alanjonesbath

When I'm not here, I seem to spend most of my time at www.vagowners.co.uk

McDonalds for me. I prefer the burgers in McDonalds, but prefer the fries from BK But BK is a fair bit more expensive than McDonalds in the UK, so I'll always go to McD's if I have a choice.

I guess mine is now the Cyclone at Coney Island

I had the same problem a couple of weekends ago when I went on it for the first time. Sitting in the back seat, I ended up flying across and upwards smacking my leg very hard into the restraint. I was limping for a couple of days after

We rode the coasters at Universal IOA while the park was having a soft opening in April 1999. Pretty cool, as they were only letting something like 2000 people in to the park each day, so everything was a walk-on Also, I've done Dragon Khan at Port Aventura in it's opening year as well. Haven't been back since

I noticed this problem at Chessington and Thorpe earlier this year. Wasn't a problem at Thorpe as its a very simple layout and we could remember where everything was, but Chessington is a bit more of a maze and without a map pretty hard to navigate. We ended up just using the maps they have stuck to boards around the park. Like you say, its not like 50p is a lot, its just the principle of the fact that they are now charging for something that they have given away free for years.

Hypersonic XLC at PKD and Mind Eraser at SFA. Both hurt way to much for me to want to go on again, even if they were walk-ons.

Both are pretty good, though I prefer Jurassic Park (only the original one though, I didn't think much of the sequels)

As above, head to Forbiddn Valley first and do Nemesis and Air, they seem to have the biggest queues in the park, plus they open at 9:00am for Annual Pass holders, so are open when the gates open to other guests at 9:30am. The rest of the rides won't open until 10am. Rita also gets a pretty big queue quite quickly, so make sure to do that next. After that, do what you want when you want. Spinball Whizzer always seems to have a long queue, but the single rider line is a big help with that. You pay for parking on the way out, not on the way in. You need to buy a parking token either before or after you get on the monorail to the car park. We've never had a problem getting on Charlie & The Chocolate Factory, and we definately don't have kids! Actually, we've never had to queue for more than 30 minutes.

I think Nemesis has to be one of the best themed coasters anywhere. Great coaster, and the proximity to the scenery makes it a great ride. Corky is still yellow on the bottom half, and green/brown at the top nearer the tree line.

Dukes was good, just very busy. Even better if you can get a table next to the beach. Personally, we loved the Cheescake Factory. OK, I know to a lot of Americans you probably go there more often than we can so it isn't so special, but living in the UK, we just love that place

Personally, I wouldn't bother with the Dole plantation. We called in there when we did a round-island tour, and to be honest, its basically just a shop from what we saw. I would recommend going to the zoo though if you have time. It's incredibly cheap, and looks tiny when you go in, but it's actually pretty big, took us a whole morning to get around, all for about $6. It was also really quiet the day we went, so it was nice and relaxing.

Easiest way is to buy an Unlimited rides wristband for £17.50: http://www.blackpoolpleasurebeach.com/shop/product.php?id=289&typeid=5

I've only ridden Riddlers at SFMM and Shockwave at PKD, and Riddlers is much better than Shockwave in my opinion. Standups certainly aren't my favourite coaster variety, but then they are so few and far between I'll always look forward to going on one. To be honest, I don't find them particularly uncomfortable, but I also probably wouldn't re-ride them more than twice in a day.

There was a case in the UK recently where a group of men were sent to prison, and then released years later as they were found to be not guilty. They were given compensation for the time they spent in prison, BUT they had to give about 25% of it back to pay the prison service for their rooms and food while they were there See the news story here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_midlands/6449495.stm

Non smoker here, never have, never will. Just the thought of it turns my stomach I can't wait for smoking to be banned in enclosed public places over here in the UK later this year. If people want to smoke, then thats up to them, just don't blow your smoke into my face

Colossus at Thrope Park last Saturday

My MySpace page is here if anyone want to add me

Couldn't find them anywhere else in the thread, so here are a few UK parks Thorpe Park Chessington World of Adventures Alton Towers Coney Beach - Porthcawl Barry Island Pleasure Park Blackpool Pleasure Beach Oakwood Grove Land (no longer has any coasters)

Great trip report. We're heading out to DC in just under three weeks time, and we'll be spending a day at PKD

We've had these 'boycott' days in the UK a few times over the past few years, and they haven't made a bit of difference

Good to see prices are still cheap over in the states! We'll be visiting in just under 4 weeks time, and doing a fair bit of driving, so was glad when I saw you all saying it was still under $3.00 a gallon Over in Britain, we're currenly paying 95p a litre, which works out to $7.30 for a US gallon I filled up my Audi A3 diesel the other day, and it cost me £48 (about $92)!

I've just re-built my PC using a Nvidia GeForce 7900 GS 512Mb graphics card, and it seems to do a pretty decent job with RCT3. Haven't tried NL yet though.

We've got a Canon Ixus 400 ... for when we want something small (i.e. theme parks etc.), and then we've recently bought a Fujifilm S5600 ... for when we go sightseeing or when it isn't a problem to carry a larger camera. I did consider a proper digital SLR, but as the S5600 was only £110 (around $200 I guess), I thought I'd get it to try, and if I decide I like photography as a hobby then I might go for an SLR in the future.

Schools are on holiday from mid-July to the end of August roughly. As Groteslurf says, June can be quite busy with school trips etc, so late September is probably better.