CoasterEricHP

Ive been glued to the news today too.. CNN is doing a very good job capturing the emotion and the devastation there. Its just so surreal seeing everything that has happened and is happening. It's going to be a VERY long time before that whole area is even remotely normal. It was very hard for me to watch those assholes that are SMILING and having a great old time LOOTING from Wal Mart.. It's like you're watching a movie or something but not.. there are really people THAT pathetic out there... smiling about looting a Wal Mart.. Like Gregg said, with food and water.. alright some compassion could be shown for that... but filling up shopping carts with TVs and other crap?!? I hope that they are slowly killed by some disease they catch when they are wading their TVs thru the water. (Of course I'm sure they'd expect the gov't to pay for their med's and stuff too... ironically) Anyways, I could go on and on about that. Why did they decide to build their casino's on top of barges though? That seems like an awfully stupid idea, since I saw one was now ON TOP of a Holiday Inn?! This cant even come close to the Tsunami though. That's a bad comparison like Elissa said. Maybe if a huge wall of water rushed into San Francisco without warning.. that could maybe be compared to it. This is a rough time for the folks down there, but houses are just houses and can be rebuilt, 100,000s of lives werent lost. Its important not to get distracted by all the bad things they are showing on TV. Thank god for the Coast Guard, and Army Reserves, and everyone else down there helping rescue people. Eric

Awesome TR! Looks like a really great time. I think Im going to move out of the US someday when I have the means! Everything on here from Europe looks so great! I mean the themeparks, the hometown pics that are more than a road with gas stations and billboards, the vacation areas. Plus I loved France when I was there... I'm outta here! Eric

I think underneath its for a parking area, but the long building on the corner is for HERCO offices and stuff. The first floor and underground may be parking. Hershey would never get a parking garage. They cost an insane amount of money to build.. I remember reading its like.. a MAJOR amount PER SPACE. HERCO is a big company, but not that big to be spending massive amounts of money on redoing a parking lot thats not even 3 years old for the park/Giant Center. I remember hearing/reading somwhere that the Fairview Golf Course is a possible new expansion area for Hershey.. maybe for another park (lets not get too far ahead) or use it for a waterpark. The airfield is definately an area for expansion but its not like they can reroute Hersheypark drive. That could be a major pain/eyesore to build a new area over a 6-8 lane road. Eric Eric

Yeah.. I doubt that'll happen. The Claw just seems so puny now after going to Cedar Point a few weeks ago I still cant see even a compact Floorless there. If you count the number of inversions Hersheypark has... Bear - 4 Storm Runner - 3 Sidewinder - 3 (6) SDL - 1 Thats what.. 11, 14 if you count Sidewinder as 6. A Floorless, or any coaster with loops just doesnt seem to have much need in the park right now. Here's an idea though. If they would take out the Coal Cracker and put a station there, do you think there's enough room along side the creek going past the Comet towards Chocolate World and the Lighthouse to fit in a hyper? Eric

Yeah, I definately dont see a floorless coming to Hersheypark anytime soon. Floorless coasters seem few and far between in construction, and with Hydra an hour away I dont think Hershey would be too interested in it... It wont happen for two reasons. One, they take up a lot of space, and two, a floorless doesnt have anything unique about it (other than it being floorless...) to offer that the other 4 looping coasters at the park dont have covered. With Hershey's lack of space and if they are supposedly looking to make up for Turbulence by adding a coaster one year before the BIG year, I'd put my money on an Impulse coaster. Something completely unique to the area... I'd still rather see a Giant Frisbee Eric

Yeah I was thinking about having one movie (of course I'd post it on here for you to critique) like 2-3 minutes long and then have other really short clips of other stuff and paintings/pictures ive done on there too. I'm just confused on how long and if thats even a way to do a portfolio?! Eric

Hey there everyone. Well I finally decided to go to an art school for Video/Film Production and have an interview set up at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh for later on in September. I'm supposed to bring to the interview some "samples of my artwork". I have tons of videos that I have made, and I paint and take a lot of pictures... but obviously I want to focus on video and editing stuff to bring in. Can I just put some short clips on a DVD and bring it in or what should I do? Help! Eric

