The Parkscope Podcast

Jeff's been at a NASCAR race all night so hasn't followed the D23 news this past Saturday. So Joe, drunk from the normal show, joins Jeff late at night to go over all the news with our thoughts and opinions.

The core crew is back to cover the D23 Parks and Resorts 2017 panel. We're super drunk. Beware.

Joe, Sean, and Mike make small talk about changes coming to the auction scene at Pirates of the Caribbean, Siemens dropping sponsorship of Spaceship Earth and Illuminations, crazy Walt Disney World rumors, and cover all the speculation on D23 expo. It's a slapdash episode because... well we don't know what's going to happen!

We'll also be doing a live podcast 6PM EST Saturday July 15th to cover the D23 Parks and Resorts panel!

Alan, Joe, Nick, and Sean team up for yet another road trip extravaganza. First we talk about Hurler 2.0, Mine Blower at Fun Spot Kissimmee, developments on the old Wet n Wild property, and dive into the Super Nintendo World leaks and plans.

Next up Nick talks about his first trip to Walt Disney World with his child and a review of Pandora: World of Avatar. Then we close up the show with Alan discussing his whirlwind European trip to Port Adventura, Ferrari Land, Tipidabo, Conny-land (with Mammut Tree and Dino Attack), Legoland Deutschland, and Tripsdrill (with the nuts bathtub flume ride).

Alan is joined by Jerry Brick, General Manager of Lake Compounce to talk the history of the park, Wildcat's 90th anniversary and refurbishment, Boulderdash, historical rides, their partnership with the Haunted Graveyard haunt event, their newest coaster Phobia, Milli Vanilli, and more!

Alan, Jeff, and Joe talk about the mess of an opening of Volcano Bay, the inevitability of Pandora doing "well", Flight of Passage ride system issues, Nintendo announcements (no, not the leaked plans), Mean Streak 2.0 teaser, and Kennywood's 2018 plans. Finally they all talk about their trips over the past month to Cedar Point, Lake Compounce, Hersheypark, Holiday World, Kennywood, Carrowinds, and more!

It's a family affair this week as Alan is joined by his cousin Tom Dion to talk about UFC vs boxing, gambling advice, and Tom's years as GM and auditor of various water parks around the country. They talk about how Tom got into the industry, riding slides as "testing", awkwardly auditing water parks for safety, applying for jobs in Tanzania, how a park handles a catastrophic event, and life advice for anyone looking to get into the industry.

This episode Lane briefly joins us from the SunTrust Park to lay out his plan to fix all of WDW for less money than it took to build Pandora, Joe talks about his Cedar Point trip, Sean talks about visiting the Harry Potter Studio Tour in England, and Nick cuts in and out of connectivity. We also discuss Pandora previews, Volcano Bay media day, locals overhyping projects, The Shining and Conjuring at HHN, new hotels, Sesame Street, and then answer your non-theme park questions!

Alan is joined by Tom Mehrmann, owner and founder of Themed Advisers Ltd. They discuss Tom's past as VP of Operations and Entertainment at Knotts Berry Farm, VP and GM of several Six Flags parks around the world, his twelve years as CEO of Ocean Park in Hong Kong, Tom's philosophy on running amusement parks, the future of the Asian amusement park industry, and more!

Joe, Nick, and Lane are joined by Banks Lee of Attractions Magazine the Show to do a quick news run down before discussing Bank's visit to Pandora - The World of Avatar at Disney's Animal Kingdom. Yes there are two Price is Right jokes in the episode.