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The Italian justice system is one of the strangest things on the planet. Examples: Amanda Knox and how Berlusconi was constantly being prosecuted, but just went about his business as PM as if everything was normal.

With hindsight it's really obvious that this is exactly what went down. Though I doubt they'd ever admit it publicly. The removal of rides without any sincere additions (cornhole, anyone?) to offset the lost rides is really all you need to look at. They had no incentive to invest in a park that could readily draw customers away from their "crown jewel". Moving the rides to their other parks allowed them to offset the loss of having to buy a park only for the purpose of shutting it down.

Bummer. I thought it was quite forceful in 2009, even during rides early on in the day. Based on those rides, I still prefer it to El Toro because it has more airtime hills and doesn't have that middle section that El Toro has that is relatively dull compared to the rest of the ride.

What did people think of how Voyage ran in 2012? We rode it during opening weekend in May. Although it was VERY smooth, it felt sluggish overall. I assume it needed to break the new track sections in a bit.

Got my ballot in 90 minutes before the deadline. Hope it doesn't get hung up in some email server queue. My top 10 list has not changed from last year probably because I didn't ride much this year. I also only added 2 new woodies and they're the two crappy ones in the SF area. From my top 10 list, I only rode Phoenix & Raven this year. Because it's so consistently awesome, I'm highly tempted to put Phoenix at #1, but I still remember Balder being slightly better. I really need to snag that 4th Intamin woodie credit some day! 1) Balder - Liseberg 2) Phoenix - Knoebels 3) Expedition GeForce - Holiday Park (favorite steel) 4) Boulder Dash - Lake Compounce 5) El Toro - SFGAd 6) Colossos - Heide Park 7) Ravine Flyer II - Waldameer 8) HellCat - Timber Falls 9) Cornball Express - Indiana Beach 10) Raven - Holiday World

Tony swears his CNN show will be virtually the same as No Reservations, except he'll have more resources to get into places that Travel Channel could not get him into. We'll see on that, but he is bringing his beloved crew with him. And it doesn't seem like he'd be willing to give up the creative control Travel Channel gave him just to get on a more high profile network.

We just got back from a cruise on Navigator of the Seas. One interesting thing we noticed was the premium coffee drinks in the Promenade Cafe are now Starbucks, not Seattle's Best. Is RCCL ditching Seattle's Best?

Ooops. My bad. Go here.

All time favorites: -The Wire. The ambitious scope, great dialog, and excellent characters make this my favorite dramatic series. I can't really do it justice with anything I say. -Beavis and Butthead. This juvenile show never gets less funny to me. I appreciate that Mike Judge revived the show to rip on Twilight and Jersey Shore. -Arrested Development. So much comedy crammed into so little screen time. -Molto Mario. The best stand and stir cooking show if you want to learn something. -Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations. So far ahead of other travel shows it's not even funny. Though I'll watch a lot of other random dumb stuff provided it doesn't have a laugh track. There are also a lot of big shows that I haven't seen that I imagine I'd like.

Another counter example is Holiday Park, which arguably still has the best hypercoaster in the world. That park struggled for years financially before finally being bought out. Probably the best thing that could ever happen to Holiday Park would not have been for them to build Expedition GeForce, but rather they magically move Europa Park a few hundred more miles away.

Hypercoasters didn't stop Six Flags from going bankrupt. Nor did they stop Dick Kinzel from panicking during the credit crunch a few years back and trying to sell Cedar Fair far too cheaply to Apollo Group. There are no guarantees in business. Parks have to get many things right to survive, not just having one particular ride installation.

Stay klassy!

Love sharks, especially the giant ones that can take out a seal in half a second. Hate shark fin soup.

In a word: No. Though I did hear grumbling from people who had ridden it in Japan that it had lost something in being moved to Europe.

Those "random ruins" are the Forum, probably the most historically significant site in Rome. Yeah, they aren't much to look at these days. Great pictures. I can't believe how crowded the Trevi Fountain was. Guess that's why I travel off season these days.

Finally got my iPad Mini today. I love the small form factor of it, but the screen really sucks. Video is fine, but text isn't as sharp as it should be. And text is pretty darn important to a tablet. I suggest waiting it out until the Retina version comes along, which should not be too long.

Considering the burning stupidity of the incident, I doubt the parents are winning the lottery here. Sure, they may get a pay out. But it seems more likely to be of the "cheaper than going to court" variety where they sign away their right to ever sue them again. A post from an actual lawyer a few pages back seems to agree with me. A large settlement just isn't in the cards when you pull a stunt like this.

I'm loving the Ouimet era of Cedar Fair: Adding a paid queue skipping option, changing the chain over to Coke products, and getting rid of terrible rides like Vortex and SOB. What's not to like? This is one CEO who is definitely earning his comp.

Evolution is COMPLETELY broken if we're still chucking kids into wild dog habitats after 100,000 years of being a species. The stupid haven't died out. They're busying having bastard children while the smarter types are getting graduate degrees while letting their fertility fade out.

I agree. Even though we're only 2 hours away, basically nobody in my area knows that there was a Six Flags park down there in Louisville. But Holiday World is well known since it's a good, inexpensive short vacation. Hart would be better off starting smaller and building the park up over time. Though doubling the size of the waterpark year 1 is probably a good idea. For the rides side, he could start off with a new woodie or moderately priced steel coaster. There are so many great options now that don't cost $30 million. If he can keep the momentum going for a few years, then maybe he could work his way up to something bigger like an Intamin Mega-Lite.

I think Portofino is worth the modest upcharge. And the charge is modest considering you might pay as much for a box of cold medicine in the gift shop. The food is better since the chefs don't have to cook for so many people. But, like you say, the main reason to go to Portofino is to escape the circus of the main dining room.

It's mostly old kitsch that he clearly purchased on the secondary market. There was a rumor he was going to put in an Intamin launched coaster. Dude totally would too. Random secondhand animatronics aside, Jungle Jim's is an excellent store. The selection, especially of random foods from foreign countries, is hard to beat. If you're ever in this area, it's an excellent way to spend a few hours.

The casino they're building here in Cincinnati is in an ugly part of town. It's sandwiched between two very busy roads, a Greyhound bus station, and the county jail.

The casino here in Cincinnati is still under construction. But we're definitely gearing up to take money from Kentuckians and take back some of the money that is leaking across the border into Indiana.