jackskellington101

Thanks everyone! ^You'll get there eventually. No worries. Just be sure to have all your wits about you with policy. That class is a killer! We were considering Kennywood on our way back from the Point, but my parents overruled that thought. That it is. That's where I studied abroad the fall of 2005. I went to the University of Westminster in Central London. Loved it loved it loved it. Probably one of the most fun semesters I've ever had. From my dorm, I could walk to the river, through every major square, in about 40 minutes and then ride the tube back to Baker Street with no problems. I've got a couple TR's during that time here on the site, one that is just a walk about town (which seems to be my first TR ever), one from the UK Corpse Bride premiere, and one from Thorpe Park.

Or at least used that Wild Mouse. The seems to be more the death machine than the Corkscrew. Call me lame (which I am) but please to be explaining the hilarity of the sign, outside that one haunted house is now two. Loving the TR! Sounds like a both charming and horrifically terrifying park.

More commencement. Now it's time for me to go to my next adventure! You can see the relief on my face. Me with President Greiner. Me with Nora Everyone singing the Alma Mater. I'll admit, I didn't know it. President Greiner's closing remarks. I've got it, my name's called, hence the big smile on my face. Almost there! Associate Vice President of Undergraduate Education Norah Shulz reads off the names for students to get their degrees. Class of 2008 class president Jade Mostyn presenting the Class of 2008 gift: a set of benches along the walk of pride. The Ellington Beavers Faculty Award for Intellectual Inquiry winner Dr. Lauren F. Howard.

The whole reason for my Cedar Point trip was because I actually graduated college! Almost immediately after Cedar Point, we regrouped and went up to Arcadia so I could actually graduate. Of course, it was a mighty rainy day of graduation. Must have brought it with me from Ohio. So the commencement had to be moved indoors. Oh well. As for my get up, I'll explain some of it here because some of it is a little different. The white sash is representative of my experence studying abroad in London a few years back. The metal around my neck is the metal for Phi Beta Delta, the honor society for international study. If you wanna see video of the commencement, Arcadia had it simulcast across the web and that simulcast is still up on the web site. If you just wanna skip to me, I walk at 88:13. It may not be coasters and fun stuff, but it's definitely the break run for this thrill ride I've been on for the past 4 years. The Kraybill Award Winner for Part Time, Dawn Thomas. The other Kraybill Award Winner for full time. The Ira R. Kraybill Award for Full Time Study going to James Musselman. The award goes to the undergraduate student with the highest achievement in the past three years. James had a perfect 4.0 his entire career! The presentation of the Senior Golden Disk Award to Natalie Harris. Reading the program to see what's coming up next. Dr. Stephen P. Gulkus (Education department chair) presents Dr. William B. DeLauder with the honorary doctorate of laws. Arcadia University President Dr. Jerry Greiner gives the opening words. The Mace bearer has hit the stage and it's time for everything to begin. Close up time. I still can see you. HI! I'm in a mob of people who all look mostly the same! That blurry swatch in the middle is me walking in to the gym for the commencement, Pomp and Circumstance and all. The commencement stage is set! Spencer being Spencer in the morning and I all robed up. Mom, Dan and I, with myself all robed up and stuff for the commencement. All suited up in the castle for the pre-commencement breakfast of muffin and orange juice.

This is the last set, I promise. Bye Cedar Point! See you whenever the next time would be! Yay for reruns of Star Trek: Voyager! Laying back in the room, chilling with my Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow shirt. That's right, I'm promoting horrible horrible movies. At least it's unique. Over here's the little tiny wave pool. With a wave pool at max being 4 feet, it wasn't too thrilling for me. Here is a shot of the water park, specifically the little kiddy area and a smidgen of the play structure. That brown slide about is the master blaster. Castaway Cay in all it's building glory.

