Rastuso

S:KC is a great floorless, and is a bit unique as far as B&M loopers go. But, imho, it's the only "great" coaster at SFFT. The new Batman this year will be great, I'd assume. Poltergeist is nice if you like intense loops. Rattler blows, Boomerang blows, Rollschacoaster is a tiny kiddie coaster, Road Runner is fun but very short, and last time I rode they'd gotten rid of the great Wile E vs RR theming. I haven't ridden Tony Hawk, but have ridden clones. They're fun, but not worth the wait it'll have during Spring Break. The log ride does a decent job telling a classic Bugs Bunny cartoon, and should be ridden at least once. Sea World has a great Batman, a decent mini hyper, a kiddie, and a notacoaster Shoot the Chutes that was so insanely overhyped it's frightening. So, neither park offers a whole lot, imho. But, if you're in to loops, you'll love SFFT. Most important advice: Be at the park you choose well before opening. -R

First up, you didn't mention Schlitterbahn, the greatest water park in the world, just a few miles NE of San Antonio. It'll be crowded, and you should be there an hour before advertised opening to be ready to go in case they open 30 minutes early as they normally do. Space Center is nice, but really has little to do with Space except for the tour. It's more of a kid's science center, and is pricey if you do the tour. in San Antonio, right in front of the Alamo, is a newly renovated dark ride themed to an Egyptian crypt as part of the Guinness/Ripley's stuff. When it was Davey Crockett, it was pretty expensive, and I figure it still will be, but a nice quicky if you'll be at the Alamo anyway. And don't forget the basement. There is Sandy Lake Park in Dallas which has a nice old Pretzel and vintage mini golf course. There is also a huge arcade museum that is supposed to be open soon in Houston, but you'd have to check closer to your trip. Most of all, it'll be fargin hot when you're here. Hot enough to drain your energy in a matter of hours. Sunscreen is a must, multiple times during the day. -R

"The Omni", which was a basketball arena there is gone I believe. My parents stopped there on one trip home from Florida so I could see ZZ Top there on the Afterburner tour. Kick ass concert, and lax security so I could leave my crappy seat behind the stage and just stand at one of the entrances and watch the whole show. The Omni center, which was the building, is in fact the home to the Clinton News Network. -R

EXCELLENT!!! Thanks for the Krofft article. Info on this park is EXTREMELY hard to find. THere are glimpses of it in some of the TV episodes, but no real ride footage. And I've yet to see any pictures of the Living Island dark ride. I'd love to see some good onrides, and would totally freak if a ridethrough video ever surfaced. Any TPR members have pics? There is a good website that has a brochure, map, and some info, but nothing new for years: http://members.aol.com/interama/krofft.html -R

Which means they are close to Robb and Elissa and Kidtums. I'd assume they can easily see the glow from the fire right now from their apartment. -R

Well, you can certainly download the pics for free. They aren't pristene quality, but they are good enough for a memento picture on your computer or video mp3 player. You need to fool around with the interface a bit to get the best pics. If you zoom into each corner of the picture, get those, then photoshop them together, you can get a nice sized jpg. It works on Disney's site too, although when I did it from our May trip it seems that Disney has lowered the maximum quality you can get from zooming, so at a certain point, you are just digitally zooming. Yeah, it takes a few minutes to do, but I have about $100 worth of Disney photos for free. If they keep the web interface the same, and put all on-rides on photopass, it'll be awesome. My guess is that they are making buckets of cash off these websites, and if a few folks skirt the system, they are crying all the way to the bank. -R

There used to be one in Japan. ACE had pics in an old RC!. The coaster had two jumps where it left the track and hit a water splashdown, then it reattached to the track, probably ala Buzzsaw at SDC. I assume the park is closed or R&E would have onride of it by now. I'm sure there are pics on RCDB. -R

^^ Right as you come up to the turnstile, above you the track goes over the queue. It's probably only 12 feet above the queue, and there are hand rails to stand and climb on. We all noticed it almost immediately when we queued up at opening. Perhaps they've fixed it. They better. -Rastus

