robbalvey

Many coasters in Japan enforce an age limit so it's not unheard of! And Phantasialand, they won't let you ride Black Mamba twice in a row because they feel the ride is "too intense." --Robb

^ Oh, yes that right! "North Pole Adventure" is just an AMAZING dark ride! I was happy to see that the ride was cloned TWO more times for Happy Valley Chengdu and Shanghai! --Robb

Here's a video from our most recent Coaster Expedition DVD from last year's trip to China. The Happy Valley parks are sort of like China's answer to Six Flags combined with some nicer theming. Nothing is better though than those fire hose water cannons! Enjoy! --Robb [coastertube]http://www.themeparkreview.com/coastertube/play.php?vid=happy_valley_shenzhen_5nkx[/coastertube]

^ We no longer include the DVD for TPR Trips. We will include a photo DVD for each trip, but no longer a Coaster Expedition DVD. The reason is that I only have the bandwidth to make one maybe two Coaster Expedition DVDs per year, and now that we have 3 or 4 trips per year, it's impossible to keep up. To the average viewer, I don't think it matters if the content of the disc was shot 6 weeks or 18 months ago, but to the trip participants it wasn't fair to make them wait 2 years to get a DVD, which is the case now for the next round of Coaster Expedition DVDs. I've just gotten to backlogged to promise them as it puts additional pressure on me. And when the RAW discs outsell the Coaster Expedition series sometimes 10 to 1, it makes me question the validity of doing future Coaster Expedition volumes. --Robb

Not at all. On Mitch's poll you rank the options in order of preference. In these online polls if I voted for every single option, it carries the exact same weight. This is why usually when we do polls here we only allow people to choose 1 to 3 options so that you are forced to make a choice and the leading option can come out ahead. In theory, the way this poll is set up, everyone can vote for every option which means by the end of it you could, in theory, have an equal liking or disliking for every single option. --Robb

^ Awesome! Please buy some of them at some point in the future. The declining sales in the Coaster Expedition series DVDs is having an impact on whether or not we continue making them. --Robb

Pointless thread. Yeah, we joke about some of the Vekoma rides, and yes they do have some terrible rides, but so does B&M and Intamin. I don't really care much for SLC's or Boomerangs as much as the next person, but Vekoma HAS made some decent stuff. There is no need for a thread this much full of hate. --Robb "Thread Closed." Alvey

^ I'm not sure I understand the point of a poll where everyone can choose all the options. --Robb

Again, I think it's one thing if it's a GOOD picture of someone. But if you're tagging a bunch of people in the background of a photo and you do that a lot, it gets very annoying. I just recently had to untag myself from about 500 photos on Facebook. That wasn't fun. --Robb

It was a choice of between #1 and #7 for me. I flipped a coin and it was #1. Had I been in Farnsworth's alternate universe, it would have been #7.

^ Re-Opening year there was no Bill & Ted show. They brought in Heckles & Twitch from Six Flags Magic Mountain and the show didn't do so well. Which is too bad because it plays really well at SFMM. But I'm happy that Bill & Ted is back at HHN Hollywood! --Robb

Remember, if you missed the free downloads you can still buy them in the TPR store for only $3. THREE DOLLARS! That's *almost* free isn't it? www.themeparkreview.com/store --Robb

Everyday is Halloween here at Theme Park Review! This is a video we did for Halloween Horror Nights in 2006 when the event came back to Hollywood. Unless you saw this video at that time, there is a good chance you've never seen this. I always felt it was one of the best Halloween videos we've ever done. It's got great moments from the event, funny bits, and OMFG I'm not exactly sure how the ending bit actually made it into a theme park attraction, but it has to be seen to be believed!!! Enjoy! [coastertube]http://www.themeparkreview.com/coastertube/play.php?vid=hhn-hollywood_1[/coastertube]

