ginzo

^But excellent compared to all the other food options that await you in Italy? Probably not. That's why I don't bother to even look at what the hotel offers when I'm in that country. Instead, I'm obsessively planning out all my lunches and dinners with carefully selected spots. But I guess I'm weird that way because I spend insane amounts of time picking out places to eat when I plan trips.

In Europe it's even more important to steer clear of mediocre hotel breakfasts. You're going to need that stomach space later for good food. If I'm in Italy, for example, I'll just grab a cappuccino and a pastry at a local cafe. Then I'll have a giant lunch. One exception to this is that some of the family-run B&Bs in Europe actually do great breakfasts. One place in Bruges served probably the finest breakfast I've ever had.

I make a point of hitting McDonald's for breakfast when I'm on the road even when the hotel includes a free breakfast. Free hotel breakfasts gross me out. Not a fan of lukewarm eggs.

Had some this past weekend: Totally worth however many years they shave off your life.

^Yeah, but it's going to have an Outback Steakhouse! So, obviously the park will succeed this time.

Worse than getting totally trolled is not "taking the shame" and admitting you got totally trolled.

I think it does come across as desirable to the type of employee they are trying to attract. I don't think such a tech-intensive firm is looking for cheap beer-swilling "brogrammer" types. Doesn't Google have famous guest speakers and a high end corporate chef at their main campus? That sounds way better than any of the dumps I've worked at.

^Yeah, that's the downfall of Jeni's: too many avant-garde flavors like lavender that taste like crap. However, if you stick to the classics, like chocolate, it's great.

Columbus is a party town full of 40-year-old guys that never got the memo that they no longer attend Ohio State. Short North is where most of the action is and would be a great place to live because there are countless bars, shops, coffee shops, and restaurants all within easy walking distance.

Europa is the best park in Europe. It delivers on every possible level: rides, food, theming, landscaping, great operations, first class on property hotels, etc. However, if I were given the choice of spending a day at a single park in Europe it would probably be Liseberg. Grona Lund, Blackpool, and Mirabilandia are also favorites of mine.

^Yeah, it didn't take 15 minutes and a call to maintenance to get the cars back into the loading area at Grona Lund. I rode Insane for the ENTIRE ERT session and came back into the station nearly upside down several times. It wasn't a big deal.

Have you actually been on Insane? If not, I suggest you ride it and then get back to us. Grona Lund > All the Six Flags parks combined.

^^For a long time I believed that Six Flags was slightly better than Cedar Fair. With Ouimet in charge, the addition of Fast Lane, reducing food prices, and now this total disgrace by SFMM, I think it's safe to say: Cedar Fair > Six Flags Who buys one of the most thrilling rides in the world and then writes a policy to make it suck? Six Flags, that's who.

^Big Mike also counts alpine slides.

One problem: Intamin prefabricated woodies weren't invented yet. I hope the rumor about SoB being removed is true. You don't have to be a structural engineer to know that any further investment would be throwing good money after bad.

Oh dear.

^I remember reading what they considered airtime when they came up with that number. I think it was something like 0.2 g or less. I'm not sure. In any event, it's not Intamin-style airtime by any stretch of the imagination.

The Voyage is indeed very smooth now. It still won't crack my top 10 because it doesn't have the kind of airtime that I like.

I really enjoyed Wildcat and sincerely thought it was one of the better coasters at Cedar Point. I'm sad to see it go. I'm puzzled as to why they aren't selling the ride on the secondary market, but maybe the scrap value exceeds what they could out of selling it as a ride?

^The melting point of water is the same in either case: 0 C. You can lower the melting point of water by adding salt (also raises the boiling point), the so-called "freezing point depression". I don't think that's what's going on with soft serve. So, I checked the Wikipedia page on soft serve. It's served at a higher temperature than regular ice cream and contains more air. Both of these things contribute to soft serve melting faster.

Good summary of BGW vs. KD in general.

Welp, doesn't look like they neutered it. Awesome!

Yeah, I've had very good soft serve at Knoebels. Having good soft serve makes a lot of sense at a place like Knoebels. Fits in perfectly with their permanent fair atmosphere.

Unfortunately, I don't recall exactly where it was sold in the park. But it stood out in my mind that they had Fat Tire for sale. I think I would up not buying one because it was just too damn hot that day to get dehydrated by alcohol. But I loved that it was available at a park.

The best thing about Carowinds is they sell Fat Tire there. I definitely don't believe that a few idiots should spoil everyone else's fun. Therefore, I think this is a good move by Kennywood. The park has good security. I've seen real Pittsburgh cops patrolling there. So, where's the problem? The only real issue I can see is the chair lift to the upper parking lot. Alcohol and ski lifts don't mix.