ginzo

What features do you desire that the current units don't support? I have one of the cheapest units, and it does the job. It was a serious life saver when I drove around the LA area not having a clue where I was going. Fumbling around with a map or an Interweb print out when you're driving 80 MPH in dense LA traffic is not a good situation. It's far better to have your GPS device yelling at you to "keep right" or whatever other move is necessary to get where you want to go. Also, the ability to pull up all the restaurants, gas stations, etc. in the vicinity is just plain awesome. The pricing on the portable GPS units is quite reasonable, BTW, compared to what some of the car manufacturers charge for the built in units. I've seen those go as high as a $2,000 option. Ouch.

You should consider investing in a GPS navigator, especially one with text-to-speech conversion. I've found them especially useful when going through big cities that I don't know well during times of heavy traffic.

Judging by the amount of girls around your age I see in queues, I'd say you're wrong. There are plenty of girls who *like* coasters. What's rare are girls who are full on coaster enthusiasts. There's nothing wrong with this. How boring life would be if we only dated/were friends with people who are exactly like ourselves.

It's the unnamed park where I did all the coasters (except the kiddie with the height restriction) in 4 hours, and have no desire to ever go back. That's the James? Duh, I didn't know that. Lots of history behind that river.

One day is plenty. We did all the big stuff in a day, and it was a very crowded day at BGE. We weren't racing around either, and got rerides on Griffon and Apollo's Chariot. Like its sister park in Tampa, the coasters are the meat of the attractions, and you won't find that much to do apart from them. The longest queue, by far, was for The Curse of DarKastle, a ride which easily rivals Spidey at IOA. We dealt with this wait by getting some alcohol to bring into line, and got a little bit buzzed in line. We also waited a decent amount of time for Apollo's, but that was because it kept breaking down. Griffon has an awesome single rider line. Use it! You should definitely check out BGE. It's so much nicer than that other park in Virginia. The scenery rivals Dollywood, if it doesn't beat it a little bit.

Get him a cardboard box, write "Vekoma" on the side of it, and let him ride it down the stairs.

I don't really think they're the same at all. Disneyland has a lot more Fantasyland dark rides than Magic Kingdom does, including Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. California Adventure has California Screamin', which is easily the best Disney coaster in the US. Pirates at Disneyland is 100x better than the crap one in Orlando. Disneyland has Indy, which there is no equivalent of at all in Orlando. And Space Mountain has been completely updated and rebuilt at Disneyland. Granted if you're not that into WDW in the first place, then maybe it's not the best place for you. But at least DLR has a lot to do, unlike a few of the other parks you're considering.

Here's how I rank SoCal parks: 1) Disneyland Resort. Totally the nicest in the area. 2) Legoland. So much imagination and fun. 3) SFMM. It's a dump, but it has a lot of credits. 4) Knott's. Also a dump, but less credits than SFMM. 5) Universal. Not enough attractions to justify the admission price. We were bored in an hour.

Your photography is excellent chief.

What's not good is when having a bunch of ugly trash cans on a drab, unadorned midway becomes the park's de facto theme. Having a bunch of trash cans is not the same thing as having a clean park. The filthiest queue I've ever seen was at a Cedar Fair park, Volcano's queue at Kings Dominion.

http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=37968

I agree that Breakers does not really give you much for what they charge. It's essentially an $80/night room that costs 2-3x that because of the location. I can stay at Bellagio for what some of the Breakers rooms cost! Though staying that close to the park makes for a VERY nice time. I hope everyone is having a great time on the trip!!!

I agree that using the word "Hollywood" in the name of a park in Orlando is convoluted. What this park needs, more than anything else, is about 10 more good attractions.

I think there's a very good chance that it will get you in without any problems. It's not like Cedar Point can scan your pass or anything. For non-CP passes they just write down the pass number and then let you in. Security is especially lax at the Breakers entrance where they just have a clipboard to write down your pass number. Though my Maxx Pass clearly says on the back that it grants me admission to all CF ride parks. Did you read through the fine print on the back of the card thoroughly? That link you pasted is from Great America, not Knott's where you say you bought your pass. Though I doubt CP guest relations would look that hard. Just bring that print out and something that proves you bought your pass before they even offered the "CF Maxx Pass" in California, like a credit card statement, and you should be OK. The Maxx Pass is a very goofed up system, but I've never had too much of a problem with it.

To be honest, nearly all travel review sites are like that. Read the hotel reviews on that same site. My favorite negative review was when someone bashed a hotel because it happened to be in a town with not much to do. The people that post reviews tend to be the mentally deranged types that refuse to be pleased, no matter what.

I disagree. It's always going to be easier to market a record breaking/holding coaster than something like Maverick. Hence the bragging rights thing. I also remember reading somewhere that Kinzel believes that TTD is his worst decision. I don't think you're going to see another one of these rides built. And that really says more about them than anything else. If you like them, then that's great. I think they provide decent thrills, but the wait/ride time ratio is completely out of whack. And both parks have MUCH better coasters that you could be waiting to ride instead of killing half your day waiting for a 20 second ride.

Actually Bryan is telling the truth. You'll find out the how and why later. Be patient and don't give him a hard time about it. Terry Actually, I totally believe him. Ambien is supposedly causing a wave of "sleep driving" across the country. If that's true, then "sleep posting" is certainly possible.

Fascination is the most retardedly addicting game ever. FYI, Knoebels also still has a Fascination parlor.

Because Dragster has WAAAYYYYY less problems than KK, including maintenance, reliability, and overall suckyness (<- personal opinion, don't get mad). Six Flags tried to improve what they obviously couldn't, and it didn't work out so well. And Dragster still breaks down several times per day. I've spent a total of 4 days at CP this year, and Dragster broke down multiple times on every day. When I went to SFGAdv for a day Ka was running for the entire day, to the best of my knowledge. The only thing Dragster has over Ka is better restraints. Both rides demonstrate the folly of spending $25 million for bragging rights alone.

Hahahahaha. Your mom is "sleep posting" on Ambien. Brilliant.

JZ, I'm glad that a diehard MF fanboy like you has realized that Maverick totally whomps that ride. Maverick is easily my #1 steel, and possibly is #1 overall. Only El Toro might beat it a little bit. Oh, and the S:ROS trains are pretty much identical to MF's trains. Only Six Flags has butchered them up with awful new restraints.

But this is politics. Much of what they do in congress is for show. Picking on a bunch of drug-addled, overpaid, spoiled brat athletes is a pretty safe populist bet for congress.

You're right. They don't HAVE to raise the ticket prices. But their costs still increase each year. Salaries, materials, upkeep, energy, etc. This means they have to accept lower profits if they don't raise admission to cover their rising costs. Lower profits mean smaller dividends paid back to shareholders. If this goes on for too long, shareholders get pissed and start yelling at the board to replace the management team with people who will correct the situation.

LOL @ working in a dig against MF. I'm going to have to agree that Hades isn't all that, especially with Avalanche right down the road. At least Hades doesn't have hoardes of fanboys that will swear to the death that it's better than sex with Jessica Alba. As for food in the Dells, I suggest the Cheese Factory. http://cookingvegetarian.com/ Yeah, it's a vegetarian restaurant, but the food is quite good. I'm not a vegetarian, and I didn't miss the meat at all.

Except this creates longer lines at ET and Nitro I wouldn't dream of attempting Great Adventure without a Gold Q-Bot. Though I imagine it's a different story for you locals.