robbalvey

After just visiting the Texas Six Flags Parks two of them just a few hours away from each other both had Tony Hawk coasters. Both rides had moderate to full queues with guests (families) that came off the ride happy. IMO, this is what SFMM needs. Another coaster with a 42" height restriction that families can ride together. --Robb

^ Hey, don't feel too bad. At least you live on the better coast! --Robb

It was awesome to have you guys on the trip for a couple days. Jason - good seeing you again after the Scandi Trip, Kerry - see you again in a couple of days! --Robb

Yup! Bay Area Bash is now officially "SOLD OUT!" Thanks to everyone who purchased tickets. See you on Friday! --Robb

^ Right. Tower of Terror has a drop ride on the side of it. "The Giant Drop"

So wait, let me get this straight - - You went to the park on a day where there was rain in the forecast. - You got to the park, bought your tickets and some rides were closed due to weather. - You yelled at a ride op - Did poorly at an arcade game - Rode two rides - And left pissed off after only an hour and twenty minutes Really? I'm sorry, but even if the park was having a crappy day, I personally think you need to give the park more than 80 minutes (in which it sounds like you actually DID go on rides during that time) before storming out of the place. I've seen this happen before where if a weather forecast calls for rain in the area, a park may want to shut down rides as a safety precaution. Have you ever had to evac riders that are stranded on a ride in the rain? It's not a pleasant thing to do. And while I may personally not agree with it either, if it's the park policy, for whatever reason, I think you need to give it more than 80 minutes. My experience is that we pulled up to the park, and it was also raining and Mad Mouse was closed. We waited patiently for the ride to re-open, and when the sky was clear I went to the operations office and asked "nicely" how long after the rain was done did they need to wait until it re-opened. They told me "15 minutes, and we'll send someone out right away." Yelling at people usually doesn't get them motivated to do anything for you. I mean, your comparison to Fuji-Q is not really valid (unless of course you have actually been to Fuji-Q to make that comparison) as we gave the park *ALL DAY LONG* and had a miserable time. Seriously, we were at Fuji-Q from 9am to 4 or 5pm. And after 8 hours of our time, and having given the park plenty of chances to redeem themselves, then we stormed out pissed off. But to only give them 80 minutes...and you DID ride stuff and play games? I'm not convinced you have a fair argument to be honest. --Robb

^ Well, see, that's just simply a difference of opinion, which I can totally understand. It's one thing to want to go to Disney because you're not that into it, it's another thing to try to fabricate a story saying it costs $5,000 for 2 days there. Clearly I think you just aren't that into Disney, and that's fine. --Robb But you're also not being smart about your visits if that is how much you think you need to spend. Yeah, it really just sounds like you are not into Disney and you're trying to convince everyone else what a horrible place it is because YOU don't like it. And all everyone else is telling you is how you can do Walt Disney World a much smarter way if you WANTED to, but it sounds like you just don't want to, and that's fine. Just don't piss on everyone else's parade if WDW isn't your thing. We did 7 days at Walt Disney World (stayed at Wilderness Lodge) in February of this year and it was $1550 for the three of us for the hotel and park tickets, $900 for airfare, and about $750 for food and other stuff for the week. That's $3,200 total for staying on property at a DELUXE resort. Everything included. Your cost estimates are just absurd. Whatever you're doing to spend all the money at Walt Disney World, you're doing it wrong. --Robb

Let's be serious... you're pulling numbers out of your butt. In under 5 minutes I got quote from Walt Disney World spending 5 nights, 6 days at a Value resort in October for 2 adults and 3 children including park tickets and accomodations and the grand total was.... $2,172.99 Now of course this does not include airfare to the resort, but I think you can find some pretty good deals going right now. Bottom line, I'm not sure where you got your "over $5,000 for 3 days" number, but it's way...WAAAAAAY off. --Robb EDIT! Good point. I went and re-did my search for the week of July 4th, 2010, just to check summer and busy periods and it came to $2,454.45. Still WELL UNDER $5,000! Robb's theme park travel advice: "Do your research." --Robb

^ Well, it is called the "death slide" for a reason!

^ Looks like you didn't study how to use the shift key when saying "I" either. --Robb

Well if you look at the pricing plans, I don't think Sea World or Universal are anywhere near as expensive as Disney. WDW's 7 day park hopper is $304 or $43 per day. The same ticket over at Universal is $99 or $14 per day. Now granted, people don't normally *need* 7 days at Universal, but even if you bought that ticket and only went for TWO days that's still much cheaper than Disney's two day park hopper at $221 each. And as far as locals go, you can get a Universal Pass good every day at both parks with parking for $229. And that pass even gets you food and merch discounts. IMO, that's more in line with how I feel Disneyland Resort's pricing should be. I feel that Disneyland Resort is slightly under par from Universal Orlando, but the equivallent Disneyland Resort pass almost double. Yeah, all the Orlando parks are expensive, but I never felt like I wasn't getting my money's worth from any of them. --Robb

Craig more smile cam pictures please!

I do think that $429 for a Disneyland Premium Pass is insane, though. Seems like they are going the Tokyo Disneyland route and "pricing themselves outside" of the local market. However, I say that but Tokyo Disney doesn't offer (as far as I know) a discounted pass with black out days. Especially when you consider the Florida locals pass is less than $100 more ($520.79) for how much more you actually get! The WDW Premium pass is good at *SEVEN* parks! Again, another reason why we stopped going to Disneyland and spend our money on more frequent visits to WDW instead. --Robb

I had no idea that Martin's Silver Comet station was based off the Cyrstal Beach Comet! That's very cool. Crystal Beach: Martin's:

Worth every penny! Seriously, even at $79, that one-day admission is probably the best bargin you'll find at any theme park in the world! --Robb "Can't wait until my next visit to WDW!" Alvey

^ Exactly the same!

