While designs were created by Intamin, Giovanola did their track bending & work, that is until they set up their own factories. The result of bringing this in-house was the spectacular Ride of Steel coasters, which combined speed, height & force changes that opened the eyes of many. Much like any firm does, these designs bred other similar coasters, growing in size, length & thrill elements along the way. Inversion coasters soon followed, leading to the eight & ten inversion coaster.

The drop tower was redeveloped from the original Giovanola systems into a true drop ride. Intamin began selling these as fast as they could make them, and in any size a park wanted.  

But the decline was already being rooted. Underengineered systems were notable among almost all of their attractions. Chain breaks were commonplace, even on new coasters. Downtime was notable beyond the norm. Technology was outpacing development's ability to keep up.

And then technology began to break: 

• June 2007: A cable on the Kentucky Kingdom drop tower broke- severing a child's feet. Not long after, Port Aventura's own drop tower had a cable break, stranding riders on the side of the tower 
• September 2009: Knott's Xcelerator had its own cable break - injuring two people
• April 2010: Expedition GeForce derails on the lift hill after an axle break
• February 2012: a girl dies in an accident at Hopi Hari, after a mechanical failure in a restraint latch
  

And then there were the engineering mistakes:

• Volcano: The Blast coaster (1998/9 Kings Dominion): Underengineered LSM systems used to launch the ride failed to provide enough force for a full train to operate, resulting in a removal of half the seats from the ride. Later updates and more powerful LSM allowed the original 16 seat configuration to be used. 
• Maverick (2007, Cedar Point) Originally designed with a heartline roll, forces that were not calculated upon during engineering were deemed too extreme for riders, and the heartline roll was removed. 
• Intimidator 305 (2010, Kings Dominion) After a year of operation, the ride's first turn was altered & elevated to reduce forces associated with the ride's turnaround after the first drop. 
  

Intamin's reputation for thrills is among the best. Their reputation for quality is among the worst. Looking at their track record, it shows a consistent inconsistency: Odds are that if you've bought an Intamin ride, it is going to have a serious mechanical issue within the first few years. In some cases rides have required serious design changes to alter the track profile or ride mechanisms. 

In an era when parks (and their riders) are demanding better quality & comfort from their rides, the levels of quality are diminishing greatly. Painful rides such as Green Lantern (SFMM) have earned a reputation for great discomfort. And quality being as bad as it is results in downtime - a black eye on Intamin & the park that has installed one of their attractions. 

What went wrong? How did a company rooted in quality builders & trades go so poorly so quickly? Why are new rides requiring expensive & time consuming alterations?
Part of this has to do with rushing through a ride's creation & building. Being able to develop & build a ride in less than 12 months is a tight schedule all around, and results in quality control being shoddy, and corners being cut. 

Poor engineering is to blame for some of the issues. Failing to note possible issues in forces is an inexcusible failure of somebody to control the design - and present possible issues to potential owners of new attractions. 

So what to do with Intamin? They have pushed the envelope - and that is a great thing. But their quality has suffered at the hands of this. 

First, they need to put better quality control & design to good practice. Other manufacturers have surpassed their quality several times over - and it shows. B&M, MACK, Zierer & others produce rides that are quality installations from day one. Intamin has a reputation that is well earned for building a ride - then spending months tuning it and altering it to fix issues, often at the cost of time & lost revenue to a park. 

Second, process control must be applied - parks will not spend money unless Intamin spends money. By developing a better product through process will pay yields. Building quality rides that will last a long time is a good start, one that will build to better reputation, and better design processes.

We have seen too many good manufacturers go by the wayside due to issues with building rides. Intamin's legendary development is in danger of going that route unless they rebuild their quality- and their reputation.

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One of these days we'll be able to start off a Universal Update with "Not a whole lot has changed on the Upper Lot Construction", but today is not that day. 

Apparently the inside of House of Horrors has been gutted and now they are basically demolishing the building. The Blues Bros. stage is also gone. 

The entrance to Hogsmeade ... it's there, doesn't that mean we can go in? 

Not sure if those are windows or to connect whatever is going to separate Hogsmeade from Springfield. I'm guessing the latter unless there is some kind of on-stage walkway between the two I'm not aware of. 

