robbalvey

So it's going from one crappy park to another. Glad I already have the credit so there is no reason for me to go back to Walygator! --Robb

More photos posted including *OMG* a roller coaster! FB link below. --Robb

Hey everyone! Sorry for the lack of updates lately. We've been at sea for the past 6 days on a Transatlantic cruise going from Ft. Lauderdale, FL to Barcelona, Spain. You can follow updates on our Facebook page (link below) but at 55 cents a minute for internet, I can't upload too much! Follow along our adventure! In the next two day we will be getting some rather obscure credits! --Robb

Hey Kevin! It's a good idea and I have researched it quite a bit! The iPod files are only about 250 megs each, but an .iso of each disc would be about 4.5 gigs! If you figure that I'm eventually going to have our entire library available for download, well, that's currently 12 volumes of Coaster Expedition and 3 volumes of RAW, each being 2 discs, so if someone wanted to download the whole lot at once that would be 135 gigs worth of data! Unfortunatley the TPR store just does not have that kind of bandwidth power. It would end up costing me WAY more in bandwidth charges than the store would make via the downloads! It's a good idea, just not feasable right now in TPR's life. And $5 for shipping is not terrible. I know a lot more sites that charge more. --Robb

I will see your imaginary dragon battle and raise you one candle on the water! --Robb "you're going to name your kid elliot? No no no. Eliott is a fat kid that eats paste.." Alvey

Wow! This was a smart move for Busch. I honestly wouldn't have expected them to get nearly 1 million visitors in the first year especially with all the other water park offerings in the area. Good for them! --Robb

I really wish that Disneyland could come up with a system similar to Florida's which bypasses any kind of annoying "processing" system. Everytime I walk by that bank I see a line out the door and remember back to the days when I used to have a pass at DLR and how long and annoying it was. Then again, I haven't had a Disneyland pass since 2002 so it's not like it effects me at all. But even still, there is no reason why processing your pass at Disneyland should be more time consuming than processing a pass at Magic Mountain. --Robb

I did not. Sorry. --Robb

Sorry it's been so long since the last update. I'd like to say I was busy, but probably was just lazy (nah, we were busy!) Anyway, here is the final installment of Tokyo Disney Resort Photos! Enjoy! Why is the word "Waffle" always funny? Here is the new Tokyo Disneyland Hotel. It's swanky. In fact, you need to be dating Hillary Swank in order to stay here. OMG! HIDDEN MICKEY!!!! "25 Minute Anniversary!" No, seriously, the park was just built 25 minutes before we got there. 30 minutes ago is was just a plot of dirt. I don't know how I missed Journey to the Center of the Earth when we were at Mysterious Island. No one was allowed to walk in that lower section because of all the needles on the ground. No one wanted floppy gyoza today. Women turn into demons when they ride this. Raging Spirits didn't suck....no, I know! It's hard to believe...but it's true. This has never been photographed...until now. On the hunt or the Loch Ness Monster. "My green thing is bigger than yours." You know the monkeys are in a good mood when they have bananas. Watch out if they start throwing rocks. Random wall photo. Coconut popcorn is freaking amazing. Wow, this looks good...but what is it made out of? Oh...maybe it's not so great... OMG...is that what I think it is? YES! JAPANESE MEXICANS!!! "KidTums won't even eat her lard because of the awesome Japanese Mexicans!" You really haven't lived until you hear the Japanese Mexicans play "Besame Mucho"...well, unless you've recently been on Boardwalk Bullet, because not even Japanese Besame Mucho can top that! Debbie Downer needs a Red Bull!!! Wow, we are slobs. Strawberry popcorn is exactly like coconut popcorn...except strawberry. It's DCA's Tower that isn't quite as sucky. Just in case you forgot what the name of the ride was, here it is in obnoxiously bright neon green writing. I love this. More Proof that Japanese Indy kicks all sort of crap over California Indy. Normal popcorn makes chicks strong. RANDOM TURTLE ALERT!!!! This is not a space ship. It's a giant vibrator for Rosie O'Donnel. "Hi. My name is Steve. Can I be your princess?" This is the pirates ride but yet I see no place to download music. We found Nemo! Dammit! That was NOT what I was hoping would jump out of the cake! Anyone else think that Pete's Dragon could be the worst movie ever made? Did you ever have to sit through that crap? If not put it on your Netflix list RIGHT NOW, watch it, and then you can say "I've seen the worst movie ever made!" "I'm CRAAAAAZY Haunted Mansion Holiday Scary Face Guy! GIMME SOME FETUS!" Um, WTF just happened here? How about we go back to the park that had NO LINES for anything!!! Much better! That's not lighting, that's an ACTUAL alien descending upon Space Mountain! This is correct. HA! HA! Martin! Here's a roller coaster shot for the nerds. "Sorry honey, I'm going home with this Haunted Mansion Hottie!" Women afraid of beavers. Ironic! Martin is clearly jealous of Mike's furry threesome. WTF? I can't understand a damn thing Stitch is saying! Good thing we have our trusty little magical translation device thingy's. And finally we end these Disneyland updates with the ultimate in Furry pictures. That's right, those two dudes on the left love to dress up as Little Bo Peep and her sheep and terrorize children in their sleep! (...at dorney park) Thank you again for reading! --Robb