**TWO TICKETS LEFT!!***

I think most of us totally understand where you're coming from. And I read Erik's report thinking "cool, another great GCI out there." I appreciated his honest opinion, as I do yours, Andrew. But it's because he didn't like it *as much* as a WoF fanboy that set him off. I actually think you need to stop being so rude and obnoxious to someone who simply has a different opinion than you. TPR doesn't need you to stick up for your Prowler, the ride is allowed to be judged by different people and have differing opinions of the ride. --Robb

There are only **FIVE** more tickets left for Bay Area Bash! If you want to attend this event, order your tickets NOW! http://www.themeparkreview.com/store/index.php?productID=45 --Robb

I'm not quite sure if you were making fun of the quotes or just re-quoting them. It's not uncommon for an online publication such as Theme Park Review to be considered an "online magazine." I sometimes call it that myself when I'm speaking to people who have difficulty grasping what TPR is. Since we are not a "blog" and we are not a "database" in a sense we're a little of both, so telling people "it's a collection of articles based on theme parks, much like an online magazine" is an easy way for peopel to easily grasp what the site is. And I have actually been on more than 300 roller coasters. Both quotes, while not exactly spot on, are both accurate. --Robb

^ Agreed. Ditto. Same.

The next stop on the Deep South Trip was Lake Winnie! Lake Winnie is a very "charming" traditional park and it kind of reminds me of a slightly smaller "Indiana Beach." It has a fair share of classic flat rides (Scrambler, Tilt-A-Whirl, etc) and one amazing "last of it's kind" flat, the Fly-O-Plane. Cannonball is an awesome little woodie, nothing too intense or rough, but a nice out and back that is always fun to ride. The boat chute is the ultimate in teenage make out ride! The tunnels even smell like some funky stuff has been going on in there! Overall, great park and we had a blast! On to the photos... Oh, look! The name of this park is Lake Winnie...imagine that. The park treated us like the royalty that we are! Well, at least for 30 minutes! "We're too sexy for this coaster...too sexy for this coaster...soooo sexy!" I told them on the bus that if you didn't raise your arms in the air for the photos we were going to serve rats sphincter for lunch! No, just kidding, they are actually having a good time. "YAY!!!! EVERY ONE LOVES DA CANNONBALL!!!" Except this girl She has to eat rat's sphincter. OMG!!! POV!!! IN HIGH DEF!!!! No really! We shot POV in full HD! Check it out here: [coastertube]http://www.themeparkreview.com/coastertube/play.php?vid=cannonball_wfvb[/coastertube] If you have problems playing this video, or want to check it out in even higher resoution, click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDqO1rhI5Fo When the cannon part gets neutered...all that's left is... Yay! The sun glass twins approved of Cannonball! Now this here is an evil, evil contraption! It's ok if Paul dies because Canadians aren't worth as much as Americans. Dan and Brook, are you SURE you're comfortable with this thing? What if I told you this tiny little pin was the only thing keeping you from becoming pavement sausage? The ride starts flat on the ground as shown... And then OMFG...you can fly and spin until you puke! Note that you have total control of your plane and the REALLY good people could spin this thing continuously! "Be sure to make your OH! face on the OH! Zone!" Que? Lake Winnie was nice enough to have "coaster parts" on sale for us! The PTC buzz bar plate was pretty cool. And yeah, we cleaned them out! Martin, did you get your patches? Our friends at CoasterDynamix made a few sales today! The #1 reason why Lake Winnie is AWESOME! That's right...start with the little bikes and soon you'll be just like Arnie in Terminator 2! The Boat Chute aka "The Fondle Boat!" If you can get six people in there... GROUP FONDLE!!!! The cave is dark and long and smells of wet teenagers in love. "I'm not sure what I'm scared of most! The fact that I'm on this ride with Robb or the gooey substance in my seat!" By the time you get to this part, you need to be "finished." "SKLOOOOSH!!!!" says the teenage boy. "We finished!" The park has all sorts of awesome flats like the Paratrooper... ...the Scrambler... ...KidTums is in there somewhere! "I give the Lake Winnie Scrambler one KidTums thumb up!" They have one of them super round-ups! There is a slide-of-death. Of course something for all you credit whores. And if you are a Hersheypark fan, you might recognize this ride. The parks star attraction of course is "Da' Banana." As you can see Da' Banana goes in very smoothly. Although some people prefer some unnecessary roughness with Da' Banana. The Adam and Bryan show would like to tell you that this TPR update has been brought to you by the delicious and refreshing beverage that is Coca-Cola. Everyone on the bus says "THANK YOU LAKE WINNIE!!!!" Next stop...Alabama Adventure! And don't forget, check out TPR on the news! http://wdef.com/video/international_rollercoaster_fan_club_rides_the_cannonball_at_lake_winnie/07/2009_0 http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jul/16/cannonball-coaster-attracts-international-visitors/?local http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jul/16/video-themeparkreviewcom-visits-lake-winnie/ --Robb

He's trying to say that you stated "Morgan...are starting to make some more original coasters..." but Morgan hasn't actually had a coaster built since 2004 (and technically that one was produced in 2002.) So when you say "They are starting to..." doesn't really make sense because you're implying that they are an "up and coming" design firm yet they haven't actually designed a coaster in about 8 years. --Robb

^ Actually, of the pictures you posted, Steel Eel and Phantom's Revenge are probably the most "different" of them all. Had you posted pictures of Wild Thing, Steel Force, Mamba, and Steel Dragon, those four are all very similar in many ways. --Robb