packfanlv

Thanks for posting this entire report Sam. I just read through the whole thread and enjoyed it quite a bit!

^No problem. The company basically kept the park open as long as they could receive tax write offs for it. (At least that is what I was told when I worked at the casino in 98/99.)

This is not correct. The total cost of the MGM Grand in 1993 was $1.1 billion. I am not sure how much the park itself cost, but that was included in the $1.1 billion total. I also worked at the park and it was sad how they cut the park in half. At least HRP opened with more coasters than MGM Grand Adventures. It was trying to be more of a typical theme park, while MGM Grand Adventures was trying to copy Disneyland with a Haunted House dark ride, jungle river cruise and of course an indoor space themed roller coaster. I remember admission to MGM GA was around $22 back in 1994 which was comparable to what it cost to go to Disneyland. The park was way overpriced for what you got. It sounds like HRP was similar in this fashion. I am so sad that I never got a change to get to HRP. Oh Well!

Happy Birthday Robb!

I know the early rumors called for this to be in the same vein as the DL refurb, but with the economy, they have opted for a cheaper redo. I also wonder if they will replace the entire track structure or just parts that need work. I much prefer the Disneyland version to WDW's and agree with Robb that sound should be something they add in the near future. Riding both the WDW and TDR versions I definitely noticed something missing. Both the DL and HKDL versions provide a superior experience simply because of their onboard sound. My only disappointment with this shortened refurb was that they don't have the money for something major like was originally rumored two years ago. With the size of the dome, they could've changed the ride to one track that is double wide and created a wonderful new Space Mountain that would've been enormous. (Of course this plan may have never actually been on the table given that it was a rumor.) Oh well, the ride is pretty darn good the way it is.

It looks like you were busy in New York. Congratulations on what looked like an awesome summer. Traveling can be so amazing, especially when you can squeeze some amazing parks and coasters in with all of the other sights. Well done!

The more I look at it, I tend to agree with you guys. Perhaps yellow or even red would have been a better choice instead of purple for the supports. Either way I think it is still an improvement over the old colors IMO.

^Thanks for posting the update. I think the new color scheme looks really nice.

I just watched the original movie for the first time and loved it. Its to bad that you aren't going to be there on Tuesday the 6th, because that is when we are visiting Disneyland. I hope you found the people that you needed for the sequel.

Thanks Natalie. Great trip report. I agree about Primeval Whirl. It is the most painful mouse that I have ever been on. NEVER AGAIN! I love Animal Kingdom though. Expedition Everest was a pleasant surprise for me and the safari is awesome. I'm looking forward to your Universal pics.

Thanks Shane. It never cared to much for these rides, but wanted for my son to experience one before they are all gone. Luckily we were able to get on the one in Nagashima Spaland in Japan this past summer. When we visited Cedar Point Demon Drop was closed. Thanks again for this wonderful thread!

I thought I would bring this back one more time since I snuck two extra parks in before the end of the year. Here is my final list. 42 parks in 8 countries! What an incredible year! Luna Park (Sydney, Australia) Warner Brothers Movie World (Gold Coast, Australia) Dreamworld (Gold Coast, Australia) Australia Zoo (Sunshine Coast, Australia) Genting Theme Park (Malaysia) First World Plaza (Malaysia) Sunway Lagoon (KL, Malaysia) Cosmo's World (KL, Malaysia) Dream World (Bangkok, Thailand) Dam Sen Park (Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam) Hanoi Moon Park (Hanoi, Vietnam) Yoyo Land (Bangkok, Thailand) Wonder World Fun Park (Bangkok, Thailand) Siam Park City (Bangkok, Thailand) Pattaya Park (Pattaya, Thailand) Fisherman's Wharf (Macau) Ocean Park (Hong Kong) Hong Kong Disneyland Happy Valley Shenzhen (Shenzhen, China) Donghu Park (Shenzhen, China) Honey Lake Amusement Park (Shenzhen, China) Jing Ying Amusement Park (Guangzhou, China) Chimelong Paradise (Guangzhou, China) Wuhan Zhongshan Park (Wuhan, China) Zhongshan Park (Shanghai, China) Gongqing Senlin Park (Shanghai, China) Happy Valley Beijing (Beijing China) Beijing Shijingshan Amusement Park (Beijing, China) Sun Park (Beijing, China) Nairamdal Park (Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia) La Qua (Tokyo, Japan) Tokyo Disneyland (Tokyo, Japan) Tokyo DisneySea (Tokyo, Japan) Nagashima Spaland (Nagashima, Japan) Adventuredome (Las Vegas, NV) Buffalo Bills Hotel & Casino (Primm, NV) Disneyland (Anaheim, CA) Disney's California Adventure (Anaheim, CA) Six Flags Magic Mountain (Valencia, CA) Nut Tree Park (Vacaville, CA) Six Flags Discovery Kingdom (Vallejo, CA)

16/20 for me. Yah the non U.S. questions threw me a little, but I knew some of them.

