ginzo

^Evidence that wisdom can come with age.

^I've had pretty good luck getting Disney ride ops to honor polite seat requests even when they're doing assigned seating. Diamondback, not so much. I imagine the same mentality runs though the ops at KD, but I hope I'm wrong on that. Actually, I don't really care because I'll just wait to visit KD until TPR does their event there. ERT > waiting an hour for a "special" seat.

I've decided to try to finish this TR before the UK trip starts. Otherwise, it will remain incomplete. After we came down from the Schilthorn back to Muerren, we decided to do some hiking. We met this ambitious character. Unfortunately, this funicular was not going to open for another few days. This meant we would have had to hike up to get to the trails up there. No thank you. The panoramic train ran along a relatively flat surface. Lazy people like us could hike one way on the trail, and then take the train back. Now that's my idea of hiking in the alps. More train action. Scenery. This is me failing at an extreme close up shot. More scenery. Another extreme close up. We hiked to the cable car station, which took us down to the floor of Lauterbrunnen. Where we found this giant ball of rocks. What the hell? Lauterbrunnen Valley is very loud. Can you figure out why? Noisy water. This is where they shoot the famous alp porn. Would you like to sleep in that hut? Nerdtastic fact: J.R.R. Tolkien visited here and used Lauterbrunnen Valley as a model for his original drawings of Rivendell Valley. In an impossibly beautiful land. Lush.

I had planned to go ride this thing this weekend. Liz got Monday off so we could manage the long drive home. Last night I decided it was too crazy to drive 10 hours for just one credit. So, I had Liz tell her work to never mind on her not coming in Monday. Based on this TR, I think I made the wrong call. Damn you, Chuck! Intamin > *

I think I just might go for it. I have Friday off and I love being impulsive.

Read this entire site: http://www.randi.org/site/ Then read it again.

Uh-oh.

^Pass the sword!

^I agree that could be good if it were done well. I'm thinking of the fire scene in Mummy. I guess they would have to use tire drive or something to push the train out of the MCBR. Otherwise, the second half might be sluggish.

^Wow, a theme park experience LIKE NOBODY HAS EVER EXPERIENCED BEFORE. I like Spiderman and DarKastle, but I'm not sure anything will live up to all this hype. I'd be shocked if it did. At least for non-fanboys like me. Like some of the others here, I'm most excited about John Williams being involved. Joe "I'd be much more excited if they were opening the Dave Thomas theme park" C.

Must. Resist. British food joke. Great job on this TR! We're really looking forward to our first visit to Alton in June.

Look at it this way: Would you like EGF as much as you do if it had these restraints? Or Bizarro? Or the Mega-Lites? I'm pretty sure I would not. To me, part of what is good about Mega/Giga coasters is the relatively minimal restraints. I think I understand why the park did this, but I sure as heck hope this does not become a trend. Is it a *big* deal? Probably not. I'll still likely make the 10 hour drive some time this year.

^Very sorry to hear that, Mike.

Why do you think that? The DOJ has classically gone after big fish like Microsoft and AT&T. Not small potato regional amusement park operators selling non-essential entertainment services.

Darn. It's always a bummer when people "loose" their jobs.

Expedition GeForce has a spot where you can stick your hand out and hit some branches. At least it did last year and the year before that. To the actual topic, we ventured out to Klotten last year on our own. It's a great little park in a very beautiful part of Germany.

I don't understand. Didn't Paramount get out of the theme park business when they sold to Cedar Fair? Now they're going to "compete with Disney"?

^Yeah, I think you might see several people "leaving to pursue other opportunities" after April 8th.

You're questioning management over a $5 increase? That pass gets you into the entire chain for $75. That's peanuts. I remember Kings Island single park passes going for around $65 back in '91 to '92. You have a reasonable point that they could sell more premium passes with better perks like early entry. However, Larry is right here. Six Flags has to raise prices. Their current pricing structure won them a fabulous trip to bankruptcy court. Let's be honest about what your real issue is here: Six Flags has neglected SFA. No major adds for a long time. But that park is in a unique situation. All that land that could be a windfall for the company when the real estate market rebounds. If you think Cedar Fair is going to magically change the economics of that, you've got another thing coming.

Why do you think that Apollo is going to have anything to do with it? They're only interested in getting CF for a bargain basement price. And the investors are having none of it.

That would have been awesome. I really liked the original Tron. It is one of the great acid trip films. I hope the new film is better than this hack job they did on these trains.

This could make for some awesome speculation. If this happened, which NorCal park would get Geauga'd?

You win the thread.

I'm enjoying re-living this awesome trip through your SLR. Please don't let one random individual ruin the fun.

^I don't think Joe likes Holiday World either. It's not unreasonable for him to trust his friend's opinion over that of someone who works for the company selling the product/service. It's also not unreasonable to want to never return to a park again after a single bad visit. There are too many other parks to visit to bother with second chances that don't at least involve a major addition.