Now that I have used Windows 7 for about a month I can honestly say that, while it's great to be able to view my HD .MTS files in WMP, I don't see that many differences or improvements over XP. Pros: - Viewing .MTS Files in WMP - CS4 Handles HD files a bit better. (But that could also be due to an upgraded PC along with Windows 7) - All my programs that worked in XP also work in Windows 7 - Um, that's about it. Cons: - I've had to re-learn functions that I already knew in XP, but are now different, but are not better. For example, navigating files on my computer or my start menu task bar. I'm finding it's taking me more steps to do the exact same thing I was doing before. It's change for the sake of change, not for the sake of improvement. - My programs stop responding the same as in XP. I thought maybe programs would be more stable, but no. It's pretty much the same. - It's really not that much better, it just looks different. Now I never had a problem with XP, and really, I'm not having any more or less problems than I did with XP, but based on the commercials and other things I had seen/heard, my expectations would be that Windows 7 would be in improvement. It's not, really. I kind of feel it's just XP, but re-packaged and looks different. Yes, there are things I like about it better, like the way it handles HD video, but aside from that, I haven't found anything about it's functionality that is a vast improvement over what I was using before. My final review of it after using it for a month is that it's "fine" for what it is, but unless you have a reason to switch to Windows 7, I'd just stick with what you know and what works for you. --Robb

I'm pretty sure there is at least one Arrow mouse sitting around somewhere and that would be both A. Made in America and B. From America. Just throwing out possibilities. --Robb

While I really hate to give away any pricing details before we have things set in stone, I do see that a lot of people are looking to come in from out of state so I'll give a ball park. West Coast Bash 2009 was $30 per person for Six Flags Magic Mountain. I have no idea if we'll be able to get the same price again this year. We are still working that out. I would like this event to come in at no more than $40 per park. It's a little bit more expensive than last year, but we are also doing more this year. Also If you do NOT have a season pass for the parks it might be a bit more. So I would say that $40 each park, with a Six Flags and Cedar Fair season pass is a good "worst case scenario", but please don't quote me on that. If it turns out to be more money, it's because we are getting more for the event. Hope this helps. --Robb

I'm sure if Steve wants to answer some fan questions he will, but just remember this thread is more about him offering some of his items on Ebay, not really a Q&A session. --Robb "I'll bet the more bids he gets the more questions he'll answer!" Alvey

^^ They haven't officially changed their name, but they seem to be using the "Engineering Excitement" in everything lately including their new website. http://www.engineeringexcitement.com/ An S&S Free Fly coaster doesn't take up that much space. --Robb

^ All good stuff. I too thought that bathroom question could have been worred less hostile. And you're right, those Q&A sessions aren't meant to be a live Guest Services bitch fest, they are meant to be Q&A. Doesn't mean your question always has to be positive but you don't need to be abbrasive either. That Termination Day hostility during the late ERT was also very frustrating. For one, I was "on it." Trust me, if our ERT starts late I'm gonna be doing everything I can to make sure it GOES LATE! (which it did.) They ended up having an unscheduled media appearance that night and it delayed our ERT by *OMG* a whole 20 minutes! Instead of being patient, some people took it upon theselves to be hostile. That's just not cool. At most events I rarely even ride the coasters. I'm far too busy "behind the scenes" making sure things are going smoothly. --Robb "We just ask everyone to be patient and trust that we have things under control." Alvey

And here is Part TWO of our Parque Espana double feature... This video was filmed 3 years later in 2007. The park was still awesome and we had an excellent time! Enjoy! [coastertube]http://www.themeparkreview.com/coastertube/play.php?vid=parque_espana_2_gz3g[/coastertube]

So would one assume that all that amazing Ice Dragon/Fire Dragon stuff inside the queue has been gutted in favor for Harry Potter props? --Robb

Universal is quite a small park here in California and doesn't have as much to offer as Disney. It would be great if you could do both, but if you had to choose, I would spend the time at Disney. It's very different from the one in Europe. --Robb

^ Fortunately the rain let up before ERT even began! We did have our 5 minute surprise hail storm later in the day though. That was kind of creepy! --Robb

^ Well, to be fair, there aren't 6,000 people all trying to download it at once! I actually think the server held up quite well on Black Friday considering the circumstance! --Robb

^ give it another try