^Yah I really like SFDK. It is a pleasant park and much different than any other Six Flags offering. Since we were there more for the holiday celebrations and the Tony Hawk credit, I wasn't too bummed about Medusa. Don't get me wrong, I would have loved to ride it, but I was just at SFMM a couple of weeks before and Scream is essentially the same coaster. SFDK is a great park though. Hopefully they continue to grow it in the coming years.

Big Mike I am sure your trip report will have a certain flair that mine lacks.

My first park will probably be Disneyland in a week and a half. I may stop at Scandia or Adventure City for the credits first though. Either way, my first park of the season is less than two weeks away!

Following Nut Tree Park, we headed about 25 minutes down the road to SFDK in Vallejo for their Holiday in the Park celebration. I also needed to pick up the Tony Hawk credit, since it was not yet built when we visited for the first time in 2007. During Holiday in the Park most of the children's rides are open along with a select few coasters. On their website they advertise Kong, Medusa, Roar and Tony Hawk as being open, but unfortunately Medusa was down for the whole day. Instead of Medusa, they opened the family coaster Cobra, which is a very very poor substitute in my opinion. In addition to the rides, they have several holiday activities including special dolphin and killer whale shows, decorations throughout the park, Looney Toons characters dressed in holiday attire, a Frosty The Snowman show, Santa's workshop, a holiday parade and a snow hill in the middle of the park. Overall we enjoyed our visit to the park. I think they did a great job with the HITP festivities and I expect it will get better every year as they are able to do more. I was a little disappointed that Medusa was closed, but was pleasantly surprised about how much spin we got on Tony Hawk, so it was a wash. BTW all coasters except Tony Hawk's Big Spin were on one train operations. The other train(s) appeared to be in refurb. I hope you enjoy! After the parade we began to head out, but Jasmine couldn't resist buying a coffee mug on clearance from one of the park's stores. 75% off baby. Let the post Christmas sales begin! Yah Baby it is Austin Powers Santa Claus. Yah! And now for the final float. It is Marvin the Martian driving Santa Claus. But look closely that isn't just any Santa Claus. Speedy Gonzales was so fast that I could only catch the back of his head. Sorry! Followed by a beached Killer Whale and Dolphin on the back of a pickup truck. Now coming down the pathway we have killer Christmas clowns on parade. The parade continues with Gingerbread. Next up: WTF?!? Look, what do we have here? Is it not Bugs and his friends making an appearance tonight. WOW! Followed of course by Frosty himself! Next up we have the Frosty the Snowman girls! Our first section features the rare and endangered white tiger. Finally before leaving for the night, we decided to take in the underwhelming Holiday Parade. I now present it in it's entirety. (Note the pathways at SFDK are very narrow, not allowing for any sort of big float.) The tree lighting ceremony wasn't much, but the tree is beautiful. Around 5:30pm we headed to the entrance for the tree lighting. The decorations in Looney Tunes Seaport were a little light. Christmas tree forest comes alive! As night fall set in, the "Over 1 Million Lights" started to illuminate. We thought about riding Kong, but the line was very long, they had one train operations and IMO that is too much to go through for a painful SLC. Shawn Reece was happy since he still isn't tall enough to ride Medusa anyway. With Medusa silent they opened up Cobra. Inside of it were loads of giant toys. Moving to the other side of the park, the area near Medusa, Kong and Cobra was themed as Toyland. Like I mentioned before they also had special Killer Whale and dolphin shows. We managed only to catch the dolphin effort, which kind of sucked. Besides, this was a more productive way to spend our time. But the line was at least an hour long so we skipped it. They actually did a really good job. Next up it was time to head over to the sledding snow mountain set up in the park. Look mom, I met Frosty the Snowman! Nearby we also watched the cute (for small kids) Frosty the Snowman show. They also had a snow hill in the park for kids to play in. Of course, it was more like ice, but this is the bay area, so you take what you can get. They had fires all over the park. This was great as the temperature dropped later in the day. At this point we just set out to see more of the holiday festivities. This Thomas definitely has a more scenic route than it's counterpart in SFMM. Yay for our 2nd Thomas the Train credit! Six Flags did a great job of drawing families into the park. Thomas Town was rocking! With a small adrenaline rush we decided to calm things down with our second mini train credit of the day! Clever marketing! Or is it? Roar is neither a great nor a bad wooden coaster. Next up we headed right next door to Roar. This is the third coaster of this type that I have been on and IMO the best. After what seemed like a loooong walk we finally arrived at the back corner of the park to get our credit. On our way back to Tony Hawk we could see V2 looking abandoned. My guess is that the train is being refurbished. Along the way we also met some old friends. Yes this means that it is a walkway lined with Christmas trees. Our first stop was to be Tony Hawk's Big Spin for the credit. On our way we passed through the Christmas Tree Forest. The impressive 80 foot tall Christmas tree sits just inside the park entrance. They did a nice job of dressing up the park. After flashing our season passes, we got the special HITP map and were on our way. The entrance area always gets me excited since most of the coasters sit right on the front edge of the park in view from the turnstiles. We finally near the entrance with a silent Medusa in the background. During the walk we got a good glimpse of Tony Hawk's Big Spin. It sits on the edge of the park. Only halfway to the entrance! We opted not to take the tram. I forgot just how far the entrance is from the parking lot. Since our visit was on the day after Christmas the park was pretty busy.

