Electerik

The hints do make it sound rather Valentine's Day-ish. Didn't I read somewhere that Will envisioned Thanksgiving as the center of the park? (Or am I just making that up?) I say it's a Tunnel Of Love!

Dude, what the hell?! You can't keep talking about all the hot girls and then not even include one picture of one!

Actually, I really wanted to include that in the TR, just because it was so funky, but I didn't have a good picture of it. That's where we had lunch.

The wife is really anti-zoo. Which doesn't really bother me--except when she doesn't want to go to SeaWorld(s). We tend to move to a new area of the country every few years. Portland is now definately on the list. I think we need to see it in winter-time first, though.

A few pictures of non-amusement park stuff (gasp) in Oregon. I'll end with my favorite picture from the entire trip. Thanks for reading. (A small section of) The Columbia River Gorge. Looking down the falls. The viewing platform at the top. Like peanut butter and chocolate. We had to hike it. Multnomah Falls. This is not a lake; it's the Columbia River. I really wanted to see some of the Columbia River Gorge. Here's a view of Mount Hood on the way. Another nickname is "Bridge Town." Another view from Washington Park. One of it's nicknames is "Rose City." Portland was awesome. The wedding was a vineyard. I took, like, 20 pictures of this bridge in Newport. How about a little lighthouse action? The beach. The road to the coast. Our hotel.

We went to Oregon for a friend's wedding. We'd never been before. It was very pretty. I especially liked Portland. It was sort of like New York crossed with San Fransisco (except smaller, obviously). The only park we visited was Enchanted Forest. There's not much to it, but what there is is heavy on charm. We spent about three hours there, and that was plenty--but it was a very good three hours. Just how close is Thrill-ville to Enchanted Forest? It's pretty close. However, The Ripper was closed, so we passed. My wife pretty much wore this for the rest of the trip. The exit gift shop. This area reminds me of Holiday World. Sort of like the Tiki Room, but with pie. One of the may concrete tunnels. Wear long pants. Can you spot the ghost? It's just sort of built it over existing stuff. ...the trackless shooting dark ride. The third of the park's three major attractions... Enclosed cars, bad transistions, and no restraints. What more could you ask for? This ride is super-funky, but fun. A view from the parking lot. Much of which is not very icy. The Ice Mountain Bobsleds. The approach to the park's only true coaster. One more of the log flume. My lovely wife models a free-use poncho. Most of it is rather difficult to photograph. The Big Timber Log Flume was really good. The park was not busy. When you push a button in each car, it makes an animal noise of some kind and then launches into "Old MacDonald." This train was probably the best of them. There are a few kiddie rides at the top of a hill. Towards the end of the haunted house, you'll find these guys. The walk-through haunted house. It's not bad. Shooting gallery. Meet Lincoln! This is not part of the crooked house. Well, that's it for the fairy tale section of the park. Now on to their Old West section. ...a really cool slide. This giant shoe contains... I live in fruit. Little Red Riding Hood. I'm not sure what this is about. It's in the crooked house, though. Anyone? The Crooked Man's house. No real "tricks" inside, but it is a crooked house, which is always a plus in my book. Enchanted Forest must be the slide capital of the world. Here's the first one, inside the witch's head. I never understood the moral of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, but here's the house. The Enchanted Forest Dwarfs are a little bit different than the Disney ones. (Dingy?) Moving right along. You can go into the Gingerbread house if you're a sick freak who wants to see a little boy in a cage. Little Bo Peep. Little Miss Muffett and Spider-Dude. Humpty Dumpty holding it down. There's a sign that says "start with the castle." So we did. There are some dioramas and super-basic animatronics in there, which is cool. It's worth noting that this sign is inside the park, once you've already paid to get in. The (only) ticket booth. That's my friend Jason, the (then) groom-to-be. The front entrance and exit gift shop.

Okay, filled it out. I have to admit, I was really hoping for a combined Scandinavia/Germany type trip, but most of these sound pretty cool, too.

Well, CP did once have a reputation for getting all their rides open on time, but that was before they decided to go with four Intamin coasters in a row. (I'm just saying....) As for Disaster Transport...they don't run it in the rain because the building leaks--badly. Too bad they can't blame that one on Intamin, too. CP has its good points, of course. But it's just not my kind of park.

