Electerik

Just saw that the producers have confirmed that both Harold Perrineau (Michael) and Cynthia Watros (Libby) will be back at some point during the final season (much to my surprise). Exciting stuff. Can't wait.

Yeah, it's not the best. However, it is indoors (which is nice, right now) and it's not blacklight (which makes it a rarity). Plus, it plays the Raiders of the Lost Ark theme while you golf. So it scores some points for that.

I know I'm a bit late to the party, but I just wanted to chime in and say how amazing this park is! It really makes me want to dig out RCT2 again. /Just to play, though. Nothing like this.

Literally in the same building as the illustrious Earthquake, Treasure Quest offers 18-holes of all-weather, indoor mini golf--without all that blacklight nonsense. Us. And John Wayne, I guess. Dun-da-dun-da, dun-dada…! The final hole. Indiana Jones should have faced a giant gorilla with a rope. That would have rocked. The final approach features a giant round ball. “Ahoy there, Gilligan! Would you care to sleep with my wife? There’s gold in it for you!” Outside of the putter problem, it’s really not a bad little course. “Um...I’m not a skeleton. I’m just old. Hello...?” I like this crocodile in the green, even if it could be a bit more of an obstacle. Nice idea, though. Can you explain this diorama? No, you can not. Magical coin-operated mechanical devices. The only really bad thing about Treasure Quest is the putters. Even the biggest size was tiny. Wait...do pirates ride horses? Basically, the theme is Indiana Jones--without ever actually saying Indiana Jones--with pirates and whatever else they had lying around. Smisty putts as two Egyptian dudes breakdance-fight behind her. “I throw an invisible snowball at you!” - “I stab thee with a serpent!” In the heart of deepest Africa, there lies a cleverly painted support pole. The first hole is behind the mannequins, the final hole is on the left. I’m especially fond of the handicap “wheelchair” stencil holding a golf club. It was a cold, wet day whence we ventured forth, verily.

I would not be ashamed of people seeing this in my wallet: I'm not involved, but it's interesting to see how collaborative this is becoming.

Well, I think you already know this...but yeah, if it's anything like previous 4ths of July, it's going to suck. Let's see now, on the busiest day of the busiest month of the year, let's close down the town's only road for a parade! Seriously, you could easily spent two hours just driving the 15 miles from I-40 to Pigeon Forge that weekend. And as you get closer to the parade start time, ETA to Gatlinburg quickly starts approaching, well, infinity. On the other hand, I don't really know where a good travel destination would be on those particular days. Maybe if you drive in at 4:00am on Friday and get a hotel that's on the parade route....

I like stuff like this (obviously). I want to see the mini golf and stuff at Timber Falls, too!

^ I had an Eastern Painted Turtle when I was a kid. Very similar, obviously. Left him with mom when I moved out. Eventually, she gave him to a lady that ran some kind of turtle house. He's still alive, I believe. Don't let your kids bring home turtles!

While I like n7's...for what it's worth, I think the "club" part looks a bit too much like a halo. /Might just be me.

Certainly not. On the other hand, I like it for what it is now. And if it were to become, well, something else--I'm not sure I would like it as much. Having said that, I'm all for the Club TPR concept. I do think it will almost certainly widen the divide between the heavily-involved and more lightly-involved members, though--even if only psychologically.

Dollywood may be closed for the winter, and much of the town shut down--but there are still some attractions open, and no stopping Erik & Smisty! Rainforest Adventures is located in the Governor’s Crossing area of Sevierville, on Collier Drive. Misty shows off one of her Rainforest Adventures souvenirs in front of the “side of the building” bird display. Don’t take my “bad security” joke too seriously; this is a pretty neat little place. Family owned and operated, too. What’s not to like? Around the side of the building is this pathway that leads to the door seen behind me several photos ago. I guess it’s a tour entrance or something. This appears to be a theme. I bought you some candy. It’s wrapped in poop! More evidence of slack security. “There’s, like, some kind of tiny leopard in there!” “Dude, I would seriously not go in there.” And this is the unlocked door that leads inside. Anyway, on the other side of the glass are a lizard, a parrot, and a porcupine. So, there are these bleachers at the end for some kind of show, I guess. But it obviously wasn’t busy enough while we were there to have anything like that. “Hey...we wanna be cryptic!” This amazing turtle is cryptic. “Wait, the river that goes right through town?? Holy hell!” Tough to read, but the fine print there says they pulled one of those things out of the Little Pigeon River in Sevierville. It’s like the Louvre of amphibians. “Yep, this is the life.” “I’m a rubber snake. Go ahead, touch me. It’s okay.” “I am a tiny dinosaur!” So...they have an “omnivorous extremely diet”? What, exactly, does that mean? A furry little pile of mongooses. Er..."mongeese"? “Hey, what can we do with these old snake skins?” - “Um...souvenirs?” - “Dude...!” Snakey snakey snake snake. Fat snake. “If somebody wants to name a suspended coaster after me, I’d be okay with it.” Wait, why was King Cobra a stand-up coaster again? Snakes don’t even have legs. It just doesn’t make any sense. “Plus, the ladies dig it.” One great big pile of “no.” “Dude, the kangaroo is in with the turtles. Get a clue.” Some kind of weird aviary. “I’m a kangaroo!” “We’re geese. We were told we’d be a big hit here. This is SeaWorld, right?” “Please don’t rape me.” Oh you are, are you? “G’day. I’m a dwarf goat and I can stick my head through the fence. Give me some candy.” There seems to be a special outdoor exhibit going on right now. Misty liked the chinchillas. “Dude, I’m a turtle. Put the kangaroo in here or something.” Rainforest Adventures is made up largely of hallways like this. Madagascar meets Watchmen. “Um, dudes? I’m a kangaroo or something. Why did you put me in with the turtles??” I like the way this is set up. You enter through the short axis of one end of the gift shop, and exit via the long axis. Not many cars, but it is the off-season. I guess it’s pretty much the same amount of work to take care of the animals whether they’re open or not.