Agreed. However, with experience, you can learn who posts more unbiased reviews than others. Anyone who posts extreme things, how they almost fell asleep on a ride, or they were totally bored by Millennium Force, are quite questionable. It boils down to integrity. ACE has no integrity. They never say anything bad about a ride. Parks probably love that, but it makes ACE nothing but a PR tool. Do you like movie reviewers who give every movie at least 3 stars? Or how about people who said the effects in Transformers were horrible. There is no credibility there. It's an opinion, sure, but so is "9/11 was an inside job". Proof is a very hard accomplishment. Prove that your mother is really your mother. Sure, a DNA test does it to a very high percentage, but not 100%. So, really, you can't prove who your parents are. You can not read someone's review of a ride and take anything from it without knowing a little bit more about the reviewer, or accumulating multiple reviews from multiple reviewers. But, as Josef Goebbel's realized, the vast majority of human's opinions are very easily controlled. Look at Iraq for the perfect example of how unending propaganda can change the opinion of millions of people. This is also why people are paid to visit forums and websites to post positive things about companies. The reader is left to decide what opinions they give weight to. And most readers give weight to the opinion they hear the most, and nothing more. -R

I agree with Derek wholeheartedly. I praise myself on always being unbiased. I'm amazed at how many people give blanket praise for parks and rides that are obviously slanted because that person wants to make the park happy in hopes it will pay off soon. Heck, I remember Mike Kalley posting that the transformation in DCA's ToT was every bit as great as the 4th dimension room. And vehemently defending that opinion. Seeing as how that transformation effect is something you could do on your home PC, his opinion holds very little water. Everyone is entitled to an opinion, but some opinions are wrong. Also, sometimes opinions are slanted because of the event or crowd surrounding the riding session. This is why Legend was so highly rated after the first Legendary Stark Raven Mad. When you get a few hundred people together that share a love for coasters, and many other lifestyle issues, they bond on a different level and the coaster becomes part of that. A park benefits too. Holiday World coasters rank a lot above where they would rank elsewhere. Put Legend, in it's exact operating form, at Six Flags Great Adventure, and it would be a middle of the road coaster. I think if you put Voyage there it wouldn't be #1 either. The Boardwalk Bullet has it's staunch lovers. One of them is Mike R, whose coaster opinions I respect. My opinion differs from his. My opinion differed from his on Astroworld too. I think his opinion is impacted by the fact that Bullet is in Houston. That's not a bad thing. BUt people do get their opinions shaped by things other than just the ride. Hell, my 6 Bullet rides were right next to my son, and I saw how much fun he was having, and that made my night even better. Kentucky Rumber was his first big event coaster, and we both love it, partly I'm sure because of that. You CAN NOT judge how good a coaster is by the reports from the first week of operation, or right after a big event. Media days exist solely to make the riders happy by getting free rides, free food, and free chotchkes. Kemah didn't do that, or you'd see even more glowing reviews probably. But Kemah did let us crazy's ride in the rain, which was a marketing masterstroke if they realized it or not. THose rain rides were phenomenal. As Derek said, the first reports are always from people who have watched the ride get built, and anticipation is enormous. Those people are going to be ecstatic to just be on the damn thing. I think Flare's review on RRC was a very honest one, and he and I are hardly buddies. Don't come to Houston thinking the next great coaster is on the boardwalk. There is a fun coaster there, a great, but very aggressive, one in the rain for now. And also one with perhaps the best park food ever right next door. BUt also one that needs some help or it's probably going to be awful next Summer. -R

^^ Kentucky Rumbler is phenomenal. Saying it is boring is simply untruthful. You could not like it, but if the Rumbler is boring, you must be bored on 90% of all coasters you ride. If you equate "smooth" to "boring", then I guess you hate all steel coasters except Vekomas. What is it you like in coasters if Kentucky Rumbler is boring? I take it you absolutely loved Voyage? You're bored if the coaster doesn't violently through you around the entire time? Boardwalk Bullet is hardly boring, but that doesn't make it great. I'm amazed at all the talk of a 6 day old coaster being rough. Not good! And for those expecting it to smooth out as it breaks in... are you insane! It's only downhill from here smoothness-wise. The only thing that will get a bit better is if the banked turns are taken at a better speed, so the banking is justified. -rastus

