robbalvey

^ Yeah, that's exactly what I figured Q-walk to mean too. Just look at all the post holes from Roaring Rapids all the way to Psyclone that were installed during the Bobsled/Shock Wave days! --Robb

Yeah, I've seen that happen at Knott's before too. They had the ride back open in a couple of hours. Not sure how quick SFMW is, though! --Robb

It was here: http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1364&highlight=google+satellite But that was for Google Satellite maps, not Google Earth. --Robb

This is the place in Hong Kong we are staying at: No Rolls Royce, but it looks like. Personally, it's all about the Travel Inn near Chessington! --Robb

Part of the problem with taking footage inside DL's Space Mountain (or any Space Mountain for that matter) is that it is VERY dark. Sure there are all he new effects (most of them on the lift hills), but the end result would be staring a dark screen most of the time. I took footage of DLP's Space Mountain: Mission 2 a couple of weeks ago, but most of the footage is not useable because it's so dark. --robb

^ Not really. It was pretty much like any other mall you'd see anywhere else. That was the thing, there wasn't anything REALLY different to set it apart. Same shops you are used to in most malls, same food, etc.... I mean, it was nice and all, it just wasn't very special at all. --Robb

Photo Trip Report Updates: Arrive in Portugal (that's this one you're on now!) Fun in Portugal Part 1 Fun in Portugal Part 2 Chessington World of Adventures and Brighton Pier Thorpe Park Hong Kong Photos Ocean Park, Hong Kong Dragon Centre, Hong Kong LOTS of photos of Hong Kong! Hong Kong Disneyland, More Ocean Park, and More Hong Kong! Ok, here is the 'short version' of the story.... Right when I got back from our big Europe trip (which keep in mind was less than three weeks ago) I was told at work that they needed me to go out with our marketing and PR departments to do some product demonstrations. These demos, however, happened to be in Europe and Asia....Portugal and Hong Kong to be exact. Now, keeping in mind that this is a business trip first, and a fun trip second, I knew that it was very unlikely that I'd be able to get to many parks. But seeing as though Portugal has almost zero credits (well, actually zero as I found out today!) and since I had a short layover in the UK on my way to Hong Kong and a free day in Portugal, I decided to shorted my Portugal stay and have a longer layover in the UK so I can hit up Chessington's and Thorpe. Then it's onto Hong Kong where I should be able to get to Ocean Park and at least see the entrance to Hong Kong Disneyland. So overall, while it's not a wealth of parks and coasters, there were a few. My journey started in Los Angeles and then onto New York City to switch planes, and then today I landed in Lisbon, Portugal. So far it seems like a nice place. The traffic seems bad and the drivers are crazy, kind of like Italy. The hotel is this really swanky, upscale golf resort, which is really nice, but it's not really my thing. Still, it's a fantastic place for the product demos I have to do. Since there isn't anything really going on today work wise, I decided to check out the two parks that I knew existed nearby. The first one, "Fun Center" which is pretty much a Jeepers-like place, is inside the largest mall in Portugal (which actually looked like a pretty standard-sized mall by US standards!) The 2nd park, Feira Popular de Lisboa, I was pretty sure had closed, although it's still listed as open on RCDB, but sure enough, it has closed and will be replaced by Fantasia Park scheduled to open in 2007. So that only left one possible credit for me in Portugal, the Vekoma Roller Skater at Fun Center. It was a short 20 minute drive from the hotel, and the mall looked pretty much like your smaller sized "mills" type malls you find in the US. I think that Ontario Mills or Gurnee Mills was MUCH bigger than this place! After a bit of searching, I finally found the Fun Center....which is closed for remodeling until September. Oh, well...I think I can live without that Roller Skater credit! It was still very odd, though. You'd think that if they were going to remodel a place like that, they would do it during the school season, not during summer! Anyway, I took some photos of the trip so far. Sorry there are no coaster shots, at least not yet anyway, but there will be some by the end of the week! Oh, yeah, one last thing....so Elissa couldn't come on this trip, which is a real bummer. =( Doesn't seem right to be traveling to random places without her. But now that you all know she's home alone, it's a perfect time to stalk her!!! Anyway, onto some photos.... Oh, well...at least there is Pizza Hut and Baskin Robins...Elissa should appreciate this (Did I mention that I miss her?) Doh!!! Looks like no Roller Skater for me today. The Fun Center is being remodeled and won't open until September. Ahh! I finally found the Fun Center! Time for a credit!!! It looks pretty nice, but then again, it kind of looks like it could be any mall in the world. Here is Columbo. A HUGE mall for Portugal, pretty average for the US. Whatever, it's still named after a crappy Peter Falk show! Choose wisely! The bathroom is actually three different rooms! Toilets, bath & shower, and sinks! Wow! Upscale!!! Here is the view from the patio of my hotel room. I miss Elissa. =( Any room with a plasma TV is ok by me! Here is the ultra-swanky hotel they put me up in. There was a driver waiting for me! Now THIS is first class stuff! Yay! I made it to Lisbon, or....um...Lisboa, or...whatever! Lisbon airport has the 'old school' stairs to get off the plane. Flying into Lisbon - I thought the place looked very interesting...all the buildings are painted the same color! Here I am landing in NYC. Wow! This plane sure is empty...too bad it didn't stay like that. =( Here is the plane that will take me to NYC. The trip starts with annoying security lines in Los Angeles. "We're not a dressing room, we're a security station" barks the TSA at some woman who was putting on her shoes and jacket that they made her take off.

