Jumboshrmp

I used to be a huge scaredy cat and would even get nervous before riding a silly simulator ride. I've loved roller coasters my whole life though, even though I would never get on a big one. I first rode Space Mountain when I was ten. It took me two years to get on it again. When I was 14 I went on Rock 'n' Roller Coaster. Suddenly I everything I ever thought about not enjoying scary rides went away. I still can't get very nervous before rides, and the whole time I'm in line I tell myself I don't want to do it. But since that day I will never chicken out on any ride. EDIT: ^ That was a very good post by the way. The bold hurt my eyes a bit though.

I've noticed that a lot of coaster enthusiasts actually have a fear of heights, but they love coasters and don't let it bother them. Ever since I went on my first coaster with inversions, I no longer chickened out on any ride. Suddenly my fear of inversions, drop rides, log flumes, simulators, carnival rides, and waterslides went away. I'm still very nervous around heights, but I am glad, because it is one of the things that make new coasters that I have never been on more exciting. I get nervous when walking up the stairs to a giant waterslide, and had to hold on to the handrail the whole way up. When I was on the way to Busch Gardens, I wasn't nervous about riding sheikra at all. Once I saw it in person, I said to myself "I can't believe I am actually going to ride this." I did NOT say "I changed my mind, I don't want to ride it anymore". That is one the most exciting things, first driving up to a big coaster you have never been on and seeing it in real life. I still have a fear of heights, you just need to ride coasters you are comfortable with and eventually go on the ones that challenge your fears

Head On is just dumb. Easy off BAM is Hilarious. I hate ANY commercial for a bratz or barbie doll where there is a song about the doll. Bratz hair style! You can use the highlights too! And you can look really cool! You're a stylist, oh girl! Also, Lionel coin bank is annoying. I love the Orbit Gum dirty mouth commercials though. Oh son of a biscuit eating bulldog! What the french, toast? and I just found another one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WtHRMtftOs&feature=related

I thought it was cool, but EXTREMELY over-rated. I just saw WALL-E and enjoyed it a lot more. I liked Spider-Man and Iron Man more. The Joker is an awesome villain, but the only part of this movie I really enjoyed was the opening scene and the part with the Lamborghini.

Actually, that makes perfect sense to me, and thats how I feel about that also. Which is why I said most, not all of the things I agree with.

What does your democratic familly stand for and what does Obama support that you like? Basically, my family and I agree with most of the traits that the average liberal democrat would. This was taken from wikipedia, say what you want about the reliablity of that site, but I agree with mostly everything in this sentence, minus the abortion thing: "A majority of liberals favor diplomacy over military action, stem-cell research, the legalization of same-sex marriage, secular government, stricter gun control, and environmental protection laws as well as the preservation of abortion rights." also this: "Today, Democrats advocate more social freedoms, affirmative action, balanced budget, and a free enterprise system tempered by government intervention (mixed economy)." I'm not voting for Obama because he is a democrat. I like many of his policies and proposals. Especially taxing the people with higher incomes more. It would seem like the obvious thing to do. If you have a low income, the government shouldn't be taking as much money from you, however, if you are wealthy, then of course you should be taxed more. Ever heard of Robin Hood? Steal from the rich and give to the needy? Same idea. Also, I am all for removing US troops from Iraq. Whatever we are doing over there isn't our problem. If Iraq is screwed up, then it's too late, and it isn't worth wasting the lives of any more Americans. They are no longer dying for their country, they are dying for someone else's. Why is it our responsibility to fix Iraq? And why do we need to do it by force? Whatever, I'll stop discussing the war, it's obvious that I'm not very informed on that subject, however it is my opinion that we should leave the war unless it would be bad for OUR country. I hate war and I think we should do everything to end it as soon as we can, however, if someone would like to share their opinion on why we should stay, and even why we are there, I would be very interested. Oh yeah, and this thread is about the election.... (also, what the heck is PMW?) A car company?