Not too much more now! Me with my Joe Cool brethren. Alternative signage. The carousel shot and Spencer's starting to be wary. Be wary of these two and air hockey. They'll kick everyone's butt. A bench style Star Wars Arcade machine? Never seen one of these either. Wait, Dazzler? Yeah, Dazzler's in the arcade game. And only the geeks find this funny. Ah, the X-Men arcade game. Such a fun beat um up. Being able to play as such classic characters as Wolverine, Cyclops, Nightcrawler and Dazzler. Off to the big arcade. They've got the normal ticket coin eaters, but I went all the way back and found this gem. A line of vintage pinball machines, pretty much all in working condition. Such a fun use of a quarter. Raptor raptoring. In a funny bit of unexpected continuity, they kept playing Eagles songs in the Raptor queue line. Wicked Twister wicked twisting I guess. Disaster Transport!!! Yay!!! Such love for such a sad, pathetic ride. The ride itself isn't too bad, but it just feels so sad. I love sky rides. Such great pictures, such as this place here. Ohhiokthxby Ahhhhhhhhhh Spookyspookyspookyspookyspookyspookyspookyspooky. Ack! Maverick took Thunder Canyon with it!

Aww, no more skeletons...aw well, I guess I'll keep going... I guess. Ah Maverick. You win this time. Maybe next time. The Cats Cafe? Serving tacos...I'm afraid to ask what kind of meat. Now THAT'S a bunch of pressed fried dough. If only elephants really had ears like this, the world would be a yummier place. Can you find the Stu? Look for the painfully bright jacket. Corkscrewing fun...wait... Mom and Spencer zooming on the Matterhorn. No, not THAT Matterhorn. OMG! Disaster Transport trains! I guess I'm contemplating the intelligence of this move...not much time to think though. And, the logical ride to ride after lunch is, of course, Wicked Twister. We ate at my cafe, as evidenced by the place mats. It was really geared for kids, but having a ton of TVs showing Charlie Brown specials is just cool. COOKIE!!!! Spencer being a smart alec as we head to lunch. The super carousel of speed. It's actually a really fun old ride. Loopy loopy loop. I think this EXCLUSIVE SHOT doesn't have the same punch it usually does.

Now, onward to... Day 3 Well, Day 3 was still cloudy day, and somewhat rainy, but it was better. Still was enough to delay the opening of every attraction in the park. We came in at that 9 am early opening and nothing was open due to the spritzing rain and 20 mph winds. Everything was still testing around lunch and, to top everything off, Top Thrill was valleying every other launch during testing. But, everything worked out by the end, though the clouds never really left. I also got a lot of my re-rides and first rides. Millennium Force was just as awesome a second time and not as painful with rain lacerating your skin. My choice for best coaster in the park that I rode. The Wildcat just may have the shortest break time of any coaster I've ever been on. Top Thrill was fun, but it really is all launch and that's it. Even the top of the hill isn't all that cool because it goes by so fast. The rumble of the car breaking during the run is a little discerning as well. Maverick...never opened. We didn't even see it run all trip. Ah well. Blue Streak had some surprising air, as did Corkscrew. Wicked Twister was nothing real special. And Joey, be proud, my last ride of the park was Demon Drop. With all the clanging and noise, I thought I was going to die and that break run was a new testament in pain, but I have ridden my first Gen 1 Intamin drop tower. So, onto the pictures! Now take a look Disney, Cedar Point can have its fire going. We need our housewarming party again. Millennium force....who needs it when skeletons are around! I've been skelling on the rail road. All the real dead day... Sing skeletons sing! Fishing skeleton in the blue recreation water. Skyhawk: THROUGH THE TREES! Drunk skeletons! That alcohol must be really dry. Coaster pictures...mah, go back to the skeletons! Words cannot describe how awesome this picture is. With shooting! Shooting that scared the ever loving cr@p out of me! I delayed in these before. This is why the train is so awesome! Skeleton towns! Animated skeleton towns! It's now time for everyone's favorite game: Count the trash cans! Spencer! No drinking from the all Mountain Dew vending machine. "It's the vending machine of the gods!" My extended family likes to call me Joe Cool, especially when I have sunglasses on. So I went as Joe Cool as I could, with my bright yellow raincoat. Jooooooooooey. Jooooooooooooeeeeeeeey. I'm in Cedar Point Joey.

