Pantheon is a multi launch ride that is for people looking to take the next step from Verbolten but not to something like Alpengeist or Griffon. No way it’s the fastest coaster in the world. It’s not even the fastest coaster on its half of the park.

I just finished booking my son's and my first "big boy" trip after years of doing WDW. Last year at WDW we did a day at Busch Gardens Tampa and thoroughly loved it. I hadn't been there since ~1995 and though he wouldn't go on the bigger rides (Kumba, Sheikra, Montu) we loved rides like Cheetah Hunt and Cobra Curse. It made the subsequent days on rides like Thunder Mountain a bit boring, though we love going.

We have Six Flags New England locally and this year he did all the big kid rides (Batman, Riddler, Wicked Cyclone which is amazing, Superman...etc.) so in April we're going to do our first "non-Disney" Disney trip as we're hitting all the parks that aren't Disney - Busch, Universal, Islands, and Seaworld.

Having said that, I can't stress enough how good of a value Busch/Seaworld is compared to Universal. Our one day at Busch last year was a package that included a stay at a nice hotel down the road with a decent breakfast included, parking at the park, and both of our tickets included. Package price was $205. If you figure the hotel was about $150, parking was $25, and having a similar breakfast would be about $25, basically park admission was free.

Universal is a must for us as we're in the last Harry Potter book, and there's a closing window for an 11yr old wanting to run around with his dad with magic wands. So I booked a 3-night, 4-day package at Universal's Royal Pacific (3rd time I'll have stayed there) with park-to-park tickets for 4 days. I opted for the Royal Pacific because it comes with their unlimited FastPass free (included only from their top 3 hotels). We are going during my son's April vacation and I don't want to wait in lines. I also checked out their value resorts, but after you add in the Universal Express pass, it's virtually negligible in cost, so why not stay at the premium resort and be next to the CityWalk.

The Universal package was stupid expensive, and realized it was cheaper to go Mon-Thurs vs. the Wed-Sat I was planning so I went for the cheaper days. Still, the 3-night stay, 4-day ticket w/ park hopper and the included unlimited FastPass cost a whopping $2550! I'm still ok with it because it's going to be a blast and we will have those memories forever.

Meanwhile, our Busch package I got for the rest of the trip reminded me of their incredible value. We're staying down the road from Busch at a very nice hotel from Fri-Mon and will go to Busch Sat-Sun. Also included is their basic FastPass which gives 1 cut per ride per day. There are enough rides there that this is ok with me, especially with 2 days there. Also included is breakfast, parking at the park, AND A 14 DAY PASS to both Busch and SeaWorld. This means now our last day or two at SeaWorld after Universal are included and they also include the basic FastPass there. Total package for the 3 nights hotel, the 14 day ticket over 2 parks with basic FastPass was only about $700. When I add on a hotel for the time after Universal when we'll be at SeaWorld, it's about $1000 total.

For thrill seekers going to FL, Busch/Seaworld is a no-brainer. Between Kumba, Montu, Cheetah, Sheikra, the new Iron Gwazi (hopefully open when there), and a bunch of other rides at Busch, and Mako, Manta, Kraken, and the new Ice Breaker (also hopefully open) at SeaWorld, that's a ton of thrill rides. Then factor that I'm basically spending $1000 for 5 nights and a bunch of days in the parks with the FastPass and other perks, that's a killer value. Meanwhile I'm spending 2.5x that for half the time at Universal and would've been even more if I chose the days I initially planned instead of the Mon-Thurs I chose. Fuck, Harry Potter allows Universal to rake me over the coals.

So for PoV’s Theme Park Review is very good (you just have to accept the guy’s “Weeeeeeee” through most of them). He has a lot of older videos on coasters that are now defunct and newer ones he usually does multi angles and typically hard mounted. Also for oddball Asian coasters you’ve never heard of MiyaPA Masane has some incredible videos.

I’d also HIGHLY recommend Defunctland and Expedition Theme Park for history videos. Both similar in content, different in delivery, but great.

As I mentioned above, Theme Park Review is one of the more comprehensive PoV channels as Robb has traveled globally for years. If you don't want to spend $6K on your next pin, Theme Park Review just announced travel packages to both Europe and Asia to hit up some of the major parks and some of the smaller ones. You'll probably end up on his next series of PoV's.

https://themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=77317