Just smile

So you made a robot stand up and talk... now what? In this over 4-hour journey, Kevin follows the promise of Disney's Living Character Initiative, an effort to populate Disney theme parks with free-roaming, interactive beings. It was touted as the future. How's it going? Watch here: bit.ly/49C6vng

That concludes my day at Hersheypark. I’ll return for lights later in December.

Some new (or new to me) designs in HP Collections.

Inside the Play Dome Arcade, you can still see a remnant from when this was the Frontier Meeting House. More here: amusementparkives.com/2016/09/01/t...

Seeing the Reindeer

A look into the queue for Santa. Looks to be the same setup they had last year.

The Santa area, featuring booze

Not seeing too much in the construction zone yet around the Boardwalk.

Rudolf the red-tagged reindeer

Shaqalicious Laff Trakk continues into the holiday season. They even moved the large prop from the Trick or Treat Trail over.

Treeville isn’t officially open until next Friday, but some trees are already up. Here’s the Hershey Bears hockey team tree.

A look at some of the merchandise inside Candylane Emporium

I will never understand the point of closing down this food court area for Candylane. Philly Cheesesteak Co is open and has a tiny window, and the restrooms next to Subway are open (but you can’t walk there directly from Mix’d). I know other locations are closed, but a simple path would help here.

Nice to see some seasonal wraps on this thing. Of course, these are mostly broken, so I’m not sure how much help this actually is.

Active work being done across from Music Box - there was an outdoor stage here, which has been gone for a number of seasons. Hopefully, they got the memo to add more covered seating (and hopefully built-in heaters)

Some of these games have been around for decades.

New character meet and greet inside the Arcade.

New photo op in front of Triple Tower!

I still think it’s wild they don’t cover these spaces up more. Here’s SkyRush being stored.

Noel displays go right up to Twizzlers Twisted Gravity.

Happy that they are putting more stuff up front, rather than hiding it all back in Midway.

Hersheypark Christmas Candylane on a Sunday

If you could set aside 4 hours and 18 minutes today for my new video, that would be much appreciated.

THE SHINING (1980) FILMING LOCATION. The Overlook Hotel exterior, played by Timberline Lodge. Mountain Hood, Oregon. June 2025.

Part 2! - This covers the Phase 2 build out stuff including seemingly imminent Harry Potter expansion /ride discussion open.substack.com/pub/tommythe...

Celestial Park Christmas decorations at restrooms next to Pizza Moon.

Universal's Holiday Parade has returned!

The Cosmos Fountain closing show continues to be very popular in Epic Universe.

Millworks for 3rd in the Burg (Downtown Harrisburg, PA)

The server said I am the 7th Viking on the planet to try this. A+

It’s always “raise prices on busy days” and never “give discounts for slower times of the year,” is it?

This train has a neat trick. The lighting is imbedded inside it.

They added the Elves to the Tour Ride. I didn’t see any merch, so this may have been a last-minute thing?

A look around Chocolate World set up for the Holidays.

Over at Hersheypark Stadium, they’re doing construction on the grass mounds. I saw they have some plans shared at the next township meeting, so maybe we are getting upgraded facilities?

“Bobbing Barrels”, the SpongeBob themed Zamperla Watermania at Universal Kids Resort has been revealed in new concept art. -“Are you on team Patrick Star or team Sandy Cheeks? Use your cannon to blast water as you spin ‘round and ‘round with SpongeBob SquarePants’ best friends.”

Got my Six Flags America closing day buttons in the mail from Mr Six!

Surprise trip to Dollywood

Where are their shadows? Why does it look like they were photoshopped in here?

Yesterday Six Flags Over Texas revealed the Tormenta Rampaging Run trains at IAAPA and inside the park. We've got both train reveals for you as well as some interviews with Jeffrey Siebert, Ken Parks and Clayton Lawrence. Check it out! youtu.be/hg60D8GseLg

From the people who didn't bring you the Orlando Polercoaster...

I thought maybe they picked up the prototype RailRyder from the S&S plant, which would be a pretty big deal for this small park, but no it's a custom RMC Raptor! Finally a reason to return to Myrtle Beach for the first time since 2008.

Looks like someone on Facebook bought one of the original Sidewinder cars from Hersheypark. www.facebook.com/permalink.ph...

Yeah not exactly positive.

Craig Finn is Millennial Bruce Springsteen

Hear me out. Every time you share wrong answers you are helping to sabotage the LLMs that will eventually scrape your answer. But also it is a completely true thing that we used to store files in vending machines to keep them cold while away from home.

Had no idea there was a 5:20 version of this song. I most closely associate this song with working at Universal Studios Florida Christmas loop.