Well, the rain let up a little bit...but we didn't get hand stamps. Well then, on to "downtown" Sandusky and the Merry Go Round Museum. Speaking of which, here's a video I took of that huge pipe organ shown: On our way out, I saw this. Wow, I didn't know Colbert did so much here. And what's a Merry Go Round Museum without a merry go round. It's also run at the full speed of which it can go. The tour guide mentioned that most parks throttle down their merry go rounds, so the one they run goes at the top ability. Boy, Tinkerbell let herself go... This organ could blow hair off a dog. It obviously was not made for indoor use. So far I've had theme parks, coasters and now donkeys. I think I've done everything required for this board. Moooooo. This horse will be raffled off and it'll be at your house by Christmas! Want one? A restored horse in the process. The concept art of a Toy Land in the 1930s, 20 years before Disneyland. Some more of the horses inside the museum. Mom admiring the horses in the lobby. Right near by is the Merry Go Round Museum. In a past life, it used to be a post office. ... and this is the time on the garden clock ACROSS THE STREET. The question becomes which is right. I'll give a hint...it's the garden like one. But here's the conundrum. This is the time on the court clock... Here is the local district court with the icon of Sandusky, a boy holding a boot...I don't get it either.

With all the darn rain, we had to find something to do... "It's stuck on my fingers! It looks like a giant booger!" Unfortunately for us, he got some fart slime. It's gonna be a long car ride back. Mom's waiting patently while Spencer is getting his whatever with the tickets. For being a spooky thing, it sure is bright. Wow, Spooky things just seem to follow me everywhere I go. Then we all Skeed some balls and everything was awesome. Though Spencer quickly took charge. While Dad tried Time Crisis 3... To the arcade and to Skee Ball! We love Skee Ball. We suck, but we love it. Well, Spencer's content on watching International Gladiators on ESPN Classic...but we must move on. Hmm, what should we do? Oh and the lovely shirt comes complements of my lovely companion who got it for me as a gift.

^ We did get some time in the indoor water park. It's pretty cool, nothing fantastically special, but cool. The little master blaster is neat, but the dinky little wave pool was ok. I've also never been a fan of the water playthings, but the one in there seemed to be the major attraction. Really, a lot of the time, Spencer and I just played basketball in the little side pool and I sat in the hot tub thing. So overall, it was nice but nothing overly special. In fact, a lot of our waterpark time came from... Day 2 This was supposed to be our major all day time at the park. Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate. Because we were staying at a Cedar Fair hotel, we got into the park an hour early and, even with the threat of rain and the occasional shower, they still were running Millennium Force and Raptor. So, that's where we headed immediately. Both were running fandamntastic, with the little bit of rain getting it to unparalleled speed. We got the very back of Raptor and it was 2 ways to awesome. Millennium Force...well, I had high expectations...and it met every one of those expectations and then some. It's EXTREMELY high on my list of top coasters and it's exceptionally awesome. The only even remote downside is that in the rain shower in which we originally rode, it felt like getting a shower with a power washer. As the time passed, the rain picked up. By noon, it was a torrential rainstorm and we were about done. With the weather report saying that it'd be all day, and it being right so far, we headed out and went into downtown Sandusky. In downtown Sandusky, Mom and I actually went to the Merry Go Round Museum. It may sound like nothing really fantastic, but it really was pretty cool! They had a ton of old horses and animals, their own classic merry go round and a hair-blastingly loud pipe organ. It's actually a neat little thing and worth taking a look. So, everybody ready, so on with the show! Now we're from Switzerland! (Don't get it? Watch the Totally Rad Show and you will. Specifically episode 29.) Oooooooh. So pretty. Why can't all coasters end this way? No fighting! On the AWESOME train, there was some more silliness going on. Oh those poor people. There we go! Sure glad this isn't a film camera. ...cooooome oooooon... ...Come on.... We tried to get at least one nice picture with Spencer. Come on... First the crazy, then the rain. Can't catch a break with Maverick. We were apparently too wet to see the dry goods store. Even in the rain Mantis ran. It still was a painful ton of yellow and red poo poo, but still, it ran. This is from the Cedar Fair opoly. I'd have to say, the first aid person looks a lot like General Akbar. Then it just might possibly be A TRAP! Wow, who would have thought. Oh, and Hi Joey. Hello Cedar Point. Maybe the rain will hold out for a little longer. And maybe I'll see a Gen 1 Intamin Drop Tower in 5 minutes.

