Scaparri

~6 million is crappy? When you consider that California Adventure has far less attractions, hasn't been around that long, and hasn't had any major new attractions for years that figure seems pretty reasonable. Well in comparison to the other Disney parks, which was the whole point of my statement, yes it is crappy. Sure, for any other park that would be amazing, but seeing how the next closest American Disney park is ahead of DCA by 3 million (granted it's in FL) and that DL pulls in almost 9 million more people, yeah I would consider it crappy compared to the others. I haven't been there so I don't know how nice the park is. I just figured that the attendance would be at least a few mill higher.

My biggest surprises are: 1. Kings Island pulls in about the same amount of people as CP. Never would have guess that even though KI is in a much bigger market. CP always seems so popular and has the entire northern half of Ohio and Detroit markets to pull from. 2. Huge attendance decreases for SFMM and SFGAdv during years in which they had major new rides. Granted, I'm sure it was probably difficult for SFGAdv after opening the tallest and fastest coaster in the world, even if they opened a record breaking woodie. 3. DCA has such crappy attendance compared to Disneyland. That's probably not a secret, but I've just now found it out.

This is exactly what's wrong with news today. They don't look into things, they just report. And there was so much wrong with what was presented. After mentioning that Goliath is one of the "most dangerous", the first thing they mention is the death that had nothing to do with the ride itself. Sure, they mentioned it afterward that it had nothing to do with the ride, but what's the significance of bringing it up, or at least mentioning in the way they did? Then, after bringing that up, then didn't even say anything as to why the ride was unsafe? They just went straight to Tatsu and mentioned people getting nosebleeds and passing out. The story was just really unprofessional. As for the cell phone argument, yeah, I think it's ridiculous to be on cell phone while operating a ride. I second Robb in that, if I had a business, somebody caught on their phone, especially in a situation like this, would be fired on the spot. As he said, it's horrible customer service and in the case of rides, it's also potentially dangerous. There is just too much you need to be aware of. When I worked in a park, I even had a friend who was fired on the spot for listening to an iPod while doing a "track" (grounds) walk. That incident may seem harsh, but at the same time, if you're too stupid to follow a simple rule like that, what else are you too stupid to do? It's not that hard of a concept.

Yeah, same here. I can't tell you how many times I got cussed at, made somebody cry, or was told that I "take my job too seriously" when I turned people away from Millennium Force during my summer at CP. Rules are rules though, and as much as I hated working the ride at times, I was always thinking about the other Intamin incidents so that made it easier to brush off. I find this story interesting though because while I was working at CP, the safety nazis (not a bad thing), I personally loaded Grant Hill and remember Lebron James riding, both of whom are 6'8''.

I have to go with Vekoma. Though I haven't been on Tatsu, the B&M ones just don't really impress me much outside of the pretzel loop. They are fun and all and definitely have more "flying" time than the Vekomas, but the Vekomas are just so out of control. The Horseshoe turn is pretty intense, the transitions between laying and flying are crazy, and I love looking straight down at the ground from the top of a loop. Not to mention, the transition to flying right off the top of the lift is wild. The whole experience is just so crazy and unusual.

Yeah, I worked there in 2005 so I really got a feel for the crowd trends. The first couple weeks they are open in May is definitely the best time I saw. Go through a week day and you won't have any trouble hitting every ride you want to and getting quite a few re-rides. Often times, MF was a walk on toward the end of the day and TTD never had a line longer than 30 minutes. The weekends still get fairly busy though and the closer you get to Memorial Day, the busier it gets.

Final Update- Part III, Day 2 at Disney: Animal Kingdom and EPCOT I finally found a Double Decker bar! Which apparently causes its customers to make really stupid faces. Best...candy bar... ever. Apparently there was a torrential downpour outside while we were riding Soarin'. It was then time to pay a visit to Mr. Sinise. Mission: Space was pretty crazy. Wish it was a bit longer. Pretty cool theming in line for Nemo. After getting some fast passes for Space and hitting up Coke World or whatever it's called, we did the Nemo attraction at the Seas. Last up for the trip was Epcot. After doing most everything in the park, we went back for one more ride on EE, which had a 90 minute line. Thank you Fast Pass. The Finding Nemo musical was interesting. Kind of strange though. And the theater seats sucked something awful. Giraffes are the inventors of the faux hawk. There's a fun fact for ya. Baby giraffe. Among other things, we checked out the Kilimanjaro Safaris... which stomped the crap out of Rhino Rally in my opinion. This tree character was pretty cool. I can't decide if that would be an awesome job or a really crappy job. The drop is pretty sweet in the back. After hitting up Dinosaur, it was off to EE! Three words for this ride... Giant friggin' Yeti. It was a really cool ride. After getting some fast passes for Everest, we headed over to Dino Land to do Primeval Whirl. I don't know.... Disney could have done better, granted it is themed to a carnival, so maybe it's right on. Huge friggin' mountain. I had never been to AK before, so I was. pretty pumped about this. The opening ceremony was pretty cool

