robbalvey

Fantastic report! You were at DL the same night we were. It was PACKED on Friday night, but we also managed to get a lot of stuff done!

Loving all the trip reports! Thank you for posting!

A scare zone filled with the most die-hard, socially awkward, creepy roller coaster enthusiasts I've met through the years would be scarier than anything anyone else could come up with.

I have no problem with the park adding a Frozen show. Not just because I am personally a fan of the property, but because it makes sense for their audience. I don't care how many "Frozen haters" there are, all you have to do is look at how many girls STILL come dressed to the parks each day as Anna & Elsa and see how much the film has resonated with so many people, and it came out two years ago. To give you an idea, I have put up 25 videos on our YouTube channel in the last month. A Frozen video is the 4th highest viewed in that time. A Frozen video is also our 2nd most highest viewed video on our channel out of over 1,500 theme park videos. If I put up an Aladdin themed video and a Frozen themed video tomorrow, I can place bets on which one would do significantly better. And it's smart that the parks are going for what is a "draw" at the moment. I highly doubt there is a single kid saying to his parents "Hey, we need to make a visit to Disneyland to see that Aladdin show", but I guarantee kids will ask to go see the new one, and park tickets will be sold specifically based on that show. And don't get me wrong, I'm also personally a fan of Aladdin and as someone who worked at the company at the time that movie came out and has ties to the actual production of the film, I'm sad to see it go, but I also fully welcome Anna & Elsa to the stage. I get that some people are sick of it and hate it. But you're also not the target market for this.

You can always go visit it in Dubai! http://www.themeparkreview.com/parks/photo.php?pageid=829&linkid=13800

I actually feel the same way. I like the original Mansion, but I'm a huge Nightmare fan so I prefer this version!

Great photos! Thanks for sharing John!

Was out at Disneyland last Friday which also happened to be the opening day for their Halloween attractions! Haunted Mansion Holiday is by far my favorite thing at Disneyland. Did the best I could to capture video of the ride, and you can even watch this in 4K on the YouTube website or by streaming it through a 4K TV! Enjoy...

Oh, and FYI... Pictures in portrait are ok... it's video you have to make sure is horizontal!

^ What she said! Just posted this TR on our Twitter!