What would you do then? Try and sell it to someone who didn't notice the construction? AS I said, maybe Landry's offered lots of extra cash for it, but we don't know that. And, more importantly, would the cash Landry's offered for that house be enough to purchase any other Gulf-side property in that area? Moving to a new house is no small task. -r

Who the hell cares if it's a weekend getaway home. They now hear the constant roar of a coaster train and screams 10 feet from their house. How can you say it's not a big deal for them. I hope a concrete factory opens up 10 feet from your house. Maybe you'll understand then. Regardless of if they have an axe to grind with Fertida, few people in the world have ever had a 100 foot tall coaster built 10 feet from their house. And I'd assume they all complained about it. -r

I think the folks in those houses really got hosed. You can't make a judgement on them without really knowing what Landry's offered them. If they were offered 50-75% over market value, then, yeah, they should shut up. That doesn't always happen. ANd seeing that there are multiple houses there, I really doubt 4 families all decided to not sell their houses at a very high value. It's not like they have ANY other options now. Who would really buy those houses to live in at this point? As for Bullet's ranking, I feel there is a LOT of new coaster and hometown bias. Houston hasn't gotten a new coaster in almost a decade. Locals are going crazy over it. I would rank it maybe # 10 for just woodies, but I'd have to think about it. Top 10 coaster in general, it's not even close. Of course, I'm not huge fan of Voyage either. Bullet does not flow, and I foresee it being brutally rough very soon. It will suffer the same fate as Voyage. Difference is, Holiday World has a top notch wood coaster maintenance staff, and a big budget. Kemah, I assume, does not. If Voyage is already needing 1/3 new track and is tearing itself up this year, Bullet will suffer the same fate, as I think it rides very similarly, just not for as long. I hope I'm wrong, but I think this ride will be almost unrideable in a year without TONS of TLC. Texas woodies have a history of this. -r

Yeah, and the layout is a lot more crazy on the real one. This looks more like a GCI model, and this ride definitely NOT a GCI. If the thing is already rougher than Friday, it will be brutal next year, and I mean by January. The first high speed section will be quite unpleasant. -r

I think you are being just as biased for the coaster as the homeowners are against it. To say this ride is "amazingly quiet" at that house is a load of shit. The folks in that house say the noise drives them in, you tell the paper the coaster is "top ten". A little hyperbole on both sides probably. Perhaps the GG designed the ride for the sake of the homeowners, but until the president of that company tells me that, I'll never believe it. -r

I always call 'em like I see 'em. You'll rarely see anything from me simply saying "it's great" or "I loved it". I give the good and the bad. -r

