Squid

*drool* "And now, the challenge..." Are you going to duplicate the que as well? Right off the bat it's looking great. Also, are you going to be able to complete the switch track at the base of the station? Squid

I don't have a pic handy, but I have a custom airbrushed tshirt of a generic wooden coaster being ridden by a bunch of fantasy creatures (dragon, unicorn, cyclops, cat person, Cthuhlu, that sort of thing) that reads "Airtime Junkie" across the top. The back doesn't mirror the front, but it is as if you were standing at a different spot looking at the same scene. I'm going to get another one with a generic B&M sit down coaster with sci fi critters with the words "Speed Rider" on the top. Nerdy enough? Squid

Considering you live, what, down the street? You could walk to the park if you wanted to? I'm surprised that the two of you go only a few times a year. I had a friend of mine who lived across the freeway from SFoG and he was there almost every day of the season. Employees thought he worked there and was always on break. I don't want to think what his ride count was for one year... something like 70 times on Acrophobia in a single day should give you some idea of what it looked like! Squid

I won Pharaoh in a contest that was held at my local arcade. I bought Donkey Kong at a charity auction. I've since sold both of them to a friend of mine who is a collector of arcade machines. He had at one point over 20 pinball and 10 arcade standups. Squid

Warrior - Kid Rock

For those of you who are interested... the flood here in Atlanta was rated as "off the charts"... literally. This area of the world receives about 45" of rainfall a year, on average. The storm that caused the flood dropped 20" of rain in a single day! The highest rating on the chart was a 500 year flood, and this one easily topped it. Just an fyi... Squid

Catch me on this... I though BG was a B&M design. It's actually Vekoma? Squid

The picture of the pumpkin tree is now my wallpaper on the home computer. When were the pictures taken? Over the past weekend? Squid

Yea... Blazing Fury has about 5 trains, so it's capacity is very high. But I've seen days where they only ran one or two trains, and that's when the lines are longest.

Yep, it's that good. They shut the park down for a week so they can install the lights that run throughout the park. The decorations are tasteful, not tacky, and the shows are top notch. I recommend Babes in Toyland if it is running this year. Also they run pretty much all of their rides for as long as they can. They have a fairly solid 40 degree shutoff for safety reasons, (the oils don't lubricate well at that temperature) but if you thought Thunderhead was amazing during the day, wait until you ride it at night. I was lucky enough to ride it at an ACE event on a moonless night before Timber Tower was installed... the only lights on near the ride was the station, the lift hill rope lights, and the brake lights. At one point during the ride, I lifted my hand up in front of my face and I could not see it. Just an amazing experience and an amazing ride. Squid

Minor note... someone bought Christus Gardens and reopened it as Christ Gardens. We noticed that on our trip up there Halloween weekend.

Just wanted to say it was great meeting you this past Saturday at Christmas Place... it was amazing! My wife and I are going to try and lure my parents up there to see it. Again, your trip report (reports? minireports?) is excellent. Keep up the good work, and we promise we'll keep on reading! Squid & Squidette

I must say Kumba is an incredible machine. I've never had the chance to night ride it, however... is it that different than in the day? How well lit up is the course?

^^^^ By all means, if you have limited resources and funds, make sure the ride keeps running for well into the future. Safety is paramount, after all. However, it seems that WDW has been cutting back on their budget for MK and several CMs I know have said that it is affecting their morale. To them, it feels like WDW/MK has become the red headed step child, so to speak. We'll see if they feel that way after the new Fantasyland rebuild. Squid

So the goal of the shorter rehab was for less guest complaints? I can see that... I just wish they had taken the time to do things right. *sigh* But that seems to be the way with WDW over the past decade or so. Squid

Nope... it's always gone between the lift hills. It's a lot brighter in the video than normal, so that is probably why you're noticing it now. Regarding the structural condition, it's not the ride you needed to worry about... it was the roof. The suspected reason for the rehab was to replace the roof supports which were in sorry shape and had to be replaced. I've also heard that the rehab was supposed to be much more extensive but got scaled back a lot. Does anyone know why? Squid

But if we have Goliath, what ride is David? (There is a reason why Goliath was placed in the USA section... it has to do with height restrictions placed on the park by the FAA.) Glad you had a good time! Squid

Hey, Elissa, my wife used to debate Joey Fatone in high school. He went to high school at Dr. Phillips High School behind USF and my wife went to Titusville High School, so they were in the same competition zone. She said he was a pretty cool guy back in school. Squid

Oh, wow, what a cool thread! I used to own a machine I haven't heard anyone mention yet... Pharaoh. It was one of the first mangasave machines by Williams. The others in that series were Jungle Lord, Haunted House, and the legend, Black Knight. Personal favorite machines... Twilight Zone (magic ball time!) Addams Family Indiana Jones (new machine... Eight Ball Multiball!!!!) Pharaoh Haunted House Black Hole Dungeons & Dragons Whirlwind Pinbot Terminator 2 Safecracker I've seen several unusual machines in my time, but there was one I remember, (can't think of the name) but the playfield was basically an elongated bowl and the bumpers spun at high speed. It was an incredible machine, but I only saw it at one spot years and years ago. Does anyone know which machine I'm talking about? Squid

According to my father in law, the cost is under $2 million. The reason I bring him up is that he works for NASA as a senior engineer. Basically, if you see something dealing with NASA that's yellow and looks like metal, he either designed it, built it, or approved it. He's also a theme park fan, and so is his daughter. Lucky me! Squid

Well, I don't have email access at work, (where I'm typing from) and I also don't like sending emails to perfect strangers... it makes me feel like I'm spamming someone. Squid

That's good to hear. I was wondering whether it was just me! It looks like it will be a good feature to have on the forums. Squid

I'd like to say thank you to everyone who has wished us well. While I don't represent the park, I do work there, and it helps a lot that people were and are concerned about us and the park's well being. Knowing that people care really helps. Thank you. Squid

I love reading the captions under the pictures in the trip reports as much as I like seeing the pictures, but I have a question... under a lot of the pictures there is a line asking us to email Dan. My question is... who is Dan, and why do we keep emailing him? It seems to be an inside joke of some sort, and I want to be let in on it, if that's alright. Squid

Robb and company, the wife and I hope you have a great time! I've heard good things about HHN this year, so kick back and enjoy. Squid