CoasterFanatic

Go out and mow some of the neighbor's yards. Then give your parents the money for the videos. It is simple, easy, and you get to keep the videos. // Next time give them the money beforehand.

Here are a few pictures from the Japan meet. Sorry for the quality on some. I think the smoke from the grill messed with the flash. Too bad, as they would have been pretty entertaining. Another shot of the chef Our skillful chef at work Catrina and I (Thanks to RCTFan for taking this shot) The big table The big table

Thanks to everyone for making the dinner meet a momentous occasion. It was great to put faces to all the names. The rain kind of spoiled the ending of our evening, and I am sorry I wasn't able to stick around any longer, but we weren't really prepared for the downpour. Hope everyone had a great time, and hope to see everyone again in the near future.

Alhough I am not too good with the restaurants inside the parks, here are some killer joints outside Disney's boundaries. Chevys (Mexican, $12 a person) - These place has the freshest Mexican food anywhere, and is easily accesible from Disney. It is right across the street from the Downtown Disney entrance at the "Crossroads" Kim Wu (Chinese, $15 a person) - Sit down chinese restaurant located about 3 blocks down Kirkman from the Universal entrance on Kirkman. Columbia (Spanish, $20 a person) - Legendary restaurant that offer a wide variety of spanish dishes. Not for everybody but if you want something different, this is the place. Located on downtown Celebration. Not sure if they run the buses over here or not. Rainforest Cafe (Variety, $20+ Person) - There are two of these. One at the entrance to the Animal Kingdom and another in Downtown Disney. Their prices are a little bit better than most of Disney's sit-down restaurants, but the food is as good or better than all of them. They also have some rockin' "Boat Drinks" Hope this helps a little. If they are only interested in Disney sit-downs then I would recommend Tony's in the Magic Kingdom and the Sci-Fi at MGM.

For the first time since landing Saturday afternoon, I have had a chance to kind of get my thoughts together and post a short TR. We arrived in Tampa at about a quarter till 3pm, and grabbed a bite to eat before heading to my fathers house in Brandon, FL. At about 5:30, we hopped in the truck and headed over to Busch Gardens. It is only about a 15 minute drive, but the new parking layout cost me about an extra 15 minutes. Since my last visit, Busch has finished their parking lot underpass and now all the cars entering the parking lots come in through the same entrance. Since we both have Platinum Passes we grabbed out premium spots not to far from the front entrance. Just like I was anticipating, the crowds were starting to leave for the day. We entered the park and headed straight back to ShieKra. ShieKra is a lot more impressive in person than any of the pictures I have seen, and the splashdown area is one of the coolest crowd interactions that I have ever seen on a coaster. As the train enters the splashdown, it sends a mountain of water flying above it. After about a 45 minute wait, we were getting a ride on the newest B&M creation. Since I have never been on Oblivion, the difference in track size really impressed me. The lift in angled at a good 45 degrees and grouped with the tilt of the seats, you are laying flat on your back up the lift. At the top of the lift the view is great! You slowly turn 180 degrees before the brake grabs you as you stare down the 90 degree first drop. The first drop pulls some really good forces at the base and the Immelman (?) is a completely unique inversion, especially on the outside of the row. After another drop and high banked turn, you make the second vertical descent. The second vertical drop is much better than the first in my opinon, but this might be a little objective because I was riding on the outside of the third and final row. From the back row, the second drop has a nice little yank to it. After the second vertical drop, there is a pretty uneventful turn before dropping into the splashdown area. You don't really get wet on the splashdown, but we did get a little bit of water in the last row. In all, ShieKra is a very fun coaster that should appeal to a very large sample of the general public. The only people that I can think of that won't be to crazy about it are the people who fear heights. For them, the coaster will be very intimidating. Another note that should be made about ShieKra is the amount of sway that occurs on the first drop. Catrina pointed it out to me later Sunday and if you stand at the entrance to the gift shop (by the log jammer entrance) you will have no problem noticing it. At the peak of the first drop it has to be a good 18 inches or more. After ShieKra, we headed back and got a quick ride on Kumba. I have rode a lot of the new B&Ms since the last time I rode Kumba, and may I say that I forgot just what a real B&M felt like. The pacing and overall agressiveness of Kumba destroys anything that the company has offered in the last couple years. Time was running low for the day so we got a quick ride on Scorpion before heading home for the night. After a trip to the beach and some quiet time at home on Sunday, we headed back to the park Sunday for a couple rides. First stop was the FestHaus for some excellent ribs and some items to appease the sweet-tooth. With full stomachs, thrill rides were off the agenda for a while. We grabed a ride on the carousel before hopping in line for the SkyRide in Stanleyville. After a short wait we hopped in our Gondola and made the trek to the other side of the park. We exited the SkyRide and walked over to Montu, sice we didn't get it in the previous night. Montu like Kumba was a great reminder of what a B&M should feel like and further convinced me of this: "Any B&M with a two vertical inversions is alright in my book." After our ride on Montu, we headed to the "Gwazi Plaza" where a fireworks display was set to finish the night. A lot of people were still in the park, and they got a chance to see a great display. The 20 minute display was better than I expected and contained a lot more "Bang" than any of the Disney shows. I found it to be on par with the 4th of July displays found in most major cities. It was a terrific display. Our 2 shorts evenings at Busch are now over and it is time to move to the next day and the next park ... Epcot TR coming soon!

