ginzo

^Getting mugged in DC > Any day at SFA.

Awesome TR. We went to Austria last year and had a great time. I think it's a very underrated place to visit.

Yeah, especially when they complete that park near Rome some time around 2045.

Who cares what people write on those sites as long as customers come? I've seen idiots bash even Thomas Keller's restaurants for silly reasons on TripAdvisor: "In the restroom there was a nick in the toilet seat." I doubt Chef Keller is too worried about it. Granted it is frustrating that these sites have become utterly useless for finding restaurants thanks to the absurd signal-to-noise ratio.

For whatever it's worth, that spinning ride at Pleasure Island was one of Liz's favorite rides of the trip. She doesn't ride boomerangs or SLCs anymore, but she loves spinning rides. But I won't ride them with her normally, especially not crazy ones like that on maintenance mode.

Eh, I don't recall most people disliking Skegness. Where else are you going to see a large roller coaster surrounded by racks of fake designer clothing, candy shaped like genitalia, and a sea of trailers? Where else are you going to ride an inverted wacky worm? Yeah, the only thing I disliked about Skegness was that terrible dego spinning mouse. I had the most painful moment I've ever had on any coaster on that POS. My knee bashed into the restraint so hard during the spinning that I thought I was going to puke from the pain. And, personally, I didn't give a crap about the lift hill motor being broken on the SLC. I can understand why Elissa from an organizer's point of view was moderately bummed, but, to me, broken rides are just a fact of this hobby. No sense in getting worked up about it.

I had the pleasure of riding Prowler yesterday and wanted to make a few comments. It's definitely one of the better GCIIs. It has nice airtime, great pacing (read: goes very fast the whole time), and a wonderful "out-of-control" sensation going on. But, is it really a top 10 woodie that is better than Phoenix and half of the Intamin woodies? No. Not really. I'd be really surprised if it stays in the top 10 this year.

Deliverance.

Really looking forward to this. Lady Gaga sucks.

^^But there are several Intamin cables nearby. Maybe one shredded and took out Volcano with flying scrap metal.

Considering that Merlin owns Gardaland, you might be able to ride a very similar coaster in England before long.

^^They close a few rides because they're not a spoiled park.

^What a coincidence. My criterion for "best amusement park in the world" is also whether or not they remind me that the large drink is only 20 cents more.

The spoiled parks are spoiled.

^Nice find, but it's just concept art. And, as we learned at Movieland Studios, the concept of intellectual property in Italy might just a suggestion.

I think this describes the situation fairly well. Many of the Arrow mine trains are Ron Toomer coat hanger coasters, but they never go fast enough to hurt that much. Vekoma makes a better mine train, like Michael Jackson and BTMRR at Disney Paris.

^I think I just voted about the name of the coaster or something. I don't really know because my Italian vocabulary consists of about 4 words, "Due cappuccini, per favore!" Those trains kind of look like a funky version of the B&M flyer trains. Is this B&M's take on the 4-D coaster?

Yeah, Hulk is kind of in bad shape. For a B&M, it doesn't run all that well. Considering the relatively small number of coasters at IOA, there is no excuse for this. Another factor in the flagging attendance might be that IOA has been a giant construction zone for the last few years.

We were staying at the Gardaland Hotel, which was really nice and had great A/C, a bar, etc. The bus dropped some people off at the park, but the rest of the people went back to the hotel. I imagine the heat, jet lag, and the like played into the decision to leave Mirabilandia early. But, really, I'm a huge wimp about heat and it wasn't that hot.

I think it's overrated, but "piece of crap" might be going a bit far. I like the theming, music, the satellite out front, the spiral lift, etc. But, the ride itself is pretty meh to me.

I agree 100%. Because there was so much to do, our group didn't even make it back to Katun! At no other point on the trip were we to have such easy access to coasters of that caliber (Katun & iSpeed). Though I imagine many of the people who voted to leave were not among those who went back into Gardaland.

If the rumors are accurate, they're going to fix that very soon.

Great job of showing how nice Gardaland is, Eric.

^It doesn't matter whether it's free or they pay you $20 cash. Americans, especially Californians, generally *hate* public transport and won't use it. Building a football stadium without sufficient parking is unthinkable here. There is just no will to enact the scheme you're describing with the police and all. Not to mention there could be serious legal hurdles to it. Back to the actual topic, it sounds like this deal is contingent on the 49ers raising a ton of money, which is very difficult in the present environment. This may still not come to pass.

To the actual topic: Very nice TR/review, Adam. I like some fantasy. I read a fair amount of it in high school. Still, I've never liked Harry Potter. It does seem so "young adult". Still, it looks like Universal did a great job with this and I'm a fan of their work in general, especially as far as IOA is concerned. I imagine I'll like WWoHP more than I've liked the films.