Finally! So after getting about halfway done with an update and then, for whatever reason, having to stop and close out the window, I'm finally getting around to an update. So, when I got down to my friend Dave's in Orlando, I found out that the Disney tickets we were getting for free were actually park hoppers! Jackpot! So we immediately decided to try and hit all four parks in two days. Part II, Day 1 at Disney: MGM and Magic Kingdom Parting shot of the castle at night. Now it's time to go start the hour and a half trek back to the parking lot! The Wishes fireworks show was really cool. You know the chick dressed as Tinkerbell has to have some really big juevos and a whole lot of trust in Disney to zipline over the park like that. The whole show was awesome though. One last round on Space Mountain. I just couldn't get over how good this ride was. Pirates had a crazy line all day, so we used our nifty attraction passes on it. Swiss Family Robinson Tree House. I definitely tripped, head-butted a lady in the pooper, and busted myself. Nope, not embarrassing at all. Later at night (not when the pic was taken), I ran into a friend of mine from IU, and again, apparently a cast member over heard us and gave us 6 fast passes to go ride Splash Mountain. This campaign is awesome! Holy crap we won something!! While outside of Stitch, we were talking about everything we still had left to do. Apparently one of the cast members overheard us and gave us 14 fast-pass-like tickets that were good for ANY attraction! I decided not to whore myself out today. Another shot of BTMR from the train. Big Thunder Mountain didn't disappoint. Hi James. The guy on the bottom got screwed. Haunted Mansion in the distance. Another ride that I remember being a lot cooler when I was 9. Still a fun classic though. It was considerably better when I was 9 though. No trip to Magic Kingdom is completely without seeing the Country Bear Jamboree! Tomorrowland. I didn't get any pics, but we actually got to do Monster's Inc. Laugh Floor. I really liked it, though the animation was still a bit rough at times. I didn't remember Space Mountain being as big as it is, and I definitely didn't remember Space Mountain being so freakin' awesome! Yeah, I'm way too excited to be on this. They even have the scoring pylon from Indy! Ok, I could geek out on you guys about the racing details and theming of this ride much like we all could geek out on somebody from the GP about any given roller coaster. The first ride of the day was Tomorrowland Indy Speedway. I'm a huge race fan, so I was all about this. Ever wonder what Walt would think of his company if he were still alive today? At least this trademark entrance hasn't been ruined with a stupid hat. Magic Kingdom! I hadn't been to this place since 1995, so it was a lot like going to a new park. After RnRC, we headed over to Magic Kingdom. On our way over, we saw an excellent, but rare, example of when Disney takes a really good idea and does a really crappy job of carry it out. I still love the concept and theming of this ride. It's starting to get a little jerky in spots, but nothing too bad. Unfortunately, no ToT this visit due to time constraints. That stupid hat ruined the trademark entrance of MGM. We didn't stay at AK though, and instead went straight to MGM. While waiting at AK to get our tickets, the craziest thing happened. I ran into my roommates and some of my friends from Butler! Small world (Disney pun intended)!

^ Screw that, Wally! My CP days are done! Though I must admit, I miss it sometimes. I go to school at Butler, so I was of course rooting for them. Oh well, I knew we didn't have much of a chance. It was a good run. No, Gwazi is not that rough, in my opinion. Though, I should probably mention I've never ridden it anywhere but the front seat, so I can't vouch for the rest of the train. The front is bumpy at best. I would say the majority of woodies I've been on are rougher than Gwazi. The lines weren't bad at all! I was there on a Tuesday, and though it looked busy, it seemed most of the people were either older or families with young kids. Kumba, Montu, Gwazi, and later in the day, Sheikra and Scorpion were all walk ons. Sheikra had a 40 minute line at one point, but that was mainly because it had been broken for a little while and they didn't shut the queue. I recommend going to Montu first while the rest of the crowd heads to Sheikra, then making your way up to Scorpion, Rhino Rally, Cheetah Chase, and Kumba, then head over to Sheikra, and around to Gwazi. That way, you are doing the exact opposite that most of the crowds are doing. My tickets were actually free. They were comped to my friend's company, but if you have a few days in Orlando, then I definitely recommend doing the two-park package for BGA and SeaWorld that's like $75-80. You really don't wanna miss Kraken, and SeaWorld is an awesome park if you like marine life. Hope that helps. It'll be a good time no matter what. I'll be back hopefully in the morning for Part II with the first half of my Disney pics. Thanks for reading everybody.

