ginzo

This is probably the best possible plan. My only suggestion is to try to hit LoCoSuMo at IB right away if it's open. That's the one thing there that regularly presents a significant wait.

The funny thing about WoW is how several addicts have admitted to me, "It's not even a very good game. It's just the best time waster ever."

This is a great idea, but I think it would work best as a "hard ticket event" after regular operating hours. No season passes, you need a ticket. And the coasters stay open until 2 or 3. During regular hours I think there would be problems with too many teens showing up and getting denied.

^It is possible for the current owners to sell out but still manage the resort. This is what I'm hoping for.

I dunno. Not many larger companies would be willing to play as fast and loose as IB does with their rides. I wouldn't be surprised to see things like dialing down the Double Shot's launch intensity, forcing you to ride 2 per seat on the Falling Star, shortening ride cycle times, etc. I'm also skeptical that an RV park company will do as good of a job with the amazing enthusiast event that IB puts on every year. IB is one of the greatest parks ever. There's almost nothing I'd change about it. If they're only changing owners and the management stays the same, then this might not be a big deal.

Booooooooooooooooooooo.

How is that fair to the families who saved up all year, but can't afford TPR Flash Passes?

Disney makes it the easiest of all to avoid crowds and lines, at least they do at WDW. Their hotel prices vary depending on how busy they project a particular time to be. The slowest time is called "value season". If you go during value season, lines aren't going to be a problem.

And the more money they take in the more they have to reinvest into the park in terms of upkeep and new attractions. How is this a bad thing?

No way. That's part of the fun. The best is when the same group of people keep sneering at you as you get 5 cycles in the time that it takes them to get through about half the line. I remember hearing someone say "you know I'm getting sick of that" as I walked by them for the 5th or 6th time in the line for El Toro.

I went to SFoG on a Sunday last March and the place was dead. I scored ~10 rides on Goliath with hardly any waiting. I rode every coaster in the place, except Deja and one of the kiddies because they were both closed. Saturday might be busier, but you might be able to do OK by just hitting the more popular rides (Goliath, S:UF, Batman) first.

It might be a sucker purchase for a visit to one's home park. But for a short visit to a large, out-of-town park it can be a real life saver. How else am I going to get unlimited El Toro and Nitro rides on a Saturday in July?

If waiting in line is the best time in the park, then you should support Q-bots because they give you more of your favorite thing. But you do get a fair chance. The preferred parking is available to anyone who wants to pay for it. Amusement parks are just businesses at their core. The cost of doing business is high in most cases and parks, especially seasonal ones, need to rake in as much money as possible.

I don't envy Shapiro's job at all. He's got a huge mess to correct. A few things I would try to do if I were him: 1) Improve the quality of the food. Busch Gardens serves edible fare and Six Flags should as well. 2) Continue to revamp the kiddie sections. Even crappy Kings Island has a really nice kiddie section. 3) Get a bulk order of Sally shooting dark rides and put them into as many parks as possible. 4) Partner with a major hotel chain like Loews or Hilton to build a resort hotel at Great Adventure. Offer perks like night time ERT on El Toro and the B&Ms to attract guests to the hotel. 5) Continue to expand the water parks. Bulk order Deluges and put them into as many parks as possible. 6) SFMM, SFoG, SFGAm, and SFOT all get Intamin woodies.

Liz & I made two separate trips to Walt Disney World in the past few months. Our first excursion was a quick visit to Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party on the Thursday before Christmas. I can't say enough good things about MVMCP. The event sold out that night, yet everything had minimal queues. It was like Magic Kingdom exclusive park time. The "free" cocoa and cookies were a nice bonus. Though I still think Christmas in Florida is unnatural. If you're wearing shorts, it ain't Christmas. The event costs roughly $20 less than a single day Disney ticket and is an excellent deal for anyone looking for a quick visit to the Magic Kingdom. I monkeyed around for a while trying to get a decent shot of the castle with the Christmas lights on it. Not exactly Ansel Adams-like results. Anyway, they do an outstanding job. Go see it IRL. I could stay on TTA all day. I love these things. The best part is how they beep like trucks when they go in reverse. "Yes, I'll have the creme of sum yung guy." I'm glad there are no racial stereotypes here. First stop. We had to wait about 30 minutes because it broke down. Disney did a great job with the rehab. Of course we waited for the front compartment. Do they ever wash that windshield? A monorail picture for Scott. Granted it's not the EPCOT monorail, those pictures will come later. Someone get me a keytar, please.

Not to mention the dick weeds who come in from the queue and try to steal your seat while you're stowing your loose articles.

My guess is it would take severe fuel increases to impact Florida. Disney has had strong attendance even with record fuel prices. And fuel is a pretty small portion of the cost of visiting WDW. A $50-100/person fuel surcharge imposed by the airlines wouldn't be a deal breaker for me.

I'm with you on the the 3 newer Star Wars films, especially Attack of the Clones. It made Howard the Duck look like Citizen Kane. I still get sick thinking about Anakin and Natalie Portman playing grab ass on that insanely fake looking CGI planet. This just in: nobody goes to a Star Wars movie to see George Lucas's ersatz version of a Danielle Steele novel. However, I'm more hopeful about Indy. I think Spielberg might have enough pull to beat some sense into George Lucas.

Yes. And George Bush planned 9/11.

"World's first" is meaningless marketingspeak. An attraction where a midget punches you in the crotch would be a first. Would it be good? No. Funny to watch yes, but not good.

You get to see a rabbit called "Brer Rabbit" on Splash Mountain.

In a Nike shoe factory, of course. This movie loses several points for the lack of Sean Connery.

That's what I get for taking a year of physics in 8 weeks. And I took Physics for girls, aka no calc. But back to the original issue, it's tensile stress the pre-drop is trying to relieve. N'est pas?

Get that physics book back out. Tension = a type of stress, aka tensile stress.

And Disney is probably the most obnoxious about advertising their stupid timeshare crap. When we stayed on property last January they kept leaving messages on the room voice mail trying to get me to come down to some stupid DVC sales pitch. Sorry guys, I'm not spending my vacation listening to your spiel. They call DVC a "secret" even though it's plastered all over every bus in the resort and they have infomercials playing in the rooms 24x7 in English and Spanish. Not to mention that new DVC resort they're building at the Contemporary that looks bigger than the original Contemporary Tower.