Happy New Year Big Mike! Thanks again for all of the updates. Lets hope 2009 is even more incredible for you!

We spent Christmas week up at my dad's house in Northern California and decided to visit the Holiday in the Park festivities at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom on our way back to Las Vegas. On the way, we also stopped at the charming little Nut Tree Park in Vacaville, CA. Here are trip reports from both parks. Part 1: Nut Tree Park in Vacaville, CA Nut Tree Park was apparently founded in 1921, though by the looks of it you wouldn't know. Apparently the complex was remodeled a couple of years ago. Now what you see is an upscale shopping center with a small theme park in the back. The park itself, while small, is definitely charming. I believe the theme they were going for was that of farming. (Not surprising given the park's heritage.) In my experience most small parks are rotting away and dirty, but this was just the opposite. Nut Tree Park's one coaster is a mix between a kiddie and junior coaster, but they give you two cycles to make up for its small size. Enjoy! Finally the money shot! Look for SFDK HITP coming soon! and a pleasant place to visit. Yes this park is pretty, but that is about it as far as rides go. This is a perfect park for children. I'm glad to know that all of the disabled gingerbread men in the world have a bathroom to use. Ever since I watched Shrek the first time, I have worried about this issue. The park was also sporting a holiday overlay. See I told you they were forceful. Next up we head for the surprisingly forceful bumper cars. Not a bad little ride. A few more pics for fun. This pic gives you almost the whole layout of the coaster. Finally we get to the part Shawn Reece has been waiting for. Yah that's about right! A few of the rides. Ok the train tour is over time to explore the park. From the train we got our first glimpse of the Harvest Express Coaster. Hey this park is nice. Coming around the bend. Shawn Reece is ready for a tour of the park. Yah a mini train! First off we pass the carousel on our way to the train. With our map in hand, it is now time to tour the park. Here are the prices. (Not too bad!) and the park is called Nut Tree Family Park! The shopping area is called "The Village". The Nut Tree Complex features both a shopping center and the park.

I agree that Scooby Doo was a pleasant surprise, but it isn't in my top 20 as a coaster. With that said, I wish that when parks here in the U.S. build a mouse in a box, that they would follow the Scooby Doo model. It is such a fun ride!

The Movie "40 Pounds of Trouble" (from 1962) partly took place in Disneyland and featured the Matterhorn I believe. http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=40+pounds+of+trouble&search_type=

We just visited SFMM and my wife and son got their passes for $59.99. Under this promotion it would've been $47.99 each. I got the extreme pass. I guess that extra visit last week cost us $24. Oh well. I plan on getting good use of my pass this next year so I am not worried. This is a great deal though!

I agree that the hill can be a bit much on a hot summer day. Usually I forget to plan ahead and end up doing the hike, but the funicular or the stairs behind Tatsu are the easiest way to get up there for sure. Going down the hill next to Goldrusher is definitely preferable than going up it!

Big Mike I am not surprised that you have now moved up to the A-List. It seems like that appearance on Leno was a launching point for you. The skies the limit for you now. Lets hope that you don't forget us little people here at TPR. Anyway I have no idea what celebrity you hung out with, I will just have to wait for the next edition of the Enquirer to come out at the market I guess. Thanks for the pictures. Shawn

I agree Samurai Summit was looking pretty sad this past weekend. I think partly because the tower was closed, but mostly because all of the retail locations are closed for the off season. The area between Ninja and Superman did look really sad and abandoned. With that said, I used the bathroom up there and can't see any reason someone would be afraid.