Kemah Boardwalk Friday, August 31st, 2007 The Kemah Boardwalk has really changed since I moved to Houston. I remember seeing a big article about it when I was on my house hunting trip. I think it had just opened. The pictures showed a small collection of restaurants, a small train ride, and a Ferris wheel. I thought to myself "wow, it'd be great if this place had a roller-coaster". Over the years, Kemah has expanded. I hadn't reallly even realized how much had been added. My only previous trip had been for Winterfest a few years ago. We had a decent Mexican lunch, and rode all the rides on a cold overcast day. They had really expanded, but still no major ride. When Astroworld closed, I knew that eventually it would be a good thing. Kemah was supposedly looking at this coaster before Astroworld's demise, but there is no doubt that it will be more successful now. Kemah is owned by Landry's, and is basically a showcase of all their restaurants. They have their signature Aquarium restaurant at the far end from the rides, and have added a hotel and a lot of small shops to create a bit of a Disney resort feel. I was watching SixFlagsHouston all day to see the status. Rumors were heavy that the coaster would open today, and at about 3pm, the posts dried up, so I assumed everyone had gone to Kemah. As soon as I got off work, I went home and got my son ready. Still no new posts on SFH, so we headed South. We arrived at about 6:30 to see the usual suspects waiting at the entrance. Apparently, some of the early arrivals were awarded with some pre-opening rides by the very enthusiast friendly ride management. I was a bit nervous as there was a train stuck on the lift. BUt, luckily they were just doing an evacuation drill to finish up training. We headed over for our $19 wristbands and joined the other coaster geeks. At about 7 O'Clock, the ride opened to no fanfare, and we went up and waited outside the station a bit. We quickly noticed that the track flys right over the queue, and your average trouble-maker teen could easily stick their hand in the path of the coaster. I meant to mention this to the management and just realized I forgot all about it. They better put a cover on this section of queue before some dumbass kid loses a hand, or some total asshole throws something at the train. We were finally let into the station house. I went for the front seat, back car as usual. My son was a bit scared, so he wanted to move up a car, so we did. We waited a bit, and were off for the innaugural public ride of the Boardwalk Bullet. There is a fairly big dip out of the station, and a U-turn to the lift. You quickly realize that this coaster has a lot more wood than usual, obviously thanks to its location on the Gulf of Hurricanes. About two thirds of the way up, we come to a stop, and fall back an inch and hear all the rollback dogs catch. The second trains crawls into the station from the end brakes since some of them are magnetic, and for the vast majority of rides, you would reach the shutdown spot before the second train was clear of the end brakes. Instead of the chain freezing in place, it stops and rolls back a bit, so the train falls down the lift an inch before catching. This freaked me out a bit and my son got quite scared. I explained how it was totally safe, but do beleive this needs to be fixed. Those dogs are meant to be used rarely, not every ride. I could see a dog failure in the future from overuse. They need to fix it and put in new gears/motor that won't let the chain go backwards without intervention. After about 10 seconds, we start back up at a much faster rate and go over the top. THis is about the only time you can take in the view of the ocean. I'm surprised that they really did not take advantage of the oceanside location. After the long turnaround, all hell breaks loose. The little bump in the first drop does kick you out of your seat, but the drop curves and twists enough that you don't float or anything, The drop is not very long at all, and you quickly got into a hard right and tunnel through the structure. This section was very wild, and a bit jerky already. I have a bad feeling about the future state of this seciton of track, it could easily get brutally rough very fast. THe first half of the ride is flat out fast, and very good. When you reach the last tall hill, the train slows down a bunch, and you then dive back down, and go to the on-ride picture spot below the station in another tunnel of sorts. After that the ride really gets odd. You slow a lot on overbanked curves, and the final 3 or 4 turns are slow and lumbering, reminding me of the SFNE Cyclone's ending section ( and I've only ridden that after the neutering). It's like they ran out of space and had to force the train to hook up with the final brakes. Is this a good ride? Sure is, it's very fun and will thrill the hell out of families and dates at Kemah. Is it a phenomenal ride? Well, not now. I don't see it ever truly flowing like I like a coaster to do. BUt, neither does Voyage, and folks love that. I think the Gravity Group tries to do too many things on their coasters. They never put in a nice swooping turn or drop, they always have to put little kinks and strange changes in the banking. Some like this, I don't, especially in PTC trains. It's no surprise this thing had such a hard time getting up to speed with all the little movements all the time. The train is fighting it's way through the tangled mass of structure all the time. After two rides, my son wanted to do some other things, and I was getting hungry. So, we went to the other rides and rode the excellent little kiddie drop tower and Ferris wheel. We then walked down the boardwalk. We got to one section that looked like a cannery. THe water surface was covered in