So, a friend of mine in the marketing business made an offer I couldn't refuse. All I had to do is get down to Orlando and pay for my food, and everything else was covered. I wasn't about to turn that down. So I headed down to Florida for a few days over spring break. It was a pretty sweet trip. Part 1- Drive down/Lake Wales/BGA I'll end the BGA segment with a nice pic of some Sheikra action. The theming around here really is awesome. They're teaching the elephants to clean up their giant piles with giant TP. Hi Joe. Rhino Rally was down all day. I wasn't really complaining though. I made a friend over at the Myombe Reserve. No kidding, he saw me with the camera and posed. Giant friggin' gator. Speaking of gators, go Butler Bulldogs! Am I abnormal for loving this ride? I've never really understood the complaints, but to each his own. I must say, it's impossible to get a really good picture of it. Everything tastes better when it's free. Those of you into sports will probably find a little humor in this picture, given the second picture of this TR. Outside of the coasters, this is probably the best place in the park. I took this picture while waiting in a 40 minute line. Does anybody else spot what's wrong here? Vertical droppage. Sheikra looks like a monster at this park. It was a little bumpy, but an awesome ride. It's doin' pretty well for being 14 years old. Finally! Last year, I came to the park for the first time and was pretty stoked to ride Kumba, but it was closed for painting. None of that this year! Lookin' nice with the new paint, though I honestly didn't think it looked that bad last year. I won't complain though. First up was Montu, which was amazing that day. It ran most of the day without the trims on before the batwing. Cool hedge animal in the park. After an agonizingly long off-season, it was finally time to ride some coasters! On the way over to BGA, I was able to get a pic of the coolest power line tower ever. I got into Orlando, and Dave and I went to the Skyventure indoor skydiving. It was freakin' sweet. The wind was kind of a like a never ending TTD/KK launch. Tribute to a fallen legend... only it's not a crocodile. I spent a day in Lake Wales first. I had never seen an alligator in the wild before. Me and the Nick-A-Jack. This is a traditional stop on the way down. And by the way, Go Dawgs! Raddest rest stop ever! It's on an island in the middle of a lake in TN.

Nah, that's a good call. People don't realize how much it mangles somebody's face when they get hit by an object like that. Of course, not everybody is going to drop their camera, but it happens, and it's not pretty when it does. People like that deserve to be thrown out. Just like people who think they don't need to wait in the same line that everybody else has do too.

What? How is any of that remotely true? I can see how heavy trains (Psyclone's B&M trains) can do that, but light coaches tear up the track? If anything, lighter coaches create less wear and tear on the structure. Exactly. That's the whole point of KI getting the lighter trains.

Boo insanely difficult calc exams that you probably will fail. Hooraaaaay beer.

They must be complete idiots if they really do this. I'm with Ted, I won't even ride it out of curiosity. I'm gonna go against my better judgement and give it two years, though I wanna say one.

Congratulations guys! That is awesome. She is so cute. Glad to know her and Elissa are doing great.

Yeah, I really miss King Cobra sometimes. I love Delirium and all, but KC was always a staple at KI. I was happy they tore it out because it was such a capacity nightmare. The belts and procedures for that ride took forever, but it was still a fun ride. Those little bunny hops at the end were super intense.

The movie Blast From the Past.

Scooby's Ghoster Coaster formerly at KI. Terrible capacity and so painful. I still need to go find out if I can still have kids or not.

I once saw something on the travel channel about a hotel in Japan that is similar, only you rent your room by the hour.

I'm the most inconsistent bowler ever, though I just bowl for fun every once in a while. I like to brag that my high is a 224, but that's mainly because I managed to bowl five strikes in a row. Haven't really come close to that score since. I'm usually between 100-150.

Holy crap! This is going back to the first update, but I totally know somebody in the photo of the High School Musical pep rally. He's one of the performers. I knew he was down there doing it, just strange to see him in a photo on here. Small world. Awesome TR, Chuck.

Nice to see that this sue-happy country hasn't completely lost it yet. It makes me wonder though, did the parents actually believe the kid did nothing or could it all have been an attempt to get money?

Out of Top Gun, BBW, and Iron Dragon, I easily have to go with Top Gun. The ride has an excellent pace and crazy swinging. It's just too bad it has developed such a rattle. Still a really fun ride though. BBW seems to be a popular one, but it just doesn't get it done for me. The First half of the ride is too slow and boring and then it gets interrupted with and even slower and more boring lift hill, followed by 10 seconds of what is a pretty good ride. Too little, too late. Still a fun ride though.

Anywhere in Florida- Just like to relax, hang out on the beach, go to parks, and just enjoy the nice weather. Florida is like a second home to me. Myrtle Beach, SC- Same as above. Hang out on the beach, enjoy the food, go to the outdoor mall type places like Broadway on the Beach and Barefoot Landing, and just enjoy the weather. Virginia Beach, Va- Again, enjoy the beach, boogie board, stroll along the boardwalk, go to the unique shops and just relax.

^^Exactly. Remember when the show wasn't ridiculous? I loved it up until the second season. Around the end of the second season though, it just started going down hill. It's kind of sad, but oh well. Gotta love Chrismakkuh.