I am still 17, I will be 18 in 5 days, and I'm very excited that I will be able to vote in this election. My family are democrats, and I was hesitant to call myself one before I knew what they stood for. But, after reading up on them, I now can definitely call myself a democrat, because just about everything they stand for describes me. I would love to see Obama become president, because I believe in almost everything he supports. I don't watch the mainstream media or the news most of the time, so I haven't let anyone else's opinions influence me.

Exactly. And I'd like to compliment dandaman for making the best post I've seen all night. (bottom of previous page). Nice avatar too btw lmao

Sounds like you had fun. Interesting to hear that Hotel Breakers was old like that, I didn't even know, I just knew it was close to Magnum. Also, sorry you didn't get to ride Maverick, I would have loved to ride it. I love reading Cedar Point trip reports, I look forward to going there in the future. Also, I clicked the link in your signature, and I'm going to listen to your podcast. Theme Park/coaster podcasts are always a good thing IMO!

boooooooo! This should be cool. I go to orlando at least once a year, it's pretty much the only place where I can ride coasters. I don't remember if the price per ride was in the main post, but I hope it isn't expensive. I'd like to ride this. I'm slightly afraid of heights, but also fascinated by them. I'd love to see what 400 feet looks like. I rode sheikra and 200 feet was really cool.

I went to this park and rode this slide the day before the accident happened. It was my first time on that slide. What a coincidence that this happens the next day. Black Thunder, the slide where the accident happened, is an enclosed 45 ft tall ProSlide Tornado. I remember seeing the weight limit sign, it was in plain view right before getting on the ride. I'm going back to the park today, I'll tell you guys if the lifeguards are doing anything differently. http://www.rapidswaterpark.com/html/black_thunder.html

All I remember about that express queue is that on days when it's really not crowded, theres no Universal greeter standing there, so I used that staircase to get a quick re-ride without having to walk a mile to get to the station again.

Looks like fun, I've always wanted to try a DS download play, but never had a Gamestop nearby where that was available. Also, I haven't posted anything in this thread yet, and I have to say that I am very excited about this coaster. It looks like it's going to be incredible. I'm really sad that they couldn't go with a B&M mini hyper though, because if they did, then Florida would have every type of B&M coaster, once Manta opens. Plus, I'm just dying to sit in one of those clashell seats to see what they feel like. Oh well, I guess I'll have to make a trip up to goliath eventually.

Because an intamin rocket coaster for $25 million would only be a 17 second ride. Sure, it would be fast, thrilling, and possibly break a few records, but I don't think we need any more coasters that break records that way. I am very happy with the park's decision to build a quality B&M hypercoaster that gives a fun, long ride. It will be more appealing to a larger group of people, and definitely be much more reliable. I think TTD and Kingda Ka are awesome, but if parks keep building them, the novelty will wear off and they won't seem so special anymore, espcially if they all are clones. Hypercoasters have been around since 1989 and they are still getting better.

I've only gotten to the 12th page of this thread, but everyone's complaining is pathetic. The first few posts appeared to be jokes. Then people actually seemed to have something to complain about! I'm sick of everyone who has gone "credit-whoring" around to parks, instead of going to parks to enjoy the coasters. These people think they have a reason to complain about two rides being similar! If a ride is great, it is going to be copied. If you don't like it, then just ride the one closest to you. Besides, Diamondback looks awesome, and I actually enjoy coasters that give a smooth, flying high feel as opposed to fast forceful ejector coasters.

Gwazi at Busch Gardens Africa. Tiger was horrible, Lion was even worse. The only other wooden roller coaster I have ever been on was the Dania Beach Hurricane. It was okay, but Gwazi was really bad. It's pretty sad actually, because all of those rides have some interesting layouts with a lot of airtime (DBH at least), but they all hurt too much to be any fun. Space Mountain at WDW is rough, but at least it is the fun kind of rough, not the painful kind.