what looked sorta like catfish, I'm no fish expert. I double checked, and this water was open to the Gulf, so I couldn't believe it. Then we got up to 3 fish food machines and I figured it out. We also saw a restaurant worker throw a bunch of bread crumbs down. It looked like a pirahna feeding frenzy. A few ducks were fighting the fish a bit, but couldn't get into their massive pile. THere had to have been a thousand fish in that area. Hungry? Just bring a net and scoop up a dozen or so. I'm sure that people do that at night sometimes. They had a live band down in the area in front of the inn. This was a really nice place and had a definite Disney resort feel to it. It was lightning very badly all over the sky, but wasn't raining. We got to the Aquarium and saw the Stingray Encounter. My son wanted to do it, so for $5 he got to pet and feed the rays. Some of them would come half way out of the water and you could put the food right into their mouths. YOu were supposed to hold the food underwater and they come up to eat it, but my son wasn't brave enough for that. We finally found the Pizza Oven restaurant and ordered a Pepperoni. They make brick oven pizzas, and they are delicious. A bit pricey at $10 for a 10 inch pizza, but it tasted great. We heard some teenage girls saying the rides were closed due to lightning. Well that sucks, we only had 2 rides under our belts. They had gotten refunds for their wristbands since the rides closed 15 minutes after they bought them. Good customer service! We finished and went into the candy shop for some pretty expensive fudge. They had tons of signs saying no free samples. There was an arcade, but we totally missed it until on the train ride later. It was sprinkling a bit and I figured our coaster rides were done for the day. We headed back and saw Jason Knutson and he said that they still hoped to reopen later. I thought they closed at 10, but it was 11, so I decided to stick around a bit. My son went over for some marathon riding on the drop tower in the rain. I think he got about 20 rides in. We also did the train. A nice meandering tour of the whole place, including a surprise dark ride section at the end under Saltgrass. THere was a cowboy shoot out and explosion. It was still raining and every once in a while there would be a huge lightning strike across the sky. It looked bleak, so we rode more drop tower. Then we headed over to the Bullet. I hadn't seen any lightning for about 20 minutes, but the rain was really picking up. I talked with Jason for a while until the ride manager showed up. We all begged for the coaster to reopen. He checked radar and finally walked up to the station and came back down to the chain and dropped it. Anticipation was very high. I could sense some roller coaster rides for the ages coming up. Rides that would be talked about for years to come. I hadn't ridden a coaster in major rain since a mind blowing romp on the Beast many years ago. That ride defied the castration the Beast had recieved and kicked ass. I had high hopes We go up, and workers took the back seats for "a test run" whcih was horseshit. They really were just cutting in line. We took the front seat second to last car again, just like our very first ride. We head off up the lift and all hell breaks loose times two. The first drop was out of this world crazy. The lumber and shadows working with the water and grease to make the train haul serious ass. THe first half of the ride was simply insane. Easily 10 mph faster than earlier dry rides, made even better with the lack of sunlight. The previously slow hills in the second half were now just sort of breathers before you plunged back down into the depths of twisted wood. Even the strange end section was much faster, and we roared into the brakes, and didn't stop until the fin brake squeezed hard. WOW, WOW, WOW! Everyone was laughing line crazy and hooting and hollering. My son loved it, and so did I. We pull into an empty station and decide to go near the front. We take front seat second car and go out again in the rain. The ride is much smoother in the front, and I think it's actually better up here.The high speed section after the first drop is fantastic, smooth, and mega fast. We took one more ride there, and thought we had to leave after 3 rides. Nope, we could stay. Jason let us take his front seat for one final ride. Definitely one of the best coaster rides I've had in a while. I'm sore today after only 6 rides. This ride, in the rain, is mega aggressive, but hills that really kill it normally become very welcomed breathers. The front is very smooth, but the back is a bit rough, and I fear this ride is not going to age well, like Voyage, but we'll see. I'm really curious to see if the ride really breaks in to the point of the normal rides being like those night rides. If it does, rainy night rides then will be simply mind-blowing. Add the fact that this ride should rarely have a long line except on Saturdays, and this could become a true must visit for enthusiasts. As for now, I recommend you wait. The dry rides were OK, but not extraordinary. In a month or two, on a warm day, this ride could be much much better. I thanked the management for reopening, and we bowed out of the last ride. And my soreness today proves that was a wise move. It was great to be able to welcome a new coaster into existance today for the first time in a looooong time. It's been 8 years for Houston, and that last new ride was a SLC that replaced a truly unique ground-breaking coaster. Now, let's wait for some footers in the parking lot. They could put a nice hyper in with a turnaround on top of the parking garage. I hope Kemah continues to expand. A nice log ride would be awesome. And how about saving the Zombie Castle!?!? Rastus O'Ginga