Let's post a few of the live tweets we made from West Coast Bash at Knott's Berry Farm! Thank you everyone who contributed photos! Good morning @Knotts Berry Farm! If you're here for West Coast Bash tag your photos with: #KNOTTSWCB Here are the die-hards that came out early morning to be first to the backstage tours! Here's the map where all the West Coast Bash fun will take place! Ah yes, morning wood (roller coaster) Sweet backstage photo op of Ghost Rider! Thanks @knotts! Some of the trophies Ghost Rider has collected from riders! Ready for the Sierra Sidewinder backstage tour. Panorama of Ghost Rider!!! Sierra Sidewidner backstage tour! Very cool getting this close to Ghostrider! Nothing like Supreme Scream and Xcelerator to wake you up in the morning! Bob is ready to go. Silver Bullet ERT! Hot hot diarrhea! Arrived at #Knotts for sunrise! Checking-in @Knotts West Coast Bash; thanking #KnottsWCB organizer Robb "Coaster God" Alvey with his Starbucks order! Kristen making sure the fattys fit in the coasters @Knotts! Photo inside of Ghostrider's structure. TPR fighting it out on Iron Reef @Knotts to get the highest score! No line for Montezooma! This is why I love #KNOTTSWCB Happy riders Xcelerator kicking butt this morning! Best coaster in the park! Check out our #KnottsIronReef scores! #KnottsIronReef was GREAT! So impressed with this dark ride! Just had one of our best rides on Calico Mine Ride ever! Thanks Jake! No visit to Knott's Berry Farm is complete without a ride on the Timber Mountain Log Ride! Everyone of all shapes, sizes, and ages can enjoy Montezooma's Revenge! Two solo rides in a row on the flyers! Awesome! On the Calico Mine Ride @CoasterJake and @TkRaptor are getting very close! What a fun themed dark ride! Snoopy joins nearly 300 awesome theme park geeks @Knotts Berry Farm West Coast Bash! Oh, no! David!!! Watch out for the train!!! #GhostRider backstage tour @Knotts! You know what's insanely delicious @Knotts? Frozen Boysenberry Punch! OMG!!! Snoopy loves hanging out with TPR members! @Knotts West Coast Bash! Proof that Snoopy will hang out with ANYONE! Deanna, Darrell and I loved the Butterfield Stagecoach. Having a relaxing stagecoach ride. Hanging with snoopy!! Thank you for an amazing morning, more to come! Just a few fun photos from Piano John! Getting evac'ed off Iron Reef means private backstage tour! @Knotts #KNOTTSWCB This is soooo cool! TPR quest contestants are ready to play! Up for grabs is lots of roller coaster parts! TPR quest is underway with air guitars, human pyramids and kidnapping Jeff Tucker! This was seriously one of my favorite West Coast Bash moments ever! And yes, this happened...we made some people eat some pie! TPR Quest contestants winning coaster parts! Mooo! Won a Silver Bullet wheel thanks to @ThemeParkReview and @knotts! Riding another @knotts classic, the Sky Cabin. Awesome prizes from #KNOTTSWCB!! Ghost rider cover and Boomerang chain dog! Montezooma's Revenge cable socket part! Won during the TPR Quest! The epic @Knotts #KNOTTSWCB Q&A and Scary Farm presentation is about to begin! Jeff Tucker is here to MC the #KNOTTSWCB Haunt Presentation! Voodoo will feature a new ending @Knotts Scary Farm. Special Ops Infected will be a single much longer path this year with more zombies. @Knotts Scary Farm Dead of Winter is what happens when Frozen meets horror and it looks AWESOME!!! My Bloody Clementine is the return of haunting Calico Mine Train to @Knotts Scary Farm! Some VERY serious questions gets asked during the Q&A session! Behind the scenes at VooDoo! Thank you thank you thank you Knotts for LIVE entertainment! Awesome backstage tour of Knott's Scary Farm during #knottswcb Loved our backstage tour of VooDoo! Can't wait for @knottsscaryfarm! Backstage Tours are what set the TPR Events apart... The reason we are all here, Jeff Tucker's jacket! #KnottsWCB a gorgeous day riding rides and seeing shows! I can't resist the temptation of the boysenberry pie! The fried chicken @knotts never disappoints! Still one of my favorite places at @knotts. Smisty is on a mission to eat every boysenberry item she can find @knotts. ge thanks to @Knotts management & Scary Farm team for the awesome Q&A session! One last ride on Silver Bullet before ERT tonight! Interesting to see some markings already on the GhostRider tracks! Starting night ERT on log ride! ERT + New Credit = Win! This is what night ert looks like! Getting our ERT on #KnottsIronReef...here's our scores! #KNOTTSWCB TPR takeover of Log Ride!!! Beautiful night for ert! Thanks for everything!! It's getting real during ERT Nighttime on Xcelerator--oh, yeah! Amazing night time ride! Ending the night with a final front seat ride on Xcelerator! Wonderful day at @knottsberryfarm thank you @themeparkreview for #knottswcb amazing event!! And that's a wrap for ERT!!! Thanks TPR!!! #KNOTTSWCB was a blast!!! Farewell, Knott's! Absolutely fantastic day with @ThemeParkReview for #KnottsWCB! Huge huge thanks!!!!!! Huge thanks to Meghan & Diana for all their help organizing West Coast Bash! Thank you Knott's for an AWESOME DAY!!!! Inertiatic.nltrack

Here is the next of our "classic coasters" videos! Have some Arrow Corkscrew action!

^ You're welcome!

Exactly. Polls like this don't work. I've said it before that if one of our members who can code wants to work on a system like the Mitch Hawker poll that ranks everyone's experience against each other to find a true list of top coasters, we would host it, but a poll like this just produces garbage results.

We already have plenty of "Drink" threads.