I was up at Hershey a few nights ago and I didn't see anything of significance. Definately not on the scale of a new coaster anyways. The markings I saw were all over the place and usually on top of some kind of gas/electric/water marker. So they are probably just rerouting some kind of line of some sort. That could mean several things.. they could be getting ready for some sort of 2007 expansion, or lord knows what else. Storm Runner was completely marked out in July the year before it opened. I took a lot of the pictures that were on Screamscape of the markings, and they were definately a lot closer and made more sense than the entire backhalf of the park. You never know though. Maybe it really is for a monorail expansion?? The downtown construction pics are for Hershey's new Administration building. Looks really nice! My guess would be a new flat or two for '06. HOPEFULLY something along the lines of MAXAIR/Delirium. There's more than enough space in Midway America for that. There's also the rumor about the Rodeo going where Chaos is and that being removed. Then something larger would be where the Rodeo currently is... like a drop tower or topple tower. Who knows! However, I saw on the news a few nights ago that a family is building an indoor waterpark and kid themed restaurant not too far from Hersheypark! Every year I'm convinced that Hershey will be building a waterpark or at least a Castaway Bay type resort.. this will push Hershey to do something water related. I'm not a fan of waterparks but they generate lots of $$$ and its only a matter of time. Plus more $$$ could mean more money being put back into the park. I'm not betting on a new coaster until '07, the 100th anniversary. Unless they build the waterpark that year.. sigh.. Eric

Scaparri, I've been going through the exact same thing for yearsss.. My story is a little different. We have had this funeral home that has been run by my family since 1880... my great grandpa down to my dad. Well, because I'm the "people person" of the family and my bro went to school for Aerospace Engineering, I'm obviously the one who HAS to take this over and deal with depressed people for the rest of my life.. (the dead people dont bother me, they arent depressed and crying at least!). So anyways, I went to college for 2 years for Travel/Tourism, went to Disney on the college program, stayed in FL working at IOA for a year, and now I'm back in PA in the same spot you are having no idea what to do. However, after spending the last few years thinking about it, I finally decided to do what I WANT to do. Which happens to be Video Production at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. I may never be rich doing that or get even a third of what my dad makes, but I'll be happy. Eric

Haha.. I've always been afraid of reliving A Christmas Story to do that... Anyways, great TR so far! Williams Grove is definately a unique park. I once got yelled at by a random guy there in the booth that said "TICKETS" to "go to the F'in Mushrrom to get F'in tickets".. I think he was completely trashed. But sure enough, the mushroom had tickets.. Haha.. Hershey's Ice Cream isnt owned by Hershey foods.. however, at Cedar Point they had Hershey's chocolate vending machines all over the park! So hopefully guests going there are funding a new attraction at Hershey Keep up the good work. Eric

Im not very surprised. It's really hard to put a finger on what is Six Flags main problem. I've been to several Six Flags parks and thought the best were SFOT and SFStL. The worst being SFAW and SFA. All SF parks have *something* worth going for. As much as I hated SFA's overall operations in every department, I'd have a few bad hours to ride SROS, Roar, and Wild One. Plus if I ever started forgetting why my home park Hersheypark is so great, I could always take a drive down to the Balt/DC Beltway and remember how aweseme Hershey is. Well, Im sure they will keep some of the parks, obviously they've been pumping TONS of money into SFGAdv in the recent years, and SFOG, SFOT, and SFMM are the cream of the SF crop. I remember reading somewhere that SFDL was actually the park that had the largest profits because of the concerts that are held there all summer. Not sure if thats true.. Anyways, should be interesting to see how this all unfolds. I doubt Cedar Fair is willing to take a gamble on buying another property yet.. but who knows. Eric

Great pics! It does look a lot like Storm Runner's top hat! I cant wait to see the complete layout of this! Any idea on what the layout is going to be exactly? I can only imagine how amazing a rocket coaster would be with the top hat, into a camel back/massive airtime hill, with an overbank in there somewhere.. it'd be like a Rocket SFNE Superman.. Drool... Eric

Robb thats so true. I've only been on Titan, and not Goliath.. but I feel the exact same way about Titan. It's this massive coaster that has so much potential, but comes off as just flat out average. I just dont understand why build a 255 ft (or whatever.. too tired to check rcdb) coaster and have a semi decent first half and then WHAM!! Into the brakes and then into a bunch of mindless twisting. Sure twisting is great, but not after a great second/third drop when the coaster has so much potential. Anyways, It looks like its a B&M, and that definately gives you SFOG people something GREAT to look forward to. Its definately hard to screw up a B&M Hyper.. NITRO, and Apollo are amazing. I wonder if it'll be green, or orange..

