- Dad sent me an email mentioning a conversation he had with one of the people repairing flood damage at Opry Mills. According to this person, it's unlikely the mall will reopen due to the damage costing well over the original insurance. The mall building is repaired and standing, but the inside is gutted, save a recently reopened Bass Pro. After a few jokes about "well, now that the mall is hosed, can we have the park back?" around the net, there is talk of rebuilding Opryland USA on site. While that would be great, there's been talk for YEARS about building a replacement park since Opryland's demise. The couple of attempts in some carnival rides and later the Old South concept, didn't pan out for various reasons. While I'd LOVE to see a good park in Nashville, it will simply never duplicate the indescribable charm and warmth unique to Opryland USA. Also, it's unfortunate that the Aquarium Restaurant and Rainforest Cafe at Opry Mills were lost. I really enjoyed my visit to both last year. Would love to see Aquarium rebuilt.
- Noticed on my past couple trips to Universal that Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit is closed. Granted, Halloween Horror Nights is going on, and Harry Potter is raking them in, but having an attraction like that down for a long time is a rough and costly thing. It's an extra whammy when it's a hugely visible attraction. Hopefully, Universal can get the extended maintenance done as well as the means needed to fix the "potential safety flaw" in the train couplings. While it's had a lot of delays and problems, I'd like to see this coaster back on it's feet. The energy and eye draw it brings, like it's counterpart Hollywood Dream at Universal Japan, is a good thing. Plus high tech light show is just fun to watch as it goes by.
- Orlando's Race Rock Restaurant was torn down recently. While I'm not big on racing, I do enjoy theme restaurants and I'm bummed to have missed out on this attraction. Curiously and unknowingly, I did experience it at Fun Spot earlier this year when I took a picture in one of Big Feet's (Big Foot minus the rights) wheels.
- According to the Orlando Sentinel, there's talk of building yet another theme park in Orlando. The extreme thrill park would be located on a plot of land near practically empty Festival Bay mall on International Drive. The article mentions some coasters including 425 foot tall tophat. Having driven by the area last night, they'll definitely need to rethink/widen roads to accommodate increased traffic if this goes forward. Also, these folks could score a big hit with a B&M Hyper coaster and/or Intamin Megalite, neither of which are in Florida. This will be and interesting story to watch over the next couple years despite the obvious competition.
- Lots of construction walls are up over at Downtown Disney. Granted, this is old news, but much of the area around Fulton's Crab House is getting work along with the slow transform of McDonald's to the new chicken place. Sadly, Pleasure Island is still a shuttered hallway between West Side and Market Place. While the outdoor concerts and living statues are nice (the gold lady with wings is VERY cool), all those closed clubs are a bummer, especially The Adventurers Club. Hopefully the mouse can revitalize that corridor in the near future.
Just some stuff that caught my eye and hope you all enjoyed. Cheers! :)
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