^ It was on, it was loud, and it was forceful. When we hit the trim, the inertia of everyone in the train went flying forward and everyone went "Oof". Mantis was a huge disappointment. Now, I did ride it in the rain, but it threw me about like a rag doll.

Finishing up day 1. More to come when I do it. And, while trying to avoid the camera, I still get a good shot of Spencer. HA! The next it's gone. One minute it's there. For being a dragster, it's got the strangest station. This isn't suggestive in any way...nah.

yet some more of day 1. Yes, day 1. This is going to be quite the report, I know. While I liked this one. I tried many times to get the awesome lighting that is Millennium Force at night. Spencer liked this one. Mel's Coaster Dine In. Spencer: "Hopefully the Game Day Grille doesn't give you the Blue Streaks." Night blurry Raptor vertical loop. Somewhere Derek is exploding. On to the night midway. It's so pretty. Ooooooh. Ahhhhhh. See, 3D! 3D neon paint! Maybe this is the direction of the Flight of Fears! They'll become as awesome as Disaster Transport. The super special awesome repair bay. This was a triumph. If this wasn't bolted to the floor, I possibly could drive it. Look at the special effects! They're amazing! Now to Spencer's favorite attraction the entire trip. The one that he wanted to ride over and over again. One that became the recurring reference of "best ride ever". That's right, Disaster Transport. IN 3D! Top Thrill at sunset. Gemini. The twins were set really apart this time. Gemini Red ran pretty well while Gemini blue jackhammered my lower spine into my chest. Snoopy! Of course, this made me think of my dearest companion who's currently in Washington State.

What? You want more coaster pictures? Ask and I shall deliver. Magnum going down. An exceptionally fun hypercoaster, actually pretty high on my list. Massive air on the run back. But I'm sure most y'all knew that. Two Magnums, passing in the black in white. Top Thrill. I'll ride you later. I believe that this is a required shot for all trips to Cedar Point. Iron Dragon, an actually very fun suspended coaster. Not too thrilling, but still fun. Praying Mantis. From one crappy coaster to another. Here's a fleet of people "enjoying" the lovely trim on the first drop of Mantis. Boy...that font looks awfully familiar...hmm... Oh the pain! Ugh, Brown Streak. We even waited in a line for Brown Streak. We're crazy like that. I will admit, it looks promising. Too bad it decided to be simultaneously boring and painful. Mean Streak...our first coaster of the day. Well, might as well get it out of the way. Maverick closed. As Spencer put "Since Tom Cruise went crazy, Maverick's never been the same again". Yes, because the raft ride would be good at high 50 degree weather.