QUESTION: You mention a China and mini-Tokyo trip. Is this the same trip, or two different ones? Rastus

Why didn't you make that request back on page 5 or so, when the Christian bashing began? -r

Ahh, another hypocrit. You find exception to me calling out the gays that are bashing folks. Yet, you had no problem with their inital bashing of conservatives and Christians. How am I using religion as a crutch, exactly, just because I think a gay person bashing Christians by calling them bigots is beyond reproach? -r

^^ You didn't see all the posts ripping on Christianity? I doubt all those folks are gay, but many are. In our PC society, the most vehemently "open-minded" folks think conservatives and Christians are totally fair game. Sadly, they're too stupid to understand the hypocrisy in that. As for gays being Christian, that very well could be a one way street, you know. Same for the liberals. A true Christian, especially Catholic, realizes that abortion is NOT an option. John Kerry and Ted Kennedy may think they're pro-choice Catholics. St. Peter may let them know otherwise some day. -r

^^ So, let me get this straight. Over a hundred pro-gay posts show up, then one anti-gay post shows up, and suddenly you have to say "let's not turn this into a gay debate". I take it CNN has given you your sense of what balance is. What about all the anti-Christian bigotry that has been spewed out by the hateful gays in this thread? I guess that was OK with you? Or how about all the anti-conservative crap that was posted. I read this thread and see a whole lot of Christophobe, hypocritical, bigoted gays. One thing's for sure, there ain't many gays in Heaven, regardless of if God thinks homosexuality is a sin. Rastus O'Ginga

Well, last year, I found out about the Houston dates about 5 days AFTER the show. I was P!$$ed to say the least. I knew well in advance this year, and got 5th row near center seats for my son and I to attend Video Games Live. Visit videogameslive.com for all sorts of info on the tour. They have a preshow show that consisted of some play stations set up for all of the current consoles, the Gamecube, and DDR. They also had contests for Space Invaders and Guitar Hero II. The song for GH was Dead, which I don't know, and since I'm a real guitar player, not GH, I can only do well on songs I know. I saw one guy get 98% which is 5 or 6 higher than I can get on anything. THey were playing on medium. The SI winner got 2700 I think. They also had a costume contest, and my son wore his Halloween costume from last year, Luigi. I decided to upgrade it to Luigi's Mansion. We had a perfectly sized old Dirt Devil that became the Poltergust 3000, and a flashlight completed it. He got complements all night before the show, and got plenty of pics taken of him. There really weren't many folks dressed up, although I saw pics for Saturday night, and there were lots more. So, time for the contest came around and we went backstage and eventually on stage. My son got picked in the top 4, and then they went on audience applause for the winners. Probably half of the 2000 seats were full at this time. He EASILY won, with the kid vote, and being the only universally recognizable character. If it works, I've attached a video. His prize pack was a bit lame. It was a VGL hat and program from the innaugural '05 shows in CA, and some random crap. They gave away a $2500 laptop to some guys who played Frogger with live orchestra background music. We made our way back out and into our seats for the show. They started out with a montage of classic video game music, starting with a clicking Pong soundtrack, going to Space Invaders, and then a FABULOUS Donkey Kong rendition where they played all the intro music and soundtrack for the first level, right along with the projection of the game. It was perfect. They even played both Dragon's Lair and Space Ace. Other songs included Metal Gear, FF 7 and 8, Halo and Halo 3, Zelda, Sonic (including the choir doing the "Sega" singing before the game started), and Super Mario Bros. They also had this guy from Youtube fame that plays all the Mario songs on piano at insane speeds. His Super Mario World, including the time's-running-out tune followed by some insanely fast playing warranted his standing ovation. I can't recommend this show enough. A great idea that I hope continues to grow. I do wish they had done God of War like they apparently did last year, but it was a great show. R O'G The costume winner with VGL creator Tommy Tallarico. The costume parade My son ready to vacuum up some ghosts. A pic I found from Saturday with full crowd. Saturday was sold out, Friday was close. Some of the game areas early on We got there early, so there was no line for the GH contest Merch The Houston Symphony presents VGL Ian winning 2.mpg