LOL.. first off.. they won again today so Raffy must really be trying to get rid of the rest of his stash because the team looks really pumped up! Even Steve Kline didnt suck THAT bad today. I really wonder how many MLB players are using it. I mean Palmeiro definately was a "good guy" of the game.. and look how much credibility he has anymore. Hell, he HURT his ankle running to first yesterday so his body is already falling apart without his drugs.. and no wonder he needed Viagra.. all we had to do is put two and two together this whole time.. As much as I hate the Yankees (no offense.. I've hated the Yankees since Jeff Mayer caught that ball in the playoffs) I do have tons of respect for Giambi who admitted it, had a rough time, but bounced back clean.. and for them being in the race. How is MLB Extra innings by the way? If I'm not around PA next summer I definately want to look into getting that. Do they have their own team of commentators and stuff or is it just tuning in to like.. Comcast's coverage? Eric "all I want is a .500 season" Geiple

I have a few posted on here on a TR.. if you like them just email me at Eric1776@aol.com or message me on here and I'll send u the large size one. Eric

We were over watching the little kids on the bumper cars when it was raining! At least I think.. I'm sure we passed right past each other tho. Eric

Wowww.. just checked the O's score.. beat the A's again. We're only like 8 games back in the Wild Card now! YES!! Eric

HAHA.. So true... so true.. I'm always contemplating on injuring myself somewhere just to sue someone... I mean dammit... just today I have a little blister on my hand from throwing a baseball.. I should go after the baseball sweat shop. Eric

Haha.. nope not all three... as much fun as hanging out with three girls at Cedar Point sounds.. lets just say I could wake up, take a shower, watch Sportscenter, take a short nap, and then wake up and they'd be ready to go! I didnt mind though.. obviously. As long as I didnt have to carry purses I'm happy and still consider myself a man. Eric "no tampons for me" Geiple

Actually on Friday, I expected it to be crazy and insanely busy, but there were hardly lines for anything. We rode Dragster and then Iron Dragon, and then Mantis was a complete walk on. Thank god because I would never wait more than a walk on for a stand up.. so I was happy. I agree with you though, Mantis is a death machine. I had a decent ride on it this time, I had just enough room that I could stand in a way to not feel so impotent after the ride. The sad thing is though, I hate stand ups, but I liked Mantis better than Raptor :shock: Maybe Raptor is only a front row coaster now. But yeah.. Friday.. WT had a 15 minute wait max, MAXAirs tiny queue wasnt full most of the time, MF and Dragster were an hour.. so it was a nice definately unexpected surprise to see the park that empty on a Friday. It did downpour for about 30 minutes and that cleared the park out even more. Eric

more pics Walking around the park.. this was right before we rushed to Dragster seeing it test (at 9pm.. when the park closed at 11pm.. when most parks would give up for the day) At Friendlys.. it said that Hotdogs contained Milk.. that led to a lot of obscene things.. Power Tower goodness.. only a 15 minute wait when it was decently busy at the park.. when did that happen? There's nothing worse than going to a restaurant and it being closed when you are STARVING.. Boo to Perkins. Feeding the local wildlife. anddd one final shot of all of us. Great trip!