Last weekend (May 10th - May 13th), my family and myself finally went to Cedar Point for the first time. I say finally because Cedar Point seemed to be that location that we'd always say "Oh we need to go there this year" and it never seemed to happen. Generally, we'd look and it and decide Disney instead. So this year, Cedar point became my graduation present, so instead of doing the lame senior week stuff from school (which originally included Dorney, but apparently "there wasn't enough drinking options" so it didn't happen), we all went to Cedar Point finally. So, it became super credit Stu, trying to get everything I could, generally with my bro Spencer with me. This first set is from day one, our arrival and a bit of "starlight" at the Point. It was also jam packed because of some music competition, it seemed, so it felt that every 14-16 year old in the tri-state area was in the park. As such, there was line jumping galore and some of the most moronic line conversation I think I've heard. One case in point, while Spencer and I were waiting for our longest wait, Mean Streak (yes I know), the two 14 year old girls behind us, messing with their phones and cursing like sailors, turned to Spencer and I, who were kidding and joking about in brotherly jabs, and said "Like, are you two gay?". We both looked at them like they had lobsters crawling out of their ears and I replied "No, we're brothers". They then looked at me and immediately replied with the witty banter of "Are you, like, sure?”. With my quick, newly college educated mind I replied with the only thing I could think of, "Yes, I'm pretty sure we're brothers." That was pretty much the end of it and we all then waited for our doom on Mean Streak. At least a Mean Streak doom is both boring and painful, at the same time. Anyway, on with the photos! There’s a lot. The multiple sets should rival my massive Disney one. I know I have a problem. Here's some other coaster. I don't think anyone's ever heard of it. Oh wait, this is a roller coaster site! Well, here's some coasters that we saw as Spencer and I head to the Point for the Twilight deal. Wow, that's one expensive foosball table. Well, at least there's a foosball table...wait... An Ahhh! Real Monsters game?!? That's all sorts of awesome! To bad it was broken. There's one! Crabbie's arcade? Well, we need a Crabby there. The crashed boat lobby with it's parrots which sing every once an a while. I never really figured out their pattern. SCREENED PATIO POV! OMG! There's Dad relaxing after the ride over. Bop! We're here. We decided to stay at Castaway Bay. Mighty fine hotel, did it's job well. There's Spencer looking at me strange, just because I decided take pictures of the room. There's Mom stretching her legs before going into the next set of driving. Dr. Scoumis DMD just made us laugh. Of course, we pronounced it Scummies, so that's where the humor lies. Right next to the restaurant there was this abandoned hotel. It seemed like it was an old abandoned Howard Johnson. It seemed only fair to use black and white for this. First, the ride over to Ohio. This is our lunch location, a local chain restaurant just outside of Pittsburgh. A wanna be Ruby Tuesday. It was good though. I had a triple onion burger, which made me very popular in the car.

^ I believe F'n Mania is a Wesism that came out of the naming conundrum when the name kept flip flopping from Toy Story Mania to Midway Mania and back every 20 minutes. Though I could be mistaken, that is the legend and lore. The nickname has no connotation to any perceptions to the quality of the attraction. The name just is.

I agree with what y'all are saying. With the whole thing, I'm in a conflict. In some way, I agree with what Imagineer says. There are many people, some specifically that are high profile that I won't mention, that annoy me to no end with their complaints because they seem so asinine and points fingers in illogical places. That's my exact conflict and agree wholeheartedly. It creates the attitude of "we're right and you're wrong, so take it and be happy", which is also a bad path. I understand the building for the millions who visit and not the few fervent people, but what's the problem with building for both of them? It may be more expensive, but it has a greater chance of being more successful. And these little tiny things that the hardcore pick up are things that can be very easily tweaked to make a greater experence. If you have to choose, obviously choose the millions, but I believe that you should always treat those millions like they are the fanatics who will pick up everything. I agree with mcjaco that Disney does have the best experence out of anyone else. But the statement "I don't think what they've come up with in the last few years (Expedition Everest being an exception) all that impressive" still says they can be better. I guess that's where I stand on that. Is it fantastic as is? I believe it is. Can it be better? Obviously it can and I agree. Should it be that better? Absolutely. As silly as it sounds, being the best shouldn't be the stopping point. So really, I guess my stance on this matter, is both of them are right and both are wrong. And with that non-committal answer, I've proven myself to be a real economist and businessman. Oh, and my personal worry about F'n Mania is not as much the acoustics, but that people are going to get off and go "So, that's it? It's just a bunch of screens." But I also haven't rode it, I've only seen a POV. So it could be sex in ride form and I have no idea.