Rock me baby ... 

Definitely more "stuff" in this area over the past few weeks

Contrary to rumors that the facade for Hogsmeade would end and we'd just see a building on the back, it does appear they are going to be connecting "something" on the back side near the Tram load/unload. 

We've never really been able to "zoom" in on stuff, but now we can. =)

If you see anything of significance point it out (click to enlarge). 

They are either hiding something or protecting something from the recent rains. 

In addition to the Grinchmas decorations there are quite a few holiday decorations both inside and outside the park.

Below one of the trees at the front gate, and the sole decoration on the lower lot in front of Jurassic Park.  

Ok, not a Christmas decoration but if I can't have a real Minion, I guess a remote control one will have to do. 

We couldn't get over into this area to get night pictures as they were having some kind of employee party after the Grinchmas tree lighting. 

Minions coming down your chimney > creepy old fat guy coming down your chimney 

Yeah, that's awesome

So glad to see Curious George still out once in awhile since those darn wizards took over his area. 

Happy Christmas - 1938. Anybody know what this is in reference to? I was thinking the 1938 version of A Christmas Carol, but that's an MGM movie. 

You can pretty much see the Grinchmas tree from anywhere in the nearby area

I really love this picture, Universal Plaza is so much better than an empty Wild West show arena. 

The front of the park looks great, I really like the red/green light combination.

The park entry

CityWalk has also been decked out in lights

Santa's Meet and Greet

I'm guessing "No Cameras Please" means you can't take a picture with Santa using your own personal camera 

King Kong with a Santa Hat is always a favorite

Of course, what would a holiday event be without lots and lots of merchandise

Ornament to commemorate your visit to Grinchmas

Green is the new Black? Does the Grinch have a Pornstache? 

Minion wearing an ugly Christmas sweater. 

That's going to wrap it up for this update. I don't know if we'll be making it back up to the park before the first of the year, but we'll certainly try. 

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After spending some time in the park doing normal update stuff, we made our way outside to check in for the Grinchmas event. 

The front of the park is beautifully decorated with some nice Poinsettias. 

Annual Passholders were also invited out for the festivities. 

If you are planning on attending Grinchmas (and you should be) these are the dates you can go. Remember, if you have the "Buy a Day - Get a Year" passes you do have some blackout days coming up. So go early. 

Some great Grinchmas decorations this year

Of course the Grinch has to show up

The mayor of Los Angeles said a few words in both English and Spanish

The tree has some great light effects this year. Click on any of the pictures below to enlarge. 

The actual tree lighting was highlighted by some fireworks. 

Mayor Garcetti, The Grinch and Larry Kurzweil, President of Universal Studios Hollywood

Mayor Garcetti, The Grinch, Alexa Pena Vega, Carlos Pena and Yvette Nicole Brown

Max was awesome

Easily my favorite picture of the night. The Grinch make-up is really well done, even up close. 

Lots of Who's, and the Mayor of Whoville

Alexa Pena Vega and Carlos Pena

Yvette Nicole Brown who looked to be having a fantastic time. She seems like cool people. 

Overall it was a great night and Grinchmas has expanded this year, even with all of the construction happening on the upper lot. 

That's going to wrap it up for our Grinchmas update. There are more decorations in the park but we'll highlight those in our normal "Universal Update" later this afternoon. 

Grinchmas runs weekends on December 6-7 and 13-4, then continues daily from December 19, 2014 through January 3, 2015. 

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Now there are 9 Dwarfs ... 

Who doesn't love tinsel

You had me at Bon Bon's ... 

I'm gonna wreck those Gingerbread cookies 

One of the highlights of the night was the new Frozen show, which Chris and Renee were able to see without a huge crowd. 

Anna looks pretty close to the one on Once Upon a Time

Better get used to seeing LOTS of Frozen ... it's not going anywhere anytime soon. 

Beautiful shot ... 

A look down main street

SANTA!!!! 

The royal ball

Beautiful 

Good night from The Magic Kingdom

Next week we are going to be sharing more from IAAPA but first, tomorrow (and tonight) we are going to have some pictures and reports from the kick-off of Grinchmas at Universal Studios Hollywood. 

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