Gav

Yeah, definitely try and do Islands of Adventure. It is certainly more "mature" than Disney...Spiderman is one of the best (if not the best) theme park ride ever built, plus there are a a few big coasters and thrill rides there too (Hulk, Dr Dooms Fearfall, Dueling Dragons etc) I'd probably give Islands of Adventure #1 priority. Busch is also a good choice in terms of a more adult oriented park. If you want a whole day at a water park, then I guess Blizzard Beach is the best on there. Perhaps you could also try SeaWorld and Aquatica in the one day? Water parks often don't keep you as occupied for long as a dry park, and SW probably wouldn't take all day either. So you could combine the two.

^^ The + key is shared with 0 on my phone, and you just hold it for a second to make it come up, but it varies from phone to phone. In short, "+" just means "insert dial out code for your country". On mobile phones it inserts the relevant one for the country you are currently using the phone in by pressing +, so you don't have to remember the codes. But if your phone doesn't have the + key, just type in the code yourself from here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_international_call_prefixes So for the U.S, it's 011.

Wow, one joke gets made and 4 pages of congratulating follows... Because at the end of the day it will most likely be the largest ride built in the US for 2009, so it is naturally going to stand out a bit.

Hi Norman, There is one thing I have wondered for a little while...If Stengel is responsible for the engineering for rides from virtually all the major manufacturers you might expect to things become more 'generic' between manufacturers....For example you might settle on a well refined style to support a ride, or to shape a particular element, and then just apply that to everything you do, but this doesn't seem to have occurred.... The various manufacturers still manage to maintain their unique style and character...A cobra roll on a B&M is very different to that on an Intamin or a Vekoma. The style of supporting varies too. I guess the way you could sum it up is, where does the work of the manufacturer end, and the work of Stengel begin? In some cases does Stengel essentially "double check" and refine the designs of a manufacturer. Edit: Also, another quick question I might as well ask here, but was Mick Doohans Motocoaster designed by Stengel? The reason I ask is because rcdb, nor Stengels website have it listed.

See just on that, if a new coaster gets built, and it actually is an "AQUATRAX!!1!!111" does it mean that joke isn't funny anymore?

It has been pretty well established that it will be Intamin and not Vekoma. The latest photos I took are here http://www.parkz.com.au/photos/AU/Gold_Coast/Sea_World/433-Unknown-Jet-Ski-Coaster/ I'll probably aim to head down every 10 days or so (I have an annual pass) so I'll keep everyone posted. It certainly has caught my eye, the footers down make the layout look really bendy, and from the descriptions so far it could be well themed (going through caves and over water) You're not wrong: Image on the Aquatrax PDF from the Intamin website.

Really? that's a bit crap to be honest. I cant really imagine being able to deal with only 5 days of annual leave per year...what if you wanted to go on a trip somewhere ?(overseas for instance)..5 days isn't enough (well, i guess there are the weekend days either side) Even so..doesn't it just get too tiring? Here anyone with a full/part time job gets 4 weeks paid annual leave, regardless of how senior you are.

Wait, so your saying you'd still only get 10 days if they hadn't laid off/rehired you? Surely 10 days is not enough annual leave regardless?

Wouldn't it be a waste to use it on Riddlers, since there is a Single Rider Queue, or have they taken that away in the year or so since I last visited?

Is it just me, or do these sorts of threads seem a bit self centered? It seems we get a lot of threads with someone saying "I'm worried about riding (insert coaster here), is it ok?" And then have several pages of fairly generic replies after that basically say "Yeah, go ride it, its perfectly fine, I was nervous about riding once too, but don't worry, you'll love it!" Its a theme park community here, so a response like that is predictable anyway...you wouldn't expect park fans to discourage others from taking part in the pastime they enjoy so much. My question is, do people really need this sort of self affirmation? The only way you'll find out if you like something is to "grow a pair down there" and try it for yourself. If you love it, then awesome, go ride the rest of the coasters out there. If you hate it, then don't ride any other things like it, and get some therapy or whatever for the traumatic 2 minute ride you had.

One other advantage I thought of is that checking restraints would be really easy on a train like that, since everything is far more open, in particular getting to the 'middle' seats means the op isn't having to suqeeze past the outside ones.

It isn't really dangerous, because tidal flow roads operate all around the world as a a practical method of dealing with congestion, I mean here in Brisbane Cornation Drive and the Houghton Highway have that system in place.