Sadly, I had to drop out of the mid-west trip. However, I should be able to make it to this (since I live, like, two miles away. ).

I've seen a few posts hoping that Dueling Dragons won't be much affected. And I'm sure that it won't. However, for me personally, as someone who's worked at nearly every ride in the park, Dragons is the first thing I would take out. Or, at the very least, seriously rework. Why? Because, no matter how I arrange my visit, my positive guest experience and "park exploration ease" always comes to a screeching halt there. Also, the park's big coaster experiences are far too similar to one another. So, I say, TAER IT DOWN! And put in a hypercoaster instead. Yes, I am serious. No, I'm not trolling. Yes, I will be flamed. No, they won't actually do it. But, yes, I would really like for them to.

So I'm going to Albany, Oregon in late June for a friend's wedding. I know I want to go to Enchanted Forest, but from what I can tell, neither Thrill-ville nor Oaks look like they have much in the way of unique attractions. Since I'm not at all a credit whore, I'm inclined to skip them both. But then the thought occurs to me that my research could be incomplete. So.... To those familiar with the area: Is there anything at either of those parks (or any place else in the general area) that I'm overlooking?

Stark Raven Mad! Oh, wait, they don't have that anymore. Well, in that case, Knott's Scary Farm/Halloween Haunt.

Unless you really like the animal aspect, I say Europe, by a long shot. SheiKra was the best thing Africa had going for it, but that seems a bit mitigated now. BGE is a beautiful, well put-together park with lots of variety. BGA is a weird, disjointed park that isn't quite sure what it wants to be.

So I was your intrepid Mystery Mine construction photographer over most of the winter. And then...well, other things just sort of came up. Strange to think of how many others have posted Dollywood/Mystery Mine trip reports ahead of me, considering that I live 2 miles from the park. Oh well, such is life.... And now, I leave you with what you've all been waiting for: the official first construction shot of whatever they end up building next up there. And the second half, while much better, is too short and over much too-abruptly. Still the vertical drops are fun and the theming is pretty cool. The first half is made up of small, tight elements that really don't work well on a ride with over-the-shoulder restraints. So what did I think of Mystery Mine? Well, honestly, it was kind of mediocre. The other new attraction this year: pan for gold. Seems like a natural. Lumberjack Lifts. But wait, what's that in the background? Could it be...? Thunderhead has added a Q2Q line, so now you get to hear the Control Booth Operator struggle in vain to police it the entire time you're in line. Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny. The somewhat-difficult-to-photograph Tennessee Tornado. There will be Mystery Mine photos eventually, I swear. The, um, falls of Daredevil Falls. The lift of Daredevil Falls. The beginning of Daredevil Falls. Craftsman's Valley midway, with a slight Irish overly in honor of the annual Festival of Nations event. The church and the wagon shop. The Geode gift shop is open again this year. That's kind of exciting. I'm not a games person, but this one seemed strange to me; Like a mutant combination of skeeball and a race game. Well, that was fun. Who wants to see the shooting gallery?! Look, a rollercoaster! Wandering around near the train station. People sitting quietly under a tree. Another rapids pic to anger you more. Smoky Mountain River Rampage's staging area. Rockin' Roadway. Rumored to be in danger at one point, but they decided to keep it so that I could keep taking pictures of it. Because, really, wouldn't you rather see this anyway? I'm going to make you wait for the Mystery Mine photos while I take pictures of cars. The transition into the 1950's area. The seldom photographed "Adventures in Imagination" area of the park. The main entrance. The best picture of me ever. (Which is sort of sad, when you think about it.)

Ooh, time to beat my favorite dead horse: Revolution & Colossus at SFMM.

Thanks, everyone, for the kind comments. It's not that Gwazi is too rough to ride, it's that the operations are so bad that you'll never get on the thing. How often do they run both sides? I have no idea; I've never seen it done. As for SheiKra....