Let's post a few of the live tweets we made from West Coast Bash at Six Flags Magic Mountain today. Thank you everyone who contributed photos! Today is West Coast Bash @SFMagicMountain! If you are here tweet us your photos using #WCBSFMM Good morning @ThemeParkReview @SFMagicMountain #sfmmwcb And so it begins @ThemeParkReview #SFMMWCB Getting West Coast bashed! Rick West and Robb Alvey hanging out before West Coast Bash! Over 400 crazy coaster nerds are @SFMagicMountain for West Coast Bash this morning! #WCBSFMM Why we love Robb Alvey #nolines #sfmmwcb2015 ERT on Twisted Colossus has begun! TPR always super excited to ride coasters @SFMagicMountain #WCBSFMM #sfmmwcb @ThemeParkReview no line, walkon. Thank you!!!! Scream! Goliath is also open for ERT and thrilling happy riders! TPR loves #TwistedColossus @SFMagicMountain #WCBSFMM Hey Sylvester! Got this awesome schedule to look forward to today!! @ThemeParkReview got his morning coffee (YAY Elsa straw!!!!) YOLOcoaster ERT! West Coast Bash isn't just about coasters! Lex Luthor is open, too! YOLO!!!! No TPR event is complete without food!! What's up Sylvester! No wait for Twisted Colossus during ERT at @SixFlagsMM at #SFMMWCB Twisted Colossus kicks total ass! @ThemeParkReview @SFMagicMountain #SFMMWCB #SFMMWCB ERT!!!! First time in magic mountain! Walking onto everything! The classic @SFMagicMountain shot! TPR having an AWESOME time @SFMagicMountain West Coast Bash! #WCBSFMM Having an EPIC time at West Coast Bash with @ThemeParkReview - you NEED to do this next year! #SFMMWCB We are raffling off Colossus wood at lunch! #WCBSFMM Conquering the top of the mountain! "We are able to pull the shoulder restraints off Revolution because we are building new trains. -Tim Burkhart" "Magic Mountain is designing the trains in house for Revolution." "The trim brakes will not be removed from Revolution." "The ride experience of Revolution will be punched up with possible special effects. More to be announced later." "The strobe lights in the tunnel will not come back to Revolution." TPR getting a tour of Fright Fest mazes @SFMagicMountain #WCBSFMM Got lucky didn't need a fast pass to for the Rob Alvey meet/greet #SFMMWCB Another reason TPR events are awesome!!!! There is still some of the original Colossus track left! Amazing look at Goliath's crazy helix!!! Getting a tour of Red's Revenge Fright Fest maze @SFMagicMountain #WCBSFMM Reason #476 why WCB is awesome huge line now, walk on this morning can't wait for ERT l8r. #SFMMWCB Some nerd shots of @TwistedColossus! Backstage tour of #TwistedColossus during West Coast Bash @SFMagicMountain #WCBSFMM Photo by @JoeRollerfan Tour of #TwistedColossus includes awesome photo ops of Goliath! @SFMagicMountain #SFMMWCB Photo by @JoeRollerfan I got wood! Robb is eating the wood!!! #WCBSFMM Beautiful day. Twisted Colossus is Awesome. Especially when it's a walk on When TPR isn't riding coasters, we are usually taking pictures of them! #WCBSFMM Having a blast with @ThemeParkReview for #SFMMWCB Twisted Colossus walk back tour was awesome!! #SFMMWCB pic made famous during England trip. People taking pics! Who's excited for New Revolution?!? #TwistedColossus dueling for the backstage tour! ' #SFMMWCB @ThemeParkReview see it does duel! That time I got a backstage tour of #TwistedColossus Love the funky opening bit to #TwistedColossus The cool kids on the Twisted Colossus tour TPR members love winning prizes at West Coast Bash! Greetings from "AwesomeTown!" Having fun @SFMagicMountain #WCBSFMM West Coast Bash is all about riding coasters & hanging out with friends! Thanks @ThemeParkReview at MM for an awesome #SFMMWCB! Awesome photo of #TwistedColossus by @HopDerek! Huge thank you to the senior management of @SFMagicMountain for answering our questions during #WCBSFMM Hey Casey! Tackle Ryan!!! #RetroTPR #WCBSFMM Getting our rides in on Drop of Doom! Sun setting on @SFMagicMountain #SFMMWCB Beginning of a beautiful night with @themeparkreview #SFMMWCB! It's Tatsu Time! Amazing sunset photo over @SFMagicMountain! Time almost for our nighttime ERT Night ERT has begun! Am I going to be riding Twisted Colossus for the next 2 hrs? Hell yeah! Twisted Colossus ERT after dark! How does this line look??? And we're dueling!!!!! YES!!!!!!!!! HUGE thanks to our kick ass Colossus crew!!! They were working hard to keep the trains racing all night! That a wrap on West Coast Bash day 1 @SFMagicMountain! See you at @knotts tomorrow!