I normally vehemently dislike Jim Hill, but this article really hit me today. To sum it up, WDI is purposefully ignoring the online criticism posted by the passionate Disney fan community, specifically the first impressions by cast and early riders of F'n Mania at Hollywood Studios. Jim Hill then took one of the complaints, apparently bad acoustics, and forwarded it to WDI, where the Imagineer then ripped a new one into the whole community and the people who scrutinize their work, with lovely quotes like and Now I know this is Jim Hill and he writes things as sensationalist as possible to garner readers, but I'm curious what the more sensible heads of TPR think of this. Do we complain too much about things that the normal person would never see or think about? Do those things that the normal person would never see or think about really matter? Personally, the answers to those questions are sometimes and yes. People who really are into Disney parks and go a lot have a tendency to nit pick on many things. I'm guilty of this myself. However, I do very much believe that those little things are the things that make Disney different. It's their competitive advantage. Without them, they're a park like anything else. The complaints can go too far sometimes, but they also shouldn't be ignored. One quote that I found in all this that made me go "how times have changed": As an obvious fan of WDI's work, I find that thinking expressed in the article as somewhat dangerous. My direct response to the complaint, though, is if you want to stop the criticism, do something to shut them up. If you please the community, you'll please the "normal guest". Look at Everest, Mission: Space, Indiana Jones Adventure, Soarin' over California, and pretty much anything that's opened in Tokyo. They're all universally applauded and they're all extremely popular. Make that in the states. The hardcore’s won't complain about your work and the general public will be floored. Best of both worlds. The "aiming for the once in a lifetime guest" argument feels like an excuse for going for the lowest common denominator. If you make an amazing experience, maybe that once in a lifetime will become more than once. Those annual passholders and DVC members are also the ones who will visit and spend their money no matter what the situation. The once in a lifetime people, not so much. If you completely isolate and ignore the people who are in your target and most care about your product, you will lose them and lose a lot of people with them. I understand this is hard work for the men and women of Imagineering, though many faces of adversity. What really is the sticking point is we know what WDI can create. We know that they can create amazing attractions that blow the lid off of anything that any other facility can make, but that ability just feels so stifled in the States right now. The criticism stems from that. Of course, a good many of them are nit pickers as well who will never be happy. But, in my opinion, this line of thinking is not good. However, this is Jim Hill, so probably the person is having a bad day and sent the wrong thing at the wrong time. What do you guys think?

^^ That is very true. I forgot about iGoogle. That would be pretty cool to see the updates on there when I first open my browser.

My stance is that forums and the like already are social networking sites. Is there a society? Do we network? That would be social networking, in my book. It may be a network surrounding a certain niche, but really when you really use the social networking sites, people find you for certain aspects and common interests. By the sheer fact that we're all here, that shows we all have some common interest. So TPR, and other forums like it, are social networks v2 (v1 being the newsgroups), in my opinion. We can already make friends using the "buddy lists", but I think a cool thing to add would be a way to watch your buddies do on the site, having a feed of what they post on your personal profile. That's where the RSS that you mentioned in the other question (http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=43477&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0) might come in handy. Using RSS, the person could subscribe to an individualized RSS feed of what your buddies on TPR are posting. That might be going way out there, and yes I did steal that idea directly from Digg, but it could still work. Same could be said for the individual's posts as well, having them be the RSS feeds as well and having people subscribe to that one. This is kind of blending the two questions together, but it's a thought. I also like the top ten lists, but the photo gallery should be very limited. The Photo TRs are the place where one's photography is shown off, but the galleries are where the "cream of the crop" pictures are showcased. Something like that. Well, actually, there is one. I made it a while ago and just let it roll. It's currently got 174 members with little to no promotion. Stuart

I use them once and a while for text, specifically for Mouseplanet, but mainly for whatever podcasts I subscribe too. It's a good way to narrow down a site or blog that posts constantly to just the posts that you specifically want to see. Overall, however, for something like a forum, I'd much rather see the page every time to see what's going on. It might be a good alternative for the "notify me when a reply is posted" e-mail option and something to add to the front page, but I don't know if it's really necessary.

Awesome TR Erik! Well, it looks like SFA operations are back to their normal standard. *shakes head*. I will say, with my experiences with what would technically be my home park, those operational problems won't be fixed by the summer and everything will stay pretty much the same. Every time I visit the park, I always hope that they'll do something to fix it up, similar to the changes going on at SFMM, but it never seems to happen. It's got a fine collection of coasters, but the way they're run is just so disappointing.

It could also be fireball red! Flaming coaster of DEATH red! I like that one better.

^ You're probably going to have to pay extra for that. *ba duh dumn*