ginzo

If you're going strictly on a cost basis, all that is surely cheaper than putting druggies in prison. And you're paying for all that stuff anyway. Go spend some time at your local academic health center if you have any doubt. Drug prohibition is one of the most massive failures in history. It does not deter and it creates a violent black market.

Why would they close a very successful park? Wonderland might get the highest attendance of any seasonal park.

^^To me, it's a matter of "who cares" whether it's a "real" woodie or not. I like the three Intamin woodies I've been on and that's enough for me. They're certainly closer to woodies than steel coasters. They couldn't do inversions with them. And it's not like you can't get that "woodie character" on the Intamin woodies: Just ride on one of the wheel seats in Colossos towards the back of the train. Not really that smooth.

I found someone with El Toro ranked as #75 out of 80. Interestingly, they've got Voyage as #1. I did a quick Google search on this person's name and found that they're also into the "9/11 Truth" movement. Quality person all around.

I think you're thinking of Roy O. Disney, this Roy's dad.

Private equity firms, in theory, can have an advantage in that they don't have to run everything to look good for stockholders. In other words, they can try more long term strategies and not have to worry about Wall Street punishing them for a bad quarter or two.

http://www.etonline.com/news/2009/12/82058/

Fail.

Random fact: Tampere is pronounced "TAHM-PEER-EH". I asked at the hotel. Good job on wrapping up this TR, Divv. Great memories.

I think CP is kind of run down.

New Investors = Southern Star Amusement.

^We did the Deluxe Dining Plan last year and each meal was enough food to feed an African village for a year. Even with sticking to mostly two meal voucher experiences, it's more food than any person needs. We wound up wasting several snack credits at the end of the trip because it was just too much food.

Yo Gabba Gabba > Harry Potter.

^I'm in. In addition, I'm planning on visiting Stockholm and Gröna Lund in June, before the TPR UK Trip.

Yay for another vote for Insane! That's my highest ranked steel coaster. I rode it for the entire ERT and it never stopped scaring me. Getting to the top of that basically vertical lift and not knowing what's coming next is really disorienting and cool.

Fårup Sommerland is an excellent park that, like basically every park in Scandinavia, treated the group very, very well.

I just looked it up: 4 million guests is as many as the Colosseum and Vatican Museum each get per year. Big dreams.

Has anyone really ridden Firehawk enough to know? Every time I go it's the worst line in the park. I've been on it one time and that's probably not going to change.

Dragon Mountain II?

If you're going as far north as SFNE, there is no reason to not add Lake Compounce. They have an evening rate of just $18, which you can do the evening before you do SFNE. The evening rate will give you plenty of time because Boulder Dash is the only really key thing to do there.

The Nara Dreamland video is one of my favorite TPR videos.

It doesn't matter. Few guests will say: "Hey kids, want to go to the SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment park up the street?" They're more likely to say: "Hey kids, want to go to Busch Gardens?" The names that matter ain't changin'.

Tell that to Divv! He took a wicked chop to the neck on Tornado was holding his neck afterward.

This is the gift that keeps giving the whole year 'round.

Voted in the steel poll. Here is my top 10: 1) Favorite Wood Coaster (Balder) 2) Tele2 Insane - Grona Lund 3) Expedition GeForce - Holiday Park 4) Bizarro - Six Flags New England 5) Piraten - Djurs Sommerland 6) Maverick - Cedar Point 7) Winjas - Phantasialand 8) Mindbender - Six Flags Over Georgia 9) Nitro - Six Flags Great Adventure 10) Goliath - Six Flags Over Georgia