Correct. In order to do the tours, we had to get going early so that maintenance still had time to open them to the public that morning.

Not sure when you're going to have the chance to ask other than the "management hello" during lunch. There's no Q&A session on the schedule. The way this worked last year is that we had some people from SFMM management, usually Director of Operations, would come out, say hello to the group, answer a few questions from everyone, and then him and a few of his staff would go around and answer questions and talk to people personally. I really liked this format and we chose to do it again this year.

Last night we were invited to the HHN25 preview night, and here's what went down... Tonight we are at Universal Orlando for the official "preview" of Halloween Horror Nights 25! About to enter the #HHN25 preview! Anyone want an HHN25 Sno-Cone? Here's a look at some costumes from Freddy vs. Jason: Props & costume designs from Asylum in Wonderland 3D: Already getting freaked out by American Werewolf in London returning this year: The annual purge is coming back to Universal! I've got a few people on my list! Props & set design for this year's Bill & Ted show: Ok this Insidious stuff is seriously creepy! Love the look of Psychoscareapy Unleashed! Who do we need to kill @HorrorNightsORL to let @elissaalvey be the rat lady for a night? Here's a look at some of the horror design of the scare zones: Looks like @elissaalvey has found a new husband! Who wants one of these horrific treats? "Extra huge wolf puppet added this year" - Charles Gray Tallest #WalkingDead maze: actors will be in waist-high water. - Charles Gray Scenes from past mazes & 3 versions of Jack included in Monsters of Mayhem! Laura says All Nite Die-In will be a "Double feature scare zone." Black & White classic characters then switch to modern color monsters! Here's the "Rat Lady" cage! Some of the horror details from Body Collectors: More Make-up and costume designs for HHN 25: Jack & Panda getting some HHN 25 make-up! HORROR FACT! Zombies love brains and chocolate covered bacon! Zombies also like Glazed Donut Burgers! Even More monsters & make-up for HHN 25! Props from some of my favorite HHN icons! Anthony from Attractions Magazine gets what he deserves! Jack is... Baaaaaaack! Who wants to hang out and have a beer with this clown? and here's a look at the HHN 25 TV spot! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xUmZuqtJBE

Two things: 1. Yes, I'm sure this is a huge part of it. If you didn't have the midcourse so soon, you'd need a second lift hill to get the train up high enough to have a really awesome 2nd vertical drop. And on a "dive machine" roller coaster, having more than one drop is actually an important element. Just ride a coaster like Oblivion or G5 and it really feels like something is missing. 2. Please note:

You're welcome!

I agree with you about the Stengel part. I feel their designs have gone way downhill when they brought their layouts in house. That being said, out of all the designs they've churned out in the last 10 years, I will admit to liking the Dive Machines quite a bit. Both SheiKra (and it's near-clones) and Griffon have a GREAT first drop and second near-vertical drop, and both of the inversions, while a bit floaty, I agree, are actually a lot of fun. I'm not sure about that "airtime hill" on this one, though, it doesn't look like it will deliver much. But all that being said, I'm far more excited about this than I was Gatekeeper. While this ride seems a little short, yes, I actually think Gatekeeper could have benefited by being about 1,000 feet shorter. I know that sounds crazy, but just think about how boring that last 1/4 of the ride is. Valravn at least seems to pack a good amount in during it's course.

I would recommend it to anyone coming in from out of town who doesn't get to the park that often. Keep in mind I think we have ERT on all the "Platinum" coasters, so you could probably get away with getting a Gold one for the day. I expect the park to be fairly busy, and if you're not a local who doesn't go that often, I personally feel it's worth the investment.

Isn't it sort of interesting that the Intamin ones in Europe also don't seem to have any issues either? I mean Insane is just an INCREDIBLE ride at Grona Lund. What happened to Green Lantern? Why did SFMM have to go and mess with it?

Your understanding makes no sense considering both loops are on separate independent structures. You know, I'm going to take the word of someone who has lived in Williamsburg for many years, frequents the park, attends media events, and has had many, many conversations with the upper management at the park as a representative of TPR over some guy from California who probably hasn't spent much time at Busch Gardens Williamsburg. Am I right? You could also not be so god damn rude in your responses. Especially to a moderator. I won't tolerate this. And for what it's worth, I was told the exact same thing by both the park management and someone who used to work for Arrow.