jmicha

^That's so cool! First you'll get to ride what looks like a fantastic coaster, then get the pleasure of spending time with manta rays in their natural habitat. Unfair

^I'm seriously jealous of you. I'm a scuba diver also, and manta rays are my favorite sea creatures. There's something unnaturally graceful about them. I really need to go diving around some.

^You're right, that area doesn't look all that large. The depth is much greater than what the tanks for Manta appear to be, but I could definitely see a more spread out, shallower version of that tank being built on the site. Maybe the problem was the actual process of attaining a manta ray. I wonder if that plays a large part in why so few aquariums have them also. Because there are plenty of sea creatures larger than manta rays (killer whales for instance) that are held in captivity all the time. So I wonder if their ability to get a manta ray was what resulted in them going with other rays and not the size of the tank required.

Manta rays are the rarest of the rays and as far as I know, there are only four places in the world with manta rays...a quick check of Wiki confirms this. I think that unless they were going to add a tank that was absolutely massive, there was never really even the possibility of having actual manta rays. Looking at the specs of Manta's aquariums shows a total of 184,000 gallons of water spread across several different tanks. For reference one of the aquariums housing a manta ray is 6.2 million gallons. This is quite a large difference. Granted, a tank of that size probably isn't the minimum size required but still, even a tank one tenth that size is still more than three times the size of all of Manta's tanks together. I don't know if a tank capable of housing a manta ray would actually be possible to fit into the site.

This ride is turning out absolutely beautifully! I remember when construction first started, I was skeptical of how the massive dirt pit was going to turn into an area as nicely themed and landscaped as the rest of Sea World. Now I realize how wrong I was to be skeptical. This coaster looks like it has already been here for years! The landscaping is beautiful and will only get better as it matures. I'm excited for the next time I go to Orlando.

^That video was awesome! It basically sums up every bad argument for the banning of gay marriage by showing how ridiculous most of them are. Reminds me of myself when I argue about the topic with those against gays getting married (hence the reason I've stayed far away from this topic lol).

^It might actually just be that they are moving the crane to the other side of the tower to finish installation of the lift track and the top of the first drop. I know I'm being optimistic but I really hope that's what it is lol.

^That s-turn before going up into the MCBR is one of the most intense elements on any coaster at Cedar Point. The pace of the direction change is insane and it's enhanced by the fact that you are standing. It's just that transition into the MCBR that really is quite unpleasant lol.

^This ride looks fantastic! Someone needs to show these pictures to those in the planning departments of other parks to show that when building a large new ride you don't need to clear the land to the point of a baron wasteland (cough*Cedar Point*cough). The setting for this ride is beautiful and it looks like it has already been there a while due to the mature trees surrounding the ride that it interacts with.

^Not saying you are wrong, but Holiday World counted anything .25 G's or lower airtime, not just ejector air.

^Sorry, that was what I meant by what I said, you just said it more clearly and with less words lol.

^As far as I know the trains changing was directly a result of the accident. If my memory serves me correctly, the maintenance team was only able to properly maintain the lead cars due to either a mistranslation of the manual or not being able to read the manual at all(can't remember which) and as a result, the failure happened in one of the other cars. Because of this and not wanting to risk ever having an accident like this again, they built trains completely from the lead cars which is why the trains are so odd looking on this ride compared to other Schwarzkopf coasters.

It looks like a combination of blue skies and maybe a little over-saturation on the part of the camera.

I saw Watchmen last night and I must say I was a little disappointed. The story was decent, but the movie really lacked in making me feel attached to any of the characters. And the finale seemed so distant and unemotional that I didn't really care what was going to happen. And I honestly don't understand the need for the constant nudity of Dr. Manhattan. It really detracted from the movie as did the several softcore porn scenes. I just think they failed at connecting the audience to the characters and ended up being a bunch of decent action scenes strung together without a real direction. Overall, I'd give it a 7/10. It was one of the better of the superhero movies, but could have been a lot better.