Yeah, it was supposed to be all sand-colored like that. I actually think the new look is a bit garish. And IOA is aways painting something. There might be a big push to get everything shiny for the debut of Potter-land, but even that's happened before. Cool, but hardly unprecedented.

Just going to pick out a few.... Favorite new coaster: Millennium Force. Though I know many might criticize the choice, the sad thing to me is that it debuted right at the start of the decade, and was never surpassed. Least favorite park: I'm going to give a pass to small parks that are (maybe) doing the best they can with what they've got, and go right to a big boy that does the least with what they've got: Carowinds. I like Top Gun a lot, and a few of their other coasters are okay. But the park has almost no non-coaster rides worth mentioning. What is does have is games--lots and lots of games. Oh, and abysmal employees. I once saw the entire staff of Vortex (including the controls person) leave the station (with the ride running and a loaded train stopped on the brakes) to go open queue. There is only one piece of queue that can be adjusted on Vortex. The best meal you've had at a park: Somehow, I managed to get my name randomly selected as "Adventurer of the Month" when I worked at IOA. One of the prizes for this was a $200 gift certificate for the Universal restaurant of my choice. One caveat: It could only be used for myself and one other person. Meaning that I was more or less forced to be outrageously extravagant at Mythos--especially since I don't drink. I think I had, like, 6 desserts. The worst meal you've had at a park: Some crappy cheeseburger at Six Flags Over Texas. I like the park, but their food is a weakness. Best park turnaround: Dollywood. Not that it was bad before, but they've gone from a curiosity to an absolute must-visit in the last 10 years. Worst park turnaround: Knott's Berry Farm, unquestionably. Even parks that got completely torn down weren't raped as badly as KBF. All the sadder that it used to be my favorite park. Cedar Fair's worst crime, and the one that I will never forgive them for. Worst New Ride: Pilgrim's Plunge. Holiday World's first misstep in a long time, this "looks like it was designed for Cedar Point" shoot-the-chutes actually makes me like the park less than before it was built. An amazing accomplishment for a ride that didn't even replace anything. Best New Ride: Men In Black: Alien Attack. From start to finish, the best themed ride in existence. Tons of fun, immense replay value--heck, it even has the best on-ride photo I've ever seen. MIB literally makes every other shooting dark ride look cheap by comparison.

Older. It's from rec.roller-coaster. Some kid posted that Lakemont should just take Leap-The-Dips, "taer it down," and put in a hyper or something.

Okay, I officially hate this thread now. Revolution is one the greatest rides ever built. Sure, it sucks now. But it could be completely fixed for less money and effort than it would take to tear it down. /Yeah, I know. If I hate it, I should stay away. //Continue to talk about your least favorite coasters in this poorly concieved "taer it down!" thread.

On second thought, I'll say Maverick. /I actually like Disaster Transport. //A little.

Not that I object to negative threads, per se--but what's the point? Do we get to build something better in its place? Because, if not, it just seems kind of cruel. /Somebody somewhere loves Flashback.

What are your initial thoughts? I remember this being mentioned in the past, and I thought it was a pretty cool idea. This price is a bit higher than I had been thinking, but not so high as to necessarily be a deal-breaker. Whether I do it or not at this price may depend on whether there's actually some event I plan on going to (Holli-wood Nights, say). Whereas, if were $20, I would probably do it regardless of my plans for the year.

Yeah, I used to have my own opinions, too. But now I just like what everybody else likes. /Nothing personal. It just sounds...bad.

We're so awesome, Dolly sends us a Christmas card.* (* Note: This is mostly a lie.) Merry Christmas! (Or Kwanza, I guess, if you're a Jew.)

Personally, I don't find the trains all that different. However, I do think the newer B&M hypers (as a group) are a bit different from the older ones. Which is to say, in my opinion, SFOG's Goliath is much closer to Diamondback than to Apollo, despite the similar trains.

^ I'm certainly not an expert on Disneyland Paris, but I'm pretty sure they don't have a Splash Mountain. Looks fun in the snow!

Yeah, that surprised me, too. The Christmas Pyramids were just such a staple. They weren't particularly accessible, though. Most guests didn't really seem to get it. I'm not even sure I did. Definitely want to meet up in Orlando. Still going to be a few months away for me, though.

I'm all for a good conspiracy theory, but that's pretty over the top. First of all, the rights to use the Peanuts characters at the other parks did not automatically come with Knott's, and had to be negotiated separately--which they were, after the fact. And secondly, your theory only makes any sense at all if you assume that CF believed that being able to use the Peanuts characters at their other parks would somehow make them more than $250-million. Even really long term, that seems pretty optimistic. Also, Knott's instantly became CF's second most profitable park (after CP) the second it was acquired. So...no.

Really, my Christmas list is for all of us. (And, for the record, I have been really good this year.) I'm sure that my leaving early is no reflection on Babes in Toyland. I'm really just not a show guy. And, of course, as it turns out, the park is open today. Sorry, man.