tayspru

Unfortunately for us as enthusiasts, Harry Potter is one of the biggest draws currently at Universal. It's no secret that J.K Rowling always wanted these rides gone, I suspect it has always been a "when" not an "if". Now that the HP universe is expanding with new books and movies, the theme park department need to keep her sweet to be able to get her approval on these new elements in the park. It's a sad day, but not exactly unexpected ...

The plans definitely show the gradient change, and also indicate a form of launch lift to mitigate chain lift noise. The change in elevation is to allow room for the brake run to pass underneath the lift You can see that if you continued the shallow gradient for the full lift, the track would not meet the track that exits from beneath the station building. This video is a recreation of the plans that were submitted to Staffordshire Moorlands Council, and any theme / hidden elements aside, is a good indication of what we will get! There is a possibility that the plans hid some inversions , similar to the submitted plans for The Smiler featuring only 8 inversions, but this remains to be seen... My pink line (and the plans for the ride) disagree!

Love seeing some parks that I'm more familiar with ! Do you guys have any plans to check out the UK soon? Always interested to see an outside opinion of our parks, and was secretly hoping your Europe trip would have a UK add on

Aside from the Vignette effect, the colours of these shots are completely unfiltered - I took these in September of last year at Alton Towers, just after ride close. - Tayler

Ah, looking at the high res, that could be the case! But we can still dream right

Long time lurker here, but this is my first post... here goes! I was struggling to get my head around where the Toy Story Land would fit , especially a few weeks ago when I first heard the rumour of a coaster appearing in the line up! Anyway, after I matched up the orientation of TSMM with the rest of the concept, I managed to pin down most of the land over a google maps image. I also think I have spotted the yet to be announced Woodys Roundup, which I had also heard rumoured a few times, and the location also matches up to the Western styled buildings in the bottom of the concept artwork ... Yes, I also think 2017 sounds optimistic, with Disney's construction timescales, but backstage areas have been cleared up as late, so hopefully ground will break in the very near future. Hopefully the graphic I threw together will help people get their heads around the announcement in real terms - Tayler