Electerik

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.

^^ Well, I certainly don't want to argue about it, but I assure you that you were mislead about the wheelchair seat. I worked at Islands of Adventure for four years--at several different levels, but always in rides. And, yes, I even worked on The Flying Unicorn. There is no such harness, and there never was. I mean, seriously, does that even remotely sound like something some po-dunk fun center would do? Let alone Universal?! All you have to do is look at the ride's signage: You must transfer from your wheelchair to ride. Yes, it is often referred to as "the wheelchair seat," which is probably where the confusion comes from. But that name is simply a mixture of its function (allowing wheelchairs to cross the track) and its location (in place of a proper seat), and should not be taken literally.

No, they don't chain wheelchairs to the back of Flying Unicorn. It's a bridge for wheelchairs to go from Load to Unload.

I've ridden on it many times. In fact, I've worked on it! They used to run it when the park was slow (and probably stilll do), since the big train costs so much to run.

I would say.... Best: Alpengeist Worst: Riddler's Revenge. Hell, it's not even in the Gotham City section of the park!

To some degree, safety is in the eye of the beholding park. For example, at Holiday World, ride ops regularly leap across the track (in the station). In fact, it's part of their procedure! Of course, any op that did that at Cedar Point would be fired on the spot, no questions asked. Also, one must be careful not to confuse unsafe behavior with bad (park) policy. A previous poster mentioned ops that made him go around through the queue again despite an empty train. And while he didn't mention any specific park, I can almost guarantee that the park is making the ops do that for safety reasons.

Goliath is my favorite ride there now. But oh how I miss Revolution and Colossus!

You shouldn't let that stop you from voting. That's the beauty of Mitch's poll. A vote for, say, Psyclone over Grizzly will only affect those two coasters; it won't affect the rankings of coasters you haven't ridden. So you can't mess anything up. Of course, I suppose one could skew the results by voting untruthfully. There are probably a couple of wanktards out there who would vote for rides they'd never been on. A sobering thought.

Um...Robb? I continue to be surprised by GCI's performance in Mitch's poll. I mean, I enjoy their rides, but they just don't have the strong forces of some of the better CCI/GG and Intamin woodies. My only guess is that the (perceived) consistent speed of the CGI's is wowing others slightly more than it is I.

Thanks for reminding me, Robb. Sadly, I end up actually filling out the ballot and sending it in only about every third time it comes up. I've got mine in this year, though! Should be interesting to see how Voyage places. Best in the US, I wonder...?

Certainly, there were supposed to be other rides, but they were lost or delayed due to budgetary concerns. As for a new island though, I'd not heard of that. (And I probably would have at some point during my four year stint at the park.) Frankly, the location of a who new island would be quite tricky, space-wise. There is some room for expansion, but it's sort of spread around (in ride-sized chunks, as it were). It would have to be a relatively small island.

It was too planned! But not to worry; I sent some Mystery Mine photos to Robb.

The water rides are closed, the Christmas lights are out, and the trees are crazy colors. It must be time for Dollywood's Smoky Mountain Christmas! I chose to go on a wet and rainy day in hopes of a light crowd--a strategy that definitely paid off, as the park was as dead as the leaves of the trees. The Christmas lights around the Tornado are strewn around randomly. (Or so they want us to believe.) Most of Tennessee Tornado's layout can be seen here. Though smooth, it's quite short. Blazing Fury was the only ride in the park running that could potentially get one wet. Where the end of the road splits. A traditional "Christmas Pyramid" from some European country, or something. The (very real) church in Craftsman's Valley. ...which had a Santa photo opportunity, some other kid activities, and these freaky talking trees. Celebration Hall was re-themed as Santa's Workshop... An overview of the Country Fair section of the park. Santa's helpers were frying up some grub. Strange, but cool. The Smoky Mountain River Rampage was closed and drained, but there was still enough water left for an artsy picture. The park was so dead, they had to fire up the car ride for me, as the cars were all just stopped out on the track, empty. There are some new ice cream flavors at the the Sweet Shoppe, including pumpkin. Ah, the beauty of dying leaves! And what better way to commemorate your Q-bot experience than with an authentic Q2Q T-shirt? Q-bot (or "Q2Q") makes its debut at Dollywood, but (thankfully) only for shows. Timber Tower was running, but with all of the water drained out. I blame the beavers. Mystery Mine's test seat continues to wait patiently alongside Thunderhead's lift motor room. Thunderhead's entrance, and if you look hard enough, the top of the lift. Yes, all the coasters are running. Here, Thunderhead's train races towards its famous "station fly through." You can really taste the history as the Dollywood Express cruises over the path to Timber Canyon. Surely, the best name for a park's kennel ever. Technically, this picture was taken on my way out, but it makes more sense here.

Wow. Looks like a nice little park. I especially like the tractor front car on the coaster.

Both the Jeep Safari and Helicoptours were part of the original plans for "Isla Nublar," with the Jeep ride located between River and Ripsaw, and Helicoptours between River and Dragons. Both were allegedly cut (or delayed) for budgetary reasons (i.e., that the park was crazy over-budget). My understanding is that Helicoptours was based on the technology that later came to be used on Disney's Soarin' Over California. As for Journey to Atlantis: That was Poseidon’s original name, but SeaWorld wanted the name for their new ride. Legend has it that Universal agreed to let SeaWorld have it in exchange for not challenging the name "Islands of Adventure" (for being too much like "Adventure Island.")

Wow, way to end on a cliffhanger.... I can't wait for the "Jarmor takes a shower" photos!

And what's so sad is that there's only, like, a go cart track seperating the two dead ends. First thing I'd do if I magically owned SFOG: rip out the go carts and make the park a circle.

Pteranodon Flyers is great fun...if you can get on it.

^^^^ Alright, I'm gonna go way out on a limber here.... SkyRider at Paramount Canada's Wonderland?

It's home to Toft's Ice Cream parlor.

I'm not sure why some folks seem to think this one looks dull. I think it looks pretty darn cool. If it's airtime that y'all are concerned about, I see at least six spots where there's potential for some pretty good air. Obviously, we won't really know until we ride it, but it looks to me like GCI's best design to date: combining an out-and-back type layout with a more GCI-traditional "bunch o' turns." I'm really excited about it. Plus, it gives me a reason to finally go back to ValleyFair!