ginzo

If you want to take your wife out to a nice dinner for your anniversary, Chicago is the best bet. Not sure if you'd be into that sort of thing, but here would be a good place to start.

^I was there for that Vortex ERT. I'll confirm that it was running amazingly well. That was my best experience with an Arrow Suspended.

It's not hard to believe they would quietly try to sell some of the smaller properties. Maybe the Spanish are looking to pick up more American parks. I'd be surprised to learn of efforts to sell the larger properties after the EPIC FAIL they had trying to sell SFMM a few years back.

I love seeing these photos of Blackpool, which was easily the best park of the UK Trip. I totally missed the Carousel of Evolution.

^The Fat Kid really used the word "octogenarians"?

To the topic, I had only one ride on Big Bad Wolf. The line was relatively long (~45 minutes) that day and we were cramming everything in on our first visit to the park. I really enjoyed BBW, especially the drop over the river. I don't remember the first section seeming slow. BBW is the second best Arrow Suspended I've been on. Vortex at Canadia's Wonderland is my favorite. No Eagle Fortress for me . Ninja was closed for repairs the time we went to Magic Mountain. I'd rather have seen Alpengeist go than BBW. But, coming from a corporate background, I understand the need to look at this from a cold, economic perspective. BGW must compete. With the park up the highway installing a major coaster, BGW has to respond. Yes, KD and BGW appeal to slightly different audiences, but Intimidator 305 has surely cost BGW turnstile clicks and dollars. Even without BBW, I'll have a fantastic time on my second visit to BGW whenever that happens. I love how the Busch parks, like the European parks, don't keep rides around that they barely maintain just so they can advertise having more coasters. It may sound odd to some, but I prefer a handful of good, well-maintained coasters to a graveyard of 15 poorly-maintained coasters that beat the crap out of you. I imagine the removal of Pegasus irritated some locals at Efteling because it was their cherished first coaster, first woodie, etc. But now that they've got the superior-in-every-way Joris en de Draak, does anyone care at all? Even the more sentimental local types should see now that Efteling made a great decision to upgrade their woodie offering.

Middle school? I think we're more at the level of kindergarten or day care.

Blue Cheese Dressing (Stolen from David Rosengarten's very old FoodTV show): -1 cup mayonnaise -3 tablespoons minced red onion -1.5 teaspoons minced garlic -1/3 cup minced parsley -1/2 cup sour cream -1 tablespoon lemon juice -1 tablespoon white vinegar -1/3 cup crumbled blue cheese Put all ingredients in a bowl and mix. Season to taste with salt and freshly-cracked black pepper. Great with wings and celery.

I think people ride amusement rides because they instinctively know there's a huge margin of safety involved. It can hardly be considered an extreme hobby. Now, those guys who climb the notoriously deadly north faces of mountains that used to take days to climb in 2-3 hours with no safety ropes. I think they're more properly described as "conquerors". Ueli Steck, a real conqueror.

Tell 'em Large Marge sent ya.

For me, it's the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. That was the most over crowded and claustrophobic theme park experience I've ever had. I know Universal was up against a headstrong Rowling who had many specific and non-practical ideas about how the area should be constructed. But still, for them to build such a tiny area that they promoted so aggressively (billboards, magazines, Superbowl, Olympics, friggen airline boarding passes, etc.) represents a huge failure to plan capacity correctly and Universal deserves ALL of that blame.

^Yeah, I feel so sorry for them as well. How can they afford to even eat on only 200,000 euros per year?

I remember soda at Legoland Billund costing something like $10 for a large. I'd wager soda at Legoland Florida will be closer to Legoland Billund's pricing scheme than Holiday World's.

Kiwi is a funny motherfucker. Just because you delegate a responsibility doesn't mean that you don't check up on things from time to time. Nor does it mean that you don't address problems when they are put right in front of your face.

Yeah, I'd love to see it continue. But I can understand if he wants to spend his time on other activities, particularly those that don't include people intentionally trying to sabotage his efforts.

^I just read the article more carefully. It looks like they're just asking for fairly standard tax breaks. To me, "subsidy" sounds like someone is cutting them a check. Shame on me for falling prey to a provocative headline.

It is if it violates the First Amendment. And this sounds suspiciously like just that. This is a religious organization trying to build a venue to spread the teachings of their religion. Tax money has no proper place in such ventures.

^

I should have tried the pizza at Gardaland. They had good panini though. My favorite amusement park pizza so far is DelGrosso's. Though it was only good the first time we had it. The second time it was not good, which was disappointing because we stopped there just for the pizza. I'm puzzled at the positive responses about LaRosa. That's a local chain here and their pizza is cafeteria quality.

^A business trying to get back into the black. The horror!

As someone who donated (only $1), I have no desire to appear on the goat rodeo that is daytime TV. I guess that makes me a bad American. I'd consider being on something like HGTV or maybe a game show. Apart from that, no thanks.

^Yeah, I'm not sure how well a SLC would fly with Dragons and Montu not far away. That seems like a poor decision. Like bringing a knife to a gun fight.

There won't be a lawsuit. Not when, as far as anyone other than Kat knows, only $384 are involved. Some lawyers charge more than that per hour. And let's face it: It's not likely that she collected much more than $384.

I disagree that SOB should get the Rocky Mountain "treatment". Even if SOB ran smoothly, it still has a boring layout with just some helices and no airtime. The conversion would likely be very expensive because much structural work would be required. It's well known that SOB was constructed very poorly. In short, the money required to rehabilitate SOB in this way would be far better spent on a new Intamin or B&M. How about an Intamin woodie?

If Kat bought the coaster, then shouldn't she be the owner? Why is she referring to another party as the "owner"? From her own site: If that's what's really going on (aka she and Harold never owned the coaster), then they seriously misrepresented themselves when they started soliciting donations. That would be fraud. Another possibility is that Kat really means the former owner when she says "owner". After all, Kat hasn't show herself to be the brightest star in the sky with her lack of ability to write a credible plan, lack of transparency even though she's happily taking other people's money, and habit of half-assing the few activities that she has performed for this project.