ginzo

I can't remember if I was told by an operator or if it was actually on the wristband somewhere. But that's part of why they scanned your band every time you got on a ride. I don't think there was a big announcement made.

While I fully understand the reasoning behind this, 5 rides seems a little bit stingy to me when you consider how short of a ride this is. For those who are only interested in the coaster, the all day pass is no longer that great of a deal. Granted this is probably a minority of their customers. The wristbands at Bakken this year limited everyone to 10 rides on any given attraction. While this seemed a little bit off to me at first, I quickly realized that 10 rides is a heck of a lot of rides on most things. Maybe Timber Falls should increase the limit of rides to 10. Oh well, I'm sure I'd hit up Timber Falls again if I were ever to return to the Dells.

^Hey, it was a pretty good scenario. I can think of a lot worse ways to leave this world.

^We always run out of time to do that aquarium. I hear it's pretty good for what it is.

Eh? I don't recall complaining about coaster roughness too much as of late. I've gotten a lot better at riding defensively so that most things don't really get me that badly. Heck, I think Insane even made my top 10 and I rode it for the entire ERT session. I think we did the night we met up with PKI Man and it seemed about normal. But that was the first Friday of the entire season. So, who knows.

^I think Gatlinburg is a great compromise because it has the tacky tourist attractions of Pigeon Forge, yet looks a lot nicer and lacks the ugly strip mall vibe of Pigeon Forge. In any event, it's a great place to vacation because you can mix up hiking, mini golf, random Ripley's attractions, go karts, and a world class amusement park all in the same visit. Now if they could just do something about that awful road of traffic hell you have to take to get there.

^Is that coaster even smaller than Teeny-weeny?

Thanks for posting this. Going to a German fair is definitely on my to-do list. Heck, some of the German fairs look better than many permanent amusement parks.

^Might have just been an off day, but Kings Island is pretty well famous for having a wide selection of rough coasters. My wife absolutely despises KI for this reason and starts up a steady stream of profanity whenever I drag her up there. Vortex, like many Arrow loopers, is much more tolerable in the second-to-back row. I've been to KI three times this season and the rides seem about their normal selves. People claim that Firehawk is getting worse, but I haven't ridden it since the year it opened. FOF is like the smoothest B&M in the world compared to how it ran in 1996 with the OTSRs.

The same ones that are interested in going to Colonial Williamsburg in the first place.

Yes, there should be one next year. You should be fine. The groups that tend to take the European trips are usually laid back. Of course. You're going to have to wait until around October when they announce the 2010 trips to find out the answer to that. It's going to depend on the length of the trip, how bad the dollar is sucking at present, oil prices, etc. No, getting the red carpet treatment from basically every park, staying at awesome hotels, eating great meals, getting more ERT than you can possibly handle, not having to plan anything, and hanging out with 50 really entertaining people is never fun.

Just because something scares you does not mean that it's not real. Hairpin turn double penis coaster is actually quite a nice fellow once you get to meet him.

^^I can't agree with you, Guy. There's no mucus plug in that so-called cervix, which is necessary to protect the fetus from nasty bacterial pathogens. This is just like the moon landing: Faked.

Bwahahaha. He complained about quick operations!

Fortunately, we had Ivan to cool us down with his squirt gun while in that very long Super Splash line. Yes, operations/staffing were the one weak point of an otherwise very nice and unique park. I waited like 20 minutes to buy just one popsicle at the end of the day. I wonder if the laid back operations have anything to do with being the only major park in a very wealthy country. Or are they just a laid back culture? Guess I'll have to go back to Norway some day and investigate further. They certainly have enough natural beauty to draw me right back.

If he was secured to the track, that would just mean he could suffer *severe* trauma to his lower legs if he lost balance. A person could actually bleed to death that way if a major artery was opened up and medical intervention was not swift.

What I can't figure out is whether the skates have up stop wheels or not. Is he locked to the track? Either way this is an incredibly dangerous stunt. If he lost his balance, he would, at bare minimum, suffer severe trauma. Not sure I understand these people.

Boy, do I love new coaster threads. They always bring out *the best* in people.

Happily http://youtube.com/watch?v=7PiQ3tsT104

^I forgot about Bob. I broke my old camera on that thing, but yeah it was awesomely forceful. Probably the best bobsled I've been on.

I'm also really curious to see what they come up with. Just replacing Pegasus is an improvement for the park by itself. I'm sure that Efteling will get the theming done well, but will this finally be the first good coaster that Efteling installs? I'm not talking top 10 material, but rather just a really solid, very fun ride that everyone likes. Efteling doesn't have anything like this right now. Also, with the racing/dueling aspect, there's huge potential to make the coaster more interactive, like interactions between riders on each train with the riders of the other train. Just a thought. It could take "passing the sword" to a whole new level.

You're certainly not the only enthusiast to complain about the lack of thrill rides at Efteling. But the fact is the park is already very successful and is one of the most visited parks in Europe. Personally, I don't see how there is much to complain about here. They're replacing a very mediocre woodie with something that should be much nicer. While I'm not a huge fan of GCII, I bet this will go over very well for Efteling and I'd love to go back some day and get lost in that labyrinth of a park again.

Even though I think Balder is a ***much*** better ride, I'm still going to have to go with El Toro. Nothing compares to that first drop, except for maybe GeForce's first drop. But that's not a woodie. So, it doesn't count for the purposes of this thread.

^That's the brakeman. Scenic railways are side friction coasters, which means they don't have any upstop wheels. The trains can literally derail. So, they have a ride operator who rides along and brakes the ride as needed so it doesn't derail. At Tivoli Gardens they have a "Wall of Horror" to give dubious honor to any brakemen that derail the train. Apparently, derailment isn't a big deal in terms of injuring any riders. It's just a pain in the ass for maintenance to hoist the trains back onto the tracks.

^That's very true, but this thread seems to be way down on the creepy scale compared to some of the antics we've seen in the past.