1st Post - "Best Rollercoaster" - locked 2nd Post - "Best Rollercoaster" - soon to be locked If Robb wasn't on vacation this thread would probably already be toast.

u are = you are

TAER IT DOWN! I have heard it all before

Congratulations man. Now it's time to bust out the growth chart in anticipation of that all important 48" mark!

^ ur getting better

Well ... I just finished my first half-day in Florida and of course SheiKra had to be the first order of business. We arrived at TPA at around 2:30pm and grabbed a bite to eat and chilled for a couple hours before going over to BGT at around 6pm. I figured that it was a pretty hot day and a lot of people would probably start to clear out in the evening. Turns out ... I was right We walked back to SheiKra and after about 45 minutes or so, we got our first ride on the American debut of the B&M Dive Machine. The ride was (like Robb noted) much better that I expected. No pictures could prepare me for the size of this thing. We only managed to get one ride, but I managed to get into the famed "rear-right" seat. The ride itself is smooth as glass and the vertical drops are killer. I actually prefer the second as it has a little bit more "yank" in the last row. Also, the splashdown is one of the cooler things that I have ever seen on a coaster. I will post a Photo TR and all that good stuff once I get the pics of the camera.

Here are some goodies: The American Rollercoaster - Rutherford (Probably my favorite coaster book) Roller Coasters, Flumes and Flying Saucers - Reynolds Amusement Parks of Pennsylvania - Futrell and anything by Charlie Jacques

I think that Vortex because of it's location and the fact that it is an "Arrow Looper" would be the obvious choice, but from what I can recall it still gets pretty decent ridership. But then again .... it never stopped anyone before.

Thanks makes two of us ... any reports would be most excellent. // The turnaround just can't take that abuse forever, but I wish it could.

Vanilla Anything with peanut butter Anything that tastes like coffee Tiramisu // not a big cookie dough fan

Huh? Spellchecker is your friend. General Help When visiting a park: - Always get there early - Ride the most popular / lowest capacity rides first - If the park give you anything (food to fee dolphins, etc) you are gonna pay for it - Boomerangs are never worth it, but we ride them for the credits anyway (same goes for the SLCs) Also, A subject line of "SFMW" doesn't do much to describe the thread. There are a lot of threads involving Six Flags Marine World. Try to snaz it up a little bit like: "Questions about SFMW for a first visit" "Planning my first trip to SFMW ... Need help" // I keed the dolphins ... I keed! I keed![/b]

^ You are correct, sir. Unless Holiday World is building the largest freestanding Scaffolding Structure.

I was kind of thinking the same thing since they never updated the site. Everyone was just assuming that they would open Memorial Day weekend, but there was never any proof .... till now. http://www.clementonpark.com has been updated and it lists the opening day as May 27th (Today) Could you imagine how much people would have immortalized "Tsunami" if it had never opened again. It would have been forever cast as the "Great Coaster that had ever Existed". Now it is back to a "good" coaster that will tear itself apart by the end of this season.

^ Very cool. See you at Turtle Talk some time in the afternoon. Are there scheduled times for the show or do they just run concurrent? // sad that Food Rocks is gone. Singing fruits and vegetables always got me going.

I am voting for Gravity Group woodie. // OMG. Like Holiday World is the new Big Chiefs!

^ You started it

I have never finished this, but find that it can be of help when planning a trip like this. http://www.coasterfanatics.com/sec_map/ Also, I don't where you have been in that area, but there are a couple other parks around there Sesame Place (close to Clementon - 1 Credit) DelGrossos and Lakemont (Very close to each other and a handful of credits between them) Whatever you do, try to make it to J2. You don't hear much about it, because not many people make it there, but it is insane.

Glad to hear that Shakira is a pretty good one after all. After a red eye, I don't know how you guys do it. See you in a couple days.

"What league have you been playing in?" "California Penal" Next: Top Gun

^ OK? At what angle does a glide become a drop?