Alrighty! Well I've been back for a few days and Im ready to write a little TR.. My friend Kim and I met up with my friends Carrie and Em in Ohio on Weds we stayed at the Breakers Express. I'm not really sure why we stayed here, I guess it's because we were lazy and didnt want to drive far but all in all it was a really nice place. We were only really in the room to sleep and didnt go to the park early because we chose sleep over early entry. Overall it was nice and clean, the pool was nice, and it wasnt all that expensive! The only thing that sucked was the first night we were there there was a boil water alert in place, but the hotel was nice enough to give everyone bottled water to brush with and all that. We did Twilight on Weds and Fri (Friday was DEAD.. WEIRD) and did all day on Thurs. It was Kims first time ever to Cedar Point and the best coaster she ever rode would be Storm Runner at Hersheypark which I forced her on a few weeks back. First up, Millenium Force! Millie: Kim was scared, and unfortunately our first ride would be in a light rain. Millie was running GREAT though. We waited about an hour and 15 minutes to get on. Not too bad. Awesome coaster and still easily my favorite steel. We took cover for a little and had some food by Iron Dragon. Then we headed back towards Gemini. Gemini: After the great first drop, this ride was rough! I'll stand by my hatred of these types of trains and blame it on them. There is an awful vibration and jerkiness and the trains make it 10 times worse because they are like concrete. I like to get beat up on coasters (I love Wildcat at Hershey to no end) but this is a different type of pain. Anyone agree with me? Gemini was a 2 train wait. Wicked Twister: Such a great coaster. The wait was about 30 minutes and all I remember is hearing Carrie freaking out behind me when we were getting airtime. We rode a few days later in the very back of the train and that was WAYY better. Definately the 3rd best coaster at CP IMO. MAXAIR: Em and I werent too sure about this ride. Usually spinning makes me sick, but all I can say is WOWWWWWWW. What a great ride. It doesnt spin that much to make you sick, just to get you on the bottom on one rotation and on the top the next. The airtime you get if you are at the top just right is sick! I'm definately a huge Maxair fan.. I really hope some local parks get one of these sometime in PA. RAPTOR: A great ride until the VERY END into the brake run where it just plummeted out of our groups favorite list and into the trash can. We were in the next to last row.. and then the train looks like it WRECKS when it goes up into the brake run.. it is that violent. Ouch. Just made me appreciate the Great Bear more .. and of course Dragons! Kim, who loves inverts was let down huge by Raptor... something that most amateur coaster riders rarely are. IRON DRAGON: I have a softspot for this coaster. I dont really know why. Its pretty boring but it has a decent finale. I liked it. It was funny when Kim got off she said "i need something more thrilling that Iron Dragon".. sort of like RCT.. I was in shock.. this coming from a girl who a month ago thought 90 feet was high. DISASTER TRANSPORT: We all agree this ride is begging to be torn down. What ever happened to the boardwalk project? MAGNUM: I've always have not been a fan of Magnum. Em and I sat in the next to last row, Kim and Carrie behind us. I actually was pretty impressed with Maggie this year. It doesnt compare to Intamin hypers or Millie.. but it had its moments. However, it had some moments of vibration.. just like Gemini that were pretty painful. I can only imagine how much this would kick butt if they got new modern trains.. BLUE STREAK: Sweeeeet.. I love how small Blue Streak looks and how its usually overlooked by guests. But this is definately the hidden gem of Cedar Point. Crazy airtime and hardly ever a wait! DRAGSTER: Alrighty... time to talk. Dragster was down most of the night on Weds, and part of the day on Thursday. We were coming from the main midway and we saw Dragster go up a few times and rushed over on Weds night. We waited about an hour for what should've been a 15 minute wait. No big deal! I've waited FARRR LONGER to ride this. They were lauching one a minute.. maybe.. and had to reset the ride a decent amount. This was good and bad. It was annoying having to wait thru the downtimes and the slow launching (they even had techs pushing the trains to the launch area for a few trains, so I assume it was a motor problem). I was awesome though when we sat there on the launch looking at the tower for over a minute! Kim was freaking out.. but she did good and had her hands up after the launch. GREAT RIDE. It is one of the few rides that still get my stomach.. That brings me to a question, are there a lot of people out there who dont get that "stomach in ure throat" feeling anymore? I've been on 156 different coasters, and worked on one for a year.. so maybe I'm desensitized or something. Anyways, It's always a nice surprise to get that feeling. On Friday we rode Dragster in front.. waited only an hour! Alright, we also did some other rides, Power Tower (15 minute waits), Mine Ride, and some other ones... but on to the pics! [/b] The local Cracker Barrel on the other hand.. SUCKED!! Our waitress was miserable, she messed up everything. The good thing is we ate for free! Even tho the manager was an A-hole too. Em and I at dinner.. Friendlys ROCKS!! And its open til 1am in Sandusky. Kim was stung by a wasp waiting for Maxair.. at least Cedar Point wasnt overrun by bugs this trip like a few years ago.. Kim and Carrie ready for Magnum Raptor, its car wreck ending definately made this plummet in my Inverts.. Wicked Twister at night, I like night shots.. MAXair.. Amazingggg ride. I didnt even come close to puking.. which was nice. A one trick pony yes.. but definately my favorite coaster under a minute long Dragster was running GREAT on Friday, and had some issues Weds and Thurs. Millenium Force.. the view from the ramp, I always associate this with CP.. YES! Finally here after 7 hours of driving!

Who wants to place bets that this guys family will be sueing the park.. obviously the park is to blame because they have rides. Eric

I'm not really judging... I would just rather see a Disney Cruise ship rather than an aircraft carrier. I like aircraft carriers, I think military technologies are cool, but I hate war. I think military vehicles are just too real life lately and should just be left out of a Disney attraction. Might as well fly behind a cruise missile. Eric

Thanks John for your understanding on how bad it is to be an Orioles fan.. I feel bad for the Padres fans out there as well. You have my pity. The Orioles were AWESOME until June when the pitching just shut down and half the team got injured. Javy Lopez was the worst of all the injuries because we had Sal Fasano take his place and look like a little leaguer. It's also sad to see Sosa be torn apart limb from limb by AL pitching. Oh well, the team is starting to look a little better now with Eric Byrnes in there and everyone else seems to be coming around a little. If the O's drop Sosa and get one or two decent starters over the off season I can def. see them with the Red Sox/Yankees next year. Here's another topic to discuss here though... I think baseball needs to drop the DH rule and screw with the leagues a little bit. Like have the AL East be, The Orioles, Braves, Mets, Blue Jays, and Red Sox.. or something of that sort... and put the Yankees and Devil Rays in the NL East. Eric