Yeah, there was either a media event or something going on today. --Robb

BTW, did we mention that Coaster Expedition Vol. 12 is **W-I-D-E-S-C-R-E-E-N**

Keep in mind, I'm assuming this is also a prototype version. You never know the look of the trains may change by the time they go into production. And really...does it matter THAT much what the trains look like as long as they ride good? If a new train turned a POS coaster into something kick ass, they could look ilke cardboard boxes with flowers on them as far as I care. --Robb

^ You won't be dissapointed! They'll both kick major ass! --Robb

^^ Eventually, yes. ^ Yes please! The DVD isn't quite done yet so anything else than can be added will be! --Robb

^ Remember it doesn't ship until May 11th...and we'll have plenty oif copies! Although know that we do process the orders "first come, first out the door" so if you're one of the first to order, you're DVD will go out on May 11th. If you wait until May 11th, it may take us a week or so to get through all the pre-orders. --Robb

Hey everyone! Roller Coasters in the RAW Volume 3 ships May 11th, 2009! You can pre-order this DVD now for just $10 here: http://www.themeparkreview.com/store/ Roller Coasters in the RAW Volume 3 features coasters that are "Gone but not Forgotten!" More than 40 coasters are included in this two disc set! (And there may be more by the final launch of the DVD - we love surprises!) You'll re-live coasters that have sadly been demolished, re-located, or currently "standing by not operating" Coasters include: Myrtle Beach Hurricane, Drachen Fire, Texas Cyclone, The Bat, Southport Cyclone, Orient Express, Flyer Comet, WindJammer, MegaZeph, Hayabusa, Villain, Batman & Robin: The Chiller, Hercules, Cop Car Chase, Psyclone, Flashback, Aska, XLR-8, Williams Grove Cyclone, Flamingoland Bullet, Clementon Jack Rabbit, Fujin Raijin II, Geauga Lake Big Dipper, High Roller, Sierra Tonante, and MORE! Oh, yeah, you can also Pre-Order Coaster Expedition Volume 12 now too for just $10 each! That DVD includes 20 parks from China, Korea, and Japan never before featured on a Theme Park Review DVD! This is our largest Coaster Expedition DVD yet featuring more than 60 different roller coasters! This 2-Disc set is almost 2 1/2 hours long! TPR's DVDs are region free and should work in all DVD players or computer DVD-ROM drives all over the world! Thank you again for your support! --Robb Alvey www.themeparkreview.com

I think the question is more like "Is $150 - $200 really the right price point to get a family away from their resorts?" Because that's pretty much what it's going to cost a family of four by the time you factor in parking, gas, food, drinks or any kind of souvenier item purchased to leave that resort where you've mentally "parked" yourself for the week to get up and make an effort to go do an area attraction that is NOT in walking distance. There is no question that people on this forum would pay the $40, but the question really isn't targeted to any of us. --Robb