^ It was BAD! That summer there were 3 hours waits all over the park! X, Deja Vu, Riddler's, Batman, and Goliath all had 2-3 hours waits on most weekend days and some weekdays too. In comparison, we only waited 20 minutes for Batman last Sunday. --Robb

^ At least they aren't running one train on Batman, Riddler's, X, and Goliath all summer long like they did in 2003. --Robb "Things are looking better but they are still far from good." Alvey

I'm all for the sex over violence! And yeah, there were some parts of Europe where we didn't even see a 'frumpy' chick for DAYS!!!! --Robb "Europe is awesome!" Alvey

That is AWESOME! I have been waiting for the web browser to come out! I can't tell you how many times I've been sitting in an airport or someplace that had a 'hotspot' and it would be cool to check email or look at the forum or something. I would use the browser all the damn time! I am constantly checking areas for a connection to my PSP and going "damn, if the browser was out, I could read TPR at Panera Bread!" --Robb "Who uses the PSP more for watching movies than playing games!" Alvey

It's not your disc. *READ* the error!!!! "Your graphics hardware or drivers do not meet the minimum requirements to run RCT3. This error has also been sent to Delbug.log " It's tell you that you either need to update your drivers or get a new video card. Sounds like it's a problem with your video card. --Robb

^^ Hey there Tim! Great to see you on the boards! Your insight of the coaster world is always welcome. Now we can put screen names to faces! --Robb

^ What about it?

Looks like I've got everything sorted out. Picking up my rental car on Thursday morning, visiting Chessington on Thursday afternoon, Brighton Thursday night, then Thorpe on Friday morning until about 2pm. Thanks again for your help and maybe I'll meet up with a few of you next week! --Robb

^ Qbot!!!!

^ Yes. In fact they had "dollar stores" that were litterally called the "100 Yen" stores:

Ok, let's try to keep this on topic for those people who live in California (or not if the case may be) that actually can make it to our DVD preview party & SFMM meet! --Robb

So I'm playing around with Soaked a little bit, and while I'm laying out a park it's kind of annoying that every few minutes or so I have to stop building because it gets too dark. I don't really want to spend the time to stop and plop down lights, I want to focus on the area that I'm currently working on. Can you turn off the 'night mode' and then turn it back on once I've got that part of the park better? --Robb "Frustrated" Alvey

^ I just tried everyone of them. Seems to be working ok now. --Robb

I think we should almost narrow it down to "Worst websites for parks that SHOULD have great websites!" I don't expect the little parks like William's Grove or Uncle Bernies to have good websites. But all the "Major's" should! And sometimes the smaller parks have much better sites that the Majors! For example, www.knotts.com is even WORSE now that they've changed their front page, but all the old pages are still there when you get linked to them. Try to find any good information about Haunt, their biggest event of the year, and the 2nd biggest Halloween event in the world, and it's just pathetic. --Robb

^ Krystal's is a White Castle rip-off...but I like them both! --Robb

I'm going to adopt my "Coaster Rating Scale" for the major Fast Food Chains: 1 - My favorite Fast Food! 2 - Fast Food I really like a lot and would make a trip for 3 - Fast Food that I like, but wouldn't go out of the way for 4 - Fast Food that isn't very good, but I would eat it again if I HAD to. 5 - Fast Food that I don't ever care to eat again! Ok, here is my "1" list: White Castle McDonalds Del Taco Panera Bread Panda Express Baja Fresh Chipotle Hungry Howie's Here is my "2" list: Carl's Jr. Wendy's Subway In-N-Out Pizza Hut El Pollo Loco Crystal Here is my "3" list: Taco Bell Jack In The Box Sonic Burger Chick-Fil-A Quiznos Sbarro Taco Cabana Fatburger Koo Koo Roo Here is my "4" list: Burger King Hardees Checkers/Rally's Steak N Shake Papa John's Whataburger A & W Boston Market Yoshinoya Rubio's Fresh Mexican Grill Roy Rodger's Here is my "5" list: Arby's KFC Der Wienerschnitzel Long John Silvers Domino's Popeye's Chicken CiCi’s Pizza Fuddruckers Johnny Rockets Taco Time Round Table Pizza Schlotzsky's Deli Church's Chicken --Robb "Overall there are more fast food places that I don't really like!" Alvey

Yeah, I mean, part of me feels kind of bad for not having a 'moderating team' because so many people have asked to help out on the site. And while Gregg and Ted helped out a great deal while we were away, I kind of like to think of it as EVERYONE on the board does their part to make our community what it is. Elissa and I are just here to provide the site and a few laughs every once in a while, but really without all the members, it wouldn't be what it is! --Robb

^ What about them? They are both fun! Nothing wrong with someone else making a castle hamster avatar. Two people also made castle fish tank avatars. Big deal. It's all for FUN! Other people make coaster videos and we don't get upset! --Robb "The more uses for a good idea the better!" Alvey