Same here. I LOVE Harry Potter, but Dueling Dragons has the best queue area in the world. Especially since the lines are always short, and you get to walk through it slowly and take in the details, with almost nobody else around, making it also very quiet, and you can listen to the background sound effects. Actually, a pretty cool Harry Potter retheme of Dueling Dragons could go like this. Fawkes (a Phoenix) vs. the Basilisk (a giant snake) The cool thing is, the queue could be themed to the chamber of secrets, and it would be able to stay pretty much the same, for the most part. But I'd still like to see it stay the same as it is now.

Well, to be honest, I've never been on a bad Vekoma. Every Vekoma that I've ever been on was a fantastic, smooth ride. However... I've been on two. Rock 'n' Roller Coaster and Expedition Everest. They are both fantastic rides, and are both top ten material (these two coasters are the best ones in Florida after the seven B&Ms we have here...and I've only been on florida coasters.). So there you go. That's right, and I'm almost positive the old one wasn't Vekoma either. However, the one in Disneyland Paris IS a Vekoma, so they may have meant that. I'm not sure if any of the other BTM rides are vekoma, but the two in the US are not. I don't even understand where that information came from. RCDB doesn't say vekoma, and I know that the one in WDW was made by MAPO, part of disney. The same company that made WDW's Space Mountain.

I still get nervous before rides to this day. It's scary, but makes it more exciting. I know I'm not going to chicken out on anything though, because I look forward to it so much. The one thing you can say to yourself is, if you don't like it, you don't have to do it again.

Test Track? lmao Really though, a very enjoyable article, thanks for posting this, it was very interesting.

Worst: My friend losing her purse on space mountain, and when I told the Cast Member what happened, he said that we could only get the purse back at the end of the day, or in the event that they had a breakdown, they would go get it for us. Best: Having the work lights turn on and hearing an announcement of technical difficulties about 10 seconds later. That is probably my favorite theme park story ever, and I have it written out with full detail in a trip report I posted on here somewhere. Check my recent posts, I guess.

Well I think that the B&M pre-drop is an awesome ride element. It does reduce stress on the chain and it also adds a lot to the ride experience. Not only does it add suspense, it also allows all parts of the train to hit the edge of that drop at a higher speed. This creates ejector air at that point, instead of that point simply being a downward slope into the drop. If you are riding in the front, it makes the drop much more fun, and if you're riding in the back, it's even more noticable. Plus, I always love it when a coaster hangs around at the top - even if for just a few seconds - before a drop. Kraken is an excellent example of this. So is sheikra. Mantis's little "swoop" before the drop looks terrifying, especially since I have never been on a stand up.

Awesome awesome awesome! I love coasterdynamix! I have a scorpion set right now. I might get the Griffon train just for the heck of it. I remember that the separate scorpion trains we're fairly expensive, so $20 is amazing! Now that you mention it, I'll probably wait for the Raptor train to come out to get an inverted design, Raptor looks awesome. And Hydra is probably one of the best looking B&Ms out there (IMO). Nice choice! *I removed the IMG tags to save space* WOW I'm especially impressed with the track that it comes packaged with. The supports, as well as the parts of track that are connected to the supports are very detailed and realistic. Obviously this couldn't be done with the changable models (because the supports could not be put in other spots) but I think it's awesome that you guys added this detail for the statix models. If I were to dissasemble my scorpion train, could I put the wheels in a griffon or hydra model if I wanted to run that on the track? I'm sure that the wheels are all the same size, but I just was checking. And you said that you sell functional unthemed trains on your site. In the future, will this include unthemed floorless or dive machine trains? If you choose to not comment on anything I asked, I understand.

This morning I finally beat Jordan on Expert on Guitar Hero 2! YESSSS!!! It only took me at least 70 tries. ...And yes, this is a really big deal.

On woodies, back row. Always. Sit down coasters, back. Inverted: Back row is forceful, front row is AMAZING Space Mountain (WDW): Front row