I realize this isn't a popular opinion, but I suspect SAS was actually an insider as well. He/she was correct about nearly everything posted, but was either misinterpreting things or things changed after the post. SAS was most likely a lower level insider, who had info that was either passed down through rumors or who was a few days behind.
First, UO WAS aiming for April 9 for a soft open date. Very seriously aiming for it. However, they made some last minute decisions, and realized they needed more time. There was a lot of debate depending on who you asked whether they would be ready or not. There were those firmly in the "we'll be ready" camp, and others in the "it'll be December by the time we get this thing open if we don't hurry our butts" camp. As we see, the answer was somewhere in the middle.
Second was the much anticipated Wednesday "event." The problem is, there was NO real event that Wednesday as far as the company was concerned. It was a normal, typical walkthrough by WB. Nothing earth shattering to the outside world except in as far as WB signing off on things and the opening date being set based on their acceptance or UO's need to add/change things. UO decided to use that day to do some loading in and training since it's usual to remove all construction personnel so the big wigs don't see how much is left to do. They also had a planned marketing event with the bloggers that was such a secret, even most of marketing didn't know about it. That's not unusual at UO either. I suspect SAS was on the construction side, and he was probably not told why the crew needed to be out of the area by a certain time.
Third and last, the technical info. SAS was right about a lot (the uncovered greenhouse, the queue). The one thing he was wrong about was the ride time, but I think he heard an approximation of the whole cycle time and misunderstood. Common misconception.
He's been vilified on this forum since he posted. I agree, he was short and snarky with his comments and rude sometimes, but he was also immediately attacked as "suspect" and that can get someone defensive. He obviously wasn't a marketing person or UO authorized person posting info, no one on here is. UO won't post info that way. He was most likely someone with some insider knowledge who couldn't wait to share it, got called names and attacked pretty immediately, tried (not too well) to defend his knowledge, gave up and stopped posting.
Just my two cents worth. I don't know the guy (or gal) or know who he (or she) is, but I sort of feel for the guy. When you work on or near a big, top secret project like this, you have access to all sorts of rumors and information, and it's hard not to share it, especially when you read a forum and people are fiercely debate just exactly the info you have. It's even harder when you do share some of what you think won't get you in trouble since it's basic info, and then because you're new on the forum everyone condemns you as a troll or liar for "making stuff up" when you know what you heard and you only wanted to have them all say "Wow, great info. Thanks!"
The train looks really cool
