robbalvey

Ok, file server is back up. Sorry for the problems.

I used to keep the camera on a LOT. But what I realized is that the more you film, the more you make your editing job that much harder! :shock: Over time I've learned what I want to shoot ahead of time and you get pretty good at capturing those spontaneous moments. My camera is ALWAYS in my hand, so I'm pretty good at getting it going in a pinch if I need to. If it's a park we've never been to before, or a park we know we're only going to get to once this year, I usually shoot about 45 to 60 minutes, depending on how much the park has to offer. Otherwise, I probably shoot about 20 minutes on average per park visit. Keep in mind that most video segments we do are 2-5 minutes, so if I've got 20 to 40 minutes of GOOD raw footage, that's enough to make a segment out of. --Robb

The instructions are posted here: http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=295 It's pretty easy. Go to the "add an attachement" panel below the text box in the post you are writing, click on BROWSE to find your photo, click on ADD ATTACHEMENT. --Robb

The other problem with Coastercoaster that I have, is that there are no 'set rules'. I mean, that's fine because there aren't any set rules for the site, but if the coaster is listed, I feel I have to count it. Simply because for that site alone, I have to base my coaster count on THEIR parameters, not mine. So if they list Journey to Atlantis, powered coasters, etc, I *have* to count them, because other people are. But on my personal count, I don't count powered coasters. On Countercounter, my count is 763, but my REAL count is only 708. If I didn't count all those powered, relocated, pseudo water rides, etc, I would be about 60 credits behind the #1 person, who counts all those types of rides on thier list. So to be fair to myself, I HAVE to include them because they are listed on the site. Because, yeah...technically I've HAVE ridden all those rides. I kind of look at coastercounter as a 'ride counter.' Because some things listed there I don't consider coasters, but I HAVE ridden them. Again, there is no right or wrong way about counting coasters. Just make sure you give people your parameters so they know what you do and don't count. --Robb "I hope this all makes sense." Alvey

When we started the site, we sent out press releases, we contact all the parks each year and inform them of our updates. When we are in town, we'll contact parks to arrange a meet, etc. It's not something you can just do overnight. You also need to have some to offer the parks. Just another 'website full of park photos' doesn't always cut it these days. For example, all the raw video we shoot we make available to the parks for them to use in their B-roll if they want to. Many parks have taken our footage and used it in thier promotional material. This is one of the reasons why we have gotten some special permission to film on rides where normally you would not be allowed to. Keep in mind, our site has been around for *nine years* now! (Wow, I can't believe it's been that long!) And some relationships take YEARS to build. There is a whole 'professional' side of the site that no one actually sees. We do mailers to the parks, send out email press releases, have buisness cards printed up, etc. And also remember that a lot of what I do for the site coat tails on my professions experience as I've worked on developing and marketing electronic entertainment in my day-to-day job for the past 17 years. So yeah, in short, there isn't any quantifiable 'forumla' that I can tell you to build a relationship with a park, it just kind of 'happens' over time. --Robb "Hope that helps." Alvey

The server is having some problems at the moment, and you might not be seeing some photos or files. They'll be back up soon. --Robb

The rules are simple... Reply to this thread and tell us what your all-time favorite roller coaster is! (or what they are!) If you can post a picture, even better! Use the TPR PARK INDEX to help you find pictures. To post a picture from the Park Index into the forum follow these steps: 1. Locate the picture you want to post. 2. Right click on the picture and in IE select "properties" highlight and copy the picture URL. In FF click "copy image properties" It will look something like this: http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/files/bayareaday1136_555.jpg 3. In the forum click the IMG button on the navigation menu when making a post. 4. Paste the image URL in-between the IMG tags. EASY! Here is my favorite roller coaster - Expedition GeForce!