Quoted for truth. I think this HRP/FSMP discussion has been very much fun. It's like a long, drawn out train wreck. It's the gift that keeps on giving the whole year 'round. I mean basically ALL of us want this park to succeed. Who wants parks to fail? I hope they turn the place around into the kind of park I'd actually WANT to drive all the way to South Carolina to visit. And again this is all very true. Deep down, none of us want the park to fail, but it's great fun discussing all the outcomes that *could* happen! Worst case senario is we see Sept 2008 all over again in a few months. Best case scenario here is that we're all wrong, the park does INSANELY well, and they end up building 10 Intamin hypers and 40 Intamin Plug N Play woodies! --Robb "That's what I'm hoping for!" Alvey

OK, that was pretty awesome. I watched the whole thing and now I strangely enough want to go play Wack-A-Mole. --Robb

The idea that someone on this forum isn't allowed to have a different opinion than mine is laughable. You just don't like the fact that I had a different opinion than you or the "comedic" approach in which I wrote my response. That's not my fault. What I wrote was mostly in jest. Have a sense of humor, man, it's part of the disclaimer of this website: Also, I'm not a f**kng mind-reader, dude. You didn't say 99% of this in your original post so how am I supposed to know what you're thinking while you posted something? Hey! Here's an idea! You want people to know what you mean? POST IT! Once again here is a perfect example of someone who didn't take personal responibility for THEIR action. You posted something that was unclear, and quite obviously so by EVERYONE's comments (yet you unfairly singled me out, thanks dude) and when you come back to explain yourself, you choose to take a potshot at ME instead of realizing that had you actually posted this in the first place, you wouldn't have received the response you did. And somehow that is now *MY* fault? Sorry, pal. It don't work that way. Let's just take a moment to think about something...how many of us *REALLY* care about how much the park charges? Seriously? Do we really care? No. Part of TPR is the "discussion" and we are having fun discussing stuff. Do we really give two s**ts about most of what we talk about? Probably not. But that's also part of the *FUN* of the website. Honestly, I have no plans at all to go back to HRFSMP even to get that one last credit that I missed. So why do I care how much the charge for admission? I don't. But I'm having a GREAT TIME discussing it! They could charge $100 per person for all I care, and I wish they would! That would be even MORE entertaining for us to talk about! That's what you have to realize. Many of us just talking about stuff because we can and because it's fun to do so. Once you start getting bent of of shape over something that is said here, that's when you need to take a step back, read the disclaimer again, and realize this is all just for fun, no matter how much it may look like we argue with each other. --Robb "Don't take what I say too seriously...ever." Alvey

^ That other thread is still active. Someone just posted in it TODAY. Please read our posting rules about searching and not starting pointless topics. Posting rules are a sticky in this forum. Read it...I *STRONGLY* reccomend it! --Robb

^ I've actually been contacted by them, yes. They read the forum! --Robb

^^ Not one of those three things seem significant enough to make a difference. If we had heard things like: - General Admission $29.00 for adults, $19.99 for kids and an after 5pm discounted ticket of $19.99 (all ages) - Discount coupons in all area hotels for $24.99 for adults. - Transportation shuttle provided between beach front and park from opening to closing. (Even at a cost of like $5 round trip...still cheaper and more convenient than driving and parking!) - Making an effort to lower the height restriction on the mine train so 42" kids can ride it (like all the other Vekoma mine trains out there!) - Etc, etc, etc... These are the kinds of things I was hoping we would hear from the new owners. The type of improvements that make you go "Wow! I'm impressed! These f**kers really have a chance at success!" So far nothing I have heard impresses me. Period. --Robb

I will tell you that this IS an actual bag-of-crap (the yellow envelope is known as a bag in most countries, I fault Sir Reedith for his lack of worldy knowledge) as the Magic Donkey capsule does come out of the Magic Donkey's butt:

Raw 3 now has a release date - May 11th. You can pre-order here: http://www.themeparkreview.com/store/index.php I've still got footage from a few other coasters coming in so that list will only get bigger! --Robb