That splash down looks really cool. I'm excited to ride this ride this coming season.

^I'd think they are still at least slightly lighter. There are only three wheel assemblies, although much larger, instead of eight, and these new trains have a lot of excess material due to the seating arrangement. I'm curious to see what the exact weights of each are.

That and I'm pretty sure that the trains on Griffin and Sheikra are lighter.

^I was just thinking the same thing. Hopefully it means that there will be some great positive G's at this point and a lot more reinforcing is needed.

^Well technically, not really. The front and back of the train experience the greatest range of forces, whereas the middle has a slightly smaller range. The back may have more airtime on certain elements though such as the first drop or a drop off a MCBR, but generally the front and back will experience a very similar amount of airtime on a typical hill (assuming it's symmetrical), just on opposite sides of the hill. The front on the upward side, the back on the downward.

^Oh my god, I used to love that movie. I remember when it was first on TV there were more commercials than movie and it took an entire week to get through it. The storyline is interesting, but the movie falls into a lot of the same problems that made-for-TV movies have.

I have both, and the only reason I ended up buying my PS3 was because I was tired of all the problems my Xbox 360 was having. I got the red ring of death once, my friend has had it happen three times, and I know of at least ten people that have had it happen once. Only one of the people I know that has an Xbox 360 has never had a red ring of death experience, and I know this is a rarity. My 360 also is no longer able to play the games that were backwards-compatible with the exception of Halo and Halo 2. I've also seen several people have problems with the Play and Charge Kit for the wireless controllers. The chargers and/or battery pack just stop working altogether. If I could go back, I never would have bought the 360. It does have some titles that I really like (PGR, Test Drive Unlimited, Halo (1 and multiplayer of 2. Don't get me started on how bad all of Halo 3 was), and Gears of War 1 (2 is a disappointment though), and several others. But this doesn't stop me from disliking the system. Microsoft products are just generally poorly made, unfortunately. My PS3, although i has fewer exclusive titles (currently) that I like, has never had a problem. It acts so much more like a computer which is nice. I can store all of my ripped movies and music on it with ease, and it really is just more of a home entertainment system than just a video game console. The price is higher, but honestly when you look at the breakdown of all the extras that you will need to buy when you get a 360, you'll realize you really aren't saving all that much money. If I were you, I would look at all of the exclusive titles to see which system is geared more towards what you are looking for. If both systems are equal in the amount of exclusives you want, or are close, I'd go with the PS3. There is a pretty good chance that if you buy a used 360, it will get the red ring of death, and without the warranty, you'll be throwing your money down the drain. So I'd say that unless the 360 has titles you MUST have, go with a PS3.

^I'm not even sure keeping the names is really important. Hardly anyone went to the park last year so there wouldn't really be any confusion about why the names changed because if advertised as a generic music park, most visitors will think it is an entirely new park. They could change the names to generic music names that relate to what they were originally without using trademarked names. I think that this would be the most simple and cheap way of rebranding the park without having to pay for the trademarked names of Hard Rock and the bands used. It should also be able to be done in a matter of months. Geauga Lake did it when Cedar Fair took over, so I think a park of this size should easily be able to do it.

^Not only that but it also revitalizes what was, in my opinion at least, the dullest area of the entire resort. And if the parts of the ride already built give a hint at the madness that the rest of the ride will hold, this is going to be one fantastic coaster. I'm looking forward to the next time I can get down to Orlando and ride this thing.

^I'm really liking the HRRR ads. Full of energy and color. I'm seriously looking forward to riding this ride whenever the next time I'm able to get to Orlando is. Definitely excited to see the construction of the lift hill and non-inverting loop continue in the near future.

^Although, it depends on how they rank airtime. As far as I know, Holiday World considered anything lower than .25 g's airtime. With the way B&M designs their hills (to have prolonged floater air) it is possible. Not likely because of the small number of hills, but still possible.