I actually have to give a lot of credit to a friend of mine named Ric Turner. For YEARS I had wanted to put together some videos of our 'home movies', but most of you know that home movies suck. You take tons of footage and end up finding about 5 minutes of it that was interesting. Well, back in 1999 Ric introduced me to the world of digital editing on the Mac and Adobe Premiere. I took about 10 hours of footage that I had and edited down to about a 45 video that I gave to friends and family. I did the same thing in 2000, and then by 2001 so many people wanted copies of our videos that we decided to make them availabe to anyone who wanted them. I got Elissa into it in 2001 and pretty much did the same thing that Ric did with me. Sat her down in front of the computer, showed her how all the tools work, and let her make a video. Some people have a 'knack' for it, some people don't. Personally I think Elissa is a little better at it than I am! She did the Tokyo Disney and the Parque Espana videos and I think both of them are AWESOME! Anyway, that's my story...sorry it isn't more exciting! --Robb

^ It depends on the park. Some parks you need to go through the public relations dept, like we did at Dollywood, Hersheypark, IOA, just to name a few, others it depends on the ride ops, for example Great Adventure, and other parks have no restrictions at all, for example Knoebel's. Over time I've developed a good relationships with the parks and I've gotten pemission to do a lot of interesting stuff. For example we got to wander around the coaster at Cliff's and Martin's Fantasy Island to get some good shots, Holiday World let us take our "Water Cam" rig on their water slides, and quite a few of our parks have used our footage in their promotional materials. It's taken me many years to build these relationships, and it's not something you can do overnight. --Robb "And yes...we've heard all the rumors people have said about us and taking our cameras on rides...none of them are true...." Alvey

^ We've already been back to ride Stitch. We were there for two weeks in December. We'll probably be back in April or May. --Robb

I have to agree with what you're heard from other people, unforutantly. I've been on all three of them, and they are all the same, and while they have one of the most INTENSE elements of any B&M (the pretzel loop), it's followed by another thousand or so feet of track that puts me to sleep. Nevertheless I actually really LIKE the SUF's. They are much MUCH better than Air! It's a coaster that I would ride at least once per visit, probably twice, but it's not my favorite ride at any park one has been installed. For example, at SFOG, I'd MUCH rather ride Cyclone or Mindbender than SUF. At SFGadv I'd much rather ride Chiller or Nitro over SUF, and at SFGam I'd rather ride V2, Raging Bull, or Viper. So, yeah...I'm in the camp where I think they are overrated, but I still like them. More than I like Silver Bullet, Air, Silver Star, etc...not my favorite rides in the world, but they are still a LOT of fun. --Robb "I hope that answers your question." Alvey

Yeah, tons. Name just about every hyper coaster. Name lots of woodies. Most Schwarzkopf coasters. Gemini. Excalibur. Heck, I even know a couple of 100+ MPH coasters that go 400+ feet tall that are lap bar only! --Robb "Is that enough?" Alvey

^ To each his own, but I can't really think of anyone else I know who thinks Dragons "sucks." Probably just not your type of ride, then. --Robb "You're in the 'Dragons sucks' club all by yourself!" Alvey

How long do I need to be at each park and are there fast passes at any of the parks? Kennywood 5/29 - At least 6 hours Knoebels 5/30 - At least 6 hours Hershey Park 5/31 - Full day Dorney Park 6/1 - If you never been here before 4 hours, 6 if you plan on doing the water park. If you've been before, it's a 2-3 hour stop depending on if you're doing the water park or not. SFGAV 6/2 - Full day and they QBot. SFA 6/3 - 6 hours. Does SFA still have any kind of Fastlane? They used to do the coupons, but I don't remember if they do anymore. PKD 6/4 - Full day. Get to Hypersonic EARLY. They were trying out a fastpass like system in '01 and '02. Are they still using it? BGW 6/5 - Personally, I only need about 4 hours here, but if you like the park and the coasters you could spend a full day. PC 6/7 - 4 to 6 hours depending on crowds. I'll look into hotels later, but most of these parks have a 'cheap motel' option near the interstate exits. --Robb

Not sure about anytime soon, but we'll certainly be coming up there this year. We don't have too much going on in April or May, so maybe we'll do a spur of the moment trip some random weekend one of those months. Are there any county fairs or anything going on during that time? --Robb

Just so that people know what this is, and how it relates to theme parks, check out the photos towards the bottom of this page: http://www.themeparkreview.com/wedding/epcot/epcot1.htm But yeah, apparently the drink is really popular in Italy. I for one will be looking out for it when we're in Italy later in the year since I can't believe that ANYONE would actually walk into your local convenience store and purchase this drink on their own accord. We'll see though! --Robb

In terms of roughness, and overall 'worst' would be Iron Wolf. Most "forceless" would be Air and Silver Star. --Robb