Day 7 - Disneyland and DCA This was our final day in LA, so we of course returned to the Happiest Place on Earth. We got there a little later since our son didn't even want to go because he still felt bad. Luckily, after breakfast and waking up, we did pretty good. We got to the parking lot and found a very long line as opposed to no line on Wednesday. We were about 45 minutes later, and of course it was a Friday. It took much longer to get into the park, which gave me a bad vibe. We split up at first, since my wife wanted to reride Pirates, and my son and I still need our Space Mountain credit, him for the first time, me for the new coaster that is in the building. Standby was posted as 40 minutes, but as usual was about half that. The lighting effects were much improved, but gave me a bit of vertigo. Sound was working well, and the track is much smoother. It still should have been much more of an improvement. My wife grabbed some Splash Mountain FPs on the way, and we then all gathered at Indiana Jones. This is where the infamous queue battle occurred. I won't go into it again, but it involved three latino boys cutting in with a group of girls including one very mouthy one. We reported them, 2 of the boys were booted, and the girl said "f### you" in front of the CM multiple times and nothing happened to her. Right as we approached the station, we came to a standstill. They had closed the left station, and were having some difficulties. We cascaded on our ride starting at the dart room, and the boulder effect was not quite right. Still one of the best rides anywhere. We got another set of FPs after riding, but never did use them. The place was getting real crowded, and I thought our day was doomed. We head to Mansion for a pretty quick wait. I really like the updates, even if the story has changed. The axe effect with the bride is really cool. We then hit Splash with the usual long walk past many many people waiting. I could never wait in that line. We wanted to hit BTMRR once more, but it was DDM. So, I grabbed some OK fish and chips and sat at the edge of the river and watched my son throw bread to the ducks. DL sure hasn't lowered drink prices like WDW. Only one drink size, and it was 24oz and almost $3. After I finished, we totally lucked out to get to BTMRR right was it reopened, so we walked right on. Next we needed to finish Fantasyland. We waited about 20 minutes for the always great Toad. The line seemed a bit slower than I remember, perhaps fewer cars. Then we split up again. My wife wanted to ride Pan, and my son and I were to go get Roger Rabbit FPs and ride Matterhorn. Well, we go the FPs OK, but the Matterhorn line was around the mountain, and easily 3-40 minutes. I had an idea. If we hit Alice during the parade, the line will be short, and then my son and I can use the exit pass we got for the little bitch at Indy cussing in front of my kid. So, that's what we do, and we have a chocolate banana as a snack. Gotta love the Disney ice creams that are inedible for at least 5 minutes after you get one since they are frozen solid. Alice had about a 5 minute wait. Plus, the Alice float went by when we were in line, and the Mickey and Minnie float was parked by the ramps as we entered and exited the main building. They both waved at us as we came out on top of the leafs. A really great Disney moment for sure. Alice looks and sounds fantastic with the recent upgrades. We went back to Roger to use the FPs. I always love this ride, especially since I can minimize the spinning. We hopped right on the Matterhorn with our exit pass for a great jerky ride. I wonder how much of the jerkiness is the track, and how much comes from the 20 or so brakes on the way down. I assume this thing was insane when it opened with less brake usage. Still, the jerkiness is part of its charm, and the splashdown is so iconic. I hadn't ridden this coaster since my son’s first visit about 8 years ago, and really missed it. We took a sad look at the sub lagoon, since CMs were getting the first day of rides. We watched the "mine" seagulls and a few subs and headed over to Disney's California Adventure. Before anything else, I got Soarin FPs. I was expecting very light crowds at DCA and was shocked at the very crowded pathways. The entry plaza had a huge crowd already sitting down. I thought this was for the Light Parade and got nervous since we were still almost 4 hours out from it. I found that the crowd was for the Block Party with Pixar characters. OK, that's better. Speaking of Pixar, we headed to the new Monster's Inc ride. *****SPOILERS We were unlucky enough to once ride Superstar Limo. A terrible dark ride inhabited by many celebrities that people really don't like. I despise Whoopi Goldberg, I sure don't want to see her in a lame ride, or movie for that matter. That's why I will never step foot in Golden Dreams. But WOW, have they improved this ride. They went from a total crap ride to a fantastic D ticket dark ride with great animatrons and effects. The queue was filled with funny advertising and vending machines. It is like the classic Disney