^Yeah, I would think this competition would be pretty easy going, half pipes aren't that intense really..I've whored the one at Wet 'n' Wild a fair few times. I'd do this if I lived near the park.

Ah well, same difference, both have a similar train design with ratcheting restraints rather than the Intamin style hydraulic ones. Regardless I always thought Vekomas had a good safety record.

The film doesn't imply that they do does it? Isn't it a hydraulic line that fails? But even then the film is still wrong because Arrows don't have hydraulic systems on-board, the restraints are mechanical.

If it's two separate rows, why not add two other seats and double capacity. Is there *that* much room and openness? Umm, dunno what your maths is like, but adding 2 extra seats brings it from 4 per car to 6, so it is increasing capacity by 50%, not doubling it (you'd need to add 4 extra seats to each car to double capacity. My guess as to why they dont do that is because of the added weight, and the worse view for the front pair of seats in the car behind.

But if you are travelling all that distance, then surely it makes sense to do everything you can/want to do whilst you are in LA? Couldn't you compromise (pay your own admission if you can)....say something along the lines of that you would really like to visit this park (Perhaps show her how impressive it is, number of coasters etc), and would rather visit on this trip rather than having to waste money flying back to LA to see the place at some point in the future? I personally quite enjoyed the park. It doesn't have a ton of rides (though the ones there are pretty cool), but its extensive studio tour is well done and something you don't see everywhere, plus the shows and 3D films on offer are top notch...it wouldn't really be a trip to LA without seeing a place like this.

I'd personally do SFMM ahead of Knotts, but if you have time after the two Disney parks and Universal, then go for it.

No, standard B&M hyper trains have nine rows. Plus, the pictures confirm Behemoth-style seating. Correction: Apollo's Chariot has 9 rows..... No, all the other pre behemoth ones have 9 as well, pictures to prove it: Silverstar http://www.rcdb.com/m/ig1414.htm?picture=39 Hollywood Dream http://www.rcdb.com/m/ig3621.htm?picture=20 Nitro http://www.rcdb.com/m/ig1106.htm?picture=1 Goliath SFOG http://www.rcdb.com/m/ig3290.htm?picture=44 Goliath LR http://www.rcdb.com/m/ig3385.htm?picture=21 Raging Bull http://www.rcdb.com/m/ig535.htm?picture=10 End of debate...

They will actually accept fastpasses after the end of the time window, so you can technically you can grab one whenever, and hop on any time for the rest of the day from the point when it becomes valid...even a few hours later....If your fastpass was 11:00-12:00, they wouldn't stop you using it at 1:30 for example. Of course, single rider is the best way to go, the 5 person logs mean a lot of empty seats.

This ride is nothing like the ones in DCA or AK. In the two times I have been to Fuji-Q, I have yet to do everything at the park because of horrendous park operations. The wild mouse probably had no more then 150 people in line and it was a 45 minute wait. They were running only 3 cars. Yeah, but people were talking as if this particular choice of ride is inherently low capacity, and hence bad for the park. But, as you have said, the issue is poor operations. There is no reason this ride couldn't be high capacity, but of course it probably will only be operated at a fraction of its potential.

Perhaps telling us where you have been would be a good start?

lol I don't think this park will ever learn. Where abouts in the park is this going? But since when do rapids ride have to be low capacity? They can be built to high capacity when a park needs it, as evidenced by the ones at DCA, IOA and AK. Dunno, I've just never thought of rapids rides as being low capacity.

I haven't seen the whole film, but I did youtube the coaster sequence and I don't get why it would put people off. I mean it was so over the top you can tell is not serious, I mean they show fuel leaking onto the tracks (coasters don't run on fuel), then a wheel falls off (Caused by a camera magically sticking to the track ) , then a bit of track snaps for no reason, then the restraints pop open, then everyone falls out, its so silly to think that so many unrelated random events would happen one after the other....its as if the writers just made a list of every bad thing they could think of, and then just made a film sequence cramming them all in. I mean, I know its a movie, so I'm trying not to be cynical about how they made it, but really, who makes life decisions (ie not going on rides) based around what they saw in a film? Sorry mate, but you're being stupid. Its a horror movie you watched for goodness sake.

^Yeah, we're about the same as you guys here in Australia, equivalent of $6.17 USD/Gal.....I take the train whenever I need to get somewhere so its not really affecting me directly, though its having a bit of a flow on with respect to inflation.