^ I agree. Air and Silver Star are easily the two most 'forceless' B&M's I've been on. Talon and Silver Bullet are next. --Robb "Why can't they make 'em like Nemesis, Kumba, and Dragons anymore???" Alvey

^ Silver Bullet, to ME, was just very slow. It seemed to meander around the course instead of racing through it. It seemed to have no pacing to it whatsoever. I'm used to a good coaster where there's a *WOW* moment, then you catch your breath...then *WOW* again, catch your breath, and you slam into the break run and really need to catch your breath and think "WOW! That REALLY kicked ass!!!!. Batman does this, Nemesis does this, Dragons does this...Silver Bullet doesn't even come CLOSE to doing this. Silver Bullet was just kind of boring, IMO. It almost felt like it was going to roll back going into the brake run!!! The ONLY element I thought was remotely cool was the overbank going into the cobra roll. And even that, which was the best element on this coaster, would be an "ok" element on an outstanding coaster. The ride felt like it could have rolled back at least a couple of times during the ride. And I rode in the back row, which is usually the most intense row for B&M's, and i just found it to be lack luster at best. I took one ride on Silver Bullet, which was a walk on, and had no desire to ride again...whereas right after that I went over to XLR8R where I rode 5 times in a row and *LOVED* every ride. XLR8R is *WOW* all the way through, IMO. Still, Silver Bullet is better than most Vekoma coasters, so even the "worst" B&M, IMO is still in the top 25% of all coasters in the world. But Silver Bullet reminded me more of Air or Silver Star than any other B&M. It certainly was the most tame, forceless B&M Invert I've been on. If there was ever a B&M that *should* have a 48" height restriction based on forces, it should be this one. It seemed more like a family ride than a "thrill machine." The ride was "fun", it just didn't seem very "thrilling." It was fun in the same way Big Thunder Mountain is "fun." The interesting thing is, because I ended up being at Knott's by myself that day, I asked the 5 different people I ended up sitting next to on XLR8R what their favorite coaster at Knott's was. NONE of them said Silver Bullet, and they had all ridden it. 3 people said XLR8R, 1 said GhostRider, and 1 said Boomerang!!! :shock: I know it's a small sample group, but still an interesting "litmus test." Ok, that's my review! I know some other people have different opinions, but I wonder how many other B&Ms they have ridden in comparison. My B&M count is pretty much all of them in North America minus Batman at SFNO and La Ronde, Europe - Nemesis, Air, Oblivion, Silver Star. Japan - Pyrenees, Orochi. A total of 43 B&Ms. --Robb "It wasn't the worst B&M I've been on, but FAR from the best." Alvey

^ The thing is, we knew the ride was a junior coaster, so it's exactly as we expected it to be...."nothing special" I chose it to do a video out of because no one else has had any footage of it, and it technically is the NEWEST wooden coaster out there! As far as the volume thing goes, I still don't know what to say. Do you have the same problem with the Steeplechase/Wacky Soap Box Racers video I just posted? --Robb

^ Wow...the whole area is really taking shape pretty quickly. I'm hopeful that this ends up being one of the better B&Ms, but even if it's not, I think the whole 'package' looks good. I don't mean to sound negative or anything, but a lot of the B&M's built in the last 5 years just don't have that "WOW!!!" factor that rides like Montu, Kumba, Dragons, Nemesis, etc, have. --Robb "I'm hoping that this is one of the better ones!" Alvey

^ Nope....not my brother. Just a random guy we met through the website! --Robb

I actually don't think there are any really 'bad' B&Ms....The worst ones I can think of, Iron Wolf and the two Vortex's are still better than most Vekoma and Togo rides! Personally, I think most Intamin and Schwarzkopf coasters are better than most B&M's, but I really don't think I've been on a 'bad' B&M. --Robb

Even though it's Vekoma the ride does have one thing going for it and that's the fact that Big Thunder in Paris is one of the BEST Vekoma rides ever! And this ride seems to be a LOT more like that ride than Space Mountain or Rock N Roller Coaster. Have they said if this ride is lap bars only? I can't imagine that it would have OTSR's. Thanks for the pics! The ride looks great! --Robb

^^ Well, even though he's not gay...he could still use the hook up! --Robb "He'd prefer a woman...but maybe he'll take what he can get!" Alvey