Though I'd been to the park several times, this was my first visit to Busch Gardens Africa with camera in hand. As usual, I took a bazillion pictures, but most of them sucked. Here are the few that didn't (so much). Gwazi was only running one side. Hardly surprising. I do like this ride, but I was afraid that trying to ride it would ruin an otherwise great day. ;o) I just like this building. That's Gwazi in the background. The splashdown, with the second vertical drop behind. Here's a shot of the queue and approach to the lift from the station house. SheiKra is a Top Ten coaster in my book. Here you can see how well it interacts with the midway and its surroundings. Tanganyika Tidal Wave had way more theming than I thought it would. Stanley Falls, with SheiKra in the background. Scorpion, with Stanley Falls (log flume) behind. Congo River Rapids. The blue-green track in the background is Kumba. Yay, now I have this picture of Kumba, too! BGA has a great Sky Ride. Coming up is the "turn station." We skipped Rhino Rally since the river section wasn't working. The same thing from the Sky Ride. My favorite "animal thing" at the park, this half-aquarium type habitat. Assorted animals. I think these ones are from Scandinavia. Here's the inside. Note the view of the "Serengeti Plain." The Crown Colony House is the park's full service restaurant. Another shot of Montu, this time from the train. And it has a very well-themed gift shop! Tut's Tomb is a walk-though. A minor attraction, but nice. I like Montu. Just not as much as I like Top Gun: The Jet Coaster over at Carowinds. Akbar's Adventure Tours Simulator was, of course, not operating. Nor was this Dippin' Dots stand. I'm not really a show kinda guy, but I gave this one a try--and it was pretty darned good! The park's train ride. Definitely above average, since there are animals to look at along the way.

My understanding is that GhostRider was already in the works when Cedar Fair came in. And they wanted to cancel the project and build a hypercoaster instead. But they couldn't get out of the contract without paying for it anyway. Otherwise, I concur with your statements.

Hey, I worked at Cedar Point in 2000. Mostly on Millennium Force, but I also spent a week over at Chaos/Troika/Super Himalaya when they were short handed. Hmmm....

^^^ Well, I'm glad you enjoyed it...but, actually, it's "Wears Valley Road." ^^ Jurassic Jungle Boat Ride is a stand-alone dark ride, and a business unto itself. I actually posted a fairly detailed review of it a while back: http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=26903&highlight= ^ Well, the Library is in the background of the final photo. It didn't help that they were closed by the time I got there. If only I hadn't spent so much time taking pictures!

I had some books to return, and it's actually a pretty interesting walk. Won't you join me? And now, if I can just make it past the pizza place...the library! Hooray! Total distance: about two miles. The Mandarin House Chinese Restaurant. We're almost there! A giant cross some idiot erected in order to fund the building of a church. I'm still not sure how that was supposed to work.... The ubiquitous Little Pigeon River, the new Helicopter Museum, and the Christmas Inn (under construction). Fire House Golf is located just behind my giant, ugly head. Behind that hotel, there used to be a wooden roller coaster. :0( "The Track" fun center. The Elvis Museum and Pigeon Forge's only porn shop. (Hey, we only have 5,000 residents!) More touristy stuff. A relative newcomer to the Pigeon Forge scene. A kitsch icon: the Three Bears Gift Shop. And here we are: the main road through Pigeon Forge. Almost to the Parkway. Crossing the bridge we just went under. Soon this big, empty field will become shops and attractions. About to go under a road and then curve up to meet it. This is the way I usually walk to work, as well. Not bad, eh? The trail that runs from my neighborhood out to...well, not much yet. Not my street, but the next one over. Setting off, I look back at my house.

IOA's is nicely themed, but it always seemed just a little bit too small to me. I'll go with SeaWorld Orlando. Since I didn't have a good shot of the entrance, this is an official SeaWorld Orlando photo.

True. It may be worth noting, though, that the engine is rather sparingly used, and that ride is powered only by gravity for most of its course. Not suggesting that one should count it as a coaster; just pointing that out.

Off and on.... Disneyland: Village Haus, mostly. Knott's Berry Farm: Haunted Shack, Calico Mine Ride, "The Big Train," and GhostRider. Cedar Point: Millennium Force, mostly. Islands of Adventure: Ripsaw Falls, River Adventure, Spider-Man, Popeye & Bluto's, Doctor Doom/Storm Force, Flying Unicorn & Dueling Dragons. Discovery Cove: Guest Services

Yeah, well, some ride crew is gonna get a new memo tomorrow.... Nice trip report, by the way.