dark rides in that it basically retells the story from the movie. There are great sets, with an excellent Pepper's Ghost Randall early on where he disappears in 2 phases. I do wish the CDA scene had more action in it though. The door scenes were great, including one section where you pass a lot of closed doors where one ride we saw the Abominable snowman with his lemon cones, and once we saw a Monster fumbling around a kid's room. The final appearance of Randall is phenomenal with Boo hitting him and him changing colors and patterns with each hit. VERY well done effect that looked like a combination of a TV screen, an animatron, and some advanced lighting. On our first ride, Roz was silent at the end. The second ride she commented about cameras, and I was filming. I don't know if this was a coincidence, or if her saying are controlled by someone. Again, this ride is awesome. Proof that Pooh was crappy because of budget, not Imagineering abilities. ********END SPOILERS We did two rides in about 30 minutes total. Next we took my son to Muppets finally. Still a fun show, but since the theater had about 30 people in it, it's hardly a big draw. The water effect wasn't working. Now, our Soarin FPs were good, so I ran to get Tower ones and we went to Soarin'. Still about 15 minutes, even with FPs. My son was reasonable happy riding. This is a fun ride, but really nothing phenomenal. The scents weren't working, and it seemed like the seat weren't moving much. I got a little vertigo a few times that I've never experienced before. We skipped Grizzly since it was just too cold, and with that big drop, you don't know what's going to happen. We split up again. My wife went to get some sourdough bread and dinner, and my son and I went to do standby on Screamin. We were welcomed with a full queue. Well, this blows. Time posted was 40, but it was more like 20. Line cutting was pretty bad here. A wide diversity of line cutters, but none matched the black guy in front of me a bit who started with one kid, and ended up with about 6 a few rows into the queue. No one around him cared, and the kids were climbing over the rails with ease. This is a bad setup. The queue slowly goes up, so someone at the entrance can easily see the whole queue. And, no one watching. A CM at the entrance would have stopped it all, since they could have watched over the whole queue. The sound was working great this time, and it is still a real fun ride, although it does seem more speed controlled than a few years ago, before the issues. My son really enjoyed it. We joined my wife and decided our game plan for the parade. Folks were starting to line the route with about an hour to go. We still had FPs for Tower. So, my wife decided to get a parade spot, and we go do Tower. We walk WAAAAY around to Tower, since they for some reason refuse to connect it with the farm area. We get there 10 minutes before our FP is due, and are told to wait 5. The standby is an hour. Luckily, I overhear the CM say that FP wait is 35 minutes inside the hotel. WOW, that's too much. By the time we were done, we wouldn't be able to get to our spot for the parade. That stinks. So, no lame Tower for us. Honestly, the DCA Tower pales to the MGM one. We walk back to our spot and start waiting. There was only one drink stand nearby, and it was selling coffee, so the line was long and slow. We ended up right at the edge of one of the zones, so the music and lights were a bit weird at first, but were fine when the parade got to us. I still love this parade. The sounds the snails and stuff make are great, and Baroque Hoedown is great. We were going to maybe go back to DL for some rides, but my son was pretty tired, and we were just happy he was much better today. The antibiotics were kicking in nicely. We did some quick shopping and saw the fireworks as we left the park. I wanted to watch them, but also wanted to beat the post fireworks crowd to the tram station. So, we end our vacation. We had a long walk since we were unluckily damn near as far from the escalators as possible in the parking structure. Of course, I had to do one more In-N-Out trip. I've got it down to order a double-double, spread only, well done. Burger perfection. Our trip back was uneventful except for the rental car. I had noticed after we picked up the car and hit In-N-Out the first time that we had almost no gas. My wife calls and Alamo says they’ll put down on the rental that we got it with no gas. Well, of course, the check in lady said it wasn’t there. After we got back, I had to call and complain. The lady told me to send proof I bought gas that night. Well, I forgot that we didn’t get it until the next morning on the way to Celebration, and that receipt had no time on it, and I didin’t buy much. I ended up sending receipts from our first few days showing where we went. Luckily, I did buy a lot of gas at SFMM, showing the tank was empty. After faxing it all in, I quickly got a return fax showing the credit of over $60 to my credit card. Good customer service. Lesson learned, ALWAYS check the rental car gas tank when you get the car.