robbalvey

A little blurb in from BGW: I'm really looking forward to some Trip Reports from this! --Robb

^ Yes

Yeah, I totally remember hearing at IAAPA that the Watercube was getting an AquaLoop. I think this is a great idea! I just hope it's a success. --Robb

Our friends from Season Pass Podcast are up for "Best Travel Podcast" in the PodCast Awards: http://www.podcastawards.com/ Scroll down to "Travel" and help our friends out! Remember you can vote every day between now and Nov 30th! --Robb

They are either counting American Eagle as two or they have forgotten they got rid of Deja Vu. --Robb

The press release was fine. Be happy they have saved what would have been a demolished wooden roller coaster. Quit your bitching. --Robb

Here is the official announcement from the park. Looks like the ride will be opening in 2010!

No, not at all. Most of the coasters on that list are not even that good. They are either kiddie coasters or similar rides with gentle enough forces that they don't need any additional restraints. There are only a handful of rides on that list that are decent. IMO, if you can operate a woodie for more than 20 years and not screw it up...it's a classic! --Robb

I feel happy for Knott's maintenance department, and bad for Dorney's. --Robb "I really think they should have just scrapped the ride." Alvey

Sit in the very front row of Colossus. There is an "ok" pop of air right after the first drop. On a good day, you might get a pop of air on the now-slow-as-hell bunny hops on the return run. But other than that, there is not really any airtime to speak of on Colossus anymore. --Robb "Colossus is actually a better front seat ride than it is back seat..." Alvey

SAME!

More copies of Raw 4 have gone out today! If you ordered a copy of this DVD, you should be getting it soon, and don't forget to post your review here! --Robb

I can really think of quite a few things that the Six Flags parks can use before a ride wait time board. For example, it's nice to finally see some of the bathrooms getting a makeover. --Robb

Does it? Do you know for sure that's how the system works? I was under the impression that the system isn't quite as detailed (although it may seem that way in the palm of your hand.) I had always thought that there was a "general setting" that was based on how busy the overall park was, and that wait times for rides were based on that. Remember that the Q-Bot doesn't really care *exactly* how long the line is, just that your wait is shorter (for Gold) or equal to the approximate wait in line (which could vary due to several conditions, but you can make a very educated guess by how busy the park is.) Then they could tweak the setting individually if they needed to (like if a ride is closed, or only running one train instead of two.) I'm not sure that Q-Bot automatically monitors the wait times for each ride at all times throughout the day. I think it's set by the central reservation group based on general attendance or if there is an abnormal situation called in by the ride. Again, the infrastructure needed to constantly monitor a ride's line and then send that information to a central area is not a small task. Hopefully someone who works for Disney or Universal who is more familiar with these systems can chime in. --Robb

^ An app like that would not be inexpensive at all. Especially if you're talking about it being a chain-wide app. Not only do you have the software development cost (which could easily be $10k on the low end) and that's nothing compared to having to develop a way for each ride to automatically update the wait times. Disney World uses those little credit cards things that they give to the guests periodically when they get in line that measures how long they waited. Not sure how Universal does it. But essentially for an app (or a board) to be effective and well received it **MUST** be accurate and constantly updated. The infrastructure required to make that happen is a much more daunting task than you can even imagine. My guess is that it would be more in the neighborhood of hundreds of thousands of dollars to successfully develop. And it's something where there is really no return on. And this is why you don't see it in many parks. --Robb

What a terrible video. You can't see anything except for shaking, some guys head and arms in the camera and a bunch of blurriness. I think I actually get less of an idea of what the inside of Space Mountain is like by watching that video! It just amazes me how people can't even shoot good video on a slower ride like Space Mountain. If you want to see what it looks like with the lights on, without someone's head in the way most of the time have a look at the video I shot in Hong Kong's version. While not exactly the same ride, it's the same layout and the interior of the building is quite similar: [coastertube]http://www.themeparkreview.com/coastertube/play.php?vid=spacemountain_1[/coastertube] It's shot first with the lights off (show lighting on) and then with the work lights on. In the middle of the video I actually do pan around a bit so you can see what the inside of the mountain looks like. --Robb

^ I happen to know at least 3 people who are in management at Knott's that read this thread on a daily basis. --Robb

No line at Moe's is quite the highlight of any day. Although "Movin' Right Along" is a close second... --Robb

Theme Park Review's IAAPA updates have been featured on: The Gravity Group's GravityCast: http://thegravitygroup.com/gravitycast/more-timberliner-coverage-from-iaapa/ And Holiday World's HoliBlog: http://www.holidayworld.com/node/3137 Thank you guys for your support and we look forward to riding The Voyage next year with the new trains! --Robb Alvey www.themeparkreview.com

His review is very good and spot on! Although the Blob AI isn't as frustrating when you actually learn what he can and can't do and aren't just playing the game for a coulpe of hours to do a review. It's not perfect by any means (and the first thing we'd improve if there ever was as sequel) but I don't think it detracts from the rest of the game. --Robb

We were at WDW in Feb last year and I wore shorts the entire time (then again I only wear pants about 4 days out of the year.) I found crowds to be lighter than summer, but not "dead." You may still need to FastPass your way around the most popular attractions, but other rides may be 30 minutes or less, and you may get lucky and every will be walk-ons. A lot of it will depend on what kind of promotions they have going on at the time. Remember that they have something like 30,000 hotel rooms on property at the Walt Disney World resort and the goal is to fill them all year round. Obviously this doesn't happen, but if they are running one of those "buy 4, get 3 nights free" promotions again, the hotels may be pretty full, which means the parks won't be empty. January is certainly a much better time to go than let's say...July. You'll have fun. --Robb

Roller Coasters in the RAW Volume 4 is now available for download on your iPod or iPhone. Check out TPR's downloadable DVDs here: http://www.themeparkreview.com/store/index.php?categoryID=10 --Robb

^ No, but if we found a format that people liked and we could do it without impacting our schedule too much, we'd totally put it together. --Robb

I'm glad you guys liked them. It's sort of a "different format" for us and between doing videos like that an our "live chats" I think we are starting to figure out a format for doing some sort of podcast or video podcast. Comments, suggestions, thoughts?

^ LOL! I call a lot of liquid things that create other things the "sauce." "Bubble Sauce" "Pancake Sauce" "Pizza